Wander Over Yonder: The New Galaxy
Chapter Eight: The Reflections
The flower has calmed down and all our buddies have reconnected. Let's see where they go from here.
Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I have been really really sick and haven't been able to write because of a very fuzzy head. The next chapter for Fighting The Tide is coming fairly soon, hopefully, but this one was a little easier to get out there, so here it is.
Enjoy!
As it turned out, it wasn't going to be quite as complicated as Sylvia had been afraid of.
Upon returning to Star Nomad, Wander gave a stirring, if somewhat optimistic, account of their trip to a select audience. Sylvia was content to let him handle it for the most part, only throwing in the occasional comment as she tucked into a well-deserved late lunch.
Hater and Peepers were fairly quiet as well. The watchdog commander seemed to be limiting himself to a few disparaging mutterings, while the skeletal overlord hung to the side, arms crossed and looking distinctly unhappy.
Sylvia had filed away Hater's reactions on the planet. It had been a stressful situation and she had had too much to deal with to really think about them. Now that things had calmed down for the moment, she was wondering if he could use someone to talk to. Normally, she'd let Wander handle that, in face, normally she probably wouldn't have even noticed that he needed it, but she did owe him, after all, and she was starting to think she might be better equipped to tackle this particular issue.
Once they had finished discussing plans for another expedition tomorrow, with Wander acting as an intermediary, she noticed Hater stalking out of the door and decided to follow him discretely.
Heading up on deck, Hater walked to the railing, leaning on it, and apparently looking down on the forest below them.
Sylvia sauntered up, leaning on the railing next to him and shooting him a sidelong glance.
"Quite a day, huh?" she observed.
Hater seemed to start slightly, then he shrugged and looked away.
Undeterred, Sylvia pretended to watch the landscape for a while.
"You know," she continued after a few minutes had passed, "I never thanked you for saving me from that drill, not to mention having my back in the forest today."
Hater's shoulders hunched defensively, but he didn't look over at her.
"Well, don't," he said gruffly. "I didn't do it for you."
"I know." Sylvia smiled, even though he couldn't see it. "I think you did it for Wander."
"What?!" Now Hater turned to face her, bristling and hands sparking slightly. "How dare you?" he sputtered angrily. "Wander is nothing to me except my most hated enemy! Don't think that's changed just because we worked together a few times!"
"Uhuh," Sylvia agreed easily. Hater's eyes narrowed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded thoroughly riled up by this point.
"That I agree with you. It certainly isn't because you worked together a few times, and I don't think it's that recent of a development either."
"You dare - !" Hater started.
"Here's the thing, Hater," Sylvia interjected, still keeping her voice calm and friendly, but speaking loudly enough to cut through the overlord's bubbling indignation. "I don't know exactly when it started, and honestly, I'd be surprised if you do either, but you don't hate Wander anymore, and you're not fooling anyone into thinking you do. I don't even think you're fooling yourself." Hater had seemed about to yell, but stopped himself, jaw swinging shut like it was on rusty hinges. Sylvia nodded to herself, expression going serious. "And believe it or not, I know a bit about how you feel."
Hater seemed to struggle to find his voice. For a moment it looked like he was going to deny her analysis, but instead he narrowed his eyes, jaw twisting as though he was tasting something bitter.
"What, because you're 'best buds' with the freak?" He spat.
"No, well, in a way, I guess." Sylvia chuckled softly.
Hater looked at her measuringly for a long moment, then he raised his chin.
"You don't know anything," he decided with a sneer.
"Oh, no? Then you don't feel frustrated, stressed and confused because you don't understand how this could possibly have happened? It doesn't make you feel tiny and lost in a massive, unmeasurable universe you thought you understood? It doesn't make you come up with all these cruel, spiteful things you could do to prove him wrong, even though you know you can't bring yourself to do any of them? And it doesn't make you frightened, down right to-the-bottom-of-your-core terrified because you know that you just might be starting to like it?" She paused again, watching as Hater noticeably gulped. "Well, my mistake then!" she finished flippantly, and she strolled past the transfixed skeletal conqueror, giving him a condescending pat on the back as she did so.
