Chapter Twenty-Seven:
A Trip To The Zoo, And The Strange Creatures

by Chris, Jenime, Rach, and Walker

Coy leaned over and iron fence bordering the hippos lounge. Brushing her hair from her face cutely she motion Desi over. "Look they're sleeping!"

It was dark and cool, the zoo was closed and only the basic lighting was around. But when Desi had invited her out to discuss senshi business he had said they could go wherever she wanted.

Desi yawned and stretched, moving over to Coy and blinking sleepily at the hippos. "That's exactly what I should be doing, you know," he pouted, leaning forward some to glare at the hippos. His mood soon brightened, however, as Desi smirked and rested his hand on the small of Coy's back, then quietly moved it so that it wrapped around her waist slightly.

"You know," he muttered deviously, eyes no longer sleepy but rather mischievous, "the lighting, the hippos, the romantic smell of monkey feces in the air - this is rather like a date, isn't it?"

"Ha, I thought..." Coy laughed shyly, letting her bangs cover her eyes again. "I don't recall you actually asking me out on a date."

Gunnar poked his head up from her bookbag and whined. "I thought we were patrolling?"

Desi scowled darkly at the hamster, and reluctantly slid his arm off Coy. "Oh, come on. What senshi are going to actually find us here?" he protested, eyebrows arched.

Fafnir, who appeared next to Desi's ear, squealed loudly, "Oh, lots of senshi, my Desi! Faffie knows that evil other senshi can sense my Desi's and Coy's presence, yep yep, especially if my Desi is transformed!"

Desi rolled his eyes at the bird and swatted her away once more. "What is with you guardians? Look, I'll transform, and if no senshi come in ten minutes, you two don't bother us about senshi business for the rest of the night, capiche?" he grumbled. Heaving a heavy sigh, Desi called out his phrase and, after an eye-bleedingly golden flash of light, Gerda calmly snorted at the worried guardians. "Bunch of sissies, honest."

Erato clicked and clacked her way down the street past the zoo.  Right next to her was her older sister, Polyhymnia. In reality, these two girls were Allegro and Andante da Capo, on patrol for their first time with a man whom they had found a couple of weeks earlier. Their guardian had spotted the already awakened senshi, their first real contact with another of their team. They had managed to weasel out of him a promise to take them on patrol some day. Today was some day. Polyhymnia's purple and silver toga swished about her, Erato's jasper belt clicked and clacked softly as she waved her ribbon-wand behind her, and the two followed Discordia. They looked like a couple of girls going to a costume party. "He has a sexy back..." whispered Erato to her sister.

Polyhymnia merely shook her head and asked of the half-naked leather-belt man, "Where are we going?"

Peeking back over his shoulder, Stavros Salvi furrowed his eyebrows and sighed in thought. That was a good question. He had only been in the senshi business for a short time now and the idea of being on patrol was still new to the raven-haired youth. Not that anyone could tell what color his hair was under the golden helmet his costume provided. Making a slight 'swish' as he stopped, Discordia shrugged. "We are just making a small round of your district. We should not be out too late, even though it is the weekend," the costumed man stated as he placed his right hand on hip. "As I said
before, patrolling isn't as exciting as you expected."

He had tried his best to forget about the crack that Erato had made about his costume, especially since she had been going on in a similar vein all evening. The senshi sighed again and took his eyes off the girls, looking out over the animal park. They where standing on a hill looking over the tourist trap and the view was quite magnific-- Discordia blinked twice. He turned back to Polyhymnia, "Did you see that flash of light?"

Polyhymnia nodded in assent. "Really bright and lit half the park up."

Erato piped up, "I didn't hear anything, did you? If something had blown up, we'd have heard it, right?"

"The animals would have made a lot of noise if something had blown up, too..." murmured Polyhymnia. "Do you think we should check it out?" she asked of Discordia.

He nodded slowly, gaze turning from the girls back to the park. He narrowed his eyes in attempts to memorize the location the light had come from. "It couldn't hurt for us to go check. Not to mention it will break the mundane pace that tonight seems to be taking."

With a slight wave of his left arm, Discordia led the girls down the hill into the Roman Public Zoo.

"Seven minutes and nothing has happened. Not even so much as a weird feeling," Gerda complained. He inhaled deeply and stretched, then slowly exhaled. "I told you nothing would happen. You guardians are such idiots."

