Shad and Saura: A Week in Bogshot - Part Five

     "Whaddaya see here?" the Lupe demanded. "Eh?"

     Saura squinted. "A spoon?"

     "On the spoon!" Shad growled, throwing it on the cupboard and sitting down. "I should've thought of that before... Bogshot is such an old village, they have probably been using these for a long time." He hopped up again and trotted to the shelf, grabbed a plate, looked under it and grunted contentedly, then checked a pot and nodded again.

     Saura picked the spoon up. It was old and very smooth - no matter how rough and splintered a wooden object is, enough using always turns it into an elaborate masterpiece. There was a small sign on its handle, worn out but still visible, nothing but a triangle with some lines crossing through it. The Zafara glanced at his big brother.

     "It's a house sign," Shad grunted with his ears drooping. "Huntress has told us about them. People hardly ever use those anymore, but like I said, Bogshot is an old and isolated village. I bet all families here have those signs. They were believed to keep evil away from every item they were cut or drawn on. Wanna bet that Sophie put that sign on the whole hut, not just the items?"

     Saura blinked. "With that green potion, yeah. Shad, you're a genius. Let's go!"

     They grabbed a bowl and two small brushes, took some of that green liquid from the cauldron and were in Bogshot fifteen minutes later. The villagers glared at them rather suspiciously but when they heard of house signs, their faces lit up. Why, of course everyone had them. All items in the village had them. Not houses, of course, but if they thought that it'd help against zombies, they would naturally set up the signs.

     "Okay then." Saura went to the door of the nearest house and dipped the brush into the liquid. "What's your sign?"

     The Blumaroo who lived in the house gave him a shovel that had three lines and a dot on the handle and Saura drew it on the door. The potion glowed for a second and disappeared, leaving the wood as clean as before.

     "I think we're on the right track." Shad grinned, grabbing the other brush and balancing over a wooden bridge to the next house. "Your sign, ma'am?"

     It didn't take them more than half an hour to cover the whole village and when they went back to the hut, they were quite happy with themselves. Even though a small part of them was still worried if the trick would work out this time. They spent the rest of the day hanging around the hut, playing with Clopsy and, in Saura's case, writing down some of the potion recipes. "They might come in handy," he claimed. "You'll never know where you could need an Instant Bog-pool."

     The ghosts came back that night like any other night. When the sun rose and the Unis left, there was no sudden knocking on the door, which was obviously a good sign, but as the two got up and headed towards the kitchen, a loud fierce knock froze them right on the doorway.

     "Please don't be the villagers, please don't be the villagers... " Saura muttered, going to the door. He opened it. It was the villagers.

     Who looked happy.

     "You have saved us!" an Elephante declared. "The house signs worked! The zombies tried to get in but the potion glowed in each bottle and they couldn't get through!"

     Saura loosened up at once. "I'm as happy as you are, really," he said honestly.

     "You are, eh?" The villagers looked around in confusion and eventually spread out a little to reveal a young green-haired Ixi carrying a huge bag. "You spread out my valuable potion, use it to repel some little ghosts just to please that gang of smelly peasants and you're happy because of that?"

     Shad's head had showed up by Saura's side. "Please don't say I ate some of it... please!" he muttered.

     "Don't you have anything better to do?" Sophie asked the village people who got lost at once. The witch came inside, patted the Meowclops, looked around and went to the cauldron.

     "Stay there, I'll just take a short look," she ordered, glancing into the cauldron and raised her hands. Shad and Saura exchanged quick glances when Sophie started chanting. It was indeed a long and complicated spell, though Saura suspected that half of it was only for the impression.

     The two slid closer, close enough to spot moving images in the cauldron. Sophie was checking the last week. The Sleepyherb, the Werelupes, all the books they had looked through in order to find the solution to the villagers' problems... it all whizzed past her eyes within minutes. When it faded, the witch looked up. The hut was very silent for a moment.

     "Well done, you two," she said with a vague smile. "Not many would've messed around like that for the sake of others. I sometimes just lock the door and let them take care of themselves when I don't feel like helping... after all, where would we be if they could come running to me whenever something's not right?"

     "In a better and nicer world?" Shad asked with a frown. The witch glanced at him, then at the cauldron which instantly showed the picture of Shad eating from it and the Lupe quickly hid behind Saura's back.

     "How was the trip?" the Zafara asked grimly, trying to step on Shad's paw. "Got everything you needed?"

     Sophie sat down on her bed. "Yes, and you have no idea what the price of a decent Everlasting Apple is these days... I'm starting to think that Faerieland is going through very hard times when Fyora needs to charge prices like these." Her eyes narrowed. "I hope you guys will be extra careful the next time you come around."

     Shad's ears twitched. "Dunno, I kinda liked it here and now that the village people worship us and are eternally thankful... "

     "We're going home," Saura announced firmly, grabbing his brother's ear. "Take care, Clopsy!"

     The Meowclops purred. Sophie's eyebrow twitched. "Clopsy?"

     "You never gave us his name," Saura grinned, bowing down to pat the Meowclops.

     The swamp witch smiled. "He doesn't have a name. Sometimes I call him Darkness when someone's visiting me but you know how it goes... "

     Shad nodded. "Gotta keep the reputation, yeah." He turned around. "Let's go then. Bye bye, you two."

     ***

     "I still didn't understand why those zombie Unis plagued the village in the first place," Huntress remarked after hearing the long story. It had been a few days but she hadn't had the time to sit down and listen before.

     Saura shrugged. "Maybe they were just looking for the companionship of the living. Ghosts tend to be that way. Sad, actually."

     "They didn't look sad when trying to break in," Shad grumbled, pricking up his ears. "Was that the Neomailman? S'cuse me!" He galloped off.

     "Shad, would you please... " Huntress couldn't even finish before the Lupe trotted back inside with a bunch of Neomails and two packages hanging between his jaws. The screaming mailman flashed by the window and disappeared down the road.

     "Gotta have some personal Lupe pride here," Shad announced with a grin, spitting the mail out. "What's with these packages? You don't get these very often."

     Huntress picked it up and glanced at it. "I don't. This one's for you, Saura."

     "Interesting," Saura muttered, opening the package. There was a bottle inside - a bottle of that same green liquid. The note attached to it was brief: "It liked you, so it will protect. Use it well."

      "Nice, I bet Tsuki can figure out what else it can do besides driving off ghosts," the Zafara grinned.

     Huntress looked at the bottle over his shoulder. "Maybe it's a warning? Bogshot is practically built on water; the zombie Unis were able to gallop on that as I understand... crossing the ocean and coming to Mystery Island to seek revenge on the ones who drove them off wouldn't be that impossible."

     "Don't even joke like that!" Saura snarled as his owner grinned widely. "Did you see that bottle, Shad? Eh... Shad?"

     The other package had been for Shad. The paper was far more dirty and smaller, the note attached to it was nothing but a scribble and there was only one word, written with a hand that wasn't used to holding a pencil. Saura picked the message up, read it and then looked at his brother.

     Shad was holding a long sharp fang that had been tied to a thin chain. His eyes were gleaming as he was looking at it without really seeing it. Old images were flashing through his brain, memories were coming back... not only his memories but also things each and every Lupe knows deep down inside.

     "'Remember,'" Saura read out loud and looked up again to glance at Shad who nodded slowly.

     "I will," he growled. "I definitely will."

The End