Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 32: Little Muriel
A relaxing day today with just rest for us today. It has been a week since the flan incident. Muriel and Eustace were back to normal. The house was also clean and everything was back to normal. Even Nowhere town was back to normal. And since then, everything has been calm. Muriel even got to meet Saphron, Terra and Adrian properly. And to my great surprise, Muriel somehow became the aunt of Adrian. But honestly, it shouldn't have surprised me too much as Muriel is practically an aunt or grandmother to the child of everyone she knows. Even Nora became the niece of Muriel a while back. But right now, we were inside the house painting Muriel's chair to make it look like new.
"So, everyone became flan obsessed zombies?" Ruby asked as she helped us paint Muriel's chair.
"Yup. But right now, everyone is back to how they were. Not obsessing over some junk food." I answered.
Ruby was with us today. After the magic tree of Nowhere, she has been with her family ever since. Her whole family was together again and they couldn't be happier. Naturally, after the initial water works died down, they decided to throw a party to celebrate being together again. And, Ruby being Ruby, decided to bake some cookies but also decided to come to Nowhere to see if she can find new recipes for cookies. But when she saw me and Courage, she decided to stop by for a visit.
'And done.' Courage said as we finished and put back our brushed into the paint can.
"Oh, thank you. You three did such a nice job repainting my chair. Tat quick drying paint is amazing." Muriel said as she came in from outside where she was hanging up the freshly washed clothes.
"You're welcome." Ruby said happily.
"Here you go Muriel." I said as I handed her the television remote.
"Lovely." She said as she took the remote and sat down in her chair with Courage hopping onto her lap. Smiling, Ruby and I went to the said and sat down on the couch and began to watch the television with them.
"I never thought these black and white shows would be this funny." Ruby said as she laughed at show we were watching. Which was just a man with bananas in his ear dancing around and just being a clown.
"You'd be surprise-" I began with a chuckle but stopped when an alarm blared from the television.
'This is the Nowhere emergency broadcast system. We interrupt this program with an emergency tornado watch. This is an emergency. Watch for a tornado.' The reporter announced before flying away with his camera showing us a brief view of the tornado before the signal was cut.
"Oh, my. A tornado. We better get to the cellar." Muriel said worried.
"No, I heard we have to get under the table or make yourself look bigger." Ruby quickly said worried as well. Had this not been an emergency, I would have thought that it was a bit adorable.
"Ruby. The first one is for an earthquake which is still being debated whether you should do that or not. As for the other one, that's for a bear attack." I quickly corrected her.
"Oh." She said embarrassed.
"It's fine. But hurry. We're running out of time." I told her as I pulled her up from the couch.
"OH, MY. I'M STUCK." Muriel suddenly said making my heart nearly jump into my throat. "I thought you all used the quick-drying paint on my chair."
'Quick-Drying Glue. Oh, no! AAH!' Courage read the can panicked before tossing it away.
"WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE THAT!?" I shouted as we tried to help Muriel out of the chair only to realize that she was stuck there completely. Even her chair seemed to be stuck for some reason.
"You better find Eustace." Muriel told us.
"Where is he?" Ruby asked.
"Last I saw him; he was in the basement. Courage, you and Ruby go and get Eustace. And if you can't find him, just bring some of the tools he keeps there back." I told them.
"Right." Ruby said.
'We'd be back Muriel.' Courage said before being picked up by Ruby who used her semblance to dash into the basement.
"Don't worry Muriel. We'll get you out of here." I told her as I tried to move the chair but found it stuck the floor.
"Oh, please hurry." Muriel begged getting more panicked by the second.
"I'm trying." I told her as I looked around her chair to see why it wouldn't budge. But I got my answer when I saw that one of the legs of her chair was nailed to the floor. With the nail coming from the basement. Eustace must have done this without knowing as he fixed the light downstairs. 'Damn it.'
"Jaune!" Ruby shouted racing back to us with Courage.
"Did you bring the tools?" I asked her.
