Chapter 6 : I need to tell you
It didn't take long for rain to kick in again. Coarse and tough winds came back, pushing the tree's branches to dance dangerously.
Sid was still unconscious, his body laying on what appeared to be a slice of a trunk, getting progressively disturbed by the streams of rain water that swept all leaves on it's way.
The trunk finally gave in, dragging Sid downhill, down with the stream, until it met a crack of a soft rock formation, engulfing the sloth in it's dark mouth. It looked like it belonged close to the beach
The impact had to be noisy, only it didn't. The interior of the unlikely cave drowned any noise that would alert anything outside of it's hole, isolating whoever wanted to cry for help.
Luckily for Sid, the collision course was with a heap of watery dead leaves, not disturbing in any way his deep sleep. A familiar voice called for Sid, but it was lost to the profound sound of waves that resonated throughout the passages of the cave, humid and covered with dead seaweed. It looked like a mystical and forgotten labyrinth down there.
The voice cried again, only lost once more.
SID !
It might have been the umpteenth time he called that name, but he was still hopeful.
"Sid where are you ?" Ellie joined in.
Diego lowered his neck and stared at the ground intently. His mind processing the mud, but the proofs were gone, the rain ate it all up.
- We're going to have a hard time ...
He was looking at the mammoth, but the saber didn't need to finish his sentence to share the message.
She acquainted with a slow nod while folding her eyelids. Once she looked back at him, Ellie was still warmful with her shy smile.
- Can you trace him with your scent ?
Diego looked up to her, having a disconcerting face, indicating the difficulty in the feat.
"No" he sighted, disappointed deep within to admit a flaw.
A crack alarmed Ellie. Diego scurried to safety just in time before a fragile tree collapsed on the exact spot he was on.
- You're not hurt ?
- Fine, thanks ...
They chose to cover themselves from the rain under a safe robust trunk, while Diego explained to Ellie an anecdote
- Scent has never been our best tool for hunting, hearing on the other hand is what we're good at.
Ellie, soaked, listened carefully, like she was hearing a bedtime story.
The clay saber was flicking his ears to one direction. He looked to his side while continuing
- Right now, it's only rain around us
Diego was now laying down, continuing his demonstration. He looked like he was in control of the environment around him.
- There's some noise coming from small animals ...
The ears stopped flicking
- Sid is a hard thing to catch right now.
- He must be sleeping ...
He stared at Ellie ; Diego saw another meaning in her statement, even though she sounded optimistic. She caught wind quite fast and backtracked on what she said.
- Sorry, I mean he can still be alive.
- It's all right.
The wind sang between the branches, distracting the mammoth.
"A whole pack on this land, on our tail ..." he dug himself deep in his front paws,while his eyes darted straight ahead.
The saber was extremely hard on himself right now, thinking of a solution.
He knew how dangerous was the situation with a potential pack on the loose, and couldn't fathom their chances of making it out alive.
Out of nowhere, the ears flicked at light speed.
- What is it Diego ?
He sprung up to his feet in a bang, fearing an ambush.
Ellie looked worringly at his companion, but he seemed to water down progressively
- That was one, not far away ...
Her eyes widened
"He isn't aware of us" he sighted in relief, but his selflessness made him hyperventilate quite assuredly.
- Hunting ?
- Fast run yeah ...
Ellie could tell that the atmosphere was brooding. She took a chance in changing it :
- How are you two doing anyway ?
Diego's face changed. He looked at her quite neutrally, until he broke in a shy but warm smile.
- Happy ? Excited ?
- All kinds of things ...
He felt embarassed and shied away. Ellie just felt proud in being able to change his mood for the better
- Did you tell her ?
He just knew right away what that meant.
- N... No, not officially
She tilted her head in compassionate amusement.
- No stress at all, it'll come along naturally
While looking downwards, he exhaled meekly
- That's not the only thing that is bugging me
Ellie withdrew the smile, adopting a more serious expression
- Is it something with her ?
- Something with her dreams, she barely recovered from last night ...
- How serious is it ?
- I don't know, she couldn't tell me ...
The female mammoth listened intently, concentrated on him.
- ... It felt like a trauma ; she was clearly in pain physically too.
- It could be a memory Diego
The rain still dropping, he had his eye out on the dark openings of the forest. Anything could live beneath these trees.
- It could be anything ...
The cave definitely felt humid, but it won't stop a fire from running. Shira was shaking off the rain's work on her fur, while Manny still kept an eye on the outside, the face exhausted after crying out to the wilderness.
- The land is vast, Mammoth ...
