A/N: Hey! There is now an audiobook for the first chapter on my YouTube channel. You can find the link to it in my profile description. Anyways, again, chapter releases are very sporadic. I get them out when I can. Cheers!
Chapter 14: To Tread Into The Depths
Another powerful surge slammed Courage into another direction as he was tossed all around under the water. His lungs were burning, as he could not get his head above the water long enough to breathe. Just when Courage thought he was going to drown, his body was thrown into the air for a second or two. He was falling down a small waterfall. He gasped for air before slamming back down into the waters below. The waters were much more calm down there, and he was able to get his head above the water.
Coughing and sputtering, he crawled to the shore and laid. He had to work so hard to catch his breath after coughing up so much water. He laid on his stomach, as his breathing slowed and the stars in his vision faded. But as he laid there longer, his mind started to wander elsewhere. His mind was now crystal clear.
"What the hell just happened?" Courage thought to himself. "Everything was going good, until the fog…" Courage's mind became foggy again for a moment. "But my dad was there! It felt too real to not be!"
But Courage knew fully well that his father was never actually there, but he just couldn't accept the truth. He had been on the boat, crying and laughing to himself. And now he's fine.
"It was that god damn fog over that god damn lake, wasn't it?" he thought again. "Yes, that just had to be it. Nothing that pretty is ever not too good to be true."
Then he felt stupid about falling for the bait. He knew he knew better than that. Something in the fog must've made him weak and give in. He then remembered the intense happiness he felt at the lake and the intense sadness he experienced after falling overboard and getting flushed down that stream. It was almost like the stream drained all of the sadness from the lake or something.
He turned over onto his side and stared at the water of the stream.
"The lake was warm, but the stream is cold," he said aloud. He then stood up and backed away from the stream fearfully. He decided to head into the forested area behind him.
As he headed into the forest, he noticed it was much harder to walk through this one than the last. But at least he never encountered anything or anyone scary or harmful. He walked like this for quite some time.
Just when he was beginning to think he was really lost, he came across a trail of some sort. It certainly looked worn with travel, so he decided to follow it in the uphill direction he was already traveling.
He was nearing the top of the hill and he could see the trees start to part. Maybe he'll be out of the woods and he could at least see where he is.
"Courage, come on!" he heard Noel unmistakably scream his name.
"Noel?" Courage asked. He couldn't believe it.
With his heart beating faster, Courage took off running in the direction of Noel's voice. When he reached the top of the hill, he lost his balance. After falling backwards, he noticed that he almost fell off a 30-foot cliff he did not know was there. The cliff overlooked a desert-like place. The ground consisted of only gray sand, and the terrain was littered with craters and small hills.
But most importantly, Courage saw Noel fast walking down below away from the cliff. And creeping up behind him fast was another pink beagle dog. Noel clearly thought this imposter Courage was the real Courage! He had to warn Noel!
But before Courage could yell Noel's name, the ground beneath him rose at an angle that made him fall backward and into a now open chasm.
"AHHHH!" Courage trademark screamed as he fell deep underground and away from the dogs. He fell for a solid 5 seconds before finally hitting the bottom HARD, and it took him some time to get back up. It was SO dark, that he could not see anything.
"HELLLLLLLLLLP!" Courage howled into the dark hole above, hoping that Noel would hear from somewhere. But he soon stopped because even someone like Courage knew it was pointless. His lip trembled in hopelessness, and he fell to his knees to cry.
"Why?" he cried again. "He was RIGHT THERE!" His tears soaked the gray soil below.
He suddenly felt movement under his right paw, and it scared him out of his tears. As his eyes finally adjusted to the dark, he could see the little spot in the ground open up, and a small, orange worm poked its head out.
"AHH!" Courage screamed loudly by instinct.
"Oww, hey!" the worm screamed back in pain. "Whatchu doin screamin at me like I'm the goddamn grim reaper or somethin?"
Courage did not respond.
"Man, all you prison dogs are the same!" the worm complained.
"What?" Courage asked. "What are you talking about? Prison dogs?"
"Yea, a prison dog. That's whatchu are, right?" the worm asked.
"Uhhh, no, I am not a prison dog. I just want to get out of here!" Courage pulled his ears.
