Chapter 5: An Oddly Colored Feline

Joe knew I would need some serious training if just he and I are going to take on a gang with 500+ members. To make things more difficult, we knew nothing about the gang, where their base was, the level of security, the strength of everybody, what armour and weapons they had...we knew we had the disadvantage. But I was not giving up until I brought that gang to their knees.

"Hah! Heeyah! Ha! Ha! Ha!" I yelled as I punched at a punching bag. I had been training for weeks, and I was so tired, simple tasks were becoming difficult. Joe, knowing this, decides we should have a break.

"Chase, can you stop for a moment?" Joe asked.

"Not now," I gasped, "I am almost…done…"

Joe had an annoyed face, then went beside the punching bag, and threw his fist at it. The bag flew off the chain it was on and crashed through the wall. My eyes bugging out of my head, I look at Joe and say,

"Holy shit!"

"I need to talk to you."

"Yea, I heard you the first time."

"Are you willing to listen?"

I looked at him, then the slightly red hand he punched the punching bag with, and said,

"Yea, I think I could stop for a moment…"

"Good. We are taking a vacation."

"What? We can't! We have to—"

"What good is it to be strong when you have no energy? You need a break. You are about ready to collapse."

"What? No! I feel like a million bucks."

Joe looked at me for a few seconds, put his pinky in the air, and pushed it on my chest. To my surprise, he was pushing me down, and I slammed to the floor.

"I rest my case." Joe said.

"Whatever, let's go—"

"Tomorrow. You need to rest."

"You aren't a fan of letting people finish what they are saying are you?"

"I say what needs to be said."

Moments after I got in bed, I was gone. I woke up the next day, most likely in the afternoon, and decided to look for Joe. His sleeping bag was still here, but Paco was gone. So I decided to start some more training, but when I went to the training room, everything was gone. It was replaced with vacation items. The punching bags were replaced with bags of cooked sharks, the barbells replaced with vacation-ey clothes, like shorts and T-shirts, and on the door there was a note:

Chase,

I knew if I left and you woke up that you would waste your energy on training, so I took the equipment to my house. I have left to get some more supplies, please stay put.

Joe

P.S. Don't eat any food; we are going to need it. Trust me.

I was a little annoyed that he took everything, but also surprised. He could really think ahead. Soon after reading the letter, I hear flapping in the sky, and I could see Paco and Joe. Paco flew down and landed smoothly, and Joe hopped off.

"Ready to go?"

"I guess."

I got on Paco, followed by Joe, and we started to fly away to wherever Joe had told Paco to go to. Then, an arrow flies past me, cutting a few strands of hair! I put on my helmet, and saw that Joe looked worried.

"Oh, hell no…" he said.

"What? What!" I shouted.

"Look!"

I looked down, we were flying past Barbarian Village, and apparently they do not like ravens, because the rangers were firing arrows at us, some were even throwing their battleaxes up at us!

"Paco, fly up! Evasive maneuvers!" he commanded.

"Cawww!" Paco crowed.

Paco obeyed Joe, flying as high as he could, but some arrows and weapons were still getting near us. Paco kept dodging, while Joe threw down Red Chinchompas down. Then, an arrow struck Paco in the wing just as we were about to be safe.

"Caww! Caaaawwwwwwww!" screamed Paco, in agony.

Paco was now unable to fly, and we were falling down…fast. Joe was able to get the arrow out of Paco's wing, and then said,

"C'mon, Paco! You gotta fly!"

Paco tried to flap his wing, but he couldn't. The arrow struck right on a joint in his wing, so any slight movement was a world of pain for Paco. Paco spread out his good wing all the way out, and his broken wing as far as he could, to try to glide down. It slowed us a little bit, but not near enough to make the impact to the ground non-fatal. Then, Joe dug in his inventory and pulled out a Mithril Grapple. He then put some rope on it extremely quick, and then said to me,

"Hold onto the end of this! I need to wrap this rope around Paco!"

"What? Are you crazy!" I screamed.

"If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die trying!"

I held onto the rope, then Joe gave me a thumbs-up, and jumped down. He then swung around Paco's belly and back onto his back. He then tightened the rope and tied it, then grabbed the grapple and started swinging it around and around.

"Hang on to the rope tight, Chase!"

I tied some loose rope on both of my wrists, not knowing what to expect.

"Ok Paco, this is going to be a long shot, and we might not make it out of this."

"Caw…" crowed Paco, sadly.

"You have been the best damn raven, and it's been a privilege to even know you."

"Caw!" crowed Paco.

"Now that goodbyes are done, I need you to try to glide yourself over to that Yew tree!"

