I obviously do not own TPoH nor its characters.
Two long shadows stretched out onto one side of the path. Their unnatural shapes distorted and shifted every time they hit one of the half dead trees. The shorter shadow lagged behind as its owner, an eight year old brunette in a simple hoodie, studied the leafless branches above.
When the two shadows were five yards apart, the taller one ahead stopped, and turned around. His peculiar silhouette against the ground matched his surreal appearance; short stature, cane in hand, and an old fashioned TV for a head.
"Come along, Hero," RGB adjusted the cuff of his sleeve as he spoke. "We don't have time to dilly dally."
"Dillydally!" A high pitched voice chirped from the back of the girl's hoodie. She tilted her head to the side to let the face of a talking sock puppet with black button eyes peek over her shoulder.
"Assok, must you repeat everything we say?" The man huffed and leaned on his cane while the girl and sock duo caught up with him.
"Ever ythin we sae!"
RGB planted his fists on his hips and moved his head as if he was rolling his not present eyes. Finally Hero stopped in front of him and stared at his screen, ready.
"Try to keep up, alright?" He watched Hero nod her head while Assok bobbed with her.
"Good. Let's go, spit spot," RGB spun around and began to walk, with his legs suavely moving in front of the other. Hero remained at his side with her shoes making soft thuds with each step. Looking up, she observed the amber orange sky above with not a sliver of cloud in sight.
"Is it getting late?" She asked.
"Starting to, yes." The man spun his cane between his fingers like a pinwheel. "There's a spot up ahead where we can rest for the night."
After that, they settled into silence, accompanied only by the quiet whistle of wind from the distance. Once again, the girl stared at the sky, as if expecting some change in the warmly colored sky. Nope, still an endless sea of orange. RGB also slipped into her peripheral vision, with his cyan suit contrasting with the backdrop. She glanced at his robin egg blue trousers and matching spat shoes. Although Hero couldn't see it from behind, she knew his bowtie sported a turquoise and white checkered pattern.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH!
Hero jerked her head down in surprise of her footsteps. Littering the path were dozens of large, crunchy leaves. RGB's shoes also noisily stepped onto the leaves, filling the air with the sound of autumn as he proceeded without hesitation. After a blink, Hero's face lit up like a brand new neon sign. Wasting no time, she jumped forward and marched happily through the leaves.
"Wheeee!" CRUN-CRUNCH! "Ha ha ha!" SHUH-CRUNCH, SHUH-CRUNCH! "This is fu-OOF!"
When one is kicking up leaves as they walk, one does not always watch where they are going. This fact applied to Hero, as she carelessly rammed into the backside of RGB's legs. He turned around and glared at her with a frown.
"Do try to pay attention to where you're going, Hero."
"O-okay…" She took a step away, remembering how he disliked being touched. The girl then looked around him to see what was in front of them, hoping to find the reason why he stopped so suddenly.
Dozens and dozens of trees with rusty brown bark surrounded a wide clearing completely blanketed with leaves. She held a hand over her eyes, but still couldn't make out the other side clearly. What surprised her was how thick the covering of leaves was over the open space; not a sliver of earth peeked out from below. Curious, she slipped past RGB and poked her toes into the dry plant matter.
"Do you…feel any water?"
Hero turned her head around to RGB with a raised eyebrow. "Water?"
"Wah ter?" Assok repeated with equal confusion.
"Well, you see, this was once The Lake of Mourning..."
"Morning…?"
"Mourning. As in mourn." The man corrected while poking his cane into one of the murky brown leaves. "To feel regret or deep sadness about the loss of something or someone."
"Oh…" Hero glumly looked down at the ground. She took a few steps further with the leaves crunching around her legs and feet. Nothing but crisp, stiff leaves up to her knees.
"So...is there any water?" RGB asked again.
"Uh-uh."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
Hero held her shoe up, revealing how perfectly dry it was. "No water."
As if on cue, Assok wormed onto her opposite shoulder and mimicked, "No wah ter!"
RGB sighed with relief and stepped forward. His light blue spat shoes disappeared under the brittle sea of leaves. Holding his cane at his side, he strolled past Hero and said, "What are you waiting for? Come along, there's no time to delay."
The eight year old marched behind him, watching his back. With every shuffling step they took, their legs sank deeper into the leaves.
"RGB, if this was a lake, then where's the water?"
"Dried up, most likely." He answered without turning around. "Normally there's a bridge that crosses it, but…part of me expected it to be destroyed."
"Like the ferry? The one you and TOby talked about?"
"Ah, you remember that?" The leaves were past his knees now, but he didn't pay it much mind. "Yes, and it appears my intuition was right. However, I didn't believe the entire lake would go down with it. On the bright side, though, now we don't have to go around it." A smile took over his screen. " Saves us quite a few frames, don't you agree?" He chuckled to himself as he marched merrily forward. "At this rate, we should reach the other side by nightfall, and then we can-"
RGB's voice trailed off as he suddenly noticed how his hands were buried in the dead leaves. They nearly came to his hips, and to the girl, that would be…
"Hero…?" He looked over his shoulder. Waving franticly in the air was Hero's small hand with her muffled cries beneath the surface.
