Title: Pure of Heart
Author: Hellsfire.scythe
Chapter: 3?
Summary: When Charlie turns eleven years old, 'What more does a boy want than a pet?' thinks Willy Wonka. Their trip to a local pet shop brings more surprises than 'just a pet'. CatCF/PSoH
Thank you everyone that has reviewed and or read this story so far! It really helps me stay committed and want to keep on writing more. I have to say, this is the most committed I've ever stayed to a fanfic of any sort. A chapter a week…wow, I'm really rolling! Let's keep on trucking then!
Chapter Three: Baby Blues and Golden Eggs
It was an On-Schedule Day. No matter what happened around the factory, everything was still on-schedule. It was more like a day off for the Oompa-loompas. Half of them were back in their homes in the factory, munching on cocoa beans, three-eighths of them were in the 'Butterscotch and Buttergin' room making quite the tizzy, and the last eighth were the busy type and still bustling around the factory.
Wonka knocked briskly on the Buckets' door, ah, exactly on time as well, not a second late! Grandpa Joe's head stuck out of the door and Wonka nearly jumped back in shock. "Ahh, Mr. Wonka, Charlie's been expecting you."
"Of course he has! That's why I'm here." Wonka replied back weakly, he sidled past the elderly man with a smile and entered into Charlie's room.
Charlie's room seemed to be almost empty. There were a couple bags lying around, neatly stuffed with clothing, towels, books, and other odd things. Wonka's lips pursed in thought. "What are all of your things doing in bags, Charlie?"
"My class is going on a trip into the mountains. We'll be staying at a ski lodge," Charlie explained as he double-checked one of his bags for something.
"Going? For how long?" Wonka's eyes darted around the room at the bags, Hopefully, he won't be gone as long as it seems.'
Charlie zipped up the bag again and pulled it off of his bed. "I'll be gone for three days, Mr. Wonka. I hope that won't be too troublesome for you."
"Butwhat about our inventions? What about the factory? What about me?" the torrent of words seemed to spill out of Wonka's mouth faster than he could hold them in. Immediately, he felt icky and selfish inside.
"I don't have to go on the trip, Mr. Wonka."
Wonka's lips formed a little 'o'. Charlie would give up a fun class trip in the mountains for him? Blue oculars met purple ones and Wonka gave the boy an indulging smile, "Of course you have to go on the trip, my dear Charlie!"
"I do? But you said our inventions, the factory and" Wonka hurriedly placed a glove hand over Charlie's mouth to silence him.
"Oh posh, Charlie. Go have fun on your trip," admonished Wonka. He slowly removed his hand, "But I'm warning you, little boy. You had better be back in one piece. I don't want my only heir to be gobbled up by any Ice Wampas!" he shook one lilac-gloved hand in front of Charlie's face. "Besides! Who knows what sort of new candies you might be able to dream up all the way up there! The last time I went into the mountains, you wouldn't be able to guess what I found!"
"What did you find?" Charlie's blue eyes sparkled in wonder.
"My sugar-candy sheep, of course!" Wonka giggled, a loud screech interrupted the exchange. "What's that gosh-darned noise?"
Charlie tilted his head at Wonka's expression of distress, "I think we woke up Feng Huang. She's just hungry, that's all."
The boy grabbed a small jar off of his nightstand and rushed to the corner of the room. Wonka slowly followed after Charlie.
Well, the little tyke certainly looked better than when Charlie first brought her home to the factory a few days ago. She wasn't as shriveled or wrinkly looking as most newborns was. In fact, she had fattened up and was looking into the world with large obsidian eyes. What in the entire world possessed Charlie to take home a little Chinese baby wrapped in silks, jewels, and the whole shebang?
"Look, Mr. Wonka! I think she's growing some feathers now. See the bits of red in her down?" Charlie pointed at Feng Huang as he feed her some dull colored mush. Feathers?' Wonka looked at the area in which Charlie was pointing and saw nothing but her pink silk blanket which was now covered in red flowers. So what? She changed blankets.
"That's great, Charlie!"
Break.
Mr. Bucket's at work. Mrs. Bucket is at work. The Grandparent Buckets aresleeping. Charlie's gone for three days with his class to visit the mountains. Poor Wonka was left alone, well, not really. A burble from his chest interrupted his self-pitying thoughts. 'How did I get myself into this?'
A cloth swathed around his shoulder and under the opposite arm was turned into a crude sling. Inside was Feng Huang, gurgling cheerfully up at the muddled chocolatier. Her chubby hand reached up and tugged on his lapels.
"Nuh-uh! No touchy!" scolded Wonka, prying her fingers off as if he were handling a dead fish. Feng Huang just gave him a gummy smile.
The morning went by quickly, with not much trouble. Though there was that situation in which a couple of Oompa-loompas tried a bit of the Fizzy Lifting drinks. A few hours were spent trying to fish the two Oompa-loompas off of the ceiling of the room. Then there was the problem with dismantling the gum machine in the 'Inventing Room'. Apparently the problem with the gum happened because there was something stuck in the tubes. One of the Oompa-loompas ingested the strange substance, well, it could be said that there would be another blue little person running around the factory, and more blueberry juice for the juicing room.
