Err…scratches head It's been…nearly half a year. sweatdrop immensely My Lord, I can't believe time flies by so fast, I have to try to get back into the momentum of things. Thanks for the people who repeatedly urged me to update, whether you did it politely or rude or somewhat in between. I'll try to keep a regular updating period going adds it on my list of thing to do But, it's difficult with my mega class load. I'm sure most of you forgot what was happening, so I suggest you briefly skim Chapter 46 or something, I had to revisit to write. Hope everyone's doing awesome!
Oh! Something interesting, I actually went around drawing lately and I've recently drew a picture of my OC Carly when she's a bit older. A lot of you wanted to know what she looks like and such and here it is (without the spaces): www. deviantart. com/deviation/13816529/
Chapter 47: Narrow Escape
"We're a real cheerful group aren't we?" Ray remarked to Willow, "I sure hope Max is doing better than we are, teamwork wise."
"Well, if Kai quit picking on Kailee!" Willow said fiercely.
"Kai can't help the way he is," Ray said, "You can't really blame him for it, that's how he is."
"Kai normally get along fine with Holly and Kailee," Willow remarked sadly, "Now he's mad at Holly too and Kailee's still getting the silent treatment."
"Well, we know that he still cares about her," Ray pointed out, "He did slice that vulture to bits when it threatened Kailee. Maybe he's upset because Holly's siding with Kailee and not him."
Behind them, Johnny let out a disbelieving grunt. He had been silent ever since the whole charade with the vultures and no one blamed him; there wasn't anything to talk about.
"And he's acting so grumpy," Willow whispered to Ray, jabbing her arm back towards Johnny.
Ray chuckled, "I know, if Carly was here, she'd cheer him up. All Carly does is bounce around him and yab away and he always smiles. Holly's too busy with Kailee to do anything and I'm certainly not risking my head getting bitten off."
"What was that??!!" Johnny snapped from behind.
"Nothing!" Ray and Willow chorused with innocent smiles.
"Kai's so mean," Kailee pouted, "My own brother isn't supposed to be that mean."
"When are we going to reach the Magic Sanctuary?" Johnny demanded, sounding more and more impatient, "This is taking forever and a day!"
"We're not there yet," Kailee said miserably, "And I'm tired too! I wonder how Maxie's doing."
"They'll be fine," Holly assured her, "As long as Hru and Tala don't blow each other up, they'll be just fine."
Kailee sighed again, "It'll take us another hour before we get to the Sanctuary."
"That's okay," Ray said, "Once we get there, we can take a rest. I'm exhausted too. We've sure walked a lot."
"We've walked a lot because we keep walking into dead ends," Kai said coldly, "Something fishy is going on here. Every road we take ends up to nowhere and we can't keep going because there's this huge hole separating us from the other side! It's ridiculous I tell you, there's something very wrong about it. The Guardian wasn't kidding when she said that this Kingdom is malfunctioning."
Kailee's eyes filled with tears, "My Kingdom's dying?"
"It'll be restored," Ray said comfortingly, "You've seen the state of mine, but it's up and running now, right?"
"But I don't know how to run a Kingdom properly," Kailee said.
"We'll teach you," Willow exclaimed, "You'll catch on quickly, don't worry Kailee, we'll all help you."
"Besides," Holly said, knowing the mention of Max would make Kailee feel better, "You'll be getting your Kingdom the same time Max gets his, so you can both help each other out and discover new things together."
Kailee brightened, "That's right! I forgot that Maxie would have his Kingdom too!"
Kai grunted and said nothing, but the annoyed rolling of his eyes showed it all.
"Johnny, lighten up," Holly said, nudging her friend, "Come on, it's not like there isn't enough gloom in the place."
"Hmph," Johnny scowled, "I'm not going to take much more of this wishy-washy attitude. I'm getting sick of it, we're walking too slowly, at this rate we'll be 80 before Kailee gets her Kingdom."
"And then Carly will be married and you won't be able to tell her how you feel," Holly put in, grinning.
Johnny looked as if Holly zapped him with electricity, "Shut up Holly! Not funny, not funny at all. I don't feel anything for you; besides, Carly's never going to get married."
"I was just teasing," Holly said, "Don't take it so seriously, okay? Geez! If you don't 'feel' anything, try not to make it so painfully obvious..."
Suddenly, the piece of land they were walking on glowed black briefly and faded just as quickly to its original texture.
"What the hell was that?" Johnny demanded, pointing, "Tell me you all saw that!"
"More malfunctioning?" Willow asked tentatively.
"Ridiculous," Kai grumbled without stopping, "The ground's not alive, it can't turn black whenever it feels like –"
Just then the ground disappeared from underneath them without any warning, sending them all tumbling into the blackness.
