The Three Thorns (20 page)

“Thomas, get ready to grab hold,” she called out, anticipating the next striking shoe and dodging its attack. Using the tree’s predictable pattern to her advantage, Ariel grabbed a tight hold of one lengthy lace and speedily climbed it to reach a suitable height. Once she had Tommy in her sights, the acrobatic nymph began swinging from shoelace to shoelace, effortlessly slipping through the multitude, and cutting down every shoe that got in her way.

“Fight it off, Thomas!” she cried out seconds before she reached the lace-covered captive. The tree’s tongue was made of shreds of wood that aggressively tugged at the boy to pull him into its mouth. Over a dozen shoes waged a relentless attack on both of them, without mercy. It was like trying to fight smoke.

After the attack left both cocooned, the tree instantly settled, but not until Ariel had managed to wedge the tree’s tongue to its bark with her dagger, sealing its mouth from gobbling them up.

***

Sebastian approached the last half-mile of the Black Swamp. Ripping his way through the shallow end of the thick dark sludge, his stamina weakened with each gruelling step, unlike his protector who kept urging him forth.

“You can do it, boy, a little further…that’s all it takes, remember,” Cecil rambled.

“I know, I know,
eyes front,
” Sebastian interrupted, frowning at the pixie’s unrelenting encouragement.

The night was closing in. Sebastian could feel the chill nip at his clothes from the gusts of wind beating down upon his mud-covered back.

“You’re almost there; that a boy, keep it going.” Cecil kept imploring with much restlessness in his voice.

“I’m trying my best…if I could buzz around so easily and freely as all you
buzzing pixies
do, believe me, I wouldn’t still be in this blasted blobby bog,” Sebastian scolded before he laughed at the shocked expression on Cecil’s face.

Cecil giggled a little in return, until his ears perked up, recognizing a distinct cackling laugh that joined theirs, chilling him to the very tip of his wings.

“Run like lightning, Sebastian,” Cecil ordered in a faint whisper. He took hold of the boy’s hand and began pulling him through the swamp. Cecil flew as fast as his little wings could carry them both.

Sebastian kicked his legs out of the murky sludge, sensing the awful seriousness of their predicament. Someone was heading toward them. And judging by Cecil’s reaction, it wasn’t someone friendly.

“Don’t let go,” Sebastian begged, loosening from Cecil’s grip.

“Grab hold with your other hand,” Cecil yelled, almost reaching his top speed. Sebastian obeyed the pixie’s order and stretched his free hand out to get a tighter grip. Holding on for his life, Sebastian shut his eyes tight until he couldn’t feel the swamp underneath his feet anymore.

Cecil flew hastily and erratically, swerving left to right. Rapidly gaining more momentum, the pixie started their ascension to the top of the cliff.

They were almost at the highest point, a few thousand feet in the air, when an airborne assailant jumped from a flying omnicorn onto Cecil’s back, separating Sebastian from his protector. The boy quickly grabbed onto a bundle of weeds protruding from the cliff side, which slowed his descent to a desperate halt.

Taking a vicious grasp of his back, the tenacious fiend tried to snap the bones in Cecil’s wings. The sudden and unprovoked attack sent both crashing into the mountainside.

Cecil’s fairy awoke and flew into the eyes of its master’s attacker, blinding him with its powerful beam of light. Taking advantage of the fairy’s attack, Cecil pulled the villain off his back and slammed him into the wall. It only took one of Cecil’s free hands to hold the attacker in place and reveal his identity.

“General Lemis!” Cecil rasped. The pixie’s strong grip tightened, causing the chief sea guard to choke and splutter.

Lemis tried to kick and punch his way to freedom, but he proved no match for the pixie’s natural strength.

“What is that? You want me to let go? Very well,” Cecil teased, scowling, before he dropped the sneaky villain off the mountainside. Lemis called out to his omnicorn for help.

The steed seemed confused as to whether it should pursue Cecil or save its master. Cecil tried to antagonize the omnicorn to fight him, so it would fail to rescue Lemis in time.

“Come on, pretty pony. I dare ya.” Cecil growled under his breath at the hideous creature seconds before it dipped its wings and shot down the cliff.

Following suit, Cecil retracted his own little wings and bolted toward Sebastian in a downward spiral.

