My Dearest Owner
Present tense
Epilogue:
About a month later...
Pale, cool sunlight flows into the igloo, spilling unto the floor to pool there in a patch where they have arrived at their long journey's end. Here, inside this particular igloo, the atmosphere is restful and quiet. The only sound that could be heard is a small scratching sound from within a puffle's 'house'. Moments later, a brown puffle emerges from its hiding place and hops towards the precious square of sunlight. It stops by a artsy-looking orange and yellow shelf and looks up with admiration.
Small paintings and drawings, all carefully framed, crowded up every inch of availible surface. Right in the middle of this, casting out a lively glow of light, was a custom made lamp mounted on a metal stand, its lamp shade in the shape of a smiling yellow puffle. A square slab of ice that originally belonged to the floor sat beside the lamp, displaying those mispelled yet beautiful words written on it for all visitors to see.
The name engraved on the bottom of the shelf read Arty O' Del. This was a memorial to a remarkable puffle who now rests in a place that those who knew him couldn't reach, couldn't find.
Chaddy sighs and adjusts his goggles. Perhaps he would never know the story of this puffle, because those who were part of it never really thought that he would want to hear it too. Or perhaps the memory was still too fresh and too sorrowful for them to breathe out yet. A rustling sound distracts the brown puffle from his un-mathematical thinking. In the second room of the split igloo, a black storm cloud rested on the floor. Or rather, an unusually dark black puffle wearing stylish black and chrome glasses tried reading a book. The puffle seems oblivious to the stir above its head. Chaddy gapes at the books zooming around in the air like half-crazed seagulls.
Scythe! Chaddy squeaks in alarm.
The elite puffle looks up grumpily.
What?
At the same moment, the books halt their erratic fluttering and hover uncertainly near the domed ceiling.
The books! What if SugarAnne sees!
Practice is essential for increasing power...
Scythe grumbles as he flips a page over and squints at the words, still trying to get used to the glasses Chaddy made for his far-sightedness. The books floats towards the bookshelf slowly.
It's six minutes past our feeding time; she is late tod-
The door bursts open and the forementioned penguin rockets into the igloo, gushing.
"I'm sorry that I'm late! I tried to hurry but this penguin kept pestering me and stalking me and he yelled really weird stuff at me at the top of his voice- oh, what's wrong?"
She eyes the two puffles with curiousity. Chaddy looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown while Scythe was as impassive as ever. What she didn't see was the bookshelf rocking dangerously on its base from the impact of a dozen or so books slamming back into their places just a moment ago. "Well, anyway, you'll get to eat your cookies after your bath."
After Chaddy was clean and dry, SugarAnne turns to Scythe who was sitting very quietly in his bath water.
"Hop on out, boy," she holds out his fluffy gray towel and Scythe obeys soundlessly and the penguin dried the puffle's thick fur with care. "Hey, Scythe, how about a mission after I finish playing Find Four with JaQ later?" The elite grunted skeptically. "Golly, I think I'm going to miss you after I retire tomorrow and hand you back to Agent PH..." She brushes his hair as she talks. "But I guess you won't miss me, since you guard your heart so tightly."
So it's like this...
SugarAnne and JaQ doesn't know where Arty 'rests', since the Pet Shop penguins took him away. (They like to think that he lies in a peaceful spot of the forest, where wild puffles squeak and hop...)
And as for things between SugarAnne and JaQ, they are back on square one in their friendship, but SugarAnne knows it's better than Game Over, so she's making the best out of this rare second chance. (She gave up her proud purple colour for a happy yellow to remind herself of this.) Chaddy the new puffle lives with Sugar happily enough, while JaQ seems to have started an obsession for feeding fishes, and his igloo feels more like an aquarium than a home. And Scythe with his cool glasses? Well, you're going to follow him into the upcoming CP fanfic:
*dum dum dum DUNNN!*
Scythe of the Loveless
REVIEW!
JaQ9: do you read the name as Ja-CK nine or Ja-CUE nine?