Hey guys, looks like news about the map leading to the gemstones is spreading, and we see what new friends, and enemies, the group will make along the way. I'm really glad that you guys have been reading and reviewing my story, hopefully I'll get more reviews from you guys since I've had a lack of them lately. Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 9
After traveling out in the desert all afternoon, the group decided to settle down and find a camping site as the sun was going down and the night became much cooler than it was in the day. The group chose a spot that was right next to a large rock that overlooked the desert, which was also close to a nearby stream where they could get fresh water for their canteens. As soon as they stopped, they tied and fed the horses to a post so they won't get away (except Toothless, whom Hiccup knew that he would never leave) and they set up a camp fire in the center of their camp. Even though it wasn't completely dark out yet, Django and Merida felt that they should stop and get the site prepared so they could last the night. Merida, Hiccup and the others had packed fruit, bread, and meat and fish to roast over the fire, which was lucky for Django since all he had was some bread and crackers he fed to the horses every now and then.
"Man, what a day" Snotlout said.
"Why are you guys relaxed when we were the ones guarding the wagon all day?" Hiccup asked sarcastically.
"Hey that's not true" Tuffnut said "We were watching the cargo. You know one time I mistaken Ruffnut as a barrel" his sister however, heard this, and punched him in the shoulder, disgusted by the comment. They both turned to each other and snarled like they would sometimes do until Merida intervened by pushing the two away from each other.
"Alright that's enough you two" Merida said trying to calm the twins down "It'll be a while before the sun goes down completely so we should send somebody to keep watch outside of the camp"
"I'll take watch" Django replied.
"No It's fine, you don't have to do that" Merida said to him.
"I insist" Django said to her "We've all had a hard day, so I'm just keeping an eye on all of you"
"Alright fine, it's ok with us" Hiccup said. Django nodded and went near the edge of the campsite that was by the wagon, but not before grabbing his guns that were in his holster and cocking one of them into firing position. After he went over there, the teens looked at each other before Snotlout broke the silence.
"Are you sure we can trust this guy?" Snotlout asked the others "I mean, have you seen the way he looked at us at the bar, and those weapons that he uses"
"Look Snotlout, I don't know much about this guy as much as anybody else does" Hiccup told him "And yes I agree that those weapons that he carries aren't like ones that we have seen before, but he agreed to help us, and since we're going into dangerous territory"
"Fine, whatever you say" Snotlout said in an annoyed manner. The group soon shifted their gaze to the sky to admire the setting sun, as well as a few bright stars that were starting to come out. Unknown to them however, the two cats were watching them from the top of the massive rock, the tuxedo cat nodded to the orange cat, who sneaked down into the area while the tuxedo cat watched. As they were admiring the area, the group suddenly heard a small noise, which sounded like a cat purring.
"Am I the only one who didn't hear that" Astrid asked the group as they looked around the area.
"Yeah we did" Hiccup said "It kind of sounded like, purring"
"Probably Toothless" Snotlout said "I mean who hasn't heard him purr"
"I don't think it was him this time" Hiccup said "He never purrs like what we heard" He turned over to Toothless, who was just feasting on his fish in the corner before looking up to them as if they said something. "I think there is somebody here" just after he said that, a sound of feet moving swiftly was heard, and the group turned and saw nothing but the desert.
"What was that" Fishlegs said nervous as some of the group got up and reached for their weapons, Merida reached for a sword bow while Astrid and Snotlout did the same thing. They all looked around their area to stay alert, suddenly, they heard the sound of three swift movements of a sword coming from behind them, and they turned to see a P scratched on the rock.
"You should not be out here amigos" a deep voice with a Spanish accent called out to them from supposedly nowhere.
"Who said that?" Merida called out into the slight darkness that was around them "Show yourself!" They all circled the area as they tried to find this mysterious figure that was supposedly invisible. Merida heard the footsteps coming from behind her; she turned around and swung her sword, only for the figure to do a summersault in the air, going right above the group until he landed a few feet away from them where he was finally revealed. To the groups surprise however, this attacker is not a man, but an orange tabby cat wearing a cavalier hat, a belt that held a small musketeer sword, and two black leather boots on his hind legs as he stood up like a person. The cat took out its sword and moved it into dueling position.
"Fear me, if you dare" the cat said to the group. The teens were surprised by who their attacker, as they weren't really expecting their attacked to be an anamorphic cat.
"You're… a cat" Hiccup said. The cat let out a sigh and knew that these travelers would say that, since some of them may not have heard of who he is. Snotlout and The Twins however, suddenly started breaking down and laughing, as they felt that this would be worth ridiculing.
"Our enemy is a cat" Ruffnut said while laughing.
"Yeah, what's he gonna do, claw us to death?" Tuffnut asked sarcastically.
"Oh a cute little kitty" Snotlout said mocking the cat, which was clearly making him angry.
"I am sorry to tell you this senior, but you do not want to make this cat angry" The cat said to Snotlout.
"Oh yeah, what are you gonna do pat us with your sword?" Snotlout asked sarcastically before laughing again. Then, Puss held up one of his claws and allowed his claws to come out, which for some reason caused Snotlout's pants to fall right off.
(watch?v=kXYBMRKgHIY&list=PL490961CFF468E40A), 0:50 – 1:36)
"Oh no, no, no, I will do much worse than that" the cat said with a grin. Snotlout looked down at his now fallen pants, surprised and shocked by this and pulled them back up while trying to keep them up there in an embarrassing way. Then, the cat got into a crouched position, aimed his sights on the three Vikings that had mocked him, and when the time was right, he pounced straight at them. First he landed out Snotlout who was struggling to get the cat off of him while Puss was all over him.
