by J. S. Skye
“What do you mean? Can’t you read?” Drizzle responded.
“Of course I can! I was just testing you to see if you could or not,” Flurry dishonestly replied. He still had not learned, but was too prideful to admit it in front of Drizzle.
Drizzle, on the other hand, was adept with his reading skills for a cub his age. “It looks like a riddle. It says, ‘Frozen in time, Frost will keep. Deep underground, Jack will sleep. By the origin paw, may the ice be moved. If so you do, all will be doomed. Beautiful and lovely, the gem may be. Remove it and find trouble indeed.’ I wonder what that means.”
In haste, Flurry answered, “Not important. Now help me with this rock!”
“Flurry, I think we need to be careful in here. This place isn’t safe.”
“Whatever. Be a wimp. I don’t care.”
Flurry’s comment cut to the heart. Grieved, a tear fell from Drizzle’s eye and landed on the plaque below. Drizzle wiped the tear off to find a second set of engraved letters. “Flurry! There’s more!”
Drizzle brushed the second set of text off and found a single sentence which startled him. He scratched his head and glanced back and forth between the text and Flurry. It did not seem possible. Drizzle read it again: “Flurry, don’t even think about it!” The cub’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell ajar. Why did this engraved text have Flurry’s name on it? How could such an old place know about Flurry? “Flurry! You have to see this!”
“Not now, Drizzle! I almost have the rock in place, no thanks to you, I might add.” Flurry panted and gasped for breath while he pushed the stone. Doing it by himself was difficult and taxing for the little fellow.
“Flurry! This is important! It mentions you!”
“What? That’s not possible! Where?” Flurry rushed up to look.
“It says, ‘Flurry, don’t even think about it!’”
“Yeah, right! You’re just making that up. Really funny, Drizzle! Really funny!” Flurry was irritated that Drizzle would make such a poor attempt at a joke. Flurry shook it off and pushed the stone up to the pedestal.
“Would you two stop arguing and help me?” shouted a female voice in the distance. Suddenly the cave rumbled, and ice shattered and fell down around them.
Flurry realized that their voices carried pretty far inside the cave, and that his sister could hear him from whatever room she was currently trapped in. Flurry blushed and answered his sister. “So you heard all of that, huh?”
“Yes! Now hurry up and get me out of here!” Fall bellowed. Her action made more ice crumble and smash down from above. The place shook hard enough that Flurry and Drizzle both stumbled to the ground.
Before Drizzle had a chance to recover, Flurry had already returned to his task. He reached for the glowing, yellow crystal. “Flurry, no!” shouted a distant voice, but it was too late. Flurry grabbed the radiant stone. He looked up from his paw, which now held the gem. It had changed from emitting yellow light to blue. Flurry saw Vallidore and Noah off in the distance.
The entire cave shook, and an evil laugh echoed throughout the cavern walls. Icicles fell all around them. The floor cracked and gave way. Stones shoved out from the walls, which caused them to buckle. The entire place was falling apart. Flurry and Drizzle could barely stand while the ground shook vigorously.
“Help me!” Fall shouted. Flurry and Drizzle rushed to the wall that Fall was trapped behind.
“Stop! You must be careful about this! If she’s caught in one of Jack’s traps, the wrong button or switch could end her life!” Vallidore shouted.
“Now that we have some light, I believe I can do this,” Drizzle answered.
“We need to free her and get out of here quickly! The whole place is coming down around us!” the wolf replied.
Vallidore was correct. The stone roof was collapsing, and rocks dropped more frequently. “Hurry!” Fall screamed.
“We’re here! We’re here! We’re going to get you out! Just hold on!” Drizzle called out to her. “Flurry, hold up the light so I can see.”
Flurry did as Drizzle instructed. The crystal’s light revealed a peculiar locking mechanism on the door. There was a square indentation in place of a typical lock. Within the recess of the strange lock were many differently-sized rectangular shapes that were able to slide in different directions. “What kind of a lock is this?” Flurry asked. “What ever happened to using a key?”
