Episode 75 - Un-Fur-Gettable

## Synopsis

Standing next to the lake, Mr Wiggles decided this is where he wanted his mansion reward to go. He pointed the tower out to his friends, saying that was were they wanted to go. They tried to figure out how to reach it, and Mr Wiggles revealed he knew how to *Fly*. Ida hopped on Crowrigami’s back, while Mr Wiggles struggled to carry Virgil just barely above the lake.

They made their way inside a door just above the surface of the water, and stood on a small platform just inside the doorway. As they looked around, they saw a small pile of rust gathered near the top of a staircase that led deeper into the tower. Above them, the tower was completely hollow, with some windows letting in sunlight. Fastened to the stone platform, and gaming in the middle of the spiralling staircase, were three thin ropes.

Each of the pets, except Mr Wiggles, heard a faint humming sound coming from the bottom of the tower. Ida grabbed some of the rust, and shoved it in her tails. Crowrigami started hopping down the staircase. Ida tugged on each of the ropes, and when she did so heard the ringing of bells at the bottom of the tower. The left rope gave single, low note, the middle rope gave a higher pitched note, and the right rope was somewhere in between the two pitches. She grabbed onto the middle rope, and slid down to the bottom. Virgil and Mr Wiggles followed Crowrigami down the stairs.

At the bottom of the tower, the humming they had heard seemed louder, and in the middle of the staircase were three bells. On one side of the wall was a copper door, from which the humming seemed to be emanating. On the opposite side of the tower was a completely open doorway, through which they could see the murky green water of the lake. Just under one hundred feet away, they could see a small pocket of air.

Crowrigami rang the bells, finding they produced the same notes as when Ida had pulled on them at the top of the staircase. Ida suggested they ring all of the bells at the same time, and together they rang them three times together. All of the pets felt the slightest amount of water underfoot.

Crowrigami looked over at the lake doorway, and saw the tiniest amount of water leaking through the barrier. The copper door was unchanged. Me Wiggles ran over and slapped the door, feeling a shock pulse through them as it slapped him back. Ida ran back to the bells, and attempted to follow the harmony of the door’s humming, matching it very well but to no effect.

The Ragtags looked towards the air pocket in the middle of the lake, and tried to decide who could survive going out there. Crowrigami would de destroyed, Ida would absorb the water and be stuck, Virgil would sink into the lakebed, and Mr Wiggles was a cat.

Mr Wiggles suggested they watch the ribbons. Virgil promptly went and sat next to the bells.

“*Pretty*.”

Mr Wiggles lay down on his back and started to bat at the ribbons.

Crowrigami looked hard at the air pocket, seeing there was something inside, though he couldn’t make out what it was.

“*So, perhaps we must—rather than pop the bubble—fetch something contained within it, does this seem appropriate?*”

“*Like try and bring the bubble to us?*” Virgil asked.

“*Yeah, or simply its contents.*”

Ida suggested she could rub the rust powder she collected upstairs over her body to increase her waterproofness. She stuck her paw into the lake. Her arm felt slightly damp when she pulled it back, but not waterlogged.

Seeing this, Crowrigami suggested she walk through the lake, and bring back whatever was in the air pocket.

Ida stepped onto the lakebed, and began to walk towards the air pocket. Once inside, she saw three bells ringing. She saw the sequence in which the bells rang went: small, small, large, small, and then repeated.

Before going back to her friends, Ida shook herself off and squeeze her tails out, and began to walk back to the tower. As she walked through the murky water, she sank up to her chest in the mud and silt at the bottom of the lake. She felt thin tendrils of grass reaching around her and dragging her into the mud. The other pets watched as the air pocket behind her collapsed.

Hating every minute of it, Mr Wiggles dived into the water, and started to swim across to Ida. By the time he reached Ida, only the top of her head remained above the surface of the water. He pulled with all his light, but was unable to stop Ida from being completely pulled under the mud.

Seeing his friends in trouble, Crowrigami moved up to the archway, and used *Gust* to push the water back from the tower. He flew out in the small air pocket he created, and also arrived near his friends. He created a magical *Snare* on the ground to pull both Mr Wiggles and Ida into the open water. Together they managed to swim back to the tower.

The water level of the tower was rapidly increasing thanks to Crowrigami’s actions. Ida gasped for air and stuttered the bell sequence to her friends. They pulled the bells in order, and the humming of the copper door stopped.

The pets pushed on the door, which did budge. As they ran into the next room, the water seemed not to go past the doors.

They found themselves in a perfectly rectangular room. Everything was made of gold, including the statues of a cat, a crow, a squirrel, and a hedgehog. The crystal in the crow was lit up when they walked in, and when Mr Wiggles walked in, so too did the crystal in the cat statue.

There was a small pedestal with a very fluffy looking golden pillow in front of the statues, and resting upon it was a little red collar with a bell. Behind the statues, another mural showed the four heroes pushing a great metal beast into a fountain.

Mr Wiggles hopped up onto the pedestal, and knocked the collar off onto the floor. As soon as he touched the collar, Mr Wiggles’ mind went blank.

He felt as though a memory came back to him. He stood at his master’s feet, the cool crisp air a relief from the musty atmosphere of they cave they had just left. They were on top of a mountain, and his master was arguing with his travel companion about the artefact they had retrieved, a big stone tablet written in an odd geometric script. He heard them argue about who should get the tablet, before they dropped it and it cracked on the ground. Before his master could do anything, he fell to the ground with a hole in his chest as the companion put his wand away. The travelling companion picked up his master’s spellbook, and tossed it as far from the mountain as possible. As the memory faded, his master reached out to pet him one last time and said, “*You were a great cat Monty, goodbye.*”

Mr Wiggles sat on the golem pillow, staring at the collar he had just knocked to the ground. He silently jumped off the pedestal and wrapped around the collar.

Virgil watched this and asked, “*Are you ok?*”

“*I don’t know.*”

Virgil hunkered down once again to produce a soft, shimmering light that energised and healed them all. Mr Wiggles  carefully slid the collar over his head and put it on. As it settled against his fur, he felt emboldened as a new power filled his body.

Ida thanked them all for saving her, and ate a snack from her tail. Crowrigami helped dry them all off, and together they flew up the tower and back to the shore.