Omg, this one is sooo late o_o... I'm really sorry, but I just never got the time or the mood to finish this ;_;...
...
Anyway, here's a really loooong one ;)! And it might be a bit sad (Sad chapter?! In THIS story?! Bullcrap!)...
*** Chapter Twenty-One : Rosie And Roscoe ***
A year later...
Bentley had no idea how long he had been traveling. Possibly a year or so. It had taken a lot longer to reach Fort Sanchez with Felix and Ida than what he first thought: almost seven months to be exact! But then again, they had been traveling slowly from Mississippi to Arizona, and met countless of obstacles on the way. They had also lost two of their three roadrunners; one got stolen and the other one they had to kill when their food supply was running low, and only had the tall, dark brown bird left by the end of their journey. Because of the roadrunners bitter and grouchy nature, the kids had named him Grumpy. Bentley had to agree: it was a fitting name!
When they finally reached Fort Sanchez and found their aunt Fran, it was in the middle of the night. The short and chubby beaver lady lived with her husband and their son right outside the fort which slowly was being rebuilt into a town, and was shocked to say the least to suddenly see her niece and nephew standing outside her door. The instant she opened the door, Ida lunged and threw herself in her aunts arms, weeping loudly. Fran was at first stunned in confusion, but then she noticed that Felix was there too, along with a tall, shaggy looking hyena. She was slightly wary of the hyena at first, but after hearing from Felix what had happened, she felt obligated to invite the man who just traveled hundreds of miles to bring her orphaned niece and nephew to someone who could take care of them.
While she gave the three starved out travelers a late night supper, Bentley and Felix both told her the whole story. Ida had only managed to take a bite out of her sandwich before falling asleep with her head on the table. It was hard for Fran to accept that her sister was gone, but she managed to stay neutral and nodded silently while listening. Her husband, a very tall and burly beaver, had woken up as well, and he wasn't too happy to find a stranger in his home. But Bentley ensured him that he was only going to stay for the night and leave early in the morning.
And that he did, he only stayed long enough for Ida and Felix to wake up so he could properly say goodbye to the two children. Needless to say, the farewells were long and painful for both sides; the Baxter kids didn't want their only friend, who looked after them for so long and helped them when he could have just left them, to leave, but Bentley didn't dare to stay in case there were more men coming after him. So he saddled Grumpy and left them with their aunt and her family, and gave them the promise that they would meet again someday.
And so he continued to travel north without a plan, he was just randomly roaming around and hoped to find something, or perhaps someone, that could help him get home again. A couple of months later he found himself in the Rocky Mountains. He hadn't really paid much attention to the landscape he was traveling through, so the tall mountains suddenly appearing in the distance came as quite a surprise for him. And just for the heck of it, he decided to travel through them. Hell who knew, he just might find an undiscovered goldmine and get rich enough to travel back home fifteen times over?
But during the month he trekked the mountains, he didn't find anything even remotely similar to a goldmine. Instead, Grumpy injured his leg when he tripped along a very rocky mountain trail leading down to a valley, forcing Bentley and him to retreat to a cavern located by the edge of the thick woods on the bottom of the valley. The bird wasn't too keen on letting the hyena inspect the injury, but from what Bentley could tell the leg wasn't broken, luckily. He would hate to have to get rid of the big bird, which he actually had grown quite attached to. Too bad the feelings weren't mutual though.
The cave made a pretty good home, Bentley noticed; it was both large and protected from wind and rain by the outside woods. He also found a little underground creek that passed through a crack in the wall, and made notes to himself to build a wall around it, in case there would be much rain and the cave would get flooded. He wasn't planning to stay for long, just until Grumpys leg was better, but he might as well make himself as comfortable as possible.
That night he was setting camp for the first time in the cave. His food supply was running dangerously low, but he had seen wild deer tracks all around the forest, so he made plans to go out the next day and see if he still knew how to set traps.
As he rummaged through the last of his supplies, he managed to find two very old and dear objects; Cornys notebook, and Granny Amas little doll. The pages in the notebook were starting to fall off, and the doll has lost one of its button eyes, but Bentley didn't care. These were things given to him by people who meant a lot to him, they were all he had left of those people. With a sigh, he gently put them back in the saddlebag and stuffed the bag away before sitting down in front of a small fire he made by the exit. He was chewing on a piece of bread and some jerky as he watched the flames dance across the dry firewood. This was a pretty cozy place. Maybe he could stay for a bit longer, even after Grumpy healed up?
…
Bentley had always presumed that he had found an unpopulated spot in the mountains, seeing how tranquil and quiet everything was. But he soon found out that there was a town nearby, as one day when he was preparing a fire, he heard two voices approaching. He stopped and listened as the voices came closer and closer. They sounded very young, a girl and a boy, hardly more than mere children.
