Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Christmas was good to me, but I still do not own Hannah Montana. No infringement intended.

When Miley awoke, Lilly was gone. Miley stared despondently at the empty cell next to her, considering how like that empty cell her heart felt. She sighed and shifted so that she was sitting with her back against the glass, then leaned her head back against the glass and closed her eyes. It wasn't until Miley opened her eyes again that she saw that the door to her cell was slightly ajar.

Slowly, quietly, Miley got to her feet and crept up on the door, suspecting some sort of trickery. Reaching the doorframe, she leaned over carefully and peeked through the aperture between the door and the frame. As far as she could tell, there was no one out there. Carefully as she could, Miley pushed the door open and stepped out into the hallway.

The hallway was empty of any other being, but Miley instantly noticed what was there that had not been there before. Brightly colored feathers formed a trail from the door to the stairway. Curious, Miley followed the path.

The feathers led Miley down one floor, then down a hallway and up another two floors. At the top of the last staircase, the trail of feathers came to a stop. Miley found herself in yet another heretofore unseen hallway. At the end of the hallway to Miley's right, unmistakable and impossible to miss, Cantari stood silently, facing the wall on the stairwell side of the hall.

"Not that I'm complaining," Miley said when she had reached Cantari, "but shouldn't I be locked up instead of roaming around free?"

Some facial muscles at the corner of Cantari's beak twitched, giving Miley the impression that the bird was trying to smile. "Some would have it that way," Cantari said quietly, "but you asked me to watch for opportunities. Now we have one."

Cantari lifted a wing, indicating the wall. Miley turned to look at the wall, and found herself looking through a long, rectangular window into a frozen habitat of some sort.

"Are we busting out of here on polar bears or something?" Miley asked.

"Look more closely," Cantari whispered.

Miley peered through the glass, trying to see what Cantari wanted her to see. But there was nothing of any importance she could see. Drifts of snow formed short, rolling hills, and in the center of the habitat was a frozen lake. Next to the lake was a fallen tree trunk.

"I don't see—" Miley said, cutting herself off when she saw the recumbent tree trunk shift. "What was that?" she gasped. A talking sunflower was one thing; a dead tree that moved on its own was another.

"That, dear girl, is Chancellor Krokylus," Cantari said.

"He'll die in there!" Miley asked with alarm. In spite of everything, she was starting to like the scaly regent.

"Not quite," said Cantari. "You see, it takes nothing for a crocodile man to be cold blooded in the scientific sense of the term. However, the demands of the Rodent King require that Krokylus also be cold blooded in the figurative sense; he must be ruthless, unemotional, detached. Something must have melted his heart, and now he must refreeze it."

"And that works?" Miley asked incredulously.

"It seems to," Cantari replied. "Now let me explain how that helps us. While he's in there, Krokylus can't move very quickly. If you are very swift, you can take his keys from him before he can react."

"Why me?" Miley asked. "Why not you?"

"For many reasons, not the least of which is that I would be executed for making such an attempt should it fail," explained Cantari. "You would be punished, but allowed to live. And, on a more practical note, the keys are in a pocket on his right side. My wings won't fit into the pocket."

"I can't really argue with that," Miley said.

"You must be quick," Cantari advised as he reached for the door separating the habitat from the hallway. "It is very cold in there, and you will become stiff and shaky before very long."

Miley breathed in deeply to calm her nerves. "Okay," she said, "I'm ready."

Cantari pulled the door open and stepped aside. A blast of frigid air struck Miley in the face. Being so used to California weather, the cold made her want to shrink away and give up. But she knew this could be her only chance to escape, her only chance to be reunited with Lilly. So instead of letting the cold discourage her, she let the cold reinforce her resolve. She stepped into the habitat.
The inside of the habitat was even colder than the icy blast that had blown through the doorway. Focused on the task at hand, the cold activated her adrenal gland even as it chilled her blood. Putting subtlety aside, Miley broke into a run, sliding to a stop over the snow as she reached the lethargic form of Krokylus.

Miley got down on one knee and reached for Krokylus' robe, grabbing a handful of fabric and yanking it toward her. She heard the tinkling sound of many keys on a keychain and knew that the pocket was somewhere in the flowing material in her hand. Dropping one fold of fabric and then another, she eventually felt pointy objects pressing into her hand through the material. Holding the robe in her right hand, she stuck her left hand into the pocket and grasped the keys. But before she could remove her hand from the pocket, a scaly claw clasped itself around her wrist.

"What . . ." gasped Krokylus, "are . . . you . . . doing?"

"For what it's worth," Miley said, her voice wavering as her teeth chattered in the bitter cold, "I really am sorry, but we all have a job to do."

Without a second thought, Miley lifted her right hand, curled it into a fist, and brought it down with all the force she could onto Krokylus' wrist. There was a small cracking sound followed by a pitiable, weary moan from Krokylus. Miley was barely aware of the stinging in her right hand as she pulled the keys out of the robe with her left and stood up to run. Instead of running, though, Miley stumbled forward five feet and fell to the ground. Her legs had gotten cold and betrayed her.

Daring a glance behind her, Miley saw that Krokylus was rising to his feet. Krokylus rose slowly, clutching his right wrist in his left claw. Streaks of ice trailed from his eyes down his face. Even as Miley struggled to get back to her feet, another streak of ice froze into place beneath Krokylus' left eye.

"Think warm, think warm," Miley said to herself, trying to move her rebellious limbs. She was now on her hands and knees. "Think warm," she repeated.

