CHAPTER 6
Destiny
"A tree." Dorothy replied without even looking.
"Correct. Your turn."
"I spy something black and white."
"