"Why didn't you tell us you could speak rooster?"
"Does Brody and the others know?"
"What did it say?"
"What did you say?"
"HOLD IT!" Chanty stopped the flow of questions. "Yes Brody and the others know, the thing was smack talkin' me so I was smack talkin' right back and I didn't think it was on a need-to-know basis so I didn't tell you."
"D'ya think we could do that with the animals we're fused with?" Gox wondered aloud.
"I got the parrot to listen to me." Annie said stroking the bird that she had called Wonder. "Since the first time I told it to speak it's repeating every other word I say."
"Now all you have to do is watch what you say." Ed said and a laugh went around the room.
The group sat together in one of their hotel rooms and just enjoyed the pleasantries of having friends so near. Except for Dixie who would go back and forth from flicking at Chanticleer's tail feathers and watching her new fish swim.
"So."
Everyone turned to Ren.
"Tomorrow is when we have to face off against Caradon…"
"Not face off." Al corrected in a gentle voice. "Just meet with and see what he wants."
"Us dead?"
Dixie's ears perked up when she heard the word 'dead' and started to whimper.
"No, no, Dixie. It's ok." Annie encouraged hugging her tightly. "No one's going to end up dead."
"End up dead. Swqark! No one end up dead!"
The little fox-girl looked up at the parrot and tried to smile.
"What did you have to say that for!" Lame snapped.
"Aren't you guys worried about the same thing?"
The room went quiet.
"Excuse me!" Loud knocks on the door caused a silent panic to ripple throughout the room. Clen and Gox ducked out of sight completely, Lame made sure only his torso could be seen as he knelt next to the bed, Ren covered Dixie with a blanket and told her to stay under it or make sure her ears couldn't be seen and Ed and Chanty went back to back with a pillow between them to cover his tail.
"Come in." Ren said calmly.
An older woman stepped through the door and held out an envelope.
"I was told to deliver this to you. A man dropped it off downstairs and said it needed to get to you before tomorrow." she said.
Annie, with Wonder on her shoulder went over to the woman and took the letter. "Thank you very much ma'am." The lady bowed a 'you're welcome' and left. Her leaving left room for everyone to breathe normally.
"You can come out now." Ren told his sister. The blanket shook an unmistakable no. "Fine stay there."
"What's it say, Annie?" Al asked her.
She read it through twice before making a reply.
"It says were Caradon wants to meet us." she read part of it out loud. "A mile behind The Three Sisters hotel is an old mine surrounded on three sides by stone walls. You are to meet us there by noon tomorrow and don't anyone think about going inside the mine…we don't need any of you dead before we get what we need."
Silence…
"Um, I don't like the last part of that sentence." Ed gulped.
"On the bright side that could be taken two ways." Gox said.
"Kun?"
"One, he could be planning on a mass murder or two, he could also need something from one of us and doesn't want the one who has what he wants dead before he can get it."
A heavy cloud settled over the friends for the remainder of the day. The evening hours weren't much help either as most found it hard to sleep.
Ren looked at the sleeping little girl next to him for what seemed like hours. Being young Dixie had a fear of the dark so Ren turned on his natural nightlight and she was now far away in the land of slumber. Laying down he cuddled her close to him, giving himself nightmares thinking about what he would do if anything happened to her.
Next morning
Everyone had a difficult time eating breakfast because their stomachs were too full of butterflies. The time didn't make anything easier either. The clock seemed to know they wanted it to speed up so it was taking a break for lunch. Nothing worked to pass the time. Staring contests, tic tac toe with the dust in the windowsill…
After everybody felt a million years older it was decided to head out to the mine.
"Kun?" Dixie whimpered for Ren to pick her up. When he did the hug was unusually tight. If Caradon's plan was to kill them and Dixie somehow managed to survive he wanted her to remember the last embrace from her brother.
At the mine
"Good Lord it's hot." Clen said wiping a sweat bead from his neck.
"No kidding." Ed said. "We're at the bottom of mountain walls with the sun reflecting off the bright colored sand."
"11:57 everybody." Annie announced with a quivering voice.
"Wow, we cut it pretty close didn't we?" Al said trying to lighten the mood.
"So do you think the creepazoids are going to come out of the mine?" Lame asked.
