The
previous night's tense mood lingered in the weather the next morning.
The sun had been swallowed up by dark, ominous storm clouds that
threatened to send pouring rain. Everything in sight had been tinted
toward a depressing gray. The forest was eerily silent; there was a
painfully obvious lack of birdsong.
Yuck's
eyes opened slowly. He sat up, stretched his arms, and wiped his eyes
so as to keep them from closing again. He glanced over to the spot
where Yin had fallen asleep. To his dismay, she wasn't there.
Instead, a note lay in her place. He grabbed and read it without a
heartbeat's hesitation. It read:
We've taken the pink one
called Yin because prey has been scarce in the mountains. We intend
to eat her at nightfall. Try and save her, and we'll eat you
too.
-SilverPack
"No..."
he choked out in horror. Without thinking he shouted, "Yang! Get
up!" "No I don't wanna get up..." Yang
mumbled, half asleep. "Gimmie five more hours..." "Yang
you retard WAKE UP!" He tried kicking him in the side. That did
the trick.
"Ow!"
Yang shot up, holding the spot on his side where he'd been hit.
"Good, you're up, now read this!" Yuck frantically handed
him the note. "... SilverPack?" "That's the pack of
wolves who live in the mountains near here," he explained. "Yeah
right!" Yang glared at him. "YOU did this!"
"What?!"
"You heard me! You took Yin in the middle of the night, hid her
somewhere, and wrote that fake note so I'd go off trying to save her
and end up getting eaten! Admit it!" Yuck put his palm to his
face. "We don't have time for this! Yin's in trouble and we've
got to get moving!"
Yang
searched his face for any hint of dishonesty and found only
desperation. "... Fine. I guess I'm forced to trust you. But
only because YOU know where she is, whether you took her or not. And
you're taking me to her NOW." "'Bout time..." Yuck
muttered under his breath too low for Yang to hear.
"But
before we go, we're gonna need a plan." "What? That's dumb!
We've got WooFoo on our side! We could just go and kick their butts!"
"It's not that easy!" He struggled to find some patience.
"ONE of those wolves almost killed me a few weeks ago. Do you
think we have half a chance against the whole pack?"
"Oh...
But I'm not good with plans! Yin always comes up with the plans!"
he fretted. "And who do you think I got my IQ from, her or you?"
Yuck retorted. "Now I hope you're better at stealth than you are
at math." "I guess so." "Good. Then here's what
we'll do..."
About an hour later...
The
trees and foliage had long since disappeared and been replaced by
cold, gray stone. The rain was pouring hard. Yang was having a little
trouble keeping up with Yuck's more experienced climbing skills. "How
much farther?" he whined. "My legs are killing me!"
"You want a straw so you can suck it up?" Yuck snapped.
"Hurry up!" Yang muttered something under his breath but
did nothing further to argue.
Soon
they came to a point where the towering rocks spread out and left
some space. Across the space there was a large cave with two guards
standing in front of it. Yang and Yuck hid behind a large boulder
nearby, careful to keep their ears from sticking up in plain sight.
"Okay so here's the deal," Yuck whispered," "I'll
use my invisibility spell so they can't see us. Then we'll sneak in,
grab Yin, and come back out before anyone knows we were in there."
"What?" Yang whispered back. "I am NOT holding your
hand!" "Fine then grab my ears or something." He
rolled his eyes. 'How does Yin put up with this?' "Okay."
Yang grabbed one of Yuck's ears. Yuck cast the spell without a word
and they crept past the guards in silence.
Wolves
were everywhere inside the cave. Young, old, male, female, all over.
It was hard to maneauver through them without bumping into one but
they managed it. Eventually they found a cave within the cave with a
single guard in front of it. He was fast asleep. They managed to
creep past him without waking him up. Just as expected, yYin was
sprawled out o her side in the back of the cave. But she wasn't
moving.
She had severe, poorly
healed cuts on her back stomach, and face, and bruises just about
everywhere else. Her fur was a little messed up, probably fom
struggling to get away when the wolves grabbed her. "Oh God..."
Yuck whispered too low for even Yang to hear. He picked her up off
the damp cave floor and carried her bridal style. Then he nodded to
Yang, and they made it out of the cave without anyone
noticing.
Once out of earshot
and sight, Yang let go of Yuck's ear and the spell ended, though they
walked on. "We'd better get her to a hospital!" Yang
fretted. "And when we get there you should call your sensei,"
Yuck added. "You don't wanna get involved in this-" "Yes,
I do," Yuck interrupted with a steady tone. "I care about
Yin just as much as you do." "... Okay. But I'm telling
Master Yo everything, got it?" "I don't care as long as she
gets to a doctor." 'And as long as she'll be okay...'
Oh nu dun die Yin! D:
