Chapter 5

"SHIT!!!" was my basic thought as i fell through the portal. Note to self: not smart to dive into ANYTHING head-first!

In case you were wondering, which i doubt you were, here's what happened: i had dove head-first (i will repeat myself. not smart) into the horizon, and ended up falling flat on my face. i WOULD have landed safely on Lock and/or Darryl, but they scrambled away when they saw me falling from the sky. Hmm...i wonder if my skirt flew up...i'll have to ask Barrel about that...

Anyways, after i picked myself up from the ground, i took a look at my surroundings. i half expected a forest, and it kinda was one...sort of. It was a forest of pools. DON'T CALL ME CRAZY! It really was! See, you know how a forest has lots of trees and shrubs? Well, this place had lots of puddles, and with no scrimmaging on the amount and/or sizes! They ranged from being as big as an ocean to being as small as a drop of rain. And all of the3se stretched as far as the eye could see, possibly even farther! But, i couldn't tell. That was as far as my eyes could see.

"This is the Pools of Nowhere," Darryl stated.

"No, really? I thought it was the Forest of Ponies!" Lock said sarcastically.

I giggled at his comment, but quickly calmed myself down when Darryl gave Lock and i a serious look.

"What's his problem?" I whispered to Barrel.

"You idiot!" he hissed back. "Put yourself in his shoes! He's gotta tell Mrs. Clause that he didn't keep his promise of keeping Sandy Claws safe! Imagine how nervous he must feel! And the guilt! Talk about pressure!"

I was feeling a little guilty myself for being a little insensitive, so i quickly changed the subject.

"Sooo...what's with all the water?" i asked.

"Each pool holds a different world. The bigger the body of water, the bigger the world. Almost like how in the Hinterlands, it depends on how fat the tree is," Darryl responded with his strong Texan accent(forgot that now, didn'tcha!).

"Right...but where's our destination?" Lock asked impatiently. If i didn't know any better, i would've thought he sounded almost vitriolic.

"In the center of this whole...we'll call it 'forest' there are the holiday pools. Each community, whether it's a religion, a country, or something else, has its own cluster of pools that make their own shape. Both the Halloween and Christmas pools reside in the Christian Holiday shape, though i'm not necessarily sure why Halloween would be there since it's more of a community thing...But, that's neither here nor there."

"Wait, why'd you say 'shape?' I thought there were just circles?" Barrel asked.

"Well...umm...it's a little complicated...you'll see when we get there."

And with that, we headed north. Err...at least...what we thought was north. Our compasses didn't really work here, so we just kind of picked a direction and went that way.


"Guys, can't we take a 10 minute break? I'm STARVING!" Barrel whined.

"Dude, we've only been walking for a couple of hours!" Lock snapped.

"Yeah! And we don't even know if we're going in the right direction! It's best if we just keep going," Darryl agreed.

"But i'm HUNGRY!!! Come on, guys! JUST 10 FRIGGIN' MINUTES!!! PLEASE!!! I'M BEGGIN YOU!!!" Barrel yelled, getting on his knees and clasping his hands together.

"Let's just do it! I don't wanna hear that thing whining all day, or night, or whatever it is here!" I barked. By the way, did i mention that there's no sun, moon, stars, or anything else that has to do with the cosmos around here? Yeah, it's just gray. All the time. And it's just water and some rocks. All the time. It was starting to annoy me, so i was even edgier than i normally am.

Regardless of whether it was day or night, we sat down on some rocks and pulled out some snacks. It wasn't much; just some granola bars (chocolate bars in Barrel's case), water (soda in Barrel's case), and some canned food (a turkey in Barrel's case...don't ask me how he got it in his bag!). Barrel scarfed down all of his chocolate bars in a matter of seconds, and i spotted him eying my granola bar as soon as he finished licking his fingers.

"You know, if you weren't a bottom-less pit, you wouldn't be begging for food!" I said while breaking off a piece of my snack to give to him. He looked like he was about to say something, but Darryl cut him off.

"What in bloody hell is that thing!?" I looked behind me to where he was pointing, and thought the same thing. Also, i wondered where the hell he picked up the phrase 'bloody hell.' i kinda liked it...

But, more importantly, i wondered what the thing that was approaching us was. It looked like a fox, but its ears, legs, and tail were replaced with fire. The tips of its orange fur were singed, and, instead of pupils, its eyes glowed a red that challenged the deep red of Lock's shirt. A silver chain-link collar was barely visible underneath the mass of fur on its neck.

An alarm went off in my brain, and i signaled my comrades to prepare for battle. This fox-thing didn't look too friendly, and it didn't look that easy to defeat either. Strangely enough, Darryl jumped behind the rocks we were sitting on instead of preparing his magic, almost like he didn't want the thing to see him...

The fiery fox stopped a couple of yards away from us, and calmly stood there. I think it was sizing us up, but its lack of pupils made it a little hard to tell.

"Well, well, well. This is who Vendetta sent me to destroy; a bunch of weak children who've barely fought a battle in their lives. Pathetic. And here i thought i was going to engage in a challenging battle! Such a disappointment." The thing taunted. Well, it didn't exactly open its mouth and say it. I definitely heard the masculine voice, and it wasn't one of my friend's voices, so it must've been the thing's voice...right?

"Did anyone else just hear an evil monologue? Cause i swear i did!" Lock asked, looking more than a little paranoid.

"Idiots! You've never even heard of telepathy!" the fire fox snarled.

"Who are you? You mentioned that you work for Vendetta...a minion of hers, perhaps?" i pondered aloud.

