I Met a Lady
WRITTEN IN THE ORDER: MAYA, SARAH, KATE, IRENE, KATHRYN, COURTNEY
Once upon a time, there lived an old, hairy lady. She lived by herself in a green caravan that was 50 years old. This caravan sat by itself under some tea trees, and on some dead grass. This old lady was really lucky because her caravan was right on the beach at McCrae. From her caravan, she could see the lovely green ocean, and the ships and sailboats if it was a nice day. Every day, the old lady got up at 5:13 am and went for a swim in the ocean. There was something special about this old hairy lady: she had webbed hands and feet, so she could swim as fast as a fish. In fact, some people thought she was half-fish, since she had gills on the side of her head. And one day 
as she was taking her morning swim the old, hairy lady (Mrs Ariel) realised that she had swam farther than ever before. With an apprehentious feeling growing in her stomach, she glanced back to where she had entered the water BUT oh, dear! It was not visible. Suddenley, a strong channel eminating from the deep, blue depths below pulled Mrs Ariel under. She struggled frantically until she glimpsed a flash of silver. Turning slightly, Mrs Ariel was shocked to see what looked like and underground city!!!! An enormous silver sparkly dome was surrounded by smaller square buildings. It was amazing but just then Mrs Ariel realised she hadn't had a breath of air in nearly a minute and that she would surely suffocate. Reaching blindly for the surface, Mrs Ariel kicked her old, hairy legs. Just when she thought her lungs would burst Mrs Ariel discovered that the seemingly useless gills that she had possessed her entire life were functioning. She forced herself to relax, and with the cool water passing over her gills, she found that she could breathe comfortably. Mrs Ariel regained her orientation and, pushing past the fronds of seaweed, she spotted the silver domes again. She swam down towards them, and as she neared the structures, Mrs Ariel found herself approached by two figures. Neither spoke as they neared her, and suddenly she found herself taken by the arms and dragged towards the city. The gleaming domes seemed less attractive the nearer Mrs Ariel come, as she discovered rubbish and old scuba gear entangled in the structures. She was escorted through the domes, and finally stood before a beautiful woman. She wore a sarong-like outfit, and had short brown hair, which flowed in the current. One of Mrs Ariel's escorts poked her.
"Kneel before the mage, Lady Maya" - one of the guards growled...
Mrs Ariel dropped to her knees. Lady Maya looked her over and then asked, "What is your name?"
Mrs Ariel hesitated, as she knew nothing of these people. A shove in the back from one of the guards prompted her response.
"My name is Mrs Ariel."
"Hmm..." Lady Maya stroked the orange crab that she had on her lap. She didn't say anything for a minute, but suddenly set the crab down and said,
"Off you go, Courtney." The crab scuffled off. Lady Maya focussed again on Mrs Ariel. "So you are married, then?
" Mrs Ariel shook her head and told Lady Maya about her husband - "I was once married to a lovely man, a deep sea diver. He was also very hairy so he didn't need a wetsuit to dive. He never got cold!"
Lady Maya crossed her arms - "Please get to the point."
"Yes, so one day he was diving and he swam out a bit farther than usual - in fact I think it was near here - and he just disappeared. That was a long time ago and I've been alone ever since."
Everyone had gone silent and Mrs Ariel was surprised to see a look of shock and terror on Lady Maya's face. Lady Maya opened her mouth to say something but one of the guards interupted.
"Lady Maya, perhaps now is not a good time."
As if she had suddenly remembered something, Lady Maya closed her mouth and waved her hand in dismissal.
"Take her to a room. We will see her later."
The two guards lifted Mrs Ariel and frogmarched her out of the room and down the hall. Once they reached what Mrs Ariel considered to be the guest rooms, the guards opened the door and pushed her into the room.
"Irene!" called the first guard.
