Chapter 2
I managed to make it back to Potts's kitchen without issue, where I saw the Bundlers were there and cleaning the numerous plates of the Moon Bear King's latest meal and looking at me in shock.
"Ah! You got them! I can't believe it!" Linda gawked at me as Esma looked at her sternly before then looking at me and Ying Yang.
"Oh, my word, you actually did the deed! Now we can finally rid this moon of the horrid bear's influence!" Esma said in excitement as she then went towards me with a creepy smile. "Now be a good deary and give the scissors to me," she said with a smile as the scissors moved for me and hid behind me while my hands were still on them. "Hey! Come here! Just give them to me!" she shouted before the scissors slapped her in the face. "OW! What was that for?! GIVE THEM TO ME!" she shouted as Calibrus then forced us to fly out the window and I saw the Bundlers holding onto Esma's legs in unison!
"Calibrus chooses its bearer, and it will only choose one of pure heart or great passion and power like the Grizz. But all you have is an attitude," Ying Yang said as we then finally landed on the ground outside of Castle Grizzlestein, but still on the moving structure itself, us being among the giant, grizzly vines.
"Ugh! I told you to give it, and you will!" she shouted at me.
"Sorry, it's not my call, but his," I said... and then, I heard a growling as I then knew I had to hide. "H-Hide me," I whispered as I hid behind Esma as the giant tiger then showed up, me feeling scared as I knew that, if the witch failed to protect me, I was dead meat.
"I smell the scent of a puppet child!" General Tiger said as he then looked at the trio of Bundler kids, all three of them immediately huddling together in fear as Esma spoke.
"Oh, General Tiger! Thank goodness you're here! Some foul thief holding Calibrus sent us falling from my kitchen when we were cleaning the plates!" Esma said as I hid under her dress, making sure not to look up in case there was anything that would blind me.
"Hmph, I see. The Bundlers, as you call them. Why not just let the Moon Bear King turn them into grubs like most of the other kids?" Tiger asked with a snarl.
"Oh, but you forget, General Tiger, that these little ones are the ones who feed him and you! And you both have monstrous appetites! No kids we've had before or since have made as good of food as the Bundlers," Esma Potts said with a smile... wow. She really did like them.
"Fine, as you wish. But just know that the castle will be on lockdown, the grubs patrolling all over, and the Knight will be prowling the grounds to protect the Warrior's Shield. You best be careful on the way back," General Tiger said, the witch nodding at him. "And if you see a puppet girl with purple hair and holding Calibrus in hand, do not engage her and alert myself or the king immediately. That's an order!" the tiger growled.
"Oh, but of course, General Tiger! I shall do just that!" Esma Potts said before I then heard the tiger bounding back to the castle, Esma then pulling me out from under her dress and the Bundlers looking at me with concern.
"Are you okay, miss neighbor?" Boris asked, that being what all three of them called me before they were placed in their comas, all one year ago at the same time.
"I'm okay... thanks for the save, miss Esma," I said, her nodding at me.
"You're welcome, deary... now GET UP THERE AND GET THAT SHIELD!" Esma shouted as she then threw me up to the tower walls, my face colliding with the stone exterior and making me feel dazed, yet my head didn't fall off, so that was the good news... then again, I always was going to use my main head unless I needed to use another head for magic purposes, which I did one time when going through the kitchen with the burger head, which felt weird when I could taste my own head.
"Well, this should be dangerous... but as I always love to say: Let's Get Dangerous!" I smirked, using the line from Darkwing Duck, one of my favorite shows when I was growing up. Sure, the show was done airing when I started watching it, but my parents had video tapes of shows they taped off the television.
"Sounds like mew've got a death wish, Minsie" Ying Yang smirked at me.
"Oh hush, kitty cat," I said as I was about to move forward... before I heard a couple voices behind the breakable wall.
"Is anyone out there?! Someone decent? Please save us!" the voice asked, me looking at Ying Yang and him groaning before then breaking apart the wall, which resulted in the prisoners of little kids being freed. "Thank you so much! Where's miss Esma?" the one kid asked, me seeing there were three of them, each of them looking different and all being female.
