Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 81: Tulip's worm
"You're definitely getting better, Courage." I said, smiling as we listened to him play the tuba.
"Does he know any other instruments?" Winter asked while sipping on her tea. While Courage might have gotten better in the past couple of days, he was still far from perfect and often made foul notes which caused Winter to have a headache.
"Do you know of any instruments, Jaune?" Penny asked, sounding unsure as she tried her best not to spill her tea.
Ever since she became human a while ago, she's been so excited to learn what it's like to be a human. But becoming human came with a whole set of challenges neither she nor others could have anticipated, both personal and non-personal. Thankfully, Weiss, Willow, Winter, and her father have been by her side every step of the way. Recently though, she's been wanting to come to visit and thank me for helping her become human again. And seeing that she had some free time, Winter volunteered to bring her.
"A couple before being adopted into the Bagge family. But Courage has taught me a few since then." I answered.
"Can you teach me how to play an instrument?" Penny asked.
"Sure." I answered. "What instrument would you like to learn?"
"How about the violin?" She suggested.
"Maybe you should start with something simpler as the violin is considered one of the more difficult instruments to learn." Winter told her.
"How about the tumbadora?" I suggested, earing confused glances.
"What's a tumbadora?" Winter asked.
"It's another name for the conga, which is both a dance and an instrument. As for the instrument, it's a different version of the drums. Where, instead of using a drum stick, you use your hands and make a different kind of music." I explained.
"Sounds fun. I would like to learn the conga." Penny said, excited.
"NO! THERE WILL BE NO MORE RACKET IN THIS HOUSE!" Eustace shouted as he entered the living and headed for his chair.
'Do you even have the instrument?' Courage asked as he stopped to take a breath before resuming his practice.
"Yeah. I found a few instruments up for sale and brought them. And one of them was the conga." I explained.
"THAT'S IT!" Eustace shouted, getting our attention. Turning to him, we saw him get out of his chair and make his way over to Courage. He then grabbed Courage and threw him out of the house, followed by the tuba. "LOUSY, NOISY HORN-BLOWING-"
"Thanks, Winter." I said with a sigh when she used some ice dust to freeze Eustace in place.
"If only ice dust lasts forever." She said as we moved the Eustace icicle to the side. We then headed to Courage, who had just freed himself from being trapped inside the tuba.
"You okay, Courage?" Penny asked as we reached him. Although, we had to suppress a chuckle when we realized that Courage was now in the shape of the tuba.
'Fine.' He answered before putting his thumb in his mouth and blowing, which caused him to return to normal shape. He then grabbed the tuba and resumed his practice.
"It seems Courage has a new fan." Penny said, getting to our attention. Turning to her, we saw that she was pointing to a blue worm with big eyes bobbing back and forth to the music.
'Huh?' Courage asked, confused. However, as soon as he stopped playing the tuba, the worm went back into its hole.
"Aw. It seems like it's afraid." Penny said.
"I do not recognize the type of worm. How about you, Jaune?" Winter asked.
"I have never seen that type of worm before." I answered, equally confused and slightly curious about the strange worm.
'Let me try something.' Courage said before playing the tuba, which drew the worm out of its hole to our surprise.
"Guess it loves tuba music." Penny surmised, bobbing her head in sync with the worm.
"Ah, I see you all made a new friend that likes Courage's tuba playing." Muriel said behind us, which, unfortunately, scared the worm back into its hole.
'Huh?' Courage asked, confused.
"Maybe he doesn't like to be around too many people?" Penny suggested.
"A shy one, he is." Muriel said before giving each of us a sandwich. "Peanut butter and jelly."
"Thank you." We said as we took a bite of the sandwich.
"Did you put vinegar in the sandwich?" Winter asked, trying to keep her composure as she was never a fan of vinegar.
"Only a wee bit." Muriel answered.
'Which means a lot.' I mentally thought, recalling how much Muriel loves vinegar. And this resulted in her putting far more than was needed in food that didn't need any.
'Look. Up there.' Courage quickly said while pointing to the sky. Using this as our chance, we took the food out of our mouths and buried it in the hole Courage made before giving the rest of the food to him. We hated doing this, but there was simply too much vinegar in the food to enjoy it. Later, I could take the remains and balance it out.
"It is a lovely cloud formation." Muriel agreed, unaware of what we had just done. "Looks like my aunt Gertrude. But without the ugly mole."
'AAAHHH!' Courage gasped when we saw the cloud explode with a spaceship flying towards us right after.
"Did you all like the sandwich?" Muriel asked.
