-1Chapter 14
Jorelo calmly woke up back in his bed in Prisca's home. The waking fudghog let out his usual yawn and saw that Pandora was sleeping soundly on the recliner. It puzzled him why she was resting there and not in bed, there was plenty of room. Jorelo shook the thought away and wandered out into the control room, soon gazing out the same window. All the snow had vanished, at least that problem was taken care of.
"It's probably gonna be mushy out there," Jorelo cringed. He hated the moistened grass and dirt unless it was raining, then it was expected.
Without warning, a voice pierced the silence, "Aaaah! Pretztail chick in my bed!" Jorelo knew the voice belonged to Falkor, but what was he getting at when he was saying 'pretztail chick'? The fudgehog turned around and hastily made his way to Falkor's room, Pandora was already out of her seat and met Jorelo halfway.
"Jorelo," Pandora surprised him, "do you think…?" Her voice trailed off as Jorelo shrugged it off and continued into Falkor's room. They both saw Melony stretching out as she woke up and Falkor already out of bed, stunned by his unexpected bed mate.
Pandora scowled at Falkor, "Did you bring her in here?" The irate pretztail began to rip Falkor a new one, "I swear if you did something th-" Falkor cut her off, "I didn't do anything! She was just there when I woke up, it's the truth I swear!" Falkor made himself clear he was telling the truth. Melony yawned and joined in the conversation.
"…What's going on?" Melony asked. Falkor replied with another question, "you tell me! Why were you in my bed?" Melony smiled a bit as a drop of sweat trailed down her forehead.
"Um… About that now…" She giggled nervously, which resulted Pandora's face falling into the palm of her paw.
"You gotta be kidding me…" Pandora mumbled. Jorelo picked her frustration up and decided to razz her a bit.
The dark fudgehog leaned over and whispered in her ear, "is that jealousy I'm sensing?" Jorelo snickered to himself, Pandora faced him and the scowl that left her face soon came back.
"No, but I'm sensing stupidity," Pandora said back to him softly, "…Twelve o' clock." Jorelo knew he could beat that remark so he let the fight die.
"Uh… The temperature was much more warmer in this room!" Melony tried her best to make her excuse believable. Unfortunately, Falkor thought it was a weird reason and decided to keep an eye on her. Jorelo, however, was the only one that had let it slide.
"Okay…" Falkor still felt awkward. Random footfalls could be heard coming up on wooden stairs from below, everyone peeked out of the room and at the end hallway door. The noise was soon broken by the opening of the last door down the hall. A shimmer shape of a golden pretztail clearly depicted that it was Prisca.
Falkor asked her a question, "What do you do down there anyways?"
"That matter does not concern you," Prisca replied harshly, yet calmly as she walked past them all without a glance. Walking in dead silence, Prisca was out the front door to who knows where. Melony scratched her head and turned towards Falkor.
"Who was that?" Melony questioned, never seeing a pretztail glimmer like that before.
"Oh, that's just Prisca, no big deal," Falkor repiled with a shrug of the shoulders, "as long as you're not on her bad side,"
"I hope I don't get on her bad side," Melony replied biting her lip in a nervous fashion.
"Don't worry, I haven't seen her ticked off yet," Falkor chuckled a bit as Pandora sighed annoyingly and joined in the conversation.
"Are you nuts Falkor?" the blue pretztail barked at him, "the war she started is a perfect example of her anger,"
"…I guess you have a point," the fudgehog agreed, "but I really wonder what she was doing down there," Falkor brought the matter up again as the door was carelessly still open. Prisca didn't bother to close and lock it, or did she leave it open for a reason? Falkor moved carefully towards it as if a trap would spring if he got too close. Pandora shook her head in disapproval.
"I don't think going down there is a good idea," Pandora lectured, "we'd be invading her privacy," Falkor stopped at the first step as Melony started to follow the fudgehog without question.
"So?" Falkor countered, "what do I have to lose?" He had a point, everything that he lived for to was now gone. This was like the afterlife to him as it didn't really matter if Prisca killed him or not. Besides, he had gotten the idea she would probably kill him eventually so why let it get him down? The persistent fudgehog continued downstairs anyways and nothing Pandora could say would stop him.
