-Chapter VII: Rumble in the Jungle
~Two are better than one...if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls~
Jaden turned over in bed, rubbing his tired eyes. He had been woken at, he checked the clock, six in the morning by an extremely powerful and potent enemy. It floated above him in temptation, demanding Jaden leave the warm comfort of his bed and purge the monster within.
The monster? Hunger.
The floating enemy? The ever-so-delicious scent of cooked bacon.
Jaden smiled gleefully and stumbled from his room. There was a monster that needed slaying. As he walked he pulled on his red shoes to protect from the cold metal floor of the Dodger Ship. In the part of his mind not taken up by thought of crunchy bacon, Jaden wondered, like he did nearly every morning, why he kept those shoes. Nobody liked them. His friends didn't like them, Zane and Alexis didn't like, he didn't even like them. But, just as every morning before as well, Jaden was far to occupied with food to remember anything about his shoe qualms.
When he reached the kitchen-from whence the smell had originated—Jaden caught sight of the short form of Daffy overlooking the sizzling bacon on the stove. The duck was talking to himself.
"No! I'm sure this is how you cook bacon, bub!" he stated angrily and glared at his zippered mage hat, which was sitting on the counter beside him. After a moment, he amended the insult. "Little punk!" he angrily turned back to the frying pan.
"Uhm...Daffy?" Jaden stood awkwardly at the entryway, watching Daffy carefully.
"Jaden! Tell Sniffles this is how you cook bacon! Tell him!" Daffy quacked.
"Sniffles? Who's Sniffles?"
Daffy stopped his angry quacking, "We never introduced you to Sniffles? How did Porky forget?"
"You forgot too, Daffy." came a small, calm voice from Daffy's hat.
Jaden stepped closer and noticed that there was a small ant standing atop Daffy's hat, and a rather smartly-dressed mouse at that.
"Sniffles' the name!" the mouse introduced happily, "A pleasure to meet you, Jaden!"
Jaden reached out his hand in a friendly manner, but returned it after realizing Sniffles couldn't shake it. "I'm Jaden."
"I know." Sniffles said with a wink.
Daffy pointed a spatula at Sniffles accusingly, "This stupid mouse is telling me that I'm cooking bacon wrong!"
Jaden peeked over Daffy's shoulder,"No, wait, I think Sniffles's right. You don't want to have the temperature that high or else-" Jaden was interrupted by a raindrop of bacon grease that flew from the overheated pan and hit Daffy square in the eye.
"Waah!" Daffy screamed as he crashed backwards off the stool, narrowly missing Jaden.
"See? I told you it was a bad idea." Sniffles scolded from his place on Daffy's hat.
Daffy scowled and rubbed his eye, "Bah, what does a mouse know..."
"I'd say quite a lot apparen-" Sniffles began.
"Daffy? Could you teach me how to do that 'cure' spell now?" Jaden interrupted, knowing that the previous conversation had been headed to disaster long before he had entered the kitchen.
Plus, he really wanted to know that spell.
Daffy perked up, bacon-y problems completely forgotten. "Cure? You want to learn cure?" he scoffed and dusted his jacket."Hah! You do know that Cure is one of the most difficult spells to handle?"
"I can handle it." Jaden affirmed.
Daffy smirked haughtily, "Alright then, let me show you." Daffy sat back down on his stool, "Cure takes a lot more energy out of you than any other spell, especially if you are using it on yourself." he spoke proudly, as if teaching a class of the ignorant. "So only use it when you absolutely positively need to." Jaden nodded, and Daffy continued. "To use it, you simply think of wonderful thoughts that make you feel better and send it to your weapon."
"I think I get it.."
Daffy smirked, "Well, I think we should make sure."
"What'd you mean-" In one swift motion Daffy jumped from the stool and smacked Jaden in his head with his wand. Jaden dropped to the ground.
"Daffy!" Sniffles exclaimed. "You just..."
"I did."
"But...but why?"
"An object lesson, Sniffles."