"Get him off, get him off!" Snotlout shouted complaining. Tuffnut went over with a staff and tried to smack him off, but the cat was quicker and jumped off of Snotlout causing Tuffnut to hit Snotlout instead. The cat then jumped onto Tuffnut, and started beating and scratching him as well. Ruffnut tried to tackle the cat that was on him but the cat jumped off and Ruffnut ended up tackling her brother instead. Merida, Hiccup, Fishlegs and Astrid saw this and knew that they had to act. Merida took a swing of her sword straight at the cat, but the cat took out his sword and blocked the coming attack. The two of them engaged in a quick sword fight until Puss knocked the sword out of Merida's hands, which caused it to fly and impale itself in the sand. Hiccup whistled for Toothless who turned his attention to the cat.
"Toothless, plasma blast" Hiccup commanded. The dragon replied and shot out a blast of blue fire from his mouth. Before it hit the spot, the cat jumped into the air, doing a summersault in the air and landing where he first revealed himself, lowering his sword.
"Now you shall prey for mercy from Puss in Boots" he said introducing himself while raising his sword again. Before he could make another move however, a shot was heard and Puss's sword was shot right off of his hand, the cat and the group turned to see Django on the hill with his gun in his hand, which was still smoking, standing there watching, he came down while blowing the smoke away from the barrel of the gun before spinning it around in his hand and sliding it back into his holster.
"Well, I knew that you would be helpful" Django said as he came down the hill.
"Yes, just don't ever do that again" Puss said as he went over to pick up his sword.
"Wait a minute, what's going on here anyway?" Fishlegs asked curious and confused at the same time.
"Well, first off. I noticed that Puss here was following us in the first place, in fact, he's been following us ever since we left the town" Django explained to them.
"So is he one of those criminals that you mentioned would be after us?" Snotlout asked him.
"No, he's no criminal" Django replied.
"Well than why did he attack us?" Snotlout asked.
"It was a test senior" Puss answered "I wanted to see how you would do against someone like me"
"Well you would at least tell us that a criminal like him would follow us" Snotlout said.
"I am no hardened criminal senior" Puss said "I fight for justice, I protect the innocent, and if someone is to insult me let it be clear that..."
"Puss" a female voice with a Spanish accent called out interrupting him. The group turned to see a female tuxedo cat with a belt that had a cat eye shaped decoration on the front, a dagger sheathed in the side and brown high heeled boots came in and put a shoulder around Puss to calm him down "Remember why we're here" The group looked at this female cat with interest.
"Another one" Merida said "So who exactly are you then" the female cat looked over to them, put her hand off of Puss's shoulder, and crossed her arms.
"Kitty Softpaws" The cat replied "I'm his… Companion"
"Softpaws? Why do they call you that" Astrid asked the tuxedo cat. In reply, she held out one of her paws for them to see, and then it fluffed up appearing softer "I see what you mean, they seem pretty soft"
"They're a lot handier than you think" Kitty said to them. Merida and Hiccup decided to cut to the chase.
"So, why are you guys following us?" Hiccup asked Puss and Kitty.
"Django had sent us a message about where you are going" Puss said "You will need a lot more protection senior if you expect to get through this journey. Besides, it would be an honor for me and Kitty to do a helpful act for a family of royalty"
"Well, if you insist on helping us, I believe we could have some more company" Merida said, accepting Puss's offer to help. Snotlout and the twins however, didn't seem to agree to have somebody that attacked them helping them on the journey, and proceeded to start their complaints.
"What! We're bringing him along?" Snotlout started "He attacked me, and I'm not sure if I even trust this guy, or cat, or whatever"
"Yeah, we're with you Snotlout" Tuffnut said "I hate cats" As they continued to launch their complaints, Hiccup and Merida looked at Django and then at Puss worried, but Django just nodded to Puss and Puss nodded back. The orange cat then faced the three Vikings, who were looking at him while complaining, then, he took off his hat and was holding one of the edges with his two hands close together near his chin like a child. Puss's eyes soon grew bigger, and he soon formed an innocent wide eyed expression. Snotlout and the twins complaining slowly died down as they were looking into this cute face, which looked very hypnotizing in some way and softened their hearts. Soon they let out a faint "Awww" which left Merida and the other teens amused by this and at the same time, impressed by the face that Puss could do.
"Does he always do that?" Hiccup asked.
"Sometimes" Kitty replied.
"It's usually one of his defenses" Django said "It can soften his foes hearts, which can be helpful in some cases"
"So I guess that you two are with us now" Astrid said to the cats before turning to the three Vikings "Isn't that right guys?" the three Vikings soon snapped out of their trance and soon stuttered, saying that they agree with the suggestion.
"Alright, it's settled then" Hiccup said. They saw that the sun was starting to go down, and they heard some stomach rumbling.
"I'm starving" Merida said as she felt her stomach.
"Me too" Hiccup said agreeing with her "Alright, let's get some food over the fire" The rest of the teens agreed and started to walk back to the center of the campsite.
"We have fish if you guys want any" Astrid offered to Kitty and Puss.
"Ugh, after being in the hot sun all day, I could use something to eat" Kitty said exhausted.
"Si, I agree as well" Puss added. So, the two cats followed the group to their campfire as the night continued, with the group preparing for the next day, with two new members joining them.
So that's it for now. I hope you guys liked the scene with Puss in Boots, although I have tried to keep it different from the scene from Shrek 2 as much as possible. I also included the character of Kitty Softpaws from "Puss in Boots" since I like the character and I think that she and Puss make good partners. Please review, I will update soon, so until next time.