Chapter Ten
"He's waking up..."
Theodore didn't make out what was being said as his consciousness flew up and out of the shadows of his stupor. His foggy vision saw a lit haze populated by gray blobs that passed his view.
Then the breath-taking sensation of chilling water crashing upon his head brought the world into painfully sharp focus.
"Wha-What? What?" he sputtered wetly as he shot upright into sitting position on a beaded divan that looked too expensive for the surroundings Theodore saw as he regained his composure with a wide-eyed wheeze.
"He's awake now," came a voice from somewhere above him to the chorus of laughter.
Theodore wiped his face and scanned the room. From the carved walls and high, ringed ceiling, he knew he was in a rather large tree of sorts. Visits to his mother's arboreal home on Earth convinced him of that, but the comfortable atmosphere of a near-hollowed heartwood was the only similarity for him.
Like the tavern he was in before, it had a history that felt palatable, an air and a life of its own. Judging from the decor he was seeing, that really didn't seem like decor, if his brother Simon were with him, he would have classified the place as piratical.
Essentially the room was a spacious, circular pit, dug from root level, that, from the amount of frilled pillows, beaded cushions, ottomans and the one divan he sat in, was used to entertain the occupants. Its curved walls and floor were made of packed earth and built into one of the walls ahead of him was a tunnel that led underground.
Brass-like furnishings and knick-knacks clashed haphazardly with wooden furniture that came from two camps: cheaply made affairs and stolen, hand-crafted pieces more deserving to be called works of art than stylish household items.
Large crys-lamps were set against the walls, adding their light to the gaudy crystalline chandelier set in the center of the ringed ceiling above.
Looking up past the glare of all of their light, Theodore could see that the entire entertainment pit was ringed on its edge above by an equally wide, wooden, circular walkway, carved from the interior base of the tree, that doubled as a balcony for looking down into the pit. The walkway was done up as gallery where the occasional, crookedly-hung painting was displayed on its curved walls.
Also carved into the wooden walls were three large portals. One opened from the main hallway that led from the tree's main entrance to the walkway inside and lined up with a small set of steps that led from the walkway down to the pit. The second and third portals led to ascending stairways on either side of the room that wound through the tree centrifugally from the center of the tree, where the room was located.
The occupants of the tree also had a distinct look about them. All teens, male and female, they wore clothes of various styles of their own making, giving them the collective look of youthful, land-locked pirates, brigands and slightly armed strumpets.
They lounged about in the pit, pointing at Theodore and whispering amongst themselves jovially, or, like the owner of the voice that Theodore heard after his dowsing, mingling up on the walkway.
"What's going on? Where am I?" Theodore asked.
"The happiest place in all of EverSpring, believe it or not," came the voice Theodore recognized hearing seconds after his dousing.
Wiping the wet fur from his eyes, he braved a look up and could see, flanked on either side by his peers on the balcony above him, a male teen of bulky build and of sly sneer looking down at him both literally and figuratively.
"Huh?" Theodore was having a hard time deciphering that, considering the condition he currently found himself in.
The burly teen waved Theodore's confusion away dismissively. "I wouldn't worry about it, Chubby. You're pretty lucky you were partnered with that old Chipmunk we caught. Figured we could collect a little something extra with the bounty on his head by bringing you in alive, too."
"Bounty?" Now Theodore was totally confused. "What are you talking about? Where is he? What did you do to him? He didn't do anything to you."
The teen walked his way calmly down the stairs to where Theodore sat, followed by a smattering of his entourage. Theodore warily watched him take a seat across from the divan he sat upon. He didn't need some latent instinct to know that he didn't trust or like him.
Leaning back, smiling, with large arms crossed, the teen said, " He did something to someone, that's why he's wanted, or rather, was wanted. Yeah, you two are going to make me a very rich Chipmunk."
One of his compatriots standing near the teen's seat, voiced, "Hey, what about us? We deserve something for helping you bring the old 'munk down."
