Wawa’s Visitors, chapter 1
Mayflower
“What do you wish for?”
Wawa’s life was a loop of colorful hallways.
He had never seen beyond the castle walls, but he knew it was a castle he wandered. It was a building filled with lavish colors and sparkling decorations, a web of thin hallways with carpeted floors and open doors that never lead to an exit.
Well, not only hallways. There was a foyer and a kitchen and a dining room, and some rooms held long-since triggered traps or half-solved puzzles. Others still held fluffies and monsters, cursed beings unable to leave their rooms.
Unfortunately, for Wawa the cursed ones were rarely good company. Some were too busy crying and wallowing in their own misery, others so insane they attacked him on sight, and both options far too frustrating. As such Wawa preferred to simply wander the halls alone, learning the workings of each puzzle and trap.
He never worried about setting a trap off by mistake; somehow, he always knew how to traverse them safely. And although he didn’t know why, Wawa guessed it had something to do with his wish for power. By all accounts he should have been cursed, but other than his strength and castle knowledge, the only change had been feathered wings to complement his horn. So as far as he was concerned it was no curse at all, but a gift that made him the castle’s strongest.
Or… second strongest. The Wish Granter, the being that had given him his power, lay curled within the deepest reaches of the castle. And though Wawa at times tried to approach it, facing the creature brought him back to being a helpless little foal screaming its wish through tear-filled eyes.
Suffice to say, he avoided that room when possible. Thus, Wawa wandered the hallways on his own, learning each twist and turn and walking through long rooms that looped and tied together in strange ways.
Until, one day, he emerged into the wrong place. A door that should have gone to another hallway instead brought Wawa to the castle foyer, and there stood a fluffy unlike any other he’d seen.
Her bright yellow fur was clean and poofy, far different from the ragged castle residents, and her puffy sea-green mane reminded him of his own. A curious accessory was tucked behind one of her ears, and she was exploring with the innocently delighted smile of someone who’d never seen pain.
It was all too sudden for Wawa. Unable to understand what had happened, he just stood there blankly until the mare noticed his presence.
“Oh!” Before he knew it she was heading straight for him, green eyes sparkling. “Hewwo nyu pointy-wingy fwen! Am su happy, Mayfuwowah was wowwied thewe wewe nu othew fwuffies in big housie at aww!”
Wawa shifted back a step, blinking slowly as he tried to take in the longest string of words he’d ever heard. “Pointy… wingy fwend?”
The mare giggled. “Yeh! Fwen haf pointy hown an’ wingies, so am pointy-wingy fwen!” she explained, pointing out Wawa’s appendages with a hoof. “Wots of fwuffies say pointy-wingy fwens am munstahs, bu’ Mayfuwowah think pointy-wingy fwens am fwens!”
There were probably more concise ways to say that, but Wawa didn’t care how rambly the new arrival’s words were. He was simply put fascinated with her, so talkative and unusual. Before he could do more than open his mouth she kept talking, though.
“Mayfuwowah name am Mayfuwowah!” she needlessly exclaimed, sitting down. “What am nyu fwen’s name?”
“Huh?- fwuffy name am Wawa…” Wawa found himself surveying her, but quickly continued before she could start rambling again. “How did Mayfwowah get hewe?”
“Huh?” The fluffy tilted her head to the side as if his words were utterly nonsensical. “Thwu doow. Wawa nu entew thwu doow?”
Door? But Wawa had wandered through every room in the castle, explored every nook and cranny, and no door had ever lead outside. “… What doow?”
“Hewe!” Mayflower jumped to her hooves, trotting away. “Mayfuwowah show!”
More curious than he’d like to admit, Wawa followed the mare - but in just a few minutes, she lead him to a dead end. She stood there, staring quizzically at the empty wall in front of her.
“Dat’s weiwd. Dewe was big doow hewe befowe,” she said to nobody in particular. “Whewe doow go? Doow go away?”
Oh. Wawa watched the wall in dismay; so there had once been an exit. Perhaps if Mayflower had come here alone it would have still been there. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth - he supposed having a wish granted confined him to the castle. Being allowed to roam the halls did not mean he was free.
