(Chapter 4) POSS
     
      "Ahhhh!!" Eddie screamed, then the thing screamed "Eahhhhh!!"back
at him. Then the gang started screaming, soon they were all screaming
together. Toomie, frightened by all the screaming sat quietly next to Patsy's
feet.
     "Wait, stop screaming," said Griffin. Eddie stood up and backed away,
as did the furry thing. 
     "What is it Eddie?" whispered Patsy. 
     "I don't know, but hold on to Toomie," said Eddie as Patsy hugged
Toomie around the neck.  Eddie studied the furry thing from top to bottom, it
was like a boy his size with fur all over its body. The eyes glaring back at
Eddie were a glowing green colour and its nose was shaped like Mrs.
Butterworth's cat, only bigger.  Its ears were big and round at the top like a
lion.
     "Eddie, don't touch it, it might bite you," said a frightened Kennedy.
     Eddie decided to get closer as it didn't seem to be angry.  Eddie
stepped forward and held up his right hand with his fingers spread apart.
     "Hello," said Eddie with an unsteady voice.
     The furry thing stared at Eddie's hand, looked down at its own hand, it
then held it up like Eddie's, all the time looking over at the thing on four legs
that had chased it up the tree.  
     "Oh, look, it only has three fingers," Patsy gasped.
     "Shhh, Patsy," said Eddie and then said "My name is Eddie, what's
yours?" The thing tilted its head side to side as if confused by the strange
language. Suddenly it spoke and Eddie jumped back. The gang stood with
their mouths hanging wide open, not sure if they believed what their eyes
were seeing. They kept their distance.
     "What you do with so many fingers?" asked the furry thing. 
     Not sure if Eddie heard his own language or not he opened his mouth
to say something, but nothing came out.
     "Well don't just stand there, say something, Eddie," said Sue.
     "Ahhh...we ahhh just come that way," stuttered Eddie.
     "Too bad, too many in the way, maybe cut off a few," said the thing
stepping closer and taking a closer look at Eddie's hand. Not sure if this thing
was stepping closer to cut off some fingers, Eddie stepped back.
     "Poss," said the thing and pointed to itself.
     "His name must be Poss," said Griffin.  
     As the furry thing turned and nodded, it noticed Patsy holding
something. Pointing at Mr. Tuddles, he said, "Poss?"
     "No! Mr. Tuddles," said Patsy as she held him tighter.
     "Toooddle?" said Poss. Then Sue began to laugh and soon they all
started to laugh.
     Poss turned back to Eddie who quickly stopped laughing. Cautiously,
Poss reached out to touch Eddie's hand. He held Eddie's hand in his three
fingers rolling his hand back and forth. Eddie looked over to the gang and
gave the best brave smile he could, trying not to show that he was ready to
scream at any moment.
     "You have no fur, you not cold?" asked Poss.
     "No, we just wear clothes," said Eddie as he reached out and touched
Poss on the arm.
     "He's like a bear or something, come see," said Eddie to the gang.
     Patsy was the first one to walk over, "Here Kennedy hold Toomie," said
Patsy as she handed Toomie over to Kennedy.
Griffin, Sue, and Joey followed Patsy to get a closer look. Poss backed up a
bit, but was just as curious as they were and every so often looked over at
Toomie. Kennedy stayed back as she was sure that Poss was giving her the
evil eye. 
     As they looked each other over Poss grabbed Griffin's glasses and held
them up to his eyes and shook his head with disbelief. He then grabbed Mr.
Tuddles and tried to talk to him.  "You from Zaff?" asked Poss shaking the
teddy bear.
     "He doesn't talk, silly," said Patsy and grabbed Mr. Tuddles back.
     Poss looked over at Kennedy and Toomie, he badly wanted to touch
the four legged creature, but it was so noisy. Poss started to move slowly
over to Kennedy. Toomie started to bark.
     "Quiet Toomie, it's ok," said Eddie, but Toomie continued to bark. Poss
turned and looked at Eddie. "It's ok Poss, he only wants to sniff you, he
doesn't bite," said Eddie. "I hope."
          Poss continued to move closer, holding out his hand. Meanwhile
     Kennedy was about to scream, run, cry or something that would seem
     useful. Poss closed his eyes and stretched out his arm as far as it would go
     to touch Toomie. Then Poss felt something slimy  and screamed "Ahhhhh!!"
Then Kennedy screamed "Ahhhh!!" Poss opened his eyes to find this four
     legged thing was licking his hand. Poss began to giggle and Kennedy fainted.
     The gang ran to Kennedy, shaking her and slapping her face 'til she
came too.
     "Owww, stop, I'm fine, I...I just tripped," said Kennedy dizzily.
     "Oh sure Kennedy," said Sue.
     After reviving Kennedy they all sat down in a circle and stared at each
other, asking questions back and forth.
     Griffin turned to Poss and asked, "Where are we? What world is this?
What are you?"
     "Zaff, my home, many Talinks live here and Sooms too," said Poss.
     Zaff? Suddenly memories flooded back into Eddie's head. Zaff, that
was what Old Man Watermen said, and the green light from the toybox, the
nightmares, Eddie thought as his head began to spin with confusion.  "The
furry monsters!" he shouted and jumped up, now frightened by what was
sitting in front of him.
     "What's wrong with you?" asked Griffin.
     "Ah, nothing, nothing is wrong," said Eddie with anxiety. Eddie stood
back and stared at Poss, who was enjoying the company of these strangers. 
His heart raced, what should I do? he thought. Surveying the strange world
around him, he realized this was not a dream, he was really here. 
