Dragon's Hoard

Black and White

"Did I really do it?"

"You bet. King almost had a heart attack when he found all his plants half dead." Prem said, reaching out to take another cookie from the jar Arthit had brought.

Little Thing pulled up his knees, hiding his face in his hands, and whined pathetically. "I'm a monster... a plant killer..."

"Don't worry too much, 'Thit." Tutah patted him on the back. "King was able to save almost all of them."

"It's Ram you should worry about. He wasn't happy to see his boyfriend sad."

"Ram and his dogs actually seemed to be on a war footing." Prem agreed with Tutah and Bright, making Arthit shiver.

"Don't worry." Bright grinned, evidently enjoying his nervousness. "I'm sure the lizard will protect you."

Arthit just looked at Kong through the corner of his eye, and grinned widely.

"Yeah, he said he won't lose sight of me."

Kongpob just rolled his eyes and ignored the cheeky boy. He just wanted to go home. How long did that nuisance expect him to wait?

When Tiny had told him that he'd organized a reconciling snack with his friends, he naively hoped it wouldn't last long. He was wrong, obviously.

Little Thing looked at him, cocking his head to the side, but then his attention snapped to the woods. Kongpob's followed his eyes, which were directed to some distance behind the bushes. But, there was nothing there.

After a moment they all could hear the sound of something moving through the trees too. A flapping ear, a low-pitched rumble, and then a well-known head appeared behind the bushes.

"YOU!" Prem jumped up and took a menacing step toward the newcomer.

Little Thing scrambled to his feet and stepped between his group of friends and the latter.

"'Thit, get away from him."

"'Thit, don't be fooled by his innocent look. We all saw with our own eyes what he did to Bright and... you don't remember this, but he's quite a psychopath. He-"

"I know. I mean, Kong told me... more or less. The point is... ok, look, there's a big misunderstanding and, Bright, I think I have to apologize."

"'Thit, it's fine. You were an ass, but what happened with him wasn't your fault."

"I..." He sighed "I think it is. White'd never hurt anyone. That one was his- how? Already?"

Suddenly he stopped talking. Among the trees, and seemingly surrounding them, there was a fog rising. It was a thick rolling fog, very white and very dense, and getting closer and closer to them with each passing second. The fog closed in around them, creeping ever Inch by agonising inch it came on, surrounding them with an eerie white curtain.

The alarm bells in Kongpob's head began to ring incessantly.

"Don't breathe it in!" Arthit yelled; his mouth already covered by his shirt that muffled his words. "Black stop it!"

But it was too late: Knot and Prem were already hallucinating from all the magic smoke inhalation. And yet, the boy who was now standing in the middle of the clearing was no hallucination. He looked identical to White, just a little less human. His hair was black with blue highlights, his eyes a shimmering blind dead white, his skin gray, his lips drowned blue, his fingertips drip with what seems to be blue-black ink and his nails filed to razers.

"What...?" Bright looked confused by the apparition for a moment, but then seemed to understand what was happening. Well, more or less. "I warn you doppelganger, last time I let you do what you wanted because I thought you were White, this time it won't be the same."