Faerie Quest: Part Three

by holly9945

Snow and Ice

After half an hour of hiking, the children arrived at the front of a big cave. "All right, now guys. I know this mountain, so trust me on this. There are two ways to the top. Around the cave and up the slope or through the cave, which is three times faster. Now, before you decide that faster is better, I have to tell you that only one person's ever been through the cave in centuries. And that person is long gone now."

"W-why? What happened to them?" Millie asked, backing a few feet from the cave.

"The Snowager got 'em," Ashtaï said spookily. "He's an enormous ice snake that eats Neopians for lunch and guards a mountain of treasures. No one can get passed him, and even if you arrive while he's asleep, just the sound of running footsteps is more than enough to wake him up."

At this, Syaoran and Cutiehoney backed up till they were about to fall off. "It's that dangerous?" Syaoran sounded like he didn't believe Ashtaï, but he was whispering.

"Yup. Many Neopians have tried, no one's made it."

"But he's guarding treasure! That must mean he's guarding the Ice Sword! We have to go through, we have no choice!" Cutiehoney shouted, making Syaoran, Ashtaï and Millie whip around and say, "shhhh!"

They all knew she was right, though. After a few minutes of arguing, they started into the vast cavern. For twenty minutes, there was no sound except the beating of their hearts and their pattering of their footsteps. Then, they turned a bend and heard it. It was a low growling sound, like a lion, and it was very regular. Snoring. The monster was sleeping!

"Okay, let's go for it!" Ashtaï whispered under her breath so only her companions would hear her. She took off, walking slowly across the side-hole of the cave. When she got 3/4 through, she froze. A bit of light filtered through a thin layer of ice on the wall and landed straight on the end of the side-cave. There, curled up in an enormous ball, was the biggest thing she had ever seen. He must have been three hundred feet long! He was bigger than the biggest tree around the middle and his teeth could have pierced through her and her teammates like a toothpick in a sandwich. It was horrifying. Ashtaï's blood froze like the ice that surrounded her. She wanted to tell the others not to look at it when they crossed, but then she thought that none of them would get´across safely, so it didn't matter, did it? And anyway, she couldn't talk.

Finally, she resumed walking and soon crossed to the other wall. Signaling to the others, she tried to disappear into the shadows as well as possible. Cutiehoney was the next across. She had been able to mumble "don't look right" when she reached the spot where you could see the monster, then froze for a good three minutes before walking, shaking, to stand beside Ashtaï. When Millie walked across, she was shaking more than anything on Neopia. When she reached the light, she tried continuing, but then she looked over to her right. She let out a sort of low moan the sounded like

"O-o-o-o-o my stars," and hurried across as quietly as she could. Syaoran had learned from the other's mistakes. He walked across, not looking at the monster he knew was there in the entire cross. When he reached the others, he turned around and stared at the now visible Snowager. He tried to shout, but only a choking sound came out. He grabbed Millie's tail and tugged until the other three turned around.

"What do yo-" Cutiehoney didn't finish. She was petrified with fear, as were Ashtaï and Millie. As they looked at the side-cave, a bright, glowing blue oval stared back at them. A movement was heard and vaguely seen in the darkness, and an instant latter the giant ice snake loomed over them. The Snowager was awake.

"...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Millie and company shouted after a moment of staring. The Snowager almost imitated them. The sound wasn't quite the same, though. It wasn't a scream, it was a roar. A roar so loud and booming that the ice around them cracked. But Millie was too busy to care. She was going to be eaten, so what did she care about ice cracking?

"ROAAAAAA!" the Snowager roared in an angry way and lunged. Straight at the pets! But Usuls aren't made like squirrels for nothing. In the time it took the others to move out of the way, she had already gone halfway up the tunnel and turned back. Ashtai was zigzagging, trying to attract it's attention! But it didn't care about a puny little Aisha. It was after Cutiehoney and Syaoran, the biggest of the kids.

Suddenly, Millie had an idea. "Hey! Can anyone supersize?" she asked, shouting at the top of her lungs to cover the screaming and roaring.

"Size doesn't matter! Even if you're as big as he is, he'll still be unbeatable!" Ashtai screamed. She was now running around the Snowager's "neck" part, but it didn't mind any more than a dog minds a mosquito.

"No! That's not what I mean! Just, does anyone have supersize!" Millie shouted out of frustration and panic.

"I dooOOOO!" Syaoran said, but his word turned into a scream as the giant teeth of the snowy snake crashed down less than a meter from him.

"Good! Cutiehoney, you keep him away from Syaoran for a minute!" Cutiehoney didn't ask questions. Millie had an idea, and that was better than what they currently had: nothing. The brave Kau charged the ice monster, startling it a minute. Then, just as he recovered and began to lunge, Cutiehoney banked a hard left and the snake followed her, moving away from Syaoran.

"Put your megaton bracelet on!" Millie shouted. Syaoran did as she asked. "Now supersize! Quiiiick!"

Syaoran grew fast, and so did the bracelet. Now, he was as big as the Snowager and the bracelet was big enough to fit over his mouth. Just right. The Snowager lost interest in Cutiehoney immediately, turning to the bigger prey.

"Ashtai! Cutiehoney! Get the sword!"

Cutiehoney and Ashtai dashed towards the mountain of treasure and started to look all over it. Meanwhile, Syaoran was trying to fend off the Snowager, which was a lot less hard now that he was big. He wouldn't last long, though.

"Syaoran! Put the bracelet over his mouth and hold him down!" Millie was now jumping. It might work. It might work! Syaoran looked confused a second, then clicked. He moved to stand next to the snake and pulled the bracelet off. Now that it was off Syaoran, the bracelet was shrinking at a reasonable speed. He had to be quick. He brought it up as the Snowager whipped around and it connected with the beast's mouth.

Weakened and confused, the Snowager pulled away from Syaoran. It now had it's mouth stuck, losing it's only advantage over Syaoran, being the same size. Syaoran quickly grabbed the snake and held him tight.

"YES! YES! SYAORAN, YOU RULE!" Millie was screaming in a high-pitched voice and was now jumping two meters straight up in the air. Meanwhile, Cutiehoney and Ashtaï had been digging like nuts to find the Ice sword, and they now rushed back, Cutiehoney was holding the weapon delicately in her jaws.

The three rushed out and ran up the tunnel. At the top, Ashtai turned around and shouted that Syaoran could come. Letting go of the stunned, frightened and dizzy Snowager, Syaoran rushed up the tunnel. When it got too small for him to crawl through, he shrunk back to his normal size and ran to catch up with the others on the mountain top.

To be continued...