Chapter 7

Hallab kicked me in the back. I raised my hands in the air, trying to maintain balance. My face almost ate the dirt on the floor.

I pushed myself up and felt a sensation on my back. I felt the pain a second later and I went into the sky. Hallab stared at me triumphantly, at least it seemed. It was quite hard to see a face looking at you smarmily when you're flying into space.

I was spinning in the sky. A cloud punched through me. It was at that time I realised that there were no clouds and that I was flying through space at six-hundred metres per second.

I recovered. Hallab was pointing her sword at me. "You have met your end." she began coldly. "I will not sugar coat it; I am about to kill you." she laughed grimly. "Your friend Red, whatever his name is, has his face buried into the ground."

I reached for my weapon but there was no such thing. "You can't do this!"

"Pfff," she continued to laugh. "There will be no sorrow. After you are dead, nobody will care. I will make sure that there are no traces of you existing."

I was very silent. In her perspective, I'm assuming she saw me as rebellious. It seemed that if I was more scared then she would destroy me instantly.

I looked her in the eye. My hostile stare threw her off a little bit; I was in fact trembling like a pot of jelly in an earthquake, but I wasn't showing her. I was just waiting for Red.

"You think that I will spare you?" Hallab sneered. "You are no more than a scrub. One of the minions that King DoDoDo sent to die."

"DoDoD…" I decided to stop there.

My eyes flew over to the left. A circular, chubby body was encased in the soil. Two puffy feet were shaking about like a… bowl of jelly. Ugh. I identified the live body as Red.

I attempted to get up but Hallab stabbed the sword towards me. I instantly got up and ran. I skidded along the path and my feet consequently decided to fail me at that point. I tripped over the red bulge, falling onto my face again. I threw myself up and dashed into a field, grabbing a random stick. Hallab stopped a few metres from me, tense with anger.

I got into a battle position. It involved me holding the stick in front of me, with an irritated look on my face. I had had enough of this. I swung the stick forcefully round, clobbering the air in front of me. Hallab adopted a ninja-like posture and instantly ran towards me, going for a jump kick. I brought the unrefined wooden club into her foot, making her do a backflip.

She recovered instantly. She held her ornate sword above her head and skilfully did a front flip. She smashed the sword down into my stick, slicing it in half perfectly. I threw the pieces away, excited. I was excited because I was able to hold Hallab's sword. I grabbed the adeptly-crafted handle, much to Hallab's discontent.

I put myself on my tiptoe, beginning to spin. I heard the sharp sword eat the air away. Hallab leaped towards me but she instantly got cut by the sword. I staggered around and fell on my back. I regained normal sight and saw Hallab. There was an open cut that flew along from her left eye to her right cheek. Her eyes flashed with rage.

Hallab elegantly ran towards me, her fists clenched. She threw a punch but I shielded it with the sword. He drew back, dazed. She shook her hand and sent a karate chop to the left of me. To my amazement, my extremely slow reaction skills decided to flare up for some reason. I spun the sword and she cut herself on her own sword.

"GRRRR!" she screamed. She strenuously snatched the sword from me and threw it to her other hand with the expertly-crafted glove. She clenched the sword and attempted to carve me into a nesting doll. I luckily jumped back and looked at her. She was red with rage. I picked up another stick (there were a lot around) and invaded her skull with the stick. She fell to the ground and I swung down again. I don't think I stopped.


I looked down at Hallab. She hadn't moved for ten minutes since I clobbered her with a stick ridden with splinters and various other sharp bits. I was sitting down on the grass. It was cursed with sorrow. This whole planet was cursed with sorrow. Two lives lost on one planet.

I slowly got up. I ignored Hallab's body. I was intending to go to Red's chubby ball shaped body, which is where I went. I threw my hand down on it. My hand ricocheted off the side.

The body gained life. Red rose up with extreme grief. He groaned with malice. "Ugh…"

My eyes prized enthusiasm. "Wha? You're alive?"

Red's eyes stared at me. "D-DeDe! You're alive?"

There was silence. "Well, um… I defeated Hallab with an um… stick." I spoke fast.

Red absorbed the words for a few seconds, thinking. He turned to Hallab, who looked like a football that had an unlucky encounter with a sharp pin.