That made him turn to her quite vividly. She lost some dignity in the process, but she didn't want to appear weak once again.
- It'd be better that we rest as much as we can before continuing the search.
He looked to his left, admitting defeat.
- Can't argue with that ...
Manny examined the cave bit by bit, looking for some chunk.
- You know, there's no need to call me ...
- It's just out of respect.
Looking back at her again, you couldn't tell what he was thinking. Shira was concerned through. She was definitely intimidated.
- Help me find some wood to burn for tonight.
One look at the outdoors made her ask, although avoiding to sound sarcastic
- Shouldn't there be more outside of the cave ?
- That's one experience we'll never replicate
Quite assuredly from the depths of the cave, Manny returned with a small amount of wood.
- Best way to create a fireball, you get wet wood, having Sid around is handy too.
That almost made Shira laughed, but she contained it at the last second with a shut smile.
- Not to forget the bigger amounts of smoke. Good luck sleeping with that ...
He knew to add other small combustibles to support a fire. All Manny needed after that was a solid rock to pick up.
Back at Shira, he couldn't help but sigh lightly at the sight of her.
- Listen girl ...
Before he continued, the mammoth inhaled while looking upwards. He looked back down at her
- Don't hide it : you're afraid of me
That was a perfect hit. Shira could barely say anything.
- These coming days will mark a time when we'll need each other's help more than before ; even in you.
The last bits of rain dropped near the entrance. Manny was raising the rock with the tip of his trunk.
- I want you to know that I am sorry for this morning.
She leaned back her head calmly. The body felt more relieved, but she didn't know what would come next. The neutral but serene expression that had Manny could hide so many things.
He turned towards the wall, and was looking for a good spot.
- There ...
The rock began to form sparkles as it experienced an intense friction against the wall.
- Courtesy from the fire king.
The fire exploded, smoke invading the sky. From the smolders, Crash Eddie emerged, coughing. From another side of the source of fire, Buck withdraws a leaf shield he created just in case it would happen. It ressembled a fan. Chomping on a stick, the weasel was far from being surprised, remaining incredibly unfazed from the situation.
- Kill it !
You could barely tell what the heck Crash was trying to do with his arms, but he seemed to be looking for an object to choke the ever growing flames on the grass and leaves. But here came Eddie, flailing the palm leaf he had kept with him. It was like witnessing a miracle : with the excitement of Eddie's actions, the weapon didn't let one single source of fire a chance to breath. All was back to normal, except for Eddie, all black.
"Eddie you're a genius !" It didn't take long for his brother to come to him, all excited about what he just saw.
Eddie felt different though : considering his relative with doubt, out of nowhere he clutches the palm tree branch deep in his arms.
- It's mine.
An awkward silence came about. Buck was letting out a very short snicker, but he still remained quite reserved because of his loss.
It took Crash a pretty long time before asking :
- Need help bro ?
He responded by holding his trusted weapon over his shoulder like a soldier. The attitude breathed business too.
- So Peaches is all grown up now eh ?
The focus shifted quite rapidly. Crash returned closer to Buck, while Eddie was now considering washing himself at the sea. The weasel reassembled a competent looking fireplace and reajusted the sittings he created for the three of them. He was preparing the campfire story comfortably.
Yeah, tons of things happened man" The possum resumed his nostalgic discussion about the past events
- You had a considerable share of strange events eh ?
- Weird no ?
- Nah ...
It would be hard to impress Buck with these over-the-top stories ; his whole life revolved around these. A wide smile of his resumed his thoughts on the matter.
- I don't think you're ready for what you're about to hear ...
The pair was interrupted by some considerable munching. It turned out to be Eddie, all clean, eating berries from a basket that came from the pirate ship.
- Is it story time yet ?
- So here I was ...
All was in place : the fire, the possums, the end of the rain, the clear sky, and the bright moon shining upon the camp. Buck, seated deep in his homemade leaf cushion, was carving the beginning of a figure from a piece of wood. And the story began :
Here he was, minding his own business. A typical day like always ; morning was fine, but noon marked a sudden change of pace. From top to bottom, the earth was trembling like never before, revealing cracks big enough to swallow a tree. He made a run for it, trying his best to squint through falling vines, cliffs, lava boulders. He felt so close to dying that the adrenaline made him quicker than ever. It felt exciting but devasting all the same because of the many dinosaurs who fell trap to the apocalypse. He could see it, and that was hard to digest.