An image of the beach popped into Miley's head. Eating cheese nachos at Rico's, lying in the sun, watching Lilly surf. A smile crept to Miley's lips as the image of Lilly riding the waves like some mythical sea goddess formed a ball of warmth in her heart. The keys in Miley's hand were freezing to the touch, but as she considered that these very keys would eventually open a door behind which Lilly was sequestered, the keys began to feel warm as well. Miley could see herself unlocking a door and Lilly bursting out and wrapping her in the sweetest, warmest hug she had ever experienced. At that moment, it occurred to Miley that she wasn't very cold at all anymore.

Now Miley was on her feet. Chancing another look behind her, she saw that Krokylus was drawing near, but was still faltering in the cold. Without another thought, Miley ran again, bursting through the door and shutting it behind her. Cantari was now at the other end of the hallway, presumably so that he would remain unseen should Krokylus' attention turn to the window. Miley skipped happily down the hallway, jangling the key ring as she went.

"We're good to go!" Miley said excitedly, then cast a glance back toward the frozen habitat. "He can get out of there, right?"

"Yes," said Cantari. "I considered locking him in there. His heart is frozen enough now that he will show us no mercy if he catches us."

"Absolutely not," Miley said emphatically. "If he has to keep his heart frozen to be cruel, that means there's a kind person underneath the scales. I won't let you kill him."

"Very well," said Cantari, "but if we stand here much longer he will kill me and make you suffer."

Cantari began ascending the stairs, and Miley followed quickly behind him. Suddenly, there was a loud hiss from the top of the stairs, and Cantari stopped dead in his tracks. Miley's right foot caught on a step and she stumbled, landing solidly on her left knee. Gritting her teeth, Miley got up on her right foot, bending her knee slowly back and forth. The pain began to lessen. Miley's knee would bruise spectacularly, but it wasn't broken.

Recovered from her fall, Miley returned her attention to the top of the stairs, where Cantari stood rigid. "What's wrong?" Miley called out.

"Get away, girl!" Cantari called out. His voice trembled fearfully.

Undeterred, Miley scrambled to the top of the staircase as quickly as she could. A few steps down from the top, she found Cantari standing face to face, eye to eye with Choroline, who crouched on all fours at the top of the staircase.

Miley was alarmed to see that Cantari's eyes were becoming glassy. He reminded her of a squirrel she had once seen staring into a cat's eyes. The squirrel had just sat there, staring at the cat, the cat staring back. Then, instantly, faster than Miley's eyes could see, the squirrel was lying broken in the cat's mouth. The cat had hypnotized the squirrel, and now Miley saw that Choroline was doing the same to Cantari.

"Cantari!" Miley shouted. "Snap out of it!"

Choroline turned her head quickly, hissing viciously at Miley. Miley stumbled backwards two steps, but recovered without falling. Choroline had turned back to Cantari, who was still motionless, his eyes now entirely glazed over.

Seeing no other choice, Miley balled her right hand into a fist and stepped toward Choroline. She didn't know if she could win a fistfight with the cat woman, but she had to try. She started to ball her left hand up when she remembered that she was carrying Krokylus' keys in that hand. Suddenly, Miley had an idea. Moving the keys to her right hand, she reached out and jangled the key ring over Choroline's head.

Choroline's ears started to twitch. She shook her head back and forth, and finally, with an angry mewling sound, turned around and sat up on her legs, pawing at the keys with her hand-paws. Miley jumped backward as Choroline's grasping limbs nearly seized the key ring. Continuing to shake the keys, she glanced over at Cantari.

"Now would be a good time to wake up!" Miley shouted. Cantari's eyes were still glassy, but they were clearer than they had been a moment ago. Miley dodged one set of Choroline's claws. "C'mon, buddy, now's the time!" she yelled. Cantari began twitching, but he still didn't seem to be aware of his surroundings.

Choroline swung a hand-paw out and scratched four red ribbons into Miley's left arm. Miley gasped at the pain, but grit her teeth, pulled her right arm back, and swung the key ring as fast as she could at Choroline's face, missing by a fraction as Choroline dodged, hissing and clawing. Miley backed up one step, then two, then stopped. She had backed into the side wall of the staircase. She couldn't escape to the left or the right; Choroline was right on her and not letting her go anywhere. Miley did her best to fight off the clawing hand-paws with the blunt weight of the keys.

Suddenly, a new sound filled the stairwell. A mad quacking sound descended over from Miley's head. She looked up in time to see Ronald the duck land on Choroline's back and begin flapping his wings madly. Choroline twitched, squirmed, and bucked, finally knocking the duck off her back. Then she stood up on her feet, assuming a human posture. She tried to step forward, but she tripped and fell face forward to the concrete floor. With an angry feline squall, she looked down at her feet, where she saw the jubilant florets of Sunny the sunflower. His stalk was wrapped around Choroline's feet like a rope.

"Hey there, pretty lady," Sunny said cheerfully. "You've got me all tied up in knots!"

Miley laughed briefly, but then got serious again.

"Thanks for your help, you two," Miley said. "She pretty much had me."

"Glad to help," Ronald said.

"Sure thing," said Sunny. "But you and Cantari better get going. We'll keep the Dance Chief off her feet until you have a chance to get away."

Choroline grunted with exasperation, but said nothing, knowing that the duck and the sunflower would let her go before Krokylus found his way to this particular hallway.

"Thanks," Miley said, then turned to Cantari. "Come on, we've got to go," she said to him.

Cantari nodded and started up the next set of stairs, Miley following closely behind.