Hey everyone. Welcome to the next chapter.
Not gonna lie, the Queen of the Black Puddle was one of my favorite villains for the show. But I feel like she was very underutilized. There were several episodes where she could have easily been the villain, but they chose other villains that had already had their fair share of episodes. So I will be creating some original chapters for her going on.
Also in this chapter, Avery gets a new ability thanks to the bracelet. What that is, you'll have to read and find out.
It was a lazy day on the farm today. A storm was raging outside with lightning flashing, thunder crashing and rain pounding hard against the roof, walls and windows of the farmhouse. It was almost rhythmic, like nature was making it's own music.
At least that's how Avery always liked to view it.
She was standing at the living room window and looking out at the rain that continued to come down outside, with the occasional flash of lightning. Ever since she was a little girl, she had loved watching storms roll through, especially at night. Having lived in Florida her entire life, she was used to seeing storms pretty often, especially in the springtime. She was pleased to see that storms were still common during the spring in the mid-west as well.
The rest of the family were engaged in their usual mundane activities. Muriel sitting in her rocking chair with Courage sitting in her lap and Esutace reading his newspaper from his armchair. Nothing out of the usual for them. They all just sat in the living room, listening to the dying storm pass by. That is until Eustace peeked over the top of his newspaper and peered at Courage, with the purple dog being the only one to notice. Everyone else took notice once Eustace dropped the paper.
"Ooga booga booga!" Eustace said with his mouth full of sharp false teeth.
Courage howled and screamed in fright as he jumped from Muriel's lap ran out the front door to the porch. Eustace just pointed and laughed at Courage's misfortune.
"Really Uncle Eustace? You can't go a single day without torturing him?" Avery asked with venom in her voice.
Esutace continued to laugh and said, "What? A little fear is good for him. But if he gets scared enough he wouldn't be so useless."
He continued to laugh as Avery rolled her eyes and stepped out onto the porch to check on Courage. He continued to laugh until Avery heard a whacking sound come from the inside of the living room.
"Ow! What did I do?" Eustace said as Avery just smirked at her uncle's deserved pain.
Courage just panted as Avery sat down beside him and rubbed the top of his head. The rain was now dying out and had reduced to light sprinkle rather than the downpour it had been just a few minutes earlier.
"It's okay Courage," she said softly. "Aunt Muriel's taking care of him now."
Courage still whined a little as Avery comforted him. But they were pulled out of the moment when they heard a loud gurgling sound which was then followed by a series of bubbling sounds. The bracelet began to pulsate again and Avery felt her gaze being drawn to a large puddle nearby. Courage followed her gaze and saw the puddle as well.
"Figures. Only in Nowhere can a puddle act strange as well," she said as she got up to her feet.
She and Courage walked over to the puddle to get a better look at it. One glance was enough to tell her that this was a deep puddle due to the darkness of the water. The one question she had was, where did it come from? The rain was already letting up and there were no other large puddles around the yard. Not to mention that there was nothing particulary special about this spot, as far as Avery could tell, that would allow so much water to accumulate here. As soon as they looked into the puddle, the bubbling stopped with only their reflections staring back at them.
Avery sighed as she patted Courage on the head and said, "Looks normal to me boy."
That is until their reflections began to distort and reform into a new image that neither of them had ever seen before. A figure of a creepy looking lady dressed in a black long sleeved dress with an red gem fixed to the V shaped neckline. The lady herself was unnerving to look at with her light blue skin, purple hair and pink pupil less eyes. She stared up at them and they stared back down at her. Both Avery and Courage could feel chills run down their spines.
Then she hissed at the both of them.
As Avery expected, Courage howled in terror and ran back towards the farmhouse. Avery on the other hand just stayed where she stood and looked down at the strange woman. Her heart hammered in her chest as the lady looked back and gave her a sinister smile in return. Especially when her eyes fell upon Avery's bracelet and she grinned even more. She gave Avery a little wave, before her form distorted and Avery's reflection returned.
Not wasting any time, Avery took a few breaths and then turned back to the farmhouse and ran back inside. By the time she was there, Courage was in the middle of his attempt at warning the elderly couple at the goings on just outside, morphing into a puddle and letting out a growling sound as he did so before reforming into himself again.
