Chapter IX: Playing with Danger Outside the Forever Forest

In which Cera causes some trouble, and Dusk's group comes across an unusual location.

The sound of a waterfall woke Littlefoot up. He yawned and stretched, then forgetting he was atop a giant, rolled over. He fell off the beast's shoulder and started plummeting to the ground. He landed in the water with a big splash.

"Littlefoot!" Chomper cried.

The giant reached down to pick the Long Neck out, but Littlefoot surfaced on his own. As he slowly swam to the shore, he yawned again.

"Just change back already!" Cera exclaimed. "You're so useless in your lazy form."

"I don't think he is useless. His usefulness is what led us here in the first place," Ruby pointed out.

"Yeah, but Dusk no here now. Littlefoot will have to use his power again," Petrie added.

"That is if we can get him to stay awake long enough," Cera grumbled.

"I am thirsty, I am, I am," Ducky announced. The giant raised his arm and the kids moved onto his hand. He then lowered them to the ground. The kids were about to drink from the water when Ace got in front of them.

"Wait. Remember, this is the Forgetful Falls. Drink too much of the water and your memories will be effected. Just take a small sip, then we need to move on," Ace instructed.

The kids lowered their heads into the water, and each took just a tiny drink. Then, Cera took a big splash to the face. It came from Ducky's direction.

"This is no time to be playing in the water, Ducky!" Cera shouted.

The Swimmer did not know what Cera was talking about, but to calm the situation, she replied, "I am sorry."

"Good." Cera turned around then was hit by another splash. She immediately looked up and was about to get in Ducky's face when she noticed that Ducky was too far away now to have splashed her again. She glanced around at her other friends, all of which were out of the water. She dismissed the situation then began to walk back to the giant when she was splashed a third time.

"OKAY, WHO IS DOING THAT!" she bellowed. Then Cera heard a giggling from the water. She quickly turned her head and this time spotted the culprit. A thin, blue creature with two arms and legs hovered above the water. She grinned at Cera and splashed her again.

"Ah, a Water Nymph," Ace said.

"Are they dangerous?" Ducky asked.

"They're mischievous, but don't fight unless threatened. Let's just leave her and go," Ace suggested.

"No," Cera replied. "No one messes with me and gets away with it!"

"Cera, she was just playing with you. I don't think you should take it personally," Ruby suggested.

"If she wants to play, she should know that I play rough," Cera growled. She glared at the nymph and said, "Shrink!"

The Water Nymph suddenly shrunk to about the size of Cera's foot. The Three Horn then lowered her head to the nymph's body and shouted, "Raaaw!" in her face.

The little creature was frightened and started to cry.

"Serves you right," Cera said, throwing her nose up in the air and walking over to her friends. She walked backward though to retain eye contact with the nymph so her power would remain in effect.

"That may have been an unwise move," Ace warned.

"So I made her cry. Big deal."

"It's not this nymph that bothers me. This one is a child, meaning there's got to be at least one parent somewhere nearb-" but Ace's sentence was interrupted by a loud screeching.

A large Water Nymph suddenly entered the scene. She looked down at her daughter who kept crying and pointed at Cera. The Three Horn quickly broke eye contact and the nymph returned to her normal size. Unfortunately, that didn't change the mother's feelings. A glowing circle appeared under Cera's feet as the mom screeched again and pointed at her.

"Get off of that!" Ace shouted.

"Get off of what?" Cera asked back, having not noticed the change beneath her feet.

Ace knew there was almost no time left, so he quickly knocked her off of it and the glowing circle flashed just as he landed on it. The nymph mother floated over to Cera and her arm froze into an icicle.

"Save her!" Petrie yelled to his summoned giant.

The huge beast stomped over to the Water Nymph who stabbed him in the foot. The giant started jumping up and down on one foot in terrible pain. The ground started to quake from the force until the giant vanished.

"What happened to him?" Ducky asked quickly.

"That giant's weakness. They no can handle pain," Petrie answered.

Chomper ran over to the nymph mother and tried slashing her, but his arm just went through her watery body. "Littlefoot, help us!" he shouted.

Littlefoot opened his eyes and looked around, trying to analyze the situation.

"Use your fire power!" Ace shouted.

"Release," Littlefoot said. "Fire, blaze within my soul!" His body began to glow like flowing lava and he ran over to the Water Nymphs. He took a deep breath and shot a blast of scorching breath onto the two of them. They both shrieked and began turning into steam. After a few more moments, the threat was gone.

"This is terrible!" Ducky sniffed. "We just killed a momma who was just being protective and her daughter."

"Relax," Ace assured her. "They aren't dead. They're steam right now, and when they cool off, they'll return to their original forms. Ah!" Ace suddenly yelped.

"Ace, what's wrong?" Cera asked, coming over to him.

"That glowing circle that was under your feet… That was an Ice Hex. I couldn't get off of it in time. Ah. My whole body is turning into ice."

The kids looked at him, and it was true. All four of his feet were solid ice.

"This is all my fault!" Cera shrieked. "If I had only listened to Ruby and you. Ace, I'm so sorry, so very sorry."

"Relax. The hex can be removed. There is a Rainbow Face that lives in a small cottage just up this path near the waterfall. Ah. Her power is all about curses. She can make them- and remove ones created by others. Ah. Petrie, can you summon that giant again?"