"But..." Sniffles shook his head unconvinced.
"Oh, grow up. He'll be fine."
Jaden rubbed his head and pushed himself to a sitting position. "What the heck, Daffy!" Jaden looked at his fingers, revealing blood. "You cut me!"
Daffy sighed. "Object lesson. Cure!"
Jaden felt a slight pinch and, when he reached up to touch the small wound, he felt no blood.
"So what makes it so difficult?" Jaden asked, rubbing the place where the wound used to be.
"Because it's tough for some people to concentrate when hurt." Daffy spoke as if it was a silly notion to be distracted when wounded. "And to heal someone, it takes a lot of energy. But for a mage like me-" Daffy didn't get to finish, because more bacon grease shot from the pan and splashed on the back of his feathered head.
"WAAAH!" Daffy yelled again, furiously rubbing his head in pain.
"Oh my, you fellas are really loud!" Porky yawned as he entered the kitchen from the hallway, "G'mornin' Daffy, whatcha dododooin' on the floor?"
Daffy grumbled unintelligibly.
"'Morning Porky." Jaden greeted.
"G'mornin' Jaden!" Porky returned, "Hey Daffy? I think saw another world a'comin up outside—-"
Daffy jumped to his feet and ran down the hall, pushing Porky out of the way. Jaden grabbed a piece of bacon and ran after the duck.
"G'mornin' Sniffles!" Porky smiled at the mouse. "Ooh, look! Bacon!"
"Looks like a massive rain forest..." Jaden assessed, wiping his greasy hands on his pant leg. The world they looked upon as definitely covered in green.
"Hey Daffy, maybe King Bugs' down there!" Porky optimistically suggested as he entered with a piece of bacon in one hand and Sniffles in the other, placing the latter down on the dashboard.
"In a backwater place like that? No way!" Daffy shrugged the world off, "Let's move on."
"Hold on!" Jaden broke in, "Maybe Zane and Alexis are down there! Let's just check it out."
Daffy balked, "Forget it! We're on an important mission!"
"And I'm trying to find my friends! Just land!" Jaden said.
"NO!" Daffy angrily held fast. Jaden ignored him and reached for the the imprecise teleporter latched next to the wheel. Daffy realized what Jaden was doing just a few seconds late and, before he could react, Jaden had his finger poised over the red "Activate" button.
"Jaden, I wouldn'-" Porky raised his hand in warning.
Jaden paid Porky no heed and pressed the button anyway.
"Mommy!" Daffy's eye's widened before all three disappeared.
"Oww...my head..." Jaden groaned as he looked far above him, past crisscrossed wooden support beams, to the hole he had made on his downward descent. The teleporter, without proper tweaking, had apparently dropped him a few feet above the old building he was in. Rotten wood must've broken his fall.
He had landed in a large, single room. Green vines and moss encroached upon old, rotting wood. Barrels and crates filled with untouched who-knows-what were scattered around in the rather spacious room. Sunlight came scattered in through dusty, cobwebbed windows.
"Daffy? Porky?" Jaden rubbed his aching head as he looked around. Had the two of them fallen with him? Or was he now alone? The thought frightened him slightly, but maybe it was for the better if Daffy and Porky didn't want to help him find his friends in return for...whatever they wanted him to do. Beyond helping them find their King, he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be doing. Jaden's thoughts were interrupted suddenly by a creaking behind him. He turned just in time for a huge, white paw to swat him into one of the decrepit walls. He felt the wall give way upon impact, and he tumbled backward over a ledge. Apparently he had crash landed into a large tree house, a tree house that sat perched in between two mammoth branches of a gigantic tree, dizzyingly high above the ground. As he started to fall, Jaden grabbed the ledge with one gloved hand, stopping himself from falling to his death far below.
Jaden grabbed with his other hand and began to hoist himself high enough that he was able to rest on his elbows, ignoring the pounding in his head from both the original fall and his impending doom.
