Sorry for the long update wait guys, but I'm not doing so hot lately. Recently, just last thrusday in fact, I had a severe muscle cramp in my left leg after practice where my whole leg sort of locked up and wouldn't move for about five minutes or so. It was more painfull than it is within my ability to describe...but it kept me from running in our meet on Saturday. I hope you'll all pray for my recovery! Anyway, that's pretty much why it took me so long to get this friggin' update up and running. Thanks for sticking with me though! Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 12
The
Hunters
Forest was in a foul mood.
Even Pride could tell without having to confer with Sabbath, and for all his physical prowess, it could not be said that the Malamute/Husky had much to offer in the way of brains. In truth, he wasn't much smarter than a bucket of rocks. 'What an idiot,' Sabbath thought, staring with mild contempt at the Husky sleeping across the room from him. The dog in question was currently lying on his back, mouth open, snoring loud enough to make the cockroaches crawling through the hay scurry back to where they'd come; into the walls.
Sabbath glared around at their surroundings, his mood quickly beginning to darken as he took in what passed for their temporary 'home', and even going far enough to identify it as such was pushing it. The shed the three would-be murderers were currently cooped up in was hospitable in only the most basic sense; the structure had apparently gone through several periods of varying users, including cats, mules and some ugly malign sub odor the black-hearted killer vaguely identified as that of a skunk of all things. The walls were moldering and termite-infested and they had only a sparse scattering of decaying hay beneath them to keep their paws safe from the wicked splinters that often protruded from the floorboards. As for means of an exit, they might as well have not had a door at all; their pitiful excuse for a doggy door was a ragged hole hastily punched out by their drunken master with a few hasty axe swings with nothing so fancy as covering to keep out the chilling wind. All in all, Sabbath supposed, the place was a dump.
Hell, it was like sleeping in a goddamn dumpster…nothing at all like the sparkling clean, pine-scented suite Lover-Boy and his little slut were probably screwing around in right now. Sabbath had been to their cozy little home, oh yes indeed. Before following Little Miss Bitch off to her sweet uncle's, the crafty canine had decided to have a poke around her humble abode, just to see how the other half lived. He was at first slightly surprised at what he found, but the surprise had quickly curdled to hate. While the three of them had to contend with their stagnant water, week-old scraps and freezing nights, these bastards enjoyed fresh water, new hay, fine food and, worst of all, access to the comforting heat of the woodstove.
He had been sourly tempted to trash the place out of jealousy, but had refrained, knowing that the sounds would probably bring not only neighboring mutts, but the People as well…and they were the masters of his fate. To anger them would be to flirt with death and disownment…besides, he'd had little Dustykins to follow. He was not ignorant; Sabbath knew that Kodi and his team were by no means in 'the lap of luxury', but they were sure a hell of a lot better off than they were, and that was reason enough to hate them.
'Spoiled brats,' he thought, lip curling in distaste. 'Bet he's screwing her right now, in front of that god forsaken furnace. Well, get it while you can, Lover-Boy, because by tomorrow, she'll have been mine and you'll both just be so much rotting meat for the worms….' The putrid though lifted his spirits a bit and he grinned sadistically. Pride snorted in his sleep and rolled over, squishing a roach or two under him, mumbling and making unintelligible sounds in his throat. Sabbath, knowing it was just how Pride was, tried his best to ignore it. Unfortunately for the sleeping Husky, the recollections of Kodi and Dusty had shortened his fuse considerably. Finally, when he could stand the noise no longer, the foul-tempered lady-killer rose, crossed the three-foot gap separating them and admonished a sharp nip to the annoying Husky's ear.
Pride awoke with a start, yelping more from pain than surprise and looked around, confused and already angry. "What the hell was that for Sabbath?" he growled, glaring daggers at the smaller dog. "You damn near bit my ear off!"
"Oh calm down you pansy," Sabbath sneered in return, his golden eyes flashing dangerously. "I just couldn't stand your Momma's-Boy whining anymore so I decided to shut you up."
