After recuperating from the initial shock of seeing Warren choking Nori, Dusty grabbed him from behind demanding, "What are you doing Warren?" When Warren stumbled a few steps back away from Nori, she grabbed her cell phone from her pocket and shown the light in his face. He snarled and pushed the annoying light away.
"It's too late Dusty," Nori explained after a few shaky breaths. "The light won't save him anymore. We might just have to leave him in Central City."
"You wouldn't dare," Warren grumbled, tossing Dusty off his back.
"Not like it matters," Dusty noted, quickly returning to her feet. "We'll never even make it to Central City if we don't cooperate to defeat the OEOHFPPE."
Warren's anger was suddenly replaced by fear as he questioned, "Why the hell are we fighting that monster?"
"We're trying to save Roxas," Nori began.
"Who?" Warren inquired timidly.
"Him," Nori answered, pulling out another copy of the three of them in the picture and pointing to Roxas. "He's stuck here, and you offered to rescue him."
Warren thought for a very long time with a frown on his face, eventually commenting again, "But he's the only one who can beat Oh-Ae-Oh Huff-Pee."
"What does Roxas have that we don't?" Dusty wondered.
Nervously, Warren shrugged. Nori and Dusty each grabbed one of his arms and led him to the left where was located a small arena. It somewhat had the appearance of a hamburger because it was slightly rounded on both the top and the bottom. The French Fries either referred to a crisscross design on the cement of the arena, or the cattails in the swamp surrounding it.
When they reached the entrance to the arena, Nori put a hand up to stop Dusty. "You wait here," He ordered.
"What?" Dusty asked in shock.
"Remember what I said? I won't lose you along with your sister here in Fiction-land."
Dusty rested a hand on her hp with a humph as Warren inquired, "Can I stay here too?"
"No," Nori countered, pulling Warren through the entryway, "I need your help."
"B-b-b-but I can't fight Oh-Ae-Oh Huff-Pee," Warren complained. He continued sobbing girlishly as Nori led him around the hallways of the arena searching for the monster, finding nothing but piles of bones that had been picked clean. It had been a couple minutes, and Warren was starting to annoy Nori.
After peaking through an open doorway, Nori turned on Warren. "You know complaining like that makes you sound gay?"
"What did you say?" Warren questioned angrily.
"Yeah, I think you're gay. What'ya gonna do now?"
"I'll teach you to call me gay," Warren stated, clearly heating up.
Nori drew his samurai dagger—even though he was no longer dressed as a samurai—and mocked, "You gonna fight me, eh? I thought you were too scared to fight."
"I'm not scared of anything," Warren insisted, sounding offended.
"Then bring it on," Nori finished, turning his back to the doorway so that when Warren pounded him with the first burst of fire, he could duck and send it flying straight into the OEOHFPPE.
Warren didn't notice that he'd hit the OEOHFPPE, just that he'd missed Nori. Forming a ball in each hand, he tossed them at Nori, stating, "Two for flinching."
Nori jumped over one and ducked under the other. He returned to his previous position and saw the look of horror on Warren's face. Turning around to see what Warren was looking at, he realized that the ten foot tall, four foot wide creature had been standing directly behind him. OEOHFPPE was also incredibly furious that he had been woken from his nap by two arguing little boys and a couple fire balls.
OEOHFPPE grumbled loudly and raised one hand to strike Nori. Nori slashed once at the creature with his dagger and then ran to hide behind Warren. Even more frightened than Nori, Warren started backing away, but eventually just hid behind Nori. Slowly, Nori nudged forward until he could reach out and stab OEOHFPPE in the lower abdomen. The monster emitted a scream of pain and swiped Nori away like he was just a worthless chess piece in the way.
Angrily, Warren ordered, "You can't do that to him! It was my turn to kill him. I suppose I'll have to try to kill you first." He too prepared himself to fight, and the battle commenced. Both tried their hardest to attack the OEOHFPPE, but hard as they tried, nothing they did accomplished more than making him more vicious. It wasn't long before Nori could no longer stand from how many times he'd been thrown to the side—by Warren a couple of times too. Warren too was getting warn out. He most certainly wasn't going to rescue Nori from OEOHFPPE, who was currently trying to finish him off. Instead, Warren tiredly slid to the ground to build up more strength for when OEOHFPPE would attack him next.
Nori looked up at OEOHFPPE, eyes filled with pain and fear. If only they weren't surrounded by darkness…then Warren would have been cooperative, and they may have been able to win. He called out to his friend for help as OEOHFPPE raised a giant axe to strike, but Warren wasn't listening. All hope was lost. It was done.
The two girls were still holding Nehemiah from falling off the cliff. Both Nehemiah and Chiyo were scared out of their wits. Becca was one step worse, having broken a sweat. Suddenly, they started to lose their grip on Nehemiah. Chiyo reached back and stuffed her hand in a crack in the ground to hold him up better. Soon she was starting to lose her grip on the crack too. It would only be a moment before all three of them drifted off the edge and down to their death. Becca was too freaked out to do anything, but Chiyo kept trying to save them somehow.
