I Think We'll Stay Together.
Surely enough, a small puddle of oozing yellow fur greets Lyla by the open door. To her left, Camofrog ushers it shut, reminding her hey, she better take off those rain boots of hers. Deli's house is a bit modest like... like someone else's, but it's got quaint space and not a strange big-eyed creature in sight. She peels off her slick shoes, sticky socks, sighing when bare toes broach Deli's soft wood floor.
Isabelle manages to lift her tear-stained head by that time. Her lakes of big, bright blue eyes have yet to even scratch her arsenal of water. Guilt and shame festers in Lyla's hot cheeks as she slumps to the ground and gently hugs her sodden friend. Other than her tears and her own nervous reaction, she's not all that wet, surprisingly dry for her composure: hey, there's a positive thought.
Behind her, smiling all leisurely, up strolls cool-faced Deli. His amethyst eyes shine cheerfully. Offers a dark hand not unlike in the structure of her own, and they shake.
"Sorry," she mumbles as greeting. "I'm a... weirdo. Hahaha..." She can't hold his happy gaze.
Deli just doesn't let that smile go; she can feel it beating down on her. "Well, you're new. Lyla, we hardly know what to do with you, see. We're so used to everyone else it's hard to remember sometimes that... hnn..?" His curious murmur halts for a moment. "Why such a long face, you poor girl?"
"Found her at your old buddy's house."
"Aah." Deli doffs his head, again with his leisure delight, to the frog, nodding to himself. "Yeah, Lucha's.. special. He's been my best friend, more or less, for years now. He's gotten a little... stranger, I'll say... after we moved out of the house and came here... when was that... six years ago." His voice suggests he's pleased to remember.
Camofrog raises his murky brown eyes. "Where do you keep your bedrolls? I swear you had a few lying around here..."
"Heh!" Deli giggles. "I get lazy, gotta have a few lying around in case I need to stop and sleep." Shameless about it. "They're in the upper-left corner, yeah—there, behind the brown screen in the cor—"
"Whyy the heck do you have so many pillows?" A grunt, something fluffy and big lands shmurph in front of them. "So many blankets!" Another grunt, another landing: smurffh! "And what's this? Deli, do you have a Magical Horses doll?"
Again giggles the monkey. "Well! Lucha was very pent on me having something. I think I could've chosen worse. And it's kind of cute, isn't it?"
"It's anime. Not cute. The heads are freaky. Those eyes are pure daunting, Deli, gosh."
Oh, that's what it's called. The shirt that he had on... the one with the horse icon on it... and then Camofrog's...
She speaks without thinking: "Hey, what's the frog thing on your tee? I-I-Is that 'anii-meh' too?"
"Nibbles wanted me to wear it! Her fault for thinking it was cute or whatever..." His grumbles reduce to the bit of air between his lip and the edge of personal space. More shuffling, more tosses of fluffy blankets and pillows and finally the cinnamon rolls they're supposed to sleep on—unrolled, Deli tries to explain.
Isabelle, sniffling in her friend's arms, massages a fluffy little paw over her shivering face and snorks loudly—then screams. "YEEEEEK! A-A-AAAAH I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY LYLA!"
The girl in question slowly and hesitantly flicks a bit of booger from her cheek.
"Deli? Is there any chance you have a handkerchief or something?"
He takes one glance at the exhausted pair and leaps up to search. So much energy in his step...
The small group manages, finally, to settle into bedrolls—or in Deli's case, his own bed, mattress off the frame and by the others—blankets and bundled assortments billowing all across them. Lyla, bouncing on a pile of such frippery, cries, "Fun!" with the sleepover and the somewhat-weeping doggy friend beside her. She in question mumbles, "We don't even have a change of clothes... or the means to change into them..."
"Umm... I have that screen... and you could wear my stuff..?"
"EEEK! NO DELI NO!" Isabelle stops mid-chant, face livid. "AAAH! I DON'T MEAN TO BE RUDE! I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SOR—"
Lyla very casually places a pale hand over her friend's spluttering mouth. "Dude. Chill. It's all good. We can get changes in the morning, anyways."