Having pulled himself high enough to get a good view, Jaden realized that he had some problems. Right in front of him, looking him straight in the eye, was a large leopard, tongue flicking between it's sharp, jagged teeth. A long tail flicked wildly behind it and it's eyes glowed in a red bloodlust. Jaden's vision strained and blurred. The leopard growled softly.
Jaden squinted through his pounding headache, feet still dangling over the edge. Was it raising it's paw?
Abruptly, the yellows and blacks of the Leopard were replaced by dark tans and browns. Jaden then simply saw the Treehouse ahead of him, shifting in and out of focus. He heard a short whine, and then the sound of scurrying paws.
A few uneven thuds of walking later, swift, strong arms reached around him and pulled him up from his precarious perch, dropping him unceremoniously to the ground. From his place on the floorboards at the edge of the treehouse, Jaden wondered if now might be a good time to use Cure. He quickly decided against it though, not wanting to waste his already spinning mind.
A rough, broken voice stuttered, "Sabor. Danger."
Jaden squeezed his eyes shut, rubbing them in an attempt to clear them. Had that leopard been named Sabor?
"Umm...thank you?" Jaden blinked away more dizziness as he looked up to see who had scared the Leopard, or Sabor apparently, away.
A very tanned and muscled man stood hunched over Jaden, black eyes studying him closely. The man wore nothing but a brown loincloth, and long dark brown dreadlocks fell about his face.
"Thank...you..." the man copied Jaden, albeit in a broken way.
"Huh? Uh.." Jaden gestured around him to get his point across. "What is this place?"
The man walked right up into Jaden's face and tilted his head. His breath smelled of bananas. "This place. This place." he repeated.
"Okay..." Jaden began to wonder what was wrong with this guy, "Where did the others go?" he tried asking about Dafft and Porky.
The man stared at him blankly.
Jaden sighed, "Look, I got separated from my friends. Have you seen them?"
The man just continued to stare.
"Fri-end-s" Jaden spelled out, placing his hand over his heart, "My fri-end-s"
The odd man placed a hand against his heavily muscled chest, "Fri-end-s" he repeated.
Jaden nodded emphatically, "Right! My friends! There's two of them," he held up two fingers, just to be sure the man got the message, "The loud one is Daf-"
Wait.
Why was he looking for Daffy and Porky? Zane and Alexis were his friends! Daffy and Porky didn't even really want to look for the two of them. Daffy and Porky could look for their King forever, Jaden still just wanted to find Alexis and Zane. His real friends.
The man cocked his head at Jaden's abrupt stop.
"You know what? Nevermind." Jaden sighed, "I'm looking for my friends, Zane and Alexis." Jaden spoke each word carefully, hoping to get the message to this apparently speech-challenged man.
The man grunted, "Look for Zane, friends? Alexis, friends?"
"Right-" Jaden again stopped short when he briefly noticed a flash of red hair over the man's shoulder. He pushed past the man and ran inside the house. He looked around wildly for the person who had the red hair. It couldn't be her. Was it really that easy? Jaden stopped short when he caught sight of her standing nonchalantly beside a pile of boxes, hands intertwined cutely behind her back. Jaden's heart skipped a beat. It was Alexis. He stood still for a moment, drinking in the sight, eyes wide. She was here. She was alive. She didn't even look injured! Time slowed, and Jaden took a cautious step forward, even though his heart was screaming for him to run to her and grab her in a hug, no matter how weird that may've been back on the Islands.
Jaden closed his eye and swallowed. He opened them, almost prepared for her to be gone, but there she stood. Still fine. Still okay. Still there with him so he wasn't alone anymore. The only odd thing was that she seemed to have a slight glow silhouetting her frame. It wasn't much different than normal, though, Jaden decided. She had always seemed to glow to him, especially in recent months.
Not that he lov—liked her or anything, that's just the way it always was.
As he stood gawking, Alexis smiled kindly at him, turned and walked behind the boxes.
"Jaden, you're so weird." she said, speaking as if the Islands hadn't been destroyed and she and Zane hadn't disappeared. Speaking as if nothing had changed.
