Butthead?

Wha?

You happy?

It was Chico’s idea to come back here. I wouldn’t’ve thought of it myself, and honestly, if it hadn’t been for the Bear God’s wrath, my Pa’s words, and all the shit that went down here—yeah, no, I probably wouldn’t even remember this place existed. The red bled too much into my eyes, but not like the sun does, like how it sort of screams in your retinas when you look at ‘im face to face and try to stare him down. The red wasn’t blaring here, is what I’m saying; but it was so very, very red, and so wrong and different, there was no way you could let it slide. So yeah, I’d forget about it, like a lot of other shit that annoys me (Shapes’ name, for one).

I also had other shit on my plate to deal with. I didn’t know what, or where, or why for that matter. Drolgatha was gone—I didn’t know where, or how to follow her—and I wasn’t feeling anything off here anyway. Sparkmarrow’s blades sat on my withers and the weight of them reminded me of shit I couldn’t ever let myself forget. There’s a Drolgatha out there. I guess there’ll always be a Drolgatha out there, somewhere…

…but not here, I guess. All that was here was red trees with red leaves and red water that rushed in a quiet whisper beside the bank I rested on. I was down on my side, my eyes lidded against the glittering red shit that I wanted to ignore (and couldn’t) while Cheek was…somewhere, I dunno, he was off doing his own thing cuz he’s a big boy and he can do that shit. But I could feel from him a distinct exertion, that he was definitely playing something and, whatever it was, he was playing it hard.
And yet, he was still talking to me.

You happy?

Am I happy?

I didn’t really know what to tell him; I was dozing at the side of a pond, doing my absolute best not to think of some shit, busy being lost and completely baffled as to what to do next. So, y’know, the usual.

Yeah, whatever, I guess.

He cheesed at that, but I didn’t see him.




talk
Chico

Okay but this is kinda weird cuz I wasn’t actually there for a lot of this shit. I mean, I was….in the area, that’s true, but Cheek was the one who was front and center and who was actually the front for this whole mess. So yeah, I picked up a lot of the scene from his perceptions or whatever.

He’d been…doing his thing I guess (chasing tail) whatever it is companions do when they’re not around you. Forage for food or whatever (tail), I’m not really up on it. But I felt the way his stubby little legs pounded through the crimson underbrush (heuheuh), and I smelled all the scents he smelled and saw all the sights he saw—if I wanted to, that is. Mostly I just kinda laid there, my mind fuzzy and warm and calm for once, which was probably a shitty thing because there was always too much shit to do at any given time and there I was being a lazy shit while my bro Cheek was busy playing grab-ass.

Hey.

He sort of shook me out of my haze though, prodding my consciousness awake as he seemed to stumble on something that might interest me. I felt the excited leap in his heart, which meant that he was seeing someone he liked. Which got me on edge, cuz there was a lot of those, and mostly they were people I liked to see. I felt my body get warm and cold and chilly and shivery all at once. Is it Bro? I asked him, my ear cocked and my muscles kinda sorta maybe tensing like I was about to get up, Is it—Is it Lee??

No, he told me, blunt and simple. And he couldn’t give me a name because—well, neither of us knew her name, really (he refused to call her Faux-to-to, and I’m not exactly sure what that means). So instead he sent me an image, which took all the poised excitement out of my limbs and I flopped back to the ground. Oh balls Cheek, I groaned, cuz I knew he wanted me to get up and greet her and he knew I knew that he knew good and hell well I wasn’t in any mood to play with that bitch. Fuck off with that.

He didn’t fuck off with that, though. He blinked at her as she called to him, and if skunks could smile, he was doing it right at her; waddling his little as right on up to her (like he does with everyone), he craned his muzzle up at her, demanding pleading a hug from her. She big now, he was telling me, she big, grow longer mane, growOH HOLY SHIT.

My head flew up, my eyes opening like shocks at the excitement that suddenly poured from him. Chico what the f—

A DRAAAAAAAAAAGON.