The couple just gave each other a look before Esutace went back to his paper, making sure to say, "Stupid dog."
Avery glared at him again as Muriel rubbed her forehead and said, "Courage, do you mind repeating that?"
Courage picked her up out of the chair and carried her back outside.
"Courage, please don't," Avery said as she followed them back outside.
Courage took Muriel over to the puddle and pointed down at the water, whining and babbling a little more. Avery stood just behind them, not expecting the reflections to distort again. And she was right, their reflections remained unaltered as they stared into the dark water.
"Oh Courage, it must have been a fish," Muriel said.
Avery gave her aunt a weird look and said, "Aunt Muriel, since when do fish appear in rain puddles? How would they even appear in rain puddles?"
"Oh I've seen crayfish swimming around in them right after storms before. And besides, we do have an underground source of water. Nothing to worry about," Muriel said as she turned back to the house.
Courage whined as he followed, but Avery kept looking into the puddle.
"That was no fish Aunt Muriel," she said as she kept her gaze fixated on her own reflection.
Some time later that day, things had settled down some. Avery was sipping some tea that her aunt had given her and suffice it to say, it was helping her calm down some. Her aunt was currently knitting and her uncle was back to reading his paper again, sipping some tea as well. Courage was back at the window, staring out at the puddle still. Avery looked back at him and could feel the agitation in him as well. She hoped that whatever it was that they had seen out there would leave them and their family be. I mean, they had bothered her so Avery couldn't blame her for wanting to scare them away. She'd be angry too if someone came bothering her when she just wanted some peace.
Muriel got up to go into the kitchen and said, "I think I'll get some more tea myself. Care for some more Avery dear?"
Avery nodded and handed her cup to Muriel and said, "Yes please."
Muriel took her cup with a smile and walked towards the kitchen. Eustace continued to sip at his tea, until all at once he heard a gurgling sound emanating from it. Avery heard the sound as well and looked up at Eustace to see what was up. Her eyes began to bulge when she saw the familiar form of the woman from the dark puddle rising up out of the steaming cup of tea.
"Eustace," came a loud whisper.
Eustace's eyes went wide at the sight of the woman as well. Avery began to stand up and go over to her uncle to try and take the tea from his hands. The lady turned her head towards Avery with a sinister smile and the next thing Avery knew, she was frozen in her steps, unable to take her eyes off of her.
The woman wagged a finger in the young woman's direction and said, "No no" before turning her attention towards Eustace again.
"Eustace," she whispered again as he suddenly became completely entranced by her.
She splashed some water on his face and Eustace moaned in delight at the feeling of the water on his face. Courage finally turned his head towards the old farmer and howled at the sight of the woman standing in the steam of the cup and that Avery was just standing there, staring at them and not doing a thing to help. As she began beckoning to Eustace, Courage finally decided to take action. He ran to Avery first and began tugging at the sleeve of her shirt, trying to get a reaction out of her. But to his shock, she didn't even register him on her radar. Like Eustace, she just kept staring at the lady as she beckoned her uncle.
Deciding that they weren't going to be of much help, Courage ran from the living room and towards the kitchen.
Avery continued to watch, not able to move or even take her eyes off of the woman. That is until the sound of Muriel's approaching footsteps were heard and the woman in the tea suddenly vanished before their eyes. Once she was gone, Avery blinked and rubbed her eyes.
'What... the heck... was that?' she asked herself.
Eustace on, the other hand, looked so mesmerized by what he had just witnessed, even sighing in contentment. Like he was in a trance, something that Avery knew he would easily fall into. She just wondered why she had fallen into one as well.
He was broken out of the trance when Muriel asked, "Are you alright Eustace?"
Eustace blinked and shook his head clear before answering, "What? Yeah yeah! Durn herbal teas. Been drinking too much of it."
"The kitchen ceiling is leaking again Eustace. You better go fix it," Muriel responded back.
Eustace grumbled as he got up out of his chair and crossed over towards the kitchen, grabbing a bucket from the closet first. Muriel turned her head towards Avery and noticed something off with her as well.
"Are you alright dear? You look a little dizzy," Muriel asked her.
Avery let out a sigh and said, "Yeah. Just stood up too fast is all. Anymore of that tea?"
Muriel shook her head and said, "Looks like we used the rest of it up. I'll get some more in the morning."
