What happened next

preferred the hynotic music to let her escape from the world. She was not called Big Bertha for nothing.She sat, budda-like, blubber bulging,bolstering her senses and let the air take over her thoughts, to shield herself from the pains and reality of living. Meanwhile Cedric,Lara, the reporter and the two sirs had a pow wow. It was a good match. Each brought their own strength and gifts to the discussion. "I can teleport", said Will and you Sir Motrym can be philosophical and can consider all options. Cedric is the peace maker. What we need now is

is an intellect capable of harnessing the talents and forging a workable plan of action; he or she must

some how get Bertha back as she was the glue, each of their talents where useless without the Bertha Glue. So it was decided Melissa was going to go and talk to Bertha and try and make her see she was the back bone of the group and was needed urgently. So Melissa went and saw Bertha and after an hour talking to her she arrived back to Cedric with some news. 'She will only come back if William De Smyth will leave.' Melissa bowed her head at William so he wouldn't see her face go red. 'Sorry William' she said in a small voice.

"I wonder Will. Could you go to the Old Dog and Duck and ask dear John what was in his letter and perhaps get some grog. I'm dying to know what was said and to be honest Will your elixir has a strange effect on me and several others " she said with a smirk. Will looked pleased and leapt upon his steed- his mobility scooter. He purred and the scooter purred and snaked up the hill. Will was secretly pleased to be rid of the group and with a backward wave disappeard.Dottie looked aghast."Don't we need Will to help us" The rest of the group exchanged side-long glances. Cedric, eyes askance, Muttered, "We need Will like a pain the arse. He's a good man but not in circumstances like these. He tends to act first and think later and now we need more than a modicum of diplomacy.To be honest Dot, your dabbling in the black arts has left us all with trouble trouble, Double jeopardy. You may have magiced the tricatops away but now we have turbulent cascading torrents of water everywhere. I don't know about you but I do not have fully-comprehensive insurance against waterr damage and my garden will be washed away, along with my plants. Not to mention my pottting shed." Motrym sighed:"God this man is impossible, concerned only with the minuitia of life. We need to look at the bigger picture (secretly he did have fully comp.) What I would do" he said, " is to pray" As a philosopher he had considered religion and found it wanting but he did have a vested interest- Shares in the monastries and a horde of gold to sell for the making of icons. He also knnew that many were scared of the pagans, their one-ness with the earth and their supposed orgies. "We could be liike the Ark but an Ark of people and..............

what we need are a number of cubits and a span or two, also a couple of years to construct a vessel capable of safely floating. A boat with a shallow draught and towering superstructure would only lead to disaster eventually, perhaps tying ourselves to a raft would be best. Praying about it wont work, will only waste time and disappoint those credulous enough to believe in a deity. Then again as we've already used one form of magic perhaps prayer

will suffice but I doubt it. Just in case let's build a raft." The men collected axes and began to fell trees. The women, knowing their place collected animal hides which they tore into strips "Bertha" said Motrym can you collect your caudroon and some of you otherrs take panniers and go to the abyss. Some of that solidified viscuous stuff, when melted could waterproof the raft, I think. It's worth a try. Lara could you make a fire and bake some dampers? As they harder than bread. As the torrents of water may well swamp us we need hard tack to sustain us. There will be plenty of fish, provided they are not poisoned. The children can gather nuts and fruit. It's Autumn and there is a bumper crop and it will take their minds off ttheir fears. Cedric would have preferred to join the kids but under Motryms eagle eye, he reluctantly took an axe and began to chop. He hated destroying natural things. He secretly thought building an ark was a waste of time but decided to tow the line. The women bent to their tasks,muttering and casting black looks at Motrym. They, too, thought it was a waste of their labours. Motrym, not wanting to blister his hands, began to stack up empty bladders. These would add buoyancy to the raft when inflated. All of them beavered all day until the gathering dusk made their toils nigh impossible. Hands cramped and bodies acheing they ceased their labours and........