Pride stood, nostrils flaring; he was in no mood for Sabbath's cold and calculating attitude right now. "I oughta beat the crap outta you for that, you know?" he growled, baring his teeth. "Show you what happens when you mess with me…."
The Samoyed snorted derisively, eyes gleaming. "Like you did earlier today when the Wolf got the drop on us? If so, then I'm just terrified." He added, oozing sarcasm from every pore.
"I'm warning you; if you don't shut you trap right now, I'll – "
"You'll what, hotshot? What exactly will you do if I just decide to keep on talking?" He paused, giving Pride time to answer. When, as expected, none came, he favored the other with a nasty smile. "That's right, you big lump. That's exactly what you'll do because you've got no spine."
"I'm warning you, one more word – "
"You'll what? Kill me? Rip my throat out?" Sabbath gave a dry laugh. "Didn't anyone ever clue you in to the fact that threats lose their effectiveness if they're never carried out? Actions speak louder than words, Pride."
The Malamute's cheeks burned with anger and his body shook with rage. "You little bastard! I'll kill you, I'll – " He began to move as if to make a lunge for Sabbath, who didn't seem perturbed in the slightest. Quit the contrary, he looked absolutely delighted by the possibility of a confrontation.
"Pride! Sabbath!" Forest's voice rang out hard and flat like a bullet from a gun. At the sound, both stopped and looked in his direction. "Knock it off, the both of you! We've got a very important matter to attend to in an hour or so and I won't have the two of you going off and blowing all your steam on each other when you should be saving it for those two snot-nosed brats."
"But Forest, he–"
The albino was in Pride's face before the other could even blink, his eyes reduced to acidic green slits. "Am I talking to myself, hmm? Do you think I enjoy the sound of my own voice, Pride?" He lashed out and struck the larger dog across the muzzle, drawing dark blood. "WELL, DO YOU?" he roared.
Sniffing back the blood that wanted to come pouring out of his nose, Pride shook his head, regarding his leader uncertainly. "No…but–"
"THEN WHY THE HELL DO I STILL HEAR WORDS COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, YOU STUPID FLEABAG?" Forest roared again, shoving his face forward, forcing Pride to back up until he was cowering against the wall. "Do want me to kick your ass for you, is that it?"
"N-no…."
"Then do what I say; keep your mouth shut…." He glanced over his shoulder at Sabbath, who was watching the scene with something that bordered on amusement. "Something funny?" he growled.
"No, nothing at all…" Sabbath replied in a bored tone. He knew when Forest was getting ready to hit the roof and he usually kept to their leader's good side when he saw one of these kinds of outbursts coming. Unfortunately, Pride wasn't as perceptive as he, and so he usually went and stuck his paw in the proverbial bear trap most of the time.
Glaring anyway, Forest turned and padded away from them, sticking his head out of their little doggy door and into the frosty air. Night was falling. He sniffed loudly three times, seemed to think something over, and then drew his head back in. He looked at them, his stormy countenance from before now replaced with a mixture of malicious pleasure and anticipation. "Never mind all that now boys…the game is about to begin." He grinned, and went over to Pride, who cringed away from him like a frightened pup. Forest rolled his eyes despairingly. What was he going to do with this idiot? Shaking his head, he helped the bleeding mutt to his paws.
"Suck it up Pride," he said, giving the dog in question a light pat on a bloody cheek with one forepaw. "Let's move. We've got places to go and people to kill." Grinning, looking quite the madman, he and Sabbath slipped out then had to help Pride – for whom the doggy door was almost too small to fit through – muscle his way out into the street.
'What a moron he is,' Sabbath though snidely, looking at Pride as he struggled to extricate his hind quarters from where they had gotten stuck, 'what a complete and utter moron….' And if you didn't believe it, just think about how Pride, who was about three or four inches taller than their leader, allowed Forest to give him beating after beating. There might very well come a day when Pride decided he didn't have to put up with that anymore…and on that day he might very well rip Forest's head right off…. But, sadly for him, today didn't seem to be that day.