"We did. But we have more pressing matters now." Winter answered while taking out her weapon.
"OOH, MY!" Muriel gasped when she finally noticed the spaceship.
"This can't be good." I said as the spaceship landed nearby with steps coming out of its door a moment later.
'EII!' Courage whined while twisting his ears.
"Wait. Living teddy bears?" Penny asked, confused as two creatures that resembled teddy bears ran up to us. But what drew our attention immediately was the large space gun that one was carrying. The other one was holding what appeared to be a tracker of some kind.
"Questions first, sheesh." The yellowish, greenish teddy bear reminded the brown teddy bear when it aimed the gun at us. This action alone told us that the yellow-green one was in charge while the other was only following orders.
'A trigger happy one. Best keep an eye on him.' I thought, worried for everyone's safety.
"Welcome." Winter said, unsure of how to proceed.
"Yeah, hi. Anyway, did any of you see a worm around here?" The yellow-green bear asked, clearly impatient and in a rush.
"What do you want with a wee worm?" Muriel asked, confused.
"And what kind of worm as there are multiple different kinds of worms here?" Winter added.
"Gonna take it captive. Bring it back to where it belongs." The yellow-green teddy bear answered.
"That hardly seems nice." Muriel said, upset.
"And highly excessive." Winter added. Only to regret her words when the brown teddy bear fired a laser from his gun, which destroyed the farmhouse.
"YAA! HEY, MURIEL. SHUT THE WINDOW!" We heard Eustace shout, somehow still alive and unaware of what had just happened.
"So, tell us where the worm is or fry." The yellow-green teddy bear threatened while the brown teddy bear aimed his gun at us again.
"I must say, you aren't very polite." Muriel said, getting more upset.
"Tell us where the worm is, or fry! Please." The teddy bear repeated.
"Yeah. Much better." I said sarcastically.
"Could they be looking for the blue worm with big eyes that we saw earlier?" Penny asked, curious.
"Yes, that's the worm we're looking for." The yellow-green teddy bear answered.
"We'll tell you where it is, but first, answer this. Why do you need to capture this worm?" Winter asked. "Are you both poachers?"
"What?! No!" The yellow-green bear answered, sounding offended. "The worm is a pet, and we're returning him to his owner, who's very upset at his disappearance."
'That's a relief.' Courage said with a sigh of relief.
"I take they are more of a problem here than where we come from?" The yellow-green bear asked.
"More than you know." We answered as Courage grabbed his tuba and began to play some notes. And a second later, the worm returned and started bobbing back and forth to the music. But to our surprise, instead of gently digging around the worm, they grabbed it and began to yank on it.
"Is that really necessary?" Winter asked, slightly annoyed.
"You're going to hurt the small, little thing." Muriel added, not liking how they were treating the worm.
"Wouldn't digging him out be easier?" Penny asked. However, as soon as she asked that, we found out why they were trying their current method.
"That's one big worm." We all said in shock as the worm soon revealed itself to be a giant space worm monster.
'AAHHHH!' Courage screamed with his mouth going through the tuba and ending up on the other side.
"AAHHHH!" Muriel screamed in terror.
"Okay, WORM! YOU'RE COMING HOME!" The yellow-green worm said as both teddy bears hung onto the worm's head. "TULIP WANTS YOU BACK! SO JUST GIVE IT UP, BUCKO!"
"Shouldn't we help them?" Penny asked.
"A bit late for that, I'm afraid." Winter answered as the worm threw the teddy bears into the air before eating them and letting out a loud belch afterward.
"Maybe Eustace was right about the tuba." Muriel said, worried and scared. The worm roared, getting our attention.
"WATCH OUT, MURIEL!" I shouted as I tried to push her out of the way as the worm started going after her. Unfortunately, I was too late as the worm picked her up and ate her.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage screamed in terror.
"MOVE!" Winter ordered as she prepared to defend us. Unfortunately, before she could even raise her weapon, the worm swiftly picked her up and ate her as well.
"WINTER! We screamed as the worm dove back into the ground.
'Come on.' Courage urged us as we ran up to the hole.
Steeling ourselves, we jumped into the surprisingly deep hole. Thankfully, our aura protected us while Courage was somehow unharmed. Dusting ourselves off, we stood up and began to chase the worm. Thankfully, the worm wasn't that fast, which allowed us to catch up quickly. But we knew we couldn't keep this up for long, so we lunged at the worm and landed on its tail. Once we felt secure, we began to move up the worm's body to where its stomach was. However, we nearly fell off when Muriel's form appeared on the worm's stomach.