"Prison dog," the worm teased.
Courage shot a mean glare at the worm, who returned it with a snide grin.
"I'm Daffodil, butchu can call me whatever you like, baby!" she said.
"How about Tapeworm, because you're a real pain in my bum," Courage joked.
"Haha, you're funny Mr. Prison Dog Man! I wish I had your queer sense of humor!" Daffodil teased again.
"Argh, so what are you doing here again?" Courage placed a paw to his head impatiently.
"Um, I was about to ask you the same question," Daffodil responded.
"I fell in here by mistake," Courage admitted.
"You and every other prison dog," she added.
"Why do you keep saying that? What's a 'prison dog' anyway?" Courage asked.
"You're kidding me, right?" Daffodil said. "You are in the Realm of Emptiness! If you are here, you are either a slave or are in prison. And we call anyone that somehow escapes that god-forsaken prison a 'prison dog', even though all animals and humans alike are trapped there."
"So what are you then," Courage decided to ask.
"I am a slave," Daffodil said. "I am bound to the ground and trapped, grindin this soil, these corpses, and this garbage forever. At least as long as-."
"Devius is in power?" Courage interrupted her. "I've heard from a lot that he is a big problem here."
"Shh," Daffodil shushed him. "You mustn't speak his name. And I for one don't want The Pendulum."
"The Pendulum?" Courage asked in fear.
"Dog, all I'm gonna say is that you don't wanna piss em off, or you end up in that prison," Daffodil warned. "I haven't seen the inside, but the bodies that come outta there…," Daffodil stopped. Her playfulness from before had been zapped when she recalled memories of the bodies from the prison. "Dog, I don't know you very well, but I know a good person when I see one. And I don't wanna have to find you dead with your ribs and lungs stickin outta your back. I'll be forced to grind you up and not apologize for it."
Courage was now too scared to move anywhere now, fearing that he'll be thrown into this prison and executed in a horrific way. And he did not want to be grinded up by a little worm either.
Daffodil sensed his fear. "Hey, don't be too scared…. What's your name again?"
"Courage," Courage replied grimly.
"Courage!" she exclaimed. "See, you're already halfway there, Mr. Brave Pants."
"I'm not brave, and I don't wear pants," Courage responded, annoyed.
"That don't matter. That's what true courage is," Daffodil mused.
Courage decided to look back over at her after she said that.
"Bravery is when you're not scared to go into battle," she continued. "And courage is when you're scared to death, but you still go anyway. To have Courage is the most noble thing one can have."
Courage knew she was right. He had saved Muriel from every encounter not because of bravery, but because of courage. And it was no different now trying to rescue Noel and himself. And he was not going to let the fear of something like The Pendulum scare off his own courage.
"Alright, Courage?" Daffodil said.
"Okay," Courage said with a new sense of confidence.
"Soup is ON baby!" Daffodil exclaimed. "Now let's get the hell outta here!"
"Agreed," said Courage.
Daffodil grinded a pathway rather fast. It was big enough for Courage to walk down, and it extended far beyond Courage's sight.
"Wow, you are really good at that!" Courage exclaimed.
"Well, I had a LONG time to practice!" Daffodil replied.
The two traversed down the path. Then Courage thought of a good question.
"Where exactly did you dig us to?" he asked Daffodil.
"I dunno," she said. "I just dug until I struck open air."
"Are you meaning to tell me you have no idea where you dug us?" Courage was alarmed.
"Hey, chillax dog," Daffodil said. " If push comes to shove, I can dig us outta there in a jiffy."
"Okay…." Courage decided to trust her.
As they walked a little further, they made it to the end of where Daffodil dug. It apparently led into another pre-existing tunnel.
"You see," Daffodil grinned snidely at Courage. "What did I tell you? It's safe, and I found the tunnel network."
"Tunnel network?" Courage asked. "Are there tunnels like this everywhere?"
"Yes," Daffodil said. "How do you think people miraculously escape from the prison?"
"Oh," Courage said. He certainly hoped he'd never find himself in that place.
As the two entered the tunnel, they headed left. It was still very dark in here, but Courage could see just a little bit better.
