With a groan, a large area of the floor caved in underneath them. Lily managed to hold on to her sword as she fell on the ground below. A large OW echoed through the air. Standing fifteen feet over them, a golden warrior yelled in surprise as chunks of stone bounced off his helmeted head. As the commotion and the dust cleared, Lily decided she needed to get the giant's attention. "Hello!" she said. Gwai didn't move. "YO!" Lily yelled.
"Uh?" Gwai looked down at them. Tara nudged Lily. "Look to your left," she whispered. At the end of the basement, there was a big suspicious cage with a large cloth draped over its sides. It obviously contained the other elves, and Lily didn't like the utter silence radiating from the cage. If only they could reach it ... expect there was a golden giant looking down at them. From the way the blinding light reflected off Gwai's skin, Lily guessed he was metal. She didn't like the idea of having to battle a giant golden warrior.
"I have orders to destroy anyone who comes down here," the giant rumbled. "Yeah, well ..." Lily shrugged. "You know, we were sent down here by your boss." "You were?"
Jake picked up the bait. "Uh, yeah!" he said with a very unconvincing but enthusiastic nod. "Theresa told us specifically to come to you and, um, have a ... chat?" Lily could see he was trying hard not to stare at the cage. Gwai growled. "You are lying."
Tara made a puzzled face. "He is?" The giant grinned proudly at them. "Oh, yes. My brain is special. It is made of clockwork!" "Literally?" Stacy asked. The golden giant nodded vigorously.
Suddenly Lily had an extremely stupid (emphasis on stupid) idea, as usual. She looked up at Gwai. "You know what? That's so impressive! But one thing that your clock brain can't detect is our plan!" she shouted. Lily pointed at Jake, Stacy, and Tara. "With a wave of my hand, I can, uh, take over these imbeciles' stupid minds!"
Okay, now she was starting to sound like Theresa herself. "You lie," Gwai said. "Suit yourself, I'll prove it!" Lily answered. She waved her hand dramatically at her friends. "You are now under my control," Lily said in a monotone. Tara and the others looked at her, confused. As Lily glared at them they followed her directions.
Stacy was the first to respond. She wailed and fell against Tara, who fell against Jake, and they all tumbled to the floor in a heap, rolling around and moaning comically. Up above, Gwai leaned down to take a closer look. "You see?" Lily yelled. "Beware my powers!"
Jake immediately stopped thrashing around and stared at Lily, like: Are you kidding me? Lily tried to ignore his stare and glared up at the giant's face. "Well?" she shouted. "What are you going to do, huh?" "You don't have to do anything," a voice laughed.
A wave of gray mist circled down from above and covered Jake. The misty horizontal cyclone spun fast, sending white things floating through the air. Lily caught one and realized it was a feather. The white downy fluff covered Tara and Stacy, who had sat up in amazement. Then the mist cleared. Standing in front of them was a white chicken. "Squawk?" The chicken looked down at his feathers. "Jake?" Stacy said. "SQUAWK!" Jake the chicken hopped around, waving his wings frantically. Stacy scooped him into her arms before Gwai stepped on him. "HA!" The giant roared with laughter. "The elf is a chicken! Ha!"
"Keep him distracted," Lily said to Tara. Tara yelled at the giant, "Hey! Theresa actually sent us to destroy you! She thinks you're the ugliest creation in the world!" "WHAT?" Gwai stepped towards them and Lily took her chance. She ran behind the giant's legs as he bent down, low enough for her to see the control panel on the back of his head. The metal ridges would have to do for a ladder. Lily kept her mind on clocks and got to work.
Tick, tock. Climb the ladder. Tick, tock. Done. Get up the back. Watch out! Tick, tock. Be careful of the arm. Hang on! Tick, tock. Halfway there. Uh oh, Tara's in trouble. Tick tock. The back's too hard to climb, use the arm. Tick, tock. Jump from the back to the arm. Mind the gap! Tick, tock. Get to the control panel.
Lily reached the back of Gwai's head and pried it open with her sword. The sheet of metal clanged to the floor fifteen feet below. In front of her was a giant clock crisscrossed with wires. Lily disconnected one from the clock and Gwai froze. Lily did some more adjustments, setting the clock so it rotated counter-clockwise and disconnecting and connecting random wires to each other, hoping she could get off the giant before he went BOOM. For good measure, she scratched up the clock's giant surface with her sword. She carefully climbed down the giant, dragging the power cord with her. She reached the ground. "Get somewhere safe," she said to the others. Lily patted the chicken on the head and went to a corner of the basement. "Do not fail me," she said to the wires. Lily connected the power cord.
Gwai shuddered as Lily dropped the power cord and backed away. His body sparked and smoked, and with a massive groan, he began to fall apart as tiny fires erupted from between the metal plates covering him. He fell backward and his head slammed into the stone ceiling. The basement groaned and creaked as rubble rained down from the ceiling. Lily reached the cage and threw the cloth back. Her friends groaned. The cage was empty, a mere distraction from Theresa. Squawk the chicken (it was too strange to call him Jake, so they named him that) squawked and wriggled in Stacy's arms. "Oh, shut up," Stacy scolded crossly. The chicken continued to thrash, dropping out of Stacy's arms with a light thump. He waddled behind the cage and pecked at a small hole, where a draft of air came out.
The wall slid back,revealing a small tunnel. They ran into it as Gwai fell flat on his face, Taracarrying Squawk in her arms.