Lala could see from her position in the back, Tamas and Jasssper rising on the ferris wheel inside the flaming cart. That was the last obstacle before the finish line. Ironwood was climbing up the wheel right toward them. Despite every cart being on fire to prevent Ironwood from doing exactly what she was doing (standing on the cart), her fire-resistant armor gave her permission to do so.

  Tamas and Jasssper poked their heads out and watched as Ironwood jumped from one cart to the other.

  “She’s getting clossser,” Said Jasssper.

  “Do you have your venom back?” Tamas asked.

  “Yesss,” Jasssper said, “What magic can you cassst with no music?”

  “I have cantrips. Tiny spells I have gained such mastery that I can use them at will. But they are small. Throw Voice. Vicious Mockery. Things of that nature.”

  “Ahh,” Said Jasssper, “Thossse will not fair well against Ironwood.”

  “Guess we’re stuck,” Said Tamas.

  “Yessss.”

  “Jasssper, I just want you to know… I never really got why people didn’t like you. You know?

  Jasssper turned to Tamas with tears in his eyes and said, “I’m going to get you out of here alive, even if it killsss me.”

  Lala jumped on one of the lava hippos’ back. Lava hippos were incredibly violent. Even though they were made entirely out of stone, they were descendants of water hippos.

  They were born on the base of Mad Mountain before Mad Mountain came to be.. They were just normal hippos until the pathway to hell emerged. The surrounding area’s ecology changed. Almost all the hippos died out except for the few who had a recessive infernal gene. This presence of hell activated in them a self-cast of the petrification spell, thus evolving them into lava hippos. They bred an in fact when there was talk of taking over Shangra, the Dark Lord considered bringing on lava hippos as potential deterrents, by placing them on a surrounding lava moat, before Davilo talked him out of what would have been a terrible idea.

  As Lala jumped from one lava hippo to another, none of that history permeated her brain. She merely used them as a moving stone path, completely unknowing that these creatures descended from the semi-aquatic mammals. These particular hippos were brought in for this very fight, but soon after this fight, the king would have trouble selling them off.*

  Lala finally arrived at the flaming Ferris wheel. Tamas and Jasssper were nearly at the apex. Ironwood slid down the strut back to the center. She noticed Lala catching a cart. The Ferris wheel operated like a big bicycle, with a large chain being operated on by many unseen servants. Ironwood grabbed her sword and powered it up with magic. It bled red, and she spoke the spell quietly, “Wrathful Bite.” She slashed down on the thick chain.

  The chain snapped, and the Ferris wheel slowed to a stop. Keeping Jasssper and Tamas stuck in their cart, perpendicular to the ground and at the highest point in the entire city.

  “Oh, brother,” Said Tamas, “Do you think I could charm her without any magic?”

  Jasssper looked at the potbellied Satyr and said, “Maybe with your personality.”

  Tamas smiled. He looked out the cart and said, “Hey! So…………………………………………………………………………….. do you like music?”

  “No.”

  The two would tear like tissue under Ironwood’s power. She merely needed to get to them. For that, she could use her excess power. Ironwood powered her sword once more.

  “Oh no.” Jasssper said, “Her classss. She’s borrowing that power from something heinous.”

  “Even if she is a warlock, she’s, like, too powerful.”

  “Wrathful Bite.”

  Ironwood sliced the spoke. The cut-off arms fell, pulling the cart that Jasssper and Tamas were on and dragging the weight of the cart down on the wheel.

  “Tamasss, we have to evacuate,” Jasssper said.

  Tamas took one step out, “We have to jump to the next cart. But we can’t make it. Not with what little jump we have.”

  Jasssper shook his head, “After that day… I made a promise with mysssself. But just this once… I must break that promisssse. Just this once… I must become rope again.”

  “Own it, brother.” Tamas grabbed the end of Jasssper’s head.

  “Ahh! No! Grab the tail!” Tamas spun Jasssper around over his head by the snake’s neck. As the cart began to pull on the wheel’s frame, Tamas leapt off the cart, into the air, sixty feet off the ground. He whipped Jasssper down so that his tail hit the strut beneath them. Jasssper’s tail wrapped around the metal pole, and Tamas swung under him. They hung off the end of the strut as the cart fell and crashed onto the spoke they were on.

