The doors of the palace blasted open as I walked out of them.
"You still haven't told us WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING!?" Joel shouted as he struggled to keep up with my pace.
"Erin has Shrub at the arch." I answered a little harshly. "She's trying to recreate the spell. Also, she has the dragon egg."
"WHAT!?" Gem shrieked. "WHY DIDN'T YOU MENTION THAT SOONER!?"
I shrugged. "Forgot. Now let's go!"
"Wait." Fwhip said, and I turned around to see him giving me a suspicious glare. "How do we know we can trust him...?"
"What?" I asked blandly. "What are you talking about?"
"He could be lying." Fwhip said. "How do we know he isn't luring us into a trap?"
"Excuse me?" I asked, and I felt my eyes glow.
"He could be working with Phoenix!"
"Why one earth would I try and help her destroy everything!?" I asked angrily, my hand flying to the hilt of my sword.
"You did it once." Sausage shrugged.
Fwhip's hand also went to his sheathe, and I saw him pull it out just enough for the dark grey metal to glint.
"Guys, stop it, we have to focus on finding Shrub!" Katherine pleaded.
"No, I want to hear what he has to say." I growled.
"Are we seriously just going to believe he knows exactly where they are from sleeping? How do we prove he's being truthful?" Fwhip snapped.
"You forget he saved Sausage's life a few years ago with the sleeping sight!" Pearl clapped back. "Why would he lie about knowing where Shrub is?"
"He said he wanted us dead a while ago!"
"I said I wanted you dead." I snarled.
"Why are we even following you anymore!?" Fwhip half-shouted. "You betrayed all of us!"
"I betrayed YOU!?" I roared. "YOU TRIED TO BLOW ME UP BEFORE I EVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU!"
"YOU TRIED TO KILL GEM!" Fwhip shouted.
"I NEVER TRIED TO KILL ANYONE. NOT UNTIL YOU STARTED THE WAR! HOW MANY TIMES WILL I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS!?"
"UNTIL I BELIEVE YOU!" Fwhip snapped. "YOU HAVE SUNK TOO LOW SCOTT!"
"Oh, I've sunk low?" I said in a low voice. "Well, if I've sunk low, let me get down to your level." Then I sat down on the ground, and the corner of my mouth twitched into a smirk.
Silence buzzed for a moment, and I saw stunned expressions out of the corner of my eye before Fwhip's face contorted in rage. "You know," he growled. "Gem was right. You and your brother are the same, provoking, troublemaking, incompetent people!"
I shot to my feet and Fwhip cowered backwards as I towered over him. "Oh really?" I raised my hand and Fwhip was shot backwards into the castle wall, ice incasing his neck, raising him a few feet off the ground. I heard Gem's unmistakable scream as she ran for Fwhip, but I was only focused on Fwhip, blocking the entire world out, unaware.
With my hands shaking in anger, I tightened the ice, and Fwhip started to choke, grabbing onto the ice, trying to pry it away from his neck.
"SCOTT STOP!" Gem screamed, trying to break the ice. I heard a buzz of yelling behind me from the other rulers. Fwhip's face was red now, while tears streamed down Gem's face as she tried to release him, but I didn't relax my grip. "PLEASE!" Gem sobbed and fell to her knees beside him.
I blinked, and looked around at all the angry, scared, and horrified faces, before looking down at my hand and pulling it back, every ounce of anger just disappearing. Fwhip was released and fell a few feet to the ground, taking deep breathes of air. Gem let out an indistinguishable cry of relief and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"YOU MONSTER!" Sausage shouted, sprinting over to their side along with Pearl.
My anger instantly returned. "Oh yeah?" I asked, pulling my sword halfway from its sheath.
"Scott, stop this is madness!" Lizzie cried, and with a threatening tone, she said, "Put the sword away."
I smirked and pulled it out, brandishing it toward her. "Wanna have a go? I won the last time."
"SCOTT, STOP!" Gem screamed, tear tracks staining her cheeks. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TIME WE'VE WASTED!? WE HAVE TO FIND SHRUB BEFORE YOUR SISTER KILLS HER!"