A spark of light called upon Buck. It was high, up high ... Close to the ceiling. He was loosing pace, tripping on a dead pterodactyl. The light was loosing intensity, the upper floor was close to meeting the bottom ; the latter lifting itself up like a techtonic plate. Where was the air ?
Air, sweet air came about. He fell unconscious for a brief moment, and the wake was met with salty air. He ended up in the middle of the ocean with nothing but a corpse of a lifeless dinosaur. The sight before him was nothing short of terrifying. Smoke was permanent, but beneath all that were every element he could think of his home : it now looked ruined, eaten by the gargantuan ocean, and the dead dinosaur on his moving island was the icing on top. Buck couldn't express enough how the next part of his journey was visceral on his heart.
For days, he was fighting the urge to eat, fighting himself to put an end to the last remaining proof of his home : the dead dinosaur. Fidgeting with his trusted knife, he tried to avoid such smearing with eating herbs, cooked half-rotten fruits, and taking the risk in hunting for fish in the water. He experienced a near dreadful end with a megalodon had he not jump to safety : the creature lost number of his teeth on the floating concrete.
He couldn't help but remain adamant towards the dead beast, and it hurt his appearance in the process : dark circles began to form under his eyes, teeth were falling one by one, and his fur was making a weird turn. Crouched, at the mercy of the ice cold winds against his soaked skin, he stared at the corpse who miraculously still looked healthy. Everything on the downsizing floating land was sucked dry : no more herbs, or fruits, and his body grew too weak to hunt the waters.
He trembled in disbelief, lifting himself. Lifting the knife, but he didn't want to ...
Plodding towards the healthy carcass, he didn't want to ...
What is pushing him ?
The body cried it's need
The mind urged for this need to disappear
He didn't want to ...
The knife did it's job, but Buck couldn't believe what he just did.
His hunger made the meat disappear quite rapidly, but it didn't stop Buck to throw up a part of it in disgust. He vandalized his own home, he destroyed the last remains of it ; nothing could change what he just inflicted. The skull of the dinosaur was all that was left, and it's empty stare towards the weasel was too much to handle.
Sinful, that's all he felt, and that's all he could think about before going to sleep.
The next day, he woke up elsewhere. That alarmed him, but his body was too weak to react. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by peculiar animals. They all looked straight from another world, but a large imposing shadow attracted more his attention
Complimenting his eye band, it didn't take much time for Gutt to offer him a place in the crew. The patch was a plus, but he was given a red scarf with a pirate insignia to justify his membership.
He was also given lectures about the rules aboard the ship, as for the philosophy the crew follows.
He nodded politely, but deep down he was in no way agreeing with their beliefs.
After a lemon-eating ceremony, he was assigned to a blacksmith duty, working closely with Raz. But that was hardly the only shipmate he interacted with ...
Eddie was listening to every detail, and he had hardly finished his berry basket. Crash was taken out of the story for a short while
C - Do you need help with that ?
E - No
He was referring to the life-insurance palm branch ...
He was visited quite often by the second in command on the ship : Shira.
Buck reckoned that she was intrigued by his appearance. It then started with some exchanges after the work. It developed quite rapidly into a strong friendship as the two would spend hours on the tip of the ship talking about anything, really.
It took her off guard one night though when the weasel began recalling hints of his past. Shira was disturbed by the crime he was commiting on the ice vessel, but it didn't seem to bother him at all.
Crash was reaching for the basket, Eddie was drawing the basket away from his brother at the same time, their eyes still locked on Buck. The former looked pretty silly afterwards.
The following day was quite the weird one. When Buck woke up, the ship seemed to have been parked. The next thing that he sorted out was that his knife was missing. This didn't look good at all ...
On deck, everybody was busy with their duty, while Gutt was shipping fruits from the island they set shore on. Tiny mammals were forced against their will to transport 'the bounty'.
The knife was nowhere to be found, Shira was gone, nobody shared a glance with the fellow...
Where's my knife
Their was no reaction, he could feel his blood pulp from the anger.
WHERE'S MY KNIFE
Everybody took notice, but they all had a look of confusion on their face. He was confused as well, but his rage was not settled.
It all happened so fast right after that
While Eddie was captivated by the tale, Crash was grasping at the grass, but it didn't look clear if it was a reaction to the story or the hunger.
The second Gupta taunted him with a whistle, Buck charged at him without a question. The badger's arm revealed a shiny object and was begging for a fight.
The brawl didn't go for long before Raz decided to put an end to it.
Gupta, trying to catch his breath, claimed that he has caught the weasel red-handed trying to brainwash the second in command.
