Chapter 79

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“aaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAaaaaHHHH!” Liam shrieked.

He had dashed off to investigate the source of the glowing, and found a pond. It really looked like a magical pond. The water was crystal clear, so clear that he could see the bottom, with seemed to be fathoms and fathoms down, yet Liam could see the grass and water plants down at the floor as clearly as he could see the forest around him.

He had noticed something moving. Was it a fish? No, it was a deep green scaly horse with a dripping wet mane, thrashing fish tail, luminescent green fins, and glowing yellow eyes.

It was a kelpie.

And then Liam had backed away, stumbling across the grass, away from the kelpie, away from the ocean-deep pond, away, away, away.

But then the kelpie had leapt out of the water.

And suddenly, it wasn’t so horrifying. It was beautiful, in an eerie, mysterious way. It reminded Liam of deep ocean diving, swimming among kelp forests, waving sea plants, and the world being completely quiet.

Liam had stood up. 

He had walked to the silent kelpie.

Touched its scaly side, climbed on its back.

And then the spell broke. The kelpie roared, and twisted and churned violently, leaping into the water. Liam was trying desperately to get off, but he couldn’t! “HELP!” he screamed, holding onto the edge of the pond as the kelpie tried to drag him under, down to the watery depths of the pond.

Pounding feet, rushing toward him.

And then Liam’s hand let go. The kelpie plunged into the water, and Liam couldn’t breathe.

He was surrounded by light. Light, refracting off the surface of the water, shining down into the depths of the pond like spotlights. He was surrounded by water. Water, flowing everywhere, closing in on him, suffocating him, bubbling around him as the kelpie swam deeper.

He was surrounded by silence.

And suddenly a hand plunged into the water, sending bubbles up, and breaking the silence. It hooked onto Liam’s arm, and jerked him upwards, the kelpie getting left behind.

Liam broke the surface of the pond, gasping for air.

“Liam!” Roslin said, “Are you okay?”

“Ehhhhh . . . how about no?” Liam said, coughing.

A couple minutes later, Liam was all bundled up in a blanket, and Lena was lecturing him while he rocked back and forth in the wagon. “Dude, you can’t just go running off to somewhere whenever you like, you have to think about safety and stuff,” Lena said.

“I know,” Liam mumbled.

“Okay, good!” Lena said.

“Ehmmmm, Liam, if you, I mean, I’m glad, well, um,” Princess Bella stammered, “Um, you’d better be okay!”

Princess Bella walked away, pulling Arc with her.

“She’s got communication problems, what she means is that she’s glad you’re okay,” Roslin said with a faint smile.

“Oh! Thank you princess!” Liam exclaimed.

“It was nothing!” Princess Bella called.

“At least she’s warming up to people?” Liam said, catching sight of Roslin’s sour expression.

Roslin shrugged.

Liam shivered. Even though he had a blanket, he was still cold. “I really wish I had chocolate right now,” he said, “chocolate is the best.”

“Agreed!” Sylvia said.

“Haha, I smell chocolate right now,” Brigit laughed.

“I don’t think that’s just you,” Liam said slowly, “I smell chocolate too.”

“And gingerbread,” Sylvia said, “and peppermint, and icing sugar, and gumdrops.”

The wagon rounded the corner, and Liam’s eyes widened. A gingerbread house sat snugly in between trees on the side of the road, with candy cane fences, gumdrop roof, candy glass windowpanes, and a chocolate chimney and door. Enticing scents wafted from the slightly opened door, smelling of chocolate, and sugar.

“What is that thing?” Princess Bella asked.

“It’s a gingerbread house, duh. Haven’t you read any books?” Marina said.

“Oh yes I have, have you learned anything about rhetoric?” Princess Bella said hotly.

Liam smelled something else. Burning sugar. Smoke.

“Guys! I don’t think this is the time to have an argument, there’s a fire in there!” Liam exclaimed, jumping down from the wagon.

Marina and Princess Bella forgot their argument temporarily, and turned to the house. Pink and yellow flames were licking the windowpanes, melting the sugar glass into sludge. Smoke was flowing steadily out of the chocolate chimney, which was melting as well.

“Water! We need water!” Bradley said, looking around wildly.

Sylvia jumped up. “Water!” she shrieked, and a jet of water burst out from her finger, knocking down the chocolate door, and dousing the roaring flames inside.

After the last flames sputtered and died out, Marina carefully stepped over the chocolate door and peered inside, followed by Liam and Arc. 

Inside was a melting mess of what seemed to be deformed chocolate tables and chairs and burnt crisps of paper and books. “There’s a basement, should we check it?” Arc asked, pointing to a trapdoor that had a couple of scorch marks on it but otherwise seemed perfectly fine, curiously enough.

Marina nodded, and opened the trapdoor.

As Arc and Marina descended into the basement, Liam picked up a couple of loose pages of paper that had only been burnt at the corners. He glanced at the scribbled writing on it. The first page was about how to catch porcupines.

The last page was about the proper spells needed to cause someone to slowly go insane.

Oh no . . . oh no . . .

Liam felt sick to his stomach.

What kind of person would devote their time to writing something this horrible? This is cruel. I hate this.

“Ooh, are you writing a book?! Can I see?” Brigit exclaimed, popping up behind Liam.

Liam yelped, and covered up the papers. What would Brigit think of the pages?! “No! He exclaimed, stumbling over his words, “They’re not for you to see!”

He stuffed the pages in his backpack.

Brigit frowned, and was about to say something, when Marina’s voice echoed from beneath them.

 “Guys . . . come look, I think you guys should see this,” she called.

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haha it's chapter 79 because I completely forgot what chapter number this is 

lol so I'm discontinuing this bcause I've lot motivation :p so . . . yeah I'm not going to be writing any more of this XD

It was going so well and I really enjoyed it!  I understand losing motivation.  Just remember, if your motivation ever comes back please continue this!