I've been hyping up this fight ever since I hinted at the design of the main villain, back in the ''Stuck in the Swamp'' chapter from five months ago! But now it is finally time. Time to settle this once and for all! And the scenario in this picture almost perfectly shows how things go down, as Cloud and I discover a red, glowing light atop one of the circus booths not far from the wooden coaster hills...

-- ''Lay! Look, up there!'', were Cloud's first words, ''that's the creep we encountered back at the ball-throwing tent!'' ''At the game booth square, you mean?'', I replied, more willing to fight anything, ever since shaking off the encounter with the spectre, back inside the ghost house. I didn't get any answer, because Cloud was already heading for the mossy area the tent rested on top of. As fireworks started exploding in the starry skies around us, I followed my friend. A few planks serving as the skeleton for the tent were now exposed to the cold night air by the damage the evil entity had done just ten seconds ago. It knew we were going to chase it down, so it tried to hinder our progress in an attempt to escape. However, Cloud did something smart that I really did not see coming -- he ran towards the exposed wood, hang from it with both his forepaws, and swung himself into the air as if he were Donkey Kong. As more fireworks illuminated the area around us, I went after Cloud, doing so by using some loose pieces of whatever material the tent was made of. ''Lay! I'll give you a paw!'', Cloud shouted at me, trying to make his voice clear above all the noise of the fireworks. I jumped, and managed to grab his paws, so that he could pull me over the edge of the tent roof. Now we were both standing toe to toe with the floating horror, the doll that had terrorized us back at the ball throwing tent near the marsh... ''Leave him to me!'', were the words of the blue canine, standing in-between me and the doll, which turned out to be way, WAY bigger than it looked earlier. ''Watch out, Cloud!'', I shouted when I saw what happened to the floating apparition in front of us. The doll cloaked itself into a thick, deep-red fog, after which its eye sockets filled up with the same reddish color. From out of the red flames surrounding the entity, came forth two destinct spherical beings made out of fire and gas -- one blue, one red. Their faces were almost as scary as the doll's! The giant being lifted one of its hands, or rather, what remained of it, and its two fiery minions came flying in our direction! ''Hugh!'', Cloud shouted, as he managed to barely avoid the attack. I meanwhile was running in a different direction, hoping to lure the red fireball towards one of the pieces of wood poking out of the old tent roof. Even though I did feel the urge to fight back, I was kind of scared of the doll and its two flaming slaves. ''We can do this, Lay!'', Cloud shouted back at me, ''if we can fend off literal ghost inside a deteriorating fake-as-hell Haunted House, then surely we're capable of giving THIS freak a well-deserved beatdown!'' I was able to avoid yet another beam of flames the doll fired at us, and so was Cloud. I knew the stakes were unusually high at this moment. (Waaait...!), I thought (...Stakes! That's it!) I turned my attention to my fighting partner: ''Cloud! See those planks of wood over there?'' ''Yeah?'', the azure wolf replied, ''what's your big idea?'' I ran towards the wooden planks poking out of the tent, right behind our tails: ''We could give it a try! Ya' in for a throwing game?'' Cloud fended off another attack the doll fired at us. He didn't have the time to answer my question. Because of this, he was quite surprised when he saw a wooden plank suddenly being launched at the giant doll! The piece of wood hit both the blue flaming orb and the doll. The apparition let out a blood-curdling cry. The pain was too much for the ghostly being to keep its focus on its enemies. Cloud saw his opportunity to deal the final blow: ''That was but the appetizer, you floating freak! GWRRAAAAHH!'' And he bolted forawrds, proceeding to hit the fragile, straw belly of the monster. The final hit caused the doll to start glowing a bright white. The light pouring out of our foe was blinding. 💥{{{BOOM!!!}}}💥 The following explosion of light and flames made all the fireworks spouting in the distance look like low-budget New Year's Eve junk in comparison! Finally, we both witnessed the evil doll plunge backwards, and fall all the way down to the swampy ground below, all the while leaving a trail of thick smoke on its way down. I looked into the depths, just like Cloud. ''W-We-... We DID it!'', I exclaimed, ''we did it, Cloud!'' ''Yeah, buddy! We defeated that straw ghoul! With a wooden frikking plank RIGHT into his FACE! That'll teach him not to spar with us!'' Cloud was right. We may be very young; but whenever we fought side by side, with some skill and a bit of luck, we could overcome any obstacle! I looked around me once more. We heard a few final muddled explosions, coming from the fireworks shooting into the sky filled with stars. The light show around the tent had completely vanished, leaving only the bright light of an attraction nearby and the millions of stars above our heads to light up the area, and maybe the light of the moon to guide us through the remaining part of the amusement park if we were lucky. ''Lay...?'', I heard Cloud ask, breaking the silence that filled the park after the fireworks had dissolved in the dark sky, ''...buddy? Are you OK?'' It took a while for my toddler brain to take in the fact that we just vanquished a foreign evil doll out of an amusement park that had been forgotten by time. ''Y-Yes... Cloud...'', were the only words I could say, still processing everything that had just happened. We were in the process of turning around, when we both almost collided with a red, hot sphere that unknowingly to both of us, had approached us! ''You again?'', Cloud said, getting into a pouncing position once more. ''I KNEW we forgot something. It was you! Come on now, go away!'', Cloud continued, ''your master's waiting for you down there!'' And he pointed in the direction the doll plummeted into the abyss. The red-glowing creature made a high-pitched, whining sound, like a puppy who just realized it had been very naughty and was very sorry about it. Then, it too vanished behind the worn-down roof of the tent we were still on. Quietness took over the area once more. Not even the muffled sounds of the distant fireworks could break the silence. That's when Cloud had enough. ''Come, Lay'', he said to me, ''let's get off this piece of rotten silk and get you something to eat'' I witnessed Cloud turning around and swiftly manouvring from plank to plank until he had reached the floor. I wiped my fur clean, and followed him down to the moss-covered ground. A new journey was about to begin for the two of us. And this time, we wouldn't have to worry about scary dolls making our life difficult.

~THE END~