"Ohhhhhh..." Johnny moaned, clutching his aching head, "I feel like I've been through a guillotine..." He glanced around at everyone who was lying unconscious all around him. "Oh my gosh, what the hell happened to us? Oh yeah, right, we fell for who-knows-how-long and then I hit my head on this stupid piece of rock!" He scrambled over to Holly and shook her gently, "Holly, Holly, wake up! Come on, wake up!"
Holly groaned and turned over, opening her eyes, "Johnny? Where are we?"
"I ain't exactly sure," Johnny responded, "We're miles underground, that's for sure. You okay? Did you break anything?"
"Nothing," Holly said in awe, "What a miracle. Oh! Kailee!" She hurried over and shook her friend, "Kailee! Are you hurt?"
"I scraped my arm," Kailee said, wincing, "And my head hurts a lot! Where are we?"
"Not exactly sure," Holly replied, shaking Willow and Ray, "Guys, get up!"
Johnny stood up, shaking off his dizziness, "Hey Kai, you gonna lie there all day or what?"
Kai sat up with his eyes closed, "I'm fine, just got a little headache that's all."
"Where are we?" Ray asked, getting up, "It's so dark I can hardly see a thing except for that tiny little blink of light way up there."
"That tiny little blink of light is the hole we fell in," Johnny told him.
"But how could the ground just disappear like that?" Willow asked in puzzlement, "It was fine a second ago!"
"That's what I meant," Kai growled, "The Kingdom's dead unstable. It's destroying parts of itself one piece at a time until the whole thing disintegrates. This is bad, at the rate the land is vanishing, there might not be a path to the Magic Sanctuary or the Palace."
"What????" Ray yelled, "Then we're dead stuck how can we save this Kingdom if we can't get to those places???"
"Beats me," Johnny shrugged.
"Well, let's focus on the more immediate problem first," Holly said, "We're stuck in this deep hole, we've gotta get out before we can do anything."
"We could always dig our way out," Ray suggested.
"Right," Johnny snorted, "We'll REALLY be about 80 when we finish doing that. Why, this hole is about 80 feet deep!"
"Wait, where's Fushichou?" Kailee asked, looking around for the little phoenix, "Oh no, what if the ground swallowed the poor bird up and we'll never ever see it again?"
"For the last time Kailee, it's a phoenix, not a bird," Kai snapped. He gave a short, sharp whistle and the phoenix came zooming into the hole downwards. It perched back on Kai's shoulder and sang out happily. "Listen Fushichou," Kai said seriously, "Can you lift me up with a rope?"
"You're at least thrice as big as it!" Willow protested.
"You haven't seen Fushichou lift Kailee out of danger," Holly told her, "It just might work."
"It had BETTER work," Johnny grumbled.
Fushichou nodded. Kai grinned, "Good. Take this rope and fly back up. I'll tie it around my waist, when I tug the rope 3 times, you haul me up, got it?" Fushichou nodded eagerly and zoomed upwards.
"Do you really think it can lift us?" Ray asked anxiously, "I mean, it's a long ways up."
"And a long ways down if we fall," Willow added, turning a bit pale at the thought.
"You won't fall," Kai said curtly, giving the rope three tugs. Fushichou's chirp rang loud and clear as it slowly hauled Kai up. After a few minutes, Kai was out. "Phew, I've got rope burns, screw that." Kai looked around and shook his head, "We're in the midst of disappearing grounds, ugh!" Kai headed over to a sturdy tree and tied the rope tight around it, "That should do it." He tossed the rope back down to the others, "Hey! Can you use this to climb up?"
The others looked at each other doubtfully, gauging the lengthy 80 feet climb.
"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" Johnny growled, giving the rope a sharp yank, "I'm coming up!" The others watched as Johnny made his way up the rope as if it was the easiest thing in the whole.
"It's very high up," Willow said worriedly, "I don't know if I can climb all that high."
"Don't worry," Ray said reassuringly, "All you have to do is put one foot above the other and you'll be fine."
Holly followed Johnny up and took a steady climb to the top.
"Give me your hand," Johnny said, reaching for Holly's hand and hoisting her on solid ground.
"Hurry," Kai shouted to the people still in the hole, "The land's turning unstable again." Just as he said that, a portion of a nearby land disappeared silently, creating a small rockslide.
"That's definitely not good…" Holly murmured.
"We'll be in serious trouble if we don't get outta here," Johnny remarked, "Pretty soon WE'll disappear too."
"Don't say that," Willow begged, on her way up.
"I'm getting a very bad feeling about this," Holly said nervously, as more ground started to disappear at an alarming rate, "Hurry up! I'm getting a horrible feeling!"