"Falkor!" the blue pretztail shouted as Melony began following him down again, Falkor flipped on the light switch and continued on more. Jorelo patted Pandora on the shoulder briefly.
"I don't know about you, but I want in on this too," Jorelo laughed a bit as he left Pandora's side to follow the pair downstairs.
"But, Jorelo…" Pandora begged, but the dark fudgehog ignored her. Her momentary sadness was soon interrupted by a gasp from the basement.
"Oh my god!" Falkor cried out, "how could someone do such a thing!" Pandora's attention was seized by his dire tone. The suspense ended up forcing the pretztail downstairs.
"What is it?" Pandora shouted down, almost tripping over her own feet. Once the clumsy pretztail was at the bottom step, she saw the dilemma for herself.
The basement was filled with an assortment of different technological items, much like the inside of a spacecraft, but that wasn't what had surprised Pandora. It was the captive female Pretztail trapped in a small room who's only light source came through the bullet proof glass window.
Pandora examined the Pretztail thoroughly. She took notice of the scrawny pretztail's colors, as her patterns were colored white and light blue, however her waist long hair was same shade of dark blue as Pandora's mache. Though what was more clear to see was the injuries and scars covering the poor being from head to toe.
The pretztail Pandora saw made her stomach churn. The disturbed pretztail glanced away from the feeble being and at the label on the door to the her cell. The description embedded read: Priscilla. Pandora had gotten the idea that that must of been her name.
Priscilla was staring at them blankly, yet astonished. The solitary pretztail only saw one piñata in her lifetime, and that was obviously Prisca.
With curiosity invading his thoughts, Falkor knocked lightly on the glass, which caused Priscilla to instantly jump back from the window and hide under her sheets. Seeing that, Pandora grabbed Falkor's paw that was tapping on the glass and slapped him across the face with her free paw. The rash action made Melony feel a bit uncomfortable around Pandora.
"Don't you have any respect?" Pandora scolded Falkor as she let go of his paw. The slap alone really taught Falkor a lesson.
Jorelo decided to speak up this time, "what do you suppose Prisca wants with her?" He mentioned while pointing at Priscilla. The light blue pretztail poked her head out of the sheets, her visitors still stood in the same place, but the group was giving their attention to Jorelo instead of her.
Melony had no idea what was going on, she would have loved to have spoke up, but she was still new to this change of pace to really feel comfortable to. Thought that didn't mean Melony didn't sympathize Priscilla.
Falkor then threw in his two cents, "I don't know, but if I had to guess, maybe Prisca uses her as a punching bag when she's mad," he pondered, knowing this could be another prime example of Prisca's anger.
"Jorelo…" Pandora called softly, "If we're caught down here, we might just end up like Priscilla here," Pandora pointed at the captive pretztail. Jorelo looked at Pandora, puzzled about the word Priscilla.
"Priscilla?" Jorelo questioned the word while tilting his head, "…That her name?" He asked as Pandora shrugged.
"I'm guessing so, it's what I got off the door," she answered while leading his attention towards the door. Falkor had gone over to the door and caught the corner of Pandora's eye, "Falkor, what are you doing?"
"I'm freeing her," he replied, "it's cruel to keep someone locked up, especially with conditions like hers," he ranted, remembering sour prison back at headquarters, his allies and PDF soldiers were locked up, and even though they were cussing at him, it was still wrong to lock up the righteous and innocent, at least in his opinion it was.
"Falkor!" Pandora yelled at him, "as much as I'd want to do that, think about the consequences!" Falkor took his paw away and pouted.
"Fine, but if she dies the next day, her death is your fault," Falkor really wanted to kick the crap out of Pandora. She was too inflexible when it came to rules and orders. The dark blue pretztail ignored Falkor comment as an unknown voice had called her name, it had sound soft and feminine tone to it.
"You guys hear that?" Pandora called out to anyone who was listening. Melony shook her head.
"Hear what?" Melony wondered as Pandora flicked her ears to adjust them.
"I swore I heard someone say my name," Pandora crossed her arms as her eyes surveyed the place.
The voice called out to her again and she glanced towards where she thought it came from. As she did, her eyes met with Priscilla's perfectly. Both of the feeble pretztail's paws were pressed against the glass as her eyes continued to stare straight into Pandora's.
