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…
“Alright, you four, go change now! You gonna put groceries in the places!”
The orphans ran upstairs without even looking once. Chester huffed, then took the handle of the giant canvas bag, filled halfway with food for the whole orphanage. The other one was taken by Matthew, whose lament presented itself readily.
“Can we not…rest a bit?” he complained.
“Just put it on the floor! It’s clean enough to slide with your socks on. C’mon.”
They pulled the bag all the way from the lobby to the kitchen, without much of a problem. The other orphans were interspersed around the building. They were as usual places, like Tammy in the kitchen, reading her old book on astronomy, for the fourth time in a row, or like Yuri, who was outside chasing the puppy brothers, Gavin and Gawain. Chester and Matthew left the bag right next to the fridge. Chester then took some juice out of it, and then immediately drank it straight from the carton.
“You could at least pour it into a glass first.” Chester didn’t bother answering Matthew, until he finally gulped everything. From there, he just smacked his laps and gave a content sigh.
“Why are you still here?”
Matthew checked around himself, before clearing his throat.
“I’m just…We still are in the middle of out conversation!” He then gave a quick honk of his, while grinning. “Now, about the whole ‘Quantum Mechanics,’ I believe it is nothing more than a-“
“You gonna fess up or what?”
Matthew shut his beak. Chester checked the clock, only to get taken aback that it took them about three-fourth of an hour to do their groceries. He for sure thought that they spent on it three whole hours.
“W-W-What do you mean by that?” Matthew gave another honk. “I am not here to fess upon anything! There is nothing, whatsoever, to confess! For I am free of-“
“I’m not an idiot.” Chester took another swig.
Matthew stammered, “W-W-Wha-No! Of course I do not believe that! What made you say so?! My only suggestion here is that being that we are of-“
“Just say it already, dude!” Chester cut him off again, putting the carton away. “Stop beating around the bush! You barely know me, got mad at me for hanging out with Tom, and now you can’t stop clinging to me! What do you want?”
The goose opened his beak, but no sound came out. No matter what he did, it seemed as if his throat had something stuck in it. Giving up on expecting some answer, Chester slowly made his way out of the kitchen.
“I am not…trying to hold a secret!” Matthew blurted out with effort. Chester paused his step. He noticed from the corner of his eye how Tammy was peeking at them from behind her book. “I simply…I just…is the monster going to come back again?”
Chester raised an eyebrow.
“Monster?”
“Yes.”
Chester considered for a moment who he meant.
“The clown?”
Matthew slowly and meaningfully bobbed his head. His eyes had grown to an enormous size from honest fear, enough that it reminded Chester of one of those praying mantises, or that weird stick with googly eyes he made once. Without meaning to, Chester snorted out a chuckle.
“That is not funny!” protested Matthew. “We are dealing with an actual creature from another world here!”
“C’mon dude, look at yourself!” Chester fell on his knees, as the intensity of his own laughter suddenly caught him. It was as if an invisible Torque began tickling him, making it harder and harder for the boy to stop.
He finally stopped after a while, his eyes filled with tears.
“Are you, by chance, finished laughing at me?” Matthew asked him.
“Wait…” Chester inhaled some air, “Now I am!” He moved out of the kitchen. Matthew followed right after him. “I’m gonna get rid of that clown, don’t worry.”
“You…will? You can!?” Matthew asked sincerely.
“Yep.” Chester looked up the stairs, just as the four kids started to make their way downstairs. He told them, “The grocery bag is in the kitchen. Also, make sure Mimmy drinks some medicine.”
“I’m not sick!” insisted Mimmy all the way from the bedroom.
“I’ll get the medicine,” Lily said, following others to the kitchen.
“And,” Matthew asked, “can Tom also do that? Destroy the clown?”
“If he wants to, sure.” Chester shrugged. “Like, that creep is a bit difficult, sure…But the problem is actually that he always leaves before we could do anything to him. Last time we fought him, I’m pretty sure Barbie did something to him. And now our spirits found him, and his lair too. We could go ahead and, well, get rid of him, I guess. If we wanted to.”
Chester sat down, looking a bit sullen. Lily passed by the two boys, holding medicine and a spoon in her hands. Soon after, Brian and Tiana exited the kitchen as well.
“Brian,” Chester said, catching the young wolf’s arm. “You are in charge of lunch. Make a sandwich for everyone.”
“What!? No way!” Brian objected. “Why do I have to do them!?
“Cause if you don’t, I’ll tell Miss Cheshire about the bath-bomb.”
Brian’s eyes grew as big as a pair of saucers.
“You knew!?”
“Everyone knew, even Miss Cheshire. She just didn’t care, because she got mad after I broke that window again upstairs. Now get to work! Then later I’ll show you what you should have done.”
Brian looked down for a moment, only to smile and then nod. As he left, Matthew followed the boy with his gaze, looking very interested. The goose then turned his wobbly head towards the hedgehog.
“I must say, you are far more intelligent than I initially believed.”
Chester raised an eyebrow at him.
“Um, don’t get me wrong! I don’t mean to say I thought you were…an idiot or something. I mean, you were said to be of poor intelligence by many, including by me sometimes…but I can see that that is not the case whatsoever! I was enormously wrong about that assessment!”
“…And?” Chester asked, getting bored by the second.
“So, um…why do this then? Why do you act out so…troublesomely?”
“Cause I don’t care.”
“That..doesn’t make sense!” Matthew honked again, out of bewilderment.
“Sure, it doesn’t, to you,” Chester stared right into Matthew’s eyes.
The goose’s beak became shut. Probably not because he couldn’t say anything, even Chester was ready for him to do so. But the other boy just chose to quite down, look away and fold his arms, falling into deep thought. Chester wasn’t exactly aware of what those thoughts were, but he at least felt victorious over that exchange.
“Chester!” yelled Brian from the kitchen, “Charlotte is eating bread again!”
“No I’m not.”
“You do!”
Chester sighed and shook his head. He has to go to the kitchen and deal with it personally, right?
<Of course you do.>
Chester without looking over his shoulder rolled his eyes. Of course, he thought.
He left the goose by himself, and found the kitchen stormed by several orphans all of a sudden. Not only Brian and Charlotte, whose mouth was in fact stuffed with pieces of bread, but also Yuri, Gavin, Gawain and Bobby on top of that. Tammy left some moments ago, it looked like. He also noticed something else in the kitchen, which was a half-eaten cake placed in the middle of the cooking table.
Chester came closer to it, trying to figure out what type of cake it even was. At best he could describe it as gross, weird, and kind of pathetic. Plus with few uneven apple slices shoved at its top.
“We made this cake,” Charlotte revealed to him.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Chester smelled it, getting a strong scent of vanilla from it.
“It was for Miss Cheshire’s birthday!” Bobby then said. “She really did not mind the cake at all!”
“Oh wow, really?!” said Chester, genuinely surprised to hear that. “But her birthday is next week.”
All of the kids gazed at him.
“Eh, I guess that’s fine. Bet she forgot it herself.” He then left the cake to go after Charlotte.
“Will Miss Cheshire be okay?”
Chester turned over his shoulder, finding both Lily and Mimmy standing in the doorway. The younger hamster was pushing into him with her rather large eyes, something he had trouble ignoring.
