Chapter 25
It was right before lunch time on Friday when Grateful, Illusion, Jolly and Cozy Heart were called to the Hall of Hearts. Upon arrival they were greeted by Noble Heart, True Heart, Loyal Heart, Proud Heart, their children and Guidance and Anger Heart.
"So, how were your weeks?" Loyal Heart asked.
Cozy smiled at Loyal Heart, "Not too bad actually. I won't missss the ssswollen anklesss but everything elsssse wasss fine."
"Yeah, OI 'ad things well in hand." Jolly said as he gave Cozy's stomach a final rub, making her giggle.
"I admit I'm going to miss this," Grateful said, hands on her tummy. "Swimming was even more fun; it helped with the weight."
Illusion nodded, "Oui. I won' miss wantin to tear all mon ami's heads of tho. Dat been rough."
"Talk about sympathy pregnancy eh?" Jolly teased while nudging him.
Proud Heart couldn't help but giggle, "Well just hand in your journals and we'll get on to your special part of this assignment."
"Alright." Grateful and Cozy handed their journals and Proud Heart nodded to Guidance.
"Here goes." Guidance's hands lit up and she shot them forwards. White energy flowed out of Cozy and Guidance Heart and their mock pregnancies vanished, leaving them looking normal.
"Oof, this feels so much better! Thank you." Grateful bent backwards, stretching her back.
"The real thing is much more painful," True Heart cautioned then paused, "Although probably not as bad for either of you."
"I don' know, I can't imagine layin an egg is dat bien either." Illusion commented.
Cozy nodded to him, "Itssss not from what I've heard. But it doesssn't last too long at least." Looking down and seeing her toes once more she giggled, "Hehe I know ssssome of the girlsss who are going to be sssso annoyed we got out of carrying the baby belly around."
"Maybe, but you have another responsibility now," Noble Heart said. He passed Tugs to True Heart, nodded to Anger Heart and Guidance as the fox helped hsi girlfriend out of the hall, then reach down and passed a box to each of the girls. Grateful and Cozy each opened their box and found what looked like a cantelope-sized egg inside.
"You'll have to keep those eggs warm for the next week. They have teperature indicators built in that will let us know if you're doing your assignment or not," Noble Heart said.
"Bright Heart said that once you opened the boxes you'd have an hour before they start tracking temperature so use the next hour to get home and get comfortable in your nests," True Heart said.
"Jolly and Illusion should bring home any school assignments for you for the next week, since I think you'll be mostly immobile," Loyal Heart added.
Cozy gently lifted the egg up in her flippers and held it to her chest. "I'm glad I ssspent the lassst few weeksss doing thingsss then."
Illusion crinkled his nose at the egg, "Desole ma belle. Gator moms jus bury de cache an guard dem from a distance."
"Well platypus curl up with them. Guess all that 'nesting' I did will help save time," Grateful said. "You won't mind waiting on me for a week will you, Illy?" she asked.
He gave her a quick kiss, "Not at all chere. I live to serve you an de bebe."
Jolly was looking his egg over, "OI think it has moi eyes love."
Cozy laughed at him. "Or at the very leassst your head ssshape. Letsss go put thisss egg to bed Jolly." He put his arm around her as they left the hall.
As they headed home Grateful had to voice a concern to Illusion. "Etienne... do you think we'll do well with the childcare part of this project?"
Etienne didn't answer her right away. He too had been really concerned about this part, so as with real married couples, he thought it was only fair she got his honest answer, "Don know chere. If I do tings like mon pere den dere no way we can go wrong. An if you jus follow yo instincts you should be good too oui?"
Grateful smiled, "I hope so. I want to be ready for the future when we do this for real."
"You expectin dat to be soon Glory? Cause if so den I'm afraid I'm gonna have ta break yo heart. Ain't no way I ready to be a pere fo' real."
"Oh no not soon," Grateful reassured him, "Just eventually."
He put his arm around her, holding her and the egg against his scaly side. "I tink when de time come fo' real, an we had enough time to prep we be jus fine."
"Good," Grateful Heart said.
In Cozy's igloo Jolly made his first stop the closet for extra blankets to line the nest. Cozy rocked the egg back and forth as she watched him, "Jolly sssweetie, I think it wasss fine the way it wasss."
Jolly smiled at her, "OI'm sure it was love. But OI jus wanna be sure since we keep it so frigid in here." When the blankets were in place he held a hand out to Cozy, "Give you a hand sheila?"
Cozy made sure she had a secure grip on the egg with one hand while giving Jolly her other one. He held her steady as she stepped into the nest and put the egg in the bottom. Taking her time to settle on top of it, Cozy made sure the whole egg was covered by her body. Jolly checked the themometer, "Roit oh. Almost at 96 degrees. An OI'll keep an oeye on tha clock and let ya know when ta rotate it. You need anything love?"
"Just a kissss for luck?"
Jolly gently cupped her cheeks and pressed his bill to her beak. "One fer Luck sheila." He kissed her again, longer this time, "An one jus cause OI love you."
