Faithers: YO! Sup.
Amethyst: Y0 peoplez.
Faithers: So we're writing. *points out the obvious*
Buck: *rolls his eyes*
Amethyst: Sorry, but I don't have any food for you at the moment, Buck. ^^;
Buck: =( Bu' I wan' food!
Faithers: *hands him a butterscotch* Here, sweets.
Amethyst: XD I want some!
Faithers: *hands Amethyst one as well before popping one into her mouth* So yah. Weh gunna jus' staht th' chapter!
They day passed in a hazy blur. No one said much, instead preferring to admire the scenery in silence.
Diego had lost the tracks within fifteen seconds of finding them again, declaring there had been a fight near the cave that ruined the tracks.
"A fight?" Ellie asked, worry increasing tenfold. "Do you think they're okay?"
Diego frowned, "No way to tell, really. But the dirt over there is pressed down like a big weight had been lying there, and the actual scuff marks of the fight are mostly big footprints."
"Big footprints? So, that'd be th' mammoth then. Wot was 'er name?" Avery asked, frowning.
"Peaches." Manny muttered, looking around, "And Crash and Eddie would stick with her, so if they got away then we'll have to think like them." He looked toward Ellie, "You know them best, Ellie. What would they do in a situation like this?"
Ellie thought for a moment. "They'd probably go looking for Buck, if you ask me."
Manny nodded, "They probably would."
"So we search for Buck?" Diego asked for clarification.
"We search for Buck."
Then they had started walking in silence, a silence that had yet to be broken.
Avery frowned. Who was this 'Buck' they kept talking about? Surely it couldn't be the Buck he was thinking of. There was no way he could still be alive...
...Right?
Night had fallen and the group bedded down, Manny and Diego falling asleep soon after Sid had. The trees and plants seemed to have fallen asleep as well, as everything was quiet.
Avery sat next to the small fire he'd made, his ocean blue eyes fixated on the flames, lost in thought. He was sure that he was alone, figuring that everyone was asleep.
Ellie watched him silently, wondering what he was thinking while he stared into the fire. She lifted her head, "You know, the others might not realize...but mothers notice things."
Avery was startled out of his fire-induced trance. He looked over to Ellie, expression that of a child caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. "I...thou' you were asleep."
"Well I'm not." Ellie said softly, "So what's goin' on with you?"
He blinked. "N-nothin's wrong. Jus' thinkin's all."
Ellie let out a quiet chuckle, "You're a bad liar, you know that?"
Avery grimaced in chagrin. "So uh...why you up?" He averted.
Ellie looked over at him, "You know what it's like to lose a kid?" she asked suddenly.
Avery stared at her, then winced and looked down. "Aye..."
Ellie nodded, "Thought so. I have a guess about the kid but you can deny or prove it true."
"Wot do ya mean?" Avery asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
Ellie looked at him, "You react very subtly when anyone says Buck." she murmured, "Just enough to make me wonder."
"Ah...you saw tha', didja?"
Ellie nodded, "I saw it. I saw you tense slightly, I saw you wince, I saw the flicker of unease in your eyes." she looked over toward Manny, "It's the same things that I noticed in Manny since we found out Peaches was missing."
"I see..." Avery didn't really have much to say to that. He felt sorry for them, and he hoped that Peaches was alive and well, but he was never good with the sentimental stuff, so he merely stayed quiet.
"So how do you connect with Buck?" Ellie asked him, watching his reactions again.
Avery resisted the urge to wince, hoping to make his discomfort less obvious. "He was m' son. Oldest, actually."
Ellie raised an unbelieving eyebrow, but stayed silent.
"He was actually m' fav'rit kit. Used ta play with 'im all th' time, ya know? It was fun." He smiled at the memories of happier times, but it quickly faded. "But..."
"...but?" Ellie prompted when it didn't seem he was going to continue.