Pandora could see Priscilla's whole life in her eyes as the two were locked in eye contact. Priscilla's cries could only be heard by Pandora, however Priscilla's lips did not move at all.
Pandora found herself moving closer to the glass, as if she were compelled to and put her paws over window so they covered Priscilla's completely. As the distance was closed fully closed, Pandora could see the tears trailing down Priscilla's face.
Just when things were strange enough, both of their markings started to emit a vivid gold as spheres of pure energy formed between their paws. It grew so bright that Jorelo, Falkor, and Melony had to shield their eyes to avoid being blinded by it. However the trance Pandora and Priscilla were in was too strong for them to be fazed.
Jorelo paced himself slowly backwards from the blinding lights, unfortunately he tripped over a random object and fell over on his face. Though his efforts were in vain as the pair's light went out soon after. The dark fudgehog turned himself over to see what happened, the walls that kept Priscilla sealed in had now vanished.
"What the…" Jorelo thought to himself as he finally got to witness these certain powers himself. Ignoring his minor bloody nose, he got up and walked back to Pandora. But before he could say anything, a slow clap broke the silence from the stairs.
"Congratulations," a familiar, hollow voice greeted them. Jorelo spun around to see Prisca on the bottom step of the stairs, "I see you are developing quite well," Prisca praised them. The dark fudgehog wiped his nose off on his arm, leaving a dull red trail of blood. The others already had their eyes on Prisca, well, everybody minus Priscilla, who was already cowering under her sheets.
Falkor questioned her, "so you were watching us the whole time?" Prisca nodded.
"I can see anything happing any time I wish," she answered, "do not think you can hide anything from me," Falkor chuckled nervously. Jorelo snorted some of the blood back and wiped his nose again with the same arm, Pandora took notice of the fudgehog's injury.
"Jorelo…" She said softly, "you're bleeding," the fudgehog didn't really care about his nose right now, he was too worried about what their punishment would be for trespassing,
"So are we in trouble?" Jorelo asked Prisca, completely ignoring Pandora's comment.
"The contrary," she smiled sinisterly as Jorelo was astonished by her decision, "since Pandora has found her inner prowess, she can decide what happens to Priscilla."
Pandora glanced back over at the frightened pretztail, she was still shaking uncontrollably. The Blue pretztail left Jorelo's side and approached Priscilla casually, crouching down to her level.
"Priscilla," Pandora called to her quietly. The frightened pretztail peeked a bit under the sheets and saw Pandora only inches away. Her visitor offered a warm smile and a bright face, the friendly gesture caused Priscilla to loosen up a bit.
Taking trust in Pandora's tone of voice, Priscilla slid the sheets off slowly and embraced the pretztail in a long hug. Pandora rubbed Priscilla's back, murmuring to her softly that it would be okay. Falkor and Melony started up stairs now that the problem was taken care of. However, Jorelo put himself in front of Prisca.
"Why did you have Priscilla locked up?" The fudgehog scowled at the golden pretztail.
"I have my reasons," Prisca replied as she retreated upstairs, leaving Jorelo with the two other pretztails and without a true answer. The dark fudgehog headed back over to Pandora to check up on the situation.
"Think we should lie her down in bed… She looks like she really needs some rest," Jorelo suggested. Pandora nodded and stood up, bringing Priscilla to her feet as she did.
"Yeah, you don't mind if she uses ours? I can sleep on that recliner again, unless you don't want to sleep on the floo-" Pandora started, but Jorelo decided to cut her off.
"Falkor can just whip up a couch or something, don't worry about it," Jorelo assured the pretztail, making her giggle.
"I forgot all about that evil contraption," she recalled as Priscilla started to whine for Pandora's attention. Pandora ruffled up the top of Priscilla's hair and let out a small chuckle. "We better get her upstairs," she took Priscilla by the paw and led her upstairs as Jorelo trailed right behind them, shutting the lights off before leaving.
Pandora tucked Priscilla in bed before joining everyone out in the control room. Jorelo took the time inbetween to clean his nose and arm up.
"Okay, I want answers Prisca!" Pandora demanded, "there's multiple scars on Priscilla! I want to know why!"
