There are three things which strike me as odd when I enter.
The first is the pink décor in this restaurant. Pink tables, pink walls and pink clothes. It's by no means ugly, merely… jarring. The second are the 7 waitresses. They're all identical . A chubby women with blonde hair. I must say, if they're all related, genetics really screwed them over. They wear a (say it with me) pink apron and have an obscene amount of lipstick.
Huh. Since when did I become such an expert on fashion? Maybe I was a kid model before I lost my memories. If I had identical siblings like these waitresses, it would mean we could cut down on the number of clothes we each have to wear for fashion shows. Doesn't seem very interesting though. It be cool if we were all performers though. But multiple identical siblings would be hard to handle. Maybe it would be best to have one. A twin to do a double act with. We could perform all sorts of mischief – I bet we'd give our parents a hard time!
A mother, a father and a brother… people to love and be loved by…
But all that, if it ever existed, is all in the past.
Shaking the melancholy thoughts out, I focus on the third thing that strikes me as odd. Apart from the waitresses, there's only one person here. I suppose it's the king, who asked the restaurant to be cleared out for this meeting.
As I get closer, I realise exactly what the Pigmasks meant when they that the king has changed a lot from what the statue depicts. The statue showed a child.
This was not a child.
You could take every single known definition of 'child' or 'kid' or any synonyms of these two words and none of them – none of them, would be appropriate for this… thing. Put it this way, I remember wondering whether Porky was actually A: a man, B: a women or C: a chimera.
I was not expecting option C to be closest.
What stood before me was a being with the shape and appearance of the boy depicted by the statue but he looked incredibly old. He looked ghostly white – his hair, his body, even his clothes, looked as if they would fade away at any moment. I can't say I'd be sad if he did. This abomination was inside of a weird capsule – if he was as old as he looks, I suppose it was some sort of life support.
Then, with an ominous hissing, he got out of the capsule.
Oh no.
He slowly lumbered towards me, with his hands out. Like a zombie.
I'm going to die. Die at the hands of this child zombie thing in a pink restaurant manned by 7 waitresses who all look the same.
He lumbers even closer until he's right up to my face. I… I… I can't move. My feet refuse to. He's so close I could smell him. Only I can't. His scent…I'll always remember it because…
Because he doesn't have one.
He smells of nothing. It's so strange. I could smell food before and now, I smell nothing. Nothing at all. For a minute, I wonder if I've died and lost my sense of smell. But I can still see him. He's so close that our noses are touching. He leans in and…
"Boo."
If backwards long jumping was a sport, I think I'd do rather well in it. I leap what feels like 3 feet backward in surprise. And then, the oddest thing…
"Ha. Hahahaha. Heeheehee!"
He breaks down laughing right then and there. I'm still in shock. He keeps laughing for quite some time. Eventually, he stops laughing and transitions into... coughing? A rather violent coughing fit at that. I almost feel sorry for him. Finally though, he stops and takes a seat at a table, regaining his composure. By then, I've regained mine.
"I'm sorry. Well I'm not, the look on your face was priceless!" chuckles Porky. "I hope we can still be friends."
Friends? Friends!? You scare the bejesus out me and you expect me to your friend? The fight or flight response is something that I find interesting because of what people will do. I can remember that when I encountered that drago, I chose to fight. Here would have been a great opportunity to choose flight. But my dumb legs decided to choose option 3: freeze.
"Are you just gonna stand there?"
My legs finally realise , 'oh wait we're the thing that lets the body move', but instead of doing the smart thing and moving backwards, they decide to move forwards and take a seat. I want to just run away and never look back. I want to just use my wings and fly away from New Pork City. Find my home, find my family. But it's like I'm not in control of my body anymore. Regardless, I want answers and this is who I'm going to get them from.
"You're a slow one, aren't you?"
"Porky. I'm sorry, I mean Your Majesty. Nononono wait, Master Porky." I stammer out.
"Hahaha! When we're alone, just Porky is fine. Though it's nice to see that someone has manners."
I suppose he's rather causal. Fitting considering he's a child.
"I have so many questions."
"And I'm here to answer them. But first things first: what would you like to eat?"
What? What do I want to eat? Come to think of it, nothing. I've lost my appetite now. Gee, I wonder why...
"I'm not hungry."
"Ah, well it's a good thing I'm not asking you to eat. I'm ordering you!" he says gleefully.
"I'm not sure what to get."
"Anything's good here! This place is called 'Beauty and Tasty' after all! You've seen the beauty in our wonderful waitresses, now it's time for the taste!" Porky says while smacking his lips together.
I'll be honest – I have to try really hard not to laugh at that wonderful waitresses comment.
"Tell you what – we're both kids. And what's the most kid food in the world? Burgers!"
He shouts to one of the waitresses "Hey, get me and my friend here a King burger each and some fries!"
