Crazy Glue
Cozy Glow peeled her hooves off of her face as she attempted to draw breath, but this was thwarted by the harsh smell that assaulted her nose. She coughed and gagged at the scent and taste of something that vaguely reminded her of nail polish remover. The liquid was all over her, clinging to her coat and still emitting its acrid smell. She shut her eyes tight, so busy hacking up a storm that she barely noticed the soft yet sturdy appendages carrying her away from a strong source of the smell.
Then, Cozy was plunged into lukewarm water with no warning whatsoever, even as she was still gasping for breath. Bubbles burst from Cozy's mouth, but her body was too weak to fight back. Instead, she continued to keep her eyes shut, along with her mouth as she held what little breath she had left. Luckily for her, she didn't stay submerged for long, and was lifted out of the water and carried off towards another location some distance away.
Cozy kept her eyes shut, intent on looking as weak and helpless, and hopeful pitiful, as possible until an opportunity of some kind presented itself. Cozy then felt herself being laid down on a soft surface, and then a soft, warm towel began blotting her coat, mane, and tail dry.
"There. . ." a low, gravelly voice said in a hoarse whisper, "When in doubt. . . . . . .solvent."
After the towel dried off her face, Cozy finally opened her eyes. Her pink irises widened at the sight of the hulking creature standing over her. It was, in the simplest of terms, a bear. Cozy had seen a bear before, namely Fluttershy's friend Harry. This bear, however, was different in many ways. This bear's fur was thicker and a darker, grayer brownish color. Except for around his muzzle and black nose, which was a lighter, tan color. More strikingly were his eyes. His right eye was a piercing golden yellow, while his left eye was covered by a black eye patch, a very obvious long scar running down the left side of his face. The bear also wore a tan apron around his waist, quite odd for a bear, as if the eye patch wasn't enough.
"And you are awake," the bear said softly.
Cozy blinked once, and said innocently, "Golly. . . a talking bear. . ."
The bear didn't seem to acknowledge Cozy's observation. He did, however, reach into one of the pockets on his apron and take out a daffodil and daisy sandwich.
"Eat," he said, holding the sandwich out to the filly.
Cozy stared up awkwardly, her eyes switching between the bear's solemn facial expression and the sandwich in his meaty, long clawed paw. Cozy put effort into shakily reaching her forehooves out to the sandwich, timidly taking it and saying, "Gee. . .thank you mister bear. Do you know where I am? Or how I got here?"
The bear reached out with his right paw and placed a long claw under her chin. Cozy's heart thumped a bit louder as she felt the sharp point poke into her skin, only barely not breaking skin.
"You know," the bear said, his voice not the least bit threatening, but rather more on the soothing side.
Cozy kept her eyes wide and innocent until the bear took his claw away. She then took a bite of the daffodil and daisy sandwich and said through her chewing, "*Umn-numn*, well, I can't remember anything. I can't remember by name, or where my home is-."
The bear suddenly poked Cozy in the forehead with a claw and said in a scolding manner, "Don't act like you are naive and innocent, you're not."
Cozy gulped down both the lump in her throat and her mouthful of sandwich, "I'm real, real super sorry, sir. I don't understand-."
"Stop!" the bear snarled, his teeth clenched as his meaty breath blew out of his nose and hit her in the face like a pair of warm chunks of defective clouds from the weather factory. Then, his teeth unclenched as his face slowly relaxed. He let out a soft sigh. "It's a shame you and your partners lost," he said, a look of longing briefly appearing in his remaining eye, "I hate the current authority. I hate. . .how it shames us."
". . .Shames us?" Cozy echoed, all the while trying to outthink her newest opponent, if he even was an opponent if his words were anything to go by.
The bear's eye seemed to focus on both of Cozy's eyes at once. "It makes what we are inside out to be something to be ashamed of," he explained, "Our true selves are deemed. . .a cancer. What we want to do, how we want to live, everything that makes us who we are also makes us out to be. . ." The bear stopped talking, and he held out his right paw and waggled it up and down, an expectant look on his face.
