Hehe, it's a really long chapter today ;)! And whaddya know, I've even decided on a birthday date for good ol' Bentley xP! The interesting thing is if I'll remember it myself next year, lol xD
*** Chapter Nine : A Prankster Is Born ***
Three years later...
"URGH!"
Bentley had been sitting with his legs crossed and stared down at the ground, deep in his own thoughts, when Cornelias husky groan of annoyance was heard and the loose board in the wooden wall was shuffled to the side with a loud bang. He turned his head just as the young redhead mountain lion squeezed herself through the hole in the wall. "Errm, hi, Cornelia!"
She snorted and cursed when her hair got tangled in the bushes above her head, but she didn't answer him. She didn't seem to be in a good mood at all! Or at least worse than usual, and to face the fact that they both were getting too big to move around in the bush tunnels freely anymore only seemed to add to her discontent.
"We need a new hideout!" She snarled lowly and pulled out a thorn from her pawlike hand. "Like, pronto!" She turned her head at him and gave him a meaning look.
He shrugged. "I'm sorry, Cornelia... I-I don't know any other place than this... A place where no one else goes, that is!"
"Well, ya better find one quick! And we gotta do something about that hole!" She narrowed her eyes at Bentley. "You guys got like, tool and stuff over there, huh?"
"What kind of tools?"
She snorted again. "I dunno, maybe somethin' we can use to pry another stupid board away with!" She rolled her eyes and added a muttering: "Ya dummy!"
"Soo, like a hammer? Or crowbar?"
She threw her arms out. "I don't know! Make somethin' up! You're good at makin' things up!"
Bentley frowned. "What do ya mean by that? I don't make things up, Cornelia!"
"Pfft, sure ya don't!" She rolled her sea-green eyes again. "Like that story about the sun bein' some kind of god or somethin'... Hah! Ridiculous!"
"The Great Mother is a goddESS! It's a difference between gods an' goddesses y'know!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! An' I suppose ya still believe in Santa Claus too?"
"Santa what? Who's that?"
"Ugh! Never mind!" She averted her eyes to the loose board, frowned and then turned back to Bentley and pointed at the hole with her thumb. "Oy! Weren'tcha gonna get us some tools or somethin'? Hop to it, buster!"
Bentley groaned and got on his knees, he couldn't stand up in the tunnels anymore without getting leaves and thorns in his hair and ears, so he had to crawl out. "Ya don't have to boss me 'round, y'know!"
"Hey! You ain't the only one I ain't askin' nicely so it ain't exactly personal if that's what ya think!"
"I never said I thought that!"
"Ya can't talk back to me! Shut up or I'll tell my dad!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it! Geez!"
He left the young mountain lion behind as he crawled towards the exit and peeked out. The coast was clear, no overseers or other slaves was around. He nodded to himself, crawled out and made his way to the blacksmith, Church. Hopefully, the big, quiet lion could borrow him something that could help with breaking loose another board in the wall.
It had passed three whole years since Bentley first arrived to the plantation, and he still wasn't fitting in. He had gotten to know everyone else and had been considered a part of the 'family' ever since day one, and since he was the youngest of the slaves, the overseers were a bit easier on him. Except for Lawrence Butch, also known as 'Lasher'. Lasher had something against everyone.
But even if Bentley was now was among friends, he never really felt at home. He missed his family, his REAL family! And their village, the jungle, and it's other inhabitants. He even missed the mosquitoes and the leeches! But most of all, he missed his father. For probably the third time this day, Bentley cursed himself for running away and dragging his sister with him. If he just would have listened to the others and stayed put none of this would have happened! They wouldn't have been captured and split apart, he wouldn't have been taken to a strange land as a slave with a boat of horrors, and his father wouldn't have had to die. This was all his fault...
He stopped walking when he spotted someones shadow in the corner of his eyes and turned around, just as Toby bolted past. The striped hyena looked like he was in trouble as he dashed past the younger brown hyena without giving him as much as a glance and headed towards the outskirts of the slaves living area. Bentley tilted his head as he watched Tobys back disappear between the shabby houses, before he shrugged and continued towards the blacksmith. Toby was probably just off on some side-mission and was now returning to the fields.
Since Bentley was so young, he had been allowed to take the Sundays off until he was ten years old. And they had figured out that his tenth birthday would take place sometime in the summer this year. In other words; he only had a couple of weeks left until he had to work just as hard and long as the others. Needless to say, since he was already feeling worn out by the amount of work he had to do now, he did NOT look forward to his birthday!
Speaking of which, Bentley thought these 'birthday' things they celebrated in this land was... fascinating! They didn't show much respect for life at all, but for some reason they liked to celebrate the day someone was born and then keep doing so every year! Back home, they didn't keep count like they did here, so he had no idea what to say when Ellie asked when he was born. And when he eventually answered; "In the Eight Year of the Bongo Antelopes Era?", she had just stared at him funny for two whole minutes and then burst out laughing. At last, they had set the date for his birthday at '15th of May', the day he had arrived to the Aventine Farm. He wasn't sure what day it was today, but what he knew was that he only had a couple of more Sundays left. And he still hadn't told Cornelia about it yet. Boy, was she going to be pissed when she found out!
Sometimes, he didn't know what to think about Cornelia; ever since he met her that day almost three years ago, they had been continuing to meet every Sunday at noon by the loose board. She could be really moody, and was really rowdy, crude and even plain out mean, especially when she was in a bad mood like today! But still, for some weird reason, Bentley really liked her! She was a great friend! Despite being a stubborn, spoiled brat, she didn't seem like a bad person, in fact, she was really fun to be around! Not to mention that they both had the same sense of humor, most of the time at least.