Prisca shook her head, "disobedient subjects get punished accordingly," Pandora's rage grew as Falkor took a step back before Pandora exploded onto Prisca.
"Disobedient? What the hell do you expect?" Pandora yelled, "you made her that way!" Prisca didn't budge and her facial expression still remained the same.
Jorelo put a paw over Pandora's shoulder, "Pandora calm down, I'm sure we can solve this reasonably," he offered, but Pandora ripped his paw away.
"How can I calm down? I'm fighting for Priscilla!" Jorelo cut her off.
"Pandora, you've already won, Priscilla's under your care remember?" Pandora sighed, knowing Jorelo was right, why should she argue further? Priscilla was already free from Prisca's wrath. Why did Pandora keep pushing Prisca? Justice for Priscilla? Or hatred of Prisca? Maybe a mixture of both.
Pandora walked back to her room to accompany Priscilla. Jorelo could swear he saw tears trail down the pretztail's face when she left.
"Pandora…" Jorelo couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Falkor was sorry as well, the pretztail was fighting for what Falkor was moments ago. However, Prisca blew it off and went back to typing information on her computer.
Melony had no idea what to think, she hadn't seen a fight like this in, well, all her life. Knowing what was best, she kept out of matters that didn't concern her.
Jorelo had gone to his room to check up on Pandora was okay. The fudgehog put his ear softly against the door, he could hear a gentle snore and a stuffy nose. Hoping Pandora wasn't crying, he opened the door slowly. The creaking of the hinges nearly made Pandora nearly jump out of her mache, she had took a quick glance at Jorelo and instantly dried her tears. Jorelo entered the room to find Pandora leaning against the bed away from the door.
"Pandora…" Jorelo called out, but his voice trailed off.
"… I can't stand her," Pandora blurted out, her throat felt tight trying to force out the words, "how can she get away with this, if only I was stronger…" She tried to hold back the tears, but they broke free of her hold.
Jorelo sat next to Pandora and put an arm around her shoulders for support, "that time will come, I know it will," Jorelo assured her, giving her eye contact. Pandora however, was looking out the window across from her. "Trust me, if you and Priscilla can make walls disappear, I'm sure in no time you can do the same with Prisca," Pandora gave Jorelo an unexpected hug as she broke down, crying into his chest. The noise riled Priscilla's sleep, causing her to twitch slightly in bed. Not taking notice to Priscilla's discomfort, Jorelo embraced Pandora with both arms.
"Jorelo!" Pandora cried, "if I knew how, I would!" Jorelo's mache had sodden from Pandora's tears. Jorelo stroked her back to calm her down.
"It'll come with time," Jorelo said, "just worry about Priscilla right now, she needs you the most," Pandora didn't say anything, but inside she was agreeing with him. She would protect Priscilla with her life, she wouldn't think twice of letting some overpowered, tyrannical pretztail get her paws back on Priscilla.
Back in the control room, Falkor was sipping on a soda while Melony was watching Prisca work at a distance near Falkor, but not close enough so that it'd perk Falkor's awareness. Prisca was keying in codes tirelessly and Falkor was obviously bored. With Jorelo comforting Pandora, Priscilla sleeping, and Prisca hard at work, it only left Melony up for a talk.
"So…" Falkor got her attention, "How long have you been living around here?" He couldn't think of anything else to spark a conversation, though it got Melony thinking.
"I'm pretty sure I've been here all my life…" Melony reply, not feeling so sure of her answer.
"So have you even seen Prisca before," Falkor asked as Prisca overheard the conversation and turned away from her work. She glared right into Melony's eyes, which sent a chill up and down Melony's spine.
"I highly doubt that she has," Prisca concluded and had returned to her business without another word.
"…She's right," Melony agreed with her, "I've never journeyed far from my home anyways… Are you from the piñarctic too?" Melony couldn't help but ask since Falkor's colors made her question it.
"Not really," Falkor chuckled, "I was born and raised in the warmer places of Piñata Island," his comment made Melony tilt her head in perplexity.
"I could have sworn you were from the piñarctic by your colors…I-, I'm sorry for guessing because of your appearance, I'll shut my mouth now," Melony apologized while blushing slightly.