And suddenly he didn’t care for snuggles anymore, fuck those snuggles man, cuz he had caught sight of something gleaming and bronze and so freaking cool, like holy shit. He backed away from her, from the mare of earth and farts, and he gave a great zpsnck! and turned into that hulking whatever-the-fuck he liked to turn into now. Beating his great leathery wings with hype, he roared up at the shimmering dragon that had captured his attention, because apparently when you see something cool, you shout at it.






talk
Chico

There was no way I was gonna be able to doze back off, and Chico knew that. Fuck him forever but he felt like I was needed to be conscious for this exchange, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with me. I dunno—I guess he figured I shouldn’t be ignoring someone so hard like I was doing. Especially if it wasn’t out of true ignorance.
I could hear her asking him if he had been able to do that before—and he shook his head proudly, the horns rocking heavy on his huge-huge butthead he still had (no matter what form) (meanie). And even though the excitement had certainly died down, he was still blaring it in my mental ear, impossible for me to miss, cuz he’s an asshole.

But no, really, he was damn-proud of this body. To be able to shift into anything he had ever dreamt of was a freedom in its own way, and yeah, he was always gonna miss it and all the opportunities he had unknowingly ever taken. But this was a different kind of freedom, a smooth kind of satisfaction he had never before felt in those powerful shoulders, in those claws of his and a tail that still didn’t make any kind of sense to me. To slip into any skin was fun, but at the end of the day, they were the skins of some other creature he had only been borrowing for the time being. This shit right here?. This was his skin, so uniquely his, and it fit every edge and corner of his being so good it always caused this weird glow to bloom in his chest whenever he showed someone just how badass he really was.

Cuddly, though. Always cuddly.

But badass.

It didn’t help that the little shining dragon was mimicking his excitement, enabling his pride by gliding down in front of him to look at him a little closer. He puffed his chest out, his mane seeming to ruffle as he allowed the dragon to survey his pretty pretty bod. It didn’t last long, though. With a single leap, he backed away from the dragon, his wings raised and poised, beckoning for a chase.
I groaned, cuz you shot yourself into the air and you wanted that dragon to follow and I knew exactly where you were gonna lead them. I stayed splayed in the dirt, cuz I’m a jerk and I’m okay with that.





talk
Chico

Chico was broadcasting everything loudly in my mind. Like, really, really loudly. Like, I could feel his heart pump as raw as I could feel my own already, without any effort into the feeling. But he was—shoving it between my eyes, deliberately breaking the barrier of my ignoring the situation going on not so far from me. Sleep was ruined; my own peace was ruined. I was growling and he knew because he was all up in my personal space and it was part of his master plan.

I even felt the awgh shit from him when the dragon winging his way behind him—like—threw up straight-up cold from his throat. Like, that wasn’t even something that was on Cheek’s radar. I guess he had to learn sometime though, that it was a thing dragons just did sometimes. It was their shtick. Didn’t shock me though, after growing up with Tinek and everything. It made me snicker at him—Haha, guess you ain’t such big shit, aren’t ya?—and I knew he was gonna get back at me somehow for laughing at his smug ass but I didn’t care anyway cuz he was already disturbing my nap and I was already pissed.

It didn’t take long before I saw the two of you flapping through the tree-line, you all big and grey and blue, it a proud, brassy thing spitting things at you, beating powerful, draconian wings that reminded me painfully of childhood things. But she wasn’t there like I knew you wanted her to be, and I’m not sure what was going on—because of course she was here for me, of course, why else would she still be hanging around if it wasn’t to find my ass? And Chico was just being a dirty enabler. Bastard.

I sighed like a brute and rolled right-side up, shaking my mane out and waiting with a twisted gut until she appeared from the trees, all tall and brown and sanctimonious. Looking down on me from so many angles like last time, demanding I clean up some shit or whatever, chastising like I was the babe in this situation. I dunno. A lot of the things rolling in my head were imaginary—I get that now. But they still felt real and my body was twisting like they were real.