"Hero!" The man swiftly grabbed her hand and pulled her up like a root vegetable. She dangled in the air as she breathed in sweet oxygen. Her sock puppet friend jumped into her hoodie and spat out a few crumbled leaves.
A moment of awkward silence took away their voices as Hero stared at RGB, unable to read the expression on his screen. Before she could ponder any further, the man somehow swung her onto his back and hooked his arms under her legs. With a grumbling "Oh, for pity's sake…" he plodded onward again, carrying Hero piggy back style.
Surprise overtook her features, not expecting this reluctant act of kindness from RGB. She wanted to thank him, but his mumbling growl discouraged her from doing so. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and looped her arms around his invisible neck.
"What am I, a nursemaid?" RGB complained under his breath-which wasn't very quiet, in all honesty. "Really, I'm no babysitter…"
An hour later (or what felt like an hour to Hero; she wasn't positive on how time was accounted for in this world,) the tangerine sky had melted into a rich indigo sprinkled with pearl white stars. If it weren't for RGB's vivid screen, the trio would be at the mercy of the dim starlight. As the man shuffled forward, Hero's eyes grew heavier, lulled by his soporific steps and Assok's soft snoring. However, just before she could nod off, RGB shifted her body on his back just enough to snap her back to her senses.
"Don't fall asleep on me now," He commanded. "Just hang in there a little longer."
"Mm-hm," She hummed in response.
As Hero tried to blink her sleep away, she recalled how earlier, the leaves came up to RGB's chest. However, the leaves never went any deeper than that. As RGB progressed to the other side, the level gradually declined, and was now just brushing his ankles.
RGB shifted her again as his two tone shoes emerged from the leaves. After a few more steps, he shook his feet free of plant matter and glanced over his shoulder.
"We're here." He said flatly while lowering the girl to the ground. She let go of his neck and planted her shoes on the ground. Brushing off leaves stuck to her jacket, she took a good look at what stood before them; a couple of trees, strong and healthy, but somewhat mysterious. Their lanky branches held long, string-like leaves that hung downwards, like a weeping willow's. Pale, dreamy lights decorated them like flowers with fireflies inside.
"…sad." Hero whispered to herself.
"Did you say something, Hero?" RGB asked while situating himself under one of the trees.
"The trees look sad." She sat down next to the trunk of the other tree. "The ones we saw earlier were sad, too." Hero leaned back to stare at the surreal branches above her. "…Is it because the lake dried up?"
"Lake o' mor ning?" Assok crawled from under her hair and into the crook of her arm.
"It's…difficult to explain." RGB fiddled with his bowtie as he tried to brainstorm a way around this question. "But…I suppose you could say that." Satisfied with his answer, he laid onto his backside and pulled his hat over his screen. "Now get some rest."
"Okay…" Hero curled up into a ball, trying to get comfortable for the night. She shut her eyes, but to her unpleasant surprise, sleep eluded her. Puzzled, she rolled over to her other side, but found no luck. The girl looked down into her arm to find Assok already fast asleep with little flowers fluttering above his green muppet head. Green, like the tinge of envy that slipped into her mind. However, she paid this miniscule poison no mind and gingerly cupped her hands around the creature and placed him to the side so her insomnia wouldn't bother him.
With a quiet huff, she rolled back to where her face was facing the branches that obscured her view of the night sky. The tree really did look like a weeping willow…no, to her, it was a weeping willow. A heartbroken tree, wanting to weep to express its sorrow. The leaves were akin to tear tracks running down one's cheeks, but hopelessly frozen in time, unable to be shed or dried.
"Mourning. As in mourn." RGB's words echoed through her mind. "To feel regret or deep sadness about the loss of something or someone."
Weeping Willows around The Lake of Mourning. Not that surprising, when Hero thought about it. Still, she wished she could do something. She was a hero, after all, and heroes help those in need, right? Even if all she was now was a 'hero' with no other name, she wanted to ease the tree's sadness. When her eyes wandered to the tips of the willow's elongated leaves, she noticed how the ends resembled tiny hands. In a hopeful trance, Hero raised her left hand up towards them, but realized her arm was too short. She stretched her fingers out, but the leaves were still several feet out of her reach.
"…Hero? What on earth are you doing?"
"H-huh?" The brunette looked to her left to find RGB staring at her while lying on his side.
"Well?" He prompted while propping his TV set on his right arm. "Having trouble falling asleep again?"
"Um…Y-yeah." Hero whispered, relaxing her arm. "…What about you? Can you go to sleep?"
"If I could, I wouldn't be awake now, would I?"
