This post is a sort of follow-up to last week’s announcement about Curious Critters’ Coadventure. This is an example story I wrote to illustrate what one of our stories might look like. Enjoy.
“Where are we off to now, Faith?” Luis asked, his big blue eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Well, I’d like to go to Southern Egypt, if you don’t mind,” she replied. “My friend Joel – he’s a gopher – is working on an archeology dig there, and I can only imagine what incredible discoveries could be under the sand!”
“It sounds wonderful!” he agreed amiably. “But… will Egypt be too dry for you? You are a sea lion, after all.”
“Oh, yes, that might be a bit of a problem, you’re quite right, but think of the adventure! The amazing things we might learn!”
“If you’re alright with it, I am. I’ll go get our stuff!” He hurried off on his short hedgehog legs, full of enthusiasm.
They arrived in Luxor, Egypt, a day later, and Luis cheerfully bounced through Immigration and Customs, dragging along a bored Faith on a scooter board. “Come on, Faith, you love to travel!”
“Yes, of course I do, there’s so much to learn in new places,” she sighed impatiently, “But I don’t like the travel itself! Long lines and cramped flights… and heaven knows those airplane seats aren’t designed for anyone who isn’t bipedal, or at best quadrupedal.”
“Well, I don’t suppose many of their passengers are aquatic, seeing as there’s a shortage of water on the planes.” He paused to thank the security agent before continuing. “They do have boats that tend to suit better. Oh, wouldn’t that have been lovely? A cruise across the Atlantic!”
“Yes, yes, I know that they have boats, but those take so much more time! Why would I take eight or nine days to get somewhere exciting when I could only take one?”
“Well, I suppose that depends on whether you care about how you get somewhere as much as being there. It’s a philosophical difference, really. See, I find the journey to be fun and interesting, so I don’t mind if it takes so long.”
“You find everything fun and interesting,” she pointed out. She gestured exasperatedly at their surroundings. “You’re probably finding this fun, too!”
He looked taken aback, nearly indignant – nearly – as he replied. “Of course I am! What’s not to like? There are so many interesting people! Did you look at that security agent, Faith? He was blue! Can you honestly tell me you’ve ever seen a blue cat before?”
“No, but that’s not the point! This is airport security, Luis! It’s not supposed to be fun!” She had been about to carry on with a number of things that were fun, like archeology digs, biology hikes, museums and the like, but she was cut off by a snort from behind her.
The snort had come from a white rabbit, about Luis’s height, hauling a black suitcase. She was shaking her head at either the absurdity or the obviousness of the statement, or perhaps a combination of the two. When she realized that the others were watching her, she smiled wryly. “‘M sorry, I just didn’t think that was something that needed to be said.”
There was a bit of a challenge in the statement, and undertone of ‘I dare you to disagree with me,’ but if Luis noticed, he ignored it altogether. “It’s a point of contention with us. Well, not this specifically, usually, but the general idea of- I’m rambling, aren’t I?” She watched in amusement as his smile turned sheepish. “Sorry about that. I’m aware I have the unpopular opinion on the matter, but I hold to it.”
“He can’t help it,” Faith commented, “He finds the best in everything.”
“I’m getting that impression.”
“Speaking of wonderful things, your accent is lovely. May I ask where you’re from?” Luis asked earnestly.
“Edinburgh, Scotland.”
“Ooh,” he hummed appreciatively, “I haven’t been to Scotland in ages. Have you been, Faith?”
“No, not yet. It’s on my list, though. Plenty of things about Celtic culture to learn.” She paused, then barked once in laughter. “Which is an excellent example of more entertaining things to do than going through Immigration and Customs.”
“Yes, it probably is, but just because that’s more interesting doesn’t mean that this can’t be!” He turned to the rabbit. “I’m sorry, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Luis, and this is Faith.”
He stuck out a mittened paw to shake, and she took it. “Mame. You’ve come from somewhere cold, I take it?” He wasn’t just wearing mittens, but also boots, a scarf, and earmuffs. He looked like he might be on a trip to Greenland instead of Egypt.
“Er, yes, we just flew in from Wisconsin. But the clothes aren’t really for location. I’m just always cold. I’d probably be hibernating if we had stayed back home — it’s rather cold this week — but Faith asked if we could go to Egypt, and it’s not quite so bad here.”
“Tourists?”
“Yep!” Luis said, and Faith was quick to clarify.