It got to a point where the tension in my body snapped from waiting for her—and I finally let it burst from my mouth. “WHA’DA YA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT,” I screamed, and the words just sorta melded into a loud growl-roar as I threw myself back on the ground and threw my juice on the floor and kicked my feet in a tantrum. God, just get it over with.






talk
Chico

I had closed my eyes behind a throbbing in my temple (that wasn’t really there, okay yeah I was being dramatic, sue me) while I lay and the ground and waited for her to finally appear. I could already feel Cheek coming close, winging his way toward my location, a blue-tailed beacon for the earthy duo to follow—at least, he was blue-tailed until he zpsnk!ed in mid-air right above me, morphing into a black and white furry mass that ended up being so much heavier than I anticipated dropping on my stomach like that. Hrrng. But he was grinning and I was still lying in the dirt/mud, and I could feel and smell her coming close and I was already growling as she was making her way into earshot.

“Fuck you,” I blurted, opening my eyes to holy shit that is way too goddamn tall to be allowed. And I didn’t like her for it. Another reason checked off the list. I hated the way she looked down on me all the time, appraising, judging, and I didn’t care that she had a legitimate reason to do so cuz people can’t usually help that sorta thing.

But she wasn’t a usual person. She was made-to-order, wasn’t she, assembled and rolled off the line all ready to go for humanity to fuck up. It was easy to imagine her tallness, her fairness, as a statement. Especially when you know the hands behind the machine.

"Why would you think I wanted something?"

I snorted and I was 3/4ths mud at this point and I didn’t miss that fact, that I was the one rolling around on the ground when I should’ve had a firmer grip on shit than I had, but whatever. “You’re still here,” I said, my too-tiny tail doing a flip-thing of agitation from where I watched her with one electric eye, “and the only time y’all stick around is when y’all need shit from me. Otherwise we don’t stick in the same place for long.” I made to get up—I was almost there—but then I huffed back down, because I had just got comfortable and I didn’t really feel like getting up. Not yet.

“See? Still here,” I said with an awkward ground-shrug, “beat that logic, smartass.”






talk
Chico

Now see, at least the sun-born…chick had made it easy for me. All I had to do was throw some shade her face and it was enough to get her growling at me and keep her the fuck away from me. Which is all I wanted, really, because every time I saw one of these half-god yahoos (Mesec was an exception) it usually meant there was some bullshit afoot that I didn’t want any part of. Besides, it was easy to deal with someone who didn’t like me. They could shout at me, growl at me, throw hands and everything, and I could cope with that. I could mold that, grind against it, because it was a real, tangible thing that I understood. I could deal.

What I can’t deal with is someone’s sound, lukewarm responses to my rage. Cuz that shit was infuriating, if only because she refused (or couldn’t?) react the way I wanted her to. For fuck’s sake, I’d basically asked her for a brawl once and she had blown it off with such a calm, innocent answer that did nothing to dispel the pent-up energy I was building to fuck something up. Which only got me more pissed.  

Standing there just looking at me and poking holes in my bullshit logic somehow pushed my buttons a lot more than an actual declaration to whoop my ass would. And I hated it cuz I didn’t know why. All I know was that she was staring down at me and I was all muddy and I wanted her to stop. Fucking. Looking. Down. Or something. Shit, throw a punch, kick at me, anything at all c’mon I’m begging for a bone here. And all Chico could do was snigger at me and flop a little from his spot on my stomach. Who knew the fastest way to pissing me off—was to do nothing at all?

Just—fuckin’—jeez—

I was just getting so mad at her standing there, deflating my arguments and managing to make me look like an idiot (I don't want anything) in like, one or two breaths. I watched as mud crept up her legs (for some reason) and I imagined calling her MudSpud McShitface but like. She wasn’t the one caked with it from head to toe. Probably wouldn’t be the best action for me to pull.

Chico just kept snickering at me. Like a goddamn traitor or some shit.

So finally something in me said “fuck it” and I rolled over a little, enough so my legs were cocked in the air—and I flung one at her, and she was nowhere near enough for me to actually strike her with a hoof. But a huge glob of mud slung off my leg and rushed for the dangling crimson cloth on her side. Clearly, my actions were justified. I’m obviously an adult and I demand respect.







talk
Chico