No, tonight was theirs for the taking. Tonight, the three of them would finally put Lover-Boy and Little-Miss-Bitch out of their misery, in the most explicitly cruel and gruesome manner imaginable, of course. It wouldn't be fair to send the two of them off without first getting whatever pleasure they could from the actual act of murder…among other things that was.
Chuckling, barely managing to contain himself from breaking out in a maddening cackle, Sabbath slunk after Forest with Pride bringing up the rear, beginning to make the slow, arduous journey to where their quarry had decided to spend the night under the stars….
((()-()))
"Oh…my…God…" Kirby moaned, covering his eyes with his paws, pulling his face into a complex mass of furry wrinkles. He was in an agony of embarrassment. He was completely out of his depth here. God how do you deal with something like this? "Oh…damn!" he burst out, rolling over and subsequently banging his head on the floor.
Ralph sighed. "Kirby, chill. It's not like it's that big a deal, okay?"
The older dog's head shot up, eyes narrowing. "Not a big deal?" he repeated, managing to sound both incredulous and indignant in the same breath. "Ralph, you moron, we walked in on them! Right when they were about to…y'know…." He finished adding to the effect of the statement by making some vague gesture with his paws that totally escaped the perplexed Ralph.
"I think not." Nova interjected.
"Huh?" Kirby turned his gaze towards Nova instead, giving him that 'I'm sorry, did I hear you right?' look, all wide eyes and open mouthed. "What do you mean 'I think not'?" the tan dog demanded, brows knitting together. "I mean, they were lying on top of each other for crying out loud! I honestly fail see how they could've been doing anything but."
"He's got a point, Nova." Ralph added. "I can't think of anything else they could've been up to…"
"Probably right about that…" Nova sighed. He shrugged, looking at Kirby. "Still, it's nothing to get all bent out of shape over man. Just forget about it."
Kirby looked at him incredulously. "Forget about it, are you serious? You think I'm capable of just magically erasing that, that image from my mind?"
"Just don't think about it. I'm not."
"Nova, they were getting ready to do it in your bed when we came in, remember?" Kirby reminded him, making the Chinook's face go a sudden ashy gray.
"Oh…God, I think I'm gonna hurl."
"Oh, don't be such a girl, Nova." Ralph chided him, making the dog in question glare daggers at his teammate. "You act like it would've killed you to sleep where they might have. It's just hay for crying out loud."
"Ralph, it's my bed we're talking about here and in case it slipped your mind, that's where I sleep at night. You don't go around fornicating where someone else lays their head down to rest at the end of the day. There's wrong, there's wrong…and then there's that."
"What do you mean, fornicating? Who's to say they were even going to do anything at all?" The gray Husky inquired.
Kirby snorted. "Oh please, don't be so naïve, Ralphie. Do you honestly think they weren't about to get 'down and dirty'?"
Ralph seemed to ponder something, his own face becoming troubled and clouded. "Well…I guess they could've been changing the hay around…."
"By rolling around in it?" Kirby asked dryly, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head. "Oh Ralph…you have so much to learn in the ways of Love…."
"What's that s'posed to mean?" the other shot back, sounding slightly hurt. "I've got plenty of experience with love…and girls!" he added almost as an afterthought.
Nova chuckled. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
Nova rolled his eyes and sighed helplessly. "Okay then, Mr. Suave," he said, making Kirby snort with laughter, "name one girl you've actually kissed."
"And your Mom doesn't count." Kirby added.
Ralph looked at him, annoyed. "Then neither does yours." He shot back.
"Oh, burn!" Nova cried gleefully. "You just got burned by Ralph, Kirby! Want me to call the vet?"
"Go play with a hornet's nest, you punk." Kirby growled, but he was smiling nonetheless. "If we could get back to the original question please; Ralph, name one girl you've actually kissed."
The gray Husky's face grew hot and he seemed somewhat flustered. "Ah…well, um…uh Ginger, yeah Ginger!" he finally said, after what looked like much hard thought. He smiled proudly. "She and I made out behind the butcher's shop!"
