...
"Wh-where are we?" asked Sunset. Butch grinned and pointed to outside of the wagon. A wooden sign was seen near an entrance of a huge cave in the canyon: Perro Diablo Canyon. Near the sign, above it, was a banner reading: El Mercado de Esclavos.
Chorizo gasped when he read the banner and turned to his new friends. Sunset and Little Storm turned to him nervously. "Wh-what? What does the b-banner say?" asked Sunset in a shaky voice.
Butch didnt let Chorizo answer as he unlocked the shackles from the boys' wrists. "We don't have time for translations, we need to go!" Butch snarled as he pulled the boys roughly by the collars. Little Storm turned to Chorizo as he was being pulled out. In quick movements, he ripped off a necklace with a long arrowhead on it, and tossed it to Chorizo.
Chorizo watched the necklace clatter toward him before looking back up to his friends. "No!" Chorizo yelled as he approached Butch and the indian boys. Butch smacked Chorizo in the face with his gun. Chorizo screamed in pain and fell backwards in the wagon.
"You stay put! I'll be back after I sell these boys off!" Butch shouted. With that, He slammed the back of the wagon door and locked it. Chorizo's arms shook as he tried lifting his upper body up. His left eye was twitching and blood was dribbling out of the corners of his mouth.
He wiped the blood away with the back of his hand before getting up and slowly walking up to the door. He went up on his tiptoes as he peered out of the iron bars on the window and watched as Butch pulled the two boys into the huge cave where other creatures in nice, clean clothes were walking in as well.
Chorizo gripped the bars and tried breaking them. They wouldnt budge. He needed to help his friends, but how? Chorizo kicked the door in frustration and tried slamming his shoulder a couple times, but it didnt help either. Chorizo felt his throat starting to tighten and tears form in his eyes as he desperately tried everything. He went back to his satchel and rummaged through it to find anything that could help him get out.
Nothing.
He sighed loudly in frustration and stomped his foot down. Suddenly, he realized that the boards sounded loose. He looked down at the boards and realized that they were poorly nailed down. Chorizo remembered how Sunset and Little Storm told him how they constantly tried escaping Butch's wagon, but always got caught and were eventaully chained down. They must have figured out a way to pry the boards up and to escape that way.
Chorizo used his nails to pry one of the boards up. The board wouldnt give up to him that easily. Chorizo growled angrily and tried another. The other one wouldnt let up either. Chorizo sat down and glared at the boards. How did Painted Sunset and Little Storm pry the boards up?! Chorizo asked himself.
Suddenly, his eyes flickered to the necklace Little Storm tossed him. He almost forgot all about it. He had no idea why the boy tossed him his necklace in the first place. Possibly to hold onto it for him. Chorizo picked it up and examined it closely. The arrowhead was made of a strange black stone, and glinted in the striped sunlight coming through the bars.
He ran his thumb over the surface, and downward to the sharp tip. The tip had strange grooves at the edges. Chorizo blinked when he noticed something and looked closer. The tip looked like it had been used, because of the grooves. Chorizo turned his head to the boards.
Was that how they got out? Using an arrowhead as their lever? Chorizo thought. He went over to the boards and tried again. This time, he wedged the arrowhead into the bottom of the board, and pushed down on the other end of the long arrowhead. The board came up. The nails groaned as they were ripped out from their places, loosening it.
Chorizo placed his fingers underneath the gap, and pried up the rest of the board himself. The board gave in and left a small gap. Chorizo grinned. Then he continued the process till he was able to make the gap big enough for him to fit through. When he was done, he grabbed his slingshot, and placed the necklace over his neck before jumping through the gap and going off through the canyon to where his friends were taken.
...
Chorizo made his way through the entrance and walked along the walls of the tunnel. The tunnel opened up into a huge room with crowds of people. There were a bunch of raised rocks where a lot of traders in long, tattered trenchcoats were standing on and talking above the crowds.
Behind them were sad creatures, lined up, facing the crowd with ropes binding their wrists together. Chorizo's eyes widened at the sight. It was an illegal slave market! This was where all the traders around the area come and sell off people!
