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Jasmine and Bagheera emerged from the forest onto the beach. Kronk had worked diligently trying to repair the shelter but the damage was clear. "We heard thunder. What happened?" Jasmine asked him.
"A demon!" shouted Frollo from the shade of a nearby tree. "That's what happened!"
Kronk glanced at Frollo then back to Jasmine. "Frollo says it's a demon. About yea tall. Looked like a shadow with horns." The big man pointed at the spot where the apparition had appeared. "I thought it might be a deer."
Bagheera inquired if anyone was hurt at the same time Jasmine asked where Elsa was. Kronk started bringing them up to speed before Frollo interrupted again. "It's this cursed island!" he insisted. "It's cursed!"
"Yeah," replied Kronk. "You said 'cursed' twice there."
Frollo stormed over to the crude structure, ignoring Kronk's efforts. "This!" He shoved out one of the support beams causing the makeshift roof to sink inwards. It wasn't the visual punctuation he'd been aiming for, but his point was made nonetheless. "This is futile! We don't need shelter! We need to get away from this place!"
"And where do you think there is to go?" said Jasmine. "Do you think the open ocean would be kinder?"
Frollo pulled himself up to his full height so he could look down at Jasmine. "Little girl, I've seen things."
"We've all seen things." She stepped around him to engage Kronk again. "Which way did Tarzan take Elsa?"
Kronk gestured towards the closest mountain range. "You know, whatever that thing was, it told us to run."
"It spoke?"
Kronk nodded. "Came through. Made eye contact. Said 'Run!' And then the cabin split apart."
Jasmine shot Frollo a look. "That's awfully considerate of a demon."
"I know what I saw!" barked Frollo.
"And you're also doing nothing!"
Bagheera snickered to himself. Jasmine had certainly gotten the upper hand on that argument. The panther was secretly hoping the humans would come to the conclusion on their own that Frollo was dead weight, and they'd all be better off without him. But he'd also come to accept the reality that man was a pack animal. So it came as no surprise to him when Jasmine announced she was going after Tarzan and Elsa. "I'd better come along then," said the cat.
Kronk dropped his club on the ground. "Yeah, me too." He turned to Frollo who was still grumbling. "You coming, big guy?"
The forceful 'no' came as expected, and Jasmine led her party out of sight.
"Fools," muttered Frollo once they were gone. They could fumble around in the wilderness all they wanted. It would be their own lives with which they were gambling. He wanted no part of it.
So what was he going to do then? There was the small building just up the beach that he'd previously claimed as his own before everyone started showing up. He thought he might lock himself away in it. Of course there was no door but he could probably find enough rocks around the beach to build a barricade.
Frollo started walking. The distance from where he was to his destination seemed longer than before. Perhaps it was the uncompromising tide that that kept dousing the sand, but it felt like his feet were sinking deeper with each step than they actually were. He pressed on through sheer grit before having to lean against a huge rock to catch his breath.
"You fools!" he bellowed again towards the now vacated spot Jasmine and the others had been. Leaving and old man like him to the wilderness, it was on their heads if something happened to him.
A wave lapped at Frollo's ankles, and he got this unpleasant notion in his head that the ocean was tasting him. He tried stepping away, but the suction underneath his foot held him in place. Frollo jerked with all of his strength and spilled himself sideways into the dry sand. "Curse this island!" He struggled to his feet, flailing sand everywhere including in his own mouth. "Curse this wretched island!" he spat.
There was an explosion. Coming from the direction of the mountain range. The peak was surrounded by a cloud of blackness that had not been there moments before. And from within came the screech of some...creature. Some ancient bird from Hell itself. Every instinct in Frollo told him to turn away, but his eyes became transfixed on the orange glow that penetrated the cloud. From two places. Eyes. Staring into his soul.
He uncontrollably mouthed the words "What the devil?" as his voice failed him. The creature's destruction was spreading. Burning the trees. And heading straight for him. And Frollo was frozen in his spot.
"Run you idiot!" came the voice of another. It was the panther. Frollo hadn't been aware of the beast's approach. The other two were close behind, running for dear life.
"Kronk!" called Jasmine. "Grab Frollo!"
The large man gave her a quick salute. "On it!"
Frollo found himself lifted off the ground with Kronk's shoulder bouncing violently into his abdomen. But all Frollo could focus on was the wave of molten mass that was inevitably going to outrun them. He closed his eyes, feeling the heat licking at his face. Then a flash of a memory. Something he'd forgotten. Some terrible, terrible sense that he'd been in this situation before. "God have mercy-" was all he could say before he felt his body immersed in the ocean and his mouth filled with sea water.
Meg had been fruitlessly poring through one of the many books the mansion had to offer when she felt a distant tremor. The overhead chandelier was wobbling ever so slightly. She looked across the grand table at Alice, who'd been flipping through a stack at three times Meg's speed. "Did you feel that?"
Alice nodded. "If Maleficent speaks the truth about this place, we may be in danger from the elements themselves."
Meg shut the book with an audible thump and tossed it aside. "Okay, I'm through fumbling around in the darkness."
"What do you propose, Miss Meg?"
"We need a plan. Anything to improve our odds."
"Would it not be more advisable to remain where we are? At least one person knows we're here."
The two of them froze as another sound rolled from the direction of the tremor. It was very far away from them, but it was unmistakably inhuman; part song, part laugh, but more haunting than anything. They waited silently for the apparition to subside before speaking again.
"Lilies," Meg leaned forward, "Maleficent doesn't care about us. We're only going to see her again if she thinks we're valuable, or expendable."
"So you view her as a chess master," said Alice. "And we're her pawns?"
"I don't know what that means, but for the foreseeable future it looks like it's just us."
Alice turned the book she's been looking at around so it faced Meg and slid it over to her. "Miss Meg, can you read the words on the third line?"
Meg glanced down at the utter nonsense in front of her. "Yes. It means nothing."
"Can you humor me? I'm testing a theory."
Meg grumbled as she took the book. "Zip-a-dee-" She shot Alice a glare. "Doo-dah?"
"Please, Miss Meg. It's important."
Meg rolled her eyes and kept reading. "Zip-a-dee-ay. My, oh my, what a wonderful day."
Alice slowly lowered her eyes.
"Is that good enough for you?" asked Meg.
"Yes," Alice answered in a hush. "That settles it."
"What settles what?"
"If you're reading it the same way I am, this isn't a dream."
Meg threw her hands up. "That's what I've been telling you! How are you still-"
She cut herself off when tears appeared in Alice's eyes. Oh good move Meg, she thought. I just broke the soul of a twelve year old.
Meg came around the table to put her arms around Alice, who trembled in the embrace. "Doll," she said, "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I'm sorry."
"I just held onto hope that this was all a dream," Alice whimpered,
"Yeah, you've got to hold onto something."
"I'm frightened, Miss Meg."
Meg gave her a gentle squeeze. "Me too, kid. It's why I've been lashing out. And it's really not helping, is it?"
"I know what that was out there, Miss Meg. That wailing?" Alice swallowed hard. "That was a banshee."
Meg smiled. "I've seen worse than banshees."
"It's not what a banshee is, but what it prefaces that could prove disagreeable."
Meg helped Alice up from the seat. "Then we agree to disagree."
Alice looked up at her, still with sadness in her eyes but a small giggle in her throat. "I'm glad I don't have to be alone, Miss Meg."
"And I'm grateful to be trapped with somebody smarter than me," Meg winked.
Continue to Chapter Twelve
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