Paco knew what Joe was going to do, but I still had no idea. Paco was able to get close enough to a Yew tree so that Joe could swing his grapple at the trunk. It wrapped around the trunk and the grapple caught on a few thick branches. The people cutting it looked up, then followed the rope to see and injured raven flying at them.

"Holy Saradomin!" one yelled.

"Run!"

"Hey, a bird's nest fell out!"

"Nice man, what's in it?"

"Ah, only an acorn."

"I forgot what we were doing…"

"Wow, me too!"

They saw the raven again, screamed, and took off. One of them stayed there though. He was bald with a mustache, light green T-shirt, and long dark green pants. I had heard if you talk to those people, they act like nothing is there. People call them "bots", or short for robot. All they do is cut Yew trees, nothing else. Now I knew it was true, as a giant raven was flying there and he doesn't even notice. Soon the rope tightened, and Paco swung around and around the Yew tree. I saw the rope starting to break, Joe desperately tried holding the rope together, to no avail. When the rope snapped, we flew off, and I looked at Joe.

"I guess just hang on and hope for the best!"

We landed in a lake, where luckily Paco could touch the bottom of it and not drown. He walked out, fell down, and so did Joe and I. We were extremely lucky to have survived. When we re-gained consciousness, Joe went over to Paco and started to nurse his wound.

"What's it like to have a follower?" I asked.

"Follower? Not even a pet…more like a best friend. It's the best." said Joe.

"Wish I had one, sounds like fun."

"It's definitely worth it."

I looked around, seeing Falador to the south, a wall to the east of me, and west of me White Wolf Mountain.

"How the heck did we end up in Taverly?"

"Don't ask me, I was wondering the same thing."

"I'm gonna go to the pet store up there."

"Ok. Bring some fishing bait back for Paco."

"Will do."

I walked into the pet store, and was greeted with barking, chirping, hissing, all sorts of animal sounds.

"Ahh! 'Ello! What can I-a do for you-a?" said the store owner.

"Don't Italian people run pizza shops? And do Italian accents even EXIST in RuneScape?" I asked.

"Oh for the love of Guthix-a. Everone-a asks that!"

"Just…forget it. I need a pet."

"Ahaha! 'I need a pet.' That is very-a humorous."

"What…?"

"What kind of-a pet do you a-need?"

"Hmm…well I do like cats. But I don't want any old cat. I want this one to be different. A one-of-a-kind!"

"Ooo-hoo-hoo-hoo! You are-a very lucky to have-a come across my store! I have zee-a perfect one!"

He goes into one of the cat pens and shows me a small kitten, all black, except for a spot of white on its back that resembled a sword.

"Hmm…what else do you have?"

"Well-a let me a-look."

While he was looking, I noticed something outside.

"Hey, I'll be right back…" I said.

I ran out there, and there was a little kitten…but it was purple! A white belly and paws, dark purple stripes, almost black, that went across his back, and the rest purple! It was very tame too; it came right up to me and started purring.

"Oh, that's-a homeless kitten that roams around-a here."

"What! You knew about this kitten! You own a freakin' pet store!"

"Yes, yes, I-a know! I took him in once…but he is a little…strong-a."

"Strong? It's a kitten!"

"I lost four kittens that day, that's-a strong kitty-cat!"

"Well, I'll take him!"

"Good, he's free since he doesn't belong to-a me."

"Oh, I need some fishing bait for my friend's raven. Do you have any first aid for an arrow striking a wing also?"

"I have some-a pain medications."

"Good. I'll buy some."

"Come on-a in then."

As I waited for him to get the items I wanted, I noticed the kitten wasn't by me anymore. I looked around, started calling out 'Here kitty, kitty, kitty!'. I was afraid he ran off. But then I noticed he was in the store's kitchen window, his head buried in a bowl. I went in there to find a bowl that used to have chili in it.

"Well, you sure like chili, don't you little guy?" I said.

"Mew!" meowed the little kitten, licking chili off its face and paws.

"I think I'll name you…Chili Bob. You like that name?"

"Meow! Purr…" purred Chili Bob.

"Good. Your name is now Chili Bob."

Chili Bob hopped onto my shoulder, and I walked out. The owner walked out just then.

"Sorry, sometimes I-a get lost in there-a. Ahaha!" he laughed.

"That's fine, how much?"

"That will be 5,000 coins-a good sir."

I paid him, he gave me the fishing bait and medicine, and I said,

"Thanks."

I walked out, and then I remembered the chili that Chili Bob ate.

"He'll figure it out on his own." I smiled.

"Heeeey! Who-a ate all my-a chili!" yelled the store clerk.