Disclaimer: All recognizable story material does not belong to me

Stand Your Ground

Chapter 3

Mermaid Lagoon

"Scruffy!"

The child must've heard the jingling of her voice, for he dropped Scruffy and picked up Vidia instead. He grabbed her by her middle with his fist and stared at her close to his face.

"Put me down!" Vidia shrieked, pointing at the ground. The child just gazed at her, fascinated. "Scruffy, help me!"

The child yelled in pain and dropped her as Scruffy bit him. Vidia landed hard on the ground and struggled to catch her breath. Scruffy managed somehow to get her on his back, and limped off into the grass carrying her.

He sat down and Vidia slid off onto the ground, coughing.

"I don't see him anymore. I think he ran home." Scruffy observed as he waited for her to recover. Somehow he knew she didn't want sympathy or pity.

"What is he doing here?" Vidia demanded when she could speak again. "The Indian camp is all the way across the island."

"I don't know. Maybe they're hunting pirates." Scruffy suggested.

Vidia groaned as she climbed to her feet. "I can't believe I got myself stuck out here like this."

Scruffy waited for her to speak.

"Careless, that's what the scouts are." Vidia growled. "If I was any other fairy we'd have seen dozens of patrols by now. And not one. Not one!"

"I'm think you're wrong." Scruffy waited patiently, fluffing his fur gently with a paw.

"You're right – I probably am. Since I live in the Sour Plum tree away from the other fairies they probably haven't even noticed that I'm gone!" Vidia ranted. "I can't believe-"

"We could stop for the night." Scruffy suggested.

"No!" Vidia shook her head. "Let's go." She stamped off into the grass. Scruffy watched her for a moment, then followed.

Stand Your Ground

It was getting very dark, the sky was turning a dark purplish blue, when Scruffy trotted up to Vidia. "Do you hear that?"

Vidia paused and listened. "Sounds like water."

"Is there water where we're supposed to be going?" Scruffy asked.

"Not unless we're too far west – we might be near Crocodile River. Or if we're too far east . . ." Vidia ran forward and the grass stopped next to the water. "We're at Mermaid Lagoon."

"How far is it to get around?"

Vidia strained to see the other side. "A long way. But if I remember correctly, if we go just a little way east it's much smaller and we can get across on a raft."

"It's pretty dark to be finding materials to make a raft . . ." Scruffy waited for her to decide.

"We'll wait until morning." Vidia looked around. "That looks safe and comfortable." she pointed underneath a small grass plant. "No one will be able to see us."

Scruffy walked over to it and curled up comfortably. Vidia tore a leave off a plant and used it as a blanket.

"Goodnight, Vidia."

"Hmm . . ." Vidia murmured as she drifted off to sleep.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia woke with water soaking her shoes. She sat up, startled, and realized that the tide had just come in. Scruffy was still asleep, as the water hadn't reached him yet.

She started off down the beach and grabbed sticks and vines. She tied them together in a sort of boat shape and lined it with leaves. She then found a forked stick and wrapped a leaf around it for an oar.

"Scruffy, wake up." She called.

Scruffy rolled to his other side and covered one ear with a paw.

Vidia straightened from her work. "Come over here and help me test this out."

Scruffy batted one eye open. "What a nice boat!" he admired.

"I wouldn't quite call it a boat." Vidia objected. "Hop in."

"Is it safe?" Scruffy stretched and plodded over to her.

"We won't find out until you hop in."

Scruffy obeyed.

Vidia shoved it off the sand and it floated – barely. "Looks good." she decided, grabbed her oar, splashed out to it and jumped in.

She started paddling gently, and the raft moved out over the lagoon. "You keep a lookout for floating obstacles." she instructed. "And let me know if we go too far left – we don't want to run into the waterfall."

"Aye, aye." Scruffy turned around. "What kind of obstacles?"

"I don't know – grass, sticks, mermaid things . . ."

"There are mermaids here?"

"It's 'Mermaid Lagoon'. Why else would we name it that, dear?" Vidia rolled her eyes.

"The pirates don't think mermaids exist. I only heard about the Lagoon from them. They figure there's some kind of killer fish in it, though."

"Killer fish?" Vidia stopped paddling and peered at the water. "I've never heard of any killer fish in the lagoon . . . don't worry." She started the raft moving again.

"What are the mermaids like?"

"Vain and selfish, mostly. I don't really mess around with them much." Vidia paused and looked up as she heard something.

"Look, Scruffy – a mermaid." she pointed.

A mermaid had just come to the surface and was reclining on a rock far away.

"She's pretty."

"And she likes looking at pretty stuff – that's why she's holding a mirror." Vidia shook her head and turned to start paddling.

The mermaid jumped off the rock and dived into the lagoon. "Vidia, hold on!" Scruffy warned, and a second later the large ripple from the dive struck the ship, driving it to the right several feet.

"Wow. I'm glad we weren't on the other side of those rocks, or we'd be caught in the currents." Vidia noted, trying to get the large water droplets off the ship.

"Vidia, you aren't paddling."

"No, I'm not."

"Why's the ship moving, then?" Scruffy asked, scared.

Vidia turned. "Currents!" she exclaimed.

"We're going to go into the waterfall – we're dead!"

"No, we're being pulled out to sea, where we're dead!" Vidia contradicted. "Toss me the paddle!"

"It won't help."

"Well it isn't going to hurt!" Vidia started paddling quickly, then found herself facedown on the raft as it jerked violently.

"What happened?" she demanded, scrambling to her feet.

"We struck a rock." Scruffy answered.

"Grab it, quick!"

Scruffy curled his tail around the rock and dug his claws into the boat.

"Hold on tight." Vidia urged.

