Here we go with some Hopshell and Draven! Oh yea. I'm sure these boys are as nervous as ever, but I have faith! You guys are so nice. You deserve more cookies. *rains cookies* yay! Second chapter up and running! Onward, fellow knights!
The son of the frog prince, Hopper Croakington II, was looking quite tense as ever. This is pretty much the most intense exam he really had to take. I mean, they saw how good both Daring and Alistair were when it came to saving their damsels, but knowing the pain he had to go through just to save the princess he was assigned to, how could he prepare for something like this. Hopefully for Hopper, this would be a cakewalk, but right now, he was being so unsure.
While he was pacing around, Hopper was being approached by his friend Dexter Charming in hopes of lifting up the red-haired prince's spirits.
"You feeling up to this?" asked Dexter.
"I don't know to be honest," Hopper shrugged. "Did you see how Daring and Alistair did it? How on earth am I gonna top that?!"
"Why don't you focus not on topping them, but on actually passing the exam? Because I'm pretty sure that's the main goal here."
"Hmm. Yea, but I'm always being outdone, even when I win I finish last compared to the others!"
"Well, Hopper you can't finish last this time.." Hopper gave Dexter a quizzical look indicating he didn't know about Sparrow yet.
"Sparrow failed the exam. He tried trash talking the beast to make it back down but he probably only pissed it off."
Hopper chuckled. "Your right. I can do this! I'm going to pass my exam and top everyone while doing it!"
"Well then Mr. Croakingon, I guess your ready to start your exam. Your time starts now." The teacher said from behind the duo. With that Hopper took off.
The rest of the students were amazed how Hopper was running. Apparently, he must've taken lessons from Cerise for sure. When he got to the pathway, he looked around what kind of road he could take. There seemed to be around 10 or so, and one of them had to be the princess that Hopper had assigned to, Meeshell Mermaid. But apparently, this was growing very hard as every road Hopper was checking out looked exactly the same.
"Okay, I gotta find out which one's which..." Hopper spoke to himself. "How can I know where Meeshell is...?"
Suddenly, it wasn't until Hopper looked down at a seashell in the middle of the far right road. It was apparent that with this item, he knew what kind of path to take.
Hopper ran down the path with the seashell on it, smirking as he realized it had only been five minutes and he was almost at the castle. I'm going to finish this in half an hour and tame the dragon!
As he reached the castle he knew for sure it was for Meeshell. It was light blue, but shaped like Atlantis. Oddly enough he noticed there was a blue dome around the castle, he put his hand up and tried sticking it through the barrier. It went through but Hopper soon realized his hand was covered in water.
He gulped as realization took over him.
"The castle is under water..."
Not taking any chances, Hopper entered the underwater dome while taking a breath. He did a good job holding it very well, swimming fast and furious to make sure there was some sort of air bubble to breathe in. Because deep down, Hopper didn't know how long he could even breathe underwater. Not without some sort of miracle at best.
But as luck hit him, Hopper seemed to notice a big air bubble popping up out of nowhere. He then quickly got his head right in the air bubble, forcing him to breathe underwater without any struggle or troubles whatsoever.
"Ahhhh, that works..." Hopper sighed as he swam for the nearest castle.
But before he could even get there to begin with, a shark came out of nowhere, scaring the bejeezus out of Hopper!
"Gah! Oh hex.. I have to deal with sharks, AND a dragon... which is probably a serpent type thing, i don't even- great, this would be my luck." Hopper felt the shark brush against his leg. Instead of swimming away he just froze.
...
...
...
After a moment a scream erupted from his lips as he swam towards the castle as fast as he could. He was almost inside when he seen his dragon. It was a large, dark blue serpent.
"I can do this, I can do this in half an hour. I will top everyone." He was mumbling to himself. But all those reassurances went out the window when the dragon charged. "Oh shit! Run! Run, run, run like a motherfucker!"
Suddenly, this ounce of luck had gotten worse for Hopper. Not also did he have to deal with a huge-ass shark chasing him, but the dark blue serpent as well. Being chased by two huge gigantic freaks definitely didn't sound like a fun afternoon for Mr. Croakington himself. There was something that needed to be done about this. Heck, Hopper needed to find a way to lose both the shark and serpent altogether.
The only thing that motivated him was Meeshell, who was staring at him in worry. Meeshell definitely didn't want to see Hopper turn into shark bait and dragon chow altogether. Now that was the kind of snack mix Hopper didn't want to be at all. I mean, he loved his life so much that Hopper didn't want to end it right away in front of the beautiful pink-haired beauty with a mermaid tail.
His luck had finally began to change for the better as Hopper located a gold spear with a big long rope attached to it down by the castle wall. While he miraculously managed to get both the shark and serpent Dizzy, Hopper managed to grab onto the spear. As the shark regained his senses, he immediately charged into Hopper, using his blood-thirsty fangs to try and eat him up. As that shark opened his mouth...
