The Warrior's Path Home

"I need to get rid of this two ton walking skin dye."

"Hey, I'm not the one that shaves and then paints it green!"

"Look, I understand what you're saying and I've been there. But when you look like a psychedelic booger, you have to find your own way."

The two strange creatures continued along the path. The trail had led them up a mountain, through a forest, and now they were facing a massive gate made of iron. One of the creatures was small, and resembled a giant walking cactus. The other was large and smooth with four legs and two arms. They looked very different from each other. And yet they were both friends.

The small creature who looked like a cactus continued: "You gotta start somewhere. I thought if I shaved my head, dressed in all black and bought some eyeliner... people would take me seriously."

"Okay..." Said the larger creature with four legs who looked like a giant walking tree stump. The larger creature continued: "So you decided to dress like a goth for three days straight?"

"No! Well yes at first, but then I realized that if I wanted to be taken seriously I needed to change my style permanently."

"Well why not just wear a hat? You know... like normal people?"

The smaller creature put his hands on his hips and said "Like 'normal' people would wear something called Ozzy Osbourne makeup!" The smaller creature pulled out a mirror from his pocket and showed it to the larger creature. On the mirror was painted an angry looking face with oversized eyes and teeth. His hair was spiked up except for two large chunks that ran down to his ears where they were twisted into horns. "It's called 'Grim reaper'." He said proudly as he put the mirror away.

"By the gods! Gary! What happened to your face!?" A voice cried out from behind them suddenly as they turned around to find an older looking version of the smaller creature running towards them. He had longer hair, no horns or spikes on his head, and wore an eye patch over one eye while the other one was covered in pink paint. However despite these changes he still sported long black sleeves on both arms with gold trimming around his wrists followed by black gloves up until his elbows. He also had dark blue pants over black shoes with white soles that matched the white one piece shirt he wore underneath a black vest with yellow trimming around it's edges as well as yellow buttons holding it closed at the chest area. This older version of the smaller creature was wearing an entire outfit that was painted entirely pink himself! He ran up between them asking "Gary! Are you okay!? Did someone hurt you!?" As he looked at both creatures suspiciously before continuing on: "Because if so you can tell me and-"

[gasp] "Wait... Did he move?" The younger version asked excitedly while pointing at the older version of himself while turning to face him. The older version stopped running only seconds after jumping between them standing next to them now instead of in front of them when he first started running towards them. Looking confused by their sudden questions he asked: "Did who move?" Before stopping himself realizing exactly what had happened as he looked down at himself only to see that everything that was painted pink was no longer pink but back to it's original color! However when he looked back up at his friend they were still staring at him in disbelief not yet realizing their own mistake since everything that wasn't pink remained unchanged on both creatures except for their faces which now showed their true colors again. Confused once more by the looks on their faces he asked: "What is it guys? Did something happen?"

[clap] "Oh! Oh!" Gary cheered in response jumping up from where he stood before placing his hands on top of his head in delight before exclaiming: "Yes! It worked! My new color-shift formula actually worked!" He said excitedly before pulling out another mirror from his pocket showing it to his friend who stared back at him with wide eyes at seeing how changed he now appeared compared to before the color shift occurred making Gary grin even harder than before before putting away the mirror once more under joyous laughter as he walked past them saying: "Thank goodness! Without my new color-shift formula working we never would have found each other again!" He said as he kept walking down the path ahead of them still completely unaware of how wrong he actually was while they stood behind him dumbfounded staring at where they last saw him only moments ago having forgotten all about him until now standing right next to them prompting them to turn around slowly in surprise wondering what could have possibly happened for him to seemingly disappear like that only moments ago without so much as a word leaving only silence behind him before finally asking each other: [whisper] "Who is this guy? And where did our friend go?" As they continued looking confused at each other until finally deciding it would probably be best if they just left Gary alone not knowing what else might happen if they continued talking with him any further which quickly proved wise when they heard something screaming out behind them followed by all sorts of loud noises sounding off across the area wherever Gary walked causing all sorts of birds and animals hidden within nearby trees or bushes along the road ahead of them frighten out into flight as Gary continued walking forward without so much as paying attention or reacting in any way whatsoever aside from continuing walking forward ignoring whatever madness he might have caused behind him along with everyone else trying desperately not to disturb whatever Gary might have planning doing something stupid before finally reaching their destination being too scared by what might happen should they say or do anything else besides following silently behind him hoping against hope that whatever Gary had planned wouldn't end up being too bad for everyone involved if it went horribly wrong after all...