Chapter 14 Charhound Trouble
As promised the Eds had taken a break from space exploration during which time they had literally turned to regular things at least for the first day like exploring the junkyard and finding some things they could use for their ships. Of course there were also the regular work around the house and chores Double D had to do. But after that the next day the Eds started to get supplies for their ships for Double D it was also the time to clean around the smaller ones more specifically the new Consular ship, of course they didn't expected to have a scorch mark on the fuselage in the middle.
"Good Lord what happened? This mark wasn't last time when we went to around." Double D asked.
"Apologies captain, but there had been a distress signal when it was taken for a spin at the space base. It proven to have been a ship with poachers and had wanted to capture something that should had rather been left alone." Said the OOM commander.
"What exactly did they capture that they needed to send a distress signal?" Eddy commented, of course he wouldn't rule out anymore what kind of creature could have been taken in this wider galaxy and there was one creature he would try to avoid been around, despite Eddy not been too much with learning he was now forced to start learn things. "Don't tell me that it was a Nexu or some dangerous giant bird."
"Not quite." The OOM commander said as a B2 battle droid came with a cage to remove the blinders to see a specific playful hound that started to run around them.
"A charhound? How did those poachers try to capture one?" Double D asked.
"Tell us the full story." Eddy ordered.
"Well sirs to be honest the poachers were quite aggressive and also when they saw our ship started to fire and we had to fire back before boarding it with commando droids. According to the manifest some are quite interested at having something like those as pets, ones who are with thrill that is. It is possible one had by mistake sent the distress signal." Explained the droid.
"How encouraging." Ed said.
"Still I wonder for how long this cage that it holds it could resist the heat he is emanating?" Double D asked.
"It is a special cage, trouble is however that it is old and the charhound can't stay too much inside otherwise the cooling system could not resist." Reported the droid before Ed took a look at it seeing how sad the creature looked.
"Hopefully it will resist till we manage to get it home, good thing we took supplies today."
"Oh dear it seems the cleaning will be done later for this one and on the Fortune Favor." Double D said before noticing Ed.
"Is everything alright Ed?"
"Ed sad to see the charhound sad." Ed said leaning on the box and not noticing he pressed on the button opening the door and the charhound came out.
"ED! You let it loose!" Eddy called as the alien hound started to play around leaving a burnt trail also.
"Uh-oh." Said a droid.
"Try to capture it."
"Sir we need a special tranquilizer for this. Either that or to tire him." Said OM-01 as the charhound started to run around.
"Oh dear, with the Porg it was no problem but with this one anyone will turn suspicious because of the burnt trail it leaves."
"And it is broad daylight." Eddy commented in frustration "Go after it, and 3 droids to always us we have to prevent fires."
"Roger-Roger." The droids said they followed the Eds after the charhound.
In the meantime
"You know I wouldn't mind my brother and his friends been busy with things especially that they haven't bothered us." Sara commented as she and Jimmy were walking.
"Yet aren't you at least a bit interested in what they are doing now?" Jimmy asked trying to spark her curiosity somehow, by all accounts he said to them she will find out eventually, but doesn't mean he couldn't try to somehow spark her interest.
"I might be especially that Kevin had started to turn a bit paranoid on this regard, in a sense this to be done so he would stop somehow from losing his mind." Sara said.
"I am sure that whatever could be would blow someone's mind." Jimmy said and he was telling the truth.
"Hopefully not a crazy scam that could backfire badly."
"I don't think so. Would you be interested?" Jimmy said before hearing something across an alley towards the woods.
"Maybe but not now Jimmy." Sara said as she looked at her watch.
"Need to go home to see something on the TV, interested?" She said.
"You go ahead I will catch you up." Jimmy said as Sara went towards her house while Jimmy went on the alley where the noise came and in the next moment a dog that looked like a dingo came in.
Ruf-Ruf
"Aaah." Jimmy said pressing himself against the wooden fence as he watched in fear at the dog who seemed to move around playfully, by all accounts been prawn to injures his parents never let him around dogs and cats due to the accidents that could happen but as he watched he could notice that he isn't acting aggressively at him, he stayed there for a few seconds before sprinting on at the sound of something coming leaving a trail of burnt grass where he left footprints.
"What kind of dog was that?" He asked himself before the Eds came in.
"Where could that hound went?" Eddy asked as they came in tired from running.
"He surely is a lively one." Double D said before noticing Jimmy.
"Ooh hey Jimmy."
"What is going on?" He asked.
"Evil space poachers stole a space hound and our brave droids saved it." Ed said in a brave manner.
"Until it was by accident set free." Said a droid.
"Wait so that dog is alien?" Jimmy asked.
