We all inched closer to hear Marshalls story. Marshall sighed and looked down at his hands. "As Soon as I entered the castle it got really dark... So dark I couldn't see anything. I turned around to go back but I couldn't find any sign of light. It was as if there never was an entrance. I wandered around for a long time, not having a clue where I was. I searched for a way out, but I couldn't find one. Everything was just black. I was getting kind of scar- worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to you guys. I stopped walking and put my hands on my head. Then, all of the sudden, a light shone down and revealed a swirling purple orb. It was amazing!"
I leaned closer forward, my elbows on my knees, intrigued by the story. The others were as curious as I was.
"The orb was really far away from me, though. So I started flying towards it, but a black shadow appeared in front of me. It started shifting its shape and colours until it looked exactly like me; the only difference were its eyes. His were completely white.
"It started talking. It said, 'Hello Marshal Lee.' I was going to say 'how do you know my name?' But I realized it was a stupid question. Instead I said 'I'm guessing you're the guy who's trying to stop me from getting that orb over there. It won't work. I'm leaving here with that orb and returning to my friends.' Then, shadow-me said, 'why are you ignoring your emotions? You know that you are evil and you want people to accept you, yet you hide yourself from your friends. Especially that gir-'"
Marshall hesitated for a minute, his eyes glancing at Reagan before continuing. "Anyways, I was mad. Not at him, but at myself because everything he said was true. I swung my sword at him, but he dissolved and re-appeared behind me. He spoke, 'Do you really think your friends would accept you if you told them how you feel? They would cast you out, afraid of what you could do.'
"I yelled and swung a second time, but he disappeared again and reformed farther away. He continued, 'Those people aren't your friends. Evil has no friends. And that's all you are. Evil.' By then, I had turned demonic; not in my bat shape, though. I was still in my human form. Anyways, I launched at him, but he disappeared again, but he didn't reappear. I thought I had beaten him somehow.
"But then I heard laughing from behind me. I quickly turned towards the voice,and ended up face-to-face with 'shadow-me.' I started swinging my sword at him, but the more I tried to destroy him, the more he tried to coax out my inner demon. It was working, too. I had wanted to give my darkness the reigns. I wanted to stop fighting my inner demon. I had so much anger and pain built up inside of me.
"But right before I was about to stop fighting my evilness, I remembered what the orbs meaning was; calmness. I realized I couldn't win this fight with anger. The shadow-me knew it too. I had to control my emotions. So I stood up straight, calmed my voice, and said, 'I will not let my inner demon lash out on my friends. They have been awesome friends to me, no matter how much I act like a jerk. I am not going to disappoint them now.'
"The shadow then started screaming in pain and exploded with a white light. All of the darkness had disappeared with him, letting me see my surroundings. The inside of the castle was actually stone with lots of moss. It looked old. I flew over to the pedestal that was in the centre of the room with the glowing purple orb floating above it. As soon as I touched the orb, it changed into a necklace and placed itself around my neck."
With that, Marshall reached into his shirt from the neckline and pulled out the necklace. My eyes went wide. It seemed to absorb all of the shadows from around them. He dropped the silver chain back into his shirt. "Well, that mission was a success. I can only hope that the others will go as smoothly as that one." PB said. We all silently agreed.
Suddenly, Jakes head turned 180 degrees. "Hey, what's that thing over there?" We all turned to look. In the distance there were dark storm clouds in the sky. The clouds seemed to be moving towards us more than us moving towards them.
PB put her hands to her face. "Oh glob! It was supposed to be clear skies!" Finn turned to her and said, "no problem, PB, we can just sail around it." PB shook her head in her hands. "We can't. This is the shortest route to the next island. Avoiding this storm will take another day. We must sail through it."
Reagan looked at me with worry. I sent her my best encouraging look, but it was hard when I wanted to curl up under a bench and hid. We all prepared for the storm by gathering buckets from the storage latch and placing our valuable items (including Flame Prince) in a safe place where they won't get wet.
Just as we brought out the last bucket, it started to rain. And not a warm, easy rain. This rain came down hard and cold, as if I was being hit by a million bullets the size of pinpoints. Also, the rain wasn't falling downwards; it seemed to come at us from every direction.
Jake attempted to shelter us from the rain by stretching overtop of the boat like a tarp, but was hit by a white bolt of lightning. He fell back into the boat covered in black soot. A little flame danced on top of his head. I would have laughed if we were in a different situation. Instead, I walked over and smouldered the little flame between my fingers. "Oh, thanks," he said. I smiled back.
