Hurrawr

Yay, I finally put up the next chapter… after such a long time. xP;

As a sort of FYI, we're actually redoing the story. I don't know if we'll be putting the new version up here any time soon, but yeah. Personally, I like this new one better, but oh well.

Till then, enjoy this story. :3

--

Once again, Tainn, Aaron, Caren and David were flying across space in the gummi ship. David was trying his best to control his urge to run to the controls and press every button in sight. "I'll just fidget while I hold on," David said sweating and twitching as he dug his hands deep in there pockets. Just then, he felt something in his left pocket. As he pulled out the item he saw that it was something wrapped up along with a piece of paper. He opened the small package and smiled when he saw it was a small vial of rum. David then opened the paper and read it.

Dear David,


On behalf of the code of pirates, I have given you a small amount of the rum we had on the island. Now don't worry I gave Tainn something to. (maybe it'll pacify her into keeping the rum) It's a small keychain I found in the cave that night. I have also snuck into your ship and hid a few items that might come in handy.


Your friend, Captain Jack Sparrow

David smirked, before looking up from the letter and seeing another world. This time, instead of being all blue, it was green. That was all he got a glimpse of, though, as Caren suddenly stood up. A faint smile adorned her face, as she gazed back at her three accomplices.

Finally, her brother shifted in his seat and gave her a flat look. "... What?"

She hummed softly back at him. Then, letting out a yawn, reached over and grabbed onto the closest person's - Tainn's - arm. "I think we've had enough adventure today. Time for some much needed rest!" She promptly yanked the other girl out of her seat, ignoring the yelp she got in return, and headed for one of the bedrooms situated in the back of the ship. "Come on, guys."

She paused when her brother got up from his seat, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Caren... what are up to?"

Giving an almost sickly sweet smile back at him, she briefly pointed in the direction of another room, for the boys. "Nothing. Now, bed!" And with that, she pulled a protesting Tainn into the room and snapped the door closed.

--

Tainn shivered in her sleep, but, other than that, she didn't wake. In fact, it wasn't until Caren started poking her in the side that she woke up at all. Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and gave a long yawn. "What's up...?"

Caren was smiling, albeit the creepy tone from before. "Time to go explore our next world!"

Tainn shook her head awake, and then dragged herself out the door. At first, she was slightly surprised to see a giant forest in front of her. As she walked out, she noticed that everything seemed to be taller. "Wow, I've never seen so many trees in one place..."

Suddenly a small, squeaky voice piped out behind her. "You live here, though. How could you have never seen so many! I mean, there are a lot of trees here." Tainn glanced over towards the voice, but stopped when she realized that no one was there. She blinked, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

"Hey! Down here!"

Finally, her eyes fell down to the ground, only to find herself staring at a small rodent. "Umm..."

The animal cocked its head, "What? Haven't you ever seen a chipmunk before?"

Tainn stared in disbelief, "Well, of course I've seen one before. It's just that..." She left her sentence unfinished.

Just then, David and Aaron walked out of the ship, though Tainn was still staring at the chipmunk in disbelief. Quickly growing annoyed by her silence, it snapped at her. "Just what?!" He puffed out his chest, almost as if he were trying to be bold, and scurried away. "Geez..." Tainn shook her head, and turned back to the ship to see David and Aaron walk off. She almost jumped out of her fur at the sight of them... 'Wait, fur?!'

Letting out a yelp, she stared down at her two white-crested front paws. Swiveling her head around, she saw soft, dark brown fur covering her back. Her back legs and the bushy tail she now had were both maroon in color, her toes bearing the same white color as her front paws. Glancing around, she spotted a small puddle of water nearby. Scrambling towards it quickly, she skidded to a stop and stared at her reflection. Erect, maroon-red, fuzzy ears, and jagged canine teeth within a muzzle that had white flecked upon the bridge of her nose.

The only thing that seemed to resemble her still were her blue eyes. That aside, she appeared to be... a wolf.

"What's with all the ruckus?" David asked, Aaron yawning behind him. The two boys walked down the ship with their four paws padding along and their nails scratching at the metal. David turned his head to Aaron "What do you think we're going to have for... Oh my goodness!" Aaron cocked his head to one side his ears flapped a bit, only sparing a not-so-interested glance in David's direction as he kept walking. A short silence followed after that, before Aaron swerved around to stare at the other teen.