"Jaden...don't ever change"
Snapping out of his trance, Jaden ran to where she had been standing. Desperate to get another glimpse of her. Desperate to know that she hadn't left. He slid to a stop and looked behind the boxes. Nothing. Nothing but a dead end wall.
Jaden jerked his head back and forth, looking desperately at all points of the room. No. Not again. No. Alexis was not gone again. She couldn't be. No way. She...she couldn't be...
Jaden sighed heavily. He just wanted Alexis back. He wanted Zane back. He hated this. Why was Alexis gone? Again. He put his palms to his forehead and pushed hard to ward off the headache that had returned, momentarily staved off by Alexis' appearance.
He also pushed back any tears that might arise and attempt to escape his eyes.
He sighed again. At least he knew she was okay. She was there, alive and well. She must've been teleported or something.
Unless, of course, he had been seeing things. He had hit his head pretty hard.
Jaden promised Alexis then and there that he would find her and everything would be okay again.
"Friends here." the forgotten man suddenly spoke up from behind.
Jaden whipped around, "Really!"
Maybe they were here! He had just seen Alexis, maybe Zane was here! Just maybe Alexis was here!
The man made a few guttural noises that sounded quite close to an ape, "Friends here." he then repeated the deep-throat noises.
"Errrr...not sure I understand, but take me to my friends! Take me to Zane and Alexis!" Jaden smiled, headache now gone for good.
The man put both his hands to his chest, pointing to himself, "Tor." he declared, "Tor go."
Jaden pointed to himself in turn, "And I'm Jaden. Let's go to Alexis and Zane!"
Tor nodded and gestured for Jaden to follow him out the door of the treehouse. There, the young Keyblade Master got his first real glimpse of this world.
Huge green trees stood tall and proud beneath a glorious bright sun, warming this world to a temperature even hotter and more humid than the Islands. A wispy mist slightly obscured the view from the treehouse, but Jaden could just catch a glimpse of an ocean stirring gently a few miles away, stretching out to meet the cloudless blue sky above. The treehouse, the likes of which he and his friends had never built on the Islands,(But the type he and Zane had secretly always dreamed about) was indeed built into a mammoth tree, even larger than Jaden had previously thought. The tree stood high above the jungle canopy, allowing for far, unhindered sight for many a mile. In the distance below, Jaden heard a few birds and animals call.
"Deep Jungle." Tor grunted as he moved onto a downward path built into the tree's branches and trunk, gesturing for Jaden to follow.
Porky looked worriedly at the bamboo thickets that grew large and imposing around the clearing that he and Daffy had landed in. His large eyes fell to the small, red piece of Gummi Block in his hand. Daffy had guessed it must have been from the King's ship, but oddly still refused to admit that Jaden had been right to check out every world they came to. They had found the small thing simply lying on the ground, as if left behind. Perhaps on purpose?
"Oh my, where are we?" Porky wondered as Daffy relaxed lazily beside him. "I sure hope Jaden's okay..."
Daffy grunted and sat up, "Aw, who needs him? We can find the King without him." he declared, scowling with arms crossed.
Suddenly, there was a severe rustling of the bamboo underbrush. The grove in front of Porky parted and out stepped a tall, well muscled man with an angular face. A long mustache sat above a frowning mouth and a blue-red hat over his head. He looked like a hunter, with tan hunting coat and safari gear hanging from his belt. And, most importantly, the man held a double-barreled shotgun in his hands compainion with a dog.
The man raised his eyebrows and blinked at the two creatures in front of him.
Daffy and Porky gulped.
The tent Tor led Jaden to was placed in a small clearing, surrounded by crates and tables and all manner of traveling equipment.
Inside the tent, a large map covered most of one of the walls, a few cushioned chairs sat to one side with two small tables beside them. Two lanterns lit the inside of the tent. A young woman with short red hair who wore glasses, wearing an orange sweather with a red skirt stood leaning over a projector. She appeared to be tinkering with it.
