"Anything more? You just walked around or what?" Teel demanded as his daughter looked up with shaky eyes. Her eyes seemed to be shaking just like the water she took another swig of. It also seemed as though the insides of her eyes were dancing around, playing Teel's as he looked away. He managed to avert his gaze to the shadows within the living room in which the curtains had been closed to stop the eerie moonlight from breaking in. Teel had felt something odd about it, a spectacular feeling of dizziness and foreign closure getting into him as he now thought about, recollecting how his daughter had just walked in rather suddenly, burdened with the most abstract look he'd ever seen. His eyes had managed to skate right into the moon, showing the policemen their exit, and a shiver had been sent directly into his very spine. It was as though someone or something was watching him from the stars, the face of the moon making him wince as well.
“There is something... I did a lot of things, Mom, Dad." Teela's voice knocked down in tone drastically, her childish glint in her eyes lost as she looked down. There was no happy pique within her tone now, only depression and a truck load of confusion.
”You didn't run into anyone, did you?!" Leeta burst out suddenly as Teela shrugged.
“I don't.... I don't know." She continued to shake as though she had been placed with a freezer coated with water.
“What do you mean you don't know, Teela? You need to speak to us, kid, come on..." Teel tried to keep his hands from curling into fists, and he managed to do so. He was not angry, but merely getting frustrated. It was late, he had just been a nervous wreck and now he couldn't understand what his daughter wouldn't speak of. Was it this awful? Did someone take her and do horrid and unspeakable things that would taint her mind forever? Did another Magikoopa attack her? The possibilities were endless...
“I had walked on the path," Teela restated as she placed her hands upon her head, her fingers pressing against her temples, struggling to remember. ”I just... I felt... I was being pulled, pulled into the forest... I just... It was all a blur, and eventually... I snapped out, I felt MYSELF again... There were a lot of people I met tonight, Daddy. And none of them I knew. They each had horrid and tragic tales to do with the forest... I mean, I only heard voices... That I remember... I remember each was crying or screaming.... But I never heard all of any of the tales... And... I... I snapped out of it."
”Teela, I don't understand." Teel looked onto his daughter now, whom he could see the frustration was causing much stress. He watched as she pulled her knees to her chest, a move Leeta would pull at times. But this was Teela, his little Teela, and it was only a move she pulled when she was becoming very troubled or even close to tears. ”You need to... What do you think it was, T?"
Teel took note that his daughter was having a hard time. She was young yet, and possibly could define the words she needed. He then told himself he needed to be kinder, needed to be gentler as he was with Leeta. Teela was not Leeta, Teela was his daughter, Teel reminded himself. Would kindness work to quell her fears and sorrows as it did his wife?
“Daddy... I don't know what they were. I never saw anyone, and I couldn't speak back. They were... I was... I wasn't there, but I was. I was walked, Dad, for a very long time... And I was thrown into this place... I had no vision, no sense of smell, I really... I was just thrown out! I was like... when you sleep? You wake up but you're still caught up in a dream or even distant memories? It was like that. Except it wasn't MY memories... They were like other people telling me what happened to them, each had a tale with the forest, Dad! Mom, do you get it?"
"Teela, I can't say for sure." Leeta's eyes were tired, the low lighting making her look as though she were much older. With a sigh, she looked to Teel, who in turn simply looked up to the ceiling.
“You saw no one? Nothing at all tonight, Teela?" Teel lowered his tone into one of kindness, of understanding. He was trying to get her to calm down, just so she could explain something, anything.
“I saw something. I did... Something that scared me very much, Daddy, something that got my heart pounding so fast that I... Dad, I almost died." Teela choked out the last line very suddenly. It seemed more of a digression than anything, but in a way, it fit in the subject oh so finely.
“Are you metaphorically speaking?" Teel asked as Teela looked up in confusion.
“Wha?"
”Are you saying... because your heart was beating fast you almost died, or... You literally almost died?"
”I don't know what literally means either, Dad." Her look beckoned into one of skepticism.
“Real. It means like... really. You really almost did, or were you describing how you felt?”
”I almost died." The words rolled right off of her tongue as though it were natural and said before perhaps in a once faraway nightmare. ”I ran into something."
