The Iced Curse: Part Eight

      "Lodo, you ran away," Logan began, but I smacked my tail across his face and stopped him in his tracks.

      "I ran away because I was stuck in a cave encrusted with ice and had nothing but a mattress, an old pillow covered in mold, and a fairly short piece of rope. I wanted better living conditions, and since you were too obsessed with making me suffer this curse of ice, I figured that you wouldn't oblige. So I snuck out the first chance I got, which happened to be in the middle of a terrible snow storm when you weren't around."

      "You have no idea," Logan said angrily as he pushed my tail away. "You thought that you escaped unnoticed, but I saw everything. I saw you bunching the rope up into a blob-like shape and laying it on your bed so that when your lights were off I wouldn't suspect that you had left because it would have looked like you were still asleep and not miles away. I saw you shut the lights off and slowly tip-toe out into the storm, shivering horribly from the cold snow, and when you left, the storm had quieted, even if only a little bit. And if you don't believe me, I can show you proof."

      "What kind of proof?" I asked, curious of how he had seen me. I thought that I had gone completely unseen when I ran away.

      "Due to my icy color, even with my hulking mass, I managed to hide in a rapidly growing snowdrift and lie in wait. I knew that you were going to escape; you had been jittery all week before you did it. So when you snuck out, I was hiding in that snowdrift, watching you as you ran away, thinking your escape had been a complete success," Logan explained with a grim smile. "It wasn't too hard. I even managed to get a picture of you escaping so I had proof that I knew. "

      "So you were spying on me," I said blankly. But there was another question on my mind, and the constant feeling of Snow Cloud on my back made me want to know even more. "Did you own Snow Cloud?" I blurted out. The thought had occurred to me when Logan said he didn't know Snow Cloud would rebel like that, back in Flames's Neohome. "Did you buy him from a Petpet store?"

      "No, I didn't buy him," Logan growled. "I found him floating around during a storm, and I took him in as I was just a wanderer as well. But he was very hostile towards me, so I let him go and he flew right to you."

      Logan walked deeper into the cave, which didn't seem as dark as when I had left.

      We emerged into my old room and were blinded by the fact that the light bulb was turned on. Oops. Had I left them on after I ran away? No, that couldn't have been, Logan had just described that I had turned the lights off when I snuck out.

      To my astonishment and horror I saw a flash of a desert sand color from inside the rip in my old mattress. That could only mean that Pacina was hiding in here, and since Flames wouldn't let her go alone, there were two other Neopets and an owner in here with her. Pacina must have turned the lights on to search the room for me and of course I wasn't in it.

      "I can show you the picture if you would like," Logan said, dropping me on the floor with my hands still knotted together. He began walking towards the mattress, and I gasped. "After you were gone, I hid the picture in a small rip in your pillow."

      He picked the pillow up and shook it so all of the stuffing fell out into a jumble on the floor. But no picture came out.

      Drat. Pacina must have seen it sticking out of the pillow and took it. Logan was not going to be happy that he couldn't find it.

      Logan stared in shock at the pillow, and just to make sure that it wasn't stuck in there, he shredded the pillow into tiny pieces and dropped them on the floor with the stuffing. But there was no picture.

      And then Logan looked at the mattress with rage, he looked at the pillow bits on the floor, and he growled. It started off as a small growl, but got louder and louder and soon he was shaking the whole cave. It was so loud I wish that I could have unwrapped the rope trapping my hands to cover my ears.

      Logan slumped and flopped onto the mattress, poking his claws angrily into the fabric, seeing if he had dropped it on the mattress. Of course it wasn't there. When he was stabbing his claws into it, I winced, thinking of Pacina and how Logan's talons were extremely sharp.

      Pacina yelped in pain and I thought that I could hear her start to cry. I froze.

      Logan stopped poking his claws in the mattress and stared at it angrily. He stormed off of it and in a fit of rage he picked the mattress up off of the icy ground, Pacina and all. It didn't look like too much work for him either.