"Curious little brat, aren't you? Indeed, i do odd jobs for Vendetta. But on my own accord, mind you!" He added quickly at the end, making it a point that he was his own boss. He then continued to sigh, and said rather bluntly, "This is boring me. I think I'll destroy you all now."

Before i even had time to wonder what he meant, the fire fox had jumped onto me, like a cat would pounce on its prey, and it took all my might to keep his jaws from clamping down on my neck. Barrel tried approaching the Thing, but a whack from its tail just set him on fire. I look toward his direction and saw him using the stop, drop, and roll method to get the fire under control.

Meanwhile, Darryl had run from his hiding place, and busied himself with scooping water from various pools in his hands and pouring it on Barrel. If i wasn't in mortal danger, i'd be laughing my ass off!

Suddenly the fire fox jumped off of me, elegantly leaping over my head. Out of the corner of my eye, i caught a blob of grey crashing down on me. I rolled out of the way, only to see Lock, who'd picked up a rock and had tried to crush the Thing, forgetting that i was under it. I glared at him, and he replied with a sheepish look.

"HEEELP!!!" we heard Barrel cry, his voice extremely breathy.

Lock and i rushed over to Barrel, who was being held captive by the fire fox. See, its tail could apparently change shape, because Barrel, while Lock and i had had our silent argument, had been snatched up by the Thing's tail, and was now being crushed to death. The stench of burning flesh was heavy in the air, and it was clear that if we ever got out alive, Barrel was gonna need some serious treatment for his 3rd degree burns.

Meanwhile, Darryl (who was still undetected by the Thing) had run for cover, and i saw the puffball of his red and white hat disappear behind one of the over turned rocks. COWARD! He couldn't even attempt to help his friend!

So, Lock and i rushed to Barrel's aid instead. Unfortunately, we ended up trying to dodge a fiery medieval-based weapon; the thing's ears had fused together, and were now a gigantic mace. And, as Lock and i ran around like chickens without heads, trying not to be pulverized by this fire fox that was laughing sadistically at us, a very strange occurrence, well...occurred.

The attacks stopped. Barrel fell to the ground, his body limp, but his heavy breathing a sign that he was still alive.

While Lock and Darryl tended to Barrel's wound, i noticed a flash of red and blue clashing. I looked up in time to see a show down between the fire fox and a new arrival to the battle field.

The new monster was a wolf, only its ears, legs, and tail were sculpted out of ice. The tips of its white fur were high-lighted with blue, and its pupils were replaced with pure black. A gold chain-link collar was barely visible from underneath its mass of fur. If i didn't know any better, i would've thought that the 2...'animals' were related somehow.

As i stood on the sidelines, i sensed a gentleness that seemed to radiate from the ice wolf. It seemed calmer, more collected, more...pure-bred than the fire fox. I hoped that we had an ally in this ice wolf, because it was winning the battle with a bored look on its face, as if the fire fox was too easy a challenger.

Eventually i got bored myself, and whistled, causing everyone to look at me.

"Would someone care to tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?!?!?! I screamed, my neck vain pulsing at a dangerous rate. The fire fox's eyes strayed slowly from me to Darryl, and it smiled a Cheshire grin.

"Hmm...i didn't expect you to be with them...Well now, a little drama to fix my boredom! It appears that there's more than one sibling rivalry going on here! Ta-ta for now, imbeciles!" He chuckled dryly, his body fading into a small flame that flickered out after a minute.

After a small, awkward silence, I said, "I'm gonna repeat my question...WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!??!"

The ice wolf sighed, and approached us slowly, the sound of ice cracking every time it moved its legs.

"Let me just heal your comrade. Don't worry, i won't hurt him!" It coaxed, speaking via telepathy. Its melodic voice made it clear that it was a girl, and eventually her soft beckoning gained our trust. After we had a quick and quiet huddle, that is.

"I don't know, should we trust...her?"

"Why the hell not!? If she's against that fire thing too, then she's on our side!"

"Not so fast! She could be one of Vendetta's spies, and this whole fight thing was a trick to lour us to her!"

"Screw it! I say we just trust her! I mean, come on! All she wants is to help Barrel!"

In the end, Darryl and i sat close to her as she filled all of Barrel's wounds with water, while Lock sat a little ways off, sulking. After the water dissolved into Barrel's skin, she closed her eyes, and made a chair for him out of ice.

"Don't worry, it's not cold!" she soothed, helping him onto the seat.

"Thank you very much...umm?"

"Quex. My name is Quex. The fox's name Quoix." She explained.

"If you don't mind me asking...who and what exactly are you and Quoix?" I asked, questions buzzing around my head like worker bees.

"I'm sorry children, but i've already given you too much information!" She said quickly, as if she was worried she would get caught. "Listen, just keep going the direction you've been going, and you should come across the Holiday Pools in a few hours. I'm sorry, i truly am, but i really have to go now!"

And just like that, Quex dissolved into a trickle of water.

My companions and i shared a questioning glance, checked Barrel's fast-healing wounds, picked up our things, and continued our...bizarre journey.


A/N: HA!!! I'm leaving you all with a CLIFFY!!! Aren't i evil? Anyways, depending on whether or not this gets uploaded within the next week, you're left with this until late August! HEY! I've actually got a life in the summer (the only time that i do!)! Oh, and sorry about the extremely long wait...i was avoiding doing the fight scene...can anyone out there help me with those??? PLEEEASE!?!?!?? I AM SERIOUSLY LOST ON HOW TO DO A GOOD ONE!!! And, well, we all know that pressures of finals and end of school...

Ah well! Enough of my excuses! And, i think it's pretty clear what i do and don't own, so...yeah...TOODLES!!!