I had never seen Gem lose it like that. I fumbled my sword hilt and dropped it with a clatter against the gravel path. Fwhip was massaging his throat as Sausage helped him up, sending me a glare. Then, just like earlier, her staff appeared from nowhere, and she rapped it on the ground. Purple strands of lights flew from the crystal and lightning fast, wrapped around my torso, forcing my arms to my sides, and melting the frost where they touched.
"HEY!" I shouted, trying to wriggle from the restraints, but nothing worked. "WHAT'S THIS FOR!?"
"So you don't threaten anyone on the way to the arch." Gem snapped, and grabbed one of my antlers, dragging me along.
"THAT HURTS!" I shouted, but she ignored me.
"Someone, pick up his sword." She said grouchily.
Gem led the procession to the dragons, dragging me behind her. When we got to where the dragons were resting, she hit her staff on the ground once, and they all immediately woke and stood, ready for flight. Animal Cruelty? Who knows. I don't care much for the beasts anyways.
"Now how are we going to do this..." Gem muttered, letting go of my antler.
"Do wha-" I started.
"Quiet!" Gem snapped and pressed a finger roughly to my lips. So, I bit it. "SCOTT! YOU ARE SO IMMATURE!" She shouted. I smirked and she slapped me across the face. "Get a hold of yourself, this is serious."
"I know it's not a joke, thanks. Erin's probably going to murder all of us!" I snapped back.
"Hm." Gem answered disapprovingly. "Jimmy, do you think you could handle a dragon?" she asked.
"Uh...maybe?"
"Good enough. Pearl, Fwhip, go with Jimmy. Everyone else are paired like before, let's go."
"What about me?" I asked.
"You're coming with me." She answered.
"Oh, joy." I said sarcastically.
"And you better keep your sarcastic mouth shut!" She added with a snap, before dragging me onto the saddle, still tied up.
"Can you let me go now?" I asked.
"No." Gem said sharply, wrapping the reigns around one hand while holding her staff.
"What am I supposed to hold onto?" I asked.
"Well, you should have thought about that before you tried to strangle my brother." She snapped.
"GEM!"
"Fine." She growled, and the crystal on her staff glowed. I was shoved into her so that we were back-to-back, and the strands of light around my torso wrapped around her waist, so that we were tied together. "Better?"
"Not really." I muttered to myself.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Nothing! It's so much better."
"What did I say about sarcasm?"
"Whatever."
"What?"
"Fine."
"Good."
Then we took off. The ropes pulled painfully on my stomach, and I gagged from the pressure. "I hate this." I mumbled.
"Good." Gem repeated from earlier. I felt her shiver, and I slumped.
"This is going to be a long flight."
"Yep."
I watched as the other dragons soared behind us. Me and Gem were on an amber colored dragon. I saw a few burn marks on the skin stretched across its wings. I wonder what happened to it.
Even though the flight to the arch wasn't long from Hyacinth, I was started to get impatient. I started fidgeting to try and loosen the magic rope, but nothing worked.
"I have no idea how Jimmy put up with you." Gem said with an exasperated sigh. At least she didn't sound angry anymore. She sounded nervous. "So...could you tell me what you saw in the dream?"
I bit my lip. "Well." I started. "Maybe if you let me go-"
"Not going to happen. Either answer the question or don't. But I might be able to help you prepare if you tell me what she's doing."
"Fine." I muttered. "Shrub is trapped in the same cage as last time. Erin is trying to release Xornoth to finish the spell to corrupt the ender dragon egg, at least it seems like it. She was...talking to him. Like, a smoky image of him. Almost sorta like he was projecting himself. But it was weird, because he refused to help her...I don't think its him controlling her, Gem."
"That's...disturbing." She finally said after a moment. "Anything else?"
I remembered the dark smoke curling from Erin's lips, and I closed my eyes to try and shake the image. "No. Nothing else."
"Are you sure?" she asked with an air of doubt.
"Mhm." I answered, looking down. But I immediately looked back up because the height we were at made me dizzy.
"Alright."
I assume it was an hour or two later when I began to recognize the mountain ranges.
