Chapter 25: The Chase
Standing on the street in front of Crossroad Pass Town Hall, Kendra's eyes were fixated upon Asylha and the Williamses, her body trembling with fear. Already should could tell that there was a whole lot more to these people than met the eye.
"You people..." said Kendra. "We know who you are."
"How did you orchestrate all this?" asked Bracken. "You used a computer to rally all these people together! How?"
"You think we're stupid?" asked Mrs. Williams. "We are geniuses. We've deciphered thousands of languages entirely on our own, without any outside help or guide. We can figure out how to use some contraption crafted by mortals."
"You fools are going to pay for this," said Asylha.
"At least we got rid of the milk," said Ingrid.
"There's more where that came from. But you're going to pay dearly for what you did just now."
At that moment, the bodies of Asylha and Mr. and Mrs. Williams all began to glow vibrantly.
"We've got to get out of here!" said Bright. "NOW!"
"Get on my back," said Geminus, as she lowered her arms and helped to lift Kendra and Ingrid onto her back. As the two girls seated themselves, Kendra watched as Asylha and the Williamses all began to balloon in size.
"They're gonna kill us!" squealed the satyr, as Geminus tore open the bars of her cage.
"Come with me," said Geminus, as the satyr scampered her way up onto Geminus' back.
"Go, go, go!" screamed Bracken, as he and Bright each positioned themselves within one of Geminus' arms.
Everyone in the group now with her, Geminus flapped her wings and bounced up into the air. As the fairy dragon swerved her body around high above the street, Kendra saw that Asylha and the Williams had not only grown enormous, but were in the midst of altering the shapes of their bodies.
As Geminus proceeded to fly off in the direction of Fablehaven, Kendra looked back down towards the street in front of town hall. Standing where Asylha and Mr. and Mrs. Williams had been standing, and now taking up the width of the entire street, were Dominera and Qualvor, along with Klorgg, Skremm and Iplekk.
"Dominera," said Bright. "Although I don't think any of us are surprised."
"Geminus, hurry up!" cried Ingrid, as Dominera, Qualvor and the three-headed Klorrg, Skremm and Iplekk leaped high into the air and extended their wings outward.
Kendra could sense that Geminus was flying through the sky as fast as she possibly could. However, Kendra knew that Geminus could only fly so fast under her own power. But having two riders on her back, along with a satyr, in addition to two more riders being held in her arms, had to be taking their toll on her.
Surely enough, once the other dragons had gotten airborne, their speed increased significantly. In almost no time at all, they had gone from trailing behind by several hundred feet, to mere yards.
"HELP!" screamed the satyr, as Dominera sneered at the group with her enormous set of gleaming purple eyes.
"You're through!" snarled Dominera, whose humid breath Kendra was able to feel like a warm mist that clouded around her body as the dragon spoke.
"Bright, help me!" exclaimed Bracken, as he held out his hands and exerted a beam of rainbow energy towards the front of Dominera's snout. Likewise, Bright did the same thing. However, their beams didn't seem to so much as faze Dominera in any way.
"This isn't working!" cried Bright.
"This ends now," said Dominera, as she extended her claws out in front of herself, and prepared to lower them down towards Geminus.
"GEMINUS, HURRY!" screamed Ingrid.
Just as Dominera's claws were about to come falling down upon Geminus, they seemingly collided with an invisible barrier, and were unable to pass through.
"What's this?" blurted Dominera, as she repeatedly slammed her claws upon the barrier, failing to breach it with every strike.
"The fairy dragon appears to have conjured a up a protective barrier around herself," said Iplekk, once Dominera gave up on hitting the barrier.
"Let me give it a shot," said Qualvor. "I'll smash it up good!"
"Is there any way they can break the barrier?" asked Kendra.
"It's been holding up so far, but I hope not," replied Geminus.
"The barrier repels physical contact," said Skremm.
"Counter it with magic," said Klorgg. "A dragon that small can't possibly be all that powerful."