A wave came over the boat and drenched them both, and suddenly the current started tugging harder. The boat wrenched forward, leaving Scruffy with his tail around a rock and his claws in a thick leaf.

"Scruffy!" Vidia shouted in dismay, then looked around at the water taking her out to sea.

"I should never have gotten distracted that first day." she muttered to the air, which was blowing hard against her face and chilling her to the bone.

"That's it!" she snatched up the largest leaf in the boat and held it up into the wind. The east wind lifted her into the air, blowing her over Scruffy and into the center of the leaf. She heard a tearing noise, then she splashed into the cold water.

She tried to take a breath, then the heavy leaf landed on top of her. She shoved it to one side and came up to the surface, choking and coughing.

All at once she saw two fairies far above her, heading to the cove.

"Tink!" she croaked "Tin-" cough "-kerbell! Dessa! Iridessa!" She was distracted by a large fish who was looking at her. She recalled faintly someone saying 'killer fish', but couldn't quite remember when. She froze and stared right back at it. A wave splashed over her head, and everything was going fuzzy. She saw something brownish gray that looked like Scruffy, but was too large. She couldn't hear anything, then her sight went black.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia blinked and sat up. What caught her attention immediately was that one foot was freezing, and the other was warm. She looked at them and saw she was wearing only one soggy shoe. Looking out over the lagoon she could see a small purple speck floating lazily out to sea.

"Sorry I couldn't save it."

She twisted around to look at Scruffy, who yawned.

"How did you – what happened?" Vidia asked.

"I guess rats are supposed to be able to swim." Scruffy smiled. "I didn't know I could, and I couldn't figure out what you were trying to do – until I saw the fairies."

"I did see the fairies!" Vidia grinned. "I wasn't really sure if I was delusional or not."

"Not sure what delusional means, but you saw the fairies. A green one and a yellow one." Scruffy stood and shook himself. "Anyway, I think I like swimming. I scared away the fish and got you on the beach. You were fainted, so I took a nap to wait for you."

Vidia was silent for a minute. "I guess I'm supposed to say 'Thank you'."

"You don't need to – I didn't say 'Thanks' when you rescued me from the palm tree." Scruffy pointed out.

"That's right, you didn't. How ungrateful." Vidia scolded.

"But you haven't thanked me . . ."

"Right." Vidia considered for a moment. "We're even. We'll both be ungrateful."

"Fine. So where are we going next?"

"That way." Vidia pointed. "Pixie Hollow isn't too far. There aren't any lagoons or floating hats or rafts. We shouldn't have any more problems."

Stand Your Ground

"It's going to kill us, isn't it? We're going to die! I told you this was a terrible idea, Vidia!"

"Shut up!" Vidia hissed, peeked around the leaf. "Okay, it's gone."

"Thank goodness!" Scruffy was panting from exertion from their run.

"I've got it it open!" Vidia announced. "Want some dinner?"

Scruffy stared at it dubiously. "Are nuts good for rats?"

"You tell me - I'm no animal fairy."

Scruffy stiffened. "Vidia . . ." he whispered.

"What?" Vidia turned around to see their enemy towering over them. The squirrel was holding out a paw. "Hi, Mrs Squirrel -"

The squirrel scowled harder. "Mr – Squirrel, we just were worried that your nut was – spoiled, and we didn't want you giving spoiled nuts to your children. But it looks good. End of inspection. Good day." Vidia put the nutshell back together an handed it to the squirrel.

She turned and started walking into the grass.

"Get going!" she told Scruffy as they got out of sight, and showed him the nutmeat she had emptied from the shell.

They dashed forward, and after a moment could hear the faint chattering of the angry squirrel.

Stand Your Ground

Scruffy yawned "Things went pretty well today, didn't they?"

"Yeah. Amazing. We almost drowned."

"So things went pretty well in the afternoon."

"Of course. We were almost eaten by a giant squirrel -"

"Stealing the nut was your idea."

"I don't deny it. And that was a good nut."

"So things went pretty well in the past hour."

"In the past hour, darling, you've been talking, and I've been trying to go to sleep." Vidia rolled over. "Try to get some rest."

"All right." Scruffy said, grouchily.

There was a pause. "Goodnight, Vidia."

Vidia rolled over and draped a leaf over her head.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia choked and rubbed the water off her face onto her sleeve. Scruffy was sleeping peacefully a few steps away. But not for long. A flash of lightning lit up the dim morning and thunder boomed loudly, waking Scruffy up.

"'Morning, Scruffy, but it sure isn't good." Vidia called, grabbing leaves and finding sticks to construct umbrellas.

"That was loud." Scruffy remarked, stretching. "On the pirate ship I'd have gone below deck, but where do we go?"

"Onward." Vidia declared. "We're getting closer with every – step." she paused, thinking.

"Well then, let's go." Scruffy started off.

Vidia remained still for a minute, but then hurried to catch up.

In the early afternoon the rain was coming down in large drops, covering the ground with little depressions, and little streams crisscrossed across the ground, running downhill toward the Crocodile River.

"Watch out, there's a little river there." Scruffy warned, stepping through it. He was larger and heavier, so he didn't have to worry. Of course, he also had four – three feet.
Vidia jumped over the rivulet and held the umbrella over both of them.

"Are you sure you don't want to find a nice dry plant to sit underneath until it's over?"
"It might not be over for ages." Vidia protested. "I need to get back to Pixie Hollow."

"Why?" Scruffy slowed his pace and turned to look at her.

"Besides that I've been almost stepped on by a pirate, impaled by a pirate, eaten by a snake and a squirrel, almost drowned, and was attacked by a hawk and need to see a healing-talent fairy, I'm pretty sure they're using up valuable resources looking for me." Vidia explained.

Scruffy's next step didn't land on the ground, but sank into cold water and mud. He did a complete flip into the small river. "AH!"