Ralphs Trip to Reality

Chapter 8

Wralph

The next day was terrible. When I woke up, Candleflame was waiting (rather creepily) outside of my tent eager to squeeze more information about the "Pie and Kintessae" incident that had happened yesterday.

"Geez, would you just leave me alone?" I growled to Candleflame

But she didn't seem to get the message. "How'd it happen? Is Pie actually gone? What happened to Kintessae?" and a bunch of other questions like that.

I shook my head; "I told everything I know to Blackmoon. Go talk to him instead." And yawning, I trotted over to Ralph's tent to see if he was wake yet. I was tired as heck, but I managed to get to his tent without collapsing from weariness. I peeked inside: no Ralph at all.

"Um, have you guys seen Ralph this morning?" I shouted to The Knights of the Mist

Candleflame shrugged; "Blackmoon might know."

"Blackmoon seems to know everything around here; I'm starting to doubt the he even lets Candleflame do anything!" Rancis whispered, as he caught up with me on my way to Blackmoon's tent.

"Like what?" I ask

"I dunno' but you know what I mean, right?"

I thought; "I suppose."

It was kind of true that Blackmoon led the entire group and did everything. He never really let Candleflame in on any decisions or strategies or anything important that she probably should have a say in.

"I think they should work more as a team rather than just Blackmoon doing everything." Rancis said

I brushed it off, and thought more about how we were going to beat Kato with only 7 people. I shouldn't really count Sir Colbolt because of how sick he is. So that actually brings us down to 6 people. And not like Rancis is going to do much. So now we're at 5 people. Great.

Anyways, Blackmoon was in his tent drawing a map of the Forest and Kato's mountain as I peered in; "Hey." I greeted

"Hi." He replied, not looking up from his drawing

"So…um…what are you doing?" I asked

"Drawing a battle strategy."

"To...kick Kato's butt, right?"

Blackmoon stopped and looked up from his paper with a questioning look on his face; "What?"

"I mean, uh, beat Kato, right?"

Blackmoon glanced back down at the battle plan; "Oh, yes, of course."

There was an awkward pause of silence in which neither of us knew what to say. Then I remembered what I really came to him for; "Oh, hey by the way….. Have you seen Ralph?"

"Yes. He said we wanted to look for Pie. Or at least, what remains of Pie." Blackmoon sneered at me.

So?! It wasn't MY fault that Pie decided to football tackle her off a cliff of a mountain?! Blackmoon doesn't have to take it out on ME of all people! It's not like I could've stopped Pie from doing it?...Or could I….? No, forget it, I couldn't have. It all happened so quickly, I had no time to react. Do I feel guilty about it, well, YES. But that doesn't mean Blackmoon has to make me feel even worse! Blackmoon's being a jerk; he does not deserve my time.

"Yeah, whatever." I snarled back at him, stomping out of the tent and into the tiny "campsite". I don't even want to know what the other Knights of the Mist think about me and the incident. Vanellope probably hates me too. Sir Colbolt most likely doesn't love me too much either. Candleflame never hates anyone… So if three-quarters of the Knights of the Mist hate me, it's time to rebel.

I instantly came up with an evil plan of my own. First I would get Ralph from where ever he is, then I would….Well, I'll make up the plan as I go along. But the first step is to get Ralph. Nothing is going to stop me.

I spread out my small black dragon wings and to the sky. I heard shouts coming from the tents down below and Blackmoons voice yelling at me. Oh Programmer, it felt so good to fly. I was instructed not to fly in the Human World, but I don't care. If a human calls the cops and says that there's an unidentified flying dragon in the sky, so be it. I did a few barrel rolls and stuck my tongue at Blackmoon who was about 50 feet below me and then flew towards the mountains where Ralph should be "looking" for Pie at. I was almost at the part of the mountain where the incident happened yesterday. The cold, wintery wind on my wings felt great! Flakes of snow started to fall a bit harder as I landed at the exact spot. Bad memories flooded back to me about Kintessae and Pie. I shook it off as I reminded myself about what I was supposed to be doing. I paced along the thin dirt trail that wrapped around the mountain hoping to find Ralph. After a few minutes I gave up and chose to look somewhere else. He'd probably be on the ground, I thought, because that's where Pie landed. I flew back to the spot where Pie charged Kintessae off the mountain (again). I looked over the cliff like I had done yesterday. "I shouldn't do this…" I thought to myself, but I did it anyway.

I threw myself over the edge of the mountain and letting me free fall for a few seconds, and then spread my wings out.

My wings caught me like a parachute as I lifted up into the air. Then, that's when the bad stuff started to happen; I slammed into the face of the mountain and I felt a sharp pain in my right wing. I tried to use my right wing, but it wasn't doing anything. As if I had broken it.

I went spiraling out of control, doing somersaults and barrel rolls against my will and continuously crashing into the side of the mountain. And I plummeted toward the ground. Everything stung and the blistering cold didn't help my new wounds at all. I could feel blood rushing out of the scrapes I had gotten from the mountain. I could feel myself zoning in and out of conciseness, everything went fuzzy and blurry. On the verge of death, I let my body go limp and free fall. Everything had happened so quickly…I let more memories of recent things pass through my head. Childhood memories, of my original game came back to me, I had realized something important. I didn't want to die now, those long lost childhood memories were precious to me. But I knew I was going to face the same fate as Pie had just the day before, I knew I was going to die.