hands. “Nooo!” She then screeched out. “The Awaking of Spring, darn you, dwarf. Oh well, it is only the Awaking, not Spring itself. I can fix that soon enough.” She saw Gloo run over to the corner of the room and lay down as he put his hooves over his eyes. She looked over at Ice-Ghost and saw that he was thawing out from head to toe, at about the speed a feather would fall. The witched turned to Gloo. “I’m going to deal with you later, mule.”
The Doomalings, sensing the Spring Awaking, began to screech. Their eyes began to widen and turn around and around in their heads. Their bodies began to form marble-sized bubbles under their skins. The bubbles began to move in circles as the doomalings teetered and sputtered. Each, with a wailing screech, jumped off the bed and flew back into the cauldron from whence they had come.
“Rats!” the witch called out, but no rats came.
Ice-Ghost looked over at Christy and asked, “Are you all right?”
Christy cautiously sat up and smiled, “Yes, the Doomalings put their icy snouts on me and I felt cold, but it was Gloo who stopped it.”
Ice-Ghost turned to the witch. “You have the Ice-Crystal, now let us go. You made a promise on the stone.”
“Yes, but you broke the deal when your accomplice Gloo awoke Spring at your bidding.”
“He did not awake spring at my bidding. He did it on his own accord.”
“Well, then, good, good. One bad turn deserves another, as I have always said. Aaah ha ha ha.”
The witch tapped the floor with her wand and a new sheet of ice formed, covering the fractured floor. With the exception of the high large window opening that the crow would fly through, all of the other openings in the walls froze shut. The witch looked around and was pleased.
She stood silent for a moment and then said, “Ghost, I will keep my bargain in the same fashion as you have kept yours.”
The witch raised her wand and the tip of it began to glow. “Excandlia!” she screamed and all of the lights in the room went out. The only thing visible was the witch’s grimacing, cruel face, which was lit by the glow of her wand. Everyone else seemed like darkened figures, except for their eyes.
The witch closed her eyes and summoned her new ally. “Come out, my Sheila Serpentine.”
The witch’s body began to shake and convulse as the smaller snakes on top of her head moved aside. A very large ice snake began to emerge from the top of the witch’s head. Before the snake’s head completely emerged, it paused and flicked its tongue out as if to test the air. Sensing that everything was okay, it slowly continued to slither out. Its strong jaw and eyes were now visible. The serpent slithered out past its neck and then paused to look around the room. It saw its meal, but pretended to pay it no attention. After it had completely slithered out, the witch stopped convulsing and opened her eyes. She addressed Ice-Ghost.
“As I said before, Ghost, one bad turn deserves another, wouldn’t you say? Since I am a lady of my word and oath, I will not harm you or your little friends, but I cannot say the same for Sheila. When I come back from the northern top of the world, I will feed your bodies to my rats. That is, unless Sheila finds them edible. Well, I must be off. Excurpolar,” she said and disappeared.
The room went black and silent. Christy called out to Ice-Ghost and he responded, “Don’t worry, I am here.”
Searching in the dark, Ice-Ghost, found Christy and instructed her. “Hold on to my arm, Christy, and do not let go,” Although he was glad to see that Christy could now walk, he said nothing more.
The penetrating silence hung like a fog until a heavy, grinding, rasping sound was heard as the snake moved toward them. The thick body of the snake rubbed against Christy’s foot as its body began to coil around Ice-Ghost. He fumbled through the pouches on his belt as Sheila’s coils locked his arm to his side. “I’ve got it,” he whispered as Sheila’s coil began to squeeze the arm that held what Ice-Ghost had been searching for. His other arm still remained partially free. Sheila squeezed harder until Ice-Ghost had no choice, but to release what he had in his hand. It was Moldoff’s tooth and the small, shining locket. Both the locket and tooth fell to the ground. Although the locket shone, the rest of the room remained dark. All that anyone could see was that Ice-Ghost was locked in a deadly battle with the gleaming snake, while Christy looked on in horror just a few feet away.
Sheila’s body glistened from the small shining light of the locket. Her transparent skin shone and twinkled with each tiny movement. Each scute of her snakeskin was the size of a five-karat diamond, glistening in the light. Her head had the appearance of smooth crystal. On the sides of her head were large, bulging eyes that had light green circles around them. She had two deadly fangs and at the base of them could be seen a white, milky venom.