"Yeah, but Eustace is completely knocked out. We tried waking him up but he wouldn't." Ruby answered as I took the tools from her.
"No time. Help me. I found that a nail is preventing us from moving Muriel's chair. Life it so I can remove it." I told them.
"On it." Ruby said as she and Courage lifted Muriel's chair so I can remove the nail.
"Almost there... got it." I told as I managed to quickly remove the nail which now allowed us to take her to the cellar.
"Hurry." Muriel told us slightly less panicked now that we could move her. But at that moment, I heard the tell-tell sigh of a tornado nearby.
"HOLD ON!" I shouted as I took out my sword as I had planned on training later and placed it into the floor. I then had both Ruby and Courage hold onto me while I used my free hand to grab onto Muriel's chair. Unfortunately, just as I did that, the house got destroyed as the tornado reached us. I gripped the sword tightly and Muriel's chair even tighter. But it wasn't enough as a moment later, I lost my grip and Muriel was sent flying into the air.
"KIDS! COURAGE!" Muriel shouted as she was sent into the tornado.
"MURIEL!" We all shouted as we began to chase after the tornado.
But it was no use as it was too fast. After a few minutes of running, Courage pulled out a giant pogo stick for us to use. And surprisingly, we started to catch up to the tornado. Only to fall off a cliff when the tornado stopped and suddenly turned as we reached it. Shaking the fall off, Courage pulled out a large tricycle for us to ride on and close the distance. Which we quickly did and could hear Muriel screaming for us. But as we closed the distance even more, a rock suddenly came and popped the left tire which sent us tumbling painfully for a few minutes.
"OWIE." Ruby shouted in pain as she got up. But then she saw that the tornado was getting away. "Jaune, I don't we'll catch up to it now."
"We can't give up. We have to keep going." I told her.
"But how?" She asked. As she asked that, a kite flew past us. Looking to Courage, we saw that he taken out a giant kite and sting attached to it.
"Good thinking Courage." I said as I grabbed onto the string. Ruby seemed hesitant but quickly did so as well.
'MURIEL! WE'LL SAVE YOU!' Courage shouted as the wind of the tornado picked us up and we were quickly sent flying closer to the tornado.
"AH! OH! AH!" We all shouted in pain as the wind made us fly over some trees where we kept painfully hitting. But that wasn't the last of our problems.
"WOAH! AAAHHHH!" We all screamed when we saw the string snap and were sent flying into the hard ground.
"Are you both alright?" I asked as we slowly got up.
'Yeah, fine.' Courage answered as he shook himself off.
"Fine. JAUNE! LOOK!" Ruby answered as well before pointing behind us. Turing around, we saw that the tornado coming for us. Seemingly angered that we chased it down.
'I have an idea.' Courage said shivering in fear as he went to a rock and started to tie one end of the string to it.
"All or nothing." I said as he tossed the rest of the string to me where I then tired it around a tree nearby.
"You really think this will work Jaune. Considering that tornadoes are air and wind and can't be tripped like people." Ruby asked worried.
"Well, nothing in Nowhere fully makes sense. Hopefully it applies to this as well. NOW BRACE YOURSELVES!" I answered before shouting and doing same as earlier where Courage and Ruby grabbed onto me and I stuck my sword into the dirt to keep us secured. And with each passing moment, the winds grew stronger and closer when all of a sudden, a sudden gust hit us extremely hard followed by no more wind. Opening our eyes, we saw that the tornado had tripped over the string and disappeared.
"I cannot believe that worked." Ruby said as she stood up and began to look around.
"Me neither. But now we have to find Muriel." I told her as I began to look around as well. Luckily, after a moment, Courage spotted her.
'UP THERE!' Courage shouted getting my attention. Looking to where he was pointing, I saw Muriel's chair on top of the rock mountain next to us.
"What happened? Did you guys find her?" Ruby asked when she saw that we were staring at the mountain.
"Yeah, but just her chair. It's on that mountain." I answered.
