Chapter 2, Part 1
Reality

And so they walked on and on, both in a sort of troubled silence. Since Dethklok was huge all around the world, Pickles feared that they might be recognized by some annoying fans, so he insisted that they take a road out of the main city. It was a rugged one of dust and overgrown with grass; it didn't have a steady course. The road would turn and follow the roll of the gentle hills of the Irish countryside. In any other situation, Pickles might have thought it was quite beautiful to look at, but now it just made him feel so hopeless. Ahead of them there were miles of more green hills, making the whole trip seem like a laughable task. How could they get past all of this in three days?

"Wowee." Toki commented as they climbed up a hill. He still clutched his deddy bear tightly in his right hand. "The road goes ons for a long times, huh, Pickle?"

He said thru gritted teeth, "Just shut up, okay?"

"Okays." there was a slight pause before he continued, sounding annoyingly cheery and carefree. "It ams pretty here, huh?"

"Yeah, great." he mumbled in aggravation as he lost his balance and stumbled. Toki caught him and grinned.

"You ams drunk?"

Pickles rolled his eyes. "I wish."

He and the guitarist walked some more, climbing more hills and kicking up more dust, until an old sign appeared to the side of the road that read, Oranmore, Ireland: 5 mi. Toki walked up to the sign and cocked his head to the side, a confused look on his face. He pulled the drummer over and indicated the words.

"What ams they mean?"

He glared up at the street sign and let out a hopeless sigh. "Fuckin' five miles? Are you kidding me? I'm nat gonna walk five Gad damned miles!"

"To what? Ams it a place?"

"No, it ain't, 'cause we're nat going that far. There's no-"

"But we haves to get to Norway," the guitarist said, his pale eyes full of hope. "sos I can gets ho-"

Pickles let out a frustrated groan. "Do you really think that you're gonna wanna stay there, that this is the best plan for you?"

Toki thought for a moment then nodded. "Ja, sures."

The drummer rolled his eyes. "Hell no it's not, it's a horrible idea! What the fuck are you gonna do when you can't call anybody? Ofdensen won't be there to fix your problems and there won't be any Klokateers to make your food—you'll be alone."

"But you ams with me." he said, smiling sweetly. Pickles shook his head.

"I'm not gonna stay around forever, dude. Listen, just think—what about the fan girls? Don't you love letting them screw your brains out?"

Toki shrugged, clearly unmoved by this argument. "I wills finds a real ladies to marry and what lets me fuck her brains out." Pickles thought of how to proceed, but before he could the guitarist added, "And fors the record, I'ms sorry that you gots dragged into this, that it was your turns."

"I...whadda mean, dude?"

"You and Nathans haves that turns thing where—never mind, I'm just sorrys." and he turned and continued to walk down the dirt road, his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans; the drummer raced to catch up to him.

"I would've come anyway."

He laughed. "Nos you wouldn't have. I'm nots stupid."

"But-"

"I knows how it works. We ams just all in the stupid band for the moneys, right? The only reason that anyones cares abouts me is because I'm worth moneys. I get how it ams." he spoke casually, but also with a hint of sadness in his voice. "But for me it was more abouts the music, not the moneys, you know?"

"Sure, I guess." Pickles responded. The truth was that he didn't know; hell, he was just in it for the money. What was Toki talking about?

"Ja," he continued. "the music. I loves it, but the money we could gets anywhere else. There ams billions and billions of moneys in the world, but only one Dethklok."

The drummer swallowed and said quietly, "Ain't really Dethklok without you, dude."

The Norwegian grinned. "Well then that ams what it's about to be." and he continued walking, whistling a joyful tune. Pickles just sighed and followed him, looking oddly gloomy. They continued down the winding dirt road for hours, until the roof a building came into view. Toki latched onto the drummer's arm and pointed to it, his eyes glowing with excitement. "We ams almost there, see? We ams-"

He just glared down at the ground and mumbled, "Gad, I hope they have booze in this shit-hole town..." surely enough, the first building they came to was a shabby looking bar. The drummer pulled Toki over to it. "Dude, we gatta stap just for one drink."

He shook his head. "No, 'cause you ams just going to get drunks and-"

"Just shut up." he interrupted as he lead the guitarist into the bar. Toki followed close to him, looking almost fearful as they walked up to the bar; he carefully concealed his deddy bear from view. Pickles grinned. "Thank Gad, finally some fuckin' booze. I haven't had a drink in-"

"Hey!" one of the other men in the bar yelled at them. Toki turned and stared at him oddly; he had a very strange, amusing accent. The man stared at him, took a drink from the bottle he was holding, and laughed.

"Stupid long-haired queer..."

"Pickle?" the guitarist murmured, poking the drummer's shoulder. "Maybe we shoulds go."

