by Dani Swanson
“Someone will stop you. Lola and her followers aren’t going to let you get to those crystals.” Thea tried to hide the panic from her voice.
Cricket laughed at her. “Without the protection of the golden acorn, my followers are stronger than hers. They should be surrounding the castle shortly. Speaking of which, we better be going too. We don’t want to miss the battle.” Cricket flashed them a surprised face of excitement before nodding at the owls. Hundreds of owls surrounded the women, grabbing them by their clothes, their hair and even their fingers by their talons, and started to flap their wings. If they tried to fight it, they were shocked. Lilly, Penelope and Thea were all carried through the air by the owls flying toward the battle that was to happen.
“What are you going to do with me?” Robin asked, as she hugged her little gray cat.
“Well I can’t let you go, and I can’t take the collar off your cat. That would just be stupid of me. You’ll have to be my company as we go to the battle.” A dwarf came in with a new collar made just for Robin. “Though I won’t make you be carried off into the darkness by a bunch of birds. You will be riding with me.”
After instructing the dwarfs to put the crystals pieces together, and to meet them at the Kingdom of Owls with the assembled piece, Cricket made her way to a covered coach that was waiting outside for her and Robin “We’ll be there soon enough.” Cricket chimed, as she scratched Tinker under her chin. The cat hissed and pulled closer into Robin’s lap which brought joy to Cricket. “You’ll be my friend soon enough little kitty.” She pulled back the curtain on the window, and watched the trees pass by in a blur, as Robin sat and silently wept.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Hours had passed since the little house in the Monkey Tree Village had been emptied. Even the owls had left, leaving only those locked in the cells left in the house. Except there was one other who stayed behind. He blended in with the background so well that no one noticed that he didn’t leave with the rest of them to participate with the raid.
He started in the back and worked his way to the front of the rows of cells. Carefully, he opened the doors and allowed everyone out to the hallway. The little gnome mumbled orders to everyone in his deep, grisly voice, until he got to the cell with the humans inside.
“Here.” Was all he said, as he handed a small bronze key to Dean.
“Boog! Where did you get this from?!” Dean’s voice carried through the halls.
“Stop saying my name and lower your voice. I don’t know if anyone has been left behind.” He paused as he watched Dean remove the collar from Charles’ neck and continue throughout the room. “I took them off her keys when she was asleep. She barely noticed me when Sorgin brought me here.” The stocky little gnome had nothing else to say; he handed Charles the keys for the doors and turned on his heels, racing out of sight.
“I wonder why Sorgin brought him here?” Charles said as he was freeing his brother.
“I’m more concerned about where that witch took Thea!” Dean’s voice was slightly panicked. “And the others of course…”
“Oh, of course. The others.” Charles voice was dripping sarcasm.
The brothers went to all the creatures and beings, freeing them of the collars that turned into dust when they hit the floor. Almost all the creatures took off running without waiting to see what was to happen next. Dean found Fig and immediately got him free, the orange cat took a moment to rub against his legs before meowing and running up the stairs.
“Follow him! He’s going to know how to find Thea!” Dean yelled at Charles as he was undoing the last of the collars on a dwarf woman who was tugging on his shirt. “Hold still, I’m letting you out.”
Charles took off after the cat, who was already out of the open door to the house, with Dean not far behind them. There were a group of curious townspeople starting to gather around, watching all the creatures emerge from what appeared to be a tiny house.
“When they stop coming out, burn the house down!” Dean yelled back over his shoulder.
Miles down the road an orange glow illuminated the sky over Monkey Tree Village – cleansing the village of the secrets it used to hold.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“We knew that our time living in peace was going to be so short…..we have prepared for this battle, and are stronger than those who are attacking us!” The little red squirrel with the bushy tale paced in front of the creatures she has been leading. The air was cool and eerily still as her followers stared off into the blackness – listening to her words, trying to hide the fear brewing in the pits of their stomachs. Lola knew that once the protection of the golden acorn was gone she would turn back into her small rodent form, and the Circle of Owls would not be far behind.
Lola had awakened that morning. to find that she was drowning in a sea sheets on her bed. She rubbed her eyes to reveal red fur covering her hands, and she knew the worst was yet to come.
The humans that lived behind the walls in harmony with the magical creatures peered out the walls into the darkness with fear in their eyes – not feeling as strong as the powerful creatures they knew were headed their way. They dressed for a battle – full armor covering them with their weapons drawn – but they knew they were no match for what was coming for them. They shivered on the wall- some from the chill and some from fear- but were too afraid to move from their posts. They started to fill the catapults with vats of oil, with torches lit, waiting for the orders of the little squirrel to send them flying into the trees. Their preparations were well executed even though many of them did not have any magic.
Lola ran along the wall of the castle, boosting the spirits of the kingdom. She did her best to not let any emotion other than excitement out. “We will not be prisoners of the Circle of Owls again! This is our Kingdom! This is our home!” Her rally was met with cheers.
They started to arrive in pairs, hiding behind their feathered masks – circling around the walls of the kingdom. The witches had conjured their elements, the elves had their bows drawn, fairies with their wands out and the borgs had their clubs raised. Both sides of the castle walls were waiting for their mistress to call the attack, and for a moment, they all froze together as they watched the hundreds of owls flying through the dead of night.
