So. . . a little hiatus is coming. Lent is here and every year I make the sacrifice to give up fanfiction for the season. Meaning I will not be back until Easter weekend. To, hopefully, make the break as easy as I can for you guys I've decided to post 2 chapters today. I hope you enjoy them! :)
Chapter 17
Diaval led them to the very edge of Doom Cove in a rocky outcropping by the water's edge. There was a small hole in the ground about the size of a rabbit burrow.
"Are you sure this is it Diaval?" Mal asked and the raven cawed as if offended. Drac pet his head knowing the bird wouldn't want to follow them into the tunnels.
"Good boy Diaval." Drac praised, "While we're down there keep an eye out. . . you know."
Diaval cawed again and took off back to his spying on Pirate's Bay. Then Drac turned to the others, "So down the rabbit hole?"
Jay nodded, "Let's dig." And he got on his knees and started digging with his hands widening the hole to make it big enough to squeeze through. Once they were inside the tunnel was small but luckily after a few feet they were able to straighten up and walk normally.
"This better be it." Mal muttered, "I really don't want to be wandering around down here for no reason."
Drac chuckled, he actually felt pretty at home. The cave was dark and wet and filled with furry things that skittered at their feet. Why did caves get such a bad rep anyway?
"Okay, I can't see a thing." Carlos said his voice echoing slightly off the walls. Drac lifted his hand and lit another fire, the tunnel instantly became incased in his green light and they made their way forward easier now that they could see. As they moved the green illuminated things like spider webs, slimy puddles and a bracelet on the ground.
"That's my mom's!" Evie exclaimed as she picked it up and looked at the ruby red heart on it, "We are going the right way!"
They only became more energized about their mission as they found Cruella's cigarette holder and some coins that must have come from Jafar's pocket. Then they found something that instead of exciting them, terrified them to the bone. There were large animal tracks in the muddy floor much too big to be a crocodiles and Drac remembered what the others had told him about a dragon terrorizing Camelot. If their mother wasn't behind the attacks then the only other explanation was that the monster had come from the Isle, could it be the creature knew the way to Auradon?
"We need to find the Poisoned Lake." Carlos said as he pulled out the collection of maps from Yen Sid. "It should be the first of the underground lands that we see. There's a body of water that surrounds the Toxic Tree. How can a tree grow down here, with all this darkness?"
"Maybe it feeds on poison from the lake." Evie suggested being well versed in poisons.
"Everything is made by magic down here." Mal reminded them. This wouldn't be like anything they'd seen before, the laws of nature were bent and twisted down here.
They continued to follow the path they were on, so far they hadn't seen any other tunnels which was nice since it was called the Endless Catacombs of Doom. If they had no other options that meant they had less chances of getting lost forever. The only hard part was the path seemed to change constantly, at one point it became so steep that Drac had one leg braced straight out in front of him while the other was bent, they had to shimmy slowly otherwise they'd all fall and slide down the mud. Then it narrowed, then widened again. Some passages were flooded up to their knees and others so hot and dry Drac was tempted to put his flame out. Eventually, they came to a fork in the road.
"Which way?" Mal asked Carlos.
"It doesn't say." He replied, "These are only based on books remember? They aren't exact maps."
Mal looked around and Drac could see the others wait for her instruction. He'd forgotten how much of an influence Mal had over the group. Her decisions were always well thought out and logical, no one ever questioned her. But Drac had been living on his own for a long time now and he was used to making his own decisions, not taking orders from someone else, even if it was his sister. But he held his tongue, he could save that issue for another time.
"There's those same tracks on one path and not the other. The lake is poisonous right? Whatever lives down here would know that, so instead of following it's tracks maybe we should choose the opposite direction."
"Sounds good to me." Jay said and Drac nodded along. He led the way since he had the light and the tunnel they chose became narrow again.
"I think we're close to water now." Carlos said, "The air is damp."
"And that smell." Evie said waving her hand in front of her face, "Talk about toxic!"
Maybe their time in Auradon had desensitized them because to Drac the toxic smell didn't reek any worse then the sludge and slime coffee the goblins served at the Slop Shop, and don't get him started on the goblins themselves. He rolled his eyes in the darkness and pushed on with the others. As they walked he started to think about the talisman he and Mal would have to retrieve. They had mentioned something about a new Dragon's Egg and something inside of Drac felt awakened by the very thought. Growing up he'd always wished he'd be the one to inherit his mother's scepter, the symbol of their power and legacy. But he'd also come to grips with the fact that Mal would more then likely be the one to get it. Maybe that was why he'd been less hostile towards their father then Mal was too. If Mal was going to carry on Maleficent's legacy, then why shouldn't Drac be the one to carry on their father's? Of course now Mal definitely wasn't going to be carrying on any legacy, she was making her own in Auradon. A villain turned good. And his mind had already started imagining his reflection of him holding the scepter and having its power all to himself.
"What are you smiling about?" Mal asked him and he was pulled from his thoughts. He hadn't realized he'd been smiling.
"Nothing." He answered and thankfully his sister didn't push the issue – because they had arrived.
The Poisoned Lake was a large deep purple body of water that bubbled with toxic gas. In the middle of the water was a small rocky island where one lone apple tree stood. Its fruit was ripe and red and luscious. It was also growing one of the most dangerous objects in the world. From the distance they were at the tree bark looked like it was making a terrible face contorted with pain that reminded Drac of the leggings Evie used to wear.
The cavern around it all was easily the size of a tourney field with stalactites arched on the ceiling above them.
"Okay, we need to figure out a way over there." Evie said as she approached where the water met the land. As she stood at the water's edge a smooth rock just large and flat enough to step on appeared. They saw her hold her breath as she jumped on it. Then another rock appeared in front of her.
"Come on." She turned to them, "It's like it knows I'm here."
Hesitantly they followed her as more stepping stones rose from the water.
"Make sure your feet don't touch the water." She warned, "We'd melt like sugar cubes in a hot cup of tea if you tried to swim in here."
"Nice image." Jay muttered.
Once they got there they realized how big the tree really was. It looked so small from afar but up close it was as tall as a building and its trunk was as large as a house. Evie neared the tree but looked worried. They all could tell why, Evie wasn't too much of a climber but when they stepped forward to try and help her some magic repelled them and wouldn't let them get close to the tree.
"It's my talisman." Evie explained, "I have to do this on my own." She sounded a bit sad at that but they cheered her on trying to boost her from the distance they were stuck at. Evie pulled herself up and began to climb. The fruit was growing all the way at the top, she'd have a long way to go and they could see when the thorns stuck on her clothes and pulled at the fabric, some nicking her skin and making her bleed a little. Anyone who thought Evie was just a pampered princess should see her now, Drac thought. He remembered those other girls in Auradon and couldn't see any of them doing this, well, except Lonnie.
Evie looked like she was getting nervous as she reached the top and the branches became thinner.
"Go the other way!" Jay shouted.
"Watch that branch." Drac called.
"Get a toe hold on the left." Carlos added.
"Now lift yourself up." Mal said cupping her hands around her mouth.
With their advice Evie was able to make it and she was surrounded by red dots they all knew were the poisoned apples, but only one was the talisman.
"There are a lot of apples up here!" she shouted down to them, "I don't know which one to pick, they all look alike!"
"You'll know which one." Mal shouted. They saw Evie look back at the fruit, she'd know which poison apples put you to sleep and which ones killed you on the spot. Finally she reached out and they saw her pick one golden apple from the bunch. She held it in her hand and stared at it for a long moment then she brought it ever so slowly closer to her lips.
"What are you doing?!" Carlos shouted in horror. The talisman was calling out to her and Evie was giving in to it.
"Evie!"
"Don't!"
Too late. Evie took a bite. She wobbled a bit and her eyes started to flutter.
"E! What's happening?" Mal shouted.
Evie yawned, "I feel sleepy."
"Don't fall asleep!" Drac shouted.
"Stay awake!"
"Should have. . . known better." Evie muttered before she fell asleep and toppled right out of the tree. Jay was the one to catch her and gently placed her on the ground while they tried to wake her up.
"What do we do?"
"She won't wake up."
"Will we have to leave her and get Doug?"
Then Evie's eyes fluttered and she came too as they all looked down at her, "What happened?"
"You fell." Carlos explained. "All the way down and we couldn't wake you."
"How long was I out?"
Drac shrugged, "A few minutes."
"Minutes?" Her eyes widened, "It felt like hours."
"You okay?" Jay asked as she sat up. She nodded then looked down at her hand. She held up the golden apple but it seemed to have lost it's shine.
"It totally messed with my head." Evie said as they helped her up, "We've got to be careful with these things, they're tricky."
Drac turned hearing a creaking noise, "Hey guys." He called and pointed. In the tree trunk was a door that they knew hadn't been there before.
"That's new." Jay said.
Evie gasped, "And the lake is draining!" at her words the tiny island began to shake.
"This place is self destructing!" Mal screamed, "Let's go! Let's go!"