"Now if you don't mind me asking," Courage said. "How have you come to be here?"
"Um, ya know, I honestly can't remember!" Daffodil said in a lighthearted expression that surprised Courage. "Doin all that I do, this is all I've ever known. I've had friends come and go-, but they never lasted." She said that past part with emotion.
"We'll make him pay," Courage growled.
"Courage," Daffodil said softly. "I love your courage, but this is just the way things roll. He's in charge, and there's no one who can stop him. I'm sorry, but the truth is that either way, we'll both be dead in the near future."
"Right," Courage said. "So don't we have nothing to lose?"
Daffodil was silent after that.
Courage knew that Devius was a dangerous being, but he also knew that he could not give up. He understood Daffodil, but he wanted her to see his point. He looked down at her.
"Wouldn't you want to find out what it's like to be free?" Courge asked her.
"You sir, have a death wish," she whispered. "You seem like a nice fella, but I cannot assist you in your death, I'm sorry."
"It'd be better dying by the hands of him on a battlefield than it'd be getting pointlessly mutilated in the prison," Courage said. "If we died in that prison, then we would've-," Courage walked right into something in the path.
He had not been paying attention because he had been looking down at Daffodil the whole time. When he turned to see what he ran into, he looked up into the dried eyes of a very dead Noel.
"AHHHH!" Courage screamed before falling to the ground. He tried to crawl backwards to frantically get away. He turned to look back at the body, and he noticed it was hanging by a blue leash, and was not actually Noel. It was a beagle dog about the same size as both Noel and Courage. Only this one had purple fur, was missing an ear, and had parts of his nose missing.
"Aw, man," Daffodil said with pity. "Poor fella must've escaped from the prison and was unable to get that damn leash off. And judgin by the hole above him and the leash, he must've been walking in a tunnel above until the ground must've given out. As he free fell, it looks like his leash caught onto something, causing him to break his neck or suffocate to death."
"Aww my god!" Courage pulled onto his ears in horror. He stared at the dog's body. It looked so much like him and Noel. It very well could have been him or Noel. And to think that this dog did almost the impossible by escaping the prison, just to die a gruesome death anyway. This dog gasped his last strangled breaths of his life, here, all alone, in the Realm of Emptiness.
Courage stood up and approached the body. He continued to watch the dog's body swing back and forth. He wanted more than anything to get out of the Realm of Emptiness. But he also thought of Noel. He had a loyalty to him, and would prevent what happened to this dog from ever happening to Noel. Courage also understood that even if he bailed on Noel, he would still have to find his own way out of here. And who's to say that he won't end up dead, hanging in a leash noose either?
"Well, time to get to work," Daffodil said with little emotion.
"Huh?" Courage asked.
Suddenly, the dead dog fell to the ground, as Daffodil cut the leash.
"Wait!" Courage screamed, as he wrapped his arms around the dog to shield him from Daffodil. His body was very cold, and very stiff.
"Courage, what are you doing?" Daffodil asked.
"Please!" Courage was now crying on the body. "Don't grind him just yet! Please do it later when I'm not here!"
"Courage, I'm sorry," Daffodil said. "But I have to grind him up right here right now. If 'you know who' finds out I was here and left this corpse like this, I could be executed and replaced."
"PLEASE DON'T!" Courage bawled like a baby. He desperately did not want to witness something so awful to a dog, dead or alive. He wrapped his arms harder around this dog's stiff, cold body.
"Okay, alright, fine!" Daffodil yielded. "Just let go of the corpse, dog! YOU are freaking me out!"
Courage let go of the body and stood back back. After wiping his last tears and sniffling his last sniffles, he gently brushed himself off.
"Alright, now let's get outta here fast so that he is less likely to know I was here."
Courage nodded with a trembling lip, and they kept moving. Ever since they came across the hanging body of that dog, Courage never felt the same after that. He was BEYOND terrified of what may come.
After walking for about 12 more minutes in utter darkness and silent apprehension, the tunnel started to seem to brighten a little bit.
"We are getting closer," Daffodil broke the silence.
"Good," Courage responded.
SLAM!
Behind them, a metal wall shot out of the dirt wall and blocked their way backwards. It scared both of them beyond their wildest thoughts.
