The two children stopped outside the classroom door. They stuffed their nostrils with the stolen cotton wool, packing as much of the soft white fluff as they could into each cavity. They turned to look at each other. George winked at Ruby and she shook her head, then they pushed open the door. All of the other children were seated and as George and Ruby came into the classroom they looked up at the pair in shock.
"Mr Adamson, Miss Fortuna, nice of you to grace us with your presence." Said the giant teacher his back to the pair as he continued writing on the blackboard.
"You're welcome Mr Moss." George answered sarcastically, happily beaming from ear to ear with his megawatt grin.
The other children's eyes grew even bigger and rounder, this time Mr Moss' chalk halted on the blackboard.
"Do you think that you are funny Mr Adamson?" There was malice in the gangly teachers voice as he spoke.
"No sir not at all " Continued George who knew exactly what he needed to do, and continued to beam with satisfaction.
Slowly Mr Moss turned around, he looked down at the small boy and girl. The other classmates all shrunk in their seats, some tried to cover their noses with their sleeves without being obvious.
The young boy was grinning. He was all big white shiny teeth and blonde shiny hair. How dare he thought the Gangly teacher as he stared at George through narrowed eyes. The strange Ruby girl looked impassive as she always did. Mr Moss was unsure of her, something about her made him uneasy she was just so odd.
"Can I ask where you two have been when you should have been here in my lesson?" The teacher almost whispered.
"Yes." Answered George, another hint of sarcasm in his voice as he continued to beam back at Mr Moss.
Mr Moss looked confused for a moment. "What did you say Adamson?"
"Yes," George answered again. "you CAN ask where we've been when we should have been in class."
Ruby burst into a fit of hysterics while the other children in the classroom almost gasped with shock, how could anyone dare to be so rude to Mr Moss? This really was the most exciting thing they had EVER seen happen in history class. Sally gritted her teeth at the front of the classroom. This was the second time in a week that Ruby had managed to get George into trouble. It wouldn't be long before George was either badly harmed or sent away somewhere even worse than here. She had to do something to help.
Mr Moss raised an eyebrow, he turned his back to George and Ruby walking back to his desk with purpose. The tall gangly teacher picked up his flask and took a huge gulp of stew. Ruby clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. George stayed exactly as he was massive grin in place. The freakishly large teacher finished the lot in one swallow and banged the metal flask down hard upon the solid mahogany surface. Every child in the classroom winced in unison, except George, George continued to beam. With two strides of his long spindly legs Mr Moss arrived at the back of the classroom.
The teacher looked like a gigantic praying mantis as he bent his long limbs and moved his face inches from the boys'. George was still grinning.
"How dare you be so rude," He shouted in George's face. George's smile disappeared, he turned pale, his hand shot to his mouth, he pushed his way out of the classroom and ran directly to the bathroom.
The ghastly teacher turned to Ruby. "and how dare you laugh, you strange silly girl."
Ruby followed her best friend closely out of the door, her hand was also pressed firmly against her mouth. Mr Moss smiled to himself then made his way to the front of the classroom. Sally shook with anger as she watched Ruby's shadow retreat down the hallway.
Ruby couldn't make it the extra two feet to the girls bathroom, she pushed open the door to the boys instead and ran to the middle cubicle to be sick, she could hear George next door doing the same thing. After a couple of minutes they both felt better. The pair walked to the sinks, unplugged their noses and splashed their faces with cold water.
"Remind me George," Ruby finally spoke, after enough deep breaths to completely expel all of the foul air from her aching lungs. "that I should never, EVER listen to you or join in any of your plans again, even if you have managed to have the upper hand that day."
George laughed at his friend, the colour returning to his white clammy skin. "I was hoping the cotton wool would be more effective then that. I guess he really does have bad breath!"
Ruby left the bathroom first and as George was about to follow a movement distracted him. George looked back towards the bathroom stalls, he noticed the white fluffy cat from the dungeon batting at the toilet paper behind one of the opened toilet doors with a lethal outstretched paw. The cat stopped play for a moment and turned to fix the young boy with its large round blue eyes. They both stared for a few moments. The cat looked grumpy, its face was round and white, it had a little pink snub nose and stubby grey ears. The rest of the creature was also white except its short fluffy tail which was the same dove grey as its ears. Ruby burst back through the door and grabbed the boy by his sleeve. "What are you doing!" She asked with a great deal of irritation. George looked at Ruby and then pointed at the toilet stall but the cat had completely disappeared. "There was a cat." He stuttered confused. Ruby shook her head and pulled George through the open bathroom door. "The longer we mess about the more likely it is that we will get caught." George Scanned the bathroom but the fat fluffy cat was nowhere to be seen.
The children made their way silently along the corridor to the grand library, nodding to Violet as they passed, she looked shocked at first to see them but nodded back and continued stacking the library shelves with armfuls of books. George thought that she looked very sad. It had been over a month since she had arrived back at Slaven and she had not heard anything from Mr Bromley. George wished there was something he could do to help her.
Everyone in the school would now expect both George and Ruby to be ill for the rest of the day. They should be able to sneak back to bed in the middle of the night, without anyone having the slightest clue as to what they had really been doing. The ingenious twosome pulled a few of the books from the shelves, found a quiet nook behind the rows of book cases where they would not be spotted if anyone entered, and began to scour the pages.
