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any one has any fanfics they's like to post here? I have one form a author name Klumpy who used to a site/ she had greet fan fics I'd like the post one here, it's called TOBIAS. check out Kongovalley.com What do you think of this story

Tobias

By Klumpy

"Ooh, and here’s the really gruesome part that I like best! Watch how he does this…don’t look away, Amy." Vicky said, jumping up and down on the end of the bed. Amy was holding a pillow up to her face, not really willing to look. Vicky had always had a thing for horror movies, and was currently forcing Amy to watch ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. "You know, I prefer the musical much better." Amy said from behind the pillow. Another scream sounded on her small TV. She squealed as Vicky smiled with glee at the sight of blood. In that way, Vicky reminded her of Krusher. "I love horror movies! Especially when they’ve got an ‘18’ certificate on them. Don’t you, Amy?"

"No!" she said. Vicky turned away from the gruesome events happening on the screen to face Amy. "You know, this film is quite…beautiful. In its own way."

"Is it?"

"Yes, it is. I mean…he loved her, and yet no-one could ever love him. It’s more of a love-story than a horror story."

"Yeah. And as well as all the lurve, heads are being cut off and put in soup and stuff."

Ziggy looked up from his position next to Amy’s bed. "And what’s wrong with heads, toots?" he asked. Amy went over to him and picked him up. "Nothing..it’s just that it freaks me out..all this stuff. I mean, I’m used to you by now. But if I found a head floating in a bowl of soup one day, it would frighten me."

Ziggy grinned. He was quite a cheerful head, and was insistent on staying with Amy all the time to repay her for rescuing him from the museum. He did a pretty good job of it.

They watched to the end of the movie and had a long discussion about it before Vicky left, taking her video with her. Amy was actually quite glad to see her go, so long as it meant the film was going with her. "I don’t think it’s right, Ziggy, for opinions to be based solely on appearance. I mean, if my opinions were based on appearance, I would have just left you in the museum. I just had some feeling about you when I saw you on the floor…so helpless."

"You’re right, toots. Dere’s no need to be prejudice…ever. Heh. Prejudice is an awful ting, babe. But I mean, we’re all happy here, ain’t we? Nobody’s different."

"Except you. You’re the only human- well…part of a human in the factory."

"True, toots. But jist ‘cause I’m different from youse guys don’t mean there’s anytin’ wrong wit’ me."

"I guess not." she said, "I wish others felt the same way as us. We just need an opportunity to show them that being ‘different’ is not necessarily being ‘bad’." She stood up. "I’m going to go and see if there’s anything to be done. See you later, Zig."

She walked out of the room, with that thought in her mind. Ziggy sighed as she left. "Great gal." he said to himself, "I’m sure she’ll find a way."

***

In the factory kitchens, Klump and Krusha were moving some large boxes filled with tins out into the main hall. When Amy saw them, she ran up instantly. "Hi guys. Can I help?" As she spoke, Klump collapsed under the weight of the box he was carrying and yelled out in pain. "No, Amy! This is heavy-duty work. Not for you…ow…my poor butt…"

Amy picked up some tins that had fallen out of the box. "I can help you for a while if you want. I’m not doing anything else-"

"No! Honestly, we don’t need your help, do we Krusha?"

Krusha ran over to help Klump. "We’re just fine and dandy!" he said, "Duh…at least that’s what Klump says."

"Help me up off of the dang floor, Krusha!" Klump growled. Amy was about to help him herself, but Krusha stopped her. "Don’t do that." He said, "You might strain yourself with Klump’s weight."

Klump was deeply insulted, as was Amy. "Then, can I carry a box?"

"No! It’s Okay…we’re just fine." Krusha helped Klump to his feet and then took the box himself.

Amy clenched her fists angrily, but wasn’t the sort of lizard to explode in a fiery rage. Instead, she turned on her heel and marched back to her room.

***

Out in a dark, dense part of the jungle, a lizard sat on a rotting log. Above him on a branch sat a black hawk, which looked down upon the lizard with beady eyes. "Can you feel it?" cawed the hawk, "I can…it’s nearby. Very strong indeed. It’s making me feel warm…my beak is tingling. Take a deep breath…feel it all around you. I can. It is very strong. Exceptionally strong."

The lizard did not look up. He had his long legs crossed, and he had the index claw of each hand placed on his temples. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was abnormally deep. "Venite in facinum…O spiritus tenebrarum. Magne Asteroth te iubeo-"

The hawk screeched in what sounded like absolute terror. "What are you saying?! Those are not the right words! And you know it!"

"A cannot remember my chant!" shouted the lizard, standing up. He was very tall and bony. His eyes, and beautiful eyes they were, opened in his anger, and his meditation was broken. "I cannot remember anything! All I can think about…is…" He looked as though he had been injured, and fell back into a sitting position on the log. He bowed his head. "I can only think about Crystal. Oh, I should have never let her go…"

"Well, you did. And you can’t get her back." squawked his feathered accomplice. The lizard covered his face with his claws. "I cannot feel her presence any longer…not for a long time. She is dead, I fear."

"Dead? You mean that…Oh God."

"I will be soon! I will go along the path that she has followed! I have been such a fool all my life…but it is an addiction…I can’t stop myself." He looked up again. The hawk took a few steps back on the branch to avoid any violence from the lizard. "But Harpy…I know where she went. Who she married. Who she…" The lizard grabbed his stomach and bent forward. He let out a weak cough. "I know…where…I can find her…her…husband. Maybe if I find…she may not even be dead. Maybe my senses are acting up…but I do not know. I only hope that she is Okay…" He looked up again. Three gray tears trickled out of his left eye. "But she had such a strong feeling about her. I cannot feel her any more…but I will follow my instinct to the place she lived. If I find her…if…I…" Before he could finish, he collapsed forward onto the ground, a sad, sorrowful heap. The hawk fluttered down to him and sat next to him, listening to his weak, strangled breathing. Pity was all he had to feel. Utter pity.

***

K. Rool sat on the end of his large bed, looking through some of his old photo albums. As he sat there, looking through some pictures from his honeymoon all those years ago, he began to sing to himself. "Bright eyes, burning like fire…bright eyes, how can you close and fail? How can the light that burned so brightly, suddenly burn so pale…bright eyes…" For some reason, that song offered endless comfort to him. Maybe it was because his wife used to sing it to him. Often for no reason. He ceased his gentle singing and began to speak to himself. It was almost as though he were speaking to the photographs in front of him. "Someday, my darling, I will find out what caused your death. I don’t know why…but something tells me that it is something that cannot be solved. Something that cannot be...understood."

"King K. Rool Sir!!" called Klump from outside the bedroom door. K. Rool slammed the album shut and stood up. "What is it?!" he called back.

"There’s…er…some guy here to see you. Though you may wanna consider going near him. He looks a bit…unusual. Not…normal."

"I’ll be right out." K. Rool said, returning the album to its shelf beside the bed. Klump groaned loudly on the other side of the door. "I’d be careful, sir. He looks like some kind of voodoo guy or somethin’. I don’t like the looks of him."

K. Rool opened the door in Klump’s face. The General stepped back for his King, who walked past like a zombie and began his descent to the main factory hall. Klump sighed again. "Be careful sir." he whispered.

***

"May I help you?" asked K. Rool as his platform reached ground level. Just as Klump had said, the lizard standing in front of the platform had a very disturbing appearance. He was nearly all black, with thin red and yellow stripes all over his body. A piece of black cord was tied around his waist, but there were no actual items of clothing on his body. His chest and stomach were yellow, and he had thin yellow spikes on his head pointing in an ‘outwardly’ direction. A purple and green yin-yang pendant was around his neck. He was very lanky in appearance, with long, bony limbs and long fingers equipped with sharp, black claws. A hawk was perched on his right shoulder. This hawk was the same color as him, with a red chest and some red and yellow in its tail feathers. Other than that, it was black. "Er…do I know you?" asked K. Rool. The lizard replied in a serious tone of voice, almost like a soldier. "Crystal Dana. Have you seen her?"

K. Rool took a step forward. He was disturbed at the lizard’s appearance, but curious to find out how he knew Crystal. "Who are you?" he asked. The lizard frowned, making his facial appearance even less appealing. "I am called Tobias. I knew Crystal well. I am assuming that she has passed away."

K. Rool felt sick. Tobias was talking about Crystal’s death with a complete lack of emotion. "I am afraid that she has passed away." said K. Rool.

Tobias frowned even more than before, and the hawk on his shoulder fluttered its feathers uneasily. "I was right. I could not sense her any longer. I knew she died. Something told me…my darkness has not yet blocked out my vision completely. Pretty soon it will, and I shall be no more, as your wife. I come to offer my services to you."

K. Rool had been so wrapped up with thoughts of his wife that he had nearly forgotten about Tobias. "Services?" he said, "What services?"

Tobias closed his eyes and his breathing became deep and unnatural. "I am one with darkness, and one with the shadows. I am the night. I am the darkness. I see all and hear all. I can acquire information and secrets for you that nobody else can. I have my ways."

K. Rool actually had a slight fear of Tobias at this point. ‘The lad’s crazy.’ he thought, ‘but if he may be of some use…’

"Very well. Welcome to my factory." said K. Rool, extending a claw out for Tobias to shake. Instead, Tobias jumped backwards in shock. The hawk on his shoulder was also shocked by this sudden movement, and flew off his shoulder. "Do NOT do that to me!" Tobias yelled, "I cannot touch you or…" he paused, and then closed his eyes again in thought. "I am sorry. But I cannot be too careful."

Krusha walked past them carrying a large box with ‘SOUP’ written on the side. He took one look at Tobias and sped up his pace into an almost-run. The hawk screeched loudly at him, and then fluttered back down onto Tobias’ shoulder.

K. Rool had also noticed Krusha, and he called out to him. "Krusha, please show Tobias down to one of the empty rooms."

Krusha put the box down and began to walk back in the direction of the rooms. "Just follow him. I hope you enjoy your room-"

"Very well." said Tobias, "I have a feeling…very near…I shall go and find the source…" With that very mysterious statement, Tobias followed Krusha at a slow, unhurried pace. As soon as he was out of sight, K. Rool ascended back up to his upper-factory area to look at some more photographs.

***

Amy was lying down on her bed, reading a book about the Leyendecker Museum. Ziggy was sitting next to her face as she read. The ‘book’ was no more than a game booklet for ‘The Dagger of Amon Ra’, but it was very interesting.

"Boy, we had some interestin’ discussions in da Rotunda, toots." Ziggy said, "Dat was where I met up wit’ Yvette Delacroix, Dr. Carter, Watney Little and some Egyptian guy. Boy, I had fun. I met da Countess dere, too." He sighed and looked longingly at the page. "Nobody else knew that I was involved in an illegal money-makin’ scheme. Except, o’ course, da Countess and Watney Little."

"You were? Illegal? I can’t imagine that."

"Heck, toots, I was a criminal, y’know. And I was in New York. I needed all da money I could get."

"What did you do?"

"Well, I was quite an artist when I had da rest o’ my body, and what I would do was paint copies of da really priceless paintings in da museum. Me, Watney Little and da Countess were all in it together."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. And den I sold the original copies for da Countess to big art-collecting freaks. Dey’d pay a lotta cash for an original."

He touched his nose onto a room labelled ‘Dinosaurs – Pterodactyl’. "Dat was where I got killed. Da big stupid dinosaur fell on top of me. The funny ting is…I don’t tink I died instantly, toots. I jist remember terrible pain…then a pain in my neck…and dat was it. The next ting I knew I was in dere, hangin’ on a wall, with some girl screamin’ at me." He pointed to the room labelled ‘Life Masks’ with his nose.

A crash sounded outside the door. "Oh potato." Amy growled, "I’m gonna check it out, Okay?"

"Sure ting, toots."

Amy opened the door of her room and stepped out into the hall. She looked left, and she looked right. Everything was as it should be. Another crash sounded from the room next to hers. "Funny." she said, "Nobody stays in that room…"

Nervously, she pushed the door of the room open slightly, and it swung open easily. She ducked back into her own room for fear of being seen by an unfriendly somebody. Nothing. Just silence. Another crash, louder than before. Amy creeped out of her room and peered into the other one. A strong smell of Eucalyptus drifted out and hit her in the face. A sweet, choking smell. She ventured closer and stepped into the doorway, keeping her body tense in case of having to run. "Come in, my dear." droned a toneless voice, "You are welcome here."

It was almost pitch dark in the room, so Amy reached out towards the light switch.

"Don’t turn on the light!" said the voice, as though the mysterious somebody had suddenly woken up out of a deep trance. Amy withdrew back out into the hall. She saw a slight movement in the darkness. "I shall come to you instead." said the somebody. Amy saw movement again, and she felt the movement like a shark sniffing blood. Strong and exciting. She then saw the outline of two eyes, very high off the ground. They were eyes of extreme depth and beauty – she felt suddenly calm and pleasantly tired.

She stepped further out into the hall as the figure got closer to her, and finally joined her in the well-lit hall. Her look of shock soon changed to a smile, and she extended a claw towards him. "I’m Amy." she said, "I’m assuming that you are new here."

Unlike when K. Rool held out his claw, Tobias took Amy’s small claw in his own and shook it politely. His fingers were long and fleshy, rather like some sort of witch, Amy thought. He had a thick silver ring on his right index claw, she noticed.

"Yes, I am new here. I come to offer my services to K. Rool."

"What kind of services?"

Tobias didn’t answer. He had entered another meditation phase, breathing deeply. He was still holding onto Amy’s claw, tightening his grip on it, but not letting his claws (which were more like talons) dig into her skin. At last, he stopped.

"Do forgive me." he said, "I…fell asleep. My name is Tobias. It means-"

"’God is good’." Amy said, smiling at him. Tobias smiled, turning his face into a rather pleasant, inviting picture. "Ah, so are you interested in name meanings?"

"Yes, I am. I like things like that. I love the Zodiac, too."

"Ah yes…Amy. Amy Faye…something."

"How did you know my middle name?"

"I have my ways around everything. Your name…means…’Beloved’…’a fairy or a raven’…"

Amy smiled. "I guess we’ve got a lot in common, Tobias."

Tobias looked down at her, his eyes boring into her. "Can you feel anything, raven?"

Amy had never been called ‘raven’ before, but didn’t really mind it. She closed her eyes and thought. "I can feel…feel…" She looked quite disturbed suddenly. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "I’ve got a picture in my mind. Of a knife. A sharp, curved knife. Which is stupid."

"I’m getting strong feelings from you…negative feelings. Dark…feelings…" He let go of her claw held his arms at his sides. "Someone is making you sad." he said, almost whispering, "You feel left out. You feel like a nobody."

"I know that’s right. Mainly because I AM a nobody."

"You are not! Do not be foolish…you are strong."

Amy looked up at him, confused. She scratched her head. "Now you are WAY off…" she said. Suddenly, he lunged forward and grabbed her shoulder. "You have a weak, frail body…but a strong, focused mind. You must learn to use it." He looked at his hand on her shoulder, and then at her face. He looked at her face, to her chest, to her waist, down to her feet and back up again. He began to scratch her shoulder and neck gently with his claws. "I can help you to develop your mind, my raven. Come with me, and I will help you be strong. As strong as I am."

"H-how do you mean?" she asked. He clasped his hands together, as though in desperate prayer. "I will show you, raven." Suddenly, he was gone. Amy squealed and jumped back. Nothing was left on the spot where he had stood. She walked backwards in fright, and crashed into…Tobias. She screamed in shock. "How in Heck did you do that?"

"I have trained my mind over the years. I can use it to do anything. One of those many things is teleport myself. I can show you how. Just come with me, raven." She didn’t look too sure of him. Noticing this, he leaned down ‘till their faces were almost touching. "Come with me."

She looked at him, trembling. "If…y-you want me to…"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she was in Tobias’ room. ‘He must have teleported us.’ she thought. The only light in the room came from a small, sweet-smelling candle next to Tobias’ bed. A chair was in the middle of the room. Apart from the chair and the bed, there was hardly anything else in the way of furnishings. Tobias extended a long, bony arm and claw towards the chair. "Sit down, O raven." he whispered, keeping his voice low for some reason. Obedienly, Amy sat down on the small, wooden chair. There were several carvings in the wood, but in this almost-darkness, Amy couldn’t see what they were. She could tell that they were in great detail though, by the feel of them. "Now close your eyes…" he said, moving up behind her like a shadow, "And breathe deeply…"

She did as she was told, and pretty soon she felt like she was floating. The smell of the eycalyptus was making her feel giddy and sick, but also sleepy and happy. She giggled slightly. "And now, my raven, I want you to think about someone or something…concentrate on it…let it fill you up…and I will tell you what I see."

Unknown to Amy, the hawk was also watching her in the dark, and Tobias kept turning to look at it for advice, almost.

Amy closed her eyes tightly, and thought about the first thing that came to her mind – Ziggy. She was still thinking about what he had told her about the museum in New York, and all the other fascinating stories he had to tell.

Tobias moved around her until he was facing her, and bent down. He waved a claw in front of her face. She did not react, so he knew she was concentrating. She might not have been able to see his black claw in the darkness, anyway. He placed his hands on her shoulders and began to rub them, as though she had neck-ache that he was trying to cure. He closed his eyes, and a picture came into his head instantly.

"I see a large decorated room." he said, "There is some kind of huge Egyptian Artifact in the center of it…I can see tables laiden with food. I can see four humans in front of the Egyptian head…no, make that five. No…six. Five of them are talking…and one female has just arrived. This female is wearing a…greenish-blue gown. The other five are deep in conversation…about a…sledgehammer. I can sense the word ‘sledgehammer’…and…’the greatest archaeological discovery of all time’ – or something along those lines."

Amy smiled as Tobias spoke, letting his smooth voice spread into her like some form of disease. A clear picture came into her head also, as he described what he saw. She saw the humans that he was talking about. She recognised one of the heads as Ziggy, although at this time his head was firmly affixed to his neck. He was deathly slim, and still looked rather like a corpse.

"Can you see what they look like, Tobias?"

"Do not interrupt, raven. But yes, I can. One female and four males…the female has a very striking appearance…for a human. Frizzy, blonde hair…not quite down to her shoulders. She is holding a cocktail glass. French. She’s talking in English with a French accent. The other men…two of them are from England, one from Egypt…and the last…from the USA. The American has got a nervous twitch…blue eyes. His twitch is in his eyes. He’s…bald…and wearing a rented tuxedo. His hands are in his pockets…’Lawrence’ is his first name…he just said something…I cannot understand him-"

"He said ‘So, that’s when youse heisted it, right?’." Amy said, now used to Ziggy’s way of speaking.

Tobias paused. Then he resumed. "The Egyptian is speaking with an extreme lisp…his skin is quite dark, and he is holding a long cigarette. The two English men…one is tall and the other is much fatter. For the taller one I’m getting a name…P…P-p…Pa…Po…Pi…Pippin. Pippin Carter. And the other…he is impersonating someone. His name is…Little Watney- no…Watney Little…but he is pretending to be…be…" He held his head and let out a groan. "It’s gone…I can’t see any more."

Amy attempted to get up out of the chair, but he stopped her by wrapping his arms around her unexpectedly. "You cannot leave yet, my raven. We have more to do."

Amy leaned back as her face moved closer to her own. His breathing was deep, as though he was trying to suck something out of her.

A loud knock came at the door. "Are ya in there, Amy? If so-"

Amy slipped past Tobias and ran to the door, opening it in Klump’s face. She ran past Klump and towards the stairs. Klump watched her as she left, and then turned back to Tobias’ room. "What were ya doin’ to…her…" He was talking to nothing – Tobias had vanished.

***

Tobias reappeared that same evening when Klump and Krusha were eating dinner together in the mess hall. "Where’ve ya’ll been, Toby?" asked Klump, shoving a bread roll into his open mouth. Krusha took a look at the messy General, slowly ripped a piece off his roll and gently placed it in his mouth. Klump’s way of eating had somehow put him off being messy himself. In a split-second, Tobias seemed to get from the end of the mess hall to right where Klump was sitting. He put his claws around Klump’s neck and lifted him clear off the ground. Krusha put down his roll and stood up to protect Klump if he needed it. Tobias looked in Klump’s face with unforgiving eyes. "My name is Tobias. Not Toby. NEVER Toby."

With that, he let the General drop back into his chair. Klump grasped his throat and felt it – it felt as though it had been crushed, although Tobias had not applied much force to it. Klump gasped, his throat raw and stinging. "What’s the matter with your eyes? They look…"

Tobias slammed his claws on the table and loomed close to Klump, causing him to lean backwards in fear. "What’s the matter with me just because I’m different from you? Is there a problem with being being different? Is that it? Do you judge newcomers by appearance alone?"

"No…" Klump wheezed, "I just…haven’t seen eyes remotely like them before. Except…maybe…" He leaned closer to Tobias (as close as he dared) and looked into his blue eyes. They were beautiful and unique…but they looked…dead. Klump bowed his head. "It must be Ziggy I’m thinkin’ of. He’s the only dead guy I know."

Tobias didn’t regard this as an insult. But he knew who Klump had been thinking of – he had probably been reminded of Crystal. After all, in the amount of time Tobias and Crystal had spent together, she had become like him in quite a few ways. Krusha ate the rest of his bread roll in one mouthful and kept his eyes on the General, in case another ‘attack’ was made on him.

"Where is K. Rool?" demanded Tobias all of a sudden.

"Which one?" asked Klump.

Sure that he was playing some sort of game with him, Tobias grabbed Klump by his throat again and lifted him clear off the ground and shook him ferociously. "Don’t toy with me!" he snapped, "Where is K. Rool?!"

"I really don’t know which one you mean…" Klump whined.

Krusha ran up and took hold of Tobias’ right arm – the one that held Klump aloft. "He has got a son with the same initials as himself." Krusha growled, tightening his grip on Tobias’ arm every time he tightened his grip on Klump’s neck.

"A son?" Tobias screeched, "He’s got a son?! Crystal’s son?!"

Krusha loosened his grip slightly. "Yeah…he has."

Tobias dug his long, black claws into Klump’s neck as he thought. Klump screamed with pain and writhed around like a dying snake. The force that Tobias was giving was somehow more force than Krusha could have given. "Where is K. Rool…Senior?"

"Upstairs!" Krusha answered with haste, seeing how Klump was suffering, "Taking a nap I think!"

Klump was dropped the floor, bleeding from his neck. "Thankyou, Krusha." said Tobias, coldly.

Krusha knelt down next to Klump and tilted his head up. He was still alive, but in extreme pain. Krusha suddenly felt extremely angry, and looked up to face Tobias, but once again he had gone. If Krusha had known any curse words, he probably would have said them about now. Supporting his head, he lifted Klump off the floor and carried him down to his room for a rest. There was obviously something more to Tobias than they realised.

***

Tobias, meanwhile, was lurking around in K. Rool’s upper factory area of catacomb-like corridors and rooms. He darted into one room and looked around. The room appeared to be some form of guest bedroom. But that wasn’t what he was looking for – he wanted to find K. Rool. He slithered out of the room and crept down the corridor until he came to a large bathroom. There was a cabinet underneath the sink, carved with flowers. There was a strange feeling coming from it. A feeling similar to that which Tobias used to feel when around Crystal. This feeling he couldn’t resist, and he darted to the cabinet and ripped the doors open. Inside he found a variety of bottles and jars with labels reading ‘scale cream’, ‘claw tonic’ and other such things. In a sudden surge of somewhat despair, he reached in and hurled the bottles and jars over his shoulder until he reached a small pink bottle at the back. He grasped it in his bony hand and read the label. ‘Rose perfume’ it read. Crystal always had a liking for roses, especially pink ones – ones that matched her scale color exactly. The bottle was emitting a gentle aura, somehow. He removed the lid and emptied some of the fragrant liquid into the palm of his hand. He pressed his nose to it, and inhaled deeply. This was definitely the stuff Crystal used to wear. She would wear it everywhere. She was wearing some on the last night that he had ever seen her.

Suddenly, the door opened. Tobias snapped out of his flashback and was on guard immediately. He dropped the bottle to the floor. K. Rool stood in the doorway, but, thankfully for Tobias, he was talking to someone over his shoulder. Tobias couldn’t afford to be caught, and transported himself back into his room just as K. Rool finished talking, leaving the bathroom empty and in a dreadful mess.

"Where have YOU been?" asked Harpy when Tobias reappeared in the room. The dark lizard lay down on the bed – the room was still gently lit by only a small candle. Tobias closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, breathing slowly.

Harpy flew down onto his yellow stomach and cocked his head. "Where have you been, Tobias?"

"I couldn’t do it." Tobias snapped, "I almost got caught for Hell’s sake."

Harpy squawked. "Now, there’s no need to talk like that. What were you trying to do?"

"I was trying to reach K. Rool…and…" Tobias sat up suddenly, holding his stomach. He screamed loudly. "It’s happening again! Oh God! Argh!"

"Shut up!" Harpy said, flapping his wings, "You don’t want a whole audience in here!"

"Get me a bucket you useless bird!" Tobias shouted, now clutching his head. Harpy looked around frantically, not knowing where to find a bucket. He flew to the door and turned the handle with his talons. It swung open and he flew out into the hall. He flew into the opposite room, as the door was wide open. This was Krusha’s room. Klump was lying on Krusha’s bed with a damp towel on his neck. Krusha stood next to him.

Spying Klump’s helmet resting on the end of the bed, Harpy swooped down and picked it up. Neither of the lizards noticed him – Klump had his eyes closed and Krusha had his sight focused completely on his poor friend. Therefore, Harpy was able to take the helmet to Tobias.

As soon as Harpy got close enough, Tobias snatched the helmet off him. "Shut the door!" he shouted, and Harpy did so. He then kept towards the far end of the room as Tobias proceeded to vomit into the helmet. He looked like he was about to die, really. But he wasn’t. As soon as he finished, Tobias slumped back and rested his head on the small pillow provided for him. Small traces of what once had been his breakfast stained his mouth. "It’s…it’s over. I’m alright…still alive…" He wiped his mouth with the back of his claw, gasping. Gently, he placed the helmet onto the floor, leaning it against the wall so that it didn’t tip over. He sat up, rubbing his head. "I think…I’m…getting weaker…" he said. Harpy flew over to him. "No you’re not. You’re just…tired."

"I’m very tired…" Tobias said to himself, "But I must keep going…I can’t give up…"

He stood up and picked up the helmet off the floor. He examined the contents, and began to wag his tail. "There’s nothing quite like half-digested food." he sighed. He then held the helmet to his mouth and drank up the vomit he had just emptied into it. The hawk screeched loudly. "That’s disgusting!" he squawked.

Tobias drained the helmet and licked off any remains, not to waste anything. He licked his lips and gazed into the empty helmet. A distorted reflection looked back at him, although it was not very clear due to the poor lighting in the room. "You know what I see when I look at my reflection?"

The hawk breathed deeply. "What do you see, Tobias?"

Tobias clenched his teeth together and clenched his left fist (his right claw was holding the helmet). "I see no-one. I see nothing but a broken down, sad lizard with…no soul."

Harpy cocked his head again. Tobias had never acted like this before he had gone in search of Crystal again. Something had definitely changed about him.

The black striped lizard turned to face the door and smiled slightly. "I suppose I’d better return this helmet to the General." he said.

Harpy bowed his head, and then followed his master out of the door.

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias : Part 2

By Klumpy

"You know…I feel so…strange today." Amy sighed to herself. Almost in answer to herself, she said "I know…this Tobias fellow must be affecting me. What an interesting lizard."

"Aww…has toots got a crush?"

"No!" Amy stated, sitting up on her bed. Ziggy hopped up onto her bed and settled himself on her pillow. "I bet’cha do, toots." he grinned.

"Oh, I wanna marry an archaeologist…" she began to sing. Ziggy smiled. "Where did youse hear dat song, toots?" he asked.

Amy lay back down. "I don’t know…it just…came to me."

"I used to hear dat a lot back in New York. Actually…in da Speakeasy."

"You used to smoke as well, didn’t you?" she asked, suddenly.

"I sure did, toots. I don’t tink I was very kind to my body…so I’m lookin’ after meself while I’ve still got me head."

"That’s ALL you’ve got."

"I know dat, but I’m lookin’ after it."

Amy stood up and walked to the door. Ziggy was surprised. "Toots? What are ya doin’? Where are ya goin’?"

"I’m…just going somewhere…" she said.

***

She sighed loudly as she walked along the corridor. She spread out her claws in front of her and looked at them. Something wasn’t right with her. She felt different, as though she had suddenly changed. Whatever it was, she was sure it had something to do with Tobias. She had felt completely normal up until she met him outside his room.

"Raven?"

Amy squatted down from shock. She hadn’t really been looking where she was going, and suddenly realised that Tobias was standing just in front of her, followed closely by Harpy.

Nervously, she looked up at him and smiled. "Well, hello. How are you doing up there?"

He looked down at her – she looked dreamy and…as though she was in a trance. Harpy grimaced at her, but she did not notice this. She was completely focused on Tobias.

"You can stand up now, raven." Tobias sighed.

Amy did. When she was standing at her full height, he was still a fair bit taller than she was. Harpy fluttered down onto Tobias’ shoulder.

Tobias himself smiled slightly, once again making his appearance very appealing. "My raven…I would like you to come to my room." he said.

Amy looked from side to side, nervously. "What for, sir?" The word ‘sir’ had just come out of her mouth. She didn’t actually intend to refer to him as ‘sir’. That title was reserved for King K. Rool.

"I wish…to show you something…I have to do something to you, as well."

Now she was really uncertain. "Sir, I don’t think I should…" She looked down at the floor, and then up at him, his smile melting her into goo. She gasped and clasped her hands together, for a reason she did not know. "I’ll come." she said.

Tobias smiled, and took her claw in his. He led her into his room, Harpy still on his shoulder, and closed the door.

***

Meanwhile, Klump and Krusha were talking in the main factory hall. The General was feeling better from what had happened, but he hadn’t recovered completely. He did feel well enough to get as far away from Tobias as possible, anyway.

"You know…Krusha…" Klump said, scratching his neck, which had begun to itch, "I feel…like I don’t wanna put any blame on Tobias. I mean, it ain’t his fault I called him ‘Toby’."

Krusha glared at him. "But, duh, he nearly killed you."

"Krusha, just don’t say nothing about it to nobody. That way we’ll all be happy."

Krusha crossed his arms. "I don’t know…maybe you’d be better off…telling."

"Tell-tales get bad luck, Krusha. Haven’t you heard the saying: ‘Tell-tale-tit, your tongue shall be split, and all the little doggies will have a little bit.’?"

Krusha looked confused. "No…"

"Well, now ya have." Klump growled.

"Why won’t you tell?" Krusha asked.

"I already told ya." Klump said, walking away, "It’s less risky and more healthy if we shut up about it."

Krusha sighed. None of this made sense any more. He didn’t even feel it was necessary to tell K. Rool about what happened himself. Not if Klump wasn’t going to. Somehow, he felt it wouldn’t do much good.

***

Amy lay still on Tobias’ bed, doing nothing of any kind. Apart from breathing and all the other necessary body functions like digesting and pumping blood through her body. Harpy lurked in the corner, watching Tobias as the dark lizard moved around Amy, studying her from every possible angle. "Think about something my raven. No…wait a moment. I will think of something, and you tell me what it is."

"How could I possibly do tha- a spoon."

"Correct." Tobias smiled. He sat down by her feet, and thought of something else.

"A table. A gremlin. The three little pigs." Amy said as the separate images appeared in her head. Every single time she spoke, she was right. "Potassium Oxide. Tom and Jerry. The Rugrats. Amigos para siempre- hey, I love that song."

"Me too, my raven." Tobias sighed.

All the time that they had spent in the room together, Amy had just been lying on the bed while Tobias had watched her. At least, that’s what she thought. She had heard a few strange noises while her eyes were closed, but Tobias had told her not to open them.

Then she felt him moving closer to her. Just the slightest movements…but she knew he was.

"Do NOT open your eyes." he said, gently. Even though this was an order, his voice remained soft.

"Oooh…" she said, "I see a…knife again."

There was a pause. Tobias hadn’t been thinking about a knife…well, he hadn’t sent the image over to her. He was, however, holding a weapon. And he was holding it towards her, not too far from her chest.

"What kind of knife can you see?" he asked.

"Well…it’s…short…and curved. Oh, and it’s black."

"Does it look like it might be used to…cut throats out?"

"Oh yeah." she said. As far as she knew, this was merely a picture in her head, so she didn’t fear at all.

She felt Tobias’ claws stroking her shoulder. She smiled, and sighed happily. Then she felt something else…something like the tip of a needle. It was touching her just below the neck. She opened her eyes…to see a curved blade being held to her neck by Tobias. "Oh…God…" She tensed up and moved backwards slightly. The blade was black and shaped like a cat’s claw. A very large claw.

"Damn…" Tobias growled as she stared down at the blade, "You weren’t meant to do that. I’m not going to hurt you…"

She placed one of her claws on the wall to try to get some balance as she moved away from him. "What are you…doing?"

"I won’t hurt you. Not if you co-operate. Close your eyes." She just looked at him, petrified. "I said CLOSE THEM!!" he snarled, and she instantly obeyed. He shifted closer to her and placed his left claw gently on her stomach. His right claw held the blade close to her neck, still. "Relax, my raven." he said, "Don’t worry about anything…this won’t hurt you."

She felt two moments of pain at the base of her neck, and then nothing. Her heart missed a beat…and then continued as usual. She felt his breathing close to her face, and tensed herself up.

"Keep your eyes shut, my raven."

Something cold, like some form of container, was pressed up to her skin, at the area that had experienced the moments of pain. Then she felt two of his fingers pressing on the area also. He was pressing her in such a way that his claws didn’t hurt her. It was like some form of mini-massage. Whatever he was doing, it felt quite nice.

Suddenly, both the ‘container’ and Tobias stopped touching her, and she felt very relaxed.

"Open your eyes, if you will."

Amy did. Nothing had changed in the room. She saw no container or anything, and the blade had gone from his claw. She sat up slowly, and then stood up.

"What did you…do to me?" she asked.

Tobias didn’t answer her. Instead, he reached behind his back and revealed the blade again. He held it towards Amy, but not in a threatening way. She looked down at it, uncertain.

"Take it, my raven. It is the best defence and attack weapon ever created."

Amy continued to look at it. "What exactly IS it?"

"It is a velociraptor blade, my raven."

"A what?"

"It is shaped like a velociraptor’s claw. A velociraptor is-"

"I know what one of those is. I used to be dinosaur-mad. Ziggy’s sort of warned me off them."

"Well," Tobias continued, "It is perfect in causing extreme pain to any aggressors, and it specialises in ripping throats out. I find mine extremely handy." He reached behind his back and revealed an identical blade. He tossed it from his right claw to his left claw, and back again. "It’s also a handy eating tool."

She stepped away from him and glanced around at the door, which was very appealing at the moment. "I don’t think I’ll be wanting to rip out any throats anytime soon, so-"

He shoved it into her claw and held it there, just to make sure she didn’t get rid of it. "If Crystal Rool had one, then I think you should."

"Crystal Rool?" Amy looked down at the blade in her claw as Tobias slowly withdrew away from her. She looked back at the barely visible lizard in the darkness. "Tobias…Crystal Rool had one? Whatever did she have to do with you?"

"That is not important. But she had one. And now you have one. And NOW you should leave. I have to get back…to…my meditating."

Amy turned away from him to face the door, and reached out to open it.

"There’s no need for that, raven." Tobias said, sitting down on the bed.

"But…you told me to-"

"I mean…there is no reason for you to use your physical strength to open that door."

Amy groaned. "I’m only opening a door, not lifting a truck."

"Just LOOK at it raven. Think about it opening…and about you walking through it…there should be no need for physical contact with the door…"

"But how do I…ah well." Amy had wanted to question him, but he was meditating. He was not only meditating. He was…levitating. He was now floating roughly two feet above the bed. His arms were crossed and his eyes were closed.

She looked at the door, and tried to picture it opening for her. She put her claws on her hips and bent forward, glaring at it. "Open, you stupid-"

The door suddenly swung open easily, letting light from the corridor flood in. Tobias was unaffected. Despite this, Amy closed the door as she left, knowing that Tobias liked to be in the dark, no matter what he was doing.

***

Back in her room, Ziggy was waiting for her, worried. As she swung the door open and glided in, he was relieved, but decided to seem angry. "Where have youse been, toots?!"

"Next-door." was her reply, and then she sat down on her small chair in front of her small mirror. She looked at herself in the mirror, and smiled. "I feel really good about myself." she sighed, happily.

Ziggy jumped up onto her lap and looked at her. Something was different, but he could not tell what. He moved slightly closer to her arm and looked at it. There was something different about it…

"You’ve got…stripes on yer arm, toots."

"What?" Amy looked at her arm in disbelief. There were the faint red outlines of stripes going all the way up her arm. She looked at the back of her claw – a red triangle outline was forming on it. She screamed, wanting to just cut her arm off so that she could get rid of it.

"Calm down, toots…jeez…I wonder what’s makin’ it go like dat?"

Amy shook her arm violently, trying to get rid of the ‘disease’. "Oh Lord…what’ll I do?"

"I don’t know…maybe…if you pour some bleach on yer arm-"

"No, I’m not doing that…I need to think…"

She stood up suddenly and ran from the room. She darted off the down the corridor in the opposite direction from Tobias’ room, thankfully. Ziggy sighed. There was something awfully weird going on.

***

Amy stood in the factory kitchens, leaning over the sink filled with dirty dishes. She was hugging herself, not knowing what to do – hoping that this was just a nightmare of some sort.

"Smile a rented smile, fill someone’s glass, kiss someone’s wife, kiss someone’s-"

"Amy?"

Amy screamed in her shock, turned around and adopted a nervous pose. She stood with her feet far apart and her claws held over her head, mouth open. She found herself gasping for breath.

Krusha stepped back, and then advanced forward again. She’d never ‘greeted’ him like that before. "Duh, you Okay?"

She began to breathe normally again and let her arms drop to her sides. She slid her legs together and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "I’m…fine."

"Good." He walked up to her and copied her position leaning against the counter. "Duh, what were you singing?"

"I…was…just singing. I don’t know WHY…"

"Oh. Okay. Er…what happened to your neck?"

"My…neck?" Amy placed her fingers on the spot where Tobias had slashed her. She felt the outline of a scar.

"It’s shaped like a, duh, X."

"Oh…I cut myself. I should really be more careful with scissors."

A chill spread in the room. "Hello, both."

The two lizards turned around to see Tobias in the room with them. He was holding some kind of small bottle in his right claw.

"How did you, er, do that?" Krusha asked.

Tobias grinned, exposing a huge set of teeth. "Magic, of course."

He walked up to one of the cupboards and opened a drawer. From it, he pulled a silver flask. He removed the lid, poured in the dark contents of the bottle and, picking up a spoon from the counter, began to stir the new contents of the flask. He watched the contents, as though what was going on inside gave him much pleasure to watch.

Krusha and Amy looked at each other. Amy shrugged and Krusha sighed.

"What have you got in there, Tobias?" Amy asked, sensing how much Krusha (and herself) wanted to know.

Tobias didn’t seem to be listening. He stopped stirring and titled back his head. He poured the unknown contents into his open jaws and swallowed. He licked his lips, as some of the pinkish-white marbled liquid had missed his mouth. He then wiped his mouth with his arm and replaced the flack back into the drawer.

Amy looked back at her arm and panicked. "I…have to go." She ran out the room, trying to shield her arm.

Krusha watched her go, sadly. He whimpered and slid down into a sitting position on the floor. Tobias approached him, slowly. "Since you are so curious, I’ll have you know that what I was drinking was my own…special formula."

Krusha grunted.

Tobias continued. "It contained milk…and…blood."

Krusha looked up, startled. "Er…blood?"

"Yes."

"Where did…you get it from?" Krusha asked, expecting a gruesome reply.

Tobias crossed his arms. "Wouldn’t you like to know?" With that, he vanished again.

Krusha roared angrily. "Come back!" he shouted.

Tobias’ voice came back, but not the lizard himself. His soft, smooth voice seemed to echo all around the kitchen. "And I’ll have you know that I didn’t appreciate the way you grabbed me earlier. I’d be very careful if I were you. I’m far more dangerous than that brother of yours."

Krusha stood up. As far as he knew, he didn’t have a brother. "Duh, brother?! What do you mean?!"

But Tobias had gone.

***

That night, Amy found it hard to sleep. And when she finally got to sleep, her sleep was filled with thoughts of Tobias and what he was doing here at all. She turned over several times in her sleep, not able to get comfortable very easily.

There was something going through her head in amongst all her other thoughts. What did Tobias have to do with Crystal Rool? Had they been friends? More than friends? She had no idea of what happened…until she found herself dreaming about it…

A very beautiful female lizard walked at a rather brisk pace through the jungle. Behind her, a tall, lanky male lizard followed. He was Tobias, not looking any different at all. He was exactly the same.

"Toby, I’m not asking you to go away. I’m TELLING you." snapped the female, not turning around.

Tobias didn’t listen, and continued to follow her. "But Crystal, I want to know WHY you want me to leave you."

"I’ve already told you several times!" She finally turned to face him. It was now clear that there was something wonderful about her…she looked very young, pleasantly tired, and she definitely looked pregnant. As well as all these things, she looked terribly irritated. "Toby, if I keep going with this, I’m going to kill myself. I’ve already fought off my…change of appearance well enough, and I refuse to continue all this black magic! I’m going to kill myself. That is, unless I’m able to rid myself of all this evil."

"But Crystal-"

"And Toby, I refuse to have my son born while I’m still…working with you."

"But-"

"I want to be able to spend time with my husband and my son. If I’m still with you, it won’t happen. Therefore, I bid thee farewell."

"Crystal!" Tobias took her claw in his and looked at her, sorrowfully. "Crystal…I love you."

"You told me yourself that it’s impossible for you to love. Toby…it’s impossible to love without a soul."

Tobias was silent. He sniffed slightly. "I’m sure the only reason you got married to that old fool was to make me jealous…"

"Why would I want to make you jealous? And besides…I love Kay."

"Do you? Truthfully?"

"Of course I do. What do you think I am? I love my husband, and I feel I’ve spent enough time away from him just to be with you. I can’t afford to waste my life with you. I’d rather spend it with someone I love. Pretty soon I’ll have a little family to spend time with. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but you’d better hurry up and do it. I don’t wish to see you ever again."

"Crystal, I’ve done too much for you! You can’t just leave me!"

"Watch me, Toby." She turned around again and marched off, holding her stomach as she did so. Being fat had begun to annoy her deeply. But she was certain it was all worth it.

Tobias remained in the same spot, no longer following her. He sighed, and vanished from sight.

As she arrived home, a feeling of great relief spread over her. Hopefully, she was rid of Tobias for good.

A huge smile covered her beautiful face as she entered the bedroom, making her look especially beautiful.

There was a slight grunt, and then light filled the room. King K. Rool lay in the bed, rubbing his eyes. "I thought I heard you." he yawned, sitting up, but falling back down onto his pillow. She looked at him, still smiling, and he grew slightly suspicious. "Er…where have you been?"

"It doesn’t matter." she said, walking over to the bed, "I’m never going back there." She got into bed, still wearing her day-clothes. Due to her pregnancy, she had been forced to lie on her back or side while in bed. As soon as their son was born, she was going to shift back to her usual habit of sleeping on her stomach.

K. Rool moved over to her and kissed her. "Does this mean you’ll have more time to spend avec moi?"

"Of course, darling." She put her arms around him, but K. Rool didn’t move any closer to her. Her stomach was very sensitive, and so he didn’t want to risk hurting her by touching it. Instead, he just looked at her. The bed sheets weren’t completely covering her, so he had quite a good view of her. Her rounded stomach looked quite strange. She was very slim otherwise, and it looked rather odd. But he didn’t care.

Crystal sighed happily. "It’s definitely a boy." she said, "It’s been causing me extreme pain. And it’s bloomin’ big. I don’t know HOW I get up in the morning…"

"Not all males are bad, dear…" K. Rool said, turning off the light.

"I know…I know…"

K. Rool put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her gently. Crystal was already asleep.

Suddenly, the dream vanished, and Amy was back in her small bed in King K. Rool’s factory. She was thankful for it.

Looking down at herself, she realised that Krusha was with her. He was sitting on the floor by her bed, with his chin resting on her stomach. She guessed that he had had a nightmare or something, because he didn’t usually come to her in the middle of the night. She reached out and rubbed his head, and he groaned, gently. He muttered her name, and stretched his arm up to touch her. Suddenly overwhelmed with her love for him, Amy somehow found herself able to drag Krusha up onto the bed. As soon as she had done that (and Krusha was lying on top of her), she stopped. It was as though she had suddenly been ‘shut down’, as though there was something more important to do. She looked at her hands again, and clenched her fists. She felt suddenly strong. Hmm…if only she could find some nice big boulders to crush. She put her arms around Krusha’s neck and pulled him even closer to her. Krusha smiled, and licked her neck. That sent a strange feeling all through her. He had licked her right where her scar was…it made her feel…like she had never felt before.

Then, she found herself alert to everything going on around her. Like a dog or a rabbit, able to smell all the smells and hear all the sounds that she couldn’t before. She heard her own, deep breathing, and she felt Krusha’s heartbeat thumping at her own chest. There was something going on outside, and she had to go and look. Something was pulling at her brain, telling her to get moving.

"I’ll be right back…" she said softly to Krusha, even though he wasn’t awake.

She lifted him off herself and began a giddy walk to the door. She felt very groggy, as she usually did when she got up in the middle of the night. Not that she did this often.

She also felt very cold. She was wearing a loose white nightdress that had appealed to her in a sale a few years ago. She knew that it wouldn’t fit her, but she had bought it anyway. It still didn’t fit, and she had been forced to make the bottom of it shorter so that it wouldn’t drag on the floor. Another reason for her to like it was that Krusha liked it, as he had a fondness for soft, cuddly things. The material was nice and silky, and he would sometimes ask her to wear it just so that he could feel the material.

She slowly opened the door and looked out into the dark corridor. Everything seemed normal. Almost TOO normal. Since Amy had a ‘thing’ for unnatural stuff, the feeling of being completely normal made her feel a bit insecure. Completely normal. This meant that something very un-normal was going on.

She gently edged down the corridor, keeping close to the wall. Her breathing was low and gentle, as if she had a fear of being spotted by someone. She pushed the door of Tobias’ room open and looked inside. "Tobias?"

There was nothing in there, or at least it seemed that was. There were a few strange shapes in the dark, but she didn’t dare turn on the light. But she knew Tobias wasn’t there. There was a feeling that she had when around him, and she wasn’t getting it right now. The only remotely similar feeling was coming from somewhere quite far away. She closed her eyes and hugged herself. The feeling was being emitted from K. Rool’s living quarters.

***

Tobias hadn’t slept at all that night. He hadn’t slept for many years due to his terrible nightmares. But his evil appearance and lack of sleep, among many other problems and difficulties he had to face, all seemed worth it for what he got in return. He considered himself quite lucky, although he often found himself in need of things that he didn’t know. There were many things he couldn’t do now. The main thing was that he couldn’t love. He could feel ‘want’, but it’s not the same thing.

Slowly, he crept up the stairs to K. Rool’s upper area of the factory. He had to find something out, and he knew that the only place he would find his answer would be in K. Rool’s bedroom.

As he neared the top of the stairs, he hesitated. Two kritters were guarding the entrance to their King’s living area. They both looked alert, although they were probably not enjoying their guard duty. Tobias squatted down so as not to be noticed…yet.

"You know, Steve, I’m getting so SICK of keeping watch. Nothing’s gonna happen to the old guy anyway…why don’t we catch a few moments of sleep? It couldn’t do any harm."

"I-I’m staying here, Greg. I-I don’t want to be b-blamed for anything that could happen."

Tobias groaned loudly. If he was forced to wait one more second the kritters would find themselves as dead as cacti. Not that cacti are dead…but they don’t move very much. And I just felt like using the word ‘cacti’ in this fanfic.

"Well, my throat’s as dry as anything. I’m gonna get some water, Okay Steve?"

"B-but-"

"I’ll run through to K. Rool’s bathroom. I’m sure he won’t mind. After all, we’re ‘guarding his life’. See you soon, pal."

"B-but…Greg…I don’t f-feel safe…"

Tobias grinned. Well, my friend, you’ll be feeling even LESS safe as soon as your buddy leaves…

Greg, the bigger of the two kritters, ran briskly down the corridor they had been guarding, and the other reptile sat down, shivering, looking all around him like a hunted animal. In a way, he was. Tobias was hunting him, and there would be no way for the poor kritter to escape.

Feeling that the moment had arrived, Tobias stood back up again, and continued his ascent towards the kritter. "Who’s th-there?!" squeaked the kritter, standing up as soon as he saw Tobias’ outline. The kritter stepped back. "Please, state your business with King K. Rool or l-leave." He didn’t feel very secure telling this kremling to leave. He didn’t feel safe TELLING him to do anything. He couldn’t really make out Tobias’ physical features, except that he was tall with long limbs and a strangely long tail. But something about this dark lizard spelled out DANGER.

As he drew nearer, Tobias’ appearance revealed itself, but instead of feeling safer, the kritter felt ill. His sight was focused completely on Tobias’ face…the eyes, the teeth, the spikes on his head…the coloring of his scales…they all fitted together into a monster that the kritter wasn’t too pleased to be meeting.

Finally, the two lizards stood only a few centimetres apart. They stared at each other, one in fear, and one in evil pleasure. "S-sir…please…s-state your business with King K. Roo- ARGH!! !"

"You were saying?" Tobias grinned, moving the blade around, gaping the huge wound between the kritter’s legs even wider. The kritter screamed again, but nobody could hear him cry. "Please Sir I- AAAAAAARGH!!"

Tobias smiled as he felt the blade scrape up against the kritter’s skeleton – he was guessing it was the pelvis. "What’s the matter? Aren’t you having FUN?"

He suddenly wrenched the blade upwards, splitting the kritter’s stomach open, the contents of which spilled onto the spotless floor into a pale, milky mess.

"My business with the King is none of YOUR business. You’re not a very good guard, are you?"

As all this was happening, the kritter was still alive. He has ceased his yelling long ago – he was in too much pain to scream. His eyes bulged as he looked into the face of his killer. He couldn’t talk either, he could just feel pain ripping through him.

Tobias looked slightly disturbed. "Hurry up and die, will you?" he said, in as calm a voice as though he had been talking to a young child. He didn’t seem to pay much attention to the pool of blood and other things splattered at his feet. And the kritter was still alive, gasping for breath even though he knew he wouldn’t live through this.

Tobias suddenly snapped. "Oh, I’m sick of this!" he said, and he removed the bloody blade, which vanished again. The kritter fell forward onto his knees, blood now trickling out of his gasping mouth. He couldn’t hold his body up. Despite that the whole of his stomach had spilled out onto the floor, he was barely alive, but not strong enough to fight back in any way.

Tobias, with more strength that the kritter realised, picked his victim up and held him in his arms. He put one claw on his shoulder, and wrapped his other arm around his neck. "Rest in Hell." he growled.

With another surge of strength, he twisted the kritter’s neck in a different direction to his body, keeping a firm grip on him at the same time. There was a loud crack, and the kritter lay still in Tobias’ arms. His neck was broken.

Tobias huffed, loudly. "A bit messy, but…" He lifted the kritter’s body up in front of him and looked at it. Its eyes were open in an expression of terror and pain, and the whole of the front of its body, from between its legs up to its chest, had been ripped open. He smiled at it. "I shall have another use for you, my dear." He held onto the body tightly, concentrated, and then the body of Steve vanished completely. "I’ll see you in my room." he said to himself. The pool of blood and various other ripped things that remained on the floor was the only trace of Steve, and Tobias couldn’t wait to see the other kritter’s face. Of course, he would have to be disposed of, too.

The sound of un-hurried clawsteps reached him, and once again he ducked down on the stairs, waiting for his next victim to arrive.

And he did. Greg came back, looking quite cheerful. Water dripped down his neck, as he had clearly washed his face. He was wiping his face with a small hand towel, while talking to Steve, who was actually no longer there at all. "Boy, I’m refreshed. I hope K. Rool isn’t mad at me for borrowing this towel. You should go and freshen up, Ste- Steve? Where are you-"

It was then that the kritter noticed what had happened to the floor, and he was filled with a kind of dread and panic. Whatever had caused that mess might still be nearby…and he didn’t want to end up as a soup-like puddle on the floor. "Steve?!" he called out again, hoping to God that Steve wasn’t the gooey mess on the floor.

Tobias leapt up to the top of the stairs in one big leap, and landed as agilely as a cat on all fours. He stood up to his full height, and looked at the kritter, who was frozen with terror, praying that this lizard wasn’t the one who caused the mess on the floor.

"W-what do you want?" Greg asked, adopting Steve’s nervous way of talking. He stepped back, not wanting the newcomer any closer to his body.

"I wish to investigate in the bedroom of King K. Rool…but you are foolishly standing in my way."

"I-I will gladly m-move for y-you-" Greg began, but Tobias was too fast for him, and didn’t want to miss out on another victim. In a flash, Tobias was standing right in front of Greg, and in the next split-second Greg lay on the floor, his throat savagely sliced open.

Once again, Tobias smiled. Killing was something that gave him pleasure. It was part of him – killing was built-in. It had been installed inside him ever since he purchased the old Black Magic book from an old lizard on a far corner of the island. That lizard was long dead by now, and Tobias would know. Tobias has killed him himself.

Ever since he was a young kid, magic and tricks had fascinated Tobias. He longed to become a magician, so that he could entertain others with his skills. But that opportunity had never come. And now, here he was. An ugly old murderer with nothing better to do than to enslave others’ minds and torture them. That was what he was doing to Amy. And what he had been doing to Crystal. He had taken advantage of them because of their strong minds but weak bodies, and wanted to make them like him. He knew he was responsible for Crystal Rool’s death, and he knew that he might well end up responsible for Amy’s some day. He had ‘wanted’ Crystal, and now he ‘wanted’ Amy. He was a lonely lizard. Nobody liked him because of his appearance, mainly. But Amy had liked him straight away, and he decided that she was to become ‘his’.

With those thoughts in his mind, he began to creep towards K. Rool’s bedroom, now wanting to find his answer more than ever. Already, the memory of the two kritter guards was out of his mind.

***

Amy reached the top of the stairs and looked around. She was only a few seconds behind Tobias, and she knew it. She could sense that he had been here, and that there had been a ki- no, TWO killings made in this area very recently. But there was no evidence of any murder. The floor was spotless, and there was no smell of anything…gruesome. But she knew she was right. By now, she knew that she could trust her feelings, and she felt frightened.

Nervously, she entered into the corridor, and found herself in a wider corridor as she turned a corner. There were several doors leading out of the corridor on either side, and Amy wondered where Tobias had gone. She knew he was here somewhere.

She pushed a door open and peered inside. An empty bedroom. She made sure that she closed the doors afterwards, in case K. Rool threw a fit at someone having left the doors open.

The next few doors all turned out to be bedrooms. She couldn’t think how anyone would be able to cope with having that many guests at one time, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She had a lizard to find.

She opened the next door, and was greeted with gentle snoring. She took a few steps into the room and looked around. Tobias was definitely not here. But she liked this room, and decided to have a look around, her mind straying from the thought of finding Tobias, and moving on to the idea of checking out this cool room. It had a pleasant aura to it, and she felt she could stay in there forever, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to. ‘Duty’ was calling her, and she needed to find Tobias. Not that it was her ‘duty’ to do so, but she just felt that she had to get moving.

