by Travis Flynn
Chapter 6
“We’re totally going to fail,” said Fidget, worried, as usual.
“Peeshaw my friend, we’re far too smooth to fail,” said Jinx, in what he probably believed was a reassuring tone.
“Jinx, this is a bad idea.”
“I’m not known for bad ideas, Fidget. Pudding, what do you think of my plan?”
“It’s awfully mean.”
“Nimrod missed that monster, and it almost killed us. The least we could do is scare him with the sudden formation of a giant iceberg right in front of the lighthouse during his work shift! Come on, it’ll be funny. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Jinx does have a point,” said Fidget.
“I don’t have double joints. I’m not bendy at all.”
“Point! Point! I said you have a point.”
Jinx chuckled slightly. “You’re testy when you’re nervous, did you know that?”
Fidget glared initially, but eventually grinned.
Jinx turned to Pudding, putting on his most charming smile. “What do you say, Pudding, want to give it a try?”
“I guess it would be funny.…”
“That’s the spirit!”
Pudding, Fidget, and Jinx were sitting at the beach once again, only this time they were waiting for the sun to go down. The dock had been magically repaired, and the torpedo was now sitting on it. Pudding had tried to find Nemesis, figuring that she might want to see the torpedo in action, but she was mysteriously missing from all her normal hangouts.
“You see there,” said Jinx, pointing at the lighthouse. Pudding and Fidget could barely make out the silhouettes of two pixies, one leaving the lighthouse and the other going in. “The shift is changing … our friend Nimrod is on duty now. Ready to fire the torpedo on your order, captain.”
Pudding heard Jinx, but didn’t immediately respond to him. When he turned to look at her, he noticed that she had taken on her dreamy expression and that usually signified that some idea had suddenly popped into her head. “What’s on your mind?” asked Jinx.
Pudding was instinctively twirling her fingers through one of her long blonde curls. This was an especially bad sign in the minds of her friends. At last, she spoke up, asking Jinx, “How did your telekinetic training go?”
“Poorly,” said Fidget, answering for him. Jinx bit at his lips nervously, but could offer up no other answer.
“Hmm … you did all right holding the sea creature’s tentacles back with magic.”
“That’s because I had the proper motivation, Pudding; it was a do or die situation. Unless I have to do it, I don’t seem to be able to.”
“Well, how about this?” said Pudding as she motioned for her friends to follow her to the edge of the dock. “The torpedo can guide itself, but I want you to guide it with your mind.” She bent down over the torpedo and opened a small panel that led to several small, multicolored crystals.
While she was fiddling with the arrangement of these crystals, Jinx asked, “What’s the motivation?” He was doubtful that Pudding could come up with anything that would prove sufficient. “If there’s nothing at stake, I can wave my hand around all day long, but nothing will happen.”
Pudding gazed out across the water and saw a pixie fishing boat on the horizon. “That boat over there,” she said, “the one moving toward the commerce docks … it has black sails, do you see it?”
“Yes,” replied Jinx. “My brother works on that boat.”
Pudding flipped the panel shut and slid the torpedo into the water. “Your motivation is to save him,” she said. Before Jinx or Fidget could protest, she waved her hand over the torpedo. Its propeller sprang to life, sending it racing toward the boat. “You’ve got about fifteen seconds.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” yelled Jinx, as he jumped to the very edge of the dock and began to furiously wave his hand back and forth at the fast disappearing torpedo. Unfortunately, nothing he did made the least bit of difference; the long rippling wake of the torpedo showed that it was still very much on course.
Pudding turned to Fidget and saw that he had a very worried, completely stunned expression on his face. Behavior like this was simply not what he had come to expect from his friend. To reassure Fidget that everything would be okay, Pudding winked at him. He knew then, that she was prepared, at any moment, to divert the weapon herself.
The torpedo was racing along the water’s surface, so Jinx could see that he had only a matter of seconds left to act. His face scrunched together hard and his eyes sharpened their focus; it was now or never. He flicked his hand hard to the left, and to his surprise, the torpedo suddenly turned in that direction, missing the boat by a good thirty feet.
“YES!” shouted all three pixies together.
“Can you believe it guys? I did it!” Jinx was so thrilled with his success that he waved his hands around in celebration, forgetting the fact that those very same movements were guiding the torpedo.
Both Pudding and Fidget shouted together, “Jinx! Stop! Stop! The torpedo!”
The torpedo veered left, then right, dove slightly down into the water, and then with a last twirl from Jinx’s hands, turned directly toward the lighthouse.
