Chapter 10 – Second Academy: Water

"How did you know that the academies had underground plumbing?" I had to ask. "Oh, easy. From this." Yakko then pulled from his trouser pocket a crumpled up piece of paper. When he un-crumpled it to show us, it turned out to be a blueprint for the basic structure of the academies. It even showed the underground piping for the water and sewage systems. "How did you understand this without Ace's translation spell?" Wakko then asked his brother in his own confusion. "That's easy too. I studied the whole thing and simply connected the pieces in my head together... What translation spell?" Yakko said back to his brother. "Oh, Ace found a spell that can help us read any language in existence for four hours out of each day." Wakko answered. "You mean four hours of being able to read even Valkyrian, and a twenty hour waiting period?" Yakko asked trying to figure out the exact meaning behind his brother's explanation. "Only if you cast the spell just after sunrise of each new day." Wakko stated. Yakko was at a loss for words and still slightly confused as to how the spell worked, but he also was sure that he would eventually figure it out.

"Well sibs, looks like I'm out for the whole magic casting thing. Now we are down to Runt, Wakko and Dot as backup for this little game." Yakko deduced. "Who would have thought that Queen Angelina's idea of fun would put lives in jeopardy? Let's go back to the palace and let her have a piece of our minds." Dot suggested. The rest of us nodded our heads at the notion and we then made our way back to the Silver Palace. When we arrived at the Silver Palace, it was early morning the next day and we were exhausted from traveling so instead of seeking out Queen Angelina to chew her out, we simply endured the journey from the front door to our beds. When we reached our destinations, we collapsed upon the cloud like beds and each fell right to sleep almost immediately.

This time I dreamt of home back at Mira's house, eating a can of the most delicious tuna and a bowl of cold 2% milk. About halfway through my dream, the room turned dark and my meal vanished from existence. Wondering what happened, I took a look around only to see nothing but darkness all around me. From the darkness, I could hear the voices of Yakko, Wakko, Dot, Runt, and Mira speaking all incoherently at the same time. I began to wander through the darkness in the direction I thought the voices were coming from until the scenery changed and I saw Ace battling against a humongous creature that looked like it was made of silver. It was humanoid in shape and its arms were long enough to be placed on the ground and still need to have their elbows slightly bent. It also stood hunched slightly forward and still was approximately 60 feet tall or taller. Normally, when it opened its mouth, it looked like a human trying to move its mouth with its face completely covered. That was until it opened its mouth for an attack. At this point it opened its mouth so wide, the silver split open and looked like it was simply melting away. Even though it moved fairly slowly, it was still formidable for Ace. Inside the open mouth of the silver monster, looked like some sort of relic that represented five claws and a cannon barrel come from deep in the back of its throat. A few inches in front of the barrel's opening, silvery blue energy began to charge and the erupted in a powerful energy beam aimed straight at me. Ace flew into the beam's path just before it struck the ground where I was standing. However Ace's shield cracked and shattered rather quickly. Ace and I were both engulfed in the beam and I awoke with a start, sweating and cold.

Breathing heavily, I looked around the room and saw Dot sleeping peacefully under the covers of the bed. Maybe I was worrying too much, but I still needed to check on Ace to make sure, after all, I actually have come to think of him as my real son. (Even though I never would say that out loud.) I jumped down off of the soft bed and landed silently on the floor. I walked over to the door leading to the hallway and nudged the door open with my nose and head. The door was pretty heavy and moving it wasn't easy. Turning to my left I made my way to the boys' room to check up on Ace and the others. The door to the boys' room was slightly open when I arrived, so I pushed the door farther open as best as I could with my left paw and my head. Peeking in, I could see Runt sleeping near the bed with Ace curled up next to him. In the bed was Wakko sleeping under the covers and on a nearby couch was Yakko covered up in a thick warm blanket with a pillow under his head. It was amazing how we all could go to sleep when it was still light out.

I thought to myself that it might be wise to bring plenty of camping gear from now on so we can set up camp during the night and travel by day. I yawned deeply and decided that I would say something after we all had woken up from our sleep. Then I made my way back to the room, jumped back upon the bed, curled up and fell fast asleep once again.

I awoke once again later in the evening of that day and could hear clanking noises beyond the bedroom door. I looked around and noticed that Dot had woken up before me and had exited the room. I began to wonder what all of that clanking was about. So I leaped from the bed and exited the room, pushing the door slightly open with my head. I emerged to see the Warners rummaging through Wakko's gag-bag looking for what seemed to be camping supplies. They had gathered blankets, sleeping bags, a lantern, a tent, and other supplies all together. It seemed like we all had the same idea after this occurrence. I walked up to the group and yawned deeply, suddenly Dot leaned back and yawned after me, then Ace and Runt at the same time, then Yakko. Wakko held his breath for a time trying to hold in his yawn, but he couldn't last. He tilted his head back and gave out the biggest yawn of the entire group. Suddenly every one turned to me and stated, "Don't do that! It's contagious!" "Sorry." Was my only sheepish answer. "Looks like you guys had the same idea that I had." I finally stated after another ten seconds of silence. "I dunno, what was your idea?" Yakko said rhetorically. "Funny." I remarked to him. He simply responded with a big goofy grin. "Now all we need it a portable TV and marshmallows!" Yakko then stated sarcastically. Wakko reached into his gag-bag and pulled out a small six inch portable television. "Sorry Yakko, I can't seem to find the marshmallows." He stated with all innocence and honesty. Yakko simply slapped his forehead and pulled his hand down his face in slight frustration. It took us another half of an hour to get all we needed for the remainder of the journey. After that we decided to await Queen Angelina's arrival to give her that piece of our minds.

