Secrets Brought Forth
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Call this what I write while I'm figuring out a decent plot for a big sequel for a big fanfic. This will only be about 5 chapters long, so don't think it'll be as big as TRoC.
KTGreenstripe helped me with this chapter. She is very helpful. Oh, and sorry for taking so long. I was too busy relaxing during the Christmas break. Please don't throw any sharp objects at me.
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Three more days had passed since the incident with the coffee table, and now Sheila felt almost like herself again. There was still the matter with her broken leg, but she could feel her strength returning at a rapid pace. Now, she was able to hobble to places in the guestroom on clutches instead of clinging on to the shoulder of a maid or Moneybags.
Now she sat on the windowsill of the grand two-story window that sat in front of her. She watched the unwavering storm soak the outside, and she could feel a shiver down her spine when she remembered the grueling pain she suffered out there. In fact, she was so engrossed at the icy cold darkness that she nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand touched her shoulder.
"Sorry to startle you, dear." The kangaroo immediately relaxed when she heard Martha's voice. Just as she said the last word of her sentence, Sheila thought she heard the sound of a wolf howling in the darkness of the night, a sound that drove another round of shivers down her spine. 'My mind's playing tricks on me. I must be going crazy hanging out with my worst enemies.' Sheila thought to herself.
"Oh, hello Martha." Sheila replied rather listlessly.
Martha looked at her suspiciously. "What's the matter, dear?" She asked as she wrapped clean bandages around Sheila's leg.
Sheila sighed. As much as she wanted to announce her feelings to anybody, 'I keep hearing things outside' or 'I'm sick and tired of being stuck in this darn mansion' wasn't the best of things to reply to a maid of Moneybags. So, she made up a topic at the top of her head just to start polite conversation.
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering why Moneybags is so money-hungry." Sheila lied. Just as long as she was in his household, she might as well learn some secrets to what makes his mind tick. "I mean, what made him to become what he is? He knows that everyone hates him for it, and yet he continues to beg for gems as if blissfully unaware of what people think."
Martha sighed as she poured a cup of piping hot tea for the patient. "Well, Moneybags' childhood wasn't at all good." She said to the kangaroo. Sheila, realizing she hit a tender spot in the rhynoc's heart, sipped hesitantly at her drink as she leaned against some soft cushions propped up near the window.
"Really? What happened to him?" Sheila asked. She was about to add something snide like 'Did he lose his allowance in a gutter?' but to her surprise, no sarcastic words would come out of her mouth. It was like she really cared about him after all.
"Ummm...He doesn't really like me to tell anyone. In fact, he doesn't really like the fact that I know at all." Martha said. She turned and started to walk to the other side of the room, trying to avoid the topic altogether. But Sheila wouldn't pass up an opportunity like this.
"I promise I won't tell anyone else. Just tell me. I just need to know!" Sheila shouted. In the back of her mind, she was very surprised that she meant every word that came out of her mouth.
Martha admitted defeat with a sigh. She knew that if she had to answer the guest now before she got persistent. Reluctantly, the rhynoc took a seat on the windowsill and set the teapot down on a pillow between them. Martha waited until she was absolutely sure no one outside could overhear them, and then answered in a soft but clear voice.
"Well, okay. You see, Moneybags' family didn't own this mansion for many generations like he wants everyone to believe. In reality, Moneybags was actually very poor when he was little..."
"He was poor? I find that a little hard to believe!" Sheila replied. She gave Martha a skeptical look. "Are you sure you're not lying?"
"No, but it's true! His family just lived in a tent in some kind of community of poor people with only scraps to eat. He never ate lunch in school since his parents never did have any money to give him. Even if they would give him money, which would be a very rare event that happened when his family got lucky, bullies would always steal it from him."
"That's terrible!"
"Yeah, it is. Anyways, one day when he had money to get lunch from school, the bullies came up to him and asked for money again. This time, however, Master Moneybags had enough of having the very few cents to his name taken from him. He stood up for himself and refused. The bullies became angry and began to beat him to a pulp. Once Moneybags was unconscious and bleeding rather badly, they took his money and left him in the gutters. Thank goodness a good Samaritan came along and brought him to the hospital to heal before he could die on the streets."
