(Archived) Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

My Fine Furred Friend - Chapter 5

I loved watching you guys analyzing the previous chapter, theorizing about what was going to happen next.

I should contemplate adding questions to the end of the chapters at some point, I remember seeing someone do that once and I thought it was interesting~

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No... Goth!

Desperate to save his friend, Palette forced himself to his feet once more and dashed toward the burning house. He yelped when Chad's hand caught his shoulder and threw him to the ground once more.

He landed on his back with a grunt, fully intending to rise back to his feet... but he froze at the sound of a muffled screech. It sounded like it was right behind him!

He twisted his body around, but nothing was there.

His eye lights scanned the area for any trace of his fuzzy friend, wondering if he had been hearing things in his panicked state. The rest of the villagers gave no indication toward hearing the sound, their focus still on the burning house.

As his hopes began to fall, he felt something move between his shoulder blades... under his scarf. He carefully moved his hand under the beige fabric, fighting the urge to cry in relief as silky fur met his probing fingertips. Goth tried to emerge from of his hiding spot, but Palette eased him down again.

I can't let them see Goth. I have to get him away from here.

He took one last look at the ruined building that was once his home and the villagers surrounding it. Turning away as the roof collapsed in on itself, he dashed into the woods.

He continued running, even as the sounds of the villagers died down and the light from the fire disappeared.

Once he was sure he was far enough from any trace of his village, Palette dropped to his hands and knees, allowing himself a moment to catch his breath and lament the loss of his home. The home he was born in, where his mother passed away shortly after, where he learned to survive on his own after his father disappeared, where he spent his days... alone.

Now that I think about it, I don't really have many happy memories in that house... yeah, it was my belongings but, in the end, it was all just stuff.

An itching sensation interrupted his thoughts as Goth tried to leave the safety of Palette's scarf once more. The skeleton reached a hand up for the bat to crawl onto, only to be met with a gust of wind that momentarily blinded him followed by the small pops of bandages breaking.

When he opened his sockets, Goth had returned to his skeleton form. The smaller threw his arms around Palette's neck, pulling them into a tearful hug and burying his skull into their shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Palette, I never meant for any of that to happen!" the vampire wailed, "I should have known this was a bad idea. I knew it was dangerous to be around me, but I refused to listen to my instincts. I shouldn't have let you take me to your house, I shouldn't have stayed so long, I shouldn't have-"

Palette shushed his friend, returning the hug with a gentle squeeze, "Goth, I don't care about the house or any of the junk in it! I can replace all of that stuff, but I can't replace you. Nothing else back there was important, it can burn to the ground for all I care. I just want to know if you're okay and how you managed to get out of there without anyone seeing you."

"I'm fine... I'm still a bit tired, but it's nothing a nap won't fix," Goth pulled away, drying his face with his sleeve as he explained, "When you opened the door, I smelled smoke from outside. I was afraid something bad was going to happen, so I took the opportunity while you were talking with that man to fly onto your back and hid under your scarf... I was trying to staying quiet, but I think you fell on me."