"I can't believe it." Bentley carried on, looking over the photo that Sly handed him again and again. "This is astounding! Physical stature and fur patterns are very similar to yours Sly. You two have to be related!" Sly rolled his eyes in a dramatic manner, listening to the same tangent for what he felt was probably the 10th time. "Well I could always just go and talk to him. Make sure he really is my ancestor..." Bentley shook his head. "As easy as it sounds, chances are he won't have any idea who you are. If anything he'll either pick a fight or just ignore you completely." The turtle scratched his chin, running thought after thought through his mind. Sly scratched his head, trying to think of a plan as well, but coming up with nothing.
Murray, who had been watching the two quietly finally spoke up. "Why doesn't Sly just like...study him or something? If it's him, he should have stuff written in the Thievius Raccoonus book right? Maybe if you told him something he wrote in there, he'd believe you or something." He shrugged, unsure of his suggestion would be of any help. "Well it would have been a good idea Murray, granted if his section wasn't slowly disappearing from the book..." Bentley sat there for a moment before a realization hit him. "Wait! That's it!" Sly looked over at the sudden outburst, an eyebrow raised. "What did you think of buddy?" "Although Tennessee's section may be gone from the book...but he did live here. Look around! There's bound to be something you can find to learn about him!" Bentley rolled around the room, gesturing towards the pile of blankets and junk on the floor. Sly just stared at him with a confused look. "Why am I invading his personal life? So I know what his mother's name is? What good is this going to do to help get him out of that jail cell?" He grumbled, still not getting what Bentley was hinting at. "That's just it! Don't you see what I'm pointing out? If you learn about him, chances are it'll be easier to convince him that you're not there to harm him." There was a moment of silence between the two before Sly finally nodded. "I get it...But where do I start? How do I know if something's important?" Bentley shook his head. "How should I know? Just look around! There's bound to be something!"
Sly's eyes wandered around, trying to pick a place to start. His eyes trailed around the room, taking in the now familiar sights. The old wallpaper that was peeling and torn in places. Not much to see there. The old table and chairs weren't helpful either. Sighing, Sly shuffled over to the pile that Bentley had pointed out earlier. With a small grumble he began to shuffle through the junk, moving blankets around until he came across something very strange. Hidden rolled up in a blanket was what appeared to be an old beat up box. It wasn't locked, and weighted at least a pound or two. Setting it aside for later investigation, Sly finished digging and upon finding nothing else, moved on. Picking up the box, he looked around the room again, trying to decide if he should look through Tennessee's room or not. It could prove to be useful in finding out more about him, but at the same time, it felt somewhat wrong to just wander in and start picking through things. 'I'll check in this box first. With luck I won't have to look through the other room...' Sly thought to himself, before opening up the box. Peering inside, it was stuffed full of papers. Scanning a few of them, Sly noticed that a lot of them looked like hand written letters. He lifted one in particular to try and read it, but had difficulty doing so as the handwriting was rather scrawled and tough to follow. He did however, manage to pick out a few bits. Reading over what he could understand, Sly found a reoccurring name. "T.K." He spoke aloud softly. The letters seemed to be written to this T.K. from someone who seemed to know them well. Setting the letters aside, Sly began to dig again. Papers, papers and more papers. It was no wonder that the box was weighty. However, something unusual caught his attention. It looked like the corner of an old photograph.
Carefully pulling it up from underneath a stack of the letters, he held it up, trying to see what it was of. Examining it carefully, Sly noticed right away, that it must have been a family photo. There were two tall figures standing next to one another. A gentle looking female hare in a simple dress with round glasses and a tough looking coyote male donning a dark vest and trousers. Perhaps they were married? Sly's eyes trailed down to the bottom half of the photo where a few children stood. There was a young steer, maybe an early teenager, and a young she-hare who looked to be just a few years younger. Standing just beside them was two small scrawny raccoon children who were maybe 2 or 3 if Sly had to guess. They looked very similar and somehow familiar. "Hey Bentley?" He called over. "Come check this out!" He held the photo out, his arm extended as he continued to poke through the box. "What is it?" The turtle asked, taking the picture from him and looking it over. "I think it's a family photo...Check out the two little kids at the bottom. Thinking of what I'm thinking?" Sly closed the box, deciding that the rest wasn't of any importance. "Hmm...If I'd have to guess, I'd say that Tennessee had a sibling. But what he's doing in this photo is what confuses me." Bentley looked at the letters that Sly had pulled out. "What are these?" Sly passed the stack of letters over to him, as he moved to stand up. "Uh...letters. Can't really read much of them though. Who ever wrote them had some seriously bad handwriting..." Bentley scanned them over quickly before nodding. "I can try and read these. I might be able to help you find out more. In the mean time, see if there's anything else."
Sly gave a small groan. Looks like he was going to have to get a bit personal. Eventually, he made his way over to the door of Tennessee's room, and hesitantly pushed it open. He knew there was nobody in there, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he should say something. Pushing aside his uneasiness, Sly began to poke around the room. He scanned his eyes over the bed, but couldn't see much more than well used blankets, and a frumpled pillow. The gold wouldn't be much help either, so Sly turned to the last thing that he could see. The gun equipment that was sitting on a short desk not far from the cot. Sly looked it over, making sure that there was nothing he could break by touching. First thing that caught his attention was the case of bullets. Reading the label, Sly found that they were for a rifle gun. There were a few other boxes of ammo but they too were for a rifle. 'Perhaps he prefers that to other guns?' Sly tried to recall what the Thievius Raccoonus entries mentioned but ultimately couldn't remember. Shaking his head, Sly had enough of poking his nose where he wasn't comfortable with. Turning on his heel to leave, a small corner of paper could be seen poking out from underneath the pillow on the cot. Curiosity got the better of the raccoon and he couldn't help himself. Tugging the paper gently out, Sly scanned it over. It looked like another letter, but this time, it was signed to a different name. He couldn't quite read it, but it seemed like Tennessee was writing a letter to someone. Perhaps a reply to the letters he had found earlier? Shaking his head, he took it with him as he left the room. "Hey Bentley. I found another letter. This one is different than the others. Think you can make something of it?"
Bentley took the paper from Sly and looked it over. "Hmm...Where did you find this one?" Sly gestured over towards the bedroom. "It was under the pillow in there. I've got the feeling that Tennessee didn't want anyone finding it. Much like the box of them that I found earlier." He took a step over to grab one of the remaining chairs, but thought twice and opted to just sit on the table itself. Scooping up a small stack of the letters, Bentley went to work, trying to read what had been written. "This might take a while Sly. Perhaps you should head back out into the field. I need a few photos taken to help me get a better grip on our surroundings." Sly nodded and hoisted himself up off the table, taking a moment to grab up his cane from the wall that he propped it up on. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he opened up the front door and walked calmly outside. "Still feels strange..." Looking around, Sly took a wild guess on what Bentley would have wanted him to get photos of. "Hmm...well there's a Saloon over that way. Perhaps I'll start over that way."
Writer's comments:
Well it seems that in this chapter, Sly gets to invade the personal life of our favorite gunslinger. There are plenty of questions, but not very many answers. Again you guys, feedback, wonderful. Constructive criticism, also wonderful.