“Well…” Chester began scratching at his quills. Somehow, he wasn’t ready to think about it himself.
“Do you think she died?” Yuri asked out of the blue, making all the kids gasp. Mimmy, in particular, had the most shock on her face.
“Ah c’mon, of course not, you dork,” Chester replied. He then noogied the polar bear cub’s head. “Have you guys not seen how stubborn she is? Like, the other day, after complaining and complaining and ever MORE complaining about how her poor back hurts, as soon as she heard that Yuri got stuck in a tree by Miss Elefantus’s place, she ran all the way herself, climbed the tree, and then yelled at you for five minutes straight! Or how she keeps catching rocks that Gavin or Gawain throw at each other! Or even being able to hear when Charlotte is eating in the kitchen, while outside, and near the fence!”
As he listed each and every accomplishment, all the kids couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Oh yeah!”
“She did!”
“She totally does!”
“Yeah, totally!” Chester exclaimed. “So stop worrying. She’ll come back tomorrow, yell at you or me or something, and then will go to bed grumbling. Okay? Now, Lily, call everyone into the dining room, it’s lunchtime.”
The bat girl nodded, enthusiastically. She led Mimmy with her, along with everyone else. Brian was about to go, but Chester stopped him and told him to finish the sandwiches. The kids were posing no trouble at all for the hedgehog, in the end. Something that a certain blue spirit took a note of.
<You have a remarkable amount of compassion,> Azure thought.
Yeah, yeah, where were you this whole time? I thought you said you were going to check on the others. You were going to see the clown again, huh?
<I have done precisely as I had said. I have checked on Rose, as to see whether the jester was still hiding in his lair.>
And?
<I returned once again to check, after visiting Fotia. The latter has fallen asleep by the time I arrived. Whereas the jester, I believe, will come in less in than five minutes.>
“Here!?”
Azure gave a simple nod. Chester didn’t waste time, dashing right out of the kitchen, much to the bewilderment of the young wolf, and went straight to the window at the front. Behind the slightly cracked glass, he saw nothing, just large front-yard, thin blanket of snow and an old, wooden fence. And yet, he knew it was coming. That clown was going to come over there. And Chester was NOT going to let him pass an inch behind that rickety fence.
“Everyone, upstairs!” Chester announced loudly. The kids around the table gave him looks.
“What do you mean?” asked Tam politely.
“Go upstairs NOW, it’s an order!”
The kids became shook, while he made his way to Matthew. The goose’s long neck was now trying to hide itself, even before the hedgehog managed to reach the other boy.
“I-I-I-I-Is the m-m-m-mon…” Matthew slowly lost the ability to speak. Chester grabbed his shoulders.
“Matt, I need you to do something for me.” Matthew stared at him intensely, although Chester had a feeling he was probably would do the same if he was not there. “Look, I’m just going to go outside. Take everyone and their lunches, and lock the door. Lily can help you find the keys. If someone needs to pee, just check the hallway, and go to the door next to you. Again, ask Lily for help. All you need to do, is keep them inside there, while I’m away. Make sure to stay away from the window. You got that?”
Matthew’s face was still rigid. Chester furrowed his brows, sighed and then slapped the goose across the face.
“Anyone there?” Chester asked calmly.
“I shall do my utmost to protect, feed and lead them to the bathroom!” Matthew announced with full voice. He punctuated it all with a honk. “LET US GO, TO THE UPSTAIRS!!!”
Chester watched as the goose went to the dining table, grabbed and made everyone hold their plates, before pushing them all towards the stairs.
<That should take care of them for now,> Azure noted.
“Let’s get out, now.”
Chester transformed as soon as he got outside. The front entrance was locked with a key he snagged earlier, which will also be with his person while he is transformed. As with all objects, they exist on him, but the magic power of that transformation pretends that they don’t.
Chester brought his sword out, quickly making his way out of the front yard and into the road. He walked through the muddy path, littered with ice-puddles. He closed the wobbling, wooden fence, then took a deep breath in. That clown was about to come over, and as he come to learn while sharing his mind with Azure, will be coming with one other thing, but not the Torque. His friends were just as likely busy getting rid of the monster, and considering what happened to Fotia, it might be very tricky. For now, he came to a decision: at the very least, hold out until others arrive. Otherwise, get rid of that clown once and for all.
They are going to the city, in just a few days. Mister Mouton has managed to get them there, and Chester very well knows that they may not have a chance like this again. He was going to go out, and finally, FINALLY after all this time, leave this town. Right into the city, where ARKYO. The organization whose hand was in all of this. Including in what happened to him. Plus that golden girl was, and where the rest of the evil goons are probably located now.
Chester was finally getting a chance to get into that city.
But he wasn’t doing it just like that. It was exactly what he wanted this whole time. Ever since the start of the year, he wanted to learn more. He wanted to learn why this whole thing happened. Why he became a scapegoat. Why was SHE hiding this whole thing from him. And now, he had that chance to do so.
And yet, he didn’t want to leave. Not because he suddenly decided he didn’t want to.
He had to clean-up the place first.
He can’t let them get hurt.
Chester heard a chuckle, but this one came from his mind.
Really? thought Chester.
<No need to bother yourself with trifles,> said Azure. <The enemy is up ahead.>
A shape began to form within a distance. It was small, but it was slowly growing by few seconds. Chester focused on it, to see exactly if what Azure told him was true. Unfortunately, it was exactly as Azure said. He saw the small shape, the white feathers, and another, rounder figure accompanying right behind the first.
<What an attack…it is below the belt,> growled Azure. Chester could feel his own head getting hotter due to the sight in front of him.
“What have you done to her!” Chester demanded sternly, even if the clown was still quite a distance away.
And yet, he heard the distinct laughter from afar.
“Oi-hohohohohohoho!” After a short while, at around ten feet of distance, did the clown and “Pierre” finally stopped. “My goodness, you seem to have caught on… but YES, I have, as a matter of fact, taken over the body of your feathered friend!…or should I have said the body of that old windbag? Eh, who cares! You are all just pathetic, miserable maggots, right!? OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Chester readied his sword and concentrated, as the cool air flowed itself and wrapped around the blade. The was a gap between him and the clown, and who knows what exactly the latter was preparing for him. But if there was one thing for sure he knew, it was that he couldn’t let the clown have his way and control the flow of the fight. That monster was a manipulator and a trickster. He had to attack immediately, and in a way that would not harm Pierre’s body. As such, he needed to do one thing.
To aim straight at the clown.
“Let’s go!” Chester yelled, and swept his sword across the ground. The air had turned the blade into a long, razor whip, cutting into a thin layer of mud, ice and water. All of them flew up into the sky, making a wave as twice as tall as the clown.
<Onward!>
Chester lunged seconds after the wall covered the view of the clown. Any sense of heaviness of his body disappeared for a brief moment, as he flew faster than even his own mind could comprehend. This was the technique that both Azure and Zamarad shared. And now he used it to get behind the clown, who was still standing, as the pieces of mud were reaching his eyes. His sword was outstretched for a hit. The clown was within his reach. This was a sure-fire win.
“Say goodbye, you stupid-“
The pain entered his solar plexus like a sudden punch in the gut. The clown barely moved from his spot, the entire time. In just few seconds, Chester lost his consciousness.
…
-----------------------------------------
…
“Alright, you four, go change now! You gonna put groceries in the places!”