Cozy sat in thought for a moment, then provided an answer of, "Villains. . ."
"Yes. Villains. Outcasts. Freaks. Guilty of the crime of ambition," the bear said with a nod.
Cozy nodded back and said loudly, "Yeah! We're hated for our ambitions! You get that! That's why you freed me, right? How'd you do that by the way?"
"Eat," the bear said firmly.
Cozy took another bite of the sandwich.
"I have an intimate relationship with shadows," the bear said with a wave of his claw, "A very intimate relationship. I also have this." He then took something else out of the second pocket of his apron, revealing it to be a bluish conical crystal prism in a golden round frame.
Cozy swallowed and said, "A Key of Unfettered Entrance. . . You're good."
"I also know how to recharge its magic," the bear said as he slipped the artifact back into his pocket, "I am also a master alchemist, hence your current freedom from your stone prison."
"You're really good," Cozy said in admiration.
The bear's eye took on a hardened gaze, "Are compliments really what you have inside?"
Cozy shrugged and said, "Oh, I'm just giving credit where it's due 'cause I see no reason to mock or criticize you at this time if that's what you're getting at and f you want the honest truth I'm just waiting to see what your next move is so I can figure out what I should do twelve moves from now to best take advantage of my own freedom and whatever it is you have to offer me."
After saying all of that in one single breath with no pause, Cozy then finished off the remainder of the sandwich, and the bear merely watched her eat, a smile appearing on his face. "Better. . ." he said with approval.
As the bear turned to walk away, Cozy finally took a moment to study her surroundings. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of stone, suggesting that they were in a furnished cave. The room was lit by oil lamps, the smoke rising up to exit through small holes drilled in the ceiling. As Cozy sat on the bed of hay, she could see a cistern of water to her left, several cauldrons of various liquids to her right, and a door up ahead of her. The bear stood in that doorway, and called out behind him, "There is a small bed for you, right next to mine. To bed, my little Crazy Glue."
Cozy balked at the unexpected moniker, and she jumped up to her hooves and stomped after the bear. "It's Cozy Glow!" she protested irately.
The average Equestrian pony's legs are roughly half the total height of the pony from hoof to the top of the head. The hooves are hard and sturdy with soft frogs within the keratin 'nail' that wraps around it in a near perfect circle, which differentiates them from the hooves and frogs of Saddle Arabians. Male ponies have hooves that are exposed, while females have hooves that are covered in the fur the same as the rest of their legs. A pony's legs, specifically their forelegs, are quite bendable and malleable, although their hooves will always remain hard and rigid. Going down from the fetlock to the hoof itself, there are three bones and three joints: the fetlock joint, the long pastern, the pastern joint, the short pastern, the coffin joint, and finally the coffin bone which makes up the primary structure of the hoof. However, the underside of the forehooves themselves have been shown to possess some form of semi-magical attraction. Basically, a pony may pick up an object using only their forehoof, giving the appearance of the object "sticking" to the bottom of the hoof. This "stickiness" could possibly be harnessed through alchemical means, although large scale experimentation is frowned upon due to ethical and superstitious reasons.
Cozy Glow looked up from the book, utterly bored by it. Upon waking up, she had found the bear gone from his bed, having left her a bowl of porridge and a large and thick tome on the anatomy of various creatures. The bedroom door was locked tight, and there were no windows, only more ventilation holes drilled into the ceiling.
So, Cozy sat on her stomach reading a book that was slightly bigger than she herself was. One thing that Cozy did pick up on was how this book was not written by a pony, given the way it described their anatomy, as well as the odd areas it chose to focus on.
At this point, the bedroom door swung open, and the bear wasted no time beckoning to her with a large paw. "Come, Crazy Glue. Tiem for your first lesson."
