Escape to the Summer Lands
by KC
Disclaimer: Lazytown and all of its characters belong to their original copyright holders. I just want to play in the sandbox.
Relationships: Sportacus/Robbie, Iþrottaalfurinn/Glanni
Warnings: violence, bloodshed, dark fantasy, hope you weren't too attached to the kids
Robbie drowsed on the park bench, his eyes half-closed, watching the pale light sparkle through the maple leaves. Five days of insomnia lay heavily on him, bringing him to the very edge of sleep, but the children's laughter and the bouncing soccer ball kept yanking him back. Groaning deep inside himself, Robbie turned over once, thinking that if he could just find the perfect position, the right way to lay his hand across his eyes, to pillow his head in the crook of his arm, maybe he could drift off.
Instead, between his fingers, he spotted Mayor Meanswell's door opening and the pink haired girl came out with a little drawstring sports bag over her shoulder. She looked both ways, then crossed the street and joined the other children, giving the soccer ball a few tentative kicks.
Robbie's eyes started to close again. The children had quieted down, talking about a soccer game on one of Pixel's computers. Maybe they would go in...leave him alone in the park with just the cold wind and the shadows falling over his face.
"Hey, Sportacus!"
Now Robbie growled and turned over again, kicking the end of the bench. Sure enough, a blue blur flipped by, cartwheeling past on one hand. Sportacus landed with a jaunty salute to Stephanie, going down on one knee before her.
"Hey! Are you ready to learn the new moves today?"
"You bet. I even got my leg warmers in my bag." She hefted the small tote that clearly held her dance shoes.
"Wonderful!" he said. "And then you can show me how to tap dance?"
"We can start," she said, nodding seriously. "But it takes a lot of practice."
"I'm willing to try," he said.
"Stephanie!"
She looked over her shoulder at Ziggy, who ran up and had to catch his breath before asking. "You aren't playing with us today?"
"Not right now," she said. "Sportacus and I are going to practice dancing. But then we're gonna come back and show you what we learned, okay?"
Ziggy grinned. "Like a concert?"
"It's called a dance recital," she said, shrugging, "but yeah. Will you wait and see what we come up with? I want it to be a surprise."
"Sure," he said, and he headed back to the rest of the children with wide eyes and breathlessly told them what Stephanie and Sportacus were planning, and started to try his own dance steps.
Waving to her friends, Stephanie walked beside Sportacus, the bag over her shoulder, as they crossed the park. When they reached the wall, however, Stephanie noticed Robbie trying to nap on the bench. When he scowled at her, she laughed and looked up at Sportacus.
"How about it?" she asked. "I know Robbie's a good tap dancer. He should practice with us."
Robbie growled, throwing his arm over his eyes. "That sound suspiciously un-lazy."
"Well," Sportacus said. "It is like exercising."
"I knew it!" Robbie sat upright, pointing at them as if they had insulted him. "You won't get me doing anything harder than trying to sleep on this bench."
"Hmm," she said. "That sounds like you're trying to do something even more impossible, then."
He blinked. Then winced. Then turned his head and felt his shoulders hunching up. Did everyone know that he couldn't sleep ever? Was it a big joke among the children?
"You might be able to sleep after moving around a little," Stephanie said. "And besides, you're a really good tap dancer. Won't you come with us?"
"Please?" Sportacus said, touching his shoulder. "I would really like you to join us."
That...actually sounded sincere. Robbie bit his lip. Sportacus didn't lie. Sportacus was a hero.
"...you mean it?" He glanced at them sideways. "You're not just...saying that?"
"Robbie, you're my friend." She extended her hand, holding it up in invitation. "I want you to come."
"Really?" At her nod, he smiled and put his hand in hers. "Then I, of course, accept."
Holding his hand in return, she drew him along after Sportacus. As they crossed the street, Bessie waved to them from her lawn, dropping the cucumbers from her eyes as she sat up.
"Where are you off to?" she called. "School's out and the children are playing in the park."
"We're going to go practice a dance recital," Sportacus said. "The show has to be a surprise, though, so we're going down to the board walk on the beach."
"Oh," Bessie said. She lay down again and replaced the cucumbers. "Be safe out there."
"Yes, ma'am," Stephanie said.
Robbie frowned, but Stephanie tugged him along before he could say anything, and she set such a pace that only his long legs allowed him to keep up with her and Sportacus. When they were halfway across the next street, passing by a curving yellow house, he bent low so that only she could hear.
"Um, boardwalks aren't so good for tap," he whispered.
To his surprise, she smiled at him with so much apparent pleasure that he nearly fell over.
"I'm so proud of you," she said.
"I...um...what?" he said, standing straight. He almost stopped, but her grip turned hard and forced him to keep walking.
"You come up with so many interesting inventions," she said. "And you aren't mean. And just now, when you could have embarrassed me, you were so polite and discreet."
So strange, to hear a word like discreet come out of a little girl. But he beamed at the praise and turned away, not sure how to react. Polite and smart were not words people used to describe him. Everyone called him a liar and rude, too stupid to finish school.
