Commuting To The Night Shift (part 5)

A Chapter by Aziza

The new Ice Cream Man is starting to look like more of a handful. Maybe Kija can find a way to handle this loopy tyrant.

The landscape now changed to a blissful, Candyland-like dreamscape. It was out of a 5 year olds sugar-coma fantasy. The ground swirled in blends of pastels and neon color. There were shattered formations of rock candy-like crystals throughout the land. A canyon appeared close where they stood. Kija was close enough to gaze into it. She was bewildered by the sight of the change, she run to the edge of the cliff totally entranced by the morphing beauty of the planet. Her eye wandered from the land to the sky. The currently illuminated earth complemented the unobstructed sky which had a full view of the universe. Every twinkle of the infinite sea of stars could be seen, unfiltered, glorious and spectacular than what she was used too.

Then she started to hear the rushing water of the canyon, and her ears pushed her body toward the sound. When she was at the cliff face, She caught her breathe at the boldest of the blue in the water. The richest of the azure river remained clear, and soon maybe teeming with life.

But then she looked at her body and an azure aura of her astral form surfacing from her skin. “Ah!” She exclaimed as she snapped out of the trance and gathered herself together. The Ice Cream Man stood behind her and huffed in disappointment at her discovering the trap. Her instincts took over and she elbowed the raptor in the rib cage, breaking three. He stammered back and his head meets a spinning roundhouse kick to the jaw, cracking his jaw.

She jumped away from the edge and dashed to gain some distance between them. The raptor’s body started to heal and the sound rearranging bones could be heard by her. She tried to ignore the sickening sounds and yelled, “What the hell were you trying to do?"

The Ice Cream Man just grinned and giggled as if he thought Kija was his best friend. “What? It's nothing bad."

"Why did you f*****g hypnotize me?"

"Oooooooo. You said a bad word."

Kija frowned. "Sigh... What exactly are you doing?.”

"I ain't telling because of your potty mouth."

Kira started to loose count of the amount of times she cursed when entering this plane of existence. "For real? I think you're just not willing to answer me."

"I am not stalling. I will answer you on one condition." He grumbled as started to morph into a larger form. She watched sword in hand, backward paddling further away from him. His growth was rapid and soon his shadow caught up to Kija’s position.

The Ice Cream Man’s arms started to grow into claws, and several legs burst out of his stomach. His skin started to harden and his back reformed and shaped up into a shell. As he finally took shape as a giant crab, quills sprouted all over his body. “This is the form in which wish to be hugged, and all will be forgiven… promise,” He bellowed in childishly comical yet regal voice.

“Nope!” she said as she booked it away from him. ‘This is way beyond what I can handle right now in this circumstance. I really don't want to take him out. He's more goofy than dangerous. I have to find the guardian to this planet’s dimension. Hopefully they can at least subdue their own creator and make this clown obey the treaty.’

As the crab gave chase, barreling at her like an 18-wheeler down a free interstate highway, a familiar song played out of his pores. Her eyes drew into slits and her head pounded more as she recognized it. ‘Now I know the reason why Grandmother would throw machetes at Mr. Softie trucks.’ She frowned as she thought how this guy must have severely traumatized her grandmother.

While she ran, she took out her communication pendant to locate the guardian. The charm of the pendant was a jagged crystal which resonated in different colors intervals, wrapped in a rust color coil. The metal chain was same element as the coil, and was used as a conductor for the crystals energy. She swung the pendant and threw it as high as she could. It needed the range to detect the other guardian's brain waves. The pendant started to fly in a given direction, and she began to follow it. The crab was a few feet away her, keeping pace and manically giggling like a child at play.

After a few minutes of running, the Ice Cream Man started to recognize the direction of where his chase was heading to. “NOOOOOO!!!” He screamed. “If you got there, I am going to be in big trouble.”

He increased his speed, so that he now in distance to attack her. He flailed his claws frantically at her. Kija jumped, flipped and bounded over each of his attacks. She kept her eyes on the pendant at the same time and did lose ground to strike back. This was her only gamble that this madness will finally stop.

The chase led them both to a sizable crater and the pendant landed on top of a tool shed in the middle of it. A plastic, out of place, yellow and blue tool shed which stood there as if it should be in an American suburban backyard and not in a mystical crystal desert. There was knocking on the door. "Let me out of here. Is the Ice Cream Man making a fuss?"

He stopped his pursuit and back peddled in horror.

Kija grinned and started to jog towards the door since she was not being pursued anymore. She cheerfully placed her hand on the doorknob, hoping that the guardian will have some reason.

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