Cozy pouted as she got up and stomped over to him. "It's Cozy Glow. It's not hard to say," she complained.
The bear merely turned and walked down the hall, and Cozy followed him into a room she'd yet to see. It was filled with pots of various sizes, some on top of wood fires, others tucked away against the wall. Cozy did immediately notice what looked like a large fancy bureau made of fine mahogany wood with gold trim. Its wooden doors were locked shut with a large padlock, and Cozy knew that she wouldn't be learning the secret of what lay within for a while. So, she filed this thought in her long-term memory, certain she'd work her way up to getting into it after she'd fully gotten to know her newest "friend."
Cozy sniffed the air and said, "It smells here."
The bear took a deep breath, his one eye shining as he said with a sigh, "Ahh, yes. That wonderful scent of freshly made glue."
Cozy gave the bear a sidelong glance and said, "Glue? Really? You like glue? Oh, so I guess that makes 'Crazy Glue' a term of endearment. Gee, thanks."
"They already see us as freaks. We should not," he replied swiftly, "That being said, I certainly do accept your preference of dominant control over friendship either way."
"Yeah, but. . .glue?" Cozy said, sounding unimpressed.
The bear merely walked over to a pot that was boiling at the moment. He stuck a wooden spoon into the contents and gave it a stir. He then said to Cozy, "Come here. See that barrel there? Ladle acid from there into here as I stir. Pay attention to when it becomes a luscious gel."
Seeing no other option, Cozy wordlessly fluttered over to him and began to slowly ladle acid into the boiling pot. She momentarily had the idea to fling the acid in his face, but reasoned that he'd probably see it coming. Even if he didn't, Cozy still had no idea where she was or what her chances of survival or even continued freedom would be without him.
So, Cozy stared into the swirling, bubbling mixture as the bear stirred and rambled on and on.
"This is not like that pathetic white substance those Equestrians peddle. Unnatural, insincere, ingenuine, and fake. Everything I hate and despise with every fiber of my being. Ahhh, yes."
The bear lifted the wooden spoon up high and watched the gel drizzle and drip off of it and back into the hot pot.
"Real. . . true. . . glue," he said in admiration, his eye becoming misty as he breathed in and out heavily.
"Yipee," Cozy said unenthusiastically, a bored expression on her face.
The bear wiped the spoon clean with a rag and set it down, then held up two claws on his right hand and said, "Tomorrow: lesson two, my little Crazy Glue."
As the bear took the pot off of the heat and poured some of the glue into a smaller ceramic jar on the nearby stone table, Cozy Glow said bluntly, "You can at least tell me your name so I can give you an annoying nickname too."
The bear set the large pot back down and screwed a lid on the small jar. He then picked up a quill that was also on the table and dipped it in a pot of crimson red ink. "I. . . will write it. . .on a card. . ." he muttered as he did so, and he used a brush to apply some of the newly made glue to the back of the card, which he then stuck to the side of the jar.
Cozy flew up so that she was level with the table and squinted at the signature written on the card. "Huh? Really? Guess I don't have to make up a stupid nickname after all. I mean, really? Krastos? What kind of name is that?"
The bears' answer left no room for discussion: "Mine."
Cozy Glow sat at a simple wooden table across from Krastos. She picked at a plate of vegetables while the bear slurped from a meaty-looking stew. The bear's inevitable diet didn't bother the filly, but the questions she still had about the bear surely did.
"So. . . you just make glue all day?" she asked.
"I collect ingredients for my product," the bear said before lifting the large bowl back to his mouth, his lips vibrating as he slurped down the chunky mixture.
Cozy silently made the observation of how similar the stew Krastos was currently eating was to the boiling mixture that she had helped turn into glue not too long ago. She mentally filed that away, and posed another question, "Why are you an outcast because of it? I mean, it's just glue."