"D-don't worry Jimmy charhounds are not dangerous just playful and loyal they wouldn't hurt anyone on purpose. Problem is their tempreture they emanate a high degree of heat."
"I noticed that." He said.
"Anyways do you know where it went?"
"He just went that way." Jimmy said.
"That's the direction of Rolf's house." Double D said.
"If he sees it who knows what he will think? We must capture it, go." Eddy commented as the droids moved on before turning to Jimmy, literally grabbing him by the head.
"Jimmy I hope you kept your promise?" Eddy asked with suspirious eyes.
"I told you I wouldn't tell and Sara will find on her own." Jimmy said.
"Don't have time for this." Eddy commented as the group went after the charhound, towards Rolf's place, leaving Jimmy where he was of course he did promised that he wouldn't tell Sara but it didn't meant he could try to make her see the small detail about the Eds' space explorations.
At Rolf's
"There, it will be perfect for the compost." Rolf said as he gathered every single pieces of organic waste from leaves and grass to leftovers from vegetables and fruits in order to make naturally made fertilizer. The process of fermentation was of course in the process since some were gathered earlier but some more need to come to be added however, nothing couldn't be better then ash from organic components in Rolf's opinion. While going to eat his sandwich he prepared for when he goes on break before hearing something from across his fence.
"Hoo who could disturb Rolf's lunch?" Rolf asked moving towards the fence before in came a strange dog who seem to nearly breath fire and he was running around his yard now. Before in came the Eds with their droids.
"There it is, let's get it quick." Eddy ordered not noticing Rolf around, but Double D did.
"What are the Ed boys doing with the living skeletons and the fire dog?"
"Sorry Rolf for the inconvenience." Double D said as Eddy and Ed went after the charhound who was still running around as Rolf took up a fork and came before them.
"Rolf wish to know what is happening Ed boys." Rolf said.
"Oh boy." Eddy said as Double D came before Rolf who was keen on hearing what was happening.
"Well you see Rolf it's a bit of a long story but." Double D started before Eddy came in.
"To summarize some time ago those droids came in with their ship who's former faction are in a galactic conflict and they had come in, they would have called others if we didn't captured them and hijacked their ship." Eddy said before looking at the charhound.
"Double D, tell him the rest." Eddy said as he and Ed went after the hound to capture it.
"And the rest of the story is after that we had some trips with the ship which also resulted in doing some jobs in one way or the other, unpleasant ones, as for the dog it is called a charhound it is able to emanate a lot of heat it was captured by poachers was accidently relist and we try to get it home." Double D explained.
"No wonder Ed boys were so quiet recently with them been absent. Kevin shovel chin boy was thinking of you doing things but not in the infinite abyss among the stars." Rolf said.
"Indeed, and now we try our best to capture this fire dog as you call him, it is actually named charhound and our robots I know your culture has something about 'living skeletons'." Double D said.
"Indeed it is?" He asked.
"Hey Rolf in your tradition do you know of a way to stop one?"
"Ooh, trouble with the fire dog, in Rolf's culture it is the same, big trouble makers and could do much damage. For stopping one you have to tire it." Rolf said.
"Tire it? He is tiring us." Eddy commented as they were trying to go around it and he was running around provoking a fire on the dried potatoes crusts and fallen leaves and the droids were now trying to put it out.
"Wouldn't be so sure." Ed called noticing the charhound starting to tire a bit, since he and Rolf liked and working around animals for so long one could tell when one is tired and it also tired the Eddy. Rolf then decided to come into his shed to get out a chunk of meat to lure the charhound into the cage the robots had carried all the way. The bait worked since the charhound was also hungry now and he went in right when the droid closed the cage.
"Sometimes even a small hunk of meat is enough to make a fire dog calm down." Rolf said as Eddy came to him.
"Alright Rolf now you know the truth about what we had been doing what do we need to do so you wouldn't tell others. Since from what we heard from Johnny you with him had seed our droids when we asked them to grab some supplies from home." Eddy said.
"Rolf admits he had seen your moving skeletons and thought the curs is around until you told Rolf of where they came from. But Rolf admits that he isn't interested of what Ed boys do. However Rolf could keep secret if you help Rolf with getting the fertilizer in the shed." The farm boy said pointing to his compost and the burnt up remains that were about to be placed in.
"Fine." Eddy said turning to the droids "Come around and help us boy."
"Roger-Roger." The droids said as they took shovels to start to get the fertilizer in the wheel barrel and then Ed to get it to the shed as Rolf collected the ashes from the organic material the charhound left around.
"Perfect and the ash will help in the process of becoming good fertilizer." Rolf said.
"So, no hard feelings Rolf?" Double D said.
"And no revealing of secret." Eddy said.