"Yeah!" Coy shouted excitedly. "Not so much as a purrr. I'm doin' it!"

She flicked her wrist forward, and began randomly punching buttons on her watch. "Hel transformation, hoooooo!"

Another bright swash of color, and Hel appeared next to Gerda with a bounce. The plastic souls of her shoes tapped rhythmically as she landed and she beamed through the uncovered half of her face. "Ha, Ha!" She sang, flexing poofy ski jacket arms. "Undefeatable Senshi of da Deeead!"

Polyhymnia peered around a building housing something rather smelly and gasped. There was a boy with a glowing ball of light, and a girl wearing a ski jacket and mask standing next to the hippo pond. "Over there!" she whispered to her teammates. "There's two of them, a boy and a girl, and the girl is jumping around."

Discordia rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. He could hear the girl's high pitched whining from where they stood. He'd naturally deduced she must be daft, but the note about jumping around proved it. The senshi rocked back and forth on his heel in thought and used casually swayed his scepter from side to side. He whispered softly to his wards, "So this is it. If they attack, I want to be sure that you two stay in the back at all times. Now will we let them find us first, or let surprise be our's?"

"Wee! YAH!" Coy babbled happily as she spun cartwheels and picked up benches with ease, reveling in her senshi strength and agility. Gerda watched with a look mixed of bemusement and confusion. The joy was interrupted by the sudden flapping of wings and a squealing hamster running around in circles.

"EEP!" Gunnar whinnied, chasing after Hel, getting caught in her feet and causing both of them to tumble.

"We should go now," said Erato, peering around the corner as her sister had just done. "The girl just tripped over the cute little fuzzy thing."

Polyhymnia nodded to Discordia. She was ready.

Gerda laughed out loud when Hel stumbled over her guardian and ended up on the floor, shaking his head with an amused look. "Some pair of senshi we are, huh?" he muttered to himself and leaned against the railing along the hippo pool.

"My Des - er, Gerda," hissed a voice next to his ear. Gerda looked up, eyebrow quirked. "There are senshi nearby," Fafnir squealed, her voice loud with fear.

"What?" Gerda yelped, instantly standing at attention, eyes roaming the zoo in search of the enemies. "Hel!" he called out, voice serious. "We've got company, but I don't know where."

"Then let me spare you the effort," Discordia stated dryly as he stepped out from the storage house's shadow. Unimpressed, he did a once over of the Noord senshi before crossing his arms over his chest. "So, light-boy, I fear you're breaking an entering."

Gerda half-grinned at Discorida, hands on his hips as he shrugged. "And how did you get in, then? It wasn't my fault the security guard wasn't looking."

The Romanus' expression didn't change in response, for Discordia felt he was above the Noord's accusations. "Don't be ridiculous. This is our city after all. We are doing the city a service by making sure all's well."

"Well," Hel answered, standing up and brushing herself off. "All is well!" She then shrugged at Discordia's unamused expression.

"Romanus!" Gunnar bellowed, charging forward towards the other Noords. "Kiyaaaah! Fight like a bandit!"

Polyhymnia and Erato stepped out from behind the building. "Well, he's not going to fight alone!" said Erato, her shoes clacking against the pavement.

"We're here to help, too," Polyhymnia said, readying her incense burner.

"Awwww... your guardian is so cute," Erato said to Hel. "We have a hedgehog, but we left him at home."

"Eeee!" Hel squealed happily as her guardian jumped up into her arms, and the two posed as if a camera was expected to whip out.

"Yes, yes, Faffie's Gunnar is very cute! Much cuter than ugly old Faffie, yes, yes, ugly Faffie!"

"Oh, for god's sake," Gerda muttered, rolling his eyes dramatically. "Look, this is probably one of the saddest battles I've ever not engaged in. How about you little Romanus leave us big, powerful Noord alone, and we won't kill you, hmm?" Gerda bluffed with ease, and gave them a very convincing smirk.

"Well, he isn't very nice at all," said Erato.

"No, the other one is much nicer," Polyhymnia said.

"Yes, I think so, too," came her sister's answer.

"Holy madre del dios," Discordia muttered under breath as his eyes moved from senshi to senshi. He was stuck with a bunch of children. Not to mention the animals. This wasn't a battle, it was a church social. He narrowed his eyes when Gerda began to bluff as his patience waned.

