Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 5: The Snowman Cometh
"Ah-Choo. Ah-Choo" I sneezed repeatedly as my nose felt frozen.
"Where did it say that silver springs timeshare was in the arctic?!" Eustace demanded after sneezing for a solid minute as well.
You might be wondering where we were and what was going on. And tell you the truth, I only know the answer to the second question. We were on vacation. We got a silver springs time share offer and took it. Only to be sent somewhere known as the arctic. Some place that I did not know existed and now want to leave and never come back. It is freezing here. Atlas is known for being the coldest kingdom in Remnant and I would still choose to be there rather than here. And now, I think I am getting sick from the extreme cold I was not prepared for.
"I wanted palm trees." Eustace whined as he pulled his blanket and coat tighter around him.
'You and me both Eustace.' I thought as snuggled into myself to try and get as much warmth as possible.
"I think it's a lovely change from all that hot sun." Muriel said as she continued to stir the soup on stove which was the only source of warmth in this igloo. Yeah, instead of a building or house, we were given and igloo with only a wood burning stove as heat and a table to eat on.
"Stupid cold." Eustace said as he continued to shiver.
"How you holding up Courage? Still moving?" I asked him. Instead of answering, he moved closer to the stove in an attempt to try and get warmer.
"We'll all feel better after some nice hot soup." Muriel said as she placed a few bowels on the table next to her.
'Definitely.' I thought as I helped her set the table.
"Oh." Muriel said worriedly as she checked the fire of the stove. "Courage. Jaune, could you go out and get us some more wood. The fire is mighty low."
'I don't want to go out there! I'm not a penguin you know.' Courage whined.
'Same here Courage.' I thought in agreement.
"GET THAT WOOD BEFORE I FREZZE TO DEATH YOU TWO!" Eustace yelled out before sneezing uncontrollably.
Getting on my knees, I exited the igloo with Courage right behind me. Standing back up, I looked around the igloo to see if I could find any immediate wood. But only saw snow, snow and more snow in a frozen barren wasteland. Not seeing anything, we decided to look a bit further to see if we can find any wood. But as we looked around, we saw a giant snowman standing in the distance. Curious and cautious, we decided to go up to it and check it out.
'Where did this snowman come from?' Courage asked as he looked over the snowman.
"I don't know Courage. We certainly didn't build it so where did it come from?" I answered before asking s I looked around and tried to see if there were any footprints that could tell us the direction where the person who made this went in.
"Where's that stupid dog and kid with that stupid firewood?!" Eustace yelled out getting our attention.
'How about we use these arms for wood?' Courage asked.
"Sure. Don't think he would mind anyway." I answered with a chuckle. He smiled and went up and grabbed the left wood arm of the snowman. I was about to grab the other arm only to jump back in shock as the snowman moved by itself.
"And what do you two think you're doing? Put that back." The snowman demanded.
Courage immediately put the arm back and raced back to the igloo with me right on his tail. Quickly getting on my knees and sliding into the igloo, I saw that Courage was already in the process of telling Muriel and Eustace what just happened. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears as usual. Seriously, sometimes it seems like only me and Courage are able to see what is really happening.
"Stupid dog! Where's the wood?" Eustace demanded only recoil in surprise as Courage transformed into an ice creature. However, they just ignored it.
"Courage. I am sure it's just a wee thing passing through." Muriel said trying to calm him down. "Now, let's sit down and have some soup."
Courage whimpered at being ignored again and sat down on his chair. Only to be forced from it when Eustace made him eat on the floor. Taking my place at the table, I thanked Muriel for the soup and tried to eat it. Tried being the key word there as my soup was frozen solid in the few seconds it was away from the soup.
"What's this?" Eustace asked as he found his soup also frozen solid.
"Ha, Ha, ha! Oh, my! It's frozen! Isn't that a laugh?" Muriel asked through her laughter as she saw her soup became frozen as well.
"Did your soup freeze as well Courage?" I asked only to burst in laughter as I saw that not only was his soup frozen but his tongue was stuck in the frozen soup. He glared at me before attempting to break his soup to free his tongue. Only to fail as the soup proved to be tougher than expected. I was so caught up in my laughter that I did not notice that Courage moved closer to the window. Nor that something scared him until I heard him scream so loud that his voice broke the soup, thus freeing his tongue.
"Courage, what's wrong?" I asked. He got onto the table and started saying he some snow creature outside. We all decided to head outside to see what was going on. But once we got outside, we saw nothing. Not even a trail around the igloo of any kind.
'That's strange.' I thought as there was no trail at all from the snowman.
"That's it." Eustace declared as he turned to face both of us. "If either of you don't get me some firewood, you'll both be sleeping with the icicles."
'But-But-' Courage said to Muriel to try and save himself but was stopped when Eustace pulled out his mask and scared Courage away.
