Chapter 9
The Last Vase
"Um, excuse me," said a hoarse voice that sounded like it belonged to an old man.
Peggy and the others looked up.
"Did you just talk?" Peggy asked the old school house.
"Indeed," the school house replied.
The school was a magic one, so of course there'd be at least one talking building somewhere.
"It appears you are hunting down a vase with some really weird magic put on it," the school house said. "When the one in front of me vanished, I could sense the magic on it fly to the main administration building. That is likely where you will find your target."
"So the vase is at the admin building," said Peggy. "Thanks, Mr. School House."
"You're welcome," replied the old building.
After a bit of running, at long last, Peggy reached her destination: the admin building where she was supposed to give cookies to one of the school's big honchos. Alan took the lead and showed the others into the building. Once they entered the circular lobby with marble flooring and decorated with glass shelves containing lots of gold trophies and medals, the gang went straight to asking around about the vase. They had no luck with most of the students and teachers passing by. But then, they came across a janitor lugging around a bucket and mop who said they spotted what looked like a walking vase at the third floor.
With that tidbit, Peggy, Alan and Aria hurried up to the third floor as fast as they could without running. They were in a school after all, and rushing up or down the stairs is dangerous. Once in the third floor, they split up to cover more ground. Aria went left while Peggy and Alan went right.
The floor they were on had a whole bunch of fancy, expensive-looking vases. But none of them had baby legs.
Alan looked around as he and Peggy walked down the hall, turning his head left and right over and over again so fast that Peggy became afraid that his head might snap off.
"Ugh!" Frustrated, Alan groaned. "Where is it?"
"Don't worry," Peggy said. "Everything will be fine. We'll find it."
"How do you know?" Alan snapped. "For all we know, the thing could have fallen and smashed to pieces already!"
"If that did happen, we'd have heard about it," Peggy reasoned. "The fact everything's still biz as usual means that the vase is probably still okay."
"But for how much longer?" Alan asked. "We need to find it fast!"
That was when the door flew open and a man in a dull-blue Japanese kimono stepped out from one of the rooms. There was a pair of yellow cones poking out of his messy black hair, which turned out to be horns. And although a white mask covered his whole face, Peggy could tell by the sound of his voice that he was irritated.
"What is all this noise about?" the horned man demanded to know. "What are you doing out here in the hall, Young Alan?"
"Professor Kikawa!" Alan exclaimed. "Sorry, sir."
"Hmph." The man folded his arms over his chest. "While an apology is called for, that does not answer my questions."
"Well, you see . . ." Leaving out certain details that could make the masked teacher freak out, Alan explained how he and Peggy had been looking for a runaway vase.
Professor Kikawa looked at Alan and sighed. "So that was your doing. If you're talking about that big, gaudy-looking thing with the weirdo, creepy baby legs, I saw it running down the hall that way."
Alan glanced down the hall and then thanked the teacher before running full steam ahead. But before Peggy joined him, there was something she had to ask.
"Hey, Professor Kikawa, was it? How come you didn't do anything about the vase?"
Professor Kikawa shrugged.
"This is a magic school and I'm too busy to deal with whatever weird thing happens every day," he said. "Why? Was that vase something important?"
"Uh . . . No?" Realizing that Alan could get in big trouble if the truth got out, Peggy lied.
"Hmmm." Professor Kikawa rubbed his chin doubtfully.
"A-anyway, thanks for the help, teach!"
Peggy bid the teacher farewell and bid a hasty escape. She soon caught up with Alan and together, they turned a corner.
"There!" Alan cried out. "I see it!"
He pointed to the top of a trophy case where the vase jumped and kicked. It kind of looked like it was playing Kung Fu. No surprise there since the trophy case had pictures of kids sparring fists in a ring.
Alan swung his net down, but the vase jumped aside and escaped capture. It, then, jumped off the trophy case and bounced off Alan's face.
"Ow!" He cried out as the vase did a back flip and landed on the floor.
Rubbing his sore nose, Alan grumbled, "Why you little-!"