“It’s a puzzle lock. This is very common in the land of Nallan Min. That’s where Jack is from,” Vallidore answered. “It can only be opened by sliding the pieces in the right direction. If you do it the wrong way, it will undoubtedly activate a deathtrap that would certainly spell doom for Fall.”
“I’m good at games! Let me try!” Flurry ran up and started to fiddle with the puzzle lock faster than anyone could react.
“No!” shouted Drizzle and Vallidore in unison, but it was too late. Flurry had activated the trap — this much was obvious when Fall screamed.
“Flurry, help me! The ceiling is coming down on me!” Fall cried as the room got smaller and smaller.
Drizzle pushed Flurry out of the way, “Let me do this!”
“Hey!” Flurry replied.
Noah quickly grabbed Flurry and pulled him back. “Noah is correct! Let Drizzle do it!” Vallidore ordered.
Time ticked away. The walls of the cave collapsed further. Stones collided with the floor and sprayed fragments of rock in every direction. Drizzle’s paws moved speedily. He continued to maneuver the different pieces of the puzzle lock.
The top of the room drew nearer to Fall’s head. “Guys! I’m going to be crushed! Please hurry!”
There was no reply. Fall could not hear anything except the rumbling of the walls as they gave way. Fall sat in a corner with her arms wrapped around her legs. Her hope of survival dwindled. She buried her face between her knees and cried.
The stone roof continued to draw nearer with each second. It now touched the top of her head. Fall lay down flat on the floor, and attempted to call out to her brother once more. Tears streamed down her cream-colored fur.
“Flurry, tell Mama and Papa I love them, and that I’m so sorry!” She paused momentarily to sob. “Oh, and Flurry, despite our differences I love you very much!” Fall did not hear a reply. “Flurry? Flurry?” She screamed, “Flurry!” Her death was imminent. The room continued to shrink. In a brief moment Fall would be crushed.
She closed her eyes and bawled. Fall braced herself for the inevitable. The rock surface inched down and pressed against her ears, but suddenly ceased. The ceiling reversed its direction, and quickly returned to its original spot.
The door opened. “Come on!” shouted Flurry and Drizzle together. They beckoned for her to come out of the room. Tears of joy came down from her eyes. She smiled and bolted out of the room as quickly as she could.
“We have to go! Now!” Vallidore shouted.
“So soon?” echoed an evil voice.
“Uh, what was that?” Flurry asked uneasily.
They all froze in their tracks. Vallidore turned to look in the direction of the pedestal. Just beyond it stood two stone statues, and between the statues were steps that led up to a throne. The throne was not clearly visible, since it had been covered in ice. As Vallidore stared at the ice-covered throne, cracks formed across it. The wolf looked back at the cubs and shouted, “Run!”
They ran as fast as they could, but the ground shook so much that they kept falling. Stone and ice continued to shatter everywhere. It was clear that the entire palace would cave in very soon. Each step they took was riddled with danger. In fact, Flurry would have been crushed if it had not been for Noah. The lion leapt and shoved Flurry out of the path of a falling stone.
It looked like they would make it. They were near the opening of the cave, when tragedy struck. The roof fell down behind the cubs and sealed Vallidore inside.
“Doggy!” Flurry shouted.
“Oh no! What are we going to do?” Fall asked.
&nbs
p; “Vallidore knew the risks. He ordered us to escape. We need to respect his wishes,” Drizzle answered.
“We can’t leave Doggy behind!” Flurry insisted.
“The reason he came here was to ensure our safety. Going back puts us at risk again,” Drizzle tried to reason.
“You’re just saying that because you’re a coward!” Flurry shot his insult at Drizzle.
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes, you are!”
Fall interjected before the argument got worse. “Both of you, stop it! I’m so sick of you two fighting all of the time! This wouldn’t even be happening if you two weren’t always bickering with each other! I think what we should do is head back to Mr. Kringle’s house and get help.”
“That would take too long! It took us hours to get here. It will be late in the evening by the time we make it to Ursus, and then it would be early tomorrow morning before we could return to save Vallidore,” Drizzle explained.
Flurry ran to the caved-in entrance, and pulled loose stones away to make an opening for himself. Tears flowed freely from his eyes. Flurry sobbed. “I don’t care what anyone says! I’m going in to save him! Hang on, Doggy! Hang on! I’m coming!”
