Leonardo by Javvi

She's running around, playing, laughing....having fun in a grey world. Remind me to get you a little black dog, Dorothy... he smiles in spite of himself.
Wonder if I could get her to call me uncle Henry...

She peaks out of the window...great enough. Sun's high up on the sky, weather's hot. Fata morganas are floating a couple of feet above the ground, playing with her mind. Still hasn't gotten used to them. Now a hippo is dancing by in the air, making her flinch and shake her head; when she looks again, it's turned into a swirling umbrella.

Not much use for umbrellas in this place...unless it's for shade from the sun, that is...

Nervous glances at the girl outside. That little black girl, what's she doing in the company of that...that weird man?
Covered in rags from top to toe; nothing, not even a finger peaking out.
But she-- she's only wearing a short, light blue dress, a pair of red leather-strap shoes and the hugest smile she's ever seen.

She never saw them arrive. Where did they come from?

He's picking at a flower pot, tears off a yellow petal, stops, decides not to ruin it. It's obviously the only flower for miles.
He looks at Siyane. In a while, when she's tired of playing with the sand, when she's thirsty, then he doesn't know what to do.
Maybe they shouldn't be hanging around this house, the owner might not like it.
At least it provides shade. Not that he could persuade Siyane to sit in the shade, anyway. Her skin is so sunburned now that she cries in her sleep. He's given up on trying to lecture her.

For a fleeting moment he wonders if he could get some sunscreen from whoever lives here, if maybe they could even spend the night; then he shakes his head.
We better wait for the others...we can sleep outside, we've done it before...under the stars...
And it makes him feel like a burden for the little kid.

So...are they going to stay there all day? She's getting restless, wonders if they are aware of her presence or not, if they think it's weird or rude that she doesn't come out to greet them, speak to them...

Could do with at least a little conversationing; she recalls it being over a month since the last time she talked to someone.
But she still doesn't feel like chatting much. Just five minutes...five minutes. Need to know if my voice still works, she jokes.
She fills a jug of water, mixes in some lemon flavor; conciders the fact that they might draw the conversation out to ten minutes, twenty even...but what the hey-- why not? Why not, she laughs silently, sounding like a small brook running through the furthest hideaway in the forest...

Hey there...you guys thirsty? she tries to think of an opening line in her head, and that frankly disturbs her a little. Geez, been alone for just a month and already I'm forgetting the art of conversation? she smiles and turns the door handle down.

"Lemonade!" Siyane's voice feels like soapy bubbles in the atmosphere, and she skips over to the woman, beaming like only a seven year old can.

"Uh, hi," the woman's voice instantly cracks, and she has to clear her throat. Gotta start singing a little more, she makes a mental note of, or at least just hum...
Well, I just noticed that you were lurking in my yard, and I'm so restless and suspicious that I decided to make some lemonade for you.

"Hi," she tries again, "I, uh-- perhaps you'd like some?" She says lamely, already knowing that they'd just die for some lemonade.

"Yay!" Siyane laughs, and the woman pours her a glassful of it. The man gives Siyane a strict glance, and Siyane blinks and spins around to face the woman. "Thank you, lady!" she smiles. The man smiles approvingly to her beneath his many folds and layers of greyish-white, raggedy clothing.

"Err, yeah, you're welcome..." the woman's mouth twitches to a trying smile, and she kicks the dust, "I'll, uh, why don't I just leave this here, and you'll...yeah, so, excuse me for a minute," she puts the tray on the ground and backs away, "I just have to go and heh, powder my nose," her laugh is shaky, she rushes into her little, white house, with the red roof.

"What a strange lady," Siyane comments, her face halfway down the glass of sour-sweet lemonade.

"Mmm," he gives a reluctant nod, "but you shouldn't instantly condemn what may seem strange to you at the moment...you've learned that, haven't you?"

She starts pouring another glass of the yellow liquid, and grins knowingly up at him. "Yep, I know! Don't you want any of this, Leo?"