Krastos put his bowl back down and fixed his eye on Cozy. "I just want to make my glue. You just wanted to have power. To us, it is just in our nature to want what we want. Equestrian society says we can't have it, so we are made out to be the freaks." The bear pushed one of his long claws into the wooden table and dragged it across the surface, making a long scratch that made the wood creak. The hairs on Cozy's neck rose at the sound, much to her annoyance at how she was letting Krastos' theatrics get to her.
Krastos blew out through his ever-wobbling nose and continued, "We were given two choices: hide who we truly were and mask our true selves behind a facade; or remove ourselves from their society so we could be true to ourselves in peace. You chose the former. I chose the latter."
"Okay. . ." Cozy responded, her brow raising as she tried to make sense of this enigma of a creature before her, "But I know you aren't telling me everything. There's clearly more to you than just making glue. And if you don't tell me what you aren't telling me, I see no reason why I should help you. Sure, you could force me. But you won't." Cozy then flashed a devious smile into Krastos' subdued, dull countenance, and she said, "Because you need me. Because I make you feel something different. Something you want and need to feel, don't I?"
Krastos casually lifted his bowl up to his mouth and gulped down the rest of the contents. Then he said, "I told you once already. Tomorrow: lesson two, my little Crazy Glue."
The act of boiling down a substance is a foundational building block of many schools of alchemy. Boiling can be used either to extract an aspect of an alchemical reagent or distill any desirable qualities within a mixture. There is the application of heat, the violent bubbling and churning, the reduction of volume, and the evaporation of liquid into the air. All of which make boiling a vital step when turning the most mundane of ingredients into the most magical of concoctions.
The bedroom door opened, and Krastos said, "Lesson two, my little Crazy Glue."
Cozy looked up from the alchemy tome and followed after the bear, who had turned around to walk away immediately after his announcement. She decided to accept his endearing nickname, as if he truly did love glue even half as much as he seemed, being called glue of any kind meant she was very valuable to him.
Cozy followed Krastos into the glue making room, and the bear went over to a stone topped table with several tools laid out on it. Krastos then picked up a burlap sack resting next to it and dumped its contents onto the table.
Cozy was silent for a moment as she stood staring at the four disembodied limbs. The skin and flesh was roughly torn, revealing the ball joints that once were securely in their sockets until they had been wrenched out. Blood still oozed out off the tops of the limbs, staining the pale blue fur that ran down to the exposed dark gray hooves. On the topic of the torn skin, the flanks that once proudly displayed the pony's Cutie Marks were stripped bare, exposing the bare, pale muscular flesh beneath.
Cozy nodded slowly, a look of satisfied understanding on her face, and she said, "Ohhhhh. . .I see it now."
"And," Krastos said simply.
"And it just makes sense that the best anything comes from fresh ingredients. Why should glue be an exception," Cozy mused, her forehoof stroking her chin as she remarked, "Maybe I'm at an advantage. See, I've actually read about the older methods of glue making. Something pony farmers used to do so cows, pigs, and sheep wouldn't go to waste when they died. But really, how could glue made from non magical creatures possibly compare to glue like yours? I'm sure you tried sticking to cemeteries for a bit, only to find that older hooves decaying underground weren't the best for making glue. The results must have been. . .hmm. . . oh so very lacking."
"Here is your true self once again," Krastos said, the left side of his mouth curling up a bit, "Intelligent and coldly calculating."
Cozy smiled and said, "Feelings get in the way of results!"
Krastos hefted a large mallet in his right paw and said, "Cut the hooves off of the legs for me, so that I may crack them easily."
"Yeah, I read that anatomy book the other day. Now I'm seeing why you gave it to me," Cozy said confidently as she made use of her wings, hovering over to the table. She grabbed a cleaver in her right forehoof and a long, thin knife in her left forehoof, and she said, "I can cut out the frogs and dice them up for you if you'd like."
At that moment, the right side of Krastos' mouth curled up as well, forming the first genuine smile he'd had in a very long time.
"Aww, I made you smile!" Cozy said gleefully, then focused on the task at hand and said, "Let's see if I can't keep that up!"