The teen looked up to the other and Theodore could see some of the teen's obviously false good-nature melt a little. The slick venom of the bully seasoning his words to his friend and, in fact, any and all within earshot.
"What? You don't think I could have brought him in by myself?"
His friend, in turn, didn't change expression, but his voice did waver in an almost imperceptible plaintive. "Well?"
"Don't fret," the teen sighed. "The bounty's so big, there'll be nice, fat cuts for each of you." He then turned his attention back to Theodore. "And as for your partner, he's safe in our little dungeon for now."
Despite his situation, Theodore was beginning to tire of this mistaken identity rap. The longer he bandied with this thug, the worse Eleanor's problem's would be, and he realized that he was thinking as positively as he could if he was thinking that his girlfriend was alive to have problems to begin with.
"But he's not my partner. I don't even know him personally. I just saw him in trouble and helped out. You guys ganged up on him. It wasn't like he had an army behind him, y'know?"
The teen seemed unfazed by the admission. "Believe me, in his day, it might have taken an army to bring him down. We were just being cautious. That leaves only you. There's no room in the dungeon with the old one in there so I'll keep you and him separated so you two can't come up with an escape plan.
"But I'm telling you, I don't know him."
With that, the teen stood up to almost tower over the sitting Theodore. It was the grin he gave Theodore that made the captive worry the most.
"Well, I hope you're tell me a lie, because if that's true, you're worthless to me." The clean dagger he slowly, playfully pulled from a concealed part of his clothes put a point to his warning. "And I do hate holding on to worthless things."
Theodore gulped dryly as his stomach knotted. 'Worse and worse,' he thought. Then he heard a voice from above them all.
"Oh, I don't know, Lerk. You don't follow my orders that often, but I hold on to you pretty much."
Raucous laughter from both sexes in the room followed that comment as Theodore looked up cautiously to prepare himself for his next potentially dangerous acquaintance. He was intrigued by what he saw.
She was small in build, about Theodore's height, and dressed in the same style as the others. A thick, long braid of brown hair cabled from her head down to the small of her back.
He had almost made the mistake of mentally grouping her with the other lounging or carousing females in the room when he noticed that the big fellow, Lerk, looked a little humbled by the exchange and that everyone else laughed, a good number of them quicker than most.
Combined with her confident stance and her jovial, yet predatory smile, Theodore reasoned that she could have been their leader.
'She must be as dangerous as botulism to be in charge of all these guys,' Theodore assessed.
"How are ya?" the female called down to him. "Are ya all right? Can ya stand any?"
"Yes," he said uneasily. She seemed to sense his wariness all to well.
"We're The War Orphans!" she announced with a measured pride. "Kelyn at your service."
"Theodore Seville," he greeted back. "How do you do?"
She brightened at that and her smile became incredulous. "Well, I do all right for myself, thank you! Aren't ya just the proper little lord in our den of bandits."
After the light chorus of chuckles that that elicited, she said to him, "Don't let Lerk rattle ya, friend." She descended to where Lerk still moodily sat and gave him an affectionate hug. "He may be a bit money-hungry an' rough, but it so hard to find a boyfriend who's also you're second-in-command. That's rare, y'know?" A peck on the cheek from her lightened Lerk's sulk.
"Can you steal at least?" he asked Theodore curmudgeonly.
Theodore felt it was a fair enough question. "I'm afraid I don't. Besides, it's wrong, anyway."
Lerk's disgust was apparent enough without him having to say, "He's as bad as that self-righteous Autumnal Guard. Don't steal? Pheh!"
"That's all right, anyways," Kelyn defended. "We've more than enough thieves, but good musicians are pretty hard to come by."
"Huh?" Theodore asked her.
"I was in the tavern listening to ya before Lerk and his bunch jumped ya. Yer pretty good with that laversy. Ya sound like a skilled journeymunk. It would be nice to have some one around who can play like that. What do ya say? It's not like ya got anywhere to go and sure beats being taken to Don't Return Forest."