She left the room, closing the door gently so as not to wake up the sleeping somebody, and crept down the corridor. It suddenly came to her – where else would Tobias have gone? He was after K. Rool, she could tell, and that meant he would be in the King’s room. And THAT meant that she’d have to pick up her pace before anything bad happened.

She broke out into a sprinting pace and dashed down the corridor towards K. Rool’s large chamber. It was like a maze up here with all its rooms, but it was fairly easy to find her way around as she had been to visit K. Rool via this way many times before.

She burst into the room, while at the same time trying to remain as quiet as possible. Tobias whipped around in shock as she entered, clutching onto a photo frame. Amy tried to regain her breath after the sprint, while also trying to see what Tobias was holding. She was rather short-sighted, and didn’t have a clue about what Tobias would be so interested in the picture for. He held onto it as though it meant the world to him.

Amy walked forward towards him, still breathing heavily. "What…have you…got there…Tobias?"

Suddenly, Tobias jumped again. Amy did too, as she realised that King K. Rool was waking up. He’d probably throw a fit at them for being in his bedroom without permission.

"Time to go, my raven." Tobias whispered, and he gave the photo frame to her and vanished promptly. Amy panicked, looking at K. Rool, and then down at the photograph. It showed K. Rool and his wife holding hands…what could be so important about it?

As she stood looking at the picture, K. Rool realised what was happening. He roared, furiously. "Miss Croc! What do you THINK you are DOING in MY room?!" He leapt out of bed and went to see what she was looking at. Or rather…what she was ‘stealing’.

"How dare you think of stealing my precious photograph from me!" he shouted, snatching it back from her, "This picture was taken on our wedding day, and you come along and try to steal it! How DARE you!"

"But, Sir, I-"

"I want you in the dungeon, young lady! Where are my guards?! Guards!! !" Of course, the guards would find it hard to arrive anytime soon due to the simple fact that they were dead.

Someone entered the room, though, as K. Rool seemed to perk up slightly. Amy was staring at her King in shock and fear, and so didn’t notice that K. Rool’s son had entered the room.

"What’s all the…shouting about, dad?" he yawned, rubbing his eyes.

"Ah, I’m glad you’re here, Khris. I want you to take this young fiend down to the dungeon and lock her in a cell and throw away the key and-"

"Is that necessary? Er…what’s she done?"

"Don’t ask questions! I just want her out! OUT!!"

"Dad-"

"Don’t force me to shout!"

Khris sighed loudly and grabbed Amy by the arm. "Come on, then…" he yawned, still very tired.

All this time, Amy hadn’t noticed him once. She just stared at K. Rool, wondering what on earth she could have done wrong. She was too shocked to speak as she was dragged away down to the dungeon, where K. Rool was intent on making her a permanent resident.

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias : Part 3

By Klumpy

The next morning, Klump was making himself some fresh coffee when Krusha staggered into the kitchen. He put a claw to his head and groaned. "Duh…ow."

Klump turned around. He looked slightly strange, as he hadn’t put his army boots on yet, so Krusha had the unusual bonus of getting to see what the General’s feet look like. In fact, Klump wasn’t wearing any clothing of any kind just yet.

"Mornin’, Krusha." he said, cheerily pouring his coffee into a huge mug, "Sleep well?"

Krusha sat down, shaking his head as he did so. "Duh…no. I think I hit my head…I guess I did it when I fell outta bed…" He continued to rub his head, groaning slightly.

"You fell outta bed? I thought your bed was big enough to mainly avoid that problem."

"Duh, well, Amy’s bed isn’t big enough. I must have, duh, fallen out of her bed…"

Krusha didn’t understand why the General fell silent at that moment. "Duh, you Okay?"

"You were in HER bed? Goodness…what in Heck possessed y’all to do that?"

"She came into my room and, duh, asked me to go with her or something…I don’t know…I feel…ow."

"Hmm…a bit…adventurous…especially for her. Are you sure she did?"

"Uh huh. And then she kissed me a lot…and then, duh, she fell asleep, so I fell asleep too. And when I got up this morning, she wasn’t there."

Klump scratched his chin. "I hope she doesn’t show up. Maybe then I can avoid havin’ my own dang coffee poured all over me."

Krusha didn’t answer. He just rested his chin on the table. He looked very ill.

"Hmm…I think maybe you need this here coffee more than I do…" Klump said.

Krusha still didn’t respond, so Klump drank the coffee before Krusha could ask for some. Krusha’s head was hurting. Maybe all the kisses Amy had given him had somehow poisoned him.

"I hope I haven’t upset her or anything…" he sniffed, going through all the possible reasons why Amy wasn’t present, "If so, I’ll have to tell her that I’m very sorry…I…my head hurts…"

Suddenly, the table Krusha was leaning on moved – it was as though it had just ‘jumped’. The mug that Klump had placed on the table crashed onto the floor, and Klump squealed with shock. "What’s happenin’?" he asked.

Tobias appeared in the room, looking very pleased about something. His hands were clasped together, as they often were, and the smile on his face was for any female to die for. He looked…lovely…but in an evil way.

"Good morning." he said, in his toneless I-don’t-really-care voice. He received no response from the other reptiles, but he paid it no mind. He often got that kind of ‘welcome’. He walked past Klump to a small cupboard, and began to rummage around in it.

"Looking for some blood or milk?" Krusha growled. He hated Tobias – he bet that this creepy lizard had something to do with Amy’s disappearance.

At that comment, Tobias seemed to vanish from the cupboard and appear on the table in front of Krusha. His legs were crossed and his back was straight, as though he was preparing to meditate.

"Seriously, my stupid ‘friend’, I’d watch my tail if I were you. I can do a great deal of damage to you."

"I’d like to see you try." Krusha growled, getting angrier. Who did Tobias think he was? A weakling like him stood no chance against Krusha, surely.

"Oooh, I’ll try. And it’ll be at a time when you don’t expect it."

"Yeah, right." Krusha crossed his arms and turned away from Tobias, still growling.

Tobias uncrossed his legs and stood up on the table before jumping down onto the floor again. He walked back over to the cupboard, and continued to rummage through it.

Klump shot Krusha a peculiar look. A look that said ‘What in the world did that idiot mean?’

"Aha…" Tobias said, his voice echoing around inside the cabinet. He emerged from the depths of the cupboard, holding something between his teeth. He removed the thing from his jaws and walked over to the sink. The thing received a good washing under the cold water.

Klump looked back at Krusha again, this time with a look that said ‘Do you wanna ask, or should I?’

Krusha grunted. "Duh…what’s that thing?"

Tobias, smiling, turned around to face Krusha, holding the deep red/brown object in his claws. "What does it look like, Einstein?"

Krusha growled again. "Tell us what it is, will you?"

"Well, genius, it starts with ‘L’ and rhymes with ‘shiver’."

Krusha thought hard. He was hopeless at guessing games like this. Klump could see that Krusha wasn’t comfortable, and so he spoke up himself.

"Liver?"

"Bingo. Want some?" Tobias asked, extending his claws towards the General, who took a step back. Grinning, Tobias pulled the liver back to him again. "I thought as much." He opened his mouth and let the squelchy mass fall down his throat. He didn’t even bother to chew.

"It’s an awfully big thing…ain’t it?"

He swallowed loudly. "Ah yes. But it is very nutritious. And I’ll tell you something else that’s nutritious. Pinkies."

"Ew!" Klump stated, feeling slightly ill, "No way would I ever eat a lil’ baby mouse! Well…maybe once…but…"

"They’re very good to eat because they’ve got a little miniature liver inside them, among other things. They’re like…little bags of nutrition."

Krusha didn’t want to say anything. The thought of anyone eating a little mouse made him feel really guilty about being a lizard. He thought he was going to throw up.

"And you, Krusha, I know where your lady friend is."

Krusha perked up suddenly. "You do? Where?" He wasn’t sure if Tobias would tell the truth or not, but he was going to take a chance at this point.

"The raven is down in the dungeon…for stealing."

"Stealin’?" Klump asked.

Tobias was more than happy to make up a story about what had happened. After all, Amy wasn’t going to tell K. Rool that she was innocent. "I’m not sure what exactly happened, but she was caught in K. Rool’s bedroom, stealing a photograph or something. He threw a fit, and sent her down to the dungeon. And that’s where she is currently staying. Poor raven. I don’t know how we’ll get her free…"

"Stop calling her ‘raven’!" Krusha growled, angry again, "Her name is ‘Amy’, NOT ‘raven’!"

"She’s MY raven." Tobias said calmly, but Krusha wasn’t calm.

"Well, she’s MY girlfriend!" he yelled in reply, standing up.

Tobias hissed like a cobra when Krusha made that aggressive gesture. "Watch it…you’re standing on thin ice, here. If I wanted to, I could slice off your head and serve it to King K. Rool on a silver platter!"

"Don’t you dare call her ‘raven’ again!"

"I can call her anything I damn well wish to."

"You’ll need permission, you little-"

"QUIET!!" Klump shouted, causing the others to shut up completely.

Krusha found that he had a headache again, and was forced to sit down again. He whimpered slightly, but was still deeply angry. Tobias grinned, wickedly. "I was having enough of your stupidness, anyway. See you later. I have…business to attend to."

"Don’t you dare touch Amy!" Krusha shouted, but Tobias had already vanished again. Krusha roared loudly, and slammed his fist on the table. Klump jumped again. There was no way he was going to let Krusha have any coffee now.

***

"This time, I’m staying – I’m staying for good! I’ll be back where I was born to be! With one look, I’ll be ME!!"

Amy was having a miserable time in the dungeon, and was singing to try to cheer herself up. Another song finished, and she had to think of another one. Thinking gave her a terrible headache. She couldn’t remember anything about the last evening…the only thing she could remember was waking up with Krusha on the floor. She hadn’t remembered him coming in…and her memory was a bit foggy about what happened in K. Rool’s room. However, the dream she had had that night stuck in the back of her brain. She intended to ask Tobias about his relationship with Crystal…if she ever saw him again.

"My raven?"

Obviously, she WAS going to see him again. She turned around, and he was in the cell with her. He was sitting on her small bench with his legs crossed and his arms at his sides. She was standing up in the center of the cell because she had been pacing non-stop ever since she was forced down into the cold dungeon. It was absolutely freezing – torture for a lizard.

"Hello, Tobias." she said, quietly.

Tobias didn’t stand up, and didn’t invite her to sit down. He looked at her for a long time, taking in her body and breathing slowly. His eyes seemed to be burning with a blue flame…and glowing red at the corners. These were the beautiful eyes that Amy loved to watch. Now, however, they seemed more evil than ever before.

"Are you Okay, Tobias?" she asked, taking a few steps towards him. He was looking right at her, but through her at the same time. He had just drifted into meditation again, and was paying no attention to what was going on around him.

That was, until Krusha arrived. He hadn’t actually arrived yet, but Tobias knew he was coming, and snapped out of his trance instantly. "I shall see you later on, raven." he said, and vanished into nothing, once again leaving Amy in her cold cell.

There was a loud click and the sound of fast clawsteps, and Amy knew that it was Krusha. She had sensed him not long after Tobias had done so.

Her large darling skidded to a halt outside her cell and grasped onto the bars, trying to reach her. He looked deeply distressed. Amy ran to the cold bars to be as close to him as possible. "Hi, sweetheart." she sighed, putting her small claw on his. She looked down at their clasped claws, and then up at his face. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I heard that you were caught stealing and I…I can’t believe that it’s true…you’re here…for stealing? It sounds…stupid…"

"I didn’t steal anything, Krusha."

Krusha felt slightly better. If she could prove that she was innocent, she would hopefully be freed. And that was what Krusha wanted. He wanted her out of that horrible dungeon and free to do anything she pleased. "Duh, then, what happened? Maybe King K. Rool will release you if, duh, you can prove your…your…innocence." He felt proud of himself for using the word ‘innocence’.

"Well-" Amy began, but she stopped. She just couldn’t put the blame on Tobias. She wanted to be free…but she couldn’t tell the story. She put a claw to her head, keeping her other claw clasped with Krusha’s.

"Well what?" Krusha asked, eagerly. His breathing rate increased as he waited to be told the truth, which he was certain she would tell.

She looked sadder than ever by now. She kissed his fingers gently, trying to think. She rubbed her snout up against his claw.

"Yeah?" he asked. He wasn’t impatient – just nervous for her sake.

"I…I didn’t…Tobias…" She ripped her claw away from Krusha’s grip and clutched her head with both claws. "I can’t…I- AAARGH!! ! It HURTS!!" Screaming, she fell onto the floor, kicking her legs in the air. Pain was splitting through her head, as though it was being split open by an axe or something. Her eyes were hurting now, and she screamed louder as the intensity of the pain increased dramatically.

Krusha stepped back slightly. "Amy?!"

"I…I…" Amy stopped kicking and began to breathe rapidly. She gasped for breath now – she felt as though her lungs weren’t working. "I…only wanted to look at the picture…" she wheezed, "Really…I didn’t want to…steal it…" That was the best excuse she was willing to give.

Krusha sighed. "Are you SURE that’s what happened?"

"Of COURSE I’m…sure…aa...argh…" The pain was finally subsiding, but she couldn’t stand up yet.

"Duh, Okay. I’ll go tell King K. Rool." Krusha said, pressing himself up against the bars of the cell again. Amy dragged herself along the floor slowly and finally came up to the bars. She reached out and took hold of one of his legs, and kissed his foot. It was the only part of him that she could reach from down on the floor.

He smiled slightly, and then dashed off the way he had come. "I’ll come back…don’t worry." he said, and then the loud click sounded again, and he was gone.

"Come…back…" she gasped. All her strength had vanished, and she lay on the floor, barely moving. She felt sick…and, using a highly scientific word to describe it, she felt ‘yucky’.

And there she lay for a further five minutes, with not enough strength to stand up. "I must get up…" she said to herself, "I must be strong…"

Desperately, she took hold on the cold bars of her cell and began to drag herself up onto her feet. Her bones and muscles felt stiff, but she had to stand up. Now that she was upright, she felt ill again. With her feet far apart, she was able to balance herself upright again, and had a little practice walk around the cell. She felt like a baby that had only just learned to walk. Everything seemed to be moving…

"Hello."

Amy jumped around, but in her shock she fell backwards and ended up on the floor again. She muttered something. "What?!" she snapped at the somebody, "Can’t you see I’m busy rotting away here?!"

The sound of a low click told her that her cell was open. She looked up instantly, and her cell was definitely open. A lizard stood in the opening. "May I talk to you, Miss?" he asked.

Amy’s eyes bulged, and she stood up, straightening her nightdress (which she was still wearing) and trying to look more presentable. "Of course…feel free to sit down. I’m redecorating down here…"

The large lizard sat down on her small bench. He seemed to be maybe slightly bigger than Krusha. He looked remarkably similar to Amy’s boyfriend.

"I don’t think we’ve formerly met. I’m Khris Rool, son of the almighty King K. Rool-"

"Prince Rool?" she asked.

At that comment, he seemed to get slightly angry. "Er…just ‘Khris’. Or K. Rool Junior. ANYTHING but ‘Prince’, Okay?"

Amy nodded nervously, eager to impress. She wondered what the ‘son of the King’ (not ‘Prince’) was doing down in this horrible place.

"Why are you down here, Pri- Khris?"

Khris smiled, cheerfully, almost. "I was just talking to my buddy Krusha, and he seemed very upset about his sweetheart being stuck down here in the dungeon. I know I’m the one who carried you down here in the first place, but Krusha’s my friend, and I hate to see him sad. I’m going to see what I can do about setting you free from this place."

"Really?" Amy felt very happy, but she had trouble expressing it. She climbed up onto the bench and sat next to him, trying to show her approval. Khris edged away from her and fell off the seat. From his comfortable position on the floor, he continued.

"You claim that you weren’t stealing the photo but ‘looking’ at it…Krusha doesn’t think you’re telling the truth, Miss. He seems to think that you’re trying to protect someone else by lying about what happened? Is that so?"

He was beginning to sound like some sort of cop. Amy began to sob again. "Just get me out of here!" she said, wiping her eyes. She really wanted to get the Heck out, but every time she got close to telling what really happened, she got a splitting headache and couldn’t think. "I’d never do anything to hurt your father! Please, I want out! I want out and I want it now!"

Khris stood up. "You’re not going to get it by making a scene…I’ll see what I can do for you."

***

Ziggy was in Amy’s room, resting on her pillow. He wondered where she had gone, and if she would come back. He wasn’t sure…this Tobias fellow didn’t sound trustworthy.

He still wanted to see Amy again, despite what had happened last night. He couldn’t help but watch as she kissed Krusha like nothing before, but it had grossed him out. It hadn’t even been anything bad, but the sight of two lizards kissing…it was enough to turn any human’s stomach. At least that’s what Ziggy felt. And he probably wasn’t very accurate due to his lack of a stomach. He didn’t have anything left of himself except his head. But he was thankful that there was any of him left at all.

He hopped down off the bed and bounced over to the open door. He hopped out into the corridor and looked at the door to Tobias’ room. Amy was probably in there, he figured, as she seemed to be spending a lot of time with Tobias. Maybe TOO much time. She had wanted to show that an ugly appearance didn’t necessarily reveal a nasty personality, but this was going too far if it meant she was being kidnapped. Or at least if all her time was spent with this newcomer.

Using his nose, Ziggy pushed the door open. It had thankfully not been closed properly, and it swung open to reveal the contents of the room – a small wooden chair. The head peered inside cautiously before entering. The light from the corridor was not enough to show the contents of the room completely, so Ziggy decided that he needed to turn the light on somehow.

He hopped around for a moment, trying to find the light-switch. Finally, he saw it…but he would never be able to reach it. It was too high off the ground. He cursed to himself and hopped back and forth, trying to think. He had a good amount of brain-power, even though he was just a head, and was quite capable of coping with various difficult situations.

"T’ink, Lawrence, T’INK…" he growled to himself. He grinded his rotten teeth together and thought as hard as he could. And then it came to him. "Bingo!"

He hopped over to Tobias’ small chair and began to nudge it towards the switch. The chair was low enough for him to get onto, and then he would be able to reach the switch itself. If he had been able to, he would have been sweating at that point. Using all his strength (and a head doesn’t possess all that much strength), he was able to get the chair just about close enough to the wall for him to be able to reach the switch.

"Here we go…" He hopped up onto the chair and then up towards the switch, grabbing it with his teeth and turning it on, causing a never-before-seen light to fill Tobias’ evil room. And evil it was.

"Oh God…" Ziggy gasped. He hopped off the chair and over to the adjacent wall, on which hung a skeleton. It wasn’t completely a skeleton…the skin and muscle (and all that other stuff) had not been removed from the head. It was a skeletal body with a ‘normal’ head. It wasn’t exactly a normal head…the face seemed as though it was screaming – as if the previous owner of the body had been in some indescribable pain as it died. This was, of course, the body of Steve from the previous night.

Near the body was a large steel bucket-like container. Inside it was a disgusting, ripped-up mess, which Ziggy decided had to be the rest of the victim’s body. Various organs were in there as well, in amongst the skin and muscle-tissues…but it was as though they had just been ripped out and placed in the ‘bucket’ fresh. They hadn’t shown any sign of clotting or decaying, and they were moist and soft. Ziggy probably would have thrown up if he hadn’t already been dead.

The rest of the room had a death-like feeling to it. There were a few other remains of skeletons and such, including another container with a label on it reading ‘SKIN’. Ziggy didn’t want to look.

He was just about to get the Heck out when he heard a voice. "Hey…someone there? Can you lend me a hand?"

"Well, I ain’t gots no hands. But…where are ya?"

The voice seemed relieved. "Thank the Lord you’re not Tobias. Over here. I’m in the corner beside the bed. Under the cloth."

"Under da cloth? Jeez, what are youse, anyways?" The head hopped over to where the voice was coming from, from underneath a white cloth stained with a deep red liquid.

"Don’t be afraid…I look odd, but I mean you no harm."

"Dat’s what I was about ta say. Ah well." He grabbed onto a corner of the cloth with his teeth and pulled at it. "It’s…comin’…" He tugged again, and the cloth was free. Ziggy found himself wrapped up in it, and began to struggle.

The other thing laughed gently. "Let me help you with that."

"T’anks a lot. I-" The cloth was pulled away, and Ziggy found himself staring at…a head. A head with no body, just like him. "Well, paint me purple an’ call me gran’ma…you’re a head…like me."

"Hey…cool, another head just like me. I’m the head of a navigator. I can navigate anyone through catacombs. Just follow my nose." said the other head, smiling.

Ziggy felt rather inadequate. He couldn’t navigate to save his life. "I’m Lawrence Ziegfeld. Call me Ziggy." he said.

The other head didn’t seem all that interested in the fact that Ziggy had just stated his full name. "Look, we’d better get moving. You don’t want Tobias to come back, do you? Let’s go."

Ziggy sighed, and the two heads hopped over to the doorway. The navigator moved less easily, as he was probably rather ‘rusty’ after being wrapped up in that cloth for so long.

"What are we gonna do ‘bout da light? Dat Tobias guy’ll know sometin’s wrong if his light’s been switched on."

"We’ve got to take that chance. I’d rather give him some suspicion than be caught by him."

"Fine. I’ll take youse into Amy’s room. I’m sure she won’t mind."

The two heads hopped out of Tobias’ room and into Amy’s room, leaving Tobias’ light still on.

Moments later, Klump walked past on his way to the bathroom. "Strange…" he said, "I guess I’d better turn this light off." He reached into the room and switched the light off, not bothering to look around, and therefore not noticing Steve’s sorry carcass hanging on the wall.

***

"I reckon you owe me BIG TIME. I just had a very long chat with my dad, and he has agreed for you to go free. But with a warning, you understand."

Amy leapt up off her bench and grabbed Khris around the waist as he opened her cell. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she squealed, hugging him.

He stepped backwards. "Er…you’re welcome. But you’re not THAT welcome, so kindly let go."

Amy stopped hugging him and began to hop on the spot. "I’m outta here! See you, Sir." She ran past him and along the corridor, ready to rejoin reality again. Nothing seemed like reality to her anymore. She sometimes found she hated reality, but she was beginning to miss it after having to cope with peculiar things that had suddenly popped up. Tobias was one. He was the main one, as she was sure all the other ‘peculiar happenings’ had something to do with him.

Once again back in the main factory hall, she took a deep breath and stretched her arms. She felt like a new lizard. "FREEDOM!!" she shouted at the top of her voice.

Krusha, upon hearing her voice, was by her side in under a second. "I knew Khris could do it!" he said, lifting Amy up in his arms and licking her like a huge dog, "You’re free, my love!"

It was amazing how quickly he had arrived, especially as he had been moping around in his bedroom.

"I’m Okay, Krusha. Really, I am. Just slightly cold…"

"I’ll make you warm again…" he purred, licking her neck softly.

She sighed. There was something weird going on. Of course, that was obvious, but now something VERY weird had just happened. Krusha’s little ‘romantic’ comment hadn’t made her feel…gooey. She usually felt all soppy whenever he spoke to her like that. She felt strong…it may not even have been physical strength, but some form of psychic strength that could be channelled into something with a lot of physical power.

She squirmed out of his grasp and fell onto the floor. He looked down at her, slightly confused. "Duh, are you feeling Okay?"

"Of course. I feel great…but can I try something on you?"

"What kind of…thing?"

"I don’t really know…just something. It’s probably just my imagination." She looked at her feet, and then at Krusha again. "Give me your claw…"

Krusha didn’t know what was going on, but he obediently held out his left claw.

"Make a fist."

Krusha did. Whatever she was going to do, it was very odd. Why in the world would she need his fist?

She held out her right claw and placed it on his fist.

"I think…I might be able…to…" She tightened her grip on his fist, and at first he thought nothing of it. Until the pain set in. She was gradually making a fist with her own claw over Krusha’s own, squeezing his claw as she did so. His bones began to rub harshly against one another.

"Argh! Stop, Amy, stop!" he yelled, suddenly. By now, Amy’s incredibly strong grip had begun to crush Krusha’s claw, and blood was trickling out from his knuckles under the force. "Amy, please! Stop!" he begged, sobbing.

Amy let go, and Krusha gasped, looking at his crushed claw. The bones had cracked slightly, and his bloody knuckles were hurting him like Heck. He bent forwards, holding his injured hand.

Amy was gasping herself. Something had told her that she could apply a strong physical force when she wanted to, but she didn’t expect THIS much of a result. "I’m…I’m sorry. Sorry, sweetie."

"It’s…Okay…" Krusha said, gritting his teeth, "I just need…some ice…"

He stood up, holding his poor claw close to his body. Amy put an arm around his waist and walked with him to the kitchen. "I’m so sorry-"

"It’s Okay. I know you didn’t mean it…ow…"

Even after she’d done something like this to him, he was still as sweet as ever. Of course, she felt terribly guilty, but Krusha’s love for her made her feel better. She just hoped that she didn’t feel compelled to do anything like that again. The feeling it had given her had made it hard to stop.

***

"But who is this actor Evita? Why all this howling, hysterical sorrow? What kind of Goddess has lived among us? How will we ever get by without her?" Amy was still singing to comfort herself, but this time she was in her cosy room again. Despite this, she still felt very insecure and in need of love. She lay on her bed, arms crossed, looking at nothing in particular. Ziggy had made an effort to introduce her to the navigator, and had made an even bigger effort to tell her about what gruesome things he had come across in Tobias’ room, but Amy seemed uninterested and distracted. She was beginning to wonder if she had just imagined the stripes on her arm, as they didn’t seem to be there any more. Her skin was the same, if not very slightly darker. She also seemed even slimmer than usual, and rather like a skeleton with just some skin on it. But she was still very much alive. She had frequent pains in various parts of her body, but mainly in her head. It was like having a very severe migraine, and multiplying that feeling by one-hundred. She felt as though someone was ripping her skull open and pulling her brain out of her head.

"Implete hunc lapidem…implete eum viribus…Sulfuratis vestris…" As those words came out of her mouth, she smiled. She loved the ‘Phantasmagoria’ title song, and was now somehow turning it into something dramatic. It was only a theme from a computer game for crying out loud.

She sighed and rolled onto her side. That dream had been haunting her also. It was only a simple dream…nothing too complicated…but it had stuck in her mind and was boring away at her brain like a drill.

"Huh?" As she felt in her pocket, she had come across something sharp. Curious, she removed it from her pocket to see what it was. It was the velociraptor blade that Tobias had given to her yesterday. All of her memories of yesterday were foggy, and she barely remembered him giving her the blade. Trying to remember what had happened sent another white-hot pain through her skull, and she was forced to stop.

Smiling, she looked at the blade from all angles, wondering how she might ever use it. It looked very dangerous…and she supposed that it was when used by the right person. She took the blade with her left claw, and tossed it between her two claws, catching it perfectly each time. It was something that she had seen Tobias do, and was quite proud that she could do it too.

She took it in her right claw again, and sat up, looking curiously at it. Suddenly, she felt something burning inside her. She held the blade tighter, and felt some great anger boiling up inside her. She stood up off the bed, snarling, while still staring at the blade. Her eyes and the back of her head felt hot, as if her brain was over-heating.

She began an uneasy walk towards the door, still holding the blade firmly in her grip. "Time to see what you can really do…" she hissed, and she tucked the blade back into her pocket.

***

"I wish I knew what was happening to her…" Krusha whined. He was now in his very serious and not ‘duh’ing mode. His claw had basically recovered after the incident, and he had removed the ice-pack. Having to use an ice-pack is not the healthiest thing for a lizard to do. He was very much relieved to have got rid of it.

Klump was sitting at the table, playing a card game by himself. It had begun to get slightly boring, so now he was just looking at each card in turn, organising them into neat little piles in front of him. Krusha sat at the adjacent end of the table to the General, head in his claws, elbows on the table. He moaned slightly, wondering what Tobias was doing to Amy…and how he could get back at him. He was certain that Tobias was doing all this, and he was right. Of course, we all know that, but Krusha didn’t. He wasn’t one-hundred percent sure, and he didn’t have anything to prove it, but he felt quite certain. After all, Amy had been just normal until Tobias arrived on the scene.

He looked towards the door, yawning. He was still very tired. And a pain had begun to form at the base of his skull, so that wasn’t any fun.

He was so drowsy that he didn’t notice that Amy had entered the kitchen until she was standing a few feet away from Klump. She looked as though she was suffering from a major hangover of some sort. "Duh, you Okay?" Now that she was here, he felt slightly better, and began to ‘duh’ again.

She looked at him. She looked very ill, and very tired. She seemed…old. As though she was tired, exhausted and grumpy.

Krusha whined slightly at her apparent ignoring of him. Once again, something was very wrong. She seemed very distant. "What’s wrong? Tell me…you can tell me anything." He once again switched into a more serious mode.

Amy looked at him, mouth slightly open. She didn’t speak to him. It was as though she couldn’t bring herself to do so for fear of something. She approached Klump, and spoke to him in a toneless expressionless voice that she had never used before. "I have…something for you, Klump." It was as though Krusha wasn’t even in the room.

Klump wondered what she could be talking about, and turned his chair around to face her directly. He placed his claws on his knees. "Uh huh?"

With that, Amy reeled back her fist and punched him right in the face. She looked angry and ferocious by now, and seemed to smile gently as Klump and his chair fell backwards and landed on the floor again. The General squirmed around on his back, and he knew without looking in a mirror that she had just given him a black eye.

"What the-" Krusha stood up as this happened, not knowing what on earth had caused her to do that.

As he spoke, Amy looked up at him and seemed to finally notice him properly. "There you are…" She advanced menacingly towards him, and he somehow found that he was frightened. He pressed himself up against the wall behind him, sweating with tension. "Wha- what are you d-doing?" he asked, sobbing slightly.

With one leap, Amy was right in front of him, eyes burning angrily for some reason even unknown to herself. "Prepare to die!" she screamed, jumping up and clinging onto his neck. She reached into her pocket, but couldn’t find her weapon. She screamed something unprintable and set about attacking Krusha’s face, slashing at it and biting him with as much force as she could manage. Krusha just tired to withstand the pain – he didn’t want to fight back for fear of hurting her.

Klump scrambled up onto his feet again and watched helplessly as Amy continued to inflict pain on her lover. "Krusha! Do somethin’!" he yelled, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to help in any other way.

Krusha squealed as Amy slashed her claws across his eyes, trying to bring him down. She was screaming at him while doing this, making him feel worse. He hadn’t realised that she was capable of causing him so much injury. "I can’t do anything- OW!! I’ll hurt her!"

"Krusha, fight back!" Klump said, hopping up and down like a spectator at a wrestling match, "Whatever’s makin’ her do that is NOT Amy! You’ll get yourself killed!"

As Klump said that, Amy revealed the velociraptor blade from her other pocket. She continued her attack, making useless swipes at Krusha with her weapon. She was clinging onto him like a leech, and he couldn’t shake her off.

Finally, she struck, sending pain through Krusha’s neck. He yelled in pain again, but it was thankfully not deep enough to be a fatal wound. He would surely have been killed if he hadn’t been thrashing around so much.

"Krusha! Fight back! You have to!"

"That’s right, big boy! Try to fight back! I’m TELLING you to!" Amy shouted, evilly, landing another wound in Krusha’s upper chest.

The pain was too much for him.

"C’mon Krusha!"

"Yeah, fight back you idiot!"

Idiot? Amy had never called him that before. He growled as he tried to fight back, and he knew that he would be able to.

He took a firm grip on Amy’s right arm – the killing arm. She screamed at him and slashed at him with her other claw. The blade dropped to the floor.

"Amy, what are you doing to me?" he asked, tightening his grip on her arm. She didn’t answer, she just screamed again. "Let go of me, you moron!" she yelled.

"Don’t…hate me for this…" He pulled her right arm sideways and back, causing her to scream further.

"Let go let go!" She was screaming and almost sobbing at the same time. This pain was too much – she felt as though her arm was going to-

There was a loud SNAP, and Krusha let Amy drop to the floor, limp as a fish.

She lay still, gasping slightly.

Klump walked over to Krusha and looked down at Amy. "Oh Gawd…I didn’t expect you to fight back THAT much…but I guess it was the only way…"

The General bent down next to Amy and looked at her face. It was definitely different. She looked angry and desperate to kill something. She would have suceeded if Krusha hadn’t fought back.

"She’s gonna be so mad at me…" Krusha whimpered, putting a claw to his face. There were cuts and slashes all over his face, and he looked quite a sight.

"I can’t believe it’s actually Amy…she’s never been like that before…" Klump said, almost to himself rather than to Krusha. His black eye seemed like nothing compared with what Krusha had gone through. "I think you need to get some treatment…I’ll go get the First Aid kit." Klump walked over to a cabinet and began to look around for the First Aid kit. Amy’s First Aid kit.

A tear fell down Krusha’s bloody cheek as he picked Amy off the floor. She felt limp and dead, but she wasn’t. She was gasping for breath, and her right arm hung loosely at her side. The blade had gone from the floor.

"I’m gonna take her back to her room…" Krusha said, almost whispering.

Klump walked over to Krusha and asked him to bend down. He then began to wipe some antiseptic all over Krusha’s face. Every time some of the liquid touched one of Krusha’s open cuts, he whined slightly.

"I don’t know why she would do that…I love her so *sniff* much and…I’d never do anything like that to her. Do you think she doesn’t love me any more?"

"I think there’s somethin’ weird about her. I mean, I’ve ALWAYS thought that, but now I feel it especially. I also think she’s getting’ too close to Tobias…I feel like they’ve gotten into some kind of deep friendship…I mean, she’s interested in things…y’know…mysterious things, so I suppose it ain’t too hard to believe that she likes him."

This comment didn’t make Krusha feel any better. He hoped that her feelings for Tobias were only ‘like’ and not ‘love’.

"I’ll take her to her room then…" He left the kitchen, leaving Klump alone to complain about his black eye.

As soon as he was well out of Klump’s sight, he hugged Amy close to him. She seemed to be asleep by now. "Why did you do *sniff* that? Don’t you know how much I love you? I’d never…*sniff* do anything like that to you…and I’m sorry about your arm…but…I hope you understand…*sniff* what’s wrong with you?" He sighed, sadly, and continued on his way to Amy’s room.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Tobias : Part 4

By Klumpy

Amy finally woke up from her little ‘nap’. She looked around, and found that she was back in her room again. She felt confused – the last thing that she remembered clearly was crushing Krusha’s claw in the main factory hall. Her head was throbbing.

As she sat up, she winced with pain. She grasped onto her right arm with her left claw and held it close to her. Her stomach turned, and she felt desperately sick. Her right arm was broken.

A slight creaking noise was enough to turn her senses back on. The door opened slowly and Tobias looked into the room. He seemed somewhat happy. "May I enter, my raven?" he asked.

Amy nodded gently, her teeth clenched with pain. Tobias strode into her room and sat on the bed with her. Harpy was perched on his shoulder again, looking at Amy angrily. He cawed gently under his breath. Upon hearing this noise, Tobias reached out and stroked the hawk’s soft chest with one of his claws.

"I d-don’t know what happened…but…my arm…" Amy stammered, holding tightly onto her dead arm. She felt deeply distressed that she couldn’t use it. Her arms and claws were her favorite parts of her body, because they allowed her to write and draw. She didn’t know how she would be able to cope without the use of her right arm.

"I regret to inform you, my raven…but, your ‘boyfriend’ broke your arm." Tobias said, softly. He was trying hard not to let his glee show though this regretful disguise. He had longed for an opportunity like this so that he could break Amy and Krusha apart. He didn’t like to see couples in love – it made him feel weak and stupid.

Amy looked at Tobias, as if she was begging him to take back what he had just said. "What? B-but why? I…he…"

"I do not know why either, my raven. Just that…well…he got angry with you and broke your arm. Or so I heard." She obviously hadn’t noticed that he was beginning to smile.

"I didn’t do anything…he forgave me for squeezing his claw…why would…he…"

Tobias placed a claw on her leg and touched the side of her face with his snout. "Do not worry about your arm, my raven. I shall heal it for you."

He placed his other claw on her broken arm, and gently began to rub along it. Harpy cawed, slightly irritated.

"Mmmm…I…oooh…" Amy groaned, closing her eyes as Tobias continued to ‘massage’ her arm. She felt warm and happy all of a sudden, as her arm began to tingle with pleasure.

He stopped rubbing, and Amy opened her eyes again. She had been enjoying her massage.

"All done…you can use your arm again." he said, softly.

Amy lifted her arm up and looked at it. It was normal again, and she made a fist with her claw. She then spread out her fingers again and looked at them. They didn’t even feel remotely stiff. "Thanks, Tobias…"

"You are most welcome." he said. Without warning, he moved his claw further up her leg. She jumped and pulled her leg away from him.

"Tobias…don’t…" she gasped, putting a claw on the leg. It had begun to feel…strange. She tucked her legs up onto the bed and hugged them close to her.

"So…" Tobias moved closer to her, breathing heavily, "What are you going to do about your…’boyfriend’?"

Amy closed her eyes tightly. "I don’t remember anything…I don’t remember this happening to me…I don’t know why he’d ever dream of hurting me…"

Tobias hadn’t wanted that kind of an answer. As he grew slightly angrier, the hawk flapped its wings in distress, shrieking in high tones. It could sense what Tobias was doing.

"Are you going to…punish him in any way?" he asked, his voice covering her and smothering her like a dark blanket.

Amy shook her head. "I don’t believe what he…well…I’m not going to punish him. I love him. More than anything…"

A pain struck in the back of her head, and seemed to spread into the front of her skull, and then down into her throat. She felt a strong throbbing in her throat going down to her chest, making her breathing more difficult.

The hawk’s shrieking became more dramatic, and Tobias leaned closed to Amy. His lips were pulled back slightly, as though he was trying to force back a snarl. He grabbed onto Amy’s bedsheets and dug his claws into them. He had to let his anger out somehow before he flew into a rage.

Suddenly, he screamed himself, clutching onto his throat. He felt as though he was going to throw up again. Just as he had felt yesterday...but now the vomiting feeling was stronger. He felt like he was going to barf his guts out.

"Are you alright?" Amy asked, holding out her claw to touch him. Tobias yelled angrily and jumped off the bed. He was clutching his head – the pain was so severe that he was digging his claws into his skull to try to stop the feeling.

"I’ll be fine…go and…and see your…’boyfriend’…"

As that last word left his mouth, Amy shuddered. Her brain felt hot again, and her claws were yearning to rip something apart. She felt a sudden hate for Krusha, and she wanted to let him know it…but she wasn’t going to attack him physically again…she had her mind set on breaking his heart…

***

Krusha didn’t know whether to be happy or worried when Amy appeared in the kitchen again. Her arm looked perfectly fine. Maybe he hadn’t broken her arm at all. That thought in his mind, he smiled as she walked up to him. "Duh, hi. Feeling better?"

Klump stood up and walked towards the door, just in case Amy decided to attack them again. Amy didn’t notice him do this – it was Krusha that she was interested in.

"What do you know about my right arm?" she growled, holding her right arm out in front of her.

Krusha looked down at it. "Duh, well…it’s a very nice arm. Very nice and lovely…"

"You half-wit!" she shouted, "You broke my arm, didn’t you? DIDN’T you?!"

Krusha whimpered slightly. "Duh…it’s not broken. It looks fine."

"Thankfully, Tobias healed my arm for me. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let you off."

Krusha knew what was coming next. He could tell by the way she was speaking. Or rather, by the way she was yelling.

"I never want to see you EVER again! I don’t want to HEAR you, SMELL you, or sense you in any way! I’m sick of you and your stupidity, and I deserve better than you! I don’t know why I EVER loved you in the first place! You’re so STUPID and UGLY and…lots of other stuff that I can’t even think of! So go away and leave me alone! You can jump off a bridge for all I care! Go to Hell, why don’t you?!"

She turned around abruptly and marched out of the kitchen. Krusha felt himself shattering into a million pieces. He burst into tears and covered his face with his claws.

Klump slowly approached his large friend and tried to think of some way to help. "Er…c’mon, Krusha. If she’s gonna talk to ya like that, then you don’t need her. Just forget about her, huh?"

"It’s easy for YOU to say!" Krusha said, in-between his loud sobbing, "Your girlfriend hasn’t just screamed things like that in YOUR face…this is all your fault, you know!"

Klump was taken aback. Krusha was clearly very upset. "M-my fault?"

"If you hadn’t told me to fight back I wouldn’t have broken her arm in the first place!"

"If you hadn’t broken her arm, you’d have been killed!"

"I’d rather have been killed than have lost the one I love! I hate you!"

"Krusha, I’m sure-"

"You’ve just lost my most precious thing in my life for me! I’m really gonna get you for that!"

Krusha advanced towards Klump, looking very menacing. Klump screamed with fright and ran from the kitchen, with Krusha in hot pursuit.

***

Three gentle knocks sounded on Tobias’ door. "Come in…" he said, his voice raspy and choked. He had just thrown up again, and his stomach, intestines, head and throat were still recovering.

Amy opened the door and peered into the darkness. She saw the outline of Tobias’ bright chest and stomach on the bed, and slowly walked towards him. Tobias smiled and sat up to make more room for her. "Sit down, my raven."

Amy obliged, although she was slightly hesitant to do so. She felt sick with herself again. She could feel her stomach burning – she hadn’t really eaten anything all day, and the acid in her stomach had decided to see if it could digest the walls of her stomach instead. This burning was causing her a good deal of discomfort.

She felt Tobias’ bony arm wrapping around her neck, although not to choke her. It was some kind of an affectionate gesture. Something that she hadn’t really expected from him.

"Tobias?"

"Hmm?" He wrapped his other arm around her, and she felt him using his weight and strength to push her down. She felt slightly frightened.

"Tobias…I have to know…about the photograph. I don’t remember much from last night…but I remember the photograph. Of King K. Rool and his wife…why did you want it?"

Tobias grunted, and she felt him pushing on her even more than before. He was also turning her so that she would be lying on her back once she came into contact with the sheets.

"Don’t…ask questions…raven…" he said, softly, still pushing. She was lying on her back by now, and he moved closer to her and licked her face.

"Tobias, tell me about that picture…please." she begged. She could feel what he was trying to do, and she would stop at nothing to prevent him from doing so.

He groaned and rested his head on her chest, nuzzling up to her. This was not to be allowed, and Amy sat up before he could do anything else. She crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Tell me about the picture."

Tobias sighed and sat up again. He placed his claws on his knees and sighed. "I needed to know if Crystal…still had her scale patterns when they were married."

"Scale patterns? Like…the stripes on my arm? Well…they’ve gone now, but I had stripes on my arm."

Tobias gave a low hiss. "I thought as much. You’re just as Crystal was."

Amy didn’t know whether to be flattered or what. She scratched the back of her neck. "In what way?"

"She was very powerful with this Black Magic…she took the powers, but she had too much good in her heart to be taken over completely. The patterns on her body lasted for a short while, but then they vanished. She was really cheating the magic…everything in life has its good points and bad points…advantages and disadvantages…but she didn’t have any of the disadvantages because she was so kind and good. And strong willed. She was too good to have evil take over her."

"But…what about you?"

"Clearly, I had a lot of blackness in my heart, and the evil easily took over me to make me ‘complete’. I had what I wanted. I wanted to have some kind of strength, and since I was too feeble to work out and get physical strength, mental strength was the best I could get."

Amy was frightened, yet deeply interested at the same time. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. "Where did you first…I mean, how did you first get this magic?"

Tobias smiled in the dark. He enjoyed telling his story. He didn’t get to tell it often, though, as not many others would get involved with him in any way.

"Well, from when I was just a kid, I loved magic. I went to as many magic shows as I could, and I liked finding out how each trick was done. But every time I discovered the secrets of each act, the magic was gone, and it became plain old trickery instead. I was convinced that magic existed, and I was intent on proving it to the whole world. So…there was a little magic shop that I went to visit every day when possible. All the things in that shop were expensive, so I’d save up my money to buy magic books and little do-it-yourself magic sets. Boy, I had fun with those. I entertained my dad with those tricks. My mother never had time for me…I knew something bad was going to happen. My parents separated, and I chose to stay with my father. Ever since that happened when I was five, I never saw my mother again. But I remember what she looked like. That was all I had left of her…a memory…anyway, I lived with my dad for a few years, and he finally found that he was lonely. He stopped going to work every day, and went looking for a girlfriend instead. He still had plenty of time for me, and as I grew older, the tricks I could do became more impressive. I spent more time in the magic shop, and I skipped school to go and talk to the old lizard who owned the shop. He felt that I had real potential, and that I could become a famous magician someday."

Tobias stopped. He seemed to be sad as he talked about it. He clasped his hands together, and held his them towards Amy. She watched eagerly as he opened his claws and a small white bird flew out and sat on the bed with them. It ruffled its feathers, and then vanished into nothing. Amy watched, amazed. Even though it was a trick she had seen several times before at various magic shows, it still fascinated her. Tobias smiled. That was the kind of trick he had hoped to do when he became a magician.

"Anyway, when I got home from the magic store one day…I found my dad and another female lizard…on…the sofa…" his voice trailed off, as though he was reliving the experience and hating it with all his heart. "I knew at that moment that he’d found someone else…and I was not going to cope with it very well. So I ran straight back to the magic store and told the old lizard everything. That lizard was such a good friend. He always listened to me. He told me that if ever I needed someone to talk to, I could just go to him. He lived in the shop, so he’d be there at any time. And I’m glad he was. I went to visit him every day, sometimes with a problem and sometimes without. He became more of a father to me than my real dad. And I was never going to call this new female lizard my ‘mother’. Not in a million years."

Amy sighed and crossed her legs. Part of her was regretting that she had asked him about the picture at all, but another part was fascinated and wanted to hear more. She didn’t want the story to end.

"My dad got married to his new girlfriend, and I hated her even more. She was so…perfect. So polite. She was one of those creatures that makes you think that their motto is ‘I love everyone, aren’t I perfect?’. God, I really hated her for being so nice. If ever I wanted to show a new trick to my dad, she’d offer to watch as well. So I stopped my magic. I only spoke magic with the old lizard. And then one day I heard that this O’ so perfect female lizard was expecting a baby, and I really flipped. I spent the next few days crying my eyes out in the magic store. When I reached my early twenties, things were even worse. Neither my dad nor the other female lizard seemed to be interested in me. All they were interested in was their son. Their precious son…oh, isn’t he SO perfect?"

"Ruck. Was that his name? Ruck – ‘The rock’. One with black hair."

"Spot on, raven. Ruck. Bloody Ruck. O’ so wonderful Ruck."

"I can tell that you didn’t like him…"

"Not especially, no. One day, after being really ticked off by my whole life, I went to the magic store and poured my feelings out to the old lizard. It wasn’t fair…Ruck was so young, yet he was very strong physically. I think my dad’s girlfriend was related to some guy of muscle-bound freak, because my ‘brother’ looked like he was going to be a real female-magnet when he grew up. I asked the old lizard to help me, and I told him I’d pay any price if he could make my life more bearable. So he went into the back for a few moments and returned carrying a leather-bound book. ‘Black Magic’ was the title, and he gave it to me. As the dusty leather touched my skin, I knew something great was going to come out of this. He didn’t even ask for anything in return as actual payment. He said that I’d been like a son to him, and this was to repay me for my company. So I took the book home and had a read through the chapters the old lizard had suggested to me. I began to practise the magic that I read about. This was real magic, not trickery with mirrors or anything. I felt so free with it…but after I’d been doing what the book said for about an hour, I collapsed and passed out for several hours. My ‘parents’ and ‘brother’ didn’t even realise that I’d been collapsed on the floor for damned ages. After that, I put the book away for a while. Until…I met…her. She was so wonderful…and great, and beautiful, and fabulous, and beautiful-"

"You already said ‘beautiful’, Tobias. And…it’s Crystal you’re talking about, right?"

"Of course. The first time I saw her…I felt I was going…to die. I had to have her. She made me feel so good whenever I saw her, and nothing else in my miserable life made me so happy. I knew I was a little bit older than she was, but nothing else mattered to me more than letting her know how I felt. I approached her one day when there was nobody else with her, and told her that I really admired her. The word ‘love’ wouldn’t come out of my mouth. It stuck in my throat. As I guessed, she hadn’t really noticed me before, but now that she had I was going to try to please her whenever I could. But no matter how hard I tried, she never…loved me. But she was interested in my Black Magic book, and we spent a lot of time together looking through it. She decided to give it a try, and her confidence helped me to try again. Unlike me, she didn’t faint after doing what the book said. She just said that she felt refreshed, and that we should do it again. And we did. But as every session ended, I felt myself rotting like an old body. Despite that terrible feeling, I really loved doing what I was doing. My dad suggested that I go and see a doctor when my appearance changed dramatically overnight, but I knew it wouldn’t help. I didn’t really care about my appearance by now. I felt as if my brain was swelling and becoming more powerful, and I discovered that I could move things with my eyes…I mean, by staring at them, and as every day passed I felt my mind growing stronger and stronger…"

"Wow…and, what about Crystal?"

"She was just fine with it…but she developed her powers much quicker than I, and she eventually became more powerful than me. I could have strangled her…I hated being the ‘weak one’. And I still longed to be with her…and one morning we met up to do a session…and I could tell that she had met someone else. Whoever this other guy was, I wanted to make him pay, but Crystal threatened me. She said I was never to harm her new love, and that if I did she was going to take serious revenge on me. After spending three weeks with this other guy, she told me that they were engaged. ALREADY. They were bloomin’ engaged…they were engaged, and I was enraged. Heh. Quite a cute little joke, if I do say so myself. One day it struck me…I wasn’t ageing. I had been in my early twenties when I began the magic…and I hadn’t aged a day. My body was the same. I couldn’t feel myself growing older. I’m still trapped in the body I had when I was first starting the Black Magic. I guess you could say that I am fifty-eight years old, but my body is ‘round about twenty years old. I was born fifty-eight years ago…the time just flew past me like a dream…a nightmare…"

"You’re saying that Crystal had a ‘new’ love. I think you’ve led yourself to think that you were her ‘old’ love." Amy said.

Tobias seemed to ignore her. "After she got married, I hated to call her ‘Crystal Rool’. I still do. I would call her ‘Crystal Dana’, which was her name before she got married. I addressed her as ‘Crystal Rool’ when I gave you the velociraptor blade simply because I felt you would only know her by that name. I hated to think of her with this new love…stupid stupid stupid…but she was so strong that I couldn’t do anything about it. She was the only lizard who could ever over-power me with her Black Magic…and I think that, given more time, you will become more powerful than I, my raven."

Tobias looked at Amy and sighed. She didn’t love him. Annoyingly, she still loved Krusha. Tobias’ plan hadn’t worked.

"Anyway…as I said about this magic, there are advantages and disadvantages. Advantages – If you’re weak and feeble, the magic will give you a form of strength to use in attack and defence. You become faster, more agile and somewhat more intelligent. You can teleport yourself, move objects by staring at them, transform into animals, see parts of the future and the past, and read other’s minds. Your claws grow longer, and you can learn to use a velociraptor blade. You can also control the feelings of others to make them feel hate or sadness in an instant. You can also gain some physical strength, although usually only if it is to be used to cause suffering to others. Disadvantages – If you become too involved, as I have, your body becomes taken over by the evil and you lose your soul. Unless you have a very strong mind, your scales and the rest of your body will change in appearance to become quite frightening and distinctive. You lose certain abilities…some of those are the abilities to love and feel happiness. Hate is the main feeling you possess. You can’t undo the magic, and can end up hating yourself. Every now and again you get a terrible feeling in your head and stomach, mainly. You have to throw up, usually, and the feeling of pain sometimes lasts for hours. I cannot describe how awful it is…and you sometimes have dreadful feelings of anger when you could just rip someone’s guts out for as much as looking at you."

"Oh dear…" Amy said, feeling quite distressed at the thought of these things happening to her.

"I eventually felt so SICK of myself and the magic that…I entered one of those killing sprees. I killed the old lizard who gave me the book, and that wasn’t enough, so I returned home and killed my parents. I didn’t even realise I was doing all this. It’s as though you’re entering a dream, and when you wake up you find several dead bodies around you. Until you see the bloody blade in your claw, you wonder who on earth could have done such a terrible thing. I was completely in the dark as to what happened when I suddenly ‘woke up’ and found that I’d just murdered my father and ‘mother’. To be more specific, I had broken his neck and ripped her stomach out…those are two manoeuvres that I practise often. They are both very useful…I do believe that Ruck escaped. I didn’t find his body anywhere. I’m guessing that he’s out there, somewhere. But I really don’t give a damn about him. I don’t even care enough to find out if he’s alive or not. I could find out just by thinking about him to see if he’s there. But I can’t be asked."

He clenched his right fist palm upwards, and when he opened his claw again, he was holding his velociraptor blade neatly between two of his bony fingers. He tossed it up into the air and caught it with his left, and then tossed it back again. He loved his weapon. It had brought him both pleasure and grief over the years, and he was thankful for both.

"Stand up, my raven. I will show you how to use this blade."

Needless to say, Amy didn’t stand up. "Er…I’m not over-enthusiastic about getting my guts ripped out-"

"No, I shall just demonstrate on you without hurting you. I can’t promise you many things, raven, but I’ll promise you this." Tobias reached out to her and placed his bony left hand on her shoulder. "I promise that I will never hurt you. It has meant a lot to me that you’re willing to spend time with me. I promise that I won’t ever bring any harm to you."

Amy took a deep breath and stood up. She believed him. Although he may have been strange and slightly mad, she could tell that he was a guy who wouldn’t break a promise willingly. One of these guys who would sooner smash his own baby’s head in than break a promise.

Tobias stood up to face Amy and looked at her, warmly. Once again, his face was so beautiful that females would be fighting over him. Amy wasn’t going to be one to fight for him in that way.

"Now, my raven, listen carefully. Any of these can be used in some cases, but certain situations will call for a certain technique. For example, you want to kill someone quickly and quietly, and they’ve already realised that you’re dangerous. You make one swift slash across their throat, like so…"

He slashed the blade across right in front of Amy’s neck. She tensed up and closed her eyes.

"Raven, I won’t hurt you. Do not move while I’m doing this, or I might get you by mistake. Now, here’s a different one. You’re standing directly in front of someone, almost touching them, and they haven’t realised that you’re dangerous. You’re also able to go with a slow, sometimes noisy death that creates a lot of mess and causes the victim a good deal of suffering. You stab the blade up between the legs-"

"Don’t!" Amy yelled, taking a step back.

Tobias shrugged. "Very well. Anyway, you dig the blade in as far as possible, and then rip it up their stomach, ending the ripping whenever you please. I often choose to stop once I reach the rib cage. And, of course, this blade can be used for various other things. You can stab it right into someone’s chest if you want…so many possibilities, but the two I just showed you are my personal favorites."

Amy was slightly nervous by now, but had been listening with interest. She just guessed that killing became part of life once you got involved with the magic. But there was something else burning in the back of her head.

"You said that…you can control my emotions? How I feel?"

"If ever I wish to, yes. And why do you ask?"

Amy suddenly found herself baring her teeth at him. A growl formed in her throat. "You made me, didn’t you? You made me throw that anger fit at Krusha!"

Tobias narrowed his eyes. "And…what if I did?"

"Tobias, what’s the bloomin’ point of making me angry at my boyfriend? Is it because you want me to love YOU instead?"

Tobias crossed his arms. "If you must know, I hate to see couples in love. I can’t love anyone myself, and you have no idea how much it upsets me-"

"You can’t mess with love, Tobias! If you keep doing these horrible things to me, you’re going to end up in a worse state than before! What goes around comes around, you know!"

"Fine. Go back to your dunce of a boyfriend. See if I care."

"Okay, I will!" Amy yelled at him. She marched over to the door, which opened for her as she approached. "I was wrong to EVER think that you had a good heart!"

