The Ghosts of GingerBread Castle and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Chapter 17

Tarry but a little and she is all done for! The phrase replayed in my mind as I rushed into the corridor and scurried down the stairway, almost tripping over my hurried feet, out of anxiety. I soon stood outside, looking at the scene draped in a bluish tint, with the trees and plants bereft of their neon lights. How strange, I thought. The forest swayed like a blurry blob as if it had come alive. My eyes adjusted, just as neon lights revivified and blazed in the trees further ahead. The luminescence dispersed toward me in a flash, blinding me, and causing me to squint as I drew my hand before my eyes. Then, in an instant, the brightness dissipated, cloaking the scene in blackness. I unbarred my eyes and peered around me, seeing just as far as my eyes could see. Looking down, I noticed my pendant remained dull and lusterless. So, it wasn't working tonight! Raising my head again, I saw meager lights reappear in the distance. After a while, the trees and plants stood cloaked in a dim neon-greenish glow—the epitome of magic itself.

I took off for the forest, taking the same red footpath as I did the previous night. Thoughts of my mother returned to me. Seeing her through the portal earlier, I couldn't help but notice how frail she looked, and my heart hurt to see her that way. My head pounded painfully. Still, I pressed on, feeling the ground beneath my feet growing ever so unstable. What was happening to the forest floor?

Amidst my wobbly wandering, my thoughts drifted between my mother's condition and my task tonight. I feared for her life and prayed I could do my good deeds in time just to save her. I wished I could return home to her, but memories of the death angel's words returned to me. If I returned to my village, I was as good as dead. But, would it really happen to me. Shaking the thoughts away, I tried to concentrate on the task ahead. I had to look for a thing called a Gopher and had no clue what it looked like. The Jini Guide had disappeared before I could ask.

The ground shifted beneath my feet, and I had to slow my pace for fear of collapsing. What was happening to the forest tonight? As I neared the opening beside the fig trees, my stomach regurgitated meager drops of bile into my parched mouth, making me clutch my side with one hand while using the other to shield my mouth and nose against the putrid scent that filled the stagnant air. Looking around, I noticed decayed and bloodlike spots littering the plushy ground where fast-decaying figs and plums lay discarded. It was the spot Sinella threw up on this morning. How could the fruits bear such advanced decay already, when it was only this morning they'd been discarded? There was a lot that baffled me. I remembered the bird suddenly and wondered where it had disappeared to. Perhaps the Jini Guide will know. I'll have to remember to ask the next time I saw him.

At once, a swarm of buzzing sounds attacked my eardrums, almost deafening me. I clamped my hands over both ears and ducked my head in anticipation of the creatures' fury. Only it never materialized. My eyes caught onto a golden light the shape of a tiny winged creature that emitted the same buzzing sounds. I glimpsed a few others quite the same. How strange! They were made entirely of golden light and lacked physical bodies. Standing upright, I took in the entire scene before me. They could do me no harm, save for their trumpet of sounds which soon intensified, making me race about blindly, and before I knew it I landed face first in icy cold water. I held my breath, and stood up, wiping the water from my eyes. I opened my eyes, which slowly adjusted to see that I'd stumbled into a stream of some sort. It wasn't long before I realized that the creatures had diminished, leaving me in utter silence.

I stumbled out of the river, feeling the ground growing increasingly unsteady beneath my feet. Suddenly recognition dawned upon me as I recognized my surroundings. It was the river I'd encountered last night after I was attacked by another swarm of insects.

I continued along the way, and was soon walking along the cobbled lane when a familiar humming filled the air. Looking around I spotted the creature I'd seen the night before, and which I'd lost at this exact spot when I happened upon the shadowy creatures. It was still alight with golden wings. I stopped suddenly, and it too stopped, and then I continued walking and it continued to follow me. Was this the Gopher creature I was supposed to find?

Without thinking, I dipped my hand into my pocket and retrieved my letter to Susie. I held it before the Gopher who took it into it's mouth and swallowed it, before nodding strangely at me and going off in the opposite direction.

I walked on after that and was soon standing before a huge body of murky looking water. A silvery cloud looked back at me and looking up I saw it in the night skies. Then suddenly, the cloud drifted away revealing the moon whose golden light painted the huge expanse in golden. Looking back at the water I saw the golden moon which emitted an inner light source at the center of the water body. Was this the golden lake the Jini Guide spoke of?

Then, as if by magic, the water began swirling madly, and I stepped back and tripped on a reed. Looking before me, I froze to see the water parting before me, rising into the air before transforming into humanoid water beings that seemed to glower at me. Something at the bottom of the drained lake caught my eye. There was something like a flat door the shape of the moon, beneath which a golden light drifted out. I looked at the water beings again to see their expressions somber as they turned to me and rose higher before turning into a massive shower of buckets of water that rained into the lake again, filling it. The turbulent waters swished back and forth violently, and as i looked on my head swelled and I felt unstable. After a while the water settled back to it's normal state, still and silent. I remembered the rhyme and knew what I had to do, and that was enter the door beneath the huge lake. I breathed in deeply and readied myself as I walked lightheaded into the water before submerging myself completely. The last thing I remembered was the shocking coldness of the water, as suddenly everything went blank.