User blog:Watermelonoutburst/The Panda Princess part 5!

The Panda Princess, part 5!

There’s more?? This is actually the second to last chapter! Panda, are you still reading? This one is long and intense, but no more spoilers, enjoy!



Part 5 🌸

Eiarle and Jenille had agreed unhesitatingly, if they had any doubt of trust in me they let go of it, and that formed a trust pact.

Chai had led us for around two weeks now, but none of us stopped. -Although the sandles appeared magic-given, they did nothing to ward off blisters. Jenille fared even worse. She had taken off her boots while we stopped a few days ago and had to sit in water for quite a bit to lessen the swelling enough to jam her foot back in. She hadn’t taken off her boots since. - I was doing it for my not sisters and Eiarle and Jenille were doing it for me. We stopped. I didn’t sit down, curious because Chai had made a strict break schedule, and this was way to early. I walked over to Chai. It took me a bit to figure out why she had stopped, we were at the edge of a huge crevasse. Chai looked at the other side and whimpered, I understood immediately: we needed to get to the other side, but we couldn’t go around or across.

Eiarle and Jenille came over to us. They both seemed stumped. Jenille gave a whistle seeing the impossibility if crossing. After a few seconds, Eiarle whistled too, only louder and more deliberate, like a signal. Jenille looked at him and then the sky.

After a moment, I realized I was hearing something. Wind whipping bast something. The sound of either flight or fall magnified a million times.

I looked up, something black and giant was falling towards us. As it got closer, I could make out feathers, then wings. It abruptly stopped and gently floated down the rest of the way, hovering next to the edge of the crevasse. It was a huge bird. Literally, like as big as the castle we danced in all those nights ago. I would have thought it was a Roc, but Eiarle nodded at it, made some chirps and then hopped on. “This is Iolar, my Eagle. Hop on!”

Chai growled at the huge eagle until he lowered a feather to her, she sniffed it and gave her approval. Chai clambered across the giant wing to sit next Eiarle. Jenille helped me climb on, then looked insteadily at the large wing and then the abyss below. She stepped back and then took a running leap and jumped on the large wing. She landed in an empty space between two feathers. “Augh!” She hung onto the stem of the closest feather, the only thing to stop her from falling into the abyss. “Help!” She yelled, looking frantically at us. I started to carefully crawl across the wing towards her, but Iolar had it covered. He flicked his large wing, flinging her and me back onto his large back.

We flew across the abyss with no further accidents. Reaching the other side, we slipped off, Iolar swooped into the air and then circled back, normal sized somehow, and landed on Eiarle’s arm. In silent agreement, we continued on, the 5 of us.

🌸

Chai had led us on longer than usual, heading into the night. By the height of the moon and advancement of the stars, I guessed it was close to midnight. We could have been dancing right now if my not sisters weren’t turned to stone and me on a quest to free them. I hadn’t really thought about dancing since the quest started. I strained my ears, wondering if I could here the old clock in the hall. Nostalgia washed over me in a wave more painful than the truth about my life.

Chai stopped. I looked up. “I should’ve known it!” Eiarle declared angrily. It took me a bit before I realized there was a building a few dozen paces in front of us. “There’s no turning back now.” I said gravely. We all looked up at the building. I took the first step.

Solemnly, we walked towards the building. We climbed a twisted staircase. The building was small, but had a sense of grandeur around it. I guessed it was bigger than it appeared. I stepped in front of the door and hesitated, then I twisted the knob and pushed it open. There was no resistance, which was unnerving.

Inside, it did indeed seem spacious and similar to the inside of the palace we had danced in, only with a more sinister air; a hot fire place crackled against a wall, and various potions and other oddities and horrors sat or were draped messily on the desks and tables around the room. I stepped in cautiously, the others following my lead. I heard Jenille draw her sword and guessed that my brother was ready to do the same. A few steps in, the door swung shut behind us. We jumped, Jenille made an angry exclamation under her breath.

Suddenly I caught my breath, a cloaked woman stood in a corner, I hadn’t seen her before. Eiarle stumbled into me, then quickly backed away. Jenille stopped in time and they both peered around me. “You!” Eiarle said accusingly. Jenille stepped in front of us with her sword drawn.