"HUHH!" Courage gasped.
"AH! Well, I didn't wanna go that way anyway," Daffodil said.
"AHHH!" Courage screamed, upon realizing that there were multiple figures ahead of them, approaching them.
Daffodil very swiftly dug a tunnel to their right. "This way, dog!" she yelled to Courage.
Courage turned and beelined down the new tunnel toward the light. The rapid footsteps of his pursuers were heard behind him. He was trying to make it to the exit as soon as possible.
"Go Courage, GO!" he heard Daffodil shouting from the dirt wall next to him. She was apparently traveling through the dirt beside him at his speed.
As his lit exit grew bigger, he heard his pursuers getting closer to him. They were now close enough that he was now able to hear their snarls and breaths right on his tail. The images of the dead dog and the corpses Daffodil described appeared in Courage's mind, and that caused him to run faster.
Once Courage made it to the exit, he was temporarily blinded by the outdoor light, even though the realm was not very bright anyway. But as his vision cleared, he noticed that he was now surrounded by a bunch of dome buildings in a gray, arid landscape. This looked like a village of some sort.
"No, Courage!" Daffodil shouted from below him. "This is not a safe place! Follow me outta here!"
"Okay!" Courage yelled, trying to keep up with her fast pace.
But as they ran between domes after domes, they ran into locals. The locals came in all different species, shapes, sizes, and colors. But they were all sick, beaten, malnourished, and seemed to be pissed off at Courage's presence.
"AHHH, not that way! Right, right! Hurry hurry HURRY!" Daffodil panicked.
SLASH!
"YOWW!" Courage yelped. A searing, hot pain ignited across his back. One of his pursuers must've slashed his back with a sharp object. Scared out of his wits, Courage had to work extra hard to shift his momentum to the right suddenly. His legs and lungs burned so badly, he thought they were about to collapse.
As they swiftly took a left turn, Courage ran right into a giant gila monster. The gila monster was just standing there and seemed to be expecting this. He stared down at Courage with an unreadable expression.
"Courage!" Daffodil screamed.
Courage, panting too badly to scream, sprang back up and backed away from the unmoving gila monster.
BOOM!
The wall to Courage's right collapsed, because a very large man broke through it. He was dressed in a tore-up, law enforcement-like getup. He had light skin, a bushy mustache, and a police cap. His shoulders were extraordinarily wide, half of his body seemed burnt, and he towered over almost every other human Courage ever saw.
"AHHHH!" Courage managed to scream out before receiving a VERY hard punch straight into his muzzle. He flew sideways into the air before landing onto his stomach. He saw blood splatter onto the ground right in front of his face upon landing. Stars clouded his vision, and his hearing had become muffled. This was by far the hardest Courage had ever been punched, and he wouldn't have been surprised if someone told him he was having a brain bleed. Needless to say, he could not stand back up.
Daffodil gasped. "Courage, this is Sergeant Tom Doyle, he is the brutal police chief who-."
Doyle had stomped on Daffodil, silencing her for good.
This managed to get Courage to look up and back over to Doyle. He stared at his boot in the sand that likely killed Daffodil, and then up at his apathetic face.
"That talking worm bitch just never knew when to shut up," Doyle spoke softly.
Courage was beyond outraged. He glared up at the one who likely killed his friend, and clenched his paw into a fist. He threw a fistful of gray sand at Doyle's leg. Doyle, who then turned his attention back to Courage, was not too happy about Courage's action.
"You got somethin to say bitch! Huh?" Doyle yelled down at Courage.
KICK!
Doyle had kicked Courage right into his stomach, knocking the air out of him. Courage knew it wasn't as hard as Doyle was capable of, but it was enough to still hurt really bad and cause bruising later.
Doyle then picked up Courage with one hand by his throat and strangled him, BADLY. As Doyle's face blurred in Courage's vision, he thought his head was going to pop like a blister.
WHAM!
Before Courage knew it, Doyle had delivered one final punch to his face, and it knocked him out cold.
End of Chapter
A/N: Don't worry Courage, we're over half way done with this arc now, and soon you'll hopefully be back in Nowhere in no time!