AN~ Sorry for however long I took, guys. Here's an update. :) Bit low on review count last chapter. How come?
QotD: What everyday object do you think would make the best weapon? Why?
Previous QotD winner: Kasena with her room-cleaning app.
Review Replies:
Athena: Yeah. I got a bunch of reviews from an anonymous reviewer with your name that which implied that she didn't like me very much. Maybe I gave her some reasons. Maybe she started it.
Choco-Bilby: I have yet to receive a response. I may have to report it, now that I've learned I can just hook up my facebook to Wattpad.
Savannah Starlit: I'm glad you like it so much! :D PUCKABRINA should have its own category? I didn't quite get that. I wonder why your mom banned you. You know, if you just have one password that you change around for each website, it'll be easier for you to remember them all, and you won't need a book. And your last bit was describing your story, right? It cut off early.
"I can't believe you!" Sabrina shouted over her shoulder at Daphne, pulling her sword out and transforming it into its larger form.
"What did I do?" Daphne shouted back. She already had a wand out and ready, the locket clutched in her free hand.
"Broke the freaking stick, that's what!" Sabrina snapped, holding her sword before her. "Now how are we going to get out of this?"
"I don't know!" Daphne returned, spraying sparks at a mutant thing that had come too close. "Can't you, like, magic us out of here?"
"Oh, sure, I'll just use my no longer in existence time magic so we can run away!" Sabrina snapped, slashing out at a mutant and cutting off a purple tentacle that snaked towards her. "Or I'll gravity us away! That'll do a lot of good! Or, wait, how about I leave my body so they can kill it while I'm gone! Or I'll make sure they're not lying to me! Great idea!"
"Well, I'm sorry you're not God anymore, Sabrina!" Daphne snapped. "I can't exactly do anything, either!"
"Well, we can't fight our way out!" Sabrina said, and she was suddenly a lot less angry sounding. "There's too many."
"I know," Daphne said quietly, her body still tense as she shot more sparks at a thing that bore a resemblance to a giant blue terrier with sabertooth fangs and wings. It caught on fire and she whispered, "I'm sorry, puppy."'
Sabrina lengthened her sword, stabbing a snake with oozing pus spots with the longer blade, and they fought for a few minutes, stabbing and slicing and spraying and transforming and dodging.
"Daph," Sabrina said, kicking a thing in the face while she wrenched her sword free of its stomach, "You'll have to go."
"What?" Daphne asked incredulously, pushing back against her sister so she had leverage.
"Turn into a bat or something and fly off," Sabrina said, "You're good enough to dodge them, right?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Do it," Sabrina cut her off, both feet on the ground again, sword already swinging at the next thing, "I can distract them while you head out. Get that tracker back so everyone's safe, all right?"
"Dammit, Sabrina, stop being self-sacrificing!" Daphne snapped, delivering a jump-kick to a thing's face since it had grabbed her wand.
"I'm not!" Sabrina shouted, her sword dancing mesmerisingly in front of a monkey-duck thing. "But if you're gone, I can fly. So go, all right?"
"Fine," Daphne snapped, and then she was a bat, the locket hanging from her talons, and Sabrina flew up with her as the mutants closed in, blocking her from their sight. Once Daphne was high enough that the shining of the necklace was lost in the stars, Sabrina flew the opposite way, shouting loudly.
The monsters followed her, and Sabrina thought all was going well until an arrow sliced through the bottom of her left wing, pulling one of her feathers apart. She glared in the direction it had come from and made a face. The Everafters were up. Her chances of survival had just been cut about in half, because the mutants at least seemed to be pretty stupid.
Of course, one could argue that a lot of people in the Scarlet Hand were, too, but that was besides the point.
She stopped fighting entirely and switched to dodging, wishing she had enough energy to make herself a small barrier. She flew off in the woods in the opposite direction Daphne had gone, hoping she could at least hide a little.
That was when she heard a roar overhead. Looking up, she cursed- something she'd been trying not to do as much, but she figured it was worth it. There was a dragon directly above her.
"Of course," she muttered, "It's not enough that they have like three hundred mutants and a hundred plain old evil Everafters, they've got to have the biggest baddest monsters of them all. Can't take any chances that this one girl will get away, let's send the dragons out!"
There was no way she could outfly a dragon. But she couldn't stand and fight, either. She didn't really want to die anytime soon.
She was still deciding what to do when there was a bright flash overhead, and suddenly, the dragon pulled up short, and an acidic dark blob splashed to the ground nearby.
"What the-" she muttered, peering closer.
"You didn't think you could sneak out without me noticing, did you, Grimm?" Puck's voice called down to her. "I've got the big one! You take the horde?"
Sabrina rolled her eyes with a small smile and muttered, "Typical Puck. Always has to be dramatic."
"You bet I do!" he shouted, and she blinked. Hadn't thought he'd be able to hear her.
