One month later…
Not much changed in Happy Tree Town. Flippy and Flaky's romance had been the talk of the town for a few days, with Petunia and Giggles throwing a little party with Handy and Cuddles to celebrate their relationships (Disco Bear was not invited). Everyone gradually returned to their normal patterns of life and death, where the biggest news usually involved Lumpy and his dumb act of the day or Splendid's latest act of heroism. If one paid close enough attention though, one would notice little differences from how things use to be.
Most noticeably, Flippy rarely flipped out anymore. He would schedule appointments to see Lumpy whenever he happened to be a therapist, with moderately successful results. While there, he would also often bump into Russell, who was concerned that he would end up as crazy as Flippy, though he never said so aloud. Lumpy, along with Toothy, now had medical jobs more frequently due to Sniffles' seclusion. No one knew what the absent anteater was up to nowadays, though everyone assumed it must be something big since he was almost never seen in town. Finally, though few realized this, Lifty and Shifty were not stealing as much. The two raccoon twins' relationship had been worsening recently and the two could barely cooperate long enough to accomplish even the simplest of heists.
Nutty had become a lot unhappier as of late. With Lifty and Shifty fighting, his supply of candy had dwindled drastically, and the few Tree Friends who could tolerate his bizarreness were often driven away whenever he began exhibiting candy withdrawal. Since his best friend, Sniffles, was barely ever around anymore, Nutty had nobody to hang out with, and the candy crazed squirrel had come to realize that he needed something else in his life besides candy: friends.
The dejected green squirrel got up this morning and began his usual routine, donning his candy and preparing his sugary breakfast. He tried to carefully pour one of his last two bags of sugar so that he could make it last longer but quickly gave up on the attempt and just began gobbling it up straight from the bag. For a short while, he was able to enjoy his sugary bliss, but when he came down from his sugar high, he crashed harder than usual.
Glancing at the cupboard, Nutty sighed sadly. He wasn't going to get paid until later this week, and the grocery store had too little sugar at too high of a price now, even with his employee discount. He went outside and tried to ignore his visions of candy everywhere. Walking down the street, he passed by Cuddles and Toothy and waved to them, giggling, but the two of them just hurried down the street faster. "Awwww…." Reality was starting to set into his usually sugar hazed mind, and he was learning that all actions have consequences. Killing them over a sweet yesterday probably hadn't helped him make any new friends.
He continued through town, trying to find something to do, but luck wasn't on his side today. Both the café and the grocery store were closed today and he couldn't find anyone to hang out with. Even Flaky had said that she already had plans for the day. Feeling somewhat desperate, he went over to Sniffles' house and started banging on the door, hoping that the anteater would answer for once.
To his surprise, the door opened, though he couldn't see anyone inside. He turned on the lights, revealing a very tidy, yet very dusty room that looked as though it hadn't been used in a while. Nutty spotted a small bowl of chocolate in the kitchen and quickly hurried over to help himself, laughing and enjoying the sweet treat. The jittery squirrel grabbed a few to take with him and began looking around the rest of the house, finding that the entire place was covered in a layer of dust. Where could he be? Nutty grew increasingly concerned as he found more signs that the house had not been lived in for a while, and he ran frantically around until he remembered that Sniffles had a lab nearby.
Nutty ran over and began beating rapidly enough on the door that it sounded like a thrumming noise. "Sniffles? Sniffles, heeheehee, are you in there?"
Fortunately, the anteater answered the door, but Nutty was shocked into silence at his appearance. Sniffles' glasses were askew on his face and his fur was rumpled and discolored in several places. He had large bags under his eyes and, most concerning to Nutty, his usually bright and curious eyes were dull and unfocused. "Nutty?"
"Sniffles? You look tired," the squirrel giggled nervously. The two of them just stood there silently with Nutty chuckling occasionally. "Um, can I, haha, come inside?"
Without a reply, Sniffles turned and went inside, leaving the door open. Nutty assumed that this was a yes and followed inside. Charts and diagrams covered almost every inch of the walls and even parts of the floor. A small statue rested inside of a glass case, giving off a creepy feeling like it was watching the duo. Nutty giggled nervously upon seeing it and quickly turned away to see Sniffles standing before a large monitor.
"Well this is, heheh, interesting…."
Sniffles handed a large lollipop to a very grateful Nutty who immediately began chomping down on it with delight. "So Nutty, what brings you here?" he asked in a distracted voice.
"Well, I was worried about you, and… there's no one else in town who likes me. Cuddles and Toothy are mad at me, all the girls are taking a vacation, Disco Bear is creepy, Flippy scares me, Lumpy and Russell are out fishing, Pop and Cub really don't like me, hahaha…." Nutty trailed off as he noticed Sniffles wasn't really paying attention. "Do you want to play checkers?"
Instead of answering, Sniffles picked up a map off of the floor and began to jot down something.
Nutty peered over his shoulder and tried to make sense of the red scribbles that covered a large portion of the map. "What are you up to?"
At first, Sniffles just stood there silently like he hadn't heard Nutty's question. Then he began to mumble something that Nutty had to strain to hear. "I've been looking for them… everywhere… the mines, the desert, the lake, the cemetery… all I've found is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing!" He emphasized each nothing with a fierce red slash across the map.
Nutty had stopped laughing entirely and was now staring at his friend with concern. "Um, looking for what?"