     "What are Talinks and Sooms?" asked Kennedy.
     "I Talink! Poss shouted proudly.  "And Sooms, very bad, I always run."
Poss held his hand out for Toomie to lick and started to giggle.  " Sooms live
on the other side of the Talen Forest. The Knowing Ones say, evil struck
Rimm, he was banished from the clan thousands of suns ago.  Because of
Rimm many Talinks have died. The Rimm tale is told many times over by 
the Knowing Ones. Rimm, very bad, now leader of the Sooms. They catch
you, make you slave or worse, feed you to Kraph."
     The gang sat quietly, intrigued by Poss's story, when Patsy noticed
Eddie fidgeting. 
     "Eddie, you don't look very good, what's wrong?" asked Patsy. 
     Eddie face was turning pale and he was in a state of panic. Poss stood
up and walked over to Eddie, who was now shaking.  Eddie wanted to run,
but couldn't make his legs move. Poss stood face to face with Eddie and
peered into his eyes. 
     "Ah, you been to Zaff before!" said Poss and looked back at the others.
     "I have never been to Zaff or anywhere else outside of Lockville!"
shouted Eddie. "Why do you say this? And Mr. Watermen, the green light,
the nightmares, I don't understand," Eddie started to babble. Poss smiled
and continued to look into his eyes. Eddie noticed that Poss's eyes where
green, not red like the creatures in his nightmare.
     The gang stared at Eddie trying to understand why he was getting so
hysterical. Patsy pulled her brother down into a sitting position and patted
him on the back.  Eddie sat with his hands over his face trying to hold back
the tears he wanted so badly to shed. Confused and frightened he wanted to
go home, he tried to explain what he had seen in his room the other night,
the green light he saw in Old Man Watermen's orchard and the nightmares.
How he was surrounded by furry monsters, with red eyes and sharp yellow
teeth.  
     "But you have been to Zaff, remember back," said Poss.
     Eddie pulled  his harmonica from his pocket, lifted it up to his mouth
and without a thought as to why or what to play, began to blow the little
tune his dad taught him. The tune was a short sweet melody, the kind you
could hum to and as quickly as you heard it you would forget it.  As he
played the song over and over, Poss turned in circles and swayed his head
back and forth to the music. While Eddie played the harmonica and watched
Poss dance, visions started to stream through his mind. He remembered his
father standing over him, giving him a lecture on how to keep his room clean
by putting his toys away in the new toybox. Then a flash of green light took
him to see his dad playing catch and showing him how to hit a baseball. 
Another flash, he saw his dad giving him a harmonica for his birthday, and
playing his little song for Eddie.  Eddie loved the harmonica and played it
everywhere. The next vision he saw the toybox burst open followed by a
glowing green light. He saw himself sitting in bed pulling the covers up
around his neck as four furry creatures stood around his bed talking. Then,
as they ran into the toybox, he followed them down the stairs into the fog. 
      "I was seven then, and that was no dream; it really did happen!"
Eddie said out loud.  
     The gang looked at each other, not knowing what to say or do. Eddie
sat with his eyes closed and tried to gathered his thoughts together.
     "You were here before?" asked Griffin. "Why didn't you tell us?"
     "I'm not sure, I don't understand," said Eddie looking around at the
surprised faces.   
     "How many times have you been here?" asked Sue.
     "Only once, I think; all I can remember is one night I was playing my
harmonica before I fell asleep and the lid to my toybox opened, a green light
flashed and four creatures climbed out. 
     "Weren't you afraid?" asked Kennedy.
     "No, I thought I was dreaming," Eddie said. "They walked around my
room, like they were looking for something, then they took a sock from my
dresser and ran down the stairs in the toybox. 
     "Your sock? Who would want your smelly socks?" Patsy questioned
with disgust.  Ignoring her, Eddie continued on with what he could
remember.
     " I followed them down into the green fog, but they were gone. I
remember the big flowers, the waterfall which fell from the sky, the trees
and as I was about to step off into this strange land, I heard someone call
me. I ran up the stairs and found Patsy throwing one of my toys out the
window.  I closed the toybox lid and kicked Patsy out of my room and ran
back to the toybox. I opened the lid, but the green light was gone and toys
that were missing were back.  I took all the toys out and climbed in, nothing
happened, then I turned the box over to see if there was a hole in the floor,
but nothing.  The next morning I told my dad about the creatures, and how
they searched my room and the other world they came from through the
toybox, but he told me it was just a dream and opened the toybox to show
me there was nothing but toys in the box and no stairs leading anywhere. 
To keep Patsy from wrecking my toys he put a lock on the toybox. The next
day my dad was killed in a car accident; they said he had hit a tree. I was so
mad at him for leaving me, I threw the harmonica into the closet and there it
stayed 'til I found it two nights ago," said Eddie as rapidly as the memories
flooded back into his head. Eddie inhaled as much air as he could take in and
then exhaled leaving his body feeling limp. 
     "Good story, good story," said Poss clapping his hands and jumping
around.
          "Is that all you remember?" asked Griffin as he stood up and shivered. 
     A cool wind suddenly swirled around them. The drooping tree 
branches began to sway back and forth, making a sound like the ocean
rolling up on the shore. Toomie started to whimper.
     "Time to go," said Poss.  "Must hurry." Poss stood up and looked
around as if he was expecting to see something.  The red clouds started to
swell 'til the sky was covered in red. The sun continued to glow through the
clouds, but never moved.
     "What's happening?" asked Patsy.
     "We must hurry, it's late," said Poss pulling on Eddie's shirt.
     Boommm! Boommm!