I turned my attention back to the storm. I tried to think of something to do, but I couldn't think clearly with all of the rain pouring on my head. Then a bucket that was floating in the water that pooled the boat hit my leg. I quickly grabbed it and started scooping the water out of the boat and throwing it into the ocean. But then I heard Reagan cry out. I looked up and followed her gaze. 'No. you have to be kidding me.' I thought.
Along the horizon was a huge, 11 foot wave coming straight at us. 'We're never going to make it out alive.' I realize. I started to think of something to say for my last words, but an opening in the dark clouds emerged, causing me to abandon my thoughts.
Through the opening flew a woman with a grey dress that seemed to be made of dark clouds. Her hair was also clouds but would light up as if there was some lightning in it. Her eyes were glowing yellow and fierce like thunder. As she descended, the opening closed, and the rain poured even harder than I thought was even possible.
When she reached us, she gracefully landed on the front bench and said, "I am Storm Princess. I have been sent by Prince Darkness to retrieve Princess Bubblegum. If you do not obey such command, my storm will rip you and your ship apart. I promise you, there will be no survivors."
Her voice boomed over the noise of the storm and sent a chill down my spine. She seemed to radiate power, as if she were a lightning bolt herself. "Make your choice. Hand me the princess, or face destruction." Finn unsheathed his sword. "Never!" Storm Princess smiled cruelly. "Is that your final decision?"
Before anyone could answer, I stepped onto the nearest bench and unsheathed my sword. "Why are you working with Prince Darkness?! What has he promised you?!" I yelled, my voice being carried away in the storm. She looked at me. Her smile went from evil to crazy psychopath. "He promised me destruction! Freedom to wreck as many ships as I want! I can create tornados and hurricanes anywhere! Plus, I will get recognition!"
I raised my eyebrow at the last part. She noticed and scowled at me. "Nobody remembers the Princess of Storms. And if they do remember me, I am feared so much that they don't talk about me. The other princesses won't even visit my kingdom! Prince Darkness promised that once he took over Ooo, I would rule the seas and storms! People would know my name! They would cower at the sight of me!" A lightning bolt shot down from the sky behind her, making it look like a cheesy Halloween movie.
Marshall rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ok, we get it. You're a nobody. But our answer is still no." Storm Princess smiled maliciously. "I also prefer this answer. Now You get the honour of being my first shipwreck in the time of Darkness." She flew into the sky. The winds seemed to be swirling around her, building up the higher she went. She stopped at around 40 feet above us and pushed her arms out at us, controlling the winds.
They left her side and zoomed towards us. Reagan grabbed onto the ships railing. "Hold on!" Everyone held onto the ships railing as the winds barrelled towards us. 'So this is what it feels like to know you're going to die...' I thought.
Time slowed down when the winds hit. It was as if a giant bull on steroids had rammed into our boat. We flew backwards into the air and crashed to the ocean. I held my breath as the boat plunged into the ocean, But quickly rising and landing with water in it.
The icy water hit my skin and I was paralyzed. I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything. I tried to swim towards the surface but I couldn't tell which way it was. Everything was just black. I started swimming, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I could feel my lungs burning and black spots clouded my vision, but I kept swimming. 'For Finn.' I thought, but darkness took over my vision and my body went numb.
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My eyes shot open and I sat up, coughing up sea water from my lungs. I could tell it was sea water because it tasted really salty. It was disgusting. My eyes were still blurry, but I could see the outlines of... 6 people. I flopped back down on to the ground, which was surprisingly warm, white sand, and sighed. I closed my eyes, slowing my heart, but then remembered what happened on the boat. I sat up again.
"Where are we? Are we dead?" I asked. I rubbed my eyes, clearing my vision. Finn, who was leaning over me, smiled. "Basically, after we crashed into the ocean, all of us surfaced except for you and Flame Prince; he was still in the storage compartment on the ship. PB went and got him, and I went underwater to get you."
Before he could continue, I threw my arms around his neck. "Thank you, Finn. You're my awesome hero." I whispered into his ear so no one could hear. He could feel him smile. "No problem." I pulled back and sat cross legged in the sand. "Anyways, so we all gathered and climbed onto chunks of candy from the boat and floated here. PB is pretty messed up over her boat." I look past Finn to see PB sitting with her back facing me, muttering "I said not a scratch! Not a scratch!" She was trying to polish her precious boat which was covered in scratches, sand and seaweed.