Dogs. They were dogs. Well, to be precise, Aaron was a beagle and David was a golden retriever, but dogs none the less.

David and Aaron blinking away their stupor, turned to see Caren walking happily out of the ship, this time in the form of a red fox. She slowed down as she walked past her brother, turning her head to face the forest. "Lovely weather today, wouldn't you say?"

Aaron's mouth hung open, realization dawning on him. "You used that spell, didn't you!?" He frowned, a low growl coming out of his mouth. "Do you even remember the constant warnings Dad gave you?! If he were alive, what do you think he'd do, huh?" He huffed, not waiting for an answer, "That's right, he'd beat you 'till you were black and purple, that's what!"

Caren rolled her eyes and walked away as Aaron droned on about how stupid she was to even think about using it, until he asked, "Speaking of which, why did you use it?" She was just about to answer when a loud gunshot was heard.

"Woo-Hoo! Copper we'll be eatin' well tonight," an accented voice yelled out.

Tainn looked up from her puddle, noticing that the voice seemed oddly familiar. Then, a thought hit her. "Oh no...Please don't tell me that..." Tainn crouched low, and made her way under a bush. She didn't look back, but she hoped that her friends had enough sense to go hid. She poked her muzzle out of the leaves, and stared at the hunting dog and his owner. Almost immediately, she knew where they were. "It's... it's the Fox and the Hound..."

Caren looked at Tainn, raising what she assumed was an eyebrow. "Obviously," she answered.

David was going to give back a retort when the voice said, "Well look here Copper." There were two high-pitched yips as David and Aaron were grabbed by the scruffs of their necks. "Looks like we have a little more hunting to do, but with new friends." Tainn's heart sunk as she saw him pointing to Caren. Copper cocked his head to one side then leapt at Caren.

Tainn spun her head around towards Caren, just in time to see Copper leap at her. She snarled, though she hadn't really meant to, and then tackled the dog, knocking him over on his side. The wolf stood there, growling at him and the hunter, as she stood between them and Caren. Almost immediately, Copper was back on his feet and charging her at instead. However, Tainn dodged to one side. She snapped at him in return and tackled Copper once more. Reaching around, he bit her in the back, barely missing her neck by an inch. Tainn yelped, threw her body downwards, and rolled across the ground, getting the dog off of her.

She was about to leap at him again, when a bullet landed right next to her paw. Throwing her head up, she glared at the hunter with distaste, before spinning around and grabbing Caren by the scruff of her neck. For a split second, she glanced back at David and Aaron, as if saying 'sorry', and then bolted off into the trees.

The two boys stared after Caren and Tainn, as David growled, "I can't believe they ditched us."

Copper walked over to David and sniffed at his fur. "You don't fool me for one minute," Copper said, pulling away, "You guys aren't from here. So tell me, who are you?"

The two shrugged back at him, both trying and failing to come up with a good answer. However, they were saved from answering back when the hunter called over to them, "C'mon Copper, lets see if we can turn these hungry pups into hunters."

Copper followed, then added, "You two would best come with me." Aaron and David had no other choice, so they trotted right behind Copper.

David and Aaron were only in the forest for a little bit when they saw an old house come up. Aaron caught a glimpse of Copper staring at the house next door with sad eyes. "Do you know anyone over there," he asked.

Copper continued to stare at the house, "Yeah. That's where a friend of mine used to live."

David had already seen fox and the hound a trillion times, so without thinking he just said, "So I guess we came at the time Todd was taken into the forest."

Copper showed a shocked face and nodded, "But how did you know that?"

David was going to say that he had watched it, but Aaron snapped at his heels. If they told Copper, it would be hard to explain that he was a Disney product on their planet. Copper gave them a hard look, but before he could press them for answers, the hunter was opening the door.

"Whelp! We made it! Home sweet home," said the hunter.

--

Tainn, after a couple of minutes of running, finally collapsed to the floor, dropping Caren in front of her. Caren, who had had her complaints ignored, spun around to face Tainn. "What are you doing?! We could have just faced that mutt ourselves!"

Tainn glared back at her, "Caren, that man had a gun. To add to that, I can't use my keyblades when I'm like this!" Caren finally fell silent, but she still had a stubborn look across her face. Tainn, meanwhile, was staring down at the floor throughout the entire silence.

Finally, Caren sighed and looked around. "Well... We might as well go and get David and Aaron before they get into too much trouble."