"Ya sure it's 'round 'ere, Ross?" The girl said. "Ah can't see nuthin'!"
"Don't worry, Rose! It's here, Ah swear!"The boy said, and a few second after, someone peeked their head inside the cavern. It was a young, black and yellow rattlesnake boy. "Hah! Ah told'cha so, Rose! I found-...!" The boy said to the other child, but discontinued when he saw that the cave wasn't empty. The little snake blinked in confusion at the hyena, before jolting backwards and screamed: "AAAH! CAVEBEAR!"
Bentley flinched. "W-what?!"
Suddenly, another rattlesnakes head curiously peeked inside; a girl, a couple of years older than the boy, with a big, red bow around her neck. "Where?!" She said in curiosity and looked around until she spotted Bentley. "Ya fool!" She said and shook her head at the little boy. "That ain't no cavebear; it's just a dog! Y'know, like Mortimer in tha saloon!?"
The boy didn't seem convinced as he hid behind the girl and suspiciously narrowed his eyes at the stranger. "Ya sure? He real' looks like a cavebear to me!"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Ya think ev'rythin' looks like a cavebear! Even yer breakfast!"
"No Ah don't!"
"Umm, hello?" The two kids snapped their heads to Bentley as he talked to them for the first time. "Wh-what are you kids doin' here?" He asked with a hint of concern in his voice. As far as he knew, the two kids were all alone in no-mans-land.
"We were gonna ask ya tha same question, mistah!" The girl said and cocked her head upwards. "This is mah brothers cave! He found it!"
"Really? That's funny..." Bentley said and started looking around for something. "I can't see his name on it!" He turned his head back to the kids and smiled. "But what 'bout this; y'all let me borrow this cave 'til my roadrunner's good to go again, then ya can have it back. Okay?"
The two kids exchanged glances before the girl nodded. "Fine! Ya can have it!"
Bentley smirked and nodded at them. "That's might' generous of you, thanks!"
"Soo, who're ya?" In the blink of an eye, the girl had slithered into the cave and looked up at Bentley with large, curious, brown eyes. The boy hesitated before slithering in after her.
He chuckled and turned his attention back to the fireplace, where the little fire he had managed to make had died out. "The name's Bentley" He answered the kids question and began tinkering with the fireplace again. "It ain't my real name though-..."
"What's yer real name, then?" The boy asked, still slightly suspicious to the stranger.
Bentley shrugged. "I can't remember actually..." He glanced down at the kids, who had curled up into little buns and watched him intently. "But enough 'bout me, who are you two? An' does yer parents know you're here?!"
"Awright; Ah'm Rosie!" The little girl said and pointed at herself with her little rattle, and then pointed at the boy. "An' this is mah lil' brother Roscoe!"
"An' our ma an' pa always knows where we are!" Roscoe said with a serious nod.
"Yeah!" Rosie continued in agreement. "They're in heaven, y'see, an' they can always see us from up there!"
Bentley stopped trying to light the fire again and just turned his head to the two kids and silently gawked at them. "Y-yer parents are...?"
Rosie nodded while Roscoe slowly bent down his head. "Yah, they died in tha war!"
He was speechless. These two kids had lost both their parents in the war that freed the slaves. That made him wonder how many more of these orphaned kids there were? "I-I'm... I'm really sorry..." He said lowly after a moment of silence and turned back to the fire.
"Don't be!" Rosie replied with a shake of her little head, and Bentley stared at her in surprise again. "It's okay, ya shouldn't take life so serious; ev'ryone dies sooner or later anyway!"
Roscoe nodded and looked up. "B'sides, ma an' pa are in a bettah place now! Ah'm happy for 'em!"
Bentley didn't know what to respond. Who were these two kids?! The few times he had actually talked about his parents, he had always gotten quiet and sullen, but not these two; they were talking about their dead parents like it was something they'd normally talk about! Hell, they couldn't be older than seven and ten years old, yet here they were telling him not to take life and death seriously! And he had always thought that Lottie was a strange one!
"B-but, don'tcha miss yer parents?" Was all he could ask, and in return the two kids nodded slowly.
"Yeah... Sometimes..." Roscoe said lowly and looked down at the ground.
"But we're bein' taken care of bah Muriel, mas best friend, an' she's kinda like a ma to us!" Rosie added and tilted her head slightly. "We real' miss our real ma, but we got Muriel instead now! An' she's real' nice!"
Bentley slowly shook his head and couldn't help but to chuckle. These kids were too strange!
"What 'bout yer parents?" Roscoe suddenly said, which caused Bentley to flinch. "Do ya have parents like we did?"
