Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 5: The Snowman Cometh
"Ah-Choo. Ah-Choo." I said through repeated sneezes.
"Where did it say that silver springs timeshare was in the arctic?!" Eustace asked after sneezing for a solid minute.
You might be wondering where we were and what was happening. Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't entirely sure myself. All I do know is that we were on vacation in a place called the Arctic. And it was FREEZING COLD HERE. Honestly, it was colder than any part of the Atlas Kingdom. But as to why we were vacationing in this frozen tundra, well, we received a timeshare offer from Silver Springs. Deciding that it would be nice to go on vacation, we accepted the offer without even reading the fine print. But only after spending five minutes here I want to go back home to Nowhere and never return. And now, I think I caught a cold.
"I wanted palm trees." Eustace whined, pulling his coat and blanket tighter around himself.
'You and me both, Eustace.' I thought, blowing into my hands to try and keep them from trembling.
"I think it's a lovely change from all that hot sun." Muriel said as she continued to stir the soup on the stove, which was our only heat source in this igloo. Instead of receiving a building or house, we were given an igloo. And inside the igloo was a wood-burning stove to cook food and a table.
"Stupid cold." Eustace whined, shivering.
"How are you holding up, Courage? Still moving?" I asked. Instead of answering, he moved closer to the stove 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.
'Definitely.' I thought as I helped her set the table.
"Oh." Muriel worriedly said as she checked the stove's fire. "Courage, Jaune. Could you two 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 mentally agreed.
"GET THAT WOOD BEFORE I FREEZE TO DEATH, YOU TWO!" Eustace demanded before sneezing uncontrollably.
Rolling my eyes, I got down on my knees and exited the igloo with Courage right behind me. Standing up, we looked around the igloo to see if we could find any wood. Unfortunately, we only saw snow, snow, and more snow for as far as the eye could see. Sighing, we decided to venture out a bit further in hopes of finding sufficient wood. Yet, as we continued to look around, we soon saw a massive snowman standing in the distance. Curious but also concerned, we cautiously approached the Snowman to check it out.
'Where did this snowman come from?' Courage asked, curious.
"I have no idea, Courage." I answered, looking around to see If I could find any footprints that could tell me where the person who created the Snowman went. Strangely, there were none aside from ours.
"Where's that stupid dog and kid with that stupid firewood?!" Eustace shouted, getting our attention.
'How about we use these arms for wood?'
"Sure. Don't think he would mind anyway." I answered, chuckling. He chuckled as well before going up and grabbing the Snowman's left arm. I was about to grab the other one but jumped back in fright when the Snowman started to move by itself.
"And what do you two think you're doing? Put that back." The Snowman demanded.
Shocked, Courage immediately put the arm back. But right after he did that, we ran back towards the igloo as fast as possible. Sliding into the igloo, I saw that Courage was already telling Muriel and Eustace what we had just seen. Unfortunately, as usual, it fell on deaf ears. Honestly, sometimes it felt like only Courage, and I could see what was happening around us.
"Stupid dog! Stupid kid! Where's the wood?" Eustace demanded, only to become surprised when Courage transformed into an ice monster. However, they just ignored him.
"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 while I sighed as we sat in our chairs. Only for Eustace to force Courage out of the chair and force him to eat on the floor. Glaring at him, I thanked Muriel for the soup before trying to eat my soup. Tried being the keyword as my spoon was stuck in the frozen soup.
"What's this?" Eustace asked, shocked that his soup was frozen solid.
"Ha, Ha, ha! Oh, my! It's frozen! Isn't that a laugh?" Muriel asked, laughing as she tried and failed to free her spoon.
"How about you, Courage? Did your-" I began but burst into laughter when I saw Courage's tongue was trapped in his soup. He glared at me before trying to break the soup to free his tongue. Yet he failed as the soup proved to be much more durable than expected. I was so caught up in my laughter that I didn't notice Courage moving toward the window. Nor that something scared him until I heard him scream so loud that his voice broke the soup, thus freeing his tongue.
"What's wrong, Courage?" I asked, worried while getting up from my seat. But instead of answering, he jumped onto the table and pointed outside, saying that he saw a snow creature. Concerned, we decided to head out to see what was happening. Yet, we saw nothing once outside.