Tainn smirked, and got up. She slowly muttered to herself, but was loud enough for Caren to hear. "When has 'trouble' ever avoided any of us?"

Suddenly, there was a rustle in a bush near them. Tainn spun around to look at the bush, and then saw two foxes come out. At first, she didn't recognize them. Then, Caren's voice whispered into her ear. "I think it's Todd and Vixen." Tainn glanced over at her, and then back at the foxes. "Umm, hi..."

Todd cocked his head to the side, a bit surprised at the sight of a wolf. "Er...Hi..."

Vixen blinked, and then cocked her head. "Are you two... new to the forest?"

Caren nodded, "Yeah. We are." Tainn nodded slowly beside her, agreeing with Caren.

The two foxes glanced hesitantly at each other, before Vixen smiled. "Hey, it's getting pretty late. Do the two of you need somewhere to stay?"

Caren smiled back at her, nodding once again. "Yes, we do, if you don't mind."

--

Meanwhile, the boys were already settled... to an extent.

Aaron spat back his food and gasped, "Water! Water!" Copper continued eating and watched as Aaron and David chocked on their food. Copper looked at the ceiling for a moment, and then shoved the large water bowl to Aaron and David. At the sight of water they dove into it gulping it down until the bowl was completely empty.

The hunter shook his head, "That was a family recipe. Nobody, man or animal, has ever hated it."

David panted, "There's always a first."

Copper turned away, "You get used to it."

--

Later that night, Aaron and David had snuck out of the house. Neither of them spoke to one another as they walked through the forest.

David sniffed the air, "Hey! I can smell the girls. They smell like ... like... lilacs." The two dogs walked a little while more until they came to the middle of the forest.

Sighing, Aaron shook his head. "Let's spend the night here. We can go on looking for the-" There was a loud crunch, and when David looked behind them, he froze. Stifling a groan, Aaron narrowed his eyes at the other dog. "Dare I ask... what's behind us?"

"Well... it's big and hairy, has really sharp claws and can snap a human's spine like a toothpick," David whispered back.

"... It's a bear isn't it?"

"Yep."

"Great."

--

Tainn and Caren were settled outside of the two foxes' den. Tainn was laying inside of yet another bush, her eyes tightly closed. However, she was far from asleep. Suddenly, she heard yelps from far away, and her head shot up. Beside her, she could see Caren raise her head. Silently, the two got to their paws, and bolted towards it.

--

David smashed against the rocks as the bear swiped at him. Aaron was biting the bear's leg, desperately tried to pull him away from David. Suddenly, the bear turned to Aaron. In an instant Aaron was sprawling on the ground leading the bear far from David. The bear scooped Aaron up into the air then slashed his claws down at him, causing him to crash into the dirt below. The bear was going to deliver the final blow when Copper leapt from the bushes and plunged his paws deep into the bear's eyes. David struggled to sit up, eyeing the bear as it roared back at Copper.

"David!" He paused, tilting his head around just in time to see Tainn and Caren burst through the trees behind him. "You okay?"

David snorted, "Other than the broken leg, I'm fine, but Aaron and Copper aren't doing so hot."

Caren rushed to her brother's side. "Aaron! Oh my gosh! Please don't be hurt to badly," she cried. She wasn't able to check his wounds, though, as her cries had turned the bear's attention to her. The next thing she knew, the bear was swiping at her. Caren fell backwards, landing on her bushy tail. The bear once more tried to attack Caren but she dodged it. She shrieked as she charged at the bear, plunging her left paw into the bear's other eye. The bear howled and swatted her away, before tearing off into the trees. Caren landed hard on her legs but not hard enough to stop her from saying, "Take that as a warning to never touch my big brother!"

"I thought you guys were twins," David said, looking a little confused.

"Well he's about 6 minutes older than me, so that makes him the older one."

"Oh."

Caren ran to Aaron and licked his wounds, letting out a happy cry when she saw his eyelids move a bit and look up at her. Copper weakly got up, shaking his head violently, and then started to head back to the hunter's house, when he heard, "Copper? Is that you?! It's me, Todd!"

Copper looked at Todd, staring at him sadly for a second, and then sighed. "You know you shouldn't be here."

Todd cocked his head, "But, Copper..." He looked down at the floor a moment, "It's been so long..."

Suddenly, a voice and growling could be heard a little ways away. The group snapped their heads over, but Copper was the one that looked the most uneasy. He looked back over quickly, "Go! All of you! It's the hunter and Chief!"

