In My Time of Need - Chapter 9
#12 of In My Time of Need
Chapter 9! :3
Oh my goodness do I have some explaining to do! So I got a little preoccupied last night with my rowdy roommates who wanted me to come have a few drinks with them and I was like "nah bro" but I didn't want to be rude so I just enjoyed my cherry coke and watched them all get drunk (which was pretty entertaining by the way). And by the time I was finally able to escape it was nearly 2 o'clock and once again I was just like "nah bro" cause I had to be up at 7 this morning for my three hour chemistry lab. BUT now finally I have the promised chapter of In My Time of Need here for you guys. Hope you all enjoy and I'll see you at the bottom of the page. :D
The first thing I noticed when I awoke that was so much different than the previous few days was the distinct warmth wrapped around me. More specifically the warm body that snored softly as I laid back against it.
I tried not to move or wiggle too much in fear of waking the sleeping shepherd, but after a few minutes the grip around my midsection loosened in a strangled stretch, followed by a stream of warm breath against my ear as he yawned.
"Morning sleepy." I said quietly. The shepherd only offered a drowsy grunt as he nuzzled the back of my neck, and only then did the words process as he realized what he was doing.
"Heh, sorry about that." Baron exclaimed as he wiggled around, trying to move his hands up to undo the zipper on the sleeping bag.
"It's fine, Perry already gave me a fair warning so I knew what I was in for." I replied, shuffling as well so he could have room to move.
"Warned you about what?" Baron asked curiously.
"Oh nothing important." I teased as he finally undid the zipper, allowing both of us to emerge from the sleeping bag. I stretched my stiff limbs and shook my tail behind me to try to get some feeling back in it.
"You look like you're doing the chicken dance." A voice called from a few feet away. Glancing over my shoulder I saw it was Delilah who was watching me amusedly. Roy was seated next to her, a muted grin on his face as well.
"Yeah well you do what you gotta do when you can't feel your tail." Baron commented, and we all laughed as he did a dance very similar to mine letting his long brown tail swing limply behind him. The laughter filled morning was a good start to the day, but I was reminded of the journey as we once again as we passed breakfast around the fire once everyone had emerged from their sleeping bags.
"Alright, we've stayed here long enough. Let's get moving." Baron instructed after we'd packed the overnight camp up. The last thing to do was for Perry to pour a bit of water on the fire to ensure we didn't light the plains on fire before we left.
Everybody seemed to be in a much better mood than the previous day, friendly chit chat and occasional laughter being emitted by the group. Not only that, but the weather was much nicer as well. Rather than the cold, overcast days like the past few, only a few stray clouds littered the bright blue sky. The sun beating down from above helped to keep us warm as well as we followed the tracks from the trucks.
For the first time that week I felt optimistic that we would find my brother safe and sound. That optimism took a turn for the worst however when Baron brought the steadily moving group to a screeching halt. I nearly walked into Delilah before she shoved me down on my knees causing me to yelp unintentionally. The lioness shoved a tan paw over my muzzle before I could protest, signaling that I needed to stay quiet.
"There's a human encampment up ahead, we do not know whether or not they are peaceful. Baron and Roy are deciding whether or not we should ask if they've seen the truck considering it looks as if it went right by the camp." She explained to me. I nodded in response and only then did she remove the paw from my muzzle.
We shuffled forward to meet with the rest of the group in a crouched position. We were still fairly visible to anyone who was looking hard enough, but apparently hidden enough for the humans not to see us.
"Alright, since we outnumber them we'll all approach together, but no hostility whatsoever understand? We want to get it in and get out as quick as we can because they may be connected to whoever has Nathan's brother." Baron instructed. A general consensus of confirmation arose through the group as Baron instructed us to all rise once again.
We slowly approached the camp which was still a couple hundred feet away, not wanting to draw attention until we grew nearer. Finally once we'd gotten close enough one of the three humans, the only woman, pointed in our direction alerting her groupmates to our presence.
"That's close enough." One of the males spoke, walking to the edge of the small camp. Baron held a closed fist up signaling us to stop, moving forward a few extra feet by himself.
"We don't mean any harm, just have a couple questions if you're willing to help. We were wondering if you saw a band of trucks come through here." Baron stated. The group seemed to talk amongst themselves for a moment before the other male spoke.
"Why should we help you?" He asked.
"Because my brother was in one of those trucks. They took him from me and we're trying to get him back." I stated, approaching to stand next to Baron. "Why should we believe you? How do we know you're not trying to trick us?" The first male asked.
"Because you know we're not like that Jim." Roy exclaimed, moving to stand to my right.
"Roy? What are you doing here?" The woman asked, similar looks of recognition plastered to the faces of the men as well.
