So yeah…I didn't entirely lie about what I said. There was some school issues (and a bit of procrastination here and there), but I'm finally doing this chapter. And as I'm finishing and eventually uploading it, June 2nd, 2023, it will be my birthday, my 17th one to be exact, so that's exciting.
This chapter will be the leadup to the 5th temple, and will have new mysteries to solve as well. I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 20: Across the Frozen Sea
After a two month break from temple hunting, the group set out to the fifth temple, located on the familiar Temple of Baby Animals, to which they have to travel by boat there. Everyone was enjoying the ride, especially with the breeze and ocean beyond them. We come to two sisters looking out to the ocean in front of them.
"Wow! The ocean is so big!" Mia exclaimed.
"I know, it's pretty amazing that we still don't know so much about it, or that there could be something down there we can't see," Molly said. As they looked out to the open waters, a thought was going through Mia's head that she couldn't hold anymore.
"Hey big sis, what happened while we were separated?" Mia asked her sister.
"Oh…well, a lot happened, some good and some bad…very…very bad," Molly replied. "We've all been through some tough times, and have experienced things we don't want to talk or hear about, myself included, but what I can say is that I'm getting stronger, and hopefully strong enough to defeat Pyros," she said.
"I really hope you can do it, you've always had a way to get through things," Mia said.
"I hope so too little sis," Molly told her before Mia hugged her tightly. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked her.
"I just miss Mom, Dad and Mason," Mia said with a sad tone.
"I do too Mia, and we're going to rescue them, I promise, but we have to get through these temples first before we can do that," she reassured her little sister. "Cmon, let's go see Glacia, maybe she can cheer you up," Molly said.
Glacia was looking down at a photo of what appears to be her and someone else, rubbing her hand against it slowly, but quickly put it away once she saw the two sisters coming.
"Hello girls, what brings you here?" she asked them.
"Hello Ms. Glacia!" the two said. "We were wondering, how much longer until we arrive?" Molly asked her.
"It'll be about an hour or three until we arrive at the island," Glacia answered. "But I assume this isn't the only reason you've come here?" she asked them.
"I miss my family Ms. Glacia," Mia told her before Molly could.
"I see. Come sit down next to me, Molly, why don't go see what your friends are up to?" Glacia told them. Molly and Glacia exchanged a wink as Molly swam off to find the others, while Mia sat down next to Glacia.
"I know you miss your family Mia, and so does your sister too, and that's fine, but you shouldn't let that stop you from saving them," Glacia told her.
"What do you mean?" Mia wondered.
"Feeling sorrowful can lead us down paths we don't want. You should use that sorrowness to help you rescue your family. It can help us reach up to the star we're destined to be. That's why your sister is so focused on her training and the temples, she's using her sorrowness to give her determination to get stronger. It's alright to miss someone, and you should use that to help yourself get farther," Glacia explained.
"Wow, I didn't know old people were full of wisdom!" Mia said with shock. Glacia chuckled. "Well, it does come with age," she answered back.
Meanwhile, the others were chatting amongst each other on the deck. Gil and Goby were looking out at the front of the ship.
"I still can't believe that the Temple of Baby Animals is actually a real place," Gil said.
"I know right? I just made it up. I didn't know it actually existed and moved around like some kind of mysterious event," Goby said.
"Do you think the traps will still be there like when we first went there?" Gil wondered.
"I'm not sure, but they could be, meaning we have an advantage going in," Goby said. Bubble Puppy barked happily.
"Hey guys!" Molly said, swimming over.
"Hey Molly, I thought you were with Mia," Gil said.
"I wanted Ms. Glacia to talk to Mia, so I came over here. Say…where's Zooli and Cryo?" she asked.
"They're over there. Cryo's helping Zooli with her seasickness," Goby said, pointing to the duo.
"Huh, I didn't know Zooli got seasick," Molly was surprised.
"I am not seasick! It's just a condition-" Zooli said before vomiting in the water, Cryo comforting her by patting her back. "Okay, maybe I do get seasick, I've had it since I was 6, and it keeps coming back," Zooli said.
