Zecora and the Parasite

by Faedelaide

2: All Just Shades of Black

Reek awoke when he felt something poking his face. His eyestalks rose sluggishly, and it took a moment for him to focus on his surroundings. But before he could gather his bearings, something poked him in his eye.

"Ow! What is doing that?"

"ah, so you are finally awake!
I was not sure how long it would take," A melodic voice answered back.

Reek's eye sunk back into his head to recover. The remaining stalk focused on the blurry shape before him. It was various shades of grey, but seemed to be crowned by stripes of white. Odd, blurry blobs of gold decorated its edges, and above all, it was rather small.

The blob poked him again in his side.

"Hey! Would you knock that off!?"

"Oh, you'll have to forgive me,
but of Gusty's Grace you'll soon be free."

Reek eyed the blob in confusion. As his vision cleared, the unformed figure began to sharpen, until it finally took the shape of a zebra, clad in golden neck and hoof rings. The zebra stared up at him a look of apathetic curiosity. Though Reek could've sworn he'd seen a flash of something else cross her gaze.

Reek raised himself to his full height, and clonked his head on the ceiling in the process. he looked around him. The zebra's home was rather small, which made sense, considering only one creature lived here. All along the walls, shelves held potions, masks, and jars of miscellaneous ingredients. A large cauldron bubbled in the house's center, filled with a boiling purple fluid.

Welp, this definitely was it. This was how he died.

However, instead of goring him on a wooden spike or tossing whatever was in her cauldron at his face, the zebra turned away and walked nonchalantly over to one of her many shelves. From it, she grabbed a tall glass bottle that was stuffed to the brim with dried, yellow petals. She, along with the cabin, seemed to shake and shimmer, as if the whole building were a mirage, and Reek was having a difficult time figuring out how close she was until he accidently bumped into the wall next.

"It seems that Grace has yet to leave.
But I still have some tricks up my sleeve."

The zebra popped open the jar, and a powerful scent of herbal spices and dried grass wafted in the air. Just breathing it made Reek's body relax. The zebra scooped up a hoofful of the yellow leaves and held it out towards him.

Reek recoiled, disgusted and paranoid by its fragrance. "What, you think I'm gonna eat that?"

"To be rid of the Grace that gives you strife,
then eat these Begonias, the petals of life," She spoke briskly. She continued to hold out the petals for Reek, but he was as still as a statue, a look of utter bewilderment attached to his face.

"What are you talking about!? Gusty's Grace, petals of life, are you insane? Am I stuck in the house of a maniac?"

The zebra pulled back as Reek shouted. That same curiostiy lingered in her eyes, but she looked away, allowing Reek the chance to scan for any and all possible escape routes. The zebra huffed slightly, deep in thought.

"If you truly believe me mad,
then perhaps I should explain a tad."

"Yeah, maybe that'd be a good idea," Reek fumed.

"Fine, if it must be so,
but eat these petals if you wish to know."

Reek hesitated. The petals did smell good, but he had experienced too many near death encounters to naïvely take petals from a stranger's hand... or hoof in this instance.

Reek leaned back, making as much distance between him and the petals as possible. The zebra's face began to fall as moment after silent moment passed by. Her eyes, once full of interest, were now dulling in tandem with the thinning of her patience.

"If you do not want the remedy I provide,
Then perhaps I'll let you go outside."

Reek laughed. "What, you're just letting me go because I won't eat your stupid magic petals? Alright then. That was easier than I thought it'd be."

Chuckling to himself, Reek slid away from the zebra and her probably poisonous petals and headed towards the door. "Welp, it was awful to meet you. I hope I never see you again!" He clenched the doorknob with his teeth and twisted open the door.

As soon as the door creaked open, Reek was shoved back by a powerful, violent wind. Snow flew in from the open doorway, covering his face in a layer of frost. The wind screamed at him, roaring with all the might of a raging dragon. Reek tried to worm away from the door, but the cold quickly numbed his muscles, and all he could see, feel and hear was the cold. It felt like he was back in the glacier. He couldn't go back there. Please, he hoped he'd never go there again. Anywhere but there.