Avery gave her a confused look and said, "Are you sure? I thought I had some extra tea in the cupboard. Let me go check real quick."
Muriel smiled and said, "Thank you dear, you can probably reach up there easier than I can anyway. You wouldn't mind fixing some up if you find some would you?"
Avery shook her head and said, "Not at all. I'll be back."
Avery walked past her aunt and Courage and towards the kitchen door. She stepped into the kitchen, noticing that her uncle was standing by the bucket as water continued dripping into it.
"Hey Uncle Eustace, how's the leak?" she asked him, but he didn't answer.
She was turned towards the cabinet and walked over to it. She reached to the top shelf and found what she was looking for.
"Aha! I knew there was some left," she said and then turned back to Eusatce. "Hey Uncle Eustace you want more t-"
However, she stopped when she looked at him and saw something peculiar in front of him. The water had stopped dripping and one drop was currently hovering in front of his face... and looked like it had arms and a face. And the face looked exactly like the mystery woman from before.
"Oh no. Not again," Avery said and started making her way to them again.
But the drop was prepared. It looked at Avery and held up a finger once more. And like before, Avery froze in her steps and just stared at her. She wanted to go over and smack the drop away before she bewitched her uncle again.
"No interference," the woman whispered to Avery before she turned her attention back towards Eustace.
Avery turned her eyes towards the kitchen door, just as Courage opens it up and steps in. Avery wanted to call out and warn him, but she couldn't find her voice. Courage did see the droplet though and he must have realized the danger when he silent screamed through clenched teeth. He looked towards Avery and must have realized she couldn't do anything as he just stood there and shook.
"Eustace," the woman said again as she pulled out what looked like a perfume bottle.
She sprayed a small amount of whatever was in the bottle onto Eustace's face. He was annoyed by it for a second, but his annoyance was replaced with bliss as he smiled and moaned happily once more. Avery could only watch as this went on and horror set in when she realized she couldn't do anything to help. Even the pulses from the bracelet weren't registering with her right now.
Courage had clearly seen enough as he ran from the door and away. The woman winked at Eustace, before the water droplet turned back to normal and the water began dripping into the bucket once more. Once she was gone, Avery was free from the bewitchment she had endured from the woman and felt a little dizzy. So much so that she didn't even notice her uncle was now sitting in the water bucket with the water dripping onto his face.
She was broken out of it completely though as soon as she saw her aunt walking into the kitchen. She frowned and shook her head at the sight of Eustace just sitting in the bucket, goofy smile plaster on his face.
Muriel tsked and said, "Oh Eustace, you don't look so well. Let's get you to bed now."
Eustace didn't argue as he simply got up out of the bucket and walked out of the room, still in a daze. Muriel turned her attention to Avery and shook her head again.
"Avery dear, are you sure you're okay?" Muriel asked.
Avery shook her head clear and said, "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Found the tea."
Muriel still walked over to her and placed a hand to Avery's forehead, possibly checking for a fever.
"You feel alright, but it might be best if you got up to bed as well. Just to be safe," Muriel told her.
Avery wanted to argue and tell her about what was going on with this mysterious woman. But it would most likely make her aunt think she was feverish even more. So she decided to just do as her aunt had asked of her and simply nodded her head.
"Yeah. Might be best. I'm just going to get a bath first," Avery said as she walked out of the kitchen.
Muriel smiled and nodded adding, "I'll have a cup of tea ready for ya when you're done."
Avery sighed in contentment as she dried her hair off. The tub was already draining of water and she couldn't be more relieved. The entire time she was in the bath, she kept worrying that the creepy woman would appear and try to haunt her like she's been haunting her uncle. But thankfully nothing had happened and now she just wanting to get to bed.
She finished drying off and slipped into her nightgown and she, for once, felt comfort as the fabric rested against her body. She adjusted the gown to make sure it covered her properly, also grabbing her hairbrush. She began to brush her hair and stared back at her reflection. As she did, she began to ponder a few things.
'If she's after Uncle Eustace, why was she interested in me earlier? She didn't even acknowledge Courage,' she asked herself and stopped brushing for a moment. She looked back at the bracelet and asked, "Do you know anything about this? Does she know about you?"
The bracelet did nothing. It didn't pulsate or anything. It just stayed on her wrist and remained still and silent.
