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The toy was not the official THE HERO of Dragon Blazers toy, despite what the packaging had claimed. Even to Susie's elementary-school aged eyes, the mistakes were obvious. The figurine's armor - too simple, the colors - too pastel, the head - too small, and the plastic - too rough and flimsy. So flimsy in fact, the left arm had snapped off mere minutes after Susie had torn the figure from the box it had come in.
Even though it had broken almost a year ago, the little, purple dragon girl still felt bad about it. Granny had been so excited to give Susie it. Worse still, granny had seen it happen.
(Broke toys can still be fun. And Fighting with one arm takes guts!) Susie thought as a smile revealed her not-so pearly whites. Susie smiled because she remembered telling granny the same thing. How that had made the old dragon woman laugh.
Smile still there, Susie turned her attention to her surroundings. Her room, no... her new room. It was still her room, but it was not the one she'd grown up in, grown up in being a relative term of course. No, this was her new room, in her new apartment, in her new town - Hometown. At least that was the name her mother had barked at her when she'd asked one too many times during the move.
Susie gave her head a vigorous shake. As she did so, her bright yellow eyes caught a glance of the white ribbon that held her messy ponytail in place. But there was no time to get distracted, she had more important things to think about. Those being - making sure everything was in place.
She turned her attention back to her preparations. Her bed in the corner opposite of where she sat was bare. She'd stripped the blanket and pillow off, wadded them up, and set them up on the other side of the room. The blanket - the mountain and the pillow - the fortress on the mountain’s top. To her, it was a fine approximation of a mountain. Not any old mountain mind you, but Hot Hot Mountain from Dragon Blazers.
(Oh yeah, almost forgot!) She turned her gaze to the old CRT TV that sat on its rickety stand behind the blanket and pillow. The small but weighty box's cracked screen was black. Susie pressed the TV's power button. A white dot at the center of the screen appeared. Next she turned on the Nentondi system sitting on the shelf beneath the TV. The white dot on the screen expanded and became a line. The line proceeded to unfurl itself into a vibrant deluge of 8-bit graphics. Soon, the blips and bloops of chiptune music boomed from the TV's aging, built-in speakers.
The opening theme of Dragon Blazers filled the room. The title of the young girl's favorite game took up most of the screen, with the heroes of the game standing under it. Susie began to half hum, half sing along to the tune with lyrics she made up over many hours of play.
BAM!
Something smashed against the other side of the wall behind the TV. A cold sweat grew on Susie's brow. She hammered the volume down button to the side of the screen as fast as she could. "S-sorry..." she hissed as she did so.
Susie looked down at the toy in her hands. She stared into where THE HERO'S eye's would be were it not for their hair obscuring it. "I gotta be more quiet, mama's still tired. It's..." Susie checked the clock on her wall and saw it was 10 in the morning, "... yeah, real tired." She whispered to the tiny human in her scaled hand.
Susie walked over to the pile of blanket and pillow and set THE HERO figure down at its base. Then she scampered over to her bare bed and dug under it. After a few moments of searching, she found the toys she was looking for. Her hands trembling with anticipation, Susie lined each up under the edge of the bed frame. The corner of the saggy mattress acted as an impromptu, if short, curtain. To her, it looked like the toys were actors waiting to reveal themselves on a grand stage.
"First there was the second hero. Er no, wait... that's not right." Susie's words were soft. She took a deep breath and restarted the opening lines in time with the text scrolling down the TV screen.
"The first hero. THE HERO with human soul and sword."
Susie looked over at THE HERO figure still seated at the base of her take on Hot Hot Mountain. Their sword in their remaining hand. She gave them a warm smile and a nod. As if to assure the plastic human that they had hit their mark.
"The second hero. The girl with ice crossed on her heart."
Here, Susie pulled forth - the ice mage! It was a creation of Susie's own design. A Birbae doll that wore a white robe and hood made of tissues and held in place by ribbons. Instead of her iconic crystal ring, the ice mage had a cool stick Susie had found on in the woods near her new home. To Susie, it was better than a ring since it looked like an axe. Plus, you could chop people up with an axe, which rings were no good at.
(Who ever heard of a ring that makes people bleed.) She thought with a giggle.
"The third hero. The priest, alone in deepest prayer."
Susie yanked the second-to-last character out - the priest! The priest was another of Susie's own toy creations. But unlike the ice mage, the priest was a total original. He was a pinecone wrapped up in the tattered remains of a scarf Susie found a few years back in granny's cottage. In fact, granny had helped her make the priest. Granny had always been happy to help Susie with arts and crafts projects.
Susie's head bowed for a second as a mixture of sadness and happiness swirled about in her heart. "Thanks granny." She mumbled as she gave the priest a gentle squeeze.
