Imaginary Realm: Part Three

“Aha! I found the map!” Luke declared proudly. He ran over to Midnight and handed it to her.

     “Good job, Luke.” Midnight smiled, playfully patting the top of Luke’s head. “That didn’t take long at all. Let’s go back inside.” Midnight and Luke walked into Caley’s house, to find Caley sitting on the ground crying. “What’s wrong?” Midnight demanded. “What happened?”

     “It-it-it’s terrible,” Caley stuttered, every other word interrupted by a sob. “C-Chris thought he saw Ello and Ocksia so he went out the back door. I w-warned him not to go out there because it was d-dangerous b-but he d-didn’t listen to me. So he fell into a large d-ditch.”

     “Oh, no,” Luke replied. “Well, don’t cry, Caley, we’ll get him out.”

     “Yeah, sis,” Midnight agreed. “No big deal.” Midnight and Luke walked out Caley’s back door until they saw a giant hole.

     “Chris?” Luke called. “Are you down there? Chris!”

     “I don’t see anything,” Midnight replied, “and I can see in the dark; I have night vision.”

     “Is there anyone down there?” Caley then asked, walking up behind Luke and Midnight.

     “No,” Luke replied.

     Caley smiled. “THERE IS NOW!” She pushed Luke and Midnight inside the giant hole!

     “AH!” they both screamed, plunging into the darkness below. “Caley! What are you doing? Sister!” Midnight screamed.

     “Sorry, dark faerie,” Caley laughed maniacally, “but I’m not your sister.”

     ~*~

     After ten minutes of trying to get out of the locked room, Chris finally gave up. He couldn’t use magic; he'd dropped his wand when Caley pushed him in. But now that he had calmed down, Chris looked around the room he was stuck in. Everything was black, except he then noticed in the far corner was a little lamp, and five little Kacheeks huddled together.

     Chris approached the Kacheeks, and noticed that these Kacheeks looked very old and drained, with hardly any life inside them. “Hello,” Chris whispered softly, “I’m Chris.”

     One little red Kacheek eyed him with his shapeless eyes. “Look, my brothers,” he said. “A Shoyru. Look how young he is.”

     “The witch must’ve not drained him yet,” a blue Kacheek replied. “Poor soul, he better enjoy his youth.”

     “He deserves it drained,” an orange Kacheek said. “Look at him! What a fool!”

     “Hey!” Chris exclaimed. “I’m not a fool! Now what is going on?”

     “The witch. The witch is going to steal your youth to make herself younger. That’s what she did to my brothers and me, one by one. She said she’d give us a world where we could frolic and play, but instead she locked us up, and ate our youth away. One by one.”

     “So the fire faerie is the witch?” Chris asked.

     “She changes many forms; once she was a Zafara. I think that was her original form. But then she ate up the fire faerie’s youth, so now the fire faerie is the Zafara, and she is the young fire faerie. However, her magic doesn’t last long, so she needs new prey. And once new victims come, she’ll eat them up. One by one.”

     “Oh no... Luke and Midnight,” Chris said to himself. “Ocksia and Ello! They’re all in trouble!”

     “And once she’s through with all of you, she’ll send out that dreaded map. So new victims can find it and the map will lead them to her. And then she’ll pick them off, one by one.”

     “Okay, seriously, that is getting old,” Chris snapped. He looked up at the ceiling. "Ello and Ocks, please be safe."

     ~*~

     “What do you mean, Ello? What do you mean Violet is Caley? Caley is supposed to be a fire faerie!” Ocks exclaimed.

     “That’s what we’re led to think. But look at Violet’s left arm. It has a mark on it like a burning hand. In dark magic that mark symbolizes switching bodies. So the witch, who was originally a purple Zafara, switched bodies with Caley. However, it looks like she also took Caley’s youth, which is why Violet can’t remember anything and is so wrinkly.”

     “If this is true, Chris, Luke and Midnight are in serious trouble!” Ocks cried. “We need to rescue them!” Ocksia, Ello and Violet (who was now Caley) shot off quickly in a desperate attempt to save their friends!

     Being able to fly, Ello was the first who reached the old house where the witch lived, Caley and Ocksia behind her. Using her magic, Ello detected where Chris was in the house and flew to the corner of the house, the only thing dividing her and Chris being a wall. “Let this wall no longer divide, allow Chris to come outside,” Ello chanted.

     She extended her paw and then used magic to pull Chris out of the wall. “Ello!” he exclaimed. “You found me!”

     “Chris!” Ello exclaimed, zooming on top of her owner’s head and cooing loudly to show her happiness. Ocksia then arrived and hugged Chris, relieved he was okay.

     “I’m glad you’re okay, Chris! I thought you’d be in danger.” Ocks sighed happily, hugging Chris tighter.

     “Glad you’re okay too, Ocksia,” Chris replied. “You and Ello had me worried.”

     “Now that all the mushy sap stuff is over,” Ello began, “let’s start planning.”

     Ocks let go of Chris and cleared her throat. “Chris, this is Caley, the real fire faerie, who is trapped in the real witch’s body. She found us, and said she’d help us stop the witch.”

     The old Zafara nodded. “Hello,” she croaked.

     “Hi,” Chris replied. “Alright, so we all know that the witch is in Caley’s fire faerie body, and she plans to trap us all and steal our youth.”

     “Where are Luke and Midnight?” Ocks asked.

     Chris’s eyes grew wide, “Oh, man! I don’t know!” The four ran off in search of their other two friends! “There she is! There’s the witch!” Chris exclaimed, pointing to the fire faerie!

     “RAWR!” Ello growled, leaping upon the fire faerie and biting down with her sharp teeth! Ocks leaped on the fire faerie as well, with Chris finishing off the dog pile! They pounded to the ground with a loud thump!

     “Ouch! That hurt!” the fire faerie exclaimed.

     “It deserves to hurt, witch!” Ocks snarled.

     “Witch? I’m not a witch! I’m Midnight!” the fire faerie exclaimed. “Honest! It’s me, Midnight!”

     Ocks, Chris and Ello got off her. “Midnight? Is it really you?” Ello asked.

     “Yes. Caley switched bodies with me,” Midnight answered. “Now she’s a young dark faerie and I’m a middle aged fire faerie!” It was true, Midnight was now a fifty year old dark faerie that had strands of grey hair and beginning to wrinkle skin. “The witch must’ve been the fire faerie the whole time.”

     “That’s right,” Chris said. “Your real sister is right here.”

     The real Caley walked up, and Midnight saw her as a purple Zafara. “Is it really you, Caley?” Midnight asked, trying not to get choked up.

     “Yes,” Caley replied. “I’m in the body of the real witch. It looks like you’re in my body. How funny.”

     “Midnight, where is the witch now?” Ocks asked. She then gasped, “Oh no! Luke!”

     “He’s still in the ditch we fell in!” Midnight exclaimed. Ocks ran over to the ditch Midnight pointed at and jumped in as well!

     “Luke!” Ocks cried. “Luke, you here?” The inside of the ditch was dark, and filled with moss and tree branches that made moving around a pain. But finally after blindly waving her paws around, Ocks finally touched soft yellow fur that had to belong to a Lupe’s.

     “Hey, Ocksia,” Luke greeted her. “I see you fell in the ditch as well.”

     “I didn’t fall in, I jumped in. Come on, we need to stop the witch and get out of here,” Ocks said.

     “Okay,” agreed Luke. “Let’s get climbing.”

     ~*~

     “How lovely to be a dark faerie,” the witch gleamed. She was flying above the clouds, with the map in her grip. “It looks like my victims finally caught on to my tricks. Well, I have more coming for them.” The witch laughed, and continued flying through the dark clouds.

     “Witch!” Ello exclaimed. The witch turned around to see Ello, Chris and Midnight flying right after her! “You’re going down!” Ello exclaimed, “HARD!”

     “Feisty Faellie, I’ll use my magic and turn you into a rug,” the witch snarled. She eyed Midnight. “I quite like this body of yours. I think I’ll keep it.”

     “Not if I can stop you,” Midnight replied. “Take this!”

     Midnight inhaled and then exhaled, releasing the powerful dark faerie ability Demon Breath. The Demon Breath was green, and smelled indescribably putrid; no one could describe it because they were usually taken over by the unbearable smell. The witch coughed and spewed, as the Demon Breath intoxicated her. “Now, Chris!” Midnight exclaimed.

     “Twisting Vines!” Chris cried. Using his earth faerie abilities, he made sharp, thorny vines twist up from the forest ground and surround the witch! It intertwined with her limbs and held her in its tight grip.

     “You think you can stop me?” the witch screamed with a smile across her face.

     “We are stopping you,” Chris stated sternly. “Now, Ello.”

     “Hara nu hara ki, transfer this witch’s power over to me. Let this witch no longer have power, strike her down upon this hour. Let her drift off afar, lead her through the pathway of stars!!!” Ello’s paws were now glowing a multi colors, as she sent out the magical energy towards the witch! The witch floated frozen inside Ello’s magic and then-

     BOOM!

     “I-I-... I’m back,” Midnight stammered, “I’m back in my dark faerie body!”

     “Of course you are.” Ello grinned. “My magic never fails.”

     “We need to get back to Ocksia, Luke and Caley,” Chris said. The three flew back to their friends.

     “I’m me again!” Caley exclaimed. “After so many long years I’m finally a young fire faerie!” Caley and Midnight hugged finally.

     “What happened?” Luke asked, “What did you three do?”

     “Well, while Ocksia was getting you out of the ditch, Midnight, Ello and I stopped the witch and put everyone in their rightful bodies with their rightful youth. The witch is now floating through some dark universe of magic... extremely old.”

     “Nice,” Ocks laughed.

     “What are you young ones still doing here? You got rid of the witch but now you must escape! Imaginary Realm will collapse and you will perish if you’re still inside,” an orange Kacheek said. The five old Kacheeks now stood outside in a group.

     “What about you? You have to escape too!” Ocksia exclaimed.

     The blue Kacheek smiled. “We’ve had our fun. We helped make this place, helped imagine it. It’s only right if we go down with our land.”

     “But-,”

     “Go.”

     “There’s no time to argue,” Caley said, “This place is coming apart!” The ground began to rumble and shake, and the trees began collapsing down like dominoes.

     “Where do we go?” Luke asked.

     “Up! We fly up!” Ello exclaimed. Chris grabbed Ocksia, and Midnight and Caley grabbed Luke, then the six began to soar up towards the clouds! Luke looked down and watched the beautiful realm fall apart. The oceans turned a rotten blue, the emerald forests toppled to dust, and everything seemed to vanish before his eyes.

     “We’re not going to make it!” Caley exclaimed. The clouds began to roar with lightning, and a heavy rain heaved upon them!

     “Chris! The spell!” Ello exclaimed.

     “Right!” Chris agreed. He and Ello then chanted at the same time, “Danger, danger has befallen everyone’s wellbeing! Save us, save us, magic to a safer place please bring!”

     POOF!

     Luke opened his eyes to find he was no longer being held by Caley and Midnight (to his disappointment) but was now lying down... on something hard... something wooden... “I’m on a boat!” Luke exclaimed.

     “Very good, Luke.” Ocksia smiled sarcastically, clapping her paws together.

     Luke leaned up and saw he was on a boat with Ocks, Chris and Ello, and once again they were drifting down Shenkuu’s river. “I don’t understand... what happened?”

     “Using magic, Ello and I said a spell that took us back where we were before we came to Imaginary Realm, which is right here on our boat. It’s over now, Luke, you can relax,” Chris assured him. “Here, have a neocola.”

     Luke took the cola and looked around. “But where are Midnight and Caley?”

     “They flew off a few minutes ago, very appreciative and happy. They also gave us their address so we can visit them sometime,” Ocks answered.

     “So it’s really over?” Luke asked.

     “Yeah, man! Now come on guys, let’s have some fun!” Ello laughed. She did a cannon ball in the water, and once again the four could enjoy their weekend.

The End