The cloaked woman laughed a sinister laugh and suddenly the sword was wrenched out of Jenille’s grasp and into the hand of the cloaked woman. Who smirked and then threw it in the fire. Jenille stepped back in surprise, Eiarle fumbled for his sword.

“Oh quiet useless little boy.” The woman said laughing. “I admit, I am surprised that you found your sister successfully and furthermore, came back here. I suppose I underestimated you, or at least didn’t fold in the corners of my dancing magic, turned you Human didn’t it? I’m curious though how you stayed that way.” Eiarle growled.

“You did that!” I cried.

“Oh yes, very much. And kidnap-ped you too, though I suppose your brother found you. Ugh, I hate people spoiling my games.”

I heard a squawk ! And then Eiarle’s eagle was in a cage next to the woman. “You can’t do that to Iolar!” Eiarle yelled.

“I can, all to easily. You want to be a wolf again?” Iolar rammed against the bats of the cage. Chai growled threateningly, but the next instant Eiarle was a wolf. Chai reared up and charged at the woman, swiftly, she swung at Chai with a staff that had been hidden by her cloak. Chai was flung across the room, moaning against the wall. “Now, what should I do with her?” The woman cackled menacingly, gesturing to Jenille. Great, she was saving me for last. Jenille was standing beside me, completely still though her trembling lip showed her fear. Her eyes darted from Eiarle, to his eagle to Chai. I knew she wanted to help. “Wha-ah!!” Jenille cried and suddenly she disappeared. “Help! Let me out of here!” Her voice echoed around the room, close and far at the same time.

“You cannot do that!” I exclaimed in anger. My hand shot out without me knowing what I was doing, sending a blast of cherry blossoms and bamboo leaves at her.

The woman dodged easily, smirking. “You surprise me. You’ll be fun to play with for a while.” She said. Eiarle roared, leaping in front of me. In a quick hand gesture the woman had surrounded him in flames. He made hissing noises.

“You cannot hurt my friends and my family, you cannot lie to me and trick me and others out of family, you cannot make those girls dance forever.” I said, advancing slowly.

“I certainly can and you can’t stop me. What are you going to do? Fight me? Ha ha.” She began to pace the room, circling around me.

Chai’s body was glowing suddenly, she changed into the woman I’d seen in my vision, the voice. She nodded at me. “Yes. Yes I am. For my friends and my family.” a bamboo staff appeared in my hand. not a simple stick, but one with small carvings at the bottom and unique designs at the top, circling around a tourmaline gem. My arms and shoulders were encased in gauntlets and armor.

The woman raised her eyebrow in surprise but didn’t back down from the challenge. She pushed her hood aside, revealing a middle aged woman with nearly white, black wavy hair with strips of blood red in it. Her eyes, sinister, needed no color as no one dared look at them. Her cloak fell from her shoulders with more flourish than Carnation’s had, though I wished anything that it had been her before me. Her staff was sharp black, more metal or stone like than wood. Deadly sharp spikes were menacingly twisted at the top and bottom. She whirled it with dangerous grace.

She swung it at me, I slipped to the side. Out of balance, she slipped forward a bit, I used that moment to strike at her, the tip of my staff hit her side, the slight contact still carried the strength of the blow. She staggered back a bit, but this time recovered quickly, allowing her to dodge as I swung again. I carried my body into the movement and was able to erect myself gracefully, rather than falling over.

This time she just waved her hand in a suspicious gesture. Chai shot me a mental warning and I grabbed a suspicious looking plant from the table behind me, holding it in front of me like a shield. It disintegrated in my hands. Chai raised her hand- because she wasn’t a panda anymore- and the next gesture from the woman did nothing to my currently defenseless self. She swung her staff at me, surprising me a bit, I managed to jump in the air and she chopped off the bottom of my left sandal.

She swung at my feet again, while I was still coming down. I struck my staff on the ground like a pogo stick, throwing myself onto a desk, it hissed ominously so I jumped onto a hook on the wall, swung from it and landed behind the woman. She swung at me, spinning quickly, and catching me unprepared. The staff hit my side, the spikes drawing blood. I felt a sharp fire spread from my side, not just pain... poison. I attacked her with my staff, staggering back at the same time. She laughed at the wild gesture, but didn’t notice it’s sharp after strike. It hit her on the back of her head. She screeched in anger and... pain? I will feel super guilty if I mortally wound anyone- even if they’re probably the most evil person on earth.

