Title: Staying Put
Author: elektralyte
Rating: K+
Characters/Pairings: Sprinklings of Hank/Sheila goodness.
Spoilers: None so far as I can tell.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dungeons and Dragons the Cartoon series. I write for fun and have no intentions of profiting off this piece.
Summary: Friends go missing and Hank's behavior arouses suspicion...
Author's notes: Some of you have seen this before because it was originally written for DDCC 2007. There are a few minor format revisions. The original story can be found at Sealgirl's website, The virtual Realm. The prompt was: Something with werewolves, especially if it features Hank or Lorne.
Staying Put
Chapter 1
Two boys were creeping through a forest cover. One boy gestured to the other to copy his movements. The second boy nodded and did his best to match his friend step for step until he tripped on his robe. The noise startled their prey and a couple of rabbits shot out from the under the brush.
The first boy reacted with phenomenal speed and released two arrows. Both hit their targets and the rabbits went down.
"Hank! That was awesome!"
"Shh!" he ordered. Then he mouthed the words, "don't move."
"What are you looking for?" Presto whispered.
Hank ignored his friend. He took a breath, nocked an energy arrow and counted to three. He suddenly pivoted, startling both Presto and a rabbit that was apparently behind them.
Hank released another arrow and that rabbit went down as well. Then he and the other boy went to collect their future dinner.
"I think this will be enough," he remarked as he tied the rabbits together. From any one else this would have sounded cocky but the young ranger was just being matter of fact.
"Hey Hank, how did you see them? I didn't even know they were there!"
"You have to look for their eyes. Their coats act like camouflage but their black eyes stand out against the cover if you're looking hard enough."
Presto looked at his friend thoughtfully for a moment. "How do you know so much about rabbit hunting?"
He hesitated before answering. "My dad used to take me." He left it at that.
Somewhere in that pause was the unspoken history of Hank. Presto wondered if he should press for more as he watched his friend tie the rabbits together. He decided against it because he was a bit too shy to ask.
As the two of them walked down the path something caught the ranger's eye.
"Presto, hang on. There's something I want to check out."
Presto watched as the other boy pulled his knife out of his belt. Hank bent over and started cutting a plant. Presto's mind began to wander until the sound of rustling in the distance caught his attention.
"Maybe that's another rabbit," he hoped. He decided that he could catch his own rabbit and wandered down the path towards the direction of the noise.
There it was, another rustle. He pulled off his hat because he had this vague notion of using it as a net. Presto tracked the sound and concentrated.
"Round black eyes, round black eyes, round black eyes," he chanted.
His gazed stopped at a set of eyes. They weren't black though; they were blue and fairly large. For a moment it seemed like the entire forest went silent.
A shiver crawled up his spine as the scenery, like one of those optical illusion prints, coalesced into something far more sinister. The brush surrounding the eyes melted into golden fur. A great maw opened up to expose overly large canines. What ever it was pushed forward and revealed itself as a huge, wolf-like creature.
"Guh-guh, good boy! Stay!"
Presto nervously made a 'sit' gesture to the creature. It raised its head and growled. Then it snapped its jaws together and lunged at the boy.
He bolted down the path for dear life and didn't stop until he tripped on a tree root. After scrambling around for his hat and his dislodged glasses he realized he was not being followed.
He would have felt relief except for one small detail.
"Hank! Oh my God! Haannnk!"
Presto ran back up the path cursing at himself for leaving his friend behind. He came to the spot he thought he and Hank were together last, but the other boy wasn't there.
He spun around in a circle calling his friend's name in a panic.
"Maybe I'm in the wrong place?" he wondered.
He took off down the path again to a spot that he thought looked familiar but again, no Hank.
Now, besides panic he was feeling shame at having left his friend alone with that thing. He sincerely hoped that the creature was having just as hard a time finding Hank as he was.
"Where'd you go Hank?" Presto whispered. "What am I going to do?"