20 minutes later, Tiffany jogged out from the stock, carrying the bulging pouch full of potions.
She swept past the dragon who called after her, "Close the door!" Not looking back, Tiffany snapped her fingers and the door slammed shut. The dragon grumbled in response as the door slammed shut.
Tiffany ran around the house and finally found Jackie in the kitchen, rummaging around in the many cabinets and shelves. She had a small pile of daggers and spears, and beside it laid three deadly weapons. All of them were coated in a thin layer of dust.
Twin golden long thin swords, sheathed in a gold cast embellished with gleaming jewels and rare shells. The swords themselves were melded from a mix of steel, chromium, and gold making it indestructible. The hilts of the two swords peaked out from the sheath and Tiffany saw two huge oval pearls, both were a milky blue shade. Jackie's signature weapon.
The second weapon was a bow and arrow, enchanted to never miss it's shot and penetrate through anything. The arrows could change into a spear within a seconds notice for close combat under the wielder's command. Made of pure rose gold designed with coral, the tips of the arrows were tipped of black diamond and can inject poison into its target. Carved from indestructible rose gold coral, the bow matched the arrows. The string was created from melding gold with whale fat to construct an unbreakable strand bound to the bow. An alarmingly purple pearl was set into the upper grip of the bow.
Kaitlin's, thought Tiffany to herself.
Looking away from the bow and arrow, Tiffany saw the third weapon and grinned slightly. Two long thin coils of whip. The whip itself was made of thick black sea dragon hide which dimly glowed green under the light. It looked sleek to the eye, but when brandished, pieces of finely cut iron and metal dipped in poison unsheathed to lacerate the target. The handle was created from pure alexandrite melded onto non-magical silver. Set into the handles were a pair of emerald green pearls, gleaming in the light.
All three weapons were made specifically for each royal princess, and could only be used by the princesses themselves.
"Why are the weapons so dusty?" asked Tiffany, picking up her whip weapon and scrutinizing it carefully.
Jackie jumped, not hearing her come in and hit her head on the cabinet ledge. She crawled out of the gigantic cabinet and grumbled sarcastically, rubbing her head, "It's totally not because they haven't been used in a long time."
"Shut up," scowled Tiffany. She brought her hand up to her face and blew a puff of air into it. The air transformed to a blue water type fire and passed it through the length of the whip. The whip glowed blue when touching the fire and gleamed clean immediately.
"You need to teach me how you do that!" Exclaimed Jackie. She leaned down and drew out one of the twin swords from its sheath and brushed away some of the dust clinging to it, careful not to cut herself.
"Hey guys!"
Kaitlin had come down from upstairs, retrieving all the fairy dust. She glanced up at the clock and groaned. "It's already 10:32, we had better go Tiffany."
"Okay," Tiffany nodded and said to Jackie, "Remember, we meet up back here at 3, or sooner if possible, after getting the dust from our own houses."
"Got it, bye!" Jackie picked up her other sword and waved it around.
Tiffany and Kaitlin threw their shoes on and hurried out the door. They strode to the elevators and pressed the down button. Immediately, the bell chimed and one of the elevator doors opened. They entered and pressed the button labeled 'lobby'.
"Should we tell them about what we're going to do?" asked Kaitlin as the elevator went down. She shifted her feet slightly and pressed her lips together.
Tiffany leaned against one side of the glass elevator and looked down, they had almost reached ground floor. "I don't know… Do you think Natalie already told them?"
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. They stepped out and started walking outside.
"Probably, maybe we should tell them…"
Tiffany shrugged and they exited the building, into the park. Kaitlin and Tiffany walked briskly to the far-right corner of the park and found Tiffany's sleek grey Camaro ZL1 parked under a few pine trees. Half of the hood was uncovered.
Pulling out her car keys, Tiffany unlocked her car and jumped into the driver's seat without opening the door.
"You need to learn to be more proper Tiffany," scowled Kaitlin. Then she grinned and opening the door, plopped down on the shotgun.
Tiffany rolled her eyes, ignited the convertible and smirked, "Whatever Miss Proper."
"I am not proper," Kaitlin muttered indignantly, she pulled out the seat belt and buckled it down.
Tiffany copied her movements, and uncovered the rest of the hood. A gust of wind blew towards them and Tiffany shook her head, allowing the wind to blow her hair back.
She then glanced at the rearview mirror, changed the gear shift from parking to reverse, and stepped down on the gas pedal. The car sped back and Tiffany twisted the steering wheel clockwise, driving smoothly back onto the road. Then she shifted the gear to forward. Tiffany turned the steering wheel back, counterclockwise, and stepped down hard on the gas pedal again.