George had a book about Slaven that had been written in 1900, the title of the book was.
"A History Of Slaven Castle, by Sir Richard Robinson."
George skipped the first couple of hundred years, and went straight to the section about Mad Lord McGuinness. The book told George that Lachlan McGuinness had been Lord of the castle in the mid fifteen hundreds. According to leading architects he had built the tower in the West wing where Miss Grimm now resided. Sir Richard wrote that an unsubstantiated rumour of the era was that Lord McGuinness had built the tower for his love, a woman named Ulva. George stopped still, he remembered the ghastly ghosts rhyme. "It's in Ulva's room." The book continued, no one knew the second name of Ulva, and she could not be found in any parish records from the time. Ulva had completely disappeared after the lord was incarcerated.
An account taken from the diaries of the local parishioner at the time, stated that a woman named Ulva had given birth to a son. According to Sir Richard the parishioner hinted that the child was Lord McGuinness' heir.
"The heir of the dog" The way McGuinness had pronounced the word "heir" George was sure that he had meant the rightful owner of Slaven. The curious boy looked in the glossary at the back of the book for the word 'dog' it appeared in several chapters throughout the text, but most frequently in chapter twenty-two "The Beast Of Slaven". George turned the pages and opened the book in this section.
"From the middle of the fifteenth century until modern times, there has been documentation of a beast that roams the grounds of Slaven castle. Residents have reported the mauling of domestic animals, livestock, and even people. These occurrences span centuries of Slaven's history."
As George read the chapter it became more and more obvious to him that the beast of Slaven Castle was alive and kicking. After another hour George turned to Ruby.
"I think I'm done, how about you?"
The tired girl nodded.
"The lord asked me to find the round and the deed." George began. "He said that they were in Ulva's room. According to the history of Slaven the tower was built for Ulva, I'm guessing her room is in there," George showed Ruby a drawing of a stone dragon carving he had found in the book. "McGuinness also said that the dragon marks the spot. I know where this carving is. I've seen it. It's in Miss Grimm's room, in the tower. This is what the mad lord asked me to find while I was in the dungeons."
Ruby smiled to herself, then she shook her head. "Brilliant!" Her comment was sarcastic.
George chose to ignore her. "Then we have the dog, it all seems to centre around this creature. The heir of the dog, give the round, to the hound. The beast of Slaven Castle. It seems that there has been some sort of canine beast prowling the castle grounds for hundreds of years."
"It would have to be a dog," Interrupted Ruby. "I hate dogs, I'm most definitely more of a cat person."
"The heir of the dog describes an heir, but surely the heir of Slaven can't actually be a dog." George scrunched up his face and tried to think. "Maybe it's symbolic for a person?"
"Maybe," Said Ruby. "or maybe it's a person that turns into a wolf on a full moon." The small girl held up her book on mythical creatures. She had it opened on a page about werewolves. "I think I've found our hound."
George showed Ruby the chapter about the beast of Slaven, in the book by Sir Richard Robinson. The creature was described in eyewitness accounts from over the centuries as a large black canine as big as a man. Ruby compared this with the records she had found about werewolves in two books of ancient myths, and one about mythical creatures. They then discussed the strange story about Mr McClary's dog that they had heard from Mildred Potts. According to Ruby's book Werewolves changed uncontrollably from human form to wolf on a full moon. They were large beasts, vicious and uncontrollable, attacking livestock and people at random. It said that humans who were bitten by a werewolf would themselves become a werewolf.
The biggest part of Lord McGuinness' riddle was the hound, since the only link they had to any hound was Mr McClary the twosome knew that they would have to confront the hairy groundskeeper at some point. It was going to be dangerous, especially as all the information they had made him the person most likely to be the werewolf. The children made a note that this should be their number one priority, Ruby also made a note that it should most definitely NOT be when there was a full moon. The second part of the riddle was the dragon which marked the spot. George was pretty sure the dragon was in Miss Grimm's room.
"Why does the dragon have to be there?" Asked Ruby. "Of all the places it could be, it has to be in Grimm's room, the most dangerous place in the whole castle."
George shrugged. "If it was too easy it would be boring, besides, we have our magic to help us!"
Ruby smiled, she couldn't help it, the mega watt grin was back.
"Look what I've found." Said the small girl, shaking off a bad feeling by changing the subject. Ruby showed George the illustration of the Phoenix she had found, he stared in awe at the beautiful creature. "The Phoenix dies after a hundred years or so and burns to ashes. The creature is then reborn, rising from the ashes new and perfect. From how you explained the creature in the dungeon I think that this is it. The ghosts were defeated by it because it has eternal life, therefore it contradicts anything that is dead."
George nodded in agreement, this time it was his turn to tear the illustration from the book. He simply could not stop staring at it. Ruby showed George the other thing she had found.
"Look," She held up another book with glee. "here's you!"
In the left hand corner of the page was a beautiful woman, she wore a circlet of gold on her head and was dressed in a long medieval gown. Just poking through her long golden hair were the tips of two pointed ears. Next to her stood a boy of about their age. He had pale blonde hair and his pointed ears stuck out at the sides, just like George's. They both stared at the page for a long time.
"This chapter is about elves," explained Ruby, then tore the page from the book and handed it to George. "You have quite a collection now!"
The children put away the books, it was late and they were both incredibly tired. They made their way back to their dorms on the fifth floor exhausted but excited by their new discoveries