-1Chapter 20
Falkor did accept the truth, however he couldn't deal with it. Knowing that Melony was gone for good didn't work so well with Falkor's mind. The poor fudgehog had never felt this way about anyone before, or at least as far as he could remember. There were piñatas that he liked, but not loved nor cared about deeply. Melony was the first to mean so much to Falkor, and she was dead now.
The fudgehog had no one to blame but himself. he could have gotten Melony out of there if he was forewarned about what was going to happen. Falkor sighed before falling back down in bed, maybe adventuring into his dreams could help him out of his sorrow.
And the dreams came fast as well for the sorrowful fudgehog. Falkor was now in his teen years, by this time his family had moved to a different part of Piñata Island far away from Pandora and Jorelo. Most of Falkor's siblings had grown up and moved out to chase their own dreams.
Still having a knack for causing trouble at this point, his father and his relationship had been broken down along the way. The rebellious fudgehog started giving his brothers and sisters the cold shoulder, and being caged up inside his home from so much grounding didn't make things any better. Being a bird in a cage, it was not the ideal fate Falkor wanted.
However there was someone he was happy to see now and then in his life, a pretztail to be exact. This certain pretztail was somewhat like Melony, except more familiar with modern technology. Falkor wasn't obsessed over her, but he was mildly fond of her. They were the best of friends, until one day had broke them apart for good.
It was when Falkor snuck out of the house during the dark hours of the night. He had done this often to a point where it was almost daily. Plus curfew was a strict thing around most of the busy towns and cities of Piñata Island. Falkor knew he had to be careful of the adults and authority around him at this time.
The young fudgehog's friend didn't live that far anyways, just a few blocks away from his house. Falkor had become used to the route he would take there during this time of the night, it was as familiar as the back of his paw. It didn't take him long either, he was already at the back of her house and she was already expecting him too. Her room was on the first floor of the two story house. Wasting no more of his time, Falkor had ran up to her window.
"Hilary!" He nearly shouted out his whisper, all with a smile on his face. And Hilary couldn't help but giggle as she watched the eager fudgehog charge towards her window, though when Falkor got face to face with her, it had abruptly been dropped.
"Falkor…" She said softly, "I…" The uneasy pretztail's voice trailed off as she couldn't give him eye contact for what she was about to say. Pangs of guilt had built up in Hilary's chest. Falkor, knowing something was up, couldn't help to ask what was making Hilary so upset.
"What's the matter Hilary?" He asked as a tear trailed down her cheek, Falkor wanted to fix the problem. Whatever the problem may be, even if it meant eliminating her parents from the picture, anything for Hilary.
"It's… I…" She had trouble wording what she needed to say, though she found her self blurting it to him out of the blue, "I'm moving away tomorrow!" She started to cry hysterically.
"Why?" Falkor asked her, she had only shaken her head and wiped her tears only to let them start their trail all over again.
"Because of you Falkor, my parents think you're a bad influence on me," she said miserably between the sobs and tears. Falkor's breath was taken away in that moment, his best friend in the whole world was moving, there had to be something he could do to stop her, anything!
"No, you can't go! I'll… I'll follow you!" The dismayed fudgehog said, "tell me! Where are you going? You have to tell me!" Falkor wished it was all a dream, which this ironically was. Unfortunately it was a dream of his past, and he was reliving it. Sadly the dream didn't change as Hilary shook her head again.
"I promised my parents I wouldn't tell," Hilary sobbed. She was a very obedient child, it was no wonder that her parents disapproved of Falkor as he was nearly the opposite.
"Who do you care about more? Me? Or your parents?" Falkor had said bitterly, sending her on a guilt trip, though it was only out of disbelief.
Hilary didn't want to deal with the pain that was tearing her apart anymore, she slammed her window shut and climbed into bed. Hilary forced herself forget about Falkor, she made herself believe her own lies for the following days, Falkor never existed to her anymore.
"Hilary…" Falkor whined dejectedly at the glass and curtaining that had separated them.
With nothing else to do, Falkor had gone back home to bask in his sorrow. Falkor had no idea that Hilary had sent a letter to him days ago about the location of her new home. Unfortunately for both of them, it had gotten lost in the mail.
Though luck was on Falkor's side, the letter did reach him eventually, however it was already too late for two reasons. One of them being that Falkor was in Piñata Resistance at the time. The other reason being the horrible truth that Falkor had forgotten about Hilary as well. The memory left as Falkor finally matured, however his personality was slightly stunted, he was more of a pain in the ass than the trouble to society he once was.
Priscilla had woken Falkor up from his dream a few minutes after Hilary had pushed him out of her life.
"It's time to get up Falkor!" Priscilla said aloud, knowing telepathy talk wouldn't wake the fudgehog, not to mention the memories of Pandora started to eat away Priscilla's own habits. Falkor had let out a groan influenced yawn while working himself to the edge of the bed.
"…What is it this time?" Falkor didn't really take notice that Priscilla was talking vocally, or care for that matter, he was still bent over dwelling on his recent dream.
"We're going back to Piñata Island, well, you two are, this'll be my first time there to be honest," she giggled after that being said, Falkor didn't join in, but that didn't mean he didn't reply.
"Back? Why? What happened?" He was filled with perplexity again. Priscilla had to clear her throat before speaking as it had been a long while since she had last used it often to talk.
"Malak has restored life on Piñata Island and has taken refuge on it," she informed him. Falkor didn't really have a clue who Malak really was, though Prisca mentioned him a few times in the videos.
"Malak…? You mean that other living weapon Prisca was going on about" Falkor wondered as Prisca nodded.