Lemis swiftly shot past Sebastian a moment before the dangling boy joined him.

“Cecil! Help me,” Sebastian beseeched as the unstable weeds snapped away from their weak roots. Cecil instantly sped, catching the boy by a thrust of his strong wings.

The omnicorn had succeeded in rescuing its master a few feet from the swampy ground. Without deliberation, Lemis ordered his flying pet to turn around and soar after their targets.

“They’re coming back again!” Sebastian cried out in panic as he kept his glasses from falling off his face.

“We’re almost there, boy,” Cecil reassured, picking up the pace in a dangerous vertical ascent whilst playing his part in the risky game of tag.

Lemis pointed his rusty black blade straight up at Sebastian, baring his twisted grin.

“Where do you think
you’re
going, human?”

A few more feet were all they had left to cover before they reached the top of the cliff, but the omnicorn was a faster and more agile flyer than Cecil Baskin, for the creature’s very wingspan and aerodynamic structure was designed for reaching tremendous velocity.

“Faster Cecil! Faster!” Sebastian called to his protector.

The omnicorn flew inches away from his feet. Its hellish jaws opened up to show its razor sharp teeth as it snapped at Sebastian’s shoes, missing each time the boy lifted his legs to avoid contact.

“Hang on!” Cecil ordered.

After several efforts of retaliation, Sebastian lifted his left leg and thrust it hard against the omnicorn’s face, wedging his shoe between its upper and lower jaw. The omnicorn shook its head violently from left to right in order to unlock its mouth from the child’s foot while the four ascended in a single chain.

But it was to no avail. The omnicorn was stuck in a knotty position now, as was its prey. Lemis shuffled along the monster’s neck toward Sebastian, ready to separate the two of them using his rusted sword.

“Cecil, get us out of here,” Sebastian pleaded, twisting and turning away from each swiping attack.

By chance, Sebastian’s free leg managed a lucky kick to Lemis’s chest.

The chief sea guard failed to grab the reins several times while he tumbled off his beastly pet. The dark creature neighed in pain when Lemis grasped onto its tail, saving himself from a second fall.

Cecil ordered Sebastian to take the stick that was strapped to his side. With a free arm, the boy unbuttoned the pixie’s pouch and raised the stick as high as he could. The stick glowed bright red and felt alive with magic. Sebastian struck the omnicorn’s long and disfigured face. Fearful of the sudden blast of magic, the steed bit down hard, tearing the shoe straight off Sebastian’s foot while it trailed its rider into the fog-covered abyss.

“You did it, lad!” The pixie laughed the instant they flew past the top of the massive cliff’s edge.

“Woo hoo!” Sebastian yelled, ecstatic from his near-death experience and relieved that they’d both survived the terrifying battle to tell the tale.

“We’re near the Stained Castle now, Sebastian, but first I need to rest these old wings,” Cecil panted, at the same time his speed had decreased rapidly.

“And if they come back?” Sebastian asked.

“Just let them try,” Cecil replied, gazing back down to a calm fog thousands of feet below them. “Best we rest further away from the edge, I think.”

“That looks as good a spot as any,” Sebastian said, pointing down at a small patch of woodland nearby. In one swift halt, Cecil’s flight took an unplanned pivot, lightly crashing into a strange and unfamiliar grove. Cecil’s fairy dimmed its light and disappeared back inside his chest pocket.

As Cecil rested to catch his breath, the one-shoed boy limped to the front of the grove, investigating his surroundings further. Walking into the gloomy patch, Sebastian noticed that it was made up of many strange and frightening-looking trees, with one in particular that immediately caught his eye.

It was the largest of the grove and rested dead center amongst its neighbors. The tree revealed a large face from a distance that was made up of many bodily shapes. Its deep dishevelled crevices resembled large eyes that appeared to look straight at him. Multiple shoes hung immobile against the light breeze as Sebastian took a step further.

“I sure hope there is one in my size,” he whispered to himself, staring down at his single bare foot.

Cecil dug through his pouch and guzzled a bottle of his trusty healing remedy. It was the perfect time to rest up. “Stay in sight,” he ordered from over his shoulder, wheezing heavily to get his strength back.

Sebastian tried to run to his protector after the shoe tree fired out one of its closest shoes toward him.

