Wish (Hiatus?)

Dreams || Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Labed Village

Talo looked at Kai in bewilderment. "...what?" he asked. "What do you mean 'what'?!" Talo yelled while looking at Kai like he was a madman. "You literally went to hell. That's pretty metal. In my dream, I more or less just got attacked by a big dog!" he chuckled. "Well, your physical body got hurt in your dream, and if that happened to me..." "You'd be dead. Veeeeeeery dead." Kai simply nodded in agreement.

A few moments passed in silence, before Talo broke it. "...you know magma and lava are different things, right?" Kai playfully punched his shoulder. "Goddamn nerd." he responded. "All I do is speak facts, it's not my problem you're just not as intelligent as me." Talo joked. Kai simply let out a sarcastic "Ha ha." Clouds had begun rolling over the sky, beginning to block the sun's golden glow. Both Talo and Kai preferred cloudy and rainy weather over clear skies, so they were fine with it.

Talo wondered and started to calculate how long it had been since they first sat down... "Hey, wanna go into the village?" His math now not mathing due to Kai's interruption, he replied "Sure, I've got nothing else better to do." They both bounced up and gathered their lazily tossed around items before yet again entering the shrubbery of the forest. Thankfully avoiding any encounters with any dangerous fauna or flora, the path to Labed Village was effortless.

Pushing away a branch filled with leaves that blocked their view, into vision came the village plaza. A stone statue surrounded by stone paths stood at the heart of the village, leading to everywhere notable in Kai's hometown. He read 'The Knight of Labed, Lost to the Darkness' engraved onto the statue.

Stepping forward, they wondered where to go first. "What do you wanna do?" Kai asked. "We could head over to the library and see if Mr. Rend needs any help." Talo suggested. "Hmmm, maybe tomorrow. We could grab a snack or something at Woodpecker's Place since neither of us really had breakfast." "It's a bit late to find a breakfast substitute, it's already past midday!" Kai stood completely still in his tracks. "Seriously?!" Talo looked at him confused, then made a small, simple nod. "My god... we get sidetracked easily, don't we?" Yet again, Talo nodded, but now with a face that read 'Yep, we're guilty of that'.

Now seconds ever so closer to death, Kai resumed moving with his face still slightly painted with shock. Now up to the counter of Woodpecker's Place, they called over the attention of the shopkeeper. An older, shorter man squabbled up to the boys, Kai squinting to see past the glare from the fleeting sun and read the name 'Woodie Peck R.' imprinted on a name tag.

"Oh, hello my brothers of the feather! What interests you today?" he asked in an old, raspy voice. "Uhhh..." Now realising they hadn't thought about what they wanted to buy, he nudged Talo and whispered "What did we want again??" "Ugh, I don't know... ughhhh... what about the cookie bundle thingy?" Kai nodded and somewhat awkwardly asked for the bundle. "Very good! Would you like a woodpecker with that?" Both of them gave the man a strange look, as he grabbed something on the wall; and revealed it to be a woodpecker. It pecked at his wrinkled hands, puncturing his skin and making him start to bleed. Along with him and Talo being a bit horrified, Kai hurriedly said "No no, that- that's all thank you!"

The man- 'Woodie' looked ever so slightly disappointed, but hummed a little, upbeat tune in approval. "That's OK, me and-" The bird began to peck at his eyes. "Ow ow ow ow ow!" He squeezed the bird a little bit to make it stop pecking at him, then put them in an old, small bird cage to his side, Woodie mumbling 'Silly old TJ...' Locking the door, Talo noticed 'Arson' scratched on the wall next to the cage, presumably by the bird's beak. Now concerned by the fact that the bird would likely set the world on fire if it had the chance, Kai grabbed the bundle from the man, and pulled Talo away before giving the shopkeeper 10 Sparks and a quick thanks.