"So, is that why Moneybags is money-hungry?" Sheila asked. The story chilled her to the bone, despite the fact there was a roaring fire in the furnace. Her mind wanted her to devalue the story as false, but she knew that Martha wasn't lying. The kangaroo felt bad, but she knew for a fact that even if Spyro and her friends knew about this story, they wouldn't feel sorry for Moneybags because of how big of a jerk he was.
Martha nodded in response. The rhynoc then explained with a crisp, clear voice. "Yeah, and when he grew he became rich. He's now very scared about even losing one gem thanks to that incident!"
Sheila thought to herself as she sipped some more of her tea. The warm brew gave back some of the warmth that the story stole from her bones. 'Wow, I feel sorry for him. I mean, we've all had bully problems when we were joeys, but he grew up without a cent to his name...' She glanced back at the lavish walls of the guest rooms and once again studied the trinkets he acquired from his vast amount of riches.
Just when Sheila was about to add something to the conversation, the owner of the mansion burst through the doors. Martha and Sheila both glanced at each other, almost fearful of the fact that he may have overheard. Luckily, Moneybags' concerns lay elsewhere. "Martha, rain is dripping in the kitchen, and the chef has been whining about it for the last fifteen minutes. Erm, what were you two talking about?"
The rhynocian maid smiled casually and rose to her feet. "Oh nothing. I'll get the leak in the kitchen fixed right away, Sir."
Sheila watched as Moneybags and Martha left the room. She returned to her original task of looking out of the window and gazing at the sheer danger of what lay outside. Again she heard the wolf's howl, but it didn't even cross her mind as she thought of different things.
"Moneybags' life was horrible! I feel sorry for him." She said to herself after a while. When she realized what she said, she gave a forced chuckle and replied to her own statement. "Gee, those are the last five words I would apply to Moneybags. But then again, this whole stay in his mansion has changed my views toward him."
"I wonder how my mates are doing in this godforsaken rain?"
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Meanwhile, Squall was still roaming the flooded land. His paws didn't even sink into the icy cold slush as he padded through the storm of his creation. He killed every living thing trapped in the rain, be it fodder, faun, or rhynoc. Their screams of pain and anguish were always blocked out by the storm's savage roar. Squall didn't give a single thought to their bodies as he bounded through the rain. Fodder were eaten whole, but rhynocs and fauns were eaten in a way so that there was a gaping hole exposed to the elements where their stomachs were. Not even the powerful rain could block out the stark white that was the bones of Squall's victims.
Just as the wolf Guardian was finishing off the meal of an unlucky Glimmer mouse, he saw the mansion in front of him. Again he snarled at the mansion like a guard dog that had just caught the smell of a thief. How he wanted to tear that foundation to the ground and flatten the kangaroo and her savior in one swoop, but what was left of his chivalry kept him from doing so. Squall didn't want Sheila to be free of her torture that quick. No. She was to suffer slowly until she wanted to commit suicide from all the pain running through her body.
"I see you, Sheila. You think you're so cozy in your shelter from the rain. Too bad you can run from me." Squall snarled. He sloshed through the mud until he was close enough to see Sheila's face. She was staring right at him, but she couldn't see the monster that hid in the storm. Her eyesight was built for calm weather; Squall's was built to see in stormy.
"You cannot run from the storm!"
The last letters of "storm" turned into a savage howl as Squall summoned thunder and lightning from the heavens. At that very instant, Squall's form became visible to Sheila's eyes and finally she knew just what caused this storm and what caused her leg to break. Squall took pride in her frightened expression; it was the very expression that Squall lived for. Let the other Guardians help others in their quest for happiness and brotherhood; Squall was the master of both death and fear!
The lightning hit the mansion just as Sheila turned to call for Martha. The lights flickered on and off in every room of the estate as the lightning conjured by the monster did its work. Martha, like everyone else, was caught off guard by the thunderbolt and fell to the floor. Shelia grabbed the solid edge of the windowsill as the entire place shook like it was caught in the middle of an earthquake.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Martha shouted as she tried to rise to her feet during the quake. Just as she was in a proper standing position, a dislodged vase from one of the opulent shelves in the guest room landed right on her head and knocked her out cold.