Night fell and she never showed, we were about to turn in and go back to bed when Wakko spotted a figure in the distance. "Look guys, over there!" he shouted to us. We waited until the figure came close enough to see. I turned out not to be the Queen, but the Zouriinkusu. He approached us and stared at us for a short while. "So you have defeated the Guardian of Flames?" he finally asked. "Yah, uuuuuuuh I guess that was him. Giant flaming horse, right?" Yakko answered. "That is correct young one." Was the enormous creature's response. "Uuuuuuuh about that," Yakko's first two words melding nearly together as he spoke, "We had no idea that this 'game' would put our lives in jeopardy. We need to talk to the queen." The large lynx reared back in surprise and then chuckled at Yakko. "If you can catch up to her, you can give her your lecture." "You're gonna make us search all of the academies, aren't you." Yakko deduced with slight frustration. The Zouriinkusu simply nodded. "Well sibs, I guess we should get moving." Yakko said even more frustrated. "Awe." Wakko and Dot complained. "Hey, it's not like we've got a whole lot of choices here." Yakko reminded his siblings.

The Zouriinkusu knelt down to indicate that it would let us ride it again. "Let me get you started by taking you to the next academy." It said to us. "Great, more incentive." Yakko stated sarcastically. "Would you rather walk?" The creature retorted. Yakko simply gave the creature a sheepish grin and we climbed up on his back. Off like a shot, the giant lynx took off with great speeds. Ace and I were barely able to hold on to his fur and before we knew what was going on, he screeched to a halt. We were there at the next academy. "This is the Academy of Water." The Zouriinkusu told us before turning around and dashing off with the same speed he used to get us here. At least this time we knew to look for the academy's guardian rather than aimlessly search through random books.

We walked into the academy's arena and there in the center was a siren mermaid. She was gorgeous, with blond wavy hair that extended down nearly half of her tail, enchanting sapphire-blue eyes and fair white skin. If she had human legs, she would stand around 5 feet and 7 inches tall. If you count the tail fins, around 6 feet long. She had the torso of a well endowed female human and her blond hair miraculously constantly covered her breasts. (Gotta love censorship!) Upon seeing her in full view, Yakko and Wakko zipped up to her as fast as lightning bolts, stiffened their back and began panting like dogs. Then they howled in unison, "Hellllooooo Nurse!", and before Dot could even make an attempt to catch them, they leaped into the air and landed into her awaiting arms, and both gave her a big smooch on the cheeks, then they went back to panting like dogs with hearts in their eyes.

Dot walked up to the guardian, who still had the Warner brothers in her arms, and said, "Go ahead, you can eat them if you want." She then turned to us and added, "Obscure joke. Read 'The Odyssey'." The guardian looked at the two brothers, one at a time, tilted her head as if she was considering it, extended her arms and dropped the brothers on their rear ends. "I don't think so." She then stated. "So, what's your test?" Dot asked as the rest of us joined her at her side. The brothers stood up and listened to the guardian's request. Suddenly, the area around us changed to an ocean, yet we didn't sink into the water. "Phaboo!" Wakko exclaimed. "An illusion?" I asked. "Maybe, or we really need to start eating better." Yakko stated sarcastically. "My test for you is..." the guardian said in her melodic voice. "Find me, without using any magic." And with that, she sank into the water and vanished. The waves began to get rougher and rougher, making it difficult to see anything. "There she is..." Wakko was just about to point out until a shark jumped out of the spot where he was pointing and nearly bit his arm off. "Whoa...not." he finished his sentence, yanking his arm back.

"I didn't think it was going to be that easy." I thought to myself. "We have to find her before we get devoured by these sharks." We stood back to back and huddled as close to each other as possible, me on Dot's shoulder, Ace on Wakko's, and Runt at Yakko's right side/Wakko's left. I noticed dark patches in the blue water, despite the rough waves. One of them moved in close to us and a shark had lunged out of it, nearly taking me right off of Dot's shoulder. I looked around at all of the dark spots in the water doing my best to keep track of them. There were around a total of 17 shadowy spots moving around all the same length. I noticed only one looked obviously skinnier then the rest. That had to be her. I followed the shadowy area and pointed at it. "There you are!" I yelled. The shadow rose from the surface and there she was jumping out of the water like a dolphin. She re-orientated herself to seem as if she was standing up like a human and hovered over the water which vanished and we were back in the academy's arena. She began to applaud our work and said, "Well done. Very well done." Wakko took this opportunity for a visual gag and whipped out a charcoal steak to show everybody. Dot gave her brother a dirty look and smacked the dish right out of his hand. "Put that away!" She said. The guardian giggled at Wakko's little joke and continued on by saying, "The spell of wishes cannot me found materially, but when all is lost and you have no more to give, find the strength that lies deep within." She then leaned over to the two brothers. "And this is for you two brave warriors." She then gave them both a kiss on the right cheek. They both stiffened up at that notion, literally cracked and fell into 40 or 50 pieces for Dot to put back together. The guardian actually then broke out into uncontrollable laughter and we joined her. Until Wakko said, "I don't get it." Then it was a simultaneous event of the rest of smacking our foreheads.

After that fiasco, we decided to set up camp in the main entryway of the academy. The guardian even decided to lend us her company. (I think she was hoping for another kiss from the brothers who were goo-goo-eying her nearly the whole time.) Wakko eventually pulled out his magic fridge and we ate a delicious meal. Then we set up the tent, unrolled our sleeping bags, and bid each other good night. The bags obviously weren't as comfortable as the cloud-like beds back at the castle, but they were good enough and we had a good night's rest.