Fone Bone stared at the Rat Creatures, and the Rat Creatures stared right back.
They looked hungry, and he almost forgot how scary they looked. The baby possums whimpered in their grip.
Thinking fast, Fone Bone straightened up, forcing his face to remain calm. "Hi fellas," he said. "Long time no see!"
"SSSSSSSSSSS..." they both hissed, spitting at the mouth. Distracted by Fone Bone's sudden appearance, their grips on the possums seemed to slack a little...
Quick as the wind, Fone Bone snatched the baby possums out their grip in one swoop. "You don't say!" he exclaimed with forced cheer. "Well, nice talkin' with ya! Thanks for watchin' the kids! Gotta go!"
"RAAARRAARRAARR!"
Hugging the three tightly in his arms, Fone Bone darted out of the bushed and down the snowy hill, the two Rat Creatures not far behind as they lashed claws and teeth after them.
We can't outrun 'em like this, he thought in panic, trying in vain to outpace the two monsters in the snow, while struggling to hold onto three frightened baby possums dangling in his arms. At this point, all four of us'll get eaten. I gotta get 'em away from the kids! Fast!
Fone Bone threw the boys ahead of him. "QuicK! You kids run home! I'll slow 'em down!"
"Help! Momma!" yelled the first baby possum.
"The Rat Creatures are after us!" screamed the second.
While the little possums sprinted ahead into the woods, sensing the Rat Creatures quickly catching up, Fone Bone let himself fall to the ground. "OW! OW!" he cried out, dramatically rolling in the snow while gripping his ankle. "Oooooh! My ankle!"
The two Rat Creatures loomed over him. One of them gave a mighty roar.
"RAAAAAAAARRRRR!" Fone Bone felt a torrent of bad breath sweep over him as the jaw of the Rat Creature seemed to stretch larger than his entire body as he roared. When he was done, Fone Bone was half-covered in its spit as he pinched his nose. The creature's breath really did stink!
"Man!" he exclaimed with a gag. "What the heck did you eat for lunch?!"
The Rat Creatures actually looked appalled. Then they turned to one another. "That little dead thing we found under a bush," said the one of the left, "You had some, didn't you?"
"Yes," said the one on the right. "It was quite good!"
Then they turned back to their prey...only to find a hollowed out pile of snow where the Bone had been. "HEY!" they yelped. "Where'd he go?!"
POOF!
Ears perking, they whipped around.
Behind them, Fone Bone's head popped out of the snow, a lump of it still balanced on top of his hat, evidence of his hasty tunnel escape trailing in crumbled tracks right from the under the Rat Creature's.
Spotting them glaring at him in surprise, Fone Bone grinned...then sped away as fast as he can.
"GET HIM!" yowled one of the Rat Creatures, as they gave chase to the "little white animal" that escaped them once before.
Meanwhile, Fone Bone sprinted as fast as he could up the hill and through the tree, fear driving as his heels as he used the boulders surrounding him in the attempt to outmanuever them. His legs burned from the effort, and his heart felt ready to pound right out of his chest as the adrenaline had him running with more speed than his physicality normally allowed.
Finding the slope, he leapt off the edge and landed into a deep pile of snow. Soon after, as he got up to run, something large and heavy crashed face-first an inch from his heels, causing him to yelp in alarm. By instinct alone, he leaped forward again, barely missing another large body crashing face-first into the snow.
He can hear water running ahead: a river. Maybe they were afraid of the water...
"Yer not gonna get me!" panted Fone Bone as he sprinted through the snow, pumping his arms. "Yer not gonna get me! Yer not gonna-WhoawhoaWHOA!" He skidded to a halt as the edge of a boulder-round cliffside, which hung over the massive, c-shaped waterfall running at least fifty feet down to lower dale of the forest.
The roar of the falls was deafening, the river looking strong and deadly, and freezing. There was no way he was swimming in that! He was trapped!
Unless...
Fone Bone spotted a small, thin, yard-long branch from a lone, barren tree sticking out of a cluster of cliff-boulders protruding out of the falling water like a giant stepping stone. Weak as it looked, it seemed sturdy enough to take his weight alone.
"I'm saved!" he gasped, scrambling down the boulder of his perch to get closer to the branch. He could hear the growling and panting of the Rat Creatures above his head, and climbed down faster when they more nimbly peered over the edge at him.
The branch looked to be within leaping distance, just five feet lower than his level.
He gulped, shivering nervously as he eyed the branch like a target in the field. It looked so thin...but it was either this, or back into the clutches of the Rat Creatures. "Tally-ho!" he moaned, and before he would lose his nerve, Fone Bone spread his arms for balance, positioned his feet, and jumped.
The cold wind rushed past his cloak, the spray of water chilled his body...and felt both of his feet catch the branch. Waving his arms and find his balance as the branch wobbled under his landing weight, he scooted closer to the base of the cliff and placed his hand against it for balance. Looking up, the Rat Creatures snarled down as him from where he leapt, having climbed down after him.
Given the length of the branch and the size of those monsters, there was no way it would have any room for their weight if they went after him now.
Fone Bone smiled in relief. "Heh," he chuckled. "Those Rat Creatures would to be pretty stupid to follow me on this frail, little branch...AHH!"
No sooner after he said this that two massive shapes soared from the cliff and landed on the edge of the branch of his perch, making Fone Bone nearly lose his balance. The Rat Creatures grappled at the edge of the branch, together, side-by-side, in the attempt to get at their prey. The branch bent so low now that it looked ready to be torn right out of the cliff.