The door slammed closed, and with it, the howling storm receded back into the great outdoors. Reek shook away the flakes of snow covering his face to see the zebra standing in front of him with an unamused expression.

"If you wish to stay, and not freeze in the snow,
then you'll be sure to eat my Begonias, no?"

"W...w-where in Tartarus did that storm come from?" Reek stammered.

"Oh, the Lunar Solstice's winter storm.
It seems to have taken quite a monstrous form."

"Lunar Solstice? What is-you know what, I know I'm not going to get an answer. I'm just going to go curl into a ball and die if that's ok with you."

"I will tell you all that I know
but it would be best if we-"

"Yes I know, I get it! You want me to eat those stupid Begonias! Fine, I'll eat them! Is that what you were gonna say!?"

The zebra giggled. "-Take it slow."

"Oh."

"I must say its pleasing to see
that you are willing to listen to me," the zebra remarked, a sarcastic expression smeared across her face.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Reek grumbled. "So what's the deal with this storm then? How long is it gonna last?"

The zebra didn't respond. Instead, she yet again held out her hoof, holding another small batch of yellow petals.
"If it is truth you'd like me to reveal,
then first you must eat your meal."

"What are you, my mother?" Reek joked. He chuckled to himself for a moment, but after looking at the thoroughly unamused look on the zebra's face, Reek quickly took the leaves into his mouth and ate. His teeth swirled and waved in his mouth, shredding the dried leaves in a matter of seconds. Reek sighed as he chewed. He was gonna be stuck here with an insane zebra for a good while, and he would have to eat weird petals just to keep himself from starving to death. At this rate, starving seemed like a pretty good option.

As soon as he swallowed the insgnificant portion, Reek began to cough violently. Despite their pleasant aroma, the petals were just about the worst thing he had ever eaten. They tasted like the white hot embers spewed from a charred corpse that had been left in the sun for months, was eaten by a wandering onniont, was promptly spat back out, and finally left to decompose in a poisonous bog. Whatever plant he'd eaten yesterday that caused him to pass out was by far a more pleasant dish than whatever this was.

"Wh-hack-what is th-hack-at stuff?" Reek wheezed.

"Begonias that I usually grow for sport,
but they also cure toxins and others of that sort," the zebra smiled innocently.

"what... I mean-but y-..." Reek tried his best to get the words out, but the unholy taste of the petals, mixed with his insurmountable confusion at the recent course of events allowed him only the most fragmented of sentences. After a moment of collection, and gagging, Reek looked the zebra in the eye. She remained calm, even as his eyestalks quivered with rage.

"Am I missing something? Was there some grand event that occurred that would explain all of this madness? Because if there isn't, then what in Boiuna's name is a zebra of all creatures doing living here in the middle of the forest, growing and farming pharmaceutical plants and acting like none of it is weird? Who do you think you are to act so above all of this, like your some sort of messiah or savior just because you dragged me out of the snow and in to your itty bitty little murder hut? Is this just something you do everyday, huh? Do you just take in lost and wounded creatures, give them some poison under the guise of 'healing herbs' and then use their bodies as catalysts for your potions? Is that it?

Reek's body inflated and deflated as he took heavy, enraged breaths. The zebra stood still, her face having returned to that annoying look of curiosity again. Reek waited for an answer, but it seemed he would not be provided one.

After a bout of silence that lasted far too long, Reek shouted again. "Well, is it!?"

The zebra remained quiet for a minute, but opened her mouth once Reek began to calm down.

"I can understand why you would be annoyed,
but you teeter the edge of paranoid."

Reek tried to steady his breathing, but was so enveloped in his rage that it came out as more of an aggravated hiss. "That doesn't answer... my question. Who... are you?"

"I'm afraid I do not understand your commotion.
I am only Zecora, a maker of potions."