Chorizo's eyes flickered around the huge place. It almost looked like an individual market, where the traders tried to persuae the crowds to come to where they were and sell them their captured slaves.
Suddenly, Chorizo felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself face to face with a huge, burly wolf like creature in a dirty white shirt and black jeans. His hair was dark brown with hints of grey and was tangled and wirey.
"Where the hell did you come from? You belong to anyone?" He asked in a gruff voice. Chorizo didnt answer as he moved out of the man's grasp and bolted through the crowds. "Hey!" yelled the dark brown wolf as he chased after the boy, but the bustling, tight crowds slowed him down. Chorizo weaved through the legs of every buyer in the place and made his way to where he saw Butch with his friends.
...
Butch made it to his already prepared stand with a sign saying: Butch's rare slaves, and placed the boys in front of it so he could get ready to sell them. As Butch was getting ready, two slave traders came by to his stand and leaned against the supports holding up the awning.
"Hey there, Butch. Find any good ones?" one of them asked. Butch glared at them and continued working. The two slave traders came around and looked at the two indian boys. "More kids? Come on Butch. What is up with you trying to sell kids? they are small and scrawy," said the other as he touched Sunset's ear. Butch slapped the slave trader's hand away and tied the rope down for the awning and went over to check inside his boxes.
The first one continued. "You need to come with us overseas and go get those adults who live in those other continents. Those alone could make you afford a feast! and you could stop trying to survive off of selling children-" Butch whipped around and threw two knives at the slave traders. The first one yelped as the knive whizzed past his ears. The next knife nearly grazed the hair on the other one's head. The two stumbled away from the enraged black cat.
"I sell kids. That's what I do. If you guys have a problem, then go shove a pole up yer asses!" snarled Butch. "And next time, I wont miss your faces," he threatened. The two looked over at the knives that Butch threw at them. They were stuck right in the wooden support holding up the awning, more then halfway through.
The two took a couple steps away from Butch before disappearing through the crowd. Butch sighed angrily and turned his head to Sunset and Little Storm. "What are you two looking at?!" he shouted. The two quickly looked away and stood next to eachother as people began to come over to where Butch's stand was and examine the two indian boys.
...
Chorizo lost the wolf and began to slow down through the people. Each way he looked, was a place of a slave trader, trying to sell adults from different places. Most of them looked very strange and bizarre that Chorizo had never seen anything like them before. Most of them were hyenas, and others were colorful birds, and they all wore tattered shawls or strange pieces of jewelery like what Little Storm wore.
Finally, Chorizo found the stand he was looking for. Standing up on a wooden platform, was Butch, and on a shorter platform, were Sunset and Little Storm. Butch gathered a crowd as he yelled about his rare findings of indian boys from the mountains and how well they were of use. "They are great for scouting ahead for anything! And they can track down any outlaw in the land!" Butch shouted to his small crowd of people.
"Beg your pardon, son, me and my friend would like to get through," said a man in a strange language Chorizo didnt understand. Chorizo turned and watched as a dark colored wolf in a black coat and black top hat pass by him and was accompanied by a cougar. Chorizo blinked at the strange pair of people as they went through the crowd to the front and stared up at his friends.
Chorizo narrowed his eyes at the strange wolf and the crowd. He didnt want anyone to buy his friends. He wanted them to be free, as well as everyone else, but first, he had to figure out how to save Sunset and Little Storm.
Chorizo turned around and noticed above in the wall was a hole. He stared up at it. It was a perfect place to go up and to look down upon the market, but how was he to get up there? His eyes trailed down and he noticed a tunnel. Chorizo smiled a small smile and ran into the tunnel and found that it twisted up to the top where the small opening was.
Chorizo laid down on his belly as he crawled through and looked out over the slave market. Across from him, was Butch's stand. Perfet. Chorizo pulled out his slingshot and collected a couple small rocks around him. He grinned as he placed a rock into the leather pocket, stretched it back, and aimed it at Butch...
...