Just before heading down the stairs below deck again, she turned for a final time, catching Hater's eye where he still stood stiffly by the railing.
"Oh, and Hater, if you ever want to talk about all that stuff I don't know about, you can come and find me. Later, Hater!"
Then she turned away again, leaving him to his thoughts, whatever those might be.
Wander could probably use some help with supper.
This was the problem when you stopped trying to destroy people; they got all uppity and in your face, giving you unasked for advice and slapping your back and all that junk.
Sylvia hadn't exactly been frightened or intimidated by him before, at least once she got used to bowling over his army like they were bingleborps or something, but there had certainly been a level of animosity there, and having her charge in to rescue Wander when he got captured, at least seemed to indicate she viewed the Lord Hater empire as some kind of threat.
Now, Hater was almost missing those days.
Her smugness was infuriating, the way she'd bated him along, insinuating, accusing, flat out announcing the change in his feelings for Wander.
And Hater barely even protested. Sure, he'd denied her accusations, but he'd found himself too wound up from everything, and too shocked by her blatant declarations, to mount more than a token defense, something she must have taken note of.
Then there was the abrupt and strangely cryptic way she had ended the conversation. Hater had been expecting her to launch into whatever painfully cutesy, happy-go-lucky way the two had met and became 'the best of buds,' or whatever. Probably protecting puppies or bumping into each other at the check-out line, or something dumb like that.
Instead, she'd cut herself off, and practically dared him to go and ask her about it. As if he would stoop to something like that.
Even if he was a little, itty-bitty, tiny bit curious. Maybe.
Out of sheer, morbid curiosity, if nothing else.
At any rate, he was too tired to deal with all of that tonight. This whole day had been one frustration after another and he just wanted it to end.
He felt angry, annoyed and tired, but the real problem was that most of that anger and annoyance wasn't at Wander or Sylvia, or even the stupid forest. It was at himself. He'd made a fool of himself today because, despite all his protesting and denial, he'd been worried about Wander. The little furry, orange nuisance himself, the annoying, hyperactive, goofy, perpetually smiling constant pain in Hater's vertebrae, the creature he'd tried to destroy countless times, who'd humiliated him countless times. Hater had been worried about him.
Like he was the dumpy zbornak or something.
Like he and Wander actually were becoming…
This was so stupid! After months and months of backsliding, of losing planets, losing respect, of feeling like he'd never be able to get back to his former glory as a serious conqueror, Hater had finally accomplished something great in this frustrating galaxy. He'd beaten back the biggest, baddest threat to his power, someone who'd delighted in humiliating him and grinding his feelings into the dirt. He'd shown her what a real overlord looked like, and he'd saved the galaxy, with the understanding that he was totally going to conquer it later.
And then everything had just gotten really weird, and it didn't seem to be stopping.
With one last glare at the peacefully swaying vines below him, Hater turned and stomped down the stairs into the underbelly of the ship. After everything he'd dealt with today, all he wanted was to collapse into bed with Captain Tim, and…
The thought halted abruptly and Hater paused, mood plummeting deeper inside him.
Of course, how could he forget? He didn't have a bed on this stupid ship. All he had was that dumb fabric thing that he'd ripped into a million pieces when he got stuck in it this morning.
Hater grumbled to himself, continuing towards his room in a cloud of anger. He knew he was a bad guy, or at least he was supposed to be, but he just wanted something, anything, to go right for him today. Was that too much to ask?
Slamming open the door to the room, Hater clenched his hands and let loose.
"Captain Tim, this has been the worst day ev…!"
He trailed off as his eyes adjusted to the dimness inside. With one hand, he fumbled beside him for the light switch. He flicked it on, then blinked as what he was staring at leaped into focus.
The room looked pretty much the same, small and lined with unpainted wood, the round window and Wander's fabric thing still hanging on what Hater thought of as his side of the room. But, on Hater's side, where he'd left the shredded remains of his foe just this morning, there was now a bed.