The orphans ran upstairs without even looking once. Chester huffed, then took the handle of the giant canvas bag, filled halfway with food for the whole orphanage. The other one was taken by Matthew, whose lament presented itself readily.
“Can we not…rest a bit?” he complained.
“Just put it on the floor! It’s clean enough to slide with your socks on. C’mon.”
They pulled the bag all the way from the lobby to the kitchen, without much of a problem. The other orphans were interspersed around the building. They were as usual places, like Tammy in the kitchen, reading her old book on astronomy, for the fourth time in a row, or like Yuri, who was outside chasing the puppy brothers, Gavin and Gawain. Chester and Matthew left the bag right next to the fridge. Chester then took some juice out of it, and then immediately drank it straight from the carton.
“You could at least pour it into a glass first.” Chester didn’t bother answering Matthew, until he finally gulped everything. From there, he just smacked his laps and gave a content sigh.
“Why are you still here?”
Matthew checked around himself, before clearing his throat.
“I’m just…We still are in the middle of out conversation!” He then gave a quick honk of his, while grinning. “Now, about the whole ‘Quantum Mechanics,’ I believe it is nothing more than a-“
“You gonna fess up or what?”
Matthew shut his beak. Chester checked the clock, only to get taken aback that it took them about three-fourth of an hour to do their groceries. He for sure thought that they spent on it three whole hours.
“W-W-What do you mean by that?” Matthew gave another honk. “I am not here to fess upon anything! There is nothing, whatsoever, to confess! For I am free of-“
“I’m not an idiot.” Chester took another swig.
Matthew stammered, “W-W-Wha-No! Of course I do not believe that! What made you say so?! My only suggestion here is that being that we are of-“
“Just say it already, dude!” Chester cut him off again, putting the carton away. “Stop beating around the bush! You barely know me, got mad at me for hanging out with Tom, and now you can’t stop clinging to me! What do you want?”
The goose opened his beak, but no sound came out. No matter what he did, it seemed as if his throat had something stuck in it. Giving up on expecting some answer, Chester slowly made his way out of the kitchen.
“I am not…trying to hold a secret!” Matthew blurted out with effort. Chester paused his step. He noticed from the corner of his eye how Tammy was peeking at them from behind her book. “I simply…I just…is the monster going to come back again?”
Chester raised an eyebrow.
“Monster?”
“Yes.”
Chester considered for a moment who he meant.
“The clown?”
Matthew slowly and meaningfully bobbed his head. His eyes had grown to an enormous size from honest fear, enough that it reminded Chester of one of those praying mantises, or that weird stick with googly eyes he made once. Without meaning to, Chester snorted out a chuckle.
“That is not funny!” protested Matthew. “We are dealing with an actual creature from another world here!”
“C’mon dude, look at yourself!” Chester fell on his knees, as the intensity of his own laughter suddenly caught him. It was as if an invisible Torque began tickling him, making it harder and harder for the boy to stop.
He finally stopped after a while, his eyes filled with tears.
“Are you, by chance, finished laughing at me?” Matthew asked him.
“Wait…” Chester inhaled some air, “Now I am!” He moved out of the kitchen. Matthew followed right after him. “I’m gonna get rid of that clown, don’t worry.”
“You…will? You can!?” Matthew asked sincerely.
“Yep.” Chester looked up the stairs, just as the four kids started to make their way downstairs. He told them, “The grocery bag is in the kitchen. Also, make sure Mimmy drinks some medicine.”
“I’m not sick!” insisted Mimmy all the way from the bedroom.
“I’ll get the medicine,” Lily said, following others to the kitchen.
“And,” Matthew asked, “can Tom also do that? Destroy the clown?”
“If he wants to, sure.” Chester shrugged. “Like, that creep is a bit difficult, sure…But the problem is actually that he always leaves before we could do anything to him. Last time we fought him, I’m pretty sure Barbie did something to him. And now our spirits found him, and his lair too. We could go ahead and, well, get rid of him, I guess. If we wanted to.”
Chester sat down, looking a bit sullen. Lily passed by the two boys, holding medicine and a spoon in her hands. Soon after, Brian and Tiana exited the kitchen as well.
“Brian,” Chester said, catching the young wolf’s arm. “You are in charge of lunch. Make a sandwich for everyone.”
“What!? No way!” Brian objected. “Why do I have to do them!?
“Cause if you don’t, I’ll tell Miss Cheshire about the bath-bomb.”
Brian’s eyes grew as big as a pair of saucers.
“You knew!?”
“Everyone knew, even Miss Cheshire. She just didn’t care, because she got mad after I broke that window again upstairs. Now get to work! Then later I’ll show you what you should have done.”
Brian looked down for a moment, only to smile and then nod. As he left, Matthew followed the boy with his gaze, looking very interested. The goose then turned his wobbly head towards the hedgehog.
“I must say, you are far more intelligent than I initially believed.”
Chester raised an eyebrow at him.
“Um, don’t get me wrong! I don’t mean to say I thought you were…an idiot or something. I mean, you were said to be of poor intelligence by many, including by me sometimes…but I can see that that is not the case whatsoever! I was enormously wrong about that assessment!”
“…And?” Chester asked, getting bored by the second.
“So, um…why do this then? Why do you act out so…troublesomely?”
“Cause I don’t care.”
“That..doesn’t make sense!” Matthew honked again, out of bewilderment.
“Sure, it doesn’t, to you,” Chester stared right into Matthew’s eyes.
The goose’s beak became shut. Probably not because he couldn’t say anything, even Chester was ready for him to do so. But the other boy just chose to quite down, look away and fold his arms, falling into deep thought. Chester wasn’t exactly aware of what those thoughts were, but he at least felt victorious over that exchange.
“Chester!” yelled Brian from the kitchen, “Charlotte is eating bread again!”
“No I’m not.”
“You do!”
Chester sighed and shook his head. He has to go to the kitchen and deal with it personally, right?
<Of course you do.>
Chester without looking over his shoulder rolled his eyes. Of course, he thought.
He left the goose by himself, and found the kitchen stormed by several orphans all of a sudden. Not only Brian and Charlotte, whose mouth was in fact stuffed with pieces of bread, but also Yuri, Gavin, Gawain and Bobby on top of that. Tammy left some moments ago, it looked like. He also noticed something else in the kitchen, which was a half-eaten cake placed in the middle of the cooking table.
Chester came closer to it, trying to figure out what type of cake it even was. At best he could describe it as gross, weird, and kind of pathetic. Plus with few uneven apple slices shoved at its top.
“We made this cake,” Charlotte revealed to him.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Chester smelled it, getting a strong scent of vanilla from it.
“It was for Miss Cheshire’s birthday!” Bobby then said. “She really did not mind the cake at all!”
“Oh wow, really?!” said Chester, genuinely surprised to hear that. “But her birthday is next week.”
All of the kids gazed at him.
“Eh, I guess that’s fine. Bet she forgot it herself.” He then left the cake to go after Charlotte.
“Will Miss Cheshire be okay?”
Chester turned over his shoulder, finding both Lily and Mimmy standing in the doorway. The younger hamster was pushing into him with her rather large eyes, something he had trouble ignoring.
“Well…” Chester began scratching at his quills. Somehow, he wasn’t ready to think about it himself.
