Loki squeezed his eyes shut momentarily, until the annoying inner voice passed.
Snow White nodded, lacing her hands together.
“I will swim over,” he said.
“You don’t have to,” she said. “You can walk on water.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you take a deep breath and don’t think about the water underneath you, you can walk on its surface as if it’s land,” she said. “I do it all the time.”
“If you say so,” Loki decided to try, and didn’t mind if it didn’t work since he was going to swim over anyways.
He opened the Cadillac’s door, and stretched out one foot. He let it touch the surface of the water, closed his eyes and pretended it was land. Surprisingly, it worked. Loki found himself stepping on something, a little bit soft and spongy, but rigid enough he could walk on it.
Opening his eyes, he let out a laugh. This was amazing. He was standing on water, and then walking toward Snow’s swan canoe.
“This is magic,” he said.
Snow White nodded, and spread her welcoming arms.
Suddenly, a frog croaked nearby.
Loki stopped in his tracks.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“No frogs, please,” he mumbled. “I hate frogs.”
“You mean you’re afraid of frogs,” she squinted, almost laughing at him.
Another frog croaked, and another. Tons of them came nearby, jumping happily on the surface of the water.
Loki lost his concentration, and the spongy earth underneath him turned back into liquid and he sank.
As he was drowning, he saw Snow White laughing at him from beyond the surface of the rippling water, pointing a finger, fangs drawn, thousands of frogs surrounded her. “Loki. Loki. Loki,” she said. Strangely enough he could hear her plainly under the water. “How many times can a person be fooled? No wonder they banned you.”
Snaky plants, like octopus arms, crawled around his legs and arms, pulling him deeper. He couldn’t swim up to the surface. He was drowning, and a sudden rescue didn’t look promising.
Loki jolted awake from under his blanket in the Cadillac, sweating and panting, while waving his Alicorn in the air. The Pumpkin Warriors were still snoring in the radio. Outside his window, he saw the parking lot. There was no swamp.
“Bad dreams?” one of the Pumpkin Warriors moaned. “Happens to me all the time when I sleep on my stomach.”
It was a dream, a horrible dream.
Loki yanked the door open and walked outside. The yellow street light was slightly glowing. He was glad it was a dream, and he pinched his face to make sure he was awake. What if all of his life was just a bad dream?
“Hey, Loco,” a voice called him.
It was a tiny voice, and he wasn’t scared of it. Besides, he knew who called him ‘Loco’ in this world. It was either his mom or the animals. Loki looked down at a black cat with green eyes rubbing itself against his jeans.
“What do you want?” Loki grunted. “Leave me alone.”
“You know what I want,” it said. “It’s cold out here, Loco. I need a place to sleep.”
“Shouldn’t you be in the pet cemetery?”
“I followed you here so I can sleep in your car,” the cat said, wiggling its tale. “I hear you have an amazing backseat,” It spat on its paw and rubbed it with the other. “I promise I won’t tell any of the other animals that you let me in.”
“O.K. O.K.,” Loki said, “but no meowing early in the morning, deal?”
“But of course,” the cat nodded.
“And no snoring.”
“Cats don’t snore, dogs do,” the cat said proudly.
When I wake up, you wake up, and don’t you dare ask me to feed you, deal?”
“Deal,” the cat said, looking up at him. “Want to shake paws on it?”
“No thanks. You just spat on yours,” Loki said going back to the Cadillac.
“My name is Nine by the way,” the cat followed him.
“So why do you only talk to me when I’m alone, Nine?” Loki rolled his eyes.
“It’s a gift only you have,” Nine said, padding next to him. “We pets love to talk to you, but we really hate Axel. He treats Bitsy so bad. We won’t worry bother wasting our time talking to someone who treats other animals and insects so poorly. “Stop babbling and hop in,” Loki said, and closed the door.
Since Nine was going to sleep in the backseat, Loki wasn’t going to need the radio’s company, so he turned it off.
“You need a blanket or something?” Loki asked Nine.
“I’m fine,” Nine said. “I tucked myself in your warm backpack, if you don’t mind.”
“Good for you,” Loki said. “Aren’t you going to tell me why you’re really talking to me?”
“Like I said it’s a gift,” the cat yawned. “One day, when you remember your past, you’ll know why.”
“If I ever do remember,” Loki mumbled.
Loki was close to asking Nine about his past, but he was too proud—and maybe too sane—to do so.