"Velma." Tor said simply.
"Oh, Tor!" the woman smiled as she turned around and caught sight of Jaden, "And who's this?"
"Uh, I'm Jaden-" the Keybearer began to introduce himself.
"Oh! You speak English!" The woman, who's name was apparently Velma, interrupted curiously, "So, then, obviously, you're not related to Tor..."
Jaden looked down at Tor, sitting hunched over on the ground. He just stared back.
"So are you here to study the Gorillas?" Velma cocked her head.
"Highly doubtful." a new, deep and congested sounding voice came from the tent's entrance. Velma's black eyes twitched just slightly at the sound of the voice.
Jaden turned to see a man with an angular face enter, trailed by Daffy and Porky.
"Daffy! Porky!" Jaden smiled wide.
"Jaden!" Porky happily greeted. Daffy grunted in acknowledgment.
Jaden crossed his arms and grunted back, reminded of their earlier argument. He wondered if Daffy was ready to leave already.
The man shrugged and turned to walk out of the tent, "I found these strange creatures out in the Jungle. I was close to shooting them until the shorter one talked. Almost shot then too." he cleared his throat. "Apparently just a circus of clowns. Not much use for hunting gorillas."
Everyone turned to find Velma studying Porky closely with a magnifying glass. She spoke quietly, distracted by these two new creatures. "We're studying them, not hunting them, Mr. Dastardly. This is research." By this time, the hunter, Dastardly, had long left, not that Velma had noticed. She moved her studies over to Daffy, who quickly stepped away. "This is fascinating...I cannot wait to tell the gang about this...perhaps I'll publish an article"
"Stop poking me, sister!" Daffy angrily pushed Velma away.
She smiled, unfazed. "So, do you have a name?"
Daffy didn't reply, so Porky spoke up. "I'm Porky, ma'am, and this here is Daffy." he chuckled. "He's kinda grumpy."
"Well," Velma curtsied formally, "I'm Velma. I'm pleased to meet such creatures as yourselves. Please, if you need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask." she smiled once again and retreated to the table. Grabbing a piece of paper, she started to jot things down, looking up every now and then to refresh herself with Daffy and Porky's appearance.
"Well anyway..." Jaden began
"I'm staying!" he and Daffy said at the same time.
Jaden started and looked down at Daffy, "Huh?" He wondered why Daffy was staying when he was so insistent before that they pass this world by.
Porky reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, red block, "Jaden, look what we found. Look at this."
"What's that?" Jaden asked, looking at the small object in Porky's cupped hands.
"A Gummi Block!" Porky declared, "It's the same stuff used to build our ship."
"So that means..." Jaden trailed off.
"The King could be here." Daffy finished impatiently, "So, we've gotta work together to look for him," he spoke as if in pain. "For now."
Jaden frowned, "Fine. I'll let you tag along. For now."
Porky sighed and tucked the Gummi Block back into his shirt pocket.
Jaden turned, "Velma? I'm looking for two friends of mine. Tor said that he knew where they were. Do you have any ideas how we can find out?"
Velma looked up hurriedly from her paper, "Well, I suppose we could show Tor some slides and see if they show a place that Tor recognizes as having to do with your friends...You see, Tor was raised in the jungle with the Gorillas, so he knows much more about this jungle then we ever could."
Jaden was willing to try anything, "Yes, please, let's try that!"
Velma nodded and pulled some slides off a small table and turned the lanterns off. She carefully asked Tor if he would tell them if he recognized any of the things in the slides as having to do with Jaden's friends.
As Jaden watched in anticipation, he felt a shiver go up his spine at the sight of one of the slides. It was a picture of a monstrous and imposing castle, towering high into the sky. It was like no castle Jaden had ever seen. It was tall, but looked off-balance. . Gravity seemed to be defied by the ramparts and towers and a a small lift system seemed to snake around the outside walls.