"It's okay, it happens," Falkor lied, no one really asked him of that because of his colorful family of fudgehogs, he was labeled albino here and there, but he never had the red eyes to officially be called that.
Prisca growled softly from the annoyance. Falkor was sure the conversation was getting on the golden pretztail's nerves, "how about we take this conversation outside?" Falkor suggested as he headed for the door.
"Sure, I could use the fresh air and sno-" Her voice trailed off as Falkor opened the door, Melony saw no snow under the outdoor lamp's light, "the snow! Where is it?" She frantically questioned him.
"It melted Melony, don't worr-" she cut Falkor off abruptly.
"My house was made entirely of snow! All my stuff inside is probably ruined or washed away by now!" She began to panic.
Falkor cursed to himself, "there goes my chances…" The Fudgehog could have replaced all her belongings, but who knows what she had in that snow house of hers.
Prisca cleared her throat loudly, Falkor got the message and led a hyperventilating Melony outside. The warm wind blew Melony's tears off her face. They both sat underneath the maple tree as Falkor tried to comfort Melony the best he could.
"Great, two crying girls, I hope Jorelo's doing okay with Pandora…" Falkor thought. The fudgehog broke the ice again with a question.
"So… What did you have in your house, you know… Incase I'd happen to run into them," he asked, however Melony stayed negative, "what's the point? Everything's probably ruined!"
Falkor faced her completely, "can you at least tell me? I'll do my best to repair them for you," he offered, but replicate was the better word for what he was going to do. Melony sighed, knowing Falkor wasn't going to quit until she gave him what he wanted.
"Well… Most of the furniture was snow," she said as Falkor cursed to himself again on the inside, "but there were other things that weren't made of snow, like the books, food…." Melony went into listing them and then took each item into greater detail. Falkor took a mental note of the more important items. If he had forgotten something, she would probably tell him and he could make an excuse to 'go back and get it.'
However, Melony's beauty had distracted Falkor from keeping track of the pretztail's ongoing list. Fortunately, Melony didn't mind him looking at her, because she would get lost in his eyes sometimes. She'd go on rambling about a certain item until she reminded herself what she was really suppose to be doing. It had gone on until Melony's beauty hypnotized Falkor into planting a kiss on her lips.
Melony's eyes widened a bit as she blushed, but she eventually went with the flow. Falkor pulled back after he realized what he was actually doing. Both of their cheeks were deeply flushed as they were both lost for words. Soon enough Falkor knew what to say.
"I'll get your stuff back, and in perfect condition," he paused for just a moment, "count on it," Falkor, cheeks still glowing red, stood up and headed off into the distance, not recognizing that he was even fooling himself. He was so full of it that he didn't even hear Melony thanking him in the distance.
It took him awhile before he slapped himself in the face and realized the trance he put himself in, "What the hell am I doing?" Falkor shouted to himself as he turned tail and ran back to the house. Melony was already inside, probably sleeping, because she wasn't sitting in the same spot anymore.
The fudgehog opened the door to the house slightly and peeked in, only Prisca occupied the control room. Falkor stepped in carfully, making sure he didn't disturb Prisca this time. He immediately sat on the seat in front of the 'matter creator' and began materializing most of what Melony kept going on about. Prisca glared over her shoulder to see what Falkor was up to, it didn't look threatening so she let it slip.
Object after object was materialized until Falkor had ran out of what he forced himself to remember, though he was sure Melony would probably tell him about the things he missed in the morning. Having nothing else to do, Falkor decided to call it a night and had gone off to bed.
However, once Falkor got to his room, he found out that Melony was sleeping in his bed once again, but without a blanket. It was all wrinkled up on the other side where Falkor had slept.
The generous fudgehog figured he could do without the blanket for one night as he slowly covered Melony up with the sheets. The pretztail flinched slightly as she was tucked in. Falkor slipped into the other side of the bed and turned off the small lamp that was dimmed to help Melony to sleep.
Just before drifting off to sleep, Falkor noticed it was pretty quiet in Jorelo's room. He assumed Jorelo must have been successful in calming Pandora down. Falkor finally took rest in knowing there was peace in the house, but he didn't dare think of how long it was going to last as he closed his eyes and drifted off.