In a way, she reminded him of a coconut: hard and rugged on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. Even if she insulted him, mocked him and wasn't exactly modest about the fact that he literally belong to her family, she was still nicer than the overseers, and he was glad to be her best, and probably only, friend.
The hardest part however, was to keep their friendship a secret. Since they BOTH would get into really deep trouble if they were found out; Cornelia wasn't allowed to go past the tall fence alone, and Bentley wasn't allowed to as much as TALK with her. Cornelia claimed that she would get into more trouble than him, but he seriously doubted that. She would probably just get grounded and one heck of a scolding, while he would get whipped into shreds and then sold off cheap to a mining facility or for railroad work, but he kept that to himself when she was around.
He finally got to the blacksmith, which was connected to the stable further down the wall, and discovered that it was empty. He tiptoed into the sooty building and looked around, but he didn't see any signs of Church anywhere, and a 250 pound lion male wasn't exactly hard to miss.
"H-hello? Church?" Bentley called out just in case. "Anyone here?" No answer. But he still kept his senses on edge as the began to search for any tools, but couldn't find anything that seemed useful.
He then remembered the toolshed behind the blacksmith, but when he strolled around to the other side he noticed that it was locked up just as tight as the pantry. He was about to return to the bushes and admit his defeat, when he noticed that the ground underneath one of the walls was lower than the rest, creating a gap. He bent down and inspected it.
It was to narrow for him to crawl through so he had to dig it wider before he could squirm into the toolshed. While inside, his pulse began to rise. He knew he just did something that was against the rules, and if he was found out, he'd get whipped for sure! But then again, Cornelia would probably just laugh at him if he chickened out, so he took a deep breath and kept his ears peeled as he rummaged through the shelves. When he finally found a crowbar on one of the top shelves, he cheered quietly to himself and grabbed it. He was about to crawl out again with the crowbar in his hands when a scream was heard throughout the entire plantation. The scream caused him to freeze halfway out and lie completely still. That voice had sounded familiar, it had almost sounded like Ellie! And it sounded like she was in pain!
He remained paralyzed in fear until the next scream came and made him snap back to reality. He scrambled out and up on his feet and bolted away to the bushes. Still with the crowbar in hand, he dove straight into the thorny bushes and crawled into the tunnels. He found Cornelia sitting with her back against the wall with a strange, large, square object in her lap. She was staring intently at it until she heard him return, breathing heavily and wide-opened, scared eyes. His ears was flattened to his neck, almost completely hidden underneath the thick hair, and he was trembling like a leaf.
"Eh, did I miss somethin'?" She raised an eyebrow at his frightened look.
"D-didn't ya hear that?!"
"Hear what?"
"That scream! I-I think it was Ellie!"
She shrugged and went back at staring at the strange object. "Maybe" Bentley didn't answer, he just kept staring back from where he came. "Oh! An' that thing ain't needed no more!" He turned his head back to her with a puzzled look and she nodded with her head at the crowbar, still without looking up from the object. "I noticed that this fence is about to crumble down any day so I broke another board with my hands"
"... Are ya kiddin' with me?" He grimaced down at the crowbar. "I just did all that in vain then?"
She nodded so the ponytail her red hair was held in flowed down over her shoulder. "Yup!"
He groaned in response and leaned his back against the wall. He listened for more screams, but to his relief he had only heard those two. Instead, he curiously glanced over at the thing she was so focused on. "What's that?"
"The Frog Prince..."
He cocked an eyebrow. "... Wha?"
"Eh, I don't get it myself either..." She frowned and shook her head. "Apparently it's 'bout some prince that gets turned into a frog by an evil witch and he tries to get this farmer girl to kiss him so he'll turn back into a prince so he can marry her... I wouldn't have done it though, I mean, who in their right mind would ever wanna be a princess? Not only do ya have morons surroundin' ya all day, but ya always have to wear these silly dresses an' a butt-ugly crown on yer head! An' ya can't do whatever ya want b'cause ya have to set an example! I mean, if a princess would go mud-wrestlin' with someone they wouldn't be admired for being free-spirited an' fun, she'd be frowned upon for not bein' ladylike enough!" She stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Pretty much the life I live right now! Geez!"
But when she turned her head to Bentley to wonder why he wasn't replying, she was met with the most confused hyena she had ever seen in her entire life. "What?" Was all he could say after a moment of awkward silence.
She returned his confused face. "What what?"
"What IS that thing?" He pointed at the object. "A frog prince?! What the...?!"
With a puzzled frown, she looked back down at the object and almost closed it shut. On the side that had been facing down there was a drawing of a sad frog with some sort of crown on his head. "This?" Bentley nodded. "It's a book?"
"A... book?" He tilted his head, and Cornelias eyes nearly popped out of her head.
"Oh my god, ya never seen a BOOK b'fore, have ya?" When he slowly shook his head, she moaned and slammed her palm onto her face. "Cheesus! What rock did YOU grow up under?!"
"E-excuse me? Rock?"
"This is a book, Bentley. B-O-O-K!" She slammed the book shut and held it up in front of his face. "These things are like, the most basic things ever! People use these things to read stuff in, like stories and stuff!"
Bentley slowly took the book and opened it. One side was littered with a cluster of small, black symbols he couldn't make any sense out of, but on the other side was a drawing of a young mountain lion male dressed in odd, and kinda silly, clothes and a old, ugly vulture female wearing a worn, black robe. The mountain lion was crouching down with a frightened look on his face and the vulture was shooting blue lightning bolts out of her fingertips, apparently it was the prince being turned into a frog by a witch.
"How do ya know what they're sayin'?" He asked as he continued to look through the book, admiring the images.