"Rolf can keep it, but Ed boys need to come clean some day. Kevin shovel chin is starting to nearly lose his head to what you are doing." Rolf said.
"When the time is right Rolf." Double D said.
"Ooh good I nearly thought you would like to come around and see a planet." Eddy said.
"Rolf didn't said he doesn't want to see the place the fire dog came from." Rolf called, they of course had to guess this.
Elphrona
"Just like in tales Rolf knows." Rolf said as he looked around the landscape of the world, in a sense in one of the stories about the fire dogs it was a rocky landscape with heat emanating, the lava was missing but the hot geysers were enough at least for him to cook at the steam a hunk of meat.
"Alright Rolf hope you don't want to see another place." Eddy said as they let the charhound free. And by all accounts Rolf after getting on the ship he started to make a dance of 'asking the heavens and the stars for safe travel' and yeah they also had to take Jimmy too.
"I rather prefer the salt planet over this geyser planet." Jimmy said trying to stay away from the geysers not wanting to have an accident with hot water.
"Somehow I would rather prefer Endor, Yavin or Ach-To." Eddy said.
"At least we got the charhound home." Double D said.
"Good place to eat lunch." Rolf called as he ate a big sausage. "Rolf interested to see the other world before returning."
"The other world we will be going will be Ach-To and we should keep the doors closed because we don't want other stowaways again." Reported OM-01.
"Let's go." Eddy said as they went back in the ship, Rolf had literally cooked some of the meats he brought with him on the hot stones and the steaming geysers and Ed joined in trying it. Somehow Rolf's reaction was better than expected.
"I need to ask Rolf how come that you seem to have taken very well to all this?" Eddy asked.
"A long time had passed since Rolf saw the living skeletons that didn't do anything around Rolf's animals so maybe there are not from what Rolf knows, not expecting to be machines actually." Rolf said.
"That is reassuring." Eddy said.
"By the way how is this world Ahch-To we are going?" Jimmy asked.
"It is a water planet, many islands all around, not much to see." Said droid OM-01.
"You know between us every planet where we go and isn't any battle there is making one happy." Said the pilot droid.
"It is however odd that to be in such situation if you want to know, some had been jedi planets and we haven't been sliced to pieces." Commented one.
"I would call this an improvement." Double D said as they entered hyperspace.
Ahch-To
"Well I have to say when you come here more often it is becoming a boring place." Eddy commented as they walked through the island.
"It is at least the safest place there is around." Double D said before Rolf came in.
"The peaks of the land remind Rolf of the good old days in the old country when the son of the shepherd was going around." Rolf commented with nostalgia but also with joy of seeing something from memories of his younger years before bowing down to the grass, getting a handful of it he placed it in his mouth.
"Rolf that is unhygienic." Double D called.
"Grass here good for grazing just like home."
"Oh dear."
"Captain Eddward we got a situation." Called the OOM commander.
"What happened?"
"Jimmy the cook is running from Porgs." He said showing the accident prawn kid running from 4 porgs.
"You didn't provoked them haven't you Jimmy?" Double D asked.
"No they think my hair is their nest, get them off me." Jimmy said as Ed came before the Porgs.
"Let's rumble." Ed called as he started to chase them away from the boy.
"You know Porgs are not trouble Jimmy but they are I have to say quite intelligent and harmless." Double D said while the boy was catching his breath.
"I saw but they are not harmless, but when they mistake your hair for their nests it isn't funny at all." Jimmy said.
"Problem is they turn, like some into uninvited passengers." Eddy commented recalling when one porg came in their ship when here for the first time and led to Johnny coming with them to see the place.
"Well then since we saw what we wanted how about we go home now." Double D declared.
"Already made the pictures I wanted to make we can now go." Jimmy said.
"Rolf are you coming now?" Called Eddy as the son of a shepherd came in.
"Rolf already made his conclusions, let's go back home." Said the boy as they went towards their ship where like promised the door was closed before it was opened by the crew to let them in before closing back.
"We go back home boys and probably tomorrow is cleaning day." Double D said.
"Well at least we can all declare that we did a good trip with a small exception." Said Jimmy.
"Indeed." Double D said.
"Can't believe that rescuing a charhound could bring this much trouble." Eddy commented.
"Ooh, but it was nice." Ed said.
"Well we have to agree that one thing was chasing a porg and another was chasing a charhound to make sure he doesn't get spotted by more people." Double D said.
"It isn't like the fire dog did something bad in this matter." Said Rolf.
"At least we managed to get it home safely." Jimmy said with a smile.
"Well that is something we can be proud off." Double D said with a smile, he will be of course happier when he will start clean day for their ships and their station in the following them.