But lunch time had to come, and with lunch came hunger. The kitchen was paid a very expectant visit.
"Come on you little bugger, open up!" prodded Wonka, pressing a large peach against Feng Huang's lips. The only response that given was a wet and messy 'phffft'. Oompa-loompas that were around looked at each other and shrugged, none of them knew why their boss was pressing a whole fruit against the beak of a little bird that was just as big.
Wonka put the peach down and made a face, "You're a bit more trouble than I thought you were. Aren't you?" Feng Huang wiggled her arms out of her blankets and slapped the table a few times, her spit pooling on the little table. "You're gross and you're short!"
A few more minutes were passed and the chocolatier and the infant's antics persisted. Feng Huang didn't manage to eat a thing, but quite a few things rolled quite nicely across her table.
As more time passed, Wonka grew more frustrated, as did his charge. Finally, her face screwed up terribly, and her tiny mouth opened demandingly. "Oh no," Wonka muttered. "Don't you dare start…" an irritated wail filled the room, "…crying."
"You know I liked you a lot better when you were quite." The terrible noise persisted no matter what Wonka tried. Apples rolled across the table, Oompa-loompas started singing ditties that reflected quite poorly on Wonka's pet-sitting abilities, and everything was making Wonka quite flighty.
Finally, he deftly scooped the bundle into his arms and placed her inside his make-shift sling. "Oh gosh-darned it! Why'd Charlie have to go?" An idea popped quite literally in his mind, one that he did not particularly like. But it was all he had.
Later that day, some people around town would whisper about a rather outlandishly dressed man tearing down the streets with a bundle in hand and muttering quite heatedly about something or the other.
Break.
Everything was just the same as it was a few days ago. Wonka stood for a moment in the doorway and let the warm incense-filled air whisk past him into the cold afternoon. He shook his head dazedly and closed the ornate doors behind him. Quickly, he checked on Feng Huang. The little thing had somehow found a way to fall asleep on the way here.
"Uh, hello? Is anybody home?" Wonka pushed past some silken drapery and found himself back in the sitting room from the other day. A shirtless man (if one could call it that) lounged in one of the chairs. Wonka stared at the curled horns that seemed to sprout out of his head.
"What are you doing back here?" the man drawled. He picked at his teeth languidly and eyed Wonka in a way that the chocolatier felt it were as if he were being measured up for a meal.
"I-I'm looking for the owner of this shop?" Wonka stammered his eyes flitted around the room, looking for anything familiar.
There was a loud crash as the man tumbled off of the chair, he cursed loudly and stomped away, casting dark looks in Wonka's direction.
"Hi! Don't worry about T-chan, he's just surprised. It's not often that anyone sees us." piped a silvery voice. Wonka jumped and grimaced as his eyes landed on a prim looking girl. "You can call me Pon-chan. I suppose you're looking for the Count?"
"The Count?" Wonka's expression became even more confused. He felt a slight stir in his arms and the wails started once again.
"What's going on? Is someone hurt?" a melodious voice darted out of no where and the woman skidded into the room. "Is everything alright?" her voice regained some calm and Wonka gulped and held up the sling in his arms.
"I don't know why she's crying…the little bugger won't stop." Wonka said slowly.
A sigh sounded from the woman and she motioned for Wonka to follow her.
Wonka fidgeted as he watched the woman from his chair. She was meticulously cutting a rather large fruit into tiny pieces. Feng Huang had stopped her squalling right after the woman put in new incense, now the infant contented herself with staring up continuously at Wonka from the sling.
"What are you looking at?" Wonka challenged. Black obsidian eyes just continued staring back at him, never blinking. "You're kinda creepy, you know that right?"
"She is just hungry. You do know that children need to eat." the woman commented as she dumped the pieces of fruit into a bowl, and proceeded to mash them.
"I tried to feed her," protested Wonka. "Charlie said that she needs fresh fruits, and that's what I gave her."
"How did you give it?"
"The whole thing," He replied, as if it were an obvious thing to do.
There was the sound of a muffled 'clunk' as the lady set a small bowl on the table. A tiny silver spoon was in her manicured hand and she scooped up a little bit of the mush. Into Feng Huang's mouth it went with a delighted squish.
"Here, now you try." The spoon was handed to him. Wonka gave the lady a look of dismay. "You need to learn how to feed her. I doubt you have the time to come running to my shop every time you need to feed her."
Slowly, Wonka scooped up a large glob of fruit mush and guided it into the gaping maw of the infant. Some of it made it into Feng Huang's mouth, but the rest came sliding down her chin. "Um…ew,"
The spoon was suddenly snatched from his hands and the lady busily scraped the food mush off of Feng Huang's chin. "Just observe then,"
Fifteen minutes later, Wonka watched as the last of the mush was devoured by his little charge. "Heh heh, wow lady, you're good at this."