”Teela, you need to stop... I understand you're afraid, but you can't keep leaving us stranded like so. You need to finish, Teela, there's no more reason to be scared." And was that a lie? ”There's nothing to be afraid of. We're here, Teela, we're here. Just speak, and take your time." Teel sat down beside his daughter, looking onto the fangs once more, a look of curiosity spreading on him. Teela looked up, taking his paw in her two small ones and bringing it to the left fang. He touched it with one finger, taking note of how sharp it really was. She was frightened, he could see it now, frightened into a state of shock really.
“I'll... I... I was walking, I told you that... and when I ‘woke up’ I was... in this really dark... absolutely dark. Not like anything I've ever been in; it really was dark. But there was a glowing sort... of... two fangs, like mine, Mom and Dad, two large and glowing green fangs. They were HUGE! I had paused, panicking, and it spoke to me."
”What was it, Teela?" Leeta chimed as Teela looked to her, Leeta now seeing the fear and bewilderment in her daughter's suddenly much larger eyes.
“It was... This may sound freaky, but it looked like something out of a horror movie when I eventually made contact with it... It was this glowing, floating... orb almost. I think it was..." Teela's eyes grew wide, a huge, creepy smile blossoming on her face for reasons Teel nor Leeta could quite understand. ”One of them things we saw in that movie... House of Horror?! Hahaha... Except... This thing wasn't cheesy. It was a... what did they call it... a Boo."
Silence stood its ground for a few moments as Teela finally sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She finally finished off her water.
“What did it say?" Teel asked almost expectantly, no one else saying anything for a moment or two.
“I really... It was like... It was going to kill me, but it couldn't. Or... It didn't. At first, to be the only one in the world, all alone, that was what you wanted, wasn't it? And I was thinking I shouldn't talk to strangers, but then I remember I wasn't standing in the middle of some busy store... This was... darkness.... And I had simply stated I was afraid to be alone." This had completely lost Teel and Leeta. “It told me I was pathetic. Then it tried to come after me! I ran... I kept running, and its glowing figure practically ate the darkness. It had started to degrade me... Um... it said some things about how easily my mind was penetrated and how my soul was different and as well as my mind, etc. I just... I was... It had told me I led myself there, my mind reaching out... It was telling me I wouldn't be needed, I had to die... and then I was just like 'WHAT?!' And I was getting on its nerves... I was being a smart aleck because it was degrading me, and I won in the end... the words at least. I just... I ran... then it appeared in front of me, it was so fast!!! But it had appeared in front of me, swerving right at me with its fangs open... I know it tried to hold me down with some sort of field at one point... I was lifted in the air... I broke it though. It was like... energy holding me..."
”Teela, what... did you see? Was it saying something? Some sort of... weird phrases?" Teel asked, his eyes suddenly looking up to her with shock, pleading to know.
“It never said anything... I didn't understand expect it was time for me to go... like die... It was glowing a yellow color though... weird glowing yellow..."
”Are you sure it was... some sort of ghost?" Teel stood up, beginning to pace. Leeta sat listening, her quietness a bit surprising to Teel because she seemed to never be quiet anyway, not that he minded that though. ”You claim... energy?"
“Yes. It finally... got me, I... I faded though, it got me... on my arm, though it was like it wanted my neck or something... It was aiming for there, I could FEEL it... It wanted my neck... like some sort of dracula." Teela then put her hands to her head, sticking out her tongue and going "Bleh! I VANT YOUR BLOOD..."
”Then how did you get that cut on your leg?" Leeta's tone remained neutral, surprised here and there, but nothing like Teel and Teela.
“I fell over a log. On the way back here..." Teela replied embarrassedly as she looked down to it. It was much worse than she thought...
“Well... what happened when you... woke up after that?" Teel asked, quickly pressing to hear more.
“I heard... voices... In my head, like... I just woke up not knowing where I was, and I was... awoken by such depressing stories and such... Love tale, I think it was like. Written just like a book even... But I woke up, wondering what had happened to where I had just been. The moonlight was very bright... I stood up, looking at my arm, I was frightened, Dad... I saw... I saw the two gaping holes on my arm closing up, some sort of rainbow substance on my arm, just vanishing right into my blood."
”Maybe you were hallucinating," her father stated as Teela shook her head.