"And last, was… THE DRAGON! AT LAST, WAS SUSIEZILLA! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!"
Susie roared her version of the closing words of the intro as she pulled a stuffed, green dragon from under the bed.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Susie clamped her hands over her snout. Her eyes went wide with a slew of unpleasant feelings. Her mouth dry, her heart in her throat, her breathing rapid.
"Little girl if you don't quiet down in there, I'll give you something to holler about!"
"Y-yes mama." Susie stammered back, hoping her voice had carried through the wall. As she spoke, Susie pulled Susiezilla tight against her front.
(Yeah... she’s real, real tired.) Susie thought as she sat hugging Susiezilla for a long, long while.
Susie sighed and forced herself to smile as she gathered up her toys and moved over to Hot Hot Mountain. She placed the ice mage and priest at the base of the blanket pile. Then she plopped Susiezilla on top of the pillow turned fortress perch.
Over the next couple hours, Susie maneuvered the band of heroes up the woolen crags of Hot Hot Mountain. Every few hops, the trio would encounter a battle with some of Susiezilla's minions. Other times, Susiezilla would roll boulders down or spit fire at them. But of course, the heroes prevailed, that was not to say Susie went easy on them. She ensured their victories were hard fought and well earned.
After another hour, the party burst into Susiezilla's lair. Of course, that was only after THE HERO gave the ice mage and the priest a rousing and very heroic speech.
Susie had played her own spin on Dragon Blazers many times, and never made it this far before. She had no idea how the fight should go. A part of her thought to play it out like in the real version of the game - the heroes fight the dragon and win. But a part of her wanted to do something else, make it her own story.
So for the next several minutes, Susie sat in contemplation.
KRSH!
The sound of glass breaking on the floor in the apartment's kitchen caught Susie off guard. She rolled away from the door and in doing so, knocked the blanket mountain off kilter.
The heroes and Susiezilla tumbled to the ground.
Susie waited, eyes wide and unblinking.
A torrent of profanity flooded into Susie's room from under her door. Susie thought to try and hide behind the rusty folding chair near the wall opposite her bedroom door. But she froze up like a deer in headlights. She stayed on her side, next to Hot Hot Mountain, as her mother's temper boiled over in the kitchen.
"Hell... noon... Grillby's... open." Susie heard half her mother's mutterings from her place on the ground.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
A thunderous knock rattled Susie’s door in its frame.
Susie rushed over and opened it. She knew it was best to not keep her mother waiting.
"Yes, mama?" Susie had to force herself to look up at the figure that loomed over here.
"I'm going out. You stay here and don't make any trouble, you hear me?" Susie's mother stated as she rubbed at her temples.
"Yes, mama." Susie replied as she looked down at the ground.
"You look at me when I talk to you." The mother snapped at her daughter.
Susie did as her mother bayed and looked her in the eyes while she nodded her head.
Without a word, her mother slunk from out the doorway, down the hall, and out of the apartment.
Susie stood stock still until she was certain her mother was gone. When she felt in control of herself, she walked to the window in her room and looked out on the street. She watched as her mother vanished from view. Susie last saw her mother heading across town towards the place she'd muttered about.
Susie turned her attention back to her game. She saw that the heroes and Susiezilla had fallen down off Hot Hot Mountain. She put them back where they belonged and as she did so, she had an idea of what to do next.
Susie began by shaking the pillow fort back and forth. Playing out the heroes' and Susiezilla's panicked reactions as she did so. Then, the four beat a hasty retreat down the mountain and watched as a huge crater swallowed up the fortress.
Susie paused her game then to set up the big reveal.
(She's-I mean IT! It... it's the reason Susiezilla did all those bad things to the heroes. It's the real bad guy.) She thought as she worked the pillow case off the pillow. While it was not the right color, the nude pillow would work for Susie's plan. With the help of a scented marker, Susie made her final alteration. With a few hasty strokes, she added a face to the pillow. A face that was as scary as it was bad.
Satisfied at last, Susie was ready to unpause her game.
"Bwahahahaha!" Susie rumbled in the lowest voice she could manage. As she did so, she had the pillow rise up from the crater and face the heroes and Susiezilla. "I'm the bad guy!" Susie continued in the same rumbling tone. "And I'm here to beat you all up!” She turned the pillow to face the heroes. “You cause you woke me up!” She then had the pillow face Susiezilla. “And you cause you didn't do what I told you to do!"
Susie then switched her tone to the one she used for Susiezilla. "You guys, she-IT!... it's real bad. I guess since it’s so bad, I could help you... I guess. But when we beat her-IT! When we beat it, then we gotta finish our fight, kay?"