"Sure..." he smiles back down at her, can't help but to, and takes the lemonade that she hands him. He sips it, deep down in his thoughts. "Siyane," he mumbles, "how about we play a little game, huh?"

She nods ecstatically, "Yeah! What is it?"

"Well, it goes like this; we'll pretend that we have to make up new names for ourselves,"

"Yeah?" she says eagerly, eyes shining.

He glances at her, "Cause if we don't, the sand'll get angry and explode," Oy, where do I come up with these things?
I must've spent too much time around Mike last week...

She goggles at him, "It will?"

"Well..." he considers this, and contemplates whether he should be scaring the child so much or not. He settles for telling her the truth later, "Yeah, it will. So, to save our lives," he looks at her through the corner of his eye, to check if she's actually buying this. She is, and he continues, "I'll be Henry," it's the first name that comes to his mind, " and you'll be...well, you can choose for yourself," he figures this will keep her busy for a while.

Siyane sits down in the sand. She goes "Hmm," and "Mmrrm," a lot of times, and while she does this, he goes over to the house to talk to the owner, and give the tray back. Siyane's already finished the lemonade off.

The kitchen is very small. Just the two of them there nearly crowds the room. He can't decide if it's cozy or confined.
She's sitting there, holding on to her coffee cup as if it's a lifeguard ring at sea. He stirs his own coffee, black, just a little sugar, and tastes it. Even the coffee tastes like anxiety.
Leo wonders what it is that's bothering her, but soon his mind drifts off to the recent events. The birthday party, the escape from the power plant, how April and Casey had this major fight, Raph suddenly dragging this little girl home, and how they had to split up, and how he settled right then and there that he was the one to take her with him. He is really looking forward to hearing Raph's explanation when they all team again up on Thursday, at the gas station.

"A penny for your thoughts,"

"Hunh?"

"I was wondering what you were thinking about," she gazes at him above the rim of her cup, looking sorta more like a small, frightened animal than a grown woman. Her eyes are big and brown. Perhaps a little too big.
He stares at her for a while.

"Oh, nothing much..." his voice trails off, then he reconsiders, for some reason, "just thinking about what's happened the last few days and stuff..."

"You're on the run, aren't you?"

He looks at her eyes again, "Yes,"

"I know," she continues, "because that's what brought me here," she squints at him, trying to look behind the rags, but they are too tight, and too many, "I had to leave the city," she whispers, and suddenly she slams her cup down on the tiny table.
She makes a grimace and touches her temple. He thinks he just saw her skin crawl, but he's not quite sure.
He's got a bad feeling, that's for sure.

He shoves his cup aside, suddenly losing all want for coffee, "Are you having a headache?"

She glances at him, "What?" she asks sharply, then she smiles a crooked smile, "Heh, yeah, just a headache..."

"I can get you some ice," he offers, "do you have any in...?" he points for the tiny fridge.

"Yes, I, won't you... just look in the lower drawer in there..." she nods. This time he's sure her skin crawled.
He roams around in the drawer, and snatches the ice. He wraps it in a thin towel he discovers in another drawer, and hands it all to her.

"Here, hope this'll make you feel better,"

She swallows, "Thank you,"

He frowns at her as she puts the packet to her forehead. "Look, me and this little girl out there, we were wondering if..."
He stops as she quickly lays a hand over her cheek, doubtlessly to cover up something. Did he just see a lump grow out of nowhere?

"Err, I, what's your name, by the way?"

"Lucille," she says hoarsely, "Lucille..."

"Okay, Lucille...we were just wondering if," he stops once more. Did he just feel a slippery whatever-it-was against his leg?
"If we could spend the night here?" he squints under the table. There's nothing unusual there. "You see," he goes on, a tad troubled, "if it was just me, I'd never have asked, but she could sure need it, you know? We've been travelling for days, so I hope you understand--"

She shudders, "I...yes, I understand," she thinks his voice sounds like it's under water now, thick, and she's getting terrified,
"You can..." she feels disgusting things starting to move under her clothes, "you can stay!" she screams the last bit, and she falls off of her chair, bringing it down on the floor with her.