Cozy plunged the thin knife into the bottom of one of the hooves. Like she was hollowing out a piece of fruit, Cozy moved the knife in a circle, following the inside of the hoof to separate the soft frog from the hard hoof. Blood leaked out and squirted onto the knife as she wedged the knife deeper and levered the frog out from within the hoof.
"Gotcha," Cozy said with a satisfied smirk, and then pulled the knife up and jabbed it right into the fetlock joint. As she stabbed the knife deep into the leg, she tilted the blade to dislocate the joint so she could separate the long pastern from the rest of the leg. She smiled when she heard the crack of the bone popping out, and then chopped off what was left of the fetlock with a swing of the cleaver. Then she hacked with the cleaver a few more times, cutting down into the pastern joint until she heard the loud clack of the long and short pasterns coming apart. She then alternated with twisting stabs of the knife and chops of the cleaver, slowly but surely weakening the coffin joint, until finally she was all the way through and the hoof had been fully removed.
Cozy felt the bear's large paw come down and ruffle her mane as Krastos said, "Very efficient, my little Crazy Glue. You've already passed. Now. . . with the other three. . .slow down. . .Take it slow. Savour it. We are making something real. Something true. Something. . ." Cozy could hear the bear's tongue licking his lips and nose before he finished his sentence in an overtly sensual manner, "authentic."
After a long session of preparing the ingredients and boiling them into the newest batch of glue, Cozy and Krastos sat in the simple dining room again. Cozy with her vegetables, and Krastos with his meat stew. Only this time around, Cozy knew very well what kind of meat the stew contained. She also could figure out why the ink he used to sign his product was so red.
"Well, now it's pretty obvious what happened to your eye," Cozy said, nodding to Krastos' eyepatch.
"Overconfidence and complacency. Two ugly specters that haunt those who've been doing something for any length of time," Krastos remarked in between gulps of stew, "Even with my various magic nullifying powders, unicorn horns still pose a problem."
"Ouch," Cozy said with a wince and a twitch of her own left eye.
Krastos slurper and chewed another mouthful of stew.
"Soooo," Cozy said awkwardly, wanting to change the subject, "Speaking of your powders, that's some alchemy lab you got there."
"It is," Krastos said simply.
It truly was. Krastos had briefly shown Cozy the room as they had walked by. Like the rest of the cavernous dwelling, it was lit by oil lamps, ventilated by small holes in the ceiling. There were shelves filled with books, as well various chests, bottles, and urns filled with strange ingredients. There was even a cistern full of the solvent that had freed Cozy from her stone prison. Most impressive, however, was the long table in the center of the room. It was loaded with test tubes and beakers, some heated by burners and others being agitated by buzzing plates with turning gears inside them. All of this equipment was powered by batteries that were commonly used in flashlights and other such small devices.
"You gonna teach me how to make that stuff? Seeing as I'll find out one way or another," Cozy said with a smug expression.
Krastos' eyes gave her a quick glance before returning to his stew, and he said, "Why waste time teaching you when you can simply read my books and notes."
"Good, good," Cozy said sweetly, her smile becoming thinner as a nagging bit of curiosity rose to the surface of her mind, "But something still bothers me about you. I mean, seriously, I'm all for art, but. . . really? Art for art's sake? You must do something with all of your glue?"
"I sell it."
"To who!?" Cozy exclaimed, caught off guard by the blunt answer.
"Not to ponies, nor to any other race the judges so harshly," Krastos said with blatant disdain, "Diamond dogs are my best customers as of now. I also sell to griffons, satyrs, sometimes abyssinians. Klugetown used to be my best market. That's where I was born, in fact. Oh, Klugetown. It was a place free from moral judgment. Until the ponies came in and ruined the place, that is."
Cozy rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, they tend to do that. That's the point of Twilight's Friendship School. She wants to quote-unquote 'educate' creatures from all over so she can make everywhere else just like Equestria."