Everybody looked at the culprit. He was unable to defend himself ; he was out of breath too, but it was caused from a wound Gupta inflicted on his left elbow. One look at the dagger was all he needed to know. It was definitely not deep, but bothering enough.
Gupta's response was simply to wipe off the blood off the artefact with a towel, while his victim fell unconscious from the stab and the exhaustion.
Buck opened his eyes with painful effort. It was freezing ; he reckoned he was in the lowest level of the ship. The wound was taken care of, but he was far from reaching full recovery.
He could barely see, it all looked so blurry for unknown reasons. Then it hit him : what caused him to wake up so suddenly ?
Buck could taste something really bitter in his mouth. He spat it out as quickly as possible because it's taste felt alien to him.
It didn't help whatsoever ; he was feeling dozy.
Quite the spectacular fruit, isn't it ?
Gutt crept out of the shadows. While remaining quite calm, he indicated that the edible had the incredible capacity of putting to sleep any eater. The ape reckoned it was the best solution for any deserter ; had they decided that his ship wasn't the ideal home for them.
WHERE'S MY KNIFE
The more you would eat of it, the more you'd sleep.
GIVE ME MY KNIFE
Then would come the time to send the deserter overboard. Chance is your best friend.
GIVE ...
- That's all I could remember ...
- THE NERVE !
Their was a mild explosion, but it came from Eddie's hands. Crash had a angry fist slam directly in the berry basket. The result was of a serious smear on both the possum brothers. Crash froze in shock and frustration with his fist still in the basket while his eyes were looking straight at Buck, but Eddie was slowly turning angrily towards Crash, calling for his attention. Unaware of what he done, he slowly looked down too.
- Oh no ...
That wasn't directed at Eddie. He was legitimately sorry for the sweet berries.
"That floating carpet of a badger alright ..." his voice tone was dreadful. It pained him to remind himself that he lost the one thing he held on the most in his life. "The nerve .."
- I mean : ALL of them for real !
Wait ...
Eddie's attack with the empty basket was interrupted by Crash's alarming hand. He still wasn't paying attention to him.
... You met Diego's girl ?
"DID he ?" sneered Eddie to Crash ironically
B - Did I ?
C - Yes !
Eddie gave up. Crash was simply impossible to distract.
The bewilderment in Buck's eyes said it all. He exhaled shortly, amazed, laying then his hands on his forehead.
- What a small world ... You realize how close we actually are ?
C - I mean ... The island is pretty big no ?
Buck didn't say a word. He looked pretty hunched with a small knife in his left hand. The expression was lost. Eddie tried to pick back up the conversation.
- It's weird though that you didn't see her at all the day you were sacked ...
Pain came back into Buck's elbow all of a sudden. Grunting silently, he then resumed.
- True ... But she's strange you know ? I remember that one night where I thought that she'd never join me again after what I said before. But she came back ...
The possums were once again entranced
- What did she want ?
- She wanted more ... more about my story. There was this innocence and fascination in her that I'd never forget. That saber reminded me of my younger years ...
- Rudy is still here ?
The tall rodent was taken by surprise by that inquiry. He had one look at his carved wood miniature of a baryonyx in his other hand and the truth made him well up. Buck was really trying to hold back the shakes. Eddie slowly regretted asking.
- Rudy is gone Eddie ...
Crash & Eddie were speechless. Despite the tale they heard, they still had some shades of hope for his survival.
Buck was looking down, desperately picking himself back together. Eying back up to the twins, he was making the strongest smile he could create all of a sudden.
- We're settled then for the knife quest tomorrow ?
- Since when ?
Crash definitely felt Eddie's elbow on his chest.
- Big day tomorrow then mammals. Off we snooze !
They looked at each other, then back at Buck. Slowly each of the possums nodded, puzzled, then prepared to go to sleep.
That was a harder night talk then planned, but Buck was ready to hit the bed.
He could hear some bickering between the two brothers, before hearing a Goodnight from Crash. Buck nodded in response, then strolled a bit before meeting a hole he dug. Looking down at the hole, and back up at his miniature in the palm of his hands, he squeezed the statue deep in his chest and proceeded in the den.
Their were roots dangling above Buck's head, and some leaves as a cushion. The interior was the shape of a circle and lit by a small homemade candle. Mush could be seen on every side of the den, creating that feeling of confort, that feeling of home.
Placing Rudy on a mud shelf, he then folded himself, drawing his knees to his fragile chest, and petted carefully his elbow to ease the returning pain. The eyes were slowly starting to close, but Rudy was still in his sight. The stare remained on the statue for a while, before Buck finally decided to say goodbye to today.