"Ralph," Kirby said dryly, "that doesn't count, you big knucklehead. You two were practically pups–"
"–And the only reason she quote 'kissed' you was because you got your tongue stuck on the side of one of the metal garbage cans out back and the two of us were too busy laughing to help you out."
"It wasn't my fault!" the embarrassed Husky said quickly, trying to find some fault in the story. "You…you guys were the ones who told me to do it!" he said, glaring at Kirby who was trying hard not to laugh and failing miserably.
"Yeah…but you were the genius…who was actually dumb enough…to do what we told you! And in the middle of winter no less!" Kirby choked out, laughing hysterically now.
"I s-still can't b-believe he fell f-for it!" Nova gasped, laughing just as hard, if not harder than Kirby.
"Well…uh…oh, alright I did!" Ralph admitted, cheeks flaring up again. He looked at Kirby, whose laughter had finally ceased, but was still trying to catch his breath. "You don't exactly have any room to talk, Kirby!"
"Why's that, Ralphy-Boy?" the veteran sled dog retorted, raising one eyebrow, lips curved in a cocky half smile. "Please, enlighten me. I'm dying to know."
A sudden light went on in Nova's head. "Oh…" he said, giving Kirby a sly sideways sort of look that the other didn't particularly care for. "I remember now…"
"Remember what?" Kirby asked, annoyed.
"You know…"
"No, I don't! Tell me!"
"Don't tell me you've forgotten about…Cookie?" Nova asked and then snorted with laughter and had to pause for a moment before he could finish, "I…I remember you were so desperate…to get her to notice you…that…that" here his laughter became overwhelming and he was forced to stop for a few minutes before at last, with tears streaming from his eyes, he gasped; "…That you…you went up to her and said…" Nova adopted a serious face, or tried to anyway, as he didn't seem to be able to keep from grinning. 'Hi, I'm Kirby…and I'm the guy…who's been s-stalking you for the past week'!"
Kirby looked on, his annoyance steadily building as the two bumbling idiots who called themselves his friends continued to roll on the floor, howling with laughter, tears streaming down their faces. "I wouldn't talk if I were you, Nova…." He said, voice lowering ominously.
"Oh…oh yeah, why's that?" Nova inquired, as his laughter began to finally subside to short chuckling bursts.
"Because," Kirby said, grinning himself now, "if I recall correctly…you happened to have a soft spot for a certain pretty, young Husky by the name of Kalla not too long ago yourself…and still do, as a matter of fact." He finished and then laughed at the way Nova's face abruptly crumpled into an indignant scowl.
"Oh my God!" Ralph exclaimed, looking at Nova in horrified disbelief with eyes the size of dinner plates. "You like Kodi's sister? What is wrong with you? Have you no shame?"
"That's hardly an issue here…." He reminded Kirby with a huff, "and, I happen to know that Kodi didn't have, nor has he ever had a problem with me taking a liking to his sister, thank you very much. And, just so you know, she doesn't have a problem with it either…so, I don't see what's left for you two gloat about."
"Oh really? I fail to see how it doesn't qualify–"
CRASH!
For the second time that night, the door to their quarters burst open, rebounding violently off the wall and sending a torrent of freezing nocturnal air cascading over Kirby and the others. Needless to say, the three canines were ill prepared for this sudden intrusion of their lighthearted banter and were, to some degree, scared out of their minds. With his heart leaping up from his chest to lodge, quivering on top of his Adam's apple, Kirby jumped to his feet and tried to skitter away from whoever – or whatever – had come barging in unannounced. Ralph yelped in surprise and nearly ran headfirst into the wall in his hurry to get away and Nova…well…he was pretty much scared witless, looking frantically towards the source of the noise with wide, startled eyes with his hackles already beginning to rise.
Their fears quickly dissipated however when they beheld not some bogart or other intimidating beast, but none other than Balto and his brother Kavik. Kirby sighed heavily and looked at the two benign intruders with a mixture of annoyance and relief. "Good God man…you scared us out of a year's life…." He said, placing a paw to his chest in a futile attempt to slow his palpitating heart.