The door slammed. Tobias stood on his own in the dark. He couldn’t feel anger. Only sadness. He sat back down on his bed again and clasped his hands together. This had proven how weak he really was. He couldn’t get anyone to love him. Unlike Crystal. She fell in love during a single night, and she was still practising the magic at the time. What was wrong with Tobias? Was he that much weaker than Crystal was? A gray tear trickled out of his right eye and slid down his snout, ending up on the carpet. Everything was bad. And Tobias needed to do what he mainly came here to do. He wanted to kill the Rools.

***

"Krusha?"

Krusha looked up forlornly as he heard his name being called. He sat up properly and wiped his eyes. "Uh huh?" After all that she’d said, he was very surprised to see her again so soon. After he’d chased Klump around the factory for a short while, he had broken down into tears again, and had been sitting in this area ever since. This O’ so special area. He had been sitting on an old box when Amy had called his name.

She approached him, and he instantly moved over on the box to make room for her. He looked up at her, not knowing what on earth she was going to say. She’d already done as much damage as possible.

"Krusha, I…I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…I mean, Tobias-"

Krusha had heard enough. He stood up and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up off the floor. "I’m so happy!" he said, changing his tone completely from how he had been before, "I thought you’d never talk to me again! I mean, after all you said…but I’m happy! What am I saying? I’m not just happy…I’m HAPPY!!"

"Oh good…I’m so sorry but I- Krusha, you can let go. If you don’t, I’m sure to choke before I can apologise any more."

He instantly put her down and continued to hop on the spot excitedly. He didn’t need for her to apologise. He was glad that she wanted him back.

"Well, Tobias, you see, can control my emotions. He was controlling me when I said whatever I said to you…and…I’ll bet you anything he was controlling me when you broke my arm…"

Images of what she had been doing had finally reached her. Tobias had been using his powers to force her to do bad things to Krusha.

"He can control how I feel…and he doesn’t like the way you and I love one another."

"Huh?" Krusha stopped hopping.

"He can’t feel love himself. Whenever he sees a couple in love, he really wants to break them apart. I bet that’s why he hates King K. Rool so much. For a start, King K. Rool was in love (mistake number one) with Crystal (mistake number two), and since…and since Khris was…her…son…oh Lord. He’s gonna want to get back at both of them, I can tell…and they won’t stand a chance."

"I can, duh, protect King K. Rool. And Khris can take care of himself."

"Tobias is…nobody stands a chance against him…not even someone with biceps the size of watermelons…only Crystal had a chance. Tobias said that I might even stand a chance…I guess I’m the only one who can do anything. Isn’t that fabulous? Hmph. No."

She put a claw to her head and sat down on the box. Krusha sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "What are you going to do about it?" he asked.

She sniffed loudly, and looked up at him, as though she was expecting him to give her an answer. "I really don’t know. I really…don’t…"

***

"Halt! State your business with King K. Rool at once!"

Tobias sighed loudly and advanced further up the stairs. As he drew nearer, the kritter guard seemed to shrink in size until he was no more than a little speck of nothingness. Tobias looked down at the trembling kritter and snapped his jaws together sharply. At this noise, the kritter squealed and stood up to his full height, arms by his sides.

"What is my business with King K. Rool?" Tobias grinned, removing something from behind his back.

The kritter looked around himself. Everything seemed to be darker and more sinister. He didn’t dare move in case he angered this kremling who was approaching with a look of evil on his dark face.

"My business with your king is none of your business…" He moved up to the kritter until they were almost touching. Tobias snarled, gently. "Get out of here while I’m in a good mood." he said. The way he said it caused the kritter to panic, as it didn’t seem as though the ‘good mood’ would last for long.

"Yes Sir…" he whispered, and then he tore off down the stairs Tobias had come up, tripping over every now and again in his hurry to get away. Tobias shrugged. He hadn’t felt evil enough to kill that particular kritter. But he felt evil enough to continue on his little journey to K. Rool’s room.

As he walked down the corridor, getting ever closer to K. Rool’s bedroom, he felt himself being drained of something. As though someone had stabbed a needle into his chest and was sucking out all his blood. He could feel his blackness spreading down the corridor towards K. Rool’s chamber. But he strangely didn’t feel ready to kill the king yet. There was still plenty of time for that. K. Rool and his son needed to suffer, and they were going to when they died…and Tobias had arranged a little ‘torture session’ beforehand. He took the last few strides up to K. Rool’s door and stopped. He clasped his claws together and bowed his head. He muttered something, and then opened his eyes again. He reached out a bony hand towards the door, and it opened for him.

K. Rool was shocked when he turned around and saw Tobias standing in the doorway. Khris was with his father on the bed, as they had been talking, but Tobias didn’t give a hoot about what they had been doing. He crossed his arms and walked up to the bed, looking ever so frightening by now. His eyes were glowing green at the corners, and the irises of his eyes were burning with a blue fire.

King K. Rool stood up automatically as Tobias drew closer. "What is it, Tobias?" he asked, "I’m a little busy right now."

"Ah yes. I see you were involved in a small unimportant conversation with that little brat of yours."

Khris suddenly realised that he had been included in the matter, and stood up also. "Brat?"

"Ah, of course. The little brat of a son that you and Crystal had together. How sickening."

"Don’t you speak to me or my son like that!" K. Rool warned, trying to appear frightening by stepping closer to Tobias.

"You know, you disgust me!" Tobias growled. He took another step towards K. Rool. Every now and again, the two lizards were stepping closer to each other. It was as though they were in a ‘stepping’ contest.

"I disgust YOU?!" K. Rool repeated aloud, not knowing what Tobias meant, "Whatever makes you say that? How could I possibly disgust anyone?!"

"Crystal didn’t want you!" Tobias shouted, taking another step towards K. Rool so that they were standing right in front of one another.

K. Rool closed his mouth and stared at Tobias. Tobias could tell that he had really hurt K. Rool by saying those four simple words, and he was proud of it.

"Yes she did." K. Rool said at last, not looking up at Tobias.

"Get the Heck out, you creep!" Khris yelled from over by the bed.

Tobias seemed unaffected. "Oh no she didn’t." Those four words also struck K. Rool like a punch to the heart. "She never even LIKED you. If she ever intended to like you, it was only to make me jealous."

"That isn’t true-"

"How do you know it isn’t? I know all, and what I say GOES. Do not question it."

"Why don’t you leave and let me get on with my life? What difference does it make about what happened? Crystal’s dead, you idiot!"

"And you should have called a doctor when she said that she felt ill. That’s what I would have done. But instead you let her die a slow, painful death in the arms of whom she thought she loved!"

"I don’t know WHAT you are talking about, but you’d better shut that mouth of yours before I-"

"Do you even know WHY she went home with you from that party? That party where you met her?"

"She liked me, and-"

"Wrong!"

K. Rool roared angrily. "Will you STOP interrupting me?!"

"Will you shut up?!"

Khris walked towards the two lizards, looking from one to the other as they spoke and yelled at each other. He wanted to be included in the conversation, but not as a ‘brat’ or anything like that. The two adults were definitely ignoring him.

"She was at a party, Kevin! She probably had some kind of fever when she went to sit by you! Maybe she was taking drugs or something! Maybe she was drunk! It was a PARTY!!"

"I’ve had enough of this! GUARDS!!"

Three kritters nervously entered the room. They retreated again somewhat when they saw Tobias in the room with the two K. Rools.

"It was either that or you FORCED her to go home with you! Why else would she have done nothing to stop you?!"

"Stop me? From doing what?"

"I bet you raped her, didn’t you?! That’s why you disgust me! I know very well what you and her did as soon as you reached your home, and it makes me sick! You must have forced her into it! I’ll bet that stupid son of yours was a mistake, too! An accident! You just wanted pleasure from her!"

K. Rool felt as though he was going to rip Tobias apart. "You take all that BACK!!"

"I won’t! It’s the truth, I can tell! From the way you’re acting! Why else would an intelligent young female make love to you?! You big, fat loser!"

K. Rool gave the three kritters the ‘evil eye’. "Get the Heck in here, you three! Take this lizard out of my sight!"

"Why would someone like her ever waste her time on you?! Or maybe she did it because you had money! How could anyone EVER love a guy like you?!"

"It’s clear that you’ve never loved anyone yourself, Tobias! Or you would know that Cupid’s arrow can strike in strange places! You would know that love is blind!"

"I know that love is blind! I mean, why else would she have gone near a bed with you?! She must have been as blind as a bloody bat!"

"GET OUT!!" K. Rool screamed finally, "Get him out of here before I tear him to shreds! Get out out OUT!! And Tobias, you’re well and truly FIRED!!"

"I’m glad. Crystal never needed to waste her time with you, so neither will I. Farewell. For now."

Tobias was engulfed by a bright red light, and when the light faded, he was gone. The three kritters looked at the spot where Tobias had been, and then looked up at their king, shivering. K. Rool sighed. "Dismissed."

The kritters sped off as soon as he finished pronouncing his word. He sighed loudly and walked back over to the bed. He collapsed down onto it and grabbed onto one of the many pillows he used for comfort. Crystal loved pillows, and she had enjoyed almost ‘collecting’ them. This particular pale pink cushion had been her favorite. It still smelled exactly like her, and K. Rool used it when he needed to comfort himself. And boy, did he need comfort right now. He held the cushion close to his face and sobbed into it, making it quite damp with his tears.

Khris sighed. His dad looked quite a sight lying on the bed with a cushion held to his face. But he understood why his dad was so upset. Crystal had meant the world to him, and every time he heard something said against her, he would either get really mad or really sad. This was a get-really-mad-first-and-then-get-really-sad situation.

As he walked over to the door to leave, he heard his dad. "Khris…I…"

"Yeah?" he said, turning around. His dad had sat up on the bed and put the cushion back where it was. He still looked quite upset, but he beckoned to his son, and Khris approached him. "What is it, dad?"

"I don’t know…I…I didn’t want you to hear any of those things that Tobias said. I mean…" K. Rool stood up and hugged his son unexpectedly. Khris tensed himself up with that surprise, but soon recovered and relaxed himself again. "You weren’t a mistake, son. Your mother and I wanted to have you. You weren’t an accident. She loved you, and I love you."

"I know that, dad."

"Nothing that Tobias said was true. Well…not all of it. Your mother and I loved one another, I didn’t rape her, and she wasn’t on drugs or in a trance when she went home with me…"

"Rape?" Khris asked, trying slightly to release himself from his father’s grip, "What does ‘rape’ mean?"

K. Rool took a deep breath. "I’ll tell you one day. But I want you to know that I didn’t force her into anything. I loved her very much, and she loved me, and we both loved you. And you’re extra-special to me now, because you’ve got part of your mother inside you. She was so excited when she knew she was expecting you. And ever since day one, she seemed certain that you would be a boy. And she was right…I love you." He squeezed tighter, and Khris coughed slightly.

"Er…I love you too, dad."

"That’s good to know." K. Rool said, letting go of Khris to wipe some more tears from his eyes. "Don’t mind me…I’m just emotional."

"I can tell."

K. Rool sniffed and looked at his son. He wiped his eyes again. "Alright then…run along. I’ll see you later."

Khris shrugged. "Oh, alright. Bye dad." He turned back to face the door again.

"And Khris?"

"Uh huh?" he said, turning around yet again.

"Once you find someone you love, remain faithful to her, and don’t just ignore it if there’s a bad word said against her. Some of us…need protection from the ones we love."

Khris smiled. "I’ll remember that, dad. See you later."

***

"Duh…thought of anything yet?"

Amy was in her room talking on the phone when Krusha came in. He seemed quite cheerful, despite the events that had been going on thanks to Tobias.

Amy smiled at Krusha, and spoke in an exceptionally loud voice. "HI, KRUSHA!!"

Krusha stepped back. "Huh?"

Amy then turned back to talk into the phone. "Yes, Krusha has arrived. So kindly put the phone down and get back to…whatever you were doing. Goodbye, Kudgel." She slammed the phone down and looked quite smug. Krusha approached her and sat down on her bed with her. "Duh…why were you talking to Kudgel?" he asked, curious.

"He called me. Goodness…I told him about Tobias. He said ‘it don’t matter if he’s black or white’, and then he, of course, burst into song. He’s good…but…oh well. I mean, it doesn’t matter if Tobias is black or white. It wouldn’t matter if he was blue with green polka-dots. At least kremlings don’t usually judge one another on color…at least, not as much as humans do. A black human isn’t a bad human. I’m so glad to be a kremling."

"Yeah. Me too. But, duh, what are we going to do about Tobias?"

As Krusha said those words, the door of Amy’s room was flung open dramatically. "Tobias…" Amy growled, standing up. Krusha stood up and stood next to her, staring at the doorway. But nothing happened. A cold chill spread into the room, but there was no visible sign of Tobias. Amy could sense him. And he was angry.

"He’s furious…" she said, holding onto Krusha’s arm. He had begun to tremble.

"W-why is he a-angry?"

"I don’t know. Don’t let him know you’re afraid, Krusha. He’ll be even worse to you if you do."

Krusha whined loudly and grabbed onto her. "I’m gonna wet myself…" he whimpered.

"Steady, big guy. I don’t know where exactly he is…but I’m not going to let him hurt you. If he wants you, he’ll have to kill me first."

Amy slowly walked towards the door. She looked up and down the corridor, but saw no sign of anything. "I can’t see anything out here…"

Krusha blinked curiously, and then joined her. All of the lights in the corridor were off, making the whole area a creepier place.

From under the bed, the two heads peered out nervously. "Dis is real bad, navigator…sometin’ awful’s gonna happen real soon. An’ I don’t wanna be part of dis awful t’ing. Derefore, I’m gonna hide under here in as fearless a manner as possible-"

"Don’t be a baby!" the navigator hissed, nudging Ziggy forward slightly, "Unlike them, we can afford to have bad things happen to us. We’re already dead…we’ve got to help."

"Not on yer life!"

"Good. We’re both dead. That means that you’ll help."

"But-but-but-but-but-"

"Be brave, Ziggy."

Neither of the lizards had noticed that the heads were in the room. Amy stepped out into the dark corridor and looked around. Her eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the darkness, and so she couldn’t really see anything clearly. "I’m going to try to find the light switch, Okay? I’m sure that as soon as we get some light, the whole situation will look brighter."

"No. I…I don’t want you wandering around in the dark on your own. Please let me come with you."

Amy shrugged. "Fine, you can come if you want. Just stick close by me, Okay? I don’t want to lose you in the dark."

Krusha nodded enthusiastically and joined her in the corridor.

"Now, where is that- oooh. Heh. Krushaaaa?"

"Uh huh?"

"When I said ‘stick by me’, I didn’t ask you to get that close…"

"Well, I, er, don’t wanna get lost. You don’t mind me holding onto you, do you?"

"Not at all. Now where is that switch? Do you have any idea?"

"Duh…nope. Sorry."

Amy and Krusha wandered to the left down the corridor together. Krusha made sure to keep his claws on Amy’s hips so as not to get lost. He didn’t want to get lost in the dark with Tobias lurking around. That was one thing he wouldn’t like to do. He also didn’t want Amy to wander off by herself and possibly get found by an angry Tobias. What was it about being called ‘Toby’ that made him angry?

They had passed Tobias’ room as they walked, but he didn’t appear to be in. Amy knew that he was somewhere nearby, but she didn’t want to scare Krusha by telling him everything that she felt. She knew, however, that her feelings were to be trusted, as they had led her the right way many times before. After all, they had led her to Krusha.

Amy was feeling along the walls as they moved down the corridor, hoping to find the light switch, but to no avail as yet. Krusha looked left and right nervously as they moved, keeping a firm grip on Amy’s hips. Although there wasn’t really much of interest to either side of them any more, he still kept looking just to be sure. After all, Tobias could easily come walking out of one of the walls.

They reached the end of the corridor. Now they could either turn left down another passage that led to the stairway up to main factory area, or they could look in the bathroom. Amy chose the latter option, and pushed open the door to the bathroom that she shared with Klump, Krusha and the other higher-ranking lizards. It was quite a nice bathroom. Well, it was good enough for them, anyway. There was nobody in the bathroom, and nothing suspicious. "If this was the first Laura Bow game, we might be about to discover a man’s body in the tub. Thankfully, it isn’t." Amy said to herself. Krusha whimpered. That comment hadn’t made him feel better.

Amy entered the bathroom (with Krusha still holding onto her) and flicked the light switch. She felt slightly confused when the light didn’t come on. Hmm…either Tobias is trying to scare us, or the bulb has died.

"Oh well. I guess we’ll HAVE to find the other light switch. Come on, Krusha."

Anywhere that she was going, Krusha would be going too, so the last few words weren’t really necessary. He held onto her even tighter. "I’m scared…" he sniffed, rubbing his snout against her back.

"Yeah…" she said, taking a deep breath, "Me too."

They walked back out into the dark, sinister corridor. Amy’s eyes were beginning to cope with the darkness, but she couldn’t make out any outline of a light switch on the wall. She growled to herself. If Tobias was the one doing this, he was doing a pretty good job of frightening her and Krusha.

Hello, raven.

Amy squealed with shock as she heard Tobias’ voice echoing through her head. "K-Krusha? Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Now, what do you think you’re doing?

Krusha didn’t react. He obviously couldn’t hear Tobias’ voice. But Amy could, and it was beginning to scare her.

"I’m not afraid of you, Tobias!" she shouted, trying to hide her fear behind a loud, brash voice.

Krusha leaned forward and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Who are you talking to?"

She’s talking to ME, you freak!

"Don’t call him a freak!" Amy yelled, angry at (apparently) nothing and nobody. Krusha sighed. Maybe she’d finally snapped. But he guessed it was more than that. Strange things had been going on ever since Tobias arrived, and there wasn’t much of a logical explanation for ANYTHING any more.

As you can probably sense, I am very angry, my raven. K. Rool was stupid enough to fire me before I even had the chance to show him how…qualified I am. Therefore, he shall pay dearly. Of course, I was intent on making him suffer when I first arrived…but now I feel the need to cause him pain even more than before.

"Why?! What has he done?!"

But there was no reply. Amy slowed her breathing, and hung her head. She sniffed slightly, and turned her head to the side to nuzzle her snout against Krusha’s face. "Duh, are you Okay now?"

"No…I’m not. None of us are Okay. None of us will be until Tobias leaves here. I’m going to get rid of him…I hope, before anything bad happens to King K. Rool."

Suddenly, light filled the corridor. Amy groaned and covered her eyes to help them adjust to the new lighting. Krusha seemed very happy that the lights were back on, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Yay! We’ve got light!"

Amy opened her eyes and smiled. "Ah yes. I wonder why. Oh well." It didn’t make sense. She could still feel Tobias’ anger burning, and he was getting more and more angry by the second. If he had caused the lights to go out, why had he turned them back on?

Krusha turned her around to face him and pulled her as close to him as she could possibly be. He put his arms around her again and smiled, contentedly. "Heh…do you remember when we were out in this exact spot on Christmas day?"

Amy knew what he was talking about, but he had the wrong place. The place he meant was in the corridor in-between where Klump and Amy’s rooms were. She started to walk backwards, luring him towards the actual spot, and smiled. "Yes…I remember what happened. Goodness…why did everyone come to watch?"

"Duh, it was that bird of yours. We’ll have to lock her out of the room when we get married. She’ll go mad."

"Don’t I know it…" she sighed, and then she looked up at him. He had such a lovely face. He picked her up in his arms and hugged her to his chest. "…Krusha?"

"Forget about Tobias for the moment. Duh, I’m so happy…"

He pressed his mouth to hers, and she put her arms around his neck. He was so big that it was hard for her to give him a proper hug. She sometimes hugged around his waist and neck, but his chest area was far too big for her to get her arms around it.

She closed her eyes as she felt herself drifting into a love-world with him, and began to return the kisses that he was giving to her. Her kisses were hopeless when compared with his; but then again, he DID have a bigger mouth. And he had a bigger tongue, so his licks overpowered hers. Ah well. You can’t win ‘em all.

Then, a pain reached her, and began to spread from the top of her head to her eyes. She closed her eyes even tighter to try to block out the pain. It didn’t help. Maybe it would help if she was able to lie down. She slowly opened her eyes. "Krusha, can we lie down for a bit…huh?"

As she looked lovingly at him, he vanished in the middle of a kiss. She instantly fell down onto the floor, landing awkwardly on her tail-end. Pain shot up her spine and set up camp in her head. Why was her head always hurting so much? She couldn’t bear it. It was taking over the whole of her body, and she felt her legs turning into jelly when she attempted to stand up. Now her chest was hurting. She rolled over onto her back and closed her eyes, not having any energy to hold her eyelids open. The warm pain spread down her stomach to between her legs, and then along the underneath of her tail. Now she had pain almost all over her body. It was as though she was entering some kind of trance. And she felt so…so…tired…

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias : Part 5

By Klumpy

"Duh, you feel lighter all of a sudden…" Krusha said gently, still kissing. He opened his eyes. "Are you Oka- er…Amy?" There was nothing in his arms. He had been kissing nothing. No wonder she’d suddenly lost a lot of weight. He lifted up both of his feet in turn and looked underneath them. Amy was underneath neither of them. The only thing underneath his feet was…sand.

"Duh…something isn’t right." he said, looking around. He was out in the desert on his own. A warm breeze drifted his way. Something told him that he was definitely NOT in the factory any more.

He turned around several times, trying to see where the factory was. There was no sign, and the factory is a darn big thing, so he wouldn’t have over-looked it. He whimpered gently. "Duh…I’m lost."

***

"Through our joy, through our pain, we can move worlds again. Take my hand, dance with me…" Klump sang gently to himself. He rested his elbow on his knee, and then rested his head in his hand. He sighed, deeply, and then inhaled again. His throat was still feeling rather strange from when Tobias had grabbed him. "I want to spend my lifetime lovin’ you, if that is all in life I ever do…" he continued. He grinned to himself. That song always made him think about Krusha and Amy. He had heard them singing that particular song on several occasions. The difference between their singing voices was incredible. Now that he was thinking about them, he wondered where they were. They were probably doing something sickeningly romantic downstairs. Ah well. Klump had gotten used to their behavior by now. After all, they way they acted was probably just as ‘normal’ as he felt he acted with Katy. Watching others being all lovey-dovey can be sick-making, but if you are one of the lovey-dovey ones, it seems ‘normal’ and ‘natural’. It’s hard to be disgusted when you’re the one doing all the soppy stuff. At least that’s what I feel. I think…

"Hiya, Klump. Have you seen Krusha?"

Klump smiled broadly. But of course, he didn’t have a definite answer to the question. "Well, I was just wonderin’ the same thing, Khris. I haven’t seen him for a while. Have you seen Amy?"

"Well, yes. Earlier on, I mean. She seemed nice."

"Hmph. Well, if you can find her, I bet you’ll find Krusha, too. And if they’re not actually together, she’ll probably know where he’s at. Ooh…there’s real bad karma in the air. Somethin’ BAD is gonna happen."

"I’m not really sure how things could get much worse. That Tobias creep just upset my dad big time. What else could he possibly do? Kill us or something? He wouldn’t stand a chance against me." As he said that, he puffed out his chest to prove his point. He grinned and crossed his arms across his chest. "I am the almighty Khris Rool! HA HA HAA!!"

Klump cowered with his arms over his head when Khris began that menacing laughter. "P-please, don’t do that…it makes me nervous…"

"Oh…alright. I’m going up to my room, then. Let me know if you see Krusha, Okay?"

"Sure thing, Sir."

Khris marched away from the General, looking as proud as anything. He was like a cockerel strutting about to show off his chest feathers. That was the only example that Klump could think of.

His short-time visitor gone, Klump returned to how he was before. Wondering where the Heck Amy and Krusha were. Although it was about 85% certain that they’d be downstairs being romantic (and 99.9% certain that they’d be kissing SOMEWHERE), something didn’t seem right about it. (not the kissing) Everything was so quiet. And where was Tobias? Although Tobias had a tendency to disappear every now and again, Klump didn’t feel as though Tobias would just vanish for good. The strange feeling of bad karma that Tobias possessed wasn’t present. The bad karma was to do with something that was going to happen.

Everything was happening. First the bad feeling, then a visit from Khris, and now Krusha appeared on the scene. He looked as though something really tiring had happened to him, and he seemed slightly scruffy. Of course, he had just been running frantically through the desert. He had eventually found where the sea was, and then turned around. This guided him back to the factory easily. But he had been running as fast as he could for fear of what could have happened. If he had been transported to the desert, where was Amy?

"Hi, Krusha. Khris was lookin’ for you-"

"Have you seen Amy? I-I’m worried…"

Klump was silent. This was rather unexpected. For one thing, Krusha and Amy weren’t together. And for another thing, Krusha didn’t know where Amy was. "Er…you don’t know where she is?"

"Nope…" Krusha sniffed.

"Weren’t you with her?"

"I was…we were down in the corridor outside your room, and then all of a sudden she was *sniff* gone. And I was out in the desert...I feel ill..."

Klump tucked his thumbs into his belt. He was feeling even more nervous than before, and just as curious to find out what was going on. At the same time, he didn’t know whether he actually wanted to know what was going on. What if it was something that could kill him?

"Well, Krusha, wouldn’t it be a good idea to check in the corridor before ya get all worried? She’s probably still down there. And as for you endin’ up in the desert…I can’t understand it. Unless Tobias…Tobias might still be here somewhere."

"I’m going to find Amy. I can’t have her on her own…not when Tobias is stalking around somewhere…duh, catch you later."

Krusha ran over to the little elevator thingy that was used to reach their living quarters. Klump, still with his thumbs tucked in his belt, walked over to Krusha, who didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

"What’s wrong?"

"Duh, it’s not working…grr…"

"If it ain’t workin’, take the stairs. The stairs can’t be ‘not working’, Krusha."

Krusha nodded and ran over to the staircase that Klump was talking about. That was a wonderful thing about the factory – there were usually two different ways to get to wherever you wanted to go, so if one wasn’t working you could use the other. This also applied to K. Rool’s living area. You could either use K. Rool’s main platform or go up the not-so-posh stairway to reach the top.

Krusha dashed down the stairs like greased lightening. "See, Krusha? I told you there was no need to worry-"

"OW!!"

Klump, upon hearing that exclamation, ran over to the stairs and looked down them. It didn’t look as though Krusha had fallen down them, so the General began to descend also. "Krusha?" he called as he walked down the cold steps (which, thanks to his boots, he couldn’t feel), "Where are ya? You Okay?"

He reached the bottom of the stairs. This was a short corridor that opened out into their main living corridor. A left turn at the end of this little corridor would take you to the bathroom, and a right turn would take you to the living area. Just at the end of this short corridor, Krusha lay on the floor on his back, looking rather angry. He was so big that the small corridor didn’t seem big enough for him.

"Krusha? What happened?"

Krusha growled loudly and kicked his left foot out in front of him. It banged up against what could have been a pane of very clear glass. "There’s something stopping me from getting into the corridor…" Krusha sniffed, "I’ll never find her!"

Klump walked forward curiously (stepping over Krusha, which wasn’t easy) and reached out in front of him to touch the ‘window’. He felt along the ‘window’ with both hands. "Hmm. My guess is that it’s some kind of invisible wall…or a force-field or somethin’."

Krusha stood up, knocking the General over. "I don’t know what I’m gonna do…I’m worried…"

"Okay, Krusha, try to relax. Have a nice sit down or somethin’. We need to get you to calm down. I bet it’ll all make sense by mornin’."

"But what if Amy’s dead or something by morning?! If that happens-"

Klump took hold of his friend’s arm and began to lead him back up the stairs. "Maybe this is all some crazy dream, Krusha."

"A nightmare. I wanna wake up…"

"Calm down Krusha. After you’ve rested for a bit, I’ll bet you anythin’ that you’ll be feelin’ better."

***

"It wasn’t very wise to turn your back on me!" Tobias snarled at the kritter whose life he had spared earlier on. He had an arm wrapped around the kritter’s neck, and had taken the opportunity to attack while the kritter’s back was turned. He often wouldn’t choose to attack someone from the back, but he just couldn’t resist. The kritter was squealing with pain as Tobias dug his weapon in deeper and deeper. This was a new manoeuvre that Tobias hadn’t thought of before. He had stabbed the blade into the back of the kritter’s knee, and it was causing it terrible pain.

"Please, Sir! I’ve got a family!"

"Do you think it matters to me?" he replied, ripping the blade out suddenly. He released his grip on the kritter’s neck, and the injured lizard fell to the floor. He couldn’t support himself due to what Tobias had done to his knee, and he lay pitifully on the floor, grasping his leg to try to stop the pain.

"And now…" he grinned, approaching the kritter again, blade ready to slice the lizard’s neck out.

"Sir, what have I done? Why do you want me?" sobbed the kritter, clutching his bleeding knee.

"Your torture is my pleasure. I have no less reason to kill you than I have not to kill you."

"What d-do you mean?"

"I mean that I’m going to kill you no matter what you do or say."

The kritter crouched forward on the floor, arms held over his head. "Please don’t kill me…"

"Oh please…" Tobias growled, grabbing the kritter by an arm and holding him up above the ground, "I’ve never seen anything so pitiful. But it is hard for me to feel pity, so it’s not gonna work."

Holding the kritter aloft firmly with his left hand, he held up the velociraptor blade to the kritter’s face with his right. "Take a look at this blade. It’s the last thing you’ll ever see."

He slashed the blade across the kritter’s eyes, delighting in the kritter’s torture as it screamed with shock and pain. The kritter held his free arm over his face, knowing that his eyes were bleeding. He knew that he was going to die, but unlike Tobias’ other victims, he was determined not to die frightened. "I’m glad you blinded me! Now I don’t have to look at your ugly face ever again!" Sadly, that was the best that he could come up with as an insult, but it shocked Tobias nonetheless. He had never been insulted by someone whose life he was about to end.

"Very impressive, I’ll give you that. But you will die anyway."

The kritter tensed up as he felt the blade stabbing into his chest, but thankfully he couldn’t see what was happening to him. He clenched his teeth, determined not to scream any more. Tobias didn’t like this, and stabbed the blade in even deeper. But still no scream. This time, it was due to the fact that the last stabbing had killed him.

Tobias growled angrily and flung the body across into a wall, leaving a few bloody marks on the clean paint. That hadn’t been as much fun as the others. The main reason he liked killing was because he enjoyed torturing his victims. The feeling of having killed someone wasn’t as satisfying as torturing them. And he hadn’t had much fun with that last kritter. It was only fun when his victims begged to live and screamed loudly as he inflicted pain on them.

That kritter out of the way, he again had access to K. Rool, and he was going to do what he wanted to do this time. No matter what, he was going to make K. Rool pay for the dreadful crime of falling in love.

***

"If only you were here, my love. You’d be able to sort out that nasty old creep…I really hate him for suggesting those dreadful things. And in front of our son, too. I hope Khris didn’t believe any of those lies. We loved one another, didn’t we, my sweetheart? I really miss you…"

K. Rool hugged the photo album close to his yellow chest and sighed, deeply. He often talked to Crystal in that way, usually when looking through a photo album or when in bed. They had been so close in life that he knew she was still near him in death. He believed that she was always looking after him and Khris, and guiding them to do the right things. But he didn’t often talk about this feeling with others, just in case he was thought to be mad. He wasn’t mad. He was just holding onto the memory of the one female who had meant the most to him in life. And she still did, even in death.

Three feeble knocks sounded on his bedroom door. K. Rool sighed and closed the photo album. He didn’t like being interrupted while he was talking to his wife. "Come in."

The door creaked open and a cold breeze entered the room. There was nobody standing outside the door, and this confused K. Rool. He had a slight feeling as to what was happening, but he didn’t want to believe it. He walked over to the door and looked out into the corridor. There was no sign of anyone there, so he shrugged and closed the door. He turned back around to get back to his little ‘photo session’, and found himself face to face with…Tobias. K. Rool staggered backwards in shock and crashed into the closed door. His chest was heaving as Tobias stared at him, unblinking and unmoving. One of the creepy things about Tobias was his ability to stand perfectly still, as Crystal had been able to do. Tobias was constantly reminding K. Rool of his wife, and K. Rool sometimes just wanted to rip his head off for it. Being reminded of his wife when he didn’t want to be wasn’t a comfortable feeling. Not for Kevin Rool, anyway.

Tobias remained completely still as K. Rool slowly approached, wondering if this evil lizard was actually going to do ANYTHING. He was, and he did. "I have something to discuss with you, my king." Tobias said at last, and he then began to approach K. Rool like a starving wolf closing in on a mouse. K. Rool didn’t know what Tobias was going to do, exactly, but he had a fairly good idea.

***

All the time, Amy had been in Tobias’ room. She was not there out of her own choice, oh no. Tobias had taken her there while she was in her little trance and trapped her to the chair - Tobias’ small chair in the center of the room, decorated with carvings. A small candle was resting on the table next to the chair, and it caused a gentle waft of pine to fill the room. Amy sat on the small chair, tied to it not by ropes, but by a mysterious, psychic force. Her head hung forward as she slept. But this was not a peaceful, innocent sleep. This was a violent and dangerous nightmare.

She was in a long, metal corridor, with very little space. She couldn’t go anywhere except forward, so that was where she went. She set of at a brisk pace down the long, darkening corridor, her footsteps echoing all around her. Something didn’t feel right, so she sped up into a run and tore down the corridor. It felt almost like an air-duct or something. She kept running until she realised that she was falling instead. She was falling head-first down another vertical corridor. There seemed to be no solid ground below her – just a dark void.

She continued falling through the void and landed on something hard. It was definitely a floor, which she confirmed by feeling along it. This was a very light room, but some form of smoke surrounded her so that she couldn’t exactly see anything. Then a strong smell reached her – a smell she despised almost above anything else. Alcohol and cigarette smoke. Actually, this WAS the smell she despised above all else – these two smells and ammonia came in joint-first. Actually, ammonia was very fragrant when compared with this horrible stench. The smoke was getting to her eyes, as they began to water. Finally, the smoke began to clear away, and a sound came to her. The sound of jolly talking…and a woman singing. "Mummy would love him and daddy too, we’d be famous and well-to-do…" she sang. This was the song that Amy had heard in her head while talking to Ziggy- Oh God, it couldn’t be. Could it?

Sitting at the table directly in front of her sat a familiar head atop some not-too-familiar shoulders. This was definitely Ziggy. He had the same smile that he had when he was with her. Between two of his fingers, he held a cigarette. He placed it in his mouth briefly, then removed it and breathed out a cloud of smoke. Sitting next to him at the table were two women deep in conversation.

Amy approached the ‘early’ Ziggy and leaned on the table he was sitting at. He removed the cigarette from his mouth and looked at her. "Ziggy?" she asked.

"I doesn’t talk to strangers, toots." he replied. Yes, his voice was exactly the same.

"Are you Ziggy?" she asked, trying to get a reply from him.

She then backed away slightly. There was something very disturbing about his eyes – they had a terrible nervous twitch. This really put her off.

Ziggy shifted in his chair and replaced his cigarette back into his mouth. "Who sent’cha?" he asked.

"Crodfoller T. Rhubarb." Amy replied instantly. She had never heard of anyone with that name, but it had just come out of her mouth.

"Crodfoller?" Ziggy asked, removing the cigarette and replacing it with a smile, "He’s an ol’ pal o’ mine! What’cha wanna know?"

Just as those words left his lips, a loud shout was heard. Amy turned around to look in the direction of the shout, but all she could see was smoke. She turned back around to face Ziggy, but he wasn’t there.

None of the speakeasy customers were – she wasn’t even in the speakeasy any more. She was in a large room in the Leyendecker museum, she knew. In front of her was the large skeleton of a mastodon. An old woman dressed up in an expensive-looking coat and other accessories walked off through the door to Amy’s right.

Suddenly, Ziggy appeared, dressed up in the same rented tuxedo he had been wearing in the speakeasy. His hands were in his pockets, and he was slouched forward as he walked through the door to Amy’s left. Curious, Amy thought she might follow him, so she did. She peered around the door and saw-

"OH MY GOD!!" she screamed when she saw what had happened.

Lying on the floor, arms splayed out at his sides, was Ziggy, pinned down to the floor by the beak of a model pterodactyl which had fallen on top of him. The beak had pierced right through his body, and he was struggling underneath it.

"Oh Lord…" she walked around the pterodactyl until she came to Ziggy’s face. There was an expression of sheer pain on it.

"Toots…help me…" he begged.

"Not so fast, girly." came an Irish voice from behind her. Amy jumped and turned around. There behind her stood an Irish man with red hair and a red moustache. He was wearing an expensive tuxedo, and he held a pair of wire cutters in his one hand. In the other, he held a knife.

"It’s the end o’ the line, Ziegfeld." he said to the struggling Ziggy. He put the wire-cutters on the floor and used his free hand to get hold of Ziggy’s head. Using the knife, he set about cutting through Ziggy’s neck. Ziggy didn’t have a chance to scream – he was already dead.

Amy looked at the Irish man. "O’ Riley?" she asked, backing up.

"Aye, lass." he responded. He threw Ziggy’s head onto the floor and held up the knife towards her.

Amy screamed and turned around – but what she saw was not the Leyendecker. This was…an alleyway. She knew that it was somewhere on Kongo Bongo – it was nowhere she had seen before.

Suddenly, from out of the shadows came…Krusher. There was a medium-size kitchen knife in his right claw, and he held it up towards her. "Do not hate me for this!" he said, and stabbed the knife into her chest…

She woke up, screaming. Her eyes did not register where she was at first, but they adjusted finally to the dim lighting. She attempted to get up, but she was held down…held down by a psychic force. Harpy lurked in the corner of the room, watching her. She could not see him, but she knew he was there.

Once again, she tried to get loose, using every ounce of her strength to break free. But it did not work. She hung her head, gasping. "My…I can’t…I…can’t…"

Harpy screeched at her in the dark.

She gasped and her chest heaved. Something was not right. Not right at all.

This whole room was evil, like some sort of Hell. The pine scent, which she usually adored, was filling her up and poisoning her lungs, rather like the smoke in the speakeasy. It was intoxicating…sickeningly sweet and thick.

Suddenly, a pain came to her head. She whimpered, and tilted back her head. She was beginning to find it hard to breathe at all. There was a picture in her mind of what was happening…

She saw Tobias shouting at K. Rool, and K. Rool becoming deeply hurt. Klump and Krusha were there…a sudden message echoed in her head…that K. Rool and his son would be killed.

"NO!!" Amy screamed. She clenched her teeth together and concentrated. She gasped loudly – the lack of oxygen in the room getting the better of her.

Suddenly, she was free. The ‘ropes’ were broken, and she stood up, shakily. Harpy squawked and flapped his wings. Amy looked around briefly, and then ran to the door, desperate for some air. She flung the door open and collapsed into the hall, her lungs aching yet relieved.

Hearing the noise, Ziggy and the head of the navigator came out of Amy’s room. "What’s happening?" asked the navigator.

"Something bad…" Amy said, running off down the corridor. Something was telling her where to go and what to expect – she had to reach K. Rool’s upper factory area. And fast.

***

"What do you want, Tobias?" K. Rool asked, "You’ve already done enough damage." There was a new feeling to Tobias, and K. Rool could feel desperate hate coming from him.

"I have something for you, my king…" he hissed.

K. Rool stepped back as Tobias began to make some strange hand-gestures. He clasped his hands together, and then whipped them up over his head and then behind his back. When he next revealed his hands, he was clasping his velociraptor blade in his right one. "Prepare for your surcease, O’ King!" he said.

K. Rool yelled and ran backwards, but Tobias appeared behind him. "Going somewhere, sir?" he asked, slashing at the air – missing K. Rool totally.

From one of the side doors came a voice, followed closely by its owner. "Huh? What’s going on, dad?"

"Khris, save yourself!" K. Rool shouted as another swipe was made at him.

Suddenly wide awake, Khris was all for protecting his father. He ran out to the two lizards and stood in-between the two of them, facing Tobias. Although Khris was taller than he was, Tobias was not intimidated. "Leave my father alone!" Khris snapped, taking another step towards the aggressor.

Tobias grinned, exposing his full set of teeth. "I’m not afraid of you. I can deal with you physically-"

He moved forward slightly as he said this, but received a swift punch to the jaw from Khris. K. Rool was bent over in fear behind his son, who just watched as Tobias reeled backwards from the force of the punch.

Tobias reached out and took hold of K. Rool’s desk to regain his balance. He was panting like a dog, and he looked up at Khris with his piercing, beautiful eyes. Both claws were still resting on the desk, and he was a bit giddy, but his mind was focused.

"Maybe I won’t deal with you physically…you’re not worth it…I’ll just have to be…me."

Tobias let out a high-pitched shriek and vanished, re-appearing almost instantly behind Khris and his father. "Prepare to lose your mind…" he growled.

Klump came running through another door, closely followed by Krusha. Tobias looked up at them, and his eyes narrowed. "Fine…you’ll all die together!"

Tobias received another punch to the stomach when Khris took the opportunity to turn around. Tobias counter-attacked by slashing his velociraptor blade across Khris’ arm. He then vanished…and reappeared beside Klump, slashing his long claws across the General’s back. He then began to flex his claws again, and Klump received a stabbing pain in his head…all down the front of his skull. "Oh God!" Klump screamed, bending forwards, "AARGH!!"

Krusha tried to grab Tobias, but the dark lizard vanished before Krusha even touched him. Klump fell forward on the floor, clutching his head and groaning.

Tobias appeared in the center of the room. He turned in a circle, looking at the lizards surrounding him, who looked either bewildered or frightened. "It’s over, my friends." Tobias cackled, raising his claws above his head, "No-one can ever beat me…I am the most powerful creature in the world!"

***

Amy ran out into the main hall. Just as she had expected, there was nobody there. Ziggy and the navigator were hopping along close behind. "Let us help ya, toots!" Ziggy shouted.

Amy didn’t stop. She had to reach K. Rool before something terrible happened, so she took the side door (ie/ the not-so-posh way up to K. Rool’s living area), although it meant climbing up lots of stairs. And when I say ‘lots’, I mean it. She couldn’t waste any time, and set about dashing up the stairs, two or three at a time. She wasn’t sure if she would make it – she could feel Tobias’ anger rising as she ran. It would be a matter of seconds before he finished off the king altogether.

***

"DIE!!" Tobias screamed, leaping towards Khris (who was still protecting his father), blade at the ready.

Amy stumbled into the room and fell forward, hurting herself slightly, but she didn’t, for once, pay much attention to her injury. "Tobias, stop!"

Tobias stopped in mid-air and swivelled himself around. He didn’t look amused. K. Rool still whimpered behind his son, petrified of what might happen.

Slowly, Tobias advanced towards his new ‘opponent’, and Amy took a few steps towards him. They met in the center of the room. "Who are you to interfere, my raven?"

"I can’t let you do this! Why do you want…what have they done?!"

"They have done much, raven. And those things…I hate them for."

"Such as?"

Tobias stopped and blinked at her, feeling quite intimidated. He couldn’t really think of any answer. "…Kevin was Crystal’s husband, and Khris was her son-"

"So?" she snapped, "What’s wrong with that?"

Tobias was sick of this. He didn’t appreciate her asking questions. He didn’t like this at all, and his anger was rising again. "I am going to kill the King and the Prince, raven, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"I’ll have a darn good try, Tobias!"

Tobias was infuriated.

Klump and Krusha couldn’t see what was happening all that well, but they both realised that something was very wrong when Amy let out a high-pitched scream.

"Oh God!" Khris shouted, not being able to hold it in.

K. Rool looked up briefly at what had happened, then lowered his head to face the floor again.

"This is what you get, raven…" There were some more ripping sounds, and Amy screamed some more. The screams sounded…rather…yucky.

"You p-p-promised that you n-never hurt m-me…" Amy gasped in her last few moments of life. Blood had gathered in her throat, so she sounded quite gurgly as she spoke.

"NO!!" Krusha yelled as Amy fell to the floor, a dead heap. There was a wide, gaping blade wound going from between her legs all the way up to her lower rib-cage. Some blood dripped out of her mouth, and a thick milky liquid poured out from her open stomach. Everyone was silent.

Tears seeping out of his eyes, Krusha clenched his fists and glared at Tobias like an enraged bull. "I’ll KILL YOU!! !" he shouted, running at the dark lizard, who easily stepped out of the way. Krusha couldn’t stop, and crashed into a wall. He then slid down onto the floor himself, gasping.

Tobias looked rather proud of himself, and the blade vanished from his grasp. He crossed his arms and scowled. "Oh, how PITIFUL. Useless lump of brain-mass…" He looked back over at the two Rools. He smiled and cracked his knuckles. "Now we can have a little fun…"

"Stay behind me, dad…" Khris whispered as Tobias approached with long, loping strides. But he didn’t walk over to them. He stopped next to Amy’s body, smiled down at it, and gave it a firm kick. "Stupid girl…"

"If you say ONE MORE THING…" Krusha gasped, trying to stand up, "I’ll…rip you apart…"

"Ooh, I’m so scared."

"You’d better be!" said another voice. This was followed by a short silence. Krusha looked around, still gasping. K. Rool looked up and pushed his son aside, suddenly looking determined about something.

"Oh…no…" Tobias hissed. He stepped away from Amy’s body…which slowly began to stand up again.

"Cool." Khris said, and his father growled slightly.

Amy stood up, and looked at Tobias through mysterious blue eyes. The long scar was gone, completely, her blood-stained ripped clothes were as good as new, and she was clenching her fists. She walked slowly up to Tobias until they almost touched. "You know how I don’t appreciate it when you insult my family, Toby."

K. Rool’s jaw was trembling, and Khris didn’t have a clue of what was going on. He didn’t know who was related to whom.

Krusha continued to gasp, and Klump stood, knees bent, panting. Krusha looked up. "A-Amy?" he gasped.

The female lizard turned around, suddenly. She squinted at Krusha and then turned to look at Klump. She then focused on King K. Rool. A smile spread across her face. "I shall defend our family’s honor. Nobody messes with a Rool and gets away with it."

She let out a high-pitched shriek, and Tobias was suddenly thrown across the room. He crashed into a wall, but soon regained his will to fight. "Alright, Crystal! You want it, you got it!" He had crashed not too far from Krusha, who quickly stood up again. Something told him that he had to get out for the way, and fast.

Tobias hovered slightly above the ground, clasped his claws together and released a beam of red light from his hands. It shot across the room towards ‘Amy’ like a laser, but by the time it hit where she was standing, she had reappeared over by Klump. Tobias cursed loudly. "Alright, I’m not going to be easy on you!"

"That’s just as well. I’m not going to give up until you leave my family for good! They have done nothing wrong!"

"That’s what YOU think! My only problem now is working out whether to kill your husband or son first."

"You will kill neither of them, Toby! I told you long ago that I wanted you to leave my family alone, and you foolishly ignored me. I never loved you, and you know it! I will not think twice about destroying you."

Tears were forming in K. Rool’s eyes as this peculiar conversation went on. Khris put his claw on his father’s shoulder. "Er, is that female my mom?"

"Sort of." was all K. Rool said. He seemed very distracted. He knew what was going on, and he was worried by now. Klump, still in pain, looked slowly up at the female standing next to him. She wasn’t looking at him – she had to keep all her attention on Tobias.

"Crystal?"

"But of course, sweetie." she replied, flashing a smile. She was using Amy’s body, but some things about her body had actually changed. Somehow, she looked more like Crystal now than she had done before. Maybe Klump was just imagining it.

"Harpy, get in here!" Tobias yelled, crouching down slightly, as though he was about to spring like a cat at any moment. The mainly-black bird appeared in the center of the room. He looked around and screeched loudly.

Amy/Crystal (let’s just call her ‘Crystal’ for now) smiled as Harpy appeared. "Oh, Toby, how sad. You’re having to rely on a bird to do your dirty work."

"I do my own dirty work, Crystal! I need no-one to do it for me! I think four kills in two days is quite impressive, don’t you?"

"Not really, Toby." Crystal said, yawning slightly, "Even with such magic as you have, you’ll never be brilliant at anything. You can’t even qualify as a ‘good’ murderer. Tut tut. You always were a slow learner."

"Let me teach YOU a lesson for a change, Crystal!" Tobias yelled. He screamed loudly, and there was a sudden bright flash of red light in the room.

"Now what?" Klump groaned. Everything seemed exceptionally strange. The room that they had all been in had vanished, and they seemed to be ‘standing’ in a red light. It was as though someone had scanned a photograph of them all, and edited out the background with a red light. All the living creatures were still just as they had been.

"Now you’re in for it, Crystal." Tobias sneered at her. But she remained calm despite the sudden change of surroundings. It was as though she already knew this place very well.

"Are you trying to scare me with a lot of nasty red lights? Oh, please. You can do better than this, Toby."

"Argh!" Tobias yelled, losing his temper again, "Get her, Harpy!"

The hawk looked at his master and cawed. "Me? Why don’t you-"

"Shut up you stupid bird!"

Crystal took a few steps closer to where the bird was hovering and crossed her arms. "Don’t worry, Harpy. You don’t have to fight me. You can fight Moonbeam instead. Fight darkness with light!"

Another bird appeared in the room. It was like no other kind of bird any of the others had ever seen (with the exception of Tobias, of course), as it had long tail feathers, which seemed to float behind it as though it was moving underwater. It was black, red and yellow, just like Harpy, but it was bigger and not as sinister-looking.

With a loud screech, Moonbeam flew at Harpy like a homing missile of some kind. It crashed into Tobias’ hawk, knocking Harpy back from the impact. Harpy squawked with shock, and quickly recovered to make a counter-attack. The two birds were having a little fight of their own, forgetting all about their masters and their other spectators.

As Crystal watched the two birds, acknowledging that her bird was winning, Tobias made a dash at her. K. Rool gasped with fright as Tobias leapt on top of Crystal. He knocked her back a little way, and then pinned her down underneath him. "Forget those birds! It’s you I need to get. And if I can’t do that, I can interrupt my fighting briefly and give your husband a heart-attack just by staring at him in the right way!"

"Ah yes, Toby, I see what you’re doing. You’re using your physical strength, what there is of it, to try to win over me, is that right? Didn’t the magic book tell you that you cannot rely on your physical strength?"

"Forget that stupid Black Magic book! I ended up hating what the magic did to me, I even killed the old lizard who gave the damn book to me, and I don’t want to be reminded of what the stupid book was supposed to ‘teach’ me!"

"No wonder you’re so weak, Toby."

Tobias growled and placed one of his feet onto her stomach. "You’re in no position to insult me, Crystal. I do believe that I have the upper claw here."

"Not quite…" As she said that, she disappeared, and then reappeared next to her husband. Tobias screamed with fury. He kept forgetting that she could do things like that.

"Oh Toby, you must remember that my powers are greater than yours. Did you just forget that I can teleport myself?"

"No I didn’t! Get back over here so that I can kill you!"

"Do you think I’d be stupid enough to listen to you, Toby? Ha. I think not. Why don’t you just buzz off and leave us alone?"

"Crystal! I won’t give up that easily!"

Crystal just shot Tobias a doubting don’t-be-so-stupid grin. She slowly snaked her arms around K. Rool’s neck and kissed him gently on the cheek. "We’ll show him, Kay." This made K. Rool feel slightly strange. After all, even though it was his wife kissing him, she was doing it by using Amy’s body to do so.

Tobias seemed to curl up like a slug that had just been covered in salt as Crystal kissed her husband. It made his stomach twist up. "I won’t have to put up with that for much longer. After all, you won’t want to lay kisses on your husband if he’s a corpse!" He crouched down onto all fours and snarled at Crystal, his eye pupils narrowing into slits as he did so.

Looking over at Tobias with not a hint of fear, Crystal moved closer to her husband and licked the side of his mouth. "My husband will not be a corpse, you moron." she said.

"That’s what YOU think!" Tobias responded, his voice deeper and coarser. His stripes and yellow stomach were slowly darkening to become black also, and his back was beginning to sprout fur. His hands seemed to be changing shape, and they were. They became paws, and his feet soon followed with changing their shape also. At various points on his body, Tobias was growing a glossy coat of fur. Black fur.

Crystal released her grip around her husband’s neck and huffed. "Oh really, Toby. You’ll never get this magic right."

"Watch me." growled Tobias, as his eyes separated and became feline, although they still kept their gorgeous blue colour. The spikes on his head seemed to shrink into nothing as two pointed ears erected themselves on the sides of his head. His face changed shape and he grew whiskers above his lips.

Where Tobias had once been, there now stood a large black panther. He snarled and slashed one of his paws through the air, showing off his long black claws. "See if you can beat me now!" he said, roaring as though he was the most important creature on earth. Of course, this was what he believed.

Krusha hadn’t been able to move. After all, he had just seen ‘Amy’ kissing King K. Rool, and now Tobias had turned into a panther. The large blue lizard glanced nervously across at Klump, who returned the glance with equal fear.

Crystal got down on all fours herself, and began to transform as well. Her transformation took less time than Tobias’ did. It was obvious that she was more experienced. Small black spots appeared all over her body, and she too began to sprout fur on various areas of her body.

In only a few seconds, she had transformed into a sleek-bodied cheetah. She lowered her beautiful head and bared her small fangs at him. They were only ‘small’ fangs when compared with Tobias’ fangs. The panther he had turned into was a very stocky animal with over-sized teeth.

Roaring, Tobias pounced towards Crystal, who dashed nimbly to the side just as he was about to reach her. Instead he crashed into K. Rool, who squealed with shock and ran behind his son again. But Tobias had decided that he wanted Crystal first.

Crystal let out a ‘clicking’ sound from her throat. It was almost a click and a meow combined. Tobias whirled around and made another pounce at her, but once again he was too slow.

"That’s another of your faults, Toby." Crystal said, dodging him again, "You chose to be a panther. And just look at you. A stocky panther with over-large fangs and a good deal of physical strength. You know that physical strength isn’t the kind of strength the magic teaches you to learn to use."

"To Hell with that magic!" Tobias roared, making another attempt to get her, but missing once again.

"But look at me. I have little physical strength, but I have speed and intelligence, Toby. Remember that." She dashed towards him, slashed her claws across the side of his face and then dashed back over to where Krusha was standing before Tobias realised where she was. Deeply angered, the panther tilted his head backwards and roared with frustration.

"Enough of this nonsense!" he roared, and began to change back into his old self again. Upon noticing this, Crystal did the same. She was back in her old form long before Tobias was. She wanted to make sure that he had noticed how much faster she was than he was. And he did, but he didn’t like it.

Angry, he drew the velociraptor blade again and held it firmly in his right hand. His claws tensed on the weapon as he walked towards Crystal as calmly as he could manage. "Fine. Maybe I’ll just slice you in two."

"No!" K. Rool shouted, but Khris grabbed him before he could step out into the middle of the battle. K. Rool hated it whenever his wife was insulted or threatened, even though she wasn’t alive any more. He bared his teeth as Tobias stepped closer to Crystal. The dark lizard was moving slowly so as not to alarm Crystal into running away. Not that she was going to. She was quite determined not to act frightened. She wasn’t frightened. She had proven her powers to be superior to those of Tobias many times, and she wasn’t going to back down.

At the very last minute, she revealed her own blade from behind her back, and made a swipe at Tobias. It struck him and left a long open wound spreading across his chest, but it didn’t go in too deep. Crystal didn’t want to kill him. She wanted to warn him.

Tobias looked down at his chest and gasped. Not only had she been able to hurt him in some way, but it was also supposed to be a threat. Tobias hated being threatened.

Krusha looked at Tobias, and then took a few steps further away from him. Klump looked at Tobias to see what Krusha had noticed about him, and realised instantly. There was no blood dripping out of the wound – just a black liquid that was too gooey to be ‘blood’. Tobias looked at Klump and Krusha as they stared back at him in fear. "Oh, yeah. Just ignore that. It’s just another of the disadvantages of- hang on, why am I telling you?"

