A Link to the Heart Fading from Existence
Ch. 3 Paint and Thinner
Disclaimer: I do not own Epic Mickey.
By the time Oswald, Ortensia, and Gus had gotten back to the Wasteland it was a little past Midnight. It was decided that it was way too late for them to go to the Lonesome Manor library now so they decided to stay in Os Town for the rest of the night and head of for the Lonesome Manor in the morning. Gus would stay in the copy of Mickey's house and Oswald and Ortensia would stay in their own home. They would wake up early in the morning so that they could finally set out for the Lonesome Manor. With the game plan finally set the three toons said goodnight to each other before Oswald and Ortensia went into their house and Gus went into the copy of Mickey's house so that they could all get some sleep. However, what Oswald did not know as he laid his head on his pillow and shut his eyes was that tonight he was going to have a rather interesting dream…..
Dreams are strange and rather unpredictable things there is no denying it. Once night you can dream that you're eating a cookie the size of an Olympic swimming pool and the next night you can have a dream where you're wondering around an empty town with no clue on where you are or where you're going. Yes, you can end up in some pretty strange places and in some pretty odd situations in dreams and Oswald knew this but that little bit of knowledge did not help in making this particular dream of his any less odd. Oswald remembered closing his eyes as he fell asleep in his own bed only to open his eyes again and realize that he was lying on the floor of some strange workshop.
To be specific Oswald had woken up in front of a fireplace that had a mirror hanging above it just like at Mickey's house. Oswald also noticed a calendar hanging near the mirror, but the writing and the numbers on the calender where backwards. Oswald just got up off the floor and looked at the backwards calendar in confusion before he just shook his head slightly and slowly walked down the hall. The hallway lead the rabbit to a large room and in the middle of the room was a large table with what looked like a miniature of a town laying on it. There was also a staircase that lead up to the next floor, but Oswald was more interested in the miniature then the stairs. However, when Oswald went over to the table, climbed up the chair that was sitting in front of the table, and looked at the miniature he was surprised to see that it was actually a miniature of the Wasteland. Oswald could see each area of the Wasteland was included in the miniature. Oswald had to wonder why there was a miniature of the Wasteland, but this is a dream and when you're dreaming anything can happen. This dream was very odd, but Oswald had a feeling that he had seen nothing yet.
Just when Oswald was about to jump out of the chair and look around the rest of the room he started to hear a noise. Oswald's rabbit ears twitched slightly at the sound of someone walking down what sounded like creaky stairs. Oswald looked over toward the noise only to the shadow of whoever it was that was going down the stairs on the wall. Oswald's mind started to scream at him and tell him that he needed to run or hide or at least do something, but Oswald's feet just would not move. All Oswald could really do was stare at the staircase as whoever it was that was walking down them got closer an closer to where Oswald was. Soon enough the person who had been climbing the staircase reveled themselves. Oswald was surprised to see that the person was a man with a long gray beard, a long blue robe, and a strange hat that was covered in stars and crescent moons.
In the back of Oswald's mind he realized that he had seen quite a lot of pictures of Mickey wearing that same hat back at Mickeyjunk Mountain. The man, who looked a lot like a wizard in Oswald's opinion just looked at Oswald and raised a bushy eyebrow in slight confusion. Oswald just gave the man a week smiled before he said "Hi, I'm sorry for being in your workshop. I'll just show myself out." Oswald was about to jump out of the chair and get away from the man was fast as possible, but he ended up stopping when he heard the man ask "You are Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, correct?" Oswald looked at the wizard in surprise before he said "Yes, I'm Oswald. How do you know who I am and just who are you?" The man just gave Oswald a small smile before he said "I am Yen Sid and I have something to give you."
Oswald was slightly annoyed at the fact that the man did not bother to answer the question on just how he knew Oswald, but that thought was thrown out the window when Oswald heard the wizard say he had something for him. Oswald watched the man move over to a cabinet that was in the corner of the room and opened it up only to pull out a very familiar paintbrush. The wizard walked over to Oswald and held the paintbrush out for Oswald to take. Oswald hesitated slightly before he finally reached out and took the paintbrush from the mysterious wizard. Oswald realized immediately that this was the paintbrush that this was the same paintbrush that Mickey had used when he was in the Wasteland. Oswald had to wonder just why Yen Sid was giving it to him, but he ended up getting his answer when Yen Sid said "I want you to save your brother, Mickey, with this brush."