CHAPTER 4
AN ANCIENT EVIL
Evening hours fast approached. The sky was still blanketed by the storm clouds, though the heavy snow had abated. Christopher peered out the window of his study and examined the terrain for any sign of the little cubs. Catherine rapped on the door and entered. “I have horses prepared, should we need them. Would you like me to fetch your sword?” asked the tall redhead. She stood at the study’s open entryway.
Christopher turned his troubled face toward her. “I fear that no preparation will be enough, dear Catherine. The last time we stood against Jack, it tore all of the regions apart with war. I guess peace just wasn’t meant to last forever.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve done your best, and you’ve kept the peace for thousands of years. No one is perfect, and you can’t predict every possible outcome. We should make the best of whatever this new stage of life brings us. After all, if your hunch is correct, you made the right choice in allowing Flurry to lead this quest to stop Jack.” Catherine’s words succeeded. Christopher stood up straight, took in a deep breath, and smiled.
He glanced back at Catherine. When he caught the glimmer in her eyes, he felt strong again. “You’re right! I shall retrieve my sword at once.” He walked over to his lady, embraced her, and gave her a kiss. “I’ll do everything in my power to protect you and all that are within my domain. Thank you for reminding me that there’s always hope, even when things look this bleak.”
“I love you!”
Christopher walked past his wife and out through the door before he briefly stopped to reply to her parting words. “I love you, too! Now, and always!”
In the banquet hall, the bears were still gathered together. They were alarmed about the events from earlier in the day. Caboose had decided to go on a mission to find Flurry. He knew Flurry must be in the house somewhere. Flurry must be playing hide-and-seek again, Caboose thought to himself. “Flurry! Oh Flurry! Where are you hiding? I’m going to find you.”
“He isn’t hiding, Caboose!” Boaz insisted. “He left with Noah and Vallidore on a mission.”
“On a mission to hide, I bet!” Caboose replied.
“No! On a mission to … oh, never mind!” After numerous attempts, Boaz had given up on trying to get Caboose to understand that Flurry was not in the house.
Caboose wandered down a long hallway in his search for Flurry. Boaz was concerned that Caboose would get himself into trouble, so he decided to follow along. “Come on, Honja, we can’t let him roam the halls alone,” Boaz said and motioned for the little brown rabbit to follow him. Honja shook his head, but Boaz would not take no for an answer. Honja was about to take a bite out of his carrot he had acquired from the vast array of food still out on the tables. Before Honja bit down, Boaz snatched it away from the rabbit’s paws and dangled it in front of his face.
“Nae tanggŭn eya!” Honja called out in his native tongue. Boaz had learned to speak Honja’s language so that he could communicate with him, but nobody else could understand what Honja ever said.
“No, I’m not giving you the carrot until you come with us.” Boaz scurried down the hall after Caboose, and brought Honja’s carrot along with him. Honja sat there angrily for a bit before he realized that he had been left all alone in the room. The cold wind could be heard against the windows, and a chill came over him. Honja felt uneasy to be left all alone. The rabbit sighed, quickly hopped along after Boaz and Caboose, and shouted, “Gah-chi gah!”
Back at the cave in Ursidea, things looked grim. Vallidore awoke from his brief moment of unconscious. One of the stones had struck him in the head. Though his vision was a bit blurry, Vallidore stood up. He pawed at the pile of rubble that covered the exit. Faint voices could be heard from outside. The wolf made out one of the voices to be Flurry. He looked around and noticed that the cave now had much more light than before. Bits of the roof had collapsed entirely which let light shine in. Thankfully, the sun remained up, despite the late hour of the evening. Ursidea was not far enough south for the sun to have completely set. Vallidore was grateful for that fact. To look for an exit in the darkness of night would have been far more dangerous. Maybe I can find a different way out, the wolf thought to himself.
Without wasting a single moment, the white wolf rushed to find an alternate outlet. The cave was very unstable, but the rocks had ceased their descent for the time being. The cavern still shook and rumbled from time-to-time.