"Courage, Jaune, Penny. It's me-Muriel." She said, scared. "I'm inside the worm."
'AAAHHH!' Courage screamed in fear.
"Are you okay, Muriel?" I asked.
"It's really not so bad. Except for the getting digested part." She answered.
"But we'd prefer to be outside the worm, not getting digested." Winter added, her form appearing next to Muriel.
"Alright, you three. Listen up." One of the teddy bears said, its form appearing next to Winter. "GET US OUT OF HERE!"
"How?" Penny asked as we got off the worm since it stopped moving.
'Uh-huh. Uh-huh.' Courage said while nodding his head.
"It's easy. Get us to Tulip. The worm's her pet." The teddy bear told us.
"Is she nice?" I asked, worried that she might attack us as soon as she spots us.
"Oh, yes. She's very nice. She'll know what to do." He answered.
"But how do we get to her?" I asked.
"Just get us onto the ship and fly us back to planet Eck in galaxy L7X." He answered.
'Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Nuh-uh.' Courage said, not at all liking the plan.
"Uh, any other plan?" I asked, unsure of how to even get the worm on the spaceship.
"You've all got to get us to this Tulip person if we're going to get out of here alive." Muriel told us. "I'm feeling woozy."
"Hold on, Muriel. We'll get you out of there." I told her as their forms disappeared.
'How do we even get the worm onto the spaceship?' Courage asked.
"Perhaps with Courage playing the tuba, we could lure the worm onto the spaceship." Penny suggested.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." I said as we made our way back to the surface.
Once on the surface, we headed towards where Courage had left his tuba. He then began to play, which quickly attracted the worm back to the surface. After a moment, we led the worm onto the ship towards the center of the room. However, the worm became hostile as soon as Courage stopped playing the tuba. Luckily, Courage had some headphones and a cassette on him that played classic, relaxing tuba songs. And once on, the worm instantly became docile again.
"Now what?" I asked, looking around the surprisingly big yet empty room.
"Are we on the ship?" The teddy bear asked.
"Yes. But how do we pilot the ship?" I asked.
"And how do we get there?" Penny added.
"It's easy. Ever fly a tri-neutronics split-vector interstellar transport with an acceleron sub-particulate field generator?" The teddy bear asked.
"I do believe Jaune has only driven regular cars." Winter said after a moment of us trying to process what the bear had just said.
"How about this? Ever ride a bike?" The teddy bear asked.
"Yes." I answered.
"Same thing." The teddy bear said before pointing behind us. Turning around, we saw what seemed to be an exercise bike that acts as the ship's controls.
"But how do we get to Tulip?" Penny asked.
"We'll give you instructions once we are in space." The teddy bear answered.
Nodding, we went over to the bike, and after a brief argument, Courage got onto the bike while putting on the helmet. For a moment, we thought we had to turn a switch or something to turn on the spaceship. Thankfully, we didn't need to worry about that, for as soon as Courage began peddling, the spaceship activated before closing its doors. It let out a loud hum before ascending from the ground and speeding towards outer space. Luckily, it seemed that the ship had artificial gravity that kept us from floating around the spaceship. Unfortunately, we were nearly sent flying to the back of the room from the sudden burst of speed.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage screamed as he held onto the bike for dear life.
"Okay. We're in space." I said as we calmed down, and the ship slowed down to what I presumed was cruising speed.
"How do we get to Tulip?" Penny asked, looking a bit queasy.
"You okay, Penny?" I asked, worried.
"Fine. But I don't travel well now since becoming human." She answered.
"Thankfully, space travel is rarely a bumpy path, and our course is pretty smooth once we exit the planet's atmosphere." The teddy bear told us.
"That's a relief." I said with a sigh. "Anyway, the instructions."
"Right. Okay. Take a left turn at Saturn, take the Nebulon off-ramp to interstellar eighty. When you see the intergalactic house of sausage, count to twelve. Think lovely thoughts and press the big red button. Got it?" The teddy bear asked.
"Um, you got it, Courage?" I asked, turning to him.
'Got it.' He answered while writing it down on a notepad.
"By the way, the worm has started the active digestion phase. So, if you don't mind, MOVE IT!" The teddy bear shouted before disappearing back into the worm.
"Hurry, everyone." Winter added, trying to keep calm despite the situation.
'OOH!' Courage gasped before speeding up his peddling. Walking over to him, we looked towards the front of the ship and noticed that we were quickly approaching Saturn.
"What part of the digestive system do you think they are currently in, Jaune?" Penny asked.