Cozy smiled at him. "I'm ssso lucky to have you." Pulling up his chair, Jolly turned on the TV and settled down to keep Cozy company.
Terra Heart carefully range her digging claws over a vase she had just unearthed. "It feels real. How does it look, Trez?" she asked a she removed her claw to let the echidna have a better look at the object still half buried in the dirt.
Looking over her shoulder he nodded, "Looks real enough to me. Want me to unearth it or you got it?"
"I can do it." Terra Heart carefully pushed her digging claws down near the vase on either side, carefully forming a chunk of dirt around the vase, still keeping it encased in its dirt shell. She managed to unearth the vase, still technically half buried, and carefully scrape the dirt away from the outside. "I'll leave the more delicate work inside to you," she said as she passed the mostly clean vase to Trez, "You need eyes for that part."
"Ta sheila. OI'll take it to tha tent then." Patting her on the shoulder he got off his knees and headed to the tent where he cleaned up the artifacts they found. Already on his table was a broken necklace and some fragments of statues.
Terra carefully tapped the ground in her dig area then shook her head and stood up, following Trez back to their tent, "I can't feel anything else close to the surface anymore. I'll give it a rest before I try again."
Trez pushed a water bottle into her hand. "Drink. You been at it fer hours." Picking up his toothbrush he began to carefully remove the dirt from the vase.
Terra took two large gulps of water and took a seat, "Well I love digging and I love archeology. I've really found my calling down here. And to think a few months ago I was living in my den under a forest, without clothes even." she brushed the hat, shirt and shorts that Trez had gotten for her when she joined him.
Trez chuckled, "Crazy eh? OI nevah knew OI would enjoy 'avin a travelin companion as much as OI do."
"Thanks Trez. So what did we find exactly?" she asked.
"Looks loike an ol' vase." A bunch of dirt fell off the neck of the vase. Under it gleamed several precious stones. "Or not. Croikey this is a good haul. It's encrusted with gems Terra."
"Those really hard rocks that people find valuable?" She asked.
"Roit."
"Well that's a good find then." She smiled.
"Yeah. Soon as OI get 'er cleaned we'll take it inta town." Trez took a drink of his own bottle before returning to work on the vase.
"Sounds good."
It took Trez about 2 and a half hours to get the vase completely clean and then he had to go over it with his tools, making sure everything was authentic and it wasn't going to fall apart. Putting it in his backpack he took Terra's hand, "You ready?"
Terra yawned, having dozed off while Trez was working. "I'm ready, let's go." she let Trez help her up but then just stayed close as they headed into town.
Chuckling Trez supported her with an arm, "Come on ace, we'll get some moolah an then some grub."
"Sounds good." Terra sniffed. "What's that smell?" she asked.
"Yer nose is better 'an moine. Whats it smell loike?" Trez was looking around for anything out of the ordinary.
"Something spicy, but nothing I've eaten before. Reminds me of Etienne's cooking sort of," Terra replied.
Trez thought back through what she had told him of her time with the Care Bear Family. "He's the gator roit?" She nodded and he said, "Prolly somethin cajun then. Makin yer mouth water eh?" Now he could smell the aroma coming from a nearby restaurant.
"It is. We should eat there," she suggested.
"Sure thing Sheila. Wan't me ta drop you there an go fence this thing? Won take me longer than a tic of tha clock," je asked. There really wouldn't be much for her to do, and this way she could figure out what she wanted to eat.
"Yes, thank you." Terra nodded. Trez guided her to the outdoor restaurant in question then headed off to do his job while a server helped Terra to read over the available dishes.
Just as Trez predicted, the transaction took little time and he left the buyers with $20,000 in his pocket. Whistling to himself he headed back to the Cajun restaurant.
Meanwhile in the restaurant and unbeknownst to Terra, a trio was watching from the bar as she received her food. They had come in a little after her and had been intrigued to see someone so similar to themselves here and even more interesting was the fact she seemed to be blind. The group watching Terra consisted of three Care Bear Cousins, or rather they could be at first glance. One was a light and dark blue hyena, one an off white polar bear, and the final a shiny silver harpy eagle.
The eagle was perched on the back of the empty chair at the bar, her head feathers were rustling slightly as she looked the mole over, "You think she is one of them? One of the other kind?"
She asked her companions. "Da. They must be." Her polar compatriot told her.
The hyena ran a finger around the rim of her coffee mug as she looked Terra over. "They don't tend to wander this far from home. I'm not so sure about that." Sipping from the mug she continued to watch the mole.
"Thank you, my partner will be along to pay in a bit," Terra reassured the server before she dug in to her meal, cajun chili with thick bread. Thankfully she was able to use the utensils mroe easily now that she had had time to get used to them, after all her time with Treasure Hunt. Though she didn't speak up about it she could swear she heard someone mention her as a mole but nothing specific so she just ignored it as she listened for Trez to return.