"Well, what my mom always tells me to do if I ever feel seasick is to look out to the horizon, as it helps our brain to get used to the movement of the boat," Molly explained to her.
"T-Thanks, I'll try th-tha-HURG" Zooli said before bloating her mouth again, but luckily she didn't vomit, but did feel woozy. Everyone chuckled. Suddenly, the bell on the boat rang out.
"Attention! We're nearing enemy territory! Please stay away from the front of the boat as we turn away from Big Bubble City, and get down to stay hidden!" The captain said in the loudspeaker. Everyone got down low, but were able to see what had happened to the city.
Big Bubble City looked nothing like the guppies had remembered it to be. There was fire and destroyed buildings everywhere, with flags of Pyro's empire everywhere. Soldiers were on guard, making sure everyone was doing their job, and there was some gunfire heard in the city. But the most drastic change was the Big Bubble Building, which had been destroyed and fallen over, and construction was starting to begin on the fallen skyscraper. Everyone was in horror of what they saw.
"So that's, or what was Big Bubble City," Cryo said, as he had never seen the place before.
"I don't believe it, they completely destroyed the place, I don't even recognize it anymore," Goby said.
"I think they're rebuilding the Big Bubble Building into something else," Gil said.
Molly looked at the remains of the city she once knew and loved. She remembered the many adventures she had there, including the Shrimptenial Celebration at the top of the Big Bubble Building.
"I'm going to stop Pyros once we finish all seven temples, and I will make sure he pays for what he has done to this land," Molly said.
Once the ship had passed the area, the group were free to get up and explore the ship again. Molly swam over to Zooli and Cryo, who were in the same spot as before.
"How you feeling Zooli?" Molly asked the sick guppy.
"I'm…eugh…fine I guess. Still don't feel good, but…hup…not as bad as before," Zooli replied.
"Well, I'm gonna go see how Mia's doing, you want to come?" she asked her.
"Sure I guess, maybe it'll take my mind off this seasickness," the purple-haired girl said. Molly helped her swim over, while Cryo decided to go hang out with the boys.
"Hey Ms. Glacia, where's Mia?" Molly asked her.
"She told me she was going off to find you. I would assume you were already with her," Glacia told Molly.
"Zooli, stay with Ms. Glacia while I go find Mia, okay?" she told her. She simply nodded. Molly swam off to find her sister quickly while Zooli sat down, clearly still not feeling good.
"Seasick sweetie?" Glacia said.
"Yeah, my stomach keeps getting upset," Zooli tells her.
"Heh, I was the same way when I was your age, just try not to think about it too much," she suggested to Zooli.
"Mia? Where are you?" Molly called out to her little sister, but no response came. "Mia! This isn't funny at all! Where are you?" she called out again, with no avail again. "Hang on, where is everybody for that matter?" she said. There was no sign of the others anywhere.
"Gilly? Goby? Cryo? Hello?" Molly called out, but no one came or responded back. Molly was starting to get worried, when she felt something touch her tail.
"Bark Bark!" it was Bubble Puppy.
"Hey boy, do you know where the others are?" Molly asked the pup. Bubble Puppy barked at her. "(sigh) I wish I was able to understand you somehow. I better tell Ms. Glacia, come on boy!" Molly said.
"Something wrong dear?" Glacia asked Zooli.
"Not really, I'm just worried that if I'm going to be paired with Molly, that if we're going to still be friends after it, cause I can tell Molly's had a fight with everyone leading up to this one," Zooli explained.
"Well, you two are friends, and sometimes friends fight and argue with each other. It's something we can't prevent and have to live with. I'm sure that you'll make up with her if you do," Glacia told the guppy.
"I guess you're right," she said.
Molly soon arrived on the scene with Bubble Puppy by her side, panting as she finally reached them.
"Hey everything OK?" Zooli asked her.
"No, everything is not OK! Mia and the others are missing!" Molly said.
"Are you sure you checked everywhere?" Zooli asked her.
"Well, I haven't checked under the ship yet, but I don't think they would go down there," Molly said.
"Well, why don't you two go down there and check, while I speak to the captain about this situation?" Glacia said. "Ok, we'll be back as soon as we find them," Molly told her.