Leo stands bolt upright from his own chair, causing it to crash into the floor behind him, and he nearly trips over it as he stumbles backwards and away from the bundle of clothes and hair and tentacles writhing on the floor, and only separated from him by the tiny bamboo table. That damn well ain't no headache!

"Leo! Le-- I mean Henry. Henry!"

Oh no...

The girl bursts in through the door, "I thought of a name! I thought of a name! Ginger Mirabella! Isn't that cool? Henry, don't you think that's cool? Hey, Henry, why aren't you answer-- oh my..."

If I knew that's all it takes to silence her, I would've bought a monster a long time ago, Leo thinks, head swimming.

Leo brings his hand into the layers of rags and yanks out his pair of katanas. He makes it for the exit before the tentacle does, and fortunately, Siyane's already put her tail between her legs and scrammed. Good thing she at least has that much sense...

The What-The-Fuck-Happened-To-That-Lady, as Leo has labeled it, now comes slithering out of the door, shrieking and shrieking, until Leo expects his eardrum to melt. He catches a glimpse of Siyane bawling behind the only tree around, a palm tree, and he knows he's gotta end this now. Just as he takes a few steps forward, the thing rises to its full height, which is about three times as high as the house. Leo swears quietly, and recollects that offense is the best defense...

Which though, naturally, is a little hard to keep in mind when faced with a tall, shockingly purple abomination. With teeth.
A lot of teeth, Leo thinks dizzily, then performs the mental equivalent of kicking himself in the shins, but not for much longer!

"Come on, you walking intestine," Leo mutters, scowling at where he figures its eyes to be.

The adressant of this insult leaps-- or rather slithers very quickly-- forward, and Leo throws himself aside.
He scampers of the ground, turns, makes a somersault, swinging his swords, and cuts off some foreign piece of the thing in midair as he passes it.
He also, as he finds out when he lands, shredded a few pieces of his own clothing. He swallows. Perhaps I shouldn't try that particular trick again...
At least the whatever-it-is is hurt badly.
A disgusting liquid oozes out from where he chopped of a limb, making a nauseating smell...

He figures to hell with it, and jumps right onto it, clinging on, stabbing and stabbing, slicing, with his swords, fluids squirting everywhere. Right now he's very thankful for the fact that he's covered up. His rags are suffering a much worse fate, though.
I'll have to go check if this thing, err, this lady has some clothes I can borrow... he makes a mental note of.

In the end, the thing utters a noise reminding him of a moan, and drops dead on a hot desert sand dune.

Siyane peeks out from behind the palm tree, face all tearfilled, and sniffles a bit. "Henry...?"

He pokes the crumpled heap with his toes, and turns to the young girl with a frown, "Yeah, Ginger, s'all good,"

This makes her brighten up somewhat, "It's Ginger Mirabella," she rubs her nose, holding back a small sob.

Early in the morning, she wakes up.
She feels surprisingly refreshed, and starts singing a small tune while she fills her bathtub, slime dripping off her earlobe.

"Somewhere over the rainbow...hmm de dum, la di da da de da la la la, de da de dum..."

She turns at the sound of the footsteps, bare feet against linoleum floor, and is about to start talking when she realizes what exactly she's looking at.

"Err..."

The animal stares back at her, evenly taken by sursprise.

"Uh..."

She stands there, listening to the steady run of the water.

"I thought you were dead," he suddenly blurts out.

This, of course, takes her back a bit, "You what? And what kind of being are you, anyway?"

"Listen," he wags a finger at her, "Yesterday, right out of the blue, you turned into a 30 feet monster with tentacles, which I killed, and now you're suddenly back alive," he pauses, "and you think I'm the strangest one here?"

Her eyes take on a blank look for a moment, then she sits down on the bathtub brink, "Oh...that,"

He draws his breath, "I would really appreciate it if you told me what's going on,"

She turns the water off, stalling, pouring the bath salt, "There's just this thing I have...dunno what it is, actually, kind of a sickness or something," she mumbles.

