Chapter 2 Bell, goddess of chaos
Brick and Dexter ran out to the deck of the ship, and saw more of the tentacles attacking the crew. Suddenly a monster pulled itself out of the ocean, it had tentacles all around the front of its oval head, its eyes where orange and had wavy side to side lines for pupils, behind the eyes, were huge fin like things, and the rest of the body was long and serpentine with fins on the back. Courage gave a sort of cry of terror, the monster laid its eyes on him and swung a tentacle at him. The purple and black dog responded by biting down on the tentacle, the monster gave a sort of roar, then it began to swing the tentacle around in the air, with Courage still clinging to it. Brick laughed and said, "Go, Courage!" Finally the monster flung Courage off towards The Chimera, but the dog took the tip of the monsters tentacle with it, and Courage still chewed on it as he flew through the air. Another member of Bricks crew, Otto, went from side to side trying to catch him saying, ""I got ya, I got ya, I…" But he only served as a soft landing place for Courage. Brick looked around and saw his crew had already went back to The Chimera, he quickly sheathed his sword and said, "Well I can see you're busy, so I'll just get out of your hair." Brick quickly leapt onto the rail of the ship, Dexter ran up to him and said, "Are you just going to run away and leave me in this mess?" "Uh, yeah." Said Brick, he was about to leap aboard, when suddenly the creatures tail came up, and knocked the two ships away from each other, the Chimera went swerved away, but it managed to right itself, "Brick!" cried Boomer.
Brick cursed under his breath and said, "You... my… my ship!" Dexter and his soldiers where fighting a losing battle, they fought the sea monster valiantly, but they couldn't keep it up. Dexter drove his sword into one of the creature's tentacles, only to be knocked away by another one, he collapsed to the deck. The monster suddenly raised its head and opened a small mouth it had, and shot out a tongue that had fleshy spikes all around it. It snatched up one of the sailors and pulled him into its mouth. Dexter suddenly heard a voice yell, "Heads up!" He turned and saw Brick had a torch in hand, and was standing on a plank with a barrel of gunpowder at one end. Brick quickly leaned back and lit a fuse sticking out of the barrel, then he leapt onto the opposite end of the plank and sent the barrel flying into the air, where it was quickly grabbed by the creatures tongue and pulled it into the monsters mouth. Brick helped Dexter up and said, "Now, stand by for sushi." The creatures eyes suddenly closed and the monster sank down a little, when suddenly there was a muffled boom, smoke came out of its mouth, and the creature began to spit up green saliva like gunk, which covered everyone, and also the sailor that it had eaten came out, minus his helmet and one boot. He sat there a moment in bewilderment, then his face became contorted with rage, he grabbed up his sword and charged at the creature yelling, "Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Brick leaned towards Dexter and said, "Give that guy a raise." But the explosive didn't seem to have any effect, the monster only kept going berserk, "Come on! Brick we have to go!" cried Dexter, "Wait!" said Brick and he whistled at the monster. "What on Earth are you doing?" said Dexter, the monster stared at Brick, and Brick yelled, "Hey lobster boy. You want a piece of me?" The monster responded by lashing its tongue out at him. Brick quickly dodged and drove his sword into the tongue at the same time, trapping it there. It screeched in pain, Brick smiled and said, "Run!" "Fall back! "Dexter yelled to his men, and everyone quickly ran from the sea monster. Brick looked up at the two sails and saw that they had become pointed on the end, suddenly he was struck by inspiration. He quickly grabbed a rope that was on the deck, and said, "Grab hold!" to Dexter, as he swung it around the mast. Dexter grabbed it, and Brick nodded to him, they linked hands, and climbed up the mast, along the way, Brick flipped a knife that was imbedded in the mast into his mouth and said in a muffled voice, "Come on!" They reached the sail, and Dexter asked "The plan?" Brick responded with, "How about try not to get killed?" He quickly slashed a trio of ropes, and the sail's pointed tip, now pointed down at the creature's head. Brick quickly climbed higher on the mast, and Dexter asked, "Where are you going?" "Fishing!" said Brick and he began to walk tightrope walker style, along a rope between the two masts, as he did so he muttered, "Left, right, left right." Suddenly one of the monsters tentacles wrapped around the rope, and snapped it, but Brick managed to leap to the safety of the other sail. Dexter stared in awe as Brick drew a knife with a design that looked like a "v" with a circle above it. He slashed a trio of ropes that had been in the same place as they where on the sail Dexter was on. It pointed so that the point of it was ready to drive itself into the monsters head. Brick looked at Dexter and held his knife to another rope, Dexter did the same to the rope on his sail, and then Brick cried, "Now!" They both cut the lines and the two sails shot down, and stabbed into the monsters head. It gave one more screech and began to sink back into the ocean, Brick and Dexter landed back on the deck and Dexter put one hand on Bricks shoulder and said, "Thanks for sticking around." Brick smiled, and shrugged with his eyes closed, suddenly he saw a tentacle was about to knock Dexter overboard, "Look out!" he cried and shoved Dexter out of the way, only to be grabbed by the tentacle himself, and dragged overboard. "Brick!" cried Dexter, and tried to leap overboard after him, but was dragged back by two of his soldiers. He could only look down on the place where his friend was now being drowned.