Uncrossing his arms, the Romanus took his scepter and poked the teenager squarely in the ribs. "Listen here light-boy, we're not going to be leaving before you do. Anyway, you don't look that tough. What are you the god of anyway? Small birds? You look like a parrot."

Gerda rubbed his now sore side, expression sour. "I normally wouldn't let that pass, but I am feeling merciful. And I happen to be the god of the Apocalypse, so don't piss me off, as I could doom you all before you could have time to utter a syllable."

"No my Gerda is not!" yelped Fafnir, alarmed. "My Gerda is the giantess of radiance!" she explained to the Romanus, and then began to whimper as Gerda gave her a look that could've very well doomed the small bird if looks could kill.

"Don't mind the bird," he said with a shrug. "She's not right in the head."

"And anyway," Hel said, catching on to the bluff Gerda was putting on and assuming he was a very powerful ally. "I'm the Senshi of the DEAD." She flex-posed again. "Do you really want some of this?"

"Oh no. We're quaking in our sandals lady," Discordia stated with a sour expression and a roll of the eyes. He didn't care about pride anymore. He furrowed his brow and added a bit less sarcastically, "Listen up. I'm getting tired of this. We're not going to sit here and stroke your egos anymore. Get out of the zoo now and we'll leave as well. Everything will be right with the world."

"Uhh, yeah!" piped up Erato. "We've got the power of holiness on our side," she pointed to Polyhymnia, "and I've got the beat."

"You're sure we can't just talk this through?" came the other Soros’ question.

"Oh HELL no!" The female Noord exclaimed.” I mean, what the Hell?" She looked to Gunnar and shrugged. " What the Hell? Am I wrong?"

Gunnar winked and looked smug, crossing his furry arms indignantly. "About as wrong as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!"

Gerda rolled his eyes and snorted at Dischorida. "We're not leaving, in other words. We were here first. You decided to look for trouble, and now that you've found it, you can be the ones to chicken out."

"I never imagined trouble would be so dull," Discordia snorted and turned his head back to the two muses. "Girls, even I believe you could take them."

Erato jumped slightly and took this to be her cue. "Honey," she said, pointing to Gerda, "Do you feel the rhythm moving in your veins?" She winked at him and finished, "Dance to the heartbeat."

"Do I -what-?" Gerda asked, eyebrow arched. He started to laugh loudly and kept on until, oddly enough, he felt very aware of his pulse, his heartbeat. He could practically feel it thumping in the confines of his chest, making out a sort of steady rhythm. Unconsciously, he felt himself tapping his foot to it and finally, casting a desperate and humiliated glance to Hel, he began to dance in time to his heart beat, his feet falling and rising on each pump.

Gunnar and Hel looked at Gerda oddly for a moment.

"Is he?"

"Why would he be...?"

They both looked at each other, shrugged, and began copying his footsteps earnestly to start what they figured was a hot new dance craze.

Polyhymnia turned to her sister and asked, "I thought that attack only worked on one person at a time. Did you do that?"

Erato raised her eyebrow and looked at the dancing hamster and girl. "It wasn't me. I think they're dancing just because they want to."

"I'm a little worried," Polyhymnia said.

"Me, too," agreed Erato.

Face posed in discontent, Discordia ignored the two girl's prattle. He closed his eyes halfway and furrowed his brow in concentration. Lifting his hands so that they were level to the buckle on his neck, a soft and mesmerizing glow soon filled his palms. He looked over to Polyhymnia, "It's time that they got serious. Keep your sister back." Head moving back to the dancing trio, he frowned and teasingly offered the ball of light to the two senshi. "A gift to the fairest, mi amicos."

The glowing orb had barely blinked into existence, but Hel and Gunnar were already all about it. "SHINY!!!!!" They gasped, quickly lunging at the orb, leaving a light string of drool behind them

Gerda, who had finally stopped dancing, turned in time to see the pair lunge for the bright orb. His eyebrows instantly furrowed and he sprinted forward, catching Hel's ankle and dragging her down before she could actually grab the ball. "Mine!" he yelled, and made his own dash for it.

"No!" The girl yelped before her chin hit the ground. She quickly reached out to her sprawling hamster and snagged the scruff of his neck. She pushed back onto her feet, narrowed her eyes at Gerda's back. No one, but no one, was getting her shiny, ball.... thingy.... THAT WAS HERS, WHATEVER! The tangerine and purple sleeves on her ski jacket poofed with movement and she flung her hamster at her fellow senshi's back.

