Circe sat eagerly on the couch in Rob Wilco's apartment, waiting for Tintin and Snowy to arrive. Rob awkwardly sat in a chair next to the couch. On one side of Circe was a content Satchel Pooch, Rob's dog. Satchel's tail was lazily wagging and Circe lightly scratched behind his ears. On the other side of Circe sat a much less content Bucky Katt, Rob's grouchy feline. Circe would have liked to scratch Bucky behind the ears, too, but Bucky wasn't a "people cat" in any sense.
Rob cleared his throat, hoping to get Circe's attention. She turned to him with a glowing smile and kind eyes. Rob froze up. He had gotten her attention, yes, but now he had nothing to actually say. He hoped Tintin would get here soon. Tintin may have been somewhat of a romantic rival for the beautiful Circe, but Rob liked it when the pressure wasn't totally on him.
A knock on the door signaled Tintin's arrival and Rob's relief. He quickly let in Tintin and Snowy. Circe ran over and gave Tintin a huge hug. Snowy pawed at her leg and Circe happily picked the little terrier up.
"Where were you?" she giggled.
"Well, we were on our way," explained Tintin, "when I saw an interesting-looking board game in an antique shop window. The man there gave it to me for a very good price, and I just thought it would be fun."
"No offense," said Rob, "but you never really struck me as a board game type."
Tintin put the bag that the game was in on the table and took off his coat. "Normally I'm not, but something just drew me to this one. I was like I heard it calling me. Very strange."
"Is it Mousetrap?" Bucky asked, with a hint of interest.
"Bucky, you hate Mousetrap," Rob reminded him.
"I like the trap part," insisted Bucky. "It's just the two freakin' hours that Satchel spends trying to set up the trap that I hate."
"You could always help me set up the trap," mumbled Satchel, trying to stay positive as always.
"Too much work," replied Bucky. He hopped down from the couch, landing on Snowy who gave an angry "Woowah!" in response.
"Hey, watch it, Slushy," snapped Bucky, heading over to the bag.
Snowy shook himself off and shot Bucky a glare. "It's Snowy!"
"Nah, it's too nice out for that," Bucky called back, somewhat absentmindedly. He poked his head in the bag. "Tintin, you buy some kinda music player thingy, too?"
"No," said Tintin.
"Then where's that drummin' coming from?"
Everyone got very quiet and listened. Indeed, a faint drumming was coming from the bag. As they all gazed over, the drumming began getting faster and louder.
"I thought it was just in my head," Snowy said quietly.
"As did I," admitted Tintin. "You all hear that?"
Circe and Rob nodded. It sounded familiar to Circe, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she knew it from. As Tintin took the game out, the memories came racing back to Circe. The adventure. The nightmare fuel. The emotions. Jumanji.
The second the game was in full view, the drums stopped.
"What was that?" wondered Rob.
Tintin turned the game over. He looked inside. "No hidden speakers. Nothing inside that could make that noise. Very odd indeed."
Excitement was building inside Circe. No one but her seemed to be aware of the classic book-turned-movie. She knew that promotional versions of the game had been released, but this one really did look authentic. And those drums? It was hard to process the idea that they had a "real" Jumanji game with them.
"Does anyone want to play it?" Rob broke the silence that had befallen the room.
Satchel clapped his paws. Snowy and Tintin looked uncertain. Bucky looked bored. Circe nodded vigorously, too caught up in the moment to say a word.
Tintin took a look at the game instructions. It all seemed very straightforward. Almost childishly so. For such an interesting-looking game, there wasn't much to it. It sounded a bit like a glorified jungle version of Candyland.
"Maybe it would make a better decoration than anything," Tintin mused.
"No!" Circe cried quickly. "Let's play."
That was good enough for everyone else. Satchel and Snowy opted to sit the game out, since there were only four players, and Bucky insisted on playing to "beat a bunch of furless humans" even though he would most likely get bored after a few minutes.
Circe took a deep breath and rolled the dice.
"Seven!" She moved her piece.
In the center of the game, words appeared in a dark pool that everyone had assumed was an illustration. Everyone was startled by this, though Circe seemed to be a mixture of shocked and not surprised at all, if that was possible.
"Neat effects," commented Satchel, who was the only one who seemed unfazed.
The words of a short verse were visible.
"A peck may be worse than a bite
When feathered fiends are taking flight."
"What?" blinked Rob after reading the strange little couplet.
Out of seemingly nowhere, a flock of toucans filled the room. Everyone ducked for cover as the birds clawed and flapped around, just as confused as the game's players. Rob managed to make it over to a window, opening it and releasing the toucans into the world.
Bucky angrily spat out a mouthful of feathers. "Man, I couldn't even catch a little one! We coulda been eating some major delicacies!"
"What the hell was that?!" cried Rob, echoing pretty much everyone else's thoughts. "Did someone lose a tropical pet that laid eggs in the walls or something!"
Satchel laughed. "Better check the toilet for alligators!" His face suddenly went grim. "And now I just scared myself."
Snowy sniffed around. "I think they're all gone," he reported.
"Gone, yes," mused Tintin, looking out the window. "Now they're somewhere over Massachusetts. Very odd indeed."
Circe, who had been standing stoically ever since the toucans departed, quickly grabbed Jumanji's box, closing it.
"Guys," she panted, "I think that we should stop playing now."
"But my turn was next!" whined Bucky.
"We got off easy on this one," said Circe. "Next time, we will most definitely not be so lucky."
"Is there a connection?" asked Tintin.
Circe laughed sarcastically, then frowned. "Yeah. I'm really sorry. I should have told you all when Tintin pulled out that game, it's just...I didn't know if it was real...the real...I..."
Very quickly, Circe explained the children's book-turned-movie and the magical but dangerous game. Rob and Tintin nodded somewhat doubtfully, but it was still pretty hard to deny the sudden toucan invasion a minute prior.
"So if we don't finish the game, the toucans won't go away?" asked Rob, trying to place things all together.
"If all Boston has to worry about is some tropical birds, we're fine to stop," Circe stated firmly. "It could easily be much worse."
"Worse?" Satchel repeated nervously.
Bucky licked his lips hungrily. "Jungle animals," he whispered to himself.
"But we've released a completely alien species to the ecosystem," Tintin pointed out.
"That's not good for anyone," agreed Rob.
Circe sighed. "I care as much about nature as the next person, but we can't risk something worse coming out. We have to end this."
Their conversation was interrupted by Bucky's shrill cry of delight. "Daddy needs a new pair of manatees!"
Bucky had grabbed the dice and gleefully rolled them, hoping to snag something tasty.
"NO!" screamed Circe.
"Manatees aren't even jungle animals," Satchel pointed out weakly.
Bucky shrugged innocently. "Hey, what am I, National Geographic?"
