Chapter 6
Charlie
Four minutes later, they were all accustomed to the dizziness and Jack had started inventing new names to call Bunny by.
"HARE! HAIRY! MARCH HARE! HAIRBALL! FURBALL! FURBY! FURBALICIOUS! FLUFFY! FUZZY!"
He stopped yelling and looked at North thoughtfully.
"Do you think he would be offended if I called him ´rabbit stew´"? he asked.
North laughed and Sandy raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, I think he would be very mad," chuckled the large man. Jack smiled mischievously.
"I´ll have to save that one for a summer day then. COTTONPUFF—"
Just then a waist-high metal egg popped up out of nowhere. Its round eyes blinked yellow at them a few times before darkening to a steady red as it took 4 steps closer. Unlike the stone golems, it had four robot-like arms, and was clearly composed of metal plates. The metal sheets were screwed together, giving it a Frankenstein´s monsteresque look.
The only thing that made it seem endearing was that it was covered in gorgeous pastel patterns, mostly minty green in color. The swirls and dots that covered it made its creator an obvious guess.
Despite the care that was clearly put into the paint, there were a few rusty spots that had eaten through, showing how old the little minion must have been. The name Charlie was calligraphied across its chest (if eggs can have chests). It was clutching a few sprigs of rosemary in two of its hands, and staring at them steadily with its creepy eyes, observing them one by one.
Jack paused with one foot ready to take another step and the other supporting all of his weight. He stared at the metal minion in front of him for a second or two before whispering to the others.
"Is this normal?"
North drove his tank-chair forward to get a closer look at Charlie.
"Hm, it is one of Bunny´s worker eggs. He once used a robot like this to send me a message before, but has been a few decades since."
Jack relaxed and leaned on his staff with one leg crossed in front of the other. "That´s good news, right? If Bunny were in trouble then this thing wouldn´t just be standing here with us, would it? Can we ask it where he is?"
Charlie´s eyes flickered a little before becoming brighter, and he took a step forward. He began emitting strange ticking noises through the slit that served as his mouth and vocalizing. Jack thought it sounded as if someone were swirling a handful of screws in a dented metal bowl and singing into a large plastic cup.
In other words, it made no sense.
The three guardians all shared a look of confusion before staring back at the egg.
It´s vocal ticking went silent a second later as it analyzed them, it´s red circles blinking twice.
It then raised one of its herb-free arms and made a circle around its head with a pointed finger, looking like a cowboy whirling his imaginary lasso over his head. The three guardians looked at each other, then back at Charlie.
"I think we broke it," said Jack, after watching Charlie twirl his arm around for ten seconds.
Sandy waved at the other two and made a picture of them raising their hands. After getting only blank stares, he changed his sand to a picture of a child at a desk raising their hand. "We should ask it another question?" guessed North. Sandy nodded and gestured from North to Charlie.
North shrugged, and turned his attention to Charlie.
"Is your master in danger?" he asked.
Charlie let his arm drop to his side and shook his body, like a person shakes their head. His thin metal legs squeak-creaked as he twisted.
"Ah! Very good! Let´s see," said North, stroking his beard.
"Can you take us to him?"
Charlie shook his body again, and made the same whirling motion with his spidery metal hand as before.
"Huh, that´s weird," said Jack, moving closer.
"Is he in the warren?"
Charlie turned to look at Jack and bobbed his body up and down, squeaking some more.
"Ok. . . so, is he busy with something?"
Charlie bobbed again.
Sandy made a picture of Charlie running to Bunny, and then running back to them, and North translated.
"Could you tell him that we are here?"
Charlie shook.
Sandy, of all people, made a frustrated face, which in turn made Jack laugh.
North looked thoughtful, and then asked "How long will Bunny be busy?"
Charlie´s eyes flickered as he seemed to consider this for a moment, then they steadied into the constant red beam as he held up eight, then twelve of his fingers (he only had four per hand).
"In a matter of minutes?" guessed Jack, and Charlie bobbed again.
"Aha!" exclaimed North. "Now we are getting somewhere!" He rubbed his hands together with a determined smile. "Do you know where he will go when he is no longer busy?" he asked.