*CLING*
Hopper jammed the spear between the shark's teeth. And then, he let go of the shark, proceeding to sock the shark right in the chest with the pole attached to the spear. To add it all up, he then used the rope to tie the shark's mouth in circles before hopping on the shark's back with the gold trident in hand.
"Aha! One down one to go!"
He used the shark as a chariot of sorts, riding on its back as a faster means of travel. With the serpent right behind them he had to think of something quick. Wait. Doesn't the trident have magic? He looked down at the golden masterpiece and decided to test it out. Hopper pointed the trident towards the serpent and imagined a cage over top of it. After a moment a cage dropped.
*BANG*
The vicious creature was trapped. Hopper gave a sigh of relief.
"To the castle!" Hopper relaxed as the shark swam towards the castle.
Meeshell was finally relieved when his froggy prince arrived outside the cage. Not even bothering to even get inside the castle in the first place, Hopper had a better way to break the cage free without a key. So he took part of that rope and tied it all against the bars, hoping that the shark would gain enough speed to break it and set the princess free from captivity.
"All right, shark. You ready?" Hopper asked him.
Since the shark couldn't technically answer, it just backed up to give itself a running start, or in this case a swimming start. After a moment the shark took off as fast as it could and rammed into the cage, effectively breaking it. Hopper swam in and freed her from her bonds. Meeshell jumped up with lightning speed and threw her arms around him.
"Oh Hopper, I was so afraid you would get hurt, and since I was tied up there would be no way for me to help you. Thank you so much for saving me.."
"Oh, it's no big deal. I was happy to help." Hopper would kiss her but the air bubble definitely wouldn't hold another head, even for a second, without bursting. He suddenly realized it had only been 25 minutes.
"Oh! Let's go! I can still beat the record." Meeshell looked confused but followed him. He swam the entire way up to the top of the dome and raised the trident. He imagined a giant water slide leading to the school. Then it appeared. Meeshell grinned.
"You ready beautiful?"
"Hex yea!"
They took eachothers hand in their own and jumped.
And within only a few minutes left to go around in the test, both Hopper and Meeshell landed a bit safely around the finish line, forcing the teacher to hit the stopwatch in time.
"Well well well, Mr. Croakington, I'm impressed." The teacher smirked. "I can't believe you actually pulled it off."
"Yeah, I can't believe I did." Hopper sighed in relief.
"Well, congrats to you both, Hopper and Meeshell. You passed." The teacher nodded in approval, forcing Meeshell to give not also just a hug...
...
...
...but a kiss around the cheek, making Hopper blush.
"Oh, we did it! You're definitely my hero!" Meeshell squealed in joy.
However, Hopper didn't really know how to respond to that gesture. But he did in the best way possible:
By fainting with a smile.
Dexter Charming felt a bit nervous. He couldn't believe the performances those students have been putting on. The nerdy Dexter saw both Daring, Alistair and Hopper pass with flying colors. Just how on earth was Dexter gonna top that what both his brother and his friends did. Hopefully, the task he had for this exam would probably be easier than pie. Great, just thinking about pie definitely made Dexter more tense... and kinda hungry.
So while he was busy polishing his glasses, Daring Charming came up to him and patted him in the back, scaring Dexter out of nowhere.
"OH CRAP!" shouted Dexter.
Dexter Charming, son of King Charming, was currently waiting for the teacher to come over and start his exam. Hunter decided to talk to his friend before he went.
"So Dex, you nervous?
"Nah, this should be a piece of cake."
"Um bro, I don't want to scare you but do you realize how hard everyone else's courses were? You have the most powerful damsel so her bonds and captor are going to be a hex of a lot stronger than anyone else's." At this Dexters eyes widened.
"Crap! Bro you're right! Damn it why did you have to go any make me nervous. It might not even be that bad..."
"Don't worry man. I got to go next anyway.."
Before Dexter could respond the teacher walked over.
"So, are you ready for it?" asked the teacher.
"A little bit," Dexter nodded. "Can I least go pee first?"
"You can hold it in after you finish the exam, Dexter." The teacher replied, forcing a very stressful groan from Dexter himself.
"Fine..."
"Well. Get ready because your time starts now!
Dexter took off deciding there was no time to waste moping. He came to a stop when he seen the road split into around ten different paths, hmmm.. which one to pick.. after a moment he noticed a dark purple rose on the ground near the far left.
"Looks like I found my path..."
As soon as he started running for the path, he noticed that half of that road that Dexter was about to run through was filled with a very dark mist. Dexter knew that trouble was heading his way. He didn't know how much he would experience the first thing he crossed into that musty mist.