From a side room entered a very pretty girl of about 19, dressed in a maids' uniform. She curtsied to the guards and looked at Mrs Ariel inquiringly. One of the guards briefly explained that she needed a room and would be staying for a while. Irene nodded and the guards left Mrs Ariel in her capable hands. Irene looked Mrs Ariel over. Inspection over, she led Mrs Ariel to a small room.
"This is your room. Please don't leave unless you are accompanied," said Irene.
Mrs Ariel sat slowly on the sand bed.
"Now," said Irene. "Suppose you tell me why you're really here."
"Well you see, my dear" Mrs Ariel spoke softly "I was on my early morning swim this morning when the current slowly carried me out from the shore much further than ever before and I came to this amazing underwater city" in an inquisitive manner Mrs Ariel asked "who does it all belong to?"
Irene wasn't sure whether Mrs Ariel should be told but decided that this whole fiasco should finally come to an end.
"You Madame."
"what that can't be, how did that happen? And who is Lady Maya then?"
"I don't think I should be the one to tell you, you might need to ask somebody else. I think that I have already told you too much. Excuse me Mrs Ariel but I was wondering what your name was."
"It is Sarah" she said very quietly. It was going to take Mrs Ariel a long time to digest the fact that she owned this beautiful underwater city but that someone who she didn't really know was in charge of it all, she couldn't comprehend it all and needed to seek answers.
"Will you please ake me to see Lady Maya again please Irene."
"Yes Madame"
Sarah was escorted by the guards that Irene called for into Lady Maya's chamber.
Lady Maya, now dressed in a gorgeous fluorescent coloured dress was lazing on her royal seaweed sofa. Sarah looked around, amazed at the beauty of Lady Maya's chamber. The windows were lined with pearls, and the walls were sparkly.
"I suppose you want an explanation," Lady Maya said, stroking her crab which was perched next to her.
"Yes, I do - how is it that this city belongs to me? I don't understand... " Sarah asked, looking confused.
"Well, sit down, this may take a while" Lady Maya ordered, and with a wave of her hand, made a chair appear under Sarah.
"Um, does this have anything to do with my late husband at all?" Sarah inquired.
"As a matter of fact, it has a lot to do with him. He was an excellent diver, as you probably know. Well, a while ago, when he was still alive, he discovered this city, just as you did. He was struck by the sheer beauty of it, so every day he kept coming back just to see if it was still here. But one day, something dreadful happened. His scuba gear fell off! It tumbled into the city-"
Sarah interrupted, "Was that his scuba gear I saw at the entrance?"
"I'm afraid so. Anyway, to continue, after being so rudely interrupted, his scuba gear caught the attention of the guards here, and they quickly went up to him and captured him. He was placed in a cell, and everyone was very worried that he had discovered our city. We didn't know what to do, because if he discovered it, then what was stopping any other human discovering it? Anyway, he pleaded to be let go. He wanted to return to his beautiful wife, and... . his equally beautiful baby girl."
"Wait!" Sarah screamed. "I have a daughter?"
"Yes," Lady Maya said slowly, a smile spreading across her beautiful face. "I am your daughter..."
Sarah opened her mouth to reply to the astounding statement but suddenly from behind the bed of seaweed an arrow flew across the room and straight into her heart.
"Aaghh!" She cried and sunk to the floor. Blood dripped from the wound and quickly covered the floor of Lady Maya's chamber. Lady Maya, who had finally found her mother ran to Sarah sobbing, but managed to keep her dress from being bloodstained.
"Mother, mother, don't leave me," she wailed. Alerted by her cries, the guards rushed in.
"Look!" one of them shouted. "Lady Maya has killed Mrs Ariel so that she can remain leader and owner of our underwater city!!"
"No," Lady Maya protested, "It wasn't me." But her pleading was lost on the guards who quickly drew their swords and cut off her head.
Finally, at long last, Mother and daughter were together - dead on a bed of seaweed. As the guards dragged the limp bodies out to give to the pet sharks a figure slithered out from behind the seaweed bed and out the secret entrance of the chamber...
