Chapter 11
All four pixies arrived on the coast of the human island, just outside Pudding’s second workshop. The water was already beginning to swirl rapidly in a clockwise direction, sweeping along the coast, pulling the sand and earth along with it. With a lurch, the island itself began to slowly twist in the same manner.
“Okay,” said Pudding, surveying the scene, “the typhoon is gaining speed underneath the island, but we’ve still got a few minutes before it pulls the whole place down. I need all of you to teleport to the human city, gather up everyone that you see, and then bring them back here. I’ll teleport them to Lumina.”
Nemesis glared at Pudding in a less than respectful manner. “What kind of plan is that?” she asked.
“The only one we have, now go.”
“How do we get them to come with us?” asked Fidget. Jinx was wondering the same thing. Even Nemesis nodded her head in agreement with the question.
“Sleep spells, stuns, stings … use your imagination. Do whatever you have to, just get them all here. There are only thirty or forty of them and they all live in a small city near the very center of the island.”
Fidget, Jinx, and Nemesis teleported away, leaving Pudding behind. She quickly ran into her darkened workshop, feeling around for a crystal that activates a series of magical lanterns placed along the walls. Finding it, she flipped on the lighting, which revealed large, dusty workbenches and several of the larger inventions that she had moved to this workshop during the night. None of these items were on Pudding’s mind however. Instead, she moved over to the east wall and turned one of the magical lanterns sideways.
A series of mechanical clicks sounded out, and then the grinding of metal gears filled the air. Pudding watched as a small section of the flooring on the west side lowered, revealing a very large hidden tunnel beneath the floor of the workshop. She slid a ladder down into the mouth of the darkened tunnel and then jumped in. She felt around until she had placed her hand on the smooth metal frame of yet another invention.
“You’re not quite ready,” she said to the invention, “but you’re the only chance I have to escape all of this.”
After a minute or so of fiddling with the contraption, Pudding climbed back out of the tunnel, where she was met by Fidget, who was waiting nervously in the workshop. Pudding shot him a questioning glance, as she was surprised to see him back so soon.
“What happened? Did you already find all of them?”
“There’s no one here, Pudding.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, there are no humans here. No city. No people. Nothing.”
“That’s impossible.”
Jinx and Nemesis arrived a moment later. Both of them confirmed the fact that there was no one there, nor was there any sign that anyone had ever been there. The island gave another terrible lurch, knocking everyone to the ground, and sending several of Pudding’s inventions crashing to the floor.
Pudding climbed to her feet while thinking over the situation as fast as she could. “I’ll be back,” she said. Before anyone could protest, she teleported back to the submarine. She looked through all of the broken inventions quickly, finally grabbing a small green sphere that had visible cracks running along its glassy surface. She let out a long sigh, and then teleported back to the second workshop. Pudding showed her friends the sphere.
“Is that what I think it is?” asked Fidget, looking at it with reverence.
“Yes,” Pudding replied. “It’s my time travel crystal. It looks like some of the magic that leaked out of the engine accidentally turned it on. There are no humans on this island because we traveled back in time thousands of years. Way before humans or pixies had settled here.”
“WHAT!” shrieked Nemesis. “Is that a joke?”
“I’m afraid not,” said Pudding, bracing herself against another tremor from the now fast sinking island.
“Wait, if we traveled through time, how is your workshop still here?” asked Jinx.
“Well … last night, when I transferred all of my inventions over to this workshop from the one on Lumina … I may have sent it and all its contents back in time.”
“May have?” asked Fidget.
“Well, I definitely did,” responded Pudding. “I did it to make sure that no one would be able to stop me from doing my research. I had originally planned on leaving Lumina by myself. Then I would have simply traveled back in time to a point before pixies or humans lived in this area. I would have been able to conduct my experiments without interference from anyone.”
“Send us back to the right time period then, if it’s that easy!”
“I can’t Nemesis … the crystal is broken. We can’t go back, and we can’t stay here either; this whole island is going under in about three more minutes.”
“The submarine then?” asked Fidget, fast becoming terrified.
“There’s not enough power left in the engine to get us past the whirlpool that the torpedo created. The sub will be pulled down a few seconds after the island is.”
“You can teleport us to Lumina!” yelled Jinx, very proud of the fact that he had come up with a viable alternative.
“Lumina was inhabited by dragons during this time period, and not the friendly kind, believe me.”
“What then?” yelled Nemesis, clearly agitated, even for her.
“Follow me,” said Pudding, jumping down into the tunnel, with the others hot on her trail. “I have one last invention. It’s an early prototype, and I have no idea if or how long it will work. It’s going to be extremely dangerous, but it’s our only chance.”
Pudding felt along the stone walls of the tunnel until she found a crystal that activated the tunnel’s lamps. They burst to life, revealing the last great invention that Pudding had been working on.
“Whoa,” said Fidget.
“What is this thing?” asked Nemesis with disgust.
“I call it a jet,” said Pudding.
“Well that doesn’t sound dangerous,” said Jinx. “How does it work?”