She wove her arm through the air - I noticed for the first time it had a ruby ring on the last finger, and black and purple tattoos that made it look elegant, dangerous, and injured; she had sharp nails painted the color of dragons blood, and it might have been (note that if you ever spill dragons blood, it’s acidic to get revenge for what you’ve done) - the gesture completed I began to be pushed back into a doorway behind me. Turning around I saw a vat of some unnatural colored liquid with steam and a foul odor rising from it. I swung my staff in front of me, as though to strike, it caught the current of magic. The magic looked like colored air when it started to be collected around the ruby, which suddenly sent it back. The woman was thrown into the opposite wall. I ran back into the room and stood in front of her, my staff pointed in front of me, “may I ask the name of the Woman I Battle, who has caused me much harm?” I questioned.

“I do not respond to questions asked by people other than me. But for your sake, I am Aella. (If your not mom makes you do a bunch of history on mythology, Aella is a double axe wielding warrior who fights even the greatest heroes and only a few times loses) What about you Rachel? It’s not your real name.” Catching me off guard she struck her staff at me again.

Anticipating her attack I parried it, with skill my mind could not master. My teeth gritted realizing that this was truth and I had to accept it. She knew that, and that I didn’t want to. “I am Deae, the Panda Princess!” I said confidently, collecting the truth in these words surely.

Suddenly the pain jolted up from my side. The poison, when was it going to kill me? I looked around suddenly, for my friends. I couldn’t see Jenille, Eiarle was still in wolf form or I’m sure he would try to encourage me, and trapped behind walls of flame that seemed sound proof. Iolar was still in the cage, which looked like it was shrinking. I couldn’t see Chai either, but I knew she was still in the room, teaching me how to fight in the instance but not intervening. That’s when I realized, she could have gotten rid of me just as easily. She wanted to fight me, to hurt me more, to toy with me.

In my moment of thought, Aella shot her staff out at me. Instead of blocking it, I raised my staff and felt myself channel power through it and send a blast at Aella. The blast caught her off guard, having forgotten she wasn’t the only one without magic. It knocked her arm out of position, her staff flying out of her grasp and into the fire. In her stunned moment I quickly touched me side with the staff. A soothing sensation flowed through me, I could feel it chasing out the poison, healing even the gash and stopping the blood flow. But Aella was not one to stop a fight so easily, she aimed another blast at me which my staff caught and threw at the room with the vat.

In the moment she reached into the fire to grab her staff, I thought she had magic to protect her, but apparently not as she shrieked, “ow! Your scepter princess!” Her voice shrill with pain she threw The staff at me, the heat coming at me even from a bit away, I dodged and it fell onto a table. Everything on it wilted or melted, while the glass shattered, throwing bits every where. I stumbled, trying to avoid them with my chopped sandal. Aella grabbed my arm, flinging my staff out of my hand and spinning me suddenly. I tripped on my uneven balanced shoes, and fell, pulling her with me. She landed on top of me but got back up again quickly, grabbing one of my wrists, her sharp fingernails digging into my wrist. Her hand was still hot from the staff. Her other hand came to my neck, her fingernails felt like daggers against the soft flesh. Broken glass cut into my tunic. I scrunched my eyes closed, but my thoughts shifted from instant death to the hot hand clutching my wrist. The flaming pain probably going through her hand, up her arm, disabling magic.... my hand felt cool and started to flow with energy, magic building in my wrist. Feebly, I clutched her hand and shot the magic down it. I could feel the heat subsiding. She clutched my hand tighter, pressing her hand against my neck. “Why would you heal me?” She asked menacingly, though her face betrayed wonder.

“I’d rather heal than harm!” I said, using my free arm to push away her hand at my neck, rolling away and wrenching my hand out of her grip. A bit of blood came from my wrist, before I could heal it it disappeared. I looked at Aella, but her face betrayed nothing. She leapt at me, I rolled again and grabbed my staff, throwing it in front of me to block her attack. Her grip was tight as she tried to wrench the staff away from me. I tossed her off and instead, I could tell, she was summoning a lot of magic.