Avery groaned and said, "You're a big help aren't you?"
She was pulled out of her thoughts as someone began pounding on the bathroom door and turning her attention away.
"Avery are you almost finished? I need to take a bath too," came Eustace's voice.
Avery rolled her eyes as she put the brush away and said, "Yeah, just give me a sec."
She fixed up the nightgown once more to make sure she was covered and opened the bathroom door.
'Guess that stuff she used on him doesn't last long. He's grumpy again,' she thought to herself.
Eustace had his usual grumpy glare as he walked past her and said, "About time. Some of us have to clean up as well."
Avery rolled her eyes again and said, "Yeah yeah. Never mind that I'm trying to keep my hair healthy."
"Whatever," Eustace said as he slammed the door shut.
Avery shook her head and heard the sound of her aunt approaching. She turned to see her near the top of the stairs with a plate and a cup of steaming tea in hand. Avery smiled a little in relief as she walked over.
"Here you are dear," Muriel said as Avery took the cup. "Nice and fresh."
Avery sipped the tea a little and said, "Thanks. I needed this."
Avery noticed Courage walking by the two of them with a shower cap on his head and a towel wrapped around his waist. She could tell what he was up to.
"Hey Courage, you may want to wait a little bit. Uncle Eustace is still in there," she warned him, but Courage must not have been listening as he still went over to the bathroom door and creaked it open.
Muriel shook her head and said, "Well you did warn him. Eustace had better not try to scare him though."
Avery continued to drink a little bit of the tea, but stopped when Courage howled in distress and came running back over to them. He pointed to the bathroom door, doing his usual babbling that they couldn't understand before morphing into a puddle again and then into large monsterous fish holding a tiny Eustace and then back to himself.
'Oh no! Not again!' Avery was screaming in her mind.
They went over to the bathroom door and Courage tried turning the handle, but the thing wouldn't budge. So Courage decided to just kick the door open to impressive effect. By then however, whatever Courage had seen was now gone, but Eustace was thankfully still there. Only now, his head was inside the drain. How exactly that happened was anyone's guess.
Muriel let out a gasp and said, "Oh my! I'm beginning to worry about you Eustace. Tomorrow we're off to see the doctor, that's all there is to it. That goes for you too Avery."
Avery looked at her aunt in confusion and said, "Me? Why me?"
"You've been acting a little like Eustace tonight. I just want to make sure you aren't catching whatever he's catching as well. Now off to bed with ya both," Muriel said and that was it.
Avery knew that arguing with her aunt was pointless. Not that her aunt was stubborn, but arguing with her would only make her worry even more.
Deciding to listen to her aunt, Avery gave her the tea cup and thanked her for the tea. She walked up to her room and went to the window on the far side of the room. She looked out to where the dark puddle still lie. She watched as it began to bubble again, shivering at the thought of what that woman's intentions could be. She turned away from the window and climbed into bed.
"Please let this night be peaceful," she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes.
The night passed without incident, as far as Avery could tell, and Avery stirred and awoke to the sun shining in her eyes. It was still early in the morning, so the sun was shining on her just as it rose over the horizon. She yawned and began to sit up in bed. But just as she began to stand up, she could hear something. It sounded muffled, but the more she listened to it, the clearer she could hear it. It sounded like someone was crying. Not just any someone, it was her aunt.
Her aunt was a tough woman, so hardly anything could truly upset her. Unless something happened to someone she loved. When she cried, she had a tendency to cry rather loudly. Which could only mean one thing.
"Uncle Eustace," Avery gasped and ran from the room and down to her aunt and uncle's bedroom.
Just as she expected, no sign of her uncle in the room and she could hear her aunt downstairs. But she looked over and saw Courage standing, pressed against the window and looking out. She had a good idea what he was staring out at.
"Courage," she called out to him, but he didn't react.
So Avery walked over to the window and called to him again. Like before, there was no response. So she tapped the top of his head and now he turned his attention towards her. As he looked at her, he suddenly jumped up and hugged her. Almost like he wasn't expecting her. She hugged him back and took a look out the window as well. Just as she guessed, the puddle was still out there. Except now it was beginning to look shallow.
'What's going on?' she asked herself before turning to Courage.
