SMEE'S STORYCHAT SUPPLY STATION : Part 2
by Smee

Chapter 1: 3/12/2006 9:48

Start here... Digging with his hands just wasn't doing it for Key.
He frantically tore his slippers and socks off and set about the hole with his toes.


The crowd laughed, not yet understanding what was happening, but finding it jolly funny all the same.


Key's toes and feet were surprisingly effective at digging as the Mayor sank quickly upto his knees.

Then he stopped, perfectly still. His face relaxed and his body straightened.
Around his knees, grass was already growing in the freshly dug soil.

A bark-like exterior ran up his legs and covered all his body as his arms rose to stretch gracefully towards the sky.


They swiftly became branches, dividing and dividing again to form a web of twigs all with leaves unfurling. The end of each branch hung low from a large orb attached by a golden thread to its underside.

As the tree rapidly matured, bulbs pushed flower heads out from beneath the soil, opening toward the sun.

The orbs lengthened and became the familiar banana shape. However the soft golden shimmer of the skin belied important differences.

The mid-afternoon sun appeared to glow behind his trunk in a golden aura as Key's head finally succumbed to the potion, twisting into a dignified knot crowning the tree amongst the gold and green.
-

Smee watched it all, his mind going over a number of possibilities until he saw the damn golden fruit.

The BANANA-KIBBLE POTION! That was supposed to be for a rich Baron in the deserts of AHA. He would have payed thousands for it.

Whilst Key did his final dignified finale scene with the golden aura Smee's mind was well down a thousand different avenues of pain for Crymzon. That worthless apprentice, wait until he gets back.



The crowd were getting restless and Smee realised with alarm that dealing with Crymzon would have to wait until later. Switching on a big smile Smee tried to get their attention again.

"Well the mayor won't have to worry about any more auctions now, I guess. So who's next to benefit. Looking at the list I see it's..."

Voting begins!
Final Results: Who is Next?

Options	Votes
IM?	3 (33%)
Stoat?	1 (11%)
Faubby?	4 (44%)
Sorrow?	0 (0%)
Fauna?	1 (11%)

Chapter 2: 3/12/2006 10:15


...Faubby. Please come up.

A tall (although not as tall as Lordy was until the unfortunate cat incident) gentleman stepped through the crowd.

"I see here that you wanted something to prevent 'ThwackaBobitus' as you fear you may catch it from your wifey.

Once again I have just the thing."

Smee heads to the back of his wagon and pulls out a bottle. He checks the label, 21, just the one he needed.


"Here you go."

Faubby smiles, and quickly drinks the contents and hands over a small bag of fables.

Smee grins. Nevermind the first two little hiccups, he can start making some real money now.

Unfortunately Faubby didn't make it much further than five steps towards the banana-kipple tree when ...

Voting begins!
Final Results: What happens to Faubby?

Options	Votes
Turns into a Bob	3 (38%)
Becomes a Bob attractant	0 (0%)
Get severe Thwackabobitus and thwacks everyone	1 (13%)
Turns into a Bobette	4 (50%)

Chapter 3: 3/12/2006 10:26


...he doubles over in apparent pain. Crouched in a ball he falls down the stairs and rolls into the soft grass at the base of the dignified tree.

His shape becomes distorted and Smee's alarm rising once again. Now what?

An arm thrusts out, but it's a very different arm. Covered with fur, it feels the grass like a foot trying to get a hold in marshy ground.
Another arm appears and the body unfurls slowly. The clothes fall off and the thick black fur is shown to cover the new creature from head to toe.

With a sorrowful cry it raises its head to the sky and howls.

It then squatted back on it's haunches seemingly confused. That confusion turned to alarm as over a dozen answering howls reply from the nearby woodland.

From the tree-covered fringes black forms dart across the landscape and through the startled crowd.

Advancing straight for Faubby's confused form.

Action suddenly grips Faubby and in a strangely girlish manner he scampers up the Banana-Kibble tree, back legs scrapping uselessly until he uses ape-like arms to swing up into the lower branches.

Seconds later the black forms are crouched around the base of the tree whining a sweet chorus of love.

--

--
Smee shook his head. This couldn't be happening.

One of the more daring Bobs (as he had identified them to be) was now unashamedly marking its territory all around the base of the tree.

The tree shudders and a kibble-fruit plummets from a high branch knocking the enthusiastic Bob out cold. The other Bobs heed the warning and wait patiently.

