Showdown

While she descends toward the ground, Knitten attempts to come up with a suitable catchphrase or perhaps a battle cry, not that she is aware of what either one even is. She figures that she should shout something to commemorate this most momentous occasion of her first freefall with a cookie. Some well-known, glorious catchphrases of past important people as they charged into battle have included such gems as: 'Go for the glory!', 'Kallay-oxin-fray!', and 'We won't know what we're up against until we see it... Oh, gods, not that! Aaahhh!', but Knitten has never heard any of those.

So, by cobbling together a select few of the words she has cherished hearing spoken in the two days of her existence to form one word which can symbolize it all, she decides upon the never before spoken but extraordinarily relevant, "Huzoodlemeow!"

It was a fraction of time earlier that Crow felt something fall from his pocket and could do nothing about it while flapping his wings. He looks down and to his horror sees Knitten falling toward the portal that the river water is disappearing into. Her brief life flashes before his eyes and he panics about what may happen to her. Swooping back around, he dives in an attempt to reach her before she enters the periphery of the energy-sucking medallion's draining effect.

The angle at which she is falling puts her on a collision course with the witch's medallion. That means she will soon pass through the field of effect it is having on the life around it, sucking everything dry of energy until it dies. Knitten is blissfully unaware of the danger she is fast approaching, both from the medallion and the ground. "Until now," she says, "I didn't understand any danger to myself when the others said it." It does dawn on her though that the medallion is what her mom and dad have been saying is the source of current woes and that maybe something could be done about it while she is nearby. To do anything though, she figures she would need to be capable of movement, which is something, as a mere inert puppet, she cannot do, and this realization makes her sad.

The fact of the matter though is that she is moving, at a very rapid pace toward the medallion and toward being able to do something about it. She is going to have a definite impact! With the cookie still positioned in front of her, she enters the periphery and crashes into the medallion, squishing the cookie against its engraved grooves. Knitten, for her part, slides off and to the ground, gazing up with worry at what is to become of the now partially crumbled snickerdoodle cookie she had saved to give to Cat, and now may never get to.

The purple vortex energies swirling around the medallion begin to waver. Something about the cookie ingredients, or perhaps because cookies are notorious for not being a very reliable conductor to channel magick through, is having an adverse effect on the medallion. The spell sputters and fails, causing the portal vortex to unwind and dissipate. Water begins to flow down the riverbed once again, quenching its shores. With the spell ended, both the medallion and cookie fall and land right on top of Knitten's belly, her cloth body cushioning their landing.

Wispnell becomes aware that something has gone wrong and turns to see that her portal is gone. "What? Impossible!"

Crow missed being able to rescue Knitten before she fell into the medallion's life-sapping field, but he saw the spell fizzle away and is now kneeling at Knitten's side, having removed his mask, and grieving for what he assumes is the loss of his cloth daughter.

Cat, after having finished up helping Marrow and the others to halt Yorbert, is in the process of bounding over, along with the others, to see how she can assist in defeating the witch. She sees the somber scene laid out in front of her. "W-What happened? Is Knitten alright?!"

"Oh, you should have seen it, mommy!" Knitten delights as Cat arrives next to them. "I flew in with the cookie and we showed that medallion what we can do!"

Crow is startled. "What?! Knitten, you're alive?"

"I'm a puppet, daddy. I am what you made me. Thank you for giving me this cloth body. It gave me a purpose!"

Cloth bodies are notorious for not being good conductors of what one would typically consider as 'life', and thus Knitten was immune to the life-sapping powers of the witch's medallion.

"Ooh, that explains it." Knitten then sounds sad, saying, "But, Cat... Mommy, I saved this snickerdoodle cookie for you and now it's ruined. We'll have to get you a new one from Big Friendly's store."

Cat scootches in next to Crow at her side and pushes the medallion off to have a look at the flattened and broken cookie, still partially intact from the cushioning of Knitten's body. She smiles and says, "Silly girl, what's most important is that you're in one piece. But you're right, the cookie has been divided into pieces. Now we can all share and enjoy its wonderful aroma and flavor. So, good job, chica!"

