TAoP Chapter 25

What Else Could Go Wrong?

As Penny fell to the ground, she lost control of the bubble, soaking everyone again. Whatever was on top of her, it was fury, freaking out, and heavy. Midnight barked at the thing, trying to get her out but she was stuck.

"Penny, hold on!" Illiana fumbled for her guns.

"No wait! Don't scare her," Jane grabbed Illiana. "She's a friend."

"Well can she get off me!" Penny could hardly breathe.

Jane grabbed the thing—which turned out to be a gorilla—and started talking to her. Penny could only understand a little bit of what they were saying as she created another bubble. But when she heard her mention strange creatures, she decided to pay attention.

"Slow down Turk. You're talking way too fast for me," Jane said while holding the gorilla still.

"What else is there to tell? Huge flying monster coming out of nowhere! We have to run," Turk was practically dragging Jane away.

Penny looked towards where Turk had come from and started listening hard. There was no birds chirping and outside the bubble, only the sound of dripping water was heard. When did it get so silent?

We must've let our guard down. Be careful. We don't know what is out there, Midnight observed.

"Perhaps we should head back," Penny suggested, grabbing her sword.

"See! That's what I've been saying!" Turk yelled.

"What's wrong?" Illiana asked.

"Just something doesn't feel right. Jane, go ahead of us with Turk."

"Alright. C'mon," Jane led the way. Turk followed closely behind with Illiana, who took her guns out. Penny brought up the rear, finally putting her shirt on. It was still too quiet for her liking.

I'm not really smelling anything, but it could be the rain affecting me, Midnight said, walking beside her.

Before Penny could say anything, something shrieked above their heads. She looked up as the thing exploded from the trees, charging straight at them. Penny tried to block it, but it batted her away like she was some kind of bug. She crashed into the trees and fell heavily on her knees.

"Penny!" Illiana yelled as she tried to shoot the flying creature. "It's a Nyght-creature! How in the worlds did it get here?" She was missing the beast as it swerved around, going straight at Jane. The woman and the gorilla were clutching each other as it got closer. But Midnight intervened. He lunged himself at its neck and bit it with all his might. The Nyght-creature gave a terrible shriek as the wolf used his teeth and claws, but with just one hit with his arm, sent Midnight right to the ground.

Penny finally came to her senses and got a good look at the creature. It had a horrible reptile head with sharp looking teeth and red eyes. Its horns on the head looked equally as sharp as the teeth. The wings on the back looked like dragons wings, but the creature could walk on two legs when on the ground. Its grey skin looked like it had been carved out of stone. All in all, it looked to be way too powerful for just the two of them.

The girl immediately sprang into action, swinging her sword, hoping to get even one hit in, but it knocked her sword right out of her hands. She heard it clang behind her as she watched the blood red eyes stare right into her. As it raised its hand to hit her, a shield came out of nowhere and hit is squarely in the head.

"Penny, Illiana, get back!" Max yelled as he ran and jumped with his sword raised above his head. But the knock in the head didn't do much damage since the Nyght-creature backhanded Max right out of the air. He hit a tree and with a groan, laid there unmoving.

"Max!" Illiana ran towards him, still shooting at it, but her focus wasn't there. As she ran to heal her fallen friend, the creature was about to spring on them when a rock hit its head. It turned to see what it was; it was Jayden lifting rocks from around him and shooting them to draw its attention.

It gave another shriek and turned towards him. Jayden paled as he tried to create a barrier. Penny snapped out of her daze and looked for the creature.

It has wings. Maybe I can lure him away from the others.

Wha-wait, Penny don't! Midnight howled as Penny jumped on its back and flew towards the trees. The creature glared at her as she hovered there.

"Bet you can't out fly me!" she taunted. Star chimed angrily at her as the creature lunged. Penny moved quickly away and sped off somewhere safe. She flew the fastest she has ever done towards a mountain she spotted. Just then she realized she didn't have her sword.

"Aww man! Just my luck!" she yelled at herself. She glanced back behind her to see if the monster was there. It wasn't. She slowed down, turning around to see if she could spot it when a great weight landed on top of her causing her to lose her happy thought. Penny struggled against its hold, but it dug its claws into her and she hissed at the pain. She watched the trees grow closer and felt her whole body slam into a branch. She gasped in pain and rolled over on her side to get up.

The Nyght-creature landed on the branch with her and watched her struggle to get up. Lightening lit up the sky as the rain came down harder, making it difficult to see. Penny finally got up, blinking away the little black dots in front of her eyes. But when was temporally blind, the creature scratched her left side, causing her to lose focus again. Pain shot up, making her body go numb with shock. She clutched her left arm, feeling the damage instead of looking at it. The wound was deep and her arm was completely useless.