"She took him. Didn't she?" she asked.
Courage solemnly nodded his head and Avery could feel herself begin to quiver.
"Through the puddle?" she asked to which he nodded once more.
She knew that this was the worst case scenario and feared that this could happen. She knew what she and Courage needed to do, but she wanted to check on her aunt first. They went down to the kitchen together as Muriel sat in one of the chairs, just crying her eyes out. She held a tissue to her eyes as the tears just poured from her eyes.
"Aunt Muriel?" Avery said softly as she placed a hand on her shoulder.
Muriel sniffled some more and between sobs she said, "Eustace is gone! Oh my Eustace! I knew something was wrong!"
She continued to sob uncontrollably, despite Avery patting her shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort her. Courage tried to pour her a cup of tea, but Muriel didn't even raise her head to acknowledge it. So he then tried to offer her an ice cream sundae, but still got the same result. Animal balloons didn't work either, neither did a Punch and Judy show that Courage quickly tried to perform. Even whacking himself on the head with a frying pan proved fruitless. No matter what Courage tried, nothing could provide Muriel the comfort she needed.
"I want my Eustace," Muriel sobbed.
Avery sighed sadly and pulled away from her aunt. She walked out with Courage following close behind her. As soon as they were out of Muriel's line of sight and earshot, she got down on Courage's eye level and looked him straight into the eye.
"You know what we have to do, don't you?" Avery asked.
Courage shivered, yet nodded his head.
"This is gonna suck. But if we want to help Aunt Muriel, we need to do this," she said and then rushed back upstairs.
A few minutes later, Avery had changed clothes and was standing in front of the puddle with Courage. The little dog was wearing SCUBA gear, but Avery had looked all around the house but had found nothing that could help her with their venture underwater. Sure she had found some stuff, but it was mostly either too big or too small for her. She was about to reluctantly send Courage by himself, but then she took a minute or two to think.
The bracelet was capable of a number of things. She wondered if there was anything it could do to help her out with this. She had spent some time getting accustomed to it's behavior. Usually when it was being helpfully in a dire situation, it had some stronger pulses. When it wasn't, it had some lighter pulses. So she had asked it if it could give her anything to help her breathe underwater and she had gotten a strong pulse in return. After that bit of hopeful assurance, she rushed outside to join Courage for their little venture underwater.
But as she was looking down at the puddle, she noticed something alarming. The puddle was getting shallower as the rising sun was beginning to dry it up. She could tell that with the sun rising, it wouldn't be long before the doorway would be closed up. Courage began tugging at her wrist and pointed to the sides of the puddle, indicating that he noticed the puddle getting smaller as well.
She nodded and said, "I see it boy. We better do this quickly. You go on ahead, I'll catch up."
Courage nodded and dove into the water. As soon as he did, she looked down at the bracelet and began to plead with it.
"Whatever you're going to do, please let it be something I can work with. Please help me save my uncle," she said to fiercely.
It pulsated once and then, to her amazement, the bracelet began to glow. She stepped towards the puddle and as she slid on of her feet in, the bracelet began to pulsate strongly. It was trying to urge her into the puddle and she knew that she needed to hurry this up. Wasting no more time, she pulled her other leg into the puddle and she slipped under the water.
For a moment, she was blind and deaf to everything around her. It even felt like all of the air had been sucked out of her lungs. But after a second or two, she found that could easily inhale and exhale again, but she felt herself inhaling through the sides of her body and she could still exhale through her mouth and nose. She could could still feel the water all around her, but sight and sound were beginning to come back to her. She cracked her eyes open and saw a blurry shape floating in front of her. But as her eyes began to adjust, she quickly saw a familiar canine swimming in front of her.
"Courage? It works, I can breathe underwater," she said excitedly, but noticed Courage was simply starring at her in astonishment. "What? What is it?"
He pointed at her legs and as Avery looked down, she was astonished by what she saw. Instead of her legs, she saw a purple scaly tail, complete with fins and even gills filtering air out of the water which was allowing her to breath. She looked down and just as she expected, the tail consisted of the lower half of her body and the upper half of her body was still human. She was at first alarmed to see that her shirt was missing, but was relieved to see a blue seashell bikini still covering her breasts and keeping her from being exposed.