It didn't look like a great bed. It actually looked kind of make-shift, as if whoever had put it together had used some pillows, wooden platforms and a good deal of the cloth those sling monstrosities had been made from and cobbled it together out of all of that. It also wasn't nearly as big as his bed on the skull-ship, which wouldn't have even fit in this room on its own. This bed was probably twin-size, which was just large enough that it felt like it took up a little too much space in the small room, and covered with a red blanket.
Slowly, Hater walked the few steps across to it, and sat on the edge. Something crinkled and he picked up a piece of paper that had been folded on the blanket. He unfolded it to see that familiar handwriting. Flat-faced, he read "'Sorry you had a bad day. A nap always helps me to while away my worries. Heart, Wander.'" Hearing a growl, and feeling Captain Tim's sharp fangs scraping on his ankle, Hater set the note back on the bedspread and bent slightly, pulling his pet off of his leg with a screech of fang on bone. Slowly, he lay down on the make-shift mattress, Captain Tim in his arms, and stared thoughtfully up at the wooden boards above his head.
A nap actually didn't sound too bad.
They needed to get off this ship soon.
Specifically, Lord Hater needed to get off this ship soon. Peepers was now convinced that spending so much time around the little orange freak was having a detrimental effect on his boss. Just look at how he'd been behaving in the forest today!
The commander frowned, examining one of the maps he'd managed to bring along. There were no computers on this pre-historic excuse for a vessel, so the map was physical, and fairly primitive, providing small snippets of information about selected planets when he pressed on them.
Of course, most of that information was probably useless, given what had happened to Technoiva.
Provided the locations of the planets had remained the same, there should be two more stops before they reached the remains of Flendar, where the king had agreed to give them any technology they needed to fix their ship, as well as provide transport back to the secret planet, if possible, all contingent on what shape his planet was in when they got there, naturally. Peepers hadn't expected him to be so accommodating, but the king had insisted it was his honour to help their 'savior' Lord Hater. Peepers suspected he'd be regretting his generosity when they eventually came back and conquered him, but he wasn't about to turn down the offer when it was something they really needed.
They would hopefully be gone from Technoiva in the next couple of days, and it would likely take them at least two weeks to get to Flendar after that, provided there weren't any serious problems on the two remaining planets they were stopping at.
Would Hater be okay on this ship, among all his enemies, and so close to that particular enemy, for that long?
Peepers sighed, rolling the map back up and stuffing it back into his bag. He supposed the overlord would have to be.
He just didn't understand why Hater was acting the way he was. Take today as a perfect example. He could buy Lord Hater being obsessed enough with Wander to want to get him back after he was taken by the forest, but his reactions when they finally found the furry nuisance had just been…odd.
He'd reacted with anger at first, which Peepers had been expecting, but then it had seemed to dissipate, and Hater hadn't tried to chase after Wander, which admittedly would have been a terrible idea with the plants being so edgy. He hadn't even stomped off to grouse quietly by himself, as Peepers might have guessed. Instead, he'd actually seemed willing to listen to what Wander was saying, and he'd been quiet and let the pest ramble on. He'd almost acted like he was relieved that Wander was alright.
It was uncanny, and Peepers could admit to himself he was worried.
He didn't like that Wander had wormed his way so close to Hater as soon as they'd gotten on this ship, that he'd arranged it so the two of them were rooming together, that he'd somehow compelled Hater to cook with him, assuming that hadn't been just a wild rumour, and that he'd managed to get Hater alone and lost with him as soon as they landed on a new planet.
It was strange, and because it was strange, it was suspicious. It felt like the furry mop was up to something, trying to monopolize the skeleton lord the way he was.
Peepers wouldn't have expected Lord Hater to stand for any of it, and he didn't like that the overlord had apparently just gone along with everything. It was completely out of character and it was giving him danger signals.
Lord Hater was probably resting right now. He'd looked exhausted when they got back to ship. Commander Peepers was feeling pretty weary himself after fighting plants alongside the zbornak for hours. He supposed he should leave things as they were for tonight and let both of them get some rest.