I stuck out my hand. Red grabbed it and rose up. I smiled (as much as I can) as Red dusted himself off.

I turned to gaze at the stars. "Let's get away from here," I began. "I'm hungry, anyway."

Red and I walked away. It began as a walk, and then it quickly shifted into a mad dash. We knew that Hallab could suddenly just wake up, pick up her weird sword and destroy us with it. She was stronger and faster than both of us combined.

"Hang on! I have a great idea!" Red grinned zealously. "We can build a catapult!" He instantly ran off to grab some tools while I questioned his intelligence.

I sat there thinking about how I killed Hallab, or 'a Hallab' as she said. I was assuming that was a mistake she made whilst she was raging. Maybe I didn't kill her. "WHY DOES IT MATTER?!" I shouted out loud. I saw Red turn round and give me an exotic look.

I sighed. Was this ever going to end?

Red spun around and walked to me with a content look on his face. In the time that had passed he had managed to make a catapult of some sort.

He plonked the catapult down. It was enough to hold one Waddle Dee. The wood was cut without much quality; it was definitely rushed. Red looked satisfied.

"Where'd you get the bouncy stuff?" I asked.

"Oh, the elastic? I have no idea."

I squinted my eyes, confused. "So… you're saying that you made a catapult without any elastic? And how did you make it without a cutting tool?"

"No, it's a contraption." Red began to speak, putting care into every word. I saw that he was proud; it was obvious. "You know what, let's just use it. How about that?"

There was a pause. "Okay."


My face was on the ground. I picked myself up and blinked; sand was in my eyes. I was blinded.

"Red…"

A familiar voice sounded from my left. "Yeah?"

"Where are we?"

I blinked again and saw a vast dune. There was blue sand that was sprinkled across the whole landscape. I sat down on the alien sand.

"Um…" Red was sitting next to me. "Blue sand?"

I sent my hand under the sand, digging. I lifted it up and inspected the blue grains; they were beautiful and sparkly. The sand was soft.

I pointed in a random direction. "Let's go in that direction." I started. "We can see how big the planet is, hopefully."

We started walking. There were no stars and the sky was painted black. It was breezy and slightly cold. I shivered.

We set off in the direction; it was north-east. We got over the dune and saw buildings; they were frost blue.

Red spotted the buildings too. "Hey, a village! Maybe they can help us!"

That statement instantly popped when we saw a cannon rise from one of the houses. It was a tower. A Chilly was manning the cannon, its blue eyes glowing sinisterly. Its hat was gone; it was instead a navy blue soldiers' helmet. It shook as the cannon fired its first shot.

"Duck!" Red shouted! We rolled behind the dune. My heart was beating like a judge bashing stuff with a gavel.

"Why does everything want to kill us?" I whispered, disgruntled. I heard the sand shake; the cannonball hit where its target was a few seconds ago.

"It's like everyone is affiliated with Chips."

I heard another boom and another rumble. The cannonballs were slowly disrupting the dune.

I mustered enough courage to show my head. The Chilly was reloading. Adrenaline spilled over in my body and I sprinted towards the village like a freight train, rumbling. Red came along. It seemed he was in a 'might as well die' attitude. I found a Chilly roaming in the middle of the village. I spun round and kicked him, making a hole in his head. He looked angry. I finished him off by swinging my fist onto his head, making a splat of ice. I laughed triumphantly.

The other Chillies had noticed me by then. I ran into the tower and up the stairs. I peeked behind me and saw Red. He wasn't as enthusiastic as I was. I appeared behind the Chilly that was firing at us previously. I smiled as I swung my fist over my head into the Chilly's helmet, cracking it. It turned out it was made of ice. The Chilly twisted around and slashed me with his fist. I staggered off the tower, falling on the ground.

The Chilly had a belt; he took an icicle dagger off it and leaped off the tower with finesse. It looked like I had to do another fight. The Chilly threw his hand towards me, stabbing me with the dagger. I felt woozy. He twirled round and slashed me again. I fell on the ground, dazed. The world was slowly going black. It was at that time I noticed that the Chilly had two daggers: one was made out of green ice.

I felt the cold, hard sandstone on my body. Red was nowhere to be seen… I was drugged…

I blacked out.