Then the arch loomed into sight. A dark cloud circled right above it, and I could just barely see the cage hanging from it with the little black dot that was Shrub.
We landed a ways away to avoid unwanted attention from my sister, and I almost vomited again when we did, again from the magic ropes cutting into my stomach.
Gem easily slid from the saddle, the ropes unbinding from her, but I wobbled and fell off with a shriek, landing hard on my back, still tied up. I just stayed there, laying down, not bothering to get up. But then Gem came into my vision, looking down on me. "Aw, stop looking depressed. You're making me actually feel bad for you."
I glared at her.
"Never mind." She said, as the other dragons landed.
"Am I going to have to fight like this or...?" I asked impatiently.
"I suppose not." Gem sighed, and tapped her staff on the ground, the magic ropes disintegrating to rays of light.
I stood up and brushed myself off. "Is it bad that I lost feeling in my arms over an hour ago?"
Gem actually laughed. "You know, I've missed funny Scott." She smirked. "Pearl, you can give him his sword back."
I jumped as something sharp poked me in the back. "Ow." I said and turned around to Pearl tapping me lightly on the back with the tip. "Thanks." I grumbled, taking the hilt from her.
"No problem." She said with a fake, taunting smile.
"So, what's the plan?" I heard Pixl ask.
"I was thinking on the way here." Gem said. "Scott could probably fly over and distract her while we close in."
I tensed. "That won't work."
"And why not?" Joey asked, crossing his arms.
"It just won't." I said with a glare.
"Fine." Gem said, rolling her eyes. "We'll just all go over, and then close in. Does that work for you, Scott?"
"Yes, it does." I snapped, my glare settling on her as I slid my sword back into its sheathe. "Let's go."
We had a mountain to cross to get to the arch
"Did you have to choose this side of the arch to park our dragons?" I asked Gem, extremely irritated.
"I had to! She would have seen us if we flew over!" Gem snapped from the back of the group.
Eventually, we found a route, a narrow path wrapping around the mountain. We pressed our backs to the cliff face as we inched along around the bend.
We were halfway across when...
Jimmy screamed as the rock underneath him crumbled and his foot slipped. I dove for him, grabbing onto the collar of his shirt, while holding onto the mountain with the other hand. Jimmy held onto my wrist and sleeve, his fingernails digging into my arm and closing his eyes as tight he could. A feeling of déjà vu hit me, and I immediately remembered when I held him over the ravine. I quickly pulled him back onto the track without a word and kept moving.
Finally, we made it around the mountain after half an hour and were at the base of the stone arch. We struggled up a steep slope to get to the area of flat land where Shrub was being kept. I was actually glad we hadn't landed on the other side because it was a steep, 600-foot cliff face.
I peeked my head over the edge of the platform and saw Erin pacing back in forth underneath the cage. The pedestal was just where it was in the dream, and the Xornoth crystal bounced on Erin's chest as she walked.
I turned to Gem, and she nodded. So, I pulled myself up. "Erin?"
Her head and body snapped over to where we I was standing, and red magic spiraled down her arms as her eyes narrowed.
"SCOTT!" Shrub screamed. She looked even worse in person. Blood was dried around her nose and mouth, also staining her shirt.
"So, you've made it." She sneered. "And where are your little friends?"
I heard footsteps from behind me of them spreading out, surrounding the arch. "I've come alone." I lied. I didn't want to look threatening, so I kept my hands by my side. Erin, on the other hand, visibly had one of her daggers in her hand.
"Not surprised." She jeered. I took a step closer, and she took a step to the side, so slowly, we were circling each other, circling the podium. "You won't be able to stop me on your own."
"I'm not here to stop you." I said. "I can help. Please. Just come with me, there doesn't need to be a fight."
"Oh, there always needs to be a fight." She growled, her grip tightening on her daggers. "Why not, instead of helping me in that way, you actually help me."
"And that means...?" I asked.
"You help me release our brother. After the three-day war I'm sure he won't try to kill you right away."
"And why would I do that?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.
"Scott, our family would be back together. Isn't that what you've wanted from the start? What you've always wanted?" She broke our circle and began to come toward me, pulling the Xornoth crystal from around her neck. Her face was dead serious, not taunting anymore.
