The Dragon's Bounty II:Rising Shadow

Chapter 3

          A gremlin raced down the hall, spreading mischief  magic over everything it passed, laughing all the way. Kai turned the corner, only for the carpet to keep going, sliding him down the hallway instead of after the gremlin.
         "Woah!" Kai shouted as he collided with all the brooms to his left. "Why are there so many brooms?!" He shouted before jumping out and racing after the gremlin again. Dagger stepped in front of him with a stern look on his face. Kai skidded to a stop. "Oh, hey, Dagger." Kai looked past Dagger to see the gremlin jumping around the room.
          "Hey, Kai." Dagger said.
          Kai smiled nervously. "What's up?" He asked.
          Dagger sighed. "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. For not being there. I've been so busy with Kathrine, and becoming king, it's all so stressful."
         Kai nodded. "I get it, but I'm sorta busy with my own stuff at the moment." He patted Dagger on the shoulder. "Just keep doin what you need to do." Kai inched past him. He pointed his fingers to Dagger and continued to smile. Dagger returned the smile and continued down the hallway. Kai wiped his forehead. "Phew." He said. He looked around, meeting the gremlin's gaze. The gremlin continued to grin and laugh. "Come here you little monster!" Kai launched himself up in the air and reached for the gremlin. The gremlin jumped and launched itself off of Kai's face, racing down a different hall. Kai growled and sprinted on after the gremlin.

         Aro looked around, trying to spot a gremlin.
         "Come here, gremlin." He said. The gremlin suddenly popped up in his face with a snarl. Aro jumped back and shouted. He punched the gremlin in the face, knocking it to the floor for it to scurry off farther into the castle. Aro sighed and raced off after it. He looked around to see two gremlins chowing down on the dining room table. Aro took out two arrows and notched them in his bow. "Enhance!" He whisper-yelled. The arrows glowed a soft blue as they zoomed through the air. Upon hitting the gremlins, they turned to dust. "Yes!" Aro shouted, pumping his fist into the air. The dust reformed back into gremlins, both laughing and running into different directions. "Aargh!" Aro grabbed the sides of his head. He pursued the left gremlin, reaching down and enhancing his legs to run faster.

         Duros lumbered down the hall, looking around for any gremlins he saw. He threw out some threads and wrapped them around one of the gremlins, who writhed and tried to break out of its thread egg. He pulled the egg back and hung it on his back.
         "Wonder how the others are doing." He said.

         Emma ran down the hall, frantically searching for any small black creatures. She spotted one eating something off the floor and began sneaking up on it. She grabbed the hilt of her sword and attempted to pull it, but to no avail. She sighed. The gremlin continued to eat scraps off the floor. Suddenly, a blue and pink blunt object slammed into its head, knocking it out cold. Emma lifted it up by its leg with two fingers, clutching her sheathed sword in her other hand.
         "This thing is weird." She said.
         Kai charged into the room and looked around, spotting Emma. "Oh, you caught one." He said. Emma smiled and nodded. She tossed the gremlin to Kai and reattached her scabbard to her back. "There's one! Let's go!" Kai shouted, racing after another one. Emma sighed and ran after him.

         Aro walked out of one of the various rooms in the castle, a gremlin in each hand.
         He smiled. "That wasn't so hard." He said.
         "Where did you get those?!" Aro jumped and turned around. Dagger was standing there.
         "Well, Kai accidentally released them." Aro smiled nervously. Dagger sighed. He summoned a book similar to the one from before. He opened the glowing pages. The two gremlins woke up and started to scream as they were sucked into the book, which closed behind them.
          "See any more?" Dagger asked.
          Aro nodded. "There should be seven more." Duros rounded the corner with two gremlins trying to bust out of the thread eggs on his back. Dagger gestured for him to come over. Duros turned around and let Dagger suck in the gremlins. Duros coiled the thread back into his outfit.
         "Five to go." He said. Aro nodded.
         "I see some!" Dagger shouted, jumping up into the air. He grabbed the chandelier and started grabbing at the two gremlins on it, laughing mischievously as they bit at the chain holding it up. Dagger managed to smack one, knocking it into Aro's arms.
          Aro smiled. "I caught it!" He shouted before shouting out in pain as the gremlin bit into his arm. He began shaking his arm up and down rapidly, still screaming in pain. The gremlin finally let go and slammed into the other gremlin, knocking it down, allowing them both to prepare to run away. "They're gonna get away!" Aro shouted. The two gremlins were snatched out of the air by Kai and held against his chest with the other gremlin Emma had caught.
          "Yes!" Everyone shouted. Kai smiled heroically before looking around to see floating rubble and a blue color all around him. He looked down to see empty arms. He was back in Limbo.
          "Oh, come on!"