"Hugo, what is the gentleman saying?" asked the wolf in the black top hat. The cougar, named Hugo, turned to the wolf and translated for him. "The cat says that these boys are good use for scouting, hunting, and sniffing out outlaws around the area," said Hugo in a gruff voice. The wolf grinned. "Brilliant! They sound like very interesting lads. How much is he asking for them?" asked the wolf. The cougar gave the wolf a look.
"Barnum. We dont have any money to buy any more entertainers; and besides, we need to figure out how to fix our ship," pointed out Hugo. The wolf, named Barnum, sighed in disappointment. "You take the fun out of everything...Why cant we just go around and enjoy ourselves? We lost everything in that storm...except for our hunchback boy...Let me forget that our beautiful princess of the sea is gone, and let me enjoy my time here," said Barnum angrily and began to leave. Hugo sighed and followed after him.
After the two left, the others murmured amongst themselves as they decided on whether taking Butch's word and possibly trying to bargain with him. Butch stared down at the crowd, getting impatient. "Come on! Deal of a life time! They are good, strong boys! Unlike those old, bacteria infested slaves over there with the equally disgusting bastards selling them," growled Butch as he glared at the two he talked to earlier.
Suddenly, Butch's thoughts were interrupted when he felt something smack him in the face. He screamed and fell backwards, but regained his balance. His hands went up to his face was blood poured out of where he was hit. The crowd gasped and began to move away.
Butch stared down at his hands as they cupped a small amount of blood. It seeped through his fingers as he stared down in shock. Then he noticed an object form in the blood. He felt it through the red thickness. It was a rock. He got hit by a rock. Butch narrowed his eyes and looked around. "Who threw this?!" he shouted as he raised the rock high over his head. No one answered as they began to leave the bleeding cat's stand.
"Who-?!" suddenly, another rock smacked Butch in the face. The crowd jumped from Butch's screams and scattered. Everyone became concern with what was happening and began to leave. "Wait! Wait! Where are you going? Come b-" screamed Butch as two more rocks were smacked right into his arm and face.
Butch screamed and ran for cover. Sunset and Little Storm watched as Butch hid, while they stood, unsure what to do. The crowds began to leave out of the slave market and back to their wagons and carriges and leaving. The traders began to get nervous, but a couple realized what was going on and noticed Chorizo above the market and was slingshooting at Butch.
...
Chorizo watched as the place began to empty and waved his hand to Sunset and Little Storm. They noticed Chorizo and gasped in shock. "Chorizo!" said Sunset. "Go! Run! get away from here!" Chorizo said to them. They hesitated. Chorizo moved his hands. "Go! Run back home!" he said.
"Wh-what about you?" Sunset asked. Chorizo continued to move his hands. "I'll meet up with you guys, just go!" he said in a firm voice. The boys finally snapped out of their state and ran through a tunnel in the canyon's twisted caves and tunnels. Chorizo lowered his hands and sighed as he crawled back the way he came and stood up.
Suddenly, he felt rough hands grab him and ropes wrap around his body and bind his wrists. Chorizo fought against them, but they were too strong. "Stupid brat. What the hell you think you were doing?!" asked the huge wolf that chased him earlier. Chorizo didnt answer as he looked away.
The slave traders glared down at the trouble maker. "Where did he come from? Is he any of yours?" asked one of them. The others shook their heads. "Has to be one of Butch's. Butch is the only one here who sells kids," said another. With that, they began to push him out of the sloping tunnel.
Chorizo kicked and screamed, but the slave traders wouldnt let him win as they roughly pulled him out of the tunnel and back to the market. Butch came out with his hand covering his bloody face as he glared at Chorizo.
"You bastard!" he shouted as he took his hand back and smacked Chorizo. Chorizo fell backwards and to the ground. Blood was seen on his head, and oozing out of his nose. Butch roughly picked him up and was about to hit him again when a voice was heard.
"Hold on Butch! Dont start beating that boy," said a loud voice. The slave traders moved out of the way as a huge light brown mexican squirrel came through and stopped in front of Butch and Chorizo. The squirrel was very big, and wore a white suit and had a cigar in his mouth.
