Brisk winds picked up when Ariel and Tommy reached a grove near the edge of the sharp mountainside.
“Can we get by that?” he asked, pointing to the bunch of brambles and trees.
“I’m not sure. This used to be a clear way to the Stained Castle. I say we wait here for the others. They’re bound to come this way soon,” she said, resting a hand on his shoulder.
Instead of heeding his protector’s advice, the stubborn boy moved her hand away and proceeded forth into the grove until he felt something swipe at his head and miss.
His eyes darted around the grove, but he was unable to spot who or what was responsible for the unprovoked strike. Trees of different shapes and sizes made up the grove. There was one in particular that caught Tommy’s attention most of all. Molds of humans in various postures decorated its bark alongside creatures unfamiliar to him.
The girth of its trunk was three times larger than the oak trees that neighbored it. Its roots sprawled over most of the area and claimed the entire ground.
Casts of ill-fated pixies, goblins, and children patterned its wooden surface. High above, hundreds of different shoes dangled from laces attached to its floppy branches, some in even pairs, others in odd pairings, and a few single shoes hung alone. Flats, heels, riding boots, snow boots, dress shoes and dozens of other types of footwear hung lifelessly and motionless, as if part of the tree’s decoration.
“What are they?” Tommy asked as he stood gawking at the disturbing spectacle.
Ariel placed her finger over her lips, signalling him to be silent. As Tommy took a step out of the tree’s domain another swipe came at him, but this time it didn’t miss. As the lace wrapped around his wrist, its tugging grip spun him around.
“Get it off me!” he yelled.
Another lace wrapped round his waist. Together, the laces hauled him deeper into the grove, out of Ariel’s reach. Tommy yelled as loud as he could, muffled by the laces that had ensnared him. It was difficult for Ariel to spot him inside the mass of living shoes.
A web of shoes quickly formed in front of her, attempting to block her path. Slicing through, Ariel threw herself into the den, fighting off every swiping attack with her trusty dagger. The nymph flipped backwards and forwards fluently, missing every assault the shoe tree made toward her. Hacking her way through the thicket of entangled shoelaces, Ariel saw the tree open its gaping mouth, ready to swallow Tommy whole after it took the boy’s shoes off his feet and added them to its eerie collection. But Ariel wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Thomas, get ready to grab hold,” she called out, anticipating the next striking shoe and dodging its attack. Using the tree’s predictable pattern to her advantage, Ariel grabbed a tight hold of one lengthy lace and speedily climbed it to reach a suitable height. Once she had Tommy in her sights, the acrobatic nymph began swinging from shoelace to shoelace, effortlessly slipping through the multitude, and cutting down every shoe that got in her way.
“Fight it off, Thomas!” she cried out seconds before she reached the lace-covered captive. The tree’s tongue was made of shreds of wood that aggressively tugged at the boy to pull him into its mouth. Over a dozen shoes waged a relentless attack on both of them, without mercy. It was like trying to fight smoke.
After the attack left both cocooned, the tree instantly settled, but not until Ariel had managed to wedge the tree’s tongue to its bark with her dagger, sealing its mouth from gobbling them up.
***
Sebastian approached the last half-mile of the Black Swamp. Ripping his way through the shallow end of the thick dark sludge, his stamina weakened with each gruelling step, unlike his protector who kept urging him forth.
“You can do it, boy, a little further…that’s all it takes, remember,” Cecil rambled.
“I know, I know, eyes front,” Sebastian interrupted, frowning at the pixie’s unrelenting encouragement.
The night was closing in. Sebastian could feel the chill nip at his clothes from the gusts of wind beating down upon his mud-covered back.
“You’re almost there; that a boy, keep it going.” Cecil kept imploring with much restlessness in his voice.
“I’m trying my best…if I could buzz around so easily and freely as all you buzzing pixies do, believe me, I wouldn’t still be in this blasted blobby bog,” Sebastian scolded before he laughed at the shocked expression on Cecil’s face.
Cecil giggled a little in return, until his ears perked up, recognizing a distinct cackling laugh that joined theirs, chilling him to the very tip of his wings.
“Run like lightning, Sebastian,” Cecil ordered in a faint whisper. He took hold of the boy’s hand and began pulling him through the swamp. Cecil flew as fast as his little wings could carry them both.
Sebastian kicked his legs out of the murky sludge, sensing the awful seriousness of their predicament. Someone was heading toward them. And judging by Cecil’s reaction, it wasn’t someone friendly.
“Don’t let go,” Sebastian begged, loosening from Cecil’s grip.
“Grab hold with your other hand,” Cecil yelled, almost reaching his top speed. Sebastian obeyed the pixie’s order and stretched his free hand out to get a tighter grip. Holding on for his life, Sebastian shut his eyes tight until he couldn’t feel the swamp underneath his feet anymore.
Cecil flew hastily and erratically, swerving left to right. Rapidly gaining more momentum, the pixie started their ascension to the top of the cliff.
They were almost at the highest point, a few thousand feet in the air, when an airborne assailant jumped from a flying omnicorn onto Cecil’s back, separating Sebastian from his protector. The boy quickly grabbed onto a bundle of weeds protruding from the cliff side, which slowed his descent to a desperate halt.
