Wendy's Tale

Bill had started to feel a little better since Sparkz had joined him. The little Wendy had made him smile. Sparkz and been fluttering about the room playing a game of charades which he loved. It helped him to communicate with non-Wendys and he so loved meeting people and 'talking' with them.

Bill had been laughing so much at Sparkz's antics that he was quite worn out. During one of Sparkz last energetic performances he had to wave his wand and laughed weakly.

"Sparkz that was brilliant but you have worn me out." he smiled.

Sparkz drooped his whiskers and let out a concerned chirp. He fluttered over to Bill and placed a whisker on his forehead, checking his temperature. Bill did feel a little too warm. Sparkz lifted one of Bill's eyelids high and peered deeply into his eye. Sparkz made a sound which to Bill sounded a little like a puzzled 'Hmm'.

Bill was about to say something else but Sparkz placed his whiskers over Bill's lips. He started chirping at Bill in Wendyese. Too fast for Bill to translate fully and he was feeling quite tired now. He just nodded his head drowsily agreeing to whatever Sparkz was talking to him about. He could not hold back the tiredness and his head began to drop forward, his eyes closing.

Sparkz lifted his head with a whisker and chirped quietly to him. He then fluttered down onto the pillow and patted it with a whisker. Bill understood that. He turned over and got himself comfortable. His head disappeared snuggly into the big feather pillow. He was soon asleep. Sparkz stayed with him, stroking the side of his head and he trilled a quiet Wendy lullaby until Bill was deep in sleep.

Sparkz watched as Bill's chest rose and fell slowly. He was still not happy Bill had a temperature and he would talk to Wendy about it. He fluttered off to the kitchen to find out what Tom had planned next. Also now Bill was asleep be could focus his attention back towards Loki.

As he fluttered towards the kitchen he passed the living room and became momentarily distracted by the other Wendys. They had decided to play Twister. They had discovered an old battered box in one of Tom's cupboards. Unfortunately the coloured circles were too large for Wendys to balance on so they were making their own version with smaller coloured circles. They had found some colouring pencils and were drawing the circles on some card. They were chattering excitedly. They had never played Twister before and it looked like great fun. Besides watching movies all the time was not very energetic and the Wendys had been inside for days now and so had built up lots of energy they needed to get rid of. Dash and Trevor, the Huggles, had asked Wendy if she thought Tom might take them to the park but Wendy had told them that at the moment it was not safe and that they would have to be patient. However a Wendy not allowed to fly free can become more mischievous than normal. All that Wendy energy in Tom's apartment was not a good thing. Horace had taken charge of directing the Wendys. He had instructed Dash and Trevor to draw the circles. He was reading through the instructions on how to play as he understood human speech and writing. The Lurkers had emerged from Tom's bedroom looking bored and so had stolen the spinner and sat in the corner cackling. They took turns in spinning it one way then spinning it the other. Each time trying to spin it faster. A small argument then broke out, so they decided the winner by whisker wrestling. Horace shook his whiskers and sighed. At least the Lurkers were occupied with each other and not up to any other mischief.

He was deeply studying the instructions when Sparkz tapped him with his whisker. Horace looked up and chirped a greeting to Sparkz. He chirped back to Horace and did a small bow. Horace tickled him with his whiskers and Sparkz giggled. He loved being with the older Wendy. He had met him at the old Apothecary's in Hiddlesgard. He had been brought there to the Apothecary as he had been a very sickly little Wendy. A concern resident of Hiddlesville had brought him to the Apothecary as they were very worried he might not have survived. He had been found injured and very sick. He was young, perhaps a week or so old. He was cold and shivering. The Apothecary was the first person his rescuer had thought of who could help save Sparkz.

He was handed over to the Apothecary surrounded by a small blanket. The Apothecary was concerned as he had never healed a Wendy that sick before, but he had Horace there with him. Horace was old, the Apothecary could not say exactly how old Horace was but Horace knew things and had great wisdom and the Apothecary was very greatful for that. Little Sparkz was a fighter though. Horace brought in other Wendys to help and they along with the Apothecary brought Sparkz back. From that point Sparkz and Horace had bonded. The elder Wendy and the excitable, energetic younger Wendy. Sparkz reespected Horace and his wisdom and would always do as he was told by Horace. If asked by others to do something...well... he might do as they asked...might.

He rested on his whiskers next to Horace watching him read through the instructions. He was facinated that the shapes on the paper meant words in human speech. He wished that Horace could teach him more. He wanted to talk to Tom. He wanted to discuss life and adventures in his world. There were things he had seen in Tom's world he wanted to find out more about. The machines with wheels that moved around. He loved those and strangely he was fascinated by toasters. He had watched intently as Tom had placed slices of bread into the toaster only for minutes later there would be toast, and Sparkz did like toast. He could watch the magic of a toaster for hours but Tom had refused to toast more bread after the tenth slice. The toast was never wasted with all the Wendys in his apartment.