He turned back to face Crystal to take revenge, but, once again, she wasn’t there. Tobias seemed to fall forward with exhaustion. "How do you keep up with her?" he asked K. Rool, or what he could see of him. The king was still cowering behind his son. He was very frightened by now, mainly of what Tobias could do to Crystal.

The two birds were still fighting, regardless of what else was happening around them. Harpy was clearly losing, as he had been since pretty much the beginning of the fight. He cawed in shock as Crystal’s bird Moonbeam flew at him again, knocking him sideways in the air. Harpy let out another screech, and then fell down to the ground, landing a few inches from Tobias’ clawed feet. Tobias reached down to Harpy and picked him up. The black hawk made a few feeble squawks and looked up at his master. "You will lose, Tobias…quit while you’re ahead…."

"Never!" he replied, and Harpy vanished into nothing. Tobias was going to have to deal with him later.

"You know, Toby, even a bird-brain like Harpy has more sense than you. Why don’t you surrender now? I promise-"

"Where the Heck ARE you, Crystal?" Tobias shouted, turning in a circle. She was standing directly behind him, arms by her sides, velociraptor blade nowhere to be seen. She was trying to show him that she wasn’t going to hurt him. Just because she was being more friendly hardly meant anything to Tobias, as he proved by leaping towards her again, getting his blade ready to cut through her neck.

But she was too fast for him. Before Tobias knew what was happening, his blade was gone from his hand, he was on his back and Crystal was standing over him. She placed one of her feet on his stomach and put her hands on her hips. "I warned you, Toby."

"Fine! KILL me! I don’t give a-"

"I will not kill you, Toby. I’m not like you. I don’t like killing, and you know it."

"I was hoping you had changed, Crystal."

"Well, guess what, Toby? You’re wrong again."

Tobias tried to push her off, but she was somehow using a good deal of physical strength to hold him down – more than the strength he was using to try to push her off. He bared his teeth again and looked at Crystal. She was bending down towards him so that their faces were almost touching. He snapped his jaws shut in her face to try to get her to move away, but she didn’t. She leaned even further forward until their snouts were touching. Tobias tried again to push her off, but to no avail.

"You know…I might just kill you, Toby. I mean, after all you’ve done to everyone, including this girl whose body I am currently in. I have every right to bite your head off."

"Give it a try, Crystal! I dare you!"

"I’m too old for silly kid games, Toby. I have you under control now, and I am going to ask- TELL you something."

Tobias scrunched up his nose, as though he was disgusted with something. He was. He was disgusted that Crystal would even think of telling him to do something.

"I want you to go away, Toby. I want you far away from my family, unless you come in complete peace, which I very much doubt. I want you to leave my family and their friends alone, I want no harm to come to them from you ever again. If you dare go against what I’m telling you, I will put you through Hell…do you understand, Toby?"

"I do not fear Hell, Crystal!"

"Well, you fear ME, don’t you?"

Tobias closed his eyes in shame. He sighed and nodded gently. Crystal grinned at him.

"Finally, you’re willingly admitting it. Now, I’m going to send you away, and I don’t want you to ever see my family again! Unless of course, you mean well. But since I seriously doubt that, I want you to go away and never come back. I’m basically banishing you, Toby. Now go."

Tobias growled. He wouldn’t let himself be thought of as a coward like this. He summoned all his strength into his upper body and pushed Crystal off. She staggered backwards a few steps, and Tobias leapt towards her. He grabbed her and wrapped his arm around her neck, just as he had done with Steve, and took a firm grip on one of her shoulders with his other claw. Crystal sighed. "Goodbye, Toby."

As she said that, Tobias vanished. He didn’t vanish in a cloud of smoke or anything dramatic like that. He was just there one minute, and gone the next.

Crystal smiled and put her hands on her hips again, turning to face her son and husband. "As I said before, nobody messes with a Rool and gets away with it."

K. Rool stopped cowering and literally pushed his son out of the way. "That was…amazing."

"Wasn’t it, Kay? But then again, I’ve always been amazing. Isn’t that so?"

"Of course it is…everything happened so fast…where has Toby- er, Tobias gone?"

"He’s still on the island, Kay. Hopefully, he’ll stay well away from you thanks to my warning. He always was a big baby."

She skipped over to her husband and grabbed onto his shoulders. "I must leave you now, Kay. Take care of our son, and of course, of anyone in need of your help. So long as they’re not friends with Donkey Kong. I’ve seen so much suffering from…well…where I’ve been watching you, and that ape doesn’t deserve help. But anyway, I do not want to leave on a cloud of negative karma. Goodbye, Kay." She pulled him down towards her and gave him a huge kiss on the lips. K. Rool smiled and put his arms around her to help the kiss last longer. Khris kept glancing over at them, not sure of whether to watch or not. Klump and Krusha looked at one another. Krusha smiled and ran towards the General, picking him up off the floor with a big victory hug.

"YAAY!!"

"*cough* Thankyou, Krusha. But…you can let go now."

As Amy ‘woke up’, what she could see in front of her slowly began to focus. King K. Rool had his arms around her, kissing her. She tried to calm down, but she couldn’t. This was a real shock. She pushed K. Rool away and looked around. Khris was sniggering at her. The expression on her face was rather interesting. K. Rool looked slightly embarrassed. "Oh, do excuse me, Miss Croc. I…I…"

"Whatever…" she groaned, wiping her mouth to remove the taste of Rool. She could taste her King’s breath and saliva all over her tongue, and she coughed. "I need to…lie down…"

Krusha didn’t care that she had just been in a lip-lock with King K. Rool. What mattered was that she was alive, and he ran over to her. He felt like giving hugs at the moment. He was just so happy. He lifted her off the ground and hugged her to his chest. She was quite confused at the moment. She actually remembered being…dead. And then her king was kissing her, and now Krusha was hugging her. Maybe it would all make sense in the morning.

***

Out in a deep, dark place in the jungle, Harpy was waiting as his master appeared at the foot of a large tree. The hawk looked down at Tobias. The lizard was trembling as he stood up, and he clutched onto the bark of the tree to help him to stand. He was having another bad headache-stomach ache-vomit session, and this time it was really bad. He clutched his throat with both claws, leaning his back up against the tree. "Oh GOD!! Help…me…Harpy…" he begged, looking up at his feathered companion, "Please…I’m…going to die…I can feel it…"

Harpy looked down curiously and cawed. "You don’t need me, Tobias. I don’t think all the magic in the world could help you now."

Harpy spread his wings and flew away through the jungle as fast as he could so as to be as far away from him ex-master in as short a time as possible.

As he flew away, he couldn’t help but turn back to see what Tobias was doing. He saw the dark lizard slumped with his back against the tree, head hung forward, tail limp. Curiously, the hawk hovered overhead for a few moments, but there was no indication of movement in Tobias’ dark body.

At last, the hawk turned and flew away for good, leaving behind his master. His sad, lonely, decaying master with no soul.

THE END
1

* This is Part 1 of the story that follows on from ‘Tobias’. This first part is just to give you some idea of what is going on, but I still have my duty to remind you that this story is not suitable for younger fans (if indeed I have that many fans) due to content that will mainly be emerging in some of the later parts. Therefore, be sure not to read this fanfic unless you are certain that you can cope with it. Thanks. – Amy ‘Klumpy’ Johnson

Tobias II

By Klumpy

Once, I can't remember,

I was long ago, someone strange.

I was innocent and wise,

And full of pain.

Now that I'm a woman,

Everything is strange.

Once, when I was searching

Somewhere out of reach, far away.

In a place I could not find…

A loud knocking on the bathroom door caused Amy to stop singing instantly. She reached for a towel to dry her face, seriously ticked off. "Who is it?" she called, spitting some warm water out of her mouth.

"Do ya have to sing every dang time ya go in the dang shower?!" Klump yelled from the other side of the door, "I’m tryin’ to concentrate out here! And when can I come in there?" The General crossed his arms impatiently and growled so that she could tell how angry he was. He thought the ‘crossing his arms’ bit added effect, despite the fact that she couldn’t exactly see through the door. It was quite rare for Klump to be in such a sore mood. Believe it or not, it was quite rare.

"Not while I’m in here, you can’t." Amy yelled back. She’d only just got into the shower and already she had been interrupted.

"I’ll bust the door down!"

"Don’t you dare!" She quickly held the towel in front of her, just in case he was foolish enough to do so.

"Hurry up then!"

Amy growled to herself as she shut off the water and continued to dry herself off. The towel wasn’t doing a very good job of drying her scales, as it too had got wet when she had held it in front of her. And Klump’s little ‘threat’ hadn’t made her day any brighter. Why were some males so impatient? Hmph. Oh well. This was one of the disadvantages of sharing a bathroom with two guys. They were always fussing about her spending too much time in the shower, especially Klump. He had a tendency to act as though the world was going to blow up unless she left the bathroom immediately.

"You an’ your stupid girly habits!" Klump shouted, "I need a shower and I need one now-" As he said that, the door was opened in his face. He was greeted by Amy wearing a somewhat dry towel and still looking rather wet. She pushed past him towards her room, dripping water all over the dry carpet of the corridor.

"It’s all yours, sir."

"Thankyou, Miss." he replied, removing his belt. He walked forward into the bathroom while still removing his ‘uniform’. Belt, boots and helmet. Well, it was more than some other lizards liked to wear.

"Don’t take too long, now!" Amy shouted at him suddenly, causing the General to turn around, "You with your…male habits!"

"Better than girly habits!" he shouted back, hopping into the bathroom on one leg while removing one of his boots. He proceeded to fall forward, making a darn big fuss, ending up flat on his stomach. His stomach wasn’t exactly ‘flat’, however, and he found that he had a little trouble getting back up again, like a turtle that had been flipped over onto its shell. He growled loudly in frustration and squirmed around, trying to stand up again. It really was quite ridiculous to watch, as well as amusing.

Amy giggled slightly, but she was still angry with him for driving her out in the middle of her warm shower. It was actually only the beginning of her shower. "Ooh…don’t be such…a...thingy…." she growled, marching into her room and slamming the door. She liked leaving Klump to figure out what she meant by ‘thingy’. She had numerous definitions for that word.

She smiled as she entered her cosy little room. She loved this room…it was nice and small…just the right size for her. Everything in her room was the right size, too. Nothing was too big for her or anything. She was generally quite a small kremling. But not THE smallest. By saying ‘small’, she mainly applied to the ‘small and dainty’ saying.

She dashed forward and pounced onto her little bed. She rolled over and over, grabbing onto the bedsheets and wrapping them around her as she did so, like a cat with a scent of catnip. The sheets got entangled around her, and she sat up with the thin white sheets wrapped around her like a cloak.

She loved her bed. She loved her room. And she loved the Pokémon League.

She leapt off the bed with the sheets still around her and switched on her little TV. "Oooooh…this’ll be good! It’s a shame I missed a lot of battles."

"Are youse talkin’ to me, toots?"

"Of course, Ziggy. There’s no-one else here. Come up here with me and we can watch the League together." she said, getting comfortable on her bed again, untangling herself from the sheets, and making sure that she was facing the screen. She loved doing things like this with Ziggy and making him feel as though he wasn’t useless, but it was this friendly attitude that he was dreading at the moment. He felt so guilty whenever she was nice to him. Sighing, he hopped over to where her clawed feet were hanging over the edge of the bed.

"Toots…can you give me a hand?" he asked, hopping on the spot.

"Oh, I forgot." she smiled, and she picked the head up. Ziggy made himself comfortable in her lap and they both prepared to watch some Pokémon matches.

A middle-aged male human appeared on the screen holding a microphone. He had short dark hair and a black moustache, which made him look as though there was a fuzzy black caterpillar living under his nose.

Amy had never understood what was so appealing about body hair. The only kind of moustache she could cope with was the kind that Bluster Kong had. She quite liked Bluster, but she was never really willing to admit it to anyone. After all, he was a Kong.

The human removed a gray hat from his head and used it to cool himself off by fanning it in his face. "Now, wasn’t that a terrific battle, folks? I’ve never seen anything like it!" He seemed to be gasping as he spoke. It wasn’t as if he was the one who had been battling, but it seemed so from the way he sounded exhausted.

"Oh darn…" Amy growled, "A great battle…and we missed it…I wish I’d finished my shower sooner. But then again, I had only just turned the water on when Klump interrupted my singing…"

Ziggy sighed. He hadn’t been himself recently. Amy had ruled out the possibility of him feeling unwell, simply because of him being dead. He seemed distant and distracted, as though he wanted to say something but didn’t really know if he wanted to or not. "I wonder what kinda trainer could’ve put up such a great battle…" he said, once again sounding as though he wasn’t all there. I mean, he WASN’T all there (he was just a head), but he seemed to always be thinking about something else.

"And wow, this is the fifth win for this astounding trainer. And would you believe it, folks? He won all five matches using only one Pokémon! Let’s go meet him, shall we?" said the announcer. He had obviously had at least one too many cups of coffee this morning. It was a slight change of state from his ‘exhaustion’ earlier on. In fact, only seconds before.

"I wonder what species this great trainer is. I mean, if he’s a kremling, King K. Rool might want to know." Amy said, waiting anxiously for the trainer’s identity to be revealed. She would never have entered the League herself. Not because she had hopeless Pokémon (this was very untrue), but because she didn’t like seeing her Pokémon get injured. She preferred to keep them as pets. When it came to the League, she was a spectator.

The announcer staggered sideways, looking in wonder at a certain someone who was not in the picture as of yet. Reaching into his pocket, the human revealed a pair of thick glasses, and he perched them on his nose. He began to speak to this mystery trainer.

As all this was happening, Amy was beginning to tear at her bedsheets. "Come on! I wanna see!" she squealed excitedly, like a young child at the zoo, "Move the camera! Move it move it move it!!"

"Calm down, toots…" Ziggy said, being very uncomfortable on her lap. She was bouncing up and down on the end of the bed in her suspense, and the head was being knocked around a bit.

As the picture of this wonderful trainer focused on the screen, Amy thought she noticed something familiar. That figure…it was so familiar to her. And yes, he was a lizard. He had a snout and a tail that were very distinctive, and she could make out a faint outline of this guy’s chest-plates and stomach, both a very pale color, perhaps yellow. Yes, they were yellow. Long arms and legs, equipped with long fingers, and they slowly focused to show long black claws and yellow spikes on his head…they all fitted together, finally, into a clear picture, both on the TV screen and in Amy’s memory.

Stammering, she held a hand to her neck, gently digging her claws into her skin without really realising it. She though she was going to faint. "Oh…m-my…G-G-G-"

"Whoa! Dat’s dat creepy guy from before, ain’t it?" Ziggy said, apparently unafraid, only surprised.

Amy didn’t reply. The only sound she made was her fast breathing, and it was getting faster and faster by the second. She felt sick, and as though her head was filling up with porridge (that’s what it felt like), clogging her brain up and making her feel numb and dizzy. She couldn’t speak, although she was struggling to speak…but couldn’t. Suddenly, she found she was able to scream. So she did - she screamed, the shrill sound bursting out of her throat, and ran from the room, darting through the door like a fox on the run from a pack of hounds. It really was as though she was. At the end of it all, she knew that she might be ripped to shreds and/or eaten by the ‘pack of hounds’.

Ziggy watched her go and sighed. There was really something on his mind. But should he mention it yet? It had to be done sooner or later and perhaps sooner would be better. He knew that she would be shattered when he told her, but all the other lizards would probably find the news most wonderful. Amy was sure to end up crying on her own, as she had done many times in her past. Most times, she had Krusha to sob with her, but not this time. Ziggy just needed an excuse to mention it…

Amy returned a few moments later, a look of shock and somewhat horror on her face, dragging Krusha along behind her. He looked bewildered. "Duh, what?" he asked, looking around the room for any sign of a problem.

"Look, screen, now!" she stammered, covering her eyes with her arm and pointing a trembling claw at the TV. She had, it seemed, adopted Tarzan’s way of speaking briefly. It was only because she was frightened, but Krusha didn’t know what was going on to make her sound so strange. At least those three words made some sense to him.

Krusha looked at her, then at Ziggy, and then at the screen. All he could see on the screen was a Pokémon. A Pokémon that he didn’t really recognise. He scratched his head. Amy sometimes had a tendency to act a little strangely, so maybe this was another one of her little ‘strange’ times. Why would she possibly be so worried about a Pokémon?

"A Pokémon?" he asked, "Duh…what’s so important about that?"

Amy moved her arm away from her face and looked at the screen. "But…he was on there…"she said to herself, almost, moving closer to the screen.

"Duh, was the Pokémon scaring you?" he asked, trying not to say anything wrong while at the same time wondering what on earth had made her so nervous. He was about to find out.

The announcer’s voice came back again. "And here’s the amazing Pokémon that our amazing trainer used to win all of his battles. ‘Solstice’ the Kabutops! We don’t know where he got this amazing Pokémon from, folks, but it’s one Hell of a fighter!"

Amy blinked and her heart missed a beat. A lump formed in her throat. "That’s my Pokémon!" she yelled, moving even closer to the screen so that her snout almost touched it, "Solstice…I knew someone stole him!"

"B-but…who stoled him? Stole…stoled…whatever? I haven’t seen any trainer yet."

"Tell us about your amazing Kabutops, Tobias!" said the announcer, and the camera moved to show a clear picture of the amazing trainer. Krusha jumped for a moment at the sight of this lizard, but soon calmed down. Amy had no idea how he did it, but he didn’t really seem to be affected any more.

"Duh…I’m…dreaming. This is just a nightmare…" he muttered, walking backwards to the door. Amy looked at him, her eyes watery and frightened. He was only just able to hide his fear by now, and so she could tell that he was merely trying to comfort himself. This guy had appeared all of a sudden, bringing nasty memories flooding back to both Krusha and Amy. Memories about what Tobias had done to them and others at the factory. Memories they had tried so hard to kill.

Amy gritted her teeth together, trying to keep as calm as she could for both their sakes. "No…this is real. Regretfully, this is very, very real." She wiped her eyes and gasped. What was Tobias trying to do? He couldn’t have just turned over a new leaf so quickly. It wasn’t possible. He must have entered the League with a pretty good reason.

On the screen, sporting a triumphant grin and waving to the crowd, stood the same dark lizard that they had seen a while ago. He looked exactly the same, if not healthier. His eyes were just as bright, but there was no sign of a black hawk anywhere near him. That felt slightly unusual. But he seemed happy enough as he bowed to his fans, relishing in the attention and praise they were showering him with. He grabbed onto his yin-yang pendant and tugged gently on it, looking down at his feet, as though he had had enough of the attention and just wanted to shut it out all of a sudden. Either that, or his feet were fascinating him. His scales shone in the warm sunlight, and he looked really…well, the only word I could use would be ‘healthy’. He seemed to have had some major changes done to his body, although he didn’t look any different. It was a feeling hard to explain.

The camera zoomed in on his face, and he looked up, smiling. He looked very handsome and young, even more so than when Amy had last seen him. She had dreamt about him several times, but he had always seemed older than this. Of course, he was really the same age since he never grew older, but it was as though…his skin seemed to be clinging tighter to his body. He looked less weathered and eroded, really, as though he had been renewed. Crossing his arms, Tobias looked right in the camera again, and it was as though he was staring directly at Amy. That was what it looked like to her. She found that a headache had formed in her skull. He definitely knew that she was watching.

"Oh God…Krusha this is reality. He wants to come back…that’s definitely him on there, and you are definitely awake."

"What?!" Krusha yelled, rushing back over to the screen for a better view, "How did he…what is he…when did he…"

"I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know…" Amy said, standing up properly and pacing back and forth in worry. How in Heck did Tobias ever have time to get into the League? He couldn’t possibly have won at least eight badges since they last saw him…

"That was an amazing victory! Don’t you have anything to say, Tobias?" Tobias held up a claw to shut the announcer up. It was quite a relief to have the sound of his voice cut off. As he did this, everyone in the audience fell silent also. The dark lizard smiled as they did this. He liked being respected. "All this praise is very kind of you all…but I regret to inform you that I am going to be…dropping out of the League."

It was as though some kind of bomb had hit the stadium. The best competitor ever, and he was dropping out…it didn’t make any sense. None of this made sense to anyone.

"What?!" Amy and Krusha yelled in unison.

"What?!" gasped the announcer.

"What?!" shouted the audience in shock.

Tobias had clearly been expecting that kind of reaction, and he grinned again. He held up a Poké Ball and Solstice, who was staring up at him also in disbelief, was engulfed into it in a beam of red light. Tobias then looked down at the announcer, who was bent forward on his knees at Tobias’ feet.

"Y-you can’t be serious! I mean…that Pokémon of yours is incredible…and I…I…are you CRAZY?!"

"No, I’m not. I’m going to return home to be with…my friends."

"But-but-but-" the announcer stammered, not knowing what to say. He wanted to fly into a rage, telling Tobias that he couldn’t just abandon the League like this, but he didn’t dare. He decided to keep his mouth shut about that, and so just continued to stammer.

Tobias held up a claw to address the crowds of humans/kremlings/apes/etc surrounding him, waiting for him to give a decent reason to drop out of the League. "It was an honor performing for you all, but it’s my time to go. I am going to return home now, and let someone else take the spotlight. Farewell."

"But-"

The announcer didn’t get a chance to say what he was about to say – Tobias was nowhere to be seen. The human slowly stood back up again and looked around, his glasses slipping down his nose. "Sir? SIR??"

Krusha felt so surprised, frightened and confused at the same time that he fell down onto the floor in a sitting position. Amy sat down next to him, and hugged onto his arm. He felt deeply stressed, as she did. He held his head and whined. "His…friends? I…I…you’re not safe…he might come back here."

"I know. He will be coming back. But don’t worry about me-"

"I’ve gotta worry…" he sniffed, looking at her, doing his best to manage a smile, "I…I love you."

"I know." she sighed, hugging his arm tighter. She really enjoyed being reminded of that fact. It gave her confidence, among other things, and despite that Krusha would never be able to protect her from Tobias, he seemed willing to try. "I can protect myself from him. He won’t be able to hurt me. If anything, I’ll need to protect you."

"B-but the last time he was here…" Krusha said, starting to sob slightly, "H-he…and you…and you attacked me and I broke your arm and…I don’t want that to happen again."

"It won’t, Krusha. I’ve got a ghost on my side, haven’t I? Well…according to Klump I have. I’m not sure what he means by it, though…but anyway, Tobias won’t be able to lay a claw on me. I’ll know him when I see him, anyway, even if he comes disguised as a gust of wind or something. I can always feel him…I know where he is…" As she said those words, she found that she had to stop talking. Suddenly, she sensed him close. Or at least closer. She suddenly felt him on the island, and he was coming to the factory. But she didn’t feel him the same way she had felt him before. He didn’t seem as angry…but it was probably only her mind playing with her feelings. Even though that sounds strange, it was the only way she could analyse it. It would only be a matter of time before she met up with Tobias again, and she dreaded it.

***

Despite her terrible feelings, Amy tried to remain calm and quiet for Krusha’s sake. He seemed upset enough already, so he would end up even worse if she began to pour her feelings out to him.

Just the thought of Tobias…his coldness, how bony he was, how dark and evil. How he had a tendency to groan for no reason, and the exact sound of his voice was echoing in her head. Everything he had said to her was being replayed to her, and it made her dread him further. But she knew that she would be able to drive him away if he even thought about coming back. Of course, he had already thought long and hard about it, and he was going to come back. Amy was frightened of what he might do to her friends. Krusha, Klump, King K. Rool…she was even fearing for her sister’s safety for some reason, even though Tobias had never met her. Nobody was safe from what Tobias might possibly do, and all these thoughts were racing through Amy’s mind as she stared into her cup of coffee, her eyes not seeing the black liquid before her. All she saw was Tobias. Tobias here, Tobias there. Tobias was coming to the factory.

Klump didn’t seem to be too troubled by the thought of Tobias’ return. He hardly seemed to have been affected at all. He just sat at the table, reading through the daily newspaper, commenting upon the contents. Krusha was listening intently to everything that Klump was saying, nodding his head at regular intervals to create the illusion that he actually understood everything that his friend was saying.

"Ooh…I love the advertisements. House cleaners, Italian restaurant…er…pay no attention to that one there…" Klump muttered as he skimmed over the page. Sometimes, Krusha wasn’t sure if the General was talking to himself or to him. From the way he was holding the newspaper, Krusha couldn’t read it anyway.

Amy kept glaring at her coffee as though it was the most interesting thing on earth. Her head was hurting, and that was a sure sign that Tobias was somewhere close. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t realise that her snout was in contact with her coffee until she felt a painful scald.

"OW!!" she screamed, throwing her coffee away from her and into Klump’s face. He had looked up from his newspaper when he heard her scream, and now there was scalding coffee dripping off his face and the newspaper.

"If you don’t get my own dang coffee splashed all over me, ya just use your own!" he yelled, standing up slowly, wiping coffee off himself as he did so, "What’s the matter with you?"

"N-nothing…" she whispered, looking down at her claws that were resting in her lap, palms upturned. She closed her claws until they made two neat little fists and then unclenched them again, feeling her eyes beginning to water. "I want my mum…" she sniffed, closing her eyes tightly.

Klump raised an eyebrow and walked over to her, placing a claw on her shoulder. "Are you Okay?"

"Does it look as though I’m Okay?!" she yelled, standing up, "Leave me alone! I don’t want everyone feeling sorry for me!"

Klump stepped back, slightly afraid. There was definitely something wrong with her. Usually when she acted strangely, something bad was about to happen. Krusha stood up from his chair and leaned both arms on the table. He was less shocked than Klump was, but still slightly surprised.

Amy wiped her eyes and proceeded to sob into her arm, soaking her scales with her salty tears. Now there was a throbbing in her throat, and the pain in her head was increasing in severity. Growling with the pain, she slowly edged towards the door.

"What is it?" Klump asked softly, not moving from his position for fear of being slapped or otherwise abused, "Is it…girl troubles or somethin’? Katy told me all about those-"

"You’re not safe…Tobias is coming back. He’s going to…to…he’s…going to kill…an ape…" As Amy said those words, she slowed down her speaking pace. The words were just creeping out of her mouth, as they had a few times before, because all she was doing was reciting part of the future. Of what was going to happen. She wasn’t even thinking as she said this. She exhaled deeply and held a claw to her head. Whatever had been in her head was gone, and she felt tired. "I’m going to go to…sleep…" she whispered, staggering backwards out of the door. Due to her lack of co-ordination, she ended up sitting on her tail-end on the floor. She instantly slumped back into a laying down position, knees bent slightly, one claw resting gently on her chest. The muscles in her chest suddenly felt raw and painful, like a heart attack of some kind. It was as though her heart was struggling to beat. She felt so weak and helpless, and she couldn’t…think…

As her sight began to fade, she realised that there was a clawed foot only inches from her face. The scales were of a very deep green color, and she assumed that it belonged to a kritter, which it did. The fairly small green lizard held a claw down to her. She had absolutely no energy to even look up at him.

"Need some help, Miss?" he asked in a rather coarse voice, extending his claw down to her. Gasping, she closed her eyes, too tired to do anything. She could barely reply to her new ‘friend’ who was trying to help.

"Get…Krusha…" she gasped. Even her teeth were hurting by now, as were her claws, and even the ring on her right index finger felt sore and irritated. She noticed that the clawed foot had moved.

"Right-ho, ma’am. Don’t go anywhere, Okay?"

As if she’d be going ANYWHERE in this condition.

The kritter darted off into the kitchen, knowing that Krusha had last been seen in there with the General. Of course, Krusha was still there, and pretty soon he was leaning over her, looking ever so concerned. The kritter had joined him, and even Klump was there looking down at her. She actually didn’t realise that all three of them were there. Her head was facing sideways, and it felt so heavy that she couldn’t turn it to look up at her little audience.

All she could see was what was directly in front of her face. She had a nice little view of the kritter’s foot again.

One of them spoke, and another replied, but Amy couldn’t hear them. All she heard was a deep humming. Some kind of droning was all she could hear, but no words made any sense to her.

"Has she eaten anything funny, Sir?" the kritter asked, frantically, desperate to help.

Klump crossed his arms and growled. "Well, she ain’t eaten anything today. I don’t think…"

"Duh, I don’t think she has." Krusha said, looking down at Amy again.

"Why on earth is she having…well, what looks like a little fit? Has she got some kind of problem or something?" the kritter asked, trying to get as much information out of Krusha and Klump as he could, "I want to help you. And her, of course."

"I don’t know…" Krusha sniffed. He bent down and picked Amy up gently, holding her to his chest. Her eyes were closed and her body felt tense and stiff. But she wasn’t dead. Despite that it was very hard to tell, she was breathing still. She sounded as though she had a lung infection or something, as she seemed to be struggling to breathe and each breath was weak and not enough for her body.

"She’s usually rather sane." Klump said, "Except when she…oh well. She is a little bit strange, but we love her for it, don’t we Krusha?"

Krusha only whined in reply. "We need a doctor…" he said, looking at Klump and the kritter in turn, pleading them to do something.

"Let’s just get her to bed, Krusha." Klump said, looking at the frail female lizard that his large friend was holding to his chest, "I mean, she sometimes acts a little bit weird, but she’s fine once she’s rested up a bit. It’d be more logical than callin’ a doctor-"

"DOCTOR!!" Krusha yelled, "She could die!"

"I doubt it, Krusha. She’s never died befo- oh yeah, she has. About…twice, I think. She’s got a tendency to die-"

"Get a doctor then!" Krusha shouted, "Please!"

The kritter nodded dutifully. "Right away, Sir. In the meantime, I suggest you take young madam to her room. And…keep an eye on her."

"Since when are you an expert on her?" Klump said, wondering how the kritter seemed to know so much.

The kritter scowled at that comment, but didn’t reply to the General. He turned around and set off to find the nearest phone. Krusha looked devastated as he rubbed his snout against Amy gently, trying to keep her awake. "Are you Okay? Amy?" he whispered, still rubbing his snout against her. She groaned gently, but that was all. That pathetic sound was music to Krusha’s ears, and he seemed to light up all of a sudden. "Okay…I’m gonna take you to your room, Okay? Then we’ll get a nice doctor, and he can make you better…" He touched her with his snout again and continued talking softly to her as he walked to the elevator that would take them down to the lower factory area where they lived. It was a good enough home for them, and the three resident lizards were quite comfortable living there. Tobias had been their temporary fourth resident lizard, and he would soon take over his little room again. But not yet. Right now, let’s concentrate on what the others are doing.

Klump sighed deeply as he watched Krusha walk to the elevator, holding Amy in his arms. The General began to follow after his friend, prepared to offer any kind of help that he could.

There was clearly something affecting Amy very strongly, stronger than anything that had ever just affected her out of the blue. She was in deep physical and psychological pain, and it was causing her agony. She felt as though the whole of Hell had descended upon her.

And there was more to come. Her pain would not go away, and Tobias would be coming to the factory much sooner than anyone would have hoped. But worse still for Amy at the moment was the devastating news that Ziggy had yet to break to her…

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias II : Part 2

By Klumpy

The door slowly opened, and Katy emerged carrying her ‘famous’ blue clipboard. She was scribbling onto it with an old, badly chewed pencil. She was too busy writing to notice that Klump and Krusha were right in front of her, looking very concerned. She tutted gently and looked up to face Klump. The General looked very nervous. "Is she Okay?"

Krusha looked down at Katy, even more concerned than Klump was. He was hoping that Katy wasn’t holding some bad news from them.

It took her a while to register that Klump had asked her a question. She attached her pencil to her clipboard and placed her right claw on her hip, holding her clipboard in her left claw. "Oh yeah, she’s just fine. She’s A-Okay."

"Then why is she so ill?" Krusha whined, trying to see into the room that Katy had just emerged from, "I bet Tobias did it…he’s gonna kill her!"

"Now now, calm down. I’m sure it ain’t that dramatic." Klump said, trying to comfort his friend, "Maybe she’s just…um…"

"She isn’t pregnant, if that’s what you think." Katy said, holding her clipboard to her chest, "And…who’s Tobias?"

"Pregnant? Duh, what’s that?"

Klump was surrounded by several different conversations at once. This was very confusing. He removed his helmet. "Is it Okay if Krusha goes to visit her or somethin’? I mean, either that or he’ll wet himself with worry." Just as he had hoped, this caused the other lizards to be quiet and listen.

Katy smiled sweetly and nodded at Krusha. "Of course you may visit her." she said. She then looked across at Klump and grinned. "And I’ll want to be seeing you too, General."

Klump didn’t know what she meant at first, but soon caught on. He crossed his arms and grinned back at her. "Of course, nurse."

Krusha whimpered. "I’ll…go and see her then…see you later…" He walked forward into the room and gently closed the door so as not to make a sound.

Klump watched as Krusha vanished, and then turned his attention back to Amy’s older sister. So far as the sisters were concerned, Klump felt he was the lucky one. After all, he had Amy’s sister, whom he saw as much more attractive than Amy herself. Of course, this was what Katy liked to believe too. She placed the clipboard neatly on the floor and stepped towards Klump, hands on her hips. She blinked slowly, showing Klump how pretty her eyes were. Of course, he already knew this, but he loved it when she showed herself off to him. It helped him to think that he was worth all this showing off.

"Hello, Sir…" she said softly, snaking her arms around his neck, "What are your orders, O great one?"

Klump couldn’t help but feel really important. He grinned as though he would never stop. He put an arm around her and held her tight. "You’re comin’ with me, you pretty young thing…"

"Oh, I’m pretty young?"

"No…I mean…you’re pretty and young."

"Oh, thankyou my love." she said, nuzzling her face up to his, "What do you wish of me, O master?"

"Well…I can’t think of anything…" Klump said, pretending to think as hard as he could. He scratched his chin and clenched his teeth. As if this kind of decision was so hard for him…it wasn’t, of course.

"Well?" she purred, licking his snout, "Do hurry, my Lord."

"Very well. I’ve decided. You’re comin’ with me!" he said, putting on a slightly evil voice. He suddenly grabbed onto her and began to carry her away in his arms. Katy hadn’t really been expecting this, so she squeaked with shock. "Oh no! Please let go of me, you evil thing!" she said, trying to pull away from him, playfully. She gently tapped his face in an attempt to ‘fight back’.

"It’s no good resistin’, Katy." he growled gently, and he continued to carry her away. To his room.

***

Krusha began to sob with happiness and relief as Amy opened her tired eyes. She looked very ill, and she didn’t even smile at first when she saw him. She didn’t even remember who he was to begin with. He just looked like a blue blur…and even as her eyes focused on him, she didn’t recognise him very well.

"I’m so glad you’re Okay…" Krusha said, placing a claw on Amy’s stomach, "I thought you’d died…and then I would have been upset, and-"

"No…it’s…Okay…I’m just fine…" Amy muttered these words instinctively, and turned her head to face this ‘unfamiliar’ lizard. She smiled slightly, and groaned. "Oh…Tobias…"

There was a moment of silence. Krusha moved his face closer to hers. He didn’t understand what she had just said, but it sounded bad to him. "Amy…what’s wrong?" He began to stroke her stomach gently, making her groan again. She closed her eyes and sighed happily. "Are you Okay? Amy?" Krusha nudged his snout against her face. She didn’t actually seem to be awake at all. She seemed…dead. There was something very weird about it. Everything seemed to be somewhat weird at the moment.

Ziggy looked out from under Amy’s bed, nervously. The human head seemed rather concerned. His forehead was lined with worry. "What’s wrong wit’ ‘er?" he asked, looking at Krusha for some kind of answer. Krusha growled deep in his throat. He couldn’t stand Ziggy, not even when he was being considerate about someone else. The lizard looked down at the head, angrily.

"Go away! I want to be with her!" he yelled. Not even that loud yelling woke Amy out of her little ‘trance’.

Ziggy growled back at Krusha and looked at him straight in the eyes. "I need to tell toots sometin’, and da sooner I tell ‘er-"

"Go away now! You can talk to her later!"

"Ooh, scary. I’m gonna hafta leave…you’re frightenin’ me too much…" Ziggy growled, making sure that Krusha noticed that he was being sarcastic.

"Get out or I’ll kick you out!"

"Fine, fine…I’m goin’…" Ziggy hopped over towards the door, but discovered that it was closed. He growled again and hopped back over to the bed. "Da door’s closed-"

Krusha yelled angrily and picked the head up. He opened the door ferociously and threw the head out into the hall, slamming the door again. "Argh! Horrible head! If I ever…" He stopped his little anger-spree when he looked back over at Amy. She seemed so angelic and innocent. The sight of her resting peacefully on the bed made him feel calm again. Her breathing was barely noticeable, as her chest didn’t seem to rise up all that much when she inhaled. She opened her eyes again, and seemed to actually see Krusha at last. Krusha smiled and bounded over to where she was. He sat down on her bed, taking great care not to squash her as he did so. "Are you Okay?"

"Yes, I’m just fine…" Amy groaned, trying to sit up. She felt as though her brain had swollen up and become too heavy for her to lift her head. She often felt as though her head was too heavy for her body, especially when she had one of her little ‘weird periods’. She fell back down onto the pillow and looked at Krusha sitting on the bed, looking as handsome as ever. "Come here, sweetheart…" she whispered, holding out her arms. Since she couldn’t move over to him herself, this was the best she could do. Krusha moved closer to her, and laid his chin down onto her stomach. She looked down at him, and reached down to stroke his head. "Closer, darling…"

"Huh?" Krusha lifted his chin off her stomach and looked at her. He was certain he’d squash her if he got any closer. "But…duh, what if I squash you? I wouldn’t wanna do that…"

"Krusha, we’ve done this before. You didn’t squash me then, and you won’t squash me now…come up here."

Krusha quite liked that answer, and he shifted himself onto her, resting his chin on her chest this time. "Now?"

"Yeah…that’s just fine…" Amy sighed, scratching the back of his head. He was very sensitive in-between the spikes on his head, and he squealed gently as she gently ran her claws along his delicate scales. He put his arms around her and closed his eyes, deeply relaxed at that moment. Amy closed her eyes, too, breathing softly. "I need…your love…my darling…" she said, kissing his snout.

Krusha didn’t open his eyes. He was too relaxed. "Duh…you’ve always got my love."

"I need it very much…right about now…I’m so…lonely…"

Krusha slowly opened his eyes at last. He made sure that his chin was pressing into her chest as hard as possible, but without hurting her. "I’m close to you now…" he said, nuzzling deeper into her soft chest.

Amy stopped scratching his head and sighed. She opened her eyes. "I feel…far away. I don’t feel as though I’m even on earth any more. I’m far away…I’m floating…like a little cloud."

Krusha began to whine as soon as he realised that his little ‘treatment’ had ended. He lifted his head and looked into her face. She looked worried, and for a moment he wondered why. As he thought, he came across his own little reason to worry. He had almost forgotten about Tobias in his happiness. He sighed deeply, as he felt suddenly deflated. He let his head gently rest in Amy’s chest again. "Duh…and what are we going to do?"

"About what?" Amy asked, closing her eyes.

"Tobias, I mean…he’ll be coming back."

"Oh, he won’t hurt me. He doesn’t scare me. I can knock his head off if I want…"

Krusha instantly raised his head again. Once again, she was rambling on and on. Her little ‘weird periods’ often included a few sessions of ‘babbling on’, as Amy liked to call it. It basically meant that she would speak a little bit of complete nonsense and not really realise what she was saying.

Krusha lifted himself completely off her small body. "Duh…can I get you anything? Hungry, thirsty? Anything?"

Amy smiled and sat up with him. She held onto his arm and kissed it. Krusha looked down at her, and she grinned back at him. "I need you, my sweetheart. That’s all I need…" she said, kissing his arm again.

He felt a tingle spread through the whole of his body as she kissed him, and he tensed himself up. She liked the reaction he had given her, and so she kissed him again, making him squeal. There was something very appealing about making such a big lizard squeal. Or, for that matter, do anything that seemed too…soft for them to do. Squealing, squeaking, groaning, moaning, and even little grunts were all music to Amy’s ears when Krusha made them, so long as he wasn’t in pain. It helped her feel as though she was in control.

"Stay with me…" she said, kissing the back of his hand, "I need company right now…support."

Krusha turned to face her and put his arms around her again. "I’ll be your company…"

Amy sighed happily and snuggled up to his chest, enjoying the warmth of this hug. "I hoped you’d say that…"

Krusha held her tightly and began to slowly lean sideways on the bed, taking her with him. She giggled slightly and kissed his chest. Her little ‘weird period’ was over…for now.

***

"Aaah…peace…"

In a fairly clear area of the jungle, King K. Rool’s son had found a nice place to relax. He sat himself down gently on the ground and leaned himself up against a large tree. It was a very nice day – warm, pleasantly humid…and nobody else in sight. A nice little opportunity for Khris to catch some peace and quiet. He didn’t even have much of a reason to be on his own. He just felt…surrounded. He just needed to get away for a while. And this might be the only chance he was going to get. Everything was so relaxing…

"Hey, croc-boy!" yelled a voice from just behind him.

Khris leapt a mile (not literally, thank goodness) and stood up suddenly. He turned around to see who was there. Nobody he had seen before. An ape. A male ape, possibly Khris’ age. Behind the ape stood about five other simians, and they all looked rather ticked off.

"Er…what?" Khris asked, not feeling at all frightened of the apes that were closing in around him. Just slightly irritated that they had interrupted his peace. He looked at each ape in turn, and finally at the male ape that had spoken to him earlier. Or rather, yelled at him earlier. This ape seemed to be the leader of this little gang. He held up a hand and spoke again. "Look, lizard-boy, you’re trespassing on our turf." There was a menace in his voice, and he took another large step towards the lizard in front of him. The only lizard in the area. All the other ape gang-members were…well…apes, of course. One female ape grinned a very menacing grin, trying to make Khris feel uneasy.

"You must be pretty stupid…trespassing into our part of the jungle." she hissed.

"Hey, he’s just a kid, after all." the leader sniggered.

Khris growled at the leader, taking a step backwards. He crashed into another ape as he did this, but didn’t even dream of apologising. The offended ape grabbed onto Khris’ arm and tugged on it. "Hey, you ain’t goin’ nowhere, kid!"

"Will you please let go of my arm?" Khris growled again, trying to keep the gang as calm as possible, "I didn’t know I was trespassing. Therefore, I beg your forgiveness-"

"Hey boss!" yelled the ape holding onto his arm, "This kid’s got an attitude problem!"

The leader sneered and took a few strides over to where Khris stood, being firmly held in place. The ape crossed his arms and looked up at Khris. He actually hadn’t realised how big this lizard was. "I don’t want any kids coming around here with bad attitude."

"Look, let me go and I’ll-"

"No excuses, kid! I think we need to take you with us for a while…you need to learn some manners, I think." The leader beckoned to the other ape, who was still holding Khris’ arm, telling him to bring their prisoner along with them.

"Aww…how cute! What can we use him for, LJ?" asked another female ape. She was definitely wearing too much make-up. It seemed as though she couldn’t possibly have looked worse with no make-up at all. Her lips were bright red, and her long fingernails were of a matching color. She appeared to be one of those ‘leather-lovers’, as this was the only material she was wearing. Her clothes were far too revealing for any sense.

"Hey, who gets him first?" jeered the female who had been speaking earlier. Her hair was clearly dyed blonde, and she was also wearing leather gear.

"I’ll have him!" giggled another female with wild red hair. She had several rings on each of her fingers, and a tattoo on her bare stomach. Khris didn’t know which of the three females was worst.

As the leader opened his mouth to speak again, he was cut short. He had noticed something ahead of them…above them. He yelled loudly and ducked down, holding his arms over his head. "ARGH!!" he yelled, "We’re under attack!"

"Huh?" said the ape holding onto Khris’ arm. He turned around and screamed as well, letting go of his hostage. "What in Hell is that?!"

The three female apes scattered out of the clearing, knocking branches out of their way as they fled, but Khris didn’t know what on earth was happening. "What? What’s going on?" he asked, getting knocked aside by another male ape – one who had not yet spoken to him.

As Khris looked around frantically, a large black bird flew over his head. He didn’t notice it at first, but as soon as he did…he didn’t feel frightened. He turned around to look at it and its wonderful, striking appearance. He crossed his arms and smiled as it picked out the gang leader and made after him, or at least in his direction. It was almost totally black…but its stomach was yellow and the tips of its wings were red. There were wild yellow feathers going down the back of its neck, and it had strong, black, hooked talons. It cawed loudly as it hurtled through the sky, making a dive for the leader. The ape screamed and crawled over to a bush to take cover. "Tanner! Get this thing away from me!" he yelled.

A male ape yelled back "I can’t do anything, LJ! You’ll have to save yourself!"

Khris looked over at this ‘Tanner’ ape, and then back at the leader. He grunted. "Bye." And then he was off, dashing through the jungle, using his instincts to guide him back home. That bird seemed somewhat familiar…he must have been thinking about that little bird Tobias used to have, but it wasn’t nearly as big. He hadn’t wanted to stay to find out more. That was one part of the jungle he had never been to before, and he wasn’t going to be going there again. As he ran, the strangled cries of the ape gang leader slowly faded from his hearing.

***

Ziggy sighed as Krusha finally left Amy’s room to go into his own room across the corridor and down to the left. "Boy, talk about takin’ yer time." the head grumbled. Krusha didn’t even notice the human head waiting in the corridor. There was a look of almost unearthly happiness on the lizard’s face as he glided into his own room and closed the door. The door to Amy’s small room had been left ajar, and Ziggy was glad of it. He often had a problem when it came to opening doors.

But it was now or never for Ziggy’s bad news, and he had to tell her. Either this, or he might be tempted to do what he was going to do without even telling his friend. But not even Ziggy wanted to stoop to doing that. He gently pushed the door further open and peered into the room. Amy was resting on her back on the bed, looking somewhat exhausted. Ziggy didn’t even dare to imagine why.

As the head hopped through the doorway, Amy turned her head to look at him. She blinked slowly and smiled. "Oh…hi." She really sounded tired out. The human head stopped when he reached the side of her bed, and looked up at the female kremling. She looked so happy. But he HAD to do this, no matter what.

"Toots, can I…can I talk to you for a minute? Please?"

A look of concern crossed Amy’s face, and she sat up. She had sensed the worry and tension in Ziggy’s voice. This wasn’t a good sign. "What’s wrong?"

"I…I…" Ziggy stammered, and then he gave up. This was too hard for him to do. "I…tink you’re happy. Did ya have fun wit’ dat blue freak out dere?"

Amy could tell that this wasn’t what Ziggy had come here to say. But a change of subject seemed promising. She was NOT in the mood for bad news, and Ziggy was clearly hiding some from her.

"Yeah…we had fun. We always do when we’re together."

"I…er…I wanna hear more, toots." Ziggy stammered. He was close to sobbing with frustration.

"We didn’t…well…we didn’t…do THAT, if that’s what you’re thinking. We never have…we just…kiss one another a lot. But we don’t do THAT."

"Oh…dat’s reassurin’." Ziggy said, breaking down slightly, "Savin’ yerselves for marriage, eh?"

Amy nodded and sighed. "That’s the way Klump seems to want it. He doesn’t like it when we kiss too much, or something. I mean, it’s none of his business what Krusha and I do, but we have to live with it." She looked down at the head. He looked as though he was going to explode with tension. "Ziggy, tell me what’s wrong."

The head whined with worry. "I…I…I know I promised I’d stay wit’ you forever…but I…I…"

Amy leaned down closer to him, staring at him. She wanted him to continue, but part of her didn’t want him to continue. It was a confusing feeling.

"But I…I gotta leave ya, toots. I HAVE to." the head sobbed, blinking back a few dead tears as he did so, "I know you’ll probably hate me…but…"

"WHAT?!" Amy yelled, cutting Ziggy off in the middle of his emotional speech, "You promised!"

"I know, I know…but I…at least dat blue guy’ll be happy, eh?" he said, trying to comfort her.

Amy stood up off the bed, slightly groggy. "Ziggy, you said that you’d…you can’t just leave us like this!"

"Er…leave YOU, don’t ya mean? Nobody else’s gonna miss me…"

Amy bent down and scooped the head up in her arms. She held him close to her chest and looked down at him, pleading him to change his mind. "I’ll miss you, and that’s all that matters. You can’t leave me…"

"Yeah, I can."

"I won’t let you!" Amy shouted, digging her claws into Ziggy’s cold flesh, "I’ll hold onto you!"

"Toots…I already booked my ticket outta here. I’m gonna hafta go."

"But how did YOU book a ticket?"

"Dey only charged me half price because I’m jist a head, babe. I was in two minds about wheder I was gonna tell youse at all…but I’m definitely leavin’ ya."

"Whatever for?!" Amy questioned, hoping that if she asked enough awkward questions, he would change his mind.

Ziggy sniffled. He had been smart enough to think of a reason beforehand, and he was thankful that he had bothered to do so. "Toots…dis place ain’t my home. I belong back in New York…in da city."

"What’s the point of going back? It’s not as if anything will be the same as you remember…" Amy said. Her voice was drifting into some kind of whisper, and she held a claw to her face. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

"I need to go back dere, dat’s all. It’s where I grew up, toots, and I wanna go back. I’m sure I’ll manage fine, so dere’s no need to worry-"

"What chance do you stand in da big- er…the big city? You’re just a head. I don’t know if you forgot or something…"

"Toots, I’m not stupid. O’ course I know I’m jist a head…but if I can find me body…wow…den stand back, ‘cause Lawrence Ziegfeld will be takin’ over New York!"

Amy tightened her grip on the head. "I won’t let you go, Ziggy. You’re staying with me."

Ziggy squirmed in her grip and she let him drop onto the floor. "Ow…tanks for bein’ so understandin’, toots." he said, struggling on the floor. He rolled over and made himself upright again. "I want youse to know dat I’m really gonna miss ya."

Amy hung her head and sighed. She sat down on the floor, hugging onto her knees, head down. She was sobbing. The fact that he was going to miss her hadn’t been much of a help. Ziggy was alarmed at this, and hopped right up to her. He touched her ankle with his nose, and she looked up (down, actually, but…oh well) briefly. Tears were trickling out of her eyes, and she tried to blink them back. But it didn’t work, and this made her sob louder. "Wow…*sniff* I’ve gone from being desperately happy…to being drop-dead unhappy…I’m sure that wasn’t healthy."

"Toots…I’ll be fine. Don’t worry…"

"You betrayed me…you’re my…my best…one of my…best friends…*sniff* I feel…so betrayed…"

Ziggy sighed and turned away from her. "I’ll…leave you in peace, den." he said, softly. As he said that, Amy stood up and wiped her face, getting rid of the tears. She looked very angry, and Ziggy’s eyes widened. "Is it sometin’ I said?"

"You can’t just walk out on me!" she screamed, clenching her fists to appear menacing, "I’ll walk out on YOU!!" With that, she marched out of the door and slammed it as hard as she could, taking a good deal of negative karma with her. The whole room seemed to shake with the force she had applied to it. Ziggy’s ears were ringing with the shriek-like yelling of her voice, and he felt quite dizzy. He shook himself to try to get rid of the sound in his skull, and then looked at the closed door, saddened.

"I don’t tink she took it dat well…"

***

"Krusha! Krushaaaa!" Amy yelled, slamming her fist against Krusha’s door, "Let me in!" A slight groan was the reply she got, and she shrugged her shoulders. "Can I come in, sweetie?"

She heard the sound of shuffling clawsteps, and the door swung open in her face. She was greeting by Krusha, looking very pleased about something. He leaned up against the doorframe. I guess he was just trying to look ‘cool’.

"Duh, hi. What brings you here?"

"Well- huh? Why are you speaking like that?"

Krusha scratched his head, thoughtfully. "Duh…I dunno."

Amy turned around to look back at the door of her room, and then back to Krusha. She sighed, and clasped her hands together. "Look…I’ve got some news about Ziggy…"

"Grr…" Krusha groaned, crossing his arms, "I don’t like him very much."

"I know you don’t. Can I come in?"

Krusha did a little hop on the spot, a smile on his face. "Of course! Welcome to my…er…room."

Amy smiled slightly as she walked past him and into his room. At least it was nice and warm in here. Krusha hopped over to his bed, excitedly, and sat himself down on it. He placed a claw next to him on the bed. "Coming?"

"Oh…yeah." Amy walked over to where he was and sat down next to him. She crossed her arms and her legs, still upset about what Ziggy had decided. He was so…mean…and heartless. Well…he didn’t actually have a heart at the moment…but anyway.

"Duh…so, about Ziggy?" Krusha looked concerned. This was not concern about Ziggy. This was concern about why his girlfriend looked so upset.

"He’s…he’s leaving." Amy whispered, feeling some tears form in her eyes again. She hugged onto herself, suddenly feeling cold and deserted. It was as though a cold draught had entered the room suddenly. Her scales prickled like icicles. That’s what it felt like, at least.

Krusha tried his hardest not to smile – he knew that if he did, it would make Amy feel worse. But this was wonderful news! The annoying little head that they picked up in the museum was leaving! Krusha hoped he would be going far, far away. Like…to Japan or somewhere.

"Uh…oh dear…how sad." Krusha said, putting an arm around Amy. She exhaled and shivered, the sudden coldness getting to her. She knew that Krusha didn’t really feel that way. It was common knowledge, and she could feel it. The coldness suddenly materialised as a dreadful headache at the base of her skull, and she groaned loudly.

"This pain…it never ends..." she whined, holding her head. If only she could just…rip her head off and get rid of it…so there would be no more pain.

"Duh…where’s he going?"

"New York." Amy replied, shivering again.

Krusha tightened his grip on her and touched his snout against her neck. Poor New York… was all he could think.

"I heard that." Amy sighed.

Krusha pulled away from her slightly. He hadn’t opened his mouth at all…he’d only thought of it. He wouldn’t have dared to say it to her. "Uh…heard what?"

"I heard you say ‘Poor New York’. Don’t deny it…but I know you don’t like him, so I suppose it’s Okay." Amy was talking as though it was really nothing, but Krusha was surprised. She had just heard what he had been thinking. He closed his eyes and thought of something else, just to test her.

Amy glared at him. "What?!"

Krusha stared back at her, eyes as wide as…something big and wide. "Oooookay…you CAN read my mind."

"Right on. So be careful with what you think…but I haven’t…heard your thoughts before…not that I remember."

Krusha sighed and leaned back on the bed, closing his eyes gently as he began to relax. He had his claws resting on his stomach, and he breathed deeply. "Duh…and what about…Tobias?"

"Oh, don’t talk about him…I don’t want to think about him. I’ve got enough to worry about already. So kindly leave him out of the conversation."

Krusha was beginning to wonder if she’d allow him to do ANYTHING. He couldn’t think, and now she was telling him not to talk…oh well. Females will be females. "Duh…wanna change the subject?"

"Okay. I wonder if my sister went back to work or not. She always seems to have to work. I don’t think Klump’s happy with things as they are. He’d probably like to spend more time with her."

"Duh…yeah. I mean, we get to spend a lot of time together, yeah?"

"Uh huh. But…we DO work together, I guess."

"Yeah."

"Except that you’re a bodyguard, and I’m a…cleaner…"

"Duh…you’re more than that."

"I am?"

"Of course. You’re…a…you’re Amy!" Krusha said, almost in triumph.

Amy grinned. "Ah yes, I be an Amy. And I’m a pirate, too. I’m glad to have my license. Though I don’t really use it."

"Uh huh…but at least you, duh, don’t have to go away to get one again. Duh…it was a disaster when you left."

"Whoa, yeah. I’m amazed my sister was able to forgive me. I thought she’d be mad forever."

