Chapter 12

"Of Carpies and Gummies"

Sunni and the Carpie King stared at each other with hate and lust in their eyes as both of them felt that they each had some unfinished business to attend to. The Carpie King moved first, trying to strike Sunni with his scepter. With each strike towards Sunni, Sunni only managed to dodge him at the very last minute. After a few brief minutes, the Carpie King had begun to lose patience and finally managed to find Sunni and whacked her in front of Bobo. Although the force of the blast was powerful enough to knock her out cold, Sunni still managed to stay on her feet and ran towards Bobo who was now coming around from being knocked out in his fight with the Carpie King.

"You meddling bear," he growled. "I will make sure that you will not escape me this time, I swear on my life!"

"If that's what you think, kingie," snarled Sunni and she knew that she had to use her claws. Sunni had never used her claws in her life, but her determination to protect the nicest of all the carpies had left her with no other choice. Rising up, she stuck her claws at the now terrified Carpie King as he saw her leap like a deer and tried to run away in fear as he felt Sunni stab her claws into his partially exposed back.

Realizing that he could not outrun Sunni, the Carpie King stood there and felt the pain of the claws go deep into his back. Once the Carpie King was now lying wounded on the ground, Sunni turned her attention towards Bobo, who was now rising to his feet.

"Are you all right, Bobo?" asked Sunni, who now retracted her claws back into her paws.

"I'm fine, Queenie," said Bobo. By the time Bobo rose to his feet, the Carpie King tried to get back to his feet, but the loss of blood and severity of his injuries had severely weakened him and he could no longer survive his injuries and thus, closed his eyes and passed out, finally dying of his wounds. As the Carpie King was now dead, Sunni and Bobo ran out of the storeroom and rejoined the battle of Ursalia which was now nearly reaching its climax. Many of the Gummi Bears and villains were now dead and many more were already severely injured.

Sunni was just about to help out a pack of Gummies who were fighting a group of Aerials, when she suddenly heard a scream coming from Princess Calla, who was fighting along with Cavin, against the Aerial King and Clutch. Running towards her friend, Sunni could see that Cavin had been injured in the head and Calla had ran over to him and placed her hand on Cavin's head. In order to stop the bleeding, Calla used her sword and ripped off the train of her blue and white gown and tied it around her boyfriend's head in order to stop the bleeding. Cavin felt better and despite his injuries, was able to rally and help his girlfriend fight off the leader of the Aerials and the Trolls.

"Calla! Cavin, hang on," cried Sunni as she and Bobo ran over to them. Sunni and Calla briefly embraced one another and then turned their attention towards their opponents.

"How enchanting," sneared Clutch. "Together again, for the last time!" The lead troll charged towards the princess and her friend firing his pea shooter at them. But, with the train of her gown ripped away, Calla was now able to move freely and she and Sunni ran as fast as their dress shoes could carry them and Calla kicked Clutch in the eye and the spike in her white high heel had blinded Clutch in his left eye. Despite losing his left eye, Clutch was still ready to kill the princess and her friend, but then, suddenly, he felt a sudden jerk as he turned around and saw Gusto whacking Clutch in the back with a garden shovel.

"Leave my friends alone, Bug Eye!" shouted Gusto. "Or I'll mess up your face with my artistic prowness!"

"Oh, really," remarked Clutch. "The fur flies tonight!" He wound up firing his pea shooter at Gusto and the Gummi Artist ran and dodged each walnut that was fired at him. After all, he spent a good portion of his life alone on a desert island, so he knew how to defend and take care of himself.

"Nip, Tuck," shouted Clutch. "Get your stinking green behinds over hear now!"

But, alas, the other two trolls could not answer his call for help as Clutch saw them already lying dead from injuries sustained in battle. Realizing that he was now alone, Clutch decided to do the most sensible thing and decided to never be taking alive. Just above him, Gritty and Ursa could see that Clutch was being cornered and realized that the time was right to take out the leader of the trolls with his two lieutenants now dead.

"Shall we, Ursa?" smiled Gritty.