“My friend is running an archeology dig, and he thought we might like to have a look.” Mame looked at her for a moment, then laughed. “What is it?”
“‘An archeology dig.’ Small world, in’it?” the Scot mused, steering them towards the exit. “We’re here for the same dig. I suppose I should have realized you were the gopher’s sea lion when I saw you, seeing as not many pinnipeds would be flying, and to Egypt of all dry places to go. You must be as curious as he–”–she jerked her head at Luis–“is cheerful, to be here.”
“That sounds about right,” the hedgehog in question replied with a smile. “She’s a real explorer, Faith.”
“You two got a ride?” Mame asked as they stepped outside.
“We were just going to hail a cab.”
“Ah, no, that won’t do. It’s nearly a two hour drive and the dig’s in the middle of nowhere. Best you ride with me, then. I rented a car. C’mon.”
Faith certainly learned something on that trip– never let the rabbit drive.
Cars and seat belts are a few more things that were never properly adapted for species without legs, and that was a more significant oversight than something like airplanes, which most self-respecting marine creatures avoided anyhow. Normally, the challenge of buckling into a car seat was manageable for Faith; she just buckled in sideways. Normally, the car was not going at Autobahn speeds with a driver too short to see over the steering wheel, and Faith found herself glad that Mame was ignoring the standardly sensible phones-while-driving bans as well as the speed limit. And for the fact that there were no other cars on the road. Had there been either other tourists or no cell connection for the digital mapping system, they probably would have crashed.
Faith was relieved –and more than a bit surprised– to find them all in one piece on arrival. It hadn’t been a silent trip, but seeing as Mame was mostly laughing excitedly and barely making turns, she wasn’t really available for conversation. Luis had been pointing out nice things about where they were, mostly different observations about the sand, but Faith had been too busy muttering prayers in both English and Spanish to respond.
Apparently, “two hour drive” was only for sensible drivers, because they got there in less than half of one. Faith was pretty sure that she’d have preferred the long trip, though she chose not to vocalize the thought. Luis undid his own seat belt in the front passenger seat, thanked Mame for the ride in his annoyingly cheerful demeanor, and then moved to the back to help Faith unlatch hers.
“Well, we made good time. Are you excited to see the dig?”
“Are you crazy?” she asked, slapping her tail on the seat in distress. “I like the speed of airplanes. I also like not feeling the speed of the airplane! How can you be so calm about this?”
He shrugged. “The breeze was nice.” Oh, yes, that was another terrifying feature of their ride: the windows were fully open the whole time. All of them. Faith thanked God there wasn’t a sunroof, or that probably would have been open too.
Still, she was excited to be at the dig site, and she slid out of the car onto her scooter board without further complaint. “Dig’s right over there,” Mame said, pointing towards a taped off area, much of it lower than the surrounding ground. There was some inactive construction equipment, but there was something missing…
“Where is everyone?” Faith asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re under.”
“That’d be good, wouldn’t it? That means they found something, right? You won’t have to wait while they dig, Faith!”
They moved around to the other side, just outside the taped square. Sure enough, there were stairs in a stone tunnel, like a rocky mouth to swallow any who stepped on it. “That’s not good,” Mame muttered.
“Why not?” Luis asked curiously. “They found something.”
“Yes, but why is there nobody up here? They wouldn’t all go into the crypt, would they?”
The others paused. That was a good point, and an unease settled about them. “Will we?” Faith asked quietly.
“I’ll go,” Luis piped up confidently. “I’m sure they’ve just found something dreadfully exciting, and they wanted to show the others.”
Faith sighed. Bless his heart, curse his head. “I’ll go too. I wanted to see an archeology dig, and I’ll be seeing archeology.”
“Well, there’s no way I’m letting the two of you down there alone. Impatient Curiosity and Stubborn Positivity? Recipe for disaster. Follow me, and don’t wander off, yeah?”
They each nodded and started down the stairs after her. If you’ve ever seen a scooter board (or other wheeled equivalent) going down stairs, you can imagine the difficulty of safely delivering Faith to the bottom of the steps, but they managed. It was loud enough that Luis was sure someone from the expedition would have heard and come to greet them, but there was no one waiting when the finished their descent.
The lighting in the crypt was ominously lacking, with the only light coming in from the entrance. The air smelled faintly of asphalt, but it was hard to tell. Save for the slight draft from where they’d come in, the air was stale.