"Don't Return Forest?" Theodore asked her suspiciously.
"Yeah," she said so matter-of-factly. "You're taken to the forest, the things in there grab ya and probably eat ya, and then ya don't return."
"Who says there's no truth in advertising?" muttered Theodore under his breath.
"Say something?" Kelyn asked.
"No. Nothing," Theodore lied.
Kelyn shrugged it away. "So, do you want to join up, Theodore?"
Theodore hesitated visibly. He couldn't stay with these cut throats while Eleanor was wherever she was, possibly suffering and needing him badly. He glanced slightly at Lerk. However, he had to stay alive to save her eventually, too. This circumstance was a terrible delay, but he might be able to slip away once he allayed their suspicions and lulled them into false security. Now he knew what Simon would mean by a calculated risk.
"I...I suppose I could," Theodore said at last.
With that, Lerk stood up quickly with a joyful eagerness that looked somewhat out of place with his rough bearing. "Great, I'll get ready then." Then he trotted up to the balcony and out through the path that led to the tree's main entrance, followed by a number of his companions and their girlfriends. With a sudden cheer, others were getting from their seats to follow Lerk as well, an anticipatory air was charged about them.
"Get ready for what?" Theodore asked Kelyn, watching the pit empty out.
"For the challenge you offered."
Theodore felt like he had been dropped on his head. "What?! What challenge?"
"When you said you'd join us," Kelyn explained easily. "Everyone has to prove their worth here and Lerk's the one ya have to beat to get in. You'll do fine. I got faith in ya."
"Well, I've got blood in me, and I'd like to keep it there," Theodore countered.
All that elicited was a full laugh from her. "You're a right riot, ya are. Ya make me laugh, so's ya got my vote. C'mon, day's a-wasting."
Despite the thumping he knew was sure to come, Theodore's stomach didn't flip-flop as much as he feared it might, and instead growled low. How long since I ate? he wondered. This topsy-turvy world's got me forgetting even the most basic of needs.
"Well, could I maybe get a little something to eat first?" he asked. "I'd hate to get beat up on a empty stomach."
Kelyn smiled and made a gesture towards the tunnel entrance ahead of them. "Of course. The kitchen's in the back of the hall, there, but don't take too long now."
Theodore slowly got up from the divan and shuffled in the direction of the tunnel with the look of the condemned.
"Sure," he said dejectedly. "No sense being late to my own funeral."
'I didn't think it was universal,' Theodore thought as he reluctantly approached the high mound of brown earth. A throng of Chipmunks surrounded both the base of the mound and him to keep Theodore from escaping and to garner a good view of the scene that was about to play out.
The sounds of a heavy scuffle drew Theodore's attention up the mound to the summit. There, Lerk and another male his build and size, were wrestling.
One swift and unexpected leverage move from Lerk and his opponent began to slide and then tumble unceremoniously over the side, his speedy descent tearing clumps of dirt free to rain down over Theodore and those closest to him.
Theodore shook the dirt from his hair as the vanquished 'munk rolled into a heap by his feet. Feeling for him, he asked the male, "What happened?"
"I was practice." the male croaked.
Two Chipmunks from the crowd helped the loser to his feet and walked him out of the area. Looking up the slope again, Theodore could see Lerk looking down at him, eager to embarrass, eager to bruise.
Lerk looked out at the audience ringing the hill of dirt he stood atop.
"That was just an appetizer, folks," he crowed. "Are you ready to see this dumpling roll down my hill? Just say, 'Aye' !"
A stirring collective "Aye!" sang from all around Theodore and rose up the sides of the hill as the crowd began to close around the base of the mound and force Theodore to reach the base of the mound and climb.
"Climb...climb...climb!" the multitude chanted as Theodore looked back at the wall of bodies that confirmed that he was effectively trapped. With a sigh of resignation, he slowly clawed his way higher up the slope, keeping his eye on Lerk all the while.