Taking a vicious grasp of his back, the tenacious fiend tried to snap the bones in Cecil’s wings. The sudden and unprovoked attack sent both crashing into the mountainside.
Cecil’s fairy awoke and flew into the eyes of its master’s attacker, blinding him with its powerful beam of light. Taking advantage of the fairy’s attack, Cecil pulled the villain off his back and slammed him into the wall. It only took one of Cecil’s free hands to hold the attacker in place and reveal his identity.
“General Lemis!” Cecil rasped. The pixie’s strong grip tightened, causing the chief sea guard to choke and splutter.
Lemis tried to kick and punch his way to freedom, but he proved no match for the pixie’s natural strength.
“What is that? You want me to let go? Very well,” Cecil teased, scowling, before he dropped the sneaky villain off the mountainside. Lemis called out to his omnicorn for help.
The steed seemed confused as to whether it should pursue Cecil or save its master. Cecil tried to antagonize the omnicorn to fight him, so it would fail to rescue Lemis in time.
“Come on, pretty pony. I dare ya.” Cecil growled under his breath at the hideous creature seconds before it dipped its wings and shot down the cliff.
Following suit, Cecil retracted his own little wings and bolted toward Sebastian in a downward spiral.
Lemis swiftly shot past Sebastian a moment before the dangling boy joined him.
“Cecil! Help me,” Sebastian beseeched as the unstable weeds snapped away from their weak roots. Cecil instantly sped, catching the boy by a thrust of his strong wings.
The omnicorn had succeeded in rescuing its master a few feet from the swampy ground. Without deliberation, Lemis ordered his flying pet to turn around and soar after their targets.
“They’re coming back again!” Sebastian cried out in panic as he kept his glasses from falling off his face.
“We’re almost there, boy,” Cecil reassured, picking up the pace in a dangerous vertical ascent whilst playing his part in the risky game of tag.
Lemis pointed his rusty black blade straight up at Sebastian, baring his twisted grin.
“Where do you think you’re going, human?”
A few more feet were all they had left to cover before they reached the top of the cliff, but the omnicorn was a faster and more agile flyer than Cecil Baskin, for the creature’s very wingspan and aerodynamic structure was designed for reaching tremendous velocity.
“Faster Cecil! Faster!” Sebastian called to his protector.
The omnicorn flew inches away from his feet. Its hellish jaws opened up to show its razor sharp teeth as it snapped at Sebastian’s shoes, missing each time the boy lifted his legs to avoid contact.
“Hang on!” Cecil ordered.
After several efforts of retaliation, Sebastian lifted his left leg and thrust it hard against the omnicorn’s face, wedging his shoe between its upper and lower jaw. The omnicorn shook its head violently from left to right in order to unlock its mouth from the child’s foot while the four ascended in a single chain.
But it was to no avail. The omnicorn was stuck in a knotty position now, as was its prey. Lemis shuffled along the monster’s neck toward Sebastian, ready to separate the two of them using his rusted sword.
“Cecil, get us out of here,” Sebastian pleaded, twisting and turning away from each swiping attack.
By chance, Sebastian’s free leg managed a lucky kick to Lemis’s chest.
The chief sea guard failed to grab the reins several times while he tumbled off his beastly pet. The dark creature neighed in pain when Lemis grasped onto its tail, saving himself from a second fall.
Cecil ordered Sebastian to take the stick that was strapped to his side. With a free arm, the boy unbuttoned the pixie’s pouch and raised the stick as high as he could. The stick glowed bright red and felt alive with magic. Sebastian struck the omnicorn’s long and disfigured face. Fearful of the sudden blast of magic, the steed bit down hard, tearing the shoe straight off Sebastian’s foot while it trailed its rider into the fog-covered abyss.
“You did it, lad!” The pixie laughed the instant they flew past the top of the massive cliff’s edge.
“Woo hoo!” Sebastian yelled, ecstatic from his near-death experience and relieved that they’d both survived the terrifying battle to tell the tale.
“We’re near the Stained Castle now, Sebastian, but first I need to rest these old wings,” Cecil panted, at the same time his speed had decreased rapidly.
“And if they come back?” Sebastian asked.
“Just let them try,” Cecil replied, gazing back down to a calm fog thousands of feet below them. “Best we rest further away from the edge, I think.”
“That looks as good a spot as any,” Sebastian said, pointing down at a small patch of woodland nearby. In one swift halt, Cecil’s flight took an unplanned pivot, lightly crashing into a strange and unfamiliar grove. Cecil’s fairy dimmed its light and disappeared back inside his chest pocket.
As Cecil rested to catch his breath, the one-shoed boy limped to the front of the grove, investigating his surroundings further. Walking into the gloomy patch, Sebastian noticed that it was made up of many strange and frightening-looking trees, with one in particular that immediately caught his eye.
It was the largest of the grove and rested dead center amongst its neighbors. The tree revealed a large face from a distance that was made up of many bodily shapes. Its deep dishevelled crevices resembled large eyes that appeared to look straight at him. Multiple shoes hung immobile against the light breeze as Sebastian took a step further.
“I sure hope there is one in my size,” he whispered to himself, staring down at his single bare foot.