Penny glared at the beast as it watched her as if she was a play thing.

"Okay, you got my attention. And I'm only gonna tell you once: stay away from the Hearts," she said to it, as the voices of those Hearts invaded her mind, but she pushed them away. With a wave of her right hand, she caused the rain to stop falling only in the small area around them. She had noticed the creature was completely soaked from the rain.

As if reading her mind, the Nyght-creature lounged towards her with intense speed. Penny calmly lifted her blue gloved hand and imagined the creature freezing. She closed her eyes and waved her hand, waiting for anything. It all happened so fast that she didn't know if it had worked, but when she opened her eyes, she found the creature frozen on the branch. Its arm just inches away from her chest.

She sat down with a sigh of relieve and contacted the others.

Guys, I stopped it, but I don't know for how long. I'm sending you guys a picture and path of where I am.

Penny didn't hear a response as she fainted again.

Something was shaking her and speaking, but she couldn't make out the words. She fought against the darkness and soon she could hear everything.

"C'mon Penny! Wake up!"

She forced her eyes open and saw Jayden leaning over her. He sighed in relief when he saw her green eyes.

"Thank the gods."

"She's up?" Soon Illiana came into her vision. "That was close."

Penny quickly got up and looked around, "Where is it? I didn't lose it, did I?" She staggered a bit as Illiana grabbed her.

"No we got it. Don't worry, just lie back down. You got hurt pretty badly."

She sat back down again as Midnight came over to see how she was.

That was a very foolish thing you did.

I know and I'm sorry! I never think about these things.

But I'm glad that you are alright. It's just the way you are, I guess.

Penny grinned at him and hugged him tightly. Max had come over and was talking to the others. She watched them, knowing they were deciding the next step they should take. She sighed as she glanced at her arm.

Ouch, it really hurts!

Illiana said that she was able to do all that she could, but it's not completely healed. You must be careful with it.

Penny examined it more closely. Her shirt was ruined from the scratch so they didn't bother trying to fix it. They even used the shirt for binding since they didn't have anything else to use. But that wasn't what was bothering her. It was the fact that she could feel the heat coming off from her left side. Did it always do that or did it start when I learned about magic?

The trio came over to her and sat in a circle. They looked exhausted, but there were still important things to discuss.

"Okay, Penny, tell us what happened when you left," Jayden said wiping his glasses off.

She hesitated, but she slowly told them what happened. She didn't leave anything out and they didn't ask any questions. When she finished, they sat in silence.

Finally it was Max who broke it, "Wow, for a ten year old that is very impressive."

"But very stupid and risky. Mostly we were the ones who were stupid, but you did well," Jayden added.

"Why? What did you do wrong?" Penny asked confused.

"We never really told you how to defeat a Nyght-creature," Illiana explained. "We thought we would never run into one, but clearly we were wrong."

"So how do you defeat it?"

"By cutting off its head," Max answered. "That's why you never leave your sword behind. These guys are on a completely different level than the Shadows. You have to be more careful."

Penny nodded her head in understanding but soon got dizzy.

Jayden stood up with a sigh, "We better be heading out."

The group stood at the water's edge, loading the boat with supplies. Penny paused at her work as her left arm gave a twinge with every movement. Illiana had healed it so she could move it again, but it still wasn't healed all the way. The others finally forced her to stop working, so she sat next to Jane and watched them.

"Will you come back to visit us?" Jane asked as she put the finishing touches on Penny's new shirt. It was only temporary until she got her old one from the ship.

"Of course I will. But don't forget that you can talk to me anytime you want," Penny pointed to her bead that was hanging around her neck. The others had finished loading when the sun was going down for the day.

"Just enough daylight to get us going," Max said as they plied in. They had said their good-byes and left notes for the next group that might come here.

As they made it back to their ship, they quickly got the ship airborne and into the galaxy. The group, tired from the long day, hardly ate anything when something ran into their ship.

Illiana groaned, "Now what? What did we do to deserve this?"

Penny made it to the top first to find a small spaceship, like their original one, landing on the deck. The ship was red and black. On the side was painted, The Fire Arrow.

The others made it up top when the door opened and Donald and Goofy stepped out. The four of them stood in shock as they approached them.

"Dad, what are you—" Max started until he was interrupted.

"Actually, I should be the one asking that question," a new voice that Penny didn't recognize called from the ship. Jayden froze as a tall, lean figure stepped out.

"Would you like to answer that, Jayden?"

"Dad?"