          The gremlins fell to the ground and scattered.
          "No!" Everyone shouted. "Still five." Dagger said, shaking his head.

          Khan looked around the cave, extending lightning to look at the cave walls.
          "What is this place?" He asked. There were strange markings all over the wall. Ekpen shrugged. Lance put his hands close to some of the markings where everyone could see them better.
          Ekpen simply looked around at them all. "These don't look like something carved by a mortal." He said.
          Khan shook his head. "I'm not thinking so, either." Suddenly, everyone heard a low growl.
          "What was that?" Andrew asked. He looked around with his low level dark vision. "I don't see anything."
          "Me neither." Ekpen said, squinting to try and see clearer.
          "Uh, guys?" Destiny asked. Everyone looked over to her. "I don't think this is a cave." She made a glowing green orb in her hands and held it up into the air, illuminating the entire cavity. Below them was a squishy substance, which no one had noticed. Khan looked farther down the cave to see a large pit full of a strange liquid, which bubbled and churned as it dissolved various animal chunks.
          "Hey, Ekpen?" Ekpen nodded slowly. "Is there any creature you know of that's this big?" He asked.
          Ekpen nodded again. "It's an ice worm." He said, barely able to get the words out.

         Dagger slammed the book closed, causing the screaming of another gremlin to be silenced.
         "Now for the last one." Dagger said. "Let's go!" He hurried off down a hallway, using a small purple glow to tell him where the gremlin was. They followed the gremlin into the throne room, where the king was taking a nap on his throne. The gremlin crawled up the throne and stood perched behind the king's head. He pulled out a knife and laughed mischievously as he raised it. "Aro, do your enhancements make something work faster?!" Dagger shouted. Aro nodded. Dagger slammed the book into Aro's chest. Aro quickly enhanced it and Dagger snatched it back. He opened the book and flung it through the air. As the book passed over the gremlin, it was sucked in much faster than all the other gremlins, dropping the knife to the floor. The book slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
          The king jerked awake and looked around. "Oh, you're back. Did you find any demons?" Dagger, Aro, Emma, and Duros smiled and shook their heads.
          "Everything is alright, sire." Dagger said with a bow.
          The king smiled and nodded. "That's good to hear."
          Dagger turned around and pointed at the three of them. "No touching my stuff from now on!" He shouted. The three nodded. Dagger held out his hand, the sealing book returning to him. It vanished in his hand and he walked back to his quarters.
         Kai appeared in front of them. "Did we win?" He asked.
         Aro nodded. "We captured them all." He said.
        "That's good." Kai said with a smile.
        "How did you get back so fast?" Emma asked.
        "Well, me and the gatekeeper made an agreement. I can only stay here—" He was gone again.
        "I'm assuming he was gonna say 'long enough to check.'" Duros said, lumbering out the front door.
         Aro nodded. "Well, work's done, now what?"
         Emma shrugged. "Gotta be something we can do."
         Kai appeared again. "Guys, I need your help! Something went wrong!" His legs disappeared and he fell to the ground, seeming to be pulled back, more of him disappearing through an invisible rift.
         "Alexander! Do something!" The king shouted. Alexander nodded and raced over. He grabbed Kai's arms and began pulling with all his might. Aro wrapped his arms around Alexander's waist and began pulling on him as well, yet they were still dragging into the unknown. Emma helped as well, Duros attaching threads to each of them and pulling with all his stone might. Suddenly, they were all yanked out of the mortal realm. "Send for Dagger!" The king shouted to his current guard, who nodded and hurried off.

        Aro sat up and looked around at the grey, desecrated landscape.
        "Is this the spirit realm?" He asked.
        "Nope." Kai said, pulling him to his feet.
        "The shadow realm? Where the demons live?"
        "Fraid not." Kai responded, scratching the back of his head. "Welcome, everyone, to the void." Everyone looked around to the mountainous, barren landscape with dark grey skies and orange lightning. Vines grew down the mountains, while sharp and gnarled trees grew steadily around them. "This is not good." Kai said, slumping over.