Darkind
Legacy Name: Darkind

The Eau De Toxic had a strange affect upon Darkind when he used it. Unlike his owner, who when she wore the perfume only smelled really bad, Darkind grew glowing wings (which thankfully didn’t smell bad). And unlike his owner, when the smell wore off, the wings stayed on.

The perfume came to the household as a birthday gift for his owner, Reekoh. Darkind already knew that something was wrong with the apple-paper wrapped package when it arrived. As normal, he and his brothers all gathered around to sniff at the package and take guesses at what was inside. When Darkind had his turn, he took a large sniff, and then sneezed explosively.

“Truly vile, isn’t it?” said his brother Cross Fire, nudging Darkind in the shoulder.

“Whoever sent this must not care for our master, Reekoh!” added Ka Lypso.

“Actually, I think it’s meant to be a joke,” said Reekoh. She had walked in from behind, catching all of the brothers unawares. She reached down and picked up the package. “Everyone had their turn at guessing what’s inside?”

After a nod from each of the eleven brothers, Reekoh proceeded to unwrap her present. “I think it’s from my sister, Ambition. She finds things like this just hilarious.” She paused, pulling at a corner of the gift. “Man, do you think she used enough tape! Nightstorm, lend a fang please?” Reekoh held out the package, where in the minute or so of working on it, only one corner had been partially raised.

“Hold your breath, Nightstorm!” suggested Star Cluster, grinning.

Nightstorm shot a haughty glare at Star Cluster, but did in fact take a large breath before going to work on the package, delicately tearing the tape in a few swipes of his fangs.

“Thanks, buddy. Hold still, you’ve got a few pieces stuck to your fangs.” Nightstorm did a sort of grimace smile, so Reekoh had full access to his teeth. “I can tell you’ve been brushing!” she said with a smile, flicking the pieces of tape off her fingers after pulling it from his teeth.

Reekoh ruffled Nightstorms fur as he walked back to his spot, sitting down with his head held high, white fangs gleaming. “I brush every night, unlike some of these dogs.”

“Now, now, no name calling,” warned Reekoh, when several of the wolves hackles started to rise at the insult of being called a dog. The animals settled down, and Reekoh opened up the box that was inside the wrapping.

“What were the guesses?” she asked.

“I guessed toxic socks!”

“I think it’s a bag of graveyard chocolates.”

“It can’t be that, she sent galactic ones last year! I think it’s a gross eyeball pizza!”

“The box is too small! I think it’s a Hoggus.”

“It could just be one slice of pizza, you know!”

Reekoh waited until the shouted guesses died down before reaching into the box and pulling out a bottle. After a dramatic pause, where more than one tail beat on the floor in anticipation, she read out loud, “Eau De Toxic.”

Amid a chorus of groans, Darkind leaped into the air. “Yipee, my guess was closest, with a bad perfume of some kind!” He raced up to Reekoh and licked her chin. “I get to share this one with you, right?”

Reekoh laughed. “Sure, but I don’t know how great a prize that is. This perfume smells disgusting! If you like it that much, you can just have it.” Reekoh gave him the bottle, and Darkind took it gingerly in his mouth. He started to trot away, then stopped and set it down on the ground.

“Um, do you think you could spray a few puffs on me?” He held up a paw. “Opposable thumbs, you know.”

“Of course! I can’t figure out why you want this stuff, though. Is your smeller off? Do we need to visit the healer?” Reekoh scrunched her eyebrows together and peered intently into Darkinds eyes.

“No, I can smell it just fine. It’s just I happen to have this…” he leaned closer and lowered his voice, “…secret hideout. No one would ever get close with this nasty smell hovering around!” Darkind grinned with wolfish glee.

“Well, shouldn’t we spray it on your hideout, and not on you?” Reekoh asked.

Darkind frowned. “Good point, but it’s a secret hideout. If you come to spray around it, then it won’t be secret.” He nodded his head in confirmation. “No, better that you spray it on me, and I’ll just roll around the ground near my hideout. Enough smell will linger to keep others away.” He turned his back to Reekoh, and closed his eyes tight. “Spray a bunch on!”

Reekoh shrugged. “Ok, then. Big breath and close your eyes!”

Reekoh took a big breath as well, and then quickly sprayed almost half the bottle onto Darkind. When she was done, they both smelled terrible. “I guess I better head to the shower. When you’re done protecting your fort, come back home so you can get a bath too, ok?”

Darkind was already racing off to his hideout. “Sure thing!” he called over his shoulder.

~*~

Darkind got up off the ground and shook his body. Dust and dirt went flying everywhere, and a miasma of rotten smells permeated the exterior of his hidden cave. He was pleased with how nasty that perfume smelled, and thought it would be appropriate to write Aunt Ambition a thank you letter.

He was about to head home when he gave a jaw popping yawn. Rolling around in the dirt was harder work than he thought! A short wolf nap (for no self-respecting animal of wolf origin would ever call it a cat nap) was definitely in order. Then he’d head home for his bath.

Darkind padded inside his cave, circled three times counter clockwise, lay down and promptly fell asleep.

