A Thief's Tale-KSS-Part 4

After hours of trekking through the caverns, with we fell.

Well, some of us did at first. You see, after hours of following the chasm’s winding trail (and a bunch of little squeakers asking ‘Are we there yet?’ every ten seconds) I was beginning to grow weary, and gave up on watching where I was going.

When I heard a startled scream behind-and-below me, I immediately snapped into ‘alert leader mode’ and whipped around. I guess that I hadn’t noticed that the chasm ended and opened out into open space; while I had hovered out into thin air, Spinni and a few other squeakers (who were dumb enough not to notice the free fall) unexpectedly plunged over the edge. I immediately retreated, which the team interpreted as ‘stop’.

“Oof… what the…? Hey guys!” Spinni’s voice called (after he had hit the bottom), “There’s grass down here!”

Of course, curiosity got the better of me, and I leaned over and glanced down the cliff side. There was Spinni, a good thirty-or-so feet below, looking up at me with a huge grin… standing on a lush green background.

“See, Daroach?” he called back up, running a paw over the ground. He then turned around and gasped. “Oh, man, you guys have got to get down here…”

“Well, you heard the guy,” I said as I looked back up at the team, giving them a satisfied smile, “get down there!”

“But—” Doc started.

“Doc, look: if we could survive that last fall, we sure as hell can survive this one; it’s not as high…”

“You’re out of your mind!”

“I know what I’m doing!” I snapped. “I haven’t willingly tried to kill you guys, have I? Just trust me on this…”

As if I had actually inspired the guy to do it, Storo immediately seized Doc’s squeaker-like body, then jumped over the edge, a-la ‘cannonball’ style. A few moments later, a loud thud’ was heard, followed by someone screeching ‘you idiot!’ I blinked, then looked back at the remaining squeakers.

“Any questions…?” I asked (for lack of something better to say). Without hesitation, squeakers and treasure chests began to spill over the cavern edge, looking for all the world like spilt beads rolling off the edge of a table. “You guys go ahead and go over the edge…” I grunted as I helped Sunny and a few of her friends shove one of the larger chests off the edge, “You’ll bounce…”

“But what about you?” Bobby (the blue squeaker from before; who also happens to be Sunny’s brother) asked. “How’re you gonna get down?”

“Daroach…? Mister Daroach…?”

I glanced over my shoulder to find Minty, a little green squeaker with paler fur than her peers, hopping over towards me. Resting right between her ears was the three-star cane. I blinked, and a paw immediately flew under my cape and to my side. Nope, no cane there…

“Y-y-you dropped this…” Minty stammered. She stiffened as I reached for it, as if she was afraid that I was going to hit her with it or something. “I-I-I promise I didn’t steal it from you… I…”

“Even if you had, I wouldn’t bee too angry with you,” I assured her. In spite of myself, I chuckled, “We’re thieves, remember?” I gently lifted it from her head, enjoying the feeling of smooth metal in my palm. “Thank you for getting it back. As for your question, Bobby…” I waved the cane, and called out, “I’ll meet you at the bottom,” before I disappeared.

~*~

As to why I hadn’t thought of teleporting myself to the bottom the first time, I have no idea, but I figured that doing so right then would be a lot wiser than plunging over a cliff with a bunch of squeakers.

Upon reaching the bottom, the fist thing I couldn’t help but notice was the fairly decent Storo-sized dent in the ground. Storo himself was catching chests as they plunged over the side, oblivious to the dozens of squeakers raining down on his head (trust me, it looked a hell of a lot funnier than you think). Doc was scolding Spinni for already sticking his nose into one of them; the glint of golden coins sparkling off the lenses of his glasses was enough to distract him from the older squeak’s rant.

I suddenly recalled Spinni’s excited outburst from before, and turned around… then nearly had a heart-attack. Apparently, at the base of the cliff, the little kingdom of Nature Notch lay nestled. And we, a bunch of thieves, were right outside a castle’s gates. While not as big as Sir Penguin-With-Anger-Issues’ place, it was still pretty impressive. Then again, when you’ve been a thief as long as I have, castles always mean one thing: treasure.

When I turned around, I found that the waterfall had been reduced to a drip. As the last little group of squeakers bounced over, a little red chest in tow, I heard myself muttering, ‘thirteen, fourteen… fifteen…’, taking note of a claw slightly pointing as I counted.

“We have all the chests, Daroach,” Doc’s voice scoffed by the time I reached ‘thirty-two’ or so. “I counted. All sixty of ‘em.”

Doc could count all the chests he wanted; I was counting ears. I didn’t pause until I had personally counted every last one. (Just a note: I never count myself when I do this; I would know if I’m missing, no? I do that at the end), not once having to start over. Satisfied, I sat myself down on the soft, green grass below; sighing in contentment. Three hundred and four (plus two) mousy ears. One hundred and fifty-seven (plus one) mousy thieves. One, big mousy family—all present and accounted for.

“Boss man tired?” Storo’s bass voice questioned.

In all honesty, I wasn’t (heck, floating doesn’t wear a guy out), but the rest of them sure looked like it. A lot of the squeakers were bruised (both from the first and second fall); the frames to Doc’s glasses were slightly bent; everyone looked exhausted.

“Boss man tired.” I pulled myself to my feet. “It’s getting late,” I said, nodding to the pink sky of sunset. “Go ahead and set up camp as best as you can. We can explore Nature Notch tomorrow.”

~*~

In case you’re wondering, ‘camp’ was nothing more than groups of squeaks nestled around chests, guarding them in their sleep. Sunny, Minty, and Bobby were nestled around Storo, (who lay flat on his back, an arm tucked around a larger chest, snoring loud enough to ensure us all getting arrested); Spinni had his cape tucked around one of the younger squeakers, who in turn was snuggled up against him. Doc slept on top of one of the smaller ones, looking very much in danger of falling off of it in his sleep.

I kept watch as the rest of the team slept; I just wasn’t tired. I spent the night sitting on a larger chest; the very one that got us into this mess; staring up at the stars. Something in me wanted to open it, but I was too excited about tomorrow. If Kirby was following us, I wished him luck; I heard that the king of Nature Notch has a temper…