Did those creatures actually jump after him without even considering their weight? Were they really that stupid?
Appalled at this action, Fone Bone yelled angrily, "Stupid, STUPID RAT CREATURES!"
SNAP! The branch gave away.
Stunned, Fone Bone and the Rat Creatures plummeted into the cold mist of the falls without a cry.
The deafening roar of the waterfalls were the only sound that vibrated the silence of the dale. Waves of white foam froth rolled out from the plunge, sweeping past the rocks clustered as the base where snow and ships of ice floated down the stream with the flow.
...
Pain. Agony. Cold. Swirls of water filled his ears, nose, and lungs with the deepest icy feeling freezing his body all over into the depths of darkness. It was impossible to know how long it took his mind to catch up with the present, but the desperate movement in his limbs started stroking and kicking on their own when the need for breath took over.
With all sense of direction numbed like any other knowledge, he swam...and swam...
"GASP!"
...and burst out of the crispy surface of the river to swallow a lungful of bitingly chilly air. Coughing and spluttering, he moved his arms and legs as he let the currents take him further down until reaching the nearest shoreline of the woods. Shivering and vomiting a bunch of water, his mind scrambling to remember how he ended up in the water to begin with, he crawled hastily up the rocks, unable to feel anything but the cold...
As he tried to stand on shaky legs, his foot slipped and banged against the rock as an award angle. "OW!" he grunted, falling over as pain spiked from up his ankle. He definitely felt that one! Rolling over against the nearest boulder (and it was surprisingly a very warm boulder), he clutched his ankle with gritted teeth.
"Yikes!" he groaned. "This time I really did hurt my ankle! Ow!"
"What a shame."
"EEP!" Fone Bone shrunk back in panic as the Rat Creatures loomed over him, fur ruffled from merely shaking the water from their fur.
They had him cornered now, with nowhere to run. Not that Fone Bone would be able to, even if he did.
The Rat Creatures cackled triumphantly. "What do you say, comrade?" said the one on his left. "Shall we have a nice, hot stew? Or should we eat him raw?"
Fone Bone shook, numbed more from the fear than from the icy water now.
"Mmmmm-MM!" hummed the one on the right with happy, tooth-y smile. "I say we bake him in a quiche! You know how much I like qui––"
"Seems to me you boys have a short memory!" grumbled a deep, deep tone. So deep, from the base of the boulder he was leaning on, that it rumbled straight through Fone Bone's bones. (Ha! Smiley would've appreciated that one! Fone Bone thought.)
"SSSSSSSS!" The Rat Creatures hissed, recoiled in fear and bug-eyed horror. "THE DRAGON!"
"We weren't going to eat him!" squeaked one of them in panic. "We were only playing with him!"
A giant, red, long-eared head loomed above Fone Bone's, eyes glaring like fiery furnaces from his droopy eyes. Back flat against his corner, Fone Bone stared in wide-eyed awe. He had seen this creature...briefly, in the light of the match.
This was––Was that a weed in its mouth?
"Beat it!" growled the dragon, low and gruff.
Still, it was enough to sent the Rat Creatures darting away with their tail––or lack thereof––between their legs, squealing in panic.
What?
"HEY!" Fone Bone sat up, staring after them in disbelief before they disappeared into the trees. "What are you doing? Don't let 'em get away!"
"Mm?" The dragon turned to look at him with a bored look. Fone Bone was now vaguely aware that the large and very warm boulder he was leaning on was actually the rest of the dragon's body, which had suddenly turned back into its scarlet red color.
"You're lettin' 'em get away!" protested Fone Bone. He stood and marched––or rather––to make his point. "Do you know what they tried to do? Ow! Ow! Oooootch! Ow!" His ankle was killing him. "They tried to eat th' little kids I was babysitting! Why didn't you just do something?! If I was a dragon, I woulda blasted 'em with fire!" Fone Bone whipped around, and the dragon just looked at him so indifferently that it was infuriating. "What th' matter? Can't you breathe fire?"
FOOMP!
There was a blazing spout of red, orange, and yellow, burning the icy cold right out of him...only to leave charred and singed with the embers eating from his hat and cloak.
Fone Bone stared, smoke trailed from it burning hat. "Um..." He was at a loss for words.
"That's right, kid." The dragon looked him right in the eye, smoke still running in thick lines from his nostrils. "Never place an ace if a two will do."
"Oh...uh...well..." Fone Bone cringed on himself, afraid to move an inch. His face still stung from the burn. A burn from a dragon! "I-I-It was nice meeting you, but, uh...I-I-I better go find the kids...Whoa!" He flinched when the dragon stood up, the ground vibrating from his weight, and started trudging past the crouching Bone indifferently.
"Don't worry about the kids," grumbled the dragon without looking at Bone, who quickly moved out of the way as he passed. "They're safe. Go straight down the hill. It's a shortcut to Miz Possum's house."
"Miz Possum's..." Fone Bone fumbled with his thoughts, still staring as the dragon left, "...Uh...sure! Thanks!"
The dragon was gone.
After a minute to himself, the smoke still oozing from his ruined hat, a funny thought struck him back to the present.
"HEY!" Fone Bone exclaimed indignantly. "How'd you know I was lookin' for Miz Possum's kids?!"