"Of course, ev'ryone has parents, silly!" Rosie said and rolled her eyes at her little brother once again.
"Y-yeah... I had parents, but..." He paused. And HOW do you tell two little children that you killed your parents when you were a kid yourself?! "Umm... My mom died when I was born... A-and my dad..." He trailed off and stared solemnly at the small fire that slowly began to eat away at the thin strips of firewood he used to light it with. "My dad is dead too... So just like you two, I ain't got no parents anymore..." He jolted when he felt something touch his leg and when he looked down, he saw Rosies little rattle calmly pet his leg in a comforting manner.
"It's awright, don't be sad 'bout it, doggie!" Rosie said and smiled. "As long as ya r'member 'em, they'll nevah be gone for real, y'know!"
Roscoe nodded in agreement with his sister once again. "At least, that's what Muriel tells us!"
Bentley just gawked in shock, unable to even make a sound. These two kids were beyond strange! Yet, what they said were true to some point, and it even kinda made him feel better about it.
He didn't know for how long they were sitting there by his campfire and talked, but it must have been a couple of hours, for when the kids noticed that the sun were setting beyond the treetops, they disappeared off home just as suddenly as they arrived. But they promised that they would be back and wanted to talk some more with him, and Bentley kinda looked forward to it. He really liked these kids, sure they were really strange for being so young, but there was something familiar about those two. They reminded him of someone; Rosie was positive and always smiling, just like Bentleys big sister, while Roscoe was a bit more careful than his sister yet still just as curious, like Bentley when he was in his age!
He grinned slightly dumbly as he stared at his fire, trying to remember what he was supposed to have been doing when the kids came. And as his stomach made an upset, growling noise, he remembered that he was supposed to have been making lunch. About six hours ago. Well, time flies, doesn't it?
…
Rosie and Roscoe kept visiting Bentley in his cave, and sometimes they even met while in the woods, when he was hunting and setting traps. They talked most of the time, about what the kids had done in school and what kinds of wild animals Bentley had seen and sometimes Bentley would tell them stories from his home. Both Rosie and Roscoe loved hearing about Bentleys old homeland and family, and some vague retellings of his aunts tall hunting stories, that sometimes the first thing they said upon meeting Bentley was: "Please tell us a story, Bentley!"
Grumpys leg healed up fine after just a few weeks, but they never left. Bentley didn't really want to leave, not now. He really liked this valley, and Grumpy didn't seem to mind being able to roam free through the woods as he pleased either! Bentley was told that there was a town called Rattle City by the other end of the valley, which was known as Rattle Pass, and he made a mental note to go there one day and look for a job. He still had some money left from the Baxters, but if he wanted to stay here he knew he would need to be able to make a living.
Apparently, Rattle City used to be a mining town, back when there was silver to be found in the mines to the east of the valley and it was called Silver City. But nowadays, the mines were closed and empty, and the numbers in the town had rapidly dwindled. Most of those who stayed in the town were rattlesnakes of some sorts, among them Rosie and Roscoes parents, so therefore the city was renamed Rattle City.
He will never forget the day he met Muriel, the little blonde chipmunk female in her late thirties who was Rosie and Roscoes caretaker. They had told her a lot about him; 'the funny man in the cave', but she had always thought that he was just their imaginary friend! So one day they asked if they could invite 'the funny man in the cave' over for dinner, in case he wanted something else to eat than just deer meat and roots. Amused, Muriel said yes, but she had never expected the kids to show up on her little farm with a stranger, and not just any stranger: a big, dark, shaggy hyena in tattered clothes.
She eventually calmed down after the minor heart attack she got, and reluctantly agreed to let him inside the house, under the condition that he took a bath. He got to borrow some of Muriels late husbands old clothes which she had kept around. He too died in the war, alongside Rosie and Roscoes father, and what more was that they had both been fighting for the south.
It WAS a bit of a shock for Bentley to hear what side the kids parents had been on, but that was all. He didn't really think much about it, and as the evening approached, Muriel seemed to have forgotten all about her preconceptions! This hyena wasn't at all like the way she had heard hyenas being described as before: stupid, clumsy, sluggish, violent etc, but Bentley was like none of the above! She hated to admit it, but he was in fact quite charming.
She knew then that 'the funny man in the cave' in fact was a real person, and even if he seemed like a really nice and funny guy, she still got a bad feeling in her gut every time Rosie and Roscoe left to see him. She tried to ignore the feeling, but she just couldn't! Either something bad would happen to that guy, or he would do something bad. Really bad!