She only managed to slow the time it took for them to fall. They were out of ideas as they slid off the cliff and sped to the ground. The fall was significantly shorter than they had expected it to turn out. All three looked up, entirely unharmed, wondering why they had fallen the two hundred feet so quickly just to see an amused Jafar laugh.
Explaining why they were still alive, he mentioned, "Psych." After a moment, he continued, "You've only fallen a measly seven feet. That cliff was merely an illusion to entertain myself while I prepared to fight you myself."
The three friends looked inquisitively at one another before instantly jumping to their feet. Becca drew a sword, Nehemiah raised his fists, and Chiyo burst into an array of bright colors. She was quickly replaced by a version of herself with three toned hair that was twice as full and twice as long, an obviously fantasized costume, and some sharp rings like those of Xena the Warrior Princess.
Nehemiah looked at her in surprise and asked, "When'd you learn to do that?"
"Well, you've got to learn something in side kick school," Chiyo joked, getting ready to throw one of them at Jafar.
"This ought to be interesting," Jafar noted, taking out his snake staff and pointing it towards the three. The eyes began to glow red, entrancing Nehemiah and Chiyo by their charm.
Becca too was spellbound at first, but she quickly remembered what Jafar's staff could do. In a hurry, Becca tackled her two friends, shouting, "No, don't! Whatever you do, don't look at his staff!"
"You spoiled brat," Jafar growled deliberately, swiping at her with the staff.
Frightened, Becca managed to prevent the staff from hitting her with her sword. A second later, she grabbed the staff and threw it against a tree to break it. Of course, she smiled at her success.
Jafar smiled as well, in more of a smirking way, inquiring, "Oh, so you want to fight me in all of my glorious splendor?" As he said that sentence, he laughed heartily, and the volume increased steadily as he quickly transformed into his genie form.
The three friends looked up at Jafar in his new form, hovering in the air above them. Nehemiah expressed all of their feelings well as he stated, "Dear God."
Well, I'd hate to leave my readers at a loss to what happened to Warren and Nori, so we will return to them before continuing on to other people. Now where was I? Let's see…oh yes: Nori looked up at OEOHFPPE, eyes filled with pain and fear. If only they weren't surrounded by darkness…then Warren would have been cooperative, and they may have been able to win. He called out to his friend for help as OEOHFPPE raised a giant axe to strike, but Warren wasn't listening. All hope was lost. It was done…until this uncontrollable burst of laughter came from the entryway.
Dusty fell to her knees, unable to stand from hysteria of it all. She was eventually able to stumble out, "You guys…were…so afraid…of that? It's just…a…one eyed, one horned, flying, purple people eater."
The thing dropped his axe to the ground, missing Nori's head by an inch, and sat in the dirt, balling rivers of tears. "I really hate when people laugh at me," he whined in a tiny voice.
"How'd you do that?" Nori inquired curiously as he climbed back to his feet one last time.
Dusty shrugged, not having a better answer than that. Warren had hit his violent mode, however, so even though the monster had given up, he raged toward it again. Urgently, Dusty jumped between him and OEOHFPPE to stop him from killing it.
"Don't you guys!" Dusty exclaimed. "The flying purple people eater isn't a monster. He just wants to play in a rock and roll band is all."
"How…how'd you know that?" OEOHFPPE sobbed.
"It was in the song," Dusty replied. "I've heard you play a mean clarinet through your horn."
"Yes indeed," the creature squeaked. "Would you care to hear?"
"Certainly, though we're in quite a rush, so if you wouldn't mind coming with us…" Dusty faded off at the end, knowing she'd implied enough.
He looked around like he knew he wasn't supposed to leave and then decided, "I suppose I could."
Dusty walked off, followed by OEOHFPPE playing on his horn. Nori grabbed Warren by the wrist, dragging him unwillingly toward Dusty. "Why would I want to come with you?" He questioned. "You called me gay. You're my opponent. I still have to kill you."
"Right," Nori agreed sarcastically, "we're going to rescue your friend. You can kill me later," he had to give a specially hard tug then to keep Warren from pulling away, "after we get home, and you're back," another large tug, "in your right mind."
After that, Nori ignored Warren's complaints for a moment to comment to Dusty, "That was strange…ly anti-climatic. How'd you know all he really wanted was to play music?"
"He's from a song that my sister and I used to like and listen to when we were younger. You should have let me in sooner," Dusty responded.
She was cut off by a frustrated, "Let go of me," from Warren and a pained cry from Nori as his hand filled with a burning sensation.
"Ow," Nori complained, letting go of Warren's wrist, "you jerk! I'm trying to help you. This is what I get for letting you come with me."
"Next time fight harder, pushover," Warren retorted, "and I didn't want to come with you."
Fury filled Nori's face and he ordered, "Well, if you don't want to be here, then go home!"
"I would, if you and your corny friend Sora hadn't made my friend the blonde haired kid get stuck out here." When Warren said 'you,' he shoved Nori's chest, lighting his shirt on fire.
Hurriedly, Nori ripped his shirt off—so it wouldn't burn him—and tackled Warren off the side of the road mentioning, "Don't put all the blame on me. It was you who finally convinced him to leave."