"And don't come back without the firewood neither." Eustace said through his laughter at seeing Courage scared. Only for his laughter to turn to pain as Muriel smashed her frozen soup onto his head. "Oh! What did I do?"
"Jaune. Be a dear and go get Courage back." Muriel asked.
"Sure. I'll be back in a bit with him." I told her before running after Courage.
Let it be known, that despite being a dog with short legs, Courage can run really far and really fast in such a small amount of time. So, it should not come as too much of a surprise that it took about ten minutes to even see a glimpse of Courage. Luckily, he ran in a straight line so I did not miss him. Going over to him while catching my breath from that long run, I saw that Courage was completely focused on the ground in front of him. Turning to see what he is looking at; I saw a giant trail in front of us. Big enough as if a snow mobile came through. Looking in both directions to see where it could possibly have gone, I saw to my left some mountains in the distance. But strangely enough, they don't seem to be just any snowy mountain but rather a home judging by the entrance in one of the mountains.
'What do you think made this?' Courage asked.
"I have no idea. But I am guessing that if we go to those mountains, we can find an answer." I told him while pointing to the mountains.
'I was hoping you wouldn't say that.' Courage said in a whine.
"I don't want to go there either Courage but we have to. Otherwise, how are we going to be sure that it won't harm Muriel." I said trying to reason with him. But he still seemed unconvinced and scared. "Come on Courage. I'm by your side. And at the first sign of big trouble, we'll leave alright."
'Alright. But I won't like it.' Courage said finally relenting.
We began to follow the trail to the mountains. Though, as we followed it, I noticed that the mountains were actually a lot farther than I originally thought. And for some reason, the wind seemed to pick up immensely as we followed the trail. Almost as if it is trying to make us go back. Soon, however, a massive "snow cloud" came storming towards us, obscuring our vision. Knowing we could easily get separated, I quickly grabbed Courage and pulled him to my chest and tightly wrapped my arms around him. With him secured in my arms, I continued forward into the snow storm cloud thing. Unfortunately, the cloud was so thick that I could not see anything but I continued on. However, this proved to be a big mistake as a few steps further and we exited the cloud, only to realize that we were no longer standing on the ground and have walked off a cliff.
'Uh-oh' "Uh-oh" Courage and I both said at the same time as we realized the situation, we are both in. Though, it did not escape my mind that we somehow stayed in the air for a brief period of time, defying all sense of logic before plummeting down the mountain. We hit the ground hard and bounced a few times as we continued down the mountain. However, the only reason we stopped bouncing was because we started to gather snow and quickly formed a giant snowball with us in. As we moved down the mountain, we kept picking up to speed to the point where I felt like I was about to throw up. Fortunately, we soon stopped rolling though not in the best way as entered the mountain and crashed into an ice wall hard.
"Ow." I grunted in pain as I let go of Courage. Laying down, I grabbed some snow and placed on the back of my head to ease the pain until my aura takes care of it.
'Jaune, are you okay?' Courage asked.
"Yeah, just give me a minute and I'll be back up." I answered as I moved myself into a sitting position. My aura already making the pain go away. "Which way now Courage?"
'Um, let's go-' Courage began to answer as he looked in both directions but stopped when the sound of mumbling reached our ears. '-That way.'
Getting up, we began to follow the mumbling. Soon the tunnel started to get smaller, forcing us to crawl the rest of the way. Soon, we reached the door way to another room. Only to realize, the tunnel is not exactly on the ground floor and is about a fifteen-foot drop to the ground. Moving closer the edge, we looked down and saw the mumbling belonged to the snowman from earlier. He was standing behind an ice desked that had all sorts of beakers and chemicals on it.
'What could he be making?' I thought as I saw him mixing chemicals of different kinds.
"How sad to be the last of the snowmen." The snowman said to himself as he picked up a thermometer. "It's been getting warmer and warmer. And if it continues, I will melt, and there will be no more snowmen!"
'Poor guy. But what's he planning on doing?' I thought as I saw him put down the thermometer and laughing manically.
"But this is not to be. I have found it." He declared before reaching down and grabbing what looked to be a hose bibb. "I have found the anti-melting gene of the human being! And how fortunate for me that there are human subjects here I can extract the gene from. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
'Crap. Muriel is in danger.' I thought before turning to Courage. "Courage, we have to go warn them and get out of here."
He nodded in agreement. We turned to leaved but stopped when we heard the snowman speak again. This time as if declaring to the world so everyone can hear him.
"I SHALL HAVE THIS GENE! I WILL NOT MELT!" He said before laughing manically.