"Insincere," Krastos said with a snort, "Ponies lie. They're cruel to creatures different from them. They get angry. They're selfish. They backstab each other all the time to get ahead. But then they go ahead and try to tell others to be more like them. Harmony is not their true self. It's no creature's true self."
Krastos dropped his empty bowl to the table, which thunked hollowly as it loudly rocked and spun in a circle before finally lying still. The bear scowled into the empty bowl and said, "No creature truly wants harmony. They want contentment and satisfaction. Just. . .like. . .us. The only difference is that they don't realize it. . .and perhaps their sources of contentment and satisfaction lie in more. . .tamer pursuits."
"Boring pursuits, am I right?" Cozy cut in with a sly grin.
Krastos nearly smiled back, the corners of his mouth twitching again. Then he said, "Lesson three is tomorrow. Immediately after: final exam."
When a master is ready to give their apprentice their final test, some kind of reward or "graduation present" will often be included within the test itself. Often the product produced or the object acquired through the proper passage of the test will act as the reward, or even become a badge or token of sorts, indicating the apprentice's rise in status. Sentimental value aside, the greatest of masters will see this moment as a way of passing on an aspect of themselves. Some masters of an art or trade will see this as a way of living on within their chosen apprentice. While many artists are content with immortalizing themselves in their art, others prefer to have a living vessel for their passion.
Cozy heard the glue maker's footsteps, and she looked up from her newest tome just in time to see the bedroom door open. Her heart leapt when she saw that the bear had a new burlap sack slung over his shoulder. This one was bigger, bulging, and most excitingly, moving.
"Lesson three, my little Crazy Glue," Krastos said, his right eye so full of so much light and life, as if to make up for his missing left eye.
Cozy jumped up and skipped after the bear as they went back into the glue making room. Cozy rocked back and forth on her hooves Krastos dumped the contents of the sack onto the stone table. She almost squealed with delight when she got a good look at the gagged and hogtied pony. He was a bit older than she'd remembered, but she still recognized him easily.
"Oh, you didn't!" Cozy said, pressed her forehooves into her cheeks adorably.
Krastos nodded slowly, the corners of his mouth pitching back up again in response to the pure, unbridled, infectious joy on the filly's face. He then reached over and slapped the captured pony's flank, slapping his paw right on top of the three sea turtles depicted in his Cutie Mark. The pony cringed and moaned in terror as loud as he could through the filthy wad of cloth.
Cozy stepped close to the victim, rubbing her forehooves together eagerly as she observed, "You broke his legs earlier. I can tell. Smart move given Earth Pony strength. Not that this wimp was ever very strong to begin with."
The pale yellow pony squirmed as his muffled voice moaned feelby and pitifully through the gag stuffed in his mouth. His light sea green eyes looked at Cozy, pitiful and pleading.
"DON'T YOU EVEN LOOK AT ME!" Cozy shrieked, her face thrust close to his, "You didn't show ME mercy when I was being TURNED TO STONE!"
The stallion shut his eyes and cringed, weeping silently due to the gag.
Cozy sighed in contentment, then turned to Krastos and said in perfect honesty, "Thank you, so, so, so, sooooooooo much for this!"
Krastos twirled his mallet in his paw and said, "How long do you plan on playing with him for?"
Cozy shrugged and said, "The whole torture scene really isn't appealing to me. It's not a part of my 'true self' as you'd say. I don't torture unless I have to. Like, say, forcing a guidance counselor to watch as she's being sucked into an alternate dimension while stuck in a giant orb of pure magic she can't escape from. Besides, the panic his friends will feel is enough to satisfy me. If only they could know exactly how their dearest pony pal went down."
"They will," Krastos said in certainty, the brow over his functioning eye raising, "Haven't you reasoned out why I always set aside one jar of glue with my name on it? I always return the day after to leave a small sample of my art-."