"Oh man, I don't like the looks of this..." Dexter gulped to himself.
But as luck would have it, Dexter managed to see a lantern post not too far from the misty road. Just to decrease the fear inside him, he grabbed the lantern right away and carefully lit it up, now bringing a little light around the mist.
He started along the path hearing scary voices and sounds calling out to him. After about five minutes of this freaky darkness he seen the shadow of a dark castle. He looked up and gulped at the realization that the tallest tower was 125 feet up. And that's where his damsel was.
"I'm done. I'm going to die."
After making the 'hail Mary' signal in due to his wellbeing, Dexter took in a deep breath as he entered the dark misty castle.
As soon as he entered inside, there was yet another lantern post standing right next to him, which said 'place me' right in big, yet thin bold letters. Apparently, the words 'place me' must have been referring to the lit lantern that Dexter had been carrying.
"Well, the sign's orders, I guess..." Dexter sighed as he placed the lantern right in the stand.
And then, all of a sudden, the dark and misty castle soon gave itself light all around the place, no longer making it very dark as ever. But once the inside castle gave light...
*GRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
A dark-scaly dragon was standing way too close to Dexter's face, making him scream on impact!
"Damn it! I don't even have a weapon for story's sake!" Dexter looked around and found that he was in luck. There was spiky things all over the place. He found a long obsidian spike sitting near the throne. He decided to take the chance and ran for it.
"Please let me make it out of here alive." Dexter whimpered.
Meanwhile at the school the kids were watching this happen first hand on a large screen set up by the woods. Apparently every student that have went so far was watched by the rest. When the lights turned on in the castle, everyone gasped upon seeing the dragon face to face with Dexter.
"Be careful little bro.." Daring whispered, really worried about him.
With the spike around his hands, Dexter ran right at the dragon...
...
...
...who whipped him around the tail, knocking him down for the time being.
"Oooof!" grunted Dexter, who was in pain.
That impact was nearly hard enough for him to lose his glasses in the process. As soon as he picked up his glasses, he saw that the Dragon was about to breathe what seemed to be a case of black fire. As the dragon shot his flames, Dexter used his reflexes to get through a huge pole, therefore blocking the blast. While the dragon continued to blow flames, Dexter's thoughts got to him again.
"Ohhh, this is just great." He said to himself. "What to do, what to do...?"
Before he was still thinking about his life, he heard a mysterious voice coming from up the ceiling:
"Dexter, aim for the cage!"
"What cage?"Dexter looked around for a moment but still couldn't see it...
...
...
"Up here." The mysterious person said, in a voice so sarcastic he could practically hear the eye roll. His head snapped up and he seen a cage hanging right above the dragon.
He decided to take a chance and threw his 'sword' to the chain the cage was hanging from, hoping it would reach its target and be sharp enough to break it.
Luckily for Dexter, it reached its target as the cage crashed down on the dragon's entire head. But that wasn't all. Despite feeling a state of relief from that scary dragon, Dexter had reacted in shock and surprise to find out that there was someone inside the cage as well. Not wasting any time, he rushed over there and decided to help the stranger up. But it wasn't just any stranger.
It was his crush, Raven Queen.
"Oh gort!" Dexter gasped. "Raven, are you okay?"
"Well, despite the hard landing I took, I'd say I'm fine.." Raven nodded in return, much to Dexter's relief.
"We really gotta get you out of that cage and fast before that dragon gets up." Dexter suggested.
"You think?" Raven said chuckling. Dexter smiled thinking to himself. "Leave it to Raven to joke about things at a time like this."
"Wait Raven can you use your powers?" He asked, hopeful that she could.
"Well, I haven't tried, I just assumed that I couldn't.." Raven admitted. She rose her hands, as if to preform magic. "He's free without a care, make it fair and transport me from here to there."
...
...
...
Then she appeared next to him.
"Oh! I didn't expect that to actually work..." Raven wondered aloud.
"Yea well, we don't really have time to wonder about it we gotta go!"
"Why don't I just transport us?"
Dexter wasn't sure about that. "I'm supposed to be saving her... Not the other way around." He thought to himself.
After such thinking, he ended up making his mind.
"Nah, I'm goin' old school." Dexter said as he took Raven's hand and got out of here.
Unfortunately, Dexter wasn't thinking any well as he soon found himself stuck in the dark, musty mist yet again. Just the fact of being trapped in a shrouded land of near darkness scared him right to the core. But luckily, Raven was right with him, carrying the lantern that Dexter had with him while coming here.
"You kinda forgot something, Dex." Raven smirked.
"Yeaaaaah, I didn't think that through..." Dexter gulped in response.
Dexter decided to man up and act tough, since he already made a fool of himself by forgetting the lantern. As they walked down the pathway he yet again heard the noises of before. Suddenly a hawk swooped down in front of them only inches from Dexters nose. He fought the urge to scream. Deep breaths man, deep breaths.