"Just overpower it," said Iplekk.
"The dragon will exhaust her power trying to maintain it," said Klorrg.
"We need the Translocator!" said Ingrid.
"More than ever!" said Kendra. "We're never going to make it back to Fablehaven at this rate!"
Dominera raised a claw before the group, then exerted a blast of electrical-like energy at them. The energy surged its way around the invisible barrier, implying that it had been spherical in shape. The moment the that the surge had faded, Kendra experienced a sound, akin to glass shattering into thousands of tiny pieces.
"That should do it!" said Dominera.
Trying to come up with a solution, Kendra looked down at the land ahead, but could not seem to locate Fablehaven. However, there was a forest directly beneath them that Geminus was in the midst of flying over.
"Geminis, dive down into the forest!" cried Kendra. "Maybe we can lose them in the trees!"
Geminus immediately swooped downward, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by Dominera's claw.
As she experienced the rush of accelerating down towards the ground, Kendra looked up and saw that the other dragons fumbled around in midair for a second, before realizing that their target had descended downward.
As Geminius passed beneath the tops of the trees, Kendra could see that the dragons were still close behind them. Alas, they stopped directly above the treetops upon realizing that they were too large to fit between the trees.
Hiding under the cover of countless deciduous trees decorated in autumn leaves, interspersed with many coniferous and evergreens, Geminus continued through the forest, with the other dragons no longer on her tail. She weaved her way around each and every tree trunk that stood in her path.
Kendra looked up through the canopy and watched as Qualvor flew over the canopy directly above the group. Moments later, Kendra could hear a loud crash up ahead. Numerous trees came crashing down from the same direction, some of which collided with the trunks of other trees.
As Geminus swerved away from the fallen trees, Kendra could see Qualvor standing just beyond them, standing at a height that surpased even the tallest trees.
"Get back here!" blared Qualvor, as he began chasing through the forest after Geminus, knocking aside each and every tree that stood in his path as though they had all been made of cardboard.
Just then, more trees came crashing down in front of the direction Geminis was now flying in. As these trees fell, it became apparent that Dominera was now standing before them. At the same time, more trees fell from another direction, courtesy of Klorgg, Skremm and Iplekk.
Startled by all the sudden commotion, Geminus lost track of where she was flying and crashed directly into the trunk of a thick tree. Kendra and the other riders all embraced the impact, but were otherwise unscathed. Having lost her momentum, Geminus fell down to the ground.
"Geminus, are you all right?" asked Ingrid.
Geminus groaned, as she slowly stood up. "I think I broke my snout. But I can still fly."
"Not any further, you won't," said Dominera, as she loomed over towards the group from one direction. Qualvor and Klorrg, Skremm and Iplekk did the same from where they were standing, blocking off the group in a triangular formation.
"Fairies," said Ingrid. "Do something! Make us invisible! Anything!"
"We don't have that much power left in us," muttered Bracken. "It won't work!"
"Give up already," said Dominera. "We've got you surrounded."
"If we can't stop the dragons from seeing us, we'll stop them from seeing everything!" said Bright.
"What are you talking about?" asked Qualvor.
Bright extended her arms forward, and exerted a large glob of some peculiar, rainbow-colored goop directly towards Dominera's head. The goop splashed all over Dominera's face, covering her eyes.
"Eww!" snarled Dominera, as she attempted to wipe the goop off of her face with her claw. "It won't come off!"
Meanwhile, Bracken directed another ball of goop directly into Qualvor's face, yielding the same result.
"What is this stuff?" asked Klorgg, as Bright shot more goop at the three-headed dragon's middle head.
"A diversion," said Bracken, as he simultaneously conjured up a glob of goop with each hand, then directed them towards Skremm and Iplekk, effectively blinding them.
"I don't think that'll stall them for long," said the satyr, as Geminus proceeded to fly up through the trees, making her way past Qualvor in the process.
