Previous Chapter: Chapter 17
Chapter 28: Help from Nowhere
Danny glared at the three portals in front of him. He didn't want to pick the wrong one but there was no way to tell where the portals went. After debating with himself and several false starts toward each of the portals, he did the most logical thing he could think of to choose. He covered his eyes with one hand and with the other he point at one of the portals.
"Eeny, meeny, miney, moe-" Danny muttered ticking off the portals with each word. He ran through the rhyme once and then did it again just to be sure.
Opening his eyes, Danny scowled as he saw his finger was pointing somewhere between the middle and left hand portal. Glaring down his arm, he decided his finger was more toward the left hand portal than the middle. He moved before he could change his mind, charging like Jack had straight into the swirling light and hoping that luck was on his side.
There were several minutes of whirling confusion as Danny was tossed about, like being caught in a wave crashing into shore. He tumbled out of the portal landing in a heap on the dusty ground. Several moments went by as he coughed out the dust he had inhaled on impact. Then, he spent another minute regaining his equilibrium and rediscovering which way was up and down.
Finally, Danny managed to push himself to his feet, look around, and figure out where he was. Hands on his knees and the occasional cough still coming out of his dusty throat he peered at the landscape around him and felt his heart sink as despair filled his chest. He was in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around him as Danny scanned the landscape, not a fence, tree, or building that he could see. It looked like the most desolate place he'd ever been to in his life.
Hand shielding his eyes from the sun, Danny turned himself slowly conducting another scan of the horizon praying he had missed something in his first look. He felt a spark of hope as he saw a bump on the landscape. It was a distant blemish on the otherwise unbroken ground. He couldn't be sure, but he thought it looked vaguely like a house.
With nowhere else to go, Danny forced himself to float up and travel toward the distant speck. He was exhausted from making his way through the temple, but it would take longer to walk and he could rest whenever he got to where he was going. The flying took a lot out of him too, but he was glad he had shortened the travel time when he finally reached his destination.
It was a house, a small, crooked farm house with a rickety porch and equally crooked barn. Despite the dilapidated appearance, Danny could tell someone lived there thanks to the lights and flicker of a television in the living room. He turned back into his human form and trudged up the front steps. Only hesitating a moment, he knocked on the door and stepped back waiting for an answer.
The door opened and for a moment it didn't look like anyone was there to open it. Then, Danny looked down and a saw a small dog standing in the frame looking up at him with a doubtful expression. He had opened his mouth to ask for help or directions or something, but the dog threw him off and he ended up just standing there with his mouth open.
"Courage?" an elderly lady's voice came from inside, "Who's at the door?"
The dog whimpered, pushing the door open a little more to show a full view of the room. It was a comfortable but simple living room with a television, a rug, two chairs, and two people sitting in the two chairs. One was obscured by a large paper opened in front of them and held up by two spidery hands. The other was a matronly woman with gray hair and a kind face. She was turned around in her seat looking at the door with open curiosity.
"Um, hi," Danny said stepping a little closer to the threshold. "I'm a little lost. I was wondering if I could get some help."
"No!" the other figure in the room snapped, bringing the paper down and revealing an old and rail thin man with a sour face. "Go away!" He snapped the paper back into place waving the front page to regain its shape. The paper name said "Nowhere News," making Danny blink. He really was in the middle of nowhere.
"Of course you can," the old lady said, pushing herself out of her chair, "Eustace, don't be so rude!"
Eustace only slouched farther behind his paper, muttering in angry tones.
"Come in, dear," the lady invited moving to the door and guiding Danny into the room. "You look like you've been through a terrible ordeal. My name's Muriel. You're welcome to stay for however long you need."
"I'm Danny," Danny said peering around the room as he stepped in, "and thank you but I'm really just looking for directions." He wanted to find out where he was and, more importantly, if he was in the right world as soon as possible.
"Don't be silly, dear," Muriel said, patting Danny's hand. "It's almost sunset outside. It'll be dark before you get anywhere and you don't look in any condition to be going off alone right now. What you need is a good meal and a long rest." Muriel was firm in the tender way only a grandmother could be, steering Danny through the living room, past a grumbling Eustace, and through a door that led to the kitchen. The dog followed behind them with a bouncing trot the entire way.
"Now you sit right there, Danny, and I'll get you some of my famous rhubarb pie." Muriel pulled out a chair from the small kitchen table.