"I was out looking around the remains of the house, I've found traces of both Pandora and Malak, Malak was moving, but I'm not sure about Pandora," she took in a deep breath in before going on, "I've repaired most of the mechanisms there as best as I could and tracked them down, Malak had vanished into thin air… Though what he doesn't know is that this machine also doubles as a tracking device!" She snickered a little before going on, "I have him generally pinpointed on Piñata Island," she had continued breathing after she had finished.
"What about Melony?" Falkor's hope returned, only to be crushed as Priscilla shook her head, "I'm sorry, I didn't see any sign of her anywhere." Discouraged, Falkor sighed and looked down at the snow floor below him. Priscilla had offered him her advice. "Maybe if we go back to the house, you can try to recreate Melony again? Will that help?" She did have a point, since that's how Melony was created in the first place, but Falkor had refused to believe she was just created from that evil contraption, there had to be a more valid reason than that.
"No… I can't just recreate her, that's sickening and selfish," Falkor also had a point, but Priscilla was more concerned about Falkor's mood than his actions.
"…Well, I'm sorry I can't really help you then," she sighed, feeling his pain, "anyways, I have the spacecraft already started up, you do what you need to do to get ready and meet me outside, got that?" Falkor nodded in acknowledgment.
Priscilla left the room as Falkor took care of his daily needs. Falkor wondered where she got the spacecraft from, then thought of the evil contraption came to mind as the culprit, but why a spacecraft, isn't this still Earth? The conflicted fudgehog pushed away the thought as he poured himself some milk in the kitchen.
"Jorelo?" Priscilla called out while peeping through his door, "…Are you awake yet?" He replied with his obnoxious snoring. Hearing that he was still asleep, Priscilla had snuck closer to him and started tickling the sleeping fudgehog to wake him. "Wake up Jorelo! I said wake up!" The pretztail said through her giggling attack. Jorelo was given one rude awakening that's for sure.
"Ack! Stop!" He cried while joining in Priscilla's laughter, which was not by his own will.
"Oh fine…" Priscilla faked a groan as she gave Jorelo his space. "How did'ya sleep?" She asked him.
"…Felt like I was hit by a truck," Jorelo winced as he stood up and attempted to keep himself balanced.
"Here," Priscilla interjected, taking him by the waist with one arm, "you can use me to lean on if you feel dizzy," the pretztail tried not to blush, but the memories of Pandora had more control over Priscilla than she had of herself. Besides, Jorelo didn't mind, he really needed a walking stick anyways, maybe even a walker, but Priscilla had worked out just fine.
"Thanks," Jorelo smiled gratefully while Priscilla led him out of the room, "…So what's happening today?" Jorelo asked her as he felt the urge to do something new this day.
"We're going on a trip," she responded, wondering if Jorelo would ask where to.
"A trip?" he questioned back to her almost losing his balance from the excitement of the news, "where?"
Falkor watched them enter the living room and decided to spoil it to Jorelo instead of letting Priscilla inform him, "…Piñata Island," Jorelo turned his attention to Falkor.
"…'Morning Falkor," Jorelo happily greeted him. Falkor was in the middle of drinking some milk when Jorelo got his attention, so all the white fudgehog could do was wave back to his friend. Priscilla returned to talking to Jorelo.
"So what do you think about that?" the pretztail asked him as she let him sit down on the couch, "going back to the island I mean," she corrected herself.
"But isn't their nothing left?" Jorelo replied, "…Remember the bombings? You were there Priscilla!"
Hearing Jorelo's nonsense, Falkor could help but cough up his milk before speaking, "What! I don't remember her bein-" Priscilla had suddenly cut him off.
"Falkor!" She barked and winked blankly at him, Falkor didn't know what she meant. His intelligence couldn't understand what Priscilla was trying to get through to him. Seeing the fudgehog's confusion, Priscilla put a finger to her lips and shushed at Falkor. He rolled his eyes in a "whatever-you-say" manner and had walked off to the bathroom to ready himself for the upcoming flight.
"Well," Priscilla faced Jorelo again, "Malak had restored life back to Piñata Island, and seeing as he's got an unpredictable nature, we can't let this go unnoticed," Mentioning that Malak had done something as powerful as that had got Jorelo's mind thinking.
"Malak… Restored Piñata Island? You… Serious?" Jorelo questioned her, she nodded and sent away his doubt. "It's a long story, but we need to hurry, Malak isn't wasting any time. I just hope you'll be ready once we find him," the pretztail warned him.
"Ready? How?" Jorelo was confused. Hearing his hesitation, Priscilla had thought she had taken too much from Jorelo's memory banks. That, or Jorelo was suffering from some sort of amnesia. Worrying over Jorelo's state of mental being, Priscilla bit firmly on her lower lip nervously, hoping she didn't cause any harmful, permanent damage to him.
"Like Pa-" Priscilla suddenly remembered, Pandora was nothing to Jorelo anymore. She faked a cough in an attempt to cover her mistake, "like your inner powers, you know?" Jorelo had gawked at her like he did at his math teacher when the teacher had done equations on the board that he didn't get.
"…Inner.. Powers?" Jorelo recited, "what powers?" Priscilla's face fell into her paws as she sighed.
"I guess you really don't know," Priscilla mumbled, wondering if she should put back the memories she had once taken, but that would make Jorelo's body even more frail than it was now. All she could do was hope for the best and see the fudgehog through this dilemma.
"What?" Jorelo said wanting to know more, "tell me!" Priscilla just shook her head.
"You were created for war Jorelo, you should know that," she told him, but the dense fudgehog didn't really quite get it.
"War? I'm certain I wasn't raised for that purpose," Jorelo chuckled lightly as Priscilla realized she did end up taking too much of his memories.