"DISPERSE!" roared Dominera from behind the group.
Kendra looked back through the trees, and could see that the dragons had risen back above the canopy, and were now back to closing in on the group's location. Their faces appeared to be clean again, as though they had never been coated in any goop to begin with.
"It's no good!" cried the satyr. "Her magic is too good!"
"They're closing in on us!" exclaimed Bright, as the larger dragons rose directly above the trees where Geminus was flying.
"Let's just grab them already!" snapped Qualvor.
"No!" said either Klorgg, Skremm or Iplekk, though Kendra had been unable to see which one actually spoke. "If we're not careful, these trees could crush them!"
"Puny humans," grumbled Qualvor.
Kendra gazed ahead, and could not believe what she was seeing. Standing several yards ahead of their current location was a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing stood a long, wrought iron fence that looked all too familiar. It appeared to stretch far into the distance in both directions.
"FABLEHAVEN!" exclaimed Ingrid. "We made it!"
"Come on, Geminus!" said Bright, as the fairy dragon flew closer to the fence. "We're almost home free!"
"NO!" boomed Dominera.
Once Geminus was no more than a few mere yards away from the fence, she immediately came to a sudden halt in midair.
"Geminus, no!" cried Kendra.
"I can't... move!" groaned Geminus, whose body appeared to be completely frozen.
"Now I've got you!" said Dominera, as her huge frame came crashing down next to Geminus, knocking down several surrounding trees in the process.
"I can't move, either!" said Kendra, who thought about reaching into her bag for the Emerock, but could not so much as move an arm from her current position.
Dominera extended her claw down toward the group. Just as it would have made contact with them, Kendra saw that she and the rest of her allies were now suddenly on the other side of fence, away from Dominera.
"What the...?" blurted Dominera, looking across the fence at the group.
Bracken and Bright were both breathing heavily. "We used our the last of power to warp us all across the barrier," said Bright faintly.
"We're safe now," gasped Bracken, who sounded like he was about to run out of breath. "And Dominera can't restrain us from the other side, so we can move again."
"NO!" snarled Dominera, as Qualvor and Klorgg, Skremm and Iplekk landed next to her on the outside of the fence.
"LET US IN!" roared Qualvor, as he formed his claws into two red fists. He crouched down and slammed his fists against the fence, only for both of them to rebound off it it. The fence appeared to be completely unharmed. The sight of seeing an outside dragon unable to get past the barrier made Kendra feel far more confident and secure than she had been only a moment prior.
"We tried that the last time!" snapped Iplekk. "It got us nowhere."
"That barrier is impenetrable," said Klorgg.
"Na-na, na-na-na!" hummed Ingrid, "you can't get us!"
"Fine then!" hissed Dominera. "But you can't hide from us forever! We'll get you! Just like we got Ruth and Dale! You may have won the battle, but we're going to win the war."
"But what about the barrier?" asked Skremm. "We can't get a feel for any way to counter it."
"We'll just have to try everything. I'm going to order the others to come over here, and we'll try attacking it once more."
"You do that," said Bracken. "You still won't get in."
"That's what you think," said Dominera. "Trust me, if we can't get past the barrier, we'll destroy everything around Fablehaven. And if you still won't cooperate, we'll destroy Crossroad Pass!"
"What?" gasped Kendra. "NO! You wouldn't!"
Dominera chuckled. "Oh yes we would. And who's going to stop us? You? The very same people who run away in terror at the mere sight of our true forms?"
Qualvor, Klorgg, Skremm and Iplekk all laughed.
"And by the way," said Klorgg. "We've still got your cow. And all of her milk."
"Come on," said Geminus. "Let's just get away from these fools."
With the others still on her back, Geminus extended her wings and flew off through the forest, no doubt heading in the direction of the house. Behind them, it was still possible to hear the larger dragons laughing among themselves.
"Geminus, are you okay?" asked Ingrid. "You hit that tree pretty hard."