Charlie bobbed up and down rapidly.
"Will you take us there?" cut in Jack, and Charlie bobbed again, even more enthusiastically, his eyes flashing bright pink for a second before humming back to red.
"Great! Let´s go!" urged Jack, motioning for Charlie to lead the way.
Charlie shot off at a waddling run, leading away from their path and onto raw terrain. Sandy was concerned for North´s mobility, but the tank-like treads that the engineer had made to replace the original wheels were perfectly adept at keeping up over grass and stone, and the engine he had installed was running perfectly. The four of them ran/flew/drove/floated for only a minute or two before Jack turned it into a race. Charlie must've understood, because he quickened the pace and the guardians did their best to keep up with him for at least five more minutes.
Suddenly Charlie stopped and crouched down, posing like an insect with all of his hands on the ground. The guardians slowed down or landed, and Jack was forming a question when suddenly all of them lost their balance at the same time. Jack was the only one who landed flat on the ground again since Sandy had managed to catch himself from tumbling off of his cloud and North was secure in his chair. Charlie turned and looked at the other three with what Jack imagined was cheeky amusement on his painted metal face.
"What was that?" asked Jack as he pulled himself up from the grass for the second time.
Charlie made the spinning movement with his hand again, then stopped abruptly (which didn´t help anyone).
"Strange," said North. "It feels like everything is now still; opposite of before, no?"
Sandy nodded.
Charlie perked up and turned in the direction he had been previously running. Sandy, who had a better view than the other two, followed his gaze and caught sight of some more metal eggs of various colors charging toward a 3-story house sized stone mound only a few grassy hills away.
He also caught sight of two furry ears, and soon, the Easter Bunny himself. The guardian was hoisting himself out of a tunnel, his back to them, and soon headed toward the stone mound. A crowd of egg minions waddled like a gaggle of geese behind him as they followed.
Sandy waved to the others and jumped up and down, to no avail. They were too busy discussing what possible meaning Charlie could be trying to communicate with his cowboy imitation. Sandy looked back to where Bunny had been, and barely saw his friend enter an old archway in the stone and disappear from sight again.
Charlie turned his body to face Sandy and they shared what felt like an empathetic moment of silent frustration before the sandman waved a stream of sand in front of his friends.
"Bunny, that way!" he signed with wide eyes.
North and Jack lit up and urged him to lead on. He started off, only then realizing that Bunny had pulled himself out of his tunnel with his arms instead of hopping spryly out like he usually did. How odd, he thought, but stowed the information away and continued on.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hello Reader,
I stopped updating this story because I wanted to be sure that the hints for later happenings were perfectly in place before posting them. But, I don't think that I'll ever feel like this story is perfect, so if I wait until it is, I will never post it.
With that said, I am going to continue posting the chapters (perhaps not weekly like before, but still regularly). I reserve the right to change a few things in chapters that have already been posted, and if I do alter something, I'll leave a note in the newest chapter advising you to re-read said alteration in whatever chapter it is in.
Now, I do not have the new cover picture ready yet, but I'll keep working on it. I'm trying to draw my own, but it is much more difficult than I thought it would be.
To my marvelous reviewers:
Guest,
Tug-of-war. I hate that game. The fact that you were dragged for several feet and had your skin ripped off makes me cringe. I'm so sorry that happened! Also, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Your inference that Bunny is hurt makes me proud. We will see! I look forward to reading your answers to the questions in this chapter.
Go Outside,
I'm glad you like some of the descriptions. It can be difficult to put something you imagine into words, so I'm glad that my vision of Sandy getting dizzy like that was able to come across accurately for you. Which sports have you been knocked out in? I did MMA for quite a few years, but I only woke up in a daze once after getting kicked in the head. BTW, excellent inferences! Also, I would love to know what you think about this new chapter.
Questions for my readers:
What do you think Charlie is trying to communicate to the Guardians with his cowboy impression?
What do you think Bunny is busy doing?
Have you ever tried to communicate with someone who spoke a different language? Did it turn out to be a positive experience, or a negative one?
Goodbye until the next chapter!