She nodded when she saw that chair as well. We then moved to the mountain and began climbing it. After a good ten minutes of tedious climbing, we finally reached the top. But to our surprise and horror, we only saw Muriel's chair and clothes but no Muriel. For a moment, we feared that the glue finally gave way and she was sent flying when we tripped the tornado. But we nearly had a heart attack when a child suddenly appeared from Muriel's clothes.
"Hi, I'm Muriel. I'm only three and a half years old. Who are you?" The child asked us a bit too happily.
'Muriel?' Courage asked confused.
"Wait, is that you Muriel?" Ruby asked.
"Thats my name. Don't wear it out." Muriel answered giggling.
"What happened to you?" I asked confused.
"You're all funny looking." Muriel simply told us before laughing.
"Was I this annoying to Yang when I was younger and to Weiss now?" Ruby suddenly asked.
'This is going to be a really long day.' I thought as I moved to the side picked up the chair and placed it on my back. Once secured, we began to made our way down the hill and back to the house.
One Hour Later
'You'll be home soon Muriel.' Courage said as we finally saw the remains of the house and were quickly approaching it.
"I want to go to the candy store. I want to buy a toy. I want to watch T.V. I want to go to the zoo. I want to go swimming. I want a new doll! I want a new front tooth! I want a tea party. I want a party dress." Little Muriel, as we have come to call her, rapidly said without taking a breath.
'I know I'm not going to like this.' Courage whined at hearing Muriel continuously talk the whole way back.
"Me neither Courage.' I said agreeing with him.
"Jaune?" Ruby asked.
"Yes Ruby." I said turning to her.
"Since you first met me up until now, have I ever come across as annoying like little Muriel is right now?" She asked.
"Nah, not really." I answered after giving it a thought. The closest she ever came to being annoying was when she had a sugar rush from either eating too much sweets or cookies or both. Looking back, I saw that we finally reached the house.
"I got it." Ruby said as she zoomed to the door and opened it. Regardless of the fact that we did not need to go through the door as there were no walls left. Stepping inside and closing the door, I set Muriel down before cracking my back from the long walk back.
"I'M THIRSTY! I'M THRISTY! I'M THIRSTY!" Little Muriel shouted while slamming her feet against the chair repeatedly.
"No need to shout Muriel. We'll get you one." I told her as Courage and I went what was the kitchen to get her something to drink. Looking around, we saw that nearly everything was taken away from the tornado. Fortunately, we saw a still intact glass with a pipe where the sink used to be dripping clean water.
'Muriel- What are we going to do? What are we going to do?' Courage asked as we waited for the glass to fill up. After another minute, it was full of water. Once done, we headed back into the living where we saw Ruby furiously looking around for Muriel that disappeared.
"What happened Ruby? Where's Muriel?" I asked her trying not to panic myself. Courage was looking around trying to find Muriel as well.
"I don't know. She kept on demanding and asking for things so much and wouldn't calm down that I needed a moment to calm myself down and ask if all kids are like this. But when I turned back around, she was gone." Ruby quickly answered before continuing to search for Muriel. I did as well and searched the entire house but we still could not find her. It was not until we heard her laughing that we found her.
"Ha, ha, ha." We heard her laugh. Following it, we found that she somehow managed to get into the cellar and was not on top of Eustace who was just waking up.
"Huh?" Eustace said confused.
"Hi! I'm Muriel. I'm only three and a half years old. Who are you?" Muriel happily asked Eustace.
"What? OOF!" Eustace asked even more confused but knocked himself out again when he tried to get up but hit his head on some wood.
"I want an easter egg! I want an easter egg! I want an easter egg!" Muriel shouted as she jumped up and down on Eustace.
'Hey stop that!' Courage told Muriel.
"Stay right there Muriel. I'll be right down." I told her as I raced downstairs and brought her back up. But once up, she started to wine again,
"I'm hungry! I'm hungry! I'm hungry!" Muriel shouted annoying us.
'OK, OK.' Courage said trying not to shout.
"Jaune?" Ruby asked getting my attention as we made our way into the kitchen and place Muriel on the chair.
"Yes, Ruby." I said turning to her.
