Joshua had just returned from school, and as he expected, the same creature he had met that morning was waiting for playtime. The pain in his stomach was still ever present however. You see, when he left Discord that morning, Joshua’s dad had asked him earlier where he had gotten the lollipop he had in his mouth. Being the honest kid he was, Joshua of course told him about Discord…the conversation ended with a punch to the stomach and being called a lying worm by his own father. Discord noticed Joshua wince in pain when he came back into his room.
“Whoa. The heck’d they do to you?” he asked.
“Dear old dad hit me for lying. I kinda told him about you, and well…you can see what happened” Josh mumbled, his face still pretty scrunched up in pain.
Discord’s usually happy demeanor changed almost entirely when Joshua said that.
“Well that’s a real shame. You ok?” Discord asked.
Josh gave a little less than confident nod. “I’m good. Not exactly the best day for my self-esteem, but I’m good.” He said.
Discord didn’t look totally convinced, but he didn’t press it any further. “Well alright then. So, you feel like having fun, kiddo?” he asked.
Josh made an attempt to ignore the pain, not to worry his friend. “Aw heck yeah!” Josh responded.
For the next few months, Joshua and Discord had such grand fun together. Hide and Seek, playing catch, the usual kid’s stuff. Sometimes though with an original twist of Discord flare. At some points, they played Monkey in the Middle, with Discord having a duplicate of himself as the third player, and when arm wrestling, Discord of course had to give Joshua a fair chance…in this case by temporarily giving him a bear’s arm. Discord found that with his abilities, it was easy to keep a kid entertained. Never had Joshua felt happier than when he was at home, playing with his best friend.
Of course, there was still the matter of Josh’s parents.
No matter how hard he tried, Joshua could never convince his parents of Discord’s existence.
“Figures that only an nonexistent freak-deer would be friends with such a useless waste of space as him” Josh heard his mother mumble after their conversation about it.
Josh had asked Discord about the situation several times.
“Can’t you just show yourself to them?” he asked one day during one of their play sessions.
Discord shook his horse-like head.
“Why not?” Josh asked.
“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I would be turned over to government scientists, would be painfully experimented on, maybe even dissected. Or maybe because you’re old man would probably want to have my pelt turned into a rug in the living room.” Discord said, flattening his body into the shape of a carpet and laying on the ground.
That sounded a bit dark to Joshua, and he shuddered a bit.
In truth, he was right. Discord’s usual fun-loving nature was starting to become a little more sinister and dark. The reason was that when Joshua was at school, Discord had nothing to do. His usual pastime, causing excessive amounts of random chaos, would no doubt give him away. After all, you don’t normally see the streets turning to soap on a regular basis, now do you? If he did ANYTHING outside that house, it would only be a matter of time before he would be found out. But being confined to Josh’s room was starting to drive Discord a little nuts...even by Discord's standards. Though he was always able to be his usual, random self when he was alone with his little friend. But when he wasn’t, all he could do was listen to Joshua’s parents verbally beating the hell out of each other. Chaos was one thing. Being downright irritating and loud is another, and he was starting to grow more restless every day…
This became absolutely certain to Joshua with the dog incident.
Josh had left for school one morning after bidding farewell to Discord. He had made it about halfway down the streets past one of his neighbor’s houses, and he heard intense barking from behind him. He turned around quick to see what was happening, and saw basically his mortal enemy. His neighbor’s stupid German Shepard had escaped it’s yard and was barreling toward him at breakneck speeds. Joshua severely hated this dog. For whatever reason, that thing hated his guts too. Every morning when he passed by that dog from hell’s lair, the beast would growl and snarl at him. This time however, it looked like he had somehow dug his way under the fence and was trying to kill him. Josh didn’t waste any time in running for it. He ran for his life for about 3 blocks from the little monster, who at that point was foaming at the mouth. Whether the thing had rabies or not, Josh couldn’t waste time thinking about and continued to sprint away from it’s gnashing teeth. Unfortunately for him, he tripped on his own feet. Now on the ground, Josh could only watch as the vicious dog continued to run in his direction, ready to pounce. It caught up to him, and started to slow down, menacingly glaring at him and slowly walked toward him with it’s head low to the ground…
Just before the dog could tear Josh apart, a white flash of light erupted out of nowhere between Josh and the animal. To Josh’s surprise, when it cleared, the shape of Discord was in it’s place, looming over the dog. Discord’s red pupils glared sinisterly at the animal, his usual happy face turned into a sour and angry frown. Upon laying eyes on the giant monster before it, the dog cowered to the ground, it’s tail between it’s legs. It quietly let out soft whimpering. Discord’s eyes narrowed, still staying rather quiet.
‘Okay, that’s a little weird. Discord always has some sort of smartass remark to say. What’s he thinking?’ Joshua thought
Without any sort of warning, Discord snapped his fingers and a white light enveloped the dog. From inside it, Josh could hear the animal yelping in what sounded like pain. What’d Discord do to it?
When the light disappeared, what Josh saw before him didn’t even resemble a dog. It was a pinkish creature, breathing incredibly heavily. It was dripping with a red liquid, and it’s organs appeared to be exposed. The thing’s eyes appeared to be rolled into the back of it’s head.
Discord had turned the dog inside-out…
After about a second of looking at the monstrosity, it stopped breathing, and fell over…and laid completely still…
Discord’s usually happy attitude returned, and his nutty grin once again spread across his face.
“Hehehehe. I was always more of a cat person anyway.” Discord chuckled.
Josh didn’t seem to hear his friend, as he stared at the dog’s severely messed up corpse. Not in horror or disgust as you might imagine, but in amazement.
“That was…awesome!” Josh yelled.
“You really liked it did ya?” Discord asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.
“Of course! That thing was trying to kill me, and you turned the freaking thing inside-out for crying out loud! By the way, that thing’s just as ugly on the inside as it’s face was.” Josh exclaimed.
Discord’s smile grew a lot wider.
“I’m happy you appreciate my work, kiddo. Though you may wanna split, considering the circumstances.” Discord said waving his eagle hand at the dog’s body.
Josh nodded and turned to continue to school, but stopped halfway.
“Hey Discord?” he asked.
Discord looked up a bit toward his friend.
“You always stay in my room for fear of being discovered. Why’d you decide to come out now?” he asked.
“Predictability isn’t exactly my thing. I’m more of a random and irrational kind of guy…that and your folks yelling was starting to give me a major head cold.” Discord said as his brain came out of his ear and let out a huge sneeze into a handkerchief. It proceeded to throw it in the air and the handkerchief burst into flames and disappear.
Joshua looked satisfied with that answer and continued on to school, waving goodbye to Discord.
Once Joshua was out of sight, Discord looked at the dog’s mangled body.
“Okay then, time to clean up the mess.” Discord said, snapping his lion fingers.
A bit of smoke started to slip from under the limp dog. As seconds went by, the smoke grew much thicker, and crackling noises could be heard. After about a half a minute, the body shot up into the sky like a rocket, leaving fire in it’s wake. Discord put a pair of sunglasses on to protect his eyes.
“Boom” he whispered…
Just as he said that, the dog exploded in several directions, lighting up the sky like fireworks. Ashes and bits of flaming fur fell from above, some of it landing on Discord’s face.
“Glad SOMEONE appreciates my sense of style.” Discord said to himself.