Heroes of Dreamland, Book 7: Kirby and the Battle for Dreamland (OLD)

Getting to Know Clerk

Clerk's POV:

With a sudden start, I shake myself awake and find myself sitting against a cold, hard wall with a couple of trashcans on either side of me. Scared, I carefully get up and look around before tugging on one of the sleeves of my tunic like I always do when I feel afraid. "Ma?" I call out nervously, trying to figure out where I am and where my home went. "Ma, where'd you go? Pa? Anybody?"

It's nighttime wherever I am, but the sky's really kind of murky, so I can't see the stars. The buildings on either side of me go up several floors, but looking up too far makes me dizzy, so I don't for very long. I have a headache too, it seems. All I can remember is playing by myself a little farther from my house than I was supposed to, using a stick to beat up imaginary monsters, but then a hole appeared and ate me up. It wasn't long before I blacked out after that, and I don't remember anything else until just now when I woke up.

After a minute, I take a deep breath and venture a few steps forward out of the dark space in-between the buildings, but only end up next to some path made out of black rock that has giant, noisy monsters on it with glowing eyes. Cars, or that's how some tiny part of me actually recognizes them, anyway. That's when I realize that I'm dreaming.

To tell the truth, I've dreamed of this moment at least a thousand times since it actually happened. Now that I know this is just a dream, I'm disconnected from little me. Now it's like I'm watching the memory instead of re-living it.

Little Clerk gives a cry of fear at the rolling 'monsters' and goes to hide back in the alleyway he came out of. There he stays for another hour, when suddenly, we can both start to hear something.

CRASH.

"Oh, great, Solar. Sure, let's go knocking trashcans over and letting all of Joplin know we're here. I know the Washington University Science Department over in St. Louis will appreciate your efforts to be discovered," a cold, sarcastic girl's voice grunts quietly.

Sounding a little bit embarrassed, a guy replies, "Ever-so-sorry, my dear; I tripped."

The girl snorts. "Of course you did. Hopefully the Humans'll blame it on... I dunno, urban raccoons, maybe?"

For another moment, nothing else happens, but then little Clerk leans forward in an attempt to see out of the alleyway again before giving a scared gasp.

An instant later, the girl hesitantly declares, "I'm going down this alley to check on something. I'll be right back."

The guy absentmindedly agrees and warns his companion not to get into a fight with any cats again, distracted by some car or something, probably. When I first got there, Solar was always wishing he knew how to hot-wire cars so that he could steal them. It wouldn't surprise me if some pretty sports car or classic was what was making him sound so absentminded then, but I wasn't on that end of the events, so I don't really have any way of knowing.

The one with the girl's voice works her way carefully down the alleyway and eventually chances pulling out a flashlight from the leather satchel she carries and turning it on. Little Clerk gasps with fear at her 'magic torch' and presses farther back against the wall.

Luckily for him, he's not able to hide anywhere, and the one with the flashlight sees him soon enough.

She gives a gasp of fear and turns off her light for a moment, afraid that she's been seen by a Human. Little Clerk whimpers, scared of the weird, round little monster with fluffy wings folded to her back who made light out of nowhere. The two stay silent in fear of each other, until she finally switches her flashlight back on and gives him a worried look.