Luckily for Dex, Raven had his lantern around, swinging it towards the hawk in order to make him back away from the nerdy Charming. So while Raven was taking care of the talon-like creature, Dexter kept on walking the dark misty path until he was seeing a bright light from a mile away. Noticing this, both the twosome decided to run over there with incredible speed, making sure nothing was stopping them.
Finally after a minute of intense running they burst out of the dark mist and straight into the light. They looked around and everyone had amused looks.
"What?" Raven asked after the looks did not fade.
Hunter smirked and walked forward. "Hey Dexter, you up for bird watching later." Dexter looked confused for a moment before he realized they had been watching them.
"Fuck you Hunter, that wasn't funny." The entire class burst out into laughter. Sparrow walked forward and clapped him on the back.
"Your right bro it's not funny. It's hilarious!" Dexter rolled his eyes.
"Go back to the hospital will ya." Sparrow turned red in the face, that's how hot that burn was.
"Damn man. That was harsh.." Hunter laughed.
"Well, funny as that may be, you all pass, Dexter and Raven. Congratulations." The teacher commented in return.
Hearing this, both Dex and Raven responded with a high-five. But as he was moving...
*THUMP!*
Dexter had tripped on his face for some reason.
"Dex? Are you okay?" Raven gasped.
"Yeah, a little." nodded Dexter. "Somehow, my feet stopped moving."
Somehow, Raven then looked down to realize that Dexter's shoelaces were tied out of nowhere. Just how on earth did that happen? I mean, there were people standing before the two of them, and not one of them had noticed Dexter's feet at all.
That was before Raven heard some mischievous snickering coming from behind the students.
He turned around and seen Sparrow sniggering from the back of the crowd. Dexter had finally reached his limit and his temper just burst.
"SPARROW! GET YOUR ASS UP HERE AND FIGHT ME!" Everyone knew Dexter never rose his voice unless he was really mad. And he certainly never fights anyone, considering he's the pacifist of the family.
"What are you talking about, Dex? I didn't do anything!" Sparrow said, trying to keep his snickering to a minimum. Despite his still quiet laughter, Sparrow was slightly scared of Dexter, knowing if he is trying to fight, he's dead serious.
"Oh sure, I'm pretty sure this is all your fault, Mr. I-Didnt-Do-Anything!" Dexter pointed his finger.
"Seriously, dude, I was standing right by Blondie." Sparrow replied, defending his statement.
"Oh, really?" Dexter raised his eyebrow. "If you didn't do anything, then WHO did?"
"It's pretty obvious that you should have known by that little trick, Dex." Sparrow smirked once again.
Before Dexter could figure out who tripped him, he heard laughter also coming from behind. But this time, it wasn't coming from Apple, Raven, Bunny, Meeshell, Blondie, Daring, Hunter, Alistair, Hopper or even Sparrow.
Instead it was coming from someone else. And it sounded so Wonderlandian enough that Dexter could hear that familiar laugh and identify it as one person:
Kitty Cheshire.
"I should've know.." Dexter muttered to himself. He honestly didn't feel like facing Kitty, but he knew he would have to.
"Your lucky Sparrow. If it would've been you I would have beat your ass." Sparrow just shrugged. Dexter took a deep breath, struggling to keep his temper in control as he turned to face the Wonderlandian trouble maker.
"Kitty. If you could be so kind as to keep your pranks and tricks to yourself, I would greatly appreciate it."
"Oh, but Dexy I have no idea what ever you could be talking about." Kitty claimed in a sickly sweet voice feigning fake innocence.
"Kitty I'm not stupid, anyone who would fall for that fakeness in your voice would be." Dexter growled, a bit of his temper showing in his voice. Kitty walked over to him and stroked his face.
"Poor thing, you must be soo confused. I haven't done anything wrong." Anyone who took a good look at Dexter would know he was about to burst, and when he lost his temper you don't want to be around. Raven realized this and came over to put a stop to this.
"Kitty knock it off. That was a lowly prank. Not one that would be worthy of the Cheshire name. You tried to cause chaos and all you did was anger people. Please just stop." With that she grabbed Dexters hand and transported them away.
"I-I, What the hex just happened?!" Kitty exclamed, proofing away with her signature smile lingering for a moment before vanishing as well. Everyone just stood there, not knowing how to react. After a moment the teacher spoke.
"Well, who's next?"
"I am."
One more couple after this until shit REALLY goes down. Until then, eat more cookies. *knocks on you door, runs and leaves mountain of cookies on door step. What? Don't look at me, I didn't do that. *lies* it was kitty. *points in random direction and runs for life* RUN FOR YOUR LIFE WARRIOR! Siren and Warrior out.