"What? Why? I haven't even had my drink yet, so just-"

On the other side of the room, the man who had spoken before rose from his chair, walked over to them, and said to Pickles, "Would you mind it if I bought your girl a drink?"

"What?" the drummer asked. "My—oh, you mean Toki?" the Norwegian just looked away and blushed in shame.

"Just lets gos, please."

"But my drink!"

"Please?"

"So you mean that you're both-" the man snickered. "-why don't you both just get outta my bar and go and cut your hair?" he pushed past Pickles and went up the bar.

Toki made to walk out, but the drummer caught him and said to the man, "Hey, dude, what the fuck is your prablem?"

"And what's wrong with your voice, son?"

"My—what the hell does 'dat mean?"

"I mean that you're not from here, are you?" the Irishman turned and faced him, a smile on his face. "Probably tourists from America."

"I'm from Wiscansin, dildo."

He laughed and shrugged off the insult. "Queer pair, you and your friend are."

"We ain't gay, you fuckin'-"

"Just lets it go." Toki urged.

"But he just called us gay!" he glared over at the man. "I don't have to take his fucking shit. I ain't had a drink in a whole day, so why should I-"

The Irishman just chuckled and patted Pickles' shoulder condescendingly. "Just go back home, son. Go back to America, or where the hell it is you're from."

"Why the hell are you causin' shit with me, dude?"

"Why not?" he asked, quite amused as he took a sip of his drink. He leaned close to Toki and whispered in his ear, "Hell, buy me one more drink and I'll fuck you." his breath reeked of alcohol, and he was rather unsteady on his feet; that's when it hit Toki that the man was drunk. Clearly Pickles had never considered this, because in a moment he was pushing the guy away, threatening to kill him.

"Don't talk to him like 'dat!"

"Get offa me, you stupid-"

"Fuck you!"

In a moment they were an inch away from fighting, but before they could, a crowd of ginger-haired, bright-eyed Irishman had seized both men and were holding them back. The man who had initiated the fight laughed at Pickles' rage. "Boy, you couldn't beat an Irishman in anything."

"I'll fuckin' kill you, you dildo!"

"Pickle!" Toki gasped. "Don'ts say stuff likes that!"

"Why nat?"

"Nat?" the man and his friends began laughing. "What the hell is a nat?"

"Fuck it, I'm gonna-" he glanced over at the bar, saw a cool drink awaiting him, tempting him. God, he wanted so badly to drop it and get drunk, but he also wanted to beat the crap out of the man... "I'm gonna beat you in a drinkin' contest." he said, a smile spreading across his face. He stopped struggling against the men who were trying to hold him back and said calmly, "If I drink more'n you, 'den you leave me and my friend alone and give us directions to Dublin."

The man laughed and nodded. "Okay, son, okay. What about if I win?"

"Well, whadda want?"

He gave Toki a hungry glance and said, "Your friend."

"He's a dude, though."

"Get a couple more drinks in me, and he'll be as good as any girl." he said, making all his friends laugh. Toki turned red once again and ran a hand thru his long, brown hair nervously. The guitarist was still hugging that stupid bear to him, desperate to keep a hold of him. It seemed like that dumb stuffed animal was the only thing keeping him tethered to the strange ground of this foreign place.

"Pickle," he said desperately. "don'ts do this! All Irish peoples do ams drink; you'lls never win and I'll be stuck with that guys..."

"Ain't you remember 'dat I'm Irish-American? I don't give a fuck who he is, I'll beat him." he said to the Norwegian as he went over and grabbed himself a seat. A full cup of beer was placed before him and the other man. Toki watched in silent worry as they two began. One cup down, then another and another and another and another...

In the end, Pickles was looking quite confident as he downed his tenth glass of alcohol. The other man just dropped out of his seat with a drunken groan. Toki let out a sigh of relief and went to help the drummer up. " 'Kay, now we gat a deal—how you get't Dublin from-"

"Pickle, let's just gos." Toki said, noticing the angered looks on the other men's faces. He guided the drummer out of the bar. Once they were outside, Pickles looked around and smirked.

"I won yet?"

"Ja, you wons."

" 'Dat's good." and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

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Chapter 2, Part 2
The Storm

Not knowing what else to do, Toki went to go get directions to Dublin and a bottle of booze. He poured some of the alcohol over Pickles and watched him jump in surprise. The drummer blinked, wiped the booze away from his eyes, and let out a hiss of annoyance."Toki, why're you pourin' booze an me, you Gad damned little fucker...shit..." he pressed a hand to his forehead and shut his eyes tightly. "Crap, I gat a headache..."

