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Housepets: Message from the Guardian, Season 1, Episode 2, Chapter 1- Great Balls of Fire!
To say the least, Grape wasn’t enjoying her free time outside. The air had a certain chill to it that her lavender scarf couldn’t compensate for; it had recently rained, so the raindrops that had fallen on the patio where Grape sat were cooled to almost freezing, but not quite. The cat shivered and hugged her shoulders. Man, it’s freezing, she thought. Why did I choose to sit out here? Oh yeah, Peanut won’t give me any silent time to myself to finish collecting my thoughts.
Grape had spent most of the afternoon, just sitting on the porch, collecting her thoughts, watching them swirl around inside of her head. The cat’s eyes began to wander the backyard…and eventually settled on a recently-raked pile of leaves as she became lost in thought. She began to wonder about why she had been so short with Max. He hadn’t done anything to her, hadn’t said anything to deserve her rage…he just showed up to her hospital room, a bouquet of flowers in hand (er, paw), and she kicked him out. Grape buried her face in her paws.
She was getting so hot-tempered lately…why is that? Grape figured it had to have something to do with that dream of hers….which begged another question: why did Peanut have powers and she didn’t, if they had identical dreams?
The dog could stop time, heal, and call gusts of wind…and all she could do was lose her temper. But she was sure she had powers, she just had to! The lavender cat mulled over this; how could she activate them? She continued to gaze at the pile of leaves until… “AH HA! I got it!” Grape snapped her fingers. The tiger symbol on her forehead glowed red…but it wasn’t the only thing; so had the pile of leaves!
Grape quickly jumped to her feet. She hurriedly pulled open the back door. “PEANUT!” She screamed, “Get some water, now! Hurry!”
Less than a minute later, Peanut came outside with a cup filled with water. “What’s wrong, Gra-“ Peanut noticed the blazing pile of leaves. “Oh, I’m gonna need a bigger cup.”
“I’ll take that,” replied Grape, taking the cup. She smiled and patted the dog’s back. “Honey, go get a bucket.” Peanut returned inside the house and Grape poured the cup of water into the fire. It had no effect. She stared in wonder at the brush fire. It hadn’t grown, it wasn’t even fazed by the water…it was like the fire didn’t really exist. Grape reached out to touch the fire, when… “Grape, don’t touch that!”
Peanut stood on the porch, a 2-gallon bucket held by its handle, grasped in both of Peanut’s paws. The dog walked as fast as he could to the fire in the pile of leaves and dumped the bucket o’ water onto the fire. Grape and Peanut stared in amazement as the water passed straight through the fire onto the ground below, washing away the majority of the leaves. Again, the fire was unfazed.
“What the…?” Peanut asked, scratching his head. “It-it just passed right through…like the fire’s some sort of hologram or something…”
“Try blowing it out or something,” Grape suggested, a worried expression on her face. Peanut tried to focus on the fire, hoping to be able to call his powers out. The green wolf symbol on his forehead again shone through his headfur as a breeze quickly developed into a gale and shot at the small fire. The gale drew up a small storm of leaves, as well, forcing Peanut and Grape to cover their eyes. Peanut mentally commanded the winds to stop, and they did so. When the leaves settled, the couple opened their eyes.
There the fire stayed, still no smaller or larger. It didn’t seem that anything could extinguish the fire…and it was a good thing the fire hadn’t spread, or they would be in trouble!
Peanut sat back. He had done all he could, so the only thing they could do now was try and figure out how the fire had started in the first place. “Grape,” the dog asked, “what was happening out here when the fire started?”
Grape began to recall the events that had happened only a few minutes earlier. “Let’s see,” she began, “I was sitting out here, thinking about how I’d treated Maxie and what to do about it, and and I had come up with an idea when the fire started.”
Peanut kept his confused look. “Well, did you do anything that might have started it?”
Grape shook her head. “No. I was just sitting there, and when I figured out what I was going to do about Maxie, I…snapped my fingers…” Grape’s expression shifted from one of wonder to one of joy. “…that’s it!” the cat yelled excitedly, “I snapped my fingers! So if I snapped them and the fire started, maybe snapping them again will put it out!”
Peanut shrugged his shoulders. “It’s worth a try,” the dog replied.
Grape snapped her fingers, and the fire disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “Cool!” she said, a smile on her face, as she snapped her fingers once again. The fire reappeared. The cat began to play with this mechanic, snapping her fingers again and again, watching as the fire was there one second and gone the next. Peanut shook his head, but decided not to stop her. She had been through a very stressful couple of days, and he figured he would let her have her fun. He chuckled and opened the back door to the house, disappearing inside. He picked up the Wii Remote he had set down to go see what Grape wanted and resumed his game of Mario Kart.
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“Huh? Where am I,” Joey wondered. He looked around, but his environment was nothing but darkness.
“Welcome to Babylon Gardens,” announced a voice behind the frazzled dog. He turned around. “What are you…?” The dog couldn’t help but stare in amazement at the figure before him.
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To be continued, of course. ;3
This chapter didn't feel long enough, but meh.