The waitresses immediately all dart off to prepare the meal – accompanied with a "Of course, Master Porky." Even though their voices sound ugly. Still, burgers do sound nice.
It's only 5 minutes before they return. They come in with burgers on a plate adorned with fries. The burgers are mouthwatering – large with beef, lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese and topped off with a crown on top. The fries are golden brown and cooked to perfection. I take a bite and it's as good as it looks. Porky digs in to his food as well. Before long, the two of us have finished our food. All my energy seems to have recovered as well.
"Ahhhhh! Nothing like a good burger to fix you up!"
For once, I'm inclined to agree with him.
"So then. You've got questions and I've got answers."
"Who am I?"
"Awww. I was hoping you'd ask an easy one first." He pouts.
"What'd be the fun in that?"
"I suppose you're right. Get ready because it's a long tale. I don't know your name, so don't bother asking."
"Yeah, because you erased my memories!"
"I had a reason to!"
"What reason could you have for taking away all my happy memories!" I counter.
Porky looks at me carefully and says slowly "You made an assumption there. You assumed that your memories are happy."
What? I assumed my memories are happy? So does that mean…
"I erased your memories to free you. I erased them to save you. From the things I was told about you, I saw a boy who had been abused and mistreated by the people who he thought cared about him. I wanted to give you the ability to make your life better and in order to do so, parts of you had to be changed."
Mistreated? He erased my memories to… to help me?
"Explain. What do you mean?"
"Your memories are horrifying. Some of those idiotic people in that village told me so many horrible things about you. Called you a cursed child. A freak. When you were healed and enhanced at the Chimera Laboratory, I knew I couldn't send you back. I'd be a horrible king if I did so."
He sounds genuinely sad. These villagers called me cursed, a freak. But why?
"Why am I a freak?"
"You're not. They just want you to think that."
"Still, they must have had some reason to."
"It's because you have powers."
Powers? Like that thunder thing I did?
"The easiest way to explain it all to you would be to tell you. But you may not be happy with what you hear."
As much I don't want to hear it, I have to. I must.
"I want to know."
"Then get ready." Porky takes a deep breath.
"You grew up in a place called Tazmily. A simple town, very different from New Pork. While we are advanced, the people of Tazmily are rather stubborn and refuse to accept technology. I sent ambassadors from New Pork to try and spread our technology but they refused it. That hurt, but the worst part was what they did."
"What did they do?"
"They hurt us. They came and beat up several of my soldiers, even though we came in peace. I'm not pleased with it, but one of my generals was forced to order the soldiers to defend themselves. Thankfully, we didn't kill or seriously hurt any of the villagers. I wish I could say the same for us."
"Some of the soldiers died?"
"No, but several had many injuries. Some will have to have surgery done like you had, although not to the same extent as you. My general, Fassad, says about 50% of the soldiers he took with him were injured by the villagers. Fassad himself, thankfully wasn't too badly injured but he was hurt on the inside. He wanted to be friends with the villagers and work in harmony with them. As did I. But for all our efforts, we got paid in suffering."
"Those villagers are really that cruel?"
"Yep. In fact, one of them, a boy, attacked some of my soldiers with a Drago!"
Now I'm really interested. I remember a Drago myself. But wait, a boy attacked some villagers with a Drago? No! Was that me?
"Here, I'll show you."
Porky pushes a button on his capsule and a screen pops out of the top. A video starts playing.
"Our soldiers had to retreat. Some decided to go through the forest. A big mistake."
The video shows a monkey and a girl. They beat up the Pigmasks around them with no mercy. The girl even attacks them with fire, ice and… lightning. I'm horrified at the massacre.
"Please stop!" shouts one of them in vain.
This particular soldier isn't wearing the usual Pigmask attire. I suppose he must be Fassad.
The girl and the monkey don't stop. I can't look. But then I hear a roar. A familiar one. A Drago. In comes a Drago, with a boy on top of it. The boy… he looks like me. Only he has blonde hair. Is he…?
Before I can continue that thought, I hear some screams. The Drago is attacking the Pigmasks. Some are chomped, others are flung into the air. The girl and the monkey are cheering. Laughing. Laughing at the suffering of these innocents. I… I can't take this! Let it end!
"Stop it! Stop it now!" I scream, not at Porky but the people in the video.
Porky decides to turn the video off though. We sit there in silence. How can a child do something so cruel? That boy… he may look innocent on the outside, but inside lies a monster.
"When… when did this all happen?"
"5 days ago."
5 days. Some of those Pigmasks are still recovering then. It was soon after I was found then. So recent…
"Where do I fit into all of this?"
"We found you a week ago. Fassad asked the villagers if they knew about a boy with orange hair. They said they did. But what they said next… they asked if you had died. Fassad told them that you might be dead. They cheered. They celebrated. The only thing that they were sad about, was that you weren't certainly dead."