"Well folks, I guess it doesn't have to worry about catching Thwackabobitus anymore. He'll be fine. Who's next?"

Voting begins!
Final Results: Who is next?

Options	Votes
Stoat	0 (0%)
IM	2 (29%)
Fauna	1 (14%)
Smee	3 (43%)
Dn	1 (14%)

Chapter 4: 3/12/2006 10:45



"Boo noooo, we're not having any more, look what's happened to them."

The voice in the crowd wipes the smile of Smee's face. He'd lost them. But what was causing the problem? That last bottle had the right label, he'd checked himself.

But he hadn't checked the bottom number. The labels were on the wrong bottles.

A plan leapt to mind.

"Ok ok - I see you think that these past three examples having been mistakes.

I'd like to mention that every customer has a 100% money back promise if they aren't satisfied, and to show that the potions work as directed I'll drink one myself."

Smee turned back to his wagon and rapidly started up ending bottles looking for the familiar number.

Ah - there is was. Number 30.

He quickly read the label. As he had suspected.. number 45 For when two heads are better than one.

He turned back to the crowd.

"This is a potion I've been meaning to take for some time now."

And without pausing Smee opened the bottle and downed the contents.

A quiet descends upon the crowd as they watch him.

Dramatically he throws the bottle behind him.

His eyes suddenly snap shut and his hands fly out forwards and clamp together, arms outstretched.

His face strains as if trying to contain something within his hands dying to escape.

A glow started creeping out from between his fingers, and then his hands flew apart sending golden sparks throughout the crowd.

They hover just overhead for a few seconds and then solidify into shiny golden fables.

Chinaren and Lordy catch on immediately and start leaping into the air, swiping great handfuls of them. The rest of the crowd join in as they slowly tumble to the floor.


Smee watched with a smile. Number 30 - the ultimate placebo. No potion master ever goes somewhere without his placebo potion.

It's sole aim to impressively do nothing. Add a little spell a friendly Leprechaun taught him and the crowd melted.

"So dear friends, who's my penultimate customer?" He announced to the scrabbling masses infront of him.

Voting begins!
Final Results: Who is next?

Options	Votes
Soily	1 (17%)
IM	5 (83%)
Sorrow	0 (0%)
Kalanna Rai	0 (0%)
Stoat	0 (0%)

Chapter 5: 3/12/2006 11:05


Smee looked at his list.

"Erm...Idea Master it is. Needs something to help when dealing with explosives."

Smee looked around. The crowd was still picking up the last traces of gold, but IM's form wasn't obvious amongst them.

Then he saw him, on the edge of the market place trying to man-handle a large box of something.

Someone from the crowd shouts out to him and he waves acknowledgement and tries to walk over.

The box doesn't agree and instead falls to the floor, exploding violently.

Smee watched in horror.

Pausing only for a second Smee searches for bottle 3 hoping his memory was serving him correctly and it was the one he wanted.

Having found it he leaps off the stage area and through the crowd to IM's side.

He looks suprisingly uninjured, but is unconscious.

Carefully holding his head up Smee poured what he hoped was the restoring potion down his throat... Meanwhile - as the audience decided what happened to IM Faubby was having an uneasy time up the kibble-tree.

It seemed his fur was tickling the tree because it kept quivering and making a deep low chuckling sound.

Every quiver caused a small shower of kibble-fruits to fall to the ground keeping the love-stricken Bobs at bay.

Back by IM it looked like something was about to happen...

Voting begins!
Final Results: What happens to IM

Options	Votes
Huge IDEA MASTER brain	3 (38%)
Puppeteering potion	0 (0%)
Playing card	1 (13%)
Unconscious Stoat	1 (13%)
Goes crazy spewing out ideas...	0 (0%)
Turn into a butterfly	3 (38%)

Chapter 6: 3/12/2006 11:15

Smee stared at IM. It had to be the right one. He couldn't afford another mistake.

His eyes flickered and opened.

"Are you alright IM," Smee asked.

"I feel depressed," came the groggy reply.

"But are you alright..." Smee persisted, but then cut off.

IM's head was bigging to swell.

It expanded out, hair falling out to reveal a scalp rapidly being warped to appear like a giant brain.

"Of course I'm not alright. Do you have any idea how annoying it is having to waste my time having this conversation when I've already processed every possible permutation of it 10 million times!"

But Smee wasn't listening. For out of IM's back giant butterfly wings errupted. The folded outwards in a vast sheet of colourful splender.

They started flapping and IM's weary voice rose over the crowd.