But why was this familiar? Why did his chest warm, but spine shiver, at the sight? He had never been off his Islands, so how did he recognize this off-kilter castle?
Velma showed Tor quite a few more slides, but if you were to ask Jaden what they had been pictures of, he could not have told you. All he could think about was that one slide of the Castle.
Presently, Jaden realized that Velma had turned off the projector and looked to Tor who shook his head.
Jaden sighed. Tor hadn't recognized any of those places. He was back at having no idea on how to find Zane and Alexis.
"Well, that only leaves one place, right Mudley?" Dastardly said, having silently entered at some point during the slideshow then turned to his dog.
"Yeah yeah yeah!" His dog replied with sinister smirk.
Jaden raised his head and looked hopefully at the man who seemed to be the brawn of this Jungle expedition.
"Young man, we've been in this jungle for some time now. But we have yet to encounter these friends of yours." Dastardly turned and pointed to Tor, "If they are indeed here, I'd wager they're with the gorillas. But Tor refuses to take us to them."
"Really, Mr. Dastardly. Tor wouldn't hide-"
Dastardly walked over, past Velma, and stood above Tor's crouched form.
"Then take us there! Take us to the Gorillas! Go-ril-las." he pronounced, rolling his r's.
Tor swiveled his head to Jaden and stared at him, as if trying to read the boy's honesty.
Jaden begged him with his eyes to take them to the Gorillas. To take him to Zane and Alexis, if they were indeed here.
Tor stared back for a moment or two, then nodded.
"Tor go see Grape Ape." he spoke in broken English.
"Tor are you sure? Who is Grape Ape?" Velma questioned worriedly.
Dastardly nodded, "He must be the leader. Perfect. I'll go along as an escort." the hunter smiled, "After all...the Jungle is a dangerous place..."
Jaden grunted as he landed on the opposite side of a rushing river, having just swung across the waters on a thin vine rope. Tall tropical trees grew sturdy and large all around him, each draping their own sets of vine, like masses of spider-webbing. Extensive areas of clumped, thick grass stood firm ahead of the small group.
Dastardly, who was leading the way, was cutting down the grass viciously. Jaden supposed the man was on a high. Sabor had attacked the group briefly, but had been scared off by Dastardly. Jaden was unsure whether the shots had killed the creature or not, but Dastardly had seemed excited just to be shooting at something.
The group came to a sudden halt when Tor held up his hand in a gesture that clearly meant for everyone to stop moving.
Dastardly's eyes seemed to brighten, "What is it?"
Tor didn't answer and moved forward, sniffing the air. Jaden strained to hear anything different than the typical jungle noises they had heard for the last two hours: birds, bugs, animals. The occasional grumble from Daffy.
Tor gestured them forward slowly, "Here. Wait." he grunted as he disappeared beyond a large bush. Jaden, Daffy and Porky got as close as they could, hoping to see what would happen. Dastardly scowled at Tor's disappearance, but joined them nonetheless.
Beyond the bush, Jaden saw a huge area of trees, each with small pads of leaves spread out over the branches. A great many gorillas sat in the tree on the nests of leaves. Others milled about on the ground. Jaden heard Dastardly's breath quicken beside him.
As soon as a single gorilla caught sight of Tor, the entire group scattered to the trees. All except one huge, purple, muscular one. Jaden supposed that was Grape Ape.
Tor began grunting toward Grape Ape in what Jaden could only assume was gorilla-speak. He wondered what Tor was saying as he gestured toward those standing behind the bush. Jaden thought Tor sounded almost desperate.
Grape Ape looked on in impassivity until Tor was finished, then he picked himself up, gave Tor and the bush a disdainful look, and disappeared into the jungle. The rest of the gorillas disappeared from the trees and followed him into the foliage as well.
Tor crumpled to the ground in defeat. Grape Ape had apparently refused.
Jaden looked sadly to the ground and sighed. Another dead end. No Zane, no Alexis. Again. Why? Why couldn't he have a break? Why couldn't he just find them? Alexis was here! He had seen her earlier, hadn't he?