We immediately turned around rushed back out of the tunnel. As soon as we could stand, we ran out of the mountain and made our way back to our igloo. Using the trail, the snowman made to find our way back. After ten minutes of running and feeling like we barely made any progress, we stopped running. Taking a moment to catch our breath. But as we did that, the sound of cracking greeted our ears. Concerned, we looked down to see that we were over a body of water that was cracking. Any moment and we would fall into the water and possibly freeze to death.
'Oh...oh...' Courage said scared as a big crack started to come where we are standing.
"Courage!" I yelled out and immediately grabbed him and tossed him to safety. Unfortunately, I could not get to safety as the ice gave way to the crack and slit right underneath me causing me to fall in. However, something strange happened. Instead of drowning or being pulled down, I was immediately frozen into a giant ice cube. Add to the strangeness still, instead of being frozen and unconscious, I could still not only see and hear everything around me but I could also still breathe which did not make any sense.
'Hold on Jaune. I'm coming!'Courage shouted.
He came right to the edge of the water. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a rope. Making a loop on it, he then lassoed it to me where it wrapped around me. Courage then used the rope to pull me out of the water and onto the ice. Once I was on the ice, Courage took off the rope and pulled out an ice pick from his pocket and started trying to free me from the ice. Albeit slowly.
'Not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon.' I thought as I watched Courage pick at the ice.
One hour later
'Yeah.' Courage shouted in joy once the last of the ice finally broke free and I was able to move again.
"Thanks, Courage. You're a true pal. Remind me to buy you a steak when we get back home." I told him as I gave him a pat on the head.
'No problem. Now, let's go get Muriel and leave this place.' Courage said with a smile as he threw the ice pick away.
"Right." I agreed while getting up.
Once up, we made our way back to the igloo. Getting on my knees, we quickly entered it only to realize in horror that we were too late, as there was no one there. Muriel's apron and Eustace blanket were on the floor. Clear evidence that the snowman took them. Mainly because he was the only one else here in this forsaken cold landscape.
'Muriel!' Courage shouted as he grabbed Muriel's apron.
"Come on Courage. We don't have a lot of time. We have to save them." I told him as I kneeled down again and exited the igloo with Courage right behind me.
Once outside, I was about to run back to the mountain when I saw Courage run in another direction. I was about to call out to him and ask where he was going only to see that he got into a sled that was not there a minute ago. Though, I did get a laugh when Courage grabbed a rope that is used to connect to the dogs and yell mush. Only to realize that there were no dogs there to pull the sled. Let out a laugh as well, Courage then came up to me, somehow pick me up and threw me into the sled before getting to the front of the sled. I was about to ask what he was planning to do but got my answer when he grabbed to bars that were on the side and used them to pull the sled. I was about to protest but he surprised me when he effortlessly pulled the sled forward. But soon started to struggle a bit when he decided to go up a steep incline for some reason. I was about to step out of the sled and help but stopped when we reached the peak and started going downhill at a really fast rate. Looking back at Courage, I saw that he was smiling at how fast we were going. But I quickly noticed that the sled was quickly catching up to him and could run him over. Not wanting that, I reached for him and pulled him into the sled. And just in time too as the sled got even faster.
"Careful Courage. You almost got run over." I warned him once I got him into the sled.
He seemed none too pleased that I pulled him from his fun but was thankful all the same. But before he could say anything, the sled suddenly took off into the sky as we left the ground courtesy off a small ramp at the end of the cliff. It sent us flying into the sky so high that if anybody saw us that they would confuse us for Santa Claus. But fortunately, we were still heading in the correct direction. Unfortunately, however, we were coming in hot and were going to crash through the mountain. Knowing this, I grabbed Courage again to protect him.
'AAAAAHHHHH!' "AAAAAHHHHH!" We both screamed as we came closer to the mountain. A second later and we crashed into the mountain side. Luckily, we did not get hurt. Even more so that we crashed into the same room from earlier and saw Muriel and Eustace tied up.
'OOF' "OOF" Courage and I both grunted as the sled came to a sudden stop. The front of the sled hitting my chest hard while Courage got launched out of the sled and went through the snowman. The impact causing the snowman to recoil in shock and possible pain. Unfortunately, this caused him to spill whatever was in that tube that he was holding.
"OH! NO! NOOOO!" He cried out as he tried to capture the droplet of liquid that went out of the tube. Only to come up short and the liquid to hit the ground. "Blast! You stupid dog and human! Do you two realize what you've done."
"That's what I tell them all the time." Eustace chimed in. A bit too happy despite being tied up and having a hose bibb on his head. "You stupid dog! You stupid dog! He don't do nothing right!"
"Ha, ha, ha, ha." I heard the snowman laugh. Turning to him, I saw that he quickly moved to his desk and pulled a lever. Hearing something coming from above, I immediately pulled Courage into me as giant icicles fell from the ceiling and form a makeshift prison.
'This is not good!' I thought in panic as I grabbed onto an icicle and tried to remove it. Only to find that it was much harder than it looks.
