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For a fairy that apparently abhorred violence, Sibylla had presented the group with a great many creative ways to die a graphic death. They could get crushed, get eaten by a weird lobster thing, drown, crack their heads open on the fall towards drowning, or get impaled. This was one of the reasons Ogron hadn’t just come here in the first place.
‘Well!’ Stella turned to the group, brushing the dust off her clothes, her smile undimmed by the fact they’d all just almost died for the…um…fourth? Fifth? Time today. It was really starting to get on Ogron’s nerves. ‘I think that went great!’
‘What possible part of that is it you think went well?’ Ogron grumbled, picking thorns out of his hair from Flora’s vine defence. Effective, but poky.
‘We’re all still alive! And you guys don’t even have magic! Way to beat the odds!’
Had Ogron still possessed his magic, he’d have been strongly tempted to mute her. Just for a minute - he had a raging headache…
Thankfully, Musa’s snark sought to alleviate his annoyance. ‘Seriously, Stell? ‘Well done on not dying?’ That’s our big win today? I could achieve that by sitting still with my earbuds in.’
‘I’m pretty sure earbuds could strangle someone, so not dying while doing that would still be an achievement.’
‘Can we just get going before we give me assassination attempt ideas?’ Ogron requested wryly, continuing on to the next archway. What was through this one? Lasers? Mutant bees? Mutant bees with lasers?
Oh dear god no.
‘Oh, finally!’ Stella chirped, hurrying forwards. ‘We’re done with all the challenges and Sibylla has the good manners to send some transportation!’
Ahead of them was a lake, its crystalline waters lapping away out of Ogron’s eyeline. Sunlight shone on its waters, though they were most certainly still inside a cave of death and pointy objects. The Winx all made noises of relief and delight at the sight, and he even heard Gantlos exhale quietly next to him at the opportunity to get Duman off his feet, but Ogron just felt a growing dread. Please not water…not on the water…crossing that bridge had been bad enough, he didn’t need this…
‘Please, climb aboard.’ A Rustic fairy beckoned them towards the boat, hovering over the water. ‘It will take you to our Lady’s innermost sanctum.’
‘Yeah, um, hi there!’ Stella waved to gather her attention, smiling politely. ‘Just to check…are we done with all the deadly tests, or do I need to be ready to harpoon a sea serpent? Not mad, I just wanna know how on my guard I gotta be.’
‘Don’t harpoon a sea serpent, Stella!’ Roxy chastised, appearing outraged. ‘It’s not its fault if we invade its space.’
‘Okay, do I need to be ready to humanely subdue a sea serpent?’
‘No,’ the fairy replied with a soft laugh. ‘You have passed all the tests. My lady welcomes you. The waters are simply to stop those that have not passed; the boat will be sent only for those that are deemed worthy.’
‘In that case…’ Stella snapped her fingers and a pair of oversized sunglasses popped up on her forehead to replace her pith helmet, ‘Cruise!’
Oh dear god…the word made Ogron’s stomach churn. He might get the teensiest, tiniest bit seasick…okay, very seasick. And the way that little boat, however pretty and ornate, was bobbing so merrily up and down on the lake’s little waves made his stomach roil.
‘Are…are you sure there aren’t any more tests we need to pass?’ Ogron asked, regarding the boat with nerves. ‘Any that might be on…on dry land, perhaps?’
‘Ogron, not now,’ Gantlos muttered, already guiding a half-conscious Duman onto the boat and easing him to sit. Guilt joined the anticipation of nausea, loudly asserting that Ogron could hardly refuse to get on the one thing set to take Duman to both sanctuary and also perhaps maybe even medical help. But did it have to be a boat?!
‘You good?’ Anagan asked quietly.
‘No, just pretending to be for the Winx, we went over that,’ Ogron remarked in a wry whisper, avoiding looking at the water. He couldn’t see the bottom. What if the boat capsized? What if he drowned? What if they all drowned? What if their skeletons rested forever on the base of Sibylla’s lake?!?
‘Hey…calm down, it won’t be long,’ Anagan reassured, already guiding him towards the shore.
‘You don’t know that…I can’t see the other shore…’
‘You’ll be fine, Ogron…’ What if he wasn’t?!
