Summary: An abused creature called a snark captures the hearts of Ford and Nadia, but the creature leads to some unexpected trouble. (Request from DelanaKiger)

This request was actually pretty convenient, because I'd been pondering adding a snark (monster from The Troop) to the series.


Chapter Six: Pet Peeved (Part One)

The snark cringed as she felt the morning sun warm her face. She didn't want to wake up. She was still tired from her restless sleep. She sighed, deciding to let the sun win this round. She stood up on all fours and shook the dirt and debris from her fur. Thirsty, she crawled through the magenta-colored grass over to a nearby pond and lapped at the clear water. She then stood on her hind legs and looked sadly at her reflection.

The snow-white of her pelt was darkened from going too long without a decent bath, and that same grime made the pale gray stripes on her back look almost-black. Her long, normally fluffy tail was now matted down. Her tube-shaped ears sagged as she shook her head. She was a mess, and she could see her ribs. She needed to eat something. Fortunately, she was surrounded by plant-life.

...So, which plants were poisonous?

She knew what signs to look for in poisonous plants. The problem was that all of these plants looked toxic. But, they couldn't all be harmful, right? Bugs. She could eat bugs, too. Those tasted better than plants, anyway. A buzzing approached her; perfect timing. She watched as a big green insect flew obliviously towards her, its small wings flapping at impossible speeds. She whipped her tail at it, knocking to the ground in a daze. Her mouth watered. Finally, some real food. She bent down to eat it.

Her black eyes caught sight of the orange excretion coming from the insect's mouth, and she jerked back. It was a bloric moth. Its excretion was highly toxic. The snark looked frantically over her body and was relieved to see that she hadn't gotten any of the venom on her.

A smell bathed her small nostrils, a really good smell. Rumbling stomach leading the way, she followed the scent. It didn't take long for her to find the source of the aroma: lavender. A snark's favorite food. She quickly approached the violet plant.

Then, she heard footsteps. Really big footsteps. She froze, as a giant creature walked on its hind legs up to the flowers and knelt down in front of them. The snark gazed curiously at the creature; she had never seen one quite like it. It had pinkish flesh and was hairless, except for the top of its head, which had brown hair. It also had colored clothes, like the ones her old owner used to wear. It adjusted the round, transparent things on its face and picked one of the flowers with its six-fingered hand. It held the lavender up to the sunlight and examined it, cupping its chin with its other hand in thought.

"Can't possibly be lavender, can it?" the creature muttered.

She cringed when her traitorous belly growled even louder, which drew the attention of the big animal. It looked at her in surprise. She contemplated screaming, thus erasing its memory of seeing her.

The thing blinked. "A screech squirrel?"

Screech squirrel? What the heck was that? The snark picked up a twig and wrote 'snark' in the dirt, deciding that the animal seemed more curious about her than anything.

The thing stared at the writing for so long that she started thinking it couldn't read. Then its big blue eyes lit up in realization. "Oh, you're called a snark, then?" The snark nodded. "Wow, I was way off. Wait, you can write? And, you can understand me?" She nodded again. The creature grinned. "Remarkable. So, uh… What's your name?"

The snark nearly dropped the stick. Name? Did she have a name? What had her old master called her? Nothing nice, that was for sure. Her parents had probably called her something, but they had died when she was a baby. She didn't remember what they had called her.

The animal must have assumed she didn't understand. "Your name? Meaning, what do you call yourself to distinguish yourself from other snarks?"

She managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Instead, she shrugged and shook her head.

The animal's expression saddened. "Surely, you're called something? Or, there's something I could at least call you."

Another shrug. She wrote in the dirt, 'You can name me, if you want.' It seemed weird to ask a total stranger to name her, but she didn't really know any names other than the profanities her old master used to call her. And, when he wasn't using those, he usually just called her 'snark,' which wasn't even a name.

The creature gained a thoughtful expression. "Please don't be offended, but are you a male or female? I-I honestly don't know what the difference is with snarks."

She nodded in understanding. 'female'

The thing stared at her, until she was incredibly uncomfortable. "If I recall correctly, your scream causes short-term memory loss, right?" She nodded, and it smiled. "Well then, how about, Echo? That seems like a good name for a snark."

She mulled it over. Echo… She liked the way that sounded. Echo smiled and nodded.

The animal smiled wider. "My name is Ford, and I'm the male of my species, which is a human." Echo's belly cried out again, and she covered it in embarrassment. Ford frowned. "I thought you seemed thin. Here." He placed the lavender in front of her. "Snarks eat plants, right?"

