My thoughts remembered the pirates that took her. Every time the punching bad took a blow from my webbed fist, I pictured a one-eyed bandit and the look of terror on her face. I gave the punching bag a kick and the sand bag swung to the right. To avoid hitting myself I waited for the punching bag to slow down before I kept on punching it again. I gave it a one-two, then a hook. I kicked the bag with my left foot and then jabbed it with my right arm.
I kept beating the sand bag to a pulp until there was a knock on the door. I stopped for a second, parched and thirsty. My skin was dry; I needed to go swimming again. Regardless I opened the door to my house and saw my two best friends. Spyro, a purple dragon who was the most heroic Skylander in the history of Portal Masters and also the one who recruited me, gave me a good smile. Trigger Happy (Spyro and I call him Trigg), the red gremlin who constantly had his tongue sticking out and had no sense of personal space entered his house without asking permission. However being my best friend I made no note of it.
"Hey Gill, how are things going?" Spyro asked as I opened the door wider for him to enter. As I closed the door and turned around, I immediately noticed Trigger Happy on top of the punching bag swinging back and forth.
I walked into the kitchen since this was no surprise from Trigg and if it broke, Trigger Happy had enough golden coins in his guns to make Auric his personal slave so he was covered. I never understood why Trigg never bought anything for himself; he only bought bigger and shinier weapons from Persephone. I opened the fridge and took out my water bottle as Spyro hopped onto the couch in the living room.
After taking a swig and feeling much better, I finally answered Spyro's question, "Oh, you know, just singing my lungs out."
Trigger Happy leaped off the sandbag, doing a front flip before landing on the ground. "Come on Gill, if you were singing, you would have found me and Spyro dead on your front porch" he laughed.
Spyro walked up behind him and used his front paw to whack Trigg on the back of the head, making a loud slapping sound.
I laughed at my two friends. "It's alright, Spyro. You caught me Trigg, I was working out." I nodded towards the sand bag. "Besides, everyone knows Gillmen can't sing."
Spyro and Trigger Happy jerked their heads to me. "Umm, Gill, do you feel alright?" Spyro asked.
"Uh, yeah I feel fine." I replied.
"You just admitted that you sang badly!" Trigger Happy said. "You think you're the greatest!"
I looked at my two best friends. "Yeah, yeah, I've just been focused on a lot of things lately." I said. I knew I was never the mysterious type, but that past couple days have been unsettling to say the least.
Three days before hand I had gotten a package in the mail. It had a letter from my friend Gurglefin. All it said was "I have an urgent message, find me at Batterson's and I'll tell you what I know." It was all very confusing and Gurglefin thought that a missing library card and spoiled milk were emergencies. Regardless after breakfast I went over to Batterson's Café, the main gathering where the Skylanders and their friends hung out. I saw Gurglefin sitting at a booth all by himself eating a fly berry pie. I sat down in front of him and once Gurglefin saw me he freaked out.
"Holy carp, you're finally here" he cried.
"Sure thing, what's with all the hubbub Gurg?" I asked.
"Gill, one of the Gillmen said they might have found her" Gurglefin said.
My back straightened. "Umm, who her?"
Without another word, Gurglefin took out a photo from the bag he had with him and passed it to me. I looked at it and my heart stopped for a second. On the picture was her, the mermaid I met on my adventures in the Gillmen military. It was almost too good to be true. I focused a bit more and noticed that she was in a dark place being taken into a cave.
"Mary…" I said aloud, remembering her name. "H- How did you find this?"
"If I reveal my sources I would be in more danger than I already am. I haven't paid back Dreadbeard his 5 gold coins from our last Skystones game!" Gurglefin muttered. Always the complainer I thought.
I invited Spyro and Trigg over so that maybe Spyro could tell me where the cave was since he had been all over Skylands and he had a photographic memory. However the thought of reuniting with Mary stressed me. The sandbag was the best way to get my emotions. Waiting three days for Spyro to get back from his trip with Jet-Vac and Stealth Elf from Mount Cloudbreak made me more anxious than ever.
"Truth is," I told Spyro and Trigger Happy, "I might finally be able to find Mary."
Spyro's eyes widened. "What?! You found her?" Spyro and Trigg knew the whole story as I've known them for years.
"I might, but I'm not sure where." I exited the kitchen and on a small table in front of the couch was a piece of paper flipped upside down. I sat in between Spyro and Trigger Happy and flipped the paper back over, revealing the photograph of Mary being led away in the cave. "Do you recognize this place Spyro?" I asked.
Spyro studied the paper. I saw his eyes moving from left to right and up and down. He closed his eyes tightly. After a few more seconds he opened his eyes. "Just barely, I don't know the exact location, but I remember seeing a couple of pirates enter there when we were looking for the eternal water source that time we had to rebuild the core of light. I think it was a bit of a ways off from the shores of Leviathan Lagoon." Spyro finally said. "It's underwater though and they had to have a lot of water power to enter."
"What, are you kidding?" I said excited. "We just need to gather all the water Skylanders together!"
"Gill, you haven't seen Mary in over five years. Things might have changed. Besides you only spent a day with her." Spyro said.
"Spyro, that's exactly why I should see her! Come on." I pleaded.
"Yeah Spyro, it'll be an adventure!" Trigger Happy yelled pulling out his guns and firing off rounds off of the walls. Spyro and I fell to the ground and covered our heads with our hands. Once the banging stopped I looked up at my house. The small table in front of us was missing a leg, my fridge had scorch marks on it and coins were scattered all over the floor. I looked at Trigg whose guns were smoking at the tips. Trigger Happy examined the scene, sniffed, and then said, "Whoops, sorry Gill."
"Besides, when was the last time the three of us hung out together by ourselves?" I pleaded to Spyro.
"Wait, you just said that we were getting a bunch of Skylanders to help?" Spyro defended.
"They won't come with us to the cave!" I said. "Come on Spyro, it'll be just like a treasure hunt!"
"And we know you like treasure hunts!" Trigger Happy added.
"Yeah, treasure hunts. Not your mermaid girlfriend, Gill." Spyro muttered.
"Don't you dare make me beg" I joked at him.
"Gill please don't-"
I jokingly wailed, "Gahhh, Spyro! Don't you know the power of love is a beautiful thing? Just like my singing!" I cried as I bowed down and touched Spyro's feet. Spyro rolled his eyes.
"Oh for Eon's sake, FINE!" Spyro roared.
I immediately got up. "SWEET! Trigg, belly buster!"
"You know it Gill!" Trigg dropped his guns and hopped off the couch. Trigg and I ran at each other and then hopped in the air, bumped chests, and fell to the ground.
"You guys need me. You're like children." Spyro said.
I looked up. "Come on you big purple lug. You know you want in on this." Trigg and I stood up and looked at Spyro.
"Oh, ho, no, guys you know I don't-" Spyro mumbled but was interrupted by Trigg and me tackling him. He fell against the couch with a THUMP. I got off Spyro laughing my head off.
"Alright, you two can spend the night and then we'll go off after breakfast." I said. Trigg and Spyro nodded.
The thought of seeing Mary again made me smile the widest I had since I beat Terrafin at Sky Goals. I told you I'd see you again, Mary I thought.