“Nu wowwy, Mayfuwowah wiww find doow again!” chimed Mayflower, oblivious to his thoughts.
“Nu think dat wiww hewp,” he replied. “Wawa nu can weave castwe.”
“Nu be siwwy, of couwse Wawa can weave!”
“Nu! Haf wooked fow exit fow wots and wots of time. Nu can weave.”
The mare fell into thought, looking puzzled. “But den how Wawa get in castwe if nu know exit?”
… How had he? Even his first memory had been inside the castle. “Wawa nu know…”
“Mebbe Wawa mummah ow daddeh know! Wight?”
His… mother or father? Wawa’s parents? His heart sank as he didn’t recall them either. He remembered nothing before his wish.
“… Wawa nu haf mummah ow daddeh?” Mayflower asked, ears lowering as she seemed to notice his reaction.
“Onwy castwe.”
“Nu know anything but castwe? What about gwassies ow fuwowahs?”
Wawa simply shook his head, and then and there Mayflower seemed to reach a decision. She put her hoof on his shoulder and gave Wawa the brightest, most reassuring smile he’d ever seen. “Nu wowwy, is otay. Cuz Mayfuwowah wiww teww Wawa about evewything!”
The halls echoed with Mayflower’s voice as the two fluffies explored. While the visiting mare was busy talking about herds and flora - the strange accessory tucked behind her ear was a flower, he found out - Wawa was experiencing the strangeness of a world that had turned on its head. While he could recognize each individual room, every path lead to the wrong place and formerly-open doors were shut tight while locked ones had swung open. It was all disorienting, but at the same time invigorating.
Especially when they stepped into a place Wawa had never seen before.
It was like a little garden with a shallow stream cutting through its middle, grass coating the floor and large flowers blooming along the walls. Mayflower gasped and ran to the flowers, but Wawa couldn’t bring himself to move. He was just staring, not at the garden, but at the sky above.
There was no ceiling. Dark clouds coated the endless sky, swirling and melting into each other as if conspiring to hide what lay beyond, and the air carried a distantly pushing breeze that dug into his fur. All Wawa could do was to take it in until Mayflower’s dismayed voice snapped him out of it.
“Dese fuwowahs nu am wight,” she complained, batting at one of the large plants with a hoof and a frown. “Nu smeww ow taste pwetty!”
Instinctively Wawa knew what was wrong. “Fwowahs am fake.” He trotted over to the mare and looked over the plant - sure enough, while the shape and color was pretty and unique, its touch felt like any number of items inside the castle. Plastic. “Nothing in dis castwe is weaw.”
“How Wawa know so much about big castwe?” asked Mayflower, and he paused. How? It was just part of his gift, wasn’t it?
“Was fwom wish.” He thought back, setting his hoof to the floor. “Wawa made wish to da Wish Gwantew, and got wingies an’…”
As he glanced to the mare, Wawa’s voice faded. He didn’t know what had caused it, but Mayflower’s eyes were wide and she spoke with bated breath. “Wish gwantew? Can gwant wishies?”
Wawa almost physically fumbled as he realized what was going through the visitor’s mind. “Nu good wish! Cuwsed wish! Wawa nu can weave, an’-”
“Mayfuwowah wan wishie!” she cut him off with a bounce. “Wan go find wishie, wet’s go!”
Before Wawa could speak up the mare was hurrying onward, and he had to sprint after her to catch up. “Mayfwowah nu heaw!? Wishes am bad,” he protested, hoping she’d see reason. “Wiww be cuwsed!”
“Nu wowwy!” Mayflower called back with a big, cheerful smile. “Mayfuwowah haf big pwan, wiww aww be otay!”
He couldn’t convince nor stop her. No matter what Wawa said, Mayflower just shrugged him off with a smile and a promise she’d be fine. He tried telling her of the cursed, of the Wish Granter’s horrid shape, but she just giggled and told him they’d be friends. There were no monsters and no suffering in her world, just friends she had yet to meet, and nothing he tried could convince her otherwise.
