Chapter 10
After those few minutes were up, Pudding turned to her friends with a triumphant grin on her face. “We did it guys! We just passed through the pixie barrier. We’re free! They’ll never follow us this far out. Not only that, but we’re the first pixies to ever travel to this depth!”
“Yay,” muttered Nemesis, unenthusiastically, but Fidget and Jinx were all smiles.
Fidget slowed the engine down so that there would be plenty of time to take in the scenery. Pudding’s usual cheery attitude was eclipsed by her almost insane excitement. “Listen to that soft gurgling sound of the ocean and look at that!” She pointed at a group of colorful fish that had come over to investigate the curious object that had graced their waters. “Look at those fish, oh, and those corals! It’s spectacular! This is better than I could have ever imagined.”
“The submarine is a great design, Pudding,” said Jinx.
“It really is!” added Fidget.
“If it’s so great, why did everyone try to stop it?” asked Nemesis with more than a slightly jealous air.
“Try is the appropriate word,” said Fidget.
“Yeah,” said Jinx, “what could stop this thing?”
Before anyone could make a further response, Jinx’s question was answered with a jarring crash that sent everyone flying out of their seats. The whole submarine shook harshly, as though it were being tossed end over end through the water. With a dull thud, it came to a stop against a large coral outcropping. Pudding staggered over to her console as the others attempted to pick themselves up off the floor. She quickly reoriented the crystal ball to see outside the sub once again.
Pudding had just enough time to shout, “Hold on to something!” before another tremendous jolt spun the submarine completely over, leaving everyone smashed up against the roof. “It’s the sea monster! It’s ramming us.”
Everyone assumed a horrified expression, but none more so than Nemesis. After all, she was ultimately responsible for giving the creature a taste for pixie submarines.
The creature smashed into the sub a third time, leaving it floating right side up, thankfully. Pudding checked her instruments during the brief few moments that the creature needed to close the distance it had put between itself and the submarine after the last hit. She was about to say that everything looked okay, but a screeching noise and the sound of metal being crushed brought about a momentary silence in the sub. Then, a series of gasps broke the silence, as all four pixies witnessed tiny indentations being made in several sections of the hull. The creature had locked on to the sub with its powerful jaws and was slowly biting down.
“I thought this submarine was made of a stronger alloy,” said Fidget, his voice little more than a whisper.
“It was.…”
“Was?” shrieked Nemesis.
“The pixie navy fired on us … they weakened the enchantment. As long as that thing has a hold on us, we can’t move and it will buckle the hull eventually.”
“What do we do?” asked Fidget, looking like he was on the verge of fainting.
The hull plates began to crunch loudly under the extreme pressure of the creature’s bite. It wouldn’t be long now….
Pudding quickly assessed the situation, coming up with an idea that just might work. “We have to get it off the submarine. Everyone stand on your seats, I have an idea.”
“Is this like all of your other ideas?” asked Nemesis.
“Nope, this one’s crazy; I’m going to electrocute it. The padding on the seats is non-conductive, so we should be okay.”
“Lovely,” muttered Nemesis. “This one’s the crazy plan … as if the rest weren’t.”
Fidget, Jinx, and Pudding climbed up on their seats, ignoring the comment that Nemesis had made. Nemesis looked around, then folded her arms. “What should I do?”
Jinx reached his hand out and grinned widely. Nemesis looked at the others. Fidget shook his head no, and Pudding said, “I’m going to be moving around, so you can’t stand on my seat with me.”
Jinx reached both hands out this time. There wasn’t enough room for both of them, but it was better than being electrocuted, so with a deep cringe, Nemesis reluctantly took hold of Jinx’s hands, letting him pull her up onto the seat with him.
“After I shock this thing, everyone do what I tell you. Fidget, turn that dial to full power again. Nemesis, flip the switch on the engine back to its original position. Jinx, get ready to fire the rear ice torpedo but only if I say so; you’ll be manually detonating it immediately. When I say go, okay? Jinx?”
“Rear ice torpedo. Manual detonation. Got it”
“Good. Remember, don’t touch anything metal for the next second or so … now then … SHOCK!” Pudding waved her hands at the spot where the indentations were largest, sending a small, but dazzling bolt of lightning at the hull. The air seemed to crackle and tingle as the spell was transferred through the hull, and out into the water, with some of it making its way to the creature.
The creature roared with anger at the jolt of pain that it felt, which caused it to momentarily release the sub. “Go!” yelled Pudding, dropping back down on her seat with a soft plop. She took the controls as Fidget turned the engine to full power and Nemesis hopped down to the engine casing, flipping the switch.
The engine sprang to life, and the mechanical pumps that controlled the submarine’s dive tanks began forcing the water out of them. The submarine was tilting upward and heading toward the surface. Pudding was about to declare victory, but she located the creature using her crystal ball; it had recovered from its shock, and was on the move again, picking up speed faster than the submarine.
“We’re almost to the surface, but we won’t be able to get there before that monster catches us again, so we’ll need a little help,” said Pudding. “This is going to be rough guys, but it’s the only way. Jinx, fire the rear ice torpedo.”
Whoosh!
Jinx fired the torpedo and immediately detonated it. The ice spell sprang to life behind and slightly below the submarine. All four pixies kept their eyes on the crystal ball, watching spikes of ice shooting up all around them. After it grew sufficiently large, the iceberg hit the submarine. Instead of sinking the sub, the fast expanding iceberg catapulted it to the surface with enough force to send it flying through the air.
