InsaneJournal

Curious Times (PG)
Title: Curious Times
Fandom: Earthbound
Completion date: September 8th, 2009
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 306
Warnings: Mild crack, maybe.
Summary: Ness meets a strange new friend.



     Ness stopped as soon as he laid eyes on the creature. His shoes squelching in riverbank mud were suddenly too loud, and his baseball bat inside his backpack was too far away; he'd never seen anything as alien as this thing's glistening blue skin.

     Forever passed, standing there barely breathing, looking into the creature's endless-black eyes. It took a step closer. Ness gathered a PK Rockin' behind his heart, held the blazing colours tight and watched the creature take another step.
     It looked out at the river, suddenly -- the surface stirred. Maybe there were more. Maybe a whole school of fish-finned creatures swirled down there in the dark. The creature chirped, and the shadows in the water murmured back to it and were gone. It looked at Ness. Its mouth spread wider, like a smile.
     Alien or not, anything that knew how to smile couldn't be that bad. Ness let the PSI dissolve away in his veins. He crouched. He put out a hand.

     And alien or not, the creature came to him, squeaking happily, nudging his hand like a friendly dog. It felt exactly the way it looked, cool and damp and slippery like that salamander Ness found once. But friends were still friends, even if they were kind of strange.
     He couldn't stay and get to know it better -- Paula, the friend he hadn't met yet, needed him -- but he patted the creature on its head.
     "It's nice to meet you."
     "Mudkip," it said.

     Then Ness stood up, and hiked his backpack straps up, and kept walking. The creature chirped goodbye behind him. Water splashed and settled, and then it was just the burbling river and the whole wide world keeping Ness company. There were scary things ahead of him but as long as he met a few friends along the way, he supposed he didn't mind.




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Happy birthday, Tango! I just had to go and ruin the nightmare mental image with actual narrative sense! :D