'That's strange.' I thought as there was no trail anywhere. While it may not have been a snow creature, it should have still left a trail.
"That's it." Eustace angrily said, turning to Courage and me. "If either of you doesn't get me some firewood, you'll both be sleeping with the icicles."
'But-But-' Courage said, trying to get Muriel to convince Eustace to change his mind. But he stopped and screamed his lungs out when Eustace pulled out his mask and scared Courage away.
"And don't come back without the firewood, neither." Eustace shouted through his laughter. Only to scream in pain when Muriel smashed her frozen soup over 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 Courage." I said before running after Courage.
I should make it known that Courage could run extreme distances in a small amount of time despite being a dog with short legs. So, it should not come as too much of a surprise that it took me about ten minutes before I saw a glimpse of Courage. Luckily, he did not make any turns and stopped nearby, so I didn't miss him. Walking over to him while catching my breath, I saw that he was focused entirely on the ground. Turning to see what he was looking at, I saw a giant trail in front of us. Big enough as if a snowmobile came through. Looking in both directions, I tried to figure out where the snowmobile went. Unfortunately, it seemed to be going in the direction of the mountains we saw earlier. But, strange enough, they didn't seem to be ordinary snowy mountains but rather a home, judging by the entrance carved into one of the mountains.
'What do you think made this?' Courage asked, curious.
"I have no idea. But I am guessing that we can find an answer if we go to those mountains." I answered while pointing toward the mountains.
'I was hoping you wouldn't say that.' Courage said with a wine.
"I don't want to go there either, Courage, but we have to. Otherwise, how will we 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, relenting.
We began to follow the trail to the mountains. But as we followed the path, we realized that the mountains were much farther than we initially thought. And for some reason, the wind seemed to pick up immensely soon after. It was almost as if it was trying to get us to 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, pulled him to my chest, and wrapped my arms around him tightly. With him secured in my arms, I continued forward into the snowstorm cloud thing. Unfortunately, the cloud was so thick that I couldn't see anything beyond a few inches. However, this proved to be a big mistake as, after a few seconds, we exited the cloud, only to realize that we had walked off a cliff.
'Uh-oh.' "Uh-oh." Courage and I simultaneously said when we realized our situation. But, as we stayed there in the air, it did not escape my mind that we were somehow defying gravity and all sense of logic. Yet, that was quickly replaced with screams when we plummeted down the cliff. After a couple of seconds of falling, we hit the side of the mountain. But that did not mean we were out of danger yet as we started rolling down the hill at alarming rates. And, because of our speed, we started collecting snow and quickly formed into a giant snowball. Fortunately, it did not last long as, due to our speed, we quickly reached the bottom and crashed into the mountain. The force behind the impact was enough to destroy the snowball, which freed us.
"Ow." I grunted in pain as I let go of Courage. Laying down, I grabbed some snow and placed it on my head to ease the pain until my aura took care of it.
'Jaune, are you okay?'
"Yeah, just give me a minute, and I'll be fine." I answered as I sat up. My aura had already numbed the pain to tolerable levels. But that didn't mean I was no longer in pain. "Which way now, Courage?"
'Um, let's go-' Courage began to answer as he looked in both directions but stopped when we heard mumbling coming from inside the mountain. '-That way.'
Getting up, we entered the mountain and followed the mumbling sounds. Soon the tunnel started to get smaller, forcing us to crawl the rest of the way. After a couple of minutes, we reached a doorway to another room. Only to realize that the tunnel wasn't on the ground floor but rather about twenty feet above the ground. Carefully moving closer to the edge, we looked down and saw that the mumbling belonged to the Snowman we had seen earlier. He was standing behind an ice desk with all sorts of beakers and chemicals on top.
'What could he be making?' I thought as we watched him mix different chemicals.
"How sad to be the last of the snowmen." The Snowman said as he picked up a thermostat. "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 up to?' I thought as I saw him put down the thermostat and laugh maniacally.
"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 warn them and get out of here."
He nodded in agreement. We turned to leave but stopped when we heard the Snowman speak again. This time as if declaring to the world so everyone could hear him.
"I SHALL HAVE THIS GENE! I WILL NOT MELT!" He said before laughing manically.