"Well, I read it of course!" She snorted and pointed down at the other page, the one crammed with the little symbols.
He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer in over the book. The symbols seemed randomly placed and lacked any means of structure or logic. "R-read this?" He tried to see if it was some kind of decipherable pattern in it, but nothing seemed to make any sense at all. "What ARE these things?"
Cornelias mouth was clenched shut as she glared at the hyena with a disbelieving frown. "Have you guys heard 'bout this great new invention they call 'fire'?" She asked sarcastically after a while with a monotone voice. He looked up at her, more confused than ever. "Ya really don't know how to read either?"
"Ya mean these small, black things?" He glanced down at the symbols for a couple of seconds, before looking back up at her and slowly shake his head.
"Are ya for real, Bentley?! They're called letters! LETTERS! Ya guys really are stuck in the stone-age, aren'tcha?!" She exclaimed and snatched the book back from him. But then she calmed down, took a deep breath and frowned at the book. "In any case, dad said that if I read this thing out by tonight I'd get my own roadrunner... But I hate readin'! It's so painfully boring! Maybe you guys are the lucky ones who doesn't even know how to read..." Bentley honestly didn't know what to answer to that. After a moment of silence, she sighed and turned back to the hole in the wall. "Look, I gotta go back now, but I'll see ya here again next week, 'kay?"
Bentley nodded. "Sure!" But he couldn't help but to let out a restrained sigh when she moved the now two loose boards and easily crawled through and disappeared. He glanced down at the crowbar. "Now I gotta return this..." He thought out loud to himself and rolled his eyes. "Yipi..."
…
It didn't took him long to return the crowbar to the shed without getting noticed, since Church still was nowhere to be seen. The stable seemed fairly deserted as well, except for the critters.
After returning the crowbar, he decided to head straight back home; to granny Amas cabin. He had still been sleeping in her attic since he arrived here, and it had taken him these three years to stop being creeped out by the skull above her door. Apparently, it was some kind of 'ward against evil' charm, but that was all she could say when he asked about it.
But as he got closer to the cabin, he heard muffled noises coming from the inside and it even sounded like someone was crying. He slowed down and listened, and he got even more scared when he recognized Ellie as the one crying! He bit down hard on his lip, walked up the short staircase and carefully opened the door and sneaked in. Directly emerging into the kitchen, he noticed that it was unusually many people in the house for this time of the day. Toby was leaning his back against the wall with his face buried in his hand and next to him stood Church, silently staring down at the ground. Finn was sitting on one of the chairs next to the table, with Ellie in his lap. She was sobbing loudly and buried her face in the crook of her big brothers neck, who had protectively wrapped his arms around her. Finns jaw was clenched shut, the black, spiky mane was standing straight out from the neck and the round ears were flattened to his neck. He looked beyond angry! Chuck was there too, sitting on a chair next to Finn and tried to help the hyena comfort the young teenager. When Bentley entered, their attention was momentarily turned to him. All except Ellie, who kept crying into Finns shoulder.
"E-Ellie?" Bentley stuttered and felt a lump form in his chest. "W-what's...?" His voice trailed off when he saw the cause to everyones mixed emotions, and Ellies pain; her dress on her back had been ripped, and three long, bleeding gashes were visible through the fabric. The first one didn't seem so deep and most of the harm it could have done had been stopped by the long mane on her back, but the two others looked really bad and had even sliced through the mane! "W-what... Happened?" Bentley stuttered again, even if he knew what had happened to her. Ellie HAD been the one who screamed before, and she screamed because they had whipped her!
"I-It was my f-fault!" Toby answered, even if his voice was muffled by his own hand, it still sounded thick with guilt. "I-I sh-should've been the one t-they...!"
"Damnit Toby, will ya just shut up 'bout it?!" Finn snarled, cutting the striped hyena off.
"What happened?!" Bentley replied and let his eyes wander over the people in the room. "Why did they... whip her? Why would they do that to Ellie!?"
Toby answered before anyone else could. "W-we were workin' on the fields, I-I was diggin' up the ground a-and she helped me b-by plantin' the seeds. Th-the shovel broke though, s-so I left t-to f-find a new one a-an' when I returned th-the o-hoverseers had thought it was SH-SHE who broke it a-and refused to l-listen to me!" He drew a shaking sigh and slowly shook his head. "I sh-should been the one t-they punished! N-not Ellie!"
Church kept staring at the floor and shook his head, the dark brown, bushy mane around his head waved in sync with his movements. "She ain't done nothin' wrong! Ever!"
"Oh keep quiet! Ya two ain't the one who's s'posed to keep her safe from this kinda things, y'know!" Finn replied just as Toby barely finished the sentence. "I should've been there! If I hadn't been too busy, this wouldn't have happened to her!"
Ellie shifted in her brothers arms and sniveled as she turned her head away from his shoulder to wipe her nose on her sleeve. Bentley felt his throat tighten up even more when he saw her face; her eyes were all bloodshot and puffy and completely swimming with tears. Her face was dirty and the tears had left smudgy trails along her cheeks. He had never seen her like this before; Ellie was known on the plantation for being their little beam of sunshine. She was always happy and smiling, perhaps a little too happy at times, and loved to give out hugs to left and right. So the thought of anyone that would wanna hurt her like this was completely bizarre for them, and why Lasher held a grudge against her was even less understandable!
Finn clamped his jaw shut once again and hugged his little sister closer, yet still careful to not cause her more pain than what she already felt. "I'm sorry, Ellie! I'm so sorry, sis! I'll never let this happen to ya again, I swear!" He mumbled and clenched his eyes shut as well.