She turned to face the 'horde', as Puck had dubbed them, and as she turned, she realized something. There was a sizeably large cliff nearby. She could see the edge of it from where she was. Heck, she'd been here before! She knew what to do, now. Instead of dodging (well, except for the arrows. Dodging arrows was always a good thing), she beelined for the cliff, and, as she'd planned, the Hand followed her. And she flew fast enough that they were so focused on following her that most of them flew over the cliff themselves. She touched down safely on the other side of the twenty-by-fifty-foot gorge and smirked at the ones who hadn't just run to their deaths or severe injuries.
"You think you're safe?" Nottingham called. "We have archers!"
"Oh, I know," Sabrina said, a smile still on her face.
"Then what's so amusing?" Heart snapped.
"Well, for one thing, your archers haven't hit me yet, and I'm just standing here," Sabrina pointed out. She noticed several bows get raised into the air after that and she decided to hurry, saying, "But I was just thinking- it's like lemmings."
They gave her a blank look, so she continued, "You know? Lemmings? They're so stupid and group-oriented that they'll follow the leader straight off a cliff?"
An arrow was coming for her, so she ducked. Then she winked at them and flew off.
As she left, she heard Heart bellow, "Well, don't just stand there! Follow her!"
She flew about half a mile north before turning back towards the house. Puck joined her three quarters of the way there with a fistful of dragon scales, some of them dripping with Sabrina didn't want to know what.
"You handle your end?" he asked her.
She nodded and asked, "You?"
"Duh," he said, gesturing to the scales. "I thought these would make awesome decorations, though, so I kept them. Want some?"
Sabrina shuddered and said, "No thanks." She thought about asking what he was going to decorate with them, but then decided against it. She didn't really want to know. Instead she said, "I didn't know you were into interior decorating."
Puck nodded and said seriously, "Villain, remember? We've got to have our lairs just perfect, otherwise there are issues. And I couldn't find an interior decorator who got it right, so I designed it myself. You should have seen the place, it was awesome."
Sabrina blinked several times, trying to think up a response.
Before she could, Daphne came running out of nowhere, squealing, "Sabrina! You're okay!"
Daphne ran into Sabrina with a thunk and hugged her. Sabrina hugged back, suddenly becoming aware of the monster guts that stuck to both of them. Behind Daphne came about twenty other people, all armed.
"I see you got backup," she noted.
"So did you," Daphne said, "Hi, Puck."
"Hey, Marshmallow," Puck said, waving his scales at her. "How was your night? Mine was awesome. I killed a dragon."
"Oh, is that what those are?" Peaseblossom asked, wrinkling her nose. "Can you get rid of them, please?"
"No!" Puck said, horror in his voice as he pulled away from her and shielded his scales with his body.
"Thanks for getting this for us," Peaseblossom told Sabrina, swinging the locket in her fist. "They can't track us without it."
"Don't thank her!" Goldilocks protested, "They snuck out! They're supposed to be old enough to know better by now!"
Puck rolled his eyes and said, "The day Sabrina and Daphne stop sneaking out of places is the day they don't have anyone to sneak away from. It's in their nature."
"I almost think he might have a point," Mr. Canis said dryly. "Annoying as it may be."
"Almost?" Puck asked, indignant.
"Almost," Mr. Canis repeated firmly.
"Well, since Sabrina apparently doesn't need rescuing and it seems she's capable of freeing herself from four hundred adversaries on her own, can we go back to bed now?" Mustardseed asked pointedly. "We're attacking the Hand's base tomorrow, and I for one would like a good night's sleep."
"We're what?" everyone asked. Sabrina was the loudest.
"If you can make decisions without me, I can make them without you," Mustardseed told Sabrina defensively.
Sabrina glared at him anyway.
Mustardseed shrugged and said, "We need food. We can't go home for it. The Hand has food. So we're getting it."
"All right," Sabrina said, giving him a pointed look, "But don't blame me if it goes wrong."
"It won't," a vaguely familiar voice said from Sabrina's left, just out of sight.
"How do you know?" she accused, searching for the speaker.
"Because I can get you in," he said, and stepped forward. It was Tom. Again.
"So are you like, a full-out double agent now?" Puck asked Tom.
Tom gave him a smile that reminded Sabrina of her own 'I have a secret' face and said, "I'm my own man. I just feel like helping you people out right now."
"Why?" Sabrina asked.
"You'll find out eventually," Tom said, giving her a real smile.
"Oh," Sabrina said, "Well, tomorrow, then? What time?"
"Ten," Tom said, "There's a meeting, so they'll be out of the way. And the kitchen will be empty."
"Great," Sabrina said, smiling tightly. "See you then. I'm going to sleep."
"Goodnight," Tom said, and like that, he was gone.
The next morning after breakfast, Mustardseed said, "All right, everyone! Get your things together! Tom should be here in a few minutes!"
"Whoopty-doo," Puck muttered tracing patterns on the table.
"What's with you?" Sabrina asked. "He's not lying, I'd know."
"Yeah, I know," Puck said, but his voice was still sullen.
"So who got your knickers in a knot?" she asked, grabbing his hand to keep him from outlinging more bombs on the tabletop. She left their hands intertwined.
Puck shrugged and said, "I just don't like the way he looks at you. It's creepy."
