Inner-Selves, No. 23, Part A

Thorn was trembling, the gate hadn't even been opened for one minute and he'd already been caught aiding the outsiders, and to make matters worse, it was witnessed by an overseer, this was not good at all. "Gate keeper Thorn, just what do you think you're doing?" the dingo asked him in a calm manner. He kept that creepy smile on his face the whole time, together with the fact that he kept his eyes shut, it was impossible to read his emotions or his intentions. "I'm terribly sorry Overseer Jinx, but I was defeated by one of these outsiders, and I'm bound by honor to open the gate for them" the triceratops said, occasionally stuttering. The dingo moved towards them, lowering his rattle, which was barely half the size of Fidget's old one at best. "Who told you to do that? You're not supposed to let them in, your job is to guard this gate with your life, even if you die, no one is supposed to get past this gate" Jinx said in response. "This guy must be bad news if Thorn is so terrified of him" Seth said. "Indeed, he's one of the overseers, and one of the most ruthless ones at that, Overseer of Australia, Jinx the dingo" explained Daisy.
"Well I don't care who or what he is, if he's gonna get in our way I say we cut him down!" Fidget shouted. He ran towards Jinx and got ready to attack. "FIDGET STOP! YOU CAN'T WIN AGAINST THIS KIND OF OPPONENT!" Daisy shouted. Fidget didn't listen, he didn't care, all he knew was he had to get to Kat no matter what, a fight like this was unavoidable. He drew his sword and readied a downward slash. "GET OUT OF OUR WAY!" Fidget shouted. As he swung his sword down, Jinx had his rattle out in front of him, blocking the attack. "You've got quite a temper, did you miss your nap this morning?" the dingo said mockingly. "This is not good, I figured we'd meet some resistance on the other side of the gate, but this is one opponent none of you are prepared for" Daisy said. "Is an overseer really more powerful than any of us?" Seth asked. "Yes, an ordinary youth sprite doesn't even begin to compare to an overseer, there are 13 in all, some of them trained for centuries to get to where they are in terms of strength and power, aside from that, they each have a secret ability that we couldn't train you all to deal with in one week's time" Daisy said. "Oh, I hope Fidget will be ok" Sophie said, looking worried. Macho looked on, he glared his eyes at the two combatants, and hoped for Fidget's safety.
Fidget swung his sword a few more times at Jinx, but the dingo effortlessly blocked the attacks, he didn't open his eyes even once, he was sensing Fidget's movements by measuring the fluctuating levels in his spirit energy. "Just give up kid, you're not even close to hitting me" the dingo said. "I havn't even begun to fight, this is your only warning, let us through or I'll cut you in half!" Fidget threatened. "Hmm, well I can't argue with that one" the dingo said. He lowered his rattle and turned around, then he started walking away. "Huh?" Fidget said, puzzled by the dingo's actions. "This gives me a bad feeling, that guy gave up way too easily" Seth said. Macho nodded in agreement. Fidget sensed something was up as well, so he called out to Jinx. "Hold on, I don't get it, are you giving up, or are you planning something big?" Fidget asked. Jinx turned his head towards Fidget, the grin on his face grew bigger, and he now spoke with a more ominous tone. "Nothing gets by you does it?" the dingo said. Fidget gasped, this guy was starting to creep him out.
Jinx raised his rattle up to shoulder-level, pointed out to his side. "Level Two" he said. His rattle turned into a red-bladed dagger with a light blue hilt, there were several arrow-shaped holes along the blade. "That doesn't look good" Macho said. Seth thought about the night when he and Fidget were defeated by those two other youth sprites, he remembered that the bubble weapon was much stronger than the rattle. Fidget took a stance, expecting him to either charge at him or use a bubble attack of some sort. "Everyone stand back, that thing can fire long-range attacks!" Fidget warned the rest of his group. "You sure know a lot, I'd love to stay here and chat but I have things to do, so I'll send you off quickly" the dingo said. He turned around completely to face Fidget and the others, then he pointed the dagger in Fidget's direction and focused some of his spirit energy into the blade, Fidget was on edge, not knowing what would come out of that dagger. "I'll pierce a hole right through your heart, go forth, Bubble Lance!" Jinx declared. A long slender bubble with a pointed tip extended out from the dagger, fastly approaching Fidget. "Fidget watch out!" Sophie shouted. Fidget blocked the bubble from hitting him, but the bubble kept on coming, it pushed Fidget out past the gate. Once Jinx was convinced the bobcat was far enough, he made the bubble disappear back into his dagger, then he aimed his dagger at Thorn. Thorn stood there frozen in fear, the gate he was holding up creaked in time with his shuddering. "You're fired" Jinx said. He then fired another bubble lance, hitting Thorn in the left shoulder, knocking him back and causing him to let go of the gate.
