I'm back! Wow! 4 chapters in 24 hours (about)! :O I'm on a roll! Hooray for rolls! XD
As soon as he heard the shout of "We've got less than five minutes or we'll lose her forever!", from up above him, Squint knew they were in trouble.d
Without enough time to react, suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind and suddenly, about ten vine ropes coiled round him and he found himself suddenly flying toward the mast at alarming speeds. "What the-?!"
"No time!" and unfamiliar voice exclaimed. "Our poor little Time will be lost forever if we don't reach her in time!" It was a kangaroo, two fingers pressed to each temple, expression frowning, full of concentration. Things all around yum were lifting up, glowing, and moving around at amazing speeds. One of those things happened to be Gupta, who, with an indignant cry, was suddenly tied up with vines that moved on their own, binding him to the mast as well.
"What the beck is going on?!" he demanded.
"Shush!" the tallest ordered. His fur shimmered and changed colors, one second ocean blue, the next red, then stark white to leafy green. The changes only lasted a few seconds each, fading in and out softly to give eh to another color. His eyes were closed, both hands above his head. What…?
"Dude, what are y-" when the sun blotted out, he shut up to look. The temperature dropped about twenty degrees in a second. A wave at least sixty feet tall had risen above them, blocking out the sun.
"Everyone hold on!" he ordered.
"Hold on to what?!" he demanded sarcastically.
"Your lunch, your body in general! I don't really care! Just hold on!"
And the wave came roaring to them, slamming into the ships side and ending them shooting sideways at speeds that left his stomach on one of those ice bergs before. Squint had never really been one to get seasick, but definitely was now.
When they stopped about thirty seconds later, he found himself dangling upside down and staring at the sand. What?
The color changing one waved his hand and his vine ropes vanished into thin air. He fell unceremoniously onto the sand, groaning, breathing slowly, trying not to throw up. Apparently, Gupta's stomach didn't agree with him, he discovered, grimacing as he turned away from the wretching badger.
His eyes widened as he saw their uninvited guests taking off into the forest at the speeds kangaroos were known for. This only served to enflame his temper. Who knew how far they'd have to backtrack?! Now they might never find Raz! "HEY!" he yelled, running after them. "I AIN'T DONE WITH YOU!"
…
When Savas reached the pinpointed destination, he very nearly collapsed in horror. There she lay, dressed in beautiful jewelry, lying on a gold pedestal and under a rose petal blanket. It had been twenty years since he'd last seen her, but he could easily recognize her anywhere. "Oh no…"he gasped. "W- We're too late."
However, it wasn't his sisters' dead body that terrorized fin the most. It was the green skinned human sitting above them in a tree across the clearing. Kertenkele was perched ins. Fig tree across the glade, her orb of black power held in her hands. It was sucking up the lingering wisps of blue and pink energy in the air; a thing only the youngest two brothers could see. The largest of all was lilac purple, just like their sister, and was slowly being pulled away from her body. They could hear what was probably her voice faintly drifting from it, singing a song in the language of magic, a sad and mourning song. Their sisters' soul.
"KERTENKELE!" they all lunged across the clearing at her. Everyone gasped in surprise and looked up, a few murmuring in confusion, some in surprise. The six Gryphon Princes rarely left their palace, and had never, ever set foot off their island. So to see them here, two hundred miles away, was a surprise.
Kertenkele cackled, shooting up into the air, two leathery wings, mottled black and green, appearing on her back. "Oh, now isn't this sweet?" she cooed mockingly. "My precious little nephews come to rescue their baby sisters' soul, have they?" she threw back her head and laughed.
"Let her go Kertenkele, or I'll-!"
"Or you'll what?" she scoffed. "You'll what? Face it Avci, your no match for me! Your mother wasn't, and neither is your pathetic sister." She threw back her head and laughed. "And you never will be! Without your mothers' Scepter, you don't stand a chance! And her Scepter was los years ago!"
Avci knew she was right. Only his mothers' magical staff had ever been a match against Kertenkele, and it had been destroyed when his mother had. Even if it was still here, only a woman could wield it, either pure of heart or with royal gryphon blood in her veins.
They were defeated before the battle even begun. He knew it; Kertenkele had won. She'd captured his sisters' soul. She was no more. The prophecy was wrong. Neither of their queens could ever rise again, and the Gryphons' would fall forever. All because they'd been too slow.
His thoughts were cut off as, suddenly, a voice he'd heard only minutes before yelled "RAZ!"
…
Squint had tumbled unceremoniously into the clearing, eyes widening more than they ever had as they reached her. His sister, his only baby sister, lay dead in the center of the meadow. He almost didn't recognize her, dressed up like that, but her face was unmistakable. "RAZ!" running for her ND ignoring the cries of surprise, he leapt up onto her place of rest, face slack worth disbelief. "Raz…?" her peaceful face, stiller than he'd ever seen her, waited. Slowly, feeling numb and shocked, he climbed up onto her chest. The familiar beating beneath his pads scared him, and she was so cold. "Raz…?" shaking, he reached forward and touched her face, running his fingers through the fur on her cheeks. It was better groomed than he'd ever seen, silky smooth and without a single speck of dirt.
He straightened up, shoulders shaking in both sorrow and rage. "Who did this?" he hissed lowly. Another kangaroo, an albino this time, had been sitting beside her, a ball of brown fur in one hand. He raised his head to look at him, surprised. The bundle of fur followed suit, revealing it to be a tiny rabbit doe with bug brown eyes full of tears. Sniffling and rubbing one eye, she asked
"Eh- Who re you?"
"Who. Did. This?!" he demanded. She pointed upwards, and for the first time he noticed the human flying high above them.
Her skin was scaly and bright green like that of a tropical viper snake. Her hair, lush and black, was braided with dead serpents, all the color of her skin. She wore a long, torn dress made of black animal hide leather, dark blood stains spattered across the outside. Her crown was made of humans fingers, some still fleshy and fresh, some just bone, and some half decayed. She was taunting five other kangaroos, something about their sisters soul?
"And" she added with a cackle. "Even better, you'll never see Kari or your precious Raz alive ever again!"
Something inside him snapped. The second he mentioned his sisters' name- how dare she?! First she had the nerve to kill her, send now dared soak her name? She wasn't worthy to even know his sister, speak of her!
With a scream unlike anything else, he'd launched himself at the human. Startled, she gave metallic, reptilian screech as he managed to wrestle that strange black orb out of her hands. "NOOOOOOO!"
The orb shattered on the ground.
Whuh oh! None of ya'll knows what happens when you break a magic item like that, do ya? Well, its trouble! Find out next chapter! Please review!