Alan swung his net down over and over again, but the vase dodged each and every time. And then it ran around Alan, scurrying off to who-knows-where.
"Hey!" Alan cried out. "Get back here!"
He ran after the vase and Peggy ran after him. All three passed by a door that happened to open at the same time, and out came Daisy and her crew of student helpers.
As soon as Daisy saw Peggy, she cried out, "Ah! There you are!"
Peggy didn't notice and kept on running.
"Hey, wait!" Daisy shouted indignantly. "Come on, you guys! After her!"
The redhead human boy, the black-haired elf girl, and the orange-furred werecat girl all had looks that said, "Do we have to?" But one angry glare from Daisy answered their question. Together, they put the pedal to the metal and chased after Peggy with all their might.
It was a parade of chaos that traveled through the third floor hallway led by an expensive-looking vase that ran on human baby legs while kids and adults screamed at it and each other to stop. Peggy and Alan took turns swiping at the vase with their nets, but could not come close to catching the surprisingly nimble and bouncy thing that hopped and danced without a missing a beat.
Seriously, where in the world did that thing learn to move like that? Peggy wondered as she stopped to catch her breath. Alan still had not given up yet, but his arms were moving noticeably slower. At this rate, she thought, they were never going to catch that vase.
Just then, Peggy felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around to see Daisy behind her, along with a group of kids, all breathless and sweating like they had just finished running a marathon (which they kind of did).
"Daisy?" Peggy exclaimed in surprise.
"Finally, I've got you!" Daisy gasped. "Now, let's hurry up and get that package delivered to Director - !"
Peggy cut her off and shouted, "Great timing! We could really use your help!"
Confused, Daisy blinked and went, "Huh?"
"We got a runaway vase, super expensive," Peggy said. "We need to catch it or there'll be big trouble!"
"Wait, what vase? What trouble?" Daisy had no idea what was going on and could only ask questions left unanswered. The kids she brought along, however, quickly snapped into action.
"There! I see it!" shouted the redhead boy. "Isn't that the vase the king gave the school?"
"I got it!" said the black-haired elf. She waved her wand and water flew out from a nearby flower put. The water soared straight towards the vase. But instead of hitting the vase, the water slammed against the floor where its feet had been. The vase had seen the water coming and jumped away just in time.
"Hey! Careful not to break it!" Peggy shouted.
"I know," said the elf. She waved her wand again and the water changed into a bird cage made of ice. The elf tried to drop the cage over the vase, but again, the vase escaped capture.
"Let me help!" the werecat volunteered.
Together, the girls threw spell after spell at the vase. But much like how Peggy and Alan's teamwork went, they failed to catch it. The vase just jumped and danced away from flashes of light, falling ice cages, and hands made of stone popping out of the floor each and every time.
After escaping the grasp of a stone hand, the vase jumped onto a railing post. But the post was capped by a ball-shaped top, so the vase slipped and fell.
"No!" Alan cried out.
He dropped his net and dove forward. With his outstretched hands, he caught the vase. But his efforts left him hovering precariously over the stairs, barely hanging on the edge of the top step.
"Whoa! Whoa!"
The sudden weight on his arms caused him to dip further out to the bottom of the stairs. He tried to pull himself back, but all that wobbling did was buy him a little time. It was not enough to stop him from plunging head first.
Luckily for Alan, Peggy saw he was in trouble and lunged to save him. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him back to safety. But the force she used to pull Alan from the stairs threw her right over it, and she fell.
Oh no! She thought. I'm so gone!
In her eyes, the stairs flew right up to her face. She could hear someone scream out her name, and then -
Something roared in her ears, like a deep gust of wind. Everything around her turned black and white and she stopped falling. Instead, she just floated in the air as if someone had flipped a switch and turned off the world's gravity.
Peggy blinked in disbelief.
"I'm saved?"
"Peggy!"
She snapped back to reality and looked up to see Alan, Daisy and three others piled atop the stairs wearing worried looks on their fhere. Alan hugged the vase close to his chest as it kicked its baby legs out furiously. Some unknown time ago, Aria also showed up and was fluttering by Alan's head.