Danny opened his mouth to protest, but the thought of food made his stomach grumble against his intentions. Sitting down, he realized he was starving and exhausted, the two sensations catching up to him in that very moment. It couldn't hurt to have some pie and a nap, could it?
Danny glanced down at his hands resting on the table. They were filthy, he realized, from days spent traveling through the wilderness and then traversing the many obstacles in the temple to get to the portals. Looking at his shirt, he confirmed that the rest of him was as filthy as his hands. He must have smelled as well, but couldn't tell since he'd been living with it for days already. He could use a bath in addition to the food and nap, he though blearily to himself, vaguely wondering that Muriel would let him sit in her nice clean kitchen and serve him food when he was in such a state. Rubbing his eyes with one filthy hand, Danny's stomach growled again, loud enough he was sure everyone else in the room could hear. Bath and nap after the food, Danny thought, mouth watering.
The chair across from Danny moved and the dog popped into view with a hopeful look on his face. The dog whined, front paws on the table.
"Why of course you can have a slice of pie, Courage," Muriel said as she pulled two plates down from a cupboard.
Courage the dog jumped in excitement, tongue lolling out in a happy doggy grin. Danny smiled, fighting back a hysterical laugh. The situation was so normal, the ordinary kitchen, the quintessential kindly grandma, and the enthusiastic dog he almost couldn't believe it was happening. Everything suddenly struck him as surreal considering less than an hour before he had been inside a temple straight out of Indiana Jones complete with death traps, magic, and advanced technology. For a brief second, he wasn't sure if this was a dream or if the Temple and Jack had been the dream. It was like he was standing next to himself looking on everything from outside his own body, but then Muriel placed two plates with two large pieces of pie down on the table, one in front of Danny and one in front of Courage, and reality snapped back into place.
I will never think Amity is strange ever again, Danny promised himself as he breathed deeply inhaling the delicious aroma of pie. He barely remembered to grab the fork Muriel placed down before he dug in, devouring the slice before he even tasted it. From the few crumbs left over he could tell it was delicious. He stared down at his plate, wishing it were full again, but hesitating to ask.
"Done already?" Muriel asked, chuckling as Danny gave a sheepish nod. "Well, I'm not surprised. You look like you're half starved."
Danny frowned looking down at his clothes. They hung a little looser than they had a week ago, but he didn't look that bad! "I've been traveling," he said, wanting to slap himself for the non-sequitor reply. He really wasn't thinking very straight. He probably should avoid talking altogether.
"That's alright, dear," Muriel said, patting his hand. "Why don't you go upstairs and get yourself cleaned up. If you're still hungry, I'll make something a little more substantial for you."
"You don't have to," Danny objected automatically, though the sound of a meal, even after the pie made his stomach rumble again.
"Nonsense, it'll be no trouble a'tall," Muriel assured him as she pushed him to the door. "Courage, would you should Danny where the bath is? And get some of Eustace's old pajamas."
The dog yipped in answer and headed out the door, walking around to the stair case. Danny followed, slightly dazed about how quickly everything was happening. The dog led him to a small bathroom with shower, sink, and toilet. He didn't know how long he was in the shower, but thought he heard the old man yelling about using too much water. Danny quickly turned off the water just in case he was imposing, the rivers falling off him had gone from brown to relatively clear anyway. He dried himself off with a towel hanging from a rack and, answering a knock at the door, found the dog standing there with a pair of old pajamas. They were too big for but Danny didn't care as long as he didn't have to climb back into the filthy clothes he'd been wearing any time soon. Muriel had taken his clothes away to the laundry and he could hear it running with noisy bangs down below the stairs, probably in the basement.
Hesitantly, Danny walked down the upstairs hall, feeling awkward in the strangers' house. He paused at the top of the stairs hearing the two old people talking amongst themselves unsure if he should go down or not. Courage the dog came up from behind him and Danny quietly crouched down, patting the dog on the head.
"Such a sweet boy," Muriel was saying, making Danny blush. She didn't even really know him! "If we had ever managed to have children I would have liked to have a boy like that."
"Bah!" the old man, Eustace, huffed in angry tones. "Who needs kids? Dirty little brats, all they do is whine and cry and demand things. Me! Me! Me! That's all they think about. What'd happen to me if we'da had kids?" he demanded, the snap of news paper finishing the tirade.
