Arctic Dogs: Metamorphosis

Chapter 22 - Help is on the Way

(Author's Note: This chapter contains some graphic violence. Viewer discretion is advised.)

Friday, the First Week of December

Week 1 (Day 5) of Filming

At a small trailer in Old Beidongshan

8.15am

Swifty had a new set of film clothes on and was the exact set. He had washed the old film clothes back home and his mother helped to hang the set of clothes. For now, he was raring to head back and film a minor scene compared to the day earlier.

He found himself outside of a small trailer within old Beidongshan. When he and Jade visited the place for the first time, this trailer did not exist. Swifty wondered who had put the trailer inside. The warning signs leading to the entrance of the trailer were not welcoming, but he moved forward anyway. He had ordered a pair of otters to park the trailer at the spot, anyway.

Swifty knocked on the door. "Leopold? Bertha? It's me! I just arrived at your doorstep."

The doors opened and out came the two otters, dressed in their set of film clothes. The otters hugged Swifty. "Agent Swifty!" they were delighted to meet the arctic fox again.

"I assume you two are in character now," Swifty felt relieved he arrived before filming.

The interior of the trailer did not feel shabby as Leopold explained that he and Bertha thought of the design of the trailer carefully, making sure whatever a pair of conspiracy theorist otters needed was there. As he continued explaining, Swifty noticed that Jade was inside the trailer. She volunteered to be the cameraman for the day.

"Yoo-hoo!" Jade waved to Swifty. She was having her own breakfast at the dining table and had been wearing her film clothes, minus her pair of boots. As Leopold and Bertha set up, she was busy reading the slides for the afternoon's meeting. "I'm all set for the meeting!"

"Then we better get started on the filming," Swifty smiled to his girlfriend as she got hold of Leopold's film-grade camera. Jade helped mounted the camera on a tripod stand as Swifty discussed what was going to happen.

"You two will lock me up inside the dark room we're standing at. Leopold and Bertha will start interrogating me with this!" Swifty grabbed a puffin feather from his pocket. "To be fair, Dave was very unwilling to give me one, and when I plucked one of his feathers from him, he pecked at my arm furiously."

Swifty removed his right arm from the parka, revealing some red peck marks he suffered. "'YOU F**KING F**KFACE!!!'," Swifty imitated Dave's voice. "He never minced his words for a small puffin."

Once Swifty passed the feather to Leopold, he told everything there was one last thing. "I thought the otters needed something, so I devise a great idea to that. They needed a secret handshake!"

As Swifty sat on the chair, he made one strange request to Leopold. "Leopold, I want you to punch me in the nose," the fox smiled.

The room stayed silent for a few beats.

"Swifty, I really don't want to punch you in the nose. That's not a good secret handshake!" Leopold protested. He really did not want to punch Swifty in the nose. Swifty suddenly thought of a great idea.

"Or maybe I can go on and talk about Canadians, maybe the French, for instance."

Swifty noticed Leopold balling his fists. He pressed the issue further. "Maybe the fact that Vermont maple syrup is superior compared to Canadian maple syrup."