"She's outside of the castle walls right now. I think that, if you want to see her, you'll need to escape this place with something special," I said... before the trio gawked at how they got a magical gateway appear for them.
"And there it is, courtesy of Esma herself! Hop in, quick!" Ying Yang spoke, the trio then hopping into it as I then moved forward through my own gateway and moved further up the structure. We then broke more walls along the way to free some more puppet children that got warped away after. And the whole time, I'd been defeating any grubs that tried to attack me as well as slashing my way through fabric and plants to keep rising up and up the large castle walls.
"Good thing that Calibrus is magical and can give me some temporary flight, or I'd be dead by now," I admitted in honesty.
"You're welcome, Minsie Carver," the voice of Calibrus said, me yiping audibly at it... before then yiping again when I saw the Weaver Knight had appeared in the distance and slammed its mace arm into the platform I was on! I immediately ran for it, freeing any puppet kids along the way and freeing souls trapped in grubs as well. And after doing this for long enough, I finally managed to get to the area that I hated, that being the long stretch of rooftops that were filled with even more kids to rescue and where I had to work together with Ying Yang to get the last of the grubs demolished.
"Teamwork," Ying Yang smirked as he assisted greatly by helping out freeing the kids while also slapping the flagpoles to make the grubs fall down into reach of Calibrus's blades, us managing to save a total of 23 kids in total before then getting to the battle room, where we were met face-to-face with the Knight, who grew bigger to try and scare me.
"Come on, bigger isn't always better. Just look at my girlfriend back home!" I smirked as I then effortlessly dodged its attacks and then sliced up and destroyed the kinks when needed. I did this thrice, freeing the final three children before then slashing free all the souls that made up the Weaver's body, netting me free access to the iron ball head and the shield! I simply grabbed the first and then went forward through another magic portal before then appearing in the room with the shield.
"Mrow! The shield! It's got some nasty slash marks, courtesy of the Grizzly king," Ying Yang said as I then grabbed it after freeing it from his influence and smirking at how it attached to my puppet body effortlessly! I then proceeded to go through the next portal, no Esma Potts arrival needed, and then going to a room with the guillotine boss. I simply redirected its attacks back at it thrice and I got its head added to my collection! And after that, I then heard a growl in the next room, one that I knew who it belonged to already.
"I knew that I'd find you eventually, you little thief!" General Tiger growled at me from outside the walls.
"Sounds like a certain kitty wants a bath," I smirked in a mocking nature. He then slammed his arm through the wall and tried to swipe it at me, but I blocked it with the shield's power, making the cat groan in pain. I then took the opportunity to jump up and slam the blades into his paw, releasing some blood from it before he retreated through the wall in pain!
"GAGH! You will pay for that, you little punk!" he growled as I then moved upwards with help from Calibrus, and we heard a voice screaming.
"HELP! I NEED HELP! DADDY! WHY CAN'T HE HEAR ME?!" shouted the voice of Pixierina, as I called her current form.
"Don't worry, princess! I'll save you!" I shouted as I then went through the defenses of the security bulbs until we managed to get to Pikarina herself, who looked at me in surprise.
"Are you my knight in shining armor? Please get me out of here!" she shouted, me nodding as Ying Yang slapped the outer layer of the cage away and Calibrus then cheated for me and slashed through the top part of the cage, releasing Pikarina from it in one go! "Well... I didn't expect to be saved by a girl, but I'm grateful regardless. I'm Pikarina, who are-" she was about to say before a loud growling sounded all around us, me knowing I had to get her out of dodge. Pikarina then shrieked as a large set of teeth emerged from below, me rushing up and pushing her out of the way! But the result? I managed to get stuck in General Tiger's mouth! He then tried to chew me up, but I simply had Calbirus slice and dice his numerous teeth, including fangs, until he had lost all of his bite!