'Probably for the best. My shirt would have just added resistance to swimming,' she assured herself in her mind.
"A mermaid? I'm a mermaid?" Avery said excitedly. "I think I can work with this."
She looked Courage in eye and said, "What do you think?"
Courage nodded in approval and gave her a thumbs up.
Avery smiled at him and said, "Now let's go save Uncle Eustace before it's too late."
From here, the two swam deeper into the water. Or at least Avery was trying her best to. She was waving her new mermaid tail back and forth and while it was giving her some momentum, she wasn't swimming fast enough to keep up with Courage. He'd have to pause every now and then and wait for her to catch up. She had insisted he keeping going forward, but he refused to budge until she had caught up. It didn't take long for her to feel some exertion in her muscles.
"Okay so I guess I'll have to practice swimming in this form," she said to Courage. "Hopefully I can figure this out quickly."
At least it didn't take them long to figure out where they were supposed to go. After passing a few items that looked more at home in a child's fishbowl, like a sunken ship or treasure chest, they noticed an ominous looking castle in the distance. Sure it still looked like the type of castle you'd see in any fishbowl, but there was something a bit more frightening about it. The dark texture of the castle combined with the actual iron fence that Avery and Courage had to swim over was enough to already give them chills. It became even more so as they got closer and Avery noticed something even worse.
"Courage wait. Look at this," she said as she pointed towards the ground and his eyes went wide as well.
Littered all around them were bones. Human bones. Many, many human bones.
Avery scanned over them and mentally tried to count them, but found that the task would be near impossible. It wasn't just that there too many for her to count, but she quickly realized that the bones weren't just scattered about here. They were piling up.
"Oh God. How many people were dumped here? How deep down does this pile go?" she said as horror began to dawn on her.
She got a better look at some of them and noticed that a few of them were wearing colorful necklaces. Before she could examine any more of them, Courage grabbed her wrist and began tugging at her arm. She suddenly remembered that for every second they wasted there, the less likely they'd be able to save her uncle. Taking one last glance at the skeletons scattered about, she followed Courage once again. Swimming as fast as her newfound transformation allowed.
They swam about the towers, peeking into each one in a desperate bid to find Eustace. It wasn't until Courage looked into one of the highest tower that he finally found them. He signaled Avery over and she came swimming right over to him. They both peeked through the hole and saw Eustace in the tower, sitting inside a giant oyster, the silly grin plastered all over his face and making sighs of contentment.
And standing before him was the same creepy looking woman.
"Guess she thinks she's a queen or something," Avery whispered as they watched the newly dubbed queen and Eustace.
The queen danced before Esuatce in a rather seductive manner. The more she danced, the more pleasure it seemed to bring to Eustace. Avery couldn't help but feel a creeping sense of dread. This woman had spent the evening the day before terrorizing her and Courage while seducing Eustace. Given the myths she'd heard about creatures that did similar things, there was no way this was going to end well for her uncle.
The queen finished her dance and then turned towards the treasure chest that she was keeping in the room. She reached inside and pulled out a necklace made up various colored seashells.
"That's peculiar," Avery whispered, but was pulled out of her thoughts when Courage tugged on her arm.
She looked to him and he pointed back down at the ground where all the skeletons were piling up. She couldn't tell what he was pointing at at first. But as she narrowed her gaze, she got a better look at them. The skeletons she had seen earlier were wearing them as well. And as her eyes scanned over the human remains piled about, a grizzly horror dawned on her. It wasn't just a few skeletons that were wearing them.
Every last one was wearing a necklace.
Avery went wide eyed in horror and said, "Oh no!"
They looked back inside to see the queen draping the necklace around Eustace's neck with him none the wiser.
"Eustace," she whispered once more.
The duo continued to watch as the next part began. The queen grinned, only now her mouth was filled with extremely sharp teeth. Her fingers grew longer and gnarly and they watched as her form turned more and more monstrous. The creepy looking queen they had seen earlier now had an elongated mouth and stood taller and more menacing than she had been before.
Courage let out an involuntary squeal of fear and as soon as he had done that, the queen turned her head in their direction and let out a vicious growl.
Avery looked back at Courage and said, "We have to move now. Courage, you try to get Uncle Eustace away from here. I'm going to distract that monster."