  They, once again, gave way to free-fall. Tamas swung Jasssper’s tail at a flaming cart parallel to the ground. The tail wrapped around the cart’s hinge, and they dangled in the air.

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  “You did it, Jassspeer! You’ve become rope once more!”

  “AHHGHGHHGHGH!” Jasssper struggled to breathe. Tamas reached over and grabbed a higher part of the snake’s abdomen. Then he reached up and grabbed another part. Then he squeezed the wrong part.

  “Careful there!”

  “Almost done!” Tamas said. He pulled himself up but couldn’t get onto the flaming cart. He lifted his leg and placed his hoof on the end of the strut. He was able to wrap himself around the spoke he was on. Jasssper joined him, wrapping himself on the parallel tong.

  “We’re stuck up here, though, right?”

  Jasssper said, “Right.”

  Ironwood silently cursed herself. She would have to go up there and kill them herself.

  “Makes you wonder, though, who gave her the deal?” asked Tamas.

  “As long as it’s not the demoness of rage, we can perhaps appeal to her patron.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Her name isss Demonica.”

  “Demonica STRIDE!” Screamed Ironwood, and she bound up the spoke toward Tamas and Jasssper.

  “Jasssper, I got bad news for you,” Tamas said.

  Lala stared up from the stuck cart at Ironwood scaling the wheel. She felt hopeless. She placed her head against the cart, wondering what she could do. She saw the structure on fire and remembered her time with Davilo, the last combat she’d seen. Being in that powerful a fight with someone that strong raised her level. Suddenly she felt like an idiot. She still hadn’t chosen her new power. She opened her options again and clicked on the one that immediately spoke to her. Then she spoke it aloud.

  “Ultimate move: Perfect Replica”

  Power surged through her body. The kind of power she had never felt. Her body created muscles and strength unknowable to the average human. The clothes on her body hardened to metal. They expanded, from the simple fabric to a hardened fire-resistant steel, down to the sharp jagged points with teal accents. Her hair gained its volume back, her eyes became blue again, and the metal continued to expand above her neck and over her head, encasing her face.

  The announcer from up above spoke to the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, a second Ironwood has entered the match!”

  Lala lifted her arm, and the exact same sword, down to the engraving on her handle. Lala looked at it. Arribela. She had become a perfect replica of Ironwood, down to borrowing Demonica’s power.

  Ironwood looked down at her, “So… first you take my sister’s image… now you take mine. Filthy changeling.”

  Lala felt a boost that Tamas couldn’t even come close to. She bounced on the balls of her feet. She leapt out of the window of the cart and onto the roof. Lala noticed something out of the corner of her eye, it was a counter that said 45 seconds. Lala had no time to waste. She placed her foot along the spoke and ejected her body upward.

  Tamas wobbled to his feet as Ironwood took her sword out and raised it. He grabbed his steel-framed lute and held it up as a parry. Ironwood sliced down on it, cutting it in half.

  “Aw, man. That was from the Feywild.”

  Ironwood lifted her sword again, and Jasssper wrapped himself around Ironwood’s leg. Tightening, making his way up to some exposed flesh, hoping to bite into it. Ironwood grabbed him and squeezed him.

  Ironwood lifted her sword again and sliced down on Tamas. She introduced a big open gash into his belly, knocking him over. He fell off and screamed as he fell toward the lava. Lala extended her hand and caught Tamas in mid-air. She placed him back on the Ferris wheel. She pointed at the finish line on the higher floor, “Climb up that wheel and get to the finish line.”

  Tamas slid down the spoke to the center and attempted to climb the inclined arm of the Ferris wheel, grabbing onto the edges using his little goat feet. He scuttled toward the finish line.

  Ironwood approached Jasssper; he bared his fangs. Lala harnessed Demonica’s rage into her conjured sword, having it glow red.

  “Wrathful Bite” Lala sliced the beginning of the spoke that Ironwood and Jasssper were on. It creaked as it stirred in its position.