~*~

Darkind slowly opened his eyes. It was nice and dark outside, the perfect time for hunting. Hunting! Darkind jumped to his feet and started running towards home. He should have been home hours ago. Reekoh would probably be very upset, because now she would have to bathe him in the middle of the night, upsetting her sleep. She would never let him in the house smelling like a combination of rotten meat, fish and other unmentionables.

As he raced towards home, he noticed that the ground wasn’t glowing faintly purple like it usually did at night. His dark matter coloring, while faint during the day, actually lended to his hunting abilities at night; prey were drawn to the beautiful, mellow purple light. I must be coated in very thick dust, he thought.

When he arrived at home, all the lights were on. Typically this late at night, this was not the case. Reekoh must be very worried, he thought. It has to be later than I originally believed.

Darkind leaped up the front steps and ducked through wolf door flap, skidding to a halt in the main entryway and yelled, “Don’t worry, I’m home!”

Reekoh raced around the corner and slid to her knees, wrapping her arms around Darkind’s neck. “I was so worried about you! Where were you? Why didn’t you come home for the past 5 days?”

“5 days? I’ve only been gone for a few hours. Remember, I went to roll my scent around…you know?” he said significantly, referring to his cave.

“I know that’s what you said you were doing! But 5 days is too long to be gone from home without telling me. And why did you change your color? I thought you were happy with dark matter.” Reekoh sat back on her heels, and her gaze narrowed. “And where did you get these wings?”

Before Darkind could answer, Detective Thorpe came huffing from around the corner, followed by Darkind’s entire family. The look on the detective’s face was priceless; it looked like he believed he was being chased by an entire pack of wild wolves.

He slid to a shuddering halt behind Reekoh, pulling his shoulders in and squeezing his eyes shut. When the brothers ran past him and leaped onto Darkind, barking and making all kinds of noises, and when it was evident death was not at hand, he opened his eyes. Looking at the playful dogs, he brushed off his clothing, shook his head abruptly a few times and then helped a grinning Reekoh to her feet.

“Well, sorry it took so long to reach you, but your ah, wolves, were showing me some of Darkind’s favorite spots, so I could get a better idea of what his personality was. I was about to crawl hands and knees into this bushy area when they all started baying and howling like mad, and took off for home. I was in front of them, you see, and thought they were all going mad, and well…anyway. I see the prodigal has returned. Are my services no longer required?” Thorpe straightened his cape around his shoulders.

“No, I don’t believe so, Detective. Thank you so much for your time.” Reekoh shook Thorpe’s hand and saw him out the door.

“Darkind, where did you get those wings?” asked Star Cluster with envy. “I think they’re bigger than mine.”

“And why are you glowing a sort of gray-green?” asked Torinado.

Darkind made a few circles of himself, craning his head and neck to see the wings he supposedly had on his back. “Come on you guys, first Reekoh then you! I don’t have wings…” he stopped, because he was standing in front of the hall mirror, and he did in fact have wings. And he was glowing a sort of grayish green.

Reekoh had returned by then, and kneeled on the floor by Darkind, resting her arm around his shoulder. As they looked in the mirror together at his reflection, she said, “I think you look handsome, Darkind. It is a bit abrupt of a change, and you could have told us you wanted to do this so we weren’t so shocked, but I think I like it. Where did you have it done, at the hair salon?”

Darkind took a few gulps of air before responding. “I…I didn’t have this done! I don’t know how it happened! I went to, you know, that place, and then I was tired so I took a nap. I woke a few hours later, came home, and you guys tell me it has been 5 days!”

A chorus of suggestions for how this could have happened exploded from his brothers, ranging from the insane (falling in a vat of toxic blueberries) to the bizarre (being kidnapped by Marcel and ‘tested’ upon). Finally, Reekoh raised her hands and quieted them down. “Actually, I think it was the perfume.”

“How could perfume do something like that?” asked Darkind.

“Well, I don’t know. But I slept for almost 12 hours that day you left, after taking my shower. And I had the strangest dreams…I was flying, and the sky was glowing a color the same hue as you are glowing right now.”

“And why don’t you have wings?” asked Cold Fang.

Reekoh shrugged. “I’m guessing because I wasn’t dark matter to begin with. And I wasn’t covered with the perfume, either, I only breathed it in and got the overspray on me. Somehow the perfume must have reacted with your dark matter, and done…this.”

Nightstorm slowly started to back away.

“Don’t worry, Nightstorm! I poured the rest down the drain. I couldn’t stand to even have it in the house,” said Reekoh, smiling at Nightstorm’s worried look. “Meanwhile, I think we’ll have to have a talk with my sister Ambition about future birthday presents…” Reekoh started to walk away, then paused. “Will you be ok, Darkind? It really is an attractive look. And one of a kind, too. I’m sure it’s reversible; we could probably buy another dark matter potion and have you fixed in no time!” At this last bit, Reekoh didn’t sound too convinced.

Darkind stared at his reflection. “No…” he said slowly. “I’ll keep this, for a while at least.”

Reekoh smiled, ruffled the fur on the top of his head, and walked away.

“Come on!” said Star Cluster. “Ka Lypso and I will teach you how to fly!”

“Oh, you will love flying, Darkind. It beats running around any day!” added Ka Lypso.

Darkind smiled. “I would love that.”



THE END