‘You know how I feel about boats…’
‘Yes, I do, and I also know how you feel about getting tortured to death by Nebula, so, unfortunately, to avoid the latter, you’re gonna have to get on the former.’
Ogron swallowed hard, attempting to dig his heels in as Anagan stepped onto the boat.
‘C’mon, up we come…’
With a very, very gentle tug from Anagan, Ogron leadenly stepped aboard, immediately turning to cast a helpless glance back at dry land. Maybe he didn’t have to go, maybe he could stay here to hide from Nebula-
‘Off we gooooo!’ Stella called from the front of the boat, and Ogron felt them move. The Rustic fairy had flicked her finger, untying the boat and setting it off across the lake. Sweet, dry land started creeping further and further away, until he’d have to swim to get to it, his fate now wrenched from his own grasp and placed in the gnarled, cruel talons of fate.
‘Can we turn the boat around?’ he asked quietly, and Anagan shook his head.
‘Nope…sorry. Deep breath, let’s get you settled.’
Ogron clung onto the bough of the boat, grimacing as he felt it rocking underneath him. This was horrible…absolutely horrible. Already, even before the shore had shrunk away, he could feel it teasing at his stomach. He drew in a deep breath, but it did naught to alleviate the nausea. As they began to sweat, he clenched his hands harder around the side of the boat, his legs feeling hazy under him.
‘Anagan, make them turn the boat around, I want to go back…’
‘We can’t, Ogron…’ Anagan gently eased him away from the side, placing a hand on his lower back to guide him to the centre of the boat. ‘Just sit down and try to stay still, and remember that it goes away really quickly when you get off.’
‘But when are we getting offffff?’ Ogron asked desperately, sitting down and immediately pulling his knees up to his chest in a seasick little ball.
The water danced merrily under the boat, setting it bouncing and bobbing on an erratic path towards their destination. To Ogron it seemed to practically swing from side to side, and he buried his face in his hands, thinking over how large the mountains were. They couldn’t be travelling any further than the mountains went…right? So…couldn’t be further than a few miles…
A few miles?! How was that meant to make him feel better?! Stupid brain! His stomach heaved, and despite his earlier hunger and chagrin at the Winx for rushing them to Italy without offering the obviously-starving group anything to eat, he was suddenly deeply, deeply grateful for such a turn of events, as anything they’d granted him would likely have been coming back up were his stomach not quite empty right now. Good…he was hardly in the mood to throw up over the side of the boat…least of all in front of the Winx. That was to be avoided at all costs, he vowed.
As though she’d heard his thoughts and decided to get a little casual revenge, Stella turned to them with an expression of concern. ‘Oh, just realised! We had to hightail it over here so none of us got murdered in Gardenia, but are any of you guys hungry? I brought some food!’ As though they didn’t know what food was, she held up an opened trek bar, holding it out in offer. ‘Anyone?’
‘Yes please.’ Gantlos took some food, trying to coax Duman into eating.
‘You guys?’ Stella walked over to Ogron and Anagan, and Ogron physically recoiled. Oh god, the smell…his stomach heaved, feeling set to challenge the hypothesis that an empty stomach wouldn’t throw up. Not just the smell of the food, though that was bad enough in and of itself. She had on a coconut sunscreen that set his stomach roiling, and he shook his head desperately, trying to hold his breath.
‘You sure? You don’t look like you’ve been eating much, you should eat…’
The idea of putting something into his stomach made Ogron gag, and he shook his head again.
Stella frowned, regarding Ogron with concern. ‘Ogron, you okay? You look…’ She paused, taking in the deathly parlour to his clammy skin. ‘…Semi-dead.’
‘I feel semi-dead…leave me alone.’ He groaned, everything seeming to spin around him. They had to be almost across by now, right? Right?!?
He chanced a glance up. Yes! Yes, he saw the shore, they were almost- No. No, that was the shore they’d left, shrinking out of his line of sight. No! Gantlos was right, Sibylla hated them as much as the others, this was just very clever revenge.
‘Ogron gets seasick,’ Anagan explained as Stella looked a tad offended by the brush off.