“You don’t want to know,” replied Pudding, seriously. The others took her at her word.
The jet was constructed out of the same bronze looking metal that Pudding had used on her submarine, though it was of a considerably thinner design. After all, this was supposed to be a flying machine, so it needed to be light.
The jet featured a sleek, aerodynamic look that closely resembled the fighter jets that humans would one day develop. The main external differences being a cockpit that seated four small pixies and landing gear that was really only designed for takeoff. Pudding hadn’t gotten around to figuring out how to land it yet. Its twin rear engines were turbine based and also powered by the crystal assembly that Pudding had developed for the submarine, although this design was built for high speed bursts, not sustained output.
While Jinx and Fidget admired the design, Pudding did her best to prepare her friends for the launch of this device without making them too terrified. “This tunnel extends across the whole island,” she said. “It slopes gently upward at the end, leading directly to the mouth of a large cave on the opposite end of the island. These tracks here,” she pointed toward two lines of metal that closely resembled rail road tracks, “they will guide the jet along the tunnel. Its engines should pick up enough speed by the time we reach the cave opening to blast us clear of the island … I hope.”
“You hope?” said Nemesis.
“Hop in,” said Pudding with a big smile, refusing to answer the question.
“This invention rides along the top of the water then?” asked Jinx.
“Uhhhh, not exactly, Jinx.”
“Oh, no, no. Noooo! This isn’t a flying machine? Pleeease tell me this isn’t a flying machine!” Nemesis had an extra amount of doubt in her voice.
“Hop in,” said Pudding again, still ignoring Nemesis.
“We’re all going to die,” said Nemesis.
“Hop in,” said
Pudding a third time, after which, Fidget and Jinx climbed a small step ladder leading to the cockpit, and then jumped into the two back most seats. Nemesis had to be shoved up the ladder under protest, but Pudding eventually got her into the second seat. Pudding then tossed the broken time travel crystal into a small leather satchel filled with supplies from her workshop. She slid the satchel under the first seat and then jumped in, shoving the step ladder clear of the jet. She slid the canopy shut, grabbed the controls, pressed a couple of buttons, and then said as loud as she could, “Brace yourselves.”
With the press of a large red button, the twin engines roared to life, emitting a noise that made the whoosh of the torpedoes sound like a light breeze. The invention shook with a violence that struck fear into all of its passengers, even Pudding. Before they could give it much further thought they were all slammed back against their seats, as a burst of fire sent the jet racing down the dim tunnel with a sickening speed that exceeded anything that Pudding had expected. In the span of ten seconds, the jet cleared the tunnel, rocketing out of the mouth of the cave at an angle that pushed it quickly into the air.
Now that it was airborne, the jet shook even harder. Pudding was doing her best to keep it stable, but it more or less had a mind of its own. Jinx and Fidget turned back just in time to see the human island being swallowed by the swirling water, disappearing into the mouth of the whirlpool. The submarine gave off one last glimmer as it too was swallowed whole. Nemesis held her head in her hands, staring numbly at the back of Pudding’s seat, too afraid to look anywhere else.
Finally managing to get the craft to respond to her input, Pudding gave a quick glance left and right. She couldn’t help but smile. “Can you believe this, guys?” she yelled, trying to keep her voice above the roar of the engines. “This is so cool!”
The aircraft had just skimmed through a large fluffy cloud. Pudding dropped back down below it, looking out in every direction at the vast expanse of ocean and islands. It all seemed so tiny from high above.
“This is awesome!” yelled Jinx.
“How fast are we going?” asked Fidget.
“I don’t know, the speedometer broke … really fast I guess.”
“So, what’s the plan here?” asked Jinx.
“We need to find an island near Lumina that’s safe enough for us to teleport to.”
“You can’t land this thing?” asked Fidget, nervously.
“Oh, goodness no … I’m surprised it even flies.”
Nemesis began to bawl.
“What’s wrong with you?” shouted Fidget.
“I just noticed that both of my sandals are broken.”
Pudding frowned, despite her best efforts to stay positive. She angled the plane back toward Lumina, hoping to spot a safe place among the islands near it, just as a long wailing sound erupted across the cockpit. The roar of the engines diminished to a loud purring, and then fizzled altogether.
Pudding poked at the ignition button, but it was no use. She tilted her head toward her friends, and shouted, “The engines just died … we’re going down.”
Pudding once again lost control of the jet, but that didn’t matter. She saw what she was looking for. Perhaps a good fifteen miles from Lumina was a cluster of small islands that she and the others could teleport to. “Look out the left side of the canopy. Do you see that small group of islands?”
All three pixies responded with a firm yes.
“We’ll still be able to glide through the air for thirty seconds or so, but when we get near those islands, teleport out.”
Pudding gently touched the controls one last time. It was her way of saying goodbye to yet another one of her inventions. And then, as the jet glided past the islands, she and the others teleported out. Once on the ground, they all turned just in time to watch the jet slam into the water about five hundred feet out. It burst into thousands of tiny pieces that would soon join Pudding’s other inventions at the bottom of the ocean.