"Bye feeble humans. I will await your inevitable destruction somewhere a little less boring."

He flew off muttering something about a brain the size of a planet and disappeared into the distance. Smee realised that he had less than 2 seconds to cover over this.

"YEAH IM's ALIVE."

Somehow the crowd were convinced and cheered too, although a sob could be heard from the small girl running down the road after IM.

"OK Beasts and Beings who shall be my final customer before once again I leave your wondrous city."

Voting begins!
Final Results: Who is the final customer?

Options	Votes
Stoat	1 (14%)
Soily	0 (0%)
Sorrow	1 (14%)
Kalanna	0 (0%)
Soily and Stoat	5 (71%)

Chapter 7: 3/12/2006 11:29



"OK next up is two customers. A certain Shady Stoat and her special gift for Soily. Will you both come up please."

With much muckspreading, and shuffling of paws they managed to make their way past the tree (avoiding a kibble-salvo) up the stairs (where Stoat caught a glimpse of a cat-like doll underneath the wheel) and on to the stage.

"Excellent, now Mrs Stoat, could you please tell us what special gift you've bought for Soily."

A little nervously the stoat scurried closer and squeeked out.

"Soil manipulation powers."

Soily, standing next to her does an impressively similar squeek, but of delight as he grins from ear to ear.

"Stoaty, you didn't have to do that. That's too much," he adds with a blush.

Smee panics and has no idea which potion was the one he wanted. Carefully he looks through the labels for the right one and plucks it out. With a sigh he realises the number on the bottom is different, but at least the label said the right thing.

But what did it really do?

Voting begins!
Final Results: What happens to Soily

Options	Votes
Makes him clean/Giant scrubbing brush	3 (38%)
Giant-sized	0 (0%)
Transfer of odour /soil	0 (0%)
Join them together	5 (63%)

Chapter 8: 3/12/2006 11:39


Smee handed the potion to Soily who glances at the label, gulps it down and the goes back for a closer read.

"Ooh I'll be able to control sand (including quick), gravel, and astroturf too."

Stoat nodded in equal enthusiasm as she sat on his shoulder reading the label too.

Smee watched in agony fearing what would happen.

He didn't have too long to wait.

Watching as carefully as he was, he noticed Stoat's paw slip further into Soily's shoulder than should be possible.

His fears were soon confirmed as the other paw sank in as well.

Soily suddenly pooled to the floor in a mass of..well mass. The stoat's nose poked above the surface for a second before vanishing into the blob.

Almost immediately it started solidifying. A head emerged, definately stoat-like, although perhaps more of a dirty weasel look.

Strangely the top of the head, between the pointy ears, was covered with eyeballs blinking as they stared straight up.

The rest of the body emerged. It looked much the same as the original Soily, except even dirtier.

His skin suddenly rippled though and seemed to be made of liquid soil. Two legs seperated from the muck and hardened.

The head wrinkled its nose as if unimpressed with its own body odour. They'd be no avoiding it now though.

Smee knew there'd be no getting out of this one. The pair of them had merged.

Nervously he called out to the crowd. "OK thanks everyone you've been really great. Er...byeeee."

Before they could react he throws a small concealed bottle to the floor and vanishes behind a large cloud of red smoke.

As the smoke clears all that remains in the space is the Soily-stoat and a little toy cat.

---

---



As the sun began to set on the end of the nightmare day for Smee, Crymzon decided to head back. Smee would be packed up soon and heading on to the next city.

As he hobbled back, enjoying his first night off in fifteen years, the uncomfortable shape of the bottle in his tunic made him remember it.

Suddenly Worry and Horror decided to stay quiet and 'Why Not' leapt out and starting doing the happy dance.

Crymzon uncorked the bottle and drank the contents without thought. A fine belch followed and he read the label whilst waiting for something to happen.

42 Switch-life : A powerful effect that will switch your life entirely with that of the first person you think of after drinking. Think of someone rich and famous, or a mighty wizard. It doesn't matter who, your lives will be swapped. 20'000F

Crymzon giggled. If this really was Switch-Life, Smee sure would be REALLY mad with him. Even he knew that it contains some of the rarest ingredients on the whole of US. Smee would have his hide.

A brief moment of dizziness made Crymzon drop the bottle. He shook it off and carried on walking back to his wagon, whistling and wondering if that useless apprentice Smee had actually managed to sell anything for once.

Lying in the dust of the road the number 42 could just be made out on the bottom of the discarded bottle.

The End.

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