…
The months passed and after have lived in Rattle Pass for half a year, Bentley experienced his first winter in the mountains. The winters on the Aventine Farm had been cold and frosty, and every now and then they would get some snow, but here; snow was the first and only thing Bentley saw after the autumn. He kinda liked seeing the many naked trees of Rattle Pass being covered in a blanket of snow and ice, but it was cold. So VERY cold! With the help of Rosie and Roscoe, he had been more or less forced by the cold to build a door for the cave and a chimney for the fireplace. He had never imagined that something could ever be this cold!
With the little money he had left from the Baxters, he had bought a coat, a hat and a pair of gloves from the town to help fighting off the cold. They weren't the best and warmest clothes he could find, but they were the cheapest and unless the livery stable needed an extra hand, he wouldn't have the money for something better.
Despite the cold, he still had to hunt every now and then, or at least go out and check his traps to see that they still worked. And this day, only a few days left to Christmas, another one of the westerners weird traditions, he was sitting in a dug out ditch underneath a fir tree with a handmade spear in his hand. Through some miracle, once he had started hunting, he had remembered how the hunters of the brown hyena tribes hunted, even those who went solo. The spears the brown hyenas used were never made to hurt the prey, unlike the spotted hyenas spears, they were made to be used as sticks to guide the prey on the right way to the trap, or as defense if the prey would attack. Sure, a deer was a lot quicker and more agile than a warthog, so he only had once chance to get the prey on the right path. But he knew there was a technique the ones who mainly hunted Bongo antelopes used, and while he wasn't 100% sure on how it worked, he knew the basics and did something similar; threw the spear in direction at the deer while jumping out and scaring it in another way, leaving only one path open to the prey. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it failed, and sometimes it failed greatly.
He found a lonely deer in a clearing, scraping off the remaining bark of the trees, and as soon as he figured out where the closest trap was, he was ready to spring into action, but before he could throw the spear, a voice in the distance alerted the deer. The animal jolted in surprise and stood still for a couple of seconds, it's big, pointy ears swiveling to pinpoint the location of the noisemaker before bolting away in the opposite direction. Bentley had also jolted when he heard the voice.
"ROOOSIE! ROOSCOOEE!" Mauriels voice once again bounced around the trees and Bentley got out of the ditch. He frowned worriedly and hiked his backpack up on his shoulder before running towards Muriels location.
"Muriel?!" He called out as a familiar silhouette was seen in the painfully white forest. Muriel, all wrapped up in a thick coat, gloves, hat and scarf, almost looking a bit like a fat tortilla, jumped in surprise when she saw the hyena come jogging through the snow, a spear in one hand and a backpack on his shoulder. "Muriel, what's-...?"
"Wh-where's the children?!" Muriel cut him off and asked him in a loud, worried voice. "Where's Rosie? A-an' Roscoe?"
Bentley got to a halt and blinked in surprise at her. "R-Rosie and Roscoe?" He slowly shook his head. "I'm awfully sorry, ma'am, but I ain't seen them t'day!" He answered and she sniveled loudly and covered her mouth with her gloves. Bentley worriedly tilted his head to the side. "What's wrong? H-has somethin' happened?"
"They're gone!" She sobbed and shook her head. "T-they said they would just go an' buy me a Christmas present, b-but they should've been back over an hour ago!"
Bentley got a bad feeling about this; Rosie and Roscoe ALWAYS returned to Muriel when they promised! They had NEVER been late! "Did they tell ya where they would go?!"
The chipmunk shook her head. "No! Th-they said it would ruin the surprise!" She sniveled again and looked as if she was going to cry any second. "I've been ev'rywhere in town an' asked 'bout 'em, but no one ain't seen 'em either!"
She jolted when Bentley put his large hand on her shoulder, and when she looked up at him, she looked straight up into his round, crimson eyes and he tried to smile reassuringly to her. "I bet they're 'round here somewhere, but dont'cha worry; I'll go look for 'em!" He said with a nod. She didn't reply. "I'll find 'em an' tell 'em you've been real' worried, 'kay?"
She remained quiet as she stared down at her feet, that were slowly being covered in a thin layer of snow. "It ain't jus' that..." She said lowly after a while. "I-I've heard there's a snowstorm comin', a real' big one! If ya an' the kids git trapped innit-...!"
Bentley interrupted her with a chuckle. "Don't worry! I'll find 'em and bring 'em back to you b'fore the storm!" He put his hand over hers and squeezed it slightly. "Just go back home b'fore you freeze to death, y'hear? An' let as many people as ya can know what's happened, just in case!"
"Th-thank you" She said lowly and squeezed his hand back. "J-jus'... Jus' be careful, 'kay?" He nodded, and with that, she turned around and made her way back to the town, and Bentley began to look for the kids in the valley.