Irene sat in her chamber, reflecting on the events of the past hours. The city was in uproar, given that the unmarried Lady Maya had left no heirs. Irene, of noble birth, was the highest ranking person left in Bucklean despite her current employment in the palace. Upon hearing of the deaths of Lady Maya and Sarah Ariel, Irene had ordered the responsible guards fed to the sharks. There must be no wanton head-chopping under her control. Pondering, Irene rose, and walked over to her table. There was someone else, who was in the direct line for the throne, but Irene had no idea of how to enlist their aid. She moved away from the table and opened her door.
"Loan," she addressed her page. "Please find Lady Maya's crab, Courtney."
Loan brought the crab to Irene, and stood in the doorway, holding Courtney in her webbed fingers. Irene lifeted her head to examine Loan.
"I trust you, my child," she said softly. Loan nodded. Irene continued. "Loan, you have been a part of Bucklean for a long time, and you know many of its secrets. I believe that you remember the arrival of Mr Ariel in our city, and his descriptions of Sarah and her child, Lady Maya? You remember our beliefs about Sarah's heritage? Yes? Good. Loan, it is now to time for us to restore the High Mage Courtney to us."
"But there is no way," said Loan. "Courtney is a crab, and we cannot change her. That is why we had her granddaughter, Lady Maya, as our ruler in the first place."
Irene sat down and motioned for Loan to sit too. "Lets think this through. Since you are the only other person of reasonable intelligence left, I'd better explain the full story to you. When Mr Ariel arrived, Courtney was ruler of Bucklean."
Loan looked confused. "But when did she become a crab?"
"I'm getting to that part" Irene continued. "Mr Ariel was deperate to go back home to his wife, Sarah, and this daughter Maya. Courtney was reluctant to let him go because he might tell others of Bucklean, but she eventually let him go home. He had only just stepped foot out of Bucklean when and evil witch, Kate, saw him and killed him instantly. Actually Kate wasn't REALLY a BAD WITCH, she just loved to visit Bucklean, and was prone to bad tempers. Realising that Courtney meant to free Mr Ariel, Kate got very angry, and turned Courtney into a crab, using a special spell. Since there was no longer a ruler, Kate set off to find a suitable person. Maya, only a child, was playing on the beach at her home, and Kate was struck by her beauty. Kate took Maya down to Bucklean and appointed her lady Maya. Maya proved to be a most worthy ruler, but she felt guilty about leaving her mother, Sarah, all those years ago. Lady Maya wanted to give something to Sarah, so she gave the whole city to her, even though Sarah didn't know."
Irene paused, and Loan interupted - "So what can we do? Maya and Sarah are dead!"
"Well after Kate turned Courtney into a crab, she went away and hasn't been heard of since. Since Courtney is our rightful leader, we must find Kate, and get her to make Courtney human again."
Loan looked at Irene in befuddlement.
"But nobody has seen KatE in years. We don't even know where to start looking! She could be anywhere!"
Irene smiled and produced a piece of paper.
"This is a map of the path to KatE's house. All others were destroyed when she turned Courtney into a crab and killed Mr Ariel."
"Well what good is it? There's nobody who remembers what those signs mean. It would be impossible to find her."
Irene gave Loan a look.
"This is why we need someone intelligent for the job."
"But who - " began Loan. She stopped at Irene's look. "You mean me?" she squeaked. "I have to go and find this witch who can kill people and turn them into crabs at the wave of her hand? I'll be killed!"
Irene was unimpressed.
"Oh, you will not. Just don't make KatE angry. You know where everything you need is. Gather it and be on your way. Remember, the fate of Bucklean depends on your sucess."
Irene paused.
"Loan," she continued softy, "You need not fear KatE. The directions to her house are quite simple once you work out the first one. Do you still have that charm I gave you?"
Loan held out a charm on a necklace.