Sheila heard the rhynoc's cut-off cry, but she wouldn't dare keep her eyes off the window. Even though darkness swallowed up the threat of the storm again, she still stared outside for a second glimpse of Squall. But then the magic-induced earthquake began to increase in power and Sheila was knocked backwards off the window sill and onto the floor, unable to move.
Just then, Moneybags was able to walk into the guestroom while the rumbling continued. "What's happening? What's going on?! Why is Martha lying on the floor like that?"
"I don't-WATCH OUT!!!"
Several things happened at once. Just as Moneybags was able to stumble into the center of the room, the chandelier dislodged itself from the ceiling and plummeted to the floor. The kangaroo responded almost instantly by pushing herself off the floor with her one good leg in a grandiose leap. She collided with the owner of the mansion. Moneybags tumbled out of harm's way in the nick of time, but the chandelier landed right on top of Sheila's bandaged leg."AAAAHHHHHHHH! MY LEG! MY LEG! MY LEG!"
Almost miraculously, the shaking subsided. Moneybags rose to his feet, considered the great amount of gems he had to pay in order to fix the damages, and then noticed the giant heap of twisted metal and wires right where Sheila need to heal the most. Immediately he rushed to her aide. The chandelier, while very bulky, was easy enough to slide off Sheila's bandaged leg for a bear like Moneybags. Trying not to look at the twisted mess that was Sheila's leg, Moneybags helped her up.
"What were you thinking, Sheila? You could've been killed! You shouldn't have done that!"
Sheila glared at him as she winced in pain. Her voice was barely a whisper from all the pain welling up in her body, but Moneybags could hear her just fine as the mansion was deathly quiet after such a sudden earthquake. "Hello! I just saved your life!"
Moneybags looked down at her leg again. It was now as bad as it was when he discovered her in the rain. The bandages were starting to peel off her leg, revealing the more ghastly details on her wounds. More then a week's worth of healing was wasted thanks to a freak earthquake. At this rate, she'll never heal in time.
"I guess we need to replace those bandages if we want you to heal before next year, Sheila." He said rather carefully. Sheila said nothing, but gave a small nod. Moneybags set her down on a chair and called for the attention of Martha, who just woke up from her short coma with a splitting headache.
"Yes...oww...Master Moneybags?" Martha replied as she felt the swelling bump on her head with her fingers. She gave a little squeak of terror when she saw the heap of twisted metal in the center of the room, but she was grateful that everyone was safe.
"Do we have more bandages? We have to care for Sheila's leg. The bandages peeled off and the chandelier broke what we mended." Moneybags described.
"Sorry, Master Moneybags. I was fairly sure that today was the last day she would have to be in bandages, so I put the last ones on her today. We don't have any more..." Martha replied sadly. She winced as she applied an icepack to her head. "There's nothing we can do until the rain stops."
Moneybags said nothing. He glanced at Sheila's leg, at Martha's empty First Aid kit, and then at the stormy weather depicted through the window. A crazy idea formed in his head as he stared at the tempest raging outside. They had no bandages, but he knew of a place that did. "Martha, fetch my raincoat. There's a house of healers not to far from here-"
"Are you nuts!? It's suicidal outside!" Sheila shouted immediately. "My leg is not worth killing yourself out there!"
Martha placidly agreed. "I have to agree with her, Sir. You can't go out!"
"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures! Now, don't let anyone stop me!" Moneybags took his raincoat off the coat rack, since Martha didn't bother to fuel his foolish plot. With enough money to pay for the expenses of the best healer's potions and bandages, the bear reached for the door. The rhynoc maid tried once again to coerce him out of it.
"But Mast-"
"THAT'S AN ORDER!" Moneybags immediately barked. Martha and Sheila were both stunned by this sudden change of emotions. They watched as he opened the door with great difficulty against the wind, stepped outside, and let the wind shut the door behind him.
Sheila signaled for Martha to take her to the giant windowsill she was sitting on not to long ago. She watched as he disappeared from view in the rain, and remembered all the kindness he showed to him. Before this incident, she would've been more then happy to see Moneybags die a horrible death in a giant rainstorm, but now, she wanted him back where it was safe. Martha took a seat on the windowsill as well.