Suddenly the ground underneath the tree with the rope tied around it vanished, the tree gave a lunge and dropped like an anchor straight down into the hole. Willow gave a shriek as the tree jerked her upwards like two things on a pulley. The rope got caught in a crack in the ground and as the tree kept weighing down, Willow kept smashing against the walls of the hole.
"Willow!" Holly, Kailee and Ray shouted.
"Let go of the rope!" Ray yelled.
Willow slammed into the side if the hole and the sharp rock poking out of the wall dug into her shoulder. With a cry of pain, Willow released the rope and fell back down. Luckily, Ray caught her just in time.
"Willow," Kailee was sobbing, "Are you okay?"
Ray looked immensely relieved as he hugged her, "Oh my gosh, you scared me half to death! Are you hurt?"
"My shoulder," Willow said in a trembling voice, "That rock cut my shoulder." The sleeve of her top was ripped open and there was nasty gash across her upper arm, blood was silently dripping out of her wound. Willow blinked back tears and buried her face in Ray's shoulder.
"Is everyone all right down there?" Holly called, "Willow!! Are you okay?"
"We'll be fine!" Ray shouted back up, "But how are we going get up now?"
"Holly, Kai, look!" Johnny yelled.
Holly whirled around and saw more of the land disappearing. The minimal amount of land left that didn't vanish started to collapse because there was nothing left to support it. The collapsed land broke down into big boulders and tumbled down into the depths.
"We've got to get out of here!" Kai snarled, "Everything's falling apart!"
"What about them?" Holly asked, looking anxiously downwards.
" Fushichou, fly down and lift them up at fast as you can," Kai ordered, tossing rope down the hole, "Guys, tie these around your waists and fast! Fushichou will come down and lift you up, don't twist around when he's hauling otherwise it'll put even more strain on him. Go, now!" Fushichou shot downwards like an arrow and hauled Willow up first.
"Willow!" Holly hugged her, "Are you okay?"
Willow nodded mutely and let out a shuddery sigh of relief.
"HURRY!" Johnny hollered, watching as more land collapsed. By the time Fushichou dragged up Ray, the land they were standing on was shaking like crazy and it started to cave.
"Over here!" Johnny yelled, running towards the mountains, "It's not far, we'll be safe it we can reach the mountains in time! We can't fight against the elements!"
"But-" Holly protested, watching Fushichou dive down and start to pull Kailee up. Kailee sobbing in fear as the rocks crashed down around her.
"Go!" Kai growled, pushing her forward, "I'll stay and wait for her."
"Well...okay..." Holly ran after Ray and Willow.
"Come on Fushichou," Kai said anxiously as more rocks tumbled down at the phoenix and Kailee, "You can do it!" Fushichou did an awesome job dodging all the falling rocks and managed to pull Kailee up. Kailee was shaking like a leaf, but there wasn't anytime to rest now. Kai seized Kailee's arm and pull her along as he dashed towards the mountains with Fushichou flying frantically after him. The land behind Kai collapsed quickly, rumbling and crumbling behind him. But Kai managed to make it to the mountain and climb high enough to avoid damage. Breathing heavily, he and Kailee watch in shock as the whole land before them crumbled at their feet.
"Kai! Are you okay?" Holly asked worriedly, "Kailee?"
Kailee let out a frightened sob and hugged Holly, " Fushichou saved my life again!" She reached for the baby phoenix and hugged it tightly in her arms, practically suffocating the poor thing. "You saved me again, I love you so much!!!"
The phoenix let out a feeble squawk of pain, it's golden feathers shimmering wearily.
"Kailee!" Kai groaned, plucking his squire from her arms, "You're strangling Fushichou!" Fushichou sank down on the ground, completely exhausted, and closed its large eyes wearily.
"It must be tired," Ray remarked, "Pulling all us up under that much pressure, some day we're having, huh?" He took some bandages out from his backpack and proceeded to tie up Willow's bleeding shoulder.
Willow flinched at the pain, "That stings Ray."
"Sorry," Ray said gently, "I've gotta bandage it up though, wouldn't want it to get infected."
"I can't believe the whole ground just caved in like that," Johnny said incredulously, "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it for myself! Unbelievable!"
"And if we don't hurry, all of the Magic Kingdom will collapse, just like that," Holly said, "But it's getting late and we're all tired, I wonder how far the Magic Sanctuary is?"
Kailee looked at her Locator Card, "According to my map, it's just a few minutes away, hurray!"
"Really?" Ray looked up, "That's great, we'll get you healed in no time." He smiled at Willow who smiled back gratefully.
"Let's go!" Kailee marched forward, excited for some rest.
"Come on," Kai picked up Fushichou, "Thanks for all your help, we would have never gotten out of there alive if it weren't for you."
Fushichou blinked sleepily, obviously pleased with the praise, and dozed off.