Suddenly, the ground caved away, creating a huge canyon next to them with lava spewing out of it. Warren took advantage of the fact that Nori was distracted by it to roll on top of him. He quickly took up the job of squishing Nori's face with his burning hand. Nori struggled hard to get it off but couldn't. A moment later, Dusty once again had to pull Warren off of Nori.
"You let me be," Warren commanded, flinging Dusty from his arm to continue attacking Nori, who had climbed back to his feet.
Dusty also went to stand up, but halfway up, a swarm of black, leathery animals flew all over her face. She let out a shrill scream and fell back to the ground, cowering in a ball. For some reason, as opposed to just passing by like bats usually did, they hovered around Dusty. They were her fear. It was easy to tell because of her uneasy breathing.
When Warren heard her scream, he looked away from Nori and watched her for a moment as Nori muttered, "Bats…get back on the road Dusty."
She couldn't move, though. The fear was too great. One landed on her head, bringing a small whimper from Dusty. The next second, a giant one appeared. It reached down a claw to grab Dusty and carry her away. Just before it would have, Warren let go of Nori and lit the whole bunch on fire. As the dead bodies fell in a shower of burnt cinders around them, Dusty looked into Warren's eyes and realized something. Nori was right.
"You saved me," she whispered softly.
Warren reached out a hand to help her up. "Of course I did."
OEOHFPPE finally stopped blowing on his horn and asked in his squeaky voice, "So did you like my song?"
There was an odd little nurse with a nurse's hat and curly buns on the sides of her head trying to nurse Maldwyn back to health. Hallom had put her there. Yeah, she was a fake nurse, but Maldwyn was a fake dragon. All Hallom had to do was pretend Maldwyn was getting better and he would. It was always a little bit harder when you could hardly move yourself, but slowly, eventually, Maldwyn would fly again. Hallom was sure to feed Maldwyn too, adding quietly, Make sure you eat your vegetables.
The healing process was suddenly ended when Dr. Agari stepped into the room. "You know you're so predictable. Dr. Thinity said you'd be healing your dragon," he began, and Hallom's eyes shot open. They were just waiting to catch him using Mind's Eye, so they could study it. Thus, every time they walked through the door, anytime they were slightly paying attention, he had to stop healing Maldwyn, who was still lying on the ground in the clearing.
Hallom had since been moved to a small room with tubes and machinery. His body was practically useless, so he could do nothing but just lay there on the floor. His mind, however, was still working and active. That was, except for every time Dr. Agari came in to attack it. He looked at a list of things on his clipboard, considering what to do next.
"Hmm, we've checked the Temporal, and the Parietal lobes. What should we do next, eh Wolf Boy?" He wondered. Not really expecting an answer, Dr. Agari answered his own question, "I think we'll move on to the Occipital. Is that where you hide your Mind's Eye?"
Still, Hallom said nothing.
"Very well then," Dr. Agari said after a moment. "I shall prelude this procedure, as always, with your rights. Obviously, you have the right to remain silent. Everything you say certainly will be used against you, and it is most definitely less painful if you just cooperate. Now then, moving on. Will you show us your Mind's Eye?"
Still Hallom said nothing.
And then the pain returned, the crippling headache that made vision blur and made all thought impossible as the man dissected Hallom's mind, searching for the source of his power. Hallom writhed and cried out until he suddenly had a flashback of something. A smile spread across his face, and the room filled with a string of horses running wild through a prairie. He had not had to do that in a long time. He used to do it all the time, however, whenever his father was abusing him. Whenever he didn't like where he was, he'd pretend he was somewhere better. It was usually the same prairie, where horses ran carefree in the sunlight and…
"Why did you call me, Dr. Agari?" Hallom's father questioned of his assistant.
"I don't quite understand how to explain what's going on," Dr. Agari responded, sounding slightly confused as he stared around at the illusion of horses.
"It would appear the runt has finally given in and is showing you how he uses Mind's Eye."
"It would appear so on the surface Sir, yes. However, there is absolutely no way to pinpoint where it is coming from. They're memories and emotions that seem to be coming from his being as a whole, almost like he's creating a personal shield to block our attacks."
Dr. Thinity thought for a while before simply stating, "Push harder," and leaving the room. Agari continued for quite some time, until he decided to retreat to come up with a better plan. Hallom just laid there for a while before letting his mind return to Maldwyn. The dragon opened his wings to fly away the second Hallom's mind reached him. He was healed, healthy, and moving on. Before he left, though, he mentioned, She's calling for you.
What? Hallom questioned, confused.
Your girl. She's calling for you. Then he was gone.
Hallom had to think for quite a while before he finally came to a conclusion. Tiara was following me, he remembered. Retracing every step he had taken to get to the room he was in then, Hallom reached out to me with his mind.
He eventually found me, sitting in a sweat exactly where I had gotten lost at. I had been sitting there for about thirty hours, scared to death, and I was starting to get paranoid. Every little noise made me jump. Even when I first heard his soft voice whisper, Tiara, are you all right, I was terrified. Was I starting to hear things?
Then a faded image of him appeared in life size before me, and I realized he was using Mind's Eye to find me as he continued gently, Follow me.