"Remind me before I leave, to apologize to my parents and Yang for how much I annoyed them when I was younger." She answered before going around the kitchen to try and find something to make for Muriel. Shaking my head, I helped her look but unfortunately, aside from a few snacks there was nothing here as the tornado also took away everything.
'Hey, found some mac and cheese.' Courage said walking towards us. 'Think she'll like it?'
"Maybe? I know when I was younger, I used to like it." Ruby told us.
"It's not like we have anything else. Hand me that pot Ruby." I said as I grabbed the box and moved to the stove and prayed that it still worked which, luckily, it did.
"Here you go Jaune." Ruby told me as she handed it to me.
"Thanks." I said as I filled it with water before placing it on the stove and adding the contents from the box. After about ten minutes of stirring and having to listen to Muriel complain about being hungry, it was finally ready. Putting it on a plate, I gave it to Ruby to serve it to Muriel.
"This stinks. I hate it this way." Muriel said upset.
"What's wrong with it?" Ruby asked.
"Less cheese." Muriel answered or more like ordered. Sighing, I got back to work and after a few minutes, I had another serving ready. Courage took it and served to Muriel this time.
"More macaroni." Muriel told us. Pinching my nose, I made it again and had Ruby serve it this time.
"Here you go." Ruby said placing it in front of her.
"Less macaroni." Muriel said again. Clenching my teeth, I made some more. Courage took it and served it to Muriel.
"More cheese." Muriel demanded. Rinse and repeat with Ruby this time serving.
"More cheese and macaroni." Muriel demanded. Same process again.
"TOO MUCH MACARONI!" Muriel shouted. Clenching my fists and breathing deeply, I made the last bit of macaroni and cheese we had in the pot. Serving it on the plate, Courage and Ruby served it this time to Muriel.
"How about now?" Ruby asked through clenched teeth.
"OOH! Perfect." Muriel answered with a smile.
"That's good." Ruby said with a sigh as Courage let out a sigh of relief. Only to grunt in confusion when Muriel tossed the plate onto both of them. Covering both in macaroni and cheese.
"I hate macaroni and cheese." Muriel said while crossing her arms. At her saying this, I cracked the spoon in half from irritation but calmed down after a few breathes.
Twenty Minutes later
After digging around the house and cellar, I found some food that Muriel actually wanted to eat. And once she was done eating, she left the kitchen which allowed me to make some food for the rest of us. Once we finished, we went to the living room and panicked when we saw Muriel bouncing on a plank of wood that was above a giant hole in the floor. We immediately rushed to her.
"Come on. Play with me. Play with me. Play with me!" Muriel shouted. All the while our anxiety rising as we saw the plank moving and seemingly ready to at any moment fall into the hole.
'Come on. Get off of that.' Courage told her.
"You'll hurt yourself." Ruby added.
"He-he. You're funny looking." Muriel said giggling.
"Where am I?" Eustace suddenly asked from downstairs. Looking into the hole, we saw that Eustace finally woke up again. And as much I didn't like him, I had to ask.
"Are you okay Eustace?" I asked him while Courage got onto the plank to get Muriel off.
"What are you kids and dog doing? Where's Muriel?" Eustace asked instead. Only to grunt in pain when Courage suddenly lost his balance and fell on Eustace. "What'd you do that for, stupid dog?"
"JAUNE!" Ruby shouted getting my attention. Looking up at her, I saw her point to Muriel. Turning to her, I saw that Muriel had somehow pushed Eustace's chair to the hole and pushed it in.
"WATCH OUT!" I shouted to Eustace and Courage. Courage managed to get out of the way but Eustace didn't and got knocked out by the chair.
"Whoopsie." Muriel said before going to her chair.
"Courage, are you all right?" I asked calling out to him.
'Yeah, just got scared. Be up in a minute.' He answered catching his breath. Sighing in relief, I turned to Muriel and walked up to her with Ruby by my side.
"Ok, that's it little miss. Your grounded." I told her seriously as Courage ran back to us.