If the stitched smile on Knitten's face could grow any bigger, it would.

With their attention on Knitten, the witch has been gathering energy to cast a spell and says, "Have you forgotten about me? I will not allow you to leave here knowing all that you now know about our scheme. My medallion is intact and all I have to do is nullify the lot of you and begin the spell again. With the glittering gems the machine will harvest, our plans shall reach fruition financially and Old King Bazlan's rise back to power shall be realized!" Energy crackles and produces flashes of blue lightning up and down her wing feathers as she charges up. She takes aim with her wings and prepares to unleash a torrent of energy to consume them. 

While some of the others gasp and brace themselves for the blast of dark magick, Crow takes a cleansing breath, adjusts his cap, and jumps to his feet. "No, it won't. This needle will see to that!" He pulls the sewing needle that he straightened for completing Knitten out from his cap and holds it up for Wispnell to see.

The old witch loses her concentration and almost keels over as she cackles with laughter while still retaining the energy, though it reduces to an ebbing glow for the moment. "How do you expect to stop me with that?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that this needle is actually a magick wand, a gift from my Grandpapa Grimm; maybe you've heard of him; loaded with a spell so powerful that it will obliterate whatever I point it at with but a single word?" Crow lowers the needle. "And now I point it directly at you."

Wispnell stares at the needle for a few seconds, betraying her projected confidence with the slightest hint of nervousness, and then says, "You're bluffing."

Crow stares back at her with a steely gaze. "Am I?" A passing breeze lifts his cape and flutters it with perfectly timed dramatic flair. He tells her, "Please, don't make me use this. Just run back to your old king and tell him to leave our kingdom alone," bestowing the witch with another twinge of uncertainty.

Cat asks, "Crow, what are you doing? Is that really a...? Is that from your grandpapa? You wouldn't actually try to hurt anyone with it, would you?"

"Wouldn't I? She's about ready to end us! What would you do to stop her?" He twists to look her in the eyes, clicks his tongue, and whispers with enthusiasm, "I'm prepared to trust you with my very life right now. In my opinion, you've shown enough empathy for myself and others to have rightfully earned it."

Cat's eyes widen as she recalls her promise to Crow that she would prove herself worthy of his trust when they first met and he was unsure. She smiles in gratitude and acknowledges his signal with a hard nod.

The witch tells him, "Do it. Blast me with your spell! I don't believe you."

Crow twists back around to face her and asks, "You would let me have a shot at you without trying to stop me then?"

"I would, so everyone can see you're lying and you can feel pathetic before I wipe my plate clean of you all."

Crow chortles at her. "I haven't lied one iota. If you're so convinced I'm lying, then drop your defenses so you can get what's coming to you without hiding behind them. No force fields."

"As you wish, young one. A final wish before your doom." There is a crackling sound as the barrier she had built up around herself crumbles away and dissipates like steam. She outstretches her wings, puffs out her chest, and says, "Strike me as cleanly as you can with your make-believe spell from that insignificant sewing needle. Show me what spellcrafting you wield, grandson of Grimm!"

"Oh, there'll be some crafting, but it won't be by my hand. Get her, Cat!"

Cat smiles a big, toothy grin. "Lady, you're about to get bedazzled!" Her paintbrush and pencil have just finished emerging from her tails. "I'm going to snazz you up and you don't get to see it until I'm done."

Wispnell growls as she charges the energy in her wings up toward their former readiness. "I don’t know what that means, but I will destroy you before you can --" Cat wiggles her paintbrush and the witch's feathers become dripping with bright lime-colored paint before she can fire her spell. "W-What is this? Why are my wings soaked in... Uugh! What is this stuff?!" She lifts her wing-arms in disgust and tries to shake the goopy green paint off of her taloned hands. The energy sizzles at the paint but remains contained.

