Aveline & The Great Pumpkin Bash - Chapter 3: Emerge

Chapter 3: Emerge

Instinctively Aveline veered aside just as the spell wore off, sending the behemoth shooting past her in a fiery blur. The longer she lingered in the chasm, the more obvious it became that she could not outwing the wicked worm, and that her only hope of survival was through the aid of magic and any clever designs that she could devise.  But dragons were clever creatures too, and full of magic.

“How did you do that?” The dragon roared, its ravenous hunger unfulfilled.

“The name’s Aveline: fairy princess, Wishbringer and junior architect of the threads of time.” She bowed. She particularly like the word ‘architect.’ It made her feel big inside.

“You overestimate your ability.” The dragon’s eyes blazed.

“I think not. Now stop right there, Mr. Dragon.” Aveline raised her hand. Again he complied, freezing in place as he whipped his spiky tail. “I’m headed to the pumpkin festival. Would you mind pointing out the way?”

Suddenly her legs snapped together, tighter and tighter as if they were being wrapped in bubblegum. She gazed down in horror as the sticky spindle bound her legs together and surged past her waist. Though Aveline was blinded by the beast’s fiery eyes and ghostly webbing, she could still make out the ugly spider clinging to the dragon’s underside like a wart. Somehow it was impervious to her time spell.

And as the arachnid sprung for her, the little girl discovered a new magic word in her arsenal. “Aside!” she yelled, sending the spider and its webbing falling away harmlessly.

But the insect provided the distraction that the dragon needed. Aveline barely evaded the dragon’s tail as it sliced the air before her. She shot upwards, hoping to find a ceiling to the endless void. “Abracadabra! Err…hocus pocus!” she blurted out, but those were the feeble words of fantasy. “Open sesame!” she called. Didn’t she see that once in a Bugs Bunny cartoon? Finally, she thought back to the stories that her mother had told her. ‘Stop’ and ‘aside’ were featured prominently in those tales. Yet there was another she had not uttered. “Illuminate!” she screamed.

A ring of light severed the darkness above her.

“Did you hear that?” came a familiar voice.

“Hear what, dear?” came another.

“It sounded like Aveline.”

The voices became louder, and giggles, more frequent.

And as the dragon closed in, one last word escaped her. “Emerge.”

Aveline & The Great Pumpkin Bash - Chapter 2: Abomination

Chapter 2: Abomination

At first, she mistook his rasp for the snickering of little girls just a short distance away. But strange sounds swirled through the abomination’s rotting lungs, its exhalation culminating with a mangled whistle.

Aveline surged forward, not questioning the wings sprouting from her back. She didn’t have the slightest notion how large they were or at what velocity she was flying. All she knew was that she needed to get out of there fast, even if it meant delving deeper into the void. “Light as a feather-”

“Hasten thy demise!” The creature roared.

The little girl shot through the chasm with renewed vigor. “Please mother, deliver me from this pit of ruin.”

“Only in ruin shall you find her. Now that I have come for you, your reunion is all but certain.” The beast’s putrid stench filled her nostrils.

His booming voice echoed through her, striking a familiar cord. “I know you. You were in my backyard with the fairies just a short while ago.”

“Are you certain of that?”

Though she did not see him through the dense thicket in her backyard, she could feel his presence. On the journey over he slipped in behind her, waiting patiently for his opportunity when she swept past the gates of the netherfaery.

His glowing eyes snapped open before her, dull and glassy like chunks of dusty ice. “There is no sense running any longer. Accept your fate as any primitive should.” Blue fire erupted from his mouth, causing his teeth to glow as well.  Rows and rows of hideous teeth snapped down at her, each about the size of her abbreviated form.

“Anabelle, Anaia, Amorina!” she cried, swerving aside at the last instant.

“They cannot help you here.” The monster unleashed its volcanic breath again, singeing Aveline’s wings.

It was a dragon, here in the darkness with her! And it wasn’t a cute little pet dragon as found in children’s books, but a demon born of nightmares.

“Mommy….daddy…please!” She knifed through the air.

“Yesss…cry for mommy and daddy…” The dragon illuminated the void with its white-hot breath. Before Aveline knew it, the winged serpent was on top of her.

As he snapped down, the little girl cried out, “No, stop!” And suddenly all was still in that dark, dank place. “Stop,” she repeated, and turned to face the beast. Though its jaws were extended and fiery breath gushing from its mouth, the dragon was held there, suspended in time. “You did what I asked of you,” Aveline gasped.