Fear not, the few of you who actually bother to follow this story! Chapter ten (or chapter 11, according to the list) is here. I know it's abnormally short, but I figured I might as well go ahead and get it done with and posted. More action, as promised!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Sisters Grimm. Michael Buckley thought of it first. *facewall*
"You know?" Puck drawled wearily, "The universe just won't cut us a break, will it? Marshmallow gets kidnapped; you run off and nearly become deep-fried Sabrina. Then you get captured, too. Now you're captured again. And on top of that, I bet you've got PMS. That would just make my day, y'know?"
She sincerely hoped that that bit of icing would be left off the cake. PMS would be a seriously negative occurrence, trapped in a dungeon and already hopeless.
In short, Mayor Heart had been flanked by a number of her uber-stupid bits of paper, who had promptly dragged Sabrina and Puck and (thankfully) Daphne to an old time dungeon in the bowels of the mansion. Sabrina had to wonder, why, in the twenty-first century, was there a dungeon with chains in the basement of the mayor's mansion? That was just retarded. Not that it mattered what she thought to the card soldiers. Heart stood by and cackled loudly as they cuffed her, Puck, and Daphne to the mildly rusty (but sadly not enough for her to break them apart) chains latched to the wall.
A peacefully smiling Daphne was now humming "Waking Up in Vegas" as if she was not chained up in a dungeon in the weirdest town to ever grace the face of the planet. Sabrina felt like rolling her eyes at the pure absurdity, but she was simply too overjoyed with having her little sister back. If she weren't chained to the wall, she would probably be twirling and skipping with ecstasy. Somehow, the grime digging into her fingernails as she gripped the cell bars and the dark, damp walls did nothing to spread their creeping tendrils to her heart. She felt as impervious to dampening as her small sister. But, "Waking Up in Vegas"? Thank goodness the child hadn't had a chance to hear "Blah Blah Blah" before her kidnapping. The adults would have freaked.
Hang on just a sec, Sabrina thought. What are we doing sitting around as if we can't just walk out of this place?
She peered around the cell. Sure enough, they were equipped with a transforming fairy boy and even her supply backpack. Wow, she was dumber than she'd thought!
"Puck! Fairy boy! What are we doing here? I mean, you can transform into something small enough to escape your chains and bust us out, and dumb ol' Heart was so stupid as to leave my backpack with us…"
"Well, they've got one of those shields up around the cell like they had in the jail. I saw them sprinkle something on the ground and then a ripple came from thin air, right in front of the jail bars. The rest of this place is made of solid limestone."
"Oh gah, you're such a dimwit!" She whipped out the can of midnight blue powder from the supply pack, and Puck's eyes widened with recognition.
"Oh, that stuff! Yeah, now we've got something to work with!"
"And you wonder why I claim to despise you. You're so beneath my level."
"Well, you didn't seem to think so in that cave - "
He was silenced by the grimy hand of a red faced Sabrina Grimm clapping loudly over his mouth.
"Okay," said Daphne. "Two questions. First, what the heck is that stuff? And second, what happened in the cave that I should know about it? We all know that if it makes Sabrina embarrassed, I've got a right to know."
"This is spell reversal powder," said Sabrina. "It can override most simple spells and contains a bunch of magical ingredients - "
"Before you go admiring her for being so dang knowledgeable, you should know that she's reading from the back of the can," piped Puck. Daphne giggled softly.
Huffing, Sabrina proceeded to sprinkle the dust on the bars of the cell, allowing Puck to transform into a hippopotamus and kick aside the doors. "This is too easy," he shouted over the explosive noise. Unfortunately, the banging iron and splintering limestone caused an unfortunately nearby Heart to trip hastily down the stairs, card men in tow. Heart roared (quite unfeminine, Sabrina speculated) and slammed the heavy doors shut.
"NO ONE LEAVES THIS ROOM UNTIL THOSE BRATS ARE DEAD!" she shouted. "I WANT THEM DEAD!"
"No can do, lady," Puck said smugly. "I'm afraid that if anything ends up dead, it'll be your chance of keeping us in this place. Now if you'll notice, I'm a talking hippo in a bad mood. I would seriously move out of the way right now."
The cards simply brandished their dinky little swords and looked to Heart for directions. "I'm afraid you'll never make it through the Hand," said Heart, confidence faltering ever so slightly.
"Your mama," said Puck. "Hop on my back," he whispered through his teeth. Sabrina and Daphne dug into the slippery folds of hippo skin and mounted his back, leaning forward and gripping his back madly in anticipation of the obvious.
Puck reared back his large round head. "CHARGE!"
The three shot desperately through the mountain of card soldiers, sending them to lie on their backs on the cold ground. They struggled to right themselves, as if they were large red and black cockroaches. Contrary to Heart's deluded belief, they had reached the large wooden arched doors in less than a minute. Once again, a splintering pile was left in Puck's hippo trail. Only this time, there were several overturned card soldiers as well, left in the dust and wriggling their spindly limbs.
Needless to say, as the three strode proudly off the mansion groundsit was not a good day for the card men. But that was not what Daphne was giggling about.
I know this was short, again. Ah iz sawry. Rilleh! I'm going to Disney World tomorrow night and I won't be back till Saturday night, maybe even super-early Sunday morning, since I'm taking a charter bus instead of flying or anything (believe it or not, this is a field trip). I'll try to write Sunday, but I can't promise a post before Monday or Tuesday. Lurve you guys and I'll write again ASAP.