'Bullies are universal, too, it seems,' Theodore mused nervously, debating on whether his height up the makeshift mountain or the prospect of dealing with Lerk provided the most tension for him.
As he ascended the slope, ignoring the taunts from above and the cheers and jeers from below, Theodore's vision caught the sun, high in its path of the day.
Time.
A new, fresh knot of anxiety threaded its way through his gut as Eleanor's plight reasserted itself in his heart. Time was his enemy and he chided himself bitterly at wasting so much of it on this pointless alpha-male nonsense. He was clearly aware that he was trying to save himself through ingratiation, at the expense of precious time that could have been better spent in search of her. He was dooming her through inaction.
"Taking a rest, are we?" came Lerk's voice from above him.
The words snapped Theodore from his self-imposed funk. He flashed his green eyes open, only realizing that beforehand, they were clamped shut in frustration, and earth was squeezed from his clenched fists.
"I don't have time for this," Theodore muttered to himself reprovingly.
Hearing him, Lerk taunted, "Then let me speed you on your way, then!" He shifted his stance on the mound and lashed his free foot out towards Theodore's head in a debilitating kick.
It missed narrowly as Theodore ducked his head flinchingly down. Then Theodore crab-walked as fast as he could in the crumbling dirt as Lerk risked losing his perch in the summit by stomping at him. The jeers and whoops below, rising at a matching pitch to the action.
It didn't take Theodore long to realize that he was actually safer where he was in relation to Lerk, who was starting to do some actual damage to the mound with his increasingly frustrated stomps at his head.
'He'll have to come down here to me,' Theodore surmised, his momentarily free hand patting his pants pocket. Despite the occasional shout that he climb up to Lerk and fight him off, Theodore ignored it and clumsily maintained his position just below Lerk and just out of reach.
"Coward!" Lerk growled laboriously, feeling his credibility slip away from his peers with each minute he didn't dispatch Theodore to the ground. "I thought you wanted to join our gang. You'll have to bring me down if you want to be in, and that's not going to happen, Chubby."
"Well," Theodore retorted in a tiring huff, "You haven't brought me down yet."
In the back of Lerk's mind, he knew that Theodore had to have had a plan by now to keep a safe distance from him and still be virtually close enough to out flank him if he decided to quickly climb to the peak and maybe rush him over the side. That could happen if he allowed it by tiring himself by stomping at the lower and more defensive youth.
But he also knew that he was much stronger than his current opponent.
In a flash that startled Theodore inwardly, Lerk let himself slide from the summit. Breaking to a slowing halt with his fingers and feet, he reached Theodore's level and shot a fumbling, free hand out to snatch Theodore by the side and fling him from the mound.
With a squeak of fright, Theodore clawed the wall of earth, scuttling away from Lerk in a rapid, dirt-covered panic as the cheers below rose higher in pitch and intensity.
Like the crowds below, Lerk had to marvel at how fast a chubby, little fellow like him could move when the situation warranted. Already, Theodore was almost around the other side of the mound, but Lerk was gaining with every foot and hand-hold.
'His arm...his sleeve,' Lerk thought rapaciously, his fingers almost touching them by an inch or two into his climb. 'You can't outrun me, Chubby. One grab and you're done for.'
Theodore spidered another foot, then looked up. The thought struck him. The top was empty, he could reach it if he hurried.
He slowed his sideways crawl and tensed his legs for the climb upwards. His arm furthest out stretched up and clawed a hand-hold, his furthest leg cocking upward for an equal purchase. He began to pull himself higher from his position when he was caught like a vise on his other arm.
Theodore glanced over worriedly at the clutched fist that promised to stay attached to his sleeve permanently, or at least until it and the arm it belonged to whipped him down from his spot onto the ground. He could see Lerk's eyes spark with a dark triumph as he pulled himself closer to Theodore.