Jaden soon found himself looking at Tor's bare feet, standing in front of him. He pulled his eyes up to Tor's apologizing eyes.
"Well, that was quite the waste of time..." Dastardly mumbled to himself and ran his hands up and down his shotgun impatiently.
"Is...is there anywhere else Grape Ape could be going?" Jaden asked with one last thread of hope.
Tor sighed, "Dastardly go house in tree." Dastardly stopped his movement.
Jaden looked up. The treehouse. That was where he had seen Alexis!
"Tor, please! Can you take us to the treehouse? Just this once, just once more! I need to be sure!"
Daffy began to say something, but Tor held up his hand and nodded to Jaden.
"Thank you." Jaden sighed.
"Hey, fellas...where's Mr. Dastardly?" Porky looked around curiously.
Jaden scanned the area. Porky was right.
Dastardly was gone.
"Dastardly go." Tor growled and ran off into the forest, the trio following him close behind.
Dastardly looked down the length of his double-barreled shotgun. His only partner in his quest. Over the years the shotgun had become an extension of himself. He could probably fire it in his sleep and hit whatever he wished.
And, at this moment, it was a young gorilla in his sites.
A devilish little thing to be sure, strange pointed hair, odd coloring, playing about with a globe...
Not as exciting as shooting a adult, but this would do for now. Maybe that leopard would come back sometime. He knew that would be a good hunt.
Dastardly smiled and trained the shotgun directly on the poor piece of meat's head.
For the hunt, he toasted.
He smiled and pushed gently on the trigger.
But then something exploded to his left and the hunter was thrown back against the railing, his shot going wide.
What the devil was this?
"Hey bub?" Daffy yelled at the now-surprised hunter, sprawled against the treehouse railing. A destroyed and smoking box to the left showed signs of being struck by a Thunder attack.
The small little gorilla, quite scared, had scurried behind the muscled leg of the newly arrived Grape Ape.
"Grape Ape!" Tor yelled again, and hurriedly ran toward the balcony of the treehouse where the gorilla king stood.
Jaden looked angrily at Dastardly, along with Daffy and Porky. If the hunter had ruined any possible chance to find Zane or Alexis on account of having to kill a gorilla, so help him...
Suddenly, Tor's grunted gorilla-speak halted and he returned to the outer-porch of the treehouse. He grabbed Dastardly around the throat and pushed him forcefully against the railing.
"What you do!" he bit out brokenly.
Jaden started forward. He couldn't let Tor just kill the man. "Uhh...Tor..." Tor silenced him with the palm of his hand.
Dastardly's eyes flitted nervously, "You don't understand! I was only trying to..." the man choked a little, "Ah, a—a snake slithered b-by, you see. I-I-I saved that p-poor gorilla's life!"
Tor looked darkly at him, and pushed a little harder, upper lip quivering. Dastardly eyes widened and he began to claw at Tor's muscled arm.
Finally, the ape man relaxed and threw Dastardly across the porch and into a pile of crates inside the treehouse. Jaden sighed. As much as Dastardly may have just ruined his chances of finding Zane and Alexis, he was relieved that Tor hadn't murdered him.
Not a moment later, Tor was tackled to the ground by the spotted form of Sabor the leopard. A strangled gasp broke from Tor as he held the beast's head back with his bare hands, whilst his throat was crushed by Sabor's paw. A paw, heavily dyed dark red, with a small scabbed-over hole just visible among the maroon fur.
Jaden called the Keyblade to his hands, but Porky was quicker and had already thrown his shield toward the leopard. It made contact with a hard 'thunk' and Sabor was tossed back heavily against the railing. Daffy next called down a thunder attack, but Sabor was too quick and moved out of the way, jumping toward Jaden. Jaden slashed quickly, hitting his mark against the resilient beast, knocking it into the treehouse with a crash. Inside the treehouse, the large, discharging crack of Dastardly's shotgun was heard and the sound of breaking glass followed.