"TENDERIZING!" The teddy bear shouted in pain.
"Hopefully, the digestive tract of the worm is slow." I said before holding onto Penny and the bike when Courage did a sharp left when we reached Saturn. Unfortunately, he was too late to turn and knocked Saturn's ring off.
'Hopefully, that won't come back to bite us in the butt.' I thought with a wince. Turning back to the front, we noticed a sign quickly approaching.
"Take a right, Courage." I reminded him, which he did so.
'Got it.' He said as we 'entered' the off-ramp.
"Do you need a break?" Penny asked as Courage began to pant excessively.
'No, I'm good.' He answered.
"THEN, HURRY!" The voice of Winter shouted before we heard everyone sneezing repeatedly.
'That might be a bit difficult.' Courage said, getting out attention.
"Why's-SHIT!" I began before shouting when we noticed that we had entered an asteroid belt.
'OOOH! UHG!' Courage grunted as he tried his best to get us out of danger, all the while alarms rang throughout the spaceship. Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, and a few near misses, we escape the asteroid field.
"Nice biking, Courage." I said, relieved to be out of danger. But we tensed up when the radio came to life. Luckily, it seemed to be a broadcast from a restaurant.
'Mom and Dad, come on down to the international house of sausage. Free balloons for the kids.' The message read as the restaurant came into view.
"What did the bead say we should do now?" I asked, trying to remember.
"He said to count to twelve and think happy thoughts before pressing the big red button." Penny answered.
'One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten...eleven.' Courage began counting.
"Twelve." We all said in unison and began to think happy thoughts as Courage pressed the button.
"WOOOOAAAHHH!" Penny and I shouted as we struggled to stay upright from the sudden burst of speed. Looking back towards the screen, we could barely make anything out as we were going so fast, they only appeared as blurs. After a few moments, however, a red thing quickly approached and sucked us in. We were worried it might have been a trap but quickly realized it was a wormhole. But before we could try to figure out where we currently were, we crashed into what appeared to be two giant blue legs. And judging from the sound of pain it emitted, we could tell that we crashed into a young girl.
"Hopefully, we're here." Penny said as I helped and Courage to their feet.
"Pray to Oum that this is Tulip and the bears were not lying." I said as the girl picked up the spaceship as if it was a toy.
'Hang on.' Courage said as the girl flipped the spaceship on its side and began to shake it. We held onto the bike in fear of letting go and possibly meeting our demise. But after the fifth shake, we lost our grip and fell out of the spaceship along with the worm.
"Ow." We all grunted as we landed on her palm in pain. Getting up, we noticed the girl was looking upon the worm with fondness.
"Oh, wormie. I missed you, you runaway worm, you." The girl said while petting the worm. Her attention then shifted to us. "OH! Hello, little pink dog and humans."
"Hello." We greeted with a smile.
"I'm Tulip." She told us. "What's are your names?"
"I'm Jaune." I began before pointing towards Courage. "This is Courage."
'Hello.' He said nervously.
"And I am Penny. I used to be a robot, but I'm human now." Penny finished with a smile.
"That's wonderful. How are you enjoying life?" Tulip asked.
"It's wonderful. There are so many things I could try now that I couldn't before." Penny answered.
"Marvelous. But on the subject of marvelous things, have any of you seen my teddies?" Tulip asked.
"That's why we came to see you. Your worm ate the teddies, my mom and a friend of ours." I told her.
'They are being digested as we speak.' Courage added, panicking.
"Naughty, naughty wormie." Tulip said before on the worm's stomach. However, only the space gun the brown teddy bear used earlier came out to our horror. "OH, NO!"
"What's wrong?" Penny asked.
"The teddies and everyone else are too far down to squeeze out." Tulip answered before beginning to cry. "Oh, oh, my teddies."
'Oh, no.' Courage gasped.
"Don't cry. We'll get your teddies out." I told her.
"You will?" She asked.
"Yes. We will." I answered before turning to Courage and Penny. "Let's go."
They nodded before following me to the worm. Grabbing the worm's mouth, we managed to open it after a couple of tugs. Entering, we ran down the worm's throat while ignoring the squishing sound that came each time we took a step. Although, I was thankful that I still had my shoes on as I was pretty ticklish. And judging by Courage's expression, I would not have made it past five feet. But I was quickly brought out of my thoughts when Penny pulled to the side to avoid getting crushed by two mallets wielded by mechanical arms.