I froze as she stopped a few feet in front of me, holding out a blackened hand, the other clutching the crystal.
"You can help." She said, and for a moment I saw past the corruption of her eyes and the pain she was really in. It wasn't just the corruption pleading with me.
"I-" I stuttered. Then I remembered. This- this person had taken away her free will. And they were trying to take mine. She had almost no control over what she was doing. Yes. I would help her. But not whoever was doing this to her.
That's when I glanced Gem, pulling herself up. She nodded quickly, and I looked back down at Erin. I stretched out my hand to take hers, but as soon as my fingers had wrapped around her palm, I yanked her forward, twisting her, and drawing my sword before holding it to her neck, keeping her back pressed against me. "I won't help you. You're not Erin." I growled.
Everyone began to close in now, drawing weapons. Erin screamed and clawed at my arms, leaving bloody scratches, but I held on. However, she got a firm grip on my forearm before she flipped her legs up and kicked me in the face.
I was forced to let go and staggered backwards. Erin's wings unfolded as she secured the crystal around her neck and drew her daggers, her eyes darting around at everyone.
I backed up so that we closed ranks around her. Then she threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, this will be fun." She grinned, and I was startled to hear a rasp in her voice.
Then she shot toward me. I shouted in panic and my arms came up in front of me from instinct. A wall of ice pierced the ground, separating us, but that didn't stop her. She rammed right into it, shattering it into pieces, and colliding with me, sending us tumbling across the ground.
My sword went flying out of my hand, and I screamed as something sharp, probably one of her dagger's, sliced open my already injured cheek. I slammed my hands into her torso, and she was blasted off of me in a flash of blinding white, frosty light.
I scrambled to my feet and dove for my sword as Erin attacked Pearl. Pearl slammed her right hand on the armband on her left forearm and a large golden shield spiraled from it, just in time to block the blow. But Erin propelled herself off the flat surface of the shield and twisted midair, launching her daggers at Pixl.
I lunged in the direction of Pixl, throwing my hands in the air. A singular line of ice pierced the ground, and the daggers sunk into the ice, almost breaking out the other side, a foot away from Pix's face.
Erin hit the ground in a roll, smoothly rising to her feet with a grunt of anger. She raised her hands for her daggers. The hilts shook and pulled less than an inch from the ice before stopping. She screamed in frustration before diving for Lizzie and Jimmy.
Lizzie threw her trident like a spear at her, but it swept right over her head, its prongs sticking into the rocky cliffside. Erin's palms made contact with Lizzie's torso, and something similar to a red sound wave emitted from her hand, enveloping Lizzie's body and sending her flying through the air.
She then dove for Jimmy, grabbing onto the handle of his trident and sending a wave of red light through it, loosening Jimmy grip, and sending him tumbling across the ground.
Joel, in anger, lunged for Erin with his sword, but Erin twisted and launched the trident at him. It pierced his upper arm and pinned him to the mountain. Joel screamed and tried to pull it out, but it was no use. Erin had taken down three of us in seconds.
She sprinted for her daggers, but I swung my sword at her hands, and she pulled back just in time. The glare she sent me sent shivers down my spine, and if looks could kill, I would have died then and there, but I stood my ground, holding my sword up. Joey landed on the other side of her, Sausage and Pearl were to her left and Fwhip had his crossbow pointed at her from a distance. Pixl was trying to free Joel from the trident stabbing into his arm, and Gem, I saw from the corner of my eye, was trying to get to Shrub with Katherine at her side.
"Please." I said. "We don't need to do this. Just come with us."
Erin threw her head back and laughed. "You wish." That's when she ran at me. I was ready to fight her when she hit the ground and slid right underneath my legs. I twisted around just in time to block a blow from her. She had retrieved her death weapons.
Her daggers hit the edge of my sword with a large CLANG as the sound of metal on metal echoed. I had brought up my sword just in time to block my face and backed up several paces to avoid getting stabbed by the other dagger she had immediately pulled away from my blade.