"Hey guys, what's–" Nova began, but Kavik quickly cut him off.
"No time guys! Where are Kodi and Dusty, are they here with you?" The white wolf/dog nearly spat, staring at them with burning eyes that seemed to be looking everywhere at once.
"Kodi and Dusty?" Ralph asked, and then blushed slightly, recalling that evening's most recent – and most embarrassing – event. "Uh…no, they're not, we–"
"God damn it! I knew it, I knew I should've warned them, ah, God curse it all!" Kavik growled, positively snarling in frustration. This alone was enough to catch their attention, as the angelic hybrid almost never swore, ever. Kodi himself could have counted the number of times he'd heard his uncle use profanity on the toes of one paw had he only been present. As it was, both he and Dusty were currently in absence, and thusly, Kavik looked, to say the very least, extremely pissed off by this.
"Calm down, Kavik, please! Calm down!" Balto cut in hurriedly, moving to console his raging brother, whose outraged disposition was beginning to have an undesirable effect upon the three now very confused and more than a little nervous sled dogs. "Just take a deep breath…don't worry, we'll find them before they do, I promise."
"Right…sorry guys…." Kavik said after a few seconds labored breathing. Making what looked to be an almost physical effort to get himself under control, he asked, with deliberate slowness. "Okay…Kirby, Ralph, Nova, if they're not here with you, then where exactly are they?"
"Uh well…the thing is, Kavik, Balto…we…uh," Nova faltered, torn between what to do. He knew Kodi and Dusty had a right to privacy, but then again, Kavik and Balto seemed really worried about them for some reason…. He swallowed, and then went on. "We…came in when Kodi…well, the two of them were…occupied…and we…sort of interrupted them…so they left." He finished lamely, cheeks burning high. Knowing what their next question would be, he added; "Sorry, Balto, but Kodi didn't tell us where they were going…they looked like they wanted some time alone together, and I didn't want to pry into what wasn't my business to know under the circumstances, so I didn't ask." He looked at them curiously, his brow furrowing in slight worry. "What's all this about anyway? What's wrong?"
"No time to explain!" Balto said quickly as Kavik turned and headed out the door, growling curse after curse under his breath. "Just follow us! We've got to go, NOW!"
With a sinking feeling in all their hearts, the room's four remaining occupants sped out of the room and into the starry night, trying to catch up to Kavik, who was already a ways ahead of them, running with his head bent low to the ground, trying desperately to catch the scent of their quarry.
"What's this…all about, Balto?" Ralph gasped as they began to steadily near the outskirts of town, with Kavik traveling five or ten feet ahead of them, scouting out the trail.
"To make a…long story short…" Balto huffed, "we know who…beat up Dusty…."
"Who?"
"…Forest…along with…two of his friends…."
Ralph looked at him, appalled and open-mouthed. "WHAT?"
"Son-of-a…I knew…he couldn't…be trusted!" Kirby gasped.
Ralph looked towards Balto. "What…are we…gonna do?"
"We're gonna…kick his…no-good ass…that's what!" Nova snarled through clenched teeth.
Balto nodded. "Kavik…overheard them…earlier today…talking about…ambushing the two of them…or something like that…." He gasped, barely able to find the spare wind needed to continue their conversation at the speed they were going. He suddenly raised his head, sniffed and grimaced at putrid odor that tainted the pine-scented night air, baring his teeth in a growl of rage. "Forest…the slimeball is already there, DAMN!"
With a snarl of fury, he Kirby, Ralph and Nova charged ahead to join up with Kavik, running as though perused by the very demons of Hell itself.
'God…Kodi, Dusty…please, let us make it in time…' Balto mentally pleaded. 'We can't lose you two….'
((()-()))
Author's Note
Well...it seems as though things are coming to a head, eh? Sorry that this chapter was so short, but I did my best, which is all that counts, right? That's what the government wants you to believe anyway...and I know I can't trust them because I've seen Enemy of the State! Ha, take that government! Ahem, anyway, just remember to review, thanks!
BaltoLuver63