Theodore tried to pull against him, fighting as best he could against his now rising anxiety, but not only could he not get any further away or above him, fighting against Lerk's hold caused Theodore's feet to dig deeper into the soil, causing him to slide further down inch by inch.
"I can't believe I had to come down here and chase after you," Lerk sneered happily as he shifted his weight and stance to snatch Theodore off the mound. "I have to say that I never had to come down from my place in the sky to knock someone down before. You'll actually be the first."
Theodore's grip to the mound was lessening by the second, the fingers getting pulled out of the earth and the feet sliding more and more out of their holds.
"Wa-Wait a minute, Lerk!" Theodore yelled as his side furthest from Lerk lost all connection with the mound's side and swung out suddenly. "It's just a game, right?!"
"Well, in that case," Lerk said with undisguised glee, "The game is up!"
Theodore's freed hand tried to find its way back to the mound, but while he struggled to keep his balance, it slapped against his pants pocket. Then he finally felt hopeful.
Lerk chuckled and jerked his grasping arm hard to dislodge Theodore off completely. The last sight he saw, incredibly, was Theodore reaching for something in a pocket that was hidden from Lerk's view and then a white, round ball of something with a spicy scent fly into his face. Pain was the next thing that he found.
His hand came away in a hurry and went straight for his eyes, trying to rub, brush and outright dig out the substance that made his eyes feel as though they were on fire, which only increased the agony. What he inhaled took the breath from his lungs and made him hack in wet, violent gasps.
Theodore turned his head in time to avoid the red-tinted cloud, though he could still smell the pungency of it. He twisted himself so he could better clutch the mound's side again and began to climb, not looking back at the coughing Lerk.
When he decide to wrap up and keep a little of the peppery spice from the kitchen he had come from to use on any food he might come across on his travels while looking for Eleanor, he hadn't thought it would come in so handy so soon. Although he belatedly knew he was just being desperate when he used it.
Something in him made him look down to Lerk in concern. He didn't wish him harm, but he did need to win. Lerk, gagging, kneaded the dirt painfully. Any invectives he spluttered at Theodore were barely intelligible as he writhed more and more into losing his balance and his opponent resumed he climb to the top.
Soon Theodore could feel the earth end into the crude plateau of the top of the mound and he carefully crawled over it and then sat up. The view was rewarding enough. Although he could just see over the roofs of the nearest ground-level homes and a fair length of the abandoned village, he felt a sense of pride through his exhaustion and jitters.
Below him, the portions of the crowd that were pro-Lerk, yelled their disapproval, disdain and dismissal of Lerk as the object of their jeers, after rubbing the spice into his eyes one time too many and doubling over in torment, finally lost his footing and rolled, tumbled and slid into a dirty, pained heap at the foot of the little mountain, wailing about needing water. Pro-Theodore factions pounded shoulders with one another and cheered, collecting small winnings from the bets they made from the Pro-Lerks.
Lerk was helped up by some of his entourage and given a jug of cool water to pour over his face, while in his mind, he reviewed his notions about this Theodore. He was unassuming, but evidently ruthless when he needed to be, he pondered. No wonder the old 'munk was willing to have him around when he was ambushed. Theodore was probably his junior partner or maybe a squire to pass along his deadly legacy.
Lerk decided to let the loss pass. He respected Theodore's plan to beat him in that manner, for it was what he would have done, himself. But if he could let him get away with the win, he also knew he'd have to keep a sharp eye on Theodore as well. Cunning like the young Chipmunk's could win sudden allegiances, power, loves and lusts. Things that defined what he, Lerk, loved best in life and what he had been defending for as long as he was a gang member, through his own ruthless and sometimes cunning action.
Unnoticed by the cheers of the crowd, the refreshing gurgle of the water rinsing his eyes clean and the scheming turmoil in his mind, Lerk hadn't noticed, some distance away from it all, Kelyn watching Theodore's victory with an very appraising eye.