"GUARDIAN GARM, GO GET ME MY SHINY!"

"SHINY!" Gunnar squealed, surging through the air paws forward. The soft poofy hairs on his back began to shoot out in long spikes, making him summersault as he traveled. His cute little paws swelled and punched forward, his eyes stretched and split in pairs. The little guardian opened his mouth and incisors the size of elephant tusks sprouted from his miniscule mouth.

He hit Gerda's back with the weight of a rhino, pinning him to the ground. Behind him, Hel cooed and rubbed her cheeks a bit madly. "Shiny, shiny, shineeeeeee!" Garm, the large mutation beast of a guardian, leaned his gaping mouth near Gerda's ear and breathed hot and wet on the back of his neck.

Gerda felt the air knocked out of him as the heavy paws slammed into his back and pressed him against the not so forgiving ground. Gasping to get some of the air back into his lungs, Gerda squirmed under the massive paws holding him to the ground and lashed about wildly, even though he was well aware of the fact that Garm was regarding the senshi like he was a snack. Dammit, he wanted that shiny ball! "Damn you, Hel!" he shrieked, and squirmed harder.

Discordia blinked hard while carefully manipulating the ball of light through his fingertips. He had been frozen like a deer in headlights since he began the attack, yet now a sinister smile curved on his lips as he watched the two senshi battling under his magic.

"Woo-hoo!" Hel screeched, throwing her hands up in the air. With a little dancing and a lot of pointing she caught her monsters attention. "Enough with him Garm! GO GET MOMMY HER GO-GLOW-SHINY-SHIMMER-WANNA-BOUNCY-BOUNCY-HALF-AN-OUNCY... " In a moment of rant she lost her point, then awkwardly (yet still  enthusiastically) continued, "... BALL!"

The beast grinned widely, pouring buckets of drool over Gerda's head. It then turned, charging the enemy senshi with reckless, joyful abandon.

Erato screamed as the huge beast charged at them, "Do something before he eats us!"

Her sister, slightly trembling and in a shaky voice quickly said, "Repent of your sins," and swung her incense burner in front of her before the monster tackled the three senshi. A plume of lavender colored smoke escaped from the burner, and shielded her from view. In the matter of a moment, the smoke filled the battle area, leaving the faint scent of roses, lilies, and lavender in the noses of the senshi. "Become humbled, fall to your knees," she continued. When the smoke cleared a moment later, Garm was on his knees not five feet away from the three Romanus. In the distance, both Hel and Gerda were on their knees, too.

"NO!" Hel moaned, lying almost flat on the ground as she tried to pull herself forward, knees unmoving. "GARM, can you move?"

The beast snapped his jaws at the nearest young girl, growling with frustration. He looked back to Hel with sad confused eyes and let out a disappointed huff.

"No-no-noooo!" Hel whined, clawing the ground. After a moment she tired, laid her head on the ground and looked tearfully at Gerda. "My shiny, oh my shiny."

Discordia's smile faded back into a sour expression as he looked out at the fallen senshi and then back to the girls, "That will teach them to listen to us."

Forgetting the glowing bulb in his hands, the senshi dropped it to the ground. It bounced twice, landing with a soft clunking sound, and then proceeded to roll toward the Noords.

Gerda reached out with eager hands, snatching the fallen sphere with a cry of triumph. "Take that, Hel!" he yelled, hugging the sphere as close as possible.

"Not FAIR!!!" Hel wailed. Garm moaned sympathetically, then with a poof and pop returned to his hamster form. Gunnar thunked to the ground, immediately bouncing around in hyperactive hysterics.

"Wait.... who cares about the shiny ball????"

Hel blinked. He bounced over to her, raving. "What's really important to you? Is it a shiny ball??"

Hel blinked again, then sniffled drippily. "Yuh-huh."

The dalmatian hamster jumped on her head and began to chomp and pull on her bangs. "No it's not! What about the fire-girl and helping people?"

"Oh... yeah!" Hel nodded, sending the hamster flying. She pushed off the ground and jumped to her feet triumphantly. "Gerda, forget the ball! They'll be plenty of time for balls later. For now, we shall go forth ball-less!" With a shiny purple plastic ski boot, she punted the ball from his grasp.