Butch's eyes widened as he let go of Chorizo and removed his hand from his bleeding face. "S-senor Elfonzo..." Butch breathed in shock. Mr. Elfonzo nodded his head, "Butch," he answered back. Butch stared at the big squirrel as if he grew three heads. "I...I never thought I would see you h-here...senor..." Butch admitted. Mr. Elfonzo snorted.
"You've known me for a while, Butch...why wouldnt I be here?" He asked as he turned his eyes to Chorizo. "Now, who is this young nino?" He asked. Chorizo could feel Butch glaring down at him from behind his head as he stared up at the rich squirrel in white. "M-my n-name is Ch-Chorizo...s-senor...Ch-Chorizo...C-Carnicero," Chorizo said. Mr. Elfonzo jerked his head back in shock to the words Chorizo just said.
"Carnicero? Like Edwardo Carnicero?" Mr. Elfonzo asked. Chorizo's eyes widened. "S-si! Th-thats my brother," he said. Butch was about to say something, but Mr. Elfonzo yelled for him to shut up and to fix up his face. Butch closed his mouth and covered it up with his sleeve to stop the blood.
After that, Mr. Elfonzo stared down at Chorizo. "You say that you are Edwardo's younger brother?" he asked him. Chorizo slowly nodded his head. "S-si, senor," he stuttered. Mr. Elfonzo grunted. He placed the cigar in his mouth and continued to stare at the boy.
Then he grabbed Chorizo and began inspecting him. He looked in his ears, opened his mouth to see his teeth, and ruffled his hair a bit. After the little inspection, Mr. Elfonzo took out the cigar from his mouth and turned to Butch.
"How much you askin' for him, Butch?" he asked. Butch's eyes flickered down to Chorizo. He narrowed them, but Chorizo could see mischief behind them. A creepy smile appear behind his bleeding sleeve. "Oh...I dunno...he's in pretty good shape...and is pretty young...but for you...let's say...nine hundred?" he asked. Mr. Elfonzo gapped at the black mangy cat. "What?!" he screamed. Butch held his hands up.
"I gave Edwardo to ya who was more then that! Speakin' of which, how is the nino?" he asked. Chorizo's ears perked up to the mention of his older brother's name again. Elfonzo sighed and rubbed the side of his face. "Edwardo is being...difficult at the moment...he's been difficult to me ever since I bought him from you..." Mr. Elfonzo said and narrowed his eyes at Butch. Butch quickly looked away. Mr. Elfonzo continued. "Hopefully this little runt isn't the same," he said, narrowing his eyes. Butch shook his head and looked back up.
"No, he actually did very well when we were coming here. Made friends with the indian boys I found up in the mountains," said Butch truthfully, though completely pretending what Chorizo did to him never happened. Mr. Elfonzo's eyes trailed up and down Chorizo; Inspecting him one last time before finally making up his descision. "Allrigh' you convinced me. I'll take him," he declared. Butch grinned with blood dribbling from his mouth.
Chorizo watched as Mr. Elfonzo pulled out a leather wallet and began to flick out green bills. He handed nine of them to Butch. Butch tipped his hat to Mr. Elfonzo after snatching the money.
"Pleasure doin' business with you senor," he said grinning wickedly at the money. With that, Mr. Elonzo snapped his ringed fingers and two burly cougars in black suits came up from behind Chorizo and grabbed his arms. Chorizo struggled with the men, but they were too strong as they carried him away. Butch waved goodbye to Chorizo before heading back into his wagon and taking off. Mr. Elfonzo followed after his men and Chorizo out of the canyon and to outside where a carriage waited.
The carriage was black, but was drawn by pure white roadrunners with new, leather harnesses. The men tossed Chorizo in the back, and closed the door behind him. Chorizo groaned softly as he struggled in the ropes to lift his upper body up. His head was throbbing in pain.
His poncho was wrapped around him as well in the ropes and didnt really feel comfortable against him. Chorizo felt the carriage go down as Mr. Elfonzo got in. A small criss crossed metal window was seen in front of Chorizo and Mr. Elfonzo's face appeared.
"Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, Senor Carnicero. We will be arriving my home shortly," he said as he turned back and the carriage jolted forward. Chorizo balanced himself and looked out the barred windows as the carriage moved away from the slave canyon.