The underworld.
Chapter 3. Buck the Weasel
...
"Not so fast!" Elco called out.
The hermit looked over his shoulder. "Not so slow!" he said back, with a grin.
They had been walking through the jungle for hours now. The weasels family was beginning to get tired. Their guide, however, seemed to be completely tireless. He just kept walking and walking, without having to stop and rest.
The other weasels weren't used to traveling long. So they all fell behind more and more, while the strange weasel just walked there like nothing happened. Though, sometimes it seemed like he was talking to himself.
"Can we please take a break," Dorian panted. "I can't feel my legs."
Their guide looked at them for a moment.
"Fine," he said then.
At the same moment, all the other weasels dropped on the ground, panting like they had just been chased by a saber.
The hermit looked at them in a slight amusement. Then he calmly sat down, picked up a rock and started sharping his knife.
After a while, the other weasels sat upright.
"Excuse me," Anna said to the hermit. "But, I don't believe you have told us your name."
Their guide smiled. "Of course," he said. "I almost forgot."
He stood up. "If I may introduce myself," he said. "The name's Buck. Short for 'Buckminster', long for 'Buh'."
"Pleasure to meet you, mr. Buckminster." Diana said shyliy.
"Pleasure's all mine, love," Buck said politely.
Diana blushed.
"What kind of parents call their son 'Buckminster'," Elco said. "that's not even a name."
"Correction, mate: it is a name," Buck said. "To be more exactly: it's my name. And just a warning, lad: you'll regret it if you keep insulting me like that for no reason."
"Really," Elco said unimpressed. "so what you're gonna do, then?"
Buck placed the point of his knife against Elco's throat.
"I will use this," he threatened.
Elco nervously cleaned his throat. "Yes, well…" he said. "point taken…."
Buck placed his knife on his shoulder again. "Let's get moving, mammals," he said.
"What? But we've just stopped…" Liza said.
"You've had time to rest, love," Buck said. "now it's time to get moving. Or do you want to stay here and get eaten by either a plant, a dragonfly or a dinosaur. You can choose."
The weasel family instantly stood up.
Buck chuckled.
"That always works," he said. "now, get those feet moving. And no whining, we're in the underworld here. Be a little tough."
Diana noticed that Buck had just called this world 'the underworld', just like she did.
Buck looked over his shoulder while walking. "Well, are you going to move or…"
Suddenly, Anna called out: "look out for that…."
The next moment, Buck smacked right into a tree.
"…tree…" Anna finished he sentence.
Buck growled.
"Watch it, you!" he yelled at the tree.
Liza and Elco gave each other a disturbed look.
"Now, come on," Buck said to the other weasels. "if you don't move now, I'm leaving you guys to your fate. So hurry up."
"That was weird," Liza said to Elco and Diana, as they began walking. "did he actually talk to a tree?"
"I told you he could not be trusted," Eclo said.
"What does that have to do with talking to trees?" Diana said, and Liza laughed because of how strange that sentence sounded.
"I'm telling you, that weasel is insane," Elco said. "and would you trust an insane weasel?"
"You're overreacting, Elco." Liza said.
Elco turned to Diana.
"You believe me, right?" He said.
Diana was silent for a minute. Then she said: "I agree with Liza. I don't think mr. Buck is that bad."
"Does really no one listen to reason?" Elco said.
Buck was suddenly walking next to them.
"Of course everyone listens to reason," he said. "as long as it makes sense. Your reason doesn't make any sense, lad."
Liza and Diana giggled at the offended look on Elco's face.
"As if you make any more sense," he snapped at Buck.
The one-eyed weasel just smiled and shrugged, and walked to the front of the group again.
Elco frowned. He actually did not entirely understand why he didn't trust Buck. He just couldn't like the strange hermit. There was something weird about him, that Elco did not like at all.
But nobody seemed to listen to him, and so he decided not to talk for a while.
...
Above the ground, the sun was almost down, the light in the underworld turned red.
"Shouldn't we camp somewhere for the night?" Dorian asked.
"Don't forget that I'm in charge now, oldie," Buck reminded him. He looked around.
"We're close to my treehouse," he said then. "we'll go there."
He changed direction. Following him, the weasel family left the path they had walked on for most of the day, and they followed a new, smaller path through the jungle.
Not so much later, they arrived at a more open space in the jungle, where they saw about the biggest tree they had ever seen.
There was a big hole in the tree, an few feet above the ground.
Without any effort, Buck climbed through the hole. The weasel family wasn't as good at climbing and Buck had to help them to get in.
Once she was inside the tree, Diana looked around.
They were standing in a big room. In the middle of the room were a table made of a large, flat stone, and a small fireplace a few feet away from the table.
There were lots of shelves full of things Buck had collected, like feathers, scales, nails and bones of dinosaurs, dry flowers and plants, strange stones and pieces of wood.
There were also a lot of bowls made of stone or wood, and self-made weapons.
There were paintings on all the walls, and they seemed to be scenes of Buck's older adventures.
"Welcome to my home." Buck said with a big grin.
Diana looked around with admiration. "Did you make all those paintings yourself?" she asked.
"Aye," Buck said. "you like them?"
"They are wonderful," Diana said.
Elco quickly placed himself between Buck and Diana.
"Ahem…" he said. "say, Buck, what are all those weapons for?"
"What are they for?" Buck said. "Hunting dinosaurs, of course. What else should I use them for?"
"Excuse me?" Elco said.
Buck chuckled. "Of course, you tourists aren't used to things like that, but I fight dino's every day. It's fun." He said.
"It doesn't sound like fun to me at all," Elco said. "it sounds more like ridiculously dangerous."
"You are boring," Buck said.
Elco was about to say something angry back, but Dorian cut him off.
"Please, let's not fight," he said.
"He wouldn't have won anyway," Buck said.
"Don't be such a show-off," Elco said angrily.
"Well, excuse me," Buck said. "can't you take a little joke? Come on, don't be so serious."
Diana giggled, and Elco looked annoyed.
"I'm going to find something to eat," Buck said. "if you folks are clever, don't leave the tree. And if you do, please say hello from me to whatever's going to eat you."
And with a grin, he left the tree again with his knife on his shoulder.
"How can that guy be so incredibly optimistic about everything?" Elco said.
"I like him," Liza said. "he's funny. And he's completely right too, Elco. You shouldn't be so serious all the time, that's kinda boring."
Elco decided not to say anything back, since he didn't want to start a fight with Liza.