“I didn't know you could feel hallucinations. I felt... uh... drunk."
”You don't know what drunk feels like," Leeta pointed out a bit sourly as Teela shrugged.
“No, but I've been told it's when you like... wake up and wonder what you did and where you are. That's how I felt."
“Believe me, being drunk and describing it are much different... You’d better hope you never get drunk, Teela Marie Yoshi, if I ever catch you drunk, I'll throw you in a Chain Chomp house." Teel had a striking look of deadly seriousness with his eyes as Teela let out a chuckle.
“Dad, I'm not a drunkard. Don't worry. I was just trying to point out how it felt. How would you know though, either, huh?" Teela's eyes narrowed into one of a smart-aleck as Leeta laughed. She then quickly stopped, catching Teela and Teel both staring at her through withheld glares.
“It's gone... no scars or anything. But when I got this nice big gash..." Teela looked back down to it again, looking at all of the dry green substance slightly flaking onto her aqua colored boots. ”It looked like it was rainbow as well... at first when it started bleeding... then it became red and green all at once... the silver to blue, but all in a few seconds. The moonlight may have played with my head, there, though..." Teela admitted, looking reluctantly now to her leg, unable to take her attention away from it.
“Teela... Go take another shower, wash that leg off... We'll tend to it when you get out. And make sure to brush your... um.... fangs," Leeta stated as Teela looked relieved to be out of all this questioning. She immediately pulled herself out of her chair, her legs numb and tingly with sleepiness. She stretched, neither of her parents taking their eyes off of her.
“And don't go anywhere," her father demanded as Teela grinned sheepishly, her grin a bit distorted by the fangs. As soon as she bolted towards the bathroom, Leeta cleared her throat.
“Well... It sounds like something right from her imagination... you know those freaky pictures she drew before, right? Remember? Right after she saw those horror movies? Teel, do you think it-"
”Is an act of her imagination? Leeta, I highly doubt the girl can throw images into our heads to make us think she's got fangs... She is nowhere near as strong mentally... as that. And to be able to project it into two peoples’ heads at the same coherent time? Impossible... It-"
”You always said that the impossible is oh so possible."
”Yeah, before I became a married man with a daughter." Teel sighed, now rubbing his temples as Teela had been.
“Teel, lighten up... Come on, Magic, calm down. You're getting too frustrated- if we can just remain calm and rational, it'll all be all right. You know that, come on. Get a hold of your head. How do we prove she isn't pulling some sort of prank, then?" Leeta asked, embracing her husband as he merely buried his face into her blue hair. His head pulsed, and he almost did want to cry, almost but not quite. He had grown hard since way back when, since the dawn of his own history and would not let himself weaken. His eyes watered, though thankfully, he managed to hold it back, Leeta stroking the scales on his back. ”You needn't get this worked up. Let's just think of something, now, hm?"
“Yes," he replied without a stutter, sniffling, taking in the smell of Leeta's hair. It smelled of melons- he liked that. With his sober look, he sat down within the chair Teela had sat in. It was stiflingly cold...
“If she is that powerful, is there a way to check?" Leeta asked, sitting down in another chair, taking his hand.
“I can't check... I can't sense anything. It's like my head is... constipated." He let out a silly grin as Leeta laughed, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, I can't sense a thing..."
”What about... that guy who always bought wands from you? The one who, when you tried to con him into believing one of the wands had been wielded by some dead guy that made the wand legendary, set your hair on fire? Hehe, and you only did that because he conned you into buying something fake? What was his name?" Leeta laughed as Teel at first gave her a look of skepticism, but soon burst into laughter himself.
“I couldn't touch my head for a week! But his name was... uh... Kam... erm... Kamek," he decided finally, trying to ponder what to do now. It had been ages since he had last spoken to the Magikoopa with an odd way of going about things. Would the old geezer even remember Teel? Teel laughed a bit before finally grabbing his shop keys. ”I'm going to the shop... I'm sure I've got a record on who bought things. Information like that is required... to buy wands and things of danger and potential to kill. I'm sure I've got a record on file somewhere... Name, phone number, address... etc."
“Good luck. I'll bandage her leg up when she gets out," Leeta replied as Teel raced towards the door. This was turning out to be a rather long night...
