A Tale of Two Torrents

By Dixxy

Chapter Three: The. . . Uh. . . Butt Monster?

(Cye)

After serving my first detention on the third day of school (they didn't have detention assignments for the first few days of school), I started to head home. I was, after all, grounded. I'd spent my punishment at home cooking and doing extra chores, Anubis was still upset with me, and my being stuck at home was putting me in a rather bad mood.

Either way, I had decided to take the scenic route on my walk home. Besides, I had to stop and get a few supplies for school. I was two notebooks and a package of colored pencils short, and since I had a LITTLE bit of money in my pocket, I decided that I'd better get them. Meaning I had an excuse to take a little detour. So I took a short detour into the super market and bought some outrageously priced school supplies (Five dollars for one bloody notebook?) along with a soda and a bag of potato chips.

From there, it was just over a half a mile to get home. So, taking the occasional drink from my soda and adjustment of my bag placement, I had a roughly uneventful walk home. Cars moved slowly by as the natives swore at each other. Vendors sold hot dogs. Pedestrians passed me by, not taking much notice of me.

For a while.

"Cye?"

I looked around, wondering who'd called my name. It's not like there's a lot of people name "Cye" running around Boston. It's an unusual name, even in my native home of England. I didn't see anyone! "Huh?" I asked. This was confusing. Now voices were taking to me out of no where?
"Down here!"

I directed my attention to the source of the call and saw Sue Lee smiling brightly at me, purple hair in puffy pigtails and pink backpack over both of her shoulders. "Oh, hello, Sue Lee- Sue Lee! You must be at least a mile away from home right now! Why are you here?"

"Where have you been? You haven't come over to see me or Sage or Kento-"

"I'm grounded," I said. "What are you doing in this part of town?"

Sue Lee sniffed, looking upset. I knelt down to look at her face to face. I gave her a smile and she brightened slightly. "A really mean girl at school said she was going to go to my house and then she was going to beat me up," she said. "I went to hide. I don't want to get beaten up, Cye!"

I sighed heavily. "Sue Lee, Boston is a big city. There are. . . sick people living here. You'd be better off going home. Think about it. An ex-Warlady lives there as well as two very well trained Ronin Warriors, one of whom can shape-shift and see into the future, and the other one is a Flitteree who can make himself invisible."

Sue Lee looked up at me. "Will Kento and Sage beat up the girl?"

I bit my lip. "Probably not, but I'm sure that Kento wouldn't mind shifting into a wolf or something to give her a scare," I said. I stuffed my supplies into my bag. Sue Lee giggled at my previous comment. "C'mon, let's get you home." I extended my hand to her and the small girl took it. I started to lead her in the general direction of Mike's house, listening to her babble on about her day. Mostly, her third grade class had been reading "chapter books" and playing games to get to know each other.

I was so busy listening to an amusing story about one poor boy's incident with the class pet gerbil that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. "So then Mickey wouldn't-" she stopped short as I kept going. She pointed straight ahead of her. "Cye, watch out! You're going to-"

CRASH!"

"Hey, watch where you're- YOU!" I shook my head, dusted myself free of street debris, and gave Sara a dirty look. We'd gone into a neighborhood close to Sara's, so I shouldn't have been overly surprised by her sudden appearance. "What are YOU doing with Sue Lee?"

"Some girl threatened to beat her up while she was at school, so she tried to 'hide' in a rough part of town," I said. "Is that a crime? This is a big city. Who knows what kind of sick-bastards are running out just waiting to find a little girl like Sue Lee all alone on the streets? I was just taking her home where she'll be safe."

"Who's home?" she said.

I growled. "I would never-"

"Grrrrr. . ."

Sue Lee froze. She pointed at an alleyway, teeth chattering and her knees shaking. Sara and I stopped quarreling long enough to give our young friend an inquisitive look. She looked up at us, her eyes filled with fear. "C, Cye, Sa, Sara, wha, what was th, that s, sound?"

"It was just a dog, Sue Lee," said Sara, smiling at the younger girl. She then turned back to me, her nasty argument face back and ready to bicker (though at the time the term "bitch" came to mind). "Cye, you should've called Mike or Cara and had then come pick her up-"

"Grrrrr. . ."

"Cye. . . Sara. . . that sounds too big to be a doggy," said Sue Lee, tugging on my shirt. I sighed heavily and volunteered to look in the alleyway. Some dog was probably just having a big of a stomach problem and needed to see the veterinarian or something along those lines. So I walked into the alleyway.

Well, I TRIED to walk into the alleyway. SOMETHING was in the way.

My eyes widened as I stood face to face with a very large grey wolf creature. It saw me, bore its teeth (which were all about the size of pencils and looked about as sharp as a meat clever), and licked its chops. Large, red eyes twinkled at me, a two red scars going through its right eye. "Um, that's. . . not. . . a. . . dog. . . RUN!"

Sara and Sue Lee didn't need a second order before they tore off down the street. I tore off after then, looking over my shoulder to observe the creature a little better as I ran, nearly tripping over my feet twice. Normally, had it just been a giant dog, I wouldn't have minded. But no. What I saw surprised me.