"Nothing the Sands of Sanctity can't fix," replied Geminus. "Or even a strong healing potion."
"We need some rest as well," said Bracken. "Bright and I exhausted our power during this whole excursion."
Kendra looked back at the dragons that were still standing just beyond the gate. It was hard to believe that the only thing keeping them off the property was an invisible barrier. Fortunately, it seemed to be doing its job. But was it truly impenetrable?
"Bracken, would it be at all possible for Dominera to break through the barrier?" asked Kendra.
"Normally, I'd be inclined to say no," responded Bracken. "But the barrier was designed to not allow any unauthorized individuals to get too close to it. But you all saw how close those dragons got to the fence. Nobody should've been able to get as close as they did. Yet somehow, they did."
Seth was beside himself. Not only was Warren lying dead on the floor in front of him, but Warren was apparently also standing behind him, apparently still alive.
"What's going on?" asked Seth as he felt the fallen Warren, who strangely felt like he was made of straw, and felt nothing like an actual human actually should've.
"That guy in front of you was just a decoy," said Warren. "It was a dullion conjured up by Clover that was disguised as me. Right before I, or should I say it, hit the force field, Clover shrunk me so that I was out of sight. She also used illusory magic to make it seamlessly look like the dullion and I were one and the same."
"You're not dead?"
"No," said Clover. "We used the dullion so that we could sacrifice it, hoping to bring out your angel form in an emergency. We couldn't tell you about it, or the gambit wouldn't have worked. You couldn't know that had we faked it, or else your feelings wouldn't have been legitimate, and you would've been unable to assume your angel form."
"You tricked me!" gasped Seth. "You got me thinking that Warren had been killed, just to exploit my powers!"
"Seth, we're sorry," said Warren. "But it worked, didn't it?"
Seth sighed. "I guess. But I swear to god, don't ever do that again!"
"We won't," said Clover. "Probably because it wouldn't work a second time."
"But it worked this time," said Warren. "And now those dragons are out of our hair. Let's help poor Viola, before they come back."
"So, where exactly did those dragons go?" asked Raxtus, as the group scurried across the cavern towards Viola.
"Wish I knew," replied Seth. "I just wanted them to get away from us. I never gave any thought as to where they'd end up, or how they'd actually get there."
"I just hope they don't find their way back here before we leave, wherever they wound up," said Warren.
"Stop!" exclaimed Clover, once they were only several feet away from Viola, prompting the group to come to a sudden halt. "Skyboom wasn't kidding. There really is a force field surrounding Viola. I'll have to try to dispel it, but it won't be easy."
"Allow me," said Seth. He proceeded to extended his wings outwards, and felt as they began to give off a golden glow. The glow grew stronger and stronger, until there was a blinding flash. Once it had faded, everyone looked up at Viola.
"Is everybody okay?" asked Geminus.
Viola took two immense steps forward, stopping at a point so that her head was directly above the group. She let out a loud, yet pleasant-sounding moo.
"The barrier's gone!" exclaimed Clover. "Seth, you did it!"
"Way to go, Seth," said Warren, as he stroked one of Viola's massive legs.
"Poor Viola," said Geminus. "Who knows what those mean dragons could've put her through?"
"Let's get you out of here already," said Seth. "Warren, are you sure the Translocator will work on Viola?"
"It worked on Revlogg, did it not?" replied Warren. "No reason it wouldn't be able to do the same for Viola."
"At least we were successful in our mission," said Seth, as Warren removed the Translocator from his bag. "Although some of our methods were rather... questionable."
"Either way, I'd rather not have to go through this whole ordeal again," said Clover. "I'm starting to envy the other team. I wonder if they managed to learn anything."
"Their mission sounds like a walk in the park, compared to what we just went through."
Warren went ahead pressed the Translocator against Viola's leg. Once Seth, Clover and Geminus were also touching it, Warren twisted the Translocator a second time, pulling everyone out of the cavern and through the fabric of space.