The chronicles of Dusty and Dakota.

°•Chapter Seven: Pixie Dust•°

"Dakota!" Dusty wailed, hauling himself over the dapple grey bundle of spite and contempt that was struggling to stand. He could have sworn that the whinny that Dakota released right then was a laugh. "You're alive!"

"Alright, Dustin." Dakota gently nuzzled him, much to Dusty's complete and utter elation."Take it easy on my wounds, they are not fully recovered."

"But how?" Dusty muttered, letting go of his friend. "How are you...?"

"Well, the fairies decided I would not be much good to them dead - not just yet. They figured I would spoil away while they feasted on you two." He recounted. "So they rubbed some of that peculiar dust on me, and my wounds have been getting better ever since."

"I told you." Scarlett whispered into Dusty's ear. "Pixie dust plenty good qualities."

Dusty was a bumbling mess, overflowing with joyed laughter and relieved tears. "And how did you end up all the way over here?"

"Well I escaped, of course." Dakota harrumphed. "Thought I could be held captive by by a bunch of glorified mosquitoes, did you my boy?

"They tried to keep me in an ill-constructed cage and I broke out, only to return to the main village to find it in absolute ruins. And then I came out here, well..." Dusty bashfully paused. "To look for you two..."

"Ha!" Dusty couldn't contain himself. "I knew you loved me! You act as if I'm some dreadful minger, but you know as well as I do that we're best friends!"

"Contain yourself, Dustin." Dakota scoffed. "I merely wanted to make sure my supply of Jelly beans was still assured. Nothing more."

Dusty laughed.

"With these wounds, my search become strenuous and I needed to rest my limbs before I could continue." Dakota continued. "I was just about to continue looking before you used me as a stepping stone."

"Oh, right." Dusty sheepishly smiled. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's good to see you again, Dakota." Scarlett earnestly said, stepping forward to rub her hand on Dakota's muzzle.

Bizarrely enough, Dakota didn't immediately try to bite Scarlett's hand off the rest of her arm, but instead nudged his nuzzle against it for a second.

"As it is you, miss Scarlett." Dakota replied. Dusty squinted his eyes - why didn't he warrant such a level of respect? He highly doubted Dakota would ever call him mister Dustin. "We need to go home. The longer we linger within these woods; the likelier we will be to run into something far worse than those fairies."

Neither Scarlett or Dusty disagreed with him on that. Soon enough, they were all in stride of one another as they hurried back in the direction of their home. To their disappointment, however, their journey out of the woods proved to be as lengthy as their journey into them, and because Dakota was largely wounded and had to rest, they had to spend another night camping in the middle of the creepy woodlands.

The night was still as dreadfully cold, Dusty found. Until he had to sleep, he had forgotten completely that he had sacrificed and lost his only blanket. Though he needed not to worry for long; Scarlett and Dusty huddled right next to him for warmth.

Even despite his warmer sleeping condition, Dusty never wanted to fall asleep. He was no fool. No dead-looking trees were going to snatch him in his sleep and take him to a murderous strand of spaghetti again.

No sir! He scoffed, trying his hardest to keep his eyes as widely opened as he could. If that anaconda wants to try making me into her breakfast again, then I've got a very big surprise for her! He thought. I'm not letting my guard down to begin with. I'll not be falling asleep tonight.

Sleep? He scoffed. I don't know her.
If that shoelace-looking anaconda tried anything, he would coil her up like a roundrope and-

•°•°•

"Dusty." Scarlett shook him awake. "Dusty, wake up!"

Noises of disgruntlement left Dusty's mouth as he slowly came into consciousness. "W-what?" He croaked, looking around him in horror. He'd let his guard down and slept.

"Wakey wakey, sleepy head." Scarlett chimed, placing a bundle of cakes on his lap as she helped him sit higher. "Eat up so we can continue our journey back home."

Across from them, Dakota lay on the ground, lazily picking off the remaining fruits from the bundle that Dusty had gathered for him back at the house. "Good morning, Dustin." He nodded at Dusty. "I trust you slept well?"

"Good morning my wig and whiskers! I can't believe I fell asleep in the first place." Dusty scowled, deeply disappointed in himself.

"Why not?" Scarlett asked.

"Because the last time I fell asleep, I was almost snake food, so I said never to make the same mistake again." Dusty said. "Also, where did all of these cakes come from?"

"The pixie dust wasn't the only souvenir I got from the fairy village." Scarlett winked. Dusty balked and immediately lost his appetite, but nibbled on a cake for the sake of it.

After having breakfast, Scarlett rubbed more pixie dust on Dakota's wounds and patched them up anew. Not long after that, they all set off on their way home once more.

Finally, after spending countless amounts of hours walking, they surpassed the last row of trees and crossed over into their backyard - where they found police cruisers with yelping sirens waiting for them.

"Goodness. Did mom call the entire sheriff's department?"

"Uh oh" Scarlett said. She dropped the burlap sacks she'd been carrying into a bush nearby, resolving to go back for them once all of the buzz had died down. On the porch steps, held by a neighbor, their mother wailed dramatically. It was blatantly obvious from whom Dusty had learnt to play damsel in distress.

"Well then...I suppose this is my que to go." Dakota said, before trotting towards the stables.

"Hey!" A voice called out in the distance. "It's the children! It's them!"

Rows of heads turned to look at the two siblings and the horse, before descending upon them in a flurry of relieved sentiments and outraged questions.

"Where on earth have you two been?" Cried their mother as she reached them, taking them both into her arms as she sobbed. "Oh, my babies."

"I uh...I got lost in the forest." Scarlett attempted an explanation. "I took the horse for a walk, but I went too far in."

"And when the horse came back alone, I went into the woods to go and look for her." Dusty finished off. "It took a while for me to find her, deep in the woods as she was, but I did, and so we're back."

"Never again! Do you hear me?" Mrs. Montgomery wailed. "Never do that to me again."

The squadrons of police vehicles were beginning to dissipate - seeing as the two children were back, and with no obvious harm.

Dusty, remembering that he had a promise of Jelly beans to make good on, scoured the grounds for his dapple-grey companion, but it looked as though Dakota had managed to sneak into the stables.

Dusty decided that he would hand the packet of sweets to Dakota once the commotion officially died down, and give him a good dosage of nuisance to wash the Jelly beans down with; for old times sake.

The End.

•°•°•