Slowly, Dastardly walked slowly out of the treehouse and cracked his neck.
"That God-forsaken leopard just won't die." he stated simply. "It escaped after I shot it. Again."
Tor pushed himself to his feet, gasping heavily and massaging his neck.
"You okay?" Jaden asked concerned. Tor nodded and glared at Dastardly, still angry.
Dastardly just smiled and pointed out that it was getting late and they should head back to the Campsite.
"Mr. Dastardly! How could you have done such a thing!" Velma yelled at the hunter in anger upon hearing of the events that had transpired over the afternoon.
"Now, Miss Dinkley, as I told you, I was not aiming at the gorilla-" Dastardly began, holding up his hands in defense.
Velma interrupted and shook a finger in his face, "You are not to go near the gorillas again!"
"All because of one mishap? Come now..." Dastardly chuckled. He then caught sight of Tor, on Velma's left, glowering darkly at him from underneath brown dreadlocks, and Jaden, on Velma's right, glaring, with arms crossed, at the Hunter as well.
Dastardly chuckled again, this time uneasily, and held up his hands in surrender. He then turned and stalked out of the tent.
Velma sighed and turned to Tor and her three guests.
"Well...There's some sleeping room back here..." she announced as she led the way through a flap on the far side of the tent.
Dastardly puffed heavily on his long pipe as he walked through the Bamboo Forest, a ways away from the Camp. The moon's rays cast shadows everywhere, enough to make the most seasoned adventurer wary.
"What am I doing with these imbeciles?" Dastardly on mumbled to himself. The hunt was so much more enjoyable on one's own, so why was he here?
The hunt...just you, your prey, and the jungle. The thrill, the sheer fear coming from your prey...the kill...
Everything. It was all so glorious. Such a rush of pure, unadulterated adventure. Man at his finest. Man doing what man was meant to be doing.
And those gorillas, the mighty beasts of the jungle, they were just the thing for the hunt. The monster gorilla, Grape Ape, would be the most satisfying of them all. That would be enjoyable, most enjoyable indeed. And that leopard, that bloody leopard that just wouldn't die. It too. He would hunt the Leopard and the gorillas down too. Then maybe that duck and that pig.
No. Wait. No, that was going a bit far.
Ah, but did it really matter? They were animals just the same. He would go after them too.
But not yet...no, first came the gorillas. Then the leopard.
Dastardly took another puff of dark smoke.
"Blasted gorillas! I'll hunt down every last one of you!" he yelled to the jungle, "I'll track you down. Somehow."
Yes, yes, that's what he would do.
He needed to find those gorillas.
He needed to hunt those gorillas.
He needed to shoot each one of them, and then take their pelts back to his city. And the leopard too. They'd all go for quite high prices there.
Dastardly took another puff and smirked softly, "I'll stake my life on it."
No sooner had he said those words, than a shadow began to take form ahead of him. In one fluid motion, he brought his shotgun up and shot the rapidly forming shadow, dissipating it into a puff of smoke. But another shadow appeared, this one taking the shape of a bluish monkey with a shadowy face and arms. He shot it too. He began to feel the thrill come again, not as much as if he had been truly hunting, but enough to make him smile.
Then a large shadow fell on his back and eclipsed all his surroundings.
He turned and looked upon a monstrous beast, surrounded by more and more of the small monkey shadows.
Dastardly was about to shoot them too, when the monstrous one growled softly.
His arm, bringing his shotgun up to position, halted and he quirked an eyebrow. The monsters weren't attacking. Not proper hunting etiquette at all. Hm.
He smiled.
"Well, hello there..." he took another puff and leaned back, gun across his shoulders. "Perhaps you can assist me in the hunt."
Of course, he'd kill these things later, too.
Of course.
End of Chapter VII
NOTE:
-Velma Dinkley is a fictional character from Scooby-Doo.
-Tor is a fictional character from the Might Mightor.
-Dick Dastardly is a fictional character from Wacky Races.
-Sabor was the only character to stay the same.