“Do you think she died?” Yuri asked out of the blue, making all the kids gasp. Mimmy, in particular, had the most shock on her face.
“Ah c’mon, of course not, you dork,” Chester replied. He then noogied the polar bear cub’s head. “Have you guys not seen how stubborn she is? Like, the other day, after complaining and complaining and ever MORE complaining about how her poor back hurts, as soon as she heard that Yuri got stuck in a tree by Miss Elefantus’s place, she ran all the way herself, climbed the tree, and then yelled at you for five minutes straight! Or how she keeps catching rocks that Gavin or Gawain throw at each other! Or even being able to hear when Charlotte is eating in the kitchen, while outside, and near the fence!”
As he listed each and every accomplishment, all the kids couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Oh yeah!”
“She did!”
“She totally does!”
“Yeah, totally!” Chester exclaimed. “So stop worrying. She’ll come back tomorrow, yell at you or me or something, and then will go to bed grumbling. Okay? Now, Lily, call everyone into the dining room, it’s lunchtime.”
The bat girl nodded, enthusiastically. She led Mimmy with her, along with everyone else. Brian was about to go, but Chester stopped him and told him to finish the sandwiches. The kids were posing no trouble at all for the hedgehog, in the end. Something that a certain blue spirit took a note of.
<You have a remarkable amount of compassion,> Azure thought.
Yeah, yeah, where were you this whole time? I thought you said you were going to check on the others. You were going to see the clown again, huh?
<I have done precisely as I had said. I have checked on Rose, as to see whether the jester was still hiding in his lair.>
And?
<I returned once again to check, after visiting Fotia. The latter has fallen asleep by the time I arrived. Whereas the jester, I believe, will come in less in than five minutes.>
“Here!?”
Azure gave a simple nod. Chester didn’t waste time, dashing right out of the kitchen, much to the bewilderment of the young wolf, and went straight to the window at the front. Behind the slightly cracked glass, he saw nothing, just large front-yard, thin blanket of snow and an old, wooden fence. And yet, he knew it was coming. That clown was going to come over there. And Chester was NOT going to let him pass an inch behind that rickety fence.
“Everyone, upstairs!” Chester announced loudly. The kids around the table gave him looks.
“What do you mean?” asked Tam politely.
“Go upstairs NOW, it’s an order!”
The kids became shook, while he made his way to Matthew. The goose’s long neck was now trying to hide itself, even before the hedgehog managed to reach the other boy.
“I-I-I-I-Is the m-m-m-mon…” Matthew slowly lost the ability to speak. Chester grabbed his shoulders.
“Matt, I need you to do something for me.” Matthew stared at him intensely, although Chester had a feeling he was probably would do the same if he was not there. “Look, I’m just going to go outside. Take everyone and their lunches, and lock the door. Lily can help you find the keys. If someone needs to pee, just check the hallway, and go to the door next to you. Again, ask Lily for help. All you need to do, is keep them inside there, while I’m away. Make sure to stay away from the window. You got that?”
Matthew’s face was still rigid. Chester furrowed his brows, sighed and then slapped the goose across the face.
“Anyone there?” Chester asked calmly.
“I shall do my utmost to protect, feed and lead them to the bathroom!” Matthew announced with full voice. He punctuated it all with a honk. “LET US GO, TO THE UPSTAIRS!!!”
Chester watched as the goose went to the dining table, grabbed and made everyone hold their plates, before pushing them all towards the stairs.
<That should take care of them for now,> Azure noted.
“Let’s get out, now.”
Chester transformed as soon as he got outside. The front entrance was locked with a key he snagged earlier, which will also be with his person while he is transformed. As with all objects, they exist on him, but the magic power of that transformation pretends that they don’t.
Chester brought his sword out, quickly making his way out of the front yard and into the road. He walked through the muddy path, littered with ice-puddles. He closed the wobbling, wooden fence, then took a deep breath in. That clown was about to come over, and as he come to learn while sharing his mind with Azure, will be coming with one other thing, but not the Torque. His friends were just as likely busy getting rid of the monster, and considering what happened to Fotia, it might be very tricky. For now, he came to a decision: at the very least, hold out until others arrive. Otherwise, get rid of that clown once and for all.
They are going to the city, in just a few days. Mister Mouton has managed to get them there, and Chester very well knows that they may not have a chance like this again. He was going to go out, and finally, FINALLY after all this time, leave this town. Right into the city, where ARKYO. The organization whose hand was in all of this. Including in what happened to him. Plus that golden girl was, and where the rest of the evil goons are probably located now.
Chester was finally getting a chance to get into that city.
But he wasn’t doing it just like that. It was exactly what he wanted this whole time. Ever since the start of the year, he wanted to learn more. He wanted to learn why this whole thing happened. Why he became a scapegoat. Why was SHE hiding this whole thing from him. And now, he had that chance to do so.
And yet, he didn’t want to leave. Not because he suddenly decided he didn’t want to.
He had to clean-up the place first.
He can’t let them get hurt.
Chester heard a chuckle, but this one came from his mind.
Really? thought Chester.
<No need to bother yourself with trifles,> said Azure. <The enemy is up ahead.>
A shape began to form within a distance. It was small, but it was slowly growing by few seconds. Chester focused on it, to see exactly if what Azure told him was true. Unfortunately, it was exactly as Azure said. He saw the small shape, the white feathers, and another, rounder figure accompanying right behind the first.
<What an attack…it is below the belt,> growled Azure. Chester could feel his own head getting hotter due to the sight in front of him.
“What have you done to her!” Chester demanded sternly, even if the clown was still quite a distance away.
And yet, he heard the distinct laughter from afar.
“Oi-hohohohohohoho!” After a short while, at around ten feet of distance, did the clown and “Pierre” finally stopped. “My goodness, you seem to have caught on… but YES, I have, as a matter of fact, taken over the body of your feathered friend!…or should I have said the body of that old windbag? Eh, who cares! You are all just pathetic, miserable maggots, right!? OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Chester readied his sword and concentrated, as the cool air flowed itself and wrapped around the blade. The was a gap between him and the clown, and who knows what exactly the latter was preparing for him. But if there was one thing for sure he knew, it was that he couldn’t let the clown have his way and control the flow of the fight. That monster was a manipulator and a trickster. He had to attack immediately, and in a way that would not harm Pierre’s body. As such, he needed to do one thing.
To aim straight at the clown.
“Let’s go!” Chester yelled, and swept his sword across the ground. The air had turned the blade into a long, razor whip, cutting into a thin layer of mud, ice and water. All of them flew up into the sky, making a wave as twice as tall as the clown.
<Onward!>
Chester lunged seconds after the wall covered the view of the clown. Any sense of heaviness of his body disappeared for a brief moment, as he flew faster than even his own mind could comprehend. This was the technique that both Azure and Zamarad shared. And now he used it to get behind the clown, who was still standing, as the pieces of mud were reaching his eyes. His sword was outstretched for a hit. The clown was within his reach. This was a sure-fire win.
“Say goodbye, you stupid-“
The pain entered his solar plexus like a sudden punch in the gut. The clown barely moved from his spot, the entire time. In just few seconds, Chester lost his consciousness.
…
Well now, Halloween is over, how tragic,
and people celebrating CHRISTMAS ALREADY!???????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…
“Alright, you four, go change now! You gonna put groceries in the places!”