"Lady?" The woman raised an eyebrow and looked inquisitively at Wonka. Realization entered her eyes and she tittered quite humorously. "Let me introduce myself, I am Count D."
"Count D? Isn't a count a guy?"
"And I am not a woman," finished the man. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are."
A pink blush entered Wonka's cheeks and he could feel his embarrassment growing. But he responded to her question with great pride, "Willy Wonka, world's greatest chocolatier!"
Count D held out an elegant hand. Wonka stretched out his own hand, but recoiled slightly, his fingers curled back, and for a moment, all that could be heard was the sound of squeaking latex and Feng Huang's soft snores. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, he clasped hands very briefly with the Count and cast his eyes down to the ground.
Awkward silence once again filled the shop.
Wonka fumbled with something inside of his coat and pushed it in the direction of the Count. "Ah, thank you."
The Count's eyes brightened and he plucked the small packet up. A tiny colorful sphere rolled out into the man's palm and he swirled it around with a pearly white nail. "What is it?"
"Charlie and I are still trying to think up a name, but they're due out on the market in a couple a months," Wonka's face brightened up at the prospect of talking about his and Charlie's new invention. "You take a nice clean pot and put in a mixture of chocolate pudding and chocolate cookie crumbs. Then you stick this little seed in there. In a couple of days a little sprout will show up. And if you keep on putting in new mixtures of pudding and crumbs every four days, in a few weeks, you'll have a little candy plant. The stem and leaves will be the best mint-chocolate fudge, and the flowers will be the most scrumptious flavored candies. But that's not the best part, oh no it isn't!" Wonka paused for dramatic effect. "If you leave the flowers alone for a few more days, they will turn into the most delicious delectable and tasty chocolate berries with a gooey sweet filling inside."
"How do you do that? How does it grow?" the Count asked, staring breathlessly at the little seed in the palm of his hand.
One lilac-gloved finger shook in front of the Count's face and Wonka grinned. "Nuh-uh, that's a secret." The Count seemed to give a little pout, be he ceded gracefully and carefully tucked the tiny seed back into its packet to be slipped into his sleeves.
Break.
Snow-filled wind whipped into Charlie's face. He could see his class just ahead of him through the flurries of snow. The branch of a snow-covered pine brushed roughly against his coat sleeve and something plopped down in front of him.
It was some sort of stone or rock. Charlie bent over and picked up the small object. Colored in gold and about the size of a chicken egg, Charlie wasn't quite sure of what it was. That was, until he saw where the thing came from. A nest was snug in between the branches deep inside the tree. Two birds, about the same size as large chickens stared back at him from within. Wait…there were more than just two. Dozens more were peering back at him.
"Charlie Bucket!"
Ms. Barnes began trudging towards his direction. Promptly, Charlie left (but not abandoned) his discovery and hurried towards his class which had moved even further away.
"Charlie, might I ask the question of what you were doing back there?" his teacher's eyes bore down on him. Some of the boys in the class had attempted to play hooky at the top of an incline earlier before. Unfortunately for them, the incline was actually the edge of a cliff made of snow. Half and hour was wasted trying to pull them up from the precarious position.
"I'm sorry, Ms Barnes. I just thought I saw some birds in the trees." He said truthfully.
A sigh escaped from Ms. Barnes and she put her hand on Charlie's shoulder as she led him along with the class. "You were probably imagining things, Charlie. The guide says that there are no birds living in these mountains at this time of the year. They've all migrated. You probably were imagining it."
"Maybe," murmured Charlie, he snuck one last look at the tree and hurried on. 'I'll see what those things are later.'
Break.
"Wow, we were at that shop for quite a while, weren't we?" Wonka bustled around in the factory kitchen. Feng Huang just stared with her large black eyes as a small pool of drool gathered in front of her.
"You know what?" Wonka held up a small bowl with a grinding stick and examined it curiously. Some Oompa-loompas gave it a glance and shuddered. "This thing looks like the stuff that the Oompa-loompas used to grind up their nasty green caterpillars." The sound of a retch interrupted nearby and Wonka frowned. "I do hope that no caterpillars were pounded up in this."
Pieces of various fruits were dumped into the bowl, and Wonka merrily began mashing everything into a mush.
The Oompa-loompas stared when Wonka began to spoon-feed the little bird that sat on the table. Well, at least he was doing it right this time.
To be continued…
I like babies. I like their smell (when they're clean). I like their looks. I like how they are when you hold them. I like babies. I'm not so sure about Wonka's opinion.
This chapter is longer! I do hope Count D's personality will be done alright. I will have to be a little more careful with it in later chapters, as we'll be getting more in his point of view.
If anyone is wondering about how Feng Huang will play into the story as a major character or minor character. I have to say she's about in between, but leaning more towards minor. Don't worry, the main characters will always be just Charlie, Wonka, and Count D.
-Hellfirescythe