Krusha smiled and got himself deep into his ‘relaxing’ mode. He had been able to get Amy’s mind off Ziggy, and she seemed much happier for it. He was very proud of himself for doing so, and he felt like he was the cleverest lizard on earth. He wasn’t, of course, but he felt like it right now. He opened his eyes again when he felt a small, cold hand touching his arm. He looked over at Amy, who seemed very much happier than she had been when she first came into the room. He was glad to see that she was smiling. He smiled back at her as she got into a more comfortable position on the bed. She hugged onto his arm again and closed her eyes, thoughts of Ziggy and Tobias far from her mind.

***

That night, everyone was sleeping peacefully. Ziggy was sleeping in the corner of Amy’s room, Krusha was in his room, Klump was snoring away in his room…and up in King K. Rool’s room, the king was sleeping soundly, as was his son next-door. Everyone was sleeping without a care in the world.

Except Amy.

She wasn’t asleep, but nor was she awake. She was somewhere in-between those two states of mind. She was sitting up on her bed, head hung forward, claws resting in her lap. She was staring forward, but she couldn’t see anything. Her eyes were foggy and dead, but she was…somewhat awake. She was awake, but her mind was asleep. It was as though she was sleep-walking, but without the ‘walking’ part. "Where…is he…" she whispered in a monotonous voice, "He won’t stop us…he’s going to pay for what he did to…me." She groaned deeply. Even though she wasn’t actually awake, she could still feel a throbbing pain in her head.

She stood up off the bed rather shakily, and staggered over to the door, arms held out in front of her. She looked like a zombie going for a midnight prowl. And she was…sort of.

The female kremling opened the door slowly, and ventured out into the corridor. Into the dark corridor. But since she couldn’t actually see, it didn’t really matter. Keeping close to the wall, she wandered down the corridor in the direction of the elevator. She knew her way around this place like the back of her claw, despite that she wasn’t completely awake…strange, I know. Her eyes were open, and she couldn’t see where she was going, but she knew her way around.

I’m painting the roses red, painting the roses red…

She found herself singing gently as she staggered up to the elevator. The songs didn’t really mean anything…they were just songs she had picked up and was absent-mindedly reciting. Her soft voice drifted down the corridor and came back to her, making her smile, sleepily. She actually sounded quite good, and she was proud of herself. She stumbled onto the rising platform thingy that counted as their ‘elevator’, and prepared to ascend to the main factory hall.

‘Cause nothing compares…nothing compares to you…

***

In a small tomb-like cavern beneath the island, Tobias gazed forlornly into a pool of rancid water. He was crouched over it, looking at his reflection. He extended a claw down to the water and touched the surface with the tip of his right index talon. "Show me not my reflection…show me my raven." he whispered, flicking his tail impatiently. The ripples that had formed on the surface of the water gently subsided in the darkness to show a clear picture of Tobias’ ‘raven’. The dark lizard smiled slightly and rested his elbows on his bent knees. "She’s just as lovely as ever. And when I see her again…I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’ll tell her of my dream, and what it means to me…" He stood up, holding a claw to his back. He groaned in agony as his bones scraped against one another, causing a dreadful back-ache. "Damn…I’ll have to take care of that, also."

He stepped quietly over to what looked like a stone coffin. He used it as a table. At the moment, this was his little home. He wanted his little room in the factory, and was determined to get it back. He also wanted to get Amy back. And he was so hungry…there would be plenty of kritters in the factory for him to terrorise.

He picked up a small bottle off his ‘table’ and removed the lid, sniffing the contents. He tilted the bottle upside-down and caught a few drops of blue liquid that trickled out on his tongue. He then replaced the lid and coughed, wiping his tongue. This liquid helped him to recover whenever he went through one of his little ‘feel sick and throw up’ sessions. He had felt one coming on, and didn’t want to risk coping with a full one. Those little sessions had become so frequent that he now went through as many as five each day, and it was sheer Hell every time. And the liquid that helped him tasted exceptionally bitter, and he didn’t like it. If you’ve ever tasted Myrrh, it’s something like that. I actually liked that taste somewhat…but too much is enough to make you vomit anyway.

"And I wonder whatever became of that traitor of a bird…wretched Harpy. I always thought he would be faithful to me…I feel so betrayed." Tobias muttered to himself as he gathered up his various bottles and other oddities. They were all arranged on a large piece of skin (don’t ask) that served as a table-cloth, and as he bundled the skin up, it became a nice little bag with his collection of things already inside. It was very handy, that much was certain. "Tomorrow will be the day...I must approach my raven then. I wouldn’t want to…chicken out. Not that I would…After all, I am the great Tobias. I fear no-one. NO-ONE!!" As he yelled, the ground seemed to rumble. If anything, he was yelling to any spirits that might be lurking somewhere near. This little tomb of his was situated deep underneath a graveyard, but this did not bother him. In fact, he quite liked it. Nobody bothered him. He had the whole area to himself. This was where several of his ancestors had been buried, so he felt he belonged there…especially as he was never going to die.

***

By now, Amy had arrived up in K. Rool’s living area. She was staggering down the corridor, still not seeing anything in front of her, heading for the king’s room. She clutched onto the material of her nightdress as she neared Kevin Rool’s room. The pace of her breathing sped up, but she didn’t know why she was going there. Not that she was wondering, either. She was just going there, no questions about it. She couldn’t even remember who she was. Around her, two forces were pulling at her, trying to get her over to their side. One was dragging her back into her waking life with the ones she loved, and the other was dragging her and keeping her in her sleep-walking state. This latter force was Tobias’ force. Everything was dark and humid to her, making her feel sick.

At last, she reached the king’s room. Grinning for no reason, she reached out to open the door.

And the postman sighed as he scratched his head…

You’d really have thought she ought to be dead…

And who would ever suppose that that…was Grizabella…the glamour cat…

The door opened, and she stepped into the warm bedroom of her king. Normally, she would stand around admiring the things in this room, but since she wasn’t really herself, she didn’t. She just saw Kevin Rool sleeping in his bed. He was keeping to the one side of the bed – his side. He never used the other side, as this had been his wife’s side. He liked to go to sleep believing that she was still alive and with him.

Amy placed a claw on her hip and strode over to the bed, smiling sleepily. She had felt a sudden jolt when over by the door, and she had been ‘told’ to go over to where the king slept so peacefully. She stood by Crystal’s side of the bed and looked down at K. Rool. There was a slight smile on his face, and he groaned gently in his sleep, turning over to face away from her. He actually looked quite sweet.

Amy smiled again…as she began to remove her nightdress. She wasn’t paying it a thought. She was just doing this by instinct, almost. There was some kind of static in her brain, but something was controlling her to do this. She gently placed her nightdress on the floor, and then proceeded to remove her underwear as well. Something was really driving her as she did so. It was as though there was a battle going on in her head, and at one moment one side was winning, but then the other side had the lead, and so on. She was being ‘pushed’ from one side to the other, being told to do different things. She actually didn’t know WHAT to do…she was simply following her instincts. Her underwear joined the nightdress on the floor in a neat little pile, and then she turned back to the sleeping lizard in the bed.

She then lifted up the blankets and got in next to him. She faced away from him and closed her eyes. It was as though she was actually getting into proper sleep at last. Then maybe she would be able to wake up properly. She didn’t think of these things. She was resting.

She felt a large claw on her hip. K. Rool had turned around in his sleep, and was cuddling up to her. She was still somewhat confused, and she turned around to face him, putting her arms around his neck. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her body, sighing happily. "I love you, Crystal…" he whispered, kissing her face.

It was at that moment when Amy woke up. Maybe it had been the mention of the name ‘Crystal’, but whatever it was, it had helped her. Sort of.

She began to shiver as she realised that she was in her king’s arms…and oh God, where had her clothes gone? She was trying to hold it back, but she couldn’t. She screamed with shock, pulling away from K. Rool’s grasp. This noise woke him up, of course, and he was equally as shocked. "Oh God, what are you doing in my bed, Miss?!"

"I don’t know!" Amy yelled back, squirming around, trying to get out of the bed without making herself even more alarmed. It was hard to tell which one of the two was more surprised.

K. Rool had backed away from her, and as a result ended up on his back on the floor from falling out of the bed.

Amy grabbed her pile of clothes and held them in front of her, looking frantically for the door. As soon as she spotted it, she was off like a bolt of lightning. She didn’t even bother to close the door. She just darted out into the corridor, desperate to get away before anything else happened.

But before she had hardly gone anywhere, she crashed into something. This corridor was basically dark, and she wasn’t sure what she had crashed into. Whatever it was, she ploughed right into it and over it in her hurry to get away. What on earth had she been doing there? What would K. Rool do to her? What would Krusha say? Now she had even more things to be irritated about.

***

"Huh?" Krusha exclaimed as his door was flung open and then slammed shut again. Amy was standing with her back to the door, trying to hold it shut. Krusha got out of bed and walked up to her, not really sleepy. "You Okay?"

"No…I’m not…" Amy stammered. She looked exhausted, and she was only wearing her underwear. Her nightdress was tucked under her arm. She had been able to get her underwear on as she ran from K. Rool’s room, thankfully. She walked over towards Krusha’s bed and sat down on it. She looked very worried. "Krusha…can I stay here for the rest of the night, please? I…I need to…"

"Duh, sure." Krusha said, joining her over by the bed. He climbed in under the blankets and lifted his arm up, inviting her to join him. She did, and she felt more secure when he was there with her. He put his arm around her and switched into his ‘relax’ mode again. Amy looked up at him, and then over at the door.

"Krusha?"

"Uh huh?"

"Will you do me…a favor?"

"Anything for you, my darling." he said, now switching into ‘relax and be romantic’ mode.

"If anyone asks…especially King K. Rool…tell them that I’ve been with you all night. Please?"

"Of course. Duh, I won’t ask why, though. Goodnight." Krusha sighed, closing his eyes.

Amy sighed and snuggled up to him, feeling suddenly cold again. What on earth was happening to her? And if Tobias was doing this…what reason would he have to do THAT? Oh well…tomorrow was going to be another day. A day of sorrow and frustration.

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias II : Part 3

By Klumpy

The next morning, feeling dizzy and rather confused, Amy bumped into Klump in the kitchen. For once, he wasn’t carrying a cup of coffee, and so he didn’t get a boiling hot shower for a change. He was rather pleased about that, and was about to mention it when he noticed that Amy didn’t look well. On the contrary, she looked rather ill. She had only been able to open one of her eyes that morning, and she was leaning forward as she walked, causing her to stagger forward slightly more than she intended on each step.

"Er…hi. How are ya?"

"Tired…" she groaned, moving over to the table and sitting down in one of the chairs. She fell forward onto the table with a loud thump, but she paid no attention to her little injury. She closed her eye and sighed, trying to think of what she had done the night before. She was actually quite frightened – every time she tried to think too hard, she ended up with a pulsing headache and had to stop. This had happened before, but Tobias wasn’t even in the factory yet. She must be very sensitive to him, she guessed. He was affecting her without even being there.

Klump groaned and crossed his arms, looking over at the near-dead female slumped on the table. He grunted in an effort to say something to her. Finally, some words came out. "Would ya take King K. Rool’s tee upstairs for me? I mean, I’ve got some other things to do, and since you ain’t doin’ nothin’…Amy? Did you hear me?"

Amy had squealed at the mention of ‘King K. Rool’. She definitely remembered now…and she was NOT going to be taking his tea upstairs.

"No…I’m not going to…I’m busy. I have to…babysit…" she groaned, mumbling the first things that came to her.

Klump waddled over to where she was and looked closely at her. She was clearly not well at all. At the same time, she didn’t look well enough to babysit for anyone. "Who are ya babysittin’ for?"

Amy groaned in reply and turned her head to face away from Klump. By this, he could tell she wasn’t telling the truth. He didn’t like being lied to. If she didn’t want to, why not just say so? Oh well.

"Will ya just take the tee? Honestly, I gotta be busy-"

"I’m not taking it for you…just because you’re lazy and don’t have any grandchildren…"

Now Klump WAS confused. What had grandchildren got to do with this? She was probably just trying to confuse him by talking absolute nonsense…and she was suceeding. He heard her sigh deeply, as though she was completely fed up of life. She almost was.

Klump looked up when he heard clawsteps, and found that Krusha had just come into the kitchen. He was rubbing his eyes, and looking genuinely very tired. He yawned loudly – his mouth seemed big enough to swallow a dishwasher.

"Mornin’, Krusha!" Klump said, very glad at having someone else to talk to, "How are ya today? Need coffee? Tee? Anythin’?" It was clear from the way Klump had said it that he had said ‘tee’ and not ‘tea’. He often preferred to do that.

"Duh, I’m fine." Krusha said, smiling at the General. He grabbed onto a chair and dragged it over to where Amy was. He sat down on it and copied Amy’s slumped position. She didn’t even notice that he was there, breathing on her. She didn’t even hear him when he greeted her with ‘Duh, good morning!’. After waiting ten seconds for a reply, Krusha looked back over at Klump, who shrugged. Krusha nodded dimly and looked back at Amy, who had her face buried in her arms. She really looked a sorry sight. And the yelling which followed next didn’t help her feel better.

"Hi, Krusha!" came a voice from over by the door. Amy could recognize that voice by now, and she wasn’t going to acknowledge this particular lizard. And it wasn’t Tobias.

Krusha stood up, pushing against Amy slightly as he did so. " Hi!!" he replied, slightly louder than the first lizard who spoke.

There was a slight pause, and then "HI!!", to which Krusha replied "HII!! !"

Amy still didn’t look up. She hoped that if she didn’t look at them, they wouldn’t pay any attention to her. She wanted to be left alone. But she didn’t get that.

Somewhat admitting defeat, Khris Rool looked past Krusha to where Amy lay, slumped over the table. She was either ignoring them…or she was dead. Either way, she wasn’t going to join in the conversation, and none of the other lizards forced it on her. "What’s…the matter with her?" Khris asked, almost forgetting what he was going to say. It wasn’t the most comfortable feeling in the world to have a possibly dead lizard on the kitchen table.

"Oh, she’s just ill again." Klump said, as though he was exhausted of her acting like this, "No need to worry."

Amy still didn’t do anything, so Khris continued anyway. Amy wasn’t really listening…until she heard him mention the words ‘last night’. He was talking about what had happened, and she knew it. She jerked her head up and looked over at the three other lizards, involved in a conversation that she was certain involved her too. She pushed the chair away from her and darted over to the kitchen counter, grabbing onto King K. Rool’s cup of tee (I wanna call it ‘tee’, Okay?). She ran over to the door, and over to where the other lizards were. "I’m taking King K. Rool’s tee, so bye!" she snapped, and then she zoomed past them and out of the door.

The three lizards remained silent, staring at the door for about half a minute before resuming their conversation. Khris shook his head and leaned closer to the other two lizards, who seemed eager to know everything. "I’m not sure…but I think it was her. Although I didn’t think she’d actually be able to knock me over…but still…I can’t think of any other females in the factory…"

***

"K-king K. Rool, Sir?" Amy said timidly through his bedroom door, "I’ve got your tee here…can I come in?"

"Certainly." came the reply. Amy almost fainted. She could have sworn he sounded…happy. And after what had happened? He often wasn’t too cheery in the morning anyway…but this was weird. She took a deep breath and let herself into the room, quietly. She looked around the room, and found that her king was still in bed, reading a book. He looked up from his small paper-back book and smiled. She wasn’t sure if he was smiling at her or the tee that she still clutched tightly in her claws. She felt really nervous. "Come along then." he said, placing a red bookmark on his current page and placing the book onto his bedside table. He didn’t actually look as though he was about to rip Amy apart, so she approached him. He was still smiling that strange, slightly fixed smile.

Gingerly, she placed the cup and saucer on the bedside table, and then turned slowly to leave.

"Wait right there, Miss."

Amy went numb. NOW what? As if things couldn’t get any worse…she felt so stupid. She stood a few feet away from her king, rigid with tension. There had been a slight hissing in his voice this time. She was doomed…maybe he’d be kind and let her work down with the kritters or something. There was no way she’d want to be fired. She’d rather be dead than fired.

"Now…I must tell you that I don’t approve of you running around in the dark. You could cause an accident. Well…you DID…but just be thankful it was nothing serious."

Amy nearly died. Why didn’t he just mention what had really happened and get it over with? She almost wanted to yell at him, but she didn’t dare. She could only barely manage a whisper. "What do you mean, Sir?"

"I do believe you crashed into my son last night." K. Rool said, picking his tee up from the table and resting it on his stomach. His smile had gone by now, but he didn’t look angry. He just looked…harmless, but still…royal…or something. She knew he could be deadly when he needed to be, but he actually looked quite gentle. Maybe she had been lucky…maybe K. Rool didn’t remember anything about what she had done last night. Her heart thumped.

"I…did?" she said. She guessed that big thing in the corridor had been Khris. If she had known it was him, she wouldn’t have crashed straight into him. But she was thankful that the corridor had been dark enough for her to get away.

"He wasn’t hurt, you understand. Heck….it would take a bomb to injure him…but I don’t want you to be dashing about in the middle of the night. Why weren’t you in bed?" The king took a sip of his tee as he finished speaking.

"Oh…bad dream." Amy said, rooted to the spot. She was raving happy inside – she had gotten away with it, and she wanted to party. Despite that she wasn’t a party lizard, she still wanted to go to a disco right now to prove how relieved she was. But she didn’t even dare hop on the spot – K. Rool might question her.

As she spoke, K. Rool placed his tee back on the table and smiled at her again. This time, it was a very contented smile. At this sight, Amy couldn’t help but smile back at him. It was some kind of instinct. "I had the most wonderful dream…" he sighed at last. He looked over at the crystal collection on the mantelpiece, glistening in the morning sun which entered through a window. It sent shafts of rainbow colors around the room, making the whole place more relaxing and attractive than before. K. Rool seemed so proud of the collection. "I always feel so good when I dream about my wife…she’s still here, looking after us. She was the most wonderful female that ever walked on earth. I loved her so much." For a change, K. Rool wasn’t crying while speaking about her. Instead, he seemd to be getting happier and happier. Amy smiled, and then turned back to the door.

"And you know, Miss Croc…"

Amy turned around again, and K. Rool looked slightly curious about something. Amy dreaded that he was beginning to remember about the previous night. He sighed, and smiled again.

"Remember when you asked me a while ago…if you were like my wife?"

Amy nodded.

"Well…you are. You really are…and it’s quite…creepy. I just thought I’d say that…I think you were in my dream, too."

"Oh, how nice. Well, I must be going! Au revoir…" Amy snapped this at him and then was gone from the room like…something really fast. She didn’t want to risk him remembering what had happened. But things had gone much smoother than she had thought. Maybe this was actually going to be a good day.

***

"Hey, have ya seen toots?" came a voice from down on the floor. Klump, Krusha and Khris stopped talking immediately and looked down at their feet – Ziggy was standing in the middle of them, looking up nervously. "I jist dragged me suitcase in here, an’ I wanna see her before da plane goes." As they looked over to the door, they saw a medium-sized suitcase that Ziggy had dragged all the way upstairs from the lower factory area to the main level. It had taken him a fair while to do so, of course, and he looked quite tired.

"Her name is NOT ‘toots’…" Krusha growled, glaring down at Ziggy, "It’s ‘Amy’, Okay? I know it might be hard for you to say her real name…" Seeing Krusha’s angry expression, Khris decided to scowl down at the head, also. Ziggy wasn’t very welcome with anyone except Amy.

"Look, will youse jist tell me if you’ve seen ‘er?"

"Leave us alone, head." Khris said, grinning. He had never really met Ziggy properly before, but he felt like joining in with Klump and Krusha – there was just something about this head that made you feel irritated just by looking at him.

"Look, don’t YOU tell me what ta do!" Ziggy snapped at him. It was actually quite amusing to watch – Ziggy looked really pathetic and helpless as he yelled up at King K. Rool’s son. Khris kept smiling, trying hard not to burst into a fit of laughing.

"Just leave us alone, will you?" he replied, "You’re making me feel queasy."

"Oh, I’M makin’ YOU feel queasy?! Have you smelled yerself recently?!" Ziggy yelled back, getting a good deal of volume in his voice at last.

"Is that the best you can do?" Khris asked, determined not to let the head win. Klump and Krusha kept glancing at Khris, giving him support.

"Oh boy, if I had my arms right now…" Ziggy grumbled. He was about to make some form of physical attack on the spectators, but all the attention was drawn away from him as Amy entered the kitchen, singing in a happy way. It was quite a contrast from what she had been like earlier on. She finally looked alive.

"Duh, hi!" Krusha shouted over at her, grinning so much that it looked quite scary. Klump expected Amy to still be in a bad mood somewhat, and he slowly walked over to where the kettle sat on the kitchen surface, ready to make a cup of tee for her. Khris didn’t do anything, but he and Ziggy weren’t arguing any more.

"Hiya, toots." Ziggy said, softly.

As he spoke, Amy tripped over the suitcase by the door and tumbled forward, only just able to get her balance before ending up on the floor. She looked quite irritated as she glared back at the suitcase before setting eyes on Ziggy. As she looked at him, her happy mood suddenly melted away.

Klump saw this, and began to hop up and down on the spot, yelling at the kettle: "C’mon, c’mon! She’s comin’ closer!"

But she didn’t look angry now – she looked very upset. Something had clearly just dawned on her. "I forgot…" she whispered, placing a claw to her mouth. Ziggy looked up at her, and, suddenly feeling very guilty, turned away from her. She heard him sigh, and didn’t realise that she was only a step away from crying. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she didn’t want to cry them.

"Sorry, toots…" said Ziggy, nervously, "It’s…time fer me ta say ‘goodbye’…I’m so sorry."

"Yeah…me too." Amy said in reply, and Ziggy thought he could sense a bit of anger in her voice. She wiped her eyes and shook her head, weakly. "When are you going?"

"I’ve gots ta leave in a half-hour."

Amy snapped like a glass rod. "What?! That soon?! Why didn’t you TELL me?!"

"I ain’t seen youse dis mornin’, remember?"

Amy growled. She wanted an excuse to yell at him. He was abandoning her…how could he? "Fine. Just go."

A chill spread in the room as she spoke. The way she had said that…so harsh, so cruel. Even though she had been speaking to Ziggy of all people, the other three lizards in the room felt slightly sorry for him. The head was sobbing as he looked around at her, not getting any sympathy. "Toots, I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here-"

"Why not? You promised me, Lawrence Ziegfeld!"

She was really angry if she was using his proper name. He felt hurt and abused, and he was able to turn these feelings into his own anger as she glared down at him, stabbing him with the anger in her eyes. He wasn’t going to fight. He just wanted her to calm down.

"Toots…I wanna talk to ya outside. Like NOW."

"Fine!" Amy turned around and marched towards the door, tripping over Ziggy’s suitcase as she did so, ending up flat on the floor. She growled again, making herself angrier. The head hopped over to where she was.

"Toots, you Okay?"

"I was Okay…a few days ago…before you said you wanted to leave…before Tobias grabbed onto my brain again…I can feel him…he is very near…he’s frightening me…" Her voice turned into a whine as she felt a dreadful pain at the base of her neck, boring into her spine like a drill. She was crying with the dreadful pain, and at the same time she couldn’t feel the pain at all. But she knew it was there…and she knew that it wouldn’t go away anytime soon. She opened her tightly-closed eyes and saw a concerned Ziggy looking at her face through the tears. If she had turned around, she would have noticed that the other three lizards were watching her with worry.

"Toots…I gotta go. If youse don’t wanna say goodbye, den I’ll leave anyways."

"You…promised…" Amy gasped, trying to get up again, but failing. Pain ripped through her body, and she felt as though her veins were throbbing in her head, ready to burst and blow her brain to pieces. She whined with the pain as it began to pulse between her eyes.

"Toots…can youse step outside fer a minute? Please, can you-" Ziggy was cut short when Krusha advanced over to where Amy was. He bent down next to her, lifted her off the floor and rested her head on his knee. Her eyes were half-closed, and her pupils were dilated. The whites of her eyes looked slightly more gray than usual.

Angrily, Krusha glared down at the head. "Can’t you understand that she’s not well? If she doesn’t want to get up…she doesn’t…have to…" As he spoke, Krusha looked back at Amy, who had closed her eyes. She looked a really sorry sight.

"But…if I go…I…I gotta go an’ catch me plane. I don’t wanna jist leave her like dis…"

Amy stirred and struggled slightly, pressing a claw against Krusha’s stomach, trying to push herself away. "I’m…getting up. I won’t just let Ziggy leave…" Once again, she seemed to be speaking to herself. She pushed against Krusha as hard as she could, and she landed back on the floor. Krusha looked down at her as she tried to get up. Using her boyfriend as a balance, Amy slowly got to her feet again. She was still a bit unsteady.

"Er…I guess it’s out o’ da question if I asked youse if youse could carry me suitcase, huh?"

"I’LL take it!" Krusha yelled, dashing over to Ziggy’s suitcase and picking it up with one claw.

Ziggy was silent for a moment or two, and then he looked back at Amy. He smiled, weakly. "Are ya comin’?"

"Be patient, Lawrence." she snapped. She wasn’t even calling him by his nickname any more – this was serious.

Sullenly, Ziggy hopped out of the room, followed by Krusha and Amy. Khris and Klump watched them leave, and then were silent.

***

Once Krusha had gone back to his room, Amy and Ziggy had only the suitcase for company. It was a very depressing moment – every now and again Amy glanced at Ziggy, trying to tell herself not to cry. She wasn’t very successful in doing this, and she began to sob again. Filled with sadness, she leaned up against the wall and sat down, covering her face with her claws.

"Aw, toots…please don’t cry…"

The head, very concerned, hopped right up to his scaly friend and nudged against her with his nose. This was his way of tapping her on the shoulder. Her eyes sore from the crying, she looked up from her claws, then down at him, and her crying got worse.

"Toots…please…"

Without warning, Amy grabbed the head and lifted him into her lap. She hugged him tightly and continued to cry. "I’m going to miss you so much…"

"Right back at ’cha, babe. But I’ll be fine, dere’s no need ta worry."

"Yes there is." she sniffed, "I might never see you again…I want to see you again, I really do."

"Toots…I promise dat, no matter what, I’ll come back someday. I dunno when, but-"

Amy closed her eyes as tight as she could to get the tears out of her eyes. The thought of him coming back made her feel slightly better. Ever so slightly.

"I jist hope I can find me body…den I’ll be able ta give youse a hug!" the head said, grinning.

Amy smiled and stood up, still keeping a tight hold on Ziggy. She looked down at him, still smiling. "Just remember…" she said, softly, "~’Amigos para siempre’ means you’ll always be my friend…~"

"Okay, I’ll always remember…" Ziggy sniffled, quite amazed that she had been able to sing while feeling so unhappy, "I’ll miss ya, though."

Amy placed Ziggy on the ground, quite shocked that he had pronounced a ‘th’ properly. He looked very upset, and his voice wasn’t leaping all over the place as it usually did. It was a Ziggy that she had never seen before.

"How are you getting to the airport?" she asked, watching as Ziggy grabbed onto the handle of the suitcase with his teeth. It didn’t look as though he would be going anywhere fast.

"I’m jist gonna drag dis suitcase to da airport-"

"Oh no you’re not!" Amy yelled, scolding him, "You’ll never get there in time! Let me…oh, I know. You need some help there…" Amy took a deep breath, and then called out at the top of her voice "GROOVY!! A little help is needed!"

Ziggy was shocked enough at her loud voice, but when a strange-looking creature appeared on the scene, he felt even more confused. This weird creature looked like a turtle without its shell or something, or some kind of frog or amphibian. It had blood-red eyes, but it looked quite sweet at the same time. Ziggy didn’t have much of a clue as to what it was.

"Ah, good boy, Groovy. My favorite human in the whole world is in need of some help. Can you carry his suitcase to the airport? And…could you maybe carry HIM to the airport as well?"

"Machop!" replied Groovy, and he picked up the suitcase in one hand and Ziggy in the other. Ziggy was very flattered that Amy had called him her favorite human in the whole world, and forgot for a moment that he was about to leave her behind, probably for a very long time.

"Toots!" he yelled as Groovy began to march away, "I’m gonna miss ya so much! Good luck wit’ dat big blue guy, and t’anks for everything!"

"Bye, Ziggy!" Amy yelled, waving. She was trying to look cheerful, but it was very hard to do. She had to bear in mind that this was what Ziggy wanted, so she should be happy for him.

Ziggy was feeling a mixture of emotions – more emotions than you would expect of a severed human head, anyway. The ride in Groovy’s grasp was quite relaxing, and it wasn’t uncomfortable, but for now he couldn’t enjoy it. He swiveled himself around in Groovy’s grip and looked back at Amy longingly. She was making no attempt to follow after him, despite how much she wanted to. Somehow, Groovy was holding Ziggy by the base of his skull. He couldn’t carry Ziggy by his hair…Ziggy was bald. "Bye, toots! Look after yerself! Be careful! Don’t get hurt!"

"Of course, Ziggy! I’ll be Okay! You take care now! New York’s a dangerous place, you know!"

"O’ course I know dat, toots! Ya sound like me mot’er! If I gets da chance, I’ll send youse a postcard!"

By now, Ziggy was nearly out of the factory and into the desert, and he looked like a blur to Amy – she was short-sighted, which is why. Thankfully for him, she couldn’t see how much he was crying, although some of his sadness was visible in his voice.

"I love ya, toots!"

"Love you, too! Come back someday! God bless you!"

She heard Ziggy sniff loudly, and then he was gone. Out of sight – Groovy had marched off to the right, out of the entrance and into the desert. Lawrence Ziegfeld was gone. Pretty soon he would be back in New York, seeing how everything had changed…trying to find out about the people he used to know…trying to find where he belonged.

Amy knew where he belonged, and so did he, really.

He belonged back in the factory with Amy, annoying the other lizards at every opportunity, getting in the way and making everyone trip over him.

Now that Ziggy had been escorted away, an eerie silence filled the main factory hall. There was nobody there…no-one except Amy and the darkness. She felt as though the whole world was becoming a starless night, turning plants and animals and houses…turning everything into a shadow. An unknown something ready to spring out and grab you by surprise…ready…and waiting…to kill you.

"Is he gone?" Krusha asked, walking up to where Amy was. She hadn’t realised whether or not he had been watching her for long, and she didn’t look up at him. Everything had finally hit her. Ziggy, one of the best friends she had ever had, was gone. He was going back to live his old life. He would probably like it so much that he would never want to come back. How did she know he would keep his promise? He promised to stay with her forever, and he lied. Was he lying this time? She hoped he wasn’t, for everyone else’s sake, as well as her own. She felt like she was about to go mad.

"He’s gone…" she whispered, putting a claw to her mouth.

Krusha had forgotten that Amy actually liked Ziggy, and felt slightly bad about bringing the matter up. "Duh…don’t worry. He’ll be Okay."

"I need to go to bed." Amy groaned, ignoring Krusha’s attempt to comfort her. Krusha nodded – he understood. Ever since Tobias had first appeared, she had been wanting to spend more and more time on her own. Klump explained to Krusha that this was ‘how women are’. Krusha just took Klump’s word for it.

Amy walked stiffly in the direction of their elevator, hugging herself. She felt a sudden chill in the room. Was there something else with her? Something cold and mysterious following her? She prayed that it was only her imagination. As if things could get any worse.

***

Amy gently closed the door and leaned up against it, as though she was trying to keep her fond memories out of her room and out of her life. How in Heck had she been able to appear so cheerful as Ziggy left her, possibly for good? She wanted what he wanted, whether she intended to or not. Who ever would have imagined that one could get so attached to a human head? It had broken her to pieces to say goodbye. Oh, all the good times they had spent together…Krusha had always hated him, and Ziggy knew this, so he would enjoy annoying Krusha as much as he could. Amy was the only one who never felt annoyed or angry at Ziggy. Except when he mentioned leaving. She felt so deserted and so alone. As if she was standing in the middle of a desert in the moonlight, looking for any signs of life but finding none. She felt so unwanted.

She then realised that her thoughts of Ziggy had come back to her, and were tugging at her heart-strings, making her want to cry. And she did.

Sobbing, she sank to the floor into a sitting position. She embraced her knees and wiped her snout on her skirt, causing the silky material to become damp. She would have to give it a thoughrough washing later on before the mucus made the material go crusty and horrible.

She wiped her eyes with her scaly arm and tried to calm down, but she couldn’t. Would she ever see Ziggy again? What made the matter worse was that nobody else was going to miss him, so she was sure to end up missing him on her own with no-one to share in her sorrow. Now that Ziggy was gone, she had a chance to let all her sadness out. And she definitely did.

"I…m-m-must calm d-down. I’m…n-not a kid any m-more…" Her last word trailed off into a high-pitched miserable whine. The more she tried to comfort herself, the worse she got.

Still sobbing and wailing at the loss of her friend, the female lizard attempted to stand up. That attempt was a total flop, so she ended up crawling over towards her bed. She felt cold and exhausted, and she couldn’t keep going. She felt like something was holding onto her and pulling her back towards the door. And a pain struck her – a sharp headache right above her eyes. She had clearly been crying too much, and she just needed to lie down.

Scratch scratch scratch…

"H-huh?" Amy gasped, once again failing in her mission to get up onto the bed. That was a strange noise. If Amy had been expecting any sound at the moment, it would have been Tobias’ voice addressing her as ‘raven’. She knew that Tobias was going to come back to the factory, but this sound was not a sound Tobias would make. He would sooner break the door down and come in holding his velociraptor blade towards her. It was like a rat scratching away in an attic, but it was coming from outside the door.

Scratch scratch scratch…

She heard it again. This time, the soft sound was followed by what sounded like a miserable whine, rather like the one that Amy had just emitted. It sounded as though something was pressing gently up against the door, and then it came again:

Scratch scratch scratch…

It was like something out of a horror movie. A murderer waiting to rip her intestines out? A monster with long, curved fangs, waiting to tear her head off? Or just some silly little rat playing a joke on her?

Amy’s chest heaved, and she changed her mission. She wanted to reach the door. This time when she attempted to stand up, it was more than an attempt – she was able to. As soon as she was on her feet, she tumbled backwards and landed roughly on the bed, slamming her shoulders up against the wall. She winced from the brief moment of pain, and then stood up off the bed, trying to keep her balance as constant as she could.

Scratch scratch scratch…

"I’m coming…hold on…" she groaned. She felt really sluggish and tired right now – this exact feeling hadn’t been part of her in a long while. But she knew it well, and she despised it. All her joints felt stiff, and the throbbing in her head and seemed to spread further into her skull, moving down to her brain. She placed a claw to her head, feeling sick as the room seemed to move around her.

She reached out with her other hand and slowly opened the door. She closed her eyes as the pain shot through her like a migraine from Hell. She blinked, and the whole action of closing her eyes and then reopening them quickly seemed to take up the rest of her energy. She slumped sideways against the doorway, still holding her head. There didn’t seem to be anyone at the door until she looked…down…

Looking up at her from an innocent sitting position sat a shaggy-haired black dog. Its coat of fur wasn’t necessarily thick, but in certain places on its body there was hair hanging down loosely (at its ‘elbows’, along its stomach and at the backs of its hind legs, mainly), although it didn’t seem like just any old mongrel. It was similar in some ways to a Saluki, Amy thought. It just looked like a larger version. A ‘kremling’ size, as most dogs seemed tiny to kremlings. But it wasn’t a strangely large Saluki, if indeed it was one. It stood about 28 inches tall, maybe. The size of a usual large Saluki. It looked up at her, saddened, with beautiful deep blue eyes, and Amy was certain that she had seen those eyes before. She had. And she suddenly realised where. She should have guessed…

The dog yawned loudly and stood up, wagging its tail, keeping its eyes completely focused on her. To be fair, it was a really wonderful dog. So sleek and beautiful, despite its slightly shaggy hair, and those eyes would capture anyone’s heart.

Amy sighed sadly as she looked down at the dog, which was clearly doing its best to ‘impress’ her. Or rather, not to appear like some dirty old dog that had just climbed out of a trash-can. She was only a few steps away from baring her teeth. "Hello, Tobias." she said, growling gently.

The dog cocked its head to one side and its tail stopped wagging. It looked at her, narrowing its eyes slightly.

Amy, suddenly getting most of her senses and balance back, crossed her arms defiantely. "I know it’s you, Tobias. I can feel your emptiness in this poor canine’s form. All dogs have a soul, and all dogs go to Heaven. I can tell that this dog standing before me has nothing truly canine about it."

She grinned inside herself at saying something so dramatic. She could sound very dramatic when she felt like it. She hoped that her dramatic little speech had been caught on the security camera that lurked in the corridor.

Sighing, the dog gently bowed its head slightly, but it continued to stare up at her. It was as though the blue eyes were completely fixed on her face. She quite liked that feeling. The canine whined and slowly began to edge forward. He clearly wanted to go into her room.

"Tobias, don’t deny yourself. I know it’s you. I can feel you."

The dog growled gently, still trying to get past her, but Amy wouldn’t allow it. She glared down at the dog, growling herself so as to show that she was going to put up a fight.

"Tobias, don’t bother trying." she hissed.

The dog stopped growling, and turned to look up and down the corridor. Amy knew that he was checking to see if Krusha or Klump were anywhere nearby. Satisfied, the dog looked up at Amy, its eyes glittering. "Let me in and I’ll explain." he whispered, in a more gruff voice than Amy had expected. He certainly sounded like a dog, but since normal dogs wouldn’t talk at all, she knew it was Tobias. It may seem obvious, but Amy had begun to feel slightly stupid talking to a dog in the most dramatic way she could manage.

Staring down at her visitor, Amy stepped backwards into her room, allowing the dog to follow her in. Once both of them were in the room, Amy closed the door and locked it. She didn’t want anyone to barge in right now. One of the main reasons for the very efficient lock was Krusher – Krusha was nervous about his cousin getting out of prison again and coming after Amy. It was strange, but Krusher’s anger seemed to be very much directed at Krusha’s friends rather than Krusha himself. But…hang on, this isn’t a Krusher fanfic…it’s a Tobias fanfic…sorry.

Amy refused to sit down on the bed. She remained standing, looking down at Tobias with a slight anger in her glare. Tobias realised how she felt, and whined.

"Come on, then…show yourself."

The dog jerked his head up to look at her. His watery eyes were burning with a blue fire as he looked into her face. He blinked, and then whined again. "You hate me…" he said in his hoarse voice, "Why you don’t just tell me to leave?"

"I don’t know any black dog like you." Amy said, still glaring, "I DO know, however, a kremling called Tobias. If he was here, I might like to speak with him. Since he isn’t…"

"Raven…" Tobias growled, "You have no idea how dangerous this is for me…I don’t want the Rools to know that I’m here."

Amy, feeling rather confident, crossed her arms and turned away from him. "Goodbye, Mr Dog. Tell me if you find my fr- er…I mean, tell me if you find Tobias."

"Okay, Okay…" he growled. On hearing this, Amy turned around again. She was grinning with what could have been a kind of triumph. It was clear to him that she wouldn’t co-operate with him unless he co-operated with her first. Amy was slightly surprised that Tobias hadn’t put up more of a fight. After all, this is TOBIAS we’re talking about. Maybe he was feeling tired or weak. Mind you, he looked in perfect health. For a dog.

Tobias got down into a sitting position, and his gaze left Amy. He now seemed to be looking through her, far away, like how a cat looks when it’s sitting on its litter-box in the corner of the kitchen, trying to ignore everyone else in the room. Tobias groaned slightly as his eyes moved closer together and his long ears were ‘sucked up’ into his head. Some yellow fur appeared along the back of his neck, and he showed some other signs of changing color. His paws became claws, and all the fur along his tail vanished as red and yellow stripes began to form along it. Amy didn’t know how, but his yin-yang pendant suddenly appeared around his neck. She didn’t even want to ask.

By now, Tobias the kremling was crouched down on the floor in front of her. The spikes on his head were all in place, the red and yellow markings had appeared all over his body, but his eye pupils remained the same, as well as the irises surrounding them. The beautiful blue irises like two blue fires. It looked as though someone had set up camp inside his head.

Amy looked down at him, somewhat in admiration, and somewhat in hate. She remembered Tobias and all the things he had done. After all, who could forget? Amy had been right in the middle of everything, too. Now, everything seemed to be happening at once. Tobias was back…this, on top of Ziggy’s departure and the incident with King K. Rool, did not help in the least bit.

"What are you doing here?" she growled, making sure to speak before Tobias had the opportunity to.

"Is there anyone else in this room?" Tobias asked, cautiously, looking as though he wanted to stand up.

"Of course not." Amy said, adding a slightly more angry tone to her voice. What Tobias had said had brought her thoughts back to Ziggy. He would always be in the corner of her room or under the bed…goodness, the number of times Krusha had freaked out when Ziggy hopped out from under the bed while they were kissing…the look on Ziggy’s face would always be absolutely comical. Krusha always seemed to throw a fit (which was usually followed by him throwing Ziggy out of the door), and then Amy would be the only one in the room who wasn’t grossed-out or angry.

Glancing at Tobias right now, it was possible to describe him in three small words: ‘bag-of-nerves’. He was looking around the room like a hunted animal, seeing if the predator had passed by without noticing him. "Did you see me on TV, my raven?" he asked, almost casually, looking in the opposite direction, either checking for foes or being fascinated by the pile of clothes over by the door.

"Yes, I did." Amy snapped, hoping that he would eventually turn around to actually look at the someone he was talking to, "I saw you on TV. I saw you with MY Pokémon. Why did you steal him?"

Tobias suddenly whipped around to face her, his beautiful eyes boring into her. He didn’t look angry or offended, however. He looked sad, like a small child. It was strange how such a lizard could have an air of child-like innocence and worry about him, but he did. He blinked, small drops of salt-water gathering in the corners of his eyes. "I’m so sorry, Raven. I have brought him back to you…" He reached behind his back and revealed a shiny Pokéball. He had obviously polished it not too long ago. He held it out towards her, gingerly, waiting for her to say something.

"You…you polished it…" she said, softly, taking the red and white sphere from his bony grip, "You didn’t have to…"

"Ah, but I did. I was forced to stay in the league longer than I expected. I needed to stay just until you saw me on the screen, so maybe you could see that I had turned over a new leaf…that I want to change…"

Amy glanced up at him. Change? What was he talking about?

"You’ve turned over a new leaf?" she repeated, rubbing the Pokéball absent-mindedly with the tips of her claws, "Why would you do that?"

Tobias smiled slightly. At least she hadn’t begun to yell "You’ll NEVER turn over a new leaf, you bony monster!" or anything like that. Things were going better than he had hoped. His original plan was to remain as a dog and find out what had been going on recently, but that plan was ruined. This was the next best thing.

"Dreams mean a lot to you, don’t they, raven?"

"…yes…" Amy said, trying to work out what he was getting at.

"Well," Tobias continued, thankful that she had given him the answer he had hoped for, "I had a dream quite some time ago. A wonderful dream…it encouraged me to change my ways."

"What was your dream about?" Amy asked, since she had memorised all the dream dictionaries there could possibly be, "What did it mean to you? Tell me in detail…maybe I should call Krusha in here…" That last statement was, of course, to get Tobias moving.

"No!" Tobias snapped, suddenly grabbing onto her arm and squeezing it, "I’ll talk! Please…let me tell you…"

Amy pulled away from his vice-like grip and held onto her arm with her other claw, rubbing it gently. When he had touched her, it had felt like some kind of leech was sucking on her arm. She looked as though he had just burned her skin. "Tell me, then."

"Alright…" he said, for some reason sounding slightly reluctant to continue, "Well…it was like this."

Amy leaned slightly closer, still rubbing her arm. He looked fragile and delicate. And when he spoke, he adopted the same tone that he had used when he had told her about his past and how much he hated his family. This was his very serious tone.

"I was in some kind of field, I suppose. There were flowers, birds, insects buzzing around…the sun was shining, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky…"

"I take it you weren’t in a field in Wales, then."

"Heh. It was pleasantly warm…and there was no rain, so I guess your assumption is true. I was just walking along…the grass was so green…and I came to a river. I hadn’t seen the river before…it just seemed to pop out of the grass. And I looked forward, and I saw…I saw…" As Tobias worked towards his next words, he seemed to swell with happiness. He looked ready to burst at any moment as his eyes began to water. "I saw…couples. Couples…lots of them…kremlings, apes, humans…" He turned back to Amy, who was looking at him in fascination. He smiled. "I even saw a few others, including a lizard-and-human one. But everyone looked so happy…so much in love…and I didn’t feel sick or angry. The couples…some of them were just sitting together, some were hugging or kissing one another…and they were all right by the side of the river. I do believe I saw you there, my raven, next to that…that…big blue object." A look of anger crossed his face as he said this, but Amy didn’t lash out at him for insulting Krusha. He was so interesting to listen to right now. "And…right at the end of the river…there was another couple. They looked just as happy as the rest…and…and I…I was…I was part of the couple…"

Amy stared at him. She was so shocked that she let go of her arm and clasped her claws together. She began to hop up and down on the bed. "Tell me more!"

"Will do. I was sitting by the river…with a female lizard sitting on my lap. She had her arms around my neck, and she was licking me…I was so surprised that I nearly woke myself up right at that moment. The first thing that struck me about her appearance was that…was that…she reminded me of you. And in that same way, she reminded me of…Crystal…" Although it seemed unlikely, Amy could have sworn Tobias was blinking back a few tears as he said this. The dream had definitely had an effect on him. Whether it was for the best, Amy had no idea. "She was…exactly…she had your exact body…but she wasn’t the same colors as you. She was blue…and her…the spikes on her head were yellow…but she was so beautiful…as I looked at myself and this female, I told myself that I could do it. I could get love…and I shall be loved…but it can’t possibly happen while I remain this way. I have to change my ways, so that I have a chance…a chance to get love…to find that female and love her."

"Me…blue scales and yellow spikes…" Amy was muttering to herself. Somehow, this female…she knew who this female was, but it seemed strange. It couldn’t possibly…but it had to be. She felt a sudden chill pass over her.

"My raven, I wish to change…I know this is a bit sudden, but I need your help. Please, my raven…" Tobias got down on one knee as though to propose something very important to her, and she felt a bit nervous. If something was THIS important to him, would she be able to help him? "Raven, please help me. I must change my ways…Crystal knows that I come here in peace, or she would have ‘put me through Hell’ by now. So please…will you help me?"

"Tobias, I don’t know-"

"Call me ‘Toby’, please. I really want your help. What am I saying? I NEED your help."

Now THIS was something. He had just invited her to call him ‘Toby’. It all seemed like a crazy dream. No way would Tobias ever say that…but he had. "What help can I offer you?"

"Teach me, my raven, how to be good. It’s driving me crazy…I really want to KILL something, but if I do…" He blinked and bowed his head in shame. "I don’t want to be tempted to get even worse than I already am. If you can change me, I would be eternally grateful. Somewhere out there, a female lizard is waiting for me…and I will be there for her. If you can please take me on as your student…"

"Whoa…this is a responsibility alright. But what sorts of things can I help you with? Should I teach you to eat fruit instead of…er…kritters?"

Tobias leapt to his feet and began to shake her claw, energetically. "Yes yes yes! That’s the stuff!"

Amy stood up, still with Tobias leaping up and down, shaking her arm with such a force that she thought it might break off. "And maybe I could get you some nicer clothes."

"Yes!"

"And teach you to be kind…maybe to be of help to the cummunity."

"Yes! And I want to serve King K. Rool!"

"And- …WHAT?! Toby, that’s insane!" Amy yelled as soon as what he had said had sunk into her, "After what you said and did to him?!"

Tobias still looked enthusiastic. If it was possible, he seemed to be more excited than he had been seconds before. "He’ll want me, my raven! The things I could do for him! I could kill Donkey Kong, get the Crystal Coconut and get back to the factory in less than a minute!"

"I don’t know, Toby…" Amy said, pulling her claw away from Tobias’ grip, "After everything you did…"

"He’ll have to accept me back, then, my raven! If I can prove myself to him…that I mean no harm…"

Slowly, his enthusiasm seemed to melt away. Suddenly, it all seemed impossible to him. He sighed and looked down at the floor. It was as though he had lost his voice-box.

"Tobias…" Amy said, putting a claw on his shoulder. After all the effort it had taken to pull away from him, she suddenly needed to touch him. Oh well. "Stay here with me. If you’re determined-"

"Raven, I won’t hurt you. Remember that."

"I know that." Amy lied, "Don’t worry, I won’t let any of the others know you’re here. You can be our little secret, Okay?"

Tobias sniffed in reply.

"Good. We can start tomorrow. ‘Tobias training’, I think. You’ll be a brand-new lizard by the time I’ve finished with you."

Tobias, without any warning, suddenly pulled her into a hug. She tensed herself up, but soon relaxed as she realised that he wasn’t trying to hurt her. She felt his cold, bony grip, and he rested his head on her shoulder. He sighed again, with a slightly happier feeling this time, and said "I hope so, my raven. I really, really hope so…"

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias II : Part 4

By Klumpy

"You know…it’s funny…but I don’t feel scared of you." Amy said gently, running her claws along Tobias’ soft head, "I don’t know why, though."

The sleek saluki smiled slightly and tilted his head to let her scratch his chin. "I don’t know why I feel so happy." he said, in-between little groans and whines, "But I really feel…so…oooh…there is real hope for me."

"Of course there is." Amy said, yawning and resting the side of her head against her pillow. It was nearly half-past ten at night, and Amy had got into bed. Tobias had hopped up onto the bed, and was stretched out on top of the bed sheets. Amy had spent the majority of the day with Tobias in her room, as she hadn’t left her room at all since she went in after Ziggy left. She and Tobias had discussed plenty of things, mainly about how Amy would aid Tobias in his turning-over-a-new-leaf procedure. "I’ve been feeling really strange recently, Toby." she whispered, closing her eyes, "The other night, I found myself…I woke up in King K. Rool’s bedroom."

Tobias raised his head and crossed his paws. "Really?"

"Yes…and I’ve been feeling really…romantic as well…all gooey."

Tobias closed his eyes and stretched himself out again. "Not a problem, is it?"

How in the world could waking up next to your King be considered ‘not a problem’?

"Well…yes, it is. I just want you to know that if I do anything…er…gooey with you, I don’t mean it. I didn’t remember going up to K. Rool’s room. I don’t know if I’ve been sleepwalking or something…"

Tobias turned over onto his side and exhaled, slowly. "It’s possible. Most things are possible." He yawned and shook his head – something was making his ears itch. He now remembered why he hated being a dog. "My change of character will also be possible, of course. I mean, I’m counting on you to…Amy?" He looked over at her, but she had fallen asleep. He wondered whether or not he should wake her up again, but he decided not to. He needed to let her get some sleep. After all, she was going to have her claws full with aiding him in his change of character. Besides, he was hungry anyway. It felt like years since he had last eaten. "I’ll be right back." he whispered, even though he knew she was asleep. He jumped down off the bed, and made his way over to the door, and into the hallway.

***

The snoring coming from Klump and Krusha’s bedrooms was almost unbearable. As a dog, Tobias’ hearing was extra sensitive, and he felt as though his head was going to explode. How could Amy sleep through that racket? He had half a mind to go into both rooms and shut them up personally…but no, he had to begin his change of heart right now. Instantly. Tonight. He was going to be a changed lizard. He was not going to be his old, aggressive, murderous self. He was going to lose his taste for-

"…is it just me, or is there a kritter nearby?" he growled. He raised his head and sniffed uncertainly. Yes, there was definitely a kritter somewhere nearby. Somewhere. In the same building, at least.

He was about to ascend the stairway to the main factory hall, when he realised something painfully obvious. "Oh yeah. I can teleport." And so he did. Right to the level above, when the kritter smell was stronger. The fur on his back arched angrily as he stalked towards the kitchen.

***

"There are days when those gray skies…make you blue…each forward step you take, you fall back by two…hmm hmmm…" sang the kritter, idly. He set the large box down on the table in front of him and breathed a sigh of relief. That was a very heavy box. What exactly was in it, he had no idea. Sighing with his tiredness, he pulled up a chair and sat down by the table. Just a short little rest to catch his breath, and then he could head for home again. Leaning his head down on the table surface, he realised that the box was labelled ‘work-out weights – gym’. Why on earth had he been told to carry them down to the kitchen? He was not about to carry them to the gym now. His friend had told him that it contained food for the General, and since it was so heavy he hadn’t questioned it. "I am so gonna kill Joel when I get back- or rather, I can kill him tomorrow. As soon as I’ve got my strength back."

Unknown to him, an elegant male Saluki with black fur looked silently through the door at him. A smile crossed its face, and it lowered its head. This was going to be easy enough.

The kritter sighed again and stood up, stifling a yawn. It was far too late to be carrying heavy boxes around. "Mikazuki no shaare ni…hoshi no piasu hazushite…" he sang quietly to himself, making his way over to the door. In his state of exhaustion, he didn’t notice at first that there was a lizard blocking the doorway in front of him – a tall, bony lizard with black scales and blue eyes. This lizard was looking intently at the kritter, who still failed to notice the obstruction in the doorway. "Dou shiyou, mune ga…mune ga ippai…"

"Nice nonsense you’re talking there, man." said a cold, emotionless voice.

The kritter came to a slow halt inches from Tobias. "It’s Japanese." he muttered, not realising the danger he was actually in. His brain was still not working entirely accurately.

"You know…you look very tired. Why don’t you…lie down?" asked Tobias, grinning down at the semi-conscious kritter. He extended an arm towards the table where the large box sat. "Why don’t you lay yourself down over there? It looks comfortable…nice and quiet around here…nobody to bother you…" And nobody to save you, either.

The kritter looked over at the table and smiled, sleepily. "Yeah, I could go for a nap right about now. I’m so…tired…" He allowed Tobias to put an arm around his shoulders and lead him over to the table, slowly, gently, and not at all in a menacing way. He was so incredibly tired, so much so that he felt he was inches away from some kind of coma.

Sooner than he expected, the kritter reached the table, and he eagerly climbed up onto the surface to settle down for a sleep. He sighed, contentedly. It wasn’t the nicest thing he had ever slept on, but it was still a place to sleep. Tobias placed a claw on the kritter’s skull and gently massaged the scales, tension building in his muscles. He was getting hungrier and hungrier. But something wasn’t right. The kritter was now in a deep sleep, but Tobias wasn’t happy with this.

"Oh s**t, that happened too slowly…damn damn DAMN…if it doesn’t happen quickly, it’s no good."

Suddenly, a voice broke the silence of the factory, nearly causing a heart attack for Tobias.

"Hey man, where are ya? You’d better not be asleep on the job, you know the General needs his food- what the Hell?" What met the kritter’s eyes was his colleague sleeping on his back on a table with a mysterious-looking kremling overlooking him. The kritter panicked. "Oh my God, you’re the-"

"DIE!!" Tobias screeched, making a ‘throwing’ action in the kritter’s direction. The kritter screamed loudly as a white-hot pain ran through his whole body. His stomach exploded.

Tobias drew himself away from the mess at first, wondering why he had been so nervous. No, he was Tobias…he never gets nervous. That’s it. He was just…hungry. Yeah, that was it. Still uncertain, he crept over to the mess he had just made – a kritter of average size and appearance now lay slumped forward on the floor, its stomach burst open and splattered on the floor. He looked down carefully at it, silently, waiting to see if it would move. No, this kritter was definitely dead. He glanced back over at the other kritter on the table, and then at his victim, whose stomach contents had just redecorated the kitchen floor. It was, for some reason, disturbing to the dark lizard. He held a claw to his head and groaned. He had a dreadful headache coming on.

Of course…I just killed someone…

He remembered now.