  “Lala!” Jasssper screamed, “Lala, what are you trying to do!? I’m on here!”

  “Sorry, Jasssper!” Yelled Lala, “I need to save you somehow!”

  Ironwood felt the iron spoke of the ferris wheel starting to creak, and could feel the weight of the thing coming down much faster now that the wheel’s framework had been compromised. She ran along the side of the spoke and jumped up as cart fell to be eaten by the lava below. Ironwood was now face-to-face with Lala.

  “Looks like you’re little friend died,” Ironwood spoke.

  Lala pointed to Ironwood’s foot, where Jasssper clung to it, coiled and shaking.

  “No, he’s a slippery little guy.” Said Lala.

  Jasssper uncoiled himself. Ironwood went to strike, but Lala’s speed was equal to Ironwood’s. She held her sword to Ironwood’s neck.

  “That’s a doozy of a spell. How long do you have with it?”

  Lala looked up at the counter on the right side of her vision. It said about 20 seconds left.

  She turned to Jasssper, “Go! If you cross that finish line, the game’s over. I‘ll distract her.”

  Jasssper climbed up toward the finish line.

  Ironwood watched him go, “How long?”

  “How long had you been living in my sister’s body?”

  Ironwood struck Lala’s sword with hers. They clanged blades as the structure of the Ferris wheel disintegrated.

  Tamas made it past the finish line.

  Jasssper was climbing up, but as he was, Lala struck at Ironwood, who jumped out of the way. Lala’s sword landed on the strut Jasssper was climbing up. Jasssper clung on, but the damage had been done; he was about to go down. Tamas reached out as Jasssper raced to the end of the arm.

  Lala and Ironwood did battle, “You took my sister from me.”

  “I AM your sister!” Lala yelled.

  “No, you’re not. You’re some changeling. Some monster that plucked her away from me!”

  Ironwood leapt out and slashed Lala’s conjured armor. Lala fell backward onto the Ferris wheel’s center.

  “Replica doesn’t mean you suddenly have blade skills. Die.”.

  Lala took a wobbly step forward. Ironwood flicked her wrist and disarmed her. The conjured sword flew into the air, it came down, and when it reached a twenty-foot distance, it disappeared.

  Lala looked at her screen; her time was up.

  Ironwood placed her blade to Lala’s neck.

  Lala’s armor turned back into her normal clothes. But she remained in her favorite shift. She remained Arribela.

  “When did you take her?” She asked again, impatient.

  “Since birth,” Arribela whispered.

  Ironwood took a step back, staring at Lala, her silence urging her to continue.

  “My mother… my changeling mother… placed me next to you since I was a baby. It’s always been me. I’ve always been Arribela. I was never as good at being Arribela as you were at being Marisola. I needed your help to invite me along with you. I needed you to make friends. And for years I didn’t have you. For years, I was away from my sister, knowing that she hated me. I was… never quite right without you.”

  “LEAP!” Tamas yelled to Jasssper. Although he had no legs, he coiled his body up and launched himself as the arm fell down.

  Jasssper made it. Tamas and he ran across the finish line. The buzzer went off. The winners had been announced, and yet Ironwood and Lala were still standing, Lala’s hands up as Ironwood had her blade to her adopted sister’s neck.

  “You’re my sister,” Ironwood said.

  “It’s… my favorite form in the whole world.”

  Ironwood pulled down her sword. She opened her helmet to reveal her perfect replica of her sister’s face, with tears in her eyes, “Arribela?”

  They hugged each other. The strut that Jasssper was on collided into the bar the Ferris wheel rested on for stability. It tilted the entire Ferris wheel, causing it, Lala and Ironwood to fall into the boiling lava.

  *The king would eventually settle on giving the Lava Hippo as an unwieldy gift to people he didn’t like. This legend would, several years down the line, give birth to the Ulmun tradition known as Lava Hippo in which people exchanged trinkets in a game nobody ever really wanted to play. Soon after this romp, The dark lord’s estate would receive a Lava Hippo as a gift for the visit.

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