Said fuzzy friend near faints in the midst of her knotted anguish. "Dhh—umm..." Steadily the other's hand creeps up to her hair; Lyla pretends they aren't all staring at her as the hair bands come loose, one after the other, and her long curls frizz near the size of an afro. Her bangs upon her forehead, on the other head, are short enough to keep the frizzles marginally reduced. But she can't pull off that length of hair...
"I-Isabelle, I'm sorry for... running off." Squeaking from beneath her rapidly-wetting hand. Lyla doesn't move it. Tries to keep poor Isabelle's denial minimal. "I wasn't thinking... I'm not, er, very good at thinkin', see. And I'm... sorry I upset you. I know you got that way, you don't have to say it...
She glances off again. Accidentally lands within Deli's great amethyst orbs and finds herself near-paralyzed. "But, um... I wanna be your friend... and if it's okay, I've really liked stayin' with you, even if it's only been a couple days so far... s-so thanks..."
Her great ocean eyes move from the floor, to Camofrog's little smirk, to Deli's smile, to Lyla's stare replaced to the ground in front of them. "A-A-AAaaahh!" She billows herself into her friend's side. "Tha-Thaaank you, Lylaaaaa! That makes me really haappyyyy!" Thus they go on blubbering like this for a few minutes.
"Y'know, Isabelle, you don't have to live in the town hall... though I guess you're comfortable there now?" The frog snorts. "But if you want, Lyla, we can wait or whatever before we pester the builder guy for your house—he's in another town as it is. No harm done, probably for the best anyways."
He rolls his eyes at their weepy display of affection.
Deli, bumping his amphibian friend's shoulder, saunters off to a shelf to find a board game—one of those long ones that takes hours until completion, where everyone starts off playing on their own until it's this cannibalistic reign for champion and sometimes people later team up and other times it's just a horrendous mess. But it's fun, too.
They play until the sun sets and fall into rest with the rain. It's louder now, menacing thunder a growl of warning...
Lyla wakens with a crumpled play-bell from the game on her chin, Deli already up and running, almost done with clearing up the game. This was impressive; Camofrog did toss the entire board at the wall when he went bankrupt.
It's as the four settle into morning sleepiness and a waft of coffee rustles the air when a restless pon-pon-pon rumbles at the door. Lyla, closest and curious, pops open the handle.
She's not sure what to say when diluted gray eyes meet her aquamarine through the opening crack. She just stands there, heart in her thumping chest. Good job, Lyla, good job.
"Er—um!" splutters none other than Lucha himself. "I—It took four doors and f-five or something angry villagers but I found... found... ahhhh..."
"Ehhh? Lucha, what are you doing here? Outside?" His best friend tumbles out into his doorway and yanks his more or less half-dead bird indoors, ignoring how mucky the welcome mat gets.
Mug in his feathers, coffee on his lips, he manages to string out another coherent sentence. "Er—Lyla, I wanted to... u-ummm... I—I just... felt bad." He can't look at anyone, anything, anything that isn't Deli makes him cringe. "I felt bad that you really wanted to meet me and... and I felt bad that you got sad about... er, me. S-So I felt bad and wanted to... d-d-do something about it..."
Blushing. Looking away.
"I-Is it okay if I come over..? An-And please force yourself into my house more... I-I like the company..."
The white-furred monkey, brown face warm, smiles to this.
Lyla's still really not sure what to say... but she feels different. She's—surprised—for sure—but happy, happy, too... she thinks about hugging him, but he hardly knows him, and he looks like the next strong breeze is gonna force him over so... maybe a-another time. Yeah...
Still she smiles, and Isabelle squeaks all happy and fluffy, and Camofrog spits coffee from his nose in disbelief. "Lyla, what are you?" he crows, only she doesn't know, and the others don't know her, they just know that she made the most immobile bird they ever knew move himself again.
Lyla blinks.
Second-most-immobile bird.
There's still one more... but she's happy... she is happy... the bright red one, the one she fell in awe to, he's gonna be her friend too...
…
Tan fingers trace the edge of a crudely-cut desk. Creaky wood groans with his taps. Mint glasses flickering under his nose, smile happy and grim, his other hand fishes for his pocket. Somehow the guy let him into his store.