We immediately turned around and rushed back out of the tunnel. As soon as we could stand, we ran out of the mountain and headed back to our igloo. Luckily, the trail the Snowman left behind led directly to the igloo. But after about ten minutes, we decided to take a quick break to catch our breath. Yet, right after we caught our breath, we heard cracking coming from underneath us. Feeling dread creep up our spines, we looked down and noticed that we were standing over a frozen lake. And judging by how fast the ice was cracking, we knew that we wouldn't be able to escape in time. At any moment, the ice could give, and we fall into the freezing water and possibly freeze to death.
'Oh...oh...' Courage said, scared as the ice was seconds from giving way. Not even hesitating, I grabbed Courage and threw him to safety. Unfortunately, the ice gave way as soon as I did that, causing me to fall into the freezing waters. However, something strange happened. Instead of drowning or being pulled down, I became trapped in a solid block of ice. Yet, what was stranger still was that I could still breathe, see and hear everything around me.
'This doesn't make any sense.' I thought, slightly annoyed.
'Hold on, Jaune. I'm coming!' Courage shouted as he raced to the water's edge. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a lasso and used it to pull me onto solid ground. Once I was on the ice, Courage took off the rope, 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 continued to watch Courage slowly pick at the ice.
Three Hours Later
'Yeah.' Courage shouted in joy once the ice broke and I was free.
"Thanks, Courage. You're a true pal. Remind me to buy you a steak when we get back home." I told him as I patted him on the head.
'No problem. Now, let's get Muriel and leave this place.' Courage said, smiling as he threw the ice pick away.
"Right."
We ran as fast as possible and made it back to the igloo after about ten minutes. Entering, we became horrified when we realized that we were too late. All that was left was Muriel's apron and Eustace's blanket. We didn't need to be told that the Snowman took them as we knew it was him. Mainly because, aside from us, he was the only other creature that lived in this frozen 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 we exited the igloo.
Once outside, I was about to run back to the mountains but stopped when I saw Courage head in a different direction. I was about to ask where he was going but stopped when I saw that he was heading towards a sled that was not there moments ago. But, I must admit, I did get a chuckle when Courage grabbed the reins and shouted mush. Only to realize that there were no dogs there to pull the sled. Letting out a laugh as well, Courage ran up to me, somehow picked me up, and threw me into the sled before moving to the front of the sled. I was about to ask what he was about to do but got my answer when he grabbed the metal bars and used them to pull the sled. Initially, I was about to protest but went quiet when I saw how effortlessly he pulled the sled forward. However, that quickly changed when he decided to go up a steep incline. Knowing that he needed help, I was about to get out and help him but stopped when we reached the mountain's peak. Thankfully, before I could look down and give myself some severe nausea, the sled tipped forward and went down the slope at insane speeds. 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 to happen, I quickly grabbed him and pulled him into the sled. And just in time as the sled picked up even more speed.
"Careful Courage. You almost got run over." I warned him once I got him into the sled. While he wasn't pleased that I pulled him from his fun, he was still thankful for me saving him. But before he could say anything, the sled suddenly took off into the sky after flying off the cliff at break-neck speeds. We were sent so high into the sky that anyone would confuse us for Santa Claus. Fortunately, we were still heading towards the mountains. Unfortunately, we were coming in hot and would crash into the mountainside. Knowing this would hurt, I grabbed Courage so he wouldn't get hurt.
'AAAAAHHHHH!' "AAAAAHHHHH!" We screamed as we crashed into the mountain. Luckily, we did not get hurt that badly. Even more so, we crashed into the same room from earlier. However, we saw Eustace and Muriel tied up with the Snowman nearby as we flew across the room.
"OOF!" Courage and I grunted as the sled came to a sudden stop. And due to the sudden stop, I hit the railing while the momentum sent Courage flying out of the sled and through the Snowman. The impact caused the Snowman to recoil in shock and pain but otherwise seemed fine. Unfortunately, because of the sudden impact, some of the liquid in the tubes flew out.
"OH! NO! NOOOO!" He cried out as he tried to capture the liquid but failed as it 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 kid! They don't do nothing right!"
"Ha, ha, ha, ha." We suddenly heard the Snowman laugh. Turning to him, we saw that he quickly moved to the other side of the room and pulled a lever. Hearing a cracking sound from above, we looked up and saw icicles falling toward us. Without thinking, I promptly pulled Courage into me as the icicles fell around us and formed a makeshift prison.
