Time's Reflection
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
I won't give up, shut up, let up or slow up. ~ Robert Moorehead
Plums
"Plum, Danny, Plum!" his little friend chittered at him, pointing his eye stalks at one of the booths. It held small cages and in it were other creatures like Plum, of all sizes and crazy colors.
"And here I thought the little critter was unique," Ember teased, as she sidled up to the group, causing them to jump. "Relax," she said, pulling her parka's hood over her eyes. "It's freezing out here. Let's get going."
"It's warm to me," Danny said, shrugging.
"You have an ice core," she retorted, a smile on her lips.
"Point," Sam intervened before Danny could say anything else. "Let's go check out the booth, Danny."
"Okay," he agreed, shrugging his shoulders as Plum zipped past him chittering a hundred miles an hour. "Plum, wait for me!"
The game booth the caged porcupine fruits were in was set up to mimic the win-a-goldfish prizes, where you tossed golf balls into little bowls of colored water, except there were no little bowls of colored water. "So how do we win one?" Dash asked the vendor.
"Hold on to this wand here," he said. The vendor, a dwarf-sized green-skinned ghost with black hair and a goatee. He was dressed like a strong-man and smelled of peppermint. His pupiless red eyes twinkled merrily. "Moaers are very rare, very loyal to their owners, as our young prince very well knows."
"Plum?" Plum turned to Danny with a questioning look in his eyes.
"He means you're the best friend I've got," Danny translated.
"Plum!"
The vendor wrapped Dash's beefy hands around an iron wand, his hair standing on end from the electric current flowing through the copper core. He unlatched one of the cages and five of the plumlike creatures flew out and toward him. A yellow one with black spikes and beady black eyes rammed him in the chest making little buzzing noises. The vendor smoothly caught the wand as it flew out of Dash's hand and offered it to Ember with one fluid motion. "Princess next?"
"Sure," she giggled. "Hey, this tickles."
Danny rolled his eyes. Ember was a fire spirit, of course electricity would tickle her. "I think that one likes you," he said, pointing to a shy blue one with light emerald spikes and emerald eyes. She looks like you too."
"How can you tell it's a she?" Tucker asked from behind him.
"From the way Plum is humming," Danny answered. "He does only around pretty girls."
Ember and her new pet both blushed slightly purple as the little creature flew into one gloved hand. She passed the wand to the vendor, who pressed it into the hands of Paulina.
"Eek!" she cried, her hair giving the impression of a Bride of Frankenstein hairstyle. "My hair!"
"Eek!" an ivory clored plum with plum-colored eyes and pale rose-colored spikes mimicked, floating over to her. She sniffed Paulina's hair and snuggled into the hood on her jacket.
"Seems she likes you," Dash observed, tossing his own buzzing pet into the air.
"Each of these little ones chooses his owner based on the unique energy aura that each of you gives off," the vendor explained, giving the rod to Plasmius who declined the offer.
Sam accepted it next and gasped slightly at the electric current. "Ember's right, that does tickle," she said. The amber-eyed black plum chittered back at her; his ebony spikes looked wicked sharp to Danny, who made a mental note not to mess with her.
The vendor put away the wand and the last of Plum's brethren flew back into its cage. Tucker was a bit put out that he had been skipped.
"You do not have the right aura for one of my moaers, boy," the vendor answered when Tucker demanded he be allowed to try. "You have a strength your friends lack. When they are strong as you are, my little friends will find their way home."
"Plum leave Danny one day?"
The vendor was startled by the question from Plum. "This one has abided with you a long time, Prince Phantom."
"Since the last fair," Youngblood piped up.
"Ah, the little thief returns," the vendor mused.
"I didn't steal him; he followed me back to the warehouse," Youngblood protested. "Honestly, I swear!"
"Plum, Danny," Plum added.
"I see," the vendor said, stroking his goatee, "I cannot undo the binding so you have been blessed, young thief and my young prince. Now away with you and enjoy the Winter Carnival."
Plasmius guided the fair-goers through the crowds to various food vendors and after making their various selections, the group sat down under an ice-laden picnic tabled swatched in pale blue light from the lanterns above them.
"This place is so cool!" Tucker exclaimed, "but I'm still upset I couldn't get one of those moaers."
"You'll get over it, Tucker," Sam said, feeding a blue organic potatoe ring to her new pet. "We really need to give them names."
"Plum!" Plum exclaimed, gold spikes glowing slightly.
"Down, Plum," Danny said, snatching him out of the air and handing him another fairy pancake.
"Panties yummy," Plum exclaimed, diving for it as Danny tossed it into the air.
"Jazz hasn't quite succeeded, I see," Ember mused, petting her own moaer. "I think I'll name you 'Wista' since you're so shy, little one."
"Wista," Wista purred. "Like Wista, like Mbrrr."
"She picks up fast," Dash noted, eyeing his own little pet. "Hey, Buzzer, go long!" The bumblebee-colored moaer shot off as Dash threw a piece of corn dog in an arc over his head.
"He's fast," Sam laughed. "So what shall I call you? Ebony or Eyola?
"Eyola?" Danny asked, raising one eyebrow.
"From the second half of The Neverending Story," Ember answered for Sam, who looked like a fish for a moment. "She lived in the House of Change and was instrumental in saving Bastian and putting him onto the path home."
"Oh," Danny muttered, resolving to read more. Sam and Ember read so many books that the conversations were over his head most of the time.
"Plum," Plum said, swallowing the last of the pancake. "Not like eater one."
"Either one," Danny corrected. "Well, try another one, Sam."
"Darkling," Sam suggested, the little moaer in her lap brightened at that. "Okay, Darkling, you shall be then. Your turn, Paulina."
"Aphrodite," she announced, stroking her little moaer. "She was the Greek goddess of love and beauty and I am the most beautiful and richest girl in school."
"Not by a long shot," Sam growled under her breath. Darkling looked at her curiously.
"Plum," Plum told him, floating over to him. "Plum, plum, plum."
"Dar," Darkling answered. "Lidar, Plum."
"Plum," Plum agreed.
"You followed that?" Sam asked Danny.
"Me no speak Plumese," he said, holding up both hands in surrender. "They remind me of Pokemon somewhat."
"At least I can speak plain English," the parrot cut in, acid in his tone.
"We know," Youngblood told him. "So what's next?"
"To the Big Top," Danny said, jumping to his feet. "Let's go see the human Ringmaster Lydia found."
"One track mind," Sam laughed.
"Most boys are," Ember agreed.
"Hey!" the rest of the boys shouted at her.
"I rest my case," Ember murmured to Sam as the boys gave chase to the girls.
"Slow down!" Vlad yelled, as the group of took off pellmell for the circus tent at the center of the fair. "Why the popsicles did I ever agree to watch these hooligans?"