Chapter 6: Before Winter Came
It was almost wintertime in Triforce, Vicki and Robert saw the snow falling from the sky. Vicki caught the snowflake on the palm of her hand before it melted in few seconds later. Robert stuck his tongue out to catch at least one snowflake. When it fell onto his tongue, he put it back into his mouth and tasted the snowflake.
"Hmm, it tasted like ice, of course..." said Robert, as he was experimenting the snowflake. "But I have no complaints whatsoever."
"I totally agree with you!" said Vicki. "Since winter is coming very soon, there must be, at least, between thirty and fifty percent chance of blizzard."
"Oh ho, don't remind me..."
While Vicki and Robert continued to walk around the island, they noticed that there's someone camping in this island. They rushed to see of who's inside of the tent this time. But the problem was one of them has to meet the camper while another has to wait. So, Robert decided to flip the coin in order to solve their problem.
"Heads or tails, Vicki?" Robert asked.
"I'll call for tails," Vicki answered.
After Robert flipped the coin, he revealed to see which side of the coin showed up front. Since the coin revealed the picture of the animal's head, this could only mean that Robert could enter the camper's tent and Vicki had to stay behind. Once he was inside, he gazed at the yellow chicken with the red comb and wore the folk shirt.
"Oh, do you happen to live in this island, doodle-duh?" asked the chicken camper.
"Yes, Egbert, I live in this island," Robert answered. "So, you're planning to camp here for a day I assumed?"
"That is exactly my plan!"
While Vicki was waiting, Robert got out of the tent and told her who the camper was. So, she was about to go meet Egbert, but suddenly, she was stopped by Sammy and Jimmy who immediately grabbed her. They pulled her away from the tent and let themselves in instead. Robert helped Vicki up while she was grumbling at the twins behind their backs.
"Don't worry about it, Vicki," said Robert, as he was cheering his girlfriend up. "You'll get your chance soon enough."
"Gee, I hope you're right about that..." said Vicki flatly.
"Anyways, Egbert told me about his own dream..." Robert started to explain it to Vicki while they were waiting for the twins to get out of the tent.
Meanwhile in the shadow realm, the Demonic Nightmare Squad continued their search for the special dreamer. But now, their problem was they couldn't decide on which dreamer would be their next target. The bobcat demon, Dalilah finally figured it out of how to solve this issue. She first spread the pictures faced down on the roulette and began spinning. Once all the pictures were removed from the roulette, that just left one picture remained. She picked it up to see who the dreamer would be their target. Dalilah's expression turned out to be sour either she was not pleased about this dreamer or she wasn't expecting that at all. So, she decided to turn to her fellow demons to offer her request.
"Hey, um, Viridian, can you snatch this dreamer's dream life force?" Dalilah asked, as she showed the picture to the vampire demon.
"Why are you asking me for?" Viridian snorted. "You're the one who came up with this silly idea in the first place!"
"Aw, could you, at least, help the bobcat demon out already?"
"Girl, not a chance!"
Dalilah pouted after Viridian denied her offer. So, she turned to the two male demons instead. "Hey Magnus, Solomon, how about one of you take this dreamer's dream life force as well?"
"Eh, sorry, no can do..." Solomon rejected.
"Eh, I'm afraid I have to pass," Magnus replied dryly.
After a very slump rejection from the three demons, Dalilah moaned in defeat and didn't have any other choices. It's all up to her to find a dreamer; and in this picture, it appeared to be a chicken, Egbert.
Back in Triforce, Vicki nodded slightly while Robert explained about Egbert's dream to her. As soon as Sammy and Jimmy left the tent without saying a word to either Vicki or Robert, all they ever did was grimaced, nothing else entirely. The duo shrugged at each other, so Vicki finally had a chance to enter the tent to meet Egbert.
"Hey Egbert, how's it going?" Vicki asked.
"Oh hi Vicki, everything is going smoothly, doodle-duh," Egbert answered.
"That's nice. Anyways, Robert told me about your dream. Your dream is to have a warm, comfy house during cold, snowy days, is that right?"
"Yes, that is correct. I always dreamed of having a warm, comfy house during winter, doodle-duh..."
After Vicki had a chitchat with Egbert, she left the tent and took Robert by the arm. They were heading to Vicki's house because she has a brilliant idea. She wanted to make a nice, comfy cushion for Egbert, but Robert realized that it's going to take about a day or so to finish it, and the chicken wouldn't be here for the next day. Vicki told him that it wouldn't take too long to finish the cushion, and it usually took about two to four hours to make it. Robert didn't seemed to understand of how she could finish it before Egbert was gone for the next day.
While Egbert was eating something delicious inside of his tent, he suddenly heard someone approaching to his direction. It appeared to be a girl with light purple pigtails, hazel eyes, wore a red coat, long black skirt, and brown boots. She grinned at the chicken and waved at him.
"Hi, you must be the camper, correct?" the girl asked.
"Yes, that is me alright, doodle-duh," Egbert answered.
"So, um, do you have a dream by any chance?"
"Why yes, I sure do! Let me tell you about it!"
Meanwhile, Vicki was making a cushion by using the crocheted material, sewing it, and stuffing it with the cotton before she sewed it again to close it up. Robert was very astounded when he saw his girlfriend making the handmade cushion. Suddenly, Luna called out to the dynamic duo within their minds.
"You must save the dreamer who dreams of owning the warm, comfy house before it's too late..." Luna echoed.
Vicki and Robert were immediately frozen in shock and stared at each other. So, they hurriedly left the house and began their transformations in order to save Egbert.
The Duo of Justice arrived at the tent, and then, it suddenly blew opened. But something that didn't seemed quite right, they saw the frosty air that came out of the tent. Few seconds later, the tent was partially turned into ice, and it broke into a tiny icicles by the hideous chicken monster. The dynamic duo's jaws were dropped when they saw an abominable snow chicken.
"I-I-Is that really...Egbert?!" Phantom Angel asked, as she was starting to tremble.
"I am one hundred percent sure that it's him alright..." Masked Swordmaster replied, reassuring his ally. "Behind the monstrous 'bigfoot' appearance that is..."
The nightmare monster roared at the Duo of Justice as he blew his frosty breath at them. Their bodies were getting colder and colder while they were shivering. Suddenly, they saw Dalilah getting away with Egbert's dream life force.
"Hey you there!" Phantom Angel shouted. "Give back Egbert's dream life force this instant!"
"I have a name, you know!" said Dalilah abruptly. "It's Dalilah, so you'd better not forget that, angel doll!"
"It's Phantom Angel to you!"
"Whatever! Anyways, it's time for me to takeoff with this! So, I'm letting the abominable snow chicken to take care of you two. See you both later!"
"No, get back here this instant!" Masked Swordmaster shouted, but Dalilah completely ignored him.
After Dalilah disappeared, the nightmare monster, who appeared to be Egbert, was shooting the icicles at the Duo of Justice. Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster quickly dodged his attack. The masked white knight used his sword to cut down the ice attacks with his fire power. Phantom Angel used her new attack called the "daydream heavenly light" to blind the monster temporarily. After he was blinded, he shot his ice attacks everywhere without aiming his target. Then, he bumped into a tree after tree until he was beaten. Finally, Phantom Angel used her healing magic to turn Egbert back to normal. The dynamic duo sighed of relief very heavily when the trouble was finally over.
"Mmm...huh, w-w-what?" Egbert moaned, while his eyes wavered in confusion. "W-What happened? And what am I doing outside?"
"Uh, I know that it's hard for you to remember, but..." Masked Swordmaster explained, as he tried to find those simple words to make Egbert understand the situation. "...Y-You were turned into a nightmare monster after the demon took your dream life force, that's exactly what happened."
"R-Really? Huh...And to think, I was starting to have a nightmare, doodle-duh..."
"What about your nightmare?" Phantom Angel asked.
"Ah well, how can I explain this? I-I feel as though that I was trapped in a very cold place where there was no heat nor fire..."
"Uh huh..."
Before Egbert continued his explanation, the snow started to fall all of the sudden. He was staring at the snowflakes with his sparkling eyes. As soon as he turned his attention back to the Duo of Justice, they disappeared out of nowhere. Wherever they went, he would never forget that they saved his life. Suddenly, he heard the sound of the footsteps approaching and saw Vicki and Robert coming his way.
"Hey folks!" said Egbert, waving at Vicki and Robert.
"Hey Egbert!" said Vicki and Robert in unison.
"Guess what? The famous dynamic duo showed up here before you two came!"
"Oh really?" Vicki asked, sounding surprised.
"Yes, really! I don't know how they did it, but they saved my life, doodle-duh."
"Well, good for them!" said Robert cheerfully.
"Anyways, I have something just for you, Egbert," said Vicki, as she gave him the handmade cushion.
"Wow, this cushion is nice and soft," said Egbert soothingly. "Did you really make this yourself, Vicki?"
"Yes, I certainly did! You can have it as a souvenir from Triforce!"
"Thank you so much, doodle-duh! I will treasure it as always!"
Whenever Egbert went back to his home island, he would always think about his own dream. A dream that was all about the warm, comfy house during winter. So, he would never forget that since he has the cushion under his wing.