"Oh don't be so dramatic, Finn! They only gave her three! She'll survive!" Granny Ama suddenly walked into the kitchen, holding a small, steaming pot with some smelly goo in one hand and a bundle of bandages in her other. "An' the rest of ya have no purpose 'ere! Y'all got work to do! Go on! Schoo!" When everyone turned to leave the house, Ama stopped Bentley with a waved of the pot. "Except you, Bentley! Good thing you're here now, I'll need someone to help me with these bandages!" The pocket in front of her apron was filled with pieces of cloth and after she put the pot down on the table, she went to fetch a bowl of water and dipped one of the cloth pieces in it. "Alright, hun. Let's have a look at them!"
Ellie stared at the pot with her red eyes wide in fear and then moved her eyes to the piece of cloth Ama held in her scaly hand. She shook her head and pressed herself closer to her brother. "N-no... No!" She sobbed and her arms around his neck tightened their grip.
Finn tried to loosen one of her arms to give him more room to breathe. "Ellie, please. Just let Ama..."
"NO!" She shrieked and buried her face in the crook of his neck again. "No no no! Finn! I-it hurts!"
"It'll hurt a lot more if we don't do 'nothin' 'bout it!" Ama said with a firm voice.
"An' don't worry, sis; I'm right here, 'kay?" Finn managed to pry her away from his neck and held her head between his hands, trying to lock eyecontact with his traumatized sister. "I ain't goin' anywhere, sis, ya know I won't! Now, let Ama work her magic an' you'll feel better in no time! Trust me, I if anyone, knows this! They've whipped me tons of times b'fore an' I KNOW how damn much it hurts, but if we don't do somethin' 'bout those lashes on yer back now, they'll just hurt even more an' it'll take forever to heal!"
Ellie looked scared as she listened to her brother. She knew he was right, but right now it felt like her back was on fire and it would just get worse everytime someone touched her. But eventually she nodded, slowly and trembling, and began to sob again.
Finn gave her a faint smile in return. "Good girl!" After Ellie turned her whipped back to Ama and buried her face into Finns chest, Finn gave the elderly lizard a short nod in a gesture for her to go on.
Bentley didn't want to look as they cleaned out her wounds and covered them up with the greenish black sludge, which probably stung like hell since Ellie began screaming and trashing in pain, making it harder for Finn to hold her still. There were blood everywhere on the cloths that Ama had used to wipe the wounds clean, and just looking at either them or the wounds made Bentleys stomach churn so he had to keep his eyes locked at the floor to not throw up. Only when his name was mentioned did he look up and handed Ama one of the rolls, which he had began to uncoil on her demand.
He still couldn't grasp that it had been Ellie who got whipped. Ellie, out of all people! She never did anything wrong and out of everyone on the plantation, she was the one who deserved it the least! Suddenly he felt his anger rise, anger towards the overseers and Lasher who had been the one doing the whipping. That son of a bitch probably enjoyed it too! They couldn't just do this to her, could they?! If she actually had done something then maybe, but she was innocent! And they had probably believed Toby when he tried to explain to them that he had been the guilty one, but they had just chosen to ignore him! But, why would anyone want to hurt someone like Ellie? All she wanted to do in life was to cheer everyone up and do good! And probably marry Toby!
Bentley handed Ama another roll as a new thought appeared in his mind; Lasher couldn't just do something like this just because he wanted to! He was the one who had done wrong, and needs to be punished, but how? It had to be something special, something humiliating! But what?
…
Later that night, at the dining table in the Aventines residence, the five inhabitants of the house was sitting around the table, just about to finish their dinner; Cornelia, her parents, Gabriel and Grace Aventine, her teacher Mr Bentler, a dog of some unidentifiable breed and Gabriels younger brother Matt.
Cornelia sighed and poked with her fork into the piece of salmon that by now had gone cold, while sleepily listening to uncle Matts wild tales about his adventures in the African jungles. Matt Aventine was a renowned paleontologist and adventurer, who just got back from his latest expedition. Every time he returned home he'd bring home a boatload of both souvenirs and stories, although Cornelia doubted that at least half of those were real.
"An' we thought we'all had mosquito-problems here, boy, down there they're even worse! They're more, bigger an' hungrier! But then again, we DID have to cross the bit more 'swampier' parts of the jungle, as we couldn't find a guide who was willing to just take us through the jungles." The mountain lion paused, stuffed more food into his mouth and swallowed before continuing: "In any case, those pesky mosquitoes AND all those leeches, surely made everything in their power to make our trip as testing as possible! As if the terrain an' the natives weren't enough!"
"Oh dear, the natives? Were your party ever attacked?" Grace, Cornelias mother, asked curiously and brushed a strand of her bright, red hair out of her face.
Matt ignored the snort from Cornelia and ruffled the dark gray tuft of hair on his head. "Nah, I wouldn't say we were attacked for real, but we did run into a hyena hunting pack, an' they weren't exactly welcomin' us! I've heard that the brown hyenas usually were wary an' suspicious, yet hospitable, towards strangers, but these guys made it clear to us that they didn't want us an'where near their jungles! I think their leader might even have threatened us to our lives!"
Mr Bentler looked up from his dinner and pushed the large, round glasses back on his long nose. "Was that why you couldn't hire a guide to take you through?"
Matt shrugged at the dogs question. "Yeah, that an' b'cause of the war, I s'pose..."
Cornelia stopped poking in her food and perked her ears. "War?"
"Yeah, a war of some sorts has been goin' on for a couple of years now. So far it's just some quarreling between the three hyena tribes, but I bet it's just a matter of time b'fore others try to interfere as well!"
"What're they fightin' 'bout?" This had caught the young girls interest and she was now sitting at the edge of her chair with both her elbows on the table.