They followed the narrow corridor until they came to an intersection. It was four ways, counting retreat. Their path continued into the darkness. There was a branch running further right than they could see as it dimmed with distance, and a left that sharply turned right only a couple feet in. A quiet, rhythmic scratching noise echoed through the halls, but it was impossible to tell where from.
“Which way should we go?” Luis asked, and even he was starting to sound a bit nervous.
Mame indicated the path they were on with her head. “The way we can see, probably. Left’s right out, there’ll be no light there, so it’s either right or forwards. I vote forwards.”
Luis nodded and followed her as she started moving in that direction, but Faith glanced towards the left curiously. “Why would they put in such a sharp turn?” she wondered aloud, “Do these paths run parallel?”
Being both behind by the nature of her transportation, and the only one facing that corridor, she was the first to see it as it rounded the corner. A snarling muzzle coming into view at incredible speeds, followed by the rest of the hyena. Or, at least, what looked like it may have at one point been a hyena. She barked in alarm as it slammed into the wall, using that as momentum to turn towards her. She took in its appearance in the flash instant. Was it a hyena?
It was probably either that or canine, at the very least, but it was hard to tell. The skeletal creature had sticky, matted fur where Faith could see it. The smell of asphalt — bitumen, Faith realized, what the Ancient Egyptians used to embalm mummies — grew sharper, coming from the creature. It had wraps, too, but not well done, more like it had gotten itself tangled in them.
As it leapt towards her, the others turned to see it. “Faith!” Luis cried out, yanking the scooter board towards and past him, and his friend along with it.
She just barely cleared the ferocious pounce, the thing sailing past its mark and hitting the floor with a thud. “We can’t outrun it,” they heard Mame assess, but they weren’t paying so much attention to her words as they were to the horrible, scratching scramble of claws on stone as it returned to its feet and the feral noise that none of them could even begin to characterize.
Back on the hunt, it pounced again, the only warning of its chosen target the trajectory of its jump. Luis, either in a stroke of genius or an act of terror, tore the earmuffs from his head and held them out in front of him, ducking at the same time. The dog’s mouth went just over his head, its mouth catching on the band of the earmuffs and preventing it from immediately dipping its head and biting him.
Mame, who was now standing right next to it, stepped forward and slapped it with her long ears, the sound of contact loud and clear as it echoed through the chambers. With a growl, the animal turned to face her, but it couldn’t attack, still held in place by the makeshift bridle, its reins in the charge of the frightened hedgehog beneath it, holding on like his life depended on it. Which, in all fairness, it may have.
Determining that it couldn’t easily get to the rabbit, it turned to the seemingly defenseless sea lion, but that proved to be an even worse idea. In his haste to protect himself, Luis had dropped the rope for the scooter board, and Faith was left facing mostly away from the fight. Between the thing’s newfound inability to bite and its lack of time to raise a clawed paw, it failed to protect itself from the tail slap to the face, or the ear thwap to its back.
When the thwaps proved unrelenting, and the creature was only getting itself more tangled trying to spin around to face both adversaries, it howled and bolted back the way it came from, moving fast enough to rip the earmuffs out of Luis’ paws.
They all stood in silence for a moment, staring after it, before Mame shook her head. “‘Found something dreadfully exciting,’ indeed.” She sighed. “Come on, let’s get out of here and call the police.”
“You’ll stay in touch?” Luis asked hopefully as he hugged Mame goodbye. They were back at the airport, preparing for their separate departures. They all seemed to have silently agreed to effectively pretend that the dig site had never happened, but he hoped that they’d still be friends.
“Of course,” she replied with a chuckle, “Someone’s got to keep an eye on you. Impatient Curiosity and Stubborn Positivity? Recipe for disaster.”
Luis grinned in response, but it faltered after a moment. “That was…” he remembered when she had last said that.
“As far as I’m concerned, we discussed going into the crypt and then had the fair sense not to. I retain full rights to use that quote.”
“Yeah, that’s fair. Good idea.”
Faith nodded in agreement. “And we’ll try to visit sometime soon. Scotland…” she smiled dreamily, thinking of all the wonderful things she’d get to learn.
“Right, right, daydream of adventures after you’ve got everything checked in and through security and all that,” Mame said gruffly, pushing them towards their airline’s counter so they could check in. But, for what it was worth, she was going to miss them, and she couldn’t wait for them to come visit.