"Back to the source of its ingredients!" Cozy finished as she became utterly giddy at the realization, "Ooooh, I can just imagine the faces on his snooping, fly-in-the-ointment friends when they learn that all that's left of him is a jar of glue on his pillow!"
Sandbar's desperate moaning resumed, which only spurred on some giggling from the filly.
Krastos nodded to the pony on the table and asked, "So, we will not be torturing him?"
Cozy smiled wickedly and said, "Nah. . . .He can just bleed to death as we work."
Sandbar moaned in hopeless despair as Cozy skipped over towards him. She leapt off of the floor and hovered over him, a cleaver in one forehoof and a long, thin knife in the other. As the pony was hogtied, all four hooves were held close together, which suited Cozy just fine for what she planned to do. Cozy raised the cleaver high, but then stopped and turned to Krastos with a simple request.
"Hey, would you mind giving his spine a good whack with your mallet? Sure, breaking his legs helps, but it might be a bit easier if he was fully paralyzed."
Krastos' lips didn't just perk up into a rare smile in response to this. The bear actually let out a booming, joyous laugh in response as he stepped forward to fulfill Cozy's request. He brought his mallet down hard onto Sandbar's back, creating a loud, sickening crack mingled with a fleshy splat.
Cozy smiled as she listened to Sandbar's muted agonized cries, and then went to work bringing the knife down through both of the rear fetlocks, blood spurting up at her as she attacked the fetlock joints. She simultaneously swung the cleaver at his rear hooves, aiming at the joints she needed to attack, never minding the blood that stained her flapping wings as she hovered over the paralyzed pony like an angel of death. The rear hooves were hacked off rather quickly, which gave Cozy a reason to take it slow with the front hooves. She had neglected to remove the frogs of the rear hooves first, but she did not make the same mistake with the front hooves. The current owner of the hooves squealed like a pig during this process, which Cozy chuckled at as she removed the frogs. She then repeated the process of popping the joints and cutting the flesh to remove this second pair of hooves.
"You got the water boiling, right?" Cozy asked casually.
"Naturally."
Cozy smiled proudly at the jar of glue, in spite of the fact that it read "Krastos and Crazy Glue." In fact, she believed that the nickname was starting to grow on her.
"That was the final lesson," Krastos said as he nodded to the jar of glue, a faraway look in his remaining eye, "Now. . .for the final exam."
Cozy turned to see Krastos walking towards the gold trimmed mahogany bureau. The took a tarnished silver key out of his apron pocket and unlocked the padlock that kept the doors shut. Cozy watched with tempered enthusiasm as she waited for the bear to open those doors and reveal the secret within.
The bear gripped both doors with his claws, and ceremoniously pulled them open.
Cozy stared at what lined the shelves of the cabinet, studying the many old metal pots of various sizes. "More glue?" she asked, unable to hide her disappointment.
"Failures," Krastos said gruffly.
"Oh," was all Cozy could say, slightly unsure of what he meant.
Krastos sighed as he stared at the many glue pots, speaking without turning to face Cozy, "I am old. I will not live forever. The worst possible fate for an old master is to die without an heir to carry on their legacy. There have been many apprentices before you, my little Crazy Glue. All of them have gotten through my lessons and were given this final test. To all of them, I have posed this question:"
Krastos then turned around and asked pointedly, "What is the greatest and truest of glues made from?"
Cozy smiled and answered, "The greatest and truest of ingredients, of course."
"And that is your test: make that glue. Make the truest and greatest glue in my name," Krastos said strongly and with the greatest of reverence. Krastos then pointed out into the hall and said, "The door to the outside is unlocked now. By the door is a pack filled with all the equipment you would need: knives, clubs, chloroform, nightshade powder, magic nullifying powder, dust that can make you meld into the shadows, and of course my Key of Unfettered Entrance. Return in 48 hours and make the glue. If it meets my approval, you pass. If not, you fail."