"And after all this time, too." She shook her head. "I'm just really proud of you."
Sportacus came around his other side, putting a hand on the small of his back.
"We both are," he said, with the sincere look he usually reserved for telling children not to tattle or hurt each other. "What you managed to do here is nothing short of amazing."
"Well," he said, flustered. "It's just a little engineering, a little magic here and there."
"It's more than that," Sportacus whispered. "I...well. Later."
Robbie wasn't sure what to make of that, but Sportacus shook his head and focused back on the task at hand.
They crossed the last street. Before them lay the path to the beach. He could even hear the waves lapping at the rocks, catch the fresh scent of cold stone and clean water. Light reflected off the ocean, momentarily dazzling him.
And then Sportacus and Stephanie took a hard left turn along the sidewalk, taking Robbie not towards the path but to the road that led into the fields.
He blinked. And followed their insistent guidance, their quickening pace and the intent stares at the way ahead. He glanced over his shoulder and gasped.
Like a mirage, three flickering images of Stephanie, Sportacus and himself kept walking toward the beach. But unlike themselves, the shadowy white reflections went slowly, talking with each other. The fake Robbie waved his hands as he told what must have been a great joke since the fake Sportacus laughed and fake Stephanie showed off a dance step.
Robbie looked forward again. Was he dreaming? Had he really fallen asleep? He didn't think this was a nightmare—he was with his friends, after all. Stephanie gave his hand a silent, reassuring squeeze and Sportacus put his arm around Robbie's shoulder, moving him along but not pushing, not shoving. They were taking him down the fourth road, and they were trusting him to trust them.
Four roads led out of Lazytown—one to the beach, one to the grove, one into the distance that faded with the miles, and one that just...stopped. It made no sense. The road simply stopped in the middle of a grassy field, as if someone had just decided that the rest of the world could take care of it itself and didn't need to be bothered with.
Pressure began to build in his head. He felt like he was walking underwater and going deeper. He didn't know when it had started, but he blinked several times and made a tiny sound of discomfort, and he felt Sportacus walk closer to him, putting Robbie's arm over his shoulder. The light overhead became blinding, like the sun was growing more intense with each step.
"It's going to be okay," Sportacus said softly. "I won't let anything hurt you."
Robbie had never been down this path before. At least, he knew he hadn't been this way before. But as they walked, he recognized a small boulder that looked like a fat mushroom, saw the scarecrow on a tilted pole, its burlap face blank and staring at nothing. He somehow knew that the back of it would have wide, ugly stitching, and when he glanced back at it, he saw that he was right.
The grass around them shimmered like heat waves. He felt Stephanie stumble and start to fall, and he held her hand tightly and pulled up, helping her catch herself. She put both hands around his arm after that, leaning on him as they both leaned on Sportacus.
They were halfway down the road when a siren blared in the distance. It wailed in anger, announcing the dark storm clouds now growing over Lazytown.
"That's it," Stephanie whispered. "She knows."
"The mirage must have touched the water," Sportacus said, half in apology. "I'd hoped it would last longer."
"It lasted long enough," she said. "I still have the bag."
Robbie didn't know how she could have been carrying anything, not with the air so hot and heavy. But she managed to pull open the drawstring and slide in one hand, pulling out a dance shoe that she dropped behind themselves. There was a wooden snapping behind them that sent shivers up Robbie's back, and he was too afraid to turn around, simply holding Stephanie's hand a little tighter. If she was calm, then he would try not to panic.
"When should I drop the next one?" she asked.
"Not yet," Sportacus said. "A few more steps. Just a little further."
To Robbie's eyes, the end of the road seemed miles away, but it was really only the distance from the town to his lair. He could have run that distance, but now he wondered if he could drag his feet that far.
"I have been this way before," he whispered. "I remember it being this hot."
"You must have been awake," Stephanie moaned. "I thought I fell asleep in the cab."
Something rumbled behind them. The siren was coming closer. Robbie clenched Sportacus' hand, leaning into his hold, and he held Stephanie closer to his side.
"Now," Sportacus said. "Drop the next shoe."
There was a flurry of movement, and then Stephanie opened the bag with a grunt of effort.
Robbie cracked his eye open. Between the haze of heat and light, he saw dark shapes whipping in the air, twisting and coiling like snakes before suddenly growing hard and shooting out spines. A forest of thorns sprouted behind them, a momentary comfort before he saw the violent shower of chips and pieces behind it. Something was chewing through.
Ahead was the end of the road, and the blinding light cracked in the middle like a door broken open. They only had to step across, but pushing through the last few feet felt like they were slogging over melting pavement.
Memories blossomed in Robbie's mind, the bad dreams he'd he'd tried to forget—warm summer winds and the scent of roses, crickets at twilight—the clawed hands dragging him away from home.
"You can't stop her," Robbie suddenly said. "She's too fast."
"We've slowed her down," Sportacus said.
"She's strong."
"My magic's stronger," Stephanie said.