Quick as lightening she flipped into the air, kicking off the ice and practically flying over my head, although her wings stayed tightly pressed to her back.
She hit the ground and the earth rippled from where her feet made contact, almost knocking us over. That's when a sound like a war cry came from Shrub as she dropped from nowhere and landed on Erin's shoulders, yanking at her hair.
Erin screamed in anger, but unfortunately for Shrub, she managed to get a hold on her upper arms, and she pulled her off, slamming her shoulder blades first into the ground, and flinging her over our heads. Shrub's screams disappeared as soon as she hit the mountainside. Either she had been knocked unconscious or... No. Don't think about that.
Erin exhaled and straightened up with a grin, looking more disheveled than before. Katherine and Gem landed just outside of our circle around her. And there was one emotion on Katherine's face. Pure rage.
Katherine shoved past Sausage and into the "ring", pulling her sword out. Erin smirked at the challenge and flipped her daggers once in her hands before getting a tight grip and getting into a strong stance.
Then Katherine lunged. Erin hit the ground and swept her leg, but Katherine rolled right back up and swung her sword at Erin's head with much more violence than I thought the fairy had in her. Erin bent backwards, but not before it sliced open her cheek, the force knocking her over. Erin stood up, with a murderous look in her eyes.
She dove for Katherine, wrapping her arms around her waist and forcing both of them out of the circle, knocking Fwhip and Joey over to the side. They hit the ground and rolled for multiple feet before Erin straddled over her and held her dagger above Katherine's head.
Erin stabbed down, but Katherine crossed her forearms in front of her face, her eyes beginning to glow white. A white, misty light made a sort of forcefield, blocking Erin's dagger. Erin's veins began to turn black with strain as she tried to force the dagger down, and it had sunk an inch into the strange forcefield before Katherine's face turned panicked.
With a shout, Katherine's arms came up in a blast of light, throwing Erin off of her, but Erin landed on her feet and skidded across the rock only a few feet.
Katherine got to her feet just in time to block Erin's next blow with her sword, but she realized too late that Erin only had one dagger in her hand, and she blasted Katherine in the face with her red magic. She went flying and tumbled across the ground.
She managed to get to her knees, but with her back faced to Erin. I shouted out to warn her, but not before Erin ran forward, and stabbed her dagger into Katherine's back, just below her collarbone on her right side. For a moment, I wondered why Erin didn't go for the left, the side of the heart. Then it hit me, she was dyslexic. Her dyslexia just saved Katherine's life.
Erin's dagger tip lifted the breastplate covering Katherine's chest and she screamed. Erin went for a fatal blow as she stabbed the dagger down toward Katherine's head, but I stretched my arm out and I felt a painful twinge in my gut as spikes of ice erupted from the ground, encasing Erin's wrist and making her drop the dagger. She screamed in frustration and went to pull out the dagger in Katherine's shoulder, but Pearl sprinted toward them and grabbed Katherine, throwing both of them out of Erin's reach.
Erin shrieked in frustration, but then her eyes landed on Gem and her smirk returned. With her free hand, she raised it toward her, and coils of red magic shot from her palm and wrapped around Gem. Gem shrieked in panic, dropping her staff as her arms were forced to her side. I half wanted to say Now you know how it feels! But I was too panicked to do anything, let alone speak. Gem was dragged towards Erin, and she closed her eyes, straining to keep away from Erin, but nothing she did worked.
Then, as soon as she got close, Erin flicked her wrist up to the cage, and Gem went flying up into it, slamming into one of the bars and breaking it, sending Gem into tears of pain. Two of the metal bars were surrounded by magic and broken clean off the cage, wrapping around Gem's forearms and wrists, attaching her hands to the ceiling of the cage so that she was trapped, and her feet dangled a few inches off the bottom of the cage.
Erin clenched her hand and pulled away from Gem, and this time she screamed. A purple, aura, or something, was being pulled from her, and at the same time, she ripped the crystal from around her neck and it floated above the ground. Then, the purple aura surrounded the crystal, the stream still connecting to Gem.
The crystal was blasted away from Erin, and a figure formed around it. Xornoth. Erin was using Gem's energy to bring back Xornoth.