Jessa's POV:
After all that happened in the gorg's garden, it's a miracle that I'm not tired. As I walked home in the Terrible Tunnel, my original outfit now clean thanks to Boober, I couldn't stop thinking about him kissing me. Or rather, his least dominant personality, Sidebottom. Because I'm also a shazzle, I can see when someone has 2 personalities in the same body. Until I saw Boober in his subconscious, I didn't believe that Sidebottom was his own person. I thought it was Boober all along. Although I must give him credit, he keeps Sidebottom hidden pretty well. When we first met 3 days ago, I saw something lingering beside Boober, but I couldn't see or hear him due to how repressed Sidebottom was. He was nothing more than a monochromatic foggy silhouette that levitated next to Boober. Not to mention the fact that whatever he said was indecipherable. But now that I've met Sidebottom in Boober's body, I can see and hear him very clearly. I then wondered how often Boober lets him out. Given how hard he tries to keep him at bay, I'd say not very often. Once Boober was back in his body, he asked me how I could forgive him so easily after Sidebottom smooched all over my neck. This was a tough thing to clear up because it would have to involve me revealing my heritage.
I'm a fraggle and shazzle hybrid. A blessing and a curse in so many ways. My mother, Morrigan, was a shazzle, and my father, Lenny, a fraggle. They went against the status quo and married each other. How they didn't get killed for this sooner, I will never know, since it's a complete taboo for a shazzle and a fraggle to get married. And to top it all off, they had me. There's been a rivalry between shazzles and fraggles for centuries, so my parents broke a lot of rules by seeing each other. Regardless of the circumstances, they were loving parents and did their best to raise me. And once I got old enough and my shazzle powers developed, I began defending them from the other shazzles, who were nothing more than heartless goons. The ones in my age group excluded me from everything and made my life a living hell.
A memory of the Supreme Lord and Supreme Lady's son, Zal, pushing me into the mud entered my mind, and I shuddered and felt my baloobius flare up for the first time in years. Holy Ragnarok, I hate him! Good thing he's dead now along with his father. His mother, however, was still alive and as far as I know still rules over the Shazzle Realm. I hadn't cared to come back after attaining my sword. The Holy Shazzlin Sword, as it's called. The sword that can morph into anything the wielder pleases. For centuries, shazzles would try their hardest to earn it after mastering all of their powers, either by being in good graces with the bigwigs or through trickery. Given how the other shazzles never respected me (even though I was way more prudent in my training than they ever were), I had to play dirty to get it. And it all happened shortly after my parents' death.
While I had gone to pick tsundere berries, every shazzle in the realm had broken into our house and kidnapped my folks tied them to stakes, and let them burn to death. I wasn't much older than adolescence when it happened, and when I saw them there, Dad crying and Mom cursing all of them with her last breath before she saw me and had the most heartbreaking expression on her face.
"Jessa…" I remember her calling out to me before she succumbed to the first-degree burns along with Dad.
I still remember that day in vivid detail, despite my attempts to forget it completely. Once they both died, the shazzles once again shoved me into the mud. I left the Shazzle Realm that night, not bothering to take anything. But I wasn't going to let this go. Vengeance was mine! Between the time I left after witnessing my parents die and when I came back to steal the sword, my first Bloodlust kicked in.
This was another fact about shazzles. When they experience trauma, they would get Bloodlust. But it wasn't just a psychological thing, Shazzle Bloodlust had the power to drastically alter one's appearance and drive them to homicidal insanity. I still remember how beast-like in appearance I became. My teeth had turned into sharp fangs, I had talons for fingernails and my tail had porcupine spikes on it. Once I got Bloodlust, I returned to the Shazzle Realm, calm and calculated, but guns a blazing on the inside. I used my siren voice to serenade my tormentors to their doom.
"Young shazzles,
Come take a break,
For you have been
Training so hard.
I know a place
Where you can cool off,
Just follow the sound
Of my voice,
And you will find it."
Zal and his cronies were serenaded to the Pond of Poison just outside the Shazzle Realm. I let the others drown, but I wanted to do more with Zal. I wanted to destroy him, rip his organs out, stomp his sorry face into the mud, and pin him against a wall of stalactites. So I did. It was what he deserved after all that he did to me. Once all was said and done, I let the influence of my siren voice escape his mind so he could die knowing that I killed him. Know that just because he was the son of the Supreme Leaders it didn't excuse him from a violent and gruesome death, especially by a victim of his. Let him suffer with that knowledge in the afterlife and make him realize that he was utterly helpless and defenseless. The horrified look on his face was brief but priceless.
