Terraxia
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine. Coraline and friends belong to Neil Gaiman and the LAIKA studios.
There was no time in the other world, but in the complete absence of light, Coraline felt this feature of the other world at its' keenest.
"So, uh, any more surprises your aunt got in store for us?" she asked the other mother.
"She is my other aunt," the latter's voice was unusually dry, "and that is a different that you understand as keenly as anyone else."
"Other aunt? So, who was the original?"
"I had no original. My other mother wasn't as nice to me as I was to you."
Coraline paused, for once understanding what was not being said clear enough. "Look, I am just trying to shift the mood in this empty dark-"
"We're here!" Cat said unexpectedly, as the empty darkness around them vanished, replaced by the usual atmosphere and the mix of light from the sun, the moon and the stars from the sky. They were back in the other world, not far away from an immense oak tree, and tied to the tree's trunk was a figure that looked a lot like Wybie, albeit very miserable and scared one...
Coraline emitted a cry of emotion and run towards her friend.
"Child, Coraline, wait!" Christabell cried out in vain. "It's Terraxia's trap-"
[Break]
Though the other world had no time, the scene before Coraline changed in a moment: before she was running across a clear meadow to her friend, the next, the meadow sprouted a thousand tentacles of woody grass, interweaving them into a net, ready to seize and bind her within.
Coraline just froze, her eyes goggling from the bizarre horror, and then something warm and furry smacked into her leg – and it was Cat.
"Coraline!" the feline exhaled, exhausted from dodging the strands of the hardened grass. "Use cold metal! It's the only thing that will work!"
"Cold metal? Where would I have cold metal- oh!" Coraline grasped the definitely cold and metallic buckle of her trouser belt. Ignoring the thoughts about the inappropriateness of her actions, she pulled the belt out, and began to whip it at the strands of the plant net.
Once...twice...three times Coraline struck, and with each blow a portion of net would fall away and Coraline would be able to move. Then, however, Coraline noticed that her buckle was being rather worn away by the blows as well, which meant that she had to do something else instead.
"Coraline!" Cat was dodging through the bottom area of the net trap, avoiding the strands by shear feline luck. "You got to strike at the main knot!"
"The main knot? What's that?" Coraline exclaimed, as the strands began to tighten around her once again.
"Here!" Cat yelped, as he pointed the paw at a knot of strands especially thick and thorny. "Strike low! Right at the roots!"
"At the roots?" Coraline goggled. As if on response, the net began to re-shape itself, forming not so much a net as a monstrous fist almost ready to smash her into the ground. "It's going to be a low blow!"
"Just do it – please!" Cat yowled as monstrous, misshapen fist began to descend – and that gave Coraline the extra motivation that she needed: she dropped to her knees and swung the buckle of her belt sideways, right at the roots (hopefully).
Then there was a monumental explosion of sound.
[Break]
As the dust settled, Coraline became aware that no, she was not blasted all the way to the moon (or the sun or any of the stars), nor has anything or anyone else. Instead, once again, she ended up lying flat on her face in the dust, and again, this time her audience had been increased.
"Jonesy!" Wybie sounded genuinely thrilled to see her, and that almost made up her embarrassing position. "You're here! As I knew you would!"
Coraline got up, silently praying for her pants not to fold down, and blew some more dust from her nose. "Yeah, Lovat, it is I. Now I think we should get out of here as quickly as we can, before-"
Something slammed into the ground – a bare foot with thick calluses on her sole, and with thick, armour-like claws for nails. Skin as black as coal underground completed the picture.
"I don't know who you are, little meat-puppet," Terraxia bellowed as she seemed to block out light by her mere presence, "but for touching my property you will pay!"
"Um," Coraline instinctively looked at the remains of her belt that she had held onto, but the few bits of burned leather probably would not intimidate a fly, let alone someone like Terraxia.
"Excuse me," Coraline realized that it was her other mother, Christabell, speaking from behind the giant hag. "But there's one last thing left to do."
"What?" Terraxia snarled, as she whirled around... and got hit in the face with the sack that Christabell had been carrying around with her for a while now, which contained two or three round objects of approximately middle size. And as the sack connected with Terraxia's face, there was an explosion, flinging the smaller female back, landing her right on her rear end.
Terraxia, however, staggered back as well, and Coraline was surprised to see that the giantess was actually hurt: coal-black skin and flesh was falling off her face in flakes of dirt, revealing her copper-green teeth set in jaws made of petrified bone. However, in her eyes – initially pits of mere darkness – there was a new look, a new glint, and it was utterly deadly.