"She's had...years..." Robbie choked. "So many years to plan..."
With a great amount of effort, Stephanie lifted her head.
"What did you do?" she asked. "Before. When you tried?"
"I..." Robbie shook his head once. "I don't remember. She won't let me remember."
"She cursed your sleep," Stephanie said. "Took most of it away and left you just enough to survive. Robbie...do you remember what you are?"
"...no," he whispered, but not because he didn't remember. He simply didn't want to say.
"Robbie, do you remember what you are?"
Now Stephanie's voice grew harder, colder, like the voice of someone who should have been taller and far more powerful than anything behind them.
"You know me, don't you?"
That stopped both Sportacus and Robbie in their tracks. Sportacus gave her a look, glancing once at the crashing, splintering thorns behind them. Robbie, instead, fell to his knees, too weak to move on his own.
"Don't make me..."
"Answer me. Do you know me?"
"Pink girl..."
"Do." She stepped closer, one hand on his shoulder, the other forcing his head up. "You. Know. Me?"
This close to the crack, she was changing. Her face looked as if it was carved out of molten light. Her pink hair shimmered like the mirage, looking less like cotton candy and more like the infinite shades of a sunrise. Sunlight sparkled around her head like a crown.
"My queen," he whispered. "I didn't know it was you."
The thorns behind them cracked open, and with them went the illusion. The clouds melted and the blue sky faded so that the ceiling was dark stone and all the stars had merely been crystals embedded in the surface. The ocean waves became the splashing of a cavern lake, and the wind nothing more than the cold shuddering of the earth.
Only because Robbie had seen Bessie properly before did he recognize her now. Her blue hair was no longer up but in long straggles around her shoulders, and her red dress was the blood of whatever child she'd eaten last, the dark stains covering skin so white that it could only survive underground. She loomed over them like a giant, but Stephanie's magic had done more than slow her down. Bessie panted for breath, down on one knee.
"You can't have them," Sportacus said, stepping in front of Robbie and Stephanie. "You hear me? You can't—"
"My children need light," Bessie said, and her exhausted body bent forward like a puppet, its strings sagging. "You can't take light away from my poor children."
"Besyrwan!" he yelled at her. "Leave!"
She rocked backward, her head snapping as if it might come off altogether. Her real name, Robbie realized, her goblin name thrown at her like a weapon. He'd never been armed with her real name. He wondered how Sportacus had found it. She stumbled, and for a moment Robbie thought that might do it.
But not in here in her place of power. Like a spider at the center of her web, she stood straight again. Filled with her own sense of triumph, she put one hand down, then another, her arms grotesquely long enough to walk on, her mouth filling with fangs as her illusions faded, revealing her real body.
Sportacus stiffened, hands up, ready to fight back, but he looked increasingly small as Bessie simply grew and grew and grew, her spindly arms and legs spreading out insect-like, segmented and long, letting her tower over them. Forgotten, her prisoners knelt together, too weary to stand, to cross even the last steps to wherever the crack in the cave led.
"Pink girl," Robbie whispered, "please...help me hold my hand up."
"I...I'll try."
Almost a sin to ask the queen to do anything, and certainly an obscenity for her to touch him, but even knowing what he was, she held his wrist with both hands, lifting his arm with the last of her strength.
"I do remember what I am," he admitted. "Please don't look."
She turned her head, so he didn't see her watching from the corner of her eye as fine silk unfurled like white ribbon, spooling over the ground where Bessie stood. More silk landed on Bessie's arms and feet, and when she tried to shake the strands off, they instead tangled and stuck to the rest looped on the ground. The more she fought, the more she trapped herself, and Sportacus jumped out of the way as Bessie toppled over.
Already the silk was beginning to tear and fray. Knowing she wouldn't stay ensnared for long, Sportacus grabbed Stephanie by the waist, hauling her along like a sack. He bent and put an arm under Robbie, forcing him up on his feet. Robbie held onto his arm, but he was facing the wrong way, perfect to keep Bessie down but impossible, he thought, to make it any further.
"I can't carry you," Sportacus said. "And I won't leave you behind, so you have to walk at least a little."
"Take the queen," Robbie said, adding another layer of silk, but he was out of practice and the silk was already running out.
"I'd be devastated if I left you behind," Sportacus said, and he smiled despite the pressure and heat and light coming from the cave entrance. "You wouldn't hurt me like that, would you?"
With a small, self-conscious laugh despite the exhaustion, Robbie found that he could walk after all, if he leaned most of his weight on Sportacus.
The thorns were collapsing to dust. The last sight Robbie had of Lazytown was of Bessie laying on her side, cursing and screaming, and the handful of her children standing on the road, wary of the white silk. As elongated as their mother, they looked like proper goblin children, and yet he recognized each of them as they waved goodbye, heard Trixie's voice coming out of a monster's mouth that she would always be Stephanie's friend, heard Ziggy asking what about the dance.
And then Robbie was falling backward into light and, for the first time in five days, he fell into a deep sleep.
TBC...