"OW! That h-" he was about to finish before I slashed the upper jaw of the giant tiger with Calibrus before flying after his flying body and slicing off the dazed tiger's claws! And after every single dangerous part had been destroyed... I was SHOCKED to see that General Tiger... he turned back into Little Tiger! Now he was the same size as me and Pikarina were! But I still felt wet from the giant cat's slobber that was on me as Pikarina then looked at me in surprise.
"Not once do you save me, but twice? And you made General Tiger shrink to look cuter? I MUST know your name!" she said, me smiling at her.
"Minsie Carver is my name, miss princess. It's an honor to be in the presence of one," I smiled, her looking at me in surprise.
"You know that I'm a princess?" she asked, me nodding.
"I was a witness to what happened. The bear blasted you with dark magic and turned you from a person that was the same size as I was in my world into the size of me now," I said.
"Wait... you're also tall? Then why are you so small?" she asked in confusion.
"Because of the Moon Bear King, that's why," said the voice of Tina Bundler, her arriving alongside Esma Potts and all the other puppet children I had rescued while fighting the Knight Weaver, which made Pikarina surprised.
"Ooh, you defeated General Tiger!... And he looks so small now! What should we do to him?" Esma asked, me looking at the little tiger and smiling at how he was unconscious as of now.
"We should take him with us as a prisoner of war," I said.
"Smart, now let's get out of here before the Moon Bear King gets wind of what happened," Linda said with seriousness, us then rushing through the air away from the castle and to the far east until we found the location we needed, Castle Waxwane, us entering and feeling relieved at all the white marble columns and sights.
"Ah, now THIS is more like it! Away from the Moon Bear King and out of his sights! No one will ever expect to find us here!" Esma smiled widely as she sat her giant rump on the seat that the Moon Goddess used to warm.
"Um, wow, you've got quite the gumption! Only one rump should be warming that throne and last I checked, it doesn't have warts on it!" Pikarina said as I then simply held her back with a hand to her arm and she looked at me in concern when Esma then got mad and threw her magic spoon at her.
"Trust me, Pika, it isn't worth it trying to argue with her. Besides, I have a plan," I said as I showed off the item I'd gotten from Tiger's mouth, that being the Moonstone Shard.
"Is that a shard of the Moonstone?! I thought those things were destroyed ages ago!" said one of the other kids, him being a young boy of about 9 years old.
"From this one 'book' I've seen in the past in my world, I heard that the Moon Goddess is one with the Moonstone. If we can find the remaining shards of the Moonstone, then we should get the Moon Goddess to full power once again. And if this shard was found in General Tiger's mouth, then maybe the Moon Bear King gave the rest to his other generals?" I asked.
"AH! Of course! I know of where one of those generals is at, and lucky us, he's just outside of Castle Waxwane!" Esma Potts said in surprise as she then flew us up to the windows and showed us the giant wooded lands of the Moonwood. "There's the Moonwood, where General Rat resides to do the Moon Bear King's dreadful desires! Go there, get his shard, and see if you can find the power of the Moon Ninja. His powerful bombs could be of great use to a heroine like you! NOW GET DOWN THERE!" Esma shouted as she bumped be down the long fall with her fat ass and Pikarina then flew down after me and, thankfully, helped to slow my fall with her flight powers.
"I don't trust that witch as far as I can throw her. And though I'm small, I could throw her very, very far away!" Pikarina groaned. "And what kind of book was written about that anyways?"
"Well, my guess, it may have been written by a former member of the Moon Goddess's army that escaped to Earth to warn us? Kind of like certain nursery rhymes or children's stories warning them about taboo things?... Like how Little Red Riding Hood is a story that warns you about talking to strangers?" I asked, her frowning before then thinking about it.
"Hmm... Well, it sounds as good as an excuse as any. I can see that you're not a hundred percent truthful, but of which part I don't know. So tell me flat out, what is the full truth?" she asked, me sighing at that.
"You're being very tough... fine... I have seen this entire story before because it was a video game on my PS3," I said... and now I had to explain a lot while making sure not to speak too loudly, lest the monkey be watching from afar.