With a hard splash the submarine landed some fifty feet from the tip of the iceberg. Luckily, the submarine was right side up, and, aside from some severe scratching and a few crushed sections of the outer plating, it appeared to be mostly undamaged. The interior was an entirely different story.
“Everyone all right?” asked Pudding, sliding off the engine, where she had landed. She shoved some of her luggage aside, as it had flown everywhere. All of the smaller inventions that she had packed in tight on all sides of the submarine were now littered across the floor. Nearly all of them were destroyed.
“I’m good,” said Jinx picking himself up off the floor.
Fidget had managed to hold on to his seat so tight that he didn’t get thrown around at all, though the flying debris inside had cut his forehead slightly. Nemesis was on the floor near Jinx, groaning loudly, “I think something’s broken; I heard a snapping sound ... NOOOOO!”
Pudding and Jinx quickly scrambled over to her, crying some variation of “What, What is it, or Where are you hurt?”
Fidget searched through the debris for a healing crystal.
“My sandal strap! It’s broken! NOOOOO!”
“You’re fine,” said Jinx. “Stop screaming. STOP SCREAMING!”
“Shut up, Jumbo! These sandals are worth more than your life is.”
“Quit that you two,” said Pudding, walking back over to her console, doing her best to not step on the broken remains of her inventions. “We have to see where we are and if that thing is still after us.” After some careful examination using her spells, Pudding concluded that the monster had given up on the chase because there was no sign o
f it. Apparently it didn’t want to go for a third round with the sub after seeing it display its power in such an impressive way. Pudding also noticed that the submarine was only a few hundred yards from its destination. “We’re almost where we need to be, but we’re pointing the wrong way; we must have gotten spun around when we were ejected from the water.”
Nemesis continued to sit on the floor, pouting, but Jinx and Fidget retook their seats in order to check over their controls. Fidget used the healing crystal on his forehead as he read the engine output numbers. “The engine dial is still turned on, but we’re not moving.”
Pudding moved to the rear so that she could examine the engine. “Hmm … it was hit hard by the iceberg. All of the magic is leaking out of the crystal and into the surrounding area instead of being utilized. Turn the engine off Fidget, if I repair the leak, there will be just enough magic left to get us to the human island.”
Nemesis leapt to her feet, looking outraged. “Human island! What kind of insanity is that? Take me home! Now! I didn’t agree to this stupid trip of yours!”
“Just teleport home if you don’t want to be here,” said Fidget meanly.
“I can’t teleport that far, you idiot. No one can without the help of the teleportation arches.”
“Pudding can,” said Jinx.
“Yeah right!” screamed Nemesis.
“I can move between the human island and Lumina with a little bit of concentration,” said Pudding.
“Oh, really! You can, huh?” asked Nemesis doubtfully.
“Yes.”
“And how do you get through the pixie barrier, little miss genius?”
“It’s not an actual barrier, Nemesis. It’s more like a magical fog, and it only works in one direction. You can leave without any problems, but if you try to enter it without being approved by the lighthouse, then you are instantly surrounded by a thick mist that makes it very difficult to navigate. Which is only a problem for ships and sea creatures. If you are strong enough, you can teleport between here and the human island without ever encountering the barrier.”
“UGH! I didn’t know that! I didn’t think about it.”
“There’s your problem,” said Fidget.
“My problem,” said Nemesis, “is that I’m stuck with you three on this piece of junk.”
“Piece of junk! Are you crazy? This thing is awesome,” said Fidget, coming to Pudding’s defense.
“It needs a complete redo,” said Nemesis.
“A redo,” said Pudding, perhaps for the first time taking offense at something that Nemesis said. “You know what I call a redo? Daft!”
“Torpedo aft,” said Jinx. “Aye, Captain.”
“What? Jinx! NO!”
Whoosh!
Jinx had already pulled the lever, sending the remaining rear torpedo rocketing toward the human island. Pudding leapt over to the weapon’s console and hit the manual detonation button, but it didn’t work; it had suffered some damage during the escape from the sea creature. All Pudding could do was watch the typhoon torpedo with her crystal ball, and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, after about six seconds, the torpedo covered the distance to the island, but kept going. Pudding hurried back over to the targeting controls and saw that they too were damaged. The torpedo wasn’t on a straight course. Instead, it was heading directly under the island, where it detonated a few seconds later.
The water surrounding the coast began to churn violently and dark clouds billowed across the sky, letting out devastating forks of lightning. Pudding knew immediately that something was wrong; even for a magical storm, this was way too big.
“Of course … the magic from the engine didn’t leak out into the water … it went into the torpedo’s crystals. It magnified the spell.”
“How bad is it?” asked Fidget.
“The torpedo detonated directly under the island … the typhoon will act like a giant whirlpool, and with that much magic at its disposal, it could pull the whole island under the ocean.”
“What do we do?” asked Jinx, more than a bit unsettled.
“We rescue the humans.”
“You’re insane!” Nemesis screamed, her tone even more shrill than usual.
Fidget folded his arms, glaring at Nemesis in disgust. “I thought being a hero came natural to you, Nemesis. That’s what you told the newspaper reporters.”
“I was lying, Fidget.”
“Well,” said Pudding leaping out of her seat, “here is your chance to make good on that lie. Group teleport!”