The orphans ran upstairs without even looking once. Chester huffed, then took the handle of the giant canvas bag, filled halfway with food for the whole orphanage. The other one was taken by Matthew, whose lament presented itself readily.
“Can we not…rest a bit?” he complained.
“Just put it on the floor! It’s clean enough to slide with your socks on. C’mon.”
They pulled the bag all the way from the lobby to the kitchen, without much of a problem. The other orphans were interspersed around the building. They were as usual places, like Tammy in the kitchen, reading her old book on astronomy, for the fourth time in a row, or like Yuri, who was outside chasing the puppy brothers, Gavin and Gawain. Chester and Matthew left the bag right next to the fridge. Chester then took some juice out of it, and then immediately drank it straight from the carton.
“You could at least pour it into a glass first.” Chester didn’t bother answering Matthew, until he finally gulped everything. From there, he just smacked his laps and gave a content sigh.
“Why are you still here?”
Matthew checked around himself, before clearing his throat.
“I’m just…We still are in the middle of out conversation!” He then gave a quick honk of his, while grinning. “Now, about the whole ‘Quantum Mechanics,’ I believe it is nothing more than a-“
“You gonna fess up or what?”
Matthew shut his beak. Chester checked the clock, only to get taken aback that it took them about three-fourth of an hour to do their groceries. He for sure thought that they spent on it three whole hours.
“W-W-What do you mean by that?” Matthew gave another honk. “I am not here to fess upon anything! There is nothing, whatsoever, to confess! For I am free of-“
“I’m not an idiot.” Chester took another swig.
Matthew stammered, “W-W-Wha-No! Of course I do not believe that! What made you say so?! My only suggestion here is that being that we are of-“
“Just say it already, dude!” Chester cut him off again, putting the carton away. “Stop beating around the bush! You barely know me, got mad at me for hanging out with Tom, and now you can’t stop clinging to me! What do you want?”
The goose opened his beak, but no sound came out. No matter what he did, it seemed as if his throat had something stuck in it. Giving up on expecting some answer, Chester slowly made his way out of the kitchen.
“I am not…trying to hold a secret!” Matthew blurted out with effort. Chester paused his step. He noticed from the corner of his eye how Tammy was peeking at them from behind her book. “I simply…I just…is the monster going to come back again?”
Chester raised an eyebrow.
“Monster?”
“Yes.”
Chester considered for a moment who he meant.
“The clown?”
Matthew slowly and meaningfully bobbed his head. His eyes had grown to an enormous size from honest fear, enough that it reminded Chester of one of those praying mantises, or that weird stick with googly eyes he made once. Without meaning to, Chester snorted out a chuckle.
“That is not funny!” protested Matthew. “We are dealing with an actual creature from another world here!”
“C’mon dude, look at yourself!” Chester fell on his knees, as the intensity of his own laughter suddenly caught him. It was as if an invisible Torque began tickling him, making it harder and harder for the boy to stop.
He finally stopped after a while, his eyes filled with tears.
“Are you, by chance, finished laughing at me?” Matthew asked him.
“Wait…” Chester inhaled some air, “Now I am!” He moved out of the kitchen. Matthew followed right after him. “I’m gonna get rid of that clown, don’t worry.”
“You…will? You can!?” Matthew asked sincerely.
“Yep.” Chester looked up the stairs, just as the four kids started to make their way downstairs. He told them, “The grocery bag is in the kitchen. Also, make sure Mimmy drinks some medicine.”
“I’m not sick!” insisted Mimmy all the way from the bedroom.
“I’ll get the medicine,” Lily said, following others to the kitchen.
“And,” Matthew asked, “can Tom also do that? Destroy the clown?”
“If he wants to, sure.” Chester shrugged. “Like, that creep is a bit difficult, sure…But the problem is actually that he always leaves before we could do anything to him. Last time we fought him, I’m pretty sure Barbie did something to him. And now our spirits found him, and his lair too. We could go ahead and, well, get rid of him, I guess. If we wanted to.”
Chester sat down, looking a bit sullen. Lily passed by the two boys, holding medicine and a spoon in her hands. Soon after, Brian and Tiana exited the kitchen as well.
“Brian,” Chester said, catching the young wolf’s arm. “You are in charge of lunch. Make a sandwich for everyone.”
“What!? No way!” Brian objected. “Why do I have to do them!?
“Cause if you don’t, I’ll tell Miss Cheshire about the bath-bomb.”
Brian’s eyes grew as big as a pair of saucers.
“You knew!?”
“Everyone knew, even Miss Cheshire. She just didn’t care, because she got mad after I broke that window again upstairs. Now get to work! Then later I’ll show you what you should have done.”
Brian looked down for a moment, only to smile and then nod. As he left, Matthew followed the boy with his gaze, looking very interested. The goose then turned his wobbly head towards the hedgehog.
“I must say, you are far more intelligent than I initially believed.”
Chester raised an eyebrow at him.
“Um, don’t get me wrong! I don’t mean to say I thought you were…an idiot or something. I mean, you were said to be of poor intelligence by many, including by me sometimes…but I can see that that is not the case whatsoever! I was enormously wrong about that assessment!”
“…And?” Chester asked, getting bored by the second.
“So, um…why do this then? Why do you act out so…troublesomely?”
“Cause I don’t care.”
“That..doesn’t make sense!” Matthew honked again, out of bewilderment.
“Sure, it doesn’t, to you,” Chester stared right into Matthew’s eyes.
The goose’s beak became shut. Probably not because he couldn’t say anything, even Chester was ready for him to do so. But the other boy just chose to quite down, look away and fold his arms, falling into deep thought. Chester wasn’t exactly aware of what those thoughts were, but he at least felt victorious over that exchange.
“Chester!” yelled Brian from the kitchen, “Charlotte is eating bread again!”
“No I’m not.”
“You do!”
Chester sighed and shook his head. He has to go to the kitchen and deal with it personally, right?
<Of course you do.>
Chester without looking over his shoulder rolled his eyes. Of course, he thought.
He left the goose by himself, and found the kitchen stormed by several orphans all of a sudden. Not only Brian and Charlotte, whose mouth was in fact stuffed with pieces of bread, but also Yuri, Gavin, Gawain and Bobby on top of that. Tammy left some moments ago, it looked like. He also noticed something else in the kitchen, which was a half-eaten cake placed in the middle of the cooking table.
Chester came closer to it, trying to figure out what type of cake it even was. At best he could describe it as gross, weird, and kind of pathetic. Plus with few uneven apple slices shoved at its top.
“We made this cake,” Charlotte revealed to him.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Chester smelled it, getting a strong scent of vanilla from it.
“It was for Miss Cheshire’s birthday!” Bobby then said. “She really did not mind the cake at all!”
“Oh wow, really?!” said Chester, genuinely surprised to hear that. “But her birthday is next week.”
All of the kids gazed at him.
“Eh, I guess that’s fine. Bet she forgot it herself.” He then left the cake to go after Charlotte.
“Will Miss Cheshire be okay?”
Chester turned over his shoulder, finding both Lily and Mimmy standing in the doorway. The younger hamster was pushing into him with her rather large eyes, something he had trouble ignoring.