      He raked his talons through the top of the mattress, not caring about keeping the mattress in okay condition. "Who are you?" he screamed. "And why are you here?" He shredded the ends of the mattress, and tore the whole thing until Pacina had nowhere left to hide. She fell onto the pile of stuffing and spring coils and mattress bits with a thud.

      When Logan caught sight of Pacina, he whipped the remaining mattress pieces in his hands across the room and slithered up to the desert Aisha. "Look, if it isn't the goody two-shoes Aisha come to rescue Lodo." His words had a stab of venom.

      "Yeah, I'm here to rescue Lodo!" I was astounded by Pacina's bravery in a situation like this. "Why did you steal her and bring her back to your icky cave? And why did you take a picture of Lodo sneaking out?" Pacina held up the picture, which was a picture of me tip-toeing out of the cave in the middle of a blizzard. Darn snowstorm, it made it so Logan had an abundance of places to hide.

      "Where did you get that?" Logan roared, making the cave walls shake and rattle.

      "Duh, I got it from your pillow which you were looking in," Pacina said.

      "You should know not to take stuff that belongs to me," Logan growled. "Because now you'll face my wrath!" Pacina screamed.

      I heard a crash behind me, and shrill shouts that weren't from Pacina. I turned to see Harpier, Flames, and Aluendi lying in a heap on the ground.

      "Flames? And Harpier and Aluendi?" I asked. The shock was apparent on my face. "But I thought that you were hiding in here somewhere! I would never have thought that you would have let Pacina come in here all by herself!"

      "Well, we didn't exactly do that," Harpier explained. "We got split up from Pacina when we almost hit a mountain, and Pacina happened to-"

      Harpier was cut off by the sound of an extremely loud roar. The only one who could have emitted such a loud roar was Logan, and we all turned to see him, ready to slice his claws at Pacina.

      ***

      Not too long before...

      GrrrrrrrrOOOOOOOOaaaAGGGhhhhH...

      "What was that?" Harpier asked, spinning around.

      "That sounded really familiar," Flames said. "That deep voice with a hint of loneliness..." she stopped to ponder. "That could only have been Logan."

      Flames looked at Harpier and Aluendi. The three of them were sitting in a circle on the snowy ground, huddling together to try and block out as much of the snow and wind as possible. They were all shivering violently, especially Flames, who was wearing only shorts and a T-shirt.

      "What use does that ice Draik even have with Lodowaty?" Harpier grumbled. "I know that they were childhood friends or whatever, but he really has to move on."

      "Harpier, I t-thought that we w-w-went o-over the f-f-f-f-fact that L-L-Lodowaty was l-lying and that L-L-L-Logan was lying as w-well," Aluendi sputtered out. Her breathing was becoming more rapid and she had frostbite on the tip of her nose.

      "So that means that Logan probably wasn't her childhood friend," Flames finished for her, rubbing Aluendi's arm."And that means that we should get up right now and go find Aluendi and Pacina and Logan."

      "Augh, I think that I'm frozen to the ground," Harpier said.

      "Just get up," Flames said. "We already know that Logan will hopefully be with Lodowaty because he's the one who stole her and if luck is on our side than Pacina would be with them as well. We can only hope that they're all okay."

      "Okay, if you stop with the motivational speeches, then I'll help find them," Harpier grumbled.

      "I'll h-help," Aluendi said, rubbing her shoulders.

      "Alright guys, let's get going," Flames said. "Plus, if we get moving, we might start to get warmer."

      "Yeah, good luck with that," Harpier said icily. "We're already freezing, Aluendi's getting frostbite, my feathers are crusted with ice, and Flames, your hair is covered in so much snow that it looks like you dyed it white. I doubt that we're going to get warmer."

      "But we still need to find Lodowaty and Pacina," Flames said. "The sooner the better."