"What a creep," Danny muttered through a yawn, wondering what such a nice lady as Muriel was doing with a guy like that.
Courage whined in agreement before grabbing hold of Danny's sleeve and pulling him back down the hall. Danny followed too tired to fight even the small dog. They came into a small bed room, Danny dimly assumed it was a spare thanks to the lack of furniture barring the old brass bed standing in one corner and a plain desk with an out of date computer and chair. The mattress on the bed was a little sunken in the middle and not very thick, but after a week of sleeping on a forest floor looked heavenly.
Danny didn't think twice before he shuffled over to the bed and collapsed onto it in a squeak of old springs. He was asleep almost instantly. The only thing that disturbed his rest was a brief moment when he thought he heard someone come into his room.
"Oh, look at the poor dear," Muriel's whispered voice floated in the darkness. "He must have been tuckered out after the long day. We'd best let him sleep, Courage."
Danny had the impression of someone drawing a blanket up over him and cutting out the small evening chill before he tumbled back into sleep. The next thing he knew, he blinked his eyes open feeling like a day had passed, but judging from the darkness inside the room and outside the window it was probably only a few hours. Pushing the blanket off of himself, Danny climbed out of bed and went to the window.
The stars stretched across the sky in a brilliant display of lights, the Milky Way spilling along with a brilliancy that Danny never got to see in the light pollution of Amity Park. He took a moment to marvel at them, reveling in their beauty and familiarity as he easily picked out constellations he knew. From everything he remembered the stars looked right for his world, giving him hope that he was at least on the right planet and maybe the right version of Earth. From the position of the stars it looked like it was about halfway through the night. Venus hadn't risen yet which meant he had several hours till dawn.
Turning around Danny paused as he saw the little dog, Courage looking at him from the door. He smiled at the dog, going over to pet it before turning back to the window. Using his newly rested brain, Danny tried to piece together where he could possibly be. He knew he was on Earth, in the northern hemisphere, and in a place called Nowhere. Thinking back to the newspaper Eustace had been reading, Danny grinned. That should tell him exactly where he was, on the planet at least.
Danny flashed to his ghost form, making Courage the dog started with panic. The dog was staring at him with the largest eyes Danny had ever seen on an animal that big, but he ignored the pets fear and dove through the floor. Searching the living room, he quickly found the paper folded up on a side table.
Floating back up to the spare room, Danny shuffled the paper around looking for the front page. He found it after rifling through half of the out of order pages and read off the town and state for the paper business. "Nowhere, Kansas," he muttered to himself with a faint frown. Kansas wasn't so bad. It wasn't exactly close to home, but if this was the right version of Kansas he could fly home in a couple of days, maybe less if he didn't get too lost.
It was then Danny noticed a glow about the room that hadn't been there before he fetched the paper. He turned around and found the dog frantically typing away at the keys of the computer. The monitor glowing with the slightly green light those old computers sometimes had. Danny looked on with surprise at the dog competently using the computer and his eye brows rose as the computer seemed to be talking back to it. Danny had to be dreaming, or hallucinating, or he was in completely the wrong dimension.
Floating over, Danny peered over Courage's shoulder looking at the screen. The dog was searching ways to exorcise ghosts from a house which only made Danny more surprised.
"You're a pretty smart dog," Danny said looking down at the small animal with a deep frown. He'd settle for dreaming at the moment, yeah this had to be a dream.
The dog seemed both terrified at him and glad of the compliment.
Danny thought over the idea of exorcising himself. For the most part he didn't think it would work, after all, he was only half ghost and he wasn't exactly haunting the place, just staying there for the night. Still, he was desperate enough to try anything. So floating where he was he looked down at Courage and asked, "I'm trying to get back to my home town, do you think you could find something about that in there? I don't want to get sent just anywhere."
Courage seemed to think that over before modifying the search on the computer to include sending Danny home. The results were much less than before, and the computer didn't seem to think much of the idea.
"What does it matter where the spirit goes so long as it's not here, nitwit?" the computer complained to Courage, sounding bored and tiresome.
Courage growled at the machine, but selected the best recommended exorcism ritual the computer suggested. The dog hopped of the chair and patted his way out the door and down the hall. Danny stayed behind reading over the ritual the machine recommended with more than a little skepticism. It looked like it wouldn't work, and he doubted it would send him anywhere, much less home to Amity, but he hadn't had much luck with any of his other attempts to get home.
