Blanket Dog & The Two Loners

Chapter 6 - Friends Will Find Each Other In The Storm

Since we’d been walking for what seemed like hours, me and Zero stopped for the night. It was pretty dark out, so we both agreed it was late enough. Zero had managed to put together a leaf tent for me, and she climbed up into a tree for her own ‘bed’. It was cold, and I was tired. Climbing under the skimpy leaf tent, I hugged my legs close and leaned against the tree Zero had propped the leaves up to, and closed my eyes. I didn’t even fall asleep when I heard rustling to the right of me. My ears pricked in alarm and I heard Zero drop from her tree to the left of me. 

“Stay, I’ll investigate.” 

“Absolutely..!” We whispered. I watched her walk out of my vision, holding my knees close before deciding to peek out the tent. My ears flattened against my head when I saw Zero slowly inching toward a bush. 

That's when a big white and blue cat jumped out at her, and collided into her torso. Zero was caught off guard, and pushed back a few feet. “You-”

“Stop!” I yelled as I pushed the leaves off me, jumping forward to her and the cat. “Dust?” I asked, holding both paws together. The big King Cheetah looked over to me and then down. It was Dust, and he was carrying my blanket on his back! “You found my blanket!”

“Yah, I felt pret’y bad, so I tried to find ya. I saw this, and thought the worst.” Dust shrugged his shoulders, walking over to me and wrapping the blanket around me once again. Now I am the true Blanket Dog!

Zero growled, “oh, yeah, you’re friends with him.” Dust hissed back, both of them baring their fangs at each other. Things were getting pretty tense, so I jumped in between them. 

“Stop, both of you!” They glared at me before glaring back at each other. 

“And why should we?” Zero questioned.

“We’ve got unfinished business…” Dust hissed, lowering his gaze as it darkened.

“Because… Because… Because i'm here! You wouldn’t want a child watching a fight, would you?” Zero gave me a look, and Dust avoided glancing in my direction. After a few seconds, both of them turned back to each other with bewildered expressions.

“You two shouldn’t fight, after all, we’re friends!” Zero made a blegh sound, while Dust sighed in defeat. 

“A’ight, you got me there, kid. I won’t fight, so long as Zero doesn't pick a fight.” He narrowed his eyes, glaring up at the demon wolf, who gladly glared right back at Dust. I grumbled annoyed like before shaking myself and turning away. 

“Okay! Now that it is settled, let’s sleep because I'm exhausted!”  I strut all the way up to my totaled tent, glancing down like it was some sort of mahogany. “Awe, come on!” I heard a snicker, and shuffling as two figures stepped up behind me. Turning around and crossing my arms, I glare down to the ground.

“Yup, definitely a 9 year old. Still throwing tantrums.” Zero chuckled, starting to pick up the leaves to reassemble my tent. 

“I'm not throwing a tantrum!” I barked back, making her chuckle some more. 

“Sure, sure, whatever you say.” Dust quietly snickered as he curled up in a small divot in the ground, right next to a fallen tree. Laying his head down, he went to sleep first. 

After Zero had fixed my tent, she went back up into her tree as I went into the small tent. Now with a smile on my face, I curled up while leaning against the tree again. This time I was warm and happy, so I could easily fall soundly asleep…

Something nearby made an insanely loud sound, waking all three of us up. Zero jumped down from her tree and glanced at me and Dust as he was trying to calm me down. She stepped up to us, and glared toward the direction the booming noise came from. 

"I have a hunch." Zero growled, glaring her crimson eyes down a path in the woods. 

"A hunch of what?" Dust grumbled right back at her, flicking his ear to keep it in the direction of the rumbling sound as he glared up at her, instead of down the path. Wait, rumbling sound? Something was shaking, and it made the ground shake ever so slightly. Zero and Dust shared a look, before Zero jumped over to me and picked me up.

"Earth-shake, get down and hold onto something!" Dust shouted as he jumped to his fallen log, using his claws to dig into the old and soggy wood to hold on. I was confused, this Earth-shake seemed so light. Why were they panicking so much? Just as I finished asking my mental question, suddenly the shaking spiked. Zero was thrown over as she ran to a tree, making me fall over and off her back. Instead of getting up again and running, Zero dug her claws into the fine Earth. Noticing her strategy, I unsheathed my claws to do the same. The trees shook, leaves and branches falling from the tops of them and hitting the ground. Now there was rumbling all around us, and there was no way to get out of it. We couldn’t even stand up, it was so harsh. 

Just when I thought it wasn’t even possible, a large crack appeared right in front of my nose, and it opened up. I panicked, sliding back a bit as the whole in the world got bigger, making a long crack all the way up to where I slept last night. It divided all three of us. I managed to stand up, and so did Zero. The shaking hadn’t stopped, and neither did this ravine like crack that lead right to smoking hot red stuff, steam flying out of the cracks. I stepped back, when I almost fell. Turning around I saw another ravine, this one was big enough for me to fall into though.

