xxxxxx

It wasn't long after Skwisgaar had fallen asleep that Toki woke up. The seat in the train was not exactly comfortable, and though he was tired, Toki was also nervous. He had run away from home. If his parents found him, what would he do? He shivered.

He looked over at the woman who was sewing up the last stitches on the ear of the teddy bear that she had been working on for the past few hours. She smiled at Toki. A very inviting smile. Toki carefully removed Skwisgaar's hand from around his ankle, and crawled over the seat to where the woman sat.

"Hello, sweetheart," she said to him, "How are you?"

"I's okays," he answered, "I's tireds, but dis seats is not very goods for da sleepings."

"I agree," the woman said. "That's why I don't sleep on the train. Instead, I make these stuffed animals," she said, picking up a bag from beside her. "Would you like one? I've made so many, and I wouldn't mind at all if you wanted to take one."

"Okays," Toki said, looking through the bag. They were the strangest stuffed animals he had ever seen. Many of them had horns or demon tails, even though they were bears, cats, dogs, pigs, and other such animals, which would normally not have horns, or, of course, demon tails. He had never seen stuffed animals like these, but he instantly fell in love with them. He had never owned a stuffed animal before.

He finally decided on a brown teddy bear, with a demon tail. "I thinks I likes dis one," he said, showing the woman the one he had chosen.

"That's a great choice," the woman said, "I made that one a few years ago, while I was traveling to Finland. I called him the Deddy Bear."

"Whys you calls him dat? He's nots a dead bears," Toki said, looking at the bear.

"Well, you see, he has that tail, like a devil, and devils deal with the dead a lot," she began, "He is a teddy bear, only it would seem more fitting to call him a Deddy Bear. Don't you think so?"

Toki smiled. He liked this woman; not only was she kind to him, but she was not afraid to talk about devils and death. Oftentimes grown-ups, Toki noticed, did not ever want to talk about devils, or demons, or anything like that. "I thinks so," Toki said, "I thinks, dat it makes de sense to calls him Deddy."

Toki smiled, but felt a little nervous when he saw the man with the long white hair looking at him. The old woman noticed that Toki looked worried and followed his eyes to the long-haired man.

"May I help you, sir?" she asked him.

"No," the man responded, "I would just like to compliment you on your son, there," he said, his voice low an menacing, "He is very well behaved, unlike many children who ride these trains."

"Quite," she said, patting Toki on the arm. She then looked at Toki, and whispered to him, "Do you know that man?"

"No," Toki answered.

"I'll keep an eye on him," she whispered to Toki, "I don't like the looks of him. He seems rather shady to me..."

"Yeahs," Toki agreed. They sat in silence for a moment until Toki spoke again, "Where's you goings?"

"I don't know," the woman said, "I just ride the train, and end up wherever the train stops."

Toki thought about inviting her to come with him and Skwisgaar, and the two older guitarists, Olof and Gustaf, but he didn't think she would like the idea of them all sneaking onto trains and boats. Furthermore, Skwisgaar probably wouldn't like for him to invite an old lady to come with them.

"Dat's cool," Toki said finally, "Dat sounds like funs."

"What's your name, sweetheart?" the lady asked him.

"My names is Toki," he answered.

"Oh, that is adorable," she answered, "Is the boy you're traveling with your brother?"

"Yeah," Toki said, remembering that Skwisgaar had told the same lie earlier.

"Are you traveling without your parents?" she asked him.

"Yeahs," Toki answered, "Deys goings to meets us somewheres. I don'ts knows reallys. Skwisgaar knows. He's goings to makes sure we boths gets theres."

"Skwisgaar? That's your brother's name?" she asked.

"Yeah," Toki answered.

"So what kinds of things do you like to do, Toki?" she asked him, "Do you like any sports?"

"Noes," Toki answered, "I don'ts like de sports, I likes de musics. I wants to learns hows to play de guitars. I tries to learns once, buts den my parents gots mad..."