He had a vague memory that they once began talking about Christmas and Christmas presents, and they knew Muriel had always wanted a silver ring but never got one, so they wanted to give her one, but they couldn't have gone to look for silver in the mines, could they? He frowned and looked up at the mountains to the east of his cave where the mines were. If there really was a big snowstorm coming, he would only have one chance to look for them, either in the valley or in the mines. He didn't have time to ponder over it either. With a loud sigh, he began to make his way to the mines, silently praying that he made the right decision.
…
As he climbed through the abandoned silver mines, the storm Muriel had talked about slowly made its approach, and he could feel the wind grow fiercer by each minute. The snow that constantly was kicked up in his eyes made it hard to see, and the cold, howling wind chewed at his face, but he had grown numb in the nose a long, long time ago! He still had the spear and the backpack with him, but was considering putting them away as they were more in the way than of use to him. The thick snow went all the way up to his knees at certain points, and it was starting to get hard to breathe in the freezing air, but he wasn't going to turn back. He had promised Muriel that he would find and bring the kids home safely, and he had no plans on breaking that promise!
Suddenly, through the loud and merciless storm, he heard a faint voice calling from somewhere higher up. He stopped and listened, his ears felt as if they had been frozen solid, but he managed to catch it again.
"ROSCOE?!" He yelled and began to climb up the steep and slippery hillside. "ROSIE?! KIDS?!"
"HELP!" Roscoes voice became louder by every step he took. "ANYBODY THERE?! HELP US!"
"ROSCOE?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Bentley began to climb faster, his heart began to race. Roscoe sounded scared, and where was Rosie?! Did something happen?
"BENTLEY!" Roscoe called, his voice was a lot clearer now so Bentley stopped and looked around, spotting the silhouette of a long and thin creature by a big, gaping hole. "OVAH HERE!"
Bentley didn't need to be told twice before he ran as fast as he could in the blowing wind and the shin-high snow. An unusually strong gust of wind nearly knocked him down, but he managed to regain his balance and reached the place where Roscoe was, only to get the little snake wrapped around his leg when he got there.
"Help us, Bentley!" He sobbed and buried his face in Bentleys frosty leg. "Help us!"
Bentley bent down to the same eyelevel as the snake and carefully bent him away from his leg. "It's okay, Roscoe, I'm here now!" He said and tried to calm the crying little snake down. "Where's Rosie?!"
Roscoe sniveled and pointed into the gaping hole behind him."Sh-she's stuck! W-we were lookin' for silver to make Muriel a ring, b-but tha roof j-jus' fell down a-an' Rosie got stuck!" His voice was shaky, both from fear and the cold, but Bentley heard what he said, and he ran as fast as he could into the old mine with Roscoe shortly behind. They followed the single minecart track until they got to a huge rockfall that blocked the path, and underneath a big boulder, he saw Rosies head and bigger part of her body sticking out.
When she heard the footsteps that rapidly got closer, she lifted her head and spotted Bentley and her brother coming to her rescue. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying in pain and fear she had done, but when she saw Bentley, she managed to pull the corners of her mouth up in a pained smile. "A-Ah knew ya'd come, Bentley!" She said with a thick and unstable voice, even if she was smiling, she seemed to be close to crying any second.
"O-of course... I-I'm here, y'know! I c-can't just sit still w-while my two best f-friends are in trouble!" Bentley smiled in return and had to fight to remain calm as he walked up to the young snake and went down on his knees.
He peeked in under the boulder, and could to his great relief tell that a few smaller rocks had kept the boulder from completely crushing her, but she was still stuck between the ground and the boulder, and couldn't get out on her own. He withdrew and looked around, and his eyes got stuck on his spear, that he had left leaning on the wall before he walked up to inspect. He fetched his spear and stuck the pointy edge between a rock and the boulder before turning to Roscoe.
"Roscoe, I'm gonna lift the boulder, and you're gonna have to pull yer sister out on yer own, b'cause I'll be busy keepin' this thing from fallin' back on her, 'kay?" He asked the little boy, who nodded and wrapped himself around his sister. "Ya ready, kids?" Roscoe nodded again, and Bentley nodded as well.
He muttered a low "here we go!" before leaning all his weight on the spear, using it as a lever to push the boulder up. As soon as Rosie felt the weight of the big rock being lifted, she recoiled as much as she could and allowed herself to get dragged away by her brother. Just as the two little snakes made it out, the spear snapped under the weight and Bentley fell face first down on the ground. He hurried to get up and check on the kids, and saw to his relief that they were both okay. Scared and slightly shaken, but okay.
"We gotta get you two home!" Bentley said after the kids had calmed down and kneeled down by Rosies side. "Can you walk? Errm, I mean, slither?"