With unexpected force, the blue anteater grabbed the green squirrel and pulled him so close that their eyeballs were almost touching. His expression was somewhat manic and crazed. "The idols!" he hissed. "They're out there, killing our friends as we speak! We have to destroy them first, before they destroy us! But keep quiet. I think they might be on to us." He glared suspiciously in the direction of the idol sitting in the lab before covering it with a thick black cloth.
"Sniffles-"
"I'm not crazy! There are plenty of other Tree Friends who know how dangerous these things are! They thought they were so smart, but I figured out how to beat them! They're just hiding, afraid of what could happen. Soon, though, death shall stalk us no more!" Sniffles then began laughing so hard, he made Nutty look sane.
"Sniffles!" Nutty grabbed his friend by the shoulders and waited until he calmed down. Then, in the calmest, most serious voice he could manage, he said, "I know you're doing something important. I know that it could possibly change the world. But I also know that you're tired."
"But-"
"No. If you're tired, you could screw up. Don't look at me like that; you know I'm right. I'm supposed the crazy one. Now, I think you need a vacation."
Sniffles stared at his friend. He had never seen him act this serious before about anything besides candy, and even then that was rare. "Okay," he mumbled.
"Good." Nutty patted him on the head and started giggling again. "First though, do you have any more candy?"
The two friends exited the ski lodge, Nutty's arms laden with marshmallows. Sniffles was starting to look somewhat better now that he wasn't completely obsessing over the idols. He even stopped to say hi to Flaky, Petunia, Giggles, and Lammy, who were going up the ski lift. "This is kind of nice," he said to Nutty, who was busy tossing marshmallows into his mouth. "It's really… relaxing."
"Mmmmmm,"the squirrel replied. He closed his eyes, savoring his marshmallows, and bumped into Sniffles, who had stopped walking. "Huh?"
Sniffles stood stiffly, staring off into space. A look of dread crossed his face and he spun around to face Nutty. "Everyone here is in terrible danger! I can feel something here. Something… evil… something like the id-"
Nutty jammed a marshmallow into Sniffles' snout before he could finish his sentence. His cheerful expression had turned stern. "Don't even start, Sniffles. You said that while we were preparing to leave and pretty much every few minutes on the way here. You're becoming even more paranoid than Flaky, no offence to her. I don't want to even hear that word come out of your mouth. This is a vacation. Understood?"
The anteater nodded, the marshmallow stuck in his snout.
"Good!" With that, Nutty changed back to his usual cheerful self, took the marshmallow back from Sniffles, and tossed it into his own mouth.
From her seat on the ski lift, Petunia looked at the land below. She felt slightly nauseated at the sight of Nutty eating the marshmallow from Sniffles' snout and started adjusting the flower in her hair to distract herself. Next to her, Giggles waved to Pop who was pulling Cub along on a sled. Behind them, Flaky closed her eyes and tried to ignore the height, focusing instead on Lammy's humming. "Baa baa, baa baa, baa baabaa baabaa…"
The group arrived and got off near the top of the mountain. Well, most of them did; Flaky stayed behind with her eyes closed, hoping that no one would notice and that she would be able to ride back down to the bottom.
"Flaky? Aren't you going to get off?" Lammy asked.
No such luck. Flaky smiled weakly and jumped down to join them. "Thanks for reminding me, Lammy."
"Don't worry, Flaky. We'll go first and show you just how safe it is. See you at the bottom!" Petunia then pushed off and sped down, leaving a small cloud of snow in her wake. The others watched as she skied along a small snow shelf and launched herself into the air. The others applauded as she slowed to a stop at the bottom, waving back up at them.
"Remember, there's nothing to be afraid of!" Giggles said before snowboarding down herself with Lammy following close behind on skis. The two went along the same snow shelf that Petunia had and as they flew into the air, Giggles threw in some tricks that Cuddles had shown her.
Flaky was applauding at their bravery, but also somewhat nervous about going down herself. She was about to follow them down when she noticed an odd shifting in the snow shelf. "Huh?"
The red porcupine was first confused as she watched small pieces of snow start to break off, then horrified as she realized what was going on. "Giggles! Lammy! Petunia!" She tried calling to them without making too much noise, but soon the whole shelf broke apart and a large mass of snow began to descend down the mountain face. Throwing caution to the wind, she screamed her friends' names.
The duo on the mountainside looked up and screamed as well as they noticed the avalanche heading towards them. They frantically hurried past Pop and Cub who were building a snowman nearby.
Pop heard the girls screaming and felt the ground shaking, and when he saw the wave of snow heading towards him and Cub, he put Cub on the sled and pushed him down the mountainside. "Wheeee!" Cub squealed in delight as he sped down. Pop braced himself for impact, only to have the snow strike a large rock and part around him.
Flaky and Pop could only watch in horror as the avalanche swept over several Tree Friends and covered most of the ground below.
Author's Note: And thus begins the next arc! First, a thanks to all of my readers who have been following the story so far. You all rock!
JaMaL HaDeS: I'm sorry about the confusion. The first time at the restaurant, Splendid heard Giggles' scream of distress and showed up to try and save the day (with his usual disastrous results). The second time on the roof was just him passing through, oblivious of Flippy and Flaky nearby. Hopefully this clears things up.
XFantasy-chanX: Splendid will appear more in this arc. Let's see what happens to him. :3
DarkLura: Glad to hear you're enjoying the story! Thanks for following!
Now, notes on the story. For the record, Nutty and Sniffles are NOT a couple, nor will they be in this fic. They're just good friends, so sorry if anyone is disappointed. Also, I haven't been feeling too well lately, so the next chapter might be delayed somewhat. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can still read and review this chapter though!