Boy…you’re off to one Hell of a start, Tobias…

But he was so hungry…maybe if he spared the life of the other kritter, the death wouldn’t haunt him. That was all he could think of. He was desperate and rather frightened. He tiptoed back over to the first kritter and looked down at its face. He snapped his fingers, and the kritter instantly sat up. He seemed to have all his energy back after that short period of dreamless sleep. His eyes were wide and, to some extent, rather creepy.

"Boy, that was a good nap. Just what I needed. I can carry this box down to the gym now." He looked up at Tobias, curiously. "Why are you still here? Aren’t you supposed to be doing something? Being lazy is a dreadful sin, and I-"

Oh damn… thought Tobias, He’s acting as though I just force-fed him three gallons of coffee…and a bar of chocolate.

"No, I haven’t got anything to do. You just run along now and do whatever it is you want to do." he said, as soon as he could get a word in edgeways.

The kritter hopped off the table and onto his feet, looking ready to run halfway around the world. Amazingly, it took him about five minutes of jabbering on about how he was ‘as strong as a Machamp and as fast as a Rapidash’ before he saw the gory corpse of his friend Joel on the floor, staining the tiles. "Oh dear, he’s being lazy again. You know, I think that being lazy is-" The kritter winced, and fell forward onto the floor next to Joel, twitching slightly. Then the twitching stopped.

Tobias glared down at the body. "If there’s one thing I hate about sending someone to sleep, it’s the after-effects. Little blabbermouth. Now, what should I do with you two?" He paced in a circle around the bodies, pondering. The stab wound in the first kritter’s back was oozing slightly, and the other kritter was nothing but ooze. What a mess they were making. Tobias knew that Amy would be the one to clean it up. And if she found out that he was killing kritters, she would not be too happy. "Hmm…I think I’ll eat you…" he said to himself, looking at the kritter with the exploded stomach, "And then I might have YOU for afters…I think I’d better get you two outta here. Can’t have that obese, old, stinking windbag finding out about you…" Those were as many words he could think of to describe King K. Rool accurately. He snapped his fingers, and the two bodies vanished. He took one last look around before teleporting himself to where the bodies now were – his old factory bedroom.

***

What a change. He had felt so certain about success before this happened. So certain that he could turn over a new leaf…certain that he could do whatever it took to become who that female lizard wanted him to be. That female…familiar, yet so distant from him. He definitely felt as though he knew her from somewhere.

"So much hope." he sighed, "So much gone to waste…just for a meal. How could I? I’ve got to start eating like normal…lizards…" He reached forward and ripped off a large piece of flesh from Joel’s upper arm with his teeth. The body wasn’t even cold yet. But there was something about kritters. Something tasty…and very tempting. He couldn’t resist the temptation, even with the prospect of being loved in his mind. Blood trickled gently out of the sides of his mouth as he swallowed the muscle, thoughtfully. He felt so hungry. He even thought he heard a faint splooshing sound as the flesh landed in his stomach. So hungry…

"I must stop doing this. Remind myself. I’m not the Tobias I used to be." He looked around at the dark room, breathing deeply. "But there are so many damned memories about this room. Everything I did…and I can’t…I…oh my God…I…" He put a claw to his throat and coughed, loudly, as though he was choking. He dug his claws into his skin, clenching his teeth, trying to shut out the pain. "Oh my God, it’s happening again…oh God, God…aa…" He stopped gasping and held his breath. The pain seemed to be subsiding. "…oh, thankyou…I can…yes, I can stop my ways. I can stop what I’m doing. I can…no, I damn well can’t. I’ve been this way for too long, I’ve ruined myself, I’m a wreck, I’m a psychopath, I’m a bloody psychopath!"

He clenched his fists, angrily. He was so…so stupid to do this. Why couldn’t he just start eating something more…natural? Like toast or eggs or…or anything. "Still, I’ve done it now. There’s no point in wasting it." he sighed. He tenderly used his teeth to pull off a ripped sheet of scaly skin from Joel’s arm. He swallowed it, thoughtfully, his mind full of questions. Right now, he was mainly concerned with how on earth he was going to be able to give up eating kritters. They were just insignificant employees. They didn’t matter to anyone. So why should it matter to him when he ate them? He pulled a small ribbon of muscle from Joel’s limb and ate it like one would eat a piece of spaghetti. How could he possibly give this up? He didn’t like anything else. And he was allergic to various things, so that narrowed his choice down.

He sighed, and played with Joel’s limp arm. He had already eaten away all the flesh from below the elbow. He could usually eat a few kritters at a time when he felt like it, but he couldn’t eat any more now. It was making him feel unwell. He threw the body over to a corner of the room and slumped himself back against his pillow. He was getting worse and worse every day. There had to be some kind of turning point for him. The problem was…where?

***

"Well, hello again. I ain’t see ya in years, but you’re lookin’ good." Klump commented as Amy entered the kitchen the next morning. He had his usual cup of coffee, along with the daily newspaper on the table in front of him, open to the second page.

"Good morning to you, too." Amy replied, walking over to the cabinets so that she could find a tea bag. What struck Klump when he first saw her was that she was wearing a tight pink shirt, the tightest pink shorts imaginable and black high-heels. Secondly, he noticed that she had a rather large dog following her around.

"What’s with the dawg, Amy?"

Amy sniggered. "Heh, sorry. Um…this dog is…a rental from the animal sanctuary."

Klump placed his coffee down on the table. "I didn’t know the sanctuary did rentals."

"Well, General, they do. This is a Saluki." At this, Tobias sat down and tilted his head back, majestically. His feathery fur seemed to flow behind him.

Klump peered down at the dog. "What’s his name, then?"

Amy reached down to stroke Tobias behind his ears, and the dog made a strange purring sound. "His name is Toby."

Klump was silenced for a moment. "…Toby?" Amy nodded. Klump stared at her. "Er…why?"

"Because it’s a beautiful name. Along with several other names that I think are lovely. Toby was just the one that stuck in my mind."

"Right, so you named your rental Saluki ‘Toby’, is that it?"

"Uh huh. Now, where are the tea bags? I need a cuppa."

Klump turned the page of his newspaper. "They’re in the cabinet to your right, Ma’am."

Amy opened the cabinet and pulled out the box of tea bags. "Thankyou, Sir. Now I just need to find my favorite mug, and I’ll be Okie-Dokie." She removed her large sheep mug from a rack on the wall and set about preparing her tea.

Krusha wandered into the room, rubbing his head. He yawned. "Duh…sleepy."

"Mornin’ Krusha." Klump commented, not looking up from his newspaper.

"Hiya, Krusha." Amy said, neatly popping a tea bag into her mug.

Krusha yawned again. He walked slowly over to where the General was sitting and pulled up a chair. Klump seemed unamused at Krusha’s company. "May I help you?"

Krusha was quite surprised by Klump’s attitude. "…er…no."

"Then don’t sit by me. I only want someone near me if…they really need me."

Krusha blinked dimly, then stood up. He looked at Klump for a second, and then went over to join Amy.

"Duh, what’s wrong with him?"

Amy shook her head. "I don’t know. He seemed Okay with me."

Klump growled and turned the page of his newspaper harshly. "Don’t you talk about me as though I ain’t in the room!"

Amy walked over to the table and sat down where Krusha had been sitting. She leant her elbow on the table. "…what’s wrong?"

"Like I’m gonna tell you." he replied.

Krusha sighed. Tobias looked up at Krusha, not feeling comfortable at all. He didn’t like it when it seemed that nobody was afraid of him. Despite the fact that they didn’t even realise he was in the room, it still made him angry.

"You can tell me, you know. I’m a good listener."

Klump groaned and put his face in his hands. "Yeah, I bet."

"Don’t force me to find out the harsh way." she warned, placing a hand on his back, "I’m good at getting information this way."

"No, you’re…not…gonna…" Klump moaned. Amy rubbed his back, gently, and looked intently at his face. What she could see of it. Suddenly, Klump seemed to snap out of it. "Oh, Okay, I’ll tell ya…but it…mustn’t go beyond this room, alright?"

Amy leaned closer to him. "Of course, Sir. I’ve got to obey you whether I want to or not. Besides, I never spread things. Except butter on toast."

Krusha wasn’t bothered, and didn’t try to listen in when Klump started to whisper. He finally noticed the dog sitting at his feet, and looked down at it. It looked familiar.

Klump and Amy were now so close that their snouts were touching. "Okay, what is it?"

He spoke in the quietest whisper she had ever heard. Even this close to him was barely enough to understand what he was saying. "Your sister…er…she kinda…"

"Hmm?"

"She…kinda broke up with me yesterday…Okay?"

Amy blinked. "…she did? Why?"

Klump whined. "She just said she didn’t…have time for me. She said she couldn’t be bothered with me because she’s got too much work to do."

"But I thought you two were getting along fine."

"We were…but I guess I’m…not good enough for her or somethin’."

Amy couldn’t really register what he had just told her. How could her sister be so cruel? So thoughtless… "You’re good enough for me." she said.

Klump smiled slightly. "Really?"

"Of course." She looked at him. He was so vulnerable. "But some lizards…just might feel they’re too good for you. I know you’re not too good for me."

Klump sighed and rested his head in his claw again.

"I think it’s great to have a boyfriend who works directly for the king."

"Yeah…I guess she just wanted…someone more romantic, or more intelligent or somethin’."

"If I felt that way, then why would I be with Krusha?"

Klump smiled again. "I dunno. You wouldn’t be…"

"Exactly. So what does that tell you?"

Klump thought for a moment. "…that your sister’s a…loser?"

Amy nodded. "Yes, that’s kinda what I had in mind."

"And that I am worth it, but I just need to find someone worthwhile for me?"

"Exactly, Sir."

"And…and that you’re much better than she is."

Amy’s smile faded. "…what?"

"And that Krusha’s much luckier than I am."

"No, but-"

"And I’m a stupid judge of character. Dang…"

Amy held his jaws closed with her right hand. "You sorta had it there. For a start, my sister’s a loser for leaving you, she’s a monster, she’s not worth being miserable about, and you deserve better than her. Unless you’d rather stay as a bachelor. Set up a bachelor pad, and you’ll have it made." She released her grip on his mouth.

Klump put a claw on his hip. "Hey, why are ya on my side in all this?"

Amy shrugged. "I can’t help it if I like you better than I like my sister."

***

"Right, and you are certain about all this?"

The kritter nodded. "Yes, Sir. After that sighting, nobody else saw them in the factory."

"Oh, curses…" K. Rool growled, "…we’ve had kritters go missing, we’ve had bodies found…this type of thing happened a while ago. Missing kritters, bodies, blood…well, don’t just stand there! I want you to set up a search party for those two missing kritters! I can’t keep losing my employees like this!"

The kritter nodded and darted off to form a little search party. To K. Rool, this whole business was very worrying. He couldn’t keep losing employees left and right. If more cases like this occurred, he would have no workers left.

"Good morning, Sir." greeted Amy, cheerily, "I’ve brought you some tea and crumpets for brekkie."

K. Rool glanced over at her. "Brekkie?"

"Breakfast."

He smiled, weakly. "Yes, of course. Bring those crumpets over here, then. I haven’t eaten anything all morning."

She briskly walked over to him, hopping up onto his slightly raised platform. He took the plate of crumpets gratefully, leaving Amy to hold the hot tea for him. "Thankyou, dear."

Amy swallowed – ‘dear’? What was that all about?

"Ooh…good crumpets. Where did you get them?"

"My mother sometimes sends me presents from Wales…she sent me a package of crumpets last week. Therefore, Sir, I am sharing them with you."

K. Rool took another bite of crumpet and smiled, patriotically, despite that he had butter streaming down his chin. "Ah, yes. Crumpets…the food of the cultured."

"Yes, Sir."

He placed the plate on the floor at his feet and took the cup of tea from Amy. "…I had another dream about you last night." he said, casually.

Amy clasped her claws behind her back. "Oh, er…really?"

He nodded, taking a sip of tea. "Tell me, do you have a large bruise underneath…er…I mean, are you bruised on your chest?"

She paused. "…er…no."

"My dear, you are lying to me. I know you have a bruise there."

She must have been sleepwalking again. If she had, why hadn’t Tobias tried to wake her up? He had been in her room the whole time… "Er, why do you want to know?"

"At least you’ve admitted to it, so I don’t have to check for myself." he said, threateningly, looking up from his tea, "I just want to know how you became bruised like that."

"Well, I-"

"Tell me, Miss Croc." he growled, placing his cup of tea by his feet.

She crossed her arms across her chest, protectively. "Well…it kinda happened a few days ago." She saw in his eyes that he wanted her to go on. "And…er…well, Krusha…he hugged me a bit too hard…and…that’s about it."

K. Rool picked up his plate again. "Oh…is that all?"

"Yeah…he doesn’t know his own strength, he didn’t mean to hurt me."

K. Rool hung his head and sighed. "…those dreams about you have been…well…disconcerting me. I wish I knew what was making me dream that way. It just must be because you’re so much like Crystal…"

Amy smiled and placed her claw on his shoulder. "I know…I’m sorry that I remind you of her…I’m really so sorry."

He swallowed his second crumpet in one bite and put the plate back onto the floor. "You know…you really influence me…I’m not sure why, I don’t particularly adore you, you can be whiny and moody and I often don’t know what the Heck to do with you…"

"You make my aura feel funny, but that’s about it. I mean, you’re my boss, I’m meant to be afraid of you…but you don’t scare me. I like you Okay."

"…yes, I suppose I like you also. Sometimes. When you’re being obedient."

"Oh, am I ever disobedient to you, Sir?"

He laughed. "On occasion."

She put her hands on her hips. "Well I never!"

"Oh my," he exclaimed, "I didn’t intend to insult you, but…oh well. The crumpets were good."

"No offence taken, Sir." She picked up the plate and teacup from by K. Rool’s feet. "Well, I’ll take these out of your way. See you later, your slippery scaliness."

"Yes, thankyou. I’ll see you later on."

"I’ll get those restrooms cleaned to a shine, Sir."

K. Rool held up one claw. "Oh, before you get into that, I have some rather good news for you. I have made a decision."

She placed the cup on the plate and held it in her one claw, placing her other one on her hip again. "Yes, Sir?"

"Well…how does a promotion sound to you?"

She smiled. "A promotion? Really? Oh my…I…what kind of promotion?"

The King stood up. "I want you out of those restrooms and into my study, as it were."

She swallowed. "…uh…I’m a little slow…could you just spell it out for me please, Sir?" It sounded like some kind of marriage proposal.

"I now require you to accompany Klump and Krusha on each and every- well, maybe not EVERY mission, but I would expect you accompany them on the majority of our Coconut-stealing missions. Of course, I will now and then require your services back here, what with organisation and such, but I now consider you virtually indispensable. I will not permit you to clean another toilet."

"…whoa…no more toilets…"

"Are you alright, Miss Croc?"

She nodded, wistfully. "Yes…but what does it make me?"

He shrugged. "I don’t know…secretary…accompanier-on-missions…I have no idea."

"Well, whatever it is, I thank you, Sir."

He smiled, warmly. "You are most welcome, my lo- er, my dear."

***

"Hey, Krusha, come here for a sec."

Krusha looked up from his mudweed sandwich to see Amy standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She looked very excited about something, so he abandoned the sandwich and walked over to her. Klump, looking as miserable as ever, stayed put at the table, gazing listlessly at his toast.

"Duh, hi. What’s happened?"

Amy grabbed him by his arm and pulled him out of the kitchen, therefore out of Klump’s range of hearing. She looked ecstatic. "Guess what King K. Rool just gave me!"

"Er…a big hug?"

"No."

"A…a new TV?"

"No."

"Er-"

"He gave me a promotion!" she announced, happily, "I don’t have to clean out any more toilets! I get to help him organise things and accompany you and Klump on Coconut-stealing missions."

"Oh. Cool." was all Krusha could think of to say.

"So, seeing as how it’s almost lunchtime, do you want to go out for lunch with me? It’ll make a change from being stuck here."

"Er, sure. Where will we go?"

"I don’t mind. We could go to that little pizza place you like. You know, the place with the special swamp moss and super-oily anchovy pizzas?"

Krusha nodded, eagerly. "Oh yeah! I remember that!"

"Right. We can go there for a celebration pizza." She smiled and walked back into the kitchen, with Krusha instinctively following her. She approached Klump, who was still aimlessly watching his toast.

"Klump, if you’re not doing anything this lunchtime, do you want to go out for a pizza with Krusha and I?"

Klump looked up from his plate of toast. There were the slightest traces of a smile on his face. "…I guess. If you’ll have me."

"Of course we’ll have you. I just got a promotion from King K. Rool, so we’re going to have a subtle little celebration over some luuurvely pizza."

"You got a promotion? Congratulations, Amy." He was trying his hardest to be happy.

Amy understood. "Thanks…so…are you ready to go right away?"

"Sure."

"Okay then. Let’s get moving."

Tobias, who had been resting by Klump’s feet, raised his head and whimpered. He looked up at Amy, trying to prompt her to do something.

"Oh. I’ll leave Toby here, I suppose. He should be able to keep out of mischief for an hour or so." she said, casually, to Klump and Krusha. Looking back down at the Saluki, it seemed that this response had pleased him. "Okay then – let’s blow."

***

Within a very short time, the three of them were sitting at a table in Joe’s Pizza Palace, waiting for their multiple-toppings pizza. Mudweed and swamp moss had been a necessity, along with anchovies for the guys and bacon bits for Amy. The café/restaurant was a clean, starched place with a pleasant atmosphere, which accounted for the large numbers of lizards and apes eating there. It was often quite hard to get a table, especially at the weekends, but these three particular lizards had been able to grab one of the last tables.

"Man, how long is it gonna take for them to get our pizza? I’m starvin’…I never ate my dang toast." Klump leant his elbow on the red and white tablecloth and rested his head in his hand. "I’m gonna pass out from hunger."

"One large multiple-toppings pizza." said a voice from behind Klump, "Mudweed, swamp moss, bacon and anchovy toppings. Enjoy." The middle-aged waitress placed the pizza on the center of the table and briskly walked away to pick up another pizza, no doubt.

"Ooh, yummy!" Krusha grabbed the slice with the most anchovies and took a big bite out of it, regardless of the fact that it was scalding hot.

Klump sighed and moved his chair backwards. "I’m gonna go wash my hands. I doubt the pizza’ll get cold while I’m gone. Be back in a second."

"’Kay. See you."

Klump stood up and wandered off in the direction of the male and female restrooms. As everyone was engrossed in their eating, nobody noticed him do so apart from Amy, who quickly turned her attention back to Krusha.

"Hey, big guy, don’t forget to save some pizza for me."

He grabbed his third piece of pizza and looked at her, innocently. He looked at the pizza he was holding, and offered it to Amy.

"Heh. That’s sweet, Krusha, but I’m actually Okay. I feel like celebrating, though…so maybe I’m just too excited to eat."

Krusha ate his pizza in one bite and tried to look as though he completely understood what she was saying. "Duh…er…I guess so."

She smiled and leaned towards him. "Want a kiss?"

"Duh, if there’s one on offer."

"There’s a never-ending supply for you." He moved his face closer to hers, and she kissed his cheek. "Good pizza?"

"Yeah. Very, very good pizza. You should have some."

"I might do, I suppose, but I think I’d better wait for Klump to get back. He seemed much hungrier than me."

***

"Ah, good. A pathetic lizard…my perfect prey…" Tobias hissed to himself, taking a few long strides up to the back of a pile of crates, in front of which sat a kritter. It wasn’t doing anything except…sitting, really. Actually, it was reading a magazine. One of those disgusting ones that certain males like to buy. The kritter grinned gleefully as he turned the page, glancing at the new selection of pictures under his snout. Tobias had never been one to buy a magazine like that. Unlike some other males, Tobias wasn’t all crazy about getting a female partner. He never really had been, except when he met Crystal. And when he met Amy. But both of those chances were gone, and there was no point in complaining about it. Basically, the point was that he didn’t enjoy gazing at pictures of naked females in magazines. Nobody had ever understood him because of this.

The kritter scratched his chin thoughtfully as he turned the page again. Maybe he was wondering which of the pictures was the best. Which of the females looked completely perfect with a tiny waist and large bust, basically.

Tobias stopped breathing as he climbed up the back of the pile of crates, not making a sound. Even though he was in his real form, he actually was quite panther-like. Dark, quiet…and deadly. He moved like a shadow, and his prey remained unwary. Using his long claws, Tobias pulled himself up onto the topmost crate, directly above the kritter. He grinned as he looked down at the unsuspecting kritter below him. He clasped his claws together, and when he separated them again, he held his velociraptor blade in his right one. It was begging to kill something. He leaned on his bony left elbow, looking casually down at the kritter. And yes, he was looking at the kritter, NOT the magazine.

The kritter sniggered and turned the page again, enjoying the new selection of equally-disgusting images. He wasn’t even on his break – he had just sneaked away from his work to read his magazine with its ‘wonderful’ pictures. The kritter never felt he had enough time for himself, and was catching a little break right now. So far as he was concerned, K. Rool wouldn’t find out, and he wouldn’t get punished. That was somewhat true. But not completely. He was actually quite tense, and he squeaked with shock when he felt something cold on the top of his head. It felt like icy water…something he wasn’t too fond of. He touched his head and then held that claw in front of him, examining whatever had touched him. He growled and looked up, figuring it was only a leaky pipe or something harmless like that.

What he saw was Tobias looking down at him. A cruel-looking lizard with dark scales and…wonderful blue eyes. "Huh?" the kritter said, standing up, leaning his back against the crates. The magazine dropped out of his lap and landed on the cold floor.

"Hello." Tobias said, smoothly. He shifted his position so that his long, lanky arms were hanging over the crate in front of him. The kritter looked at him, frozen at his appearance. And then he noticed the weapon – the curved, sharp blade in Tobias’ right hand.

"Oh…God…"

"My name’s Tobias, actually. So please don’t address me as ‘God’." the lizard hissed, preparing to spring.

"I-I-I wasn’t…Sir…" the kritter trembled, hoping to be spared. He could tell that this guy was very dangerous.

"Do you think I’m stupid or something?" Tobias snapped, "I was being sarcastic, thankyou."

The kritter, still looking at Tobias, moved away from the crates slowly, trying to sneak away. But Tobias was fast, and before the kritter knew what had happened, Tobias had leapt up to him and was pinning him to the floor. The kritter hadn’t even realised that he had been pushed onto his back, but he now lay helpless on his back, held down by Tobias, who was sporting an evil, curved grin. "That was a very stupid thing to do…" Tobias hissed, holding the blade up to the kritter’s face, "I’ll just have to punish you, now."

The kritter began to sob and kick at his aggressor, feebly. "Please, I haven’t done anything!"

"Oh, but you have…" Tobias said, purring, "You just made a very…stupid…mistake…"

The kritter stiffened his body up and whined like a puppy as his eyes began to water.

A moment of pain.

He was dead.

Tobias’ slightly serious expression transformed into a gleeful one as he pulled the blade out of the kritter’s ribs. Fresh red blood was stained on it, and on Tobias’ claws. He was rather proud of himself – that one hadn’t been too noisy. The kritter probably hadn’t even realised that he was dead, and he seemed to almost be still alive. His eyes were open with fear and panic, but he showed no sign of feeling the fatal pain.

Licking the blade, Tobias stood up to look at the body. It was just the same as the other kritters he had killed, but this one looked more alive. That is, if there hadn’t been a great gaping hold in its chest. Tobias had cut right through the kritter’s heart. He had actually become quite accurate when doing things like that. He put it down to experience. Basically, he could work out exactly where to stab into the body…if he wanted to rip a liver in two, he could. He could do that for every part of the body…each organ, rather.

He had made another killing, and it was time to get the body out of the way before someone caught him. He was also pretty experienced when it came to hiding the bodies, too…

***

"Do you know who I saw over there?" Klump asked, sitting back down into his seat. There were only three pieces of pizza left now that Krusha had finished, and the two lizards looked intently at Klump, waiting for news. "I saw Katy. She was sittin’ at a table with some guy…I can’t believe it. She’s found someone else already…unless, of course, she already had that guy when she was seein’ me." He was glaring angrily at one part of the room, but Amy and Krusha couldn’t see the accused female over the sea of heads. "I feel so betrayed."

Amy pursed her lips. "I’m sorry, Klump."

The General turned back to the remainder of the pizza. "Is that mine?"

"Duh, yeah." said Krusha, showing very little remorse for having eaten about half his weight in pizza while Klump was absent.

Klump picked up a paper napkin and wrapped the pizza up with it. "In that case, I’m havin’ it to go. I can’t stand bein’ in the same restaurant as her." He tucked the pizza under his arm and stood up. "C’mon then, we’d better be getting back to the factory."

Krusha stood up, too, somewhat confused about why the General wanted them to leave. Amy stood up, as well, but instead of following Klump and Krusha, she wandered off in the direction that Klump had been looking in. She meandered her way between the tables, and finally reached her sister’s table. She was dressed in a tight green shirt and jeans, and was sitting at a table with a rather skinny yellow-scaled male kremling. Amy walked right up to the table and put her claws on her hips.

"Hello, sis."

Katy looked up from her menu. She gasped when she saw her sister, and she got to her feet. "Amy? What are you doing here?"

"I was having lunch with my boyfriend and my good friend Klump. I need a word with you."

She swallowed. "I know what you’re mad about, but I swear, I had good reason to do what I did."

The male lizard at the table just watched the two sisters, holding onto his menu while not looking at it.

"Klump has been miserable all day. I have never seen him so miserable, and it’s because of you that he’s this way. He means a lot to me, and I hate to see him like this."

"Amy, before you go any further, I have something to tell you. It affects you, too, so hear me out."

Amy crossed her arms. "Hmm?"

"Well…I found out yesterday from Uncle Skurvy that…well…" She leant closer to Amy and continued in a whisper. "Klump is related to us."

She blinked. "…what? How?"

"He’s our Uncle, too. Skurvy and Klump are brothers. Mom conveniently never told us that she had another brother. A baby brother."

"…are you making this up?"

"No, Amy, I’m not. When Klump was born, mom had already left home and wasn’t really involved with grandma any more."

"But Klump would’ve known that he was Skurvy’s brother…how come he didn’t bring it up or tell me?"

Katy seemed to know everything all of a sudden. "Klump never knew that Skurvy was our Uncle. He knew we had a pirate Uncle, but there are a million pirates out there. Even King K. Rool used to be one."

"Have you told Klump that that’s the real reason for breaking up with him?"

She shook her head. "No, I’d rather not…not think about it. The things him and I did together…we were almost married. What if that had gone ahead? And…and…the other stuff we did…it makes me feel ill."

"Right, then I’ll go tell him."

"What? Now?"

"No. I’ll tell him later on…maybe he’ll have time to sort himself out before I have to tell him that he almost married his own niece."

Katy sighed. "You’re still mad at me, aren’t you?"

"Sort of. It shouldn’t be any of my business, but Klump is a very close friend of mine. I’ll have to be there to comfort him, too." She looked into her sister’s eyes very deliberately. "He really loved you, you know." With that, she turned her back on her sister and set off briskly towards the exit, hoping that Klump and Krusha weren’t suspicious as to where she had been. She snaked her way between the tables, each with its own tablecloth with red and white squares. A few apes watched curiously as she left, but most of the customers were too busy eating to notice the female lizard who looked as though she was running a marathon.

Katy watched as her sister turned a corner outside the restaurant and disappeared from view. She had really loved Klump, but it wouldn’t have been right to keep seeing him even though she knew he was her Uncle…would it? Sighing, she sat back down at the table and held her head in her hands.

The lizard sitting opposite her finally put down his laminated menu. "Now, what was that all about?"

TO BE CONTINUED…
1

Tobias II : Part 5

By Klumpy

As soon as they arrived back, Klump wandered off by himself, leaving Amy and Krusha alone to spend the remainder of the lunch hour together. Amy sighed loudly as Klump left them. She was still feeling confused after finding out that Klump was really her Uncle, and was too overwhelmed to really think about telling him. She was supposed to be feeling happy about her promotion, too.

"Duh, he’s real upset…" said Krusha, stating the obvious.

"Uh huh…poor guy." She put her claws on her hips. "Do you think we should go after him?"

"Er…no, I think he’s, er, duh…sen…sensi…tive?"

"Yep – sensitive. You’re really extending your vocabulary."

Krusha grinned, proudly. He had been leafing through King K. Rool’s best dictionaries recently, and it was beginning to pay off. "Duh, do you desire to descend down to our lodgings and take part in some random transaction whilst down yonder?"

She smiled and held her hands behind her back. "Ooh, what kind of transaction are you thinking of?"

"I have no idea, but, duh…hmm…"

"How about some lurve?"

Krusha pondered for a moment. His face went completely blank. "Duh…uh…"

"Oh, just come here." She held out her arms, and he finally got the idea. He bent down and gave her a hug. "Yeah…that’s nice. And we’ve got the rest of our lunch break to do whatever we want."

"Mmm hmm." he replied, still hugging her.

"So, what should we do? We’ve got about ten minutes left."

"Wanna descend to the darkest depths of-"

She pulled away from the hug. "Yeah, let’s go downstairs. And there’s no need to impress me with all those fancy words. I love you anyway."

"Uh huh, Okay, yeah."

***

Upstairs, K. Rool was having a major headache. Angrily, he searched through the bathroom cabinets for some aspirin, having no luck at all. There was absolutely anything he could possibly need in these many cupboards, but nothing for his headache. How irritating. He picked up a small jar with the label of ‘Scale Cream’. Why did they have so many products they never even used? Tail Tonic, Claw Softener, Claw Hardener…he had no use for such things. He often regretted sending Klump and Krusha to do the shopping, because they would always come back with a hoard of useless junk. K. Rool took great pride in his appearance, but this was ridiculous.

"Hmph…I’ve never seen so many useless products since…since Crystal last maxed out my credit card on our…Christmas shopping…" Sighing, he put the jar down. That was why he never searched through these cabinets. He had forgotten how upset it made him. "Dear God…shame she hadn’t maxed it out on aspirin. That was years ago, and I’ve still half of all her things here." He reached into the cabinet again. "Rose scale cream, rose shower gel, rose perfume…everything rose. Still, it’s a nice smell." He put the jars and bottles back in, wondering how on Earth there wasn’t a single molecule of aspirin in the whole factory.

A gentle knock came on the bathroom door, and Klump gingerly entered the room. He looked worried. "Sir, I heard crashes, an’ I thought you might need some help."

K. Rool stood up and crossed his arms. "No, General, I’m fine. Just doing some ‘spring cleaning’, as it were. But as long as you’re here, I need you to make a raid on Cranky’s Cabin. You need to obtain the Crystal Coconut for me, so that I can become ruler over all Kongo Bongo." As he made his rather predictable proclamation, he sounded strangely tired, as though he too had finally got fed up of his glorious speeches. He was actually less than enthusiastic about sending Klump off to get that shiny Coconut wannabe, but it seemed like something he should say.

"Are ya sure you’re Okay, King K. Rool Sir?"

He sighed. "Yes, I’m fine…just looking at some of Crystal’s stuff."

Suddenly, Klump burst crying. He staggered forward to K. Rool and gave him a big hug. "That’s so sad!" he sobbed, "I can’t bear it!"

K. Rool growled. "General, please stop clinging to me. Someone could be watching, and you’re making a fool of yourself by doing that."

"Sir, I c-c-can’t! I…c…c…c…" Klump wailed loudly and hugged K. Rool even tighter, making it difficult for the King to breathe.

"Oh, what’s wrong?" He patted Klump lightly on the back, trying to calm him.

"I’m afraid I ain’t in a fit state to w-w-work! I feel so baaaad!"

"Klump, what’s the matter? You can tell me…" If he hadn’t just been thinking about his wife, he probably would have turned Klump away instantly.

Klump whined loudly. "Oh, Sir, it’s awful, dreadful! Somethin’ so bad that I can’t go on!"

"Come on, out with it."

He squealed, miserably. "Katy broke up with me, Sir! I can’t take it!" He slumped all of his body weight against K. Rool and slid slowly to his knees, whimpering.

"…oh…I’m sorry."

"King K. Rool, Sir, I’m on the verge of breakin’ down!" he howled, clinging to K. Rool’s leg and crying.

"I can understand why you’d be upset, but please let go of me."

Klump let go and got to his feet, brushing himself down. "Oh, sorry, Sir…I just…just…"

"Never mind. Just tell Krusha and Amy to retrieve my Coconut instead. I think you need to lie down, Klump."

The General nodded. "Yes, King K. Rool Sir. I’ll let them know. Thankyou, Sir."

***

"Amy, are ya in there?" Klump tapped lightly on her bedroom door, but with no response. "Amy? Oh well." He walked over to Krusha’s door and rapped his knuckles on it. "Krusha? Krusha, can I come in?"

A muffled reply of "Mmm hmm" came from the other side of the door, so he entered, somewhat uncertain of what he might find inside. He was relieved to find that Krusha and Amy were just sitting together on the bed. They looked quite innocent, so he didn’t accuse them of anything. "King K. Rool wants you two to make an all-out offensive on the Crystal Coconut PDQ." he said, bluntly.

"Why?" Amy whined.

"Because I can’t go because I need time to recover…from what was said to me…by…my ex-girlfriend…"

"Huh?" asked Krusha, still not really grasping what had been going on recently.

"…Klump, I need to talk to you regarding that." Amy said, standing up, "I don’t really want to, but it’s my duty as your friend."

Krusha looked down at her, confused. He had definitely missed something.

Klump looked equally confused. A frown crossed his face. "Lemme guess…you knew about her bein’ with that other guy?"

"No, but-"

"Or you witnessed her doin’ somethin’ with that guy at the pizza place and felt too guilty to tell me right away?"

"No, Klump…it’s something more…long-term than that." She walked up to Klump and held onto his claw. "I think we need to go somewhere private before I can tell you."

Klump looked at Krusha, who just looked back, innocently. "Yeah, sure. I’ll just follow you, then." He did as he said, and followed Amy obediently out of the door and into the hallway. She then continued to lead him into her room, and she closed the door. When he next looked at her, she was either worried or frightened – he couldn’t tell which. "Okay, now, Amy, what’s up?"

Quietly, Tobias peered out from underneath Amy’s bed. He looked up at where Amy and Klump were standing, and he couldn’t help thinking that an opportunity had arisen. He had eaten quite well and hadn’t vomited yet, so he wasn’t hungry…that meant he could concentrate on another goal.

"Klump, I know this might sound strange, but…" She sighed, knowing that she had to tell him. It didn’t sound right, though. She had always known Klump as her sister’s boyfriend, not as her Uncle. "Klump, I’m your niece."

"…what? Really?" He looked quite pleased by this news.

"Yes. You found out that Skurvy was your brother…he’s our Uncle. He’s the pirate Uncle we always talk about. That means that you’re my Uncle, too."

He clasped his claws together. "Wow…so your mom is my sister…man, I’ve gone from having no family at all to having a dang huge one!"

"Well, not HUGE, but bigger than nothing, eh?"

"I’ve been livin’ with my niece this whole time…" he marvelled, "And Katy…she…she was my niece, too…"

Amy sighed. "That’s why she left you. She told me at the pizza place…I was going to wait to tell you, but you were just so miserable…"

"…thanks. At least I know it wasn’t really somethin’ I did. I couldn’t help bein’ born, could I?"

"I’m glad you were. You’re a great friend, and I guess you’ll be as good an Uncle as anyone could be."

"Thanks. Again. Oh, gimme a hug, niece."

She smiled and held out her arms, warmly. "Sure, Uncle Klump- uh…maybe I’ll just stick with ‘Klump’. It makes you sound younger."

They hugged for a moment, keeping strangely quiet. It had been quite an eventful day for the both of them. Klump had discovered that he had two nieces, and Amy had found a new Uncle. Only that very same morning she had known him as ‘the General with no family tree’…what a change. She hoped they could still stay as friends as well as relatives.

Tobias looked at the cosy scene. It made him feel slightly ill. Any form of love was enough to drive him mad with jealousy. This sort of love wasn’t as bad as what he had seen between Amy and Krusha.

Krusha…

Yes, that stupid oaf. It was because of Krusha that Tobias hadn’t been able to secure Amy for himself on his first visit to the factory. What did she see in him, anyway? He didn’t have a single brain cell in his head. Tobias, on the other hand, was full of brain cells. He wanted to get back at Krusha, but he knew Amy would never let him injure the blue lizard. He had to do something else, and he knew what…if only it would work.

Amy began to feel slightly uneasy when Klump’s hug lingered a bit too long. She gently pushed away from him, but he didn’t seem willing to let her go. "Klump, it’s Okay, there’s no need to keep squeezing me."

"Yeah there is…" he sighed, still holding her, "…I really want you…"

Tobias grinned and crept right out of sight in the shadows under Amy’s bed. Just one more detail to add…

She smiled and got back into the hug again, holding herself against him. "I want you, too."

Tobias was so thrilled by this that he almost wet himself.

Klump looked at Amy for a moment, and then moved his face closer to hers. "Krusha would never know…"

"Exactly…just for a short time…he won’t have a clue…" She swallowed and moved her face right up to his. Their lips touched, and they kissed. It was strange…neither of them knew what was happening.

Tobias growled from under the bed, and Klump placed his claws on Amy’s hips.

"Man, this feels so good. Hey, don’t ya stop kissin’ me, now." They kissed again, more passionately this time. He slid his fingers down into her shorts, and felt the sensitive areas on either side of the base of her tail. "Oh yeah…"

"Keep doing that…mmm…it’s so nice…I think we had better lock the door, don’t you?"

Suddenly, Tobias felt a stabbing pain above his eyes. He yowled in pain and stumbled sideways, bumping into the wall underneath Amy’s bed. He felt a surge of warmth down in his stomach, and he retched. He was throwing up again. It was his punishment.

As soon as Tobias felt the stabbing pain, Amy and Klump snapped awake. From what they had last remembered, they had been hugging upon discovering that they were relatives. Nothing was unusual…apart from the fact that Klump’s claws were in Amy’s shorts, but she ignored that fact and pulled away from the hug. He looked so happy now.

"Oh, Amy…ain’t this great? You’re such a great kid…you’ll be a fabulous niece."

She smiled at him, wondering why she felt so pleasantly happy…it was definitely not to do with having a new family member. It was the sort of ‘happy’ that you feel when you’re snuggling against that special someone…how odd. "It’ll be great having you for an Uncle. But, er, you’re not going to encourage me to become a General, are you?"

"No, ‘course not. Why?"

"Because Uncle Skurvy spent ages training me to be a pirate. He was the ‘pirate Uncle’ who trained me for my Pirate’s Licence, remember?"

Klump laughed. "Yeah…that whole thing with me and the sex-change potion. Man…we’ve had some weird times, haven’t we?"

"Yep, and I’ve got a feeling they’ll just be getting weirder and weirder."

***

"Duh…you Okay?" Krusha asked when Amy next entered his room. He was sitting on the bed, expectantly, waiting for her to join him again.

"Yeah, I’m Okay. I just had to tell Klump something…everything’s Okay now. Klump’s taking care of my dog at the mo…it started throwing up not long ago, so he’s trying to get it to drink some water."

Krusha smiled. "Come here again. I’m lonely." Amy grinned happily and joined him on the bed. "Duh, where were we?"

"I don’t remember…oh well." She laid herself down on the bed. "Gimme a kiss."

"Duh, sure." He leaned down against her and kissed her on the lips. He looked slightly confused as their lips touched, and he pulled himself off her again. "Duh…you taste like…Klump."

Amy swallowed. "Oh…well, I just gave him a hug. That’s why."

It was a good enough reason for him. He smiled and lowered himself down against her again, kissing her face happily. She reached up to him and placed a claw on either side of his face, just to make sure that he couldn’t stop kissing her. She pulled away from him for a second, just long enough to say "I love you…so much…", and then she was back in the kiss again. She never wanted it to stop.

***

Out in the corridor, Tobias had finally been able to escape Klump’s attention. Thin traces of vomit dripped from the corners of his mouth, and the taste and smell of puke was almost too much to bear. He could feel the sickness all the way through his body…he had vomited up the entire kritter that he had just eaten. He was hungry again. At least Klump had retreated back into his room after forcing some water down Tobias’ throat, so the lizard in dog’s clothing was able to lurk wherever he wanted.

Oh man…my head…I feel so sick…

He walked up to Krusha’s door and sat for a second, just looking at it. There were passionate vibes coming from the room…his feeling of sickness increased. He felt furious about it. and pushed the door open with his nose.

He saw Amy and Krusha on the large bed - Amy was lying on her back with Krusha leaning over her. They were kissing.

Tobias snarled. He would have vomited again, had it not been for the fact that he had nothing left inside him to vomit up. The fur on his back arched, and his head felt as though it might burst. He released the anger inside him and sent it up to his brain, and the feeling was suddenly gone. He must have done something – he clenched his teeth together and everything blanked out. He lost consciousness and slid to the floor.

Amy felt a pain at the back of her head, and the next thing she knew, Krusha was pressing himself down on her a little too hard. She struggled slightly, but he wasn’t budging. "Krusha, that’s kinda hurting me-"

"Mmm, this is fun." he growled, pressing himself down against her even harder, "You’re so exquisite." She squealed as he moved his claw to feel eagerly underneath her shirt. She was on the verge of screaming – she wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

"Krusha, please, get off!"

He didn’t listen. His other claw moved down to her legs. He unfastened the front of her tight pink shorts and began to slip them down her legs. "Oh, Amy, I love you!"

She tensed her legs again, but for some reason didn’t feel as though she should be scared. After he said those words, she knew it was an act of love…she loved him, and she had no reason to stop him doing this to her. If he loved her and wanted to show his love in this way, she wasn’t going to stop him. Although it didn’t really seem like something that Krusha would do… "I love you, too…"

He kissed her stomach, softly, and laid his head down against her chest. She felt so soft. When she looked down at him to show her approval, he looked quite scared.

"What’s wrong?"

He sniffed loudly. "…I’m s-sorry…I didn’t mean…to…" He buried his face against her chest, and she tensed again.

"It’s alright, my love…you don’t have to do anything more if you don’t want to."

He was in tears. "I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to do that, I just…just…I just love you so much, and I…I’m scared…"

"It’s Okay to be scared of it…I was scared, too, for a moment…but I know you would never hurt me…" She hugged his neck, and he whimpered. "Now, would you please put my shorts back on?"

He nodded and lifted himself off her. Looking down at her, he saw how pretty she actually was. He had never really appreciated it before now…he felt guilty about touching her in those never-before-seen areas. It had been some kind of sudden and brief obsession. He didn’t know why. Slowly, he slid her shorts back up her legs and fastened them up again, taking great care not to hurt her. He was glad that she wasn’t mad at him…she was so small, he could easily have hurt her. She had almost been...enjoying it. Now that she was fully clothed again, she leant up against him and rested her head against his chest.

"Krusha…you know, if you ever wanted to do that again, I wouldn’t mind."

He sighed. "Duh, I, er, I didn’t mean to do it the first time. It didn’t feel right…I’m sorry…"

"Oh, no problem…I didn’t really mind you doing it…there’s plenty of time for it after we get married, though, isn’t there?"

He swallowed. "Married? Duh…really?"

"Of course. I’d marry you a second. Half a second." She gently nuzzled his chest with her snout.

Smiling, he shifted his position so that he was facing her more directly. "Well, duh, that’s great news because…well…I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while…er…I’m not exactly sure how to do this, but, er…"

"My God, is that Toby by the door?" Amy asked, standing up abruptly. Krusha wasn’t too pleased at being cut off, but at least it meant that he could have some more time to think about it.

The two of them walked over to where the dog lay on the floor, legs splayed out to all sides, ears spread out on the floor, tail limp. Amy knelt down beside the dog and lifted his head, gently. He was definitely unconscious.

"Oh, poor boy…"

She looked at Toby for a moment, but he remained unmoving. Holding her breath, she lifted the dog up onto her shoulder and prepared to carry him back into her room. He was completely limp, and she wondered if maybe he was making himself as heavy as possible on purpose to annoy her.

"Krusha, you don’t mind, do you? I think I need to keep an eye on Toby in my room."

"Duh, no problem…I’ll just miss you."

She smiled. "You’re so sweet. That’s why I love you so much." Staggering slightly, she walked out into the hall, carrying Toby on her shoulder. "See you later, sweetheart."

"Yeah…bye."

***

When Tobias finally came around, his head was throbbing. He opened his eyes slowly, and found that he was in Amy’s room again. Long veins of excruciating pain pulsed in his skull, and he placed his paws over his head. Agony. At least he was comfortable lying on Amy’s bed.

Amy herself was over by the small desk and chair that she used for a great number of things, and she was currently adjusting her bra strap. After what had happened with Krusha, she had wisely decided to put something on underneath her clothes. At the moment, though, she was just wearing her underwear, as she was getting ready to go to bed.

Tobias whimpered. "What time is it?"

Upon hearing his voice, Amy jumped and turned around. "Tobia- er, I mean…Toby, you’re up. How nice. Don’t look."

He smiled. "I’m already looking."

"Oh well…I guess it’s just something we Welsh do. For some reason, I’ve seen quite a few Welsh people who scream ‘don’t look, don’t look!’, but that just makes you want to look. And you didn’t need to know that at all, but I told you anyway."

Tobias blinked. "Yeah, right…whatever you say. I only meant to say that you look…pretty."

She smiled. "Thankyou." He looked at her intently as she joined him on the bed. His pain was subsiding. "You’ve been unconscious for quite a while. You’re only just getting up as I’m going to bed." She reached behind him and grabbed her night-dress.

"Yeah…I’m just…just recovering. I’ve not been feeling too well. So, how did things go with, er, what’s-his-name?"

She slipped her night-dress on over her head. "Krusha, you mean?"

"Yeah, him." The dog grunted slightly upon hearing Krusha’s name.

She straightened the night-dress and clambered up onto the bed. "Things went fine. We…we got a bit cosy, but that’s about it."

The dog cocked his head to one side. "Are you sure? I’m…sensing something more, here." As he tried to tune into her mind, his head began to hurt again. There was definitely something more to this.

"Oh, alright, he got incredibly eager with me…but it was weird, because after a really short time he started crying and kept apologising. He looked really scared."

He moved sideways on the bed to allow her to get under the covers. "So, did it put you off him?"

"Not at all. I actually liked it. Klump wouldn’t have approved, seeing as how he wants Krusha and I to save ourselves for marriage, but I thought it was Okay. It felt quite nice when he touched me." When she heard Toby growl at this comment, she was somewhat confused. In an effort to comfort him, she touched his head and began to fondle his ears. "What is it?"

"That was meant to put you off him." he grumbled, lowering his head, "I guess it just didn’t work."

"…what are you saying?"

"…I made him do that. That’s what I was doing in the doorway. I made him do that because I was angry at the two of you…I guess I just fainted."

"…you made him do that?" she repeated, quietly, "I thought it seemed somewhat out-of-character…but hang on, why would you do that? There’s no need to be angry."

"Yes there is!" he snarled, "I’m mad because you have someone! I…I really, really wanted to have you when I first met you, but he had reached you first. He still has you now, and I want you so much…but I can’t feel love." He closed his eyes tightly and turned his head away from her. "I’m jealous of what he’s got."

"Now, Toby, what was it you said about a change of heart? You’ll be able to escape this negative karma, find that female and feel love for her. If you want her, why are you still angry with Krusha for loving me?"

"It’s just because I think you’re so great. The only other female I’ve ever admired in this way is Crystal Rool…but K. Rool took her from me." He growled and dug his claws into the bed. "That is why I hate him…I hate his son…I hate their whole family."

Sighing, she laid her head down on her pillow and looked up at the ceiling. "Toby, hating the Rools will get you nowhere. I’ll see what I can do for you tomorrow…maybe a new image will do you good. I’ll have more time, since it’s the weekend."

He made a pitiful whimpering noise. "…Why won’t you and Krusha just break up? It’s awful for me to watch…"

"Tobias, he loves me and I love him. I’m sorry, but we can’t help being in love."

"Don’t you remember what I did to you and Klump? There are no lengths I won’t go to in order to break you two up!"

She swallowed and looked over at him. "Klump? What about him?"

"You and him got cosy…I thought that if Krusha came in on the two of you, it’d make him leave you. That didn’t work, so I decided to make him act cosy with you, and you damn well enjoyed it! What am I going to have to do to break you and Krusha apart?!"

He somewhat regretted saying that. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead right there and then. But she didn’t speak. She had nothing to say to him. She was too angry. Growling and glaring at him, she turned away from him in a huff. "Just go to sleep, Tobias." she grumbled, "I’ll see you in the morning." From the sound of her voice, she was making every possible effort not to scream at him. He had more sense than to reply, so he turned away from her firmly and curled up, trying to keep warm. He was hungry again…but this time, he felt too guilty to make any moves. Waiting a while would probably do him some good…and he didn’t want to disturb Amy while she was falling asleep. Just a little while longer…

***

A little while later…

A kritter, awake much later than it would usually be, crept across the main hall towards a pile of dusty cardboard boxes. He didn’t want to disturb anyone this late at night – it was about midnight already. Exhausted from his full day of unsympathetic work, he sat down on the cold floor to catch some rest. Breathing hard, he placed a claw to his forehead. "Whoa…I need my bed. I’ll be able to catch about…five hours of sleep before work starts again. I wonder if all this hard work will ever pay off…"

Still exhausted from his non-stop activity that day, he found no reason to get up. His bed was so far away…and everywhere was so cold. The floor was as good a sleeping accommodation as he could have.

"You know, being lazy is the worst fault I can think of. One of them, anyway…" commented a soft, deep voice.

"Yeah. I know…I’m just so tired. I’ve worked so hard for the past few months." the kritter said sleepily, not really knowing who he was talking with, "I’m hoping that King K. Rool’ll give me a vacation someday. As soon as I get the chance, I’ve got to ask a certain female if she’ll marry me. Then no more work for as long as K. Rool will allow. Can’t life be so cruel?"

"You have no idea."

The kritter had obviously been keeping these feelings inside him for a while, and was thankful to have someone to talk to, no matter who it was. Even if he had no idea of who it might be. Who…or WHAT for that matter.

The kritter smiled slightly and traced something on the factory floor with one of his claws – possibly a symbol, or the name of his ‘special female’. Tobias, of course, didn’t care.

"So…why’re you here so late? I’ve just been trying to finish as much work as I can. Have you done work on this new doomsday device? I don’t know where that wacko K. Rool gets his ideas."

Tobias was slightly insulted that anyone, even someone who didn’t know him, might think that he worked for K. Rool. Tobias felt he was a loner, that he did only what he wanted. For now, he had, once again, forgotten his oath to turn over a new leaf.

"Bloody Hell, no! I wouldn’t work for that…that…IDIOT in a million years!"

"Okay, don’t get your underpants in a bunch!" the kritter said, standing up, suddenly awake. He blinked and looked around in the near-dark – the few lights that illuminated the main hall didn’t cast much actual light on the scene, and even as he looked around another bulb decided to die with a sharp ping. He barely noticed this – he was more concerned that the someone he had been talking to had not yet revealed his whereabouts. And there had been rumors spreading through the kritter community lately. Rumors of a monster with a taste for kritter blood.

"Where are you?" he said, backing up towards the cardboard boxes again. When there was no answer, he called louder, "Show yourself!"

He hoped to God that someone could hear him. Someone who didn’t want to feast on his insides.

Then, slowly, like some form of creeping vine, he felt something grasp his legs. Something cold and firm…and very strong. With a sudden sharp pull, the kritter was down on his stomach, trying to see what was clinging around his ankles. He had only been able to gasp with shock at the strength of this creature. In his panic, he couldn’t speak – he was silently praying that someone else had heard his calls. He tried to yell again when he felt something unnatural going on below his left knee, but his voice had gone. All that came out of his mouth was a coarse moan, and this scared him even more. He grasped onto the floor and tried to use his claws to pull away from the grip, but it was useless – the creature pulled again and his claws snapped right off with the force.

Suddenly, he felt a change. He opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he could – the sound echoed around the main hall, and the creature’s grip on his legs almost gave way. When his voice returned, so did some of his senses, and he was able to scream. And scream he did.

"Help!" he shrieked, still struggling against the ever-slackening grip on his ankles, "Someone help me! I’m being eaten alive! Oh God, help!"

The grip on his legs gave way completely, and he slumped to the floor (although he was already on the floor), gasping, arms still outstretched from his effort to escape. His mouth felt dry, and he closed his eyes with exhaustion.

The sound of hurried clawsteps heading in his direction was music to his ears. Two other kritters, both fairly small in stature, rushed over to him. One of them attempted to help him to his feet, while the other looked on in wonder. The onlooker took a brief glance around the area and then looked back to his injured fellow lizard. "The…m-murderer! The kritter eater!" he exclaimed, tugging on the arm of the other kritter (who was being useful in helping the injured lizard stand up), "Look at his leg…it’s awful!"

The injured lizard was promptly dropped back onto the floor when his helper looked at the leg that had felt the sensation. Almost all the flesh from below his knee had been eaten away. It had actually been quite a clean job, but this didn’t make the three lizards feel any better.

"We’re all gonna die!" the former onlooker squealed, hopping up and down while pointing at the savaged limb.

The once helpful kritter was almost lost for words. The only word that slipped out of his mouth was "s**t…"

A sudden burst of laughter almost caused three simultaneous heart-attacks for the lizards. The injured kritter propped himself up on his arms and looked around – the voice came from everywhere. Had anyone else in the factory heard it? "Th-that’s him…that’s the voice…" he gasped.

"Hmm, now let me see…" the voice pondered, clearly wanting to distract them in some way, "I think I know quite a bit about you three. Where shall I begin?"

The smallest of the kritters (the former onlooker) was squealing like a cornered mouse.

"Firstly…Simon, born on the 29th of December, Capricorn…you’re organised and realistic. Secondly, Barry…born on the…22nd of May, Gemini…you’re youthful, quick and inquisitive. And of course, Darien…"

At the mention of his name, the former onlooker nearly passed out.

"…you are…Cancer, born on the 21st of July…aha, you’re a typical Cancer. You’re caring, protective…and too easily hurt. How nice…"

Barry finally found some words to say. "What are you trying to do to us?" he asked, turning in a small circle to try to find the source of the voice. He almost tripped over Simon, who was still gasping on the floor. Darien was in the process of biting his claws off in his fright.

"Oh, and there’s another thing I know about you all." the voice continued, as though it was making a firm point, or was about to, "You are all about to die."

Something sharp and almost invisible shot through the air and plunged straight into Barry’s chest. Only Darien had seen it coming, and he was screaming louder than Barry was. The object had been some kind of poisoned crystal shard, as Barry observed when he pulled it out of his flesh. Blood trickled down it and onto the floor, and this was the last thing he saw. His world faded into black, and he slumped to the floor, killed by the fast-working poison. His eyes were closed, and his mouth showed the signs of a slight smile. The crystal grasped in his claw vanished now that its task was complete.

Darien wasn’t aware of it, but a psychic kremling was hovering about twenty feet in the air just behind him. Grinning at the sight of his prey, Tobias waved his slender right hand in front of his face and clenched it into a fist.

Darien screamed and clutched his head, doubling over with the pain. It was as though twenty skewers were being stabbed through his skull, and he felt as though his spine was breaking. The pain was too much, and he passed out from horror. Tobias cackled and clapped his claws together, sending a white-hot surge of energy through the kritter’s body. This pain seemed to wake him up, but he wasn’t really controlling himself. He twitched madly on the floor, muttering something and dribbling saliva from the corners of his mouth. His eyes were open, and thick bloody lines spread from the corners of his eyes towards the pupil – he looked like he had really bloodshot eyes. The bloody veins in his eyes were visibly throbbing, and his whole head was pulsing.

