“How so? You still got some Magic Dust?”
“Not here,” Loki said. “We’ll have to use our fists.”
“So you’re not a superhero after all?” Axel said.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Loki shook his head. “I’m just a guy trying to find his way back home.”
“Man up, Axel,” Fable said, both clans one stride away from them. “You can do it, and then I will escape and save the baby.”
As the three of them got ready to face the two horrible clans, a parrot fluttered above their heads with its beautiful green feathers and yellow body.
“I’m Pickwick,” it said to Big Bad, hovering before him. “And I’m…going to kick your ass!”
Loki had a big smile on his face. It was only moments until Charmwill entered the bar, smoking his pipe. He stood in his cloak and hood as cool as ever.
“And who are you, old man?” Ulfric sneered.
“It’s not who I am,” Charmwill said calmly, as he took a drag from his dragonbreath pipe. “It’s what I can do.”
Charmwill took one last long drag from his pipe and breathed out fire into the Bullyvards faces, causing them to step back and providing a way for Loki and his friends to escape The Closet.
“What the holy flickering hell is that pipe?” Axel had to stop and ask Charmwill. Loki pulled him out and the three of them jumped into Carmen and drove away, Pickwick the Parrot flying over its hood. They were heading back to Candy House and Loki was looking forward to meeting Charmwill there.
19
Follow Your Bliss
Back at Candy House, Fable invited Charmwill in and offered to cook fresh Pookies for him. Charmwill thanked her dearly, but said he wanted to talk to Loki outside on the porch. Although Fable was disappointed, she didn’t argue. She would have loved to know more about Loki’s guardian. She wanted to ask him questions about Loki’s story and the Council of Heaven, Snow White, and about Charmwill’s powers and why he wouldn’t stay near Loki all the time. But Fable, in her politeness, couldn’t ask that of Charmwill. She still had fun feeding Pickwick, though.
Axel didn’t get his answer about Charmwill’s Dragonbreath, or how he could possess such a cool power. Instead, Loki let him try to make his Alicorn work. But no matter how many times Axel said ‘Ora Pedora’ nothing happened so he decided to make himself a Cinderella Mozarella sandwich and eat a Reluctant Jelly for dessert.
Outside, Loki stood waiting for Charmwill to speak.
“I’m glad you showed up,” Loki said. “I thought you’d never visit me in Sorrow.”
“I don’t know how long you expect me to save you, Loki,” Charmwill said, his hands behind his back.
“I know,” Loki lowered his eyes, although Charmwill wasn’t staring at him. Instead, he was staring at the stars. “I should be able to save myself, but I had a lot of confusing choices to make and it was overwhelming.”
“You think everyone around you doesn’t have hard choices to make as well?” Charmwill puffed his smoke, staring back at Loki.
“But everyone around me isn’t like me,” Loki explained.
“Oh, so you think you’re different than everyone else?”
“Of course, I’m different,” Loki said, knowing that Charmwill loved to be tough on him sometimes. “I’ve been thrown into this world without knowing who I am, or who I was. I’ve been told things; that I have to kill ninety-nine vampires to be forgiven and go home to a place I don’t even remember. This isn’t fair. It’s too much for me. I don’t want to be a hero. I don’t want to help anyone else but me. I am doing all of this to go home, to where you told me that I sinned by falling in love with a demon. I don’t understand, Charmwill,” Loki was embarrassed from sounding weak in front of Charmwill who had great expectations of him. “I’m sorry if I raised my voice, but there’s a lot I don’t get.”
“What is it that you don’t understand exactly?” Charmwill said.
“Why am I here?” Loki said. “I know you’re going to tell me that it’s my choices that led me here because I’d do anything to go home. But all the things that happened to me in Sorrow messed with my mind. I feel things that I haven’t felt before, and it’s bugging me,” Loki raised his eyes to meet Charmwill’s as if wanting him to help him with his words.
“Things like caring for friends like Axel and Fable?” Charmwill relit his pipe.
“Things like that, yes,” Loki said.
“Why does it bother you to have friends?”
“I’m not bothered. In fact, what’s better than to have friends to care for and to have them care for you? It’s just so confusing, because I feel like I shouldn’t. I don’t belong here, Charmwill. Until the moment I set foot in Sorrow, I hated Minikins. I have even started to feel like this is…” Loki shrugged. “Like this is—“
Charmwill bowed his head a little as if knowing the words Loki was about to say. “Home?” he asked.