"Good. That should guard you from harm while you are away from Bucklean. Do you have any questions?"
Loan shook her head, slowly.
"Good. Here is the map. Be careful."
Loan stood, and Irene handed her the map. Loan exited through the door, and Irene sat on her bed, alone.
As Loan exited the door, a wave of fear ran across her mind.
"What am I doing I must be really stupid for doing this for Kate could kill me" but as she thought this she realised that the state of Bucklean depended on her. Just as Irene had said, the map, leading to Kate was very easy to follow and it lead Loan straight to her. It was weird but Loan felt more power than ever before as she approached the house of Kate.
As Loan reached the doorway of the puny one bedroom chamber which Kate lived in with seaweed beds and furniture, she stopped as she heard someone crying just above her head.
"What's wrong?" she inquired. "As she backed of the doorway and looked up. There she saw a young lady who had obviously been held in captivity for a while as she ad outgrown the cage that she was in.
"What is your name young lady and how long have you been here?"
"My name is Kat and I have been her for 6 years. Please help me." As Kat said the words, Loan's sucess was now even more important than ever before.
"once I have dealt with Kate, I will be back to save you."
As Loan neared the door, she placed her hand on the doorhandle, twisted it, and went in Kate's chamber, but just as she went inside, she heard and evil cackle from behind her, in fact, form the cage. She turned. There was a magical puff of smoke around the cage and sparks flew everywhere.
"He he he he... You were fooled. I am not Kat - that was just a test. It is I, Kate the witch! He he he. I turned myself into that lovely young lady to test you, and to see how kind you were. If you had rushed to my aid, I might have been kinder to you, but alas! You left me, and you will pay for that!"
"But wait!" yelled Loan, "I said I was going to come back and save you. Doesn't that count?"
"He he... nope, sorry. You had to show me that you were a compassionate person and you failed - Now, I know why you are here. You want to change Courtney the crab back into a human so she can rule the Kingdom."
Loan stuttered, "Uh, yes that's right. This is Courtney here with me," and held out little Courtney, who was trembling with fear as to what would happen to her.
And with a crafty grin, Kate waved her hand. Darkness covered Loan's eyes and she tumbled backwards into oblivion...
A while later Loan came to in a small, dark cave. With a gasp she discovered the bodies of Irene, the crab Courtney, another strange girl and the figures of Lady Maya and Sarah Ariel. On closer inspection, Loan discovered the strange girl to be the figure of the woman Kat in the cage. Loan, thinking that she was Kate in disguise, jumped up and screamed "Watch Out!! It is the wizard Kate."
At that moment the person Kat woke and explained...
"No. I am Kat. Kate stole my image so that she could trick you."
"Phew!" Loan sighed. Then it dawned on her that Lady Maya and Sarah Ariel were dead and that they couldn't possibly be real.
"They must have been created by Kate" she whispered. Coincidently, Lady Maya and Sarah Ariel then woke. Mrs Ariel seeing she was alive and Lady Maya discovering she was still in possession of her head began laughing with joy and hugged each other ecstatically.
Seeing the sincere behaviour, Loan decided that the mother and daughter were trully who they appeared to be and that Kate had brought them back to life for some reason. Suddenly, the darkest wall of the cave transformed obliquely and became of silver pool of liquid. Each of the figures gasped in surprise.
"I believe that is a portal that will take us to another place." Maya said, intelligently.
"How do you know that, dear?" Mrs Ariel asked.
"I saw it on the tv show SLIDERS." She explained. "Lets jump through and see where we go."
They all agreed to this plan when suddenly two arrow flew across the cave from one of the dark crannies and into Lady Maya and Sarah Ariel's heart.
"Aaghh!" They cried and sank to the floor. Blood dripped form the wounds as mother and daughter died - again!
"Oh, well!" Loan said and picked up Courtney to carry her through the silver pool. Just then, Irene who had gone un-noticed, joined Loan, Courtney and Kat and the four people jumped through the portal to their destiny...
