Chapter 24
“Nixie!” I screamed,
lunging myself into the water, not even thinking what could be down there. I held my breath and opened my eyes as I saw
Nixie being dragged deeper and deeper by that blur. I struggled to swim deeper until I could
finally make out what that blur was, and I couldn’t believe it! It was a
Crognard! I was screaming with fear on
the inside, but I knew I had to face my fears of the Crognard in order to save
Nixie.
The Crognards all looked the same as
this one did. They all were about two
inches tall with a slouch and covered in warts.
Their teeth were razor sharp and covered in a greenish slime which oozed
down their hideous scale covered faces.
They were a light grey color, with keen, vicious eyes which were
completely black except for a small corner in their eye which was a light gray
but not white. They had three toes and
four dagger like claws which came in quite handy when gripping onto the soggy
grass under the water. They didn’t have
much for clothing but an old, cracked turtle shell. They also held giant clubs with oozing rocks
at the tops of them as their backup weapon if their teeth and claws failed.
My lungs began to sting as I had been
under water for about a minute at that point.
I reached as far as I could and finally I grabbed hold of Nixie’s
dangling hand. She looked back at me
with panic in her eyes, and at that moment I could tell…she was giving up on
me. My eyes welled up with tears even
though I was under water as I yanked on Nixie’s hand, pulling her free of the
Crognard’s piercing claws. I swam as
fast as I could up to the surface, my lungs were throbbing, my chest felt like
a boulder, and things were starting to go black and blurry. I knew I was hallucinating and needed to get
to the surface and fast! It took another
long, painful, and agonizing minute before both Nixie and I broke through the
surface of the water like a popping bubble.
I threw Nixie’s limp body to the shore before I gagged, gasping for as
much of the sweet stinging air I could.
I swam over to the side of the stream where I finally heaved myself out
of the water. I looked back thinking we
were in the clear, but we weren’t. The
Crognard’s snarling teeth pierced out of the water snapping and screeching as
it began to swim towards us. I looked
over at Nixie who was lying motionless on the grass with her eyes closed and
her body limp. I knew she wouldn’t be
able to move in this condition so I picked her up from under her legs and back,
then I ran for all I was worth.
I ran for what felt like
forever until I finally reached a small walnut hut with a bright pink orchid on
the door and a sign that said “Nixie residence” spelled in pink glitter.
“Thank
goodness,” I sighed a sigh of relief before entering the home and placing Nixie
down on her bed made of pink rose petals and pulled a petal blanket over
her. As Nixie slept I made my way out to
the small living room where I wrote a letter to Gwen and sent it out on a
ladybug as soon as I could.