"To be frank, I ain't sure others than themselves knows the reason!" Matt shrugged once again and shook his head. "It's not exactly like it's a full fledged bloodbath and brutal massacres going on all days long, it's more like they're freezin' each other out an' individual kills on the spot if anyone would happen to trespass. In other words: zero tolerance for each other! But I've actually heard that the brown hyenas sometimes leaves their jungles an' raids nearby spotted villages! Which I think it a bit fascinatin', seein' as it's the brown ones that's s'posed to be the LEAST lethal of the three tribes! Sure, they're suspicious towards strangers, but b'fore the war they would gladly welcome anyone into the village if they were weary travelers out on a long adventure! An' NOT wave their spears 'round at our faces!" Matt paused for a couple of beats. "Y'know, I think the hyenas are an interestin' kind! In the wild, it's the females who acts as their leaders, an' they take this thing with, ahum, marriages very seriously! For instance, if you separate a female from her mate in any way, you'll get banished for life, as it's considered one of the worst crimes of all! So typical of a matriarchy, isn't it?"
"But..." Cornelia frowned and tilted her head. "Why do they get banished? Why not just kill the fucker?"
"Cornelia!" Grace growled at her daughters choice of words and Mr Bentler frowned disapprovingly, but neither Matt or her father seemed to notice.
"Well, y'see, the hyenas might be very different in both their appearance an' lifestyle, but they all have one thing in common; they all live after one very important rule, call it a code if you'd like; all kinds of life is sacred, an' a life must only be taken to feed another! They claim it's words spoken directly to them by their god..." Matt frowned and poked at his forehead as he tried to recall the name of the god. "What was that name again? I know they told me 'bout it... Ah yes! They call him Mama Kubwa, an' guess what? It's the sun, an' they...!"
"Wrong!" Cornelia chortled out a dry laugh and kicked back on her chair with her arms folded. "Actually, Mama Kubwa literally means The Great Mother, an' SHE is a goddess! Not a god!" Eyebrows were raised at her from everyone around the table, but she didn't mind them and continued; "It's a certain difference between gods and goddesses; goddesses creates life, while it's the gods job to keep the balance between all the life in the world!"
Matt looked at his niece with a flat frown on his face. "And HOW, if you don't mind me askin', do you know that?"
"Umm..." Cornelia awkwardly fumbled with her fingers under the table. "I... I just do, 'kay?"
Grace chuckled and rolled with her eyes. "Oh isn't she just precious? Her imagination is even wilder than mine was in that age!"
"Hey!" The little redhead protested and pouted. "Excuse me?! Precious?!"
Matt snorted and waved with his hand. "Yeah, probably... Anyway where was I? Oh yes, the hyenas!" He chuckled and turned his attention to the food. "Despite all that, they seem like pretty sensible people! I'm surprised that they aren't more intelligent than that!"
"I ain't!" Gabriel said with a determined snort. "I mean, if ya think the sun is some kind of god, or goddess, I'm more surprised that they ain't wiped 'emselves out yet!"
His brother nodded in agreement. "Yeah, good point there!"
Cornelia angrily clenched her jaw shut and folded her arms across her chest again. "I don't believe you two!" She growled lowly, once again earning surprised looks from around the table. "I think they could be smart too!"
"An' what gives you that idea, squirt?" Matt rolled his eyes and leaned over the table. "Go on, you can tell us!"
"Well, they're not all that different from us, are they? I mean, they got families, feelings, they can think an'..."
"Yeah, but those feelings are restricted, an' their thought process is hardly as advanced as ours" Mr Bentler spoke and slowly shook his head at the young mountain lion.
"How do you know that? Have you asked 'em?"
"Please Cornelia..." Grace said with a bothered look on her face. "We understand how you think, but that's just not the way it is, dear! Let's talk about something else, instead! How are her studies going, Mr Bentler?"
The dog sighed, shook his head and was about to answer, but got cut off by Cornelia. "No! I wanna know; why do YOU guys think the slaves are so stupid?"
"Well, we never really said they were stupid..." Gabriel started off, and Matt finished: "But yeah, they kinda are! For instance; why ain't they attackin' us, huh?" The gray-haired mountain lion leaned over the table and lowered his voice, in case anyone in the household would be around to listen. "Brother, how many slaves do you have here? 30? 40?"
"35 last time we checked, why?"
"Well, there's 35 of them, but only 5 of us! Okay, 9 if you'd count the overseers, but we're still outnumbered! An' let's not even mention the larger plantations with up to several HUNDREDS of slaves! If they wanted to, they could just tear the wall down, kill us all an' be free! But they won't! An' why is that? B'cause they're too dumb to realize it, that's why!"
Cornelia opened her mouth to protest, but shut it again when she couldn't come with a good answer. She growled in defeat, pushed her chair back and ran away from the table. She ignored her mothers holler after her and bolted up the stairs to her bedroom. She shut the door behind her and threw herself at her large bed, picking up one of the puffy pillows and began to punch it. While the punches hailed over the poor pillow, she kept growling and tried to picture uncle Matts smug face on the pillow. When she finally struck the pillow with the final blow, it broke and millions of small, white feathers exploded all over her room.
As she watched the feathers slowly dance their way through the air and eventually gently land on the floor, she began to calm down from her little tantrum. That is, until she heard someone knock on the door and it opened slightly. "Miss Cornelia?"
"PISS OFF!" Cornelia roared and threw another pillow just as Lucy peeked her head in through the doorway. The pillow landed with a smack on the wall next to her and it caused the cheetah to take a surprised step to the side.