The creature was mostly covered with matted gray fur, red scales covering its stomach. Its long, front legs ended in three toes a piece, each with a talon bigger than its yellowing teeth. A long tail whipped behind it, a long blade glistening in the sun threateningly, leaving me with no doubt it could swiftly go through my neck like a hot knife through butter.

The strange thing about it was the way it moved. The creature, whatever it was, had no hind legs. It would gallop on its front legs and bounce along on its. . . butt, I guess. As it barked, it made a strange, squeaky noise every time its bottom hit the pavement, seeming to give it the speed of a bouncing ball.

"What is that thing?" Sara asked, our argument temporarily forgotten.

"How should I know!" I asked. "It's some sort of a-"

"BUTT MONSTER!" Sue Lee cried.

Okay, we'd given the monster a "name". Unfortunately, that didn't help us.

"Where do we go!" I asked, leaping over a trashcan.

"The harbor! We can loose it in the water!" said Sara. She swerved away seconds before hitting a lamp post, then cleared a bench before crashing into a garbage can. She recovered quickly, and started to scramble again. "I don't think that thing likes water for some reason!"

"But what about Sue Lee!" I asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it! If you value your life, grab Sue Lee and follow me!" said Sara, taking the lead. Seeing as there really wasn't any room for an argument (how can you argue when a butt monster is on your tail?) I scooped Sue Lee up and started to follow my partner in arms.

Ten minutes later, I was barely breathing, but we'd made it to the harbor. I put Sue Lee down and fell to my knees clutching my chest. Sara was leaning up against a boat house, her deep blue hair drenched with sweat. "pant I pant think pant we pant lost pant it pant," Sara wheezed.

I nodded. Sue Lee stood up and walked around a little, looking at the boat houses. "Where are we?"
"The harbor," said Sara. She straightened herself and started to smooth her blue hair out. She looked around, trying to spot the creature again. "I say we head straight to Cye and Anubis' apartment and ask the monk what the hell that THING was. It's GOT to be a Dynasty creature."

"Agreed," I said. Then, I narrowed my eyes as I realized something. "Hey, you know what, Sara? Ever since that monster attacked, we haven't argued one bit. We've just. . . worked together." Fascinating. Amazing what you can do when you've got something that dangerous looking after your life.

Sara blinked, then glowered. "I STILL haven't forgiven you, Cye Mouri! You're not getting off just because some stupid ass-hopping wolf chased us half way across the city!" she said. "You're a perverted little jackass with a dirty mind and no consideration for others!"

Sue Lee whimpered. "Why are you two fighting?" she cried out. "You're friends!"

"I'm not being friends with THAT son of a-"

"GRRR!"

"Damn it, I think our new friend had found us," I said. Sure enough, the butt monster was a few feet away, growling at us as its fur stood on end. It still looked hungry, eyeing me with ravenous eyes as drool seemed to come out of its mouth like a waterfall of some sort.

Sue Lee screamed and panicked, running away. "Sue Lee!" cried Sara, going after the smaller girl as fast as her legs could carry her. Deciding that I didn't want either one of them to get into trouble, I followed them. Argument or not, Sara was my partner in arms and I had to protect her. And Sue Lee. . . she was just a little girl!

The beast followed me as I followed Sara and Sue Lee, all the while that stupid squeaky noise coming from its butt each time it hit the ground. While I ran, I briefly wondered why such a creature existed- it was so stupid! A monster forced to hop along on its butt?

As luck would have it, Sue Lee managed to get herself cornered in a dead end, which was an alleyway between two boathouses and a large pile of crates. I skidded to a stop before both girls, Sue Lee crying hysterically in Sara's arms. The blue haired Hawaiian was trying to calm her down. "It's gonna be all right," she repeated over and over.

"We've got to get out of here before it finds us!" I said.

Sara looked up, her eyes widening. "Too late! It found us!"

I turned around and made a strange sound in the back of my throat. The creature was there before us, and it had backed us into a dead end. It slowly began to advance on us. Sue Lee cried even louder, wailing that we were all going to die. Even Sara was starting to look scared.

My armor's instincts took over. I threw a hand up and called forth my dagger. Maybe I could try and use it to fight the creature off so that it wouldn't hurt Sue Lee or Sara. It glistened in the sun as I held it out in front of me, trying to scare the beast up. The beast didn't seem to care and continued to advance on us. I backed up little by little until I knocked into Sara and Sue Lee. "Cye!" cried Sara. "What the-"
"Not now," I said through gritted teeth. "Let me scare this stupid thing off and make sure it doesn't come back. Once we're sure we aren't going to become Puppy Chow, THEN you can chew me out, or do you WANT to be eaten by that stupid creature!"

"You're the one who led it here!"

"I was trying to make sure you two were all right!"

"I was able to take perfectly good care of myself before YOU came along, Cye Mouri!"

"Well excuse me for giving a damn about you and Sue Lee!"

"Leave her out of this!"

"STOP FIGHTING!"
"GRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!"

Sara grabbed one of my wrists and stared at me, her eyes threatening. "If you think-"

The creature lunged at me, bringing me, Sue Lee, and Sara to the ground. I screamed (along with Sara and Sue Lee) as the monster began to hiss and spit all over me. Dear God, I'm going to die! I thought. I tried to turn my head away, gagging from the smell of it's breath.

That was when we heard a strange humming sound, and suddenly, we were gone.