Elsewhere, some time later, high above the planet….
A small girl with a spaceship, a bright pink bow in her hair, and a young mind chock full of wild hope and imagination was passing by.
Bow's last mission was done. It had ended in pyrrhic victory (with her successfully gathering some mutated time pieces to bring back to her homeworld for observation, albeit at the cost of the planet blowing up), and she was more than ready now to sit back in her cozy captain's chair and hyperjump her ship home. They'd be happy to see her, surely. Those time pieces had been in danger of disappearing with the planet collapsing before she'd gone to collect them. She'd gone knowing how dangerous it would be, and as her training predicted, the girl had located and secured them in a timely manner. This had been her most daring and courageous mission yet, and she'd excelled in her task. Her parents, teachers, and all her friends would be so proud of the progress she'd made, they'd probably erect a statue in her honor! Chronomancers all over her world would tell the tale of the brave Bow who'd risked life and limb to deliver the time pieces to safety!
The daydream of her planet's residents' cheering for her as she arrived back safe and sound was enough to make a small smile creep onto her face.
She was five lightyears away from her own planet; a routine check of the engine room, control module, and other key areas before the jump and she'd be ready. But a heavy banging noise from behind her made the girl jump at being startled.
Peering behind her would reveal a burly, muscled man in a blue suit knocking on a conveniently-placed door-window near the control module. In a quite rude manner, at that— he could see her, but that didn't mean he was entitled to the time she'd be wasting by opening the door to see what he wanted.
Bow breathed out a huffy sigh, a hand lightly rubbing the bridge of her nose, and the petite pilot took her sweet time on the way down. If he wanted to waste HER time with what would undoubtedly be nonsense that wouldn't benefit her in the long run, then she had no qualms about wasting his time in return.
The man laid his hand flat against the glass when she came to inspect him, looking down at the girl dismissively before speaking in a language that she had thankfully learned back at school.
"What is this, flying boat? All boats need to pay toll in Mafia Town! Even in space!"
Bow furrowed her brows. A toll? When she hadn't even STOPPED on the nearby planet for fuel and other necessities? He had no business demanding money from her when she hadn't even utilized any of "Mafia Town's" resources, or even showed any interest in doing so. But with the way he spoke, she guessed this logic would go over his head if she tried to explain her refusal. But her secondary ponderings on just how the mafia man had even gotten out there in the first place were interrupted by five horrible words.
"Mafia come in to collect!"
Followed by his gross, sweaty, disgusting, MEATY hand pulling on the brass handle.
"Oh no, you don't!" Bow snapped sharply as the door gave way slightly. Here she hopped up and grabbed the knob from her end, so as to halt his progression into her ship.
"You can forget me forking over any kind of 'toll'— there's NO planetary law THAT stupid! Get outta here!"
Her tugging was enough to knock the brute off balance, and he began his descent back down to the planet below. "How rude!" His voice from outside scolded her, but Bow jumped back down and turned away from the scene to begin her check through the ship. No more nonsense, now it was time to—
CRASH!
A flash of blue caught her eye, causing Bow to whirl back around in surprise. His right fist up and body flailing when she turned, the girl very quickly deduced that the man had thought it'd be funny to use her window as a punching bag for her apparent "rudeness". The glass was supposed to be comet-proof though! And here she was, learning far too late that the weakness nobody on her planet could figure out had turned out to be FISTS!
Bow could only stand there in shock as the vacuum of space sucked him right out of her ship. Furthermore, she was helpless to run when she herself got caught in the pull. Now she saw the world spin as she went hurtling further and further away from her ship.
Wait- I'll just beam myself back up! Bow's quick thinking reasoned in her momentary panic. I've got this covered, I'm fine! Just need to fix the glass, and—
One look in front of her, though, and Bow's heart sank. Dozens of glittering lights were advancing towards her at lightning speed, and she need only take a close glance at one nearby as it passed her to figure out what they were.
Hourglasses. Time pieces. HER time pieces, and they were floating away down towards the atmosphere of the planet.