      "Fine." Harpier stood up and brushed her shirt off, and then dusted the powdery snow off of her wavy black hair. "I suppose that you're going to have to ride on my back again while we search?"

      "Sorry, Harpier," Flames said. "I would fly on my own if I had wings, but I don't, so you'll have to carry me again."

      Flames hopped onto Harpier's back as Harpier dropped to all fours. Aluendi dropped to all fours as well. They took off into the sky, snow blowing against their faces, wind splaying their wings.

      Another growl pierced through the sky. Flames looked down to where the sound was coming from and saw a large cave sticking out of the side of the mountain. The top was thickly frosted with ice and snow with just a few jagged grey patches and a gaping opening on one side of the cave with light slowly flooding out of the entrance.

      "Harpier, stop!" Flames shouted, tugging on the Eyrie's ruff. She grunted in surprise and halted to a stop, flapping her wings to stay aloft in the cold air. Beside her, Aluendi did the same and they hovered in the sky for a moment, just watching the cave with the light dancing out of the entrance and the frustrated sounds coming from deep inside.

      "They must all be in there," Harpier said. "That's it, we're going in to help right now. Who knows how strong that Draik is, Pacina and Lodowaty could be in serious trouble right now."

      "Alright, we'll all go in together," Flames declared. "If we team up, all five of us, I'm sure that we can escape the clutches of that Draik and make it back to our Neohome safely. No matter how strong he is there's no way he can take us five on one."

      "We'll have to be careful, but alright," Harpier said. "I'm okay with it, are you Aluendi?" She nodded at the shivering Cybunny. She was still flapping her wings, breathing warm air onto her fuzzy hands and then rubbing her long ears.

      "Sure," Aluendi said.

      The trio dove for the mouth of the cave. Harpier had a determined look on her face; Aluendi looked cold; and Flames was hanging onto the edge of Harpier's ruff like her life depended on it. The lights flashed across their faces as they walked up to the mouth of the cave, peering inside for any sign of Logan, Pacina, or Lodowaty. But all they saw were shadows displayed across the light, which meant that they were farther back inside the cave.

      "Come on, guys, we'll all rush in on the count of three," Flames said. "Besides, you already agreed to this, no getting out of it now."

      "One..."

      The snow whirled around them, pelting the three with shards of ice and strong winds.

      "Two..."

      Time seemed to freeze. All three of them tensed, awaiting Flames to call the number three, when they would all rush in and stop Logan and save Lodowaty and Pacina.

      "Th-"

      "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

      A scream tore through the air, coming from deep inside of the cave.

      "Pacina!" Flames shouted, lurching forward. She lunged through the entrance and started running into the cave, her glasses nearly wobbling off of her face.

      "Flames!" Harpier said, darting into action. She chased after Flames, her wings folded in to keep her from slowing down.

      "Harpier!" Aluendi ditched her vine wings by the side of the cave and ran in after Harpier, grabbing the small golden crown off of her head and shoving it into her sweatshirt pocket.

      Flames stopped abruptly when she came to the deepest part of the cave, her mouth agape. She spotted Lodo not too far away from her, her hands tied behind her back, Snow Cloud floating behind her. Flames also barely registered when Harpier smashed into her back, and then Aluendi smashed into Harpier which sent all three of them lunging forward with a scream.

      Lodowaty heard this and turned around to see the three of them lying in a heap on the floor, looking dazed.

      "Flames? And Harpier and Aluendi?" Lodo asked. The shock was apparent on her face. "But I thought that you were hiding in here somewhere! I would never have thought that you would have let Pacina come in here all by herself!"

      "Well, we didn't exactly do that," Harpier explained. "We got split up from Pacina when we almost hit a mountain, and Pacina happened to-"

      Harpier was cut off by the sound of an extremely loud roar. The only one who could have emitted such a loud roar was Logan, and they all turned to see him, ready to slice his claws at Pacina.

To be continued...