Chapter 13 - Finally At Home.

"Ungh… my… head…" Lila moaned and opened her eyes. She gasped when realizing she was resting in a hospital bed. "What happened..."

"Lila!"

The redhead beamed when seeing her dad was right next to the bed. A moment later, they were embracing and sobbing in happiness.

"D-dad… w-what happened? How did I..."

"W-we don't know ourselves." Mister Sawyer explained while still hugging the girl. "That storm caught everyone by surprise; not even the meteorologists saw it coming! Most of the large buildings resisted, but many of the small ones got seriously damaged, and many people got lost in the chaos… Lila… y-you were lost for almost 3 weeks."

Lila was almost in shock at the news; in fact, she was sure it had been a lot more than three weeks, but considering there was magic involved...

"But, there was really magic involved?" Lila thought, very confused, and starting to think that her whole experience had been just a dream; still, that would mean she spent 3 weeks sleepwalking, or something equally weird (even if still mundane and far from magical) had happened to her. "A-and where did you find me?"

"A police officer found you at the park, along with Spunky; you were unconscious, and the dog was next to you, yapping for help. You were mostly fine... Lila, really, where were you? I'm glad you are okay; the medics say you're physically fine; in fact, the only thing missing were your shoes…"

Lila pondered about this last bit; she was only guessing but, if her experience had been real, and Nick's magic stopped working properly when in the outer world, it was possible that the shoes had disappeared once they transported her out of the magical land. Luckily, they still worked fine enough to send her and Spunky to the right city and basically unharmed.

"... but we were very worried about you. That kid, Arnold, hadn't stopped searching for you, and that other girl, Helga, had been at our place at least twice a week to check on me… seriously, without those two kids around, I'd have gone crazy after the first week."

"Remind me to thank them." Lila smiled.

"You can thank them now. They're at the corridor." The man chuckled, and a moment later, Spunky dashed inside the room, jumping at Lila's bed to lick her face. Arnold and Helga entered after him.

"Hey, Mutt, you can't run in the hospital! This is the last time I sneak you in..." Helga stopped when seeing Lila was awake. "What do you know? The flea-bag knew you were awake."

"Ever-so happy to see you too, Helga. Same with you, Arnold." Lila smiled before sharing a hug with Arnold, and then, surprising everyone, she almost jumped out of the bed to hug Helga as well.

"Hey, cool down, Miss Perfect, or I'll put a leash on you." Helga frowned yet sighed and hugged her back a moment later, even smiling a bit herself. "Fine, I admit it. I missed you too... besides, Football Head was getting too obsessed finding you."

"As if you were any different, Helga." Arnold chuckled while Mr Sawyer smiled at the scene. "But, Lila, seriously, where had you been?"

"I… I'm not sure." Lila knew she couldn't just tell she came (or thought she did) from a magical land, or she'd end taking therapy for months, but she couldn't exactly lie either, so went for something in-between. "I only remember someplace with lots of animals, weird things, and magicians..."

"Either you ran away with the circus, or you drank something you shouldn't." Helga arched her eyebrow. "Or both, since your memory isn't working."

"Well, the storm affected some very sensitive people; a few got psychological trauma, others got minor injuries..." Arnold rubbed his chin. "Mister Kokoshka was a nervous wreck for a couple of days; the storm got him right at the racing track, and the horses got scared."

"Oh, yeah, the stampede; even I'd get shocked if a horse almost crushed me." Helga nodded at Arnold before looking at Lila. "Maybe something similar happened to you, and, well, this is probably my therapist talking, but your Miss Perfect's brain kinda blocked that event and gave you amnesia."

"Either way, I'm glad you're finally home." Mister Sawyer hugged Lila again. Arnold and Helga, wanting to give them some privacy, left the room, Helga hiding Spunky inside a backpack; Lila smiled even more when noticing the two blondes seemed to be getting in much better terms; in fact, Lila was sure her friends shared a tender glance before leaving.

A few days later, when Lila was already out of the hospital, she had to say goodbye to Spunky as well because his owner finally appeared, a short guy who just called himself 'Rocko'; even if he was kinda weird looking, being shortheight, big-nosed, and dressed in a funny blue shirt with dark triangles, he actually seemed to be a nice person.

"Thanks again for taking care of Spunky. We were on vacation and he jumped inside a butcher's van; it took me a long time to find out where the van was going, and by then Spunky was already very far from the van's final destination." Rocko explained while petting the dog. "And I really need to replace his collar's tag; my direction is no longer visible."

"It's okay, Mister Rocko. It was nice to have a dog at home... even if we both were out of home for some time." Lila chuckled before smiling at Spunky and caressing him one last time. "Now, be a good dog, Spunky, and don't get lost again, okay?"

Spunky barked at her and licked Lila's face before Rocko said goodbye as well, and he and Spunky left on the guy's car. Lila and her dad waved bye before walking inside their house… but Lila made a little stop when hearing a familiar voice.

"Good to see you made it."

Lila smiled at the large guy in a trench-coat, out-of-style hat, shades, and obviously fake mustache and beard.

"Otis..."

"If you ever wanna visit me, I'll be at that weird-shaped kid's boarding house. Oh, and my name here is Mister Smith. Very original, uh?" The bull chuckled before smiling at Lila. "Go in there; and hope you and your dad are doing fine. See you around."

"See you." Lila smiled as 'Mister Smith' started walking away. "Oh, and Mister Smith… watch your tail."

"Oops. I'm out of practice." Otis chuckled while hiding his tail and walking down the street. On the inside, Lila was beaming; this confirmed that she didn't dream the whole thing. Her adventure had been as real as her new friends. The redhead closed her eyes for a moment, imagining Jimmy and Cindy doing some new, marvelous stuff at Otis' old workstation; Jenny using her appliances and devices to improve Vicky's former slaves' life conditions; and Chuckie, with Angelica at his side, watching over his wild kingdom from the top of a hill.

"Good to see you made it too." Lila sighed while giving Otis a last look before finally entering her place. "Yeah, that spell was right… there's no place like home."

xxxxxxxxxx THE END xxxxxxxxxx

And this was the final chapter! (Indeed. It had been nice to be your assistant again.) Thanks, Phoebe. Wanna make the final comments. (Sure. As everyone noticed, in this last chapter, we included a humanized Rocko, Spunky's owner from 'Rocko's Modern Life'. And, of course, we had an extra scene with Otis, just to show you all that he made it safely out of Nick, and that Lila's travel was for real and not a dream, as it's strongly implied in the classical movie. His 'Mister Smith' identity is a nod to the 'Hey, Arnold!' series, concerning a mysterious guy living at Arnold's boarding house, whose life is extremely private, and, in public, he's only seen as a guy in a trench-coat and hat that covers up his body, hiding any distinguishable features.)

And that's it. Again, thanks a lot for reading this story. And thanks to Phoebe here for helping me with the comments and notes. (You're very welcome. And thanks to you all for your comments and favorites.)

Keep the good writing.