Thorn collapsed to the ground in pain, his shoulder was bleeding badly, he screamed as his pain grew worse. The gate started to close, Jinx stood there watching them. "You kids be good now!" Jinx said as he waved good bye to them. The gate slammed shut, Fidget ran up and started banging on it. "No, no, no, no! Darn it!" Fidget shouted in frustration, tears welled up in his eyes, how were they gonna get to Kat now? "Oh Thorn are you ok?" Sophie asked. Thorn wasn't shouting anymore, the pain was dulled as his shoulder went numb. "Don't worry about me, are all of you safe?" the giant triceratops replied. Several spirits had heard the loud screaming and came over to see what was going on. "Hey, what happened to Thorn?" asked a raccoon. "It looks like those outsiders hurt him" said a rabbit. "Let's get 'em!" shouted someone else. The other spirits all got riled up and advanced on the group, ready to pummel them. "No wait, we didn't do this!" Fidget pleaded. "I don't think they'll listen to reason, remember, they already don't trust us" Daisy said. Seth and Fidget readied their weapons, they feared they'd have to fight their way out. "EVERYONE, STOP!" shouted Thorn. The spirits were silent, they looked at the triceratops, forgetting the outsiders for a moment. "Please leave them be, these outsiders did not do this, I am injured because of my own actions, they are innocent, they mean us no harm!" Thorn declared. Sophie looked down at Thorn's injury, she knew what she had to do. "Trix, heal!" she declared. The stuffed mouse flew out of Sophie's diaper bag and used her magic to heal Thorn's shoulder, everyone was shocked to see that the wound was gone. "Girl, what are you? I have never seen such an ability" the triceratops gasped. "I don't know, this power is new to me" Sophie replied. "Wow, Sophie is amazing" Fidget thought to himself. "Everyone, please step aside" called a voice from the crowd of spirits. A polar bear walked out of the crowd and came up to the group, the other spirits were surprised to see him. "Leader, why are you here?" asked someone. "I must speak with these outsiders, they have done a great service for our friend Thorn" the polar cub answered.
He got on his hands and knees and bowed to them, all the spirits were taken aback. He raised his head and spoke to the group of travelers. "I witnessed the whole thing, how you spared Thorn's life after he lost to you, and how you became such good friends afterward, I can safely vouch for you all, you're nothing to be afraid of, you're good furs" the polar bear said. The attitude of the spirits changed, they felt sorry for the way they'd acted towards the outsiders, some apologized, and then they all went back to whatever it was they were doing. The leader of the spirits in that area stayed behind, he wanted to ask the group a few questions. "Please follow me, I have a few things I'd like to ask of you" the polar bear said. Along the way, he spoke to them. "I'd like to apologize for our less-than-hospitable welcome earlier, spirits don't often see outsiders like you emerge in our midst, we're very untrusting of strangers" he said. "Don't worry about it, we understand" Seth replied. They came to the tent where the leader lived, everyone in this part of the ECC lived in tents, they had a campfire in the center of the tents, although they didn't really need it for cooking, spirits with low spirit energy like them don't get hungry. He showed them all inside, it was a large tent with plenty of room for them, Macho had to crawl in because the roof of the tent was much too short for his adult form.
The leader asked them things like who they were, where they were from, and why they were here. At one point, Sophie's diaper was wet, and since Seth, Macho and Fidget were uncomfortable with the idea of changing their friend's diaper- especially one that was a girl - Daisy changed her diaper for her, calling the boys a bunch of wimps. Fidget felt especially uneasy about it, Sophie was the girl he liked after all. After some time night fell, and the group discussed what their next move would be. "Attempting to go through the gate failed, and most likely they'll tighten security around the gate and the other gates as well because of today's events" Seth said. "Yes, I agree, we shouldn't try the same method again, the chance of failure is too great" Daisy said. "Then what do you propose we do, dig our way in?" Fidget said sarcastically. "We don't have that kind of time Fidget" Seth replied. "I know that you idiot! But what other way is there besides going over the wall?" Fidget snapped. "Hmm, go over the wall? Not a bad idea" Daisy said. Everyone was confused, how would they do that without being noticed? Daisy turned to the leader and asked him something. "Excuse me leader, does the fireworks maker still live around here?" the teddy bear questioned. "Hmm, well those guys never stay in one place for more than two weeks, but I think I know where they are now" the polar bear answered. "Fireworks maker? How can they help us?" Sophie asked. "All in good time Sophie, it's too dark to set out right now, so we'll stay here for the night and set out first thing in the morning" Daisy replied.
All of a sudden, they heard what sounded like engines running outside. They all looked at the tent flap and saw it get pulled back, in stepped a cheetah who removed his bike helmet as he came in. Outside he had a mini-bike parked, his friends were waiting outside on their mini-bikes. "Yo leader, how's it goin'? I heard there was some sort of commotion at the gate today" the cheetah asked. "Uh, hello Dash, can you come back later, it's not really a good time" the polar bear answered, normally he'd be glad to have the guy over, but this time he felt uneasy being in his presence.