Pudding instantly raised her hands, concentrating on the torpedo, but to her dismay, her magic could not stop the runaway weapon. If she pushed hard to the left, it countered just as hard to the right. “Something’s wrong with it, it’s like its targeting the lighthouse … I can’t get it to stop!” Pudding was straining as hard as she could, using every ounce of magic at her disposal, but it made no difference. In a manner of seconds, the torpedo flew right out of the water with the force of a missile, slamming into the stone base of the lighthouse.
A thunderous boom sounded out and a brilliant blue glow blinded everyone for an instant. This was followed by a shockwave that covered everything in a fifty foot radius with a thin layer of frost. Though it was an impressive sight, the true power of the torpedo was about to be displayed at the point of impact. All three pixies watched in disbelief as an ice berg suddenly sprang to life, encasing the towering lighthouse and smashing its way up and in as it grew larger and larger. It was evident, even from their distant point on the beach, that the expanding ice was obliterating the lighthouse’s base.
Since the torpedo was only designed to be detonated in the water, Pudding had no way of knowing how long the ice would last. For the moment, it was the only thing holding the damaged tower together. Unfortunately, without water to reinforce the spell, the ice disappeared as suddenly as it had formed, leaving behind a massive hole and long fractures that were still snaking their way up the lighthouse’s infrastructure. A violent cracking filled the air, and shortly after, the lighthouse tipped toward the ocean; what was left of it fell right in.
All three pixies teleported to the scene of the accident and began to search for Nimrod, but the dust that had been kicked up prevented them from seeing more than a few feet in any direction. After several minutes of searching, they had still found no sign of him, and he hadn’t responded to any of their shouts.
“I can’t believe it,” said Jinx, surveying the shattered stump that remained of the lighthouse’s foundation. Part of the tower had hit the sand; it lay around in large chunks. The rest had hit the water and was now sinking its way to the ocean floor.
“Maybe he teleported,” said Pudding, trying to stay optimistic. “He might have teleported.”
“I didn’t see a flash of light,” said Fidget. “But maybe … you never know … let’s hope.”
“Hey! I think I see something,” said Pudding after another few minutes of searching. She cupped her hands around her eyes to help keep the dust away. “Out in the water. There, look where I’m pointing. I hear something now too. There are voices … listen.…”
As the pixies stood still, listening for any signs of life, they heard a familiar voice shouting even more familiar sentiments. “Kick harder, you stupid idiot, my shoes
are getting wet. You are the most worthless ... how can you not swim faster than this … KICK HARDER!”
“Nemesis!” shouted Pudding in the general direction of the voices.
“Pudding! Is that you?”
“Yes. Are you all right?”
With a voice full of sadness and utter despair, Nemesis responded, “My shoes are getting ruined!”
“Are you all right?” Pudding repeated, putting extra stress on her words.
“Yes….” Nemesis replied snottily.
“Is Nimrod with you?”
“That worthless idiot is here.”
“Thank goodness,” said Pudding to Fidget and Jinx. They both nodded in agreement. “How far out are you?”
“How far out are we, idiot?” There was silence for a moment, then Nemesis continued, “The idiot thinks we are thirty feet out or so.”
“Do you need help?” shouted Jinx.
“No, we don’t need help, Jumbo … especially not from you!” said Nemesis, but Nimrod managed to yell back a stifled, “Yes.”
As the dust settled, Pudding and the others could see Nemesis and Nimrod out in the water. Nemesis was floating on her back, doing her best to keep her shoes out of the water. Poor Nimrod was doing everything he could to drag her along while keeping himself afloat. It was evident that he was close to exhaustion, because his head came closer and closer to going under with each weak stroke that he made.
Jinx, wanting to make up for some of the damage he had done, rushed into the water and helped to haul Nemesis in. Unfortunately for Nemesis, Jinx was in such a frazzled state that he instantly dunked her when he got to her, completely submerging her expensive shoes. Upon resurfacing, she began screaming again about how everyone else is so worthless, right up to the moment where Pudding and Fidget helped to drag the swimmers onto the coastline.
Even though he hadn’t done much swimming, Jinx was sprawled out on the sand clutching his side just as hard as Nimrod was. Nemesis quickly stood up, surveying the damage to her shoes. She let out one of her standard screams of anger at seeing the waterlogged footwear.
“Is everyone okay?” asked Pudding, going up to each of her friends and looking them over for any injuries. Jinx gave a half-hearted nod, but continued clutching his side. Nimrod was gasping for air, but otherwise unhurt. Nemesis only mentioned something about her ruined shoes, again.
“Was anyone else in there, Nimrod?” asked Pudding.
“Uh … besides me and Nemesis … uh … no.”
