Chapter Twenty-Two

The three fairies stood there smiling and kept waving until the portal of water disappeared. Once it was gone, Arabella found herself looking at three unhappy women. The blue fairy approached her with her arm outstretched.

“You are Arabella, the golden fairy?” she asked but Arabella thought that the fairy sound like she already knew the answer. “May I please have my staff back?” It was more an order than a request. Arabella obediently handed the water staff over to the fairy. “Thank you. I seemed to have misplaced it earlier.” She walked stiffly back to the other two fairies.

All three turned and frowned in her direction. Stig bumped into the front of her legs as he backed away from the women. They huddled together and began to whisper intently among themselves. Arabella did not truly get nervous until the women started jabbing their fingers at her while they debated.

“I think that it is time that we were leaving,” she said to no one in particular. The blue fairy’s head snapped up.

“You are not going anywhere,” she said. “We know who you are, and it is best if you stay here.” She pointed to ground at her feet.

“No,” Arabella said, “we really have to be going.” She started backing away. Mavie fluttered up into the air and hovered over her head.

“Oh no,” said the green fairy. “We have decided that you should not be let out into the world. Your magic is just too powerful.”

Arabella’s mouth fell open, her magic too powerful? Who were they kidding? She shook her head and stepped backward again. Stig crowded into her legs as if to push her on.

“Spawn of evil,” the white fairy spit out at her. “Kill her. That way the chain is broken. The evil from the fire dragon’s blood will fall away from this world.”

“Hey now,” Arabella said. “I know I have fire dragon blood in me, but isn’t that a little extreme. I am one of the good guys here.”

The white fairy laughed. She sounded a bit unbalanced.

“It is real simple,” she hissed at Arabella. “If you want to break something, you start by destroying the weakest element. That happens to be you.” Her crooked index finger pointed directly at Arabella’s chest.

“Wait,” Arabella held up her hands. “I only came here to help Prince Lann. I am running away from my mother and Koaner.”

The women all put their hands over their ears and screeched.

“Do not say that accursed name,” the green fairy yelled. “You will summon him here.”

“That is nonsense,” Arabella said. She put her hands on her hips. “He can not hear you when someone says his name. He is only a dragon after all. Not some know-all god creature.”

The fairies hunkered down and all three hissed at her.

“Evil begets evil. Your grandfather is evil. Your mother is evil. It is only a matter of time before the evil infects you,” the green fairy spat at her.

“It is better to die before that happens,” the white fairy said and then giggled wildly.

“Let’s go Stig,” she turned her back on the fairies and started marching across the meadow. She did not care about the flowers that she crushed under foot this time. In fact they had seemed to have lost much of their color.

“Don’t you dare turn your back on us,” the blue fairy screamed at her retreating back. She heard a long howl behind her, but did not turn around to see what they were up to.

“Hey,” Stig said from behind her. “I think we better start running now.”

Arabella glanced over her shoulder. The meadow was a seething ocean of plants. Vines sprang out of the ground and twisted around each other. It grew to a mass that was three times her height. Sharp thorns spouted from the vines and a dark liquid oozed from the tips.

“I bet you that those are poisonous,” Stig said. “Just like those meat-eating flowers in the swamp.”

“I bet you are right,” Arabella said staring at the massive wall of spikes. “I would also bet that the fairies were the ones that place all those obstacles in our path as well.” The thorn plant began to roll towards them.

“Run,” shrieked Mavie as the thorn monster began to pick up speed.

Arabella and Stig swung around to flee into the trees. The thorn monster kept rolling after them. Dirt and plants flew up into the air as the thing dug into the ground with its thorns. It kept gathering speed. Stig teleported so that he was a bit ahead of Arabella.

“Here,” he ducked between two large boulders. Arabella threw herself flat against the ground. The monster rolled over top of the rocks and kept going. The massive bulk of the monster made it impossible for it to stop quickly. Arabella stood and watched the monster slow to a stop. It started rolling backwards toward them.

Arabella and Stig ran back the way they had come from. It was easier because the monster had stripped the land clear of obstacles. Where ever the creature had touched the plant life was gone or dead. A huge trail of crushed and poisoned flowers led back to the fairies. Arabella and Stig charged right at them. They ran past them and the fairies had to scatter to avoid becoming victims of their own monster. Arabella and Stig ran toward the base of the fairies’ mountain. Mavie was flapping overhead.

They climbed up a steep rock slide and stood on top looking down at the monster. It had to stop at the bottom of the slide, but even as they watched the thing it seemed to swallow the plants around it. It started growing again. It sent out vines that whipped around like tentacles. One slammed into the ground where Stig had been standing. He had teleported away at the last moment. The fled down the other side of the ridge. They threw themselves down on the ground and lay panting at trying to catch their breath.

