Undying
An original tale within the Bluey universe
By: StorMello
"Chapter 5 - Snake Eyes"
January 26, 1808
3 years have passed. Dustin and Napoleon's relationship has started to become moderate, with neither improving it nor declining it. Both have just been assisting battles and carrying out war plans, but that was until today, the most unexpected thing has just happened….
"Êtes-vous sûr de vouloir faire de votre frère le roi d'Espagne?", questions Dustin, sitting at a table with Napoleon.
"Quel est le problème? Je trouve ma décision très bien et gratifiante pour mon frère. C'est le moins que je puisse faire," responds Napoléon, seeking to put his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain.
"Je le vois, mais je trouve qu'une telle action est un peu soudaine pour le peuple espagnol et particulière pour les habitants de votre pays," persuades Dustin in Napoleon's decision to do something so soon, "Et si vous accordiez aux Espagnols le temps de s'attarder sur le sujet et d'en discuter entre eux?"
"Donnez-leur une chance et ils déclencheront une révolution," counters Napoleon, and continues saying with such seriousness and displeasure, "Et acquérez la connaissance nécessaire pour savoir ce qui est bien et ce qui ne va pas pour les gens; faites l'erreur et vous en subirez les conséquences."
As Napoleon mentions all this, Dustin sits in confusion and mild-anger to what he told him and the manner said to him. But rather than arguing, he sits quietly and doesn't interfere.
"Suivez ceci et vous serez excellent dans ce que vous faites, d'accord?", adds on Napoleon.
"Oui Empereur," responds Dustin, in slight misery. As Dustin responds, Napoleon leaves the room and lets Dustin to think on what he was told.
But it won't be the last time he is told such ways, or such manner…because everything comes to an end.
May 22, 1809
"RETRAITE! RETRAITE!", screamed out Napoleon, seeing the Austrian forces heavily destroy the French army at the village of Essling. Every French soldier ran back in fear from the Habsburg, all cowardly scattering out of formation and finding their own paths of escape. As the retreat began, Dustin looked up in confusion to see all the French troops running for their lives and felt many mixed emotions at the same time. As he stares at the frightened soldiers, he notices the Austrian forces closing in and pulls his horse in the other direction. But as he does that, he hears a cry for help behind him and turns around immediately to find a petrified French Pomeranian lying on the floor, being run over by all the other troops.
And as he acknowledges this, he charges towards his location and rapidly gets off his horse to pick the young soldier from the dirt and mud, and immediately gets him on top of the horse to ride him back to base. After doing so, Dustin rides back and encounters the scared Napoleon along the way, watching the great defeat of the battle.
"Général, les forces autrichiennes prennent le village d'Essling. Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?"Dustin greatly asks Napoleon in shock and surprise.
(Napoleon says this in French, but I kept it in English since it is a famous line of him)
"There is nothing we can do," Napoleon slowly tells Dustin in response to watching the Habsburg take the town. And with this response, Dustin gets a feeling of doubt and uncertainty towards Napoleon, and rides slowly back with the unconscious soldier on the back of his horse. But this conflict causes some arguing….
July 10, 1810
"Napoléon, je ne suis pas sûr de votre projet d'envahir la Russie. À un moment donné, cela semble absurde," responds Dustin to Napoleon about a certain plan of the future.
"Pourquoi donc? C'est un plan merveilleux," responds Napoleon to Dustin, dissatisfied with his response.
"Je trouve une telle invasion un peu trop."
"Et quoi? Je trouve votre avis inutile et négatif en ce moment."
With such a response, Dustin slams the table and shouts at Napoleon in anger.
"Napoléon, vous avez perdu une bataille contre les Habsbourg! Je commence à douter de votre pouvoir et de votre domination sur le champ de bataille!"
"Dustin," Napoleon pauses to take a serious breather, "tu sais mieux que de crier après un officier supérieur."
"Et tu sais qu'il vaut mieux ne pas diriger un putain de pays!"
Napoleon fastly gets up from his seat, "Dustin, je ne tolérerai PAS un langage aussi grossier dans ma prés-"
Dustin then furiously punches Napoleon in the face and shouts out in his normal English voice, "OH FUCK IT! You are being such a tyrannical shit and is not giving not a single care in what you do with anyone! You find only YOUR happiness, YOUR greed, and YOUR POWER!"
With such a vulgar action, Napoleon slowly looks at Dustin and stands firmly, dusting himself off. Then continues to say, "Dustin, vous, êtes confiné sur le champ de bataille. Vous passerez le reste de vos jours en tant que simple simple soldat et serez envoyé dans la mission la plus meurtrière."
As Dustin hears this, guards enter the room and cease Dustin at once while dragging him out of the room, and they do this, Dustin starts shouting out in english, "YOU PIECE OF SHIT! GO DIE IN A FUCKING POTHOLE! YOU HEAR ME! GO DIE, DIE, DIE!"
