Chapter Seven: Dogs and Pretty Rocks

Unfortunately, Sky's plan didn't work. The plan was worthy of a mad scientist. It involved eggs, meat, sticks, broken chairs, metal pipes and car horns. Too bad that cars where only legends in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

A month has passed…

"AHHHHHHH!" Screamed a high, feminine voice.

"AHHHHHHH!" Screamed Sky, though by sound alone you could hardly tell the difference.

Sky jumped out of bed, imaginary revolver in hand. "Who the heck is there?" Sky screamed, loading his invisible gun.

"Get it away! Get it away! Get it away!" A girl screamed from outside.

Throwing on a black ski mask, Sky opened the door. He found Muffy a moment later inside a tree. She was looking down at Ripper the dog with absolutely terror. "Get it away from me, you dope!" Muffy cried.

Sky laughed and pulled off the ski mask. He pat Ripper on the head. "Good dog, it seems you've found a burglar."

"I wasn't stealing anything! You are so dopey!" Muffy said with a pouting lip.

Sky wasn't listening. "Now the question is, do I leave you up there or let you down?" Sky thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It's midnight! I'll get you in the morning!" He said and began to walk away.

"Hey! You can't just leave me up here! That's cruel!"

Sky turned towards her. "Who said anything about me being nice?"
"It's proper to be nice to a lady such as myself!" Muffy said.

Sky sighed. "Fine. C'mon, Ripper." He whistled for the dog. Instead of coming to him, however, Ripper went over and began chewing on an old shoe.

Muffy slowly climbed down from the tree and dusted herself off.

"Hold it! Empty your pockets!" Sky demanded.

"Why? You don't actually think I stole something!"

"You have the right to remain silent!"

"Yeah, the right. That doesn't mean I have to, dopey!"

Muffy proceeded to empty out her pockets. They were full of useless things until Sky saw a few gold coins in her pocket. He put them in his hands. "You stole this."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!"

"Fine, then I'm stealing them from you." He pocketed it the small coins.

Muffy shrugged. "Fine, I have plenty more where that came from."

Sky was amazed, he stared at her greedily.

"Don't even think about it, Sky! Look, I just came over to visit you."

"Visit me! In the middle of the night?" Sky exclaimed.

Muffy folded her arms. "Duh, it's called a ' midnight stroll', dopey! I was planning for a nice, romantic night when your dog had to ruin everything!"

"I'm glad he did…" Sky muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"Look, dopey, how about you come visit me at the Blue Bar sometime? It can get a bit lonely."

"Uhh…" Sky scratched his head, he wasn't sure what to say.

Muffy sighed. "Well, then, goodnight." She said and left.

Sky watched her go, rubbing his eyes. "I must be dreaming all this, that's all. Or maybe it's the voices. They always do weird things to me…" And then he fell back asleep on the wooden-board-that-is-called-a-bed.

The next day Sky decided to do one of his explorations. His explorations were…like…important. Because if you didn't explore, you didn't…know! Did Christopher Columbus already know America was there without going there? Did Indiana Jones know there was a secret crypt in Africa without going there? No! Without explorations…everyone would live on this tiny rock and be very crowded!

So with this little piece of knowledge, Sky set out across the river. He didn't even know there was a river until he explored over there! Once he was over the river, he went down the hill and saw a tent in the distant. Because of his awesome exploration powers, he managed to walk over to the tent and walk straight into an archeological campsite! A man was just emerging from a strange hole in the ground. This man's name was Carter.

"Ho! Sky! What a pleasant surprise." Carter said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Sky kicked the dirt. "Yeah…I was…exploring…" He muttered.

Carter nodded. "I always do love explorers! You are the adventurous type, huh? Well, I'm exploring too! Just in different ways!" Carter said.

Suddenly a girl with beautiful golden hair and glasses emerged from the tent. Sky's mouth fell open. The girl walked over to Carter.

"Wow! You're cute!" Sky exclaimed before he could help himself.

The girl laughed. "Oh, you're so funny! My name's Flora." She said.

"Pretty name, too!"

Carter coughed rather loudly. "Yes, as I was saying…how about you help us out, Sky? I could use help finding ancient artifacts from a lost civilization."

"Will Flora be helping?" Sky asked.

"Yes." Flora said.

"Then I'm in!" Sky said.

Two minutes later, Sky was underneath a large tarp with a small, pathetic, not-shiny and un-pointy shovel. "Let's begin, then." Carter said.

Sky tapped the ground with the shovel. He was hardly paying attention, he was staring at Flora. Flora was taking complicated calculations and writing rapidly.

Suddenly his shovel hit something hard. Suddenly concentrating very hard, Sky dug up a rock. The rock was very shiny, though, and had pretty crystals inside of it. "Well, that sure is a nice find." Carter muttered as he saw it.

"Do you want it?" Sky said, looking at the rock.

"No, no, that's not what I'm looking for." Carter said. Sky shrugged and pocketed the rock. He could always use it to hit someone.

Two hours later, Sky dug up a large statue. Not just any statue, though, this one was made out of pure gold!

"Holy Molly! I'm rich! I'm rich! I'm rich!" Sky hollered, jumping up and down in rejoice. Then he proceeded to do his strange victory dance. Flora was laughing hysterically as he did it.

Suddenly, Carter snatched the statue out of Sky's hands. "That's exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you, Sky, you are done for the day."

Sky's mouth dropped open a few feet. "Hey! How about YOU take the rock, and I take the GOLD statue!"

"No, no, I don't need the rock. Just the statue."

"But…that's like…robbery!"

"I thought we agreed that you would help me find the object I wanted. If you found it, you would hand it to me."

"Yeah but…this is…GOLD!" He said.

Carter shrugged. "Go on, Sky, perhaps we shall meet again."

And Sky was thrown out of the pit.

Sky began reciting his list of very dirty words as he walked back down the road and across the river. As he did though, he saw Nami in the middle of the road. Nami was lying down in the dirt, staring at the dancing fire from a small fire pit.

"Uhh…Nami?" Sky said, looking at her curiously.

Nami didn't move her eyes. "So…pretty…I want to hug it!" She cried and mimed embracing the fire in her arms.

"People can get hurt that way, you know." Sky said.

"Fire is my friend." Nami declared, standing up. She then glanced at the rock that was in Sky's hand. "Oooh! That's pretty too!" She said, staring at the rock in awe.

Sky examined the rock, trying to see what was so exciting about it. "Do you want it? I certainly don't have a use for it."

Nami nodded her hand and Sky tossed the rock to her.

"Wow! Thanks Sky! I'll put it right next to my box of matches!" Nami said and ran off. Sky watched her leave, trying to puzzle out what just happened.

He mentally shrugged. I'm sure the voices will explain everything to me. Sky said and headed back home.