<c>**********
The night was swift, the wind kicking and pawing as Teel stepped out of his shop, closing the door gingerly. The voice still lingered within his head; it sounded old and decrepit, almost senile in a way. As he then shivered a bit, Teel closed his hand around the keys and pulled them out of the lock. He was located on the opposite side of the city from his house. He saw shadows flickering, the moon causing them to dance and proceed to go after him.
As Teel ignored his surroundings, he quickly began to bolt back towards his home. His speed wasn't very adequate, but it served him all right in a spattered manner. The way the shadows dappled at his face, which was still covered with exasperation still, left him cold. His legs pumped harder as he ran even quicker than his speed heading here. His keys jingled, Teel running from the fog in the rain left as a sign that notified its presence. He took significant note of all the detail that lay around him, as it all seemed like something only mentioned within a horror novel. He half-expected something to come crawling out of the fog or even one of the drain pipes to take him down. Yet that something never came, as he ran harder at these thoughts as though trying to leave them behind. They were highly irrelevant and he felt rather foolish for thinking of such things. He was, after all, just a mere Yoshi man and whoever would target him?! These thoughts slightly, though not much truthfully, quelled his sudden fears. A rock might've scared him currently. As well, unfortunately or not, all the things he'd been through within his short and rather young life, gave him the right to be paranoid.
Teel's energy had been quite extensive when he was younger, the track team serving him quite well even to this day. His experience allowed him to run, though his bones creaked and groaned in an old manner. He was, after all, a father, and sure enough, all of those fatherly deeds of building and working took a lot out of a man. He was clumsy, however, as he ran, his figure bent back, pushing his legs forward instead of leaning his entire body. Perhaps it was his aching back, or perhaps it was because he had lost such knowledge of how to run.
<c>***********
The white cloth hung limply as it was wound "round and round" her light blue leg. The dried blood was no longer sticky in any matter and was a sort of dingy brown color. Even though she had taken a shower, Teela's leg was still slightly hinting at the cut regardless, as it had already begun to form at a scab.
"Teela, stop fidgeting," her mother ordered, wrapping the bandage tighter and making Teela wince slightly. It may have been more or less her imagination that it hurt, as children were quite prone to do that at many times.
"IT HURTS!" She whimpered in a whiny way, her mother rolling her own eyes. Leeta merely looked up to her daughter with a sarcastic sort of look as Teela glared at her in a forgiving manner.
"Oh, it does not, you big baby." Her mother giggled as she then grabbed the rubbing alcohol and began to drench Teela's gaping-looking wound. She began to really whimper now, her mother blowing on it rhythmically to ease the burning. ”Now it hurts, I assume?"
"Y-Y-YESS!" Hot tears welled up into Teela's eyes as she tried to hold them in. As her mother poured another dose of peroxide on it, which wasn't supposed to hurt, Teela began to sob and her nose began to cause her a royal case of the sniffles. Moments later, a door was heard shutting downstairs as a friendly voice called, rather jokingly.
“HONEY, I'M HHOOMMMEEE!"
”Did you get it?" Leeta called through wiping Teela's wound with a small piece of cloth flannel material. Her mother began to unwind the other pieces of cloth from her leg, the wound no longer an eye-catching brown dingy sort of color. It had served its purpose to hold the alcohol and not let her fur absorb it all. She strained it onto Teela's leg as she began to hold her mouth, locking within it muffled screams.
Teel could be heard shuffling downstairs as he placed the keys upon the counter and got himself situated.
“Yeah." He paused, shivering a bit more as he avoided stuttering the best he could due to the still-affecting cold of the outside. It was good to be back within his warm home. ”He'll be here soon."
”All right, well Teela's leg is looking much better. Though she is a little shaken by the pain. it seems." Leeta reported as Teela wiped her eyes, almost ashamed of her tears. She crossed her arms angrily and then stood up, her mother grabbing her arm. ”Sit down, I still need to put the dry bandage upon it. To help it heal faster. It's still an open sort of wound, you know."
And Teela obeyed. Her mother began winding dry cloth around her leg tightly, blocking of all the evil bacteria that would find her blood a nice home and her internal warmth suiting. Her mother wouldn't allow that, obviously, as she bound the cloth around and around and around it goes... "Where it stops, nobody knows..."