Peekaboo

Back in Avondale,

Ariel, Chelsea, and Amy were sitting on the couch sipping from teacups, which had tea in them of course; they were munching on the cookies that had been made. Ariel leaned back into the couch. It had been sometime now since Lauren had disappeared.

“Where’s Lauren? Shouldn’t she be back by now?” Amy questioned.

“Yeah, we can’t check in on Patrick without her,” Chelsea stated, taking a bite from her cookie, as Amy finished hers off. “It wouldn’t be right.”

“I suppose you are right. I should go find her. I’ll be right back, girls,” Ariel remarked. She stood up from the couch and walked into the hallway, making sure that the others weren’t looking. She then she conjured up a small cloud of dust and made it blow back and dissolve into her face. She blinked twice.

Then she followed the sudden sight of her friend’s glowing, yellow footsteps and followed them to the door at the end of the hall, opposite the Prophecy room. It was a dungeon-type door, wooden in appearance, but it led out of the castle and down to the lake. Curious, she opened the door, finding that it wasn’t locked for some reason and peered out.

“Lauren?” she called.

There was no answer. But she saw small boat slide back up to the dock. She was utterly curious now. She glanced up, staring at the mist. What was Lauren doing? Where was she? Ariel decided to wait a few minutes, before she saw the boat move again, floating back into the mist.

She conjured up a new cloud of dust and this time used it like an x-ray vision look, as she pointed it in the direction of the boat. She saw through the mist and to the far bank. Then she gasped in shock and fright. She dropped her concentration and the dust disintegrated into nothing. She ran back into the castle and slammed the door shut behind her.

Ariel darted back into the main foyer room, where the other two girls were. “Lauren’s evil!” she exclaimed, skidding to a halt before the couches, where the two were. They looked up in shock at her. “I saw her. She was in the Forbidden Forest...with Lord Nemo!”

“What? But why?” Chelsea spat out the questions.

“I don’t know. But it’s not good.”

“Is she going to hurt Patrick?” Amy asked, her lip quivering.

“Not if I can get to him first.”

“What would she do to Patrick?” Chelsea inquired.

“I don’t know. But it can’t be good.”

“I can’t believe I’m friends with her!” Amy complained, folding her arms in front of her and throwing a small temper tantrum. “To think that we were going to share our cookies and tea with her!”

“I know, Amy, but I’ll find Patrick and warn him...or try to. I just hope nothing bad happens to him. I hope I can reach him before Lauren does!” Ariel began to put her long red hair up behind her. Amy and Chelsea pitched in to help her. They put a pretty black and red flower barrette in her hair to keep it in place.

Then the princess told her friends to remain and watch over the palace and the kingdom and keep it safe, and then she vanished from sight, bidding them farewell. Leaving the ball in place on the stand on the table, Ariel took a deep breath and then recited some kind of magical incantation to herself and then teleported into the crystal ball, through a portal...after all, it was a magical object. The vision that had been on the ball was the one where Patrick and the others had just gotten to: the Grasslands.

But as soon as she had vanished into it, going through the portal to get to the land where Patrick and his friends were, a new vision appeared in the ball. Lauren had just appeared to Patrick and Chelsea and Amy watched as the evil woman tricked Patrick and gave him a love potion and then stole Showtime from him.

“No!” Amy screamed.

“Find him fast Ariel! Find him!” Chelsea begged. She reached over and made the ball fade to nothing. She didn’t want to see anymore.

They had to have faith and hope that Ariel was arrive and help them out.


On the other side of the grasslands, where Patrick and company were,

Before the travelers could step foot into the mist, another female voice shouted to them. They all spun around. Patrick spotted the familiar face of the woman he’d met in the tower, upon first arriving to the fairy tale land. The gentle wind was blowing through her red hair, as she stood on one of the hills. It was Princess Ariel.

“Ariel?!” Patrick questioned.

“Patrick, don’t go into the mist yet!”

“What? Why? What’s going on?”

Ariel darted toward them. She skidded to a halt and gasped, throwing her hands over her mouth in shock. “Your stick-sword thing?! Where is it?”

“Why don’t you try asking your so-called friend Lauren?” Brandon snapped. “She’s the one who showed up and tricked us.”

“She trapped Reilly in a cage, so she could be alone with Patrick and make her move! She walked over to the side with him,” Torey exclaimed, patted the tiny bear in his hold on the head.

“It worked,” Reilly grumbled, folding his paws and frowned.