"Oh, I thought I heard you storm by a while ago" Lucy stared at the pillow and then moved her head to Cornelia, sitting on her bed. Her red hair was a tangled mess with feathers sticking out from everywhere and her face was equally red with anger.
"Get lost, Lucy!"
"Hey, I'm just here to check on ya, Miss! Are ya alright?"
Cornelia grabbed the nearest object on her right, a stuffed teddy, and threw it at her nanny too. "I said; GET LOST!" Lucy managed to dodge just in time, which made Cornelia give out a groan of frustration and dive head first into the pile of remaining pillows.
Lucy first looked at the little girl and then to the teddy she just threw. She snickered, picked the teddy up and walked over to the large bed and sat down next to the frustrated mountain lion. "Wow, ya really can't handle losin' an argument, can ya, Miss?" She smiled and began to pick the loose feathers out of Cornelias hair.
Cornelia looked up from the pillows and frowned at her. "Yes I can! I just don't wanna!"
The cheetah couldn't help but to chuckle again at her frustrated face. "Oh ya are simply just too much sometimes, y'know that, Miss?"
"An' YOU are just simply too annoyin', Lucy! An' I've told ya: stop callin' me Miss! My name is Cornelia!"
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I'm gonna keep callin' ya Miss 'til the day ya die! Besides, yer ol' man wouldn't allow that I called ya anythin' else but Miss"
"Screw that old hog!" Cornelia let her head fall back into the pile again, and when she spoke her voice was muffled. "He can't decide what I wanna be called! I don't wanna be called Miss by ev'ryone! I'm Cornelia, damn it!" Suddenly her head perked back up from the pillows and she turned her head to Lucy. "Lu, do you know how to read?"
Lucy flinched and blinked in surprise at the young mountain lion. "Excuse me, Miss?"
"Do you know how to read?"
"Nah, can't say that I do, Miss..."
"Write?"
Lucy shook her head. "Nope"
"Why not?"
Confused by the young girls odd questions, Lucy was hesitant before she answered. "Well, no one's ever taught me how..."
"Why not?!"
"I-it ain't allowed, Miss"
"Why not?!" This time Lucy didn't answer, so Cornelia turned her face down to the pillows again. "You can go now, Lu..." She said after a few moments of silence. "I'll be alright..."
Lucy raised an eyebrow, but she did as the girl said. But before she walked away, she returned the teddy. "A message from Teddy, he doesn't like gettin' thrown at people!"
Cornelia snatched it back and snorted. "Too bad, b'cause Teddy will be flyin' again if the meddlesome nanny ain't skedaddlin' like, now!"
Lucy chuckled and walked back to the door, but just as she placed her hand on the doorknob, she remembered why she really was there. "Oh, an' one more thing, Miss" She paused and snickered at Cornelias puzzled look on her face and slightly tilted head. "They're servin' cake down there right now, an' Mrs Grace told me to come an' git'cha." Cornelia snorted and folded her arms. "It's pineapple upside-down cake, yer favorite ain't it?"
"Is uncle Matt gonna be down there?"
"Yeah"
"Then I ain't interested!" Cornelia dove back into the pillows and this time she didn't get back up. "Tell mom I ain't comin' down there 'til Matt the Stupid is gone!"
Lucy stifled a laugh. "Very well then, I'll make sure to tell her that!"
And with that, she closed the door and left Cornelia alone in the quiet, but messy, room. Cornelia slowly lifted her head up when the cheetahs steps had vanished and blew away a feather that had gotten stuck on her nose. She turned her head to her bookshelf and raised an eyebrow when she saw her old studying books on one of the shelves. An idea slowly began to form in her head as she made her way over and pulled them out. English books, math books, history books, even an atlas!
She smirked and hugged the books as she pranced back to her bed with them all in her arms and began to look for anything she could use to carry them in. She had just gotten the best idea ever; she was going to prove to uncle Matt and everyone else that their slaves weren't completely stupid, and Bentley was going to help her with that! She was going to teach him how to read, write, count, practically everything she knew! Besides, Mr Bentlers power and just the fact that he got paid for bossing children around had made her want to be a teacher anyway, so why not just use this as an opportunity to practice the art?
…
Bentley had also been making plans that night, plans for a revenge on Lasher. Very early in the morning, before anyone else had awokened, he decided to put his plans in motion and sneaked out. He had to be careful to not wake granny Ama up, and when he made it out of the house without making any sounds, he instantly made a beeline towards the overseers houses and peeked inside Lashers house. He didn't have a family like some of the others had, but his house was still one of the larger ones, and to Bentleys joy there was a tall, strong tree conveniently placed right by the house. The heavy, mean-looking wolverine was lying on his stomach on the bed, snoring loudly.
Bentley threw one last look at the overseer before he turned around and head for the stable, where he managed to find what he needed, and then he sneaked into the blacksmith to look for tar. When he found everything he needed, he returned and broke into the overseers house. He set the trap and when he was done he took a step back and made sure that everything would work. Before he walked out and head back home, he narrowed his eyes at the still sleeping Lasher.
"This is for Ellies back, demon!" He said lowly and bolted home. He had barely got in under the covers of his own bed in the attic when Ama woke up downstairs.
He could hear her walk about and tinker with some stuff before she stuck her head up at the staircase. "Rise n' shine, hun! Time for breakfast!" She hollered cheerfully, and not long after that they both heard the door opened and someone walked in. "G'mornin', Finn! Good to see ya up an' 'bout! Oh, Ellie too! How are ya feelin', hun? Yer back okay?"
"Y-yeah, it's a lot better t'day actually... Thanks, granny!" Ellie answered. She sounded sleepy and slurred slightly, as if she just recently stopped crying.