"Let's shall, Gritty!" said Ursa and the two Barbics threw their spears down on Clutch's head, immediately killing him. Gusto looked up and saw the two Barbics and he could not help himself but pout at the show off's that they have become in light of this action.

Meanwhile, Sunni and Calla had rejoined Buddi, Cubbi and Cavin fighting the Leviathan Giant as the large man was throwing everything he could at anything he could find. Sunni took off one of her slippers and threw it at the giant's eyes when he turned his attention towards one of the baby Gummies that was lying on the ground. Sunni took off her other slipper and ran towards the baby, picking it up and running as fast as she could from the Giant's wrath. But, just as Sunni was about to run to safety, she tripped on her dress and the baby was flung high into the air. But, Fortunately, Grammi saw the baby and raised her arms out to grab the baby before the baby could maintain any serious injury.

But, before Sunni could get back on her feet, the giant was fast approaching her with a look to kill deep in his eyes. Realizing that she could not outrun him any further, she looked down, closed her eyes and saw her life running right before her eyes. The giant was just about to step on her when all of a sudden, a flashing bright light was shown right in the creature's face and Sunni and the others looked up to reveal Zummi on top of the Gummiscope using the light from the Gummiscope to blind all of the giant villains and making them blind so they couldn't see what was happening in front of them.

"Zummi!" called Sunni. "Help us, please!"

"Don't worry, Sunni," he called. "I'm here for you and all of you." He fired several more beams of light at the Leviathan Giant and the creature was blind enough to trip over a high wall and he fell screaming to his death into the gorge below. Getting back on her feet, Sunni grabbed her slippers and slid them back on and then charged back towards Calla and Cavin. But, just as when it seemed like things could get any more worse, Duke Igthorn, Lady Bane and Zorlock were then spotted overlooking a balcony with Foxglove as a hostage.

"Attention, Gummies!" he called, speaking through a bullhorn. "I believe this belongs to you."

"Foxglove!" cried Night Wing, who saw his wife being held hostage. "Don't you dare hurt her, you hear me?! You goddamn cowards!"

"Oh, I won't hurt her," said Igthorn. "But, if you ever want to see your precious wife again, you will now surrender your weapons and all of your treasures and secrets to us immediately."

"That means all of you," added Lady Bane. "So, do as we command or else."

"You won't get away with this, you two!" shouted Zummi.

"We already have," said Lady Bane.

"Even though we have lost many of our dear and courageous comrades," said Igthorn. "We are now just moments away from achieving our destiny. So what is your choice?"

"What do we do, Ursa?" asked Gritty. "Do we surrender everything to them?"

"I afraid we don't have much of a choice, Gritty," said Ursa. "We have to surrender."

"Don't you see, my dear Toadwart?" asked Igthorn. "Can you imagine the look on Gregor's face when we return to Dunwyn with all the weapons we need to take over Dunwyn once and for all?"

"Indeed, Duke Igthorn," said Lady Bane. "All of the Gummi secrets will soon be mine for me to rule over."

"Huh?" asked Zorlock. "What about me?"

By this time, both Duke Igthorn and Lady Bane were already running out of patience with Zorlock. After all, he was the one who also sought out the Great Book of Gummi along with Lady Bane and didn't like the fact that he had to share the Great Book of Gummi with her.

"If I had told you once, I have told you a million times," said Lady Bane. "No one shall possess the Great Book of Gummi but me!"

And with that, she fired magic from her Gummi Medallion and fired her magic in his stomach and he screamed in pain loud enough for his screams to be heard from as far away as Dunwyn Castle where King Gregor could sense was wrong and feared for the safety of his only daughter and his favorite page. He wanted to go over and help them and their friends, but he was for the moment, powerless to do anything.

So, all the Gummies were forced to surrender everything to Duke Igthorn and Lady Bane and it seemed all was lost, but the Gummies still had one more trick up their sleeve and it was going to work only if the time was right. The tide was about to turn back towards the Gummies, but they needed help and they need it quickly.