Once she had met the cursed ones, he thought she would understand. The first one they came across was the Cannibal, a sickly gray bat fluffy whose snapping jaws only barely missed Mayflower as she fled across his gore-filled room. But even then…
“N- Nu wowwy,” assured Mayflower, gasping for breath as Wawa caught up. He did admit that she was fast, but had the Cannibal not gotten distracted by Wawa’s presence, had she tripped on any of the half-eaten corpses littering the Cannibal’s room, they both knew she would have died. “Mayfuwowah, am otay, nu wowwy.”
“Dat am what cuwse does,” Wawa explained, punctuating it as clearly as he could. “Dat am what wishes do.”
She just shook her head. “Nu twue. Wawa am otay, wight? Wawa jus’ haf wingies. An’ Mayfuwowah, Mayfuwowah know what tu wish, tu make evewyfing otay, so nu wowwy.”
It left him with a feeling he couldn’t quite describe. Something disheartening, frustrating, helpless that made him want to dig into the floor below them. As soon as she had recovered a little bit Mayflower began to run again, and Wawa blocked her path. “Why Mayfwowah nu wisten?! What wiww yu even wish fow?!”
“Siwwy Wawa,” giggled Mayflower and gently bonked his head with hers in an eskimo kiss. “Mayfuwowah haf bestest pwan! Wiww wish fow wishes tu nu be cuwsed anymowe, an’ den can wish fow bestest housie with bestest hooman daddeh, an’ nummies, an’ wots of fuwowahs an’ babbehs an’ wuv!”
Before Wawa could formulate a reply, the mare had taken off again. And as he followed, even thinking about her plan left a bad taste in his mouth.
Wishing for the curse to vanish? Would such a thing work? No, there was no way it could. And wishing for a human, a tall monstrous ape man, to invade the place he called home? More fluffies to crowd the rooms? He didn’t want that. Everything she listed was selfish and wrong, and the longer he thought of it the more Wawa knew he didn’t want it.
He didn’t want Mayflower as a cursed fluffy, taking up space, barely capable of holding a conversation. And he didn’t want her to succeed, her selfish wishes adding so many new fluffies and people that the castle wouldn’t fit them all. No; he didn’t want her to make a wish at all.
The frustrating feelings in his heart grew darker and tighter with each step. He couldn’t call it hatred; it was jealousy, cruelty, a terrible decision given form. Wawa split paths from his friend under the guise of covering ground, and searched for a way to get ahead.
The path was strangely easy, as though he knew it all along. Perhaps the castle closed off all the wrong directions, perhaps it was another innate skill of his. The answer didn’t matter. Wawa emerged into a room he recognized, platforms with switches raised above empty canals; one of the puzzle rooms, he had assumed. Throw the switches to change the flow of water in the canals and create a path forward.
Thinking of how best to use it, he sat by a switch and contemplated the room’s workings until he heard Mayflower’s voice once more. “Wawa! Thewe yu awe! Mayfuwowah was getting wowwied!”
She wasn’t on a platform, but inside the canals. There were stairs that could carry her up to him, but she hadn’t noticed them yet. She just stood there and smiled brightly despite bruises and scrapes, a display of naive innocence that had become infuriating.
Wawa never answered her. Placing his hooves onto the switch he pushed it down, and the roar of water flooded the canal. Mayflower didn’t see it coming; she was engulfed and slammed into the metal wall before her, thrown to the surface from inertia alone as she gasped and flailed to stay afloat. Her eyes were wide with panic as she thrashed, trying desperately to keep her head above the surface despite her waterlogged fur dragging her down.
“Wawa!” she screamed with the few breaths she could get, coughing and sputtering. “Hewp! Wawa!!”
He could have flipped the switch back at any time. He had all the time in the world to change his mind. But Wawa didn’t lift a hoof as he watched his friend disappear below the surface, still desperately reaching out to him for help, never comprehending that he was the culprit.
He waited a bit longer before letting the water drain, stepping down into the canal. Wawa studied the soggy mess that was Mayflower; the first outsider he had ever met, a stubbornly and hopelessly cheerful fluffy, now nothing more than another dead body. And laying by her hooves, untainted and cheerful, was the flower from her mane.