He fidgeted, getting steadily more uncomfortable. "But...well, I know i's kinda ridiculous, but he fell outta a tree once, he was really li'l ya know, I was teachin'im to climb, and I was s'posed to be watchin'im, bu' I got distracted, and I guess 'e was tryin' ta get my attention or somethin' and he fell..." He paused in his babbling, sighing and closing his eyes. "I was under th' impression that it was my fault, and that I was th' one tha' hurt 'im, so I...well, basically, I just stopped interactin' with 'im."
Ellie frowned, "That sounds like you were hurting him to protect him."
Avery winced, not bothering to hold back. "Well, I know tha' now. I was jus'...I dunno, I jus' didn' wan' ta hurt 'im again. But I didn' realize tha' I was hurtin'im more than I was protectin'im. I regret it now, but..."
"But you can't change it." Ellie nodded.
"Exactly." Avery agreed solemnly.
Ellie frowned, "Well, maybe you'll get a chance to make it better..." she offered, looking at the sleeping others, "Just like I know Manny wants to do with Peaches...since they argued right before she left with the twins..."
Avery looked perplexed. "How 'm I s'posed ta do tha'? 'E's dead."
Ellie smiled, "If he's the Buck I'm thinking about, he's not dead. Just...slightly unhinged."
Befuddled, Avery asked, "Weasel? Brown fur, looks jus' like me?"
"Talks just like you, blue eyes, crazy streak." Ellie added to his list, nodding.
Avery stared. "I was sure 'e was dead though...Dunno how he coulda escaped tha' thing...Are ya sure it was 'im?"
"I don't know any other weasels named Buckminster." Ellie said with a roll of her eyes, "What was chasing him?"
"A...Saber, if I rememba correctly." He cringed. "A really vicious Saber. Was prolly starvin'." He mumbled. "I dunno if it got 'im or if 'e got away...But I s'pose if you've seen 'im then he's alright...Right?"
"He was doing pretty well at surviving when we saw him..." Ellie mused, "Fighting and riding on Dinosaurs..."
Avery's eye twitched. "Say wot now?"
"He protected us from a giant white dinosaur he called Rudy, and on the way of helping us out he flew on one of the flyers, taking my brothers with him..." she grumbled the last bit, "As if they needed more reason to be excitable."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!...Whoa! You nevah mentioned dinosaurs."
"Okay, that little whoa freak-out sounded exactly like one of Buck's." Ellie looked perturbed, "And yeah...dinosaurs, down here, right now."
"O...kay...um...right..." He twitched. "Aaand...no one mentioned this...'cause?"
"Well, I never thought about it, and if I didn't, they definitely didn't." She gestured toward the sleeping three.
"Right…" Avery said, taking it in. Real live dinosaurs? And Buck's been living here, all this time?
It was night again, and Peaches was starting to really wonder about the brown weasel in front of her. He still wasn't going to sleep. This would be the second night in a row that he stayed up. She knew he must have been exhausted.
"Go ta sleep, lass." he said to her, not looking her way as he sharpened his knife.
"What about you?" She asked. "Aren't you exhausted?"
"Tol' ya before. Adren'line helps." Buck muttered, chipping away at a rock as he worked quietly. The cast he had made for himself out of cut leaves was impressive. He couldn't move his ankle if he tried with THAT thing on.
"But only if you're getting some." She said, giving him a skeptical look. "What about when we're just walking? Aren't you exhausted then? Maybe you should get some sleep."
Buck shook his head, putting down the rock and knife as he looked up at her, his one blue eye closing off the emotions there.
"Stubborn…" Peaches muttered. "Why not?"
"Someone has ta watch out f'r dinosaurs." Buck shrugged, "An' I can go a while wi'ou' sleepin'. Been up most nigh's anyway."
Peaches rolled her eyes. "You might be able to, but it's not good for you." She was growing steadily more concerned for his well-being.
"Hasn' hurt me ye'." Buck shrugged again, "Rather stay awake th'n...well..."
