10 - Pretty Stupid

Two animals were walking through the forest towards where Tak and Daniel were talking.  One is a skinny cat with a maroon pelt and green eyes, while the other is an equally lanky-looking red panda.  Both of them are males.  They talk and laugh quietly to each other.  

“You really think this will work?” the cat asks, “I think Tak will get mad,”

“It doesn’t really matter what Tak thinks,” the panda replies, “It’s Daniel we have to convince.  Otherwise, the plan won’t work!”

“That’s true,” He thought for a moment.  “Why are we doing this anyway?”

“You’re so dense, Chris!  Wil will do anything your father tells him to.  That could mean we’d be stuck in the ghost realm forever, because Wil, of course, will win.  Daniel would be a much better choice,”

“Because we can manipulate him,” Chris pointed out.  

“Exactly!”

Then they both broke out laughing.  


“Here comes trouble,” Tak says as he sees his brother, Chris, and Gizmo, the red panda, approach.  “What are you two up to now?”

“We’d like to make a deal with you,” Gizmo said and glanced at Daniel.  

“I want nothing to do with any of your crazy plans,” Tak said quickly.  

“Aw, come on bro,” Chris said pleadingly. “This is a good one,”

“By good you mean bad,” Tak said, trying hard not to laugh.  

Chris chuckled and said. “Pretty much,”

Tak stopped and thought for a moment. “Fine, show me,”  

“YAY,” Gizmo said as he unrolled a piece of paper and showed it to him.   

Daniel looked at it.  They had made a plan of who would win and lose fights so he would win easily.  Why should I win?  Why not Tak?  , Daniel thought.  

“Your genius plan involves me beating Wil,” Tak observed. “One, that would never happen, and two that would leave you me and Daniel as the final two.”

“Of course you could beat Wil.  He just a stupid brat,” Chris said angrily. “And then since it’s against the rules for ghosts from the same side to fight each other, we’d convince Salvador to pick Daniel over you.”

“And you think that will work?” Tak said, trying his hardest not to laugh.  Why would little Daniel be chosen over him?

“Yeah.” Gizmo said confidently.  

“You guys are even dumber than I though.” Tak shook his head.  

“Fine, we’ll take out plan elsewhere and show it to others who will think it’s awesome.” Gizmo said, rolling the paper back up.  

“Yeah, you party pooper!” Chris said as they walked back into the forest.  He whispered something to Gizmo, and then yelled back, “Why don’t you come with us Daniel?”

“Come with us Daniel,” Gizmo said while laughing.  

Daniel turned and looked at Tak uneasily.  

“They won’t do anything.  They’re just idiots.  Go ahead,” Tak told him, “Figure out what they are up to,”

Daniel nodded than ran after Chris and Gizmo.  They walked in silence for a few minutes, and then Chris asked;

“Daniel, you must like our plan right?”  

“Not really.  I don’t even understand any of this ghost stuff,”

“Oh, right,” Chris said “Then we’ll show you,”


They all went to the wolf camp and sat leaning on one of the small homes.  Gizmo explained to Daniel;

“You become a ghost by dying for the first time or by having both of your parents be dead when you are born.  If you die by an accident or illness you spend twenty years in a cell in the underworld.  During that time, you are not allowed to communicate with anyone at all.  After your twenty years is up, you are free to do basically whatever,”

“If you are unfortunate enough to die by murder or suicide, you spend an eternity in the cell, also not communicating with anyone,”

“Wow,” Daniel said, everything starting to make sense to him now.  “What’s the difference between being alive and being a ghost?”

Gizmo thought for a moment.  “As a ghost, you can use your mind to do many different things, more than you could ever imagine.  For instance, have wings, be invisible, cause weather change, change your physical appearance, and do various attacks.  The biggest downsides are that not every ghost has the same powers and you have to learn how to do each one that you have.  Most of us can have wings, but others can’t.  Timothy and his brother are the only ghosts I know that can completely change their appearance,”

“What are some of the attacks that you can do?”

Chris looked at Gizmo and chuckled.  Chris tells Daniel.  “Since I am on the underworld’s side, I am able to do attacks that can do serious damage to ghosts or even kill them a second time.  The worst ones usually include fire,”

“Wait,” Daniel noticed something odd. “You can die more than once?”

“Yes, the second time you don’t come back, or at least we don’t know what happens to you,”

Gizmo cut him off. “If someone on my side wins this battle, powers that can cause a second death won’t be allowed.” Gizmo is on the same side as Daniel, which is Salvador’s.  

Daniel had one last question. “So Owen and Salvador have completely different beliefs and if I win I have to follow Salvador’s?”

“Salvador wants the rules to stay as what he changed them to when he came to power,” Gizmo explained. “These included 1. Freedom to do (pretty much) anything you want after the twenty years in a cell 2. No powers than cause a second death can be used and 3. (I think you’ll like this one) Animals born ghosts are always told of their origins,”

Chris then added. “Mom and John broke that rule.  That is why Salvador had you come see him and then kidnapped them and others who allowed it to happen,”

That made sense now!  Daniel decided that he did like Salvador.  “Are Owen’s rules the opposite?”

“Yeah,” Chris said. “He thinks that ghost should stay in their realm and not get to interact with live animals.  If you think about it, Salvador’s way doesn’t even punish animals that die.  It makes them want to die young.  You stay the age you were when you died or, in your case, stop aging between 25 and 30.”

Chris does have a good point, Daniel thought.  

Gizmo was rolling his eyes, “If you become leader you have to keep those three ground rules.  Anything else can be changed,”

“Ok,” Daniel said, “I think I get how everything works now,”

Chris remembered one more thing, “There is one more lie that you were told that needs to be cleared up; you’re a full ghost.  Your mother died as a baby, so that is why she was able to set others on fire and all that.  She didn’t ever die again; she was just exiled after you were born because Salvador was still mad at Sandor.  He just lied to everyone about what happened to her,”

Daniel was mad, “So even when dad was telling me the truth, he lied?!”

“Yeah, pretty stupid huh?” Gizmo said.