Susie then had THE HERO nod, well bow, THE HERO'S neck was set in place after all.
With that, Susie spent the next hour acting out the most epic battle she had ever concocted. Toys and tissues flew across the room in equal measure. At one point, the pillow monster even sucked up the whole blanket mountain and made a huge body out of it. But, as the afternoon sun began to redden, Susiezilla and the heroes defeated the horror.
Susie surmised the state of her room and was quite pleased with what she saw. She held Susiezilla with THE HERO on the stuffed toy's back. She made swooping and whooshing noises as she had them go pick up the other heroic toys. Who of course, the pillow monster had scattered across the whole world in the big fight.
The ice mage had ended up on the bed, which was the Cold Cold Glacier in the game. And the priest, well he was out in the hall, which was the Dark Dark Zone.
Susie smiled. She was quite happy with the story she had come up with. Which was that during the fight Susiezilla, THE HERO, the mage, and the priest had become friends. She liked this ending far better than the real ending to Dragon Blazers.
Susie, THE HERO, and Susiezilla made for the bed. Susie then placed the ice mage on Susiezilla's back. Next, she flew Susiezilla towards the hall to grab the priest for the post-game credits parade.
THUD!
The apartment door flew open.
Susie stood in her bedroom doorway as her mother marched past her.
"Can't believe that flaming jerk doesn’t take credit cards." Her mother fumed as she stomped down the hall towards her bedroom.
CRUNCH!
Susie's mother stopped and looked at the bits of pinecone and cloth scattered about.
"The hell is this?" She snarled at Susie.
Susie bit back a sob and squinted her eyes to fight back the stinging horde of tears trying to spill down her face.
"A p-pinecone, mama."
"Why'd you bring a pinecone in here?"
"T-to play with it, mama."
The elder dragon looked into the chaos that was Susie's room. "I buy you all sorts of toys and you go around playing with pinecones."
CRK! CRK! CRK!
Susie’s mother shook her head and ground her shoe into what remained of the priest toy.
Susie had to look down at her own feet. To do otherwise would show her mother her face. And that was not something the little girl could risk at the moment.
"Bad and ungrateful is what you are." She growled. "If my old man had ever spent his hard earned money on toys for me and found out I was playing with rocks and dirt he would have..." She paused and looked down at Susie. The nostrils on her snout flared when she saw Susie looking at the ground and not her.
"Susie. How. Many. Times. Do. I! Gotta. Tell. YOU! That. YOU! Look. At. ME! When. I! Am. Talking. To. YOU!?" As she shouted, she cupped Susie's chin in her hand and wrenched Susie's face up to look her in the eye.
"Susie..."
"Y-yes, mama."
"What would your granddaddy have done if he caught me playing with dirt and rocks and not the toys he spent his money on?"
"T-tanned your hide, mama."
"Tanned my hide with what, Susie?"
"The belt, mama."
"That's right. And, what have I NOT done today, Susie?"
"T-tanned my hide, m-mama."
"And what were you today?"
"B-bad and un-ungrateful, mama."
"That's right." The elder dragon let go of her daughter's chin and walked into her own room. Susie forced herself to not look down at what remained of her and granny's craft project.
Her mother was out of her own bedroom almost as fast as she was in.
CRUNCH!
Susie’s mother made sure to plant her shoe on the pulverized remains of the priest when she stopped near Susie.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Her foot fell again and again, never once missing its mark.
"Now you listen here and you listen good. I want your room picked up, this MESS cleaned up and thrown out OUTSIDE, and you in bed, lights out, by the time I get back. Do I make myself clear?
"Y-yes, mama." Susie managed to keep her voice even and shoulders straight as she looked into her mother's eyes.
"Now... that's mama's good little girl." She cooed through a sneer.
And then, without a second glance at her daughter, Susie’s mother was gone again.
Susie sat next to the ruined remains of the priest toy for what seemed like forever to her. She remembered the time and effort she and granny had put into the thing.
Thinking about granny now made it all hurt so much worse.
In solemn silence, Susie rose and went to the kitchen. It took some time, but she found what she needed - an old sandwich-bag box. She took out the last few plastic baggies, her mother would not tolerate waste, and returned to the hall.
She spent half an hour picking the pinecone pieces and scraps of fabric out of the carpet. She placed each bit in the box, and when she'd finished, closed it as a priest would a casket lid. She left it where it sat as she entered her room.
It only took Susie a few minutes to tidy up her bed and toys. Despite her mother's comments to the contrary, there wasn't much to pick up. The last thing she did was turn off the Nentondi system and then the static filled TV.
The black screen reflected Susie’s own face back at her. What she saw made her wince. It was her mother's face. A face that was as scary as it was bad.