Cat chose the color as a creative call-back to the green forest they journeyed through to get here, and tells the witch, "It's a distraction so that you can't cast any spells and don't interfere or make a mess while I give you a makeover."

"Give me a what?!" Wispnell growls with indignance.

"You're talking about mining gems? You want gems? I'll give you more than you'll know what to do with; sparkly jewels on every scale of your slithery hide! You're going to look fantabulous when I get through! Oh, and I almost forgot; no peeking."

She swings her tails to create a pink ribbon, Cat's favorite color, which then flows through the air and wraps around Wispnell's eyes to form a blindfold. Then the pencil and paintbrush jab at the air repeatedly while colorful, dazzling gems form on each and every one of Wispnell's reptilian scales in a pattern from her head down, down, down to the tip of her twitchy, witchy tail.

"There you be, m'lady. Gems done the Cat way, you know it! Rainbow colors galore! Hocus pocus and alakazam!" Cat's foxy ears flutter and her eyes widen with a bright glow. "Oh!" she exclaims. "Tha-... That... triggered a memory! Of my name?"

"What? Really?" Crow asks, then he and Knitten both say in a very perplexed manner at the same time, "Other than Cat?"

Cat giggles. "Jinx! Yeah! I think I remembered my real name. It's Kzam."

 Crow observes as the three pink dots above each of Cat's eyes migrate like caterpillars past the pink heart on her forehead and down and around her snout before settling into a new position below her eyes, while several of her other shimmery markings fluctuate as though changing form. It startles him enough that he squawks, "Caw-zam?!" and flaps his wings.

"Kzam!" she shouts with joy.

"Kzam!" Knitten echoes her.

Wispnell shudders. "Eeauhh, I didn't like when you spoke that just now. Where... have I heard that name? It's like a festering memory."

"Well, it's a good memory for me!" Cat cheers. "Kzam! I'm still Cat though, y'know."

Having concentrated enough to regain a partial flow of blue energy through her wing feathers, the still confident witch spoils, "When I eliminate you in just a moment, I'll not need to worry about it!"

"Ooh, that's right! I wasn't done giving you your makeover. So sorry to keep you waiting." Cat creates a blue ribbon, which flows toward Wispnell in the form of a stream of water, reminiscent of the river Wispnell was draining, and coils it loosely around the witch. She adds in some pink frilly lace and a long string of beads woven throughout, then pulls it together to form a bind that Wispnell will be unable to free herself from. What remains of Wispnell's collected energy for the spell sputters to a stop. The witch is trapped! "Then, we add a little color to your face." Makeup appears and smears itself all over Wispnell's face. "And voila! I'll remove your blindfold now so you can see." The ribbon snakes away from her eyes and a mirror poofs into existence in front of her.

Wispnell is confounded. "What have you done to me?! What is this power you wield?!"

Cat says, "I know, right? It looks so good on you, girl! You wear it well. No need to thank me." Then she says, "Oooh! I know what's missing. Googly eyes!" Cat hovers over to face the angrily hissing witch, smiles and winks, then slaps on great big oogly-moogly googly eyes over each of her great big owl eyes. The witch groans with resentment.

Knitten squeals with glee.

Crow, having pushed the mystery of Cat's moving markings to the back of his mind for now, walks over and says to Wispnell, "You called this sewing needle insignificant, but it has a lot more significance than you think. It brought Knitten to life and it brought downfall to you." He recalls Knitten falling down from the sky and adds, "Quite literally, now that I think about it."

With Wispnell, Treecle, and Yorbert subdued and the river flowing again, their mission is accomplished. Marla, Marrow, and the king's other guards can all see Cat now as a result of the showdown. Cat crafts a raft out of plastic water jugs, rubber cement, a few zip ties, giant popsicle sticks, and big, fuzzy pom-poms in a variety of colors glued on for decoration. The whole thing baffles everyone, but is also big enough to hold everyone. They all climb aboard with the prisoners and float down the rescued river back to the castle.