Lucy could have searched the entirety of Rainbow Ranch up
and down and it wouldn’t have done anything but make her lonelier. Not a friend
in sight. Not even a piece of driftwood came from that flood. The more she traveled,
the harder she hugged herself for warmth. She became dangerously close to
creating her own flood with the tears that she held back. Her old fur parents
wouldn’t have faulted her for crying. She could have done it all she wanted
when she was abandoned on this island with many others. Razor Ripley didn’t want
“weakness” in his ranks, but Loki the Skull was even more discouraging of
vulnerability due to the insane king that haunted his soul. King Harrison
wanted Lucy the Hammer to bear a grudge against her abandoners, but all he succeeded
in doing was making her resent him instead.
The frosty wind gathering around Lucy did nothing to ease
her resentment. “That mean old jerk!” she muttered to herself through shivering
breaths. With the power station knocked out, there was nothing to guard against
the chilly weather that made Lucy shake harder than any sorrow ever could. She
had been wandering aimlessly for so long that she failed to take in her
surroundings. There was indeed harsh snow dusting the ground and making the air
nip at her fur harder than fleas. “Where am I?” she asked. “Where are my
friends? Where’s my tennis ball? I want my mommy and daddy…”
With very little meat on her bones (armor notwithstanding),
she knew she would perish in this weather and was strangely okay with it. This
was what abandonment meant to her. Rainbow Ranch was a lie. Her dumpers were
right all along. And as long as Razor Ripley was upset with her, she would
never prove them wrong. Debating wasn’t where she excelled in life despite
having a yappy bark, which she missed using in the presence of her squad mates.
And then…a warm breeze passed over her, putting a tiny smile
on her face. The more she felt this, the harder her tail wagged. Lucy yapped
and barked as she dashed toward the source of this heavenly heat. Among the
uncaring frost was a tiny grotto which radiated a warm orange glow. Hopefully,
whoever dwelled in this place was as warm as the heat radiating from within. It
would have been easier for Lucy to knock, but her happy zeal carried her past the
entranceway regardless, romping inside like a wild stampede.
The minute the heat warmed her aching bones, she breathed a
sigh of relief and plopped down on her butt. There could have been a
fire-breathing dragon in this grotto and Lucy wouldn’t have cared as long as
she could feel this heat forever. Though the breeze was no substitute for a
mother’s hug, it came pretty close. Her eyes widened at the sound of a phonograph
playing gentle guitar and violin music. As if the relaxation couldn’t be more
blissful, now she was going to be lulled to sleep by the sweet strums of guitar
strings and graceful glides of violins. Lucy yawned before placing her paws
behind her head and smiling her way into the dreamworld.
Her subconscious vacation lasted as long as one of her
kibble dinners as a pup. The record scratched and the new age lullaby was
replaced by the hisses and growls of an angry cat. Lucy gulped and slowly
opened her eyes to see an elderly anthropomorphic cat standing over her. The cat
flashed her cutting fangs, balanced a golden knife in her hands, all while
hogging the warmth for herself in her orange knitted armor with brown leather
boots.
“Are…are you Ozzie the Wise?” asked a trembling Lucy before
turning her head away in anticipation of a scratch.
“Ozzie the Wise is nothing more than a myth,” the cat
growled in a feminine voice. “I’m Callie the Wildfire and you’ve crossed into
my domain. What makes you think you’re welcome here? This is not a stray
shelter. Move along, fleabag!”
“Wait, wait, wait!” begged Lucy before nipping up. “You don’t
understand! I’m a member of the Shut Up Stupid Dogs! I’m here to help you!
There’s a wizard on the loose and…”
“And you led him here, didn’t you.” Callie’s arms were
crossed, blade still balanced in her paw.
“No, no! It’s not like that! You see, my…um…my squad mates
were all…” Lucy gulped in an attempt to come up with an answer that never came.
“Let me guess: they met a cruel and unfair end at the hands
of this wizard,” Callie said coldly.
“Um…yes…I mean…I hope not…” The tears were harder for Lucy
to fight, but fight them she did.
“This is what happens when one of your kings decides to turn
perfectly happy animals into monstrosities. This was always the plan for him.
You think you’re the only one who misses your mommy? I miss mine too! I never
had responsibilities and I don’t want them now. And yet, here you are begging
for my help when my generator is sputtering and flickering.”