"Oh, I pray to the Elders that he'll be all right!" Martha cried out. Sheila could only nod as she watched the rainstorm in sadness.
"You and me both, Martha. You and me both."
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What was once the greediest and cheapest creature in all of The Forgotten Worlds now was walking against the wind and rain just for the sake of someone else. A week ago, Moneybags wouldn't even think about risking his neck for someone else, but now that he had a kangaroo with a broken leg lodging in his mansion, he was going to brave the elements to help her.
The icy cold water that poured from the heavens soaked through his raincoat and bit at his skin. The mud sank up to his knees and filled his shoes with the frozen slush. Moneybags groaned to himself when he lost all feeling in his toes from the bad weather.
'Why am I doing this? I should turn back right now, bind that kangaroo's legs up with some newspaper or something, and warm up by the fire.' He thought to himself as he fought against the gale. The thought did seem rather tempting; he didn't need the best bandages in the world to bind up a broken bone, and wading around in mud wasn't a smart idea at all.
But then he remembered how selfless Sheila was when she saved him from the falling chandelier, and how it cost her a nearly mended leg. He remembered the horrible look of her wounds, and then at how she cared about him when he threatened to rush out of the storm.
'No! I'm not turning back! This is for Sheila's good, and for once in my life, I'm going to be nice and do a good deed like Spyro!' he convinced himself. And then, he forced himself to trudge through the mud towards the destination of the healer's house. Nothing was going to stop him in his quest for new bandages!
RIIIIP!
Moneybags looked down and saw that his black tuxedo was caught in a bush branch. With a annoyed growl, he pulled on his coat and it ripped off. Moneybags groaned when he saw the hideous scar that marred his trademark clothing.
"The price I have to pay to do a good deed." He was about to walk again in the direction of the healer's house, but then a sickening truth came to him. Every direction in the rain looked the same now. He sunk into the mud in defeat, his eyes threatening to shed tears. Not only did he not have the things necessary to bind Sheila's leg, but the rain also blocked the way home in a blackish-brown void of nothing. It was like the world had ended, and Moneybags was the only miserable survivor.
"Walking outside of my mansion was a bad idea. I'm wet, I ripped a hole in my tuxedo, my shoes are filled with mud, I don't have the bandages for Sheila, and I'm lost! What can happen next?!" Moneybags shouted to no one in particular.
He didn't realize that he had spoken to soon until he heard a suspicious roaring sound. When he turned his head to the direction of the noise, he saw a large tornado heading straight towards his path. It was giant whirlwind of mud and fallen tree branches that sucked everything in its path. Thunder and lightning he could've handled, but a tornado was way out of his league.
"Great. The entire world is against me!" Moneybags shouted as he broke into a run. But since mud wasn't the best running surface in the world, the bear could only run a few feet before falling over in the icy wet mud. When he realized that there was no chance that he could outrun it, he fell to the ground and shouted to the sky for forgiveness.
"I knew I should've listened to Sheila!" He shouted as he waited for the end. Just when it looked like that the cyclone would engulf him, it stopped mere inches from his feet. Moneybags looked at the windstorm in happiness, as if he couldn't believe how lucky he was, until a shape emerged from the tornado. It took the form of a savage wolf-like creature that was the Guardian of the Silver Gigas Crystal. Moneybags turned to run, but a gust of wind knocked him towards Squall. The wolf gave Moneybags a confident grin, letting him know that there was nowhere to run from the master of the storm.
"W-what do you w-want from me?" The bear stammered.
Squall grinned with teeth caked in blood. Moneybags shivered when he noticed that the very spot both Squall and he were standing wasn't being drenched in rain. In fact, the air seemed a lot warmer and it made the bear almost happy to feel this kind of coziness from outside. However, there was the fact that he was standing in the company of a giant wolf that he knew he couldn't outrun.
"I was figuring we can make a deal. A small fee, you would say." Squall spoke politely through sharp teeth. He grabbed the rip on Moneybags' tuxedo with his hooked claws and pulled him until their snouts were touching. Moneybags recoiled from the horrible stench of decay on Squall's breath. "You have something I want, and I will be willing to pay a Guardian's sum for it. And don't act like you don't have her hiding in your mansion, because I saw her staring out your window!"