“Good.”
Fidget heard Nimrod’s response and instantly glared at Nemesis suspiciously. “What were you doing in the lighthouse, Nemesis?”
For a brief moment, Nemesis assumed a very guilty face, but quickly recomposed herself. “I was … I … are you trying to accuse me of something?”
“Should I accuse you of something?”
“Don’t take that tone with me… I was … I … tried to figure … well I was trying to see why this idiot missed that big sea creature the other night.” Nemesis turned toward Nimrod and kicked some sand on him. “Isn’t that what I was doing, idiot?”
“Uh … yeah,” said Nimrod, sitting up. He noticed that Nemesis was glaring at him, as though to say, “Don’t say anything stupid, idiot!” so he decided to say something that would irritate her instead; “Hey, those are nice shoes, Pudding.”
Pudding scrunched her eyebrows together thoughtfully. “Oh, well … thanks, Nimrod.…”
“Really, tennis shoes?” said Nemesis, glaring even harder at Nimrod. He simply smiled back.
“I think he might have a concussion,” Fidget whispered to Jinx, “he’s talking about shoes.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll make the news….”
“That’s not what I … never mind.” Fidget turned his attention back to Nemesis. “You were in the lighthouse the whole time?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What do you know Jinx, we tested it on her after all.”
Jinx did his best to laugh, but his face only showed the slightest hint of a smile. He was far too embarrassed and ashamed to get much joy out of the situation.
“You tested what on me? ARGH! Don’t tell me, don’t even tell me that you had something to do with this? Pudding! Was this another one of your experiments?”
“We were testing an experimental defensive weapon,” Pudding admitted.
“Defensive! You ruined my shoes! You knocked down the lighthouse! You … you forced this one,” Nemesis pointed at Nimrod, “to … to … to take a bath.…”
“I love your hair, Pudding,” said Nimrod. “It’s so much curlier than hers.” Nimrod in his turn, pointed at Nemesis. The stuck up pixie let out a slight shriek and then clutched her hands together so hard that her knuckles turned bright white.
In her mind, Nemesis couldn’t think of any possible reason for Nimrod to torture her with such cruel comments. All she knew for sure was that another such remark would push her over the edge, so she said, “I think we need to get this idiot to the hospital, he’s acting even dumber than normal. What should I tell them when I admit him; that you wanted to blow up the lighthouse with your ‘defensive’ weapon?”
“It wasn’t meant to be detonated outside of the water.…”
“It was my fault,” said Jinx. “I accidentally guided it into the lighthouse.”
Nemesis had a venomous look on her face as she turned to Pudding. “How could you let someone so stupid try to control one of your devices?”
“Jinx is not stupid! He was controlling it just fine … it got away from him that’s all. I couldn’t get it to stop at the last minute either. It was an accident.”
“Accident or not,” said Nemesis, turning her gaze upon Jinx, “you’ve ruined the last set of my clothes, Jumbo. The next time I see you, we’re going to settle our debt.”
Jinx lowered his eyes, too embarrassed to say anything.
At this point, pixies were now teleporting onto the accident scene at a maddening rate, each one demanding an explanation of what had occurred. Nemesis ran over to them and began to play the role of innocent victim a little too well.
“I had just stepped out onto the lookout railing,” she told one of the pixie reporters that was in the crowd. “I was visiting that soggy idiot over there … no, not the fat one, that tall dumb looking one. Anyway, I had just stepped out when something collided with the lighthouse. We would have teleported, but the collision knocked us both down. Before we could even stand up, the whole tower tipped over, and we were flung far out into the water. I surfaced as fast as I could, because I knew my shoes were in danger.”
Nemesis pointed to her shoes and gave a quick explanation of their merits over any other shoe that normal pixies could afford. Having fully explained the important details of her footwear, she continued, “At that point I quickly rescued Nimrod, the idiot that I came to see, because he doesn’t know how to swim. My friends that you see here showed up, and the fat one jumped into the water … he thought he was going to help us … I had to rescue him too.”
“You rescued both of them, at the same time?” asked the reporter.
“And let’s not forget my shoes.”
“Wow, amazing.”
“I don’t try to be a hero, but it does seem to come natural to me.”
“Any idea what hit the lighthouse?”
Nemesis let out a long, wicked laugh as she turned to Pudding. “You’d have to ask her.”
Pudding couldn’t help but notice that Nemesis had a victorious smile on her face. This was the moment Nemesis had looked forward to ever since crossing paths with Pixiedom’s most infamous inventor, and try as she might, she couldn’t hide the thrill she got out of finally seeing Pudding’s dreams nearing their end.