He stares at her, "Don't worry, it's not affective," she adds hastily, "it's more of a genetic heirdom,"

"Okay..." Leo nods, taking it in, Don would just love this... "So, what triggers it? Was it the ice or something?"

She smiles, a disturbing smile, "No. It was the conversation,"

"The-- you're not serious?"

She nods, "Mmhmm,"

He raises his eyebrows, crosses his arms, gazes at some distant point, "This certainly brings new meaning to the expression 'Was it something I said?'," he says.

She laughs a short laugh, like dry straws being rubbed together, "Every time I talk for too long to people, start to connect,
I panic, start feeling nauseous-- and voilá!" she shrugs.

"Instant monster," Leo mutters.

"Yep," she sighs, then looks up at him, "but you've changed all that,"

"What? How?"

"You killed me,"

"That's the cure?"

"Apparently..."

"So you're-- but you're not dead?"

"Yes, I am,"

"But--"

"We're both dead, Leo,"

He wakes up at the sound of Siyane smashing a coconut against a rock. It's not working, but he knows that once that kid's gotten a certain idea into her head, she can be mighty persistent and patient. Which unfortunately doesn't apply for all other things, though. She's mostly easy to get off track, to distract. But Leo's got the feeling that she's a good kid.
She's gonna make it. No matter what.

After getting the sleep out of his eyes, he stands up. Siyane slept in the house tonight, but he kind of didn't manage to settle down anywhere in there. He's not certain why.
Plus, he told himself, Siyane needed the bed, and out here he could keep the house under surveillance. Naturally, in the end, he had to fall asleep, even if the smell reeking from the slewn giant was close to noxious. Walking many miles in the desert can do that to you...

She's finally made a hole in the coconut, and she's drinking its milk. She glances up at him with innocent eyes, "Do we have any cookies, Henry?"

"No, Ginger, I'm sorry, we don't," he rubs his eyes, "I'll get you some at the gas station,"

"Raph always had cookies..." she mumbles, pouting. This makes him wonder, yet again, what the hell has happened, where this black little girl came from originally. But Raph told him strictly to not ask her any questions concerning that, made him promise, and Leo always sticks to his word. He figures Raph must have his reasons. As always.

"Yeah, I know," he assures her, "we'll see Raphael soon, I promise,"

He's stopped at the side of the stinking, massive corpse. He ponders, did she really talk to me?
He settles for that it must've all been a dream. The thing is dead, the woman is dead. He and Siyane are alive.
That's all that matters. And now they have to get moving.
Leo and the girl gather up all the food in the house, though Leo wonders if it's really safe to eat it. But he decides that if that's the case, then it's already too late, seeing as they've been drinking her lemonade and her coffee.
Then there's the fact that even if he may have great ability to ignore his hunger and thirst, Siyane doesn't.

They pick up their gear, and start the next part of their seemingly endless march. Siyane is still in awe over Leo's navigating correctly between all these confusingly alike sand dunes. Sand, sand, sand...and sun. The mind fries, but not his.
Nor hers; she is blissfully unaware, and can keep into her own little world. Pretend it's a beach or something.
That way, they come through it all.

Leo looks back at the house when they've been walking for about five minutes.
The tiny, white, cottage-like house, next to the gigantic dead body, like a mosquito next to a beached whale.
He wonders who's gonna find it, and what they're gonna think about that sight, how they're gonna react. All he knows is that he hasn't got time to bury all that. For once, it can be somebody elses problem.

Thank you, hero...

He stops in mid stride, a concerned grimace on his face, and turns very slowly back to face the house.
He lifts his hand and gives the building a slight wave. He realizes that Siyane is tugging his sleave, so he looks down at her unpatient little face.

"C'mon!" she is saying.

"Yes...yeah, come on, let's continue, shall we?" he offers his arm to her, and she takes it with an excited grin.
She loves it when he finally decides to humour her a bit. She wouldn't tell him, but he's her idol. Her knight.
They start to walk.

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road, follow the Yellow Brick Road..." Siyane, aka Ginger Mirabella, sings it the entire way to the gas station.

This, naturally, doesn't make Henry very happy.