"Who knows?" Ed shrugged. "For all we know this might be a distraction to get us out of the way for something."
"Excellent conclusion genius." Chanticleer smacked him over the head. "Fine time to be thinking of alternatives ain't it?"
"Excellent time to be wrong then isn't it?" a voice came from the mountain wall. They looked up and at least fifteen men stood on the ridge of the mountain, some already descending the wall. "Well," The speaker continued. "We honestly didn't think you'd show up. Some of us hoped you wouldn't so we could make some fireworks tonight."
"That's Keith," Ren whispered to Al. "Caradon's head goon. The guy on his right is Ryan."
"Glad to see you remember us, Bug Boy." Ryan sneered. "Oh don't look surprised. Everything echoes off these walls so you can't keep anything you say a secret."
"Cut to the chase." Annie snapped, ignoring him. "Tell us what you want and get lost. I see your leader didn't bother showing up."
"He prefers more…human company, pretty birdie." Keith glared at her as though she was inferior to him. "There's only one thing we want and if you freaks aren't too dense and give it to us quickly we can all be on our merry way."
"Then why don't you cut the fancy talk and get to the point while our hair isn't gray?" Ed started to raise his voice.
Keith shook his head. "You're no fun. How's the bad guy supposed to look big and tough if the goodie-goodies want to end the good time so quickly? But if that's the way it fine."
"How many of you furries know what a Nomiad is?" Ryan said.
"Nomiad? Isn't that what Caradon mentioned at the mill?" Al looked at his brother.
"Yeah, the thing he was so concerned with but never explained what it was."
Another of Caradon's men whispered something close to Keith.
"Yes, I figured they didn't know what it was." Keith growled. "I'm not stupid."
"Hey you never know." The new guy defended. "You can never guess what these military guys know even if it wasn't used on them."
"Wait, wait!" Ren said as a puzzle piece fit nicely in place. "Used on them? Caradon did this to us on purpose!"
Ryan glared at him. "I'd tell you to shut up before you say too much or I'll rip out your other antenna but it looks like someone's beaten me to it."
"Hold on." Goxlin addressed to his friends. "That thing I found in the Manistle, that must've been a Nomiad. The little purple-ish thing I was going to take out before Frectil crawled over the buttons."
"I suggest you don't describe it any further." Keith warned with triumph in his voice.
"Why not!" Ed demanded. "How is that going t-Hey! What's going on!"
Black smoke had begun to rise rapidly around his waist. The other men with Caradon's lead gargoyles had a fist sized can in each hand and threw it after popping the top off like a grenade. But instead of an explosion that black smoke came from inside.
"Everyone get close together while we can still see!" Al yelled. But the words were barely out of his mouth before the blackness swallowed everyone. Unsure about what else to do everybody tried to get in contact with another friend, but the shouting of names from different people didn't help much.
Using his head Chanticleer slammed his right hand to the ground and four giant Oak Dryads grew and came to life, dancing around the perimeter of the smoke cloud and swishing their long arms to help the sunlight reach through the darkness.
After a few seconds of coughing everyone regained their senses…the men were gone. The entire ordeal scared Dixie who was crying against Ed's leg thinking he was her brother. After shaking her off and directing her to her real brother Ed did a head count…nearly had a heart attack and counted again.
He counted twice…three times but the number still came out to eight.
Goxlin was gone.
Chibi me – or ean.
Me – I'm mean? How?
Chibi me – Iff aner ennings! Ats ow.
Me – what's so wrong with a cliffhanger ending? (pause) NOOO! Even when she can't speak properly I understand her! (Hangs head) Kurama, you do the preview.
Hiei – I'll fill in for him because while he was practicing with his rose whip, Naraku was passing through & startled him so he instinctively attacked. The attack caught Naraku off guard so he defended a little late & now they're trying to get the whip out of his hair. Back to the story. Goxlin apparently knew a little too much and now look where it's gotten him. But when she says 'gone' does she mean gone from the area or gone from the living world?
Me – hold on. Naraku doesn't have hair & freaks out whenever he sees a sudden movement.
Hiei – Huh?
Me- Oh you meant demon Naraku. I thought you meant my hermit crab Naraku.
Chibi me – et ah ife.