"I don't wanna be grounded." Muriel whined before crying. Courage seemed startled by this while Ruby seemed confused on what to do.
"Cry all you want Muriel. You are still grounded." I told her as I knew from my time babysitting Adrian that she was not really crying. Unfortunately, while I was not fooled, Courage and Ruby were.
"That was mean Jaune." Ruby told me.
'Don't cry. It'll be okay. Ok?' Courage told Muriel while glaring at me.
"Guess what I found?" Muriel suddenly asked as she stopped crying immediately.
'Three... Two... One.' I mentally counted before pointing to Muriel who pulled out Eustace's mask and scared Courage away. Sighing, I took the mask from her and reminded her that she was still ground which she whined again. Rubbing my temples, I went to bring back Eustace's chair from downstairs to rest on.
Ten P.M.
"Finally, we can get some answers." I said as we huddled around the somehow still functioning computer.
It was ten at night, Muriel was finally sleep on her chair. And by that, I mean she was actually sleep as she pretended to sleep a few times. Since I ground her earlier, she has been even more rambunctious. Ruby and Courage thought that I was a bit too tough but then realized that it was needed as little Muriel loved to be mischievous and cause us a tough time. But after a couple more incidents, Muriel finally got tired and fell asleep.
"Having a child is really tough. I can only imagine how Weiss and Yang must have felt when they had to take care of me." Ruby said as we watched Courage type on the computer.
'To get the old Muriel back, you have to place her in a tornado that spins in the opposite direction.' The computer told us.
'Do tornadoes spin in reverse?' Courage asked as he typed it.
'Only in the southern hemisphere, you twit.' The computer answered before insulting Courage.
'All the way down there?' Courage asked typing it in again.
'Argentina, Chili, Ecuador, Peru... Your choice. Though, personally, I like the chicken tandoori in Sri Lanka.' The computer answered before adding his personal thought.
'Huh?' Courage asked as the computer turned itself off.
"Those places sound fake." Ruby said as she repeated the places the computer told us.
"As fake as they sound, they must be real. I really have to get a geography of the book of the world or something." I told Ruby before mumbling the last part.
'But how do we get there?' Courage asked.
"What did Courage just say Jaune?" Ruby asked fighting through a yawn.
"He asked how do we get to those places." I answered.
"Do you have a plan on how to get there?" She asked.
"Yeah. We can just take Nowhere airport to get there. It's going to be expensive though. Luckily, I earned enough money to cover the charge." I answered.
"Great, well I'm going to take a nap. Night." Ruby said before going to the couch and laying down. Turning to Courage, he nodded and we decided to do so as well. Especially since we are going to have another long day tomorrow.
Next Day on Plane
"I can't take it anymore." A lady with a parachute shouted before jumping out of the plane we were on.
The reason she did that was because Muriel was constantly running up and down the aisle acting as if she was a plane. We tried to make her sit down with the seat belt but each time she easily slipped through. And that was just on the plane now. Since we woke up today, Muriel was annoying us. Any chance she could to cause trouble or make it harder for us she took. And breakfast was like dinner last night which caused us a massive headache. And it got even harder when we got to Nowhere airport where she put an even bigger fuss. But at least now, we were on our way to Ecuador as that was the closest and cheapest option we had. Hye, I may work a lot at Charlies diner and get a decent wage but that did not mean I can afford a trip like this on the fly.
"How much longer Jaune?" Ruby asked as she tried to block out Muriel's running up and down the aisle.
"About another hour or so." I answered before turning to Courage. "How you doing Courage?"
'How do you think?' He answered annoyed. Leaning back into the seat, I tried to calm myself and save my energy for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, that was not to come as I saw the pilot running to us.
"I can't take it anymore either. Good luck." The pilot said before taking his hat off and putting it on Courage's head. He then ran to the door, grabbed a parachute and jumped out of the plane.
"We should have seen this coming." I said as we got up and headed to the front. Grabbing Muriel, we went inside the cockpit. Courage grabbed a book that aught people how to fly. But it proved a little difficult for us to do so as Muriel kept on pressing every button she saw.