Oswald's eyes widened slightly before he asked "How do you know about Mickey?" Yen Sid just gave the rabbit a mysterious smile before he said "I think it's time for you to wake up Oswald." Oswald was about to yell at the guy and say that he wanted answers, but before he could really say anything Oswald could feel his eyelids grow heavy and before he knew it he ended up blacking out. The next time Oswald opened his eyes he was laying in bed and not in that strange workshop. Oswald was about to think that the odd dream that he had was just an odd dream and nothing more, but he was proven that the dream was not just a dream when he realized that he was holding something in his hand. Oswald looked down at his hand only to see that he was holding the paintbrush that Yen Sid had given him. It looked like Oswald's dream had not been a dream after all…..
If you ever try to tell your friends and family that you got a paintbrush from a wizard in a dream, don't be surprised if they give you weird looks. Right now Oswald was struggling to explain how he got the paintbrush from some wizard in a dream to Gus and Ortensia and said toons where just looking at the rabbit as if he was crazy. "So let me get this straight, you got the paintbrush from some blue robbed wizard in a dream?" Gus asked slowly. "And when you woke up you had the paintbrush in your hand?" Ortensia asked after Gus.
Oswald just nodded his head quickly before he said "That's exactly what happened!" Ortensia and Gus just gave each other sidelong glances before Ortensia looked at Oswald and smiled. "I believe you Oswald." Ortensia said gently. Oswald smiled, glade to see that the girl that he loved so much believed him. Oswald then turned his attention over to Gus and asked "Well, what do think?" Gus just crossed his arms and said "I guess I'll believe it…" In all honesty what Gus said just weekly translated into 'I don't believe a word of it, but I'm not going to question it anymore'. Oswald didn't think too much about it, he was just happy that Ortensia believed him. However, right when Oswald thought the dream conversation was done and over with Gus ended up asking a rather good question.
"Do you even know how to use that paintbrush?" Gus asked as he looked at the brush that was in Oswald's hand. Oswald looked at the brush in his hand for about five seconds before he quickly shook his head no. In all honesty Oswald had no clue on how to use the brush. "Maybe you should practice using it first before we go to the library." Ortensia suggested. Oswald nodded slightly before he said "Ok, but where should I practice?" Gus got a thoughtful look on his face for awhile before he smiled slightly and asked "What about the Colosseum in the European boat ride part of the It's A Small World ride? It's a pretty big area and it would be a good place to practice…." Oswald nodded slightly before he said "Ok, the Small World Colosseum it is then." And with that said, the Small World Colosseum was set as their next destination…..
It took awhile for them to get to the Small World Colosseum thanks to the fact that Ortensia insisted that they don't leave Os Town until they had everything that they would need for their trip. Ortensia ended up packing a book bag full of all sorts of random things. Gus and Oswald did not understand why she had to bring so much stuff with her, but whenever they asked why she was bringing all of those things she would just smile and say "It's best to be prepared. You never know what you might need." Well evidently you need a lot of stuff because Ortensia was only ready to go when she had practically packed away everything but the kitchen sink into her book bag. However, once she was finally done packing they were able to get to the Colosseum relatively fast.
However, once at the Colosseum Oswald ended up learning something that did not make him very happy. What Oswald learned when he got there was the fact that somehow all of the gremlins in who lived in Gremlin Village had gathered to the Colosseum to watch Oswald practice. Oswald wondered just how all of the gremlins knew about him going to the Colosseum, but he had a feeling that Gus told someone about it. He probably told Prescott, the Gremlin who always hung out in Os Town about it and Prescott then told every gremlin in the Wasteland about it. Gus denied saying anything to anyone, but Oswald had to wonder if he was telling the truth or not. Well, regardless of if Gus said anything or not the gremlins where their now and there was not much he could do about it. All Oswald could do was hope he did not mess up to badly in front of the gremlins and in front of his sweetheart Ortensia.
Ortensia had went up into the stands and sat down with the gremlins so that she could watch while Gus stayed with Oswald in the Colosseum. Once in the stands Ortensia just smiled down at him and yelled out "Good luck Oswald!" Oswald just gave her a week smile and a halfhearted wave before he looked over at Gus and asked "Ok, so how do I use this thing?" Gus just shrugged his shoulders before he said "I'm not sure... Mickey was able to figure out how to use the brush on his own so I don't really know what to tell you." Oswald just gave Gus a look and said in a slightly sarcastic tone "Gee, you're a lot of help." Gus just shrugged yet again before he said "Sorry, but if I don't know a lot about the brush there is not much I can really do. I think the only one who really knew how to use that thing was Mickey, but you can't exactly ask him because he's….Well…" Gus stopped the sentence their and looked down sadly.