“Well…” Chester began scratching at his quills. Somehow, he wasn’t ready to think about it himself.
“Do you think she died?” Yuri asked out of the blue, making all the kids gasp. Mimmy, in particular, had the most shock on her face.
“Ah c’mon, of course not, you dork,” Chester replied. He then noogied the polar bear cub’s head. “Have you guys not seen how stubborn she is? Like, the other day, after complaining and complaining and ever MORE complaining about how her poor back hurts, as soon as she heard that Yuri got stuck in a tree by Miss Elefantus’s place, she ran all the way herself, climbed the tree, and then yelled at you for five minutes straight! Or how she keeps catching rocks that Gavin or Gawain throw at each other! Or even being able to hear when Charlotte is eating in the kitchen, while outside, and near the fence!”
As he listed each and every accomplishment, all the kids couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Oh yeah!”
“She did!”
“She totally does!”
“Yeah, totally!” Chester exclaimed. “So stop worrying. She’ll come back tomorrow, yell at you or me or something, and then will go to bed grumbling. Okay? Now, Lily, call everyone into the dining room, it’s lunchtime.”
The bat girl nodded, enthusiastically. She led Mimmy with her, along with everyone else. Brian was about to go, but Chester stopped him and told him to finish the sandwiches. The kids were posing no trouble at all for the hedgehog, in the end. Something that a certain blue spirit took a note of.
<You have a remarkable amount of compassion,> Azure thought.
Yeah, yeah, where were you this whole time? I thought you said you were going to check on the others. You were going to see the clown again, huh?
<I have done precisely as I had said. I have checked on Rose, as to see whether the jester was still hiding in his lair.>
And?
<I returned once again to check, after visiting Fotia. The latter has fallen asleep by the time I arrived. Whereas the jester, I believe, will come in less in than five minutes.>
“Here!?”
Azure gave a simple nod. Chester didn’t waste time, dashing right out of the kitchen, much to the bewilderment of the young wolf, and went straight to the window at the front. Behind the slightly cracked glass, he saw nothing, just large front-yard, thin blanket of snow and an old, wooden fence. And yet, he knew it was coming. That clown was going to come over there. And Chester was NOT going to let him pass an inch behind that rickety fence.
“Everyone, upstairs!” Chester announced loudly. The kids around the table gave him looks.
“What do you mean?” asked Tam politely.
“Go upstairs NOW, it’s an order!”
The kids became shook, while he made his way to Matthew. The goose’s long neck was now trying to hide itself, even before the hedgehog managed to reach the other boy.
“I-I-I-I-Is the m-m-m-mon…” Matthew slowly lost the ability to speak. Chester grabbed his shoulders.
“Matt, I need you to do something for me.” Matthew stared at him intensely, although Chester had a feeling he was probably would do the same if he was not there. “Look, I’m just going to go outside. Take everyone and their lunches, and lock the door. Lily can help you find the keys. If someone needs to pee, just check the hallway, and go to the door next to you. Again, ask Lily for help. All you need to do, is keep them inside there, while I’m away. Make sure to stay away from the window. You got that?”
Matthew’s face was still rigid. Chester furrowed his brows, sighed and then slapped the goose across the face.
“Anyone there?” Chester asked calmly.
“I shall do my utmost to protect, feed and lead them to the bathroom!” Matthew announced with full voice. He punctuated it all with a honk. “LET US GO, TO THE UPSTAIRS!!!”
Chester watched as the goose went to the dining table, grabbed and made everyone hold their plates, before pushing them all towards the stairs.
<That should take care of them for now,> Azure noted.
“Let’s get out, now.”
Chester transformed as soon as he got outside. The front entrance was locked with a key he snagged earlier, which will also be with his person while he is transformed. As with all objects, they exist on him, but the magic power of that transformation pretends that they don’t.
Chester brought his sword out, quickly making his way out of the front yard and into the road. He walked through the muddy path, littered with ice-puddles. He closed the wobbling, wooden fence, then took a deep breath in. That clown was about to come over, and as he come to learn while sharing his mind with Azure, will be coming with one other thing, but not the Torque. His friends were just as likely busy getting rid of the monster, and considering what happened to Fotia, it might be very tricky. For now, he came to a decision: at the very least, hold out until others arrive. Otherwise, get rid of that clown once and for all.
They are going to the city, in just a few days. Mister Mouton has managed to get them there, and Chester very well knows that they may not have a chance like this again. He was going to go out, and finally, FINALLY after all this time, leave this town. Right into the city, where ARKYO. The organization whose hand was in all of this. Including in what happened to him. Plus that golden girl was, and where the rest of the evil goons are probably located now.
Chester was finally getting a chance to get into that city.
But he wasn’t doing it just like that. It was exactly what he wanted this whole time. Ever since the start of the year, he wanted to learn more. He wanted to learn why this whole thing happened. Why he became a scapegoat. Why was SHE hiding this whole thing from him. And now, he had that chance to do so.
And yet, he didn’t want to leave. Not because he suddenly decided he didn’t want to.
He had to clean-up the place first.
He can’t let them get hurt.
Chester heard a chuckle, but this one came from his mind.
Really? thought Chester.
<No need to bother yourself with trifles,> said Azure. <The enemy is up ahead.>
A shape began to form within a distance. It was small, but it was slowly growing by few seconds. Chester focused on it, to see exactly if what Azure told him was true. Unfortunately, it was exactly as Azure said. He saw the small shape, the white feathers, and another, rounder figure accompanying right behind the first.
<What an attack…it is below the belt,> growled Azure. Chester could feel his own head getting hotter due to the sight in front of him.
“What have you done to her!” Chester demanded sternly, even if the clown was still quite a distance away.
And yet, he heard the distinct laughter from afar.
“Oi-hohohohohohoho!” After a short while, at around ten feet of distance, did the clown and “Pierre” finally stopped. “My goodness, you seem to have caught on… but YES, I have, as a matter of fact, taken over the body of your feathered friend!…or should I have said the body of that old windbag? Eh, who cares! You are all just pathetic, miserable maggots, right!? OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Chester readied his sword and concentrated, as the cool air flowed itself and wrapped around the blade. The was a gap between him and the clown, and who knows what exactly the latter was preparing for him. But if there was one thing for sure he knew, it was that he couldn’t let the clown have his way and control the flow of the fight. That monster was a manipulator and a trickster. He had to attack immediately, and in a way that would not harm Pierre’s body. As such, he needed to do one thing.
To aim straight at the clown.
“Let’s go!” Chester yelled, and swept his sword across the ground. The air had turned the blade into a long, razor whip, cutting into a thin layer of mud, ice and water. All of them flew up into the sky, making a wave as twice as tall as the clown.
<Onward!>
Chester lunged seconds after the wall covered the view of the clown. Any sense of heaviness of his body disappeared for a brief moment, as he flew faster than even his own mind could comprehend. This was the technique that both Azure and Zamarad shared. And now he used it to get behind the clown, who was still standing, as the pieces of mud were reaching his eyes. His sword was outstretched for a hit. The clown was within his reach. This was a sure-fire win.
“Say goodbye, you stupid-“
The pain entered his solar plexus like a sudden punch in the gut. The clown barely moved from his spot, the entire time. In just few seconds, Chester lost his consciousness.