Entering the establishment he easily spotted Terra, already digging into the chili. The waitress came over as he joined her, "Would you like a menu?"
He shook his head, "Got a burger?"
She nodded and he continued, "One of those an a beer please. Wha'evas on tap is foine." As she left Trez noticed the trio sitting by the bar, and conveniently they noticed him too. Without looking away from them he whispered to Terra, "You aware you bein watched sheila?"
"I thought I heard someone whisper my name but I didn't know who. Where are they?" Terra looked up from her food.
"Boi tha bar. Three of em. One bloke an two sheilas."
The eagle spun her head around to her companions, "We've been spotted. What do we do?"
"Ve should go and introduce ourselves ya?" The polar bear asked in his Russian accented drawl. They both looked to the hyena. She appeared to be their leader.
"Yes let's. I'd like to see just where their loyalties lie." Finishing her coffee she led the way to the table.
Trez sat up a little straighter, "They're comin over."
"Alright. What are they?" Terra asked, feeling the steps approaching them.
"They look loike us. Hyena, eagle, an OI'm guessin tha large bloke is a polar bear." The bear in question stood a whole head and a half taller than himself.
"Interesting." Terra nodded as the group finally came up to them.
"Yo, we saw you two from over there and couldn't help but notice some similarities." The hyena motioned to her companions.
"I'm Pitch Heart, and this is Torrid Heart and Glacial Heart." She pointed to the eagle and polar bear respectivley.
"Pry-vet." Glacial said which Trez took for hello.
"Nice to meet you, Pitch Heart, Torrid Heart and Glacial Heart. My name is Terra Heart Mole but you can just call me Terra," she introduced herself.
"OI'm Trez." He opted not to use the name the others had given him since he didn't really feel like a Care Bear.
"You two been here long?" Torrid asked them, cocking her head this way and that as she looked them over.
"No, we just came from a dig," Terra replied before spooning more chili onto a piece of bread and consuming it.
"Yeah we are just passing through as well. Going to meet up with some friends of ours." Pitch said while examining her paws. "Perhaps you know them? They look like us."
Trez nodded, "OI do. ran into 'em once. Not really wha OI call mates though." He told her. Pitch seemed pleased by this answer.
Trez indicated Terra, "The Sheila here lived with them for a toime."
He informed the group. "Oh did you?" Torrid leaned in closer to Terra, examining her.
"I did. Not much happened though and I hated living up in the clouds. Being able to feel the 'Bottom' where you stand on when you can't see if very unnerving," Terra replied.
Glacial gave a snort, "One would imagine so. Impractical to me it seems overall."
"Oh but Glacial remember what we discussed? When you live above it all nothing is impractical."
Torrid cackled and ruffled her feathers. "Too right Pitch."
Trez was only slightly surprised by her comment. He was beginning to realize this group might not hold the care bear family in the highest regards.
"Wanna join us?" He indicated empty chairs at nearby tables. Pitch smirked and shook her head, "No thanks. This is really only a stopover for us."
"How about you comrades? Care to join us?" Glacial asked them.
"Thanks for the offer but I'd rather stick with archaeology, it's so fun to dig around and find relics of ages past." Terra's blind eyes seemed to gain a faraway look, somehow.
"An OI'm all set. Not really the joinin toipe moiself," Trez said.
"Suit yourself. I'm sure we'll see you again." Pitch made a motion with her head and her two companions fell in line behind her as she left the bar. Trez watched them depart, not turning back around until the door closed behind them.
"Interesting people," Terra commented.
Trez nodded, "Wonder who they er meetin up with. That Pitch didn' sound loike she was aces with yer mates back home."
"Maybe not, but to be honest it was just too easy up there." Terra finished her meal before she continued. "I spent my entire life before that just trying to survive, at least predators mostly left me alone for some reason but once I joined the 'family' I didn't really have any responsibilities, not to mention they were all overly helpful because I'm blind. To be honest the one thing I really got from being up there was learning how to read braille."
Trez nodded as his burger arrived, "OI get ya. 's woi OI nevah went. OI'm foine with tha way things are." He paused to take a bite, "OI mean, could you imagine me outta tha dirt?"
"Honestly, no I couldn't," Terra admitted. "And this is much more fun and rewarding. I can feel so many buried structures by just walking over ruins." Terra was smiling the whole time she spoke.
"Makes glad fer the day OI found you. Saves me loads of time," he joked before biting into his burger again.
Outside the restaurant Pitch was watching the two with crossed arms and a cold expression. "You sure ve shouldn't be doing something vith them?"
She shook her head at Glacial, "No. They both made it clear any ties they had with the others are inconsequential now."
Torrid huffed, "But what if they know? What if they guess something and go running home? The others will not let us forget our mistake! They might even-"
Pitch cut off her hysterics with a look. "I said they are fine Torrid. Let it be. The others will care less about them. They'll care more if we are late though so let's go." She looked one final time at the echidna and mole before leaving for real this time.