A group of the owls swooped in with their bundles. Thea, Penelope and Lilly were dropped into an opening between the trees. They were promptly met by a group of dwarfs who controlled their collars – shocking their skin to show their control. The yelp that came from the women echoed through the night and disrupted the groups at the caste from watching the owls. A lone arrow was sent flying through the sky from a skittish elf on the castle wall.
“What are we going to do now?” Lilly asked in a hushed whisper as she watched a dwarf sharpen his axe. “If we try to move, they’re going to start shocking us again.” She was already rubbing the burn marks on her neck.
“I’m sure we’ll have some time; Cricket will need to get Celeste before she comes here. She never could do anything by herself.” Penelope was fidgeting with a bobby pin from her hair, trying to pick the lock on her collar.
“Then we’re going to be waiting forever.” Lilly said with a smirk. “Her body was dragon food months ago.” Her stare never broke from Thea the entire time she spoke.
Thea’s face dropped as she stared back at Lilly. “You killed my mom?!” Thea knew she shouldn’t care what happened to her mother, but she felt the impulse to protect her.
“You got mine killed!” Lilly’s voice echoed through the trees as Thea instinctually lunged toward Lilly but stopped in her tracks by her collar.
“Stop it! You’re better off without her.” Penelope wrapped Thea in her arms. “Your mother was an evil woman and didn’t care for anyone besides herself – your aunt had brainwashed her long before you were born into only doing what Cricket wanted. We need to work together if we’re going to survive this. Cricket is going to be a danger if she gets our powers!”
Over their h
eads they could see the fiery glow of the oil being launched from the catapult and the battle cries of the members of the Circle, as they ran toward the castle. The oil lit the trees on fire and melted the skin of attackers so quickly they didn’t even have a chance to scream. The battle had started without Cricket’s arrival – giving Lola and her followers the upper hand of the attack. The followers sent their vats of oil raining down upon The Circle. The archers sent their arrows directly after – piercing the skin of the borgs who were on the front line. The fairies flew down below and were casting spells on everyone
Cricket kept her distance from the battle she knew was taking place above her head. The musty scent of the empty dungeon filled her nose as she brought Robin in through the secret passage that lead to the old meeting area of the Circle.
She held onto Robin’s arm by the elbow, dragging her through the tunnels of the castle, collecting small pieces of her crystal as they went. The satchel she had with her was filling with the shards as they made their way up to the sitting room of the castle.
“There’s no way you’ll be able to get that crystal back together, Cricket. You’ll have to find a different way.” Robin did her best to distract Cricket from making it to her destination. She hugged onto Tinker as tight as she could to keep the cat from doing anything to get shocked by her collar.
“Even with part of the crystal, I’ll be able to use it. You know what I read in one of your books?”
“I’m sure a lot of things…..” Robin kept her voice low.
“It turns out that when you take someone’s power – or part of their soul, and split it, the power never fully becomes whole again in that person. Just like the crystal when you break it, the shards will never be whole again no matter what spell you use to bring it back. Part of every person’s soul, and their magic are stuck in each piece I’m collecting.” Cricket held up a small piece to the light so Robin could see a cloudy shadow move inside of it. “Mixing all the pieces together again is a cocktail of all the magic and power.” She had a blissful smile on her face as she scooped up another piece.
Robin didn’t speak again, as she too knew that part of the souls was going to be trapped in the crystal. Anything that has a soul can be healed by a witch with that power. She knew that as Cricket was a healer just as Thea was, she was going to do her best to heal the stone into one massive piece.
“I’ll have part of the souls I took before, plus the bonus of getting the souls of my mother, Lilly and Thea. And it’s all thanks to you, Robin. Without your researching everything you did to connect yourself to your sister, I would never have found out how to do it. So, I guess I should leave you alive and with your soul intact as a thank you for helping me with my greatness.” Her crimson lips gave her a smirk as she continued to pick up more and more shards of crystal as they walked up the stairs. Cricket thought this would be the best reward she could possibly give Robin for the information that Cricket had stole from her book.
Robin had nothing to say to the witch as she silently wept, following her to the thrown room. She knew by writing down all the information she collected from all her books - by trying to save herself she inadvertently gave Cricket all the information she ever needed to gain all of the power she was chasing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Godmother! I know you don’t like any other humans, but they are in need of your help! Will you please come with me?”
Agatha pleaded with the Baba Yaga as the old witch was smearing a concoction on eyes that had started to grow again in their sockets. She showed little interest in Agatha being there as she continued to deal with her ailment.
“The witch who killed all of your dragons – Cricket – she is about to take the powers from two of the most powerful witches alive…and the Grimalkin!”
The last part of Agatha’s statement is what grabbed her attention. The Baba Yaga knew that if a powerful witch also had the magic of the Grimalkin, she would be too great. She wiped away the gunk she had on her face to expose the freshly grown- bright yellow eyes to the light for the first time. She squinted and looked at Agatha before she began to speak in her ancient tongue.