'Sit down. Stop it. Stop it. Sit down.' Courage told her but she didn't.
"Ruby, can you take her out of the cockpit?" I asked her. She nodded and picked up Muriel and took her out of the cockpit. All the while, Muriel kept on making excuses to try and stay with us.
"So, what should we do now? Find a place to land or a tornado?" Ruby asked as she came back. But as she asked that, we all heard the sound of a tornado. Looking out the left side, we saw the exact type of tornado we were looking for.
'Yes!' Courage shouted in joy as he turned the plane to head to the tornado.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ruby asked as she held tightly onto the chair.
"What's life without a little risk Ruby? Plus, this is the only answer we have and don't know when another tornado will come." I told her.
'I hope this works.' Courage said as we dived to the tornado. Reaching the tornado, we pressed the eject button on the console which opened up the floor in the center of the plane which Muriel fell through and laughed as she did. Seeing that she went into the tornado, we maneuvered ourselves to underneath the tornado and managed to catch Muriel just as she came out of the other end of the tornado.
"Oh, thank Oum we caught her." I said as we heard the sound of Muriel crashing through the roof of the plane.
"Excuse me pilot. Have you got any of those little bags of salted peanuts? Courage, Jaune, Ruby. I didn't know any of you could drive a plane." Muriel said surprised when she saw us piloting the plane.
"It's a long story Muriel. We'll tell you when we get home." I answered as we all sighed in relief that Muriel was back to normal.
Farmhouse
Deciding that we just wanted to go home, we decided to fly straight home instead of going to Nowhere airport. After about five hours, we finally reached the farmhouse. Though, when we got there, we showed Muriel that we were new to flying planes. And we did that by having a rough landing, nearly hitting the house but at the same time hitting Eustace and sent him flying back into the basement. Broken and unconscious.
"Ah, you three are excellent drivers. But you still need to work on the parking." Muriel told us as we hopped down from the plane.
"We will Muriel." We told her.
Two hours later
We were in the living room watching some television and just resting. We found the T.V. not too far from here and still in good shape. Naturally, we brought it back to the farm house and plugged it back in. Luckily, at this point, everywhere in Nowhere had electricity. We also brought the couch back and made some snacks to have as well. But it was all ruined when the Nowhere news report sounded again.
'This is the Nowhere Emergency Broadcast System. The tornado emergency is over.' The reporter announced.
"That's good." Ruby said with relief. Unfortunately, the reporter wasn't done.
'Now, the only thing to worry about is that giant tidal wave roaring across the plains.' The reporter finished before getting splashed by a wave.
"OH! JAUNE LOOK!" Ruby shouted. Looking to where she was pointing, we saw that a massive tidal wave was coming towards us.
'OH, NO!' Courage shouted as the tidal wave neared us.
"WHAT DO WE DO!?" Ruby shouted panicking.
A few minutes later
"AAAHHHH!" We all shouted as we rode the tidal wave on Eustace's back.
"THIS IS INSANE!" Ruby shouted as she tightly clung to my legs.
'Crazy weather we've been having, huh?' Courage calmly asked.
"Sure, has been Courage." I said agreeing with him as we continued to ride the largest tidal wave I have ever heard off.
Note:
(2) Windmill Vandals with Ruby and Pyrrha. (3) Watch the Birdies with Summer Rose and Ruby. (4) Bad Hair Day with Yang. (5) Hot head with Yang. (6) The Fog of Courage with Iris. (7) Record Deal with Weiss. (8) Serpent of the Evil River with Weiss and Blake. (1) Courage vs. Mecha-Courage with Team Rwby and others(?). (9) Sand whale strikes back with Team Rwby's mother. (10) The Mask with Blake and Velvet. (11) Muted Muriel with Ruby and Weiss. (12) Car Broke, Phone yes with Pyrrha.
With Courage vs Mech-Courage, should it be just Team Rwby or have others as well as the end part of the episode they can be spectators and watch Courage fight?