"So... Does this the island have an orb?" I asked. PB stopped mumbling and turned to us. "Yes. This is where we will find the next orb. We will set out to search for it in the morning, but for now, we rest. Flame Prince, come help me set a fire." Flame Prince smiled and said, "Yes, starting a fire is definitely something I can do!" He and PB went a little away from the group and started to collect driftwood.
Jake stood up from where he was sitting in the sand. "I'm going to go find some food before it gets dark." I looked around and it already looked pretty dark... He stretched away towards the line of black and dead trees I hadn't noticed before. "Yeah, Marshall and I are going to find something for beds, or at least blankets." They ran off (or floated off, in Marshalls case) after Jake.
I looked over to Reagan and noticed she was sitting in the sand, staring at the horizon where the sun was sinking low. I sat beside her in the sand with a loud grunt, still sore from the ocean, but she didn't even look up. "Hey, are you ok?" I asked. "I was in the ocean. I couldn't see anything; everything was black. I couldn't breath. I was drowning." She replied, keeping her gaze on the horizon.
I took a deep breath. That was Reagans worse fear; drowning. Its not the ocean, it's drowning. "I know it was terrible. It was terrible for me, and I was blacked out for most of it! But listen, you are the strongest person I know. If anyone can face their fear, it's you." She looked over at me and smiled. Then tackled me in a hug. We laughed and untangled ourselves. When we stood up I took my sweater off my waist and put it on, as the sun set it got somewhat chilly.
"Let's go for a walk on the beach." I said. Reagan laughed. "Is this turning into a cheesy romance movie?" I giggled and grabbed her hand, and we raced down to the beach. We spent around an hour collecting seashells when the boys came back from the forest. "Come on, let's go to the fire." Reagan said. I nodded in agreement and we walked towards the fire.
We all laid in a circle around the fire; Finn, Reagan, Marshall, Flame Prince, PB, Jake and I. Finn and Marshall had brought these strange leaves for blankets and fruit that looked dead as pillows. Reagan asked if they were poisonous, but they replied with no (I'm pretty sure that they actually have no idea if they're poisonous or not). They looked pretty dead though. PB, Flame Prince and Jake had easily fallen asleep.
I could tell Reagan was awake because I could feel her leg shaking under her leaf blanket beside me (she is always shaking her leg or tapping her foot. She can't sit still). Marshall kept rolling around and groaning about the ground being uncomfortable. Sometimes I could hear a thud and an 'ow' come from Marshall and a giggle from Reagan. Me and Finn were talking about random things.
We were talking about the difference between old spaghetti and fresh spaghetti when I heard leafs rustling. I look over to see Reagan and Marshall leaving the fire and go towards the beach. 'Oooooooh I'm soooo getting the details later.' I thought.
After a while, conversations about pasta and video games went more personal. I was starting to think about the orbs when Finn said, "Hey, Jenna, are you alright? You seem distracted. Are you tired, cause I can stop bothering you if you want?" I chuckled a bit at him. "No, I'm just thinking about the orbs." I looked into his soft blue eyes in the dim light. "I don't know if I can do it. Collect the orb, I mean. I just... I feel like I'm not going to be loyal enough, or accepting enough, and I won't be able to collect it. Then everyone will be mad at me."
I looked back at the fire, which cast a glow of orange into the night. He placed his hand on my cheek and turned my head to face him. The butterflies erupted in my stomach and my head felt light. He looked at me with his beautiful blue eyes. "Jenna, you will be able to get your orb. Trust me. You are the most loyal, accepting, coolest girl I have ever met. You could collect all of them if you could, without blowing up or anything. Even if you couldn't get the orb, everyone would still love you. Please don't doubt yourself. You are amazing."
I could feel a tear of happiness fall down my cheek. I smiled at him and rolled over under his leaf blanket. I pressed my forehead against his and he placed his arms around my waist, pulling me tight. I smiled. 'This is a little much for like the fourth day but hey, we're from different worlds and I totally love him! I could get used to this...' I started to drift off, matching my breaths with his heartbeat. Just as I was drifting off, I heard sobs coming from where Reagan and Marshall were on the beach. Only they weren't Reagans, they were Marshalls.
I squinted, trying to see them better, but all I could see was the outline of Reagan holding the outline of Marshall in a hug, his head in the crook of her neck. 'Wow... I guess what happened when he was getting his orb really affected him... Reagan is totally telling me the details...' I closed my eyes and fell asleep.