"You ams so damns stupid!" Toki was so angry that he couldn't think of what else to say; he just threw the bottle of booze at the drummer with an enraged yell. Pickles caught it and took a deep drink from it before struggling to get to his feet. He followed the guitarist down the road, ignoring the pounding headache that he had.

"Hey, where're you goin'?"

Toki whirled around to face him, an infuriated look on his face. "You just couldn't dos it, could you?" he hugged his deddy bear to his chest tightly as he whispered in a deadly voice, "You just couldn't stands not to get drunk, could yous?"

He sighed in exasperation. "Are you serious? I've been walking with you up hills, thru a whole Gad damned country, and you expect me nat to drink?"

"You didn'ts haves to gets in a contest abouts it! Why did you dos that?" he was beginning to blush again. He tried to hide this, but couldn't.

"Oh, I get it." Pickles smiled a little and slapped Toki's shoulder, trying to signify his understanding of the matter. "You're embarrassed, right? 'Cause of what 'dat guy said, that you looked like a chick?"

"No, but thanks for bringings that up again." he pushed the drummer away and clutched his deddy bear tight. "You knows what I did while you was layings there beings stupid and drunks? I went and founds someone who-whats would give me directions, so you know what I ams doing now?"

"Keep askin' me questions I don't know the fuckin' answer to?" he ventured to say. Toki ignored his attempt at humor.

"Nos, I ams goings to that place—Hublands."

Pickles rolled his eyes and followed him down the street. "You idiot, you mean, Dublin."

"Whatsever! That ams what I said!" he continued to march down the paved street, dodging past cars and hurrying past people. The drummer followed close behind, but he hesitated when the guitarist turned off the main road and began walking away from the main heart of the town.

"Hey, where are we goin'?"

"You ams not going with me anywheres, asshole!" Toki snapped. Pickles felt an odd, sickly shame fill his heart as he drank some more from his bottle of alcohol.

"I'm sorry, okay? I won't do it aga-"

"Ja you wills. You ams always getting drunk!"

The continued walking for quite a while until they were trampling along yet another dirt road. If Pickles hadn't known better, he'd have thought that they were going down the exact same road that they'd gone down earlier that day. The only difference now was that as they walked the once perfectly blue sky was being overtaken by gray and black clouds. The drummer followed close behind Toki, peering up the stormy sky nervously.

"Maybe we should-"

"Gets away from me, please. Your smells like puke and booze." Toki commented, petting his deddy bear's head distractedly. Pickles narrowed his eyes at the Norwegian.

"You're still nat over that?"

"Not overs it?" they both stopped walking in the middle of the dusty road, ignoring the sound of thunder that boomed somewhere off in the distance. "You humiliated mes, Pickle!"

He threw his hands up in the air and yelled in annoyance. "Get over it, already! Gad damn it, what the-"

"And you sounds so stupid, toos!" Toki continued. "You gos around all the time sounding like a fucking idiots..."

"I sound like an idiot?"

"Ja, you dos," he said, glaring at Pickles. "likes how you go around all the times saying 'Gads' instead of 'Gods'. It ams so embarrassing!"

"I can't help it, but what about you?" the drummer demanded angrily. "How you always add 's' to the enda stuff."

"I dos not!"

" 'Dere you go, right there! You just did it!"

He shook his head and insisted, "Dids not."

"Oh my—fuck you, dildo!" Pickles howled, drinking some more. "I can't believe that Ofdensen made me..." his voice trailed off abruptly as he glanced back over at an enraged Toki.

The Norwegian's anger melted away into sadness as he asked, "Ofdensens makes you come? You didn't even wants to be here?"

"I...no, Toki, I'm-"

"I knews it!" he exclaimed, pressing his deddy bear to his cheek, trying to use its soft fur as a way to give him a little comfort. Behind them, a bolt of lightning flared and was followed by more thunder, but still neither of them noticed. Instead the guitarist just kept talking. "If you didn't wants to come, then why did you? Do you know how fuckings embarrassing this ams for me?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, I swear." he rushed to say, taking a careful step nearer the Norwegian. "I really did wanna come, I just—dude, you gotta understand, I just have better things to do than taking you on a damn tour of Ireland. You get that, don't you?"

"Nos I don't gets it!" he snapped, backing away from Pickles. "Fucks you! Just gos back to your stupid bar and drinks until you die! I don'ts care!"

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" he growled. "You want me to just stap drinkin'? Fuck that! You act like I've never tried! Give me that stupid bear!" he snatched Toki's deddy bear and threw it to the ground. The guitarist's eyes grew wide as he tried to pick up his bear; before he could, it finally began to pour down rain.