Echo nodded. She took a tentative sniff at the flower and glanced up at Ford, unsure of how sincere he was. He gestured to the flower, and Echo took as her cue to eat. So, she happily obliged.


"Why in Beelzebub's name would you bring that thing here?" a floating orange star asked. "Moreover, why would you let it ride on your head?"

Echo tried to bury herself in Ford's hair. When Ford had offered to introduce her to his friends, she hadn't expected such blunt judgement. The - what was it called again? - human was really nice to her, so she had assumed his friends would be, too.

"Because, I thought it was interesting that she could understand me," Ford said. "Although, ya got me on the head thing. She just sorta crawled up there." The reason she was on his head was because she had a better view from up there. "Besides, look at her. Poor thing's filthy and half-starved."

"Ya ain't planning on feeding that thing, are you?" the star continued, completely ignoring Ford's answer. "If you feed it, it'll just keep coming back."

A floating blue square smacked the star. "Starclops, have you no sympathy?" The star - Starclops - shrugged in response, and the square rolled its eyes. It floated closer to Echo, who leaned back instinctively. "So, Echo, right? She can understand us?" It seemed to be addressing Ford.

"Sure seems that way, Tad. She's certainly more intelligent than any other snark I've come across," Ford replied. "In fact, we were just having a pleasant conversation about politics. Did you know there's a guy here named Obarack Bama, who wants to conquer and destroy my dimension? Crazy, right?"

A gray creature that was as tall as Ford's chin reached up and took Echo off of Ford's head, much to her surprise. "Poor thing," it said, gently petting her. Echo relaxed in its arms. Something about the creature was just...comforting. "Guys, we have to help her."

Starclops scoffed. "What is it with you people and 'helping?' Nadia helps Ford, Ford tries to help us, now you wanna help a snark. You guys would be a whole lot cooler, if you were more like me and just did your own thing."

The square - Tad - rolled its eyes again. "Please. We know you care about us."

The gray thing carried Echo away, as Starclops said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Echo crawled on to the gray thing's head and watched Ford playfully shoved Starclops. Echo tilted her head. They were obviously very different species, yet they seemed perfectly comfortable with each other. She tried to crawl down from the gray animal's head, but her tail was twisted among the tight coils of hair. She reached down and tried to untangle herself, careful not to pull the hair too much.

"Are you stuck?" the gray thing asked. Perhaps Echo hadn't been careful enough. "Sorry. I should have warned you." It laughed. "My hair kind of has a mind of its own." It stopped walking. "Whatever part's stuck, just yank on it. I've never been the girl who freaks out about her appearance, anyway."

Echo made a mental note that the gray creature was a female and yanked her tail loose, taking a chunk of black hair with it. She cringed in guilt, when the gray woman yelped. The woman picked Echo off her head and sat her at the base of the pond from earlier. She bent down in front of her and started unweaving the hair from the tail.

"I'm Nadia, by the way," the woman said. She got the hair untwisted and tossed it aside. "Don't worry about my hair. It's so kinky, no one's going to notice any missing. Now, let's get you cleaned up."

To Echo's surprise, Nadia dipped her in the shallow water and gently splashed some water on to her pelt. Even without soap, the grime from the snark's pelt was already starting to darken the water. Nadia picked a yellow flower from the ground and crushed in her four-fingered hand. "This is a trick I learned when I was eight and bored." Her hand glowed pale blue, and she raised it to her mouth and blew into it. A thin trail of smoke trickled out of her hand, which then glowed white. She opened her palm, revealing a cream-colored bar. "Instant soap! See what boredom can do?"

Echo stared in amazement.

Nadia rubbed the soap on the smaller creature, and Echo purred at how wonderful the grooming felt. After a few minutes, Nadia deemed her clean, and Echo stepped out of the pond and shook out her now-white fur. "That looks better," Nadia commented happily.

"Nadia," a deep voice called. Ford stepped out from some tall bushes, and Echo almost laughed at the small pink leaves that peppered his hair. "There you are." He walked up next to them and knelt down. "You sure have a habit of disappearing, don't you?" he joked. Then, he spotted the soap and pointed to it in confusion. "Where did you find soap?"

Nadia smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'll show you later."

Ford then smiled down at Echo. "Well, you certainly look a lot better." Echo grinned and nodded. She felt a lot better, too. Ford chuckled. Nadia brushed the leaves off of Ford's head. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing?"

"There were some leave stuck on your head," Nadia answered. She laughed. "You actually looked pretty adorable."

Ford's face turned red. Echo wondered how that was possible.


Trouble's on its way. Review!

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