"I'm with these guys, trying to get my friend's brother back." The brown wolf replied, resting a paw on my shoulder.
"Wait, so if you're Roy, than you must be-"
"Baron, yes that's me. Hello Thomas." Baron finished his thought.
"Friends of Baron are welcome in this camp, please come in and talk for a bit." The woman offered.
"Thank you for the offer, but we can't stay too long. We have no idea how far ahead those trucks are compared to us which is why we're trying to stay on the move." Baron replied, leading the group into the small camp. Three tents surrounded the fire pit, small mats on the ground used for sitting. Delilah offered a wave before leading me off to the side.
"How do Baron and Roy know them?" I asked once we'd gotten out of earshot.
"They used to be a part of our group before Andros banished them." She replied. I stole a glance to where Baron and Roy sat with the rest of the group before turning back to the lioness.
"Why would he banish them? They don't seem like bad people." I commented.
"They aren't, they found our camp sick and hungry after their home had been raided. We allowed them to stay for a couple of weeks and they were extremely grateful. Andros could never see them as equal however, and only allowed them to stay until they were fully recovered before he made them leave. We were sad to see them ago, I personally didn't think we'd ever hear from them again. I'm glad to see that they're still around as that was a number of years ago. That's why they did not initially recognize Baron as he was still a pup when they showed up." Delilah explained.
"Who's the girl? I heard the guys' names but nobody ever mentioned her name." I asked curiously.
"That's Christina, she's the technical leader of their little group. She's very similar to Baron in a way, very diplomatic and leader-like at times but is a very laid back person in general." She replied. "We should probably rejoin them, come on." She instructed, leading us back to the group. Once we grew nearer Baron offered the seat next to him to me.
"Guys, this is Nathan." Baron introduced me. I offered a half wave in response as they all marveled at me.
"You got out of the Pinewood Lab?" The first man Jim asked.
"Yeah, but my brother didn't. Which is why we're trying to find him. Can you help us?" I pulled the picture of my brother from my pocket, handing it to Christina as I spoke.
"The trucks came through here two days ago. They stopped here to rest, but I could tell they weren't a very friendly bunch. Very rude and demanding and they seemed to be hiding something as whenever we asked what was in the trucks they dodged around the question. At least now we know what they were hauling, I'm sorry we couldn't do anything to help him." Christina answered, looking solemnly at the photo before handing it back to me.
"It's okay, you wouldn't have known anyways. You've already helped more than you can imagine and I can't thank you guys enough. Is there anything we can do to help you guys?" Baron replied.
"We're doing alright for the moment, although the people from the trucks said they were going to stop in the town called Lyford about a mile or so away. We can get you guys through the town and save you some time." Christina offered.
"We can't ask you to do that you guys, you've done so much already." Baron tried to convince her.
"We were planning on going in today to restock on food anyways, it wouldn't be a big deal." Jim added.
"It's settled, we'll lead you over and through, you might be able to buy a bit of information out of the locals for the right price." Christina informed us.
"If you insist, how long do you need to get ready?" Baron asked. "Just a few minutes, feel free to just wander around until we're ready." She replied. We all took her advice and explored around the small camp for a bit. There wasn't much to it overall, three small tents that could house one person comfortably, two crowded, and three nearly impossible.
A large woven basket that served as the food storage seemed uncomfortably low, making me wonder how much they really ate. "Alright we're ready to leave, just give us the signal and we can head out." Christina informed us.
"Alright guys let's get moving!" Baron instructed, following after Christina and her group out of the camp.
"Is this town friendly towards furs?" The shepherd asked the female human.
"Well, they aren't going to execute you in towns square or anything but I can guarantee they won't be throwing a feast to celebrate your arrival either." She confessed.
"We'll deal with it when we get there, for now I'm just curious. What happened after you guys left?" Roy asked.
"Well, after Andros made us leave we kind of just wandered the plains in search of... well, anything I guess. We actually stumbled on to the laboratory at one point." She began, gesturing towards me at the end.
"They wouldn't let us in or tell us anything about what the building was for other than that they were doing research there. Obviously now we know what was going on, but after they turned us away we continued our search for anything other than the plains. A couple days later we found Lyford where we were able to find work. We weren't able to make enough money to find a house in the town so we bought the tents and moved away so we wouldn't have to stick around. And now we go in to town every few weeks to get food, which is how it's been for the last few years." She finished.
I was able to see the town now, people mulling about through the streets. Everybody paused what they were doing as soon as our large group entered the town however, staring as we all walked by. My sensitive ears picked up on the small whispers amongst the townspeople, and I was pretty sure I heard 'animals' and 'mongrels' tossed around a couple times.
