Queen Of The Ventils

IXL

Cephas and Ela were overjoyed to have their sister back; they greeted her in the most affectionate of ways, nuzzling each other's hair and pressing their foreheads together; a greeting reserved for the closest of friends and family. Insanity, of course, was as bitter as always, even more so when Douxie had to conjure what humans called a "hair dryer" to make her entirely dry again. I didn't like the hair dryer, not one bit; it was much too loud for me, but Insanity no longer dripped water everywhere she went, so it was for a worthy cause.

Aquarius was actually quite enjoyable, even after she almost killed everyone the first time; she was pleasant and quite timid out of the water, especially when Douxie employed the power of another charmed choker to control how much her voice affected the men in the group. However, there were moments when even the choker failed to contain all of her magic and she ended up charming nearly all of us by accident.

But, even several weeks after the event, I couldn't shake the odd feeling the Shark Ventil had given me while we were underwater. The minute we made eye contact, a chill had set in my bones; as if I were not looking at a living being but rather some strange copy that had almost gotten it right, but not really.

It had bothered me so much that I asked Douxie about it, and so, like every other solution to our problems involving Ventils, we went to GDT Arcane Books to see if we could find any answers. Unfortunately, Krel and Toby were absent from our search; they were both summoned to compete in the final Spring Fling King trials, a harsh and rigorous test of endurance called the Touch-A-Truck-A-Thon.

We had been searching the bookstore's mirror room for many hours, and the sun had sunk low in the sky. Krel and Toby were still nowhere to be seen. "How long does this test of endurance last for?" Ela asked as she scanned a ring of scrolls that were orbiting around her. "It depends on how determined one is to win," Archie replied from his place on top of a bookshelf. "And how long they can go without relieving themselves."

"Disgusting," Insanity sneered, still refusing to come anywhere near me after the incident with the Water Ventils. I sighed from my place across the room from her, sorting through the many books in the pile I had been given. The symbols on paper had become easier for me to read with time, but I still had to study them for a long period of time before the meaning came to me. I had already been reading for a large portion of the time we had been here, and I quickly grew bored.

Summoning a bit of magic, I let a few glimmering wildcats leap from my fingertips, before morphing into a pair of playful wolves and then into birds, who dropped into a pool of invisible water with a magical splash and became fish. Aquarius, who had noticed my game, decided to join in with a couple of her own bright blue dolphins.

The magical figures chased each other as rabbits, leapt over Archie as a pair of graceful deer, until they slowed to a stop and melted away in front of a strange box sitting on the shelf. Aquarius and I drew closer to it, curiously examining it. Wordlessly, we debated whether or not we should touch it. Just as Aquarius was about to reach out a claw and stroke the delicately carved wood on top, Archie screeched and dive-bombed her, causing a brief panic and scramble to detangle themselves.

"Nobody. Touches. That. Box," Archie said slowly, eyes tracking us as we both stepped away. Everyone was on their feet, weapons drawn, and I flicked my ears back when I saw them staring at me. Immediately after we had stepped away, Douxie and Archie dropped their attack stance and rushed to the box, thoroughly examining it as if something bad would happen.

"What's so important about this box?" I asked as soon as they had dropped their weapons. "It doesn't look like anything special."
"Oh, it is," Douxie said gravely, setting the box back down. "And not in a good way."