Brick struggled helplessly against the tentacle, which held him; he was losing air fast and wouldn't last long. Finally Brick managed to break free, and was about to lose all the air he had left. Suddenly a girl appeared, she had long flowing white hair, white eyes, pale skin, and she wore a flowing purple dress, she somehow created a bubble in her hands which grew and grew until it touched Brick and he ended up inside it. Brick gasped and let the air fill his lungs, then a girl's voice made him look up, "The day started off so nicely." Brick saw the girl, approaching him from outside the bubble, "But now look my sea monster is dead, and I still don't have the Book of Peace." She suddenly disappeared and reformed in mid air, inside in front of Brick with her hands under her chin, and was lying on her chest in mid air. "All because of you Brick." "Uh-huh." Said Brick, "And you are?" "Bell, goddess of discord. No doubt you've seen my likeness on the temple walls." Suddenly she floated back, became huge, and her hands suddenly became like bat wings, "I see." Said Brick, "You know they don't do you justice." "Uh huh." Said Bell turning back to normal, "But anyway, about my sea monster." She said tapping him in the chest, with one finger. "Right, right, listen I'm sorry about that." Said Brick, "I don't suppose a heartfelt apology would do." Bell only laughed, "Heartfelt, from you? Brick, you don't have a heart." She suddenly disappeared, then reformed right in front of Brick, "That's what I like about you. So I'm not going to destroy you, but there just one little you have to get done. Steal the Book of Peace, and bring it to me." "Ah, well, you see, that's a problem, I had my own plans for it. Steal the book, get ransom, get rich, you know, me stuff." Brick suddenly turned and saw Bell right behind him, "You're not thinking big enough Brick." Suddenly she appeared behind him again, and drew his knife, "Steal the book for ransom, and you'll be rich enough to lounge on an island beach." As she said this she walked in front of him, and held the knife to his throat slightly, then she looked him the eye and held the knife pointed at her throat, "Steal the book for me, and you can buy the beach… and the island… and the world." Brick put his hand under his chin, "You let me live, then you make me rich. So far I don't see a downside… if… you keep your word." "Brick, when a goddess gives her word, she is bound for all eternity." And as Bell said this, she made a cross over her heart with the knife, which glowed white. "Alright." Said Brick, "You're on." "I knew you'd see it my way." Said Bell, and she suddenly materialized on one side of the bubble, and said, "So when you've stolen the book…." She slashed at it with the knife, and an image appeared in what looked like a huge tear, it showed a horizon with a bright star in the center, "Follow this star on the horizon, it will lead you to Tartarus, my realm of chaos." And the image quickly dissolved, "Tartarus." said Brick, "Okay, I'll see you there." "It's a date then." Said Bell suddenly appearing in front of him, with the knife at his throat again. She quickly tossed the knife into the air, and it floated there, Brick tried to grab it, but it dissolved into smoke. "Now then where were we?" asked Bell, "Oh yes you where holding your breath." Suddenly the bubble disappeared, but Brick managed to catch a breath and he began to swim back to the surface. Bell stared up after him and said, "He's so cute… but so gullible." She turned and saw the sea monster in constellation form swimming there next to her, "Ah Cetis! Good work."