"I was really hoping for that feast to be honest." I whispered to Baron who had to stifle a chuckle. The small community looked like it could barely fit the description of even a small town, based on the amount of houses there were maybe 100 people living here, if that.
But one of those people must have been paranoid because it didn't take long for the sheriff in town to approach our group. He fit the classic western style sheriff description; slightly on the bigger side with the sheriff's hat and badge, big brown boots and a big brown mustache to match.
"Might I ask what drove you to come disturb the peace of our little town here?" He asked, bringing our group to a halt. Christina moved to talk, but Baron held a paw up signaling he wanted to be the one to speak.
"Baron Sanford, nice to meet you Sheriff." Baron started, offering the same paw he'd used to quiet Christina. The sheriff glared down at the paw before meeting Baron's gaze again.
"I don't shake hands that have fur on them. Now I'll ask again, why have you come to disturb the peace of our town?" He growled. Baron slowly retracted the hand and glanced around to the rest of the group questioningly.
"Not to be offensive but we've done nothing to disturb your townspeople. We're just passing through and would appreciate if you didn't heckle us for doing so." Baron replied just as sternly, bright amber eyes glaring defiantly back.
"You disturbed my townspeople when you brought your stinking hides into my town. So why don't you take your little group of misfits and 'git goin'." The sheriff spat. Baron wrinkled his nose in disgust, tail flicking about dangerously behind him. And even with the obvious height advantage of nearly a foot the shepherd finally turned away from the arrogant officer.
"Come on guys, we're wasting our time here." He said sullenly, leading the group away. I wasn't sure at that moment what drove me to not follow them and instead stay back and risk the wrath of the officer, but I knew for certain that if he'd stopped us then he had to have stopped the trucks if they came through town as well.
"Excuse me officer?" I asked hesitantly.
"What do you want kid, shouldn't you be following after the mobile freak show?" He replied. I flinched at his harsh response but continued nonetheless.
"You wouldn't happen to know about a couple trucks that might have come through here a couple days ago would you?" I questioned. The frown on his face only seemed to deepen at my question.
"They came rollin' through my town day before yesterday. I stopped them to ask what they were haulin' but they were real paranoid about something." He answered.
"Did they say anything about where they were headed?" I asked hopefully.
"Listen kid I don't have time to answer your silly questions all day." He replied.
"Officer please they took my brother... they took him away from me and we've been trying to follow them. We have no idea where they're going or what they're going to do to him." I felt disgusted for having to beg such a poor excuse for a representative of the law, but his silence made me hopefully that I'd hit a soft spot.
"They mentioned somethin' about Norfolk a couple miles north but there ain't nothing there except for the new research lab they just built." He answered.
"Thank you so much officer, it means a lot." I replied.
"Don't push your luck kid, now beat it." He responded harshly once again. I fretted slightly at the man full of so much resentment before padding off in the direction the group had gone. I found them standing on the outskirts of town, seemingly waiting for me.
"There you are, where did you go Nathan?" Roy asked once I'd rejoined them.
"I was talking to Mr. Grumpy over there to see if he knew anything about the trucks." I told him.
"And? Did he tell you anything?" Baron asked curiously.
"He told me that the people in the trucks mentioned something about Norfolk if any of you know where that's at." I replied, aiming the last part towards Christina and her gang.
"Norfolk? That's where they just put in the new lab, it's a few more miles north of here which would make sense if they were transferring your brother. You could probably get close tonight if you go now." The female human responded.
"We're wasting daylight then. I can't thank you guys enough for saving us some time, maybe we'll stop back once we finish our mission. And listen, once my dad comes off that high throne of his you're very much welcome back if you'd like. We'd love to have you back." Baron told her.
"That's a very generous offer, but we'll have to discuss it first. Thank you though, hope we can see you guys again. And Nathan, I'd love to meet your brother, make sure to come back and visit." She smiled at me.
"Thanks Christina." I replied.
"Alright everyone, let's get moving! Bye you three, travel safe." Baron said to the humans.
"We will, you be safe as well, and be careful please." She replied, the three of them waving as we left. We were able to pick up on the tracks once again after we'd gotten out of the town. We might not have noticed the slight change in direction had the officer not mentioned it, but set our course to the north nonetheless, back on the road to hopefully finding my brother safely.
Actually pretty fond of how this chapter turned out, little bit more character development and getting a look at what non-furs really think of those with fur. Is it a blessing or a curse? You know my answer but it's a pretty good question to ask in this case. Anyways I'm gonna get going, I'll be starting the next chapter of Stranded tonight and I'll have that up some time this weekend and of course A Silent Soul will be going up on Monday as scheduled. Have a fantastic day! :D