“She just stunned him,” Faye reassured her. “He isn’t dead. Don’t lose hope.”
They both looked up at the towering sea witch. She stood about twenty feet tall. She was surrounded in her swirling black cape, a wind whirlpooling around her, kicking up snow and ice as she raised her hands in the air, chanting something in another language.
“You didn’t tell me she was such a large woman,” Faye whispered in her direction.
“She isn’t normally,” Coral said. “She must have done something to herself.” She was trying to figure it out, to assess the situation–Redd standing before the ever growing witch with just her sword to arm her, Jake suspended in a bubble. She and Faye needed a plan, quick.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something in Faye’s hands. The fairy ran forward a few steps and hurled something in the direction of the witch.
Coral watched as a giant snowball hit the witch right between the eyes.
“Take that, you big old meanie!”
Redd let out a maniacal laugh and high-fived Faye.
She was fighting a witch with crazy women. Jake was right. She was going to die.
Redd motioned for her. “Come on, Coral, we need your help!”
She took a tentative step forward. The witch was reeling and roaring from the snowball. But then the light from the moon glinted off of something around the sea witch’s neck. Coral was struck with a thought.
“The amulet!” she yelled and pointed to the charm hanging around the sea witch’s neck. She turned towards Redd. “Her weakness! That’s where her power comes from.”
Coral saw the determination in Redd’s eyes as she nodded at her.
“Now we have something to aim for!” Redd smiled back at her.
“If I shrink her down, can you get at her necklace?” Faye asked.
Redd’s hair glimmered in the moonlight as she nodded. “Yes. Get that witch on the Keto Diet! Shrink her down a few sizes!”
Coral and Redd stood back as Faye brought herself directly in front of the Sea Witch. She closed her eyes andpointed her wand at the hag. The wind intensified and there was a crack of thunder in the distance. Faye’s blonde hair lifted off of her shoulders as the air swept around her.
Coral was blinded by a bright flash of light, and a loud bang went off as she and Redd hit the cold, hard ground. Glancing up, she saw the witch had not shrunk in size but was now a giant crab. She scurried back and forth in front of them as she snapped her claws.
Redd pulled Coral to her feet as Faye approached them. “That wasn’t what I was going for, sorry. I think I still have some wires crossed.”
A howling wind came whipping past them, throwing ice and snow in their eyes, temporarily blinding them. As they turned their backs to the wind, waiting for it to calm, Coral fingered the dagger in her pocket.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Redd piped up as soon as the wind subsided.
Faye and Redd advanced on the sea witch crab, but Coral’s feet stalled. She looked up again, hoping her eyes were deceiving her.Where was Jake?He no longer floated in a bubble overhead. Panic overtook her.
“Jake!” she screamed. “Where is he?”
Faye stopped with her wand raised in midair. She looked straight up where the bubble that had held Jake had been just moments ago.
Redd raised her sword. “I found him.” She sounded determined as she squared off against the giant sea witch crab.
Coral’s eyes shot up to where Redd had trained her gaze.Jake!The witch had him ensnared in one of her claws, and his body hung limply.
“Take me instead!” she screamed at the witch.
“Coral, no,” Faye whispered beside her. “She’ll kill you both.”
The defeat and helplessness Coral saw in her friend’s facesent her into a rage. She leapt forward, pulling the dagger from her pocket and aiming at one of the giant crab legs. The dagger thudded uselessly against the hard shell, and Coral fell backwards upon impact.
The sea witch crab let out an angry sounding cry. Coral looked from where she lay on the frozen ground to see Jake writhing in her grasp. His complexion turned ashen as he struggled against the claw that held him.
