Smiling Critters: A Turn To The Story.

Three New Threats...

(⭐)

I had woken up a long time ago.
I was lying on the cold, hard floor, very still due to the pain that gripped my legs, remembering the whole chaos that had happened before being in that state.

Someone had ambushed us while we waited for Bubba to return.
I didn't know who hit me, because I didn't see them properly. I only remember that it was someone with a fragrant smell of cocoa. It was someone totally new...although I was not able, at that moment, to identify that new threat.

And now, I have bigger problems to worry about.

The most crucial one was CraftyCorn's whereabouts.
I didn't hear her since I woke up, she didn't answer my calls, and I assumed that she wasn't there at all.
She was probably taken somewhere different, but God, where could she be?

And then, other problems that weren't so crucial.

For example, I was blind.

I mean, not entirely blind, of course.
Everything around was slightly dark, since I could still feel the light, yet I couldn't see around myself.

A high-pitched whistle was making me deaf, since I couldn't hear a thing.
I had a burning feeling at my forehead, where some time before falling unconscious, I had been hit by something hard and blunt, possibly a pipe.
A force, possibly the same one that blinded me, was pressuring my temples.

Once my other senses adjusted, I lifted my head. I felt a bit lightheaded.
The whistling had stopped. Now I was immersed in silence, and that made me more overwhelmed.

After a while that seemed like an eternity, I heard a metal door open and close with a loud sound that shook my entire body. Footsteps approached me, and arms grabbed me by the shoulders, dragged me and sat me on a chair.
Somebody put my hands behind my back and strapped them together.
I wanted to resist, but I shouldn't, and therefore I didn't. I would pay dearly for doing that.
I was silent, with my hands at my back and shaking from the cold, the pain and the fear.
I felt someone right in front of my face.
Again, the cocoa smell. Along with the smell of cinnamon and the disgusting smell of pine tree that I ended up hating.
It couldn't be anyone else than BullyBull, the one that slashed my wing, and the one who was the one to blame of my situation, and possibly, Crafty's.
These combinations caused an aroma so musky that it was suffocating. It made me want to vomit, even if I don't retch easily.

???: ...So, do I have to stay with this one?

His voice sounded like he was the youngest of the bunch.
Another voice followed, this time a female.

???: You won't be alone with this one, DangerDeer. I wanna help you out.

DangerDeer...
...What an ugly name. Thank God I don't have to see its face, because surely it's as ugly.

DangerDeer: Eh, I dunno...don't take this the wrong way, HypnaHyena, but maybe BullyBull is more excited about it?

BullyBull: ...Well, look, I was actually thinking about leaving him to you two. I'll go with Gossy.

HypnaHyena: You sure, darlin'?

BullyBull: More than ever. Good luck, crew!

The door opened and closed again.
One of them got behind me and undid a knot that tied whatever was covering my eyes.
A white blindfold fell off my eyes and on my knees.
I looked up, and I was faced with the face of a light brown deer, a little shorter than the red hyena that went next to him. He had a pendant in the shape of a danger sign, and hers was a working clock, the clock I heard whenever I smelled cinnamon around.