The four stood in a world of silver, liquid portals surrounding them, on the walls of the chamber they stood in.
"This isn't what happened in 'Sliders'," Kat decided.
"What do we do now?" Loan queried tiredly.
As they stood, examining each of the portals in turn, there was a ripple in the far wall, and four figures entered the room. Gasps were heard from all directions, as the two groups examined each other critically.
"You're dead!" Loan cried. "Gosh! This is getting ridiculous. Would you PLEASE put on some body armour?"
A woman who looked curiously like the recently deceased Lady Maya smiled.
"I am Mile," she grinned. "Allow me to introduce my companions - Segal, Courts and Lonte."
Loan felt confused, and Kat just stared.
"Where are we?"
"This is a portal between parallel worlds," Mile explained. She examined the strangers. "Why do you have the evil, corrupt, and altogether nasty Pike with you?"
"What?"
"Who is Pike?"
"Why, that woman there." Courts pointed at Irene. "She was responsible for the many years of suffering I had as a crab. Also, she caused Segal to be ugly and hairy and committed the murder of Kathryn. Pike has been evil in every dimension we have entered!"
All eyes turned to Irene, who merely shrugged.
"But you seemed so innocent..." Loan began.
Irene reached into her pocket and pulled out a gun, which she pointed and the others.
"You'd all better keep quiet about all this", Irene said, backing away.
Loan, Courtney and Kat nodded, shocked at the transformation. The others were unimpressed. All of a sudden, Irene turned and ran through one of the portals.
"Oh no! She's got away!" Mile said. "Pike has always been very sneaky - we'll never find her now!"
Loan looked worried - "but what if she finds us and kills us all? - we have to hide."
Kat looked around at all the portals.
"Does anyone know which one is safe? I can't remember where we came from or where Irene went. They all look the same!"
The others shook their heads.
Then Segal explained "at least half of these worlds will have either Kate or Irene-like people. We will have to take a chance and choose a portal to go through."
Suddenly, a golden glow surrounded on of the portals, and, with no other options, they slowly walked towards it and dissapeared through to the other side.
A few seconds after they had vanished, KatE walked through the second portal. She was just in time to see Kat vanish completely. With a sigh, KatE followed.
On the other side of the portal, it was night. The sky was dark and stars twinkled. The group banded together to discuss their options.
"Well," said Kat.
At that moment KatE arrived.
"KatE!" called Kat and jumped forward and hugged KatE.
Loan, Mile, Segal, Courts and Lonte turned to look. Even Courtney turned. Loan looked shocked, but Mile, Segal, Courts and Lonte dropped to one knee.
"All hail the Mage Etak."
Kat looked around.
"Oh, don't be stupid. This is my sister KatE. She's just a hedge witch. Everyone stared.
"I thought she stole your image?"
"Oh, she did, but only because I didn't think was right to trick you."
"I see..." replied Loan.
Kat continued to explain. "Our mother was a witch and she taught KatE and I all she knew. Unfortunately, when I was 15 I was a... bit of a handful."
KatE interupted. "She dyed her hair black, got a tattoo, a belly ring and extra earrings, started wearing black lipstick and ran away from home."
Loan looked at Kat who shrugged.
"I came back. Anyway, KatE's on our side. Now what are we going to do?"
"How about KatE proves she's on our side by turning Courtney into Courtney again?" suggested Loan.
Everyone looked to Kate, who shrugged.
"I can't"
"Why not?"
KatE turned to look at Kat.
"Because... I don't want to!"
With an evil laugh, KatE waved her hand and everyone assembled turned into crabs. Kat pulled out a hessian bag and KatE and Kat collected the crabs and went back through the portal to their own world.
Kat pulled out the crabs one by one and passed them to KatE, who put them in a pot of boiling water.
And so Kat and Kate had crab with ginger for dinner, and lived happily ever after.
THE END