Sighing, Danny leaned back in the chair, rubbing suddenly tired eyes. Only a little while ago he'd felt refreshed from his nap, now he felt just as tired as before he went to sleep. Courage returned with the scrabble of claws and the padding of dog feet on the wood floor. He was carrying a box filled with miscellaneous things. Danny could pick out candles, string, chalk, and matches in the dim light.
Courage set the box down, pulling out a stick of white chalk. Running to the computer again, Courage looked at the diagram on the screen before going to the center of the room. He drew out a circle, marking off the four points at the half and quarter marks. He motioned for Danny to get into the circle and Danny, still extremely unsure of the entire endeavor complied, floating into the center of the circle a few inches above the ground. Courage went back to the box, pulling out a box of salt. Danny only cocked an eye brow as Courage poured a thin solid line over the chalk drawing.
When the salt circle was done, Courage ran back to the computer, scrolling down and reading as he went. Danny waited a few moments, but getting bored and curious, he floated over to look at what the dog was reading, or tried to at least. He got to the salt line on the floor and found he couldn't cross it, like there was some sort of invisible barrier there preventing him from moving past that point. He frowned, moving along the salt line and finding it the same all the way around. He was trapped.
Danny wanted to shoot himself. Almost a year of evading ghost hunters and ghosts, even while living in the same house as them and he lets himself get captured by a dog. It was humiliating, the only redeeming point about the situation being that Danny was firmly convinced this was a dream. His attention was drawn away from self recrimination as Courage once again moved to the box.
The dog pulled out the candles, placing them at even points around the circle. Then retrieved a crucifix from the box and placed that at the top of the circle. Lighting all the candles, Courage took his place at the top of the circle by the crucifix and started making howling noises that sounded disturbingly like words, though too garbled to make out entirely.
Danny watched with raised brows, too exhausted and disbelieving of what was happening to be very concerned about the fact that he was trapped in a salt circle watching a dog attempt an exorcism.
Suddenly, Danny felt a tug at his middle. It was a jerking sensation like something or someone was pulling at him with a rope for a moment before it eased. Courage continued his unintelligible woofing and the sensation happened again. Danny didn't know whether to be worried or hopeful that something was happening. If it worked the way Courage seemed to think it would, this would send him to Amity.
"I can feel something," Danny said, amazed and looking at Courage.
The dog only got louder. Then, all at once, there was an almighty pull around Danny's middle in the same place he had felt it earlier and suddenly he was floating in the middle of his living room. He looked around wildly, unable to believe it had actually worked, but everything was the way it should be.
Shooting up the stairs, Danny flew down the hall, looking in his room and grinning as he saw it exactly as he'd left it. Then, changing to his human form, he hurried across the hall to Jazz's room, not bothering to knock even though it was dark and clearly the middle of the night. He opened the door and peered in at his sister, asleep on her bed a worried frown on her face.
Jazz stirred at the sound of her door opening and she peered in the dark for a moment, looking to see what had woken her. Danny grinned broadly when her eyes finally adjusted and widened at finding him there in her doorway.
"Danny!" Jazz cried in a strangled, half-yell, quieting her voice in time to avoid waking their parents. She shot out of bed, grabbing him up in a hug that pointed out all the sore spots Danny had ignored up till that point. "Where have you been! I've been worried sick!"
"It's a long story," Danny said, not wanting to go into everything at that moment. "I'll tell you in the morning. I just wanted you to know I was home."
Jazz pulled back, the frown clearly showing that she wasn't happy about waiting to find out what had happened. "Well, I guess…" she said, "but you're telling me everything in the morning. Mom and Dad think you've been gone between Sam and Tucker's houses all week, so make sure you play along, alright?"
Danny nodded, not even worried about the cover story they had made for him. It all seemed a little less important in the light of just making it home. He gave Jazz one more, tight hug then turned for his own room. He didn't think he'd be able to get to sleep but if that proved to be the case he'd just go around to Sam's and Tuck's and let them know he was back. Sam would yell at him for making them worry and Tuck would demand to know where he had been, but Danny didn't care. Seeing them and being home would put him in a permanent good mood for the rest of the month.
::THE END::
A/N: Probably one of the least sensical chapters in this project, but to be fair the show Courage the Cowardly Dog doesn't make a lot of sense, either. Anyway, You got Danny home, good job! Now leave me a review. :)