She opened the door and a bright light shone in their faces along with a scorching heat. But as the cavern fell apart they had no choice. They all ran through the door, Drac giving his hand a break from maintaining the flame, and closed the entrance behind them. Once it was shut it vanished. Well, they weren't going back the way they came.
Turning from where the door had been Drac looked out across a vast desert. One breath of the dry sandy air and he already felt like all the moisture had evaporated straight out of his body. Well, except for the sweat that was already gathering in small beads of perspiration on his forehead. Evie stumbled and Drac caught her, clearly the poison was still working its way out of her system.
"I'll be fine." She assured them, "I've accidentally eaten more than a few poison apples when I was younger. Mom was always leaving them around the house."
"This must be my territory." Jay said looking around. "It looks a little like what my dad always told me about Agrabah."
They walked a bit through the dunes but didn't get too far. The sand shifting under their feet made it difficult to climb the small hills and the sun beating down on them took what energy they had left. Then Jay spotted something and pointed to the next dune. Just under the sand they could see the movement of something slithering.
"It's the Golden Cobra!" he shouted taking off after it. The little wrinkle wriggled and quickly slithered away but Jay was hot on its tail. The little line popped out of the sand and reared its ugly head at them. The snake hissed showing its forked tongue and it was the same golden color as Evie's apple.
"Jay!" Mal shouted as they tried to keep up with him. Jay was fast but the snake was faster, it slithered easily across the sand, its golden scales shimmering in the light. He kept running and running until they saw a small cave made of stones in the distance and Jay followed the cobra inside. When they caught up the same magic that kept them away from the Toxic Tree kept them outside. Drac sighed and leaned against the rocks wishing they'd at least been let in enough that they'd have some shade. Evie, Carlos and Mal joined him as they waited for Jay hoping their friend wasn't becoming snake food inside.
Even the slight breeze wasn't helping the heat because the wind only kicked up the sand and blew it in their faces. Drac took off his purple leather jacket and tied it around his waist. The white tee shirt he was in helped cool him down and thankfully he'd picked the right day not to wear black underneath. The thin collar of the shirt was black along with the thin hem at the end of each sleeve. The white was speckled with green and purple that he'd done with some of his spray cans and went well with his pants which once had been purely purple but he'd acid washed some of the patches to make them a bright lime green. Though now he wished he'd cut them at the knee into shorts.
"We should have grabbed a change of clothes before we started all this." Mal grumbled.
"We didn't have time." Carlos replied his white tipped hair starting to stick to his forehead. "We've got to get the talisman's before our parents do."
"My parent is a lizard trapped in Auradon."
"Maybe, or your parent is a purple dragon that's been plaguing Camelot!"
"Guys don't fight!" Evie said as she massaged her head, probably a side effect from the poison.
"Or the dragon could be what left those tracks we saw." Drac spoke up revealing his theory. The others looked at him and he could tell they hadn't considered that.
"I know you'd rather that then it being your mother dude." Carlos said, "But to be honest I hope not. I've already faced a dragon, I don't want to do that again."
"Hey." Mal said giving Drac's foot a light kick to get his attention, "Before you said you'd been practicing with that parlor trick? The flame thing? But what made you think to do it in the first place?"
He smirked, "Remember when Audrey was making fun of you after that fiasco at Family Day?" she nodded. "I felt my hands start to burn and when we were leaving I noticed my glove had been singed right over my palm. I didn't think too much of it, mainly since we were so preoccupied with getting the wand. But once I was here and there were rumors that there was a small trickle of magic again I figured it could help give me an edge and convince some of mom's old allies to stay on my side, instead of flocking to Uma."
Mal nodded and looked like she was impressed. He noticed she looked at her own hand – though she tried to pretend she was looking at her nails – wondering why she never could do that. He felt a small jolt of pride rise in his core at the fact that for once he'd managed to do something before his big sister who always seemed one step ahead growing up, like she learned something just an hour or two before him, that by the time he figured it out it was old news to her. He liked the roles being reversed for a change.
Then they heard footsteps and turned to the entrance and saw Jay coming out with a smile on his face and a cobra staff like the one his father once had clutched in his hand.
"That's the Golden Cobra?" Mal asked.
Jay smirked, "It was." He said with a triumphant smile.
"Okay, great." Drac said wiping his forehead and pushing aside the green hair that had stuck to it with sweat, "Where to next?"
Almost like it heard him a door opened up in one of the rocks of the cave as the desert around them began to disintegrate. Carlos was quick to get up on his feet and pulled the door open letting in a rush of cool air. The four of them followed him through.
Two talismans down, two to go.