[ 87 ]

SOUP

The repulsive creature that is Dr. Terrible squats there in the snow, snorting blacksmoke.

He bellows something about turning me into his favorite soup. Gork Soup.

But I can barely hear him because of the thunderous pounding of my heart. And I can barely see him because of all the yellow dots swimming through the air.

Then he opens his beak and blasts a blue mega firestream straight into my webbed feet.

I am on fire.

Covered in blue flames, my webbed feet are starting to melt into a pool of green liquid.

I can feel my hind legs melting now.

My scaly body is turning to liquid in the bright blue fire.

The lower half of my body has already melted in the flames, pooling on the ground.

Somewhere off in the distance, I hear Fribby start screaming.

I wish she didn’t have to see this.

ATHENOS’s words pop up inside my skull: “Your weakness is your strength.”

Now I’ve melted all the way up to my long green neck.

Dr. Terrible is pointing at me and laughing.

Then his red tongue shoots out of his beak.

Now the tip of his forked tongue is angling to take a lick of the vile green liquid that is me.

Only my scaly green head remains whole, floating in the soup.

I watch in horror as the ghastly forked tongue dips into the green liquid.

And that is when I start to sing.