She nodded and tried to slither away, but recoiled in pain. "Ah dunno..." She admitted in defeat and looked down at the tail."I-it hurts when Ah move..."
Bentley nodded and picked her up instead. "No biggie, I'll just have to carry you then, eh?" He chuckled, and managed to draw out a chuckle from Rosie as well. Though he had to admit, carrying a snake that was about the same length as himself WAS quite a challenge!
But when the trio got to the entrance once again, they stopped and stared in shock. Outside the mine was completely white. The snowstorm had started, and it was impossible to see anything else but the cold, white snow that raged on the outside.
"N-no..." Bentley said lowly as his stomach dropped. "Oh no! The storm!" He said and cursed lowly at himself. He felt the snake in his arms squirm and look up at him with a worried look on her face. Her brother did the same. Bentley knew venturing out in the blizzard would only result in their deaths, so that was out of the question. There was only one thing left they could do. "We..." He said and bitterly clenched his jaws. "We gotta wait out the storm..."
Silently, they returned to the place of the cave-in. Bentleys first thought was to make up a fire to keep the kids warm. After all, he had his thick fur, the kids had nothing but thin scales plus were cold blooded. But that's where the troubles started; he didn't have any firewood!
They managed to loosen some bits and pieces of the mines beams from the rockfall and Bentley threw his broken spear to the pile, but that was about it. He didn't dare to take the beams that were still standing, seeing as it was them who kept this entire place up and most of them looked so rickety that a simple sneeze would be enough to make them fall!
Bentley took what was available, and retrieved his fire starters that he always kept with him in his backpack. While rooting for the steel in the backpack, he stumbled across another familiar object and withdrew it; Cornelias notebook. He stood still with it in his hands and stared at it.
It's paper... Paper burns really good... But he ignored those thoughts and tossed the notebook aside. Burn Cornys notebook?! The only thing he had left from his best friend?! No way! He managed to light the little firewood they had, and waited for the fire to spread it's warmth, which wasn't much.
As the pile of firewood they had quickly grew smaller and smaller, Bentley became more and more scared for the kids. They were already shuddering in the cold, all curled up into little balls as close to the fire as they could. Roscoe was even sobbing with cold, but his sister nudged her head against his and he calmed down again.
Their firewood quickly got depleted, and Bentley searched through his backpack for things he could sacrifice; extra ropes, his compass, his knife. Eventually, he threw the entire backpack on the fire in desperation, along with his gloves and hat. But the fire was still dying after a while, and the two little snakes just kept freezing and violently shudder from the cold. With a low curse, Bentley took off his coat and wrapped it around them both.
"It'll help keep ya warm..." He mumbled when they gave him confused looks in return. He began to turn the place upside down in search for more things to burn, and found the notebook thrown in a corner.
He picked it up with shaking hands and skimmed through it once again, just like he had done so many times before. Cornelia, the best friend he would ever have, was dead, and this was all he had left of her, except for his memories. This was her notebook, in which both her and him had made notes while working on various problems in math, but her parts of the notes consisted more of sketches and drawings, and one very detailed and good drawing of him. He really liked that drawing...
"B-Bentley..." Rosies voice sounded hoarse and weak. "A-Ah'm cold..."
"M-me too" Roscoe shortly followed, and Bentley gritted his teeth as he returned to the dying fire with the book.
He looked down at it, and clenched his eyes shut as he began to rip pages out of it and threw them as little balls to the fire. The dry papers quickly ignited and burned brightly, but fast so he had to keep feeding the fire the pages to keep it alive. But to what use? He soon ran out of pages, and he sat with the two little snakes all bundled up in the coat in his arms, and watched as the last page, the one with the drawing of a younger him sitting with his nose buried in a book, quickly got engulfed by the ravenous fire. He hugged the two kids tighter as he felt tears burn behind his eyelids.
"Goodbye, Corny..." He hissed lowly at the fire and struggled to not break down crying. The fre now had consumed everything and slowly died into a pile of shimmering ash.
The roaring on the outside told them that the storm wasn't planning to quiet down just yet, and Bentley just felt how all hope abandoned him and the kids.
"Ah'm cold..." Roscoe sobbed and squirmed closer to his sister. "Ah... Ah... Ah wan' ma!" He finally bursted into tears and huddled as close as her could to his sister. "Ah wan' ma!"
Tears began to roll down Rosies cheeks as well. "Ah wan' ma too..."
And I want my dad back... And Corny... Bentley struggled against the tears as the two kids in his lap began to cry, missing their parents. Suddenly he felt something more than a biting and excruciating cold; he felt tired. Sleepier than ever! And he wasn't the only one; soon the kids began to yawn.