"Me sorry. Each summon have very long cool down."

"I know!" Ducky exclaimed. "Spike is super strong. We can put him on Spike's back. Is that okay, little brother?"

Spike nodded, and the others hoisted Ace onto his back. By now, his legs had become ice as well, and he was clearly in considerable pain. The others began walking briskly to this Rainbow Face's home.

xxxxx

"Well, what's the situation?"

"Sorry, ma lord, but it's too wide. It'd be fastest to just walk through it."

Dusk sighed. "Very well. We'll go through this forest."

Another sign stood just outside the woods, but like last time, it did no good to the illiterate dinosaurs. As they all stepped in, Agu shivered, but no one noticed. There were no paths to walk on, so they were forced to trek over fallen branches, roots, and overgrown foliage. A flying beast cawed overhead, startling the travelers.

"This forest is really creepy," Coaley said, leaning against Dusk.

"I have to agree," Dusk replied, resting a hand on her shoulder.

They moved on, and nothing unusual happened- for a while. Finally, Menta heard a low voice.

"Dusk won't survive for much longer in this world. He's doomed."

Menta quickly turned but saw no one. "Who said that?" Menta asked aloud.

Her comrades turned to her.

"Said what?" Dusk asked her.

"Really? None of you guys heard that?"

Her friends all shook their heads.

"I think you're just tired, Menta," Dusk said assuredly.

Menta didn't want to believe she was imagining things, but no one else heard it, so maybe she was…

"You're endangering your friends," Dusk heard someone say. "They'll surely perish from following you."

"What!" Dusk shouted.

"What is it, ma lord?" Ceit asked.

"Did you guys hear anything?"

"Still think I'm just tired?" Menta asked.

Dusk grew silent.

"You'll never pay off your debt to Dusk. He'll never let you go." This time, Ceit was the only one to hear the voice. He said nothing, realizing from Dusk and Menta that something strange was going on.

"Dusk won't keep you forever. When he gets tired of you, he'll abandon you."

"No!" Coaley screamed, putting her hands over her ears.

Menta quickly came over and held Coaley tight.

"So three of us have heard a voice so far?" Dusk wanted to know.

"I have as well, me lord. I just didn't say anything."

"What about you two?" Dusk questioned Agu and Ali.

Agu remained silent and simply shook his head, and Ali said "I haven't heard a thing."

"Let's just keep going. Voices can't hurt anything," Dusk told them. Suddenly, Dusk, Menta, Ceit, and Coaley all heard a voice at once. This time, the sound was much louder.

"Did you hear it that time?" Dusk asked. Everyone but Agu and Ali nodded. "I wonder if we're hearing different things. The voice I heard seemed to be talking specifically about me. What did you hear, Menta?"

"The voice said that you won't last long in this world, that you'd die."

"And you, Ceit?"

"Err, I heard that, well, that I'd lose a wing and be unable to fly again." Ceit was too afraid to bring up when he had heard.

"Coaley?"

"Please don't make me tell," Coaley replied. "It was too terrible."

"It's okay, you don't have to tell." Turning to the whole group, he added, "This is certainly odd. We all seem to be hearing something different." Before the group could further think about it, they all heard a voice again. This time, it was so loud that it brought them to their knees, save Ali and Agu.

"Let's get out of here!" Dusk exclaimed, and they all began running back the way they came. Soon, they could see daylight and began settling down. However, when they reached the edge of the woods, they suddenly ran into something solid, but nothing could be seen. Some invisible force was keeping them in the forest. Dusk starting banging on the magic field but nothing came of it. He charged up a big ball of energy and hurled it at the wall, but it only bounced off, hitting Dusk and exploding on impact. Dusk's body was badly burned.

Menta quickly came to him and said, "Rewind," and his wound quickly vanished.

"Are we trapped?" Ali asked.

"Thank you, Menta. Yes, it certainly looks that way. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe this invisible wall isn't on top. If I can fly out, I can use my power to port you all outside," Ceit suggested.

Agu frowned. Suddenly, Ceit shrieked. Several monstrous, flying beasts were descending towards him. "Run!" he shouted to the others.

Dusk and the others tensed up but looked confused when they saw no one.

"Can't you see them! Enormous creatures are coming towards us! Move it!" The group, however, did not move. They could see nothing. However, it looked to Ceit as if his companions were running deeper into the forest so he quickly took off after them.

"Ceit, where are you going?" Dusk asked, but to Ceit, it sounded like, "Hurry and keep up, Ceit!" The Sharptooth Flyer soon vanished into the woods.

"What was that all about?" Menta wondered aloud.

"Beats me. It's like he was seeing something that wasn't there…" Dusk trailed off as he turned to Agu. "You weren't- making illusions, were you?"

"Me? Why would I do that?" Agu shot back defensively. "It's probably just this forest playing tricks on us like with those voices."

"But you didn't hear any voices yourself," Menta pointed out.

"That doesn't mean anything! Ali didn't either."

"That's true," Dusk concluded. "In any case, we need to find Ceit so we can get out of here. I bet that this wall doesn't cover the top too. Come on." The five dinosaurs walked back, deeper into the woods in search of Ceit.