Underhowl- Rise of the Pures

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

    He entered the sleeping quarters alone. He supposed that Buster was angry with Jeda for ditching him back at the Announcement Arena, but Jeda was pretty upset too. He had watched a dog die. And he didn’t help it.

    He stayed alone with his thoughts for a while, just relaxing his sore muscles in his bed, when the rustling of the fabric alerted him of Busters approach.

    “Have you seen Sunny?” he asked.

    Jeda narrowed his eyes for a moment, first of all surprised that Buster hadn't said anything about what had happened, and secondly curious as to where Sunny had gone. He shook his head, offered to help him look for her, which Buster said yes.

    They asked friends from their class, including Danny and Lila, but they all said no. After asking a few of Sunny’s friends from her class, and recieving no's from them, they decided to ask the adults.

    Partridge, who was in charge of the food in Fierce Coven, Aidenne, the nurse, and Lawliet, the museum keeper, all said no. They even worked up the courage to ask Ms Axie-Taylor, but she said no as well (before telling them that if they bothered her again they’d get extra homework for the rest of the year).

    “If I find her again, I’ll kill her. I have never gone as far as asking Ms Axie-Taylor where she is, and frankly, I never want to go that far again.” said Buster.

    “You mean you’ve lost her before?” Jeda asked.

    “Yeah sure, she’s a wanderer. But she’s never far away. Heaps of people disappear, but not like this. She could be up at the surface for all we know.”

    Jeda was thinking of all the other dogs that could have gone walk about. But the only dog that he hadn’t seen for a while was…

    “Nedan.” He finished aloud.

    “What about him?”

    “I haven’t seen him for a while.”

    “Neither have I.” Buster said, seeming unperturbed.

    “But what if they’re linked? I always see Nedan walking around somewhere, but I haven’t seen him at all today.”

    “I haven’t seen Sunny at all, either.”

    “Not even when she came in to bed?”

    “I was dead when I came to bed last night. I slept like a stone…”

    “So did I. Does that mean that she could never have come to bed, and we wouldn’t have known until morning?”

    “I suppose…. How about we go check? She always sleeps with a toy in the night. If the toy in her bed was the same as the night before last night, that means she hasn’t come to bed last night. She always changes toys every night.”

    “But do you remember what toy she had before last night?”

    “Yeah… I’m pretty sure.”

    “Then let’s go!”

    The sprinted from the Art Class room and all the way back to the sleeping quarters. They tore through the fabric, and entered their room.

    “She had that toy the night before.” Buster said, pointing to a bright red Kong. “That means she must have slept with…”

    There was a toy in her bed, a rope tied in a knot at both ends. Jeda sighed with relief. “Well, at least she can’t be far, now.” He laughed.

    Buster narrowed his eyes at the toy. “But she had that toy three nights ago. I remember her sleeping with it.”

    He walked closer to the toy, and sniffed. He sneezed.

    “Ah! There’s dust in her bed!” He coughed, eyes streaming. “She’s the one that tells me to keep the dust out of my bed! She’s usually so clean!” He sneezed again and rubbed his nose with his paw. His eyes turned serious.

    “Hang on…” He walked to the toy again, looking closely beside it. “Come and look at this.”

    Jeda bent over and looked next to the toy. A whole heap of dust was in the bed, and it was smeared across the ground, a huge streak dragging through the dust and out the door.

     “It looks like… something’s been dragged across the ground here.” Jeda said slowly.

    “But it ends here because we messed it up!” Buster said from outside the room. He was right; Buster and Jeda’s paw prints in the dust caused the long streak line to disappear.

    “We have to assume that something bad has happened. I think we should tell Corrine and Fabio that Sunny is gone and Nedan is too.”

    Buster looked scared.

    “We have to run; we can’t waste any more time.”

    Jeda leapt down the stairs and ran around the corner, and stopped suddenly. A shadow was approaching.

    “Get back!” Jeda hissed, pushing Buster behind the corner.

    The dog walking up the corridor was Nedan, pulling a wriggling sack with his mouth. He passed them, his eyes wide with fear.

    “Let’s follow him.” Jeda whispered.

    They tiptoed down the corridor and followed him, careful to let him finish the corridor he was at before entering the same one. He past the Dining Area, under the platform raised on towers, and around the side of the Announcement Arena. Strangely, nobody was in sight. Probably all at breakfast, Jeda thought.

    Nedan was beginning to struggle with the sack when he past the rickety towers at the bottom of arena. He was just about to turn into the doorway leading to the other Coven’s, when the sack gave one almighty tug and fell out of Nedan’s jaws. Something fell out of the sack before he clamped it back in his mouth again, and then disappeared into the hole.

    Jeda and Buster leapt out of their hiding place and galloped to the item that had fallen out of the sack. It was a toy squeaky bone.

    Jeda and Buster both stared at the bone for a long time. Then Buster spoke.

    “We have to save her before it’s too late!”