“Please, Miss Callie!” Lucy got on two knees and held her
hands together like a prayer. “I can help you fix your generator if you just
let me stay a while! Besides, you’re in danger! So is Ozzie the Wise!”
Callie tucked her head and turned her back to Lucy. “Ozzie
the Wise is a danger to himself.”
“What do you mean? You know him?”
“I used to. He and I were supposed to be beddy-buddies in
our fur parents’ humble home. We did everything together. And then…you know by
now what King Harrison did. Ever since then, Ozzie became obsessed with responsibilities
that were never his. He learned how to use magic and the more he used, the more
his mind shut off. He’s not the man I loved so many years ago. I don’t even
know who he is. HE doesn’t even know who he is. If he hasn’t gone down the same
path as King Harrison with his insanity, he sure as heck is on his way there.”
Lucy stood up and hung her own head. “I’m sorry to hear
about that, Miss Callie.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me, little pup. Animals never had a
say in their own fates anyways, whether we were human-like or not. If our
destinies are going to be chosen for us, then at the very least they should be
chosen by people who undoubtedly care for us.”
“That’s…that’s so sad…”
Callie sighed and faced Lucy once more. “When you’re as old
as I am, sadness becomes part of the norm. You’re not there yet, but you’ll get
there someday. Your joints will ache. Your body will break down. Your mind will
cannibalize itself. And then…we all fall down and die.”
“Why not speed up the process?!”
Lucy and Callie gasped before turning to find those words
came from Loki the Skull, lightning swirling his hands and poison dripping from
his fangs.
“So…you DID lead him here, didn’t you! Foolish oaf!”
screamed Callie before she pulled out her knife to confront Loki.
“Callie, wait!”
It was too late; Callie already engaged her enemy with the
fastest of stabs. Her paw blurred and flashed because of this speed, which left
Lucy wide-eyed and awestruck. “Cool,” Lucy whispered to herself. Soon enough,
her stabs began chipping away a the stone walls of her own grotto. She for sure
had victory well within hand…until Loki blasted her with an energy ball and
send her crashing into her record collection.
Lucy gasped as Callie picked herself up to fight again. But
once she saw her records and phonograph destroyed, she collapsed to her knees
and trembled in sorrow. “Oh no…no…Ozzie loved this music…and it’s gone…All of
it’s gone…” She hugged her possessions and tried her damnedest not to break down
in front of her mortal enemy. The last connection she had to her past, gone. All
gone. Maybe she really should have “sped up the process”.
“YOU BIG FAT MEANIE! I’M GOING TO SMASH YOU GOOD!” An enraged
Lucy drew her war hammer and charged at Loki with all of her scrappy might.
Spittle flew from her lips like rabies and the warmth of the grotto was
replaced with hellfire rage for her sworn enemy. She swung. She smashed. She
pounded. She gave the old “one, two, buckle your shoe”…and her hammer went
flying once again, jutting into the stone wall.
Loki, who dodged every shot Lucy gave, mockingly pulled the
hammer out of the wall and dangled it in front of her. “This yours?”
“Give it back, you sick little mutt!” Every time Lucy jumped
up and reached for it, Loki held it out of her way. Bored with this dog-exclusive
game of cat and mouse, Loki zapped Lucy in the chest with a thunder bolt and
send her barreling across the grotto. She coughed and wheezed at the damage
while Loki continued to taunt her with the hammer.
“You want this back? Come get it. It’ll be waiting patiently
for you in Ozzie’s home!”
“YOU LEAVE OZZIE ALONE, YOU PIG DOG! AND GIVE ME BACK MY
HAMMER!” shrieked Lucy.
Loki ignored her command and teleported out of sight, black
dust following him out.
Defeated and humiliated, Lucy dropped to her knees once more
and pounded the dirt ground with her fists. “It’s not fair! It’s just not fair!
Why does he get to have all the magic and all I’ve got is this stupid hammer?!”
“Magic?! What’s all this about magic?!” snapped Callie as
she stood up to collect herself. “Ozzie the Wise has plenty of magic! He’s
beaten King Harrison before and he’ll beat him again! You want your hammer
back?! I want my past back! Come on, let’s got them both!”
Bewildered, Lucy asked, “So…you’re not mad at me anymore?”
Callie placed her paw on Lucy’s shoulder and stretched her
claw. “Let me put it this way: I’m madder at King Harrison than I am at you. I’ll
deal with you another time. But for now…” She held up a piece from one of her
broken records. Lucy gulped in fear, but understood the mission at hand.