August 16, 1812
As the artillery bombarded the city, three corps of the French Great Army charged right into battle against the Russian forces, and along with them was the great Dustin himself, shouting at the top of his lungs and running as fast as he could. As the army got to the walls of Smolensk, many tried climbing the wall and many failed doing so. Yet to make matters worse, the Russian artillery started to counter fire the French troops attempting to climb the wall and many were slaughtered in the act, with blood being spurted out; bathing everyone in the scarlet red color. Many French soldiers began to gain fear and some started to hide or make an attempt at running away, yet it didn't matter since they were shot by the artillery and blown to tiny bits. And seeing the advantage, many Russian soldiers started charging at the Frenchman and many jumped down from the walls to bayonet charge onto the Frenchman's heads. Many got their aim right, and others broke their limbs doing so or stabbed themselves in the act. During the battle, Dustin was noticing all this and fought as many as he could. But in one instance, Dustin encountered a dog falling right on him and knocked him down to the ground, dropping the dog's musket and leaving him defenseless. As Dustin gets up from the ground to strike his bayonet right into the dog, the dog turns around to reveal himself to be the breed of a Moyen Poodle, making Dustin pause right there with his musket in hand, and remember his promise. To know he was about to kill one of the poodles he was promised to protect. But as he stops to think, the frightened poodle stands up immediately and runs off from Dustin.
"NO WAIT!", screams out Dustin at the poodle, causing the poor dog to stop and get blown up by a Russian shot from the artillery, filling the disgusted Dustin with guilt and sadness.
And as Dustin stands there, hopeless in every aspect, he starts to see every sin he has committed clearly. He starts to remember everything he had promised to his friends of the past: Lennox, Rosie, and Emilien. He had forgotten what was really important to him in life; in all the centuries of living as different bodies and in different countries. So as he remembers, he grabs from his pocket the gold-heart necklace, and wears it around his neck and holds it tight. Then, he thinks of one thing and one thing only, To never forget my promises, and never forget them. For Lennox, Rosie, & Emilien.
And off I went, back to the battlefield where I, a dog with no life nor true meaning in life, could fend off his frustration and anger with just a hint of bloodshed, scattering across the dirt and grass. Once the battle went on till dawn, the Russian army retreated and left Smolensk to burn in the fire until it was nothing but ash. And I was there to see it, to see a beautiful town of much diversity and abundance of inspiration, get burned to ash like nothing but a pile of rubble and rock stacked on top of each other. I felt nothing but pity in seeing that, wishing that Napoleon could get murdered for such crimes, and yet I never get to see that. Why? I was killed at the time, and never got to see if he was murdered or not. How? Well….
September 7, 1812
As chaos revolved every corner of the battlefield, Dustin tried everything to fend off the Russian cavalry surrounding the French army. The attack of the Russians at Borodino have drastically decreased numbers of the French and are starting to leave them depleted. The village was being drowned with Russian soldiers and cavalry, charging from all sides. As all the French troops fought hard fending off the Russian guard, Dustin had a record of his own killing spree, all from his determination. And as he does all this, Dustin notices a Russian soldier enter one of the houses of the village, appearing to cowardly hide for the remainder of the battle. When Dustin views this matter, he immediately makes a path through the soldiers and finds a way to get to the house, and quickly puts the soldier out of his misery. As he makes it to the house, he quietly listens on the other side of the door for movement or sound, in case of a secret backstab or one-man-band situation. So, as he listens, nothing of a sound or a whisper is heard, and in effect, Dustin cautiously opens the door and anticipates a sudden move or even a single action of harm against him. But to a surprise, nothing happened, and it was quiet throughout the house, even still, it didn't let Dustin leave his guard down. But there was another thing that let his defenses off and distracted. As Dustin first explored the living room of the house, he found a bunch of kitchenware and knick-knacks lying around the room, some with Russian language encrypted on it, whilst others were covered in dust. While all were pretty commonplace utensils and tools, there was one item that stuck out to Dustin very much, and he couldn't get his mind off it. What struck him was the drawing of a happy family on the wall of the living room. A drawing of what appears to be Samoyed dogs; a father, mother, and young daughter. As Dustin viewed this drawing, he stood there in a depressed and tired manner, wondering why all of this was even happening to him. He questioned himself, Why? Just why…has all this started? Is it my own selfish greed? My own egoism? I guess I will never know….
As Dustin stands there motionless, he begins to feel something in his heart. Literally in his heart. He looks down slowly to see a bayonet piercing his middle area of the chest, right through where the heart is. And as the thin dagger pushes out of Dustin's body, Dustin coughs up some blood and slowly turns around. Unfortunately, that same soldier tricked him and led him to his own death, but yet, the soldier said something very moving towards Dustin.
"I am sorry," the Russian soldier tells Dustin in English, letting him know that it wasn't with any hatred or harm. After the soldier said that, Dustin began to slowly collapse on the floor and start coughing up lots of blood. When this happened, the soldier immediately left, not wanting to see any of this. And as the soldier leaves, Dustin reaches into his coat and takes out the necklace, all covered in blood from the wound. He grips it tightly and closes his eyes, hoping for the best in the next encounter.
And as I close my eyes, I expect the best and hope to not go mad or anything, right? Right? RIGHT?!
United States of America, 1861 - The Civil War…Has BEGUN.
P.S. - I hope you enjoyed this so far. This one was a tough one to organize, but turned out to be somewhat good, I think. High hopes for the next one, and a little surprise for the next chapter. Until Chapter 6 - "Friends in Dark Places."