Inkdweller: an Inktober Story
By Joshua Brandt + Casey Browning
Poisonous
Ian’s eyes scanned the page of a book. Nothing. Just something about three stupid pigs. What were pigs anyways? Were they like tasty smeltri his uncle sold in his cart? Etch! he was so hungry. Focus! Ink kept flowing from the cut in his leg. If he didn't find something in one these books fast he was going to pass out. As he picked up another his mind started to fuzz. Aha! At the bottom of the page he found the word doctor. Close enough. Struggling to concentrate, he placed his shaking hand over the word, then inhaled sharply.
Nothing. “Oh c’mon!” what was he missing? He had the word, what more did he need? Vision blurring, he turned the page and scanned it for anything else that might... He was fading, he could feel it. He swiped another book from his pack. The only word remotely similar was #poisonous, he might end up poisoning himself. Better not take that chance.
Flipping back to the word doctor, he tried one more time. He closed his eyes, focusing on the power of the word. The ability to heal and the knowledge required to bind and mend wounds. He breathed in, pulling the air into him and with his whole being reached out to that word on the page. Something was different this time. A sort of clarity. His vision started to clear. The pain, it was subsiding quicker than he anticipated. He looked down at the page, now empty. Sketches! It worked!
As he leapt up, his leg buckled under the weight of his body. “C'mon you stupid wound BIND” he told himself as he got back up, nearly slipping on ink from his leg.
“Careful Ian, it’s a long way down.”
He whirled around to see an Inkling, an inky black creature with no face.Yet this one could talk. Strange.How did it know his name? It lunged for Ian and he rolled out of the way, a deep metallic boom sounded under him, books flying out of his pack.
The inkling grabbed a book, sucking the ink out, then turned on Ian and shot three little pigs out his hand. Ian giggled as the pink animals squealed and ran around him, nipping his heels.
“Is that all you got?” He taunted the inkling, as the dark creature morphed into a huge furry creature baring fangs. It growled “Oh Ian, haven’t you ever heard of the big bad wolf?”
Tranquil
“Alright Indi, I’ll be gone for about an hour, can I trust you to close up? That means double checking....”
Indi’s mind wandered as her mom kept going. It’s not as if Indi had never closed up the bookstore. She was actually getting pretty good at it.
“...Did you get all that?.....Indi, are you listening?”
“Um wha? Oh yeah sure mom.”
“Indi are you sure you can handle this?”
“Yes mother…I can do it.” trying her hardest to suppress an eye roll.
“Ok, I love you Indi. Be safe and call me if you need me.” she said skeptically as she rushed out the door.
Indi walked to the window and watched her mom till she was out of sight. Running to the back of the store, she opened the desk drawer and grabbed a box cutter. The box sure was heavy as she flipped it over, cut it open and snatched the newest novel of Kaptain & Chucklez: The Lost Kraken. They weren’t going on sale for another month. There was simply no way she could wait that long.
DING DING
Vynn came running through the front door. “Hey sis, what’s for dinner I’m starving!”
Indi quickly hid her book behind her back. “Not sure. Hey take off your cleats! I’ve already swept up and I’m not cleaning up after you!”
“Alrighty crankybutt I’ll let you finish up”
Indi’s glare followed Vynn till she was up the stairs. She let out a sigh, she had tried so hard to make the soccer team. She’d have to play on the coed team again and she hated how Jimmy and Tyler tried to flirt with her. Boys sure were stupid sometimes. However Kaptain and Chucklez were boys and they were awesome! The smell of fresh paper and ink floated up to meet her as she sat down in her secret reading nook behind the last bookshelf and poured over the first page. She always felt #tranquil while getting lost in books. They sucked her into new worlds and magical places.
“INDI” Vynn called from the stairwell. “Come up for dinner!”
“Aargh! I just got started!” she muttered to herself, closing the book and hiding it behind the box of trash bags.
She raised her arm, tugging down on the chain to the light before she left. A faint light glowed behind Indi. She swiveled around to see the wall itself was glowing. The subtle form of a metal door slowly appeared.
“Um yeah no..”
Roasted
The inkling turned wolf charged at Ian with a wild fury, swaying the rusty pipe to an fro. Ivy and deep forest had grown around it, suspending it high in the air. He grabbed the closest thing and chucked it at the hairy beast. “Oh nasty, so bloody” Ian cringed as the inkwolf gobbled up the chubby pig. He tossed the other two at it hoping to distract it a little. Luckily the inkwolf’s animal instincts took over. Ian peered off the side and could see the foliage below was way too dense, no way to tell if the ground was just beyond that canopy. It could be 50 or 150 feet, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know that portion of the understreets. The inkwolf tore the pigs to shreds “Now it’s your turn my friend!”
