Played Like A Violin [drabble]
One of the many things Zacharie had to do before he could start putting together what happened and trying to convince his friends to forgive his absence was put the shops back together. Lawson hadn't done a horrible job, but being a cat with no opposable thumbs couldn't do things like sort the credits or keep track of the inventory in Zacharie's journal.
So he gave the cat the day off, to which Lawson immediately showed his pleasure by sprinting out of the shop to go do God knows what.
The first few hours of inventory counting were spent alone until a familiar puppeteer floated through the door, and happily curled around him like an orange and gray scarf. Which was nice, because Crossy's mere presence tamed some of his more tumultuous emotions and let him focus on his inventory.
At least until a second puppeteer, an unfamiliar blue one bigger than Crossy, also floated through the door. Almost immediately Crossy seemed... confrontational, set on edge.
He introduced himself as Sutech and made several comments regarding the relationship between Zacharie and Crossy, to which both parties took offense; he was no puppet, and surely Crossy didn't intend to manipulate him the way Sutech was suggestion.
It wasn't until Sutech grabbed Crossy though that any real conflict started. He insulted her and threw her at the wall; her wings catching her before any real damage could be done.
But then the blue puppeteer grabbed Zacharie by the throat and used him as a bargaining chip, trying to convince Crossedheart to do this or that according to how Sutech believed a puppeteer should treat others.
That was when Zacharie first noticed something wasn't right with himself. The tighter the puppeteer gripped his throat and the more he threatened to kill Zacharie, the more... something stirred within him. His head felt as if it split down the middle and his bones ached with an intensity unfit for the current situation.
It was wrong.
Crossedheart managed to free Zacharie from her twisted adult counterpart and he scurried behind the shop counter to formulate a plan, find his sword; and fight back nausea, if he was honest with himself.
Corssedheartseemed to have the fight under control.
Until she went silent far too early intothe battle.
Zacharie vaulted over the counter to find her hypnotized at the hands of the other puppeteer and he couldn't help himself. He slashed out and failed, caught by the wrist.
And then he couldn't remember what happened. He could remember excruciating pain,like every bone in his body was simultaneously breaking and regrowing. His entire anatomy changed.
He wasn't the merchant anymore.
He'd become the King.
And that's the first thing Crossy saw when she came to; the great Toad King, towering over her, nuzzling her back to consciousness.
Sutech madea mad grab for Zacharie's strings, then. He could remember that. And he could remember Crossy beating the blue puppeteer and holding the strings tightly.He could remember hesitantly accepting them.
And together he and Crossedheart drove back the evil puppeteer.
And then once the threat was gone he was subjected to that same change. The breaking of his bones, the tearing of his skin, and suddenly he was himself again. The merchant, human and lanky and nothing like a king.
He chased Crossedheart out of his shop after she admitted that she agreed with some of the things the other puppeteer had dared say about him.
A piece of him regretted it. He missed her company, and he definitely missed the way her presence numbed some of his less pleasant emotions.