Bentley hurried to get dressed again and almost ran down the stairs to meet them. Ellies eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and when he saw how tired and worn out both Finn and her looked, he realized that maybe neither of them had gotten that much sleep tonight either. Ellie had probably been in too much pain to be able to sleep at all, and Finn had probably been keeping himself awake all night just to comfort her.
When she saw Bentley come down the stairs, she managed to pull off a rather sad and tired looking smile. "H-hi, little guy! G'mornin'!" She really didn't look like her old self, at least not with those large, dark rings under her teary eyes. Bentley gave her a short nod in return, but didn't say anything.
Soon, even Toby and Chuck joined them for breakfast. Toby instantly walked straight up to Ellie and tried to apologize for what happened yesterday, while she tried to convince him that she didn't blame him at all.
It ended with her throwing her arms around his waist and hugged him close. "I-I don't wanna talk about it..." She said and tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I still don't think it was yer fault, but I just wanna forget 'bout it now, okay? Let's talk 'bout somethin' else, huh?" Toby hesitated before nodding mutely and give her a quick hug back.
For a while, Bentley thought his trap had failed, but just as they all walked out from Amas cabin to start the days work, weird shouts and yells were heard from Lashers house and everyone ran over to see what the ruckus was all about. After a while, Lashers door was kicked open and the wolverine staggered out. A bucket of tar was stuck over his head and straw was stuck all over his body where the sticky, black fluid had poured. He cursed loudly and staggered around as he tried to get the bucket off his head, but suddenly he stepped into a loop that was hidden underneath a pile of leaves. The trap closed around his leg and before he knew it, he was hoisted high up into the tree and ended up dangling upside down, covered in straw and tar, kicking and cussing up a storm.
The chuckles began with Finn and then spread throughout the crowd of slaves who had seen the spectacle. It had been just too funny to not laugh! And hearing the others laugh, even if they tried to hold it in and some even sound scared as they laughed, was like music to Bentleys ears and he was soon laughing along with them. He didn't care if he would get into a shitload of trouble right now! He had managed to make the others laugh, and that alone was worth anything coming his way.
Suddenly, three gunshots echoed, seemingly from nowhere. Bentley instantly stopped laughing and froze up in fear as his ears went back and he began to shiver. This time, the gunshots hadn't just been figments of his imagination; they were real! And that was in a way, even more terrifying! The other slaves abruptly stopped laughing as well and stepped to the side as the three other overseers walked through. One of them, a ferret by the name Wilkes, was holding a smoking revolver pointed at the sky. The overseers only used their guns in moments like these, when they needed everyones attention, but it still didn't change the fact that they instantly became twenty times scarier than before whenever they drew them!
Wilkes walked through the crowd and looked up at Lasher, still writhing and kicking with the bucket on his head. The ferret frowned and shook his head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk..." He turned to the crowd and bared his teeth. "Alright, which one of ya smartasses did this, huh?!" He growled loudly and holstered his gun. The remaining two of his comrades went to get Lasher down from the tree. "Answer me, ya pile o' rats; WHO DID THIS?!"
Finn looked around, since nobody seemed to dare to admit it was they, he thought he better step forth before they decided to pick someone out randomly and punish him or her, not caring if they were innocent or not! But just as he took a deep breath, Bentley scurried out from the group and held his little hand up.
"I did it, sir!" He said, causing everyone, including the overseers, to flinch in surprise.
"Y-you?!" Wilkes raised both his eyebrows at the youngster. Bentley nodded and right then, Lasher was cut down and crashed onto the ground with a very heavy thud! "How did...?"
"Huh, that trap over there? Oh, they're pretty easy to set up!" Bentley grinned. "Back home we use this to capture gwasi with! I once caught a fullgrown gwasi all by myself y'know!"
Lasher growled loudly, and Bentley lost whatever confidence he had managed to bring up to be able to talk to them like that. The wolverine grabbed the bucked with both of his hands and yanked it off his head, his yellow, bloodshot eyes instantly found Bentley and he snarled furiously as he scrambled to his feet. "And WHAT. Is. A. Gwasi?"
"I-I really don't know what'cha call them here, but they kinda look like javelinas! Only bigger, uglier an' meaner. Kinda like...!"
"Me?"
Bentley gulped and nodded slowly. Oh no! Why did I say that?!
Lasher fumbled for his whip and growled at Wilkes. "Tie th'whelp up to th'tree! He's 'bout to learn what happens to brats who mess with me!"
Wilkes nodded and began to step closer to the young hyena, who in turn nervously stepped back into the crowd. Wilkes was about the reach out his arm and grab Bentley by the scruff of his neck when Finn interfered. The spotted hyena blocked the way by placing himself between Wilkes and Bentley and crossed his arms.
"Lasher, don't! Please!" Ellie said and ran up to her brothers side. "H-he's just a boy! He didn't mean anythin' by it! Please sir, let him go! Just this once!"
When Lasher didn't answer, Finn snorted and cocked his head to the side. "Ain't it a bit too early in the mornin' to whip kids, dont'cha think?" He said dryly, which caused the wolverines left eye to twitch.
"Move outta th'way, y'two! Or ya want more already, Ellie?" Lasher pulled on his whip to add emphasis on his question. Ellie immediately shook her head and took a frightened step back. "I thought so. Wilkes! Git th'brat over 'ere already!"
"Ya heard 'im, move it!" Wilkes hissed and was about to push past the two spotted hyenas and grab the kid when Amas voice boomed from the crowd.
"Lay a finger on that hyena an' that will be last thing you'll ever be able to do with yer hands, Wilkes!" When the old, spiky lizard emerged from the crowd, Wilkes took a frightened jump back. "Same goes for YOU, Lasher! Didn'tcha hurt my hyenas 'nough yesterday?"