"What?" She pried, curious.
Buck looked back down at the rock and picked it and his dagger up again, biting his lip, "Le's jus' say...I don' do good wi' nigh'mares."
She frowned. "Nightmares? About what? The dinosaurs, or something else?" If she was curious before, then that was nothing compared to how curious she was now. What could possibly give the Almighty Buckminster nightmares?
Buck gave a somber smile, "Nah, no' th' dinos. No' even Rudy coul' give me nigh'mares abou' dinos. Been around 'em too long to be 'fraid of 'em." He sighed, "Th' nigh'mares...are mem'ries." he looked at the bone and rock again, chipping off a large piece of rock.
"Memories?" She inquired, sitting up. She made it clear that she wasn't going back to sleep until she got answers by sitting next to him determinedly.
Buck seemed to have gotten the idea that she'd collapse from exhaustion soon enough, because he just as stubbornly stayed quiet, chipping at the rock until a definite form started making its way free. The long form looked a lot like him.
Well, if he was going to be difficult, then she'd give him a taste of his own medicine. She wasn't even that tired anyway; her mind was reeling with possibilities. What had happened in Buck's past that gave him nightmares? Could it have something to do with how he got down there?
The silence stretched on as Buck carefully started chipping out details, his eye half lidded as he scratched a mouth, nose, and tail onto the weasel form. Two eyes were chipped away next. Detail to the fur came next to last, and the actual last was the single tooth sticking from the mouth.
"Is that you?" She asked, looking down at the figurine in Buck's hand.
He looked up in surprise before looking back down at the figure he clenched, "Nah." he murmured, "No' me." He tossed it up in his hand, "My da'."
"Do you miss him?" She inquired, not taking her eyes off of the miniature model.
Buck frowned, "Neva paid much att'ntion ta me. Always dist'nt." he whispered sadly, raising his voice to answer Peaches's question, "Don' matter dos'it?"
"Sure it matters. He's your dad. I'm sure he cared."
Buck shrugged, "Neva showed i'."
Peaches frowned, looking up at the sky. Or, what appeared to be the sky. "Sometimes I think that my dad doesn't care about me."
Buck gave a chuckle, "Shoulda seen 'im before. Back las' time. 'E was all ova Ellie, wond'rin' if she was okay." the chuckle disappeared, "No' like my da'."
"Yeah, all over my mom." She said, sighing. "But, what exactly makes you think that your dad doesn't care? I mean, you're his son right? He has to care, at least a little."
Buck let out a 'psh' noise, looking at the figure in his hand again. He frowned as he tossed it up again, as if debating whether to throw it into the tree line or not. "Go ta sleep, Fruity." he said again, less forcefully.
For some reason, the less force made Peaches want to listen.
Amethyst: All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chases the weasel, all around the mulberry bush- POP goes the weasel~
Faithers: I think it's "The monkey thought it was all in fun, pop goes the weasel".
Amethyst: I wouldn't know. xD
Faithers: Well I guess insanity does that to you then. REALLY DARK CHAPTER! *cheers*
Amethyst: Whoo!!!
Buck: *getting annoyed by our cheeriness at the darkness*
Faithers: You all know what to do, but before we go, we wish to confer one last tidbit of information we decided upon. Amethyst?
Amethyst: But I thought you wanted to tell them. After all, it was your idea.
Faithers: But you're the one who planted that idea in my head in the first place! You should tell them~!
Amethyst: No, you should tell them! You said that you wanted to.
Faithers: But I always feel like I'm stealing the spotlight from you! I've decided you should tell them!
Buck: ... *thinking: If they don't decide who tells, I'm going to say it.*
Amethyst: But you did say that you wanted to be the one to tell them!
Faithers: But I couldn't!
Buck: Forge' it! They decided tha' Ellie has Maternal Instincts on Steroids.
Amethyst: *blink* eh? Oh…Well, now that that's settled, see ya'll next chapter!