In the basement, both girls were carrying flashlights due to the darkness of the lower deck. There were empty boxes and doors everywhere, which creeped the girls out a bit. Bubble Puppy was also there to sniff out the others.
"Any luck boy?" Molly asked the pup. He shook his head no.
"Is it me or is this place giving me the creeps?" Zooli nervously said.
"I'm with you Zooli. There's something about this place that doesn't feel right to me," Molly said. The two searched every room they came across, from the kitchen to the storage room, but they couldn't find any sign of the others.
"We've searched every room in this ship, and we still haven't found a single sign of anyone!" Molly shouted.
"Not all of them Molly, look," Zooli said, pointing to the engine room.
"You really think that they'll be in there?" Molly asked her.
"What other choice do we have?" Zooli said. "I guess you're right," Molly said. They both swam towards the engine room, unaware of a threat soon to be found, but Zooli had another thing on her mind.
"Hey um, Molly. If we have a fight, would we still be friends?" Zooli asked her.
"Of course we would, why do you ask anyway?" Molly answered.
"Well, it's just that I've noticed your ways have changed towards the others after the other temples, and I'm worried that the same will happen to us," Zooli explained.
"Zooli, you have to understand that sometimes, friends fight, and they don't always end up resolved. But we're different, we change when we fight because we realize our mistakes, and that helps both of us become better people. So it's okay if we fight, because that's what friends do," Molly told her.
"Wow, I didn't know you could give such emo-HURG" Zooli said before feeling sick. Luckily she swallowed it. "Looks-eugh…like it's back," she said. Molly giggled.
Meanwhile, Glacia was inspecting the upper deck where the crew is, or was, to her shock. She finally reached the captain's room, and opened the door.
"Captain Gordo, we appear to have a problem with missing people…" Glacia slowly said. But there was no one there except an auto-piloted ship, while Molly and Zooli opened the door.
"Oh dear…" Molly and Glacia say in sync.
Not only was the captain and all of the crew gone, but the engine room was filled with explosives already lit.
"Why is there explosives down here?!" Zooli shouted.
"I don't know but we gotta get out of here now!" Molly said. The two guppies and Bubble Puppy swam towards the exit with little time remaining. When they got out, they reunited with Glacia, who just came back from the top deck.
"Kids, I'm afraid I have bad news," she told them.
"Well we have even worse news! We have to get off this boat before it-"
BOOM!
Everything went silent, and was silent for a few hours. Molly soon woke up on a beach, struggling to get up. "Ugh my head. Where…am I?" she asked herself.
"Molly!" a voice called out to her. It was Zooli, with Bubble Puppy and Glacia behind her.
"Guys! You're alive!" Molly said with relief, sharing a hug with Zooli.
"It seems some kind of barrier protected us from the explosive by these bands on our wrists, but I have no idea who put them on," Glacia explained.
"Even better, we're here, look!" Zooli pointed to the temple.
"Well that makes things easier for us, let's go!" Molly said, getting up off the sand. She and Zooli headed towards the temple door, but Bubble Puppy followed closely, like he knew something they didn't.
"Be careful you two!" Glacia told them.
So they finally arrived at the Temple of Baby Animals. Little did they know that this would be their weirdest and hardest temple challenge yet. Will they succeed? Will they fail? Only time will tell.
Sorry this took so long. I was hoping to get this out earlier today, but I was doing some birthday shenanigans. Anyway, also sorry if this seemed a little short, I really wanted to get this out, but now I'll answer reviews.
ReaderandWriter9000: It's good to be back again. I'm glad many of your suspicions were true, and many things will be answered later on down the line. Glad you understand me, but now with summer, I'll have more time to work on this (assuming I don't procrastinate lol).
PrimroseRaspberry: Hello again! Oona having PTSD is something I thought would add more character to her, given her soft personality all the time. And with more powerful characters arriving, it'll only strengthen the characters desire to get stronger. I hope you enjoy the future of this story!
That's all for now, and no post chapter because it's late here, so I'm signing off, and I hope you await the next chapter!