"Oh…" Hero turned back to gaze at the branches. "Sorry I woke you."
"No worries, you didn't," RGB reassured, praying the girl didn't notice the little white lie scuttling past his feet. A few moments passed before he reluctantly asked, "Do you want to watch the telly? It helped last time."
"…No, thanks."
If the man wasn't already lying down, he would have jumped with shock. Was she touched in the head? Or maybe she saw the tiny lie and figured out she really did wake him up. RGB tugged at his collar, hoping a guilt wouldn't come around. Yes, Hero had never seen one of those slimy little creatures before, but she wasn't unintelligent.
The man's gaze settled onto her left hand that curled open and closed as if testing to see her fingers were still working. It looked almost like an odd flower with flesh petals to him, revealing its strange beauty one minute and reverting back to a bud the next.
"Maybe I'M the one touched in the head," RGB thought, rubbing his fingers and thumb together. He felt the cheap fabric of his gloves press against his invisible skin.
"…RGB?"
"Yes, Hero?" The man saw how she had turned her head to where they could look at each other head on. He noticed a peculiar sense of hope in her eyes.
"Can you hold my hand?"
"W-what?" RGB sat upright, completely baffled by this out of the blue request.
"Please? Just…until I fall asleep?" She pleaded.
"I do not believe that's necessary." He hissed, turning his back to her. "You've fallen asleep plenty of times without holding my hand."
"I-I won't get too close to you. If we stretch our arms out then my dreams won't-"
"I said no."
"But I-"
"Did you not hear me? I said no, and no means no." His broad shoulders tensed with frustration while he held the fabric of his sky blue shirt with one hand. His heart ached with emotional pain, and he did his best to hide it.
"Don't get attached, don't get attached, do NOT get attached to her." RGB repeated over and over again though his head like a sacred chant. "Don't you remember what happened to the hero before her? And the one before that? And ALL the others before her? You want to go through with all that all over again?!"
The monster took a breath to steady his raging emotions and turned over, prepared to coldly tell the girl good night, but when he rolled to his other side, he found Hero facing the opposite way.
"Okay…good night, then, RGB." She yawned glumly.
RGB's antennas went limp, matching the sinking feeling in his nonexistent stomach. Even though all he could see was her small backside and chestnut brown hair, he still knew she wore a frown on her face.
"…I am going to regret this. I just know it."
"…Fine."
Hero twitched at his voice and turned over. She watched his neon color bar fluctuate as he spoke.
"But just this once." He flung out his right hand in a 'let's-get-this-bloody-ordeal-over-with' manner.
The girl stared at it, dumbstruck once again at his unenthusiastic change of heart. Without uttering a word, Hero crawled closer until his hand was in reach, not an inch closer. She cautiously stretched her left hand out, half suspecting him to snatch his hand away, like when she had first met him. However, he remained perfectly still, and she slid her small hand into his gloved one.
Her child sized fingers lightly squeezed the coward's hand, amazed at its warmth. His well used gloves felt smooth against her soft skin. Hero's eyes then trailed to his invisible wrist, up his cyan clad arm, and to his TV set head. The man's screen faced to the sky as if trying to ignore her touch.
"…RGB?"
"What?" He deadpanned, refusing to look at her.
"Thank you."
"…" His only reply was shoving his boater hat over his face with his free hand like he always did before he fell asleep. Hero hesitantly smiled and turned her head to the sky, gazing at the weeping willow's leaves. She couldn't hold their 'hands', but at least she could hold someone's hand, even if he was reluctant about it. Oddly enough, the little glowing flowers spotting the branches no longer seemed sad, but calm. Then again, that may have been her mind playing tricks on her.
Hero was about to slip her hand out of RGB's, with sleep finally deciding to stop ignoring her, when his fingers suddenly gave her hand a firm but gentle squeeze. She gasped, caught off guard at his protective grip.
"…Go to sleep, Hero. It's getting late."
The eight year old parted her lips to say something, but her words were sucked away by some unknown force. Closing her mouth, she let her weight sink into the ground, and tightened her fingers around RGB's hand one last time before closing her eyes. As the minutes slipped past, her hand grew limp and relaxed, but the man never let go.
"I'm digging my own grave here, aren't I?" RGB mused, playing dead. "I'm a monster, the very worst one, and now I'm the stupidest."
He'd have to let go eventually; according to her promise, he only had to hold her hand until she fell asleep, and the flowers of dreams danced above her head like fireworks already. Yet the coward inside of him grew stubborn and couldn't bring himself to remove his hand.
"…five more minutes." RGB muttered to himself. "No harm in holding on for five more minutes…" He groggily laid his free hand over his stomach while he gently caressed Hero's fingers with the other. Within seconds, his test pattern screen flickered into one of fuzzy static. No dreams bubbled out of his vents, but his right hand relaxed with his slender fingers wrapped lazily around the girl's hand, where they would remain for the rest of the night.