"Ah'm tired..." Roscoe said sleepily and closed his eyes.
"Me too..." Rosie nodded and was about to close her eyes as well, but Bentley hurried to shake them both awake.
"No!" He said warningly. "Don't fall asleep!"
"Why not?" Rosie yawned again. "B-but we're tired..."
"I'm tired too, but ya can't fall asleep now, y'hear?" He shook the bundle in his arms again to keep them from falling asleep. "It's dangerous!"
None of the kids said anything in response, and Bentley was about to shake them again when Rosie looked up at him. "C-can ya tell us a story, Bentley?" She asked, and Bentley grinned in response and nodded.
"Sure, which one?"
"Ah wanna hear the one 'bout yer uncle an' the three-legged warthog again..." Roscoe said with a faint smile, and Rosie nodded.
"Yeah, that one is fun!" She said in agreement with her brother.
Bentley nodded and began to tell them the story of how his uncle managed to lose a three-legged warthog. But as he told it, he began to feel more and more tired, and it became nearly impossible for him to keep his eyes open. He struggled hard, but one by one, the trio fell asleep, only hearing the raging blizzard on the outside and the faint, murmuring of Bentley, who kept telling the story even after he succumbed to the sleep.
…
Bentleys eyes slowly fluttered open, and he was welcomed by a world of cold and pain. His limbs were stiff and it hurt to just IMAGINE them move! But despite the excruciating pain, he managed to tilt his head up enough to see the entrance far away, only to discover a big wall of snow had blocked it, leaving only a little hole on the top where the sunlight shone through. It hadn't been the sun that woke him up though, it was the sound. The voices! He tried to focus to hear them again, and was almost about to believe that he had just imagined them when they were heard again, this time closer!
"H-hey..." He whispered in a hoarse, low voice and kept his gaze locked on the little hole in the blocked entrance as he carefully put the bundle with the two little snakes to the side as he tried to get up on his feet. But the pain and stiffness forced him to go down on all fours. "Hey!" He called out again, this time he managed to call a bit louder. But if there were anybody around, he doubted they would hear it.
So, with gritted teeth and his entire body screaming with pain, he forced himself to get up and stagger over to the blocked entrance. He couldn't feel his hands or feet as he began to climb and yell louder. He reached the top and stuck his arm out through the opening, waving it about as he called for attention from anyone who could be out there.
He soon heard the shuffling of feet getting closer, and scales that rustled against the snowy ground. Something long and thin grabbed his wrist and pulled him out from the mine. The sudden light blinded Bentley at first, but as soon as he felt himself get put down on the ground, he opened his eyes and stared up at the faces that surrounded him. Muriels face was the one who stood out the clearest.
"M-Muriel..." He managed to weakly whisper and slowly lifted his hand to point towards the blocked mine. "Rosie... R-Roscoe..."
She instantly understood what he meant and looked at the mine where they just rescued him from. "The kids! They're in there!" She told the other three men around her; sheriff Bane, an eastern diamondback rattlesnake, his deputy Hugo, the hognose snake who had pulled Bentley out from the mine and McKenzie, a darker colored fennec fox.
Bane gave Hugo a silent order and Hugo nodded before diving head-first into the pile of snow that blocked the entrance. He used his pointed snout as a shovel as he quickly dug his way into the mine, but it took a while before he come out again, and when he did, he hung his head low and looked down at the ground while carrying something in his coils. Muriel felt her throat tighten up when the deputy solemnly handed her the lifeless bundle.
Rosie and Roscoe, still snugly wrapped up in the coat, were stiff and cold, their eyes were closed as if they were asleep. But they weren't sleeping. Not anymore.
"NOOO!" Bentley heard Muriels bloodcurdling scream and his heart skipped a beat. "ROSIE! OH MY GOD! ROSCOE! OH, PLEASE NOOO!"
With a pained groan, Bentley managed to push himself up on his elbows and turn around, only to discover Muriel sitting bent over two small, yellow and black rattlesnakes, crying her eyes out. He froze up in shock as he processed what he was seeing; Rosie and Roscoe. Dead.
"I... I... " He stuttered with a big lump in his chest and watery eyes. "I'm sorry... M-Muriel..." The ones from Rattle City snapped their heads and stared at the hyena. Bentley didn't want to know if they stared at him with hatred or if it just was his imagination, so he clenched his eyes shut. "I'm sorry... I... I tried... I really tried... Tried to-...!"
"Ya liar!" The little chipmunk screamed through her tears and gritted her teeth. "Ya said you'd bring 'em back! Ya lied to me! Ya were gon' kill 'em all along, weren'tcha?!"