…
and people celebrating CHRISTMAS ALREADY!???????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
…
“Alright, you four, go change now! You gonna put groceries in the places!”
The orphans ran upstairs without even looking once. Chester huffed, then took the handle of the giant canvas bag, filled halfway with food for the whole orphanage. The other one was taken by Matthew, whose lament presented itself readily.
“Can we not…rest a bit?” he complained.
“Just put it on the floor! It’s clean enough to slide with your socks on. C’mon.”
They pulled the bag all the way from the lobby to the kitchen, without much of a problem. The other orphans were interspersed around the building. They were as usual places, like Tammy in the kitchen, reading her old book on astronomy, for the fourth time in a row, or like Yuri, who was outside chasing the puppy brothers, Gavin and Gawain. Chester and Matthew left the bag right next to the fridge. Chester then took some juice out of it, and then immediately drank it straight from the carton.
“You could at least pour it into a glass first.” Chester didn’t bother answering Matthew, until he finally gulped everything. From there, he just smacked his laps and gave a content sigh.
“Why are you still here?”
Matthew checked around himself, before clearing his throat.
“I’m just…We still are in the middle of out conversation!” He then gave a quick honk of his, while grinning. “Now, about the whole ‘Quantum Mechanics,’ I believe it is nothing more than a-“
“You gonna fess up or what?”
Matthew shut his beak. Chester checked the clock, only to get taken aback that it took them about three-fourth of an hour to do their groceries. He for sure thought that they spent on it three whole hours.
“W-W-What do you mean by that?” Matthew gave another honk. “I am not here to fess upon anything! There is nothing, whatsoever, to confess! For I am free of-“
“I’m not an idiot.” Chester took another swig.
Matthew stammered, “W-W-Wha-No! Of course I do not believe that! What made you say so?! My only suggestion here is that being that we are of-“
“Just say it already, dude!” Chester cut him off again, putting the carton away. “Stop beating around the bush! You barely know me, got mad at me for hanging out with Tom, and now you can’t stop clinging to me! What do you want?”
The goose opened his beak, but no sound came out. No matter what he did, it seemed as if his throat had something stuck in it. Giving up on expecting some answer, Chester slowly made his way out of the kitchen.
“I am not…trying to hold a secret!” Matthew blurted out with effort. Chester paused his step. He noticed from the corner of his eye how Tammy was peeking at them from behind her book. “I simply…I just…is the monster going to come back again?”
Chester raised an eyebrow.
“Monster?”
“Yes.”
Chester considered for a moment who he meant.
“The clown?”
Matthew slowly and meaningfully bobbed his head. His eyes had grown to an enormous size from honest fear, enough that it reminded Chester of one of those praying mantises, or that weird stick with googly eyes he made once. Without meaning to, Chester snorted out a chuckle.
“That is not funny!” protested Matthew. “We are dealing with an actual creature from another world here!”
“C’mon dude, look at yourself!” Chester fell on his knees, as the intensity of his own laughter suddenly caught him. It was as if an invisible Torque began tickling him, making it harder and harder for the boy to stop.
He finally stopped after a while, his eyes filled with tears.
“Are you, by chance, finished laughing at me?” Matthew asked him.
“Wait…” Chester inhaled some air, “Now I am!” He moved out of the kitchen. Matthew followed right after him. “I’m gonna get rid of that clown, don’t worry.”
“You…will? You can!?” Matthew asked sincerely.
“Yep.” Chester looked up the stairs, just as the four kids started to make their way downstairs. He told them, “The grocery bag is in the kitchen. Also, make sure Mimmy drinks some medicine.”
“I’m not sick!” insisted Mimmy all the way from the bedroom.
“I’ll get the medicine,” Lily said, following others to the kitchen.
“And,” Matthew asked, “can Tom also do that? Destroy the clown?”
“If he wants to, sure.” Chester shrugged. “Like, that creep is a bit difficult, sure…But the problem is actually that he always leaves before we could do anything to him. Last time we fought him, I’m pretty sure Barbie did something to him. And now our spirits found him, and his lair too. We could go ahead and, well, get rid of him, I guess. If we wanted to.”
Chester sat down, looking a bit sullen. Lily passed by the two boys, holding medicine and a spoon in her hands. Soon after, Brian and Tiana exited the kitchen as well.
“Brian,” Chester said, catching the young wolf’s arm. “You are in charge of lunch. Make a sandwich for everyone.”
“What!? No way!” Brian objected. “Why do I have to do them!?
“Cause if you don’t, I’ll tell Miss Cheshire about the bath-bomb.”
Brian’s eyes grew as big as a pair of saucers.
“You knew!?”
“Everyone knew, even Miss Cheshire. She just didn’t care, because she got mad after I broke that window again upstairs. Now get to work! Then later I’ll show you what you should have done.”
Brian looked down for a moment, only to smile and then nod. As he left, Matthew followed the boy with his gaze, looking very interested. The goose then turned his wobbly head towards the hedgehog.
“I must say, you are far more intelligent than I initially believed.”
Chester raised an eyebrow at him.
“Um, don’t get me wrong! I don’t mean to say I thought you were…an idiot or something. I mean, you were said to be of poor intelligence by many, including by me sometimes…but I can see that that is not the case whatsoever! I was enormously wrong about that assessment!”
“…And?” Chester asked, getting bored by the second.
“So, um…why do this then? Why do you act out so…troublesomely?”
“Cause I don’t care.”
“That..doesn’t make sense!” Matthew honked again, out of bewilderment.
“Sure, it doesn’t, to you,” Chester stared right into Matthew’s eyes.
The goose’s beak became shut. Probably not because he couldn’t say anything, even Chester was ready for him to do so. But the other boy just chose to quite down, look away and fold his arms, falling into deep thought. Chester wasn’t exactly aware of what those thoughts were, but he at least felt victorious over that exchange.
“Chester!” yelled Brian from the kitchen, “Charlotte is eating bread again!”
“No I’m not.”
“You do!”
Chester sighed and shook his head. He has to go to the kitchen and deal with it personally, right?
<Of course you do.>
Chester without looking over his shoulder rolled his eyes. Of course, he thought.
He left the goose by himself, and found the kitchen stormed by several orphans all of a sudden. Not only Brian and Charlotte, whose mouth was in fact stuffed with pieces of bread, but also Yuri, Gavin, Gawain and Bobby on top of that. Tammy left some moments ago, it looked like. He also noticed something else in the kitchen, which was a half-eaten cake placed in the middle of the cooking table.
Chester came closer to it, trying to figure out what type of cake it even was. At best he could describe it as gross, weird, and kind of pathetic. Plus with few uneven apple slices shoved at its top.
“We made this cake,” Charlotte revealed to him.
“Yeah, I can see that.” Chester smelled it, getting a strong scent of vanilla from it.
“It was for Miss Cheshire’s birthday!” Bobby then said. “She really did not mind the cake at all!”
“Oh wow, really?!” said Chester, genuinely surprised to hear that. “But her birthday is next week.”
All of the kids gazed at him.
“Eh, I guess that’s fine. Bet she forgot it herself.” He then left the cake to go after Charlotte.
“Will Miss Cheshire be okay?”
Chester turned over his shoulder, finding both Lily and Mimmy standing in the doorway. The younger hamster was pushing into him with her rather large eyes, something he had trouble ignoring.