“Zero, Dust! Help!” I shouted, but when I turned back around, I noticed they were having the same issues as me. A loud yelp came from my mouth when my side of the cracked Earth shifted, and rose a few feet. Zero’s dropped what seemed to be 15 feet, and Dust’s fell 8 feet too. I was the only one whose platform went up.

Shit, this isn’t good. It got to a point where I was hugging the ground. Trying to not look down was the goal, but that changed when I heard the flapping of substantially large wings. Peeking just a little bit, I saw a black dragon, as black as the night, flying right above Zero and Dust. I don’t think it even noticed me, surprisingly. It stared down at the two of my friends, before laughing and flying away again. Right after the dragon had left, the shaking seemed to falter and slow down gradually. When the shaking had fully stopped, the ground around us was in shambles. So many knocked down trees, sheets of ground had been raised and lowered, rocks fallen and split in two or more bits of itself. It was a wreck, and we were in the middle of it.

I heard some rocks falling, and when I looked down over my platform I noticed Zero climbing the side of Dust’s platform to get onto the ground level. Waving my paw, I waited until one of them would see me. Thankfully Zero took notice, and spent a good 30 minutes climbing up the rocks to get me, then 40 to get back down. She put me on the flat ground gently, before turning toward Dust and huffing slightly. 

“I haven't encountered an Earthquake as wild as that one in forever, what do you think it means?” Zero glanced down at Dust, who shrugged in response. 

“Ah, ‘m not sure. I haven’t been in an Earthquake worse than 12 years ago.” Dust was clearly stumped. All of a sudden, he brought up a different observation from that disaster.

“Oi, you know that black dragon? Whoever he was, he seemed really interested in you.” It sounded like he was blaming Zero for this, and the look in Dust’s eye almost proved my point. Apparently it was a touchy thing, as Zero instantly got hostile at him.

“Not the time, Dust, you dumbass! So I know him, what does it matter? He’s gonna go tell Boss I'm working with the enemy, probably, and send King to kill us all.” Zero crossed her arms, glaring up at the sky where the dragon once hovered.

“What does it matter? I thought you couldn’t kill a demon for a second time?” Dust questioned, one of his ears flopping to the side. Zero shook her head.

“You imbecile. If it lives, you can kill it. While it’s true, demons are extra hard to kill, there is one way of which he possesses that can kill a demon. More specifically, me. A magic harpoon.” Zero rolled her eyes, as to say she was not going to explain what a ‘Magic Harpoon’ is. And she didn’t, she turned and started to walk in the opposite direction of where the dragon flew off. Dust ran after her, which reminded me I should go as well, running after Dust.

“Oi! Where do you think you’re going?” Dust hissed lightly.

“Away from idiots like you, clearly.” Zero growled, not looking back at her chasers.

“But we gotta stick together!” I cried out, trying to get them to stop arguing for one moment. My plea made both of them stop walking, and look over to me. 

“You two, are my friends, and we shouldn’t abandon each other! What would I do without you two? I don’t want to lose more people…” A small sniff came from my nose, and my ears drooped down to my head. Dust was the first to walk up to me and nudge me.

“Awe, now, we won’t leave ya. Somebody’s just a hothead.” Zero was next to say something.

“Ah… Yeah, I can’t help that. And while I might argue a lot, I'm stubborn, and I'm not going to leave without doing something about the King first.” Zero pointed out before rubbing her hand all over my head, messing up my hair tufts. That got a laugh out of me.

“The King… yes, yes! We should put a stop to his terror, after all, we’re all people who have suffered because of him.” Dust pointed out, making Zero and me nod lightly. 

“If we could kill him, or banish him, or something- we could win the war and become heros!” Dust shouted, raising a paw into the air like a fist. I cheered, and Zero chuckled ever so slightly.

“You know, Dust, you don’t come up with bad ideas.” Zero nodded, giving the feline a smirk of approval. It made him smirk back, before I jumped up.

“We’re going to be heroes! Like the prophecy says, right? Could we be the three from the prophecy?” It was my turn to shout, which didn’t reward any cheers. In fact, Zero and Dust shared uncertain looks before shaking their heads.

“But, Kid, you don’t have magic, and we don't have green magic. Dust has wings, but he can fly with them, and you and me don’t have wings. We can’t be the three chosen to fulfill the prophecy.” Zero admits, honestly looking kinda awkward like she felt bad. She gently itched behind my ear, and turned to what was left of a cobblestone pathway. 

“If we follow this, we can find a place to rest in an old town I came across once. They have an inn, and it’s relatively cheap.” Zero pointed down the path, before stepping forward and ushering us to come with her. We followed right behind her, until she let me lead. I'm sure I don’t know where I'm going, but I do know to follow the path! Pretty sure that’s why she let me lead…