"They were happy? Do they not care about their own people?"
"Only those that conform to their standards. You were different – and to them different is bad."
"How am I different?"
"What happened when you fought the Drago and when you were in that capsule at Chimera Laboratory?"
What happened? I was angry and scared in both cases. But what else? Lightning. In both cases, I used some sort of lightning.
"I used lightning."
"Exactly. There are these people called psychics. They can do stuff with their minds. They can read minds, teleport, heal…"
"And use the elements? I'm a psychic then?
"Yep! And with some training, I bet you'll be a pretty good one at that!"
"That girl in the video… is she a psychic as well?"
"You're a quick one. She is. Only certain people are psychics though – they're chosen ones, if you know what I mean. To the villagers though, you're freaks."
"But these powers, aren't they special? Why would we be freaks?"
"You destroyed a room in Chimera Laboratory with those powers. You can understand why someone would be scared. It's hard to control these powers at first. It doesn't help that the first time you used your powers resulted in a… less than desirable situation."
"I don't understand."
Porky shows me a different video, an aerial shot of a forest near Tazmily. On fire. Burning away madly. The video transitions to what the forest was like afterwards. Decimated by the fire. Trees have fallen and everything is partially black.
"What happened here?"
"You. The first time you used your thunder powers you accidentally…"
Porky doesn't finish the sentence but I can figure out the rest. I set this forest on fire? And the villagers called me a freak because of it. I guess I can understand but, it was an accident!
"The villagers were angry at you and scared. You may be responsible but they weren't willing to forgive you or even give you any sort of chance. Your mother and father, along with the rest of the villagers decided that it was best if you left Tazmily. So when you were asleep, they abandoned you. On a mountain."
Drago Plateau. How could my own mother and father agree to this? I though family was supposed to love you! But I suppose, this proves they never loved me at all.
"So that's when I encountered that Drago."
"And sadly, it attacked you, brutally injured you and threw you of the cliff."
"But why was it a chimera? It had a strange eye and metal armour."
For a second, I thought I saw Porky surprised. It must have just been his appearance.
"The villagers are brutal. They kill animals for materials. Dragos in particular for their fangs. You see, a Drago fang is strong enough to pierce through anything. They use them as weapons. A group of soldiers found an injured Drago and we decided to make it a chimera so it could live. It was angry at the villagers for what it did. When it saw you…"
"It assumed I was a villager as well and attacked me."
I wasn't angry at the Drago at all then. I was angry of the situation I was in. Abandoned.
"That's one of the reason I wanted to save you. Because I felt responsible for what had happened to you."
"You're not. You saved my life and that Drago's. It was mere misfortune that we happened to meet. You are not to blame. Those villagers are. They shunned me without giving me a chance at all. They never cared about me. They are ignorant and refuse to see the error of their ways."
"Thank you. I'm just sorry you had to hear all of this. Live through it again. I'm not sure if it was the right choice. You were angry at me before but at least you were happier…"
"It was the right choice and I thank you for telling me. I may be less happy but I've only myself to blame for asking. At least now, I'm wiser. But why did you save me? I'm grateful, but to you , surely I must have been another villager. Wouldn't you have left me to die?"
"I hope you'll forgive me but my reasons for saving you weren't completely selfless. I hoped that if I saved you, I could show the villagers what technology could do. What benefits it could have. You were recovering while Fassad went as an ambassador. When he told me that the villagers refused to accept technology, you were my secret 'weapon'. With you, we could show them that technology can save lives."
"Of course I forgive you. But I'm guessing you didn't follow through with that plan."
"When Fassad told me how the villagers reacted to you disappearing, I realised that these people would never learn. They were a group of cold hearted people. The only good thing was that they weren't as advanced. The last thing I would want to do is give them that advantage by giving them a way of extending their cold hearted lives."
I don't know what to say. I've learned so much in the past hour. I wanted answers and I got them. But did I need them? I did. But what now?
"I can't go back! Please don't make me!" I beg to Porky.
"Are you crazy? I can't send you back to those people! You're a citizen of New Pork now!"
I'm so happy. I can stay here. Here, where people are kind to me. Here, where there's so much to do. Here, where I'm happy. Where I have… a friend.
"Thank you. I don't what to say to your generosity."
"Then don't say anything. Come on, if you're gonna live here, you better see the place! I'll give you the personal tour!"
Porky leaves the table and I follow him. As I do so, I realise I'm as happy as can be. Because I'm loved here. I walk out of the restaurant with Porky.
I walk with… with my friend.
A/N: Well, this is the longest chapter yet. Gotta say, it was really fun thinking of ally the ways that Porky could manipulate Claus. Next time, some bonding between Claus and Porky!