-1Chapter 11
And as expected, Jorelo had passed out again. he woke up back in his own bed, reliving the past in his dreams. The sleepy fudgehog could feel the snoozing blue pretztail snuggled up against his back. Jorelo wanted to get up and get something to eat, he was pretty hungry after recovering from his recent accident and his stomach wasn't afraid to show it either. The careful fudgehog pried Pandora slowly off of his back and slipped out of the room. Everything seemed quiet as Jorelo headed to raid the fridge. That is until his mother's voice stopped him.
"Looks like somebody's feeling better!" His foster mother exclaimed with a smile as he hastily turned around and saw her right in front of him. "You have a visitor y'know," she stepped aside so Jorelo could see his guest all the way in the living room, it was Malak.
The half grinning mallowolf was sitting relaxed on the couch, waving to Jorelo once the fudgehog took notice. The uneasy fudgehog returned the wave awkwardly.
Jorelo did see Malak at school, but what in the hell was he doing here? The loner Mallowolf never talked to him at school, so what reason would he be here for? The hesitant fudgehog just stood there, not knowing what action to take to deal with this surprise.
His mother pushed him forward a bit, "well aren't you gonna play with him…. Or are you just gonna leave him sitting there bored out of his mind? He came here to spend time with you and Pandora," Jorelo didn't reply. But he obeyed his mother's orders as he limped over into the living room and cautiously sitting next to Malak, not offering any eye contact until the last second.
"H-hello," Jorelo quietly greeted his guest as he was a bit shy around the mallowolf.
"Hey! Feeling any better?" Malak asked him with artificial concern as the fudgehog thought Malak was a psychic for asking. But then fast thinking helped him realize he still had the bandages constricted around his head.
"…Yeah," Jorelo replied, unaware by the fact that Malak was the one who carried him home. However, the fudgehog noticed that the mallowolf's right eye was swollen and bruised noticeably. Being polite, Jorelo didn't mention it, but his face sure did ask about it.
"…I ran into a pole," Malak lied, "don't worry," Jorelo believed him. Well it wasn't as bad a Jorelo's condition, but you could call it payback for what Malak had done to create this whole catastrophe.
"'Kay…" Jorelo nodded, worrying about the mallowolf's injury no longer as he attempted to conjure up another question, "Um… Why'd ya wanna see me and Pandora for?" Jorelo's query had hit Malak out of nowhere. The mallowolf knew why, he was here more for Pandora's sake than Jorelo's, but he couldn't let Jorelo know that.
"Jorelo…" A young voice called from the hallway, "Pandora," The thought ran through both boys' minds. "Are you up?"
"Yes, I'm in the living room, somebody's here to see us," he answered Pandora's call as she made it out of the hallway, still sleepy-eyed. Looking towards Jorelo's general direction. she saw more of Malak than Jorelo, and just looking at Malak made her smile.
"Malak!" She exclaimed as she ran to give the young mallowolf a bear hug. Malak caught her in her arms, almost dropping her. Hey, don't I get a good morning hug? Jorelo's jealousy was roused as he tried to push it away, "You came back!" Pandora cheered.
"Back…? He was here before?" Jorelo couldn't stop his tangled mind from trying to figure this out, "I missed you," Pandora admitted as Malak chucked and released the pretztail from his grasp. Pandora sat on the other side of Malak without a second thought. Unfortunately, the intensity of Jorelo's headache worsened from all of the recent events.
The conflicted fudgehog ran to the kitchen to see if his mom, or himself if he had to, could whip up an ice bag. Too bad all of the horrid thoughts had consumed him by then as he had passed out and fell to the ground.
"Jorelo!" Pandora called for him as he started to hallucinate for a moment. "Jorelo… Wake up!" He picked up her voice again as it began to mature into an older version of itself. The resistant fudgehog fought against the dream and awoke in a flash.
"…What?" He replied in a sleepy shock, finding himself in a grassy field as endless as the ocean. It had been awhile since he had laid outside like this. The grass beneath him felt so comfortable as it supported all the curves of his body. The yawning fudgehog glanced up to find Pandora and a partly cloudy day hanging above him.
"You should get inside, it's going to be snowing soon!" Pandora exclaimed as she hadn't seen snow in ages, plus she didn't want Jorelo to freeze over in it.
"S-snow?" He stuttered as Pandora helped pull the fudgehog to his feet. Jorelo scanned the area over from where he stood. "Just a wood house with a pretty tall maple tree growing next to it… H ow could it snow in a place like this?" He started rambling in his head again, luckily it didn't cause any pain this time.
The eager pretztail led him into the house, she even held the door open for him once they got there. Once Jorelo saw the house up close, he made it out to be more of a log cabin. Was this Prisca's vacation lodge or something? Jorelo questioned it as he stepped inside. The interior of the house was more stunning that the outside, everything was so technological looking, making the exterior extremely unfitting of the place.
The observant fudgehog spotted Falkor snacking on some popcorn as he was seated in front of a large control panel outfitted out with a mass of controls and diverse screens.
"…What? It's been awhile since I've eaten," Falkor shrugged at Jorelo and laughed nervously, picking up the bowl full of popcorn and pushed it towards Jorelo's direction, spilling a few pieces in the process as he offered his friend a handful.
"No thanks," Jorelo waved the popcorn away, feeling like he would need something more filling to feed his stomach with. Falkor retracted the bowl and took another handful to shove in his mouth.
"Anything you do want?" Falkor asked between munches.
