Chapter Three

It was easy to say that they would take Hayden to the park so she could stay in the mill so she'd get a place to live. But getting her to the park safely and unnoticed was the hard part. Especially when she was being guided by a squirrel and a rat. Hayden had an idea for them to pass off as her pets but they just found the idea terribly too humiliating to go through so they came up with another plan that just had to work.

With Surly and Buddy hiding in her clothes, Hayden walked out into the open, letting the pair guide her to the park as they took a few peeks from the dress collar to help their directions… and so they could breath fresh air since the girl smelled so badly.

"Ugh," Surly groaned as he held his nose "When was the last time you had a bath kid?"

"Since I ran away from the orphanage." Hayden said

"Whew, ok, when we get to the park the first thing you're going to do is wash, you're killing us in here!" Surly said as he turned to Buddy, who was trying not to puke as his face turned green "This is the worst idea I ever had."

"But you said you'd rather hide in my clothes then ride on my head as pets." Hayden reminded them

"Yeah, and I'm already regretting it." Surly said

But then their luck got worst when a group of dogs came out, snarling and growling and baring their sharp teeth.

"Oh great." Surly groaned

"Uh," Hayden said, skittish and fearfully "What do we do now?"

Surly rubbed his chin quickly, for he wasn't quite sure what to do. The only dog he ever knew was Precious and she was friendly. Then it crossed his mind that if he had a silver whistle like the one he prompted Precious to act nicely he might be able to sway the pack of dogs before them into doing the same thing.

However neither Surly nor Buddy had the means to obtain said device at the current moment, not with the group of feral dogs staring them down.

Surly looked up to see how frightened Hayden was and just like that an idea sparked in his head. It wasn't going to be pretty but it was all he had.

"Okay," Surly prompted "I got this."

He jumped out of Hayden's clothes stared right at the dogs. They were still snarling and saliva was dripping from their ferocious maws. The squirrel felt his feet tremble a bit, and he realized that he was actually afraid of the canines before him… but then he thought of what would've happened if he had ran away, Buddy and Hayden would get severely harmed if one of those dogs sank those teeth into their bodies.

Years ago he would've would've just saved himself and left others to fend for himself… but this time he had to protect Buddy and Hayden so they'd get to the park safely.

With that in mind, and with his heart pounding, Surly got on all four feet and sprinted in the direction of the dogs, and each one came darting at him with snapping jaws. Surly huffed and humped, his hind legs bouncing off the first dog's head and sailing over the rest of their heads. Each pooch spun and looked at Surly with Anger.

"You want some more you dumb mutts?" Asked Surly as he shook his big fluffy tail in a taunting way. The taunt worked and ever dog redirected their attention to Surly, entirely leaving Hayden and Buddy alone.

Surly smiled and knew that from there Buddy would take over and get the kid safely back to the park. Then he shouted "Come and get me!" and ran off.

Hayden watched the squirrel disappeared behind a corner and into an alley. She was about to ran after him but Buddy patted her chest and she stopped quickly.

"We've got to help him, right?" she asked the rat.

Buddy only shook his head and pointed across the street. The park was close and Buddy knew that Surly didn't need any assistance. He'd meet back up with them later.

Hayden felt as if Buddy was telling her not to worry and ran for the park as fast as she could. Meanwhile Surly ran away from the dogs at lightning like speed, swerving, ducking and zigzagging past humans in an attempt to lose the mutts.

He saw a group of kids putting on a magic show and dove right through them and the dogs crashed into them with one of them getting trapped inside a cardboard box.

Next he hopped on top of a woman as she was spraying herself with perfume, making her shriek before the dogs pounced on her to get the squirrel. The dogs missed the squirrel and one of them stayed behind now that his snout was stuffed with perfume.

Finally Surly climbed through a hole in a wooden fence and the dogs ran into it and barked angrily. Surly sighed as he caught his breath and Chuckled "Dumb Dogs, now back to the park."

He climbed up the nearest telephone pole he could find and made his way back to the park. Once he arrived he found Hayden and Buddy waiting for him under the shade of an oak tree and once she saw him Hayden picked up Surly and hugged him happily as she cried "Oh Surly! I'm so glad you didn't get chewed up!"

"Ok kid, I get it, you missed me but you're killing me here!" Surly groaned as he was pressed against the girl's chest.

"Oh, Sorry." Hayden said as she placed him on her shoulder. As he recovered she asked "So, where's the mill?"

Surly got his spine back in line and said "It should be over towards the center of the park. I think you'll like it. I mean, it's got everything a kid could need, right? Food, water, shade, company; you think there's anything else a kid could need?"

Hayden shrugged her shoulders, she didn't know the first thing about child care. Sure she'd been cared for in the orphanage, but she never truly paid attention to anything that was around her. The people working just did their own thing; the only things Hayden did there was eat and sleep.

"I guess," she said "I suppose it'll be nice to meet your friends and families."

Surly's eyes widened at this comment. He didn't have any sort of girl or children waiting for him once he got back to the mill.

"Hey, whoa," he proclaimed "Look, I ain't got no one waiting for me back at the mill. Buddy and I are a team; there isn't anyone else in the equation. You got that?"

Hayden seemed surprised by Surly's reaction. "Really?" She asked "I thought that the two of you would surely have some kind of welcome as soon as you got back."

"Well you'd be wrong, Hayden. We're on our own and we'll like to keep it that way." Surly said with his arms crossed.

"But if you're on your own then how come you're taking me to a park filled with other animals?" Hayden asked as Buddy climbed up and stood on her other shoulder.

"Because, covertly, we gather food for the park; but most of the animals there don't like us." Surly confessed.

"Will they like me?" Hayden asked with a hint of worry in her voice. Buddy gently patted her head and smiled at her. He was sure the park animals would truely adore her. She wasn't like her kind just like him, naturally everyone would love her. They just had to.

"Don't worry kid," Surly said "Just don't get into trouble much and you'll be just fine." he looked ahead and said "There is it, the old mill."

Hayden looked up at the mill and Buddy and Surly climbed off her and up the wooden boards. Hayden tried to do the same but kept falling down. The pair turned to each other and showed her an old door they never used for humans and Hayden went inside. The inside of the mill was broken and old but still pretty sturdy. She found a small flight of stairs and climbed up to the second floor of the mill.

It was wide, had a few other things that no one ever used since it was abandoned and a hole coming out of the roof, letting in the sun shine. "There, you see?" Surly asked "It's wide, cozy, has a roof with a skylight in it, what more could a kid ask for?"

"SURLY!"

Surly yelped when he heard Andie, coming in from out of no where and cournering him without even so much as a hello, saying "What took you so long Surly?! The park animals tried to recover food from humans like you had done but each one's ended as a disaster and you and Buddy vanish and nearly take all day to get back, and..." she then forced herself to calm down and say "So, did you find any more food?"

"Uh well, we did." Surly said "but there was a bit of a snag trying to get even a crumb out. I did bring back something else... but it's nto food related."

"What are you talking about Surly?" Andie asked before she noticed Buddy wasn't with him and turned to find him... and saw him standing right next to a human child!

"Hi! Are you Surly's girlfriend or sister?" Hayden asked

Andie's mouth dropped open with shock before she turned back to the purple squirrel and said "Surly... you... you better have a good explanation for this!"

"Uh... would you believe i'm new to this myself?" Surly asked before he laughed sheepishly and then groaned "Oh boy."