“I have been protecting nature for thousands of years. I am the reason for the borgs and the dwarfs, the dragons and the fairies. I created them; I am their mother. The one creature that is older than my time is the Grimalkin. The power of the shadow cat moves from host to host, feeding off everyone in its path.
Once a coven of witches had trapped the Grimalkin – and locked it away until it returned in the form of Lilly Quinn. Her soul was pure and that was the only thing keeping her in control of the Grimalkin’s power for as long as she has without having it take her whole being over. Her pureness is what outweighs the evilness.
It takes a stronger individual to harness the beast than Cricket – you did the right thing by returning to me Little Witch. You will need to show me where she is, to stop her from becoming the next host. Her soul is evil and will destroy everything in our world.”
Agatha smiled; she was relieved that the ancient witch was going to help her and that she wasn’t going to be eaten. She started to leave and motioned for Baba Yaga to follow her – but when she turned her back to the ancient witch, Agatha was picked up into the air. The Baba Yaga had grown to monstrous proportions – matching that of one of the giants that she had lived in the mountains.
The Baba Yaga let out a laugh that echoed through the mountain range. She placed Agatha on her shoulder, then started to sing a song in an off-beat tune, in a language that Agatha couldn’t identify. There was silence that followed her song before Agatha heard the most beautiful melody coming back through the mountain range. It was the same song that the Baba Yaga had sung, accompanied with a bleating nose that she had heard the Blue-Scaled Dragons make before. The Baba Yaga turned her head and looked at Agatha sitting on her shoulder and smiled to her – letting her know that help was going to be on its way. Agatha smiled back, pointing which direction they were to go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
With the power of the golden acorn gone, creatures on both sides of the massive battle were able to cast their magic without hesitation. The north side of the castle’s wall was nearly destroyed as lightning bolts and fireballs were being flung by both sides. The ogres and trolls on either side were beating their foes with their clubs.
Cricket had made her way through the tunnels of the castle, all the way back to the throne room that she once knew so well. Her face lit up like a young child seeing a spark of magic for the first time. There on the stand, right where she had left it, was the massive piece of purple crystal which she needed to complete her plan.
Robin would flinch each time she heard a scream or explosion outside, but not Cricket – she was fixated on the shards of crystal that she had dumped out of her bag. Light reflected off the rocks which gave Cricket’s face a sickly purple tone.
“I didn’t know that when you trap someone’s soul – their essence, into a crystal, that part of them will stay alive within the rock. I had always thought that it was just storing the power, but it keeps part of them alive. I did it to stay youthful and powerful – but I never realized that we could trap a person – a witch, boggle or a troll – any living creature within the crystal! It’s amazing what you have discovered Little Witch!”
Cricket placed her hands on the pile of shards and scooped up as many as her hands could hold. She started to pile the pieces onto the large piece in the holder – cutting her hands in the process – allowing her own blood to trickle down onto the crystals.
“This isn’t going to work, Cricket, remember I made it into a powder…..” Robin was trying to distract Cricket from what she was doing as she saw her friends, Charles and Dean creeping up the stairs outside of the castle’s window. Tinker had quietly slinked out of Robin’s arms and had made her way down the path towards the men. Robin silently watched as Dean bent down with a small key, releasing Tinker from her collar. Fig came charging behind Dean an
d paused for a moment to nudge the head of his sister before coming up the stairs to where Robin was.
“This crystal is more powerful than the spell you had used on your sister….I just need your spell to release it’s power to myself. With the trapped souls and a bit of blood, I can heal this.” Cricket then turned her back on Robin – placing her hands on the crystal and healing it just as if it were a living thing - like Robin had seen Thea do so many times before. Between the blood that was now smeared onto its edges and the particles of people’s souls that were trapped inside the shards Cricket made the pieces fit back together as if it had never been shattered in the first place.
With a hopeful look, Robin gazed back out of the window, hoping to see her cat or friends coming to her rescue, but they were being detained by a group of witches that were blocking the only entrance to the throne room.
“They’ll never make it here to save you.” Cricket had crept behind Robin as she whipped the black bile from the corner of her mouth.
“They’re not going to allow you to win, Cricket. And I’m not going to give you any assistance with the spell!” Robin pushed away from Cricket, grabbing a vase from a nearby table, throwing it at Cricket before she started to run to the door but was quickly sent crashing to the floor by a thunderbolt that Cricket had conjured.
“Silly Little Girl – I always win.” Cricket walked over to where Robin was laid out on the ground. She turned her over onto her back and placed her crimson lips near Robin’s. She slowly inhaled as a smooth teal colored smoke came swirling gracefully from the back of Robin’s throat. The smoke twisted and turned through the air as it made its way over to the crystal, which absorbed her soul like a sponge. The lines around Cricket’s eyes tightened and the few greys in her hair disappeared the more the crystal absorbed. “I already have your spell.” She said to Robin’s still body. The stupefied look appeared on Robin’s face as her body rose and started to walk to the stairs. Cricket walked up behind her, giving her a slight shove sending her crashing down the stairs to where her friends were fighting a witch. “I was rewarding you by allowing you to stay alive.” Robin’s body no longer moved when it hit the landing below. “You should have just behaved.”