Loathing, self or otherwise, was not a concept Susie had learned... yet.
She left her room and picked up the box, her key ring, and exited her apartment. She kept her head down as she walked, the last thing she wanted was for anyone to talk to her. A brief while later, and she was in the alley that held the apartment complex's dumpsters.
She pushed a sticky milk crate over to the open dumpster and climbed up it. She held the box over the lip of the bin, ready to drop it in.
Despite her best efforts, Susie could not force her fingers to release the box.
(No...) She thought as she half fell, half jumped off the box. Her tummy hurt, her eyes stung, and she felt another feeling she did not have a name for.
Susie backtracked from the alley and away from the apartment complex.
She had been out on her own a few times since moving to Hometown. She knew the place was small. In fact, she doubted she could get lost even if she wanted to, and at that moment she very much wanted to. So with no direction in mind, she wandered.
She was grateful for the time of day. No one else was out. She saw lights on in the houses that lined the streets. Some families were sitting down for dinner and others were watching TV together. One house she passed reminded her of granny's cottage.
She only looked at that one for a second before turning away and walking in the opposite direction of it.
Susie wandered for a bit longer before deciding to head south. As she did, she thought she heard people singing. Granny used to sing in a church choir. As she got closer, she realized that was exactly what she was hearing. The voices were coming from an old, tiny church.
Susie listened as she walked, this time going west. There was a path to the south, but it did not seem the right way to go.
More walking, more new sites - a quiet clearing ahead of her where the church voices were not but a whisper. Further ahead, a bench. Then Susie faced north, and wished she hadn't.
She was back at granny's funeral, all those months ago.
She had learned a bit about funerals then. From a great-great aunt, or one of granny’s friends.
"Well little lady, when a monster dies... they turn to dust. And we take that dust and we put it on that monster's most favorite thing in the whole world. Then we seal it up good and tight, and we put it down in the earth. And when the grass comes and grows over it, we put a big old slab of rock on the spot. On that rock, we write about the monster. We do that so that anyone that walks by can know that monster's story. That way, even though they're gone, people that knew them can remember them. And, people that didn't know them get a chance to."
Susie looked down at the box in her hand. The cardboard had warped a bit from how hard she'd been gripping it as she remembered the old lady's words.
She knew what she had to do. She walked behind the fence that separated the graveyard from the woods to the north.
Susie put the box down where she'd found a good spot.
As she dug, she was proud of herself for having stopped chewing her claws. They helped with the digging. Also, granny had made her promise to stop, and she never broke a promise to granny.
The hole only took a few minutes to dig. The rock, that would take a little more effort, it had to be a good one. The ones near the fence were too small, mere pebbles. The ones in the woods were too big, boulders to Susie. She walked back down the path she'd come from. And there she saw it, to the side of the church, an old brick.
It was white, painted the same color as the church. Susie noticed then that the voices were still singing. She listened for a minute. Then scooped up the brick and took it back to the hole.
Susie set the brick down near the hole, and then placed the box in the ground. She looked at it for a bit. She remembered people had said things over the hole they had put granny's favorite thing into. But, she did not remember the words. So instead, she said thank you to her lost toy for all the joy it had brought her. She also said thank you to granny for helping her make it.
Then in silence, Susie piled the dirt on the hole.
Susie picked up the brick and held it in one hand. She used the other to inscribe "Good Toi" by scraping away the white paint with her claws. Satisfied, she placed the brick down near the top of the piled dirt.
Susie stood near the grave for several minutes before she felt like moving. She didn't want to go home, not now anyway. So instead, she walked to the nearby bench.
Something about the bench reminded her of granny.
She sat down and gripped the underside of the bench's seat. Her small, dirtied claws etched tiny grooves in the old wood’s underside. She looked at the ground before her.
Susie sat and cried on the bench.
And she planned to stay there and do so until she was either out of tears or the moon was high in the sky.
At least that was until an older lady, one that looked nice, came up and sat down beside her.
That lady did in fact end up being nice. She asked Susie what was wrong.
Susie did not say anything, but nodded in response.
The lady offered to take Susie to the diner. At first Susie didn’t want to go, but when she saw it was not the same place her mom was at, she calmed down. The lady ordered her a hot chocolate and listened to what Susie had to say. And while Susie didn't say anything that would get her mom angry at her, which she knew would be bad, she still said a lot. And when she finished talking she felt better, at least a little.
When Susie said all she had to say, the nice lady told her it was going to be okay.
Susie thanked and said goodbye to the nice lady, who she found out would be her teacher when school started.
Then, she was home, in her room, curled up in bed, Susiezilla clutched tight.
Susie was long asleep before her mother stumbled into the apartment.
The end.