Gloo cried out, “No, no, no, what have I done?” as he stared hopelessly at the floor. His gaze wandered until he noticed that there was a bit of the broken vial nearby with a few droplets of Spring Awaking still on it. With a lot of hope and excitement, Gloo began to bray.
Meanwhile, Ice-Ghost was fighting for his life. Miraculously, he had slipped his arm out from Sheila’s death coil. With her head and neck she lunged forward, trying to sink her deadly fangs into Ice-Ghost’s chest. With his free arm, he thwarted her lunges. As she continued to lunge, she tightened her grip even more. Ice-Ghost groaned and leaned forward, falling to the ground and taking the snake with him.
Christy froze, not knowing what to do. Then, she cried out to Gloo. “Gloo, we must do something, please.”
Gloo finally found his voice and, panting heavily, ran over to Christy, “The tooth!”
Christy grabbed the tooth, lunged at the snake and stabbed it repeatedly. The attack did not seem to have any effect on Sheila.
Gloo ran to the broken bottom of the vial. Pointing at it with his ears, he shouted out, “Girl, quick, dip the tooth here, quick!”
Christy noticed for the first time the bit of broken glass and knew what Gloo wanted her to do. With both of his donkey’s ears still pointed at the broken vial, he shouted out, “Hurry, dip it in, dip it.” Christy dipped the tooth in the droplet.
Ice-Ghost could feel some of his bones bending from the pressure of the snake’s coil. With both hands, he struggled to hold back the snake as her fangs got closer to his chest. Not able to bear any more pain, Ice-Ghost let out a large cry, “Aarrrrrggghhh!”
Christy heard Ice-Ghost cry out in pain and, with the dipped tooth, came running back to where Ice-Ghost and Sheila battled. With all her might, she thrust the tooth into Sheila’s head. The tooth pierced, but did not go very deep. Sheila, caught by surprise, released her prey and, with lightning speed, turned and faced Christy.
Standing high on two coils and with eyes blinking, Sheila wondered what this attack meant. Sheila stared at Christy with an almost quizzical look on her face. Then, flicked her icy tongue out and began to lunge forward before suddenly stopping. She paused for a brief moment then leaned back into her upright position. Her mouth gaped open as it made a large “IIIiisshhhssssss” sound. Then in an instant, she began to fracture into thousands of five-karat sized diamonds.
Ice-Ghost remained on the floor, his bruised ribs making it difficult for him to move. Gloo and Christy quickly turned to him.
In frantic voices, they echoed, “Ice-Ghost, Ice-Ghost, are you all right?”
Ice-Ghost stirred and answered, “Yes, I’m okay, just a little bruised, I suppose.”
They searched the dimly lit room for some candles and then lit them.
Christy reluctantly smiled. “The snake fell into fragments because of the Spring Awaking. We are free. Free to go home, Ice-Ghost, wherever our homes may be.”
Ice-Ghost struggled to his feet. “No, I do not think that we can leave. The witch has the ice-crystal of Wintoria. She has already closed the path that leads to your world.”
“How can you be so sure?” Christy asked.
Gloo turned to Christy. “He knows, girl, he knows.”
“Wha
t then should we do?” asked Gloo.
“Only the Ice-Queen can open that path. We can wait at the window that is at the end of the path, but I fear it will never open even though the two worlds are still aligned. Instead, I must go to the northern top of this world and destroy the witch.”
With ears pointed upward, Gloo asked, “Can you do that, Ghost? Do you have that kind of power?”
“No, but I must try and I must hurry before she lifts her Ice-Kingdom from out of the ground.”
Christy’s eyes welled up. “How I do wish I was at home. I am sorry for saying that, but I do.” She looked at Ice-Ghost and said, “I will go with you.”
Ice-Ghost lowered his head and said, “I do not know which is safer, leaving you here or taking you with me. The Doomalings may have frightened the ice-rats away, but I fear that it is only temporary. They will be back. However, it is a long journey to the northern top of the world.”
At this statement, Gloo had a quizzical look on his face. “I don’t know, I don’t know, maybe not. I have never dared to enter into the witch’s cauldron by myself, but I have seen it flown without her being in it. When the renegade we called Waxen Dwarf helped trap Princess Ringold’s mother, he was allowed to use her cauldron. He flew it by himself!”
Christy asked Gloo, “How is that possible? Does the Waxen Dwarf possess magic?”
“No, I think it flew because the witch