Book 1: Breaking the Ice Chapter 7
As they were walking through the canyon, Roxanne saw a silhouette of their step-father and her sister, he was hitting, kicking, and punching her to death and her sister's silhouette was screaming stop and please stop. Then, the silhouettes disappeared. Roxanne screamed, "Rosalina!"
Rosalina turned around and yelled, "Are you okay?" Her sister ran to her and started crying on her shoulder, "I saw a silhouette of our step-father and you, a-a-a-and he was b-b-beating you, a-and you were d-d-dead." Rosalina was shocked by her nightmare. "This canyon really does bring up your worst nightmares." Rosalina thought. Roxanne finally stopped crying and gripped on her sister's arm protectively.
Rosalina was next. She saw a silhouette of her mother and her step-father arguing and fighting physically, and the male silhouette started beating her to death; her silhouette trying to fight back. Then, she saw two younger silhouettes watching them fight. The one next to her holding the other silhouette close in fear. Finally, the silhouettes disappeared. Rosalina screamed, "Mom!" She fell to the ground sobbing; she never forgot the day that her mother was beaten to death right in front of her.
Buck turned around and helped her up , held her, and comforted her , "It's alright. We're almost out. It's alright." She nodded and huddled closer to her sister in fear.
Buck saw a silhouette of two weasels and a saber-tooth tiger. The weasels were telling a younger to run. He noted that it must've been him. Then, the tiger clobbered the weasels while the young silhouette was running towards thin ice and him falling through. Finally, the silhouettes disappeared. A couple of tears escaped Buck's blue eye.
Rosalina ran next to Buck, frightened. She looked at his face and saw that he was crying. Her ears drooped and she wrapped her arms around his sides; giving him a comforting hug. Buck was startled by her sudden action, but he relaxed and retuned the hug and kept on walking.
"I wonder if the gals would like to stay down here." Buck thought. He realized that the girls were glaring at something as he turned his head around. The she-weasels yelled in unison, "Buck! We're nearly at the end of the canyon!" Rosalina and Roxanne realized they said the sentence at the same time and started doing a jinx challenge, "Jinx!", "Double Jinx!", "Triple Jinx!", "Quadruple Jinx!", "Infinity Jinx!"
Buck chuckled and said, "Alright, I get it." Rosalina giggled and Roxanne smiled. As soon as they reached the end of the canyon, the girls did a knuckle touch and embraced each other. Rosalina hugged Buck again, but pulled away quickly and gave him an apologetic smile.
They continued walking to their next location, and the girls were getting tired of walking and the drama inside the canyon earlier. Rosalina fell on her rump. Roxanne and Buck turned at the sound of the thud Rosalina made when she fell.
Buck looked up at the sky and saw it was getting late. He started looking for some dinosaur skulls to interact with. Once he found some, he started playing with them. "They'll neva' survive it's dangerous by day." He made the fist skull say. Rosalina giggled at him, Roxanne rolled her eyes but smiled. "But it's even worse at night." Buck made the second skull say. Rosalina started chuckling, Roxanne started chuckling with her. "Plus their guide is a lunatic!" the skull on Buck's left hand said. "Wot'!" Buck exclaimed. Rosalina and Roxanne started chuckling louder.
Buck realized this , he smirked, and kept on entertaining them, "You mean Buck. Oh he's whacko ." the skull on the right said. "I am no'!" Buck argued. "Totally bonkers!" the left skull agreed. "And his feet smell!" exclaimed the skull on Buck's foot. The she-weasels started laughing. "Shut up!" Buck yelled at the skull. "You shut up!" he snapped back. The girls started laughing harder. "Why you little!" Buck yelled and started smacking the skull around; strangling his own foot.
Rosalina and Roxanne were on the ground now, laughing their tails off. Buck grunted and exclaimed with a smirk, "There! Now you're dead, how 'bout that!" He started to chuckle at the twins as they were on the ground laughing. Once they caught their breath, Rosalina said, "You're so funny." "Not to mention insane." Roxanne added.
Buck smiled at them and finally said, "We'll camp here fo' the night. Now, who's hungry?" Then, before they could say they were, the skull on Buck's foot said, "I am!" "You don't need the calories!" Buck yelled. Rosalina giggled, but Roxanne rolled her eyes but smiled.
The girls were wondering what was taking him so long. Suddenly, Buck grunted as he rolled a big peach in front of them and panted, "Alright. Dig in, lassies." Rosalina was shocked at the size of it, she snapped out of her trance and tore a piece off the peach and ate it. She never tasted anything this good she exclaimed, "Oh, man. This tastes amazing!" Buck looked at her confused and asked her, "You mean, you never tried a peach before?" She gulped another piece of it and answered, "No, not really. You see, our step-father never feeds us."
Buck's eye widened at this. "No wonder the gals look extremely skinny." he thought. He felt so sorry for the girls. As soon as they got done eating, it was getting dark. Buck searched for some wood to use for their campfire. Once he found some, he ran back to their camping place and was about to start the fire until Rosalina asked him if she could do it.
Buck smiled and watched her try to make fire with some stones. She growled a little and tried again, still no spark. She felt like she was going to give up, until Buck came beside her and helped her, making a big spark come off of the stone. Rosalina smiled and blew on the small flame gently. The flame rose up quickly, nearly burning Rosalina's fur. She jumped back, fell, and moved some of her hair out of her face while she got up. She looked at Buck and said, "Thanks." "No problem." He replied.
Roxanne was relaxing near the fire, enjoying the warmth. Rosalina smiled at her sister's relaxed position, and walked over to Buck, who was sharpening his knife. The teenager sat next to him and plainly said, "Hello." Buck turned his head and smiled, "Hey, lass."
She asked him, "Buck, do you have parents? I mean, if it's too personal, I understand." He looked at her and sighed, "No, I'll tell ya'." As he told her the story about his parents' death, Rosalina was tearing up, feeling sorry for him. Finally, he finished, his ears drooped and said sadly, "That's how they died and how I ended up down here." She could tell he was trying to hold back tears, but he cleared his throat to make her look at him and asked her, "Wot' about you and your sister, how did your parents die?"
Rosalina knew she was in deep. She cleared her throat and told her story, "My mom, Clarissa, my step-father was beating her to death, trying to protect us, and w-w-we never knew our father." She had tears in her eyes, and she started to whimper sadly.
Buck put a reassuring paw on her shoulder and said, "You've been through a lot, lass." She nodded in agreement and yawned, "Well, I better go and hit the sack. See you in the morning. Goodnight." "Goodnight, lass."
Before Rosalina fell asleep on a large rock, she looked up at the sky and said, "Goodnight, mom."