Vallidore knew he had to get out soon, before the rest of the stone and ice eventually collapsed. He saw an opening in the wall. The wolf darted across the room. However, Vallidore’s pursuit of his exit came to a sudden halt. The wolf spun back around and rushed up to where the pedestal stood. He had to be sure that his eyes were not playing tricks on him. Unfortunately, they were not. Just beyond where the wolf stood sat an empty throne. The ice had broken away, and the one who sat upon said throne was nowhere to be found.
“What? You don’t see what you were expecting to find?” a voice called out from the shadows. The wolf spun around and found Jack Frost standing before him. Jack was a red panda, and compared to Vallidore, he was very small. However, he was not one you would want to judge by his size, for what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in evil and cunning.
Regardless of his stature, he wielded the power to control the cold and ice. He could use them as a weapon, and Jack did exactly that. Before Vallidore could react, Jack outstretched his arms and caused the white wolf to be struck down by a chillingly strong gust of wind mixed with ice fragments. Some of the ice cut into the wolf, as if broken shards of glass were being hurled at him.
“It’ll take more than that to keep me down!” Vallidore growled and leapt at the red panda. Jack was unimpressed. With a motion of his paw, icicles broke free from the wall and flew toward the wolf.
Many chunks of ice hit Vallidore before he managed to bat some of them out of his way with his big, burly paws. He focused his attention back on Jack, but the red panda was too fast. Vallidore attempted to pounce on or strike his red-furred opponent, but Jack managed to jump over, slide under, or dodge every attack the wolf threw at him.
In a condescending tone, Jack commented, “Seriously? You’ll have to do better than that! I’m the greatest threat Christopher Kringle has ever faced, and he sends you? If this is the best he’s got, his downfall is closer than he thinks.” Jack behaved as though he was in a place of authority and the wolf was there for a school lesson.
Vallidore continued to attack, but this time, Jack pulled a sword from the scabbard at his side and swung it at his rival.
“So you think you need a sword to defeat me?” Vallidore taunted.
“No. I need to make a point, if you know what I mean.” With a quick sweep of his arm, Jack sliced Vallidore across the s
ide of his snout.
Vallidore leapt back, licked his wound, and growled at Jack. If it were anyone other than Frost, Vallidore would have greatly intimidated them with his sharp, razor-like teeth bared at his enemy. With his piercing blue eyes, he stared the red panda down. However, Jack was a battle-hardened warrior, and one wolf was not a concern to him at all. He raised his blade for another advance. Jack swung again, just as Vallidore leapt at him. A slight whimper was heard when Jack cut Vallidore on the side of his leg.
Jack addressed his adversary. “I must say, you’re sure taking your sweet time about dying, aren’t you? Let’s speed things up a bit, shall we? I have an appointment I intend to keep.”
“The only appointment you’ll be keeping is with the grave!” Vallidore’s wit kicked in.
“We shall see!” Jack drew back into a defensive stance. He was prepared to strike at any moment.
Vallidore was a great and valiant warrior, but Jack was something that very few could truly handle. Misjudge him by his size, and that would be the last mistake you ever made. There was a special line of warriors known as The Protectors who were trained to handle a threat like Jack. Vallidore knew that he needed to find at least one of The Protectors if he were to truly stop a villain like Frost.
Vallidore growled and crouched into an attack posture of his own. The wolf hoped that Jack would assume he was going to pounce. The plan was that he would leap for the exit as soon as Jack made his move.
However, Jack was smarter than Vallidore gave him credit. The wicked red panda was a master strategist, and he knew Vallidore would attempt an escape. Jack played along, and ran toward Vallidore. The wolf leapt toward the exit, but got the wind knocked out of him when a surprise attack came from seemingly nowhere. Jack kicked Vallidore square in the chest, struck him again on the snout, and then cut the wolf yet again. The final bladed strike opened a wound on the side of Vallidore’s face.
The three swift attacks knocked Vallidore to the ground. The wolf lay on the cold stone, dazed and out of breath. He looked up and saw Jack approach. The red panda stood on some collapsed stones. Now elevated above the wolf, Jack turned the point of his sword downward. He prepared to finish Vallidore, once and for all.