Taki-Taki’s Wrath

One second, the temperature dropped and the wind howled.

Two, a red and orange light flickered out of nowhere. The air undulated visibly.

And finally, on the third tick of the clock, Owen started to feel silly. His knees wobbly, his lids threatening to close, and he felt light and soft and warm. The feeling was akin to when he was still a baby and his mother sang him a lullaby as she rocked him softly in her arms.

Funny because all the hairs of his body stood on end and his skin was freezing cold. A curious thing indeed to feel two contradictory sensations at the same time. On the other hand, Lucia seemed unaffected. In fact, she appeared to be quite pleased with what she had done.

"Fobela Taki-Taki," she muttered slowly with a knowing grin. She was looking ahead. Madness reflected in her eyes. She had the same glimmer on her face when she was still in her twenties. Like that of a cat as it suddenly had the urge to knock things off the table for literally no reasons at all. 'She's up to no good,' Owen thought. 'Aunt was never up to anything good.'

Then he realized their surroundings have changed. The rusty gate now shone in its coal-black color and reflected his reflection. Gray smoke started to envelope the area. And the overgrown grasses now looked like it had only been mowed a few hours ago.

"What in Bonaville is happening?" He said, surprised.

And then…

"You dare! You dare, you menace!" An old man suddenly materialized in front of them with a poof. He held a mourning candle in one hand. The other pointed accusingly at Lucia. "You dare march into my territory to threaten me, you witch!"

"Oh! There you are! Still hot headed, huh." Lucia greeted him.

"And you are still an idiot," the old man spat. "A buffoon, a nincompoop, and a dunce!" He was wheezing in anger. His big, red nose flared as he went.

"Whoa! Haha. That's a lot to take, Old Taki-Taki. If I remember correctly, you only ever called me a wazzock before. Got yourself a tutor for swearing eh?"

It made Fobela even angrier. "You—hmmmph?!"

"Missing something, Old Taki-Taki?" Lucia asked teasingly as she waved her left hand in the air. Something red and wet wiggled between her thumb and index finger, squiggling like a fish. It was the old man's tongue. She stole it! "Now, forgive me for doing this, Old Taki-Taki. But we're in a hurry."

Then she snapped. Her eyes turned white. Then a large bronze key materialized in her palms.

"Don't let him near me, my nephew." Lucia told Owen as she marched into the gate and began fumbling with the enormous padlock.

Owen, not knowing what to do, was dumbfounded. Yet he still followed her nonetheless.

He made eye contact with Fobela a his eyes turned white. And Fobela became dazed.

"Don't move," Owen told him. And the old man did just that. He fell under Owen's hypnosis.

But Owen knew he couldn't maintain it for long. Because not even five seconds later, his nose started to bleed. His head started to hurt like crazy.

This was to be expected. After all, Fobela wasn't exactly human.

Owen became aware that the old man wasn't someone to mess with.

He became aware of the terrible consequence that awaits them once the old man broke free. Though he didn't know what the consequence exactly was, he felt it clearly. A gut feeling if you will.

He wanted to tell Lucia to do whatever she was doing quickly. That he couldn't hold any longer than ten seconds. That the old man's will was stronger than he expected. Stronger than he could ever take. But the pain became almost unbearable. So much that he held his head with both of his hands and howled in agony. As if there was a nail drilling a hole into his skull. As if there was a wrecking ball banging against the back of his eye sockets.

Then he fell on his knees. His hypnosis was undone. And the old man broke free. Just in time for Lucia to push open the enormous gate. "Run!" She screamed at him before running as well.

Owen was in terrible shape but Lucia was even worse. She looked like she would pass out any moment.

Blood seeped out from her mouth. A whole lot of blood. Yet she still kept moving. Still kept running. Still kept laughing.

Lucia likes to laugh a lot.

So Owen held his breath. Sucked all the pain up and ran after her.

"No. No, you ain't escaping from me," Fobela muttered under his breath. Anger was an understatement to what he was feeling. He felt humiliated too.

So he raised both his hands. Trembling as he called forth the hounds of Phulas.

As his eyes turned pearl-white, the stars in the sky disappeared one by one. They hid behind the clouds. Seemingly scared for whatever awaits the two intruders.

"Chase them!" Taki-Taki commanded the hounds. "And drag them down to Aznarok."