"This trick will aid you not, little one," Terraxia rumbled, even as some more of her essence fell off her cheek- and jawbones. "I will kill you, and your new cohorts, and then I-"
"Excuse me," spoke a new voice, as gentle as a breeze among tree leaves, but that gentleness was deceptive: Coraline watched with trepidation, as another giantess appeared on the scene and strode straight towards the eldest hag.
Then, Coraline frowned in thought: the newcomer had skin the colour of fresh wood, and leaves in place of hair, but that was all, Ashira at the gate at least had real hair to obscure all the inappropriate – or appropriate – bits, but this one... this one didn't even had any bits to obscure, it wasn't human at all, just a puppet made out of wood.
Well, as the newcomer ignored Terraxia's claws and just lifted the giant hag off the ground and into the air, not 'just a puppet' at all but something far greater. "In the name of Nemesis, Righteous Retribution, I bind thee, Terraxia, as you had bind me, and bound you shall stay, as I have stayed, till metal that's cold and blood that is hot shall free you!" Coraline heard her new ally speak in the same deceptively gentle voice.
In reply, Terraxia released a yowl that sounded like nothing human at all; rather, it was a bestial amplification of an avalanche deep in the mountains, the sound of rocks breaking against each other, and nothing more. Her shape too became quite inhuman: a four-legged beast with claws and fangs like those of a sabre-tooth cat, albeit green with poison and disease.
Yet...all of these things had helped her not: the rays from the stars above had formed ropes and nooses that ensnared Terraxia's flailing limbs and pulled her up, up and away into the sky, until she vanished from sight.
Then Terraxia's victor turned around, and her eyes were of a luminous green colour that Coraline found rather disturbing. "And who are you, good people?" the victor said gently.
"Everyone," Christabell's voice sounded shaky, "this is Quera, the paragon duchess of the dryads and other tree spirits."
"How do you do?" Coraline got up and mechanically tried to curtsy, forgetting that she currently wore pants without a belt. Naturally, this resulted in the latter falling down.
"Hey, Jonesy, I can see your underpants!" Wybie exclaimed, choking down giggles, "and are those green-"
Instinctively, Coraline kicked backwards, aiming for Wybie's leg to shut him up. Only, the tangled-up-around-her-ankles pants caused her to miss, hitting Wybie right in the –
Wybie's giggles died out abruptly and completely, as the unlucky boy fell down in the shape of the embryo. To make matters worse, this action made Coraline lose her balance, and she fell back on her face for the fourth time since her kitchen accident, her tail curling upwards into the air like a flag.
[Break]
"You know, they're not usually like that," through the clouds of her humiliation Coraline heard Cat speak. "It's just that currently they're not at their best, it seems."
"Apparently so," the voice of the duchess of the dryads was still gentle, as she lifted the still crouching Wybie into the air and breathed at his voice. Immediately, Wybie's whimpers stopped:
"Why, the pain is gone!"
"Glad to hear it," the dryad smiled, as she helped Coraline back on her feet as well. With a gesture from her other hand, a moderately thick strip of bark peeled off the oak and wove itself into a cord, which then tied itself around Coraline's pants, securing them around her waist.
"Thank you," Coraline smiled in relief. "Sorry about all of this."
"You have nothing to be sorry, child, after all, it is only because of you that the power of the covey is broken for a long, long time."
"Perhaps, but we still need to visit the Lady of Summer to do something about her tail," Cat spoke up from his vantage position.
"What about her tail? It's real cute," the dryad said cheerfully.
"But nonetheless we must be going," Cat said firmly.
"Very well. You know how to go there?"
"Not anymore," Coraline shook her head sadly. "We got turned around too many times by now."
"Well, then, take a good look at my oak. See its' two shadows – one from sunlight, the other from the light of the moon. You, consequently, follow the moonlight shadow until you have reached a juniper bush. In addition, from there you will find a path that will lead you to the poppy field of the P'oh. There, he'll show you the path to her ladyship."
"Thank you," Coraline nodded respectfully.
"No, thank you – all of you," the paragon duchess replied turning around to look straight at Christabell. "Including you, madam. Truly, it was a pleasure of seeing how you can put the Unseelie into a human, but you couldn't take the human from Unseelie, mmm?"
"No," Christabell nodded, "you cannot. And thank you once again for the directions."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Cat spoke up. "Let's go, already!"
And away they went.
To be continued...