Ian’s heart dropped and body jumped as the last step he took backing away from the inkling had caught nothing but air. He’d reached the end of the pipe. He dropped to a knee and grabbed a vine from the canopy above.
Ian gathered strength, ignoring the pain in his leg. He brought his feet under him, crouching in fighter stance.
“Go ON try & eat me!”
“Weakling, you think you can stop ME? So naive of you tiny skinbaby!”
“Someday I WILL be better than you. BOOM ROASTED!”
“Aargh!” the inkwolf lunged.
Ian leapt up twisting his body backwards, flipping into the open air. His boot collided with the inkling’s wolf nose and ink sprayed from it. His clothes waved in the wind as he fell. Leaves rustled as he rushed on by.
That was the last thing he remembered.
He came to in soft mud. How long had he fallen? Although his head throbbed he found he was just a little scraped up. A ancient palu tree caught his attention. He walked around it and noticed a dark open section at its base. Round djipopo grew around the opening. Eyes getting accustomed to the darkness, he noticed a door handle to a metal bunker leading deeper into the trunk of the tree like the ones he’d seen on the other side of town.
GRROowl
“Etch! He’s too close.”
He turned back to the door, clutched the metal handle, and pushed it open. The hair on his arms stood erect, then his flesh started to melt towards the blackness beyond the door.
“Ah crap! Not agai...” Ian’s voice cut off as his face was sucked into the black abyss.
Spell
Her eyes nearly popped out of her sockets as Indi slowly walked up to the glowing metal door. A flood of thoughts bombarded her brain at once. “I'm dreaming! No I'm insane! Bipolar, schizo! Or maybe I'm on DRUGS! Or maybe I'm a witch? Yeah and I put a #spell on that wall? Yep that seems the most logica…”
“Nope. F that!” she nearly screamed as the door screeched open. She backed away, tripping on the box of pre-order books, crawling wildly behind a bookshelf. Peering over the 2nd row of books on the shelf, her eyes fixed on the open door as a foot stepped out.
An odd pair of sneakers and and a colorless pair of jeans stopped for a moment protruding from out the door. Then the hand and the torso emerged from behind the door. A dark figure in a hoodie slowly tiptoed across the floor.
“What is this I love Lucy? Real life black and white? I half expect Ricky Ricardo to come in and declare, ‘Lucy I’m home!’” Indi thought to herself.
He stopped mid stride and took a look around. Indi’s hand shot to her mouth to cover her gasp. The figure had a face, human looking, but his eye sockets were devoid of eye balls. His hair was like a burnt marshmallow. Gooey. He was just a kid. Maybe even close to her age. Hard to tell.
The boy moved to the bookshelf. His hands sliding across the spines of the books, as if he was feeling which book he wanted. Indi followed him step by step from the other side of the bookshelf.
“Moby Dick? That’s a curious choice.” She thought to herself as Ian grabbed it off the shelf and stuck it in his book bag. He grabbed three others, completely unrelated from each other. As he finished packing The Princess Bride into his bag he quickly turned back towards the closet.
“You can’t just take those you know.” Indi blurted out.
This startled the figure and he stumbled as he tried to move faster. Gathering himself, the figure saw the copy of Kaptain and Chucklez that Indi had hid behind the trash bags. She darted off into a full sprint towards the man. “Definitely not that one!” She yelled as she dove to tackle the man. Her momentum pushed her and the figure through the metal opening in the wall.
Chicken
Ian’s face slid across the ground. That weird girl had chased him through the door and landed right on top of him, driving his body into the ground. She held back his arm and pulled his head by the hair, kneeling on him like a sled.
“What the flip just happened!? I felt like my body went through a pasta maker! You’re gonna give me answers or so help me!” Indi demanded.
“Ahh. ouch! HEY, let go of my hair!” he yelled “your bony knees are stabbing my back!”
“You speak english?” She said astonished.
“Uh duh. What do you think I am some alien?” said Ian.
“Well, yeah. Where on earth am I? I mean am I even on earth? Holy Schnikes! I’m going to be late for dinner. Mom’s gonna kill me. I have a report due...”
Jumping up off Ian's back, she ran up to the metal door, pulling it open. There was just an empty metal bunker! She slammed it shut then open it again. “Shh! He’ll hear you! & that’s not gonna work.” Ian interrupted knowing the creature could show up any moment.
“Who cares who hears us you jack-o'-lantern, marshmallow haired freak! Now you better tell me how to get back home.” Indi raged.
“Listen kid, here’s some funchi. That’ll ease your hunger & hopefully some anxiety.” Ian persuaded Indi, handing her a smoked tentacle out of his pack. She held it up to her nose. “Ew, it smells TERRIBLE!”
“Just try it.” Ian muttered digging into his pack.“Fine” she nibbled at a corner.“Hm, tastes like #chicken .”She muttered. Standing up Ian had a book in his hands.