This was not up for debate since they had no time to do so. Courage just did as he was told and swam off towards the sunken ship among the items that had passed earlier. Avery turned back to the evil queen who now had her sights back on Eustace. She opened her mouth wide, ready to take her first bite out of him. So Avery waved her fins as fast as she could allow them. She even began paddling through the water to try to boost her speed. This paid off though as it gave her just enough speed to tackle into the queen and knock her off balance.
For a moment at least. The evil queen began thrashing about, trying to throw Avery off of her. But Avery had her arms wrapped tight around the queen's neck, trying hard to pull her away from Eustace. It was going alright at first, but since she was still incredibly inexperienced with her new appendage, it was proving rather difficult. Before long, the queen was able to pull herself closer to Eusatce once more. So Avery just had to tighten her arms around the queens neck.
"Courage please hurry!" Avery called out as the queen began trying to pry the girl's arms off of her.
The moment that Avery had bought Courage, paid off as she saw a makeshift fishing line fly through the window and latch onto the pant leg of Eustace's pajamas. Courage quickly pulled him out of the tower and away from the monster. The queen roared in fury at the sight of her meal being pulled away and Avery took this moment to release the queen and whacked her once with her mermaid tail.
Using her fins and arms, Avery began swimming away from the castle and followed behind Courage. Courage swam quickly for the gate instead of going over it like Avery was trying to do.
"Courage go over-" but she was too late as the gates suddenly slammed closed, stopping Courage as his momentum caused him to slam into the gates. "Swimming over it would have been a better idea."
Before they could do anything else, there was a hideous roar and Avery watched as the queen came surging through the water, straight for Eustace and Courage, mouth wide open to take a bite. Courage was able to dodge her quickly, causing the queen to bite into the iron gate, ripping a large mass of it off.
Avery gulped and thought, 'If that was just an iron gate, imagine what she could do to flesh and bone."
Once glance around the castle could very well tell her what the queen was capable of. She looked around and saw that Courage was swimming over the sea of bones with Eustace. She followed after and was able to catch up this time with the aid of her arms. But out of nowhere, the queen shot up through the pile of bones. Courage screamed as Avery grabbed a solitary bone and jammed it into the queen's open mouth, preventing her from biting them.
"'Ousy 'rat!" the queen shouted at Avery as she tried to force her mouth closed.
Courage took a skull and whacked the queen on the head with it a few times before swimming off. Avery was about to follow, but the queen reached out and was able to grab her by the tail.
"NO! LET GO!" Avery shouted as she flapped the fins hard enough for the queen to lose her grip, but not before scratching Avery's tail and forcing her to wince.
The queen watched as the trio made their way back up to the tower where she'd been keeping Eustace. With one powerful snap of her jaws, the queen crushed the bone in her mouth and dashed after them once more. To her amazement, Eustace was sitting in the giant oyster again and she decided to take the opportunity to have her meal. Right as she was about to take a bite out of the farmer, Courage yanked on his line and pulled Eustace away to safety. The queen didn't have time to stop and so she hit her head on the oyster and Avery pushed on the lid and caused it to come down on top of the queen.
The queen screamed in fury and began pounding on the oyster shell from the inside. Parts of it sounded like they were already straining under her tirade.
"WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'M GONNA!" the queen screamed before her words became incomprehensible.
Avery turned away and said, "That's not gonna hold her long. We need to go. NOW!"
She swam out of the castle with Courage following close behind her, swimming OVER the gate this time instead of trying to go through it. Up ahead they could see the light of the surface, but the light was fading quickly as it started to close up. They swam faster, desperately trying to reach the surface before it was too late. But Avery could feel the muscles in her arms cramping due to their excessive use. She still tried hard to keep up, but she was already falling behind Courage again.
"Courage, I don't know if I can make it!" she called to him.
Courage babbled something and pointed at Eustace. Thinking that she understood what Courage was getting at, she grabbed onto her uncle's still bewitched form and held tightly as Courage swam quickly for the surface. And right as he reached the source of the light, it vanished. Courage crashed into the ceiling of the body of water and lost his grip on the line that was dragging Eustace. Avery let go of him and grabbed onto his leg to keep him from drifting back down to the floor.
They heard a roar and looked down to see the queen coming up to them once again. Courage looked around and soon both he and Avery spotted another source of light. As Avery looked at it, she saw some of the familiar furniture of the farm house living room and nodded.