The last kritter, Simon, was trying to stand up on his legs, but this was made difficult because he could only really use one of them. He stood up, but immediately stumbled backwards and crashed into a pile of thick metal chains. He could barely stand to watch Darien’s suffering, and he tried to raise his head to look at Tobias. The dark lizard was obviously having plenty of fun – the thoughts of becoming more gentle and loveable were far from his mind. Torture was what he wanted. To make these remaining lizards suffer as much as possible.

Slowly, he hovered down to the floor to be level with his two remaining victims. He stood directly opposite Simon, feet apart, mouth open in an evil, bloodthirsty grin. "Hello, Simon…and how are you?"

"Keep away from me!" the victim yelled, trying to run but finding he couldn’t. He collapsed back onto the floor, gasping for breath. Darien was in an even worse condition – his eyeballs looked as though they were going to pop out at any moment. Either that, or his head was going to explode.

Darien was ignored by Tobias for the time being. Simon had been his original victim, and Tobias could be very stubborn when he needed to be. Which was often.

Slowly, Tobias advanced towards Simon, who was clutching what remained of his left leg and moaning with pain. As the dark lizard drew closer, the terrified kritter noticed that he had blood on his lips and teeth…blood from his leg, no doubt. Well, he was not going to be getting the rest of him.

As though he could tell what Simon was thinking (and he jolly well could), the predator darted towards his victim and grabbed onto his shoulders. Slowly, he lifted the kritter up into a standing position, using a surprising amount of strength to keep him upright.

"What are you going to do to me?…" the kritter wheezed, staring deeply into Tobias’ beautiful eyes. Something was going to happen – the kritter could sense it. When he had pulled away from the frightening grip, he had thought he had escaped from death…but that wasn’t the case. Here he was, being held upright by the very lizard who was about to test out a new strategy…

"Tell me, you…bastard…" Simon choked, feeling quite dizzy all of a sudden. There seemed to be at least three ‘Tobiases’ surrounding him.

Tobias took a deep breath and gazed at the kritter’s throat, calculating something. There was nobody else coming to the rescue, so he had all the time in the world…until morning, anyway.

He suddenly darted his head forward at the kritter’s neck, mouth open, letting out a panther-like snarl. He stabbed his teeth deep into the lizard’s firm neck, piercing through the scales with a force that felt, to the kritter, like that of a train crashing into a brick wall. Tobias slowly began to close his jaws around the neck, feeling the taste of blood reaching his tongue, delighting in this whole new tactic. The kritter was still alive, but not making a sound. He was gritting his teeth together and trying to ignore the pain, for some reason. He glanced weakly over at Darien, a suffering kritter on the floor – the poor little guy was clearly in much more pain than Simon himself. A tear seeped out of his eye as Tobias felt a fresh surge of blood reach his lips – the tear was for Darien, not for himself. If he could have comforted him, he would have, but his voice was long dead.

Tobias was getting rather ticked-off. His victims were getting braver…either that, or he was getting too soft. He wanted to hear a nice scream…but he didn’t get any. Angrily, he slammed his jaws together and pulled sharply away from his victim, ripping his throat out. There was still no reaction from his victim…who slowly closed his eyes and sank to the floor.

"Bloody Hell!" Tobias yelled (after swallowing Simon’s throat, of course), "What is WRONG with everyone? Am I getting too nice or something?"

Angrily, he turned to look at Darien, who was suffering dreadfully. He sighed and walked over to where the young lizard lay, twitching on the floor, dead to the world around him. The whites of his eyes had turned yellow, and a murky red liquid seeped out of his mouth along with the drool. Tobias bent down next to him and scowled.

"Nobody ever gives me pleasure any more…" he grunted. He reached down to Darien’s face and gently stroked his cheek, as though he was stroking a cat. He then leaned down right next to his face and planted a lick on his cheek.

Why the Hell did I do that? Am I going mad?

Now angry with himself, Tobias yelled a curse at the top of his voice, determined not to go soft on this kritter. He reached down to Darien’s right eye and ran a claw along the milky yellow orb (along with its bloody veins). Darien couldn’t feel it. He may have been alive, but he was very much dead and suffering.

Tobias closed his hand around Darien’s right eyeball and pressed down on it, squeezing his claws behind the eye, and then he pulled with a short, sharp force. There was a snap, and Tobias had an eyeball resting in the palm of his hand. He held it up to his face and looked casually at it. It was…looking at him. Pitifully…it was indeed looking at him.

Alright…I’ve had my fun…

He closed his eyes and hissed…and Darien stopped struggling. His body was still. Tobias reached down to him and closed his left eye…but a yearning was still in his mind. He had to do something properly…

***

Upstairs, something unusual was going on again. As was usual, the gentle snoring coming from King K. Rool’s room was the only real sound. The atmosphere in the corridor was sinister and quiet…the slightest movement produced the loudest noise.

As Amy wandered along the corridor, she bumped into a wall. This time, she felt almost totally blind as she sleep-walked. It had been a long and painful process making her way up the stairs. Yawning gently, she placed a claw against the wall, trying to get her balance back. Her head was spinning.

From a nearby door, she heard the sound of voices – someone must have woken up. She would have been worried if she had actually been fully conscious.

"Oh man, there’s something out there!" said a young male voice, "I’m gonna go check it out, Okay Dad?"

There was a loud yawn, followed by a tired voice that Amy recognised. "Alvin…it’s late…we can…see what it is…in the…morning…just go to sleep."

The young male creature growled. "Daaad…my name is ‘Kasplat’, remember?"

"Oh Alvin, go to sleep!" snapped a female voice, also young, "Daddy’s sleepy, and you’re waking everyone up!"

"Huh? What?" said a new young voice, "Who’s yelling?"

The most mature voice in the room came back, slightly irritated. "Look, kids, let’s all just go to sleep, Okay? As I…said…" he continued, beginning to trail off again, "…we can see what it is in the…mor…morning…"

Amy smiled sleepily and continued down the corridor as the squabble in that room died down. She felt so strangely happy…and so giddy…her eyes were glazed over, and her claws groped the side of the corridor as she hugged the wall, trying not to lose her balance again. Another yawn…so sleepy…so cold…so unaware…

Clumsily, she reached in front of her for the door handle. She had arrived outside K. Rool’s chamber again. She missed twice, but was finally able to grasp the handle firmly in her right claw. Once again, she could feel two strong forces pulling at her mind. Something cold and dark was pulling her forward, making her turn the door handle slowly…and a warm, welcoming something was pulling her away from the door and back towards her own room, safe beneath the main factory hall. She felt the extreme contrast between the forces, she knew they were trying to pull her in different directions, but she couldn’t do anything. She had a feeling Tobias was playing with her mind again…he wanted Krusha to catch her doing something awful. Poor Krusha. If he caught her in bed with the King or snuggling with the General, he wouldn’t know what to do. He would be too childlike and innocent to understand it. He had even been puzzled by his own actions earlier, so goodness knows how upset and perplexed he would be.

Don’t worry, dear…you’ll be Okay…

She gulped. Someone was talking to her…someone…kind. She stopped in her tracks for a moment, and glanced around, dreamily. This room…she always felt so comfortable in this room. Like she had slept there before…like she had made love to someone very dear in that bed…

I’m going to take care of you…

"Oh, my head…" She placed a claw to the side of her skull and clenched her teeth…her headache was causing her dreadful pain…it was as though she was being told to do so many different things at once that her head was going to burst. She gasped and swallowed, gradually gaining more of her senses back. She was waking up, and yet she was still in another world.

A sharp pull in her brain made her stagger forward, and she almost lost her footing. The pain was mounting. Trying to keep her balance, she held her arms out to her sides. She felt another stabbing pain.

No…I won’t let this happen…

"Someone help me…" Suddenly, a feeling of pain, so incredible that it made her feel as though she was being mauled by a band of rabid hyenas, ripped through the middle of her body. She clenched her claws together so tightly that it drew blood, and she collapsed to the floor, twitching and gasping. Two forces departed from her body. A dark purple vapour rose from the top of her head and vanished into nothing. As she hit the floor, a pale pink mist spread out from her chest and drifted over to K. Rool’s bed. As the mist touched him, K. Rool’s body tensed, and he smiled. Still asleep, he stroked the pillow next to his, and moved his position so that his snout touched the fabric. "Crystal…"

The mist spread around the King’s body and enveloped him, gently. The expression of contentment on his face was really beautiful, and he gently stroked Crystal’s pillow, deep in a dream.

It’s alright…everything is Okay now…just sleep, my love…

K. Rool smiled and moved closer to the pillow, still stroking it. A small tear trickled out of his eye. "Oh, Crystal…I thought I would never…never see you…again…"

Over on the floor, not far from the bed, lay Amy, asleep. She breathed gently, unaware of where she was and what she had almost done. She didn’t care…the harmful hold on her was gone, and she was so tired…

Unknown to her, in the bed, K. Rool was living some of his fondest loving memories once more. He sighed, overwhelmed with happiness, being able to feel his wife beside him again. He could feel her and smell her alongside him…he didn’t care if it was a dream. He didn’t care if it was a result of insanity. All he knew was that Crystal was there with him in some way, and he didn’t intend to let her go ever again.

Until morning, my love…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Tobias II : Part 6

By Klumpy

K. Rool woke up the next morning feeling incredibly refreshed. Yawning, he slowly sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. "Ah, what a pleasant dream…" he sighed, "I really felt that Crystal was with me again. Such dreams are always welcome." He blinked and looked around the room, but there was no sign of Crystal. Sadly, it had definitely been a dream…but it had felt so real…

He was rather shocked, however, to see Amy asleep on the carpet. She was curled up, cosily, and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. She was sleeping as calmly as though she was asleep in her own bed.

"Miss Croc?" She didn’t respond, so he clambered out of bed and ambled over to her. He stood over her, but she kept sleeping. "Amy, are you alright? Wake up." He gently prodded her with his toe-claws, and she began to stir. He had been slightly worried about her. "Good morning, Miss. What are you doing on my floor?"

She yawned and stretched out her limbs. "I’m…sleeping…Sir…"

"For Heaven’s sake, Amy, if you want to lie-in this morning, please do it in your own room." He crossed his arms and looked down at her, poking her with his foot again.

"Yes, Sir…I’m getting up…" Still yawning, she got to her feet and leant up against K. Rool for balance. "I’m sleepy, Sir."

"Well, I respect that, but please leave." Despite that he was meant to be annoyed with her, he was smiling broadly as he spoke. He looked as though something marvellous had happened to him.

She shook her head to wake herself up a little more, and looked curiously at him. He looked…unnatural. "Are you alright, Sir?"

"Yes, perfectly fine, my dear. I couldn’t be better. Now, what say you get out of my bedroom and enjoy your weekend?"

She smiled. "Oh, of course…right away, Sir."

As she turned to leave, he spoke up, stopping her in her tracks. "But before you go, I have some…reports for you to file for me." He walked over to a large, ornamental dresser and opened a drawer. Muttering to himself, he searched through a pile of papers inside the drawer, obviously trying to find the aforementioned reports.

"Anything serious, Sir?"

"Oh…just a death report or two." he sighed, pulling a wad of papers out of the dresser and beginning to leaf through them.

"Death? Oh dear."

"Yes…a few kritters have gone missing recently. Kritters are so attentive and punctual…we’re having to file them as dead already." He pulled out a thin wad of paper from the big pile he was holding, and returned the excess into the drawer. "Here we go…the latest case was…yesterday. Kritter #228 vanished yesterday after leaving his appointed sector…all they found of him was a magazine, which I promptly confiscated and ran through a shredder. Disgusting…but some of the other kritters think they saw him leaving with that particular magazine under his arm."

"Right…" she pondered, as he handed her the papers, "…so what do I need to do with these papers?"

He handed her a large box-file, which she took without enthusiasm. "You fill out the death reports for the particular kritters, my dear. I have the statistics of every kritter in that file. Just add the information to the reports so that I can total them to the ever-increasing kritter death tally."

"Whatever you say, Sir. I’ll get going, then." As she waddled towards the door, laden with papers and sheets, someone opened the door and stood in the doorway.

"Ah, Khris, you’re up. A little early to be awake at the weekend, though."

Khris Rool looked rather tired, so it probably was a little early for him to be awake. A band of young cats was gathered around his feet, expectantly. "Dad…do we have any mi…milk?"

K. Rool grinned. "Of course we do. I’m sure there’s some down in the mess hall kitchens." He looked down at the cats, who looked back up at him with big, watery eyes. "Ah, taking part in the work of the animal shelter are we, my son?"

"Well, uh…"

"Daaad," whined one of the cats, looking up at Khris with a confused expression, "what’s this guy talking about? Is he grandpa?"

Khris looked a little stressed. "Er, well-"

"What?!" screamed K. Rool, "What is the meaning of this?! Who are these cats, and why are they standing in my doorway?!"

The smallest cat, who was wearing a black shirt and a beret, whimpered. "Daaad, he’s scaring me…"

"Dad?!" snapped K. Rool, stepping right up to his son, "What is the meaning of this?! Don’t tell me…they’re not from the sanctuary, are they?"

"Well…no."

"Why are you yelling at our Dad?" growled a slightly stocky cat with blue fur, leather pants and spiky black and white hair.

K. Rool clenched his teeth. "Is he your father? If so, I have some questions for him…"

"Had I better leave?" Amy asked, gingerly. She was still clinging to the cargo that her king had given her.

"Yes. Please leave, Miss Croc. I have to discuss something with my son."

Khris laughed nervously. "It’s a funny story, really…"

Not wanting to get further caught up in this situation, Amy squeezed past Khris through the doorway and walked briskly along the corridor. She had yet to check on Tobias…

***

When Amy entered her room, Tobias was sitting quietly on her bed. Afraid that she was still mad about yesterday, he lowered his head, showing that he meant no harm. His long feathery ears hung at the sides on his head, limp. His tail stopped wagging. However, she didn’t look angry. Actually, he could barely see her face behind the pile of stuff she was carrying. "Need a paw?" he asked, still trying to look harmless.

She staggered over to the bed and let all the papers drop onto it. Tobias had to leap aside as she did so, and he landed nimbly on the floor. "Man, death reports…I tell you, Toby, this promotion might not be quite as fun as I had hoped." She looked down at Tobias with a huff. "How are you today, then?"

He still couldn’t work out whether or not she was angry. "I’m…fine…and you?"

"I’m Okay. Just tired. Oh, and I woke up in King K. Rool’s bedroom again. I can’t say I enjoyed that. And in local news, King K. Rool’s son is the proud father of a group of kittens. But nothing unusual."

"…Okay…" he grunted. She seemed to be…between emotions.

"Oh, Toby…I feel so tired…and I’ve got to sort out these death reports for some kritters. Not the most fun thing in the world. And then I’ve got to go and get you some new clothes to change your image." She picked up some of the papers and looked at them, aimlessly.

Tobias looked around at the room, over at the pile of clothes by the door. "You’ve got plenty of clothes here."

"You don’t want to wear those clothes, though." she sighed, "They’re mine. I doubt you’d look good in a skirt."

"You never know…"

"Forget it. I’ll get you your own clothes. I need to get your measurements, though." She pointed over towards her small desk. "There’s a tape-measure in one of those drawers. I need you to measure yourself for me, since I’m busy." She opened the box-file and turned to the page of kritter #228, and started to casually fill out the death report with a fountain pen.

Over by the desk, Tobias slowly morphed back into his real self. It was a great relief to get rid of those floppy ears… His markings came back first, and his soft fur was sucked back into his elbows, tail and stomach. He stood upright once again, and he was glad of it. "Man…it feels good to be my normal height again." He reached into the top drawer of the desk and pulled out a long tape-measure. "How many measurements do you want?"

"As many as possible…" she said, keeping her eyes on the page in front of her.

"Okay, then." He wrapped the measure around his slim stomach, and then around his upper left arm.

Just as she put her pen to the paper to state the date of birth, a loud burst of static came from the intercom speaker in the top corner of her room. After a few more moments of crackling, K. Rool’s voice was heard. He sounded distraught. "Amy, please report back to my chamber instantly – it’s urgent! Please hurry!" He then faded out into static again.

Everything was so sudden that Amy’s body didn’t quite know how to function. She blinked a few times before getting up from her desk. "Oh dear. I’d better get up there. Now Toby," she added, turning to the taller lizard, "please be good while I’m gone. I’ll be back as soon as possible, Okay?" She then turned and briskly marched out of the door, closing it firmly behind her without another word.

Tobias watched her as she left, and then turned his attention back to the tape measure. He looked down at it, and then wrapped it around his thigh, getting the measurement. "Man…am I really that fat?" he pondered, looking at the reading, "Oh well. I can always diet." He was obviously oblivious to the fact that he was practically a skeleton. He folded the tape measure up and placed it back on Amy’s desk, not really bothered to find out how ‘bloated’ he really was. There had to be something for him to do while she was away. He was feeling somewhat lazy, but he also felt hungry. Again. And when he was hungry, he was dangerous. "Hmm…there has to be something for me to do that’d get my mind off food…"

Looking around the room for some hints as to what to do, his eyes strayed onto Amy’s pile of clothes. They had probably just been cleaned, as they had been folded and didn’t look dirty – she probably just had nowhere else to put them.

"Yes…that might work." he thought out loud. Wringing his claws together, he walked over to the pile of clothes and bent down to have a look. They were mainly shirts, skirts and pants, with the odd T-Shirt or dress. She must have just done some mass dry cleaning if all of her stuff was lying on the floor, just waiting to be worn. "Hey…quite nice." He picked up a long white dress and had a look at it – there was a rim of sequins going around the neck and the hem, so it might have been an evening dress, although it appeared to be something to be worn in bed rather than at dinner.

This dress, along with a few other things in the pile, was something that had been an impulse buy. Amy had never really worn it more than once, and it looked as though it had just come off the rack. Maybe that was because it had just been cleaned, but it looked very stylish. It was a long dress, and was probably a bit too big for her. Tobias noted this as he held the dress up against himself, noting that it came down to just above his ankles.

"Hmm…I might be able to use this…" Still holding it up against himself, he twirled around in a circle, causing the base of the dress to float gracefully. Yep, it seemed to be a mixture of a dinner dress, a nightdress and a dancing dress all in one. Now there’s value for money. "Yes…this will be very useful…if I could only…"

Some hurried footsteps suddenly passed outside the room. Tobias, petrified at the thought of someone marching in while he was admiring a lady’s dress, delved into the pile of clothes and tried to hide himself underneath, breathing slowly. He really had to be less nervous…

Luckily for him, the footsteps went past the door and continued along the corridor. Still, he was too nervous to come out from hiding until a gentle whirring sound informed him that the someone had taken the elevator up to the main factory hall. He waited a few moments longer before emerging, his eyes darting around the room in case someone leapt out at him.

"…where was I? Oh yeah…" He picked the dress up again and looked at it, trying to work out the perfect measurements to fit into it…of course, it was slightly too short for him to wear in his current state, so he’d have to make a few changes.

Concentrating hard, closing his eyes, he began to change his form. He lowered his head slightly, deep in concentration, hoping that he would be able to transform without collapsing into some kind of coma. It had been getting harder and harder for him to do this sort of thing as of late…but he was going to try anyway. Suddenly, he opened his eyes, and his pupils dilated completely, leaving no trace of his gorgeous blue irises. He kept his faraway stare going as he raised his claws to his chest, and gently placed the tips of his fingers against his skin. He had to clench his teeth to prevent himself from screaming from the agonising pain that suddenly ripped through the whole of his body, and he doubled over, not breathing, still trying to concentrate. He closed his eyes tightly and dug his claws into his skin. The feeling of his bones scraping and changing was agonising, and he wanted to scream as loud as possible, or, at the very least, curse a few times, but he was in too much pain to do either of those things…and yet he felt as though he wanted to keep going.

All of a sudden, the pain spread right from the tips of his toes and out the top of his head, and then it was gone. He was left with a warm, yet cool, feeling throughout the whole of his body, which also departed through the top of his head, making it feel as though a cascade of water was flowing out of his scalp. He smiled slightly, still standing up, as his body made the final changes. He felt so cool and fresh…like Spring’s first daisy.

"Ah…good…it’s over…I didn’t feel a thing." Still smiling slightly, he opened his eyes and lifted his claws off his chest, looking down at his new body. His smile broadened. "Hello…well, aren’t I looking good?"

Eagerly, he bounded over to Amy’s desk again, looking at himself in Amy’s mirror. He looked nothing like himself…he looked like a completely different lizard…he was female.

"My God, I could be the next cover-girl for that Playboy magazine with this body…" He turned sideways, still looking at himself. His scales weren’t black any more, as he had expected, and were, in fact, yellow. His chest plates and stomach were just a paler shade of yellow. All of the black in his body had flowed out through his head, as he now had a long cascade of black hair flowing over his back and shoulders. His irises were back to normal, and were still blue. His voice was fairly deep, but he certainly didn’t sound male any more. Once again looking down at his body, he ran his claws over his newly-formed breasts, grinning. "Wow…this is so cool. I may be pumped full of oestrogen, and I may have a sudden urge to watch a Brad Pitt movie, but I’ve grown some nice boobs." As he said that last word, he sniggered to himself. "Man…I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. I bet these things are really going to annoy me soon."

Having established what his new body meant to him, he picked up Amy’s dress again and slipped it over his head. He didn’t bother to look for a bra, as he knew for a fact that he was a much larger size than Amy now. He straightened out the dress and looked at himself in the mirror again, pushing some strands of hair behind his cheek. "Well, now that I look the part, I need to get moving. I’m sure there’s something else I need to sort out-" As he said so, he took a step sideways, and promptly fell over. He growled. "Right…females have their legs together. I can do that…oh, why the Hell did I decide to do this in the first place?" Although it took him some time, he got back to his feet and started towards the door, being careful with each step he took. It was surely only a matter of time before he got used to it…or so he hoped…and now was the time to put his new-found abilities into action.

***

A lone kritter, who had been on his way to the bathroom, was quite surprised when a beautiful female kremling approached him. She looked as though her co-ordination needed some work, but she was still a really lovely sight. Curious, the kritter walked up to her and extended a claw. "Hello, Miss. Do you require some assistance?"

He didn’t notice that she grinned somewhat wickedly when he said this. "Oh. Er…well, I guess you could say I’m slightly lost…"

He smiled, but didn’t try to get too cosy with her. He just seemed friendly. "May I be so bold as to ask for your name?"

Tobias in disguise swallowed at this comment. However, she had to appear calm, or the kritter might get suspicious. "My name? Oh, sure…my name is…Sabrina."

The kritter appeared delighted to hear that. "Ah, Sabrina. What a nice name. So, if you’re lost, may I escort you to your destination?"

The name Sabrina had just been lurking at the back of her head, but it was a good enough one for her. Although she was really a ‘he’, she’s a ‘she’ in this part to avoid confusion. "Oh, yes…well…I hear that one of my friends lives here. She recently had a promotion, and I would like very much to wait in her room and, er, surprise her."

"Promotion? Oh yeah, Amy. King K. Rool’s been telling us all about her recently, and it’s been getting a bit boring. But never mind that. I happen to know that she lives below this level, so I’ll take you downstairs, shall I?"

She held her claws behind her back, looking innocent. "If you would…" She quickly tried to think of a pet name that a female might use. "…sugar."

The kritter raised an eyebrow. "…er, thankyou."

"May I take your arm…I’m having a bit of difficulty walking right now."

He smiled and held out his arm so that she could hook her arm through it. "Of course." With her clinging onto him, he wandered over to the main elevator, which was really just a rising circular platform, and stood on it with her. He pressed a button on a small control panel, and it began to descend. Sabrina had only just come up from the downstairs level, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Nobody else was downstairs, so she could get him on his own…a perilous situation if you’re a kritter and you happen to be with Tobias. "Are you new around here?" asked the kritter, "Only I haven’t seen you before."

"Yes…I only just arrived today." she said. She hated having to think of things so quickly. "Amy’s a friend of mine."

"Yeah…" sighed the kritter, "She’s nice. But she’s Krusha’s, so I keep well away."

They arrived at the lower level, and the downstairs corridor loomed in front of them, dimly lit. It was strange for such little light to be in the corridor, especially at this time of day, but no comment was made. It just made Tobias/Sabrina feel all the more evil…

The two of them stepped off the platform and walked along the corridor together. The kritter looked at the doors as they passed, pondering. "One of these doors is Amy’s, but I’m not sure which." He gently pulled his arm away from Sabrina and saluted her. "Good day, madam. I trust you can find your way from here."

She growled under her breath. She was not going to let him get away at any cost. Brushing some stray locks of hair out of her face, she put her other claw on her hip. It was great to have real hips for once…

"Look here, kritter, I’m not going to beat around the bush any more. Since you are apparently on some kind of break, you’ll have time to sort something out for me."

He blinked at her. "Er…I guess."

Smiling at her little victory, she stepped over to where the door to her old room was. She opened it slowly and took a small step inside, beckoning to him. "Come here." Strange though it may have sounded, she wasn’t male any more. She didn’t feel peculiar doing this, as she was completely female now. This was Sabrina, and Tobias was long gone…apart from the killer instinct.

The kritter grinned. "Pardon me, Miss, but I do believe you are trying to seduce me."

"Shut the Hell up and get over here!" she snapped, and he didn’t need to be told twice (mainly because she sounded like she might bite his head off). She turned and walked through the doorway into her darkened room, and stood over by the bed, trying to entice him to approach her…which he did. He didn’t show any signs of fear at being coaxed into a dark bedroom by someone he didn’t even know, which Sabrina found quite unnerving.

"So...what now?" he asked, gazing at her.

She grinned, baring a set of sharp, white teeth. "Oh, I can assure you than this is going to be a whole lot of fun…" Moving slowly, somewhat to keep his attention and somewhat to avoid falling over again, she walked behind a thin panel, which had been put there before Tobias had first arrived on the scene. It was, of course, for getting dressed behind, like a cheap private dressing room. This was absolutely the best way for her to get an easy kill. The kritter watched the screen expectantly, as Sabrina turned on a small light behind it, casting her outline onto the screen and giving the kritter an idea of what she was doing behind it. He watched her silhouette, barely moving, as she unfastened the back of the dress and slowly let it slide down her body, neatly stepping out of it when it dropped to her ankles. Knowing fully well that he could see her every movement, she traced down the line of her body, going over her breasts and down her stomach, onto her perfect hips. "So, are you coming behind here or not?"

The kritter swallowed. "Certainly…after all, it is my break. No loss of mine."

She grinned, waiting for him to approach. "Don’t be so sure of that…"

Not able to hold back any longer, he darted around to the other side of the screen to join her. The sound that followed wasn’t a groan of pleasure, but an agonised scream.

***

"Three more?" she repeated, slightly panicked, "Three more? Just last night?"

K. Rool sighed and nodded, gently stirring his tea with a spoon. "Yes. I’m afraid that my grandchildren were just having a look around…and they found three bodies. Of course, they told Khris, who told me, so…oh, I don’t know. I had only just dismissed them to leave, when Khris came rushing back up from the main level, jabbering on about three dead kritters. Which is why I had to summon you so urgently…my apologies."

"Oh, no problem, Sir. But…grandchildren? The cats?"

He stopped stirring his tea and held a claw to his forehead, as though he had a fever coming on. "I’m afraid so, yes. I’ve been a grandfather quite some time now, yet no-one informed me. I like cats alright, so it could be worse…but they’re so full of energy, they make me feel a hundred years old. And aren’t cats meant to be lazy?"

Amy just smiled. "I’m sure they’ll calm down, Sir. I mean, after discovering that your grandfather is a king, anyone would be excited."

Smiling back at her, K. Rool picked up his tea from his bedside table. "Now, about these kritters. I’ve already sent some other kritters to…remove the remains, but I need three more death reports. I also need to have the families contacted. Would you mind doing that for me?"

"…calling their families and telling them about the deaths? Sir, I’m not sure if I could comprehend doing that."

From the way that statement passed over him, she didn’t think he would change his mind. "I’d do it myself, but I don’t want to, and my son and grandchildren are still in hysterics. Not to mention that Klump’s suffering from depression and Krusha’s a moron. And of course, there is the simple fact that you are now my secretary."

She groaned. "Oh, alright. Have you got the kritter’s serial numbers for me, then? Or do I have to guess?"

He handed her a torn piece of paper from his bedside table, holding his teacup in the other claw. "I have all three numbers jotted down here. They died under very strange circumstances, though. One of them had apparently been shot or stabbed, another had one eye missing, and the remains of the last one show that he died quite a grizzly death. Maybe it was more than one attacker, I don’t know. Just don’t tell the families how their loved ones died. Don’t explain anything, just tell them and go."

"Of course, Sir. I’ll get right on it."

"And do not enter my son’s room. If he’s recovered, he’ll still be trying to calm down the cats. The smallest one with the beret was in a very frightened state."

She nodded. "Yes, Sir. I’ll just go back downstairs…I won’t bother either of you." She turned and left the room, allowing K. Rool to once again concentrate on his tea.

It had been a very eventful day, and it wasn’t even the afternoon yet. Bodies found, then more bodies found. Where were they all coming from? She had an inkling that it was something she actually knew about, but that possibly she was denying it. Nothing had changed recently that might have sparked off the sudden mass murders that had happened…with the exception of Tobias returning, but he was going to turn over a new leaf. He had been so determined about it. He couldn’t possibly have changed his mind…although he had tried to break up her and Krusha again…but no…it couldn’t be. Maybe it was someone trying to frame Tobias. It could have been that nasty brother that Tobias talked about. As this seemed logical, Amy believed it, and happily continued along the corridor, slipping the piece of paper into her pocket.

As she passed Khris’ room, the door swung open, and a nervous-looking Khris peered out into the corridor. Amy just looked at him, not wanting to make any kind of comment, as he looked as though he was on the run from the police. She had never seen eyes so wide before, and he looked quite creepy. When he saw her, he stepped out into the corridor, holding a small cat firmly in his claws. She was quite surprised when he held it out to her.

"Er, no thanks. You can keep your cat."

He growled slightly at her. "For your information, this is a kitten. And can you please hold him for a second? He won’t stop crying."

Confused, she took the kitten from him. It instantly clung onto her with its claws, whimpering and meowing pitifully. It was wearing a little black shirt and a beret, which both fitted it nicely. "How sweet. You’ve dressed up your kitten."

"No, their mom did that. The others are just about recovering, but Kirby’s still upset. And I’ve got a headache…" He placed a claw to his head to emphasise this. "My two days away from school, and I end up finding some dead bodies and having to care for six hysterical cats…they’re usually much more calm."

The kitten that Amy was holding squeaked and dug its claws into her shirt. "Dead! They’re dead…dead…" it sobbed. Amy stoked its back gently, and it began to calm down. "…d-dead…dead…d…dad?"

Khris looked at it. "Yeah?"

"Th-they were…d…d…dead…"

"I know they were. Come here." It eagerly climbed over to Khris and clambered up his arm, where it sat down on his shoulder. "Good boy…" He turned to Amy. "Man, how’d you do that? A minute ago he was raving on about cadavers and corpses."

"Oh, I didn’t do anything. But if my job is done, I really need to go and file these death reports." She looked up the kitten, who seemed very content on the larger lizard’s shoulder. "See you around, kitty. My, aren’t you cute? Well, cute or not, I had better be going. See you two around."

Khris looked at the kitten. "Say goodbye, Kirby."

Kirby smiled and waved a paw at Amy, clumsily. "Bye-bye!"

She smiled as she walked away from them, in the direction of the staircase to the main level. Aww, isn’t that cute? she thought to herself, Just like a Teletubby…

***

When she arrived back in her room, Tobias was sitting on the bed in his usual form. He looked quite content, but Amy wasn’t really bothered to find out why. "Hi, Toby. I just need to file three more bloomin’ death reports. At least it’s something for me to do, I guess…but it’s the weekend, I like having nothing to do! And BlackAdder is on tonight, so I hope I’m not too busy."

He watched her as she took out the piece of paper from her pocket and opened up the large box file of kritter information. She flicked a couple of pages, trying to find kritter #516’s page. She still hadn’t really begun work on the other report yet, so she needed to get a move-on before any other bodies were found. Tobias just watched, not offering to help. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah. I haven’t eaten anything all day. I’ll grab some toast in a minute. My mother sent me some luuurvely British bread, so I’ll use that." She kept her snout buried in the file the whole time.

"Okay. I’ve got my measurements, if you need them. I wrote them down on the back of that old envelope."

She looked briefly sideways to see a bent white envelope with numbers and words written on them, telling her all of Tobias’ dimensions. "Oh, thanks. As soon as I have time, I’ll go and get you some nice things to wear. Trousers are a necessity. Er…pants."

"Right, pants."

She smiled slightly, still writing the first report. "For us, ‘pants’ are underwear." she sniggered.

"Yeah…you say tap, I say faucet…"

She still didn’t stop writing. "I say pavement, you say sidewalk."

"I say butt, you say bum…"

She giggled. "Yeah. Sit on yer bum. Heh…’bum’ sounds fatter than ‘butt’. A butt sounds firm."

"Hmm…I say rutabaga, you say swede…"

"Rutabaga’s a nicer word. I use it in place of a swear word sometime."

"You say ‘can’t’ like the word ‘car’."

"And you say it like an ‘eh’ sound."

He paused for a moment. "Why are we doing this?"

"I don’t know. Let’s just stop." She held up the report in front of her and looked at it, checking to see that she had filled in all the fields…and she had…except the space underneath the heading ‘Cause of Death’. She sighed and held her pen to her mouth. She thought for a moment before tactfully writing ‘Unknown’. "Well, that’s number one done. Just…one, two, three…a few more to go. You don’t mind, do you Toby?"

He shook his head. "No. I’ll just hang around. I’m ready to relax for a while."

She grinned. "Exhausted, eh?"

Grinning back, he closed his eyes contentedly. "No…I just find it easy to get to sleep on a full stomach…"

TO BE CONTINUED…

Tobias II : Part 8
By Klumpy
"Toby, where have you been all day?" asked Amy upon the dark lizard’s sudden arrival, "I’ve been worried sick!" She rushed over to him, anxiously trying to see if he had been doing anything illegal.
"Hey, don’t worry, I’ve just been doing some soul-searching…you know, going back to all my old hangouts, that style of thing." Although this was only partially true, he didn’t feel like mentioning TJ to Amy, and definitely didn’t want to reveal that he had been talking to and training the younger lizard all afternoon. It was quite nice to be away from all of TJ’s energy, however, as it made Tobias feel older than he actually was.
"Oh, Okay. I picked up some clothes for you, so if you want to try them on…" She picked up a large plastic bag from beside her bed and searched through it as Tobias looked on. After a while of rummaging, she gave up and tipped the bag upside-down, letting all the clothes fall onto the carpet. "Right, I picked up a variety of stuff, since I wasn’t sure what might suit you. Feel free to try them on, I can always return them tomorrow."
He shrugged and picked up a T-shirt, holding it up against himself. "I think I’ll look weird in clothes."
"They couldn’t make you look worse." He glared at her, at which she giggled nervously. "…sorry, I didn’t mean it like that."
"No problem." He slung the T-shirt over his arm and picked up a pair of jeans. "Man, I’m gonna look like John Travolta."
"Yeah, if he was a lizard."
He took his yin-yang pendant off reluctantly and tried to get the T-shirt on over his head. He had obviously not worn clothes for a long time. She watched as he straightened the T-shirt and leapt up and down, trying to get the jeans on. "These things are so annoying!" he growled, falling backwards onto the floor, still trying to pull the jeans on. After a few more moments of wriggling, the jeans were on, and he fastened them proudly. Because they were new, and therefore quite stiff, he had a few problems getting up, but he was finally on his feet again…looking completely different.
"Well, you look lovely. Sorry if the jeans are tight, but they flatter you." She walked around him, looking at him from all angles. He looked like your average high-school heart-throb…with scales, of course. "I think clothes could become you."
Suddenly, he grabbed hold of her and held her in his arms, tilting her backwards slightly as though they were in the middle of a dance. "Well, how about a change of outfit for you, darling?"
Her eyes widened. "What is up with you?"
"How about taking this shirt off altogether, baby?"
That comment earned him an aggressive glare. "Tobias, get off. What have you been doing today?"
"Nothing, ‘cept longing for your body, sweetheart."
"Tobias, let go."
"Kiss me, Amy…kiss me hard…"
She pulled away from him and put her claws on her hips, staring angrily at him. "Have you been sniffing something?"
He stepped away from her, nervously, wringing his hands. His eyes were bulging more than usual. "I…I’m so sorry…I…don’t know why I did that." Warily, she kept his eyes on him, and a faint blush crossed his cheeks. "I didn’t mean to do that. It’s been a…funny day."
The frown didn’t leave her face. "…are the trousers Okay?"
"Yeah, they’re…kinda tight. And the T-shirt is…er…well, it brings out the color of my eyes." He looked down at himself. "Yeah, I like this Okay."
"Well, help yourself to the stuff." Her face was still solemn, as though he had just committed the ultimate sin. "If there are parts you don’t like…I’ll…just…" Slowly, as she spoke, her morose expression melted away and became a soft, seductive one. She smiled. "Wow…is it hot in here?"
"I don’t think so." He watched her, confused. He wasn’t manipulating her, and she certainly hadn’t been controlling him when he had tried to seduce her. Maybe it was something in the room. "Amy, maybe you should sit down for a moment."
"Why?" she asked, "Is there something wrong?"
"I just think you should rest for a minute…there’s something funny here." He took the T-shirt off and looked at his chest for a moment before running his claw across it. He sniffed his claw, and picked up a very faint smell, like incense, on his palm. Even that small sniff sent a warm wave of passion through his body. "Hmm…there’s something funny, and smelly, on me. Hey Amy, smell this."
"I’m not smelling your hand, Toby. I have far more dignity- although, I’d be happy if you’d let me smell your tail…"
"Amy, please don’t do this."
She blinked as the feeling suddenly vanished, leaving only a faint sense of longing. "…goodness, that was strange. My tail is tingling…I feel all excited…" Feeling suddenly vulnerable, she crossed her arms. "I wish Krusha was here…"
"You can be with him later. For now, have a sniff of this."
She didn’t have any moral objections, so she obliged. The smell that filled her nostrils was new to her, although the sensations were familiar. It made her cough. "Goodness. That must be an aphrodisiac. Where did you pick it up?"
It came as a shock to him. "Aphrodisiac?"
"Yeah…it has the same effect on us crocs that our natural musty, musky scent glands make…except that it’s not coming from either of us."
"Well, I have no idea where it might have come from. I haven’t handled anything like that." He sniffed his palm again, and then wiped it on the leg of his jeans. "I better wash this off before I try forced mating upon you."
She grinned. "Yeah, but this is Kongo Bongo, not Africa, so I think you’d get arrested for it."
Despite that reality, he still would have loved to try it. He unfastened the jeans and took them off. "Do you think I could sneak a quick shower? Or a bath?"
"Klump and Krusha usually have a talk in the kitchen at this time, and then they go straight to bed. You shouldn’t be disturbed, and it is kinda late, so they might be getting to bed rather soon…sure, just sneak down the hall to the bathroom. Be sure to lock the door."
He smiled. "Thanks. You’re the best." Eager to get the smell off, although he liked the idea of having Amy all over him, he approached the door. Before he left, he turned around again. "When I get back, I’ll try some more of those clothes, I promise."
"Sure. If you get back late, don’t be surprised if I’m already asleep. I had a traumatic encounter with George W. Bush in the cake shop."
He stared at her. "George Bush? Does he live here?"
"No, I was kidding. But I did have a bad time with some single male lizard when I was buying your clothes. Let’s just say he won’t be having any kids in the future." Tobias still stared. "Don’t you have some bathing to do?"
"Yeah, see you later." He shot her a victory sign before leaving the room and creeping down the corridor towards the bathroom. It was empty, so no problem. Locking the door behind him, he smiled at the prospect of a long, hot bath in total privacy…although having Amy join him wouldn’t have spoiled things in the least bit.
***
"Hey, I’ve never noticed the way this rooms smells before." said TJ, making conversation with his faithful thingyatoo, Powder, who watched him from on top of a bookshelf, "Just when that Tobias guy and me came back here, I smelled…well…I smelled all these different things. Like these things." He picked up a small wooden box from the table beside him and lifted the lid. A pile of what looked like dry chopped herbs sat in the bottom. "This stuff smells really cool. It gives me a headache."
Powder sighed. "Forget about the smells, TJ, and settle down. If you’re going to hang out with that guy, you are going to need plenty of sleep."
"But-"
"TJ, bed, now." She ruffled her feathers. Although she was trying to sound strict, she was really just peeved that TJ had found someone else to be with other than her. "You’re over-stimulated."
"Stimulated? Oh, that reminds me, I found this." He put the box down and picked up a large green book that Tobias had been reading through. He opened a bookmarked page and a wad of what looked like dried grass fell out. He took it into his claw and sniffed it. "Ohhh…this stuff makes you feel soooo good."
Powder thingyed her head and flew over to TJ, landing gracefully on his shoulder. He held the grass up to Powder’s beak, and she drew away instantly. "That stuff stinks! What is it?"
TJ looked at the open page. "Tobias was going through some of these with me, since he thought they might be interesting…this is a lizard aphrodisiac, affectionately nicknamed ‘Kremnip’. Isn’t it cool?"
She sighed. "Whatever floats your boat. Now, are you going to get some sleep?"
"And another thing," he continued, as though she hadn’t spoken at all, "That fit of laughing we had earlier…I think one of us might have disturbed some ‘laugh grass’, because it causes momentary fits of laugher when inhaled. It was quite a good thing, though, since otherwise we might not have got along so fast."
"TJ, please, get some sleep. I may be your pet, but I’m also your babysitter. Time to start thinking about bed…"
"But-"
Powder squawked loudly in his ear. "Now, TJ! You can get excited again tomorrow."
"Oh, fine. You know, Tobias told me that he’s afraid of going to sleep because of his dreadful nightmares and everything. Poor guy. The black magic torments his every waking moment, and it still bugs him in his sleep…isn’t it cool?" Powder didn’t respond, so he just decided to settle down for the night. He walked over to a large, ragged armchair and sat down on it sideways, so that his head and legs hung over the arms. He closed his eyes, resting his head back to get to sleep. Powder flew up onto the top of the armchair and looked down at him.
"Goodnight, TJ."
He smiled slightly. "Night…" And, unlike Tobias, he instantly drifted into sleep.
***
"Oh, what a relief. I’m so sick of that guy trying to control me." In the downstairs bathroom of King K. Rool’s factory, a female lizard stood up out of the bath. She shook herself and stepped out onto the small bathroom mat, which was there to prevent lizards from slipping as soon as they finished their bath…she was thankful it was there, as her co-ordination was still being formed.
As if to give a reason for her clumsiness, a wave of pain shot through her body, and she felt a voice in the back of her head. It was deep and masculine, familiar yet so unknown. "Where the Hell am I? What am I doing?"
She snarled and clenched her teeth, forcing the voice out of her head. She held onto the side of the bath to assist with her balance, and things got worse as her vision blurred over at having to suppress such a strong force. It was constantly nagging her, but it could not control her any longer. Satisfied with this, she walked (staggered) over to the sink. She wiped some condensation off the small mirror and looked at herself. She really was astoundingly beautiful. In order to get a fuller image, she stepped back from the mirror, arms out to her sides for balance. She loved her body as much as any male would. Admiring herself was something that she did almost without realising. What other creature in the whole world could offer such delicate shoulders and such tender-looking breasts? None that she knew of.
"Okay, I am in control now…I can really do this now. Hang on, what do I want to do?" She clicked her jaws together, thinking. "The last thing I remember…I wanted…to be with Amy after my bath. No, that’s my other part, not me…am I really thinking for myself or not? Am I my own lizard? Or is Tobias just thinking feminine…"
It was very confusing. Sabrina felt she was thinking for herself, as though she was a different creature altogether, and yet it could have always just been Tobias with his mind altered…she certainly felt like her own lizard, and she could hear Tobias, her other half at least, wondering what on earth was happening.
"Oh well, no point in just standing around all night." Looking at the clock attached to the wall, she saw that it was ten o’ clock. Goodness, how long had she taken in the bath? "Looks like it’s time for me to go get some dinner. No, it’s Tobias’ dinner…which means it’s my- oh Hell, I might as well just go."
***
"…may I help you?"
Sabrina smiled sweetly. She had been waiting in the hall for a full twenty minutes with no sign of life, but a kritter had finally turned up. This kritter’s scales were of a slight blue color, but even that faint tint was enough to make him very noticeable. "Well, yes, you may. I was wondering if maybe you knew of a…" She thought for a second. "…a kritter called Martin, Libra, born three weeks prematurely."
The kritter’s eyes bulged, much like King K. Rool’s left eye does when he’s aggravated or surprised. "…yes, that’s me."
"Really?" She tried to sound amazed. "I had no idea! Listen, I have something very important to share with you."
He eyed her up, nervously. She had been able to conjure up a short black velvet dress to wear, as she didn’t really like the idea of wandering around naked, and she really looked stunning. The kritter wasn’t sure what kind of action to expect from a girl like that. "…like?"
"Well, it’s very important. I think I had better take you somewhere private to tell you." Of course, you sigh, we all know where this is going…
A funny expression, somewhere between doubtful and flattered, crossed the kritter’s face. He was a small kritter, so Sabrina was a bit taller than him. She could do anything with him if she got him into the right situation. The thought actually excited him. "Okay…where?"
She took his arm and led him around to the right of K. Rool’s platform, in the opposite direction to the factory kitchens and main elevator to the lower level, into a small section of the hall where rusting doorways led off from the main room. It was darker here. These rooms had been in use when King K. Rool had first used the factory practically, but hadn’t been used for years since. The kritter swallowed as Sabrina pulled him into one of the abandoned rooms and closed the door. She had scoped out this area before, so she knew exactly where she was going around the factory. The kritter kept his eyes on her cautiously as she rested her back to the door, showing him that there was no escape from the room. The room itself was pretty bare, he noticed, with a few rusty chairs and a metal floor matching that of the main hall.
"…right…so, this news?" His heart thumped. The kritter-eater was at large…but surely this beautiful female wasn’t it…
"Well, to tell you the truth…" She approached him now, making sure that her fangs were on view. She looked like a vampire. "…the news…it’s kinda bad."
"Oh, what is it?" He hadn’t realised it, but he had been backing away from her, and now he had his back against a solid wall…nowhere to go.
She walked right up to him, her body millimetres away from his, and pouted her lips. "It’s very bad news…I’ve been told that you…are going to have all your friends…mad at you…" She spoke slowly, making sure that he watched her mouth as she spoke each word.
"Really?" he asked, his voice softer now, "And why?"
"They are going to be so jealous of you…" His eyes were now half-closed as he watched her, enchanted. She had been afraid that he might not be so easy to get in with. "…because you are going to see them tomorrow morning…and tell them…that you…have had sex with…the most exclusive female on the whole island…" She then moved forward, pressing her hardening breasts against him, and put her arms around him, clinging to him with all her might.
"Oh my God…" he gasped, "I want you…"
"Have me then, dude." She leaned all of her weight backwards and fell back onto the floor, dragging the kritter with her, and allowed him to unfasten her dress. "Now, isn’t this nice?" She growled, as he slid the dress down her body and licked her breasts.
He panted, heavily, despite having only just started. "Why…are you do…doing this? I’ve never done anything for…you…" Whatever her answer was, he didn’t seem to care, as he instantly buried his face against her chest again.
"Oh, but you will…" she purred, "I can tell you that you are going to help me greatly whether you want to or not…"
Either he didn’t hear or he wasn’t fazed, as he just continued covering her with saliva. It was getting rather boring, but then again, he was just a kritter. Still, she grinned and kissed him, reaching her tail up eagerly to meet his. Tobias came back briefly for a moment, but then returned to the back of Sabrina’s mind…he waited for the situation to end, sorely wanting to return to Amy’s room and snuggle up beside her…she was much better company than the kritter, Sabrina or not.
"Oh, wow, feels so good! Yeah, baby, keep coming for me!"
She giggled and continued with their activity, but she groaned inside. Man, where did he learn how to talk during sex? It was enough to make a goldfish vomit…
***
"Happy?"
The kritter, completely dazed, didn’t get off her. He just groaned, not moving his head from between her breasts. "Oh wow…you were so fabulous…I want you all over again."
She pulled out from under him and stood up, instantly. "Not today, thankyou. But anyway, get up, I have something to ask of you."
"Anything for you, girl thingy-cat." he gasped, propping himself up on the metal floor. It was a lot less comfortable than the soft skin between Sabrina’s breasts.
"Okay, I must go now, but before I do I want to ask you to do me a favor." She looked down at him, hoping for his sake that he was listening.
"Mmmhmmm."
"Okay, I want you to tell all your kritter pals that if they’re looking for a good time, they can meet me in the main hall tomorrow night, Okay? Doesn’t matter what time, since I don’t have an early bedtime, but it has to be after working hours, got that?"
Groggily, he got to his feet, his scales shiny with sweat and Sabrina’s saliva. "Er, I guess so, if that’s all you want."
"It is. Now, gotta go, see you some other time-"
"Hey, hang on," he interrupted as she began to leave, "Who are you? Can I see you again?"
She grinned. "I am Sabrina. Tell your friends that my name is Sabrina. And you can show up tomorrow if you want…"
"Thanks, I will. And, er, are you sure you wanna leave without your clothes?"
She knew that Tobias would be back as soon as she was out of kritter’s sight, but that wasn’t the reason she wanted to give. She just grinned an even bigger grin. "I’m a nudist. Anyway, I’ll see you soon." She then tore out of the room before the kritter could protest any more. The kritter, sleepy and full of lust, just decided to sleep in the room that night. He lay himself down on the metal floor, using Sabrina’s discarded dress as a pillow, and prepared for a sleep filled with dreams of his recent experience…
"Oh yeah, baby…work those hips…"
***
The next morning, when Amy left her room, she was surprised to see Klump’s bedroom door wide open. It was a custom of his to close his door, so it probably meant that something was wrong. She had no idea what might have happened, until she recalled what he had told her the day before. She swallowed.
"Oh great, what has Katy done now?" she asked herself, knowing fully well that her sister might have done absolutely anything to count as a sin. She had a habit of doing things, and nothing was beyond her.
She crept across the corridor and looked into Klump’s room. He was lying on his bed, curled up, whimpering. His blankets were rumpled and untidy, which wasn’t like him either. Slowly, she entered the room. "Klump, are you alright?"
The General sighed, lifting his gaze to watch her as she approached his bed. "…yeah…I’m fine…" She sat down on the bed bedside him, and he let out a sob. "Gawd…I’m not fine…I saw somethin’ last night…and…I can’t take it…"
"What? Did Katy do something?"
He made a high, whining sound. "Yeah…she…she…she was havin’ a p-party and…and she was with some guy…I didn’t actually hang around to see, b-but…" He put his hands on his head, sliding the claws under his helmet and pushing it off, revealing his bare head. He really did look much better with the helmet on. "…I…think she took him to bed with her!" The last statement trailed away into tears.
"…oh God…" She reached out and put her claw on his shoulder, although she had to lean over the rest of his body to do so as he was lying down. "I am so sorry…I really didn’t know…I didn’t think she would ever-"
"But she did, Okay?" he growled, sitting up on the bed, "She must have been playin’ me even before we broke up…I thought she loved me…" He looked at Amy, sadly. "I really thought she loved me more than anyone else."
Amy hated this sort of situation. She had never been in a similar one herself. It was probably beyond Krusha to know how to cheat, and she would never betray him…although Tobias had almost got her there last time he was at the factory, but that was history. Right now, she didn’t know what to say. "Are you going to talk to her about it?"
He sighed. "No…I never wanna see her again, niece or not. I don’t ever want to look at her…she’s just a…a…oh, I don’t know what she is. I still love her, but she don’t love me no more."
Amy smiled at him, comfortingly. "Do you want some breakfast? I can make toast with British bread."
"…Okay. Yeah, toast can solve any problem." She stood up, and he copied her. "You know, I’ll get over this. I just need time to recover." He took a deep breath, and whimpered again. "It’s gonna take the rest of my life to recover from this…we were almost married, y’know. We were gonna start a family together an’ everythin’."
She shivered. "…yeah." With regards to having a family, there was something that Katy had never told Klump about. She had, however, told Amy, and despite that it was all over and done with Amy still had to live with knowing a certain secret that Klump had a right to know…and after all that she had said about being his friend.
"So…toast?"
"Oh, sure. If you set off to the kitchens, I just need to get dressed. This nightie is a bit chilly." She patted his shoulder and went back to her room, glad to be away from the angst in his room. Her room was such a comforting place to be…nothing bad would ever happen to her while she was in her room. Complete safety.
Tobias was asleep on her bed, all four legs splayed out to his sides, tail wagging gently. After…doing what he did as Sabrina, he had turned back into himself and had a shower to wash the scent of kritter off his scales (morphing hadn’t destroyed the smell of the stickiness between his legs). After cleaning himself, he had returned silently to Amy’s room, turned back into a Saluki and gone to sleep. Although nightmares continued to plague him, he had been completely exhausted, and was still drowsy now.
"Good morning, Toby. Sleep well?"
The dog growled. "Mmm…"
"Okay…whatever. I’m going to be making some toast, so do you want anything? English breakfast? I can get one together for you."
"Mmm…"
She quickly pulled on a shirt and pants before leaving the room in silence. Tobias, still half-asleep, didn’t move