"I guess an apple'll do for now," Jorelo wasn't picky, but he was hungry. The white fudgehog turned around and tapped some random buttons and threw a few switches on the controls in front of him. And in mere moments a red apple soon materialized in Jorelo's paw with no effort at all.
"Whoa!" Jorelo was enthralled almost to a point of being eccentric about it. The hesitant fudgehog held the apple up to his sight and tilted his head wondering if the newly created object was even safe to eat it.
"Go ahead, it's just an apple," Falkor smirked, expecting Jorelo to toss it in a waste bin, but the unpredictable fudgehog bit into it instead.
"…Mmm, not bad," Jorelo commented after he swallowed as Falkor turned around and started typing on the control panel once again.
"Pandora said she wanted snow, and now that you're inside… Might as well get to it…" Falkor's voice trailed off as he threw a random switch.
"Falkor," Jorelo began, "how long did it take you to learn to use this machine?" Jorelo was intrigued with how a machine like this can make anything appear from nothing.
"Prisca's taught me," he replied, rubbing his head, indicating the recent shock therapy that was giving to him, "…The hard way."
"I can imagine," Jorelo rolled his eyes while taking another bite out of the apple.
"Anyways, Pandora wanted snow," Falkor returned to clattering away on the controls.
What was this new world Jorelo was in? Where a wish could be made true with the throwing of a switch. Where a machine pumped out everything from small objects to creating and changing the weather, was the dark fudgehog dreaming again?
The machine started to hum as Jorelo's ears picked up a toilet flush in the back of the house, a door slamming in the same area soon after.
"Falkor!" Pandora yelled while she ran towards the pair of fudgehogs. Falkor turned around and saw the blue pretztail standing in front of them with a strand of toilet tissue trailing from her right foot, "I wish you would have waited 'till I was ready!" Falkor ignored the statement and snickered at the tissue stuck to her foot.
"Pandora…" Falkor said between giggles as he pointed at her foot, Pandora examined at the area Falkor pointed out.
"Opps… Heh heh…" The embarrassed pretztail murmured as she peeled it off hastily while Falkor twisted in his seat and started typing on the control panel. After he was satisfied with the code, the white fudgehog threw the switch once again. Pandora gazed at Falkor's effort, wondering what he was doing now.
"Still there," Falkor turned back as he began laughing, pointing at the pretztail's foot.
"Falkor!" Pandora growled as she ripped the cloned tissue off and stomped her way towards him, Falkor abruptly stopped his joyous chuckling once Pandora shoved said tissue down his throat. Jorelo winced at the sight, being thankful that he didn't piss her off. "You just never learn Falkor," Pandora mumbled as she took Jorelo by the arm and dragged him outside.
Coughing and retching, Falkor grabbed a nearby waste bin and hacked up the moistened, balled up paper
It had been years since Jorelo and Pandora saw snow. The dark fudgehog didn't mind it but Pandora had enjoyed playing in the snow whenever it came. The sparkling snow fell about all around them and luckily not one speck had to be shoveled.
Pandora's cell phone rang and vibrated from her belt, the pretztail took it out of it's small holder and answered it, finding Falkor on the other line.
"Remember, don't stay out there too long, Prisca wants to discuss some things with you after you're done playing with your boyfriend," Falkor teased her.
"Hey!" The blushing pretztail giggled, hoping Jorelo couldn't hear Falkor's voice through the phone, "he still doesn't think the time is right for that," her words enticed Jorelo to peek over at the conversation.
"Who doesn't know what?" The curious fudgehog asked. Pandora jumped from the unexpected surprise and hung up the phone before Falkor could utter another word.
"Oh nothing!" She said nervously with a smile as Jorelo closed his eyes briefly and shook his head.
"Whatever you say, Pandora," The fudgehog said as he took a step from the stair and into the snow. It felt icy to the touch, but that didn't deter Jorelo on bit as he put his other foot into the snow. "Burrr!" Jorelo crossed his arms and shivered, believing the snow became colder in just a few moments. However a falling pile of snow unexpectedly dropped on his head, shuffling up his thoughts about the cold. "Ahh!" Pandora only giggled at the poor fudgehog's reaction. Freezing more than ever now, Jorelo shook the snow off and glared at her, as he caught her red handed wiping all the snow off of her paws.
"I couldn't help it!" Pandora defended herself while laughing her tail off. Feeling vengeful, Jorelo gathered up some snow underneath him and chucked it at Pandora's muzzle, that got her quiet, "Jorelo!" She shouted at him, but was only to be silenced with another snowball to the muzzle. The snow was now at the least a foot tall now, Pandora had gotten the clever idea to tackle Jorelo into the snow. However they ended up getting buried within the stuff.
Many hours had past. Each one making Falkor more anxious of his friends' return. Prisca was still busy with her trivial affairs and even if she wasn't, the white fudgehog would be too frightened to say anything to her.
The persistent fudgehog had also called Pandora's cell, and even Jorelo's countless times. Sadly, both of them didn't answer. By the first hour, Falkor had input the commands in the machine to stop the snow, but not to melt it away. Filled with suggestive thoughts, Falkor believed Jorelo and Pandora were probably making out in an igloo they built together, but the idea began to fade away by the time the second hour came along. It was then Falkor started calling their phones over and over, unfortunately there was no answer.
Now he knew something must be seriously wrong. Falkor started to typing feverishly again, this time with an intention to melt the snow. The fearful fudgehog was about to throw the switch when…