Oswald could not help but get a sad look on his face too when he herd what Gus said. He knew how the rest of the sentence was going to go and right now Oswald really didn't need Mickey's sad situation bouncing around in his mind. Oswald just shook his head slightly as if to rid himself of the sad thoughts before he looked over at Gus and asked "Did Mickey ever say anything about the brush when you where traveling together in the Wasteland that might help me figure out how to use this thing?" Gus tapped his chin slightly in thought before he said "Well, I do know Mickey said something about imagining the brush spraying paint so maybe it works with a little imagination?" Well, it sounded a little ridiculous, but that was all Oswald had to go on so he decided to try and give this imagination thing a shot. Oswald looked down at the brush and pointed it out in front of him and imagined a stream of paint coming out of the brush. Two seconds after Oswald started to imagine the paint coming out of the brush paint ended up coming out. However, since Oswald was not expecting the paint blast to be so powerful he ended up being blasted off his feet…
Wham!
And right into a wall… The small crowed that was watching the little event all winched at the collision. "That had to hurt…" A random gremlin that was sitting near Ortensia murmured. Ortensia stood up from her seat and called out "Oswald are you ok?" Oswald pried himself off the wall before he looked up toward Ortensia and smiled slightly before he called out "I'm ok!"
The truth was Oswald was not ok, slamming into that wall had hurt but he did not want to worry Ortensia. Gus coughed slightly before he said "Do you want to try again or should we stop for the day?" Oswald looked over at Gus and said "No, let's keep practicing." Oswald then looked at the paintbrush that he was holding and imagined the paint coming out of it yet again. Sure enough the paint came flowing out of the brush, but this time he did not get knocked off his feet. Gus nodded slightly before he said "Ok, I think we have the paint part down. Now how about you try and use thinner." Gus then grabbed a barrel that was lying off to the side and dragged it into the middle of the arena. Once the barrel was in the middle of the arena, Gus flew over to another barrel and hid slightly behind it before he said "Try to hit that barrel with thinner. I'll just hide here in case something goes wrong."
Oswald just rolled his eyes slightly at what Gus said, it was nice to know that the gremlin had so much faith in him. Oswald aimed the brush at the barrel and started to imagine a stream of thinner coming out of the brush. Sure enough, thinner came out of the brush and went straight toward the barrel. The second the thinner touched the barrel it ended up disappearing completely from existence. Oswald stopped the thinner and quickly started spraying paint again only to have the barrel appear again. Once the barrel was back Oswald stopped the paint and smirked before he said "I think I am getting the hang of this now." Oswald was about to try and use the thinner again, but he ended up seeing something that ended up making him stop.
A couple of small blue and green orbs of light seemed to appear out of thin air before they quickly flew over to Oswald. Once they had gotten over to Oswald the small little lights flew around him slowly almost as if they were dancing around him. The lights shimmered like fireflies during a summer night and Oswald could not help look at the things in pure amazement. "It looks like you have attracted some Guardians Oswald." Gus said softly as he watched the little lights dance around Oswald. Oswald could not help but remember the last time he had seen the little lights was when Mickey was still in the Wasteland. He remembered how Mickey always had at least one Guardian always flying around him. He also remembered how Mickey would use the Guardians in a lot of his fights against the Blot's army. The memories caused him to smile slightly and Oswald smile grew a bit larger when one of the Guardians landed on his shoulder.
"Well, it looks like the Guardians are going to be helping me out this time." Oswald said softly. Oswald then looked over at Gus and asked "Mind telling me how exactly how I can use the Guardians?" Gus quickly looked away from the flying Guardians and over at Oswald before he nodded quickly and started to go into his Guardian explanation. After having the Guardians explained to him in a bit more detail Oswald started practicing on using the little orbs of light along with practicing how to use the paintbrush. Throe the rather long practice session Oswald ended up learning that the Guardians where quick to follow orders. He just needed to give out the order and the Guardian would follow said order to the best of their abilities.
Oswald was also able to get better at using the brush, although Oswald would be lying if he said that it had been easy. Oswald only stopped practicing when he was finally satisfied with how he was using both the brush and the Guardians. Once he was done practicing Oswald looked up at the Ortensia in the stands and then over to Gus before he said "I think we are ready to head off to the Lonesome Manor library now." Ortensia smiled before she quickly made her way down the stands and to Oswald. Once she had gotten to where Oswald was her smile just seemed to get even bigger before she said "Well come on boys, if we don't leave now we will never get their!" The two boys nodded slightly before they followed her out of the Colosseum. The gremlins who where in the stands quickly called out things like "Good luck" or "Have fun at the Lonesome Manor!" to the three toons as they slowly made their way out of the arena. The three toons only gave quick waves or smiles to the gremlins as they all walked out of the Colosseum with the Guardians quickly trailing after them….
Ok, so that's chapter 3. I will try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible so please review and don't flame.