Bow reached outstretched hands towards her ship helplessly as the lights inside went out, leaving the vessel in total darkness without anybody to tend to the original damage. With this new development (and quite the indignant huff in response to her rotten luck), her hopes and dreams of planet-wide recognition for her valiant efforts swirled down the drain almost as quickly as she and the time pieces fell from the sky to the land below.
Back in Subcon Forest…..
The flashing lights in the sky were what garnered Snatcher's attention to come out of his tree. He didn't sleep anyways, but this was something entirely new. The other residents of the planet didn't launch their fireworks this close to his forest— too much of a risk. So then what?
"What the…?" He asked himself as a barrage of the lights came careening down, glowing brighter and brighter as they neared his domain. Snatcher himself quickly retreated back into his tree, just in time for what felt like a booming shockwave to emanate from where he'd been hovering only moments ago. Several more of these booming, earthquakey sensations followed, and he didn't dare go to see what had happened until he knew it had stopped.
But when he did, the sight he was met with surprised him. Almost as surprised as he'd been to find a child in his ex's front yard left to freeze to death.
An intact hourglass floated lazily above the ground where he'd stepped out. As he drew nearer to it, he heard a distinct chiming noise that didn't cease. One of his ghostly hands instinctively reached out so he could touch it, but—
"Snatcher?" A small voice interrupted the moment.
Turning around, he saw Cashmere in her pajamas stumbling over. She'd gotten out of bed?! Wait, no, this meant the noise had woken her up! He hid the hourglass in his pocket dimension as fast as he could, rushing to meet her before she could move any further.
"Mmh, what's going on? There were lights and something exploded.." The little girl murmured, still groggy with sleep.
"Cashmere! It's nothing you need to worry about, everything is fine! You shouldn't be out of bed, though. C'mon, you! It's late!" He quickly scooped her up in a cradled grip to take her back, but voices from curious minions gathering outside his tree made her squirm to look over his shoulder.
"Are you sure…? That doesn't look fine to me… Who's all there? What's happening?!"
"Nobody, Baby, don't worry about it…" Snatcher mumbled as quietly as he could, nearing her tree house. Shapeshifting small enough to fit inside, the ghost carried his charge through the door and over to her bed. He was careful to be gentle in handling her, though. Any aggression at this time of night would only make a sleepy Cashmere combative and pissed off, and he wasn't in the mood to deal with that AND whatever the hell these glowy things were.
"Go back to sleep," the Snatcher spoke as soothingly as he could, tucking her in. Cashmere yawned, turning to face him. "I'll confirm my suspicions myself, you don't need to worry about any of this."
"Promise?"
"I promise." The ghost grinned in his roguish way, resting a hand on her head. The child smiled sleepily, and she closed her eyes without further argument. Allowing herself to be pulled back into sleep.
Snatcher watched her for a bit more before he left to deal with the problem at hand. He'd have to make sure none of the other minions would have loose enough lips to tell Cashmere about what had happened in the morning. Seeing as these things were not even of this planet, the Snatcher wanted to be the one and only person there who REALLY had any contact with the hourglasses. At least until he knew what they were, or what they were capable of.
They'd come in a manner similar to shooting stars streaking across the night sky. But unlike shooting stars, hourglasses didn't just show up by chance. The Snatcher would solve this mystery by himself. And his minions would just have to learn to deal with it.
No matter how much the secrecy hurt.
Welcome back, guys! Zoloto here with this week's slice!
As we continue on, I'd like to acknowledge and thank you for the reviews I've been getting as of late!
Mad King C - you've got that right, on both counts! There IS a reason for the way he kind of tends to elevate her above it all, but that won't be coming into serious play for a while. I gotta keep you guys guessing, y'know?:) also THANK GOODNESS, okay I was a bit worried about the way I wrote him, but if people like it, maybe that's the way to go. Also you're on the right track! Stay tuned!
Mr. Mega1423 - Thank you for sticking around, as well as for your reviews! It makes me happy to know that people think the way I write is engaging enough to keep going in the story, so the reviews I've been getting have been bringing a smile to my face every time I read them! Must be doing something right, if that's the case!
As always I thank you for coming along with me on this journey with me, and I will see you all next week!🌟
