Fantasia

Chapter 8

They stopped in between, and continued the next day. They reached the Lilliput kingdom in no time, as pegasi galloped 5 times as fast as a normal horse. Spirit, Sugar and Chestnut dropped the trio in the Lilliput kingdom. Strokes asked the pegasi to stay with them. Nothing looked extraordinary. The trees were as tall as ever, but there were no houses in sight. 'Let's do some exploring and see where the palace is.' Ellie said, quite nervously.

'Are you saying that we should split up?' Vicky tried to sound open to the idea, but it was quite clear that she was against it.

There was something about the Lilliput kingdom that sent shivers down her spine. It was too easy to get into, something that seemed suspicious to them (as they had experience).

'Yes. I am telling we split up. I'll go straight with Spirit, you go to the left with Sugar, and Strokes, you go right with Chestnut.' Ellie tried to say it coolly, but it came out nervous and frightened.

They all took a deep breath, and turned to their respective sides. They all climbed the pegasi, and before they could gallop forward, Vicky yelled, 'wait! How are we supposed to let the others know if we find something?'

Ellie pulled Spirit's reins abruptly, causing her to whinny.

Strokes came to her rescue. 'We could send a signal.' He said. 'Yeah, but what?' Vicky asked.

Strokes took out two paintbrushes similar to his and gave one to each of them. 'These are magical paintbrushes. Point them up in the air and send sparks. That can be the signal.' Vicky nodded (though quite half-heartedly) and they set off. Sugar slowly trotted along the path. Vicky looked from side to side, as if expecting an animal to jump out of the forest. In front of her, she could see some smoke rising up in the air. 'Somebody must be making a fire there.' She thought, and nervously steered Sugar that way.

As she got closer, she could see a fire a bit more clearly, and that confirmed her suspicions. Though, the fire didn't look like a normal fire. It was much bigger than that, and it wasn't controlled. It spread from tree to tree, and Vicky realized what it was. 'OH MY GOD!' she yelled. 'FOREST FIRE!' she pointed the paintbrush in the air and red sparks flew off the end.

She tried to think of some way to douse the fire when she saw small dots in the sky. The dot grew bigger as they came closer, and soon she could make out Spirit and Chestnut with Ellie and Strokes.

They landed; Ellie jumped off her Pegasus hugged Vicky. 'We saw your sparks. What happened?' she gasped.

Vicky pointed to the fire and yelled 'FIRE! OVER THERE!' Ellie just saw the fire.

'OH MY GOD!' Strokes screamed, going into full panic mode.

Ellie's brain, on the other hand, went to strategy mode. 'Let's find a way to douse the fire!' she yelled.

'Vicky, try to stop the fire over there. Strokes, can you plaint us a barrel of water each? We can try to douse the fire.' Strokes immediately set to work. He painted a barrel of water in the air.

Ellie and Vicky grabbed them. They threw the water, and it doused the fire just a tiny little bit.

'We're going to a lot more water!' Vicky yelled, trying to beat out the fire with leaves. Ellie picked up another barrel and was about to throw it when she heard a very faint scream.

'What in the world?' she thought and told Vicky, 'I think I hear something. I'll go check it out. You keep dousing the fire.'

Vicky rolled her eyes. 'I'm assuming that it's not an excuse, but come quickly!'

Ellie took off in the direction of the voice.

At first she couldn't see anything, but she heard a very tiny voice say, 'ouch! Watch where you're keeping that ginormous foot of yours!'