First things first, Peggy thought. Let's get out of here.
This was her third time flying in Zero Gravity and putting her past experiences to use, she swam back to the others. Daisy and Alan reached out their hands and took hold of Peggy's as they pulled her in.
"Thanks," she said. "I'd be a goner if one of you didn't cast that magic spell."
Daisy, Alan and the others exchanged looks.
"I didn't cast that spell," said Daisy.
"Neither did I," said Aria. "I just showed up."
"My hands were full," said Alan.
The trio that tagged along with Daisy all shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders.
"If it was none of you, then who . . . ?"
Peggy trailed off when she noticed something come from below the stairs. She could hear rhythmic metallic rattling get closer and closer, and then he appeared. A tall man covered from head to toe in big, bulky metal that made him appear broad-shouldered and strong. His face was also covered by the helmet he wore, but Peggy could tell the armored figure was a man by the sound of his voice.
"What are you all doing up here?" he asked. He spoke in a gentle, but also stern way, fitting his commanding appearance.
Who is he? Just as Peggy wondered that, Daisy spoke up and stammered, "Ch-chief Director Stonecrest! Y-you see . . ."
While Daisy struggled to explain herself to the armored figure, Peggy stared in amazement and thought, THAT is Stonecrest, the school's chief director? Instead of teaching kids, he looked more like he was going to war.
When Daisy was done, the armored man simply nodded and then turned to speak with Peggy.
"You are Miss Lau, correct?" he said.
Peggy nodded.
"It looks like some of my students caused you trouble," Stonecrest continued. "For that, I am deeply sorry."
Flustered at having someone bow their head to her, Peggy stammered, "Oh! It's okay. Really! It's fine!"
And then it was Alan's turn to speak with the school director.
"That vase in you arms, is that the present from the king?" Stonecrest asked.
"I-it is," Alan said.
"I wondered where that went," said Stonecrest.
He snapped his fingers and the vase disappeared from Alan's arms in a flash of light, only to reappear in Stonecrest's hand. And then he tossed it over his shoulder.
"Ah!" Peggy and Alan both yelled out in dismay. After all that hard work chasing the vase and tryingtokeep it safe, they were horrified to see it chucked away like a piece of garbage.
The vase, however, safely fell into a black hole that appeared below it and disappeared.
"Is something wrong?" Stonecrest asked.
"N-no, it's nothing," said Peggy.
Stonecrest went, "Hm."
"Say," whispered the redhead boy. "Was it okay to let that vase keep those creepy baby legs?"
The elf girl shrugged.
Daisy hissed, "Shush!" And then she spoke up and said, "A-anyway, Peggy, don't you have a package to give to the chief director?"
"Oh, right!" With all that chaos earlier, Peggy had nearly forgotten what she was here to do in the first place. She held up the paper bag full of cookies she had been clinging to this whole time and said, "Special delivery."
**********
"I'm back!" Peggy announced as she walked into the coffee shop.
"Welcome back," said the Boss. He was standing behind the counter wiping down a cup. "How'd it go with Stonecrest?"
"It went swell," Peggy replied. She dropped down onto a chair, sank down, and groaned.
"Sure doesn't look like it went swell," Boss said. "Something happen?"
"Well, I kind of ended up lost and had to help some kids chase around a runaway antique," said Peggy.
"A runaway antique?" Boss raised an eyebrow.
"It's a long story," said Peggy.
"I bet it is," said Boss. "Anyway, good work. You can clock out and take the rest of the day off. You deserve the break."
"I'll take you up on that," Peggy said.
After putting her name tag on the bar counter, she trudged to the back room to get her things. When she closed the door behind her, Boss went over and picked the name tag up. In his hand, the oval-shaped piece of wood shimmered like it was covered in colorful and sparkly glitter.
"Hmm." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Figures something would happen," he muttered to himself. Something always happen at those magic schools. That's why Boss never signed up George to learn at Paladia. "It's a good thing I made these name tags double as magical protective charms. Who knows what could have happened, otherwise?"
No comments:
Post a Comment