“Kaptain and Chucklez? This’ll do.” Ian sighed as he opened the book to find words.
“Hey, NO! That's mine. What are you doing anyways?”
“Quiet! I need to concentrate or we’re gonna become funchi ourselves.” Ian answered shortly.
“Foon chee? wait. FOOD? For WHAT? LISTEN, I didn’t ask for this.” Indi said.
“Don’t care. You’re here now, we have no time, we have a wolf to put down.” Ian flipped through a few pages and finally found one with promise. He slowly slid his hand across the ink on the page. Concentrating on the words: swordfight, hope, pirate, assault helicopter.”
Indi’s jaw dropped, eyes opened wide as she saw Ian’s form take that of her hero, Kaptain.
Drooling
“Ok, so did I enter through the Wardrobe? Is the White Witch going to show up and and whisk us away?” Indi said sarcastically.
“White Witch? No! Here there be monsters!” The Inkling snarled as he emerged from the foliage with his fangs out, drooling uncontrollably.
“What the? Holy Sh.” Indi couldn’t get more out as fear overtook her.
“I told you! Now get behind me.”
Indi hid behind a gooey bush as Ian and the InkWolf faced off, circling as if they were about to start a boxing match. Ian’s Kaptain form of a Lion matched the Big Bad Wolf in size. But Indi felt like something was off, like his transformation wasn't done completely.
“You’re legs are changing back, pumpkin face!” Indi shouted at Ian.
Ian looked down. “Ah crap!” His lion paws had turned back to his sneakers.
The InkWolf slammed his fist down on Ian's head.
Indi watched as the InkWolf picked Ian up over his head and slammed him down like a wrestling guy on TV. Ian gasped for air, the wind knocked out of him.
“You think you could match my InkDwelling power? You fool, I’m more powerful than you will ever be.” The InkWolf boasted.
“Hey you, use the Sacred Sling of Shot!” Indi shouted to Ian.
“Wha..?” Ian cried out as he slowly gathered himself to his knees.
“The stick with the rubber band. It's a magical slingshot in that satchel on your hip.” Indi coached Ian as he reached in and brushed his hand across glowing marble balls. “Ahhow” Electricity shot through his fingers. “Oh yeah, make sure you put on the Golden Gauntlet of Goodness before you grab any ammo.”
Dodging the inkwolf’s swings, found the Gauntlet and shoved it on. Slingshot ready to rock Ian turned to the InkWolf and grabbed the first ball that graced his fingers in the bag. He looked at it before placing it in the leather pouch, readying it for launch.
“Wait not that one!” Shouted Indi. “That's the”
It was too late. Ian let it fly and hit the Inkwolf directly in the chest.
Exhausted
“...tickle ball.” Indi said after the fact.
“Tickle ball?” asked Ian.
No longer than Ian could finish the Big Bad InkWolf fell down on to his back. His arms crossed his chest, wolf legs in the air kicking and laughing like a tickle-me-elmo.
“That was fantastic!” Ian beams as his body resorted back to his original form. “Who was that Pirate Lion? Kaptain you call him? And what is this beautiful contraption you call the Sacred Sling of Shot? Oh, my name is Ian by the way, not hey you.” Ian said while closely examining the different types of balls in the satchel.
“Well Ian, my name is Indi and Kaptain is a Lion who along with his friend Chucklez is heroic and brave. And yes, they do have some pretty cool things they get to play with. Are we going to do something about this thing? The tickle ball only lasts for 15 minutes.” Indi replied.
“Wait a second, these are your books. You have intimate knowledge of the inner workings of them don’t you. That's how you knew to tell me what to do after I Inkdwelled the powers of this Kaptain fellow. Let’s make this deal. I will open the portal and let you go back home once you help me defeat the Evil Inktober.” Ian stuck out his hand hoping Indi would shake on it.
Indi sat for a moment and thought about it. “Ya know what? I need some time away from my life. A little break won’t hurt. You’ve got a deal. On one condition, however.”
“And that is.” questions Ian.
“Once you’ve reached a decisive point and you know that you don’t need me anymore you will open the portal back up and let me go home.” replied Indi.
“Deal.” Said Ian.
“Great! So what are we going to do about this?” Indi pointed towards the still laughing InkWolf.
“I dunno, I’m #exhausted. I guess I’ve got some more books. You tell me what we should do.” Ian replied.
Indi grabbed Ian’s book bag and started flipping through books. “Ah, this one will do the trick.” Indi said as she pulled out Snow White and the Seven dwarfs.
“Oh I tried this book earlier, and it only temporarily helped my leg.” Ian said sheepishly.
“Well this book is better used for its poison apple.” Indi said with a smirk on her face.
She handed the book over to Ian to let him do his thing.