"Yer hyenas?" Lasher gaffed. "They're Mr Aventines hyenas, an' he's given us the duty to keep 'em in line an' I'm just tryin' to do my job here!" He smirked confidently at the elderly woman. "Ya don't scare me, witch!"
"Oh, I don't scare you, huh?" Ama chuckled grimly and pulled out an yellow object from her pocket and held it up so Lasher could see it. Bentley couldn't see what it was though, but everyone else did apparently, as they all gasped in unison and a few began to mumble with each other. Lashers eyes widened, but he didn't budge from the spot. "Y'know what this is, dont'cha?" Ama continued with a rather scary smirk and waved with the object, which kinda looked like some sort of doll.
"Y-yeah, so?" Lasher replied through clenched teeth and followed the doll with his eyes.
"Good, then I won't have to explain once again to ya what would happen if I were to do somethin' to it? Like stabbin' it with this needle?" A needle seemed to appear out of nowhere in her other hand, and as she brought the tip closer to the doll, Lasher seemed to grow paler and paler.
"Fine!" He eventually said and held back a growl in defeat. "But ya watch yourself, witch! One day ya won't have that handy-dandy thing with ya, an' then I'll have my way, just ya wait an' see!"
"Hah! Keep on dreamin', ya big brute!" Ama said and pointed the doll at the wolverine. "Just focus on yer job, Lasher, an' let us do ours! We'll take care of the kid ourselves!"
Lasher muttered to himself as he and the other overseers left, shortly followed by the other slaves. The crowd quickly disbanded as everyone went back to do their jobs, until there were only Bentley, Finn, Ellie, Toby and Ama left. Toby couldn't stop gawking at Bentley.
"Are ya completely outta yer mind, kid?!" The striped hyena exclaimed. For once he didn't stutter. "Y-you could've gotten us a-all into trouble with th-that little s-stunt!" Okay, never mind...
"I know, I know..." Bentley said and looked down at the ground. "It was stupid..."
"But..." Ellie said, her voice got Bentley to look up at her. "Why did ya do this? I'll admit I WAS laughin', I mean c'mon, it was hilarious! But... Why, Bentley? Why would ya do somethin' like this when you KNOW that Lasher would be furious!"
"I dunno..." The little brown hyena shrugged. "I guess I kinda did it for you, Ellie..." He paused and looked away from her shocked expression. "What they did to ya yesterday was wrong, and I just thought THEY were the ones who should be punished!"
Adding to everyone surprise, Finn burst out laughing. "Wow, Kiddo! You're completely crazy, ya know that?!" He said between his laughing fits.
Bentley chuckled and grinned sheepishly. "Well, somebody has to be it, right?"
…
To be able to make everyone, including Toby, to laugh like that had left Bentley with taste for more. He knew he couldn't make more traps like that for them anymore, but whenever he could, he would drop a comment that earned him at least a few chuckles from the slaves, and a slap from one of the overseers. But so far he hadn't gotten to taste the whip... yet!
And the next Sunday he and Cornelia met, she had brought a surprise for him; a pillowcase, full with books!
"Look, buster. I've been doin' some thinkin', an' come up with the best idea ever!" She said proudly and chucked one of the books at him, it landed hard on his chest and he was momentarily dazed from the impact before he could pick it up and look in it. "Someday in the future, I'll b'come a teacher! And I think I'll be needin' some trainin', so therefore I've decided to teach you!"
Bentley looked up at her with a puzzled look. "T-teach me?"
"Yeah! To read, write AND count! But!" She held up a warning finger. "This is SUPER secret! For some reason, you guys aren't allowed to learn these things, don't ask me why b'cause I have no idea really! An' therefore, if you DO learn, you must NEVER let anyone know that you can read, write or count! Capische?!" He nodded slowly. "Good! Now, I s'pose this is what we'll do for the next comin' years so we better get started..." She paused and broke of a twig from the bushes. "Let's start with the alphabet!" She began to draw something in the earth. "This is an..."
"Wait!" Bentley suddenly exclaimed, and earned a homicidal look from Cornelia for interrupting her. "There's somethin' I better tell ya..."
"Spill it!"
"I won't be havin' the Sundays off anymore, not after my birthday..."
"Uhu, and when is that?"
"Umm, May 15th? I think..."
"What?! That's only three weeks away!" She folded her arms and pouted. "Way to go tellin' me that NOW, buster!"
"Sorry..."
"Oh well, I guess we'll have to meet late at nights instead then... Meh, what a bother..." She turned back to the symbol on the ground. "Anyway, this is an 'A'!" She pointed at the symbol with the twig. "A, as in... Errm..." She rubbed her chin as she thought of words that begins with the letter 'A'. "Errm, Aristocrat! A as in... hmmm... Alphabet! A as in... eh... Awesome!"
"Angry?" Bentley said carefully.
"Hey, you get it already?! Haha! This'll be a piece of cake!" She laughed and drew another, different letter. "This is a 'B'! B, as in Bakery and Beanstalk!"
"And Bentley?" Bentleys ears perked up. This was fun!
Cornelia laughed to herself as she drew the next letter. "I bet you're cheatin', aren'tcha?!"
"N-no, Miss!"
Pfft, I know you ain't! I'm just messin' with ya! Oh, an' this is a tricky letter; C. But it's sometimes pronounced as 'K', as in 'Cornelia'!"
Phah, told y'all it would be a long one xD! And THAT my friends, is how Bentley discovered how fun it was to prank people :P
And yeah, the Aventines are just a bunch of racist assholes -.-... Corny, your family has... issues...