In that one pitifully depressing moment, it seemed as if the entire sky opened up and unleashed itself down upon the two men. There was wind, there were leaves flying in the storm from the trees that stood nearby the road, and there was the pounding, freezing rain. Pickles dropped his bottle of alcohol in the rush to retreat under one trees that stood beside the road, but Toki didn't follow. Instead he hurried to the complete opposite side of the road and huddled under his own tree, sobbing as he watched his deddy bear get drenched in the rain. There was something that the Norwegian hadn't told anyone before—after so many years of living with the fury of the snow storms in Norway, he'd grown terrified of the falling rain. He much preferred snow, the soft, white flakes that couldn't harm anyone by falling...

So it rained and rained, and they each trembled and cried under their own separate trees, trying not to look to miserable in front of the other. Gradually, though, despite the cold wetness of their situation, they drifted off to a wretched sleep.

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Chapter 2, Part 3
A Muddy Compromise

Squelch, squish, splosh. And again. More squelching. Pickles wrinkled his nose at the disgusting sound and slowly opened his eyes. Toki was trudging thru the thick mud that the dirt road had been morphed into. The drummer yawned, sat up, and rubbed his burning eyes. It was apparently a new day—the sun was shining brightly above them, but everything else still looked purely dismal. Branches were scattered around the muddy mess of the road and leaves were plastered to the ground, still wet with rainwater. The drummer tried to get up, but fell back as his brain screamed. Booze, he needed more booze. Thankfully, there was his bottle, still shining in the middle of the road, even though it was coated in brown muck like everything else.

"Hey, dude." he called to the Norwegian.

Toki ignored him and finally managed to get to his deddy bear. Carefully, he picked the stuffed animal up from out of the mud and wiped some of the sticky earth from its fur. A deep, concerned frown was on his face as he stood there, filthy from head to foot. He even had mud in his hair; his once black jeans were covered in it, along with his bare arms. Pickles arched a brow and watched as the guitarist whispered something to his deddy bear and smiled sweetly, as if he were talking to an actual person, a friend.

"Hey, Toki? You awake?"

The Norwegian gasped in surprise and lowered his deddy bear; he turned to face Pickles, revealing a mud-caked face of misery. "Ja, I ams."

"I...um...you slept?"

He shrugged, making some of the filth fall from his shirt. "Maybes. Dids you?"

"Yeah, sure...you wanna come help me up? I gat—sorry, got a hell of a headache."

Toki said nothing as he walked over, squelching thru more mud, and held his hand out to the drummer. "You ams all dirty."

He grinned. "And you're na—not?"

The Norwegian rolled his eyes. "Don'ts talks like that, idiot. You sounds stupid."

"Well if you don't want me to have an accent no more, 'den-"

"No, fucks what I want." he said, wiping his nose with one dirty hand. Clearly he'd spent the whole night terrified and crying instead of sleeping. This fact was validated as he admitted, "Last nights you scared me. I looked over, and you was lyings there all gross lookings...I wanted to tells you that I was sorry, but..."

"Nah, s'fine, dude. I'm sorry." he accepted Toki's help and rose to his feet slowly and unsteadily. Once he was up, he put a hand to his head and groaned. "Fuck, I've gat a headache."

"And now I've gots a gross bear." the guitarist said, indicating his deddy bear. Gently he pressed it to Pickles' arm and asked, fear in his eyes, "You ams really smart, Pickle. Wills he be alright? I think he's sick."

The drummer felt sort of foolish for even having to have his conversation to begin with, but he couldn't help but to nod and say gently, "Yeah, he's gonna be fine." and to show how sorry he was, he patted the stuffed animal's head and smiled. "We're gonna be okay, too."

"You thinks so?"

He shrugged and went over to the middle of the road, to where his bottle of booze had spent the night. Without much thought, he kicked it to the side and watched the brown, warm alcohol drain onto the road. "I dunno, I ain't good ant knowing things. I think we'll be fine, though."

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**A/N**

No, I'm not racist or anything. All those cracks about Irish people drinking were in good fun. There's a way to stereotype pretty much any race, but that doesn't mean that I'm not agreeing with any of them. Hell, I'm Cajun, so if you really want you can joke about how much gumbo I eat [just had some last night, actually], how drunk I get during Mardi Gras, or how I live right in the hart of the swamp and eat alligator. My point is that I love everybody, so yeah...I'm not racist, just so you know.

ALSO, TO MY READERS:

sierra t—lol are you serious? I so wish I was Irish! And I've sort of always wanted to write something about Ireland. It's a beautiful place, after all. All they have here in Louisiana is swamps and Spanish moss. :P

Slegger0404—I've been wanting to tell you for a while [you've been reviewing my stories from pretty much the beginning] that I really do especially enjoy reading what you have to say about my stuff, so thanks for that. I really, really appreciate it! I'm glad you like my stories and I hope you like the ones I publish in the future. ^_^

As always, Peace & Love