Tucker stared at his two friends, wide-eyed and uncertain about his own safety. Danny glanced at Sam, who was also staring up at Tuck, and sighed quietly.
'Well, it had been a nice moment between me and Sam,' he thought sadly to himself, before adding viciously, '…thanks Tucker!'
Danny quickly swam to the edge of the pool, Sam hitching a ride on his back, and jumped out. Turning, he offered a hand to Sam and pulled her gently out before they both approached Tucker. As soon as he saw Danny advance towards him, he very obviously flinched a couple of inches away.
"Tucker, it's Danny! He's not going to hurt you!" Sam scoffed rolling her eyes.
Tucker blink a few times, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, "…I knew that! Its just…geez, your pretty intimidating dude!"
Danny groaned loudly and also rolled his eyes at him. Really, could he be more of a nerd…actually wait, don't answer that! Tucker hesitantly edged his way towards Danny sideways, taking in the full shape and size of 'Creature-Danny' and causing said halfa to fidget under his intense stare.
"So, how did he get like this?" asked Tucker as he poked Danny's fur covered arm, as if to test whether his coat was real or not.
Sam's face fell slightly, "I'm not sure, and I can't even ask him because he's speaking another language…"
Tucker continually poked Danny while Sam spoke, giving an occasional nod to prove he was listening, until Danny growled and slapped his hand away in annoyance. Tucker jumped away in surprise, yelping and cradling his hand to his chest.
"Dude! Watch those claws!" he shouted angrily as he inspected his hand for damage.
Sam 'tutted' loudly before glaring at her friend, "Tucker, don't be such a baby! They didn't touch you!"
"Yeh, but he could have at least retracted them!" he whined, kissing the top of his hand delicately.
Danny and Sam looked at each other in confusion, and slight revulsion at the scene, before turning back to Tucker who was now shaking his hand in the air, as if to cool it.
"He probably doesn't know how to, if they even retract," defended Sam with a raised eyebrow.
Tucker stared at her for a few seconds, as if she had grown an extra head… an extra blonde head that liked pink teddy bears and rainbows…
"What do you mean?!" he exclaimed with an exasperated face and his finger pointing at her in accusation, "He had them retracted when he was in the water with you!"
Sam and Danny blushed pure scarlet, which was very difficult for someone covered with fur but, somehow, Danny had managed it. To hide his unease, he lifted his paws to inspect his fingertips. Sure enough, he watched as his claws retracted back behind his fur. Interesting! So he was like a kitten in some ways!
Glancing at Sam, he noticed she was glaring at Tucker, which was becoming more and more intense by the minute. Oh boy, did this look familiar…if he knew Sam well, which he did, she would react to Tuckers embarrassing comment with a long string of retorts in an angry fit of rage, using any opportunity she had to hurt him physically, emotionally, and mentally if she could…
His eyelids drooped slightly, 'Sigh, I love it when she's so passionate…'
And, as if on cue-
"Well, maybe if you weren't prodding him with your finger he would have kept them retracted!" retorted Sam as she poked Tucker in the shoulder.
Tucker winced, holding his shoulder, before smirking at her, "Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm not you!" he implied while moving his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
Sam stopped her attack in complete shock, her face falling into a look of disbelief, confusion and…curiosity?
'Oh, here we go…' groaned Danny mentally; cursing Tucker for letting too much slip, 'Maybe inviting him here wasn't the best idea after all!'
Sam was speechless, for the first time ever (wow, take a photo!), and Danny looked fiercely at Tucker who was grinning in satisfaction with his arms folded. He leaned towards Sam, as if taunting her, waiting for an oh-so-fierce come back that never came. He laughed once in glee and straightened up.
"Checkmate Sammy!" he said triumphantly.
Using Danny's pet name for Sam was the last straw- no one had that right, except Danny! Oh, he was going down!