Cozy's smile increased and she said, "Ooh. We're getting real serious now, aren't we? Heh, and you keep your past apprentices' failed glues as momentos. Nice."
Krastos sniffed loudly, and then turned back to look into the bureau.
"These are my apprentices."
Cozy's face promptly fell.
Krastos reached into the bureau and took out one pot, holding it by the metal handle, and said, "This one had so much joy in her work. Laughing and laughing with each cut and chop and stab. Rather annoying, not enough respect for the art itself." The bear put the pot back and then grabbed a second one from beneath, holding it in the palm of his broad right paw. "This one had no emotion at all, it seemed," Krastos remarked, "As if he were merely going through the motions, not allowing himself to take any pride in his work." Krastos put that pot back, and then took out a third one and held it in his cupped paws. He sighed and shook his head in disappointment before saying, "And this one. . . How sad. She actually tried to run for help during the test. I imagine she was dismayed to find that by the time she brought those royal guards back to my old home, I had already moved. The guards tried so hard to keep her safe, but I brought her back to me within a week. Even got my Key of Unfettered Entrance back. Goes to show that a simple lockpick can suffice in a pinch."
After putting the pot back, closing the bureau, and locking it back up, Krastos turned back to look at Cozy again. The filly's face was set in a deep frown, her eyes defiant as she stared back up into Krastos' single eye.
Krastos smiled once again, and said, "I will now tell you what I had told the others: the only way to pass this test is to be accepting of not only your own true self, but to my true self. Think about what you are capable of, and then think about what I truly desire. What I want above all else. What I value above all else. If you can do that, then you will be the worthy successor I have been searching for. And now, I shall go to bed."
Krastos then turned and left Cozy alone in the glue making room, and the filly frowned all the harder, continuing to stare into the empty doorway, her mind working hard as she turned back time within her head. The precocious young filly replayed every word the bear had said since he'd first freed her, thought of every mannerism and reaction, every single breath of his that was either longer or louder than usual. Then she took a long look at the room she was standing in, and then at the almost forgotten body on the stone table.
Cozy's smile returned with a vengeance.
"Of course. It's that kind of test," Cozy said, her eyes practically glowing with solidified purpose, "One where the answer is in plain sight. 'What you want?' 'What you value?' Well, you just told me the answer to that, didn't you?"
Dear Princess Twilight,
I hope this letter reaches you promptly, whether or not the two jars of glue left on Sandbar's bed come with it. Perhaps either Sandbar's family will claim them. One for burial and the other for vengeful disposal, perhaps? Maybe it will be burned in effigy? It would be a shame if the second jar were not used, because it is, in fact, the greatest and truest of all glues. At least, it is according to my new teacher. Or should I say, my late new teacher. Yes, Krastos is dead, but he was old and due for retirement anyway, so I'm not at all upset about it. He taught me everything I needed to know, and left plenty of books and notes for what he didn't get around to teaching me. So, don't celebrate, because these occasional "glue murders" that have been attributed to the mysterious specter known as "Krastos the Glue Maker" are most certainly not going to stop. If anything, they will become far more frequent. It makes sense, seeing as young blood has taken over the business. That being said, it seems the name of the spectre to blame for these crimes will have to be changed. Also, rather than a simple calling card, I think well thought out letters like this one would be far more appropriate. Anywho, no matter what you or anycreature else feels about this business, you can't deny that the one thing both Krastos and I exemplify is actually a very true and very valuable life lesson:
Always be true to yourself!
Sincerely,
Cozy Glow Crazy Glue
There was a new edition made to the gold trimmed bureau. On the top shelf, front and center, was a glue pot with a worn eyepatch hanging off of its lid.
Author's Note
So, the classic grimdark villain I have brought back for this story is Krastos the Gluemaker. This character was born from a joke made by Bill Clinton. I believe he was drawn as a human in a trench coat at first, but I think the bear version of him created by Mariusioannesp makes a lot more sense and is a bit more intimidating.