‘Ohhhh…’ Stella grimaced sympathetically. ‘Poor thing.’ She settled in next to him and Anagan, patting Ogron’s back apologetically. ‘Sorry, shouldn’t have pushed food in your face.’
Ogron made a general groaning noise that one could choose to interpret as acceptance of the apology, though he barely knew what he intended to mean. ‘Is the other shore visible yet…?’
Stella stood up, craning her neck. ‘…Nope.’
‘Stella…’ he mumbled, shying away from her and her scent. ‘If…you insist on sitting there…could you please see your way to not…smelling so intoxicatingly of coconut? Please?’
‘Oh! Oh yeah, sorry.’ Stella snapped her fingers, taking a few tries to get past the magical blocks, but quickly took care of the smell. ‘Any better?’
‘…I suppose.’ It wasn’t intended as rude, he just supposed it was better. It should be, but he just felt just as hellish as before. ‘How much longer?’
‘…At least fifteen minutes, I’d say,’ Stella offered as an estimate. ‘That’s how long it took for the other shore to fade away, and we can’t see the other yet.’ Fifteen minutes?! Okay…okay he could likely survive fifteen minutes…
It was over an hour. Over a goddamn hour. He managed to break his vow not to throw up in front of the Winx four times, though by now he was rather too exhausted to give a single damn. He’d been reduced to curling up in a shaky ball, taking deep, deep breaths and trying to fend off Stella and Anagan and their attempts to coax him into drinking a few sips of water, because apparently he was dehydrated. No, what he was was exhausted and nauseous. And the last few small sips had returned a few minutes later and just managed to make him feel worse, so now his lips were an impenetrable gate through which nothing was permitted to pass.
‘You sure you can’t manage to drink a little?’ Anagan began, and quickly shut up when all Ogron responded with was a groaning noise best transcribed as ‘Mmmmrhhrgh!’ He would drink when they were on dry land, or when he was dead, whichever came first. If they weren’t on dry land within the next two minutes, he was praying for the latter.
The other Winx had taken notice of his state, but were being eminently sensible and not speaking to him. People speaking to him was rapidly chasing boats for the position of his least favourite thing.
‘Land ho!’ Ugh, and now Aisha was talking to- wait did she say land?!
‘Did you just say land?!’ he demanded, his head shooting up from his arms to stare at the fairy perched on the prow. Relief flooded his chest as he saw beyond her. A small, shining strip of land. Land! Land, land, land! Oh, finally…
‘Yep; we’ll be back on dry land again in roughly fifteen minutes.’ Never before had a sentence sounded so beautiful.
His nausea rapidly smacked him in the face with the knowledge that they were not yet there, and he broke his earlier vow yet again, groaning as he tried to settle back down, sweat still beading on his brow. Where was he getting all this damn sweat from, he wasn’t drinking anything!
‘Ughhhhhhh…’
Anagan rubbed his back soothingly, and he drew in the deepest breath he could. Fifteen minutes…fifteen minutes…fifteen minutes…
It really felt like several centuries, but Tecna assured him it was in fact ten seconds shy of fifteen minutes when the boat bumped up against the shore.
The moment a clear path to land came into sight, Ogron shoved himself up onto trembling legs, trying to pelt for freedom from this accursed affliction. His legs, still very much affected by the aforementioned affliction, promptly gave out in an act of unforgivable sabotage, but Anagan quickly steadied him.
‘Maybe go a tad slower…’ he advised, helping him stagger off the boat as fast as possible. As soon as they were off, Ogron promptly allowed himself to fall flat on his face on the sand, groaning into the land he’d just decided he was never leaving ever, ever again.
Duman regained just enough consciousness to smirk at the sight, and Ogron couldn’t bother to choose between being annoyed at the sniggering or just glad Duman was still laughing.
‘C’mon…’ Anagan crouched in front of him, offering him a hand up. ‘We still gotta meet Sibylla, remember? Then you can lie down and hug the ground all you want.’
Ogron nodded, accepting the help to stand on shaky legs. ‘I am never doing that again.’
‘Well…’ Tecna remarked offhandedly, walking past towards the archway leading them on to Sibylla, ‘Except for when you have to leave the cave again.’
There was a quiet thump as Ogron hit the sand again.