“Oh, now what?” Arabella moaned. There was a deep rumbling coming from the mountain. They both watched in horror as part of the mountain separated from the rest. With a giant roar, a huge wall of ice was falling down on them. They jumped up and climbed back up the ridge. The avalanche flowed over the spot where they had been resting. The ice and snow kept flowing down the mountain building on top of itself. It formed a rough wall in front of them.

“Look out,” yelled Mavie. A vine slashed down at Arabella and snagged the sack on her back. It tried to pull her off the ridge but lost its grip on the sack. “Up, up,” Mavie said. “You have to get higher.” She zipped up into the air.

Both Arabella and Stig found handholds in the snow wall before them. As quickly as possible they climbed up the wall. Mavie darted around the vines. She lured them away from Arabella and Stig. It seemed that they were attracted to movement. Arabella and Stig finally stood at the highest point of the snow slide.

Arabella looked back and watched as the white fairy jumped up and down in a rage. The green fairy was yelling and pointing at her thorn monster. The blue fairy shook her head at the other two fairies. They immediately calmed down. The blue fairy clasped her staff in both hands and raised it over her head. She took three long strides forward. Arabella could almost hear her words of power echo off the mountain side.

“This can’t be good,” Stig said. Mavie landed on Arabella’s shoulder.

The blue fairy slammed the base of the staff into the ground. At first, they could not see anything happen. When steam started to rise from the staff, the blue fairy backed away. Abruptly a spray of foaming water shot out from the point where the staff was touching the ground. The spray quickly transformed into a wider stream of water.

“Doesn’t look like another monster,” Stig said in relief. Mavie took off and flew down to get a closer look. She hurried back to Arabella.

“Its hot water,” she panted.

“What?” Stig growled. “Do they intend to cook us?”

They watched as the water reached the plant monster. It set up a high wailing sound that forced them to cover their ears as the water surrounded it. Steam flared up and the thorn monster seemed to writhe in pain. It started to turn brown where ever the water touched it. It stopped moving and sank into the growing flood. Once it was below the surface of the water, it was eerily quiet.

The water touched the snow wall and it started to melt. Arabella and Stig ran toward the mountain on top of the ice. They raced the water, but it surrounded them. They found themselves on an island of ice. Arabella fell as the ice broke away from the ground. It started floating on a lake of boiling water. The three fairies stood on top of the rock ridge and watched as the island started to shrink. Soon the iceberg was only six feet from the surface of the new lake. Stig lay down and groaned in despair.

“I do not know what to do,” Arabella said in panic. “Save yourself, Stig.” She turned to Stig.

“What?” he sat up. “No,” he shouted. “I won’t leave you.”

“I know you do not want to, but you must,” she said. “Look at me!” She put a hand under his chin. “You can help me, but not if you are trapped here with me.”

“You have a plan?” he titled his head to the side.

“Well sort of,” she said thinking fast. “Take the sack with you and you teleport away.” Stig waited a full thirty seconds before loosing his temper.

“That is not a plan,” he shouted at her. “That leaves you stuck on this floating death trap.”

“Well,” she said slowly. “Oh I know. If you remove the staff from the ground, then all this should disappear.” She waved her hand at the lake. “Remember, like at the river.”

“Okay,” Stig nodded. “You hang on and stay above the water. You are the best friend I remember ever having, do not die on me. I love you,” Stig said so softly that Arabella nearly missed it. There was a soft popping noise and Stig disappeared with the sack.

“I will make sure he gets it done,” Mavie flew quickly away towards the staff.

Arabella balanced on the shrinking iceberg. The fairies just stood by and watched. She glared at them, but she knew that they had won. The iceberg began to rock more violently the smaller it got. Water splashed onto her leg and she screamed in pain. A roaring noise echoed from the mountain, and Arabella glanced up expecting to see another snow slide dropping on her.

Her heart missed a beat. Speeding toward her from the slope of the mountain was a dark dragon. His scales glinted different shades of gray and blue in the sunlight. He banked at the waters edge and skimmed over the surface.

“Denrisi,” Arabella yelled. He was alive. Tears filled her eyes and his form became blurry.

The iceberg tilted and she flailed in the air with nothing to hold on to. As she fell backwards, she felt a claw slide around her waist and she was lifted into the air.  She wiped her tears on her arm sleeve. A warm wind blasted off the surface of the boiling lake. Denrisi roared again. He sounded angry to Arabella. He banked sharply and flew at the ridge. He opened his mouth again, but instead of a roar a bolt of lightening shot out. It crashed into the ridge next to the fairies that were huddled together. They screamed and tumbled down the far side of the ridge.

Denrisi flapped his great wings and they were high enough to see over the ridge. The fairies were gone. Somehow they had escaped into thin air. Just as quickly, the lake disappeared. Arabella thought that Stig had finally pulled the staff from the ground. Arabella felt something warm run over her hand. When she looked down she noticed that a stream of blood was running over Denrisi’s claw. She glanced up and she could see a small gash in his chest over his heart. His blood was streaming through the wound and running down his leg. Arabella closed her eyes. He was still wounded, but at least he was not dead.