"As for you." The snowman said pointing to Eustace. "Well, it's just a matter of time!"
"AAAHHH!" Muriel screamed in terror. "Courage! Jaune! Help!"
'Gotta hurry!' I thought in panic as I finally removed an icicle. I went to the next one and tried to remove it as well. Only to see that Courage has started rapidly licking it causing it to dissolve and disappear into thin air. 'Show off.'
With those two icicles gone and now able to exit the makeshift prison, I dashed towards the table and grabbed a larger bowl with a handle. With it in hand, I ran to the snowman, just as he was about to turn the valve that he placed on Muriel and slammed the bowl onto his head before he could.
"AH! AHHH! Assassin! Let me out of this!" The snowman said as he moved back and tried to remove the bowel from his head. "I can't get this thing off my head!"
"Courage get Eustace. I got Muriel" I told him.
He nodded and raced towards Eustace. Turning back to Muriel, I removed the valve on her head and untied her. With her now free, I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the sled. Helping her into the sled and then getting in it as well. Courage then grabbed the bars and started to pull the sled out of the mountain. For a moment I thought that we were in the clear, only for that to be dashed as the snowman had freed himself and now as chasing us.
"I'll get you for this." The snowman declared when he reached the entrance to the mountain.
Once a fair distance away thanks to Courage's incredible speed, I pulled him into the sled as we started to go downhill again. This time picking up insane speed. I leaned back into the seat and tried to relax and catch my breath only to hear what sounded like an avalanche behind us. Sitting back up, I turned around and nearly screamed along with Courage when I saw the snowman is not only catching up with us but also causing a small avalanche behind him as well.
"Prepare to meet your doom." The snowman declared as he tried to pick up more speed to catch us. And it seemed like he was going to as the sled was starting to slow down. "It won't be long now. I will not be denied."
"Oh, Courage! Jaune! What do we do?" Muriel asked trying not to panic as she saw the snowman was gaining on us.
"I'm feeling a bit warm." Eustace said as he was now sweating profusely now.
'AAAAAHHHHHH!' Courage screamed a moment later as the sled finally stopped. And in one of the worst places as well. As it stopped right on top of the frozen ocean.
'Jaune! Help!' Courage shouted getting my attention. Turning to him, I saw that he was holding two ice picks.
Immediately knowing what he a was suggesting, I grabbed one and got out of the sled. Moving a few feet away from the sled, I started to hit the ice with it in an attempt to break it. At first nothing happened and my arms started to burn a bit from continuously doing it. But soon, the ice started to crack and allowing the water to show. Just in time as well as the snowman, thanks to his momentum and no traction in the snow, could not stop and went directly into the water. Only to appear a moment later again. However, this time, he was frozen in a block of ice like I was earlier today. Feeling the ice, we were on move, I realized that his impact into the water caused the ice to move further out into sea.
'Finally, safe. For now, at least.' I thought as I sat down to rest a bit.
Dawn
It was dawn right now. About five or six judging by the sun. We were still on the chunk of ice floating in the sea. We were huddled around a puddle that had glasses and a hat. Wondering what to do with it as the puddle was really Eustace who had melted not too long ago.
"Poor Eustace. I don't know what we're going to do with him now." Muriel said as she looked at the puddle and tried to think of a way to bring back Eustace. Courage walked up to the puddle, pulled out a sponge and started 'soaking up' the water that is Eustace. Once done, he put away the sponge and pocketed the glasses while I picked up his hat. Hearing a loud horn, we looked up and saw a cruise ship coming towards us.
"Oh, look. We're going to be saved." Muriel said happily as she tried to wave down the ship.
'Praise Oum for the ship.' I thought as the ship came to a halt next to us with a ladder thrown to us a moment later so we can climb aboard.
Two days later
We were finally back home from that disastrous vacation. A place I did not know existed and a place I never want to go back again as long as I live. Though, I feel like a one point I might have to go back for some important reason. Currently, we were all in the living room watching a movie. Muriel was in her chair with Courage in her lap happy. Through, a brief glance told me he was smugly looking at Eustace. Well, what remained of Eustace.
"Stupid dog." He said though a bit hard to clearly make out.
'Says the guy who is literally just water in a pitcher right now.' I thought as I struggled not to laugh as I looked over at Eustace who was literally just water in a pitcher right now. His glasses were in the pitcher as well and his hat was on top.
Note:
Hose bibb is the valve on the side of the house used for hoses. I am not one hundred percent sure if this is what the snowman used to extract the gene but since it closely resembled one, I am going with it.
Should some rwby characters be in the episode King Ramses Curse? And if so, who and how many? Figured that chapter will be a bit of fun to make.
Rwby characters will eventually be included just trying to put them in an appropriate time and episode.