Danny snarled and jumped forward, knocking Tucker to the ground so his huge form was looming over him. He stared down at him darkly, his teeth fully bared and glistening in the sunlight.
"Look, Tucker! We're just friends! Friends! F.R.I.E.N.D.S! Get that through your thick head!"
Danny lowered his face in front of Tuckers, growling threateningly, and poked him in the head for effect. Tucker panicked at this after feeling the sharp claw dug into his forehead and began to try and scramble out from under him. However, his efforts were futile.
"OK, OK! I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to imply anything, I swear!" Tucker cried as he raised his hands in defense; sweat already dripping from his terrified face.
Danny glared at him and slowly moved away to allow him to get to his feet.
"…Ok, can we try and get Danny back to normal now?!" asked Sam impatiently, albeit more withdrawn than usual.
Tucker jumped to his feet and quickly dusted himself off while shooting Danny a wary look, "S-Sure, I'll see what I can find about 'ghostly transformations' in the Ghost Zone on my PDA."
Tucker proceeded to whip his PDA out of his pocket and began to type furiously at the keys. Danny, meanwhile, glanced timidly at Sam who was staring silently at the ground and rubbing her arms.
'Ooook, she is definitely acting weird! Wait a minute…oh, ok, I'm an idiot!'
It hadn't occurred to Danny, until just now, that Sam was only wearing a small, sleeveless belly top and that jumping into the water with no means to dry yourself was a bad idea. He wrapped an arm around her waist, hoping his fur would keep her warm, and grinned sheepishly in apology. She looked up at him and smiled in gratitude before her attention returned to the ground and the smile faded.
'Great, now Sam feels all awkward around me…I'm gonna kill Tucker!' he thought sadly.
Tucker looked up from his PDA, quickly glanced at the two of them and raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Luckily Sam didn't notice, but Danny did. He frowned, silently baring his teeth at Tucker, who immediately went back to his searching for fear Danny would hurt him. A few moments later, Tucker smiled in triumph.
"I think I found something!" he said in a singsong voice.
Sam quickly made her way over to Tucker to inspect what he found while Danny stood where he was and watched them both. He missed Sam's warmth beside him and immediately, he blamed Tucker. It's not like he had found what he was looking for, probably just some African Voodoo myth thing…or so he thought.
Tucker pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose then spoke, "Apparently, there's like a cult in the ghost zone that lone ghosts can join and when you do, the leaders transform you into the animal that you see yourself as-"
Danny jerked up his head and ran to see what site Tucker was on. No way could he have gotten lucky enough to find it first time.
"Have they got a name?" asked Sam.
"Let me see…yeh, they call themselves…Cl…Clay-o-ch-la, oh forget it just look! Does that name ring a bell to you Danny?"
'Claochladáin'
Yes, that name; he recognized it. Leon had mentioned it the night before! Unbelievable- Tucker had actually found it!
"Do you recognize the name?" repeated Tucker when he didn't receive any form of reaction, other than a wide-eyed stare.
Danny nodded his head vigorously and pointed at his PDA.
"Tucker, what else does it say about them? Does it say how to switch people back into a human?" inquired Sam.
"It doesn't say anything about turning humans into animals…but…it says that if the ghosts are unhappy with their appearance they have to consult…'Leon'…must be the leader or something…"
Leon. Danny clenched his fists as a growl echoed from his throat angrily, his horns beginning to slowly sprout on his back. Suddenly, a wave of emotion hit him like a fierce wind. He had never felt this way before. It felt like someone had lit him on fire- all he felt was rage and heat; he could practically see the flames in his vision. He needed to kick the living daylights out of something, anything, just to get rid of this energy. It was overpowering him...
Leon…he needed to be punished…h-he…he needed to die…
Sorry it took so long for me to upload this chapter- I totally forgot about the story, believe it or not! Also, I know not a lot went on, except at the end, but it was kinda a 'Welcome into the story' introduction for Tucker! Sorry! Anyway, tell me what you thought.