He shook his head as much as he could. "N-no... No!" He sobbed and forced himself up on his knees. "I didn't mean to... I just... I tried..."
"Jus'... JUST GO AWAY!" Muriel turned her head away, refusing to look at the hyena.
"But... But I-...!"
Bentley was cut off when sheriff Bane hissed and wrapped himself tightly around him, forcing him let out a short scream in pain. He brought the hyena closer to his face and forced him to look into his giant, dark yellow eyes.
"Ya leave, y'hear me?" The big rattlesnake hissed, and Bentley couldn't do more than to wince in pain in response. "Ya leave an' don't show yourself 'round my town again, b'cause if ya do, I'll kill ya. 'Savvy?" Bentley nodded, even if it hurt, and was rewarded by being thrown back down at the ground.
His body hit the snow and a jolt of pain coursed through every one of his limbs. But out of fear of getting killed by either of the two snakes, he crawled to his feet and began to stagger away. Apparently, they thought he was moving too slowly, as McKenzie drew his gun and fired off a bullet that went straight past his arm. He would've fallen to the ground after jumping out of the way, if there hadn't been a small fir for him to lean against. He threw a scared look behind him at the man who shot at him before moving away again, this time faster and once he got used to the pain in his limbs; he began running.
He ran down the hill, through the woods and yanked the door of his cave open before stumbling inside. That's when another excruciating jolt of pain coursed through his frozen limbs and he fell to the floor with a pained scream and didn't get up. He just lied there on the dirt floor, simultaneously sobbing and cursing. Grumpy, who had been standing in his usual corner of the cave, carefully looked up and tilted his head. Something about his new master was stranger than usual.
They died... WHY did they have to die?! WHY DID I KILL THEM?! They were just KIDS god damn it! He thought and pelted himself with accusations and curses. It wasn't fair. Why did THEY have to die and not HIM?! They were kids with their entire life ahead of them!
Of course they died! Ev'ryone dies! He stopped cursing to himself and slowly got up on his knees. It doesn't matter what I do, or who I'm friends with: they'll just die anyway! Ev'ryone has died, why would two little kids be any different? I was a FOOL to have believed that! He managed to stagger up to his feet again, walked over to the nearest wall and stared into the cold, rocky surface. Ev'ryone I care 'bout dies, that's just the way it is! I should just get used to it! Stop carin' 'bout it, y'know! Don't take life so seriously, ev'ryone dies at some point! Those last words weren't his own thoughts; they had been Rosies words! It's always yer fault! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! His sisters voice echoed through his mind once again, and he pressed his palms against the sides of his head.
"S-stop..."
I should've let my dad KILL ya, asshole!
"Please stop...!"
If ya would've told us we could have done somethin' earlier! We could have saved her!
"SHUT UP!" Bentley had enough and in a frustrated attempt to get the voices to shut up, he slammed his head against the wall. It hurt a bit, but it made everyone quiet. At least for a while, then they started again.
It's YER fault she's dead! They wanted YOU, not me! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO KILL EVERYONE?! How DARE you reject me?! I wan' mah ma!
He hit his head against the wall again, and again, and again. His forehead began to feel bruised and he could swear that he felt blood trickled down along his nose, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop! He had to get everyone to shut up!
Can you promise me one thing, kid? He stopped hitting his head against the wall as another voice appeared. This one he wanted to hear; it was his fathers voice. No matter what happens in your life, stay cheerful! All your life you'll encounter tragedies and hardships, but if you let those bad things control your life, then what's the point with living at all? Slowly and carefully, a chuckle began to build up within him that soon escaped through his lips. Laugh at them all! Mock the worlds pitiful tries to bring you down! The chuckle soon elevated into a creepy laugh. Laugh at them all! LAUGH!
And that he did. He laughed. He threw his head back and laughed; a loud, maniacal laugh. And it felt good. REALLY good! He felt both the bad voices and the bad feelings go away as he listened to his own laughter that bounced against the walls of the cave. It was really fun to just laugh too! Why didn't he think of this sooner?!
Grumpy cooed nervously and saw the door opened ajar, the sun shining brightly on the winter landscape. He glanced at the hyena, who seemed to have gotten stuck in that horrible, hysterical laughter and decided to make a run for it. Anywhere was better than being near that psycho! So he quietly snuck out behind Bentley and bolted out through the door, towards freedom.
Bentley didn't even notice that his roadrunner left. All he did, and wanted to do, was to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
Thump!
And hit his head against the wall again. And again. And again.
…
…
I think Bentley have some issues he might wanna talk to someone about...
Omg, just two chapters left o.O!
… And yes, I just made two little kids freeze to death... COME AT ME, BRO!