Chapter 2
When they got back to Roxane's cottage, they were immediately fed and forced to tell the story. Meggie decided to tell the story, since Farid wouldn't stop stuffing his mouth with food when asked a question. After it was told, Mo was pale and said,
"Oh, not again. Again I have to go on another adventure for Dustfinger! This is too much! And Meggie almost fell of a cliff to receive the message!"
"Calm yourself, Mo. You don't have to go. Whoever is willing to go on this trip, they will go. Any volunteers need to come to me for a complete check-up!" Roxane announced.
The first people in line were of course the Black Prince and half of his crew. Then Mo went, and that left Resa, Meggie, and Farid to talk.
"Resa, do you have any idea how were going to build a boat? Not many people here are artisans," Farid said, stating the obvious.
"I agree with you Farid, but have you forgotten we have a man who is excellent with words, and a girl with a magical voice?" Resa said happily. Then Farid replied,
"But old Cheeseface won't write anything unless there's something in it for him."
"We have my dad the Bluejay to threaten him, that can always be the back-up plan!" Meggie said with a mischievous look in her eye.
"Let's leave violence out of this, this world has enough cruelty in it already," Resa replied sternly.
There was some silence, and no one could think of any other ideas, and the threatening was beginning to sound good. Interrupting their thoughts, there was a lot of noise, like someone snapping a lot of twigs. Then out of the cottage, Roxane called,
"Everyone, come quickly to the edge of the cliff! It's amazing, they don't do that for anyone!"
Curiously, everyone ran to the cliff, taking care not to go too near the edge. Then, as far as they dared, they looked over the cliff, and then to their left.
It was an amazing site. Almost all the trees nearby were tearing their roots out, and carefully piling themselves at the bottom of the cliff on the sand. Each tree seemed to be doing it on cue, and their fall off the cliff was so graceful you would have thought they were ballerinas dancing on air.
Then, with one loud crack, the tree ripped apart into thick trips of wood, and were placed into a boat-like shape with one mast!
Ooos and ahhs came from the crowd, along with some cheering. But the best wasn't over yet...
Someway or another the grass that had been underneath the trees were now ripping themselves up too! And just like the trees, were placing themselves beside themselves until they formed one huge sail, that no one would have recognized as being made from grass. Everyone was so happy Resa called out,
"WE SAIL AT DAWN!" She did it in an exact pirate voice, so that everyone returned to the cottage as happy as can be.
That night, everyone decided to go into town for their last day on land. Who or what had made their boat they didn't know, but they needed food and water and such. Smartly, the girls thought the idea of spreading apart from the boys, since nine out of ten of them decided to spend their night in the nearby bar.
Once they had the men out of the way, it was time for their girls night out. Their first stop was to buy cloth and sewing material for the trip, along with ready-made clothes. They brought a lot of food of sellers on the streets, and were all set.
Let the fun begin...
All of the girls had plans of their own, so they eventually they all split up, so naturally, Meggie soon found herself alone. So, courageously, she decided to sneak into the library inside the castle.
After watching Farid walk on his feet lightly so many times, she had gotten good at it herself. She passed all the guards without breaking a sweat, and entered the castle unnoticed. It had been a while back, but Meggie remembered how to get to the beautiful library easily.
Books, the best thing in the world in Meggie's opinion. She had reached heaven. She quickly found a good book, and sat down quietly on a couch.
A little way into the story, she started to hear voices coming from the other side of the shelf. Curiosity immediately drew her attention to the voices:
"Are you ready to keep track on the enemies?" That voice sounded female, and like a queen's royal voice.
"Of course. The trees have made their boat, and ours as well. The boat is fully stocked and ready to set sail. We heard a cry at the bottom of the ship, and they will set said at dawn," probably her lady-in-waiting.
"What about the bait?" said the first voice.
"The bait... oh yes, the bait, um... I forgot about that one miss..." the second one stuttered. Then there was a loud snap, and Meggie assumed the first voice had slapped the other across the face.
"Are you forgetting you are in dept to me? Hurry and get the bait, you lazy scoundrel!"
"Yes ma'm.," and it scurried away quickly. Meggie heard a few more shuffles, and an unmistakable person spoke,
"Now, about my deal..."
"We shall speak of your part of the deal later, Basta," Meggie ran for all her life as soon as she had finished her sentence.
Luckily for Meggie no one chased her, and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran straight for the bar.
"Farid!" she called out desperately, and he came quickly, pulling her out of the bar. Once they were outside, he said,
"What happened? Your redder than Basta was after the fire in the windmill,"
"Come quickly, that's just we have to talk about!" and Meggie ran out of the city gates, and unexpectedly, back to the cliff where they were last night.
"Meggie, your starting to frighten me, what happened?" Farid asked, his face full of worry.
"Basta!" Meggie spit out, and that was enough for Farid.
"Basta! Here's here in the city? You saw him? Did he hurt you?" A million questions poured out of Farid's mouth.