“Mr. Baskin, I really think we should…” Sebastian called out, his voice trailing off.

“Boy?” Cecil called, irritated at the unfinished conversation. “Sebastian Cain!” he called again like a father would his son.

The pixie struggled to get back on his feet then spun around to face the grove, groaning because of the painful state his overused wings were in. With each trailing step, Cecil dragged his tired feet toward the largest tree. He noticed something struggling in front of him the instant he entered the grove.

“Sebastian?” he asked cautiously, flabbergasted at the sight of the knotted shoes and laces that enfolded the boy. “Let go of him!” Cecil bellowed, trying to take flight to avoid a sudden attack. It took only a few shoes to get the better of the stout pixie. Laces tightened and knotted themselves around his bruised wings and brought Cecil’s bumpy flight to an instant halt. The boy and his protector had now become two more unfortunate casualties of the ruthless shoe tree.

In unison, the shoe tree finished wrapping its captives up by binding their arms and legs together so that they were unable to move an inch. Sensing danger, Cecil’s fairy instantly shot out of his breast pocket in time and sped through the web of laces in search of help.

It had only been a few minutes since their capture when heavy stomping shook the ground. Trees rustled from afar in opposite waves, disturbing the creatures that lived in them as their nests cracked and fell. Each captive caught glimpses of a wide hairy creature that approached. It was terrifying, for only their eyes remained uncovered. They’d expected to see something enormous, but what emerged was surprisingly nothing of the sort.

The troll lunged out of the woods and leaped directly within firing range of the slinging shoes.

“Oh, I smell you,” he threatened. His humungous nose sniffed the different scents in the air. The shoes wasted no time in their persistent attack, but the hairy troll effortlessly brushed them away, dodging several more that attacked from both sides. He moved with elegance, reaching Tommy in seconds. In one flick of his razor sharp fingernail, he promptly cut the boy down before taking his first prize away from the shoe tree’s den.

The troll leaped out of reach of the tackling shoes and unravelled the petrified boy, slicing off the smothering laces. Tommy was so glad to breathe normally again that he failed to focus on whom and what had freed him. When he finally studied the troll’s daunting features, Tommy scurried backwards, fleeing from the ugly sight. It was a miniature troll, just over a century in age, and had tiny pointed ears with no hair to cover them (unlike Ariel’s). His bright yellow eyes were his most distinguishing feature next to his large nose and his round, blunt teeth.

“Where do you think you’re crawling to, little scamp?” the troll asked.

“My goodness, does everything in this place talk?” asked the boy. It wasn’t the smartest of questions one could ask of a troll, especially a troll that had just met a human for the first time.

“What are you? Stand before me,” growled the troll, stomping the ground while he marched over to the boy. Tommy scarpered along the dusty ground and withdrew toward the shoe tree. “Don’t go back in there,” the troll commanded, pounding his large hairy feet on the damp earth.

“Better those things than being eaten up by…whatever it is you are,” Tommy cried.

“Ha! Be my guest. I don’t eat ignorant silly bodies anyway,” the troll sneered back. Tommy paused to look over his shoulder at the mass of shoes hanging lifelessly and almost in range of him. “If you go back in there, I won’t follow after you,” the troll warned.

“Let me be,” Tommy snapped.

“Relax, human. I’m not like the giant trolls from the Bothopolis Forest, I can tell you. They’d already have you cooked for breakfast by now. My name is Cackerin. Ban Pan Cackerin to you,” the troll snapped, spitting over the boy’s face and pushing his nose against Tommy’s.

“Are you a villain?” the boy boldly asked, trying to get straight to the point.

“That all depends from where you’re standing, chap. Do you see a villain?” the troll grunted, before marching back into the grove.

It took the troll even less time to retrieve the others from the intertwining mess of laces. Ariel was the last to be rescued. Flapping her arms to break free, the delirious nymph accidently whacked the troll on his big nose, which wobbled back and forth. “Nice to see you too,” Ban Pan said sardonically, helping Ariel to her feet.

“Oh Ban Pan, I’m so happy it’s you,” she sighed, hugging the troll.

“Of course it’s me. What else has my smell?”

“My old socks,” Cecil answered.

“You don’t wear any socks, Mr. Baskin,” Sebastian sniggered as Cecil raised him out of the laced sheath.