"Yeah, it kind of is," Sabrina agreed, "but we can use all the help we can get right now. I'll just avoid him."
"Fine," Puck agreed, pulling their clasped hands off the table, where they were less likely to be seen.
Sabrina rubbed her thumb up and down Puck's hand and said, "We should hang out after this. Just you and me."
"Sure," Puck agreed, grinning at her. "Roof?"
Sabrina grinned and said, "Definitely. After we're clean."
Puck made a face but said, "If you're determined..."
"I'm not kissing you unless you don't taste disgusting, and I'm not cuddling with you if you smell," Sabrina told him, "We've talked about this, Puck."
"Fine," Puck said with a sigh.
Sabrina smiled and was going to say something else, but she felt something on her head, and she let go of Puck's hand to see what it was. But by the time she reached her hair, it was gone, and Tom was standing next to her table.
Mustardseed, two tables over, noticed and stood, saying, "Good. Now we can get started."
Tom smiled at Sabrina and then was on top of Mustardseed's table (the center one) and shouting at everyone, "You ready to get moving?"
Puck rolled his eyes.
Sabrina grabbed his hand again and whispered, "I know. Just ignore him."
"But- we don't- that's so-"
"Corny, I know," Sabrina said. "But we need him, I guess. So..."
Puck sighed and said, "Fine. But if he sleeps here, he's waking up with something disgusting in his hair."
"Go right ahead," Sabrina assured him, deciding it wasn't worth it to stop him. For one thing, if she did, he'd probably put something gross in her hair, and for another, Tom kind of deserved it.
They sat and listened to his 'pep talk' for a bit, most of which seemed very different than the Tom Cricket had described- full of himself and unconcerned with the whole world outside himself. Then, finally, he was finished, and they were off to Mab's castle.
They took the chicken house until they were about two miles away- the dragons patrolled the sky from then in, Tom told them, and they'd notice a walking cottage. From there they walked.
It was a nice enough day. A bit nippy, but the sun shone through the spotty clouds in a cold, far-away sort of fashion, making the air seem crystalline, and the leaves crunched under most people's feet- not Sabrina and Daphne's, though. They might have been city sneaks, but they knew how to avoid making noise wherever they went. The bare trees swayed back and forth overhead in a strong breeze that blew bits of color-splotched brown around their ankles.
When they got into the clear space around Mab's castle, Tom motioned for everyone to stay back, and then he was suddenly in the middle of the clearing, whistling a tune that sounded suspiciously like 'She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain'. The dragons, five of them, appeared out of nowhere to land in the clearing with him. He started talking animatedly.
Sabrina and Mustardseed looked at each other, nodded, and, checking one last time that Tom had the dragons occupied, ran across the yard, leading the others with them. Sabrina decided, as they ran, that having no windows might make you safer, but it also cut down on your ability to detect who was coming, even if you did have a room full of mirrors that showed you everything ever. Because if you weren't in the room, or looking at the right mirror, you were a bit screwed.
They were in the fortress, then, and Tom was with them.
"Can you go check the spy-room or whatever it is?" Sabrina asked him.
Tom nodded and was gone. He was back a minute later.
"Well?" Puck asked, when he didn't offer any information.
"You're fine," Tom said, giving him a disdainful look. "The guy in there is so busy watching the meeting that everyone else is at that he wouldn't notice if I started jumping up and down in one of the other camera-views shouting his name. Idiot."
"Great," Sabrina said, a smile starting to form on his face. "What about the kitchens?"
"They'll be empty," Tom said, as if that was obvious.
Sabrina gave him a smile full of steel and said, "Check anyway, will you?"
Tom rolled his eyes and said, "Fine," and then he was gone. Back again thirty seconds later, he said, "Empty. Like I said."
"All right, we can go now," Sabrina said, "Lead the way."
Tom led them through the opulent halls, and Sabrina tried not to concentrate too hard on the frescoes depicting fairies being better than humans and Everafters dominating the world. They were beautiful, and they drew the eye with an almost hypnotic quality, and they were horrifying, but she knew a spell when she saw one, so she avoided looking at them at all, pulling other people she saw looking at the walls forward when they slowed.
The frescoes got less exciting and sometimes weren't there at all the closer they got to the kitchen, and Sabrina sort of wondered who got the wonderful task of working as a servant for Mab. Faerie didn't have servants, really, she'd noticed.
"We're here," Tom said suddenly, when they reached a dimly lit hall with no paintings at all and cracked plaster walls.
Sabrina glanced around warily for a minute. This seemed shady.
She smiled at Tom the same way she had before and said, "Would you mind checking one more time to make sure nobody's in there? Please?"
Tom looked kind of exasperated, but he said, "All right. We're fine, though, you know."
"I don't, actually," Sabrina said, "So can you go make sure? I'd hate to have to do something nasty to you if it turned out that there were people in there and all my friends here died or something."
Tom rolled his eyes and said, "I'm going," and then he was gone. He came back, gave Sabrina a pointed look and said, "It's empty."
"Great," Sabrina said with a smile, "Then we can go in."
She led the way into the kitchen.