Suddenly there were raised voices coming from the kitchen. Sparkz looked at Horace. He knew who owned the raised voice. It was Freddie. He was shouting, not at Tom but at Loki. Sparkz winced when heard words which he understood in any language. He looked at Horace and chirped 'FUBAR?' Horace shook his his whiskers and gave Sparkz a look which Sparkz understood meant he should not ask what that word meant. He then heard Tom's quiet, calm voice speaking to Freddie. Freddie said he would not back down and what Loki was asking was not going to happen. Sparkz was very tempted to go to the kitchen to find out what they were talking about but Horace held his whiskers and shook his head. Wendy was there with Tom and no other Wendys needed to be there. Sparkz was frustrated he hated not knowing. He wondered if he should ignore Loki's warning and tell Horace about what happened at the war museum with Loki. It was a secret and it was a secret he needed to tell. He did not like Loki but also he did not want to risk Loki hurting his family. The Wendys were his family along with Tom. Tom may be human but Sparkz would very happily consider him family. Loki was dangerous, Sparkz knew that. He may be the Hiddlesgard Loki but he was also still the trickster and when cornered could be very dangerous indeed.

Freddie's shouting had started to die down now, although he still sounded very annoyed. Sparkz heard a chair scrape along the floor and then Freddie strode angrily out of the kitchen and headed for Bill's room.

Sparkz could not wait any longer. He fluttered upwards and then headed for the kitchen. He hovered just outside the kitchen doorway. He peeked round the door but stayed very quiet.

Loki was sitting at the table, hands clasped together resting gently on the table top. Tom was standing by the window his face stern but not angry. Wendy as usual was sitting on his shoulder...watching Loki.

"Did you really have to goad him like that?" Tom looked over at Loki he looked sad.

"He was being unhelpful in his suggestions, I only made a suggestion of my own." Loki replied with a smirk.

"We need to work together in this. You always seem to want to pull us in opposite directions, yet you are in just as much danger as all of us. Do you not want us to survive? Do you not want you to survive? Why do you hate life so much?"

Loki looked up at Tom his green eyes blazing.

"Of course I want to survive!" he spat.

"I always survive. When I was betrayed I survived. When I lost my family I survived. When I was tortured and left for dead I survived. I am Loki. I always survive."

Loki dropped his head and looked down onto the table, but then quickly composed himself, his hands formed fists, he gripped them tightly.

Tom stood there, stunned. Loki had briefly shown Tom he did have feelings, he did care. Although his face again was a mask Tom had looked into Loki's eyes when he had spoke. He saw a Loki lost and alone. Then as quickly as it had appeared it was gone again. Tom wished he could get Loki to open up. Maybe he could reason with the Hiddlesgard Loki. The real Loki was maybe too damaged, maybe beyond the point of no return. He took too much pleasure in enjoying torturing Tom in Hiddlesgard. The others had told him that the Hiddlesgard Loki was a mischief maker, a prankster and that he had never done anything as serious as the real Loki, and... as much as Tom did not want to admit it, he was part of Tom, just like the others.

He was a character Tom had played, he knew how Loki's mind worked. He had travelled to the depths of despair with Loki. He had felt and shared his pain. He knew right now Loki was being pulled in different directions. Loki would not show what he considered weakness. Sometimes Loki was bluff and bravado, easily masking his true feelings.

The afternoon had been tense with the outburst from Freddie and now Loki making himself more distant. Tom looked at Wendy sat on his shoulder. She brushed his cheek with her whisker and gave a quiet trill. Tom smiled and tickled her. He would leave Loki for now. They all needed a little quiet time as they had decided amongst all the arguments that tomorrow they would look for Hal. Tom had a fairly good idea where he might find him and hoped Wendy would confirm his suspicions later.

Tom walked over to Loki and placed hand gently on his shoulder. He felt Loki's muscles tighten, then removed his hand. He spoke quietly.

"I'll talk to Freddie again. We just all need a little space from each other right now. We'll start again tomorrow. I'll be with the Wendys in the living room."

He left Loki still staring at the table. As he walked past Sparkz he gave him a little pat. Sparkz trilled and nuzzled Tom's hand. Sparkz looked back at Loki sitting in the kitchen. He suddenly felt that he wanted to help Loki. He shook his whiskers and muttered to himself about being silly and ridiculous and that up to five minutes ago he did not even like Loki, but there was something in his eyes... he still could not be trusted but he couldn't be really bad could he? Again Sparkz shook his whiskers. This was nonsense in his head. He heard the excited chattering of the Wendys coming from the living room. They were about to start a game of Wendy Twister. He didn't want to miss this so fluttered off to join them.

Loki sat in the kitchen...alone...