Gerda blinked, watching with despair as the ball he had tried so hard to nab bounced away from him. Suddenly, he shook his head and stood up, finger pointed at Stavros. "You're not the only one with a shiny ball of light, buddy, I've got one too." With that said, he took a step back and held his own ball of light close to his heart, eyes closing as he took a deep breath, the ball floating backwards and absorbing into his body. His skin literally began to radiate light, and soon his body was surrounded by the brilliant aura. Eyes directly on Erato, Gerda muttered in his most seductive voice, "Aren't I Pretty," and finished up the attack with a delicate kiss blown towards the young senshi.

Erato stood spellbound for half a moment. "Yes, you are," she answered; she giggled and took a few steps closer to him. "Don't you think, `Hymnia?"

Polyhymnia stared at her spellbound sister. "What have you done to her?" she asked in a very worried tone. Her sister's only answer was a few more giggles, and a couple of waves in the direction of Gerda.

Gerda smirked and pretended to brush some dust from his shoulder. "Oh, nothing really. Just assumed she was a normal teenage girl and that she was boy crazy.' Apparently, I was right on the money."

Hel leaned over and nudged her teammate a little. The half of her face not covered by the old wooden mask was lit up with a crazed grin. "Well maybe you guys would like some 'alone time', eh?" She nudged him again and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Hel giggled a bit loudly, then cut herself off and pointed at Erato. "Get it now!"

Everyone turned to look at the smitten Romanus. With a bounce and a dash, Gunnar jumped up and snatched her wand from her unsuspecting hand. Hel jumped up and down clapping as he ran off with it.

"YES!" She shouted victoriously, "Brilliant! Go little man!"

Erato didn't seem to notice the fact that a hamster was currently running away with her ribbon in-between his teeth. She was still engrossed by the very shiny and pretty boy. Polyhymnia, though, noticed. "Hey, come back here you gerbil-thing!" she shouted, as she ran after Gunnar, her sandals clapping against the pavement and incense censer swinging around wildly.

Once, twice, three times she almost managed to grab the ribbon from Gunnar, but every time he scrambled in another direction, jerking the ribbon just out of her grasp. "Come back!" Yet another miss. "Your mother wouldn't approve!" Gunnar ran underneath a bench, and she almost collided with it. "God is watching you!"

"Got no use for God when I keep gettin' awaaaaaay! Livin to sin for just one more day! Oi! Oi! Oi!" Gunnar sung back in true-punk falsetto. He ran towards a group of closed vendors and disappeared into the second stall full of stuffed animals.

Coy grinned at Gerda and the oblivious, drooling Erato. "Oh he's good. He's very good."

Gerda nodded, smirking. He had to stay in one place to make sure his power over Erato didn't snap, but as the opposing senshi were providing no pressure for him to move out of her field of vision, everything was a snap. "Impressive for a hamster." he said, shrugging.

The impressive hamster kept racing around, with Polyhymnia chasing after him -- then, an idea. "Look!" she eexclaimed, pointing towards the heavens, "a spaceship made from gnocchi and marzipan!"

Hel gasped, and for some reason, covered her eyes. Polyhymnia raced closer as the guardian skidded to a stop, dropping the scepter from its mouth, and sitting on it.

Innocently it looked up at the sky. Polyhymia saw her chance and was about to dive when he turned to her with the saddest, most heartbreakingly watery puppy dog eyes and squeaked. 

"You were lying?"

Polyhymnia stopped in her tracks, hovering before the hamster. He looked so pitiful... Her hand went up to her forehead, and she quickly made the sign of the cross. "Forgive me, yes," she answered.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!!!!???!!!!" The hamster with the voice of a heartbroken little boy wailed. He fell over her wand, clinging to it and sobbing so hard his fuzzy little body trembled.

Hel covered her ears and looked around panickly. "Oh no, this is bad. I'm in trouble." She needed to go to her little buddy, but first...

"BE DISEASED!" She blurted, and them promptly vomited over Erato.

Erato was suddenly disenchanted with the sparkling form of Gerda, and the feeling of attraction was replaced with one of intense sickness. She put her hand to her mouth, but found herself unable to hold it in. She ran over to a trashcan that was in the zoo, and hurled the contents of her stomach into it. She cried to herself a little, Erato hated the concept of vomit, let alone her being covered in someone else's, and her having to do it herself.