"You filthy half-breed," he tried to snarl at me, but he was far too weak from the beatings I had given him to retaliate.
He died soon after, and I left his corpse there for the other shazzles to find. I sang my siren song again to serenade them all.
"I've come to claim my prize,
So you might as well surrender.
Now the Holy Sword is mine,
I earned it fair and square.
Now I'm off to somewhere,
And don't bother looking
For me."
I couldn't find Vanda, the Supreme Lady, but I did find her husband. His death was almost as brutal as Zal's, but not much. As I sang, I grabbed my sword for the first time and stabbed him in the stomach with it. That bastard of a shazzle didn't so much as object, he just died with a wound in his stomach. Now with the Holy Shazzlin Sword in my hands, I kept singing until I was far away enough from the Shazzle Realm to where I couldn't be reprimanded.
Finally, my Bloodlust disappeared, my features returned to normal and my mind was clear again. The Bloodlust features floated off my body in the form of purple fairy dust and transformed into a Bloodlust symbol that now rests on my left bicep like a permanent tattoo (big bold black sword with red drops of blood). From that then on, I took residence in the Terrible Tunnel with the sword that now belonged to me. My sword. Despite how dangerous and ruthless shazzles are in nature, none of them had ever gone into the Terrible Tunnel. Why? I don't know. I'll admit it was intimidating at first, but with my sword, I was able to manage. Now here I am 5 years later, and I've managed to make everything here fear me. They know not to fuck with me.
I sighed indifferently, the events now a distant memory in my mind. However, I never stopped grieving over my parents. I still miss them. I finally arrived at my invisible bubble of a shield and pressed my palm against it to enter my otherwise peaceful home. Though it was technically in a different dimension. This serene obsidian house with a calming river, summer sunshine beating down on me, the fields of fully-bloomed flowers stretched out into the horizon, and the sounds of birds chirping happily. This place was a manifestation of my happy place. A place of solace. Away from all the negativity of my past. Something I imagined into a reality, though hidden from the rest of the world.
I never expected to make friends at all. But that all changed when I heard the voices of Boober and his friends. Had I done jack shit, Gobo would not be here today. But I couldn't have another dead fraggle on my conscience. Not after hearing the cries of my dad as he burned to death on that stake with my mother.
I then thought about Boober again. But it was impossible to remember him without remembering the kisses Sidebottom left all over my neck and jawline, and I blushed again.
"Crap," I whispered.
Some archery may take my mind off of the whole thing. I held up my sword and it transformed into a bow and I walked around to the back of my house where my obstacle course was. There were dummies that renewed themselves after every session. Getting my bow ready, an arrow appeared on it and I pulled the string back. It strained for a minute as I focused my depth perception on the dummy a few feet in front of me. Then I released it as the arrow flew right into the dummy's face, making it wobble slightly.
"Bullseye," I said while smirking.
I shot arrows for a long time until I got bored with archery and decided to do hand-to-hand combat with my dummies. I punched them furiously, imagining them as Zal and the other shazzles I grew up with. Along the way, I began using my powers to break them. It started with my fire-bending abilities, then earth-bending, air, and lastly water. Though the water only got the dummies wet, I still considered it a useful attack. I kept at it until the sun began to set, and I decided to call it a day on my pass time. My long-fired arrows disappeared and returned to my bow before it changed back into a sword and my damaged dummies returned to mint condition. Then I climbed on top of my house to get a good view of the sunset, despite my exhaustion. Watching the sunrise and descend from a rooftop was nothing new to me, but I guarantee that it was a first for Boober. However, I don't think I'll ever be able to watch another sunset or sunrise without him coming to mind. Not after the intimacy that occurred. But the weirdest thing about this; I liked it. The way his lips pressed against my skin and his red hair tickled me, and how gentle he was with me. My face heated up again and my tail wagged behind me. I smiled a bit too while admiring the hues in the sky as the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon.
"For someone so skittish, he sure does know how to make somebody want him."
End of Jessa's POV