“Well…” Chester began scratching at his quills. Somehow, he wasn’t ready to think about it himself.
“Do you think she died?” Yuri asked out of the blue, making all the kids gasp. Mimmy, in particular, had the most shock on her face.
“Ah c’mon, of course not, you dork,” Chester replied. He then noogied the polar bear cub’s head. “Have you guys not seen how stubborn she is? Like, the other day, after complaining and complaining and ever MORE complaining about how her poor back hurts, as soon as she heard that Yuri got stuck in a tree by Miss Elefantus’s place, she ran all the way herself, climbed the tree, and then yelled at you for five minutes straight! Or how she keeps catching rocks that Gavin or Gawain throw at each other! Or even being able to hear when Charlotte is eating in the kitchen, while outside, and near the fence!”
As he listed each and every accomplishment, all the kids couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Oh yeah!”
“She did!”
“She totally does!”
“Yeah, totally!” Chester exclaimed. “So stop worrying. She’ll come back tomorrow, yell at you or me or something, and then will go to bed grumbling. Okay? Now, Lily, call everyone into the dining room, it’s lunchtime.”
The bat girl nodded, enthusiastically. She led Mimmy with her, along with everyone else. Brian was about to go, but Chester stopped him and told him to finish the sandwiches. The kids were posing no trouble at all for the hedgehog, in the end. Something that a certain blue spirit took a note of.
<You have a remarkable amount of compassion,> Azure thought.
Yeah, yeah, where were you this whole time? I thought you said you were going to check on the others. You were going to see the clown again, huh?
<I have done precisely as I had said. I have checked on Rose, as to see whether the jester was still hiding in his lair.>
And?
<I returned once again to check, after visiting Fotia. The latter has fallen asleep by the time I arrived. Whereas the jester, I believe, will come in less in than five minutes.>
“Here!?”
Azure gave a simple nod. Chester didn’t waste time, dashing right out of the kitchen, much to the bewilderment of the young wolf, and went straight to the window at the front. Behind the slightly cracked glass, he saw nothing, just large front-yard, thin blanket of snow and an old, wooden fence. And yet, he knew it was coming. That clown was going to come over there. And Chester was NOT going to let him pass an inch behind that rickety fence.
“Everyone, upstairs!” Chester announced loudly. The kids around the table gave him looks.
“What do you mean?” asked Tam politely.
“Go upstairs NOW, it’s an order!”
The kids became shook, while he made his way to Matthew. The goose’s long neck was now trying to hide itself, even before the hedgehog managed to reach the other boy.
“I-I-I-I-Is the m-m-m-mon…” Matthew slowly lost the ability to speak. Chester grabbed his shoulders.
“Matt, I need you to do something for me.” Matthew stared at him intensely, although Chester had a feeling he was probably would do the same if he was not there. “Look, I’m just going to go outside. Take everyone and their lunches, and lock the door. Lily can help you find the keys. If someone needs to pee, just check the hallway, and go to the door next to you. Again, ask Lily for help. All you need to do, is keep them inside there, while I’m away. Make sure to stay away from the window. You got that?”
Matthew’s face was still rigid. Chester furrowed his brows, sighed and then slapped the goose across the face.
“Anyone there?” Chester asked calmly.
“I shall do my utmost to protect, feed and lead them to the bathroom!” Matthew announced with full voice. He punctuated it all with a honk. “LET US GO, TO THE UPSTAIRS!!!”
Chester watched as the goose went to the dining table, grabbed and made everyone hold their plates, before pushing them all towards the stairs.
<That should take care of them for now,> Azure noted.
“Let’s get out, now.”
Chester transformed as soon as he got outside. The front entrance was locked with a key he snagged earlier, which will also be with his person while he is transformed. As with all objects, they exist on him, but the magic power of that transformation pretends that they don’t.
Chester brought his sword out, quickly making his way out of the front yard and into the road. He walked through the muddy path, littered with ice-puddles. He closed the wobbling, wooden fence, then took a deep breath in. That clown was about to come over, and as he come to learn while sharing his mind with Azure, will be coming with one other thing, but not the Torque. His friends were just as likely busy getting rid of the monster, and considering what happened to Fotia, it might be very tricky. For now, he came to a decision: at the very least, hold out until others arrive. Otherwise, get rid of that clown once and for all.
They are going to the city, in just a few days. Mister Mouton has managed to get them there, and Chester very well knows that they may not have a chance like this again. He was going to go out, and finally, FINALLY after all this time, leave this town. Right into the city, where ARKYO. The organization whose hand was in all of this. Including in what happened to him. Plus that golden girl was, and where the rest of the evil goons are probably located now.
Chester was finally getting a chance to get into that city.
But he wasn’t doing it just like that. It was exactly what he wanted this whole time. Ever since the start of the year, he wanted to learn more. He wanted to learn why this whole thing happened. Why he became a scapegoat. Why was SHE hiding this whole thing from him. And now, he had that chance to do so.
And yet, he didn’t want to leave. Not because he suddenly decided he didn’t want to.
He had to clean-up the place first.
He can’t let them get hurt.
Chester heard a chuckle, but this one came from his mind.
Really? thought Chester.
<No need to bother yourself with trifles,> said Azure. <The enemy is up ahead.>
A shape began to form within a distance. It was small, but it was slowly growing by few seconds. Chester focused on it, to see exactly if what Azure told him was true. Unfortunately, it was exactly as Azure said. He saw the small shape, the white feathers, and another, rounder figure accompanying right behind the first.
<What an attack…it is below the belt,> growled Azure. Chester could feel his own head getting hotter due to the sight in front of him.
“What have you done to her!” Chester demanded sternly, even if the clown was still quite a distance away.
And yet, he heard the distinct laughter from afar.
“Oi-hohohohohohoho!” After a short while, at around ten feet of distance, did the clown and “Pierre” finally stopped. “My goodness, you seem to have caught on… but YES, I have, as a matter of fact, taken over the body of your feathered friend!…or should I have said the body of that old windbag? Eh, who cares! You are all just pathetic, miserable maggots, right!? OI-HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Chester readied his sword and concentrated, as the cool air flowed itself and wrapped around the blade. The was a gap between him and the clown, and who knows what exactly the latter was preparing for him. But if there was one thing for sure he knew, it was that he couldn’t let the clown have his way and control the flow of the fight. That monster was a manipulator and a trickster. He had to attack immediately, and in a way that would not harm Pierre’s body. As such, he needed to do one thing.
To aim straight at the clown.
“Let’s go!” Chester yelled, and swept his sword across the ground. The air had turned the blade into a long, razor whip, cutting into a thin layer of mud, ice and water. All of them flew up into the sky, making a wave as twice as tall as the clown.
<Onward!>
Chester lunged seconds after the wall covered the view of the clown. Any sense of heaviness of his body disappeared for a brief moment, as he flew faster than even his own mind could comprehend. This was the technique that both Azure and Zamarad shared. And now he used it to get behind the clown, who was still standing, as the pieces of mud were reaching his eyes. His sword was outstretched for a hit. The clown was within his reach. This was a sure-fire win.
“Say goodbye, you stupid-“
The pain entered his solar plexus like a sudden punch in the gut. The clown barely moved from his spot, the entire time. In just few seconds, Chester lost his consciousness.
…
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
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