Aaron got up and pushed his sister with his snout. "I won't let that hunter guy get you. So you'd better run away with Tainn," he said.

Caren didn't want to leave her brother but David pushed her as well. "You guys can come back and get us when it's not a bad time," agreed David.

Caren licked Aaron then ran off into the woods. Vixen, almost immediately, turned and ran off after Caren. However, she paused for a moment to look back at Todd. "Todd, come on!" Then, without another bit of hesitation, she turned and ran after Caren.

Tainn was about to leave too, but she stopped when she saw that Todd wasn't moving. It seemed like he was frozen in place, staring at Copper with sadness. Suddenly, there was a gunshot. Luckily, the bullet missed Todd by an inch, but he still hadn't moved. In fact, it wasn't until Chief suddenly burst out of the bushes that he swerved around, only to find himself standing a few feet away from the growling dog.

Tainn jumped into the air, and knocked the hunting dog over. Then, pivoting around quickly, she grabbed Todd and bounded into the trees. She didn't get very far though. She didn't know which way Vixen and Caren went, and by the time she figured it out, it was too late. Chief was already chasing after them. Tainn dropped Todd back to the floor, and just went back to running. Apparently, he had finally realized what was going on and was running next to her. Tainn turned, trying to get into the right direction, but skidded to a stop when she realized that Todd wasn't next to her anymore – he had continued going straight, closely followed by Chief.

"Oh no..." With that, she turned and started after them again. However, she didn't get very far. After pushing through some bushes, she crashed into something. There were a few yelps, and then the two dogs landed on the ground. Tainn shook her head, and looked over to see David. Almost immediately, she got off, and looked behind him to see Aaron and Copper.

"Tainn? Wha-"

Copper interrupted him. "Where's Todd and Chief?"

"I think he's still chasing Todd," she said, shaking her head.

--

Todd bolted past the trees, until he made his way to a long railroad track. He jumped onto it, and, without thinking, started running down it. Chief was hot on his tail, and hadn't noticed Todd suddenly stop in his tracks.

Caren, meanwhile, was leaping and running for her life as she ran through the forest. She didn't pay attention to her surroundings and didn't even notice that Vixen had tripped a few times. She came to a stop, though, when she saw Todd running towards an incoming train, and yelled at him to move. Todd didn't hear her. Instead, he was paying more attention to what was both in front of and behind him. Finally, he looked down, and jumped down into one of the cracks below him. Chief, on the other hand, only had enough time to let out a yelp, before he fell down into the river beneath the tracks.

Aaron, Tainn, David, and Copper burst out of the trees, just in time to witness the accident. Aaron looked down the cliff and saw Caren howling wildly and pawing at the ground. He jumped down to her and landed on his paws real hard. But he didn't care he just ran to comfort his sister and looked down the cliff at Chief.

Once the train had passed, Tainn jumped onto the tracks and ran to get Todd. He was looking over the edge, dumbfounded at what had just happened. Copper bounded towards Chief, and then stopped next to him. "Chief!" The dog simply glanced up at Copper, and then closed his eyes and fell unconscious. Copper began to growl, snapping his head up towards Todd. His loud snarl could be heard by everyone there. "I'll get you Todd! I'll hunt you down, if it's the last thing I do!"

Tainn didn't wait any longer for the scene to go on. Instead, she grabbed Todd by the scruff of his neck, bounded off of the tracks, and disappeared into the trees. David bounded after Tainn, leaving Aaron and Caren behind. Aaron nuzzled his sister as she stared at both Copper and Chief, still in shock over what happened. The hunter appeared soon after, picking up Chief. "C'mon Copper."

Aaron knew about the hunter's need to hunt foxes, so he dragged Caren away and hid in some bushes. The hunter didn't notice and trudged off with Chief on his shoulder, Copper growling bitterly behind him.

--

Rina was frustrated that the unknowns and Diz were so mean, but then, she asked herself, what did you expect from some guys in black and red? Sometimes her dad would say, 'If you keep feeling sorry for yourself, you'll just make your heart weaker, giving the darkness a chance to snatch it'. Rina missed her dad a lot, even though he was only dead for a week. She would have given anything to see him.

As she pondered these thoughts, Koichi was listening. "Misses her dad eh? I think I can bring him back and still weaken her heart," He smiled to himself, "Maybe even a few of his friends."

--End of Chapter 7--