She hurled a great ball of magic at me. I had learned quickly how to tune into magic, being able to almost see it. This was a writhing ball of black and purple, gray and that gross green, whisps of it wrapped together, it was big and bad. I caught it with the top of my staff. My fingers wrapped tightly around the staff, knuckles white as I tried to contain and control the magic. It made the staff vibrate and I put all my concentration on it. Aella started throwing more, I managed to catch it, but it was hard to contain it, I had to get rid of it somewhere. Throwing it back at her would only cause her harm, though it was the easiest thing to do. Finally, with an effort, I threw the magic into the doorway. It spun into the vat room. “Uh! Deae, can you hear me?” Jenille! I saw her hands poke through air. She was in an invisible prison, right above that vat.

I heard magic brewing and spun around. Aella tossed a potion at me, I caught it in a gust of bamboo leaves and tossed it into the fire. Sparks flew and potion spattered out. Some of them came to Aella, I put my staff towards them, not letting them. Aella made another swirl of magic, this time not in a ball but in a steady stream, I knew this time I wouldn’t have a choice.

Unable to block the sparks, they fell on Aella, who’s face contorted in pain but would let out no more than a whisper of a scream, she continued the stream of magic. When she stopped to gather more strength I knew I couldn’t do anything else, so I closed my eyes and hurled it back at her.

This time, she did scream. So loud I couldn’t hear it. She collapsed. Feebly turning over, her face wraught with pain, she looked at me, waiting for me to finish her off. Now that I looked at her, I saw that her eyes weren’t very scary. They were brown, so deep they looked red. Pretty eyes.

I looked at her, knew what she wanted me to do, what she’d wanted me to do all along. I raised my staff. This woman had lived her life wrong, had hurt other people deeper than mortal wounds, I knew about the deepness of her treachery. She had gone so far she didn’t know how to stop, she had kept doing it until someone would stop her. She had hurt my brother, my not family, my friends, and me. She had waited for me to come, had held back, had hurt me so I would hurt her back. That’s why she didn’t want to be healed, why she hadn’t cried out in pain when the sparks hurt her, she hadn’t wanted me to heal her again. She wanted pain and death, wanted me to destroy her because she couldn’t bear herself. She hadn’t singled me out to toy with me, she singled me out because she knew I could fight her, wanted me to fight her and win. And I had.

But I was not the one to deal the last blow. I set down my staff and went over to her. I helped her up. She was trembling, with pain and anger. “Why? Why do you help me? You’ve seen what I’ve done, why don’t you kill me?” Her voice trembled. Then she pulled away from me, limped away then turned to face them. “I will hurt them.” I could sense her plan like I had sensed her magic. The to tight cage would crush Iolar’s ribs. Flames closing in on Eiarle. Jenille falling into the vat. My not sisters stone forever. I shook my head. I wouldn’t fight her. Her face darkened. I saw her getting ready to drop Jenille’s invisible prison.

“No.” I said.

“Stop me.” She threatened. “I will. If you don’t hurt her, you will have stopped yourself, and open a chance to turn away from who you are.” I stepped towards her, my staff still on the ground.

She shook her head. “It won’t work. It doesn’t.” She was wheezing. If I reflected or even caught her magic, she’d be gone. But if I don’t, she’ll hurt my friends. That’s what she’s counting on.

Taking a deep breath. I picked up my staff and stood in front of her. But I couldn’t hurt her. I dropped the staff and hung my head, ready to absorb the blow myself, but I wouldn’t reflect it. I heard her shoot the magic. But I didn’t feel anything. Was I dead? I looked up.

No, Chai in her shining woman form had stepped in front of me and caught the blast, channeling it back at her. Her eyes closed, Aella allowed herself to catch the blast. She opened her eyes and looked at me. “The antidote.” She pointed to a silver jar and I knew she was thinking of my not sisters. And then the blast ended, and she was gone. Eiarle was in human form and running towards me. Iolar flying laps around the ceiling, Jenille was running to me also. I was pounding Chai’s chest. “No! You can’t do that! She needs to heal not die! She needs to turn her life around, now she’s stuck being a horrible person for eternity because she has no life left to change!” Tears we’re streaming down my face even though I knew Aella had been the person who had hurt me most, and death was what she wanted.

Hope you liked it!! And are getting sleep that I don’t, why do I stay up till 12:00?? Have a great tomorrow!

Waves of watermelon 🍉