"I met Basta along with some other woman-" Meggie started.
"Mortola?"
"No, some other woman, I don't know who. Anyhow, they did something that made our boat, and they're planning to trail us when we go out to sea," Meggie finished.
"Oh no, I knew dreams didn't come true that easily!" Farid exclaimed. He was so amazed at the news his eyes were practically popping out of his head.
"Farid, calm down, we'll—"
"I don't think you'll get that far princess!" Minty fresh breath+knife against throat Basta!
"Let go of her you crazy lunatic!" Farid tried, attacking Basta.
Farid had an unbelievable amount of strength, which took Basta by surprise. He was pounding him and kicking him with every last inch of strength he had.
Through Meggie's head were thoughts of triumph, but then, it was always a villain taking the girl and the boy fighting for his girl back. She couldn't believe she was thinking this in the hands of Basta, but she wanted that to change...
"Uh!" A streak of anger had flown through Meggie and, WHAM! The next thing she knew, Basta had a black eye, and his knife was in her hand.
"Let us be Basta! Go back to your lady and forget about trailing us! I'm not going to be your little damsel in distress! Get!" She roared, and was about to throw the knife at him when,
He grabbed Farid instead! This fairy tale had completely turned around, but Meggie wouldn't even bare this. So she started to act,
"Oh no, please don't hurt Farid, I-I-I'll drop the knife, just get away from Farid!" She said in the most desolate voice she could manage.
"That's better girl! Now drop my nice and I'm might reconsider taking you to my new— ARRG! AHHHH!" Before Basta had finished his sentence, Meggie had pounced, and stuck the knife straight in his eye.
"Come on Farid! Don't marvel my work, run!" Grabbing Farid by the arm, they both ran away as fast as they could back to the city, thankfully bumping into Resa.
"Oh my god, where have you been! Your as red in the face as Farid's fire!"
"Basta... eye... attacked..." They both tried to say in-between gasps for air.
"Oh, sorry, breathe and then we could talk."
After calming down, they both told them everything in turn, starting from Meggie's visit in the library. When they had finished, Resa was as pale as the White Women.
"I can't believe this. What are we to do? How are we to go on the trip now?" Resa managed to say.
"The first thing to do is to find the rest of our– probably drunk– crew. Then we could all decide together, but we are definitely going to save Dustfinger!" Farid said hopefully.
"Your right Farid!" Meggie exclaimed, and started walking to the bar after Farid.
"Mo better not be drunk," Resa muttered under her breath as she followed the kids.
Thank the lord, none of the men had drunken much, and the rest of the women were there too. For the third time, Farid, Meggie, and Resa explained the situation. And once again, everyone was pale.
Finally Mo spoke up,
"Firstly, I don't think Basta will get back to the castle any time soon, he's probably nursing his eye. Second, We should still start our trip at dawn, but not to the end of this world yet. We should find refuge on a near by island for a while," This sounded smart, but then Farid asked,
"Which island is that?"
"I don't know yet! Roxane, take it away," he replied, pushing Roxane to the center of their little huddle.
"There is an island pretty far away from here. It's called Silver Secret, and I know some people on the island since I have brought some plants for healing from that island before. The only problem is that I forgot how to get there, but I remember that the island is underwater!"
"So it looks like were going to be trying to find the sunken city of Atlantis!" Meggie said sarcastically.
"Oh, wait a second, I'm remembering now (thank god!)! The unfortunate part is we won't be traveling by boat, but by land. We're going to have to hope the people on the island of Silver Secret will lend us a boat big enough for everyone to fit in. We have to travel to somewhat the beginning of the Wayless Woods, and find a pond with a water nymph in it. Then, immediately when we jump in, we'll land on Silver Secret."
"That sounds like a wonderful hike!" Meggie said excitedly.
"But, that also means that were going to have to leave the crew here and just bring myself, Meggie, Mo, Resa, and Roxane," Farid put in.
"I think Farid's right," Resa said.
"Well then it's settled!" Mo said.
"My crew and I can take care of your cottage until you all get back, Roxane," the Black Prince volunteered.
They broke the huddle, and started off to the cottage.
Once at the cottage, everyone forgot dinner and went straight to bed with the adventure on their mind. Roxane got sandwiches prepared along with a lot more food and clothing for them with the help of Resa. Afterwards, the lights were turned off, and everyone started snoring.
"Did you get the girl?" said the lady back at the castle.
"No, but I was blinded, and I don't think they're changing their minds about going," Basta replied.
"Then we sail at dawn!" She cried.
She dismissed Basta and went into the study in the library locking the door. Her study was more like a witch's potion room, with a big cauldron in the middle, and other exotic ingredients on shelves all around. There were things like werewolf's hair, and a frog's toe. She got busy preparing something, and when she was done, she put the thick black liquid in a bottle, hiding it inside her dress. Then she took another big bottle, about the size of a blender, and drank a thick, gooey, brown liquid from it. This lady was set for the chase!