'This worm's digestive tract sure is weird.' I thought as all three of us sneezed continuously thanks to being seasoned by pepper and salt from the worm's intestinal helpers.
"Hopefully, this isn't stomach acid." Penny said, nervous as we stood in front of a giant tub of green liquid.
"Only one way to find out." I said as I took off my shoe and threw it into the liquid, where thankfully, it didn't melt.
Breathing in and out, we dove into the green liquid and swam across to the other end. Once there and on the ground again, we shook ourselves dry before continuing. Luckily, after a couple more seconds, we spotted everyone still alive and together. Unfortunately, it seemed like they could pass out at any moment. But what caught our attention was what appeared to be the cliff that was quickly approaching. Not wasting a second, we dashed forward and discovered that it was indeed a cliff. And at the bottom was the worm's stomach acid.
'AAHHH!' Courage gasped before jumping to hang on an intestine.
"Oh, I hope everyone you four enjoyed your lunch." Muriel said in a dazed voice, which got our attention. Turning around, we noticed that she was about to pass out. "I'm going to take a nap."
"I know I did. And same." Winter added before both passed out from exhaustion and pain. The faint red pulse around Winter told us that her aura was depleted.
'Wait. Our lunch.' Courage said, getting our attention.
"What will that do?" I asked, turning to him and seeing that he pulled out the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from earlier.
'Hopefully, get us out.' He answered before tossing them down to the stomach acid. 'We may need to hang on to something.'
Not needing to be told twice, we quickly ran over to the others and pulled them close together. Then we held onto each of them as we heard the stomach acid levels rapidly rise. Soon, we heard the worm itself begin to gag from what was happening. Closing our eyes and taking in a deep breath, we braced ourselves for the explosion that came seconds later. Thankfully, it didn't hurt aside from the initial impact and launched us out of the worm in only a few seconds.
"Wormie?" We heard Tulip ask in concern for her pet.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked as we struggled to catch our breath.
"Define okay." Winter said as she finally regained her breath and stood up.
"Teddies. You're okay." Tulip said, overjoyed to have her teddies back safely. "And now I have five more pets."
"AAAHHHH!" Muriel screamed in terror as Tulip petted her.
"Sorry, but we're not pets." Winter said before dashing forward and removing the bandage on Tulip's index finger.
"UH! OUCH! NAUGHTY PETS!" She exclaimed in pain.
Not giving her a chance to recover, Courage and Winter grabbed onto the ends of the bandage while the rest of us held onto the center. We then hopped off Tulip's hand and used the bandage as a make-shift parachute to make it safely to the ground. Once on the floor, we quickly entered the ship, with Courage getting onto the bike. Soon, the spaceship was again in the air and at face level with Tulip, who was not happy in the slightest.
"Naughty, naughty new pets." She said, angry while waving her finger back-and-forth at us.
"AAAHHHH!" We all screamed in terror.
"GO! COURAGE!" I shouted.
'On it.' He said as he began peddling with all his might. The spaceship turned around and quickly flew away from Tulip.
Two Hours Later
"THANKS!" We heard Eustace shout in pain as we involuntarily landed on the farmhouse.
"I sure could use a wee bit of dinner." Muriel said as we exited the spaceship. "How about a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
"Sounds good." We all said as I helped Courage, who was currently vomiting in his tuba.
"With just a wee dash of vinegar?" Muriel asked.
"Actually, can we have ours without vinegar? Or as little as possible?" Penny asked.
"Certainly." Muriel said as we reached the ground. She then ducked under the spaceship and headed to the kitchen.
"It's good to be home." I said as we sat down on the remains of the porch.
"We were lucky that Robot Randy helped guide us back home." Penny said, happy that she saw an old friend.
"You both certainly have to tell me about how you met a giant robot." Winter said, sounding intrigued.
"Another time. Right now, I want to rest." I told her, earning a light glare.
"Jaune." Penny said, getting my attention.
"Yes." I asked, turning to her.
"Are there any events soon in Nowhere?" She asked.
"Well, there is a square-dancing event that happens monthly coming next weekend. Why?" I asked.
"Can I join, and can you teach me to dance?" She asked.
"And may I invite my mother and Weiss?" Winter asked.
"Of course." I answered as we got up and started to clean the house to the best of our abilities despite the spaceship still on the farmhouse. Unaware of the coming storm.
Note:
The next chapters: (1) Snowman's Revenge with Weiss, Willow, Winter and Penny. (2) Mondo's magic with Ruby, Velvet and Iris. (3) Swindlin wind with either Emerald and Mercury or Roman and Neo. (Still deciding)