"Courage, let's go!" Avery said to him.
Courage nodded in approval and grabbed Eustace's other leg and they swam for the other puddle as well, Avery using her fins as best she could and as quickly as they would allow. Sure enough, they both broke the surface of the water with Eustace in tow and tumbled into the living room.
The sudden surprise made Muriel gasp and she called out their individual names. Courage wasted no time in grabbing a hair drier and began using it on the puddle of Muriel's tears, quickly drying them up. And just at the last second, the puddle was gone and a bump suddenly hit the floor. This was followed by the sound of the queen ranting and raving as her voice began to fade. Both Courage and Avery sighed in relief, knowing that they had just beaten the queen in her own element.
"Oh my, what was that?" Muriel asked.
Avery froze for a moment as she broke into a cold sweat. She hadn't had time to tell the bracelet to turn her back and began worrying about what her aunt would think about her new appearance. But as she looked down at herself, she once again didn't expect what she saw. Her legs were back as before. As were the clothes she had been wearing earlier before she went into the puddle. She looked down at her wrist real quick and saw a glow dimming from the bracelet.
Avery sighed in relief and quietly muttered, "Thank you."
"I think I'd rather not know," Muriel said before she started helping Eustace back up to his feet. "You're back! Eustace you're back! Where have you been?!"
In her fury, Muriel pulled out her rolling pin and whacked Eustace once on the head with it.
This broke the bewitchment on Eustace as he screamed out in pain, rubbed the top of his head and said, "What did I do?"
Avery pulled herself out of the armchair and said, "Uncle Eustace? You okay?"
Eustace rubbed the top of his head said, "Apart from my head, I'm fine."
"What... what do you remember?" she asked him.
Eustace continued rubbing his head and said, "I don't know. Last I remember is going to bed and seeing this weird lady saying weird things to me. Then I woke up to your aunt hit me on the head."
"Lady? What lady?" Muriel asked as she started to glare at her husband.
"How should I know? For all I know she could have been from the TV. I'm gonna go get an ice pack for my head. No one had better bother me," he said and then walked to the kitchen.
Muriel turned to her niece and Courage and asked, "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"
Avery chuckled and said, "I've been asking that same thing ever since I moved here."
Back in her lair, the queen swam back down to her castle and reverted herself back to normal. She wasn't just mad at losing her meal, she was furious. She had never lost a meal before in all her life, so this was a first for her.
But even then, this fight wasn't a complete loss for her. She got to see the girl in action. Sure the girl didn't have a proper grasp on her abilities yet, but that could change in due time.
She went down to the lower levels of her castle and straight into a windowless medieval chamber containing vials and bottles of various liquids and potions. In the center of it sat a cauldron with a heavy swirling liquid in it. She walked over to it and reached into the sleeve of her dress, pulling out a small purple scale that she had managed to pull off of the mermaid's tail and dropped it into the cauldron. The liquid let out a small popping sound as the scale hit the liquid and the queen waited for a moment for the cauldron to work it's magic. After a few seconds, the liquid turned into a clearer view. The image it showed was of Avery in the living room of the farmhouse, but the sight of her made the queen gasp.
"Oh my!" she said as she got a better look at Avery in the image.
So the transformation wasn't permanent, which delighted the queen. Mermaids were a rare find. But finding one that could also walk on land was even rarer. Even if she wasn't a mermaid by birth, it was still something that the queen could work with.
The queen grinned an evil grin as she swiped at the water in her cauldron, returning it to the swirling liquid from before.
This was perfect for her. It had been so long since she had had a servant in her midst. Human prey was getting harder and harder for her to entice due to changing times and lifestyles. But to have a minion that could walk on land and sea would be exactly what she needed to lure more prey down to her.
She'd have to wait though. The young lady was still new to her abilities and would need to practice them before she could claim her. But for the time being, still angry that she lost her meal, found some comfort that she now had a far more valuable prize in mind.
"Avery beware," the queen whispered. "Soon you'll belong to me."
And that's that. I hope everyone liked Avery's new ability. Because it will be used a bit more as the story goes on. In other episodes and some original chapters.
Next time I'll be doing another favorite season one episode. The Hunchback of Nowhere.