'This is not good!' I thought, worried, letting go of Courage. Grabbing an icicle, I tried to pull it from the ground but failed as it was really deep in the ground.
"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, panicking as I tried to remove any of the icicles. And after a couple of attempts, I finally managed to yank one out of the ground. I was about to move on to the next one but stopped when I saw that Courage had already dissolved two of them by licking them. "Show off."
With those two icicles gone, we could escape our makeshift prison. Dashing over to the table, I grabbed a giant pitcher before running over to the Snowman. And just as he was about to turn the valve, I slammed the bowl onto his head.
"AH! AHHH! Assassin! Let me out of this!" The Snowman demanded as he tried to remove the pitcher from his head. "I can't get this thing off my head!"
"Courage, get Eustace. I got Muriel." I told him.
He nodded before racing over to Eustace and untying him. Turning back to Muriel, I pulled the valve off her head and removed the ropes from her. Once done, I grabbed her hand, pulled her toward the sled, and helped her in before getting in myself. Nodding to Courage, he grabbed the bars and started to pull the sled out of the mountain. Once we exited the mountain, I let out a sigh of relief, thinking that we were in the clear. But that feeling was quickly dashed when we heard shouting behind us. Turning around, I saw that the Snowman had freed himself and was now giving chase.
"I'll get you for this." The Snowman declared.
Luckily, thanks to Courage's incredible speed, we were able to put a good distance between the Snowman and us. And once we started going downhill, I pulled Courage into the sled so he could rest as we allowed gravity to do the work. Leaning back into our seats, we tried to calm our racing hearts. However, we sat up straight when we heard what sounded like an avalanche behind us. Turning around, Courage and I screamed when we saw the Snowman not only catching up to us but was also causing a small avalanche behind him.
"Prepare to meet your doom." The Snowman declared as he tried to pick up more speed. 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 the Snowman rapidly closed the distance.
"I'm feeling a bit warm." Eustace said, sweating profusely.
'AAAAAHHHHHH!' Courage screamed when the sled finally stopped. Unfortunately, it stopped in the worst place it could have. The sled 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 understanding, I got out of the sled and grabbed a pickax. Moving away from the sled, we started hitting the ice with the pickax in hopes of breaking it. At first, nothing happened with my arms soon growing tired. However, after a few more hits, cracks started to form underneath us. And as soon as the Snowman was about to reach us, the ice fully cracked, showing the water underneath. Unable to stop, the Snowman crashed into the freezing water. For a moment, we thought that he had melted. But we were proven wrong when he reappeared a moment later. However, we didn't need to worry about him as he became frozen in a block of ice. Feeling the ice that we were on began to move, we realized the Snowman's impact into the water caused the ice to move out into the sea.
'Finally, safe. For now, at least.' I thought as I sat down to rest a bit.
Dawn
It was dawn right now. Judging by the sun's position, we could tell it was about five or six in the morning. We were still huddled on the chunk of ice floating in the sea. However, while Courage, Muriel, and I were alright, Eustace wasn't. During the night, he had completely melted into water. All that remained of him were his glasses and hat.
"Poor Eustace. I don't know what we're going to do with him now." Muriel said as we continued to wonder how we could bring back Eustace. Unsure of what to do next, Courage walked up to the puddle while pulling out a sponge. While he started soaking up 'Eustace,' I grabbed his glasses and hat and pocketed them. Hearing a loud horn, we looked up and saw a cruise ship coming toward us.
"Oh, look. We're going to be saved." Muriel happily said, trying to flag down the passing ship.
'Praise Oum for the ship.' I thought as the ship came to a halt next to us. Once the ship stopped entirely, a ladder was thrown over the side so we could climb aboard.
Two days later
We were finally back home from that disastrous vacation. And after all that happened there, I never want to return as long as I live. However, I had this feeling in the back of my head that told me that we would have to return at one point in the future. 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, it was a bit hard to understand him.
'Says the guy who is literally just water in a pitcher right now.' I thought, struggling not to laugh at Eustace. While it might seem like I was being metaphorical, I wasn't, as Eustace was literally just water in a pitcher. His glasses were inside the pitcher with his hat on top.