Later that morning, as Amy entered the main factory hall, she noticed that the kritters, or at least a group of them, were looking more frisky than usual. She didn’t know what it meant, but they seemed to be gossiping excitedly amongst themselves. Whatever had happened, it must have been important. Or at least significant. Over breakfast, she and Klump had been able to talk, and he had calmed down immensely. He still, however, wanted nothing more to do with Katy. He had been going on about his broken heart, and how she was completely inconsiderate of his feelings, which was the sort of thing Amy had been expecting to hear. Although it seemed like Tobias was changing, and therefore wouldn’t be doing anything out-of-the-ordinary, there seemed to be something unusual about the factory. Everyone was frantic and hushed, as though they anticipated some dreadful apocalypse or something. Despite the obvious tension all around her, she was happy inside – she loved Tobias’ new self, or what was apparently his new self, and she couldn’t wait until he was fit enough to be returned to society. Perhaps he could work at the factory for King K. Rool, and be friends with Klump and Krusha…she knew he would be a valuable employee.
"All I’m saying is that it seems too suspicious to me. I mean, the kritter-eater returns, and then suddenly some female is offering to meet any of us tonight after work…maybe she works for him." She heard one kritter say as she passed. She felt a slight chill, but nothing more. She wasn’t naïve…she was just hoping that Tobias hadn’t thrown his life away by returning to the dark side.
"Well, Martin said she was the hottest girl he’s ever seen, so I’m definitely going along. I need to unwind anyway, and how better to do it than by being soothed by a gorgeous girl?" Amy felt like slapping that particular kritter.
"She can lead me into a darkened room any day, that’s all I know." said another, "Maybe she’ll give me her phone number."
"Not if I get it first!" snapped another, competitively.
Amy wormed her way through the crowds of kritters and across to the right side of K. Rool’s platform. A side door led into a corridor, which Amy followed for about seventy paces. Just as Klump had said, there was a door to her left with the words ‘Filing Information Cabinets’ inscribed on it in fading gold letters. Klump had told her about this room, as it contained documents and blueprints about the whole of the factory. They would be useful to catalogue all of the unusual events that had happened recently, perhaps to see some kind of pattern, and they also held information on previous kritter deaths earlier that year…around the time when Tobias had first come to the factory. Of course, although Tobias had committed all those murders back then, Amy refused to believe that he was still up to his old tricks. He had made a promise to her.
She entered the room after wrestling with the door for a while, and had a look around. It was completely dark, and there didn’t seem to be a light switch, so she held her arms out in front of her and felt her way around, listening to the faint shuffling of her feet as she took each step. There was a coat of dust on the floor, as it probably hadn’t been disturbed after the last filing of kritter deaths earlier in the year. Her feet were going to need some extreme cleaning. She was relieved when her claws came in contact with what felt like a tall metal box, and she ran her hands up and down it, feeling for the large square drawers that were part of the cabinet. She pulled one drawer open and reached in, coming across some papers, as was to be expected. Sadly, because of the dark, she couldn’t see what was on the papers. Of all the drawers in the room, she had to find the one particular drawer that contained the index of kritter deaths.
Suddenly, as though she had summoned it, a bulb lit up beside her, casting a dull light onto her. It shocked her at first, but the initial impact died down quickly. Too many strange things had occurred while Tobias was around, especially the first time, so a light bulb turning itself on was the least of her problems.
Looking back down at the paper in front of her, she saw that it was a blueprint of the underground factory area. It was located below Amy, Klump and Krusha’s living area, and you had to take a separate elevator to get all the way down. She put that paper to the bottom of the pile and the new top paper was a rough blueprint of the upper factory area, chiefly King K. Rool’s bedroom, Khris’ bedroom and some guest bedrooms. They were scribbly and rough, so she guessed they were from K. Rool had first been planning the look of the factory. The others beneath it were also rough blueprints of the upper area, as the layout had obviously been rethought several times. She shrugged and tucked them all under her arm, as they were bound to be of some use. Peering back into the drawer, the rest of the papers seemed to be bills and construction fees, as well as lists of different kinds of paint, carpets, and a long tally of floor area taken up by each room…generally boring factory statistics.
She closed the drawer and bent down to the lower drawer, opening it casually. She looked into the drawer and pulled out a wad of death reports, much like the ones she had been filling in recently. The date of the top paper matched the time of year that Tobias had last spent at the factory. The writing on these reports was long and curvy, so she didn’t know who might have filled them in. She flicked quickly through the papers, checking for any deaths that had occurred during the brief period of Tobias’ first stay, and grabbed a pile of papers from the large wad.
Having acquired what she had been looking for, she closed the drawer and left the room, carrying the relevant papers under her left arm. As she left, the light bulb switched itself off again.
"Right, this was fruitful. I’ve never been to this part of the factory before…" Out in the corridor, she turned around in a circle, surveying her new surroundings. There was a distinct musty smell in this part of the factory, as though it had an incredible case of damp that nobody had ever bothered to sort out. "I think this place could be put to a lot more use."
As she spoke, a loud thud came from behind the door to her right. It didn’t come again. Silently, she turned her head to look at the closed metal door.
"What the…"
She pressed the side of her head to the door, but she didn’t hear anything else. For a moment, she waited in silence…until the curiosity overwhelmed her and she pushed the door open. A bulb was hanging just inside, and she pulled on the chord that caused it to flicker to life. This room was lonely and dull, much like the other room she had just been in, but there were no filing cabinets in this room. At the back of the room was another door, a large metal one like the door of a safe. Perhaps it was a storage room?
"Man, how cooky." she pondered, "…heh, I like that word. Cooky…it’s like ‘cookie’, but it’s not. Hmm…"
Another thud. It was definitely coming from the other side of the large metal door. She froze. This time it came again, as though a rhinoceros was trying to butt its way through the door. Like a dull clang…
"Is someone there?" she asked, slowly approaching the metal door. The impact against the metal gave her the feeling that something was going to burst right through. She almost dropped the papers with shock the next time the clanging noise came. "Oh my God…"
This time, she heard a muffled voice from behind the door, and she jumped again. It was definitely a voice, but it was so muffled behind the metal door that she couldn’t work out what the someone was saying. The drone in the voice suggested that it was male.
"Hang on," she said, going right up to the door, "who are you? Do you need help?"
The completely muffled voice came back, and it sounded desperate. Whatever it was saying, it sounded as though it was getting weaker. It was frantically scared, as opposed to frantically aggressive.
"Right, I’m going to open this door…" she announced, "If I can work out how." She looked at the door, thoughtfully. A large metal handle was there and was obviously the way to open the door…she was surprised she hadn’t noticed it before. She clasped her claws onto it and tried to shift it, but it wouldn’t budge. "I’m really trying out here." The someone slammed against the door once more, and the impact was incredible. "Hey, stop it! I’m trying!" After that, there was no more ramming, and she was able to continue battling with the handle. Although it was like a big safe, there was no indication that she needed to punch in any kind of code to gain access. It was just one big heavy-duty door.
At last, the handle lost all its stiffness and she was able to jolt it aside. The shock of it suddenly giving way made her fall sideways onto the floor as the door was flung open. She shuffled backwards on the floor and watched as a huge figure stumbled out of the doorway before falling forward onto his face. She stood up, frightened slightly.
"Oh my God, are you alright?"
The someone was a kremling, much bigger than Amy, with a muscular build like Krusha’s. He was wearing a torn leather jacket and large leather boots, and was making strange sobbing noises with his face buried against the floor. His blue scales were duller than they might have been usually, and his hair was limp on his neck.
"Are you alright?"
He scrambled forward on the floor and clung to her ankles with huge claws. "Thank God!" he gasped, "I thought no-one would find me!"
"Who are you?" she asked, "And what were you doing in there?"
He wrapped his arms around her legs and looked up at her with large, beautiful eyes. "They’re rebelling! They said they’re gonna take over! You gotta tell King K. Rool!"
"What? Who? Huh?"
The lizard gasped and slumped forward against her feet. "…the…k-kritters…"
***
"They’re rebelling?" repeated K. Rool, "Again? I thought I had that sorted out, but I guess not. Well, this complicates things."
Amy blinked. "Again? They’ve done this before?" She had been expecting more of a reaction from him, but he seemed no more than slightly displeased.
"Yes, we’ve had many casualties resulting from rebellions. We never used to have them, so Crystal never got to see one…she would have handled it well. Always knew what to do, how to get others under control…my son has had several injuries resulting from these rebellions, anyway, and he can usually look after himself fine. They always seem to know how to catch you off-guard, no matter who you are. Sneaking around at night is a favorite, since he has inherited my ‘occasional deep sleep’ syndrome. Hopefully, it will die down, but if not we’ll have to do something serious." He took his crown off and polished it with a cloth. "And it was a good thing you found Kasplat when you did. He had been locked in there for at least a week."
"Well, it was pure chance, Sir. I didn’t go down there with the intent of rescuing someone."
"I know you didn’t. Well, we’ve got him resting now. Apparently some kritters drugged him and somehow managed to haul him into our high-security storage room. I’ve never seen him so week, so I have no idea what they might have drugged him up with. I mean, he can lift a ton of weight, but he couldn’t force his way out of that room. Must be something that deteriorated his muscle performance."
"Well, as long as he’s Okay…but I don’t feel very safe now. I mean, if kritters might be getting ready to sneak into your room tonight, I want to be there to protect you."
K. Rool waved his claw casually. "Now now, don’t get all worried. It’s just like you to get tense. Please don’t. There’s nothing you could really do."
"But Sir, if there’s a bunch of kritters wanting to injure you in any way-"
"Hakuna Matata. I do wish you wouldn’t get all worried. I might call Kudgel and Klubba over if it would help you to calm down."
"Oh, please no. I’d rather protect you myself than have Kudgel over here." She tried to sound heroic rather than disgusted at the thought of Kudgel coming anywhere near her.
K. Rool sighed and put his crown back on. "Well, I hope you’ve got enough muscle power to fight off a gang of irate lizards in the middle of the night, because that’s what you’ll have to do if you’re so insistent on keeping us safe." To his disappointment, her determined expression didn’t change. "Oh fine, you can if you want…just don’t complain to me that you’re tired in the morning."
"Of course not, Sir. I will protect you with my very life."
K. Rool sighed again, louder than before. "Please leave now. Have you finished those death reports, yet? Better get them out of the way before more are needed."
She growled at him. "I’m getting them done, Sir, but it isn’t any fun at all. Give me some time to do those boring things."
"Ah, that’s the Amy I know. Staying up all night will be even less fun, so just stick to the jobs you already do, please? It would be a blessing for me to see you back to your moody I-don’t-want-to-work attitude. Please, just go downstairs and get back to your weekend fun. I don’t need to see you up here again today."
"But-"
"Now, Amy. And no disrupting my son and grandchildren. At my suggestion, Khris is getting on with some heavy-duty bonding that will hopefully keep him sane until the kittens go home."
"But-"
K. Rool’s left eye almost popped out of its socket. "Get going!"
Without so much as a backward glance, she darted from the room, leaving King K. Rool alone again. He sighed and reached into his bedside drawer, pulling out a small paper bag. He sniffed at it for a moment, and stood up off the bed.
"Comfort is what we need now." he said aloud, "A much comfort as is possible…and at least in this way I can help someone."
TO BE CONTINUED…

Tobias II : Part 10
By Klumpy
TJ glanced over at Powder once more, and she just stared back. He felt empty and lonely, very unappreciated, and he sighed loudly. Tobias hadn’t returned to see him the previous day. Now it was noon, and the other lizard still hadn’t shown any sign of appearing. The initial joy of coaching TJ had apparently worn off quickly. He probably had better things to do. "I don’t think he’s coming back, Powder."
Powder spread her wings and flew over to him, landing on the arm of his armchair. "You think?" she asked, clearly sarcastically.
"This is awful. I thought he liked me enough to care for longer than two days."
The bird lifted one of her feet and looked at her claws like a woman might view her newly-painted fingernails. "It won’t be so bad just being you and me again. You were never doing badly before you met him."
"…yeah…but there’s so much I could learn from him. He said about teleportation and metamorphosis and telekinesis…"
"TJ, you’re doing fine on your own."
"He’s so much more experienced than I am. If we just had the magic book I could learn on my own, but Tobias doesn’t know where it is." TJ leaned against the other arm of his armchair and sighed again, hoping that a slight change of position might inspire him for action. It didn’t. "Maybe I should go look for him."
"TJ, you’re staying here." said Powder by way of an order, "Stay here with me. If he comes back, he’ll come back. If he doesn’t, then you’ve already learned enough new things from him to remain entertained." TJ looked at her, seemingly unconvinced. She shrugged her wings. "Plus you don’t know where he lives."
"I could try to track him or something. He said that thinking about what you want is the best way to get it, so if I tell myself that I want to find him maybe I will."
This sounded far too optimistic from Powder’s point of view. She didn’t really like putting TJ’s ideas down, but her duty as his bird companion was to advise him. She didn’t realise how unusual she was, as she was a white bird. Dark lizards would have dark birds as companions, chiefly black and red, but due to TJ’s lack of complete knowledge of the Black Magic book she hadn’t turned out as she might have done normally. She was happy with herself, however, and TJ loved her to death.
"Would you get lonely here if I went looking for him?"
"You are staying right here, Timothy." she threatened, fanning her yellow crest. He knew it was serious when she used his proper name.
He rested himself back against the armchair and closed his eyes. "Maybe I’ll go look for him later, then. I’ll have to grab something to eat…something meaty…"
"TJ, there really is no point in you leaving. Stay here with me, won’t you?" Hopping up onto the top of the chair, she rubbed her beak against his face affectionately. Grinning, he gave her a little kiss.
"You really don’t want me to go, do you?"
"No." She kept rubbing.
He gave in…partially. "Okay then. But if I feel the need to…I’ll go out later. I’ll come back straight away, I promise." He stroked her with the tips of his claws. "Is that alright with you?"
She smiled at him and spread her wings once more, flying back over to the bookcase and settling herself down on one shelf near a book called ‘Leprechauns – How to find them and how to catch them’. She didn’t protest again, and didn’t look particularly peeved when she glanced over at him before ruffling her feathers and settling down for a nap.
TJ turned himself sideways and lay across the armchair with his head and legs resting over the arms. It was his usual sleeping position, due to the fact that he didn’t own an actual bed. He didn’t really feel that he needed one. He wasn’t as deep into the magic as Tobias had been at any point, so things were not as extreme and intense as they were for Tobias. True, Tobias had tried to convert himself back to how he had once been, to his loving possible self, so that he could be with the female from his dream, but it hadn’t worked for him. He had just been too far into the magic to make a turn-around, and the magic had been continually clutching at him, trying to pull him back into the darkness. He had been thinking dark, evil thoughts, even when he had been completely dedicated to his change of heart. His kritter-eating habit, his cannibalistic urges, had never left him, and he needed meat and the joy of killing to stay alive. The previous night he had killed the final kritter through an act of mad, murderous desire, having literally ravaged its body to pieces. He also had his firm desire to be with Amy once more. The fantasies that he had about her were driving him wild, so much so that he couldn’t dismiss them, and he wanted to be with her, to have her body for his own. The Black Magic was a passionate thing – passionate in that it made you lustful as well as passionate for blood. Tobias himself was still a virgin, and he wanted Amy to be the one to give him his first full experience. He had almost got close enough to Crystal Rool to give himself to her, but due to the actions of his half-brother it had never happened.
TJ was rather innocent, in the fact that he had no strong murderous desires so far. His first attack on Tobias had been through self-defence, since Tobias could have been any madman just barging into his house, but maybe there was an element of violent spontaneity there. Being young he was quite sensitive to aspects of the magic (Tobias had been younger than TJ when he started the magic, but not by far), but TJ seemed very much in control of his life. He never missed his home of California, and he never regretted running away to Kongo Bongo. He wasn’t lonely, since he had Powder always with him, and he wasn’t scared to defend himself. He was quite strong, not dramatically so, but more than enough to overpower Tobias earlier on. He liked his physical strength, especially when using it to make others wary of him, but when he had first arrived at the magic shop the Black Magic had been incredibly inviting and intriguing. It stated that it was chiefly developed to aid those of a weak body and a strong mind, but TJ had tried it anyway despite his physical power. Due to this, he would never be as psychically strong as Tobias, since the magic essentially evened things out between physical and metal power, but it was useful nonetheless. Having only had copies of some of the pages, TJ hadn’t had all the ‘instructions’ that went with the book, which was why he had been so keen to be with Tobias. So experienced, so powerful…so…fatherly…like an idol.
As he closed his eyes, he pondered over where the original Magic Book might be. Maybe locked away in some sacred safe, or hidden under the floorboards of an old house. Wherever it was, he didn’t need it if Tobias was going to continue to train him…which he really hoped for. Drifting into sleep, images of a dark-scaled muscular lizard passed through his mind…the lizard stood before him for an instant, and then was gone, drifting into the back of his brain once more…and there was a voice coming to him…a frightened voice…Tobias’ voice…
No! No, d**n you, leave me alone! Leave me alone!
***
King K. Rool hadn’t been seen all day. Amy, worried of course, had decided to take him some tea and check on him in the process just to make sure he was still alive. She was tense once more. Krusha was constantly on her mind. What did he want to ask her? Was it something dire? It should have been obvious to her, but strangely it wasn’t. She didn’t think of it. Her head hurt when she tried to think too deeply…she remembered these feelings from before. She didn’t know what had happened to her the previous day, but it had frightened her. If Tobias was controlling her again, if he had gone back over to the dark side…she was foolish to have been so hopeful for him.
As she walked down the corridor towards K. Rool’s room, carrying the cup of tea, she heard some noise coming from Khris’ bedroom. She stopped walking, and found that it was someone singing. Curious, she approached the door and pressed her ear against it, listening. It was a girl’s voice.
Try not to get worried, try not to turn on to problems that upset you, oh,
Don’t you know everything’s alright, yes, everything’s fine…
And we want you to sleep well tonight…
Let the world turn without you tonight…
If we try, we’ll get by, so forget all about us tonight…
"Mmhmm…" That was Khris’ voice.
Sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you and anoint you, myrrh for your hot forehead, oh-
"Myrrh for my head? That’s a new one."
"Oh, did you have to interrupt my song? I was really getting into it." It was the female voice. "I’ll never get going again now…aww. That was fun."
Khris made a sound that was like a giggle, except it sounded unusual because it was quite a deep noise. "Serenade me."
"Just relax…I’m so glad you took care of them. I’ve not healed yet, but since I can’t use my hand maybe I can get some time off school or something. I should be able to look after them again."
"Mmhmm…"
"Does that feel nice?"
"Mm…hmm…"
Suddenly, one of the kittens’ voices broke through the relaxed atmosphere. "Ew! Soppy stuff! Stop it!"
"Shh…we can go as soon as daddy’s asleep…Khris? Khris? Still awake?"
"…mm…no…"
There was a silence. "…er…Okay. Come on then, sweeties. I hope you said thankyou."
"Thankyou daddy!" chorused six voices in an identical pitch.
"Don’t wake him up! Come on, before we disturb him again…"
Amy didn’t hear anything after that. She had a vague idea of what might have been going on, but she didn’t want to go in and look. Still holding the tea, which was starting to cool down, she continued down the corridor to K. Rool Senior’s bedroom. The whole upper area of the factory was quiet, apart from the moment of melodic singing, and had an eerie feel about it. She couldn’t escape from the image of a kritter leaping out at her from behind a corner, or Tobias possibly feeling the urge to attack her. She shouldn’t be thinking that way about him…but the pain…her headaches…and he had been so short with her that morning. He hadn’t wanted to talk with her, and had just gone into his former factory bedroom alone to ‘do stuff’. She felt afraid for herself.
She knocked politely on King K. Rool’s door, and his voice came forth: "Come in." Of course, she entered, carrying the tea. He smiled when he saw her, or it may have been the tea, and he beckoned for her to join him on the bed. He was sitting on the end of the bed, holding a photo album and looking vaguely nostalgic. Amy sat down on the bed also and held the tea, mentally telling K. Rool that he could take it when he wished. Much to her surprise, he opened up the photo album to one particular page and held it out to her. "Look at these. They’re honeymoon pictures."
Amy almost dropped the tea in her excitement. "Cool." Placing the tea onto the carpet, she took the album and looked at the two pages of photographs. They had faded over time, of course, but were still very clear.
"Since you have always seemed interested about my wife, here are some more photos of her. We were so happy on our honeymoon…"
"I bet. Aww…she was so pretty." K. Rool nodded. "Nice weather, wherever it is. Nice beach there…"
"Yes…her and I were always very happy together. We loved our marriage. She was so happy when I asked her to marry me…we never had any problems with one another. I always felt she was too good for me, but she stayed faithfully with me for all those years…"
"That’s beautiful." said Amy, looking at K. Rool again.
He sighed. After looking at the photos for several hours that morning, he had worked himself into a depression, and he made a slight sob. "I was…thinking last night…about what Tobias said to me about Crystal."
Amy swallowed. "Why would you be thinking about him? He was here months ago, no need to think about him any more."
"I know that, but lately I’ve been feeling…the same cold presence that he used to make me feel…like a reminder of what he said to me. In front of my son, too…" He took the album from Amy and closed it, loudly. "He had no right whatsoever to say those things! They weren’t true!"
"He was a creep." she sighed, letting out her current dreads about him, "Once you get so bad there’s just no way to turn yourself around. He’s gone now."
"I was in love with her! I would never have placed abuse on her!"
Amy shifted away from him slightly. "I never said you did, sir."
"And Khris was not a mistake…we both wanted him badly…"
Amy took this opportunity to change the subject. "So you let him stay home today?"
"Yes…he said he was feeling sick. I went in to see him this morning, and he had a very sore throat and he felt a bit hot…so I let him stay in bed. Crystal used to stay with him all the time when he was a baby…if he was ill she’d stay up all night with him…just hugging him…" He smiled slightly. "I remember one time, she thought he might have a cold and she didn’t want to leave him alone, so she brought him to bed with us. Bless him…he was sniffling all night long with that little nose of his…"
"Aww. Parenthood must be a…well…it’s a duty, but not a duty duty…I suppose it’s pleasurable if it’s what you really want."
"Oh, you wouldn’t believe how badly Crystal wanted our baby. We were married for many years before we really considered it. We bought this factory together, too. She had great decorating plans for the whole building. It just never really happened…except up here." He gestured to the walls around them. "She designed the layout of this bedroom. She did some décor around the factory, but quite little. Lots of green things around the factory were designed by her. She loved green."
"Oh. That’s interesting."
"Most of her flashy dresses and outfits were green. I still have them – I was going to get rid of them a few years ago because of the memories, but I just couldn’t. I kept thinking of how much she loved them…" He paused for a while, and picked up the tea off the floor. It was actually quite cold by now, but he drank it anyway, not wanting to make a fuss. "She used to wear…small things for me sometimes. I was never really into it, I never asked her too, but I think she felt more attractive because of it. She got all worried about her appearance after Khris was born, saying how awful she looked. After doing a bit of exercise every day for a few weeks she got over it, and since Khris himself was her priority she quickly found other things to worry over."
"Did she like cats?"
K. Rool put down his tea and laughed. It was a lovely sound. "Oh, yes, she adored cats. Her parents owned an antique shop, and they had a cat, so she was living with a cat when she and I first met. She was still living with her parents at the time, and she moved in with me very soon after we met. She was always loving with me, very accepting. She loved me even when I gained a bit of weight…I had an awful time after she died when I just kept eating and eating, and I got sick…I was able to get rid of that extra weight, but I won’t ever be as slim as I was when I first met her."
"I’m very glad that you loved her." She picked up the tea from the floor once more and stood up off the bed. "I suppose it will be more peaceful around here now that the kittens have gone home."
"They’ve gone?"
"Yes, I heard them leaving. Oh, how is that blue lizard I found?"
K. Rool remained seated. "Kasplat? He’s fine. Recovering nicely, I believe. Once he’s back on his feet we can work out what happened to his muscles…just deteriorated performance, it still seems. If he’s too weak to work out we can give him some tablets to boost his energy a bit. Very strange, though. I’m most perplexed that I never noticed he was gone. At least he was found before he starved to death. He was hungry, though, so he’s been eating a bit. Still very weak."
"You haven’t been attacked by any rogue kritters, then?"
"No…but I had four missing kritters reported this morning."
Amy growled. "Oh no, not again. Any evidence this time?"
"No. They’re just missing. We have to assume that they are dead, I’m afraid, since kritters are normally so attentive. We’ll keep an eye out for any sign of murder, but even without that we have to assume they have died. Will you be able to file four more death reports for me today? I have the numbers here for you, and I believe you have the necessary filing information…"
"Of course, sir. Shall I see you later, then? Do you want anything now?"
"No, I’m quite alright. I think I’ll just look through some of our photo albums again…just to remind me." He sighed. "Crystal was my wife…no other girl on earth could compare with her."
"I know, sir. Goodbye for now." She shot him a smile and left the room, carrying the empty teacup.
King K. Rool had been thinking about Tobias, as though he had sensed his presence. He was more depressed than usual, similar to the last time that Tobias had been at the factory. Could he tell that Tobias was in the factory? Did he suspect her of keeping the dark lizard hidden? She certainly hoped not. K. Rool had no reason to possess any psychic senses, as he was not his wife, but perhaps Tobias just had an effect on him, even a slight one. He felt miserable, and had mentioned the things that Tobias had said about Crystal, denying them to her. Amy knew how much K. Rool had loved his wife, despite that she had never met her. Sometimes, however, she felt a cool female presence around the factory, particularly in K. Rool’s upper-factory area, as though Crystal was constantly protecting her husband. Amy saw no reason for this to be untrue, and it didn’t really faze her. Klump had told her that a ghost was watching over her – Crystal, or so he said, had protected her from Tobias and saved her from death. Amy didn’t remember it at all, but trusted Klump enough to take his word for it.
Klump…
He had also been on her mind a lot lately. She couldn’t decide whether or not to tell him that one big secret that Katy had kept from him. It was something he really deserved to know. Amy had dismissed it as not being really important at the time, as Klump and her sister had been involved in their relationship so it shouldn’t have counted in the long run…but now that it was over between them, Klump really deserved to know. Amy wanted him to know. She was his niece, and she loved him – she had to tell him. It could wait…

Tobias was in his old bedroom, sitting cross-legged on the bed. There was a grim expression on his face, and his eyes were tight shut. He barely seemed to breathe. The remains of the kritters from the previous night had been stored in the room, mainly in the three large steel buckets against the wall. He had stripped the bodies of their organs, muscles and skin, and had stored them away for later if needed. It saved him the effort of possibly killing again, although he loved the pleasurable feeling that killing gave him. He needed to find better ways to spend his energy.
He was quiet, deep in concentration, focusing all of his energy on the Black Magic. He was restoring himself. After his brief period of ‘insanity’, as he now viewed it, some of his power had diminished, and he was weaker than he had been before. Amy clearly didn’t have the ability to protect herself from him…it must have been so long ago that he had taught the magic to her that she had dismissed and forgotten it. Perfect. She had been a threat to him. He was going to have her very soon. She would not be able to escape from him, and they would be joined together and exist as one. He wanted her to give herself to him. TJ was not a threat to him, as he well acknowledged, as the younger lizard was too inexperienced, as well as too strong physically, to have built up a threatening level of power. Once again, Tobias was in complete control, and he loved it.
But he did have one problem – the female who existed inside his head. The girl he had transformed into to lure a single kritter to him. He had done similar things before with no such results, but Sabrina had a mind of her own inside his. He didn’t know why it was happening. He knew for a fact that it wasn’t meant to happen. Clearly Sabrina didn’t know that rule.
Thinking about me again?
Tobias growled and opened his eyes. She had been useful in the beginning, but he didn’t much like the idea of her constantly hanging around with him. Was it a warning, some punishment for all his evil? It wasn’t his fault that she was her own person.
I did some very nice things for you, you know. I hope you appreciate everything I have done to help you.
"d**n you, go away." he grumbled, uncrossing his legs, "I was trying to think."
I am thinking inside you, Tobias. You know I can hear everything you think…I am part of you now. You are not me, and I am not you, but we are one nonetheless.
Tobias was silent. He just resumed his meditation, placing the tips of his index fingers to the sides of his head and sighing deeply, drifting away once more. Sabrina huffed.
Ignoring me, are you? Fine. I can force you to listen if I need you to.
Tobias kept meditating. Maybe if he just ignored her, like the other voices in his head, she would go away. It would not be as simple as that. Sabrina knew exactly what she wanted, and she knew how to get it. She was Tobias, despite not being him. She was how he would be if he had been female. Being inside Tobias was like being trapped in a box, cramped and uncomfortable. For whatever reason she was there, she was there, and she had power over her alter-ego – power to bring herself to the surface whenever she wanted. She was in the mood for a nice walk, but wandering around in the daylight would attract too much attention. Just a quiet night walk to stretch her legs…and to show Tobias who was boss. She knew him as well as he knew himself, and she knew exactly how to tick him off.
***
Amy had been on her own all afternoon after visiting K. Rool. Tobias hadn’t come back, and she was very worried. He had been like this before. She could only fear the worst. Whatever his dream was about the blue female kremling, she guessed that he would not end up with her now. Something must have pushed him over the edge. Even when he was with her, he had seemed a little spaced-out and eerie. She still didn’t know why she had been sleepwalking, why she had woken up in King K. Rool’s bed – had Tobias done that? And then there was her momentarily tuned-up psychic power. She had been sensing things before Tobias arrived. Now, her senses were pretty much back to normal, but the boost had been strange. It had happened for no reason.
She had spent a lot of her solitary time thinking about Klump. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she should tell him. At one point she had wanted to march right into his room and tell him, but he must have just gone for a walk or something because he wasn’t in. King K. Rool was too miserable to have sent him to get the Crystal Coconut. Amy really hoped that he hadn’t set off to visit Katy, as it would just upset him further.
"I hope he comes back soon." she said to herself, quietly leafing through the kritter database file. Mostly, the kritters looked exactly alike, but with a few exceptions. Coming across a page for one of the recently departed kritters, she opened up the binders and removed it, putting it aside. She must have just missed that one. "Poor thing."
She yelped and dropped the file when her phone suddenly rang, the harsh note almost scaring her out of her scales. After calming down, she picked up the phone and held it to her ear with one claw, picking the file up with the other.
"Hello?"
"Amy, I don’t know what you’ve been saying to him, but when Klump comes back tell him to stay the Hell away from me!"
The volume of her sister’s voice almost burst Amy’s eardrum. She growled. "Katy, I haven’t said anything to him, so don’t go yelling at me."
"Well he just left from here after really annoying me with soppy speeches. I’m not going to continue steady with my own uncle."
"He’s been upset, Kate, you can’t blame him for that. He loved you."
Her sister made a hissing noise. "Just tell him to keep away from me." She then put the phone down harshly.
Amy put the phone down also and huffed. Katy had no reason to be so awful, although what had happened between her and Klump had been ‘inconvenient’. Even as his niece she should show some love to him, family love, but she just seemed mad at him. He was trying to cope with losing her as his girlfriend, but he had a strange way of dealing with it. It was like he wanted her to love him despite the truth about their relations.
Right on cue, her door was pushed open and Klump stood in the doorway, looking as though he had just been running from a cheetah. "Amy…thank Gawd you’re here…" Amy stood up from the bed as he walked up to her. He was panting quite heavily, and he looked very distressed. Maybe now was the time to tell him.
"You went to see Katy, didn’t you?" she sighed.
He hugged her tightly and kept panting. "Uh huh…she was so mad at me. I told her that I still loved her an’ wanted to be with her, but she yelled at me an’ told me to get lost…I don’t know what to do now…"
"It’s Okay…she’s just a little…confused right now." She hugged him back, despite the fact that he was really too big for her to hug him completely. "But really…since you and her are related, you can’t be together like you used to be. Family relations are nice…it’s not like she broke up with you because of something you did."
"I know, but if it was somethin’ I did I could apologise to her an’ maybe get her back…I can’t do nothin’ about this…"
"I know, I know…you’ll be alright…" She let go of him. "Do you want to sit down?" He nodded, and the two of them sat down together on the bed. It creaked considerably as Klump sat down, as it was only used to Amy’s slight weight, but neither of them commented. Her held his head in his claws and made a sorrowful noise. Amy breathed deeply and looked at her lap. "She…er…well, she told me something a while ago…about you and her…"
"Uh huh?" He sniffed and looked at her.
"Well, at the time, she told me never to tell you…unless you and her broke up and she wanted to spite you…I don’t know if these really counts, but she seems angry at you, and she told me to tell you if you broke up in any way…plus you are my Uncle now, so I probably should tell you…"
Klump just looked at her now, his eyes wide with curiosity. "…yeah?"
"Okay, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to get angry at me…she did make me promise to keep it a secret until you guys stopped seeing each other…"
"Sure, so tell me."
Amy hugged herself, protectively, thinking about how best to tell him the news. Bluntly, probably. Should she try to explain why it had happened? No…she didn’t completely know herself. Just that it had happened. She took a deep breath. "Okay…erm…well…" Maybe blurting it out would be the best. "…Katy got pregnant and aborted it." She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, waiting for him to yell at her. He didn’t make a sound. She opened her eyes to see that he had a fixed expression of shock on his face. It was her fault, and she immediately regretted telling him. "…I’m sorry…I didn’t tell her to…"
His lip trembled. "She killed our baby?"
Amy stood up. "I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you. Forget I said it, I never wanted to hurt you."
"Oh my Gawd…" Klump looked at her. "Please, don’t go…I ain’t mad at you. I need to ask you some things…"
"I swear, I don’t know anything else. She just told me that she found out she was going to have a baby and she had it terminated."
"Why the Heck would she wanna do that?!" exclaimed Klump, standing up also, "She said we were gonna start a family together anyway! And then she goes behind my back and does somethin’ like that!"
"Just forget it…she wasn’t going to tell you unless you guys had a nasty break-up. You shouldn’t have heard it from me…but she told me to…"
Klump smiled a sad smile and gave her a hug. "It ain’t your fault…but I don’t know why she told you, though…did ya know about the baby before?"
"No, but she just told me in case you two broke up and she stopped talking to you…I guess that was the only reason. Stupid, since you’re such a good friend to me."
"Maybe I better go talk with ‘er…I need to straighten this out. I hope she has a dang good excuse for doin’ what she did." He let go of Amy and hung his arms by his sides. "…hey…thanks for tellin’ me. I ain’t blamin’ you for anythin’."
Amy nodded, and watched as he left her room looking sullen and depressed. Before then she wouldn’t have dreamed of telling Klump about Katy’s abortion. Her way of thinking had changed recently, as though she was in constant confusion about what she wanted and how she felt. She knew how upset Klump would be, but it was like she didn’t care…like she wanted him to be miserable. Had she really thought it would help? Surely any sane person could see that it would only make things worse to hear such news not directly from the someone involved. If she had only thought, it would have been very clear that hearing it from Katy would be less painful for him. If only she hadn’t said…now there was no way to take it back. She sat back down on the bed and rested her head on the back of her claw, trying to think. Why was everything so hard for her now? Everything was just so, so hard…
***
"Katy, I need to talk to ya again."
Katy, who was getting some water from a water cooler in the main reception room of the Kongo Bongo general hospital, turned around upon hearing Klump’s voice. She drank her small cup of water and tossed the paper cup into the bin. "What do you want? Didn’t Amy tell you to leave me alone?"
"No, she didn’t, but she did tell me a rather interesting fact…" He walked right up to her and put his claws on his hips.
"Klump, don’t do this, not here…nobody else must see this." She grabbed his arm and pulled him aside, out of the view of the reception desk and right up against a wall. She looked anxious. She clearly knew what he was talking about.
"Why did ya have an abortion when you said we were gonna have a family together anyway? There was no need to do that!" She glared at him. "Why the Heck didn’t ya tell me?"
"I had every reason not to tell you. I’m glad Amy told you, though, because now you can see that it was a good thing I did it. Your own kid would have been your great-niece or great-nephew."
He growled. "I know that, but why’d ya do it at the time? You should have at least consulted me about it! That was my dang kid too, y’know!"
"I had good reason, Klump! I didn’t do it to hurt you, I would have never done that!"
"Then why the Heck did you have an abortion without talkin’ to me first?!"
"Because I wasn’t certain if it was yours!" she yelled, and he took a step back. She looked away from him - a tear fell down her cheek and made her mascara run.
"…what?"
A lizard walked out from behind the reception desk, looked to both sides, and then approached Katy. He smiled and handed her a clipboard. "Hi, Kate. Allan needs you in room fifty-three, apparently some ape broke his leg skateboarding on the pier. Can you handle that? Are you busy?" The lizard looked at Klump and adjusted his round glasses on his scaly orange snout.
Katy looked at Klump once more, and then looked away again. She shook her head. "No, I’m not busy. I’ll be right there." She looked briefly at the clipboard, and then set off down the corridor towards the elevator, not looking back at Klump, who just stood still by the water cooler.
The other lizard raised an eyebrow at him. "May I help you, Sir?"
Klump clenched his jaws together in an effort to shut out the hurt he was feeling. "…no…I’m fine, thanks…" He looked over at the reception and waiting room to see that all the lizards and apes seated there were staring at him. He growled. "What are y’all starin’at? Ain’t you ever seen a guy with a broken heart before?" And with that, he stormed out of the hospital and back into the jungle.
***
Several hours later…
"This’ll show him." sblack personed Sabrina, walking out into the main factory hall, "Double X chromosomes always come out on top." She had finally been able to grab her walk that night. Tobias had surrendered easily, and she was free to roam the factory as she wished. It was wonderful to feel so free. She was wearing fuchsia-colored shorts with a white semi-transparent sleeveless shirt and black high heels. She just had a good feeling when she wore shorts with high heels. It was a good enough reason for her to wear them. "Feels so good to stretch my legs…"
She walked over to a large pile of wooden crates and sat down on the floor next to it, stretching her legs out in front of her and tossing her hair. It was a wonderful, liberating feeling to be so alone…if only she could be like this all the time, but Tobias needed to be himself, and she didn’t dismiss it. She knew when she had pushed her luck, and was afraid for Tobias to find some way to remove her. She liked being how she was, despite how she longed for freedom.
When she heard a small noise coming from her left, towards the factory entrance, she just turned her head to look. She wasn’t afraid. She was too laid back to be afraid. Watching, she saw a reptilian figure enter the factory, and it looked from side-to-side anxiously as though it had lost something. She kept watching as it drew nearer, and all the while it was looking around, trying, apparently, to see something important. As it got closer, she saw it was a male figure…quite nice, muscular enough, not podgy…she stood up.
"Can I help you?" she asked, leaning one arm against the pile of crates.
Upon seeing her, the lizard walked right up to her and stood before her. She swallowed loudly. He was so incredibly handsome that she almost choked. "Yes, er, I’m trying to find a lizard named Tobias. Have you seen him?"
Not wanting to aid him in that way, despite the fact that she knew exactly where Tobias was, she leant back against the crates, trying to look pretty for him. She was filled with an overwhelming, unnatural attraction to him, and she wanted to show it. "How about if you and me get a little acquainted first?" How subtle.
He smiled, in at least an effort to be polite. "That’s very nice of you, but I really need to find Tobias, if you have seen him-"
"I will take you to him," she purred, interrupting, "but first you and me must get…more friendly. I never give advice to strangers…"
"Honestly, ma’am, I only came here to see him. I’ve been tracking him for most of the evening, and I’ve narrowed my search area down to this factory." Suddenly, she saw a strange expression cross his face. It was shock, happiness and lust all combined into one peculiar look. He sniffed the air, and half-closed his eyes. "That’s a nice smell…"
"Mmhmm…" Sabrina was, of course, producing the aphrodisiac scent that encouraged mating in kremlings. She knew how to get him, and due to being magical she was able to make an extra-strong, extra-sexy aroma. The male lizard, obviously TJ, just looked at her with his blissful expression. To boost herself, as well as him, she reached up to her chest and placed the claw of each index finger on each of her nipples, which were clearly visible through the thin fabric. She gently squeezed them, turning herself on further, and making TJ’s expression even more extraordinary. "You like it…I’m glad…you know we girls only make it when we’re turned-on…when we smell that smell that you males make…"
"…oh…I didn’t…realise…I was making…a smell…"
"You aren’t…" Slowly, she moved right up against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "not yet…but you’re a very good-looking guy…" She could feel her whole body pulsing. They looked at one another for a moment, and then Sabrina gave him a kiss. "Please kiss me." He kissed her, obediently, and she returned it.
"This is happening so fast…" he gasped, touching his snout to her chest before moving up to her neck and back up to her face, running his tongue over her scales. He had never been one to do this. He had never done anything like it before. Something was telling him what to do.
"Not too fast, TJ…" she said, nuzzling against him. She knew his name. Tobias knew his name. TJ didn’t think of this as unusual, and unknown to himself he began producing the scent that Sabrina wanted. She picked up on it quickly and she arched her body, touching her lips to his. "You want this, then…"
He groaned and licked her again. "Yes I do…mmm…I love you…" This made her giggle – a quiet, flattered giggle. He put his claws against her back and pulled her stomach up against his, still kissing. It continued on in this fashion until he dragged her to the floor, and from then on you can only imagine what they did.
***
Tobias woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. He kept his eyes closed, and he held his claws to his head, groaning. "Oh man, that hurts…" Every muscle in his body was aching, but his head was really suffering. It felt like a severe migraine. His mouth was also a misery, very stale. He never brushed his teeth, but for the first time in over fifty years, brushing sounded like a good idea. Actually, he had never liked brushing…just that his step-mother had always forced him to brush for ten minutes every morning and evening. What a pain she had been…
He opened his eyes slowly and painfully. He felt sick.
He felt even sicker when he saw TJ lying next to him, his arm around Tobias’ waist. Tobias tensed.
"…oh…my…f**k…"
He moved slightly, hoping to get away. TJ stirred a bit, and tightened his grip. With his head on the younger lizard’s chest, Tobias had quite a good view of his face. Strangely, although he was probably just imagining it, TJ’s scales looked darker.
"…oh…please…get off…"
Tobias tried to pull away again, and TJ woke up. He yawned and hugged Tobias tighter, apparently still in a dream. "Whoa, it’s morning already. Powder’s gonna be worried about me." He then looked down and saw Tobias. He screamed at the top of his lungs and leapt to his feet, wiping the front of his chest as though he had come in contact with a nasty fungus. "Oh my God, where the Hell did you come from?!" he yelled, backing away from the older lizard.
Tobias got up also and took out his velociraptor blade, holding tightly to it. "You know where I came from! You raped me, didn’t you?!"
"Oh sick!" exclaimed TJ, "I’d never be desperate enough to do it with a guy!"
Tobias waved the blade. "Then how come I don’t remember being with you? You must have just sneaked up behind me and knocked me out with something! You sicken me!"
"You brought it up, man!"
"Argh, I slept with you! Oh God, why?!"
"My sentiments exactly!" yelled TJ, who had finally stopped trying to wipe any traces of Tobias off himself, "But I didn’t sleep with you! I was with a female!" He hoped Tobias would believe him.
He did. "You were?" Tobias flicked his wrist and the blade disappeared, "A girl?"
"Yes." replied TJ, thankful that Tobias had stopped accusing him of rape.
"…yellow scales, black hair, blue eyes? That?"
TJ nodded. "Yeah…she was a vision of loveliness…" He then drifted off for a second, images of Sabrina floating through his head. Tobias, of course, had the real Sabrina in his head.
"Oh, that explains it, then. That bit**" He crossed his arms and leant up against the same pile of crates that Sabrina had leant against before seducing TJ. The two lizards had not been bothered about being seen in public, and had just mated on the floor in King K. Rool’s main factory hall. Goodness me. I’d never do that. I swear. Never. Yeesh, I write about weird things. Oh, sorry. Back to the fic.
"Huh?"
"Well it’s hard to explain…Sabrina lives in my head. She’s the female me." TJ just stared. "I transformed into her a short while ago…I changed back, but she never left. She’s sort of got her own life inside me." He looked up, seemingly looking up into his own head. "She sometimes talks to me. It’s d**n annoying."
"Oh!" said TJ, apparently excited, "Tell me if she says anything about me!"
"Nothing at all yet." mused Tobias, "She only talks sometimes."
"Tell her I love her!"
"…you love her? You must have lived a d**n lonely life."
"Has she said anything about me yet? Please say she has."
"I’ll tell you as soon as she says anything." Tobias looked around at the factory hall. "Nobody has come out here yet. Nobody saw us. I thought everyone would be awake by now…it must be around eight."
"Yeah, must be…has she said anything?"
"No."
"…now?"
"No!" Tobias growled, "She won’t talk if she doesn’t feel like it!"
Tell him I love him too.
Tobias grumbled. "She said she loves you too, happy?"
"Oh, Sab!" said TJ loudly, clasping his claws together, "You’re so sweet!"
"Shush, will you?" Tobias stepped right up to the younger lizard and held his jaws shut. "You don’t want that K. Rool bastard to find out we’re here, do you?"
TJ pushed him off. "Ooh, no. That guy deserves to die. How about if we go kill him?"
"…are you Okay? You seem a bit…over-stimulated."
Before TJ could say anything else, he made a strange groaning noise and doubled over. He held his stomach and whined before collapsing onto the floor. Tobias watched as the other lizard writhed uncomfortably on the ground. This went on for seven and a half minutes before he expressed any concern.
"Are you alright down there?"
"Yes, perfectly fine…nothing’s wrong…nothing at all…" He rolled over. "Actually, yeah, I feel like I’m about to die…aack…"
"You know, that’s funny, the last guy Sabrina slept with died too. How intriguing." He looked down at TJ, who was kicking his legs in the air and gasping. "Is that some kind of orgasm?"
"Help me here!"
"Oh, fine." Tobias crouched down next to him and kept watching. "Now?"
"What’s happening…to me?" As he said that, his dark green scales darkened further, and a few faint red outlines formed on his face, body and tail. "Oww…this hurts…"
"Oh yeah, that happened to me, too. I threw up five times during the course of mine."
TJ whimpered and twitched. "Huh? What?"
"Your scales are changing. That’s interesting."
The outlines became brighter, and the red color began to spread within the outlines. His green scales were now completely black, although his pale blue/green chest and stomach stayed the same color. About ten more minutes passed, with TJ wriggling and squirming on the floor, and finally the stripes were fully formed. "Ow." He stopped moving and just lay still, breathing heavily. He was sweating like crazy. The blackness of his formerly green scales was quite stunning, and the red stripes made him look poisonous, like Tobias. Unlike Tobias, who also had some yellow stripes, TJ only had red stripes.
"You are so lucky. My transformation took a whole night to finish." He looked down at the younger lizard and grinned. "Sabrina was useful, I guess. She gave you enough for your scales to change."
"…oh…yeah…that…thing you said…"
"I’ve never actually seen anyone get their magic through sex, but it’s very efficient…just look at you. My, don’t you look handsome?" Of course, by now, he and TJ looked like twins. "Have a rest now…but not out here. I think we better go to my room." He clapped his hands, and the two of them vanished to Tobias’ factory bedroom. It was a way for TJ to catch some rest away from any possible danger. Tobias denied to himself that he cared for the younger lizard. He just felt a duty to tutor him, despite the other things in his life that needed to be tended to. He had been too busy to fully lavish his attention on TJ, but maybe now that his scales had changed he didn’t need any coaching. Perhaps Sabrina would be more equipped to sort him out…in more ways than one. Possibly just a talk with TJ, some bonding time now that they were both officially dark lizards, would be good.

A Bright Dawn Ahead

After barley escaping Garp’s attack on them at Water Seven. The Straw Hat Pirates with newly joined Franky the shipwright and the return of Usopp are now on a brand new adventure.

The night was and the sea was calm. Everyone aboard Thousand Sunny was fast asleep except for two. Luffy and Nami were on the top deck looking out at the vast ocean of stars and water. Nami then spoke, “We been together for quite sometime, Luffy.” “Sure have Nami, and we been through so much too,” replied Luffy grinning at her. “Well with the recent events at Enies Lobby and our past adventures, everybody has become attached to you Luffy,” Nami stated, “Yet it seem to me that I have become more attached to you than anyone else of the crew.”

“What do you mean by more attached Nami?” asked a very puzzled Luffy. “Well Luffy, um I mean that I’m um in love with you,” replied Nami blushing. “Really Nami, and I thought I was only one who felt that way toward you,” said a surprised Luffy. “What do you mean by the only one, Luffy?” she asked. “Well um, I’m in love with you since I recalled calling you my nakama,” he replied blushing with his hand on back of his head.

“Oh Luffy, you are a great captain and even more,’ said Nami as she turned to Luffy’s face and hugged him. “Nami, you are a great navigator and even more yourself,” said Luffy as he put his arms around Nami’s body and stares into her eyes. They stare into each other’s eyes then finally kissed as true love. They kissed for an hour. Upon finishing, Luffy asked Nami, “Nami, after we find One Piece and complete your map of the world, I wanted you to be at my side forever.” “Oh Luffy, I will be there with you at your side I promised,” she replied.

The Sun started to slowly rise on the horizon. “Look Luffy, the sunrise is coming and its beautiful don’t you agree,” said Nami. “Yeah it is just like you Nami, “he replied grinning with her blushing. “Look like we have a bright future ahead us Nami,” said Luffy staring at the sunrise. “Yes we do, Luffy, yes we do,” she replied with her head on his shoulder as they both stare at the sunrise. A bright dawn lies ahead for them to come.

A Perfect Union of Love and Happiness

A few days have passed since the Straw Hat Pirates have found and obtained One Piece. The crew accomplished their individual goals and more through their adventures. They gain so much fame by defeating stronger pirate crews that they were given position of power and authority over other pirates in the government. Their bounties no longer exist for their achievements for good and justice.

Abroad Thousand Sunny, in Robin’s and her room, Nami was twisting and turning in her bed as if she was having a bad dream. She suddenly woke up screaming, “No!” She was sweating when Luffy woke up next to her. He then turn to her and asked her, “What is wrong, Nami?” “Nothing is wrong, Luffy,” she replied. “I know you are lying, Nami. I have been sleeping with you over at least fifty times since our talk and first kiss,” he said staring into her eyes with his simple gaze. “Even our nakamas knew about us and when something is wrong with one of us when we acted strangely,” he continued to stare into her eyes. He placed his hand on her hand. She finally gave into him and let out a big sign. “Alright Luffy, you win and I will tell why I screamed in the first place to you,” she said.

“I had a bad dream that I saw you being killed by evil pirates, you died in my hands and I was never going to see you and your cheerful face ever again,” said Nami sadly to Luffy. “Nami, I will never be killed by evil pirates,” replied Luffy with a grin. “I once had a similar dream about you sometime back but I decide to not to tell you because we will live and died together as a lovely couple,” he said with a cheerful smile towards her. “Yeah, you are right Luffy, because our bounties no longer active,” she replied with a cheerful smile on her face back to him. They both laugh together with happiness. They then kissed each other for a bit.

Suddenly, Sanji knocks on the door and said, “Breakfast is ready, Nami-san and Luffy!” They stopped kissing and replied, “Okay we will be right down.” They took a good stroll down to the kitchen and dining room where everyone was having breakfast. When they arrived in the kitchen and dining room, everyone was in a very cheerful mood and enjoying the beautiful breakfast that a first rate chef could make. Nami and Luffy sat down next to each other. Zoro asked them, “How was your night, you two?” before he saw Usoppu trying to steal his food and began yelling at him for it. Nami and Luffy laughed at Zoro’s and Usoppu’s argument and replied, “It was a good and peaceful night for us.” “Well that is good to hear from you two,” said Sanji while he was serving them their breakfast which they asked for the night before and under his breath, “sh***y rubber man, I deserve to be Nami-san’s lover.” Chopper overheard Sanji’s comment and began to giggle about it until Sanji notices and hit him on the head for it. “Nami and Luffy look like a perfect match for each other after all, said Robin with some giggles from Chopper fighting Sanji for him hitting him in the head.

“Oi Robin, you are correct about us,” replied Luffy with his usual cheerful grin towards everyone. “That is Mugiwara for you always grinning cheerfully and happily,” said Franky with a chuckle and a bottle of cola in his hand. “Well here is something that everyone would not suspect me to do at all,” said Luffy. He gets up from his chair, kneels on one knee and takes out a small box from his pocket in front of Nami. “Nami, I was thinking over our love for each other. I had this wonderful thought in my head that we are meant to be together and…” He paused before continuing. “And?” she replied and asked. “And I was wondering if you will marry me, Nami?” he said as he opened the small box revealing a ring with a beautiful diamond and beautiful pearls embedded into the ring. Everyone’s jaws dropped, Sanji the most out of the crew, when Luffy asked Nami the marriage question. “Oh Luffy, I been waiting for you to say those words for a long time. Of course, I will marry you,” she said with cheerful tears, hugging and kissing him.

Zoro shows a cheerful smile. Usoppu, Chopper, and Franky were crying many tears of joy. Sanji is in complete and crying out his failure to unable take Nami’s love for Luffy. Robin has a cheerful smile on face. Brooke was crying only to realize he has no eyes to make tears. “Yo-hohohohohohohoho, I am so happy for you two that I’m crying tears of joy. But I don’t have eyes, Skull Joke Yo-hohohohohohoho!! !!” he replied. Everyone began to laughing at Brooke’s joke.

“Well that settle things now,” said Luffy as he puts the engagement ring on Nami’s hand. “Oh Luffy where did you find such a gorgeous ring?” asked Nami as she gazed at her ring. “I found it while look around in One Piece and I thought it would lovely on you, Nami,” he replied as sat back down next to her once more. “I guess Luffy wanted the mood to be perfect and the whole crew to witness the moment,” said Usoppu while stealing some food from Chopper’s plate. “Luffy and Nami are now the Pirate King and Queen,” shouted an excited Chopper who didn’t noticed Usoppu and his actions. “That is right, Chopper, the Pirate King and Queen, Luffy and Nami,” said Nami with a cheerful smile. “Oi Sanji, can you make a gigantic feast with a gigantic wedding cake?” asked Luffy. “Sure Luffy, I will make the greatest feast and cake that you two ever seen before,” replied Sanji. “sh***y rubber man, you took my lovely Nami-san from me,” he said under his breath again. “The Pirate King Luffy and Pirate Queen Nami that is so amazing,” said Chopper in total amazement. “Aw how sweet of you to say about us, Chopper,” replied Nami. Chopper start to blush from Nami’s compliment.

“Oi Zoro and Usoppu, I want you two to be my best men!! !!” said Luffy. Zoro and Usoppu were drinking some juice when Luffy asked them and they spat out the juice in complete shock. “What!! !! ! You want us to be your best men?” they replied with shocked faces. “Yes. Oi Chopper you can be the ring bearer for us,” replied Luffy. “What!! !! !! !! Me the ring bearer?” said a shocked Chopper. “Yes,” said Luffy in return to Chopper’s response. “Oi Nami, who your wedding ceremony party going to be?” he asked Nami. “I think Robin and Vivi will make great bride maidens,” she replied. Robin smiled cheerfully at Nami’s comment and nodded in agreement. “Nojiko can help with the food and wedding planning as well,” she continued with a cheerful smile. Sanji felt better when hearing Nojiko’s name being mentioned. “Oi Cook, you better have a lot of Cola ready for after ceremony celebration,” said Franky. “We will need plenty of beer as well,” added Zoro with a few laughs with Franky.

Everyone began to laugh at Zoro’s and Franky’s comments. “This is going to be a jolly good time for us,” said a cheerful Usoppu. All of sudden, the dining room door opens and a man with red hair enters the room. “Oi Luffy, you were not going forget about inviting my crew and I to your wedding now would you?” asked the red haired man with a grin. “Shanks! Of course I would not forget and you and the Red Haired Pirates!! !!” shouted an excited Luffy. Shanks began to laugh and said to Luffy, “I also brought someone else that you know very well along with me.” Another man in black shorts, wearing red beads around his neck and black hair enters. “My little brother is getting married and not to just any woman but the most beautiful woman in the world,” the man said. “Ace!! !!” replied a shocked Luffy. Ace itch his head out of embarrassment from Luffy’s response.

“LUFFY!! !! !” screamed someone very loudly. Luffy and Ace began to shake and sweat because they instantly recognized the voice. A tall man in a Marines’ officer uniform appears in the doorway. “Grandpa!” Luffy and Ace shouted. “Luffy. You could at least welcome me politely and properly instead of screaming my name you know,” said Garp while picking his nose. He then notices Ace in the room. “Oi Ace, you are alive and well it seems after Marshall D. Teach dragged you in half dead,” he said to Ace. “Don’t remind me old man. I swear to kick Teach’s ass good when I see him next time,” replied Ace while cracking his knuckles. “HaHaHaHaHaHa! Don’t worry about Blackbeard, Ace. He was beaten to a pulp by Luffy here after he found it was him who defeated you in the first place,” replied Garp. “Oi Luffy took you enough to notice that I was defeated by the baka of man,” laughed Ace as he sat down on the bench. “Oi Ace, I also actually saved you being publically executed while my crew and I were in …… uh I forgot where it was now,” said Luffy. “That’s Luffy for you everyone, simple minded and forget things easily sometimes,” laughed Shanks which everyone joined in including Luffy himself. “Well that means I have a life debt to my little brother then,” laughed Ace cheerfully. Usoppu stood up on his chair and say, “Three cheers for Luffy, Nami, and their wonderful for each other!” Everyone screamed, “Hooray for Luffy and Nami!! !!” Luffy and Nami blushed while grin at everyone. They then kiss each other in front of everyone which made everyone cried except Zoro with his cheerful smile. “Now that is what you called a perfect union of love and happiness,” said Shanks nudging Garp in his ribs while grinning. “Yes and also Shanks don’t nudged me in the ribs again,” replied Garp. “Now let’s have a huge celebration everyone!! !!” shouted Luffy. Everyone partied and drank well into the night.