Chapter Five: Why There is Smoke

He was running, running…the chicken…it was after him…he had to run away.

Suddenly some little elves with red eyes appeared in front of him, blocking his path. "You cannot run, you cannot hide. There is no escape" The tiniest elf said.

"And we're Harvest Sprites!" another one said.

He turned and ran in the other direction, and he was surrounded in mist. In the mist he saw Celia's face. "Hi, Sky!" She said, then Muffy appeared, "You're dopey." She said, and Sky ran again. After a few seconds, he heard Nami's laughter.

He ran into an invisible wall…

And woke up.

Yelling, he got up and rubbed his sore behind. "THIS WOOD-SLEEPING THING HAS GOT TO STOP!" He screamed.

The wooden bed gave an innocent face.

"You just gave me one of the weirdest dreams in the world, you understand?" Sky asked, not expecting an answer. He got up and turned on the TV.

"Weather for today is partly cloudy with a sudden appearance of small dust devils…"

He turned the channel.

"Today is definitely a day to play in the sunshine, so says our Horoscope…"

He changed it again.

"To plant this seed, just put it in the dirt and…"

He turned off the TV. Apparently farms don't get many channels. He sighed and got dressed, prepared to go into town again. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. The inn! Of course! He could rent a room at the inn, and watch the TV in there! The plan was perfect, ingenious! He be a very smart person.

His plan set, he got out and milked Betsy, threw the bottles into the storage room, went to the chickens, stole their babies, threw the baby eggs in the storage, and then headed into town.

Inside the inn, Ruby was happily cooking some meals and her husband was at the counter. Sky checked and made sure there were no strange fires in the building before walking in and setting down two dollars.

"One room please." He said.

Tim looked at the two small dollar bills. "What are those?" He asked.

"It's money! From the city!" Sky said proudly.

"Never seen it before, get me some real money."

"But this is real money!"

"Not it isn't! Look at it, that is the most pathetic money I have ever seen!"

"Fine, then get me a room for free!" Sky said impatiently.

"Why do you need a room? You have a farm!"

"Yeah but my farm sucks, and I need a good TV."

Tim thought for a moment. "Alright, how about this. Go into Nami's room, she should be there right now. She's got a fine TV. Tell her I said you could watch it."

Sky's hearts raced. The little voices started talking to him again. "Nami is one of the Three…"

"Do you want to grow old and ugly?"

"And get killed by your own son?"

"Stay away…"

"Stay far, far away…"

"Okay, sure." Sky said and went upstairs.

He knocked on Nami's room. "Come in." She said.

Sky came into the room with extreme stealth. Too bad Nami was looking directly at him as he walked in. The cunning moves he had used were worthy of James Bond. Sky looked around the room, there were several matches on the ground, but no fires.

"What do you want?" Nami said sweetly.

"Uhh…well I paid good money to watch your TV." Sky said, scratching his head.

Nami shrugged. She was sitting at her desk, writing something. "Sure, I suppose company would be nice, anyway." She stared at him for a moment. "Ya know, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Nami."

"I'm Sky." He said hesitantly, then turned on Nami's TV.

"Weather for today is partly cloudy with a sudden appearance of small dust devils…"

He turned the channel.

"Today is definitely a day to play in the sunshine, so says our Horoscope…"

He changed it again.

"To plant this seed, just put it in the dirt and…"

Nami was watching him with strange eyes. Sky threw the remote on the floor. "Hey! These are the exact same channels!" He cried.

"Well, what did you expect? This is Forget-Me-Not Valley. People forget that we are here." She said. Sky sighed. "I'll be right back." He said and went outside and into the restroom. A few minutes later he came out and whiffed the air. He smelled smoke.

He rushed into Nami's room and found that the TV had been set on fire. Nami was watching it, her eyes filled with delight.

"Hey!" Sky cried and ran for the fire extinguisher. (Too bad they didn't have one.) So he had to put the fire out with his foot. By the time he was done, his boot was no more than a pile of ashes. "What did you do that for?"

"I'm sorry." Nami said, bowing her head. "It's just so…fun!"

"Yeah but…the TV?" He asked.

"It made you mad, so it made me mad. I watched it burn…slowly…burn to the ground…the flames consuming it…"

"Whoa, time out! Stop before you set me on fire."

Nami looked insulted. "Why would I do that? Humans smell to bad when they are on fire. Squirrels make an excellent dinner though."

Sky didn't even ask, just bid her farewell and quickly left as fast as he could.

Breathing in the fresh air, he walked down by the beach. The waves tickled his now shoe-free foot and chilled him to the bone. Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him, and turned around.

No one was there.

Thinking himself crazy, he kept on walking. He thought of many ways to torture chickens, and the thought was comforting to him. Then he heard the footsteps again, and turned around.

Still, No one.

The voices are getting to me again. Sky said and kept on walking.

He heard footsteps again. He turned around.

Nami was less than a few feet behind him.

Sky jumped quite a few feet into the air. "Are you stalking me?" He asked, amazed.

Nami shrugged. "I was bored. I'm training to be part of the CIA, so I thought I would test my skills on you."

"Oh…uhh…sorry…" He said.

"Wanna walk with me? I have a secret meeting here in a few minutes, but I can talk with you till then."

Sky suddenly imagined his entire farm on fire, and so he quickly nodded his head.

Nami looked delighted. "Cool, so, where are you from?" Nami asked, trying to make conversation.

Sky showed off his invisible motorcycle. "From the city." He said proudly.

Nami looked at the invisible motorcycle in awe. "That's neat! Well, I come from Some Where." She said.

"Somewhere?"

"No, Some Where. You know how sometimes you ask people where they're going, and they don't want to tell you, so they just say 'Some Where'? Well, that's where I'm from, Some Where. It's a great place, and lots of people go there."

"Umm...sure…of course I've heard of that place." He said. There was an awkward silence, so he asked. "So why are you here instead of Some Where?"

"Oh, I got kicked out for setting the Where Inn on fire." She said as if it where nothing. "I always get kicked out of towns for some reason. People in Forget-Me-Not Valley don't mind the fires, though, so I stay here."

"Oh sure…fires here…they are never a big deal. I just set my cow on fire yesterday, and no one even noticed!"

"See, there's my point." She said, and suddenly her pager beeped. She flipped it out in a James Bond-style and said, "Oops, I'm late. I've got to go, bye." She said and magically disappeared.

Off in the distance, he saw a tree set on fire.