"Oh my, oh my," said Polyhymnia. Something needed to be done, and fast. She only had one thing left to do. She held her incense burner loosely in one hand, and whispered, "consecration of the lowly, veneration wholly". The brass and silver censor began to shed a faint and rosy light. She could only hope that it'd be useful.

Hel was running wide eyed as the light started. She squinted a bit and felt herself slowing to a trot. The rose hue reflected in her eyes and she felt a cold adrenaline run through her blood, locking up her arms and legs. She was paralyzed before she knew it. The blessed emptiness of her mind only lasting a moment when a shock like a railroad spike cracked her mind open and ungodly fear consumed her.

"Gerda!!!" She shrieked. "What is that! Make it stop please! Help me!"

She crumbled to the ground and rocked herself into a fetal position. Even though she had her face tucked behind her arms and knees, the fearful light seemed to penetrate further and further into her mind. A kind a fear you experience as a child. Something unexplainable and total.

"Mommy! Make it stoooooop!" She wailed.

"Dear Mother Mary," whispered Polyhymnia. Hel certainly seemed to be the emotional sort. If only she had kept her eyes covered from when she thought that there had been a spaceship made from foodstuffs, she wouldn't have had such a heart-wrenching reaction. Sadly, Hel didn't, and so she became slightly more emotional than before. Alright, a lot more emotional than before.

Discordia groaned in reply to everything that was happening. Loudly. His previous attack had taken a lot out of him, but in the time it had taken him to recover everything had just gotten silly. Although breathing heavily, he grasped his weapon and stomped over to Erato's side, as she was her charge, while keeping a careful eye on Gerda. "Are you alright?"

Erato was crying a bit, "No! I'm throwing up in a garbage can and..." her speech was interrupted by her bending over the receptacle, and placing yet another deposit in the Bank of Trashcan.

Polyhymnia trotted over to her other two teammates. She touched Erato's back with her censor; a small amount of healing energy pulsed into the sick teammate. "What about now?"

Erato's current flow of vomit stopped, but from the bedraggled look she gave when she looked back up from the trashcan gave the impression that she could explode at any moment. "I wanna go hooooome," she sniffled.

"That may be the best idea I have heard all evening," he responded without mentioning the fact that it obviously didn't come from the Noordic senshi. Yet the elitist frown and equally condescending furrowing of his brow that accompanied the statement was enough to drop the hint. Discordia rubbed his hands together, staring out over the prone Hel into the shadows, and projected quite loudly, "We will leave the lot of you to the zoo security! We are done with you!"

The Romanus high-tailed it out of the Zoo, leaving the Noord to themselves.  It was a hard-fought battle that ended in...  really, not much.

"Huh?" Hel looked up from the ground with eyes still full of ridiculously fat tears. Gerda was crouched in a corner by the monkey cages, shivering and unaware of their hi-pitched, mocking shrieks. "Did you just rat on us or something?"

"Hey!" Gunnar shouted, looking offended.

Hel lowered her unmasked eyebrow. "You're not a rat, dude."

"Oh yeah!" The hamster hugged himself.

The Noord girl wiped her eyes and sat up, trying to look willful. "Fine! Call the fuzz! Scram!" She then let herself go limp and lay on her back. Boy she was tired. All she wanted was to do here was chill with and hopefully ride some hippos.

Gunnar had scurried away briefly to check on Gerda, but now returned to her. “He’s okay, he’s just sleeping now. How are you? What freaked you out so bad?”

Hel tried uselessly to scratch an itch under her fuku. Big puffy gloves scratching on nylon ski jacket material. “Eh, it was horrible.  It was all creepy and stuff.” She shuddered and rolled on her side, looking down at him.

“Wow. That’s dumb.” He said, wiping his nose.

“Tell me about it. I’m the worst senshi ever. “

Gunnar shrugged. “Maybe... there’s always room for improvement.”

“Yeah,” Hel agreed. “At least this went better than that time with the Cat Dude.” She paused, inhaling a pensive breath. “Um... hey... remember about how I told you your parents gave me you from a spaceship?”

Gunnar’s eyes widened and he jumped. “Yeah! Made out of marzipan and gnocchi! That girl knew about it too!”

“Um...” Hel sweat-dropped. “That may have been stretching the truth a bit sweetie......”

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