The tanuki in front of him stiffens with each motion his "customer" makes. Waiting. Big dark eyes hesitant and waiting. He shifts in his starched shirt, the one with the green sweater and the white sleeves and the red bow.
"Why, thank you for letting your doors open to me, Tom."
His first words. Nook flinches back, tries to hide it. He sighs between tight lips as the boy in front of him finishes with his fishing, and out pulls a—thuk—rather large coin. Golden. Shimmering. He pulls a small handful of metallic bells from his pocket, glances at the coin much thicker and bigger than these, and stows them away again. Thought it wasn't money.
"I know, good sir, that time is money. So I pay you handsomely to listen to these words of mine."
Nook twitches under that dark-eyed stare of his... the boy'd make him listen whether he "paid" him or no.
The boy adjusts his mint glasses, lets them fall around his neck. His freckled cheeks sharpen, lips purse. "There's a new one... you know where."
"Hm?" He can't help it. Surprise caught him in the stomach. He's been a little nervous, little fidgety this whole time—but he didn't expect to hear...
That ratty, tan kid's eyes sharpen. "Mmmh? Caught your attention now, didn't I?" Casually, as his words flow like honey from his dribbling lips, his finger traces the design on that coin of his. "So anyways... what was it I so wished to tell you?
"Listen closely."
Nook tightens his own lips. What did that thing think he was doing?
The tan one again raises his gaze out for him. "There are lots of people out here in our world... wouldn't you agree, Tom? Yes; yes... Lots of different kinds..." A dangerous glint of a smile to his lips.
"Boy," he grumbles, brusque, "I know. Very well." And you're one of the bad ones, he adds silently to himself.
"People think they're so grand, sometimes... until pieces of them go missing... until someone hurts them... then they wail and wail for attention... but who cares about someone else? It's you that matters."
He knows better than to voice his own opinion.
"Now, you know what's truly grand? Idiocy." He grinds the word under his heel. "You don't think about it. You barge into someone else's business... and sometimes it's curiosity—perhaps a spotty memory—but you help them. Much as it takes. Anyways.
"And even the smart ones can't best them. Because smart ones know when to quit trying to help. They know when it's too late."
That dark little grin of his expands. "But stupid people don't. So they can't give up."
Giggle.
"Oh, she thinks she has it so easy..."
Nook's eyes flash. "And don't you think so too." He knows what he might do, or perhaps someone else, if he proffers his opinion. But it's instinct. Happens anyways, sometimes. "Well, if stupidity is the true hero, and forgetfulness its sidekick, then so be it. What did you want, boy?"
"Ohh?" Then the boy's eyes flash, too. "I'm just warning you... you know, he thinks the newbie's great. He's excited to see what she gets into... all sorts of turmoil might come unearthed, and he is very excited. He likes her. A lot." A small pout.
"I just hope she doesn't give up too soon... hehhehhehhhehh..."
Nook drops his gaze. "Of course, boy," he murmurs, eyes in the earth, "now hand over the coin, will you?"
The shadow drops as the gold sprinkles in his furry hand. "There y'go, Tom... You know what he says... 'Pay yourself, if no one else is there to pay for you.' Heh. But I'm all alone and I don't have to..."
"Of course not, boy."
Nook sighs as the figure stalks out from his shop, door not so much as whispering behind him.
"Jaxk already took your piece of self as it is..."
Hi! Yeah, this was a longer chapter... xD but I had some stuff I had to cover...
So, what's going on? What does Tom Nook have to do with anything? Is that the boy from chapter one? (yes it is xD)
And who can forget Halloween?
You can question Jaxk all you want, but he makes no more... physical appearances until much later in the story. X3 You'll have to live off of Lyla and her other friends, as well as whoever else may show, for now~
There's a lot of parallels going on in this story isn't there xD
So that was the first... "sentence." Sort of like an arc. (hence the period at the end of this chapter name) This is more of the introductory stuff and basic/first questions.
What do you think of Wherford? How about Lyla? XD She can be a little frustrating, forgetting things all the time and making bad decisions...
oh, and if you're wondering, if you keep reading, you -do- learn the name of the boy from the train... and his intentions as well. X3 Thank you for getting this far!