Unintentional

Chapter 12: A Closer Look (Rescue Edition)

"Very good," Gaia whispered. Dareth turned to her, confused.

"Good? Nothing about this is good! This is ridiculous. If you think that I won't take you down because I'm afraid of you, well, um, you're wrong! You are speaking to the brown ninja. I am a master of se-"

"Shut it, brownie," Gaia snapped. "Just keep doing what I say or you will be sorry." Dareth glared at his captor but obediently turned around and proceeded to rip the pages out of a book titled "Leaves of Spring". 

That day, Dareth had been commanded to do several odd tasks, including, but not limited to: kicking bookshelves, pouring glasses of water onto the floor, smashing electronics, baking chopped wood, and tearing up books. He had resisted at first, claiming to have sprained his wrist the night before while training. In truth, Dareth was scared. He knew he had been kidnapped by a wicked woman, probably a sorceress of some sort, and that he was in a very dangerous situation. This nonsense was most definitely part of her evil scheme, and Dareth was afraid that he was all tangled up in it. 

Gaia had seen right through Dareth's lie, and she had told him that there would be severe consequences if he didn't start cracking her chair. So Dareth, being the unnaturally ignorant person he is, obeyed without further questioning. Now the so-called brown ninja was questioning his intelligence, and desperately hoping that someone would come rescue him soon. 

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Though Dareth didn't know it, someone was coming. Gayle Gossip had been plotting her grand rescue for hours with the help of her cameraman Vinny. 

"No, no, no!" Gayle said frustratedly, crossing out the fiftieth diagram that she had drawn. "What if she wakes up in the middle of the night and gets past all the booby traps so that she can check on Dareth's mouth?" 

"Um, Gayle, I don't think she's gonna do that," Vinny said, unsure of whether Gayle was going crazy because of her crush on Dareth or if she was simply sleep-deprived. Gayle had come up with dozens of crazy plans, each more absurd than the last. Each plan involved climbing to the top of a very large tree that had grown out of a very long cave. At the very top of the tree was Gaia's secret lair, though it wouldn't be much of a secret after Vinny revealed it on the news. The only problem was that Vinny's camera was at the bottom of a very deep lake. He had accidentally dropped it after trying to film fish. An especially big one had nudged the camera away, and all of a sudden, Vinny found himself wishing that he wasn't fascinated with water creatures.

"She might," the reporter replied, sketching out another plan on a clean sheet of paper. "Okay, I think I've got it now. We can keep it simple. We get into the cave, climb up the tree, and get Dareth quietly."

"Uh, that was my first idea," Vinny pointed out. "And you rejected it."

"Well, I like it now!" Gayle said sharply. "And so we're going with it. Let's put it into action tonight."

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"Wake up," Gayle whispered, shaking her cameraman awake. "We're going now." Vinny obediently rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stood up. He and Gayle ran towards the cave that Gaia had entered a day before. Once they had made it to the entrance, Gayle pulled out a flashlight.

"Where did you get that?" Vinny asked, impressed. 

"I always keep it handy, in case the lighting isn't good," Gayle replied.

"Oh." Gayle switched the flashlight on and began running again, Vinny right at her heels. It seemed like they would never reach the tree; the cave was at least a few thousand feet long, and the pair had entered from end farther away from the tree. And to make matters worse, Vinny's shoes kept getting stuck in mud puddles, and Gayle had to repeatedly stop and wait for him to put on his sneakers. 

"Just run past the mud," she said exasperatedly. "Not into it."

"Okay," Vinny replied and then promptly fell face first into a puddle of mud. 

A while later, the two NGTV employees reached what seemed to be the trunk of a massive tree. It filled the space between the ground and the ceiling of the cave and was ten feet in diameter. There was a small rock glued to the trunk and Gayle pulled on it. A door swung open beside her and she stepped into the tree. Vinny gulped but followed the reporter into the lair of a forgotten villain.

The inside of the tree had been hollowed and a spiral staircase made of rock had been installed. The duo began climbing the stairs, taking care not to stomp. It smelled like fresh grass and strawberries, though Gayle didn't let down her guard. She had seen enough villains to know that the sweetest were often the most rotten. 

Once they had gotten to the the top, Gayle put a finger to her lips and whispered into Vinny's ear.

"You stand guard. I'll get Dareth. Be quiet!" She gave her cameraman a stern look. Gayle then tiptoed into the dark room towards the brown ninja and almost slipped on a puddle of water. Gayle bit her lip to stop herself from crying out loud. She grabbed the nearest bookcase to steady herself. Unfortunately, Dareth had kicked that particular shelf a lot that day and the bookcase wobbled ominously as Gayle held on tight to it. The reporter quickly released her grip and stumbled forward. She almost fell on top of Dareth, who was sleeping peacefully in a small brown cot. 

Gayle finally regained her balance, and once she did, she shook her crush vigorously. 

"Dareth! Wake up! I'm rescuing you!" Dareth groaned and sat up. 

"What-" Gayle clapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him.

"Come on! Before she finds out we're here!" Gayle grabbed Dareth by the arm and pulled him towards the door, stepping on the carpet instead of the wooden floor. She almost ran into Vinny, who was taking notes on a sheet of paper.

"I wrote down what the place looks like," the cameraman whispered proudly.

"Good. Now run!" The trio ran down the stairs, with Gayle holding onto Dareth to make sure that he didn't fall. Once they had exited the tree, Gayle shut the wooden door and they resumed their jog to freedom. 

"We did it!" Vinny whispered excitedly. "We rescued Dareth!"

"Yes, we did," Gayle said proudly. "We did." 

*A/N Thanks again to @nanimaus5 and @Eliza_Cameron for their support! You guys are the best! Hope you all enjoyed this interesting chapter!*