“I tried to help Patrick out, but I’m still learning how to use these horns! I mean I couldn’t even touch her with my horns...just back her up, but she wasn’t scared and she always bested me.” Jamie stepped forward. “And she also kidnapped my friend, Val.”

“Valeri Nichushkin?” Ariel inquired.

“Yeah.”

The redheaded princess put her hands up in a 'whoa' type fashion. She faced the blond Blackhawk with concern and also interest. “So wait, okay, let me get this straight, Nemo has turned Lauren evil and into his helper, kidnapped Jonathan, Val, and Tyler Seguin and has your--”

Patrick dipped his head, somberly. “Showtime.”

“What?”

“Showtime is the stick-sword. I wanted to name it.”

“Yeah...uh, Showtime. He has Showtime too?!”

“Yup.”

Ariel put her hands on her hips and looked at them all. “That’s bad. You realize that that is bad.”

“How is it bad?” Andrew spat.

“I don’t trust princesses!” Brad growled, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at Ariel.

“Put that away Brad, I know because the girls and I have been checking in on you every so often. I actually saw her with Nemo on the edge of the Forbidden Forest! We were willing to step in if the need arose. And you need my help. I’m not like Lauren, I’m a friend, you can trust me. I promise.”

“Where’s Chelsea and Amy?” Andrew questioned.

“They stayed behind. I told them that I would go. I’m the oldest and more wise...and well, I did succeed in capturing Patrick with my hair!”

Why did she have to bring that up! Patrick thought to himself. He tried to play it cool. But he noticed something odd, this Ariel didn’t have her long rope-y hair. She had a long ponytail with a red and black flower barrette attached, but he wasn’t sure...had she cut it or what?

“I put my hair up, so it wouldn’t get in the way. I hate carrying it everywhere,” Ariel explained, seemingly reading Patrick’s mind.

“Oh, okay.”

“I’m here to help. And trust me you’ll need it. We have to get Showtime back; with Nemo having it, Jonathan is doomed and so is the kingdom...and Nemo won’t hesitate to get rid of you too.”

Adam flicked his head and Sharp patted his horse friend. “Bur’s right, we won’t let Nemo kill anyone. We will be by your side, Kaner.”

Patrick shot a grateful look at the two merry pranksters. Then around at the others, moving from them to Brandon Saad, to Andrew Shaw and Brad Marchand, to Torey Krug and Reilly Smith, to Jamie Benn. All of them had hope on their faces and a will to fight and fight with Patrick.

“Alright, let’s go get Showtime back and teach Nemo not to mess with skaters...or a noble princess!” Patrick cried.

“Hear, hear!” Ariel exclaimed and the others joined her in the chant.

Then they stormed into the mist and vanished from sight.

Notes

Also,
“I tried to help Patrick out, but I’m still learning how to use these horns! I mean I couldn’t even touch her with my horns...just back her up, but she wasn’t scared and she always bested me.” Jamie stepped forward. “And she also kidnapped my friend, Val.”
- See if this works better...or something like that...feel free to change it to something better. ;)

Here's the proof from the previous chapters of Jamie's "nudging"/"ramming" (I changed it to nudging, as that might work better, and that's what they say the reindeers do with that motion):
In the Blizzard chapter this is Jamie's "ramming":
"I'm not Santa's reindeer! I'm Jamie Benn, captain of the Dallas Stars and I command you to free Valeri Nichushkin, my teammate!" He dipped his head and began running towards the lady, trying to knock her off her feet with his huge antlers since he was very angry.
But Jamie felt nothing. He looked back up and turned around, seeing just a bunch of snow floating in the air behind him. "Val?" He shouted. "Val! Valeri‽ Hey, where are you?"

and then in the scene where Lauren steals Showtime:
He trotted forward and lowered his head, pointing his antlers at the woman and nudged her back. “Get away from him! You’re the one who kidnapped Val!”
“Ah the beloved little reindeer,” Lauren jibed.
“That’s Jamie Benn!” the Dallas Star’s Captain continued to back her up. He stopped when he heard Patrick’s angry voice come behind him.

**Both seem to assume that he never touches her and also that he "backs her up." Wait...okay, check out this added part, actually. :)

Okay. I went through and fixed it some more and helped clarify - I hope - the two main trouble spots. ;) Hope this works better now. ;) Feel free to just check all this out in the doc too!


Next up: More journey ("Filler" chapter) and then Nemo's plan