The Introduction of the Cy-Rangers

How Not To Harvest Nuts

Sunshine rays coming through the window, birds tweeting and his growling tummy woke Chip up. He yawned as he stretched his arms and got out of his wooden bed. As he headed to the bathroom, he noticed that Dale was still snoring in his bed and he didn't have a growling tummy like he did. Chip thought that he was probably hungry during the middle of the night and ate some of the acorns that they had begun to harvest for winter to help him sleep, even though it was still early in the summer. Chip pulled down a lever next to him and then he went into the bathroom.

The thing that Chip pulled was a device to help Dale wake up. It was a thing that was made up from a dozen mechanical arms popping through the oak floor around Dale's bed and each hand at the end of the arm held a feather. Guess what Chip built this invention for? That's right – it was built for tickle Dale to wake him up and get out of his bed.

"Help! Help! I'm falling from the sky!" Dale cried, as he laughed while the feathers tickled him. "Get away from me, you tickling monster!"

When he fell out of his bed, that was when he woke up to find out that he wasn't falling from the sky and he wasn't getting attacked by a tickling monster, but on the oak floor in his oak tree home.

When he saw Chip come back from the bathroom, Dale gave him an angry look. "What did you do that for?" he demanded.

"Because we have an early start with the harvesting today."

"We always have an early start every day, Chip," Dale muttered as he got up and headed to the bathroom. Then his tummy growled. "And always before breakfast."

"I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, Dale. Our fellow chipmunks out there aren't going to leave any nuts for us. We must grab what we can before they beat us to it."

"Even if it's Clarice?"

That was the first time that Dale got Chip. He had forgotten about their friend Clarice Chipmunk.

"If it's Clarice out there, we will leave some for her. But for others - and don't say our old friends Monterey, Gadget and Zipper because they don't eat nuts and we haven't seen them since Rescue Rangers ended - we must be firm. Now, come on. Get washed and no snacks."

Dale groaned with his rumbling tummy as he headed to the bathroom to get washed.

Fifteen minutes later, Chip and Dale were out of their oak tree home and in the park it lived in. It was a very beautiful day with clear blue skies and not even a cloud in the sky. There were already some fallen nuts on the shiny green grass ready for the chipmucks to put into their sack bags. As usual, Chip did one section and Dale did another. They were never too far away and Chip could spot when Dale tried to sneakily eat a nut and yell at him not to.

"But I'm getting very hungry, Chip," Dale said after multiple times Chip caught him.

"The sooner you fill up your bag, Dale," Chip called, "the sooner we can have breakfast. We can have nutty pancakes."

"Nutty pancakes? Oh, boy!" That motivated Dale to speed up filling his bag. After he finished, he gave it to Chip to inspect, who was impressed.

"Well done, Dale. Now, let's get some breakfast."

"About time, too." Dale's tummy agreed with him.

The chipmucks started to head back up to their hole in the oak tree.

"Hi, boys."

They turned to face their beautiful friend Clarice Chipmuck. She had a full sack of nuts herself.

"Hi, Clarice," Chip and Dale said together.

"Working hard, I see."

"Yep, we certainly are," the boys said together again.

"That's what I like to see," Clarice said. "Better than leaving too late, isn't it?"

"It sure is," they said together yet again.

"Could one of you guys give me a hand with this heavy sack? If you do, I'll reward you by giving you one of my own chestnut pizzas."

"CHESTNUT PIZZA?" Chip and Dale cried excitedly. "I'M COMING!"

But it was Chip who gave Dale his sack and ran to help Clarice. After watching Chip help Clarice with her sack to her tree home and ask her how it was going at the Acorn Club which she worked at, poor Dale decided to just continue to head back to his tree home.

It was heavy enough with one sack of nuts, but with two sacks... Dale hoped that he would get those nutty pancakes with syrup and butter. He had nearly reached the door on the oak tree he and Chip lived in when he heard a roar. He looked up and couldn't find anything in the blue sky at all except the sun. He thought the heat coming from the warm sun and his empty stomach must have been affecting his thinking, so he decided that he would feel better if he continued to drag the bags of nuts to his home and get a drink of water and a few nuts for his breakfast. Then he heard another roar. When he looked up again, this time he could see a flying creature in the sky. He couldn't work out what kind of flying creature it was, but it looked very scary and he decided to just continue to drag the sacks to his home and get to safety. But when he and the sacks were covered in a shadow, he looked up and saw that the shadow was coming from the flying creature. It was diving down very quickly and as it was aiming directly for him. Deciding that he couldn't even get to the door in time, he felt that he just had to hide behind the sacks for cover and close his eyes. Then he felt that the sacks were snatched from him. He opened his eyes and saw that they were gone. He looked around and looked up in the sky and couldn't find either the bags or that flying creature.

Then Dale got thinking. Who or what was that creature? And if it was the one who took the sacks, what did it want with the nuts? Or if it was aiming for him and why did it want him?

"Dale, where are the bags?"

He turned to see Chip next to him and smile. "Oh, Chip, am I glad to see you! Tell me you saw it."

"Saw what?"

"The flying monster that took out our sacks."

Chip looked in the sky and around the park. He couldn't see any flying monsters or sacks of nuts anywhere. Then he angrily turned to Dale "Don't make up stories, Dale. Now, tell me what happened." Then he got swooped up in the air.

"Now, do you believe me, Chip?" Dale asked before he himself got swooped up.