A/N: So after months of school, procrastination, sickness, and other sorts, I finally, FINALLY uploaded the next chapter. I'm so sorry to any of you still reading this story that I took so long to write it and share it with you. These days my life is busy and I don't get enough downtime to write. But I will continue to do my best and complete it. So without further ado, here is the next chapter, I hope you all like it.
The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts
Chapter 13: Powerful Courage and Monsters
Eris huffed and breathed hard as she stopped to rest at the top of the mountain. It had taken her a few hours just to get her footing on the mountainside, then another hour just to scale the mountain successfully.
"Arren! Why would you not help me climb up here?!" she yelled at him as soon as she caught her breath again.
"You seemed like you had it covered." He replied with a devilish smile.
Eris let out a loud, frustrated sigh at him.
"So…what now your Royal Iciness?" he asked hesitantly.
Eris looked down at all the Mentos that lay beneath her feet. Small bits of ice began to form around her feet, causing the Mentos to shudder under the cold weight.
"We go down the hole you saw of course!" she replied loudly, but then when she looked around, she could not find the hole anywhere, "Where is it anyway? You didn't lie to me did you?!"
"No, no! It right there." Arren pointed to a slightly small hole hidden in the large cluster of Mentos in the middle of the mountain.
Eris stared at the small opening, "This opening is definitely too small to fit anything except one person at a time. But perhaps…"
She diverted her attention to Arren again, who had in turn transformed himself into a crow again.
"This hole is too small, but perhaps we should do something else."
"What would we do instead then?" he asked curiously, flapping his wings uncertainly in the air.
Eris formed a sly smile, knowing that what she had planned would indeed work.
"The only way we can get to Lucy, is to bait her up here."
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Ralph's eyes opened slowly, still feeling sleepy even though he had slept like a rock. At first he thought he was still dreaming, because he saw golden light surrounding him. But as he opened his eyes wider the light disappeared, but was instead replaced with the narrow eyed smirk of Vanellope.
"Good morning Stinkbrain." she said coolly her smile growing wider, "Did you get some good sleep with your new friend?"
"Kid, what are you talking about?" he replied groggily.
Her smile only grew as wide as it could, annoying Ralph as he rubbed his eyes with one hand. Looking down toward the ground he was surprised to see something that he did not expect.
Ralph's face went completely red, his heart skipping a few beats, when he saw Lucy sleeping calmly right on his chest. For a moment he could not speak or move, his eyes never looking away from her sleeping figure resting calmly on him.
"This is so precious, what a lucky guy you are." Vanellope cooed.
Ralph's temper started to flare, "T-that's not funny kid, cut it out!"
"Okay alright, Mr. Softie!" she replied laughing.
Keeping his temper barely in check, Ralph slowly removed Lucy from his chest, shifting onto his knees. He picked her up and carried her onto Vanellope's bed where she curled up in her sleep.
"Come on kid, we got to find her kart." He huffed after staring at her sleeping figure for a moment.
"She lost it?! How could she lose a kart that big?!" Vanellope exclaimed following him to the entrance.
"Well when you're being chased by an Ice Queen with good intentions of taking Lucy, then that's how!" he exclaimed back, temper flaring.
Vanellope did not say anything more until they were outside the mountain. Her arms crossed she huffed as Ralph led the way.
Suddenly he saw something move from above. He followed the movement up the mountain until he was looking at the top of Cola Mountain.
"Now what are you looking at?!" Vanellope huffed in irritation.
"Shh!" Ralph whispered trying to hear what was up there. It was then he realized there was something wrong, very wrong.
"What is it?" Vanellope whispered jumping onto his shoulder.
"Something's up there." he replied pointing at the top of the mountain.
They both looked at each other, thinking the same thing. Lucy was indeed in trouble.
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Hearing noises outside her dreams, Lucy slowly opened her eyes. She rubbed her sleepy eyes awake, curious as to what the noises could be. She looked at her surroundings, realizing she was still where she was, inside the mountain full of broiling hot springs of Diet Cola.
"Where did Ralph and Vanellope go?" she wondered as she looked around to find their whereabouts.
Lucy realized then that she was moved to Vanellope's sponge bed, which felt very soft and plushy. A noise distracted Lucy from her thoughts, making her look down. To her surprise she found a black kitten, mewing and pawing at the sponge cake.
"Hi there little kitty." She giggled reaching her hand down to pet it. But before she could touch it, the kitten ran away at a strangely fast speed up the ramp to where the broken racetrack was. Quickly she swung her legs down from the sponge cake and ran right after the kitten.