"You could ask your brother if you could play with his," she said, "But you know how big brothers can be sometimes. They never want to share. Do you mind my asking why your parents won't let you play the guitar?"

"Um," Toki began, knowing that he was probably telling the woman more than he should have. Why did he say that. Why would someones parents get mad at them for playing a guitar, only let their brother play one? There were plenty of excuses he could have told her, for example, it interfered with his school work, or he always accidentally broke the strings, or he played it too loud, and his brother played his at a friend's house, so the sound of his playing wasn't an issue.

Plenty of excuses though there were, Toki could not think of any. "I don'ts know," he said, not knowing what else to say, "Dey just don'ts likes me to playings de guitars. I don'ts knows why," he lied.

"Toki!" he heard Skwisgaar say. Toki turned around to see Skwisgaar getting up and walking over to him.

"Sorrys ifs he was botherings yous, lady," he said to the old woman.

"That's alright," she said to him, "He wasn't bothering me. We were talking about music," she said, smiling.

"Toki," Skwisgaar said, looking down at the boy, who was sitting on the seat beside the old woman, "You can'ts be sneakings offs likes dat okays?"

"Why nots?" he asked, "I makes a friends," he said, smiling.

"I knows you makes de friends, but you coulds maybes have mets someones not a friends," Skwisgaar said.

Toki frowned and looked up at the old woman.

"He is right, Toki," she said to him, "You have to be careful sometimes who you talk to. Not everyone will be nice to you. There are horrible people in this world."

"I knows," Toki said.

"It was very nice meeting you though," the woman said, noticing that Toki sounded a bit sad.

"Yeahs," Toki said, "Its was nice meetings you too. And thanks you fors Deddy."

"You are very welcome sweetheart. If you boys ever happen to be riding the train again,I'd be glad to have your company," she said to them, "I am on the train very often, as if I ever don't know where I want to be, I just get on the train, and go wherever it takes me."

"Okays," Toki said, "I sees you laters sometimes, maybe."

"I certainly hope so,"she said, "Good-bye, and good luck with your guitar, Toki."

"Thanks you," Toki responded, "Good-bye."

The train had come, slowly, to a complete stop. Olof and Gustaf walked up to Skwisgaar, "This is where we get off," Olof said.

The doors opened, and Skwisgaar, Toki, Olof, and Gustaf, along with several other passengers, stepped off of the train.

"Where we goes now?" Skwisgaar asked, looking to Olof.

"Right over there," Olof replied, pointing toward the sea where several large ships drifted, "There are always ships coming and going here. They are shipping things to and from Sweden. We can sneak onto a departing one. They usually leave every few hours, so we shouldn't have to wait long."

"Dey goes to England?" Skwisgaar asked.

"Yeah. I am pretty sure they do," Olof answered.

"Okays den," Skwisgaar said, "Let's do dis thens."

The four of them walked toward the shipyard. Olof and Gustaf leading the way, and Skwisgaar following, not far behind, with Toki gripping his hand. Toki was glad to be with Olof, Gustaf, and Skwisgaar; they had been very kind to him. Perhaps they would teach him how to play the guitar... He was so tired. Just one more big thing, sneaking onto the ship, and then his life would be perfect...

xxxxxx

I don't know about you guys, but I generally don't like it when writers invent new characters who slowly become the main focus of the story that is about an already existing book/show/movie, etc... I've created many new characters, as you should have noticed if you've been reading, but I will try not to overshadow the characters for whom you are reading this... Skwisgaar, and Toki. :) (and the other members of Dethklok later... if I ever get that far) So, not to worry...

And... again... Review this story... Unless you prefer care bears over metalocalypse... Which, I suppose, might be the case... since this story isn't very brutal right now... Kind of care bears-ish... Oh, no... I guess... review it even if you do like Care Bears. I'll probably get better reviews from Care Bear fans than Metalocalypse fans, right?