The Camaro glided forward smoothly onto the main road and Tiffany laughed. Kaitlin stared at her, clutching the seat, and sitting up, tense.
"Go easy on me, I really don't like fast cars." Kaitlin muttered, releasing her grip slowly.
Tiffany chuckled and replied, glancing at her and turning the car right simultaneously, "Okay, but you have to say, I know how to drive a car good."
"Still…" Kaitlin closed her eyes as Tiffany drove faster than the speed limit, 45 miles per hour. "What speed are you driving at?"
"60 miles per hour, I can go faster if you want," Tiffany dodged a slow truck and expertly turned back onto the same lane, ahead of the truck.
Kaitlin didn't reply. The wind whipped her braid back and Kaitlin shrank down in her seat.
Tiffany turned right again, down a smaller street, slowing down to 40 miles per hour. She reached another main road and turned onto it.
"Almost there!" yelled Tiffany above the sound of the wind.
Kaitlin still didn't reply to her. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, hands clutching the seat, shrinking into the seat.
Switching lanes to the one furthest right, Tiffany parallel parked into a space on the side of the road in between two cars perfectly. She switched the engine off and pulled out the car keys.
"Come on Kaitlin," called Tiffany.
Kaitlin slowly opened her eyes, then unbuckled the seat belt and hurried out of the Camaro.
They entered the mall and walked into Starbucks, spotting Natalie immediately.
"Hey!" Natalie waved to them.
"Hey!" Tiffany smiled and hugged Natalie. Kaitlin grinned and Natalie hugged her too.
"Come on, the others are inside." Natalie led them inside Starbucks and into a booth where Amity and Judea were.
Kaitlin's eyebrows creased, "Where's Lily?"
Natalie smiled sadly, "She had to go on a date with new boyfriend."
"Wait, new boyfriend?" asked Tiffany. "What happened to her last one? Freddy?"
"Oh, they broke up the day before yesterday, before school started." Answered Judea, scooting over so that Tiffany had room to sit. Kaitlin sat next to her and Natalie plopped down straight across.
Kaitlin shook her head, "That's amazing."
"I know right," muttered Amity. "I can't even get a boyfriend and she's getting a new one every week."
"So," said Judea. "Anything important going on?"
Kaitlin and Tiffany exchanged a look, then Tiffany cleared her throat and said, "Yes actually."
"You know how we're mermaids?" asked Kaitlin.
Everyone nodded, Amity leaning forward to watch Kaitlin carefully.
"Well, there is this prophecy where the royal mermaid princesses are to go and destroy evil, but we have to go on a kind of sort of dangerous journey and we might get killed but it's worth it since then there will be an end to the evil enchantress sort of evil, so yeah." Tiffany said in a hurried tone of voice, she said it all very fast and Judea and Amity exchanged puzzled looks.
"I'm still confused…" began Amity.
"Are you saying that you are going on a quest to destroy evil and die?" asked Judea.
Kaitlin nodded, "pretty much yes."
"Why do you guys have to go though?" asked Amity. "Like isn't there another mermaid princess?"
Tiffany twisted her hands, "well, they're sort of all dead since the evil enchantress murdered them all."
"She didn't manage to murder us yet since we were hidden in the human realm." Explained Kaitlin.
There was a stunned silence, Natalie looked at all of them and slumped in her seat. "At least we got that over with, now we just have to say goodbye to them."
Amity rounded on Natalie, "Why are you agreeing to this?"
"Yeah, why are you?" interrogated Judea.
"Because," Natalie sighed, "I've tried to talk them out of it but it didn't exactly work."
Tiffany snorted, "We have to go guys, if we don't, then probably everyone will end up dying. The Evil Enchantress doesn't sit there and do nothing, she is trying to take over."
"Exactly," agreed Kaitlin softly.
Judea groaned, "But I don't want to lose you two… is anyone else going?"
"Yes, Jackie is," replied Tiffany hastily.
"Can you tell us what it is exactly you have to do in this journey?" asked Amity. Her eyes were tearing up slightly.
"Yes—" Kaitlin broke off.
Tiffany's phone started buzzing, everyone looked at Tiffany. Tiffany hastily drew her phone from her pocket and saw that the oncoming call was from Jackie. She glanced at Kaitlin before accepting the call and put the phone to her ear.
"Hello?" Tiffany asked worried. "Yes… is anything wrong? What's wrong?... no…. but… okay, got it… we'll be right over." She hung up the phone and looked at Kaitlin, "Jackie just called and told us that Gertrude had found out, the Masquerade ball has been moved from 10 o'clock to 8 on short notice. We have to go now."