The bear instantly knew what Squall wanted. "Sheila."
"So, you're smarter then most people take you for!" Squall chuckled. "All you have to do is name your sum and I'll take Sheila from your hands...forever."
"Never! You're not getting Sheila!" Moneybags retorted. All of Squall's good humor left him. With a snarl, the wolf slapped Moneybags with his right claw and sent him sprawling in the mud with his face facing towards the dark sky. The wolf guardian then pinned him down and pushed him deeper into the mud as he argued with the bear.
"Listen here, you greedy worm! I know that your heart is as black as mine! I can give you as many gems as you want, or so help me, I'll tear down your mansion to splinters and drag Sheila out screaming. And if it comes to that, I'll drag you along as well. The storm will never stop until I have Sheila." Squall snapped. Moneybags had to spit out rainwater and mud from his mouth to reply to him.
"You control this storm?" The owner of the mansion replied. Squall grinned as if satisfied with his destruction upon the Forgotten Worlds.
"I can make the rain fall as long as I like to. It can last a week, or it can last eighteen years. And, I can concentrate my magic into smaller areas. Unless you surrender Sheila to me, your mansion will sink down into the muddy bog where it belongs. Every last gem, every last treasure, gone with the mud."
Squall liked the expression on Moneybags' face. It was one filled with pain and fear, the very emotions that he craved the most. Soon that kangaroo will be tossed out of the mansion faster then he can say "cheapskate".
"What price will you pay? An entire mansion of wealth, your home, and everything you earned during your lifetime, or some pathetic kangaroo from the mountains?" Squall asked. He pushed Moneybags deep enough in the mud that he started to choke.
Moneybags went limp underneath his claws. "Okay...I'll take your offer...Just, just..."
"Just, what?" Squall queried.
"Don't tell her I'm doing this...I...I"
"Love her?" The words came out of the wolf's mouth as an rather amused growl. Moneybags gave an awkward nod, and the monster howled in laughter. The weather, in response to the monster's mood, flared up with lightning bolts.
"Only a slug would love a creature as greedy, as heartless, and as rich in fat as you. You just put a price-tag on her, and now, in three days, I'm going to come for her body and she can live a life of torture at my claws knowing that the very guy who saved her would step aside to let the same monster that maimed her in storm reclaim her." Squall lifted his feet off of Moneybags' torso so that the bear could rise out of the mud.
"So, you'd best develop a relationship with her now, because the clock is ticking." And with those words, the giant wolf bounded into the darkness and the rain washed away any traces of Squall ever being there. Moneybags sat all alone in the mud, his heart heavy with the deed he had just done.
He sold Sheila to the Sorceress and looked away when there was an execution date, and yet now, she was much more important to her. Squall had directed him to the mansion when he chased him with the tornado, but that still didn't satisfy him one bit. Sheila now belonged to a greedy monster, and there was no way anyone could do a thing about it.
'Unless...' Moneybags thought to himself. His mind strayed back to when Spyro would brag about all the ingenious ways he would defeat undefeatable enemies in amazing feats of strength of agility. Was there a way to defeat Squall too?
A new feeling pumped through his blood. The bear stood up on his feet, glared in the direction of where Squall headed, and felt his conscience take control. He was find some way, any way, to defeat that monster. Even if it costs a thousand gems!
'Or my life...' Bile rose to his throat when he remembered those blood-caked teeth, those flesh-ripping claws, and his eagerness to kill. Moneybags couldn't kill anything even if he wanted to, and Squall was too big of a force to reckon with. He thought of those claws ripping through him like a hot knife through butter, but then he thought about Sheila being dragged out of his mansion and to her death.
There had to be a way, but what?
Suddenly, the very thing that provided him with the most help from monsters and money to help pay for expenses throughout the years formed at the back of his throat. He needed a monster to fight, and he happened to know the best monster-fighter in the realms.
"Spyro."
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End of Chapter 3
Once again, sorry for OOCness in Sheila and Moneybags. I own only Martha and Squall in this chapter, and KTGreenstripe receives credit for most of the dialogue in this chapter. Give her a round of applause for being such a great help!
Spyro will appear in the next chapter. Sorry that he's missing in action.