But tomorrow, he and Lord Hater were going to need to have a talk.
The rest of the evening was very pleasant, even if Wander was feeling pretty tired by the end of it.
Sylvia had shown up when he was just tying on his apron and starting supper, and insisted he let her help. And it had been a lot of fun. It had been a while since they'd spent some time together just the two of them, and Wander always enjoyed cooking with his buddy.
They ate with a group of the other aliens on board, and Wander found himself talking a lot about their scouting mission, since many of them hadn't been part of the initial debriefing. Sylvia joined in, which made for a bit of a strange contrast of perspectives, but no one seemed to mind.
He did notice that Hater wasn't among the gathering, and made a mental note to bring his friend some supper later, in case Hatey wasn't feeling up to coming to the galley. He knew the overlord could be shy, and he liked his own space when he was having a tough day.
After supper, Wander had been about to head back to his and Hater's room, when Jeff had suggested they play a few songs together first. The former conqueror had given him that amiable smile with made Wander's chest slightly tight with nostalgia. He really didn't spend enough time with his old friend.
In the end, it turned into quite a lively affair, the two of them on their banjos while the other aliens laughed and danced. The black cube of darkness had even joined in for a few songs toward the end, and Wander was proud to see all their practice had been paying off.
Finally, he bid his friends goodnight and headed off down the corridor. He felt tired, but satisfied, although it was a little strange that Hater hadn't come looking for food by now. Wander hoped his buddy was feeling alright. He had been using an awful lot of his powers today, and that had to take it out of a fella.
Reaching the bedroom door, Wander pushed it open, covered plate of food in one hand and cheerful greeting on his lips, and paused. He smiled at the deep, rhythmic snores sounding from within.
So that was it. Hater really must have been tired.
The light had been left on, and Wander turned it off as he headed further inside. It looked like the overlord was at least enjoying his present. Wander had worried it might not be very comfortable especially as he'd had to put it together in such a hurry. He moved quietly up to the side of the bed; after placing the cloche he was carrying on the bench by the door.
Hater was lying sprawled out on the bed, used as he was to a much bigger space. His leg dangled over one side, jaw hanging open as he snored. Captain Time had probably been sleeping here earlier, judging from the shredding of Hater's pajama cloak and some acid dribble, but the arachnomorph was absent; probably out exploring right now.
Carefully, Wander removed another blanket from his hat and covered his buddy securely, tucking it around the sprawled limbs as much as he could.
There had always been something so peaceful about Hater when he was asleep. Wander knew the overlord would have been mad at him if he'd known the nomad had been sneaking onto his ship in the mornings to hit his snooze button, but sometimes Wander just couldn't help himself.
Hater was so relaxed in his sleep, and sometimes, like right now, Wander could tell the skeleton was having a good dream, jaw twitching into a smile as he slept.
It made his own smile widen with affection, even while he felt a little wistful. It made him wish he could see that smile more when Hater was awake, but he knew that was something he shouldn't rush. At least Hater had seemed pretty happy during supper last night. The overlord finally seemed to be making some friends, and Wander couldn't be happier for him.
He knew it had been a stressful day for his buddy, just as it had been for Syl and Mr. Peepers. He'd felt a little guilty for making them all worry about him. He'd intended to see how Hater was doing after all of that, but if the overlord was asleep, maybe that was a good sign.
Silently, Wander blew his friend a kiss, then crossed to his hammock and swung inside. He swept his hat off, snuggling inside it rather than getting a blanket.
Finally, he closed his eyes, letting Hater's contented snores sooth him to sleep. Tomorrow would be another adventure, and he couldn't wait for it to start.
Thanks for reading!
Hater has some feelings to sort out, and Sylvia seems to be willing to help. Wonder whether he'll take her up on that offer.
And Peepers is really worried about Hater now. Poor guy carries too much stress on his shoulders.
All our characters got a little scene this chapter, so I hope you liked them!
I am working on the next chapter for Fighting The Tide, so hopefully it will be out soon. In the mean time, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and feel free to send me some feedback if you like. It makes me happy!
See you next time!