Chapter 3
Our main problem was the fact that neither Lock, Barrel, nor I knew anything about this 'Vendetta' lady. Lucky for us, Darryl knew something about her. Actually, he knew a lot about her; almost as if he'd known her for a really long time. Not only that, but he would always grow nervous and fidgety every time she was mentioned. His normally sea blue eyes would always change to an icy blue, and his voice would start cracking. I decided to wave his odd behavior aside, and pinned it on nerves for the battle yet to come.
"Shock, were you listening to me?" he asked.
"Hmm?...Oh, yeah! Of course I was listening to you!" I said, breaking out of my day dream. I had been thinking aboutF Barrel, who always got all flustered and nervous when he was around Darryl. I'm kinda worried about him…
"Right…so, anyways. Vendetta's weaknesses are fire and love. Fire because she's an ice witch, and love because she hates any kind of caring emotion. Showing friendship will only slightly damage her, though, so only an act of pure love will seriously hurt her!" he said.
"Fire. Love. Got it!" I said.
"Soooo, Darryl…you got a girl-friend?" I asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.
"WHAT?!" he screamed.
"I asked you if you had a girl-friend!" I stated. "Well?"
"Umm…not really, no…Why?" he said nervously.
"Oh, no reason. No reason at all." I said as innocently as I could. He either bought my answer, or was too weirded out by what I had asked to continue the conversation.
So, after we had all of our food, supplies, and assorted fire-based-weapons packed, we had the problem of how we were going to get there. Barrel suggested we take a boat, but none of us owned one, and we couldn't take a cruise or something like that because of the humans that would be on it. Darryl tried using his magic to teleport us straight to the horizon, but he ran out of energy trying to get all four of us there. I suggested my broom, but Lock pointed out the fact that it was too small for 4 people. Lock suggested we try swimming the distance, but I hit him on the head with my hat. My god, he can be stupid!
"Shit," Barrel said as he paced around the first floor of the factory(our temporary living quarters), trying to think.
"No kidding!" Darryl said while sitting on one of the green and red chairs Santa had poofed up for us during our 'meeting.'
"HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THERE!!!" Lock screamed in frustration, also sitting on one of the green and red chairs.
"I got it!" I yelled, slamming the book in my lap closed.
The boys started an excited chorus of, "Tell us! Yeah, come on! Don't hold out on us!" I simply smirked, with a dangerous look in my eyes. I knew my plan was risky, but it was worth a shot.
"Alright, I'll tell you! This book here-" I held up the one I'd just closed"-is an ancient spell book. And, while I was looking through it, I found this spell that allows you to freeze salt water. I'm pretty sure I can do it. I mean, it looks simple enough...So maybe I could use it to make a path for us!" I said, very proud of my revelation.
My friends just gaped at me. Barrel's voice squeaked, "You mean…we'd be walking across the ocean!?"
Darryl just exploded. "Wouldn't a human see us?! I mean, it's not necessarily the most normal thing for them to see!" But I had an answer for him.
"I've thought about that too! But, as I was thinking, I remembered a time spell that I'd picked up a little while back! One that would freeze time long enough for us to get away from civilization. I'll have to teach it to you though, Darryl. I can't perform two spells at the same time! I'd run out of energy too fast, and then we'd be stranded in the middle of the ocean."
Lock, who up until then had just been standing there with his mouth wide open staring at me, broke out of his stupor. "Wait, wait, wait…back up! You mean to tell me that if Darryl screws up, then the humans see us, and we're stuck here, trying, and most likely failing to explain the situation without giving up the secret of the Holiday Worlds? And if you screw up, we'd be stuck in middle of the ocean with no one to save us, and dangerous creatures on all sides?!" he said in a panicky voice, his right eye twitching.
"Well…if you wanna put it in that way…I suppose you're correct…" I said, trying to evade his question.
Silence took over as we all considered this option. Lock was right, though. If we screwed this one up, we'd all die, and all of the holidays would cease to exist. Suddenly, I heard Barrel's voice speak.
"I think we should give it a shot!"
He walked to the center of the room and thrust his hand forward. Darryl stood up and went to him, putting his hand on top of Barrel's.
"I agree with Barrel!" Darryl said enthusiastically. Lock stood up and followed suit of the other two.
"Birds of a feather!" he said, putting his hand on top of Darryl's. I followed suit of my friends and kept my head down, my hat covering my teary eyes.
"Now and forever!" I said softly.
"MOMMY!!!!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!!!!!" Barrel screamed, hugging himself and running around in circles.
"OW! Will you just shut up?! You're hurting my ears!" Lock said, rubbing his now red ears.
"Guys, shut-up! Darryl hasn't even frozen time yet!" I scolded. We were standing on the water's edge, and Darryl was preparing to cast the time spell. We each carried our own bags on our shoulders, and we each had ice-skates on our feet. Darryl had taught us how to ice-skate this past week since it would be faster than walking.
Once Barrel was done freaking out, I went over the plan with them again. You have no idea how truly stupid those two can be! "Now guys, once Darryl casts his spell, wait for me to freeze the water. Darryl, the spell will hold by itself, so you can go with Barrel and Lock as soon as I'm done. But remember; the time spell only works for 2 hours, so we have to move quickly!" They all nodded solemnly. I heard Darryl start talking, and I knew there was no more time to prepare. It was now or never.
"Tick and Tock, lords of time
Please, listen to this rhyme.
A small amount we do request,
So help us freeze the sun in the west."
All of a sudden, the sun flew from east to west, and paused just as it was about to disappear. A beautiful sunset now met our eyes, and I stared in awe at what had just occurred.
"Alright Shock, do your stuff!" Darryl said, moving closer to the water. I closed my eyes and focused my own energy. Everything turned a greenish-purple, and I felt a breeze start to blow all around me. I opened eyes, which now glowed a mint green, and chanted,
"Spirits of Poseidon; lend me your ears.
Leave behind all of your fears.
By ice we intend to reach our goal.
Imitate your brethren from the north and south pole."
A huge gust of wind started up as soon as I finish my last word, and the wet sand in front of me slowly turned to ice. As I cautiously walked toward the water, the ice continued forming in front of me. I took another, more confident step, and I smiled an evil smile. I raced ahead of my friends, turning our adventure into a race.
After an hour's worth of weaving in and out of each other, I was fairly ahead of my friends, so I looked back to see how much space we had covered. To my amazement, the pier we had left behind was barely visable. I faced frontward again, and noticed the sun had gotten a little larger than what it was at the harbor. My friends skidded to a stop behind me as they came to the same realization I had just come upon; we were actually getting somewhere!
We spent the next half hour gliding along in silence. Then, out of the blue, I saw Lock skating right beside me! He was giving me a weird look; not a creepy weird, but a 'I'm way too happy to be Lock' weird.
"What's wrong?" I sighed.
"Hm? Oh, nothing! Nothing at all!" he said quickly, almost nervously. He blushed and looked away, and it was my turn to give him a weird look.
I started wondering why he was acting so strange, but something interrupted my thoughts. The ice beneath my feet felt soft; too soft to support me. Suddenly, a cold feeling surged through my body. My lungs were constricted, and my clothes felt ten times heavier than they were. I tried gasping for breath, but all I got was a mouthful of salt water. Everything started to turn black; a cold, unfeeling, unforgiving black that meant the end of this adventure called life.
