The Lost Boy

Chapter 11

"Rooster!" 

Codfish's voice was hoarse and strange; his face was pale and his lips were twisted in a tight, unfamiliar frown. His dark eyes smoldered as he greeted the group. 

"Where've you been? C'mon, Jade's cornered the beast by some pond!" 

Tink and Slightly both glanced at Rooster, who set his jaw and followed Codfish through a set of trees, where the monster collapsed close to the edge of a pond, howling desperately as it attempted to pass Jade Star, who was blocking its way. The fairy was much smaller, smaller than the beast's paw, but the monster seemed weak, despairing. 

Jade Star looked up when the others arrived and an emotion flashed through her green eyes as she smiled and chimed something to Codfish. Tink gasped, and the monster's ears, which had been flat against its head, flew upright in alarm and it wailed as Codfish approached. 

"What're you doin'?" Rooster demanded as he lunged forward and grabbed Codfish's arm. When Codfish whirled around to face him, his thin lips curled back over his teeth, Rooster released his friend's arm and took a hesitant step back. His dark hair was greasier than usual and hung limply around his thin, pale face, his expression one of fiery anger. His fists were balled and his dark eyes were blazing, but as Rooster looked closely, searching those eyes for a trace of his friend's sarcastic humor or pessimistic self, all he found were intruding flecks of green. 

"Y-you're not Codfish..." Rooster finally said, as his voice broke. Slightly looked at him in astonishment, while Codfish's expression softened just enough to allow confusion to rise to the surface. 

"What're you talkin' 'bout?" Codfish asked. 

"Your eyes weren't ever green," Rooster said, taking another step back as waves of emotion began to crash over him the way he imagined a boiling sea would slap a beach. "You weren't ever this angry b'fore. You've changed." 

"So what?" Codfish snapped. "I see the truth with this monster and I'm tryin' to 'elp. What's it to you?" 

Deep breaths. Deep, yet panicked, tortured, heartbroken breaths. Rooster looked to his right, to the monster collapsed at the pond. Its golden eyes were desperate, pleading, and it whimpered, like an injured dog. 

In response, Jade Star laughed, only this laugh wasn't like Tink's, like happiness in the form of bells. These were harsh bells, scratchy and mean spirited and...nasty. Wicked, even, and when Rooster squinted to get a better look at the fairy's face, he saw a wicked gleam in those green eyes that he'd only seen one other place. 

"No..." His eyes darted back and forth between Jade Star and the Never Moon a few times before he stared at Codfish in horror. "The moon...she's...you..." 

Jade Star's eyes narrowed sharply, her lips curled in a snarl, and she chimed something at Codfish as the monster collapsed against the sea of pebbles surrounding the pond, its paws desperately, weakly, pulling itself toward the water. 

Rooster stared helplessly into his friend's green flecked eyes. "No! Codfish, can't you see it?" 

"See what? That you're never with me?" Codfish snapped, exchanging a quick glance again with Jade Star, who nodded. "Jade Star saw through you from the start. You're weak, can't even stop an over sized mutt," Codfish sneered at the monster, which whimpered again, its eyes locked on the pond, pleading. 

"Codfish, she's changin' you," Rooster said. "You can't trust 'er!" 

"But I can trust you?" Codfish demanded, then he groaned as a shudder ran through his body and green light snaked through his eyes, growing more dominant over their familiar black color. He blinked, shook his head, then glowered at Rooster again. "You were never with me, Roost. I trusted you...believed you were my friend and you'd 'ave my back. Clearly, I was wrong."