"I'm going to get you." She said with determination as she caught up to the kitten.
The kitten simply mewed in reply and ran to the edge of the broken bridge over the cola hot springs.
"Wait a minute, watch out kitty!" Lucy exclaimed. She grabbed the little black kitten just in time before it took another step.
"Whew, that was close right-"
Lucy gasped at what she held. The kitten seemed to have changed into something else, not being a kitten anymore. Instead what she held in her arms was the claw of a hawk. The hawk flapped it wings upward, causing her to be lifted off the ground toward the ceiling.
"Hey, put me down!" she yelled at the bird. But the hawk did not listen, climbing higher and higher towards the Mentos ceiling. There it flew through a small hole that came from out of nowhere, carrying Lucy with it.
She soon found herself plopped down onto a Mentos floor. She looked around to see there was no ceiling above her, and ridges of the mountain side climbing above her.
"This must be the top of Diet Cola Mountain." She thought looking in awe.
"Lucy, we meet once again." A familiar voice called.
She turned to see the familiar face of the Ice Queen named Eris staring at her with a smirk. The hawk that had been a kitten before perched on her shoulder, and seemed to be smirking at her too. Am I seeing things?
"W-who are you really?" she asked nervously backing away from them.
Eris stepped forward, closing the gap, "I am Eris remember? I'm not here to hurt you in any way. I was trying to find you."
Confusion spread through Lucy's head, and uncertainty filled her voice, "Find me? What are you talking about? You were trying to hurt me before, why should I trust what you say?!"
"Yes I know that I had hurt you before," Eris responded, "but this time I'm telling you the truth. We need you and your powers…you're our only hope of getting us home."
"Us?"
The hawk that perched on Eris's shoulder suddenly transformed into a human man with jet black hair and electric green eyes. Lucy stood still, unsure of how to make of this.
"Wait…y-you have magic? Then t-that would mean…"
"We all come from the same game, Shining Magic." The black hair man replied.
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Archer pushed with all his might against Lucy's kart up though the gumdrops.
"Why is this so heavy?!" he huffed as he pushed the kart one final stretch up through the gumdrops, ending up close to a mountain that looked like a soda bottle.
"We made it!" Garren exclaimed. He was sitting in the kart, not of any big help at all.
"I know!" Archer gasped out of breath.
When Archer and the others found out that Lucy, Ralph and Vanellope had gone missing, he and Garren set out to find them. Instead they found Lucy's empty race kart, toppled over in the snow. With the help of Calhoun and Felix they were able to get the kart fixed up with Felix's hammer and back right-side up. One of Vanellope's friends named Candlehead suggested that they were at Vanellope's secret hideout at the mountain shaped like a soda bottle. For hours Archer was stuck with pushing the kart there, because the kart would not start at all.
Now as Archer looked upon the mountain, he wasn't quite sure where a hideout would be in a big mountain like this with no openings at all. As he was trying to figure out how to get in, he heard strange noises coming from the top of the mountain. Tilting his head he tried to see what the noises were.
From what he could tell from the far distance they were, Archer was able to spot three figures atop of the mountain. One was a female figure with what seemed like silver hair, the other was a man that was black and gray. The third figure looked familiar to him as he looked closer.
"Is that…LUCY?!" Archer gasped softly.
"Hey, what's the matter Archer—WHOAH!" Garren almost fell off the kart as Archer pushed with all his might towards the mountain.
"Something's wrong. Where is the giant Ralph when-" Archer speeding to a halt. At the bottom of the mountain stood Ralph and Vanellope, who were also gazing up at the top where Lucy was.
He looked over at Garren, who was shaking his head from him pushing the kart as fast as he could.
"Sorry about that." Archer said apologetically, but inside he was still wondering how he could be so apologetic all of a sudden.
"Hey look!" Garren said suddenly pointing upwards. Archer looked up, and to his surprise saw the giant scaling up the mountain himself.
He really is dedicated, I'll give him that.
Not as rushed but still quickly he pushed Lucy's kart up to the bottom of the mountain where Vanellope stood, gawking and smiling.
"Vanellope, what's going on?" he asked coming up to the little girl.
She turned suddenly as if she was startled. "Don't scare me like that!" she snapped, making Archer flinch.
"Sorry, didn't meant to surprise you it's just…."
"No need to spill apologies right now." Vanellope interrupted, "Ralph thinks Lucy's in trouble."
"WHAT?! That's horrible!" Garren exclaimed having gotten out of the kart.
"I know. He's going to see what's up there, I just hope girlie's okay." Vanellope replied worriedly.
Archer looked at the little girl quizzically. She sighed annoyed, "I hope Lucy's okay. Do I need to spell out everything to you Arch Man?!"
"No." he retorted turning upwards, "And why are you calling me that? My name's Archer."
Vanellope smiled, "I like calling people names. It's what I did to Stinkbrain when I met him."
He sighed not looking at her. Archer was more worried about what was going on up there.
I hope she's okay.
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Lucy could not find any words, their words sinking into her brain. There are actually characters from my game, standing here before me. How did I not know? How did I miss them?
She had so many questions to ask, but inside she was still scared. Lucy knew that right now she could not trust them, even though they were from her own game. Slowly she kept backing away trying not to seem desperate.
"W-why did you bring me up here?" she finally said plucking up the courage.
Before someone could say anything, Lucy felt herself losing her balance. She stumbled for a moment, trying to regain her balance until she finally fell down on her back. By the time she was able to sit up, Lucy could already tell something was either wrong or someone had set off an earthquake.
Someone that she already knew.
Right across from her was a giant that she knew well.
"Ralph!" she smiled suddenly feeling a lot safer.
Eris and Arren having noticed her looking in Ralph's direction turned to face him. They seemed ready to fight him as well as he was.
Then everything happened fast right before her eyes. One minute Arren was the first to charge straight at Ralph, the next thing she knew was another quake made her stumble as she tried to stand up. This time she was able to keep her balance using her knees. Yet as she kneeled keeping her balance, she felt them getting warm. Looking down Lucy suddenly realized that they were standing on a very hot mountain waiting to explode hot cola.
"This isn't good at all, what should I do?!" Lucy panicked unmoving.
All at once, and all so slowly, she felt the ground move from beneath her. Scared that she would fall, Lucy remembered vaguely from before how Ralph, Vanellope and she managed to avoid Eris by transporting past her.
Like a glitch.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on transferring herself on the ridge of the mountain. It didn't take more than a few seconds to realize that she had already teleported there. She gasped sharply and suddenly trying to keep her balance on the very small ridge.
"LUCY!"
Shocked and worried Lucy looked down to find Eris staring up at her, a frightened look spread across her face. Determined she squatted down and stretched her hand out to her.
"Take my hand, hurry!" she shouted down to her.
For a moment Eris hesitated to take it. She looked into Lucy's eyes as if she didn't trust them.
"Please, hurry! You can trust me!" she reassured Eris's doubts about her.
Just as quick as she finished saying this, her hand instantly grasped hers. Eris's hand felt cool within Lucy's warm hand, as she took Eris's hand with both of hers. With all the strength she could muster, she pulled Eris up onto the ledge with her, all the while barely keeping her balance.
"Y-You saved me." Eris said surprised after a long pause.
Lucy gripped onto Eris's hand, not knowing what to say to her shock. Simply, she just smiled and squeezed her hand.
Eris looked at her as if she did not understand who she was with. With a confused but determined look, she raised one hand down towards the two boys still fighting. Lucy saw to her surprise an ice-made staff form out of nowhere into Eris's hands, and with one small swing she sent ice towards the two fighters below.
When the ice had all but melted and cleared, the quakes had stopped. Lucy felt the mountain harbor back into its slumber.
"Would you guys control yourselves?!"
Lucy flinched at Eris's sudden sharp shout down below to Ralph and Arren. To Lucy's surprise, the two characters had also flinched at Eris's outburst as well.
Arren shrunk a little from Eris, but Ralph stood his ground despite his shock.
It took a lot of effort to balance herself from falling, but Lucy still managed to stay on. Don't look down. She told herself.
"Why should I?! You're after Lucy!" Ralph shouted back at her with such anger in his voice that made Lucy curious and confused.
"True. But you're misunderstanding why I am!" Eris shouted back at him.
"I understand plenty!" Ralph gritted, his tone becoming more angered.
Lucy stood completely helpless as Eris and Ralph exchanged shouts back and forth. She looked over at Arren to see that he was shrinking farther away from the battleground. Lucy blinked and tilted her head in his direction, only to make him shrink back farther.
Out of the corner of her eyes she suddenly saw a little flash of colorful wings fly past her. Following it she spread her arms and turned having let go of Eris's hands unsuspectingly. She smiled widely as she gazed at a beautifully colored butterfly.
"It's beautiful." Lucy looked on at the butterfly for a moment, then frowned turning back to her companions, "Can no one else see this?"
Yet when she turned back the butterfly was gone. She sighed sadly, not happy that the butterfly suddenly had disappeared.
What this a sign? Or does it mean something?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden loud screech. She closed her eyes, her hands covering her ears from the sound. It hurts, what is that sound?!
When she opened her eyes, looking down she found herself standing on nothing but air. Lucy's eyes widened as for a moment she stared far down the mountain. Then everything happened at once.
She felt herself fall quickly, her breath lost in the sudden depths she was falling from. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Then from above Lucy thought she saw something dark and shadowy, but her eyes stung with tears making Lucy's eyes close shut. She knew that if she hit the ground, she was done for.
I don't want to die. I don't want to…
She couldn't finish, for some reason she felt herself slow in her fall. When Lucy open her eyes, she yelped in surprise.
She found herself floating down in a pool of light.
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Eris almost stumbled as something flew past her. She ducked out of the way safely, falling once again into the inner mountain.
What in the world was—?
Looking back up where she had stood, there was no one in sight. Lucy was gone.
How could she let her out of her sight?!
Eris knew that Lucy was indeed the special girl she hoped to find. But she never expected her to be so kind and courageous.
From out of nowhere Eris found herself suddenly scooped up. She gasped in protest and shock, finding that the giant named Ralph had picked up her and Arren. He ran towards where Lucy had disappeared, making Eris start to worry about his actions.
You're out of your mind! Are you trying to get us killed?! She wanted to say, but kept shut.
It was within seconds that the giant jumped right over the ridge and down the mountain side. Eris looked to Arren, seeing he was as shocked as she was. Determined to not hit the ground hard, she blasted packets of soft snow from her hands onto the ground below. She must have blasted just enough as the three of them softly landed into the piled snow.
"Cold, cold, cold!" she heard Arren shout his teeth chattering.
Sighing annoyingly she dispersed the snow as quick as it came. She then turned to Ralph, who looked baffled yet angered by what had happened.
"You should be grateful I saved our lives!" she snapped defensively before he could say something.
The giant just stared at her, his eyebrows furrowed angrily. Arren on the other hand sneezed and shivered even though the snow had gone.
"Arren you are so sensitive." She retorted.
"It's not my fault that I suddenly got soaked in snow!" he shivered.
"Well excuse-!" Eris stopped suddenly turning away from them. What she saw made her shudder inside.
A shadow stood watching them, its eyes piercing through her skin.
She knew then this was trouble.
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He knew that the figure he was staring at was a shadow. He had seen two before: one that Lucy had pushed him out of the way of, the other possessing Archer.
Now there was a true shadow standing before him.
Something whizzed by Ralph's head, making him duck down his head. A glimpse of silver caught his eye as it pierced at the shadow. An arrow.
Archer stood just a few feet behind him, with his sidekick Garren clutching him from behind.
"Ralph!"
A tiny glitching Vanellope slammed right into him, knocking him by surprise a little.
"Kid, you're okay." He whispered grabbing her tightly.
A screech sent shivers down him as he looked to find the shadow angrier than before.
"No, it didn't affect him at all." Archer said reaching for another arrow.
Garren clutched tightly to Archer, fear written on his face.
Ralph did the same to Vanellope, worried that she was in danger as well as the rest of them.
The shadow charged toward them, but not before Eris could get off a blast of ice. Yet the ice had no effect on it either as it swiped the blast away and towards him instead. Quick on his feet he dodged the oncoming blast, sliding to a stop just to the right of it.
Now the shadow focused its attention on him and Vanellope, charging right at them. It transformed into an animal with sharp teeth and huge claws ready to fight. Ralph was ready to take any challenge head on.
He charged at the shadow, one hand raised in a fist and the other protectively shielding Vanellope. When his hand crashed down into the shadow, he was struck with shock.
The shadow blocked his gigantic fist.
Before he could grasp it, the shadow flung him backwards down onto his back. It came charging at him again, this time with a determined expression on its face.
Ralph braced for the worst to come, shutting his eyes and holding onto his friend.
Nothing came.
After a long moment of sudden silence, Ralph squinted his eyes open to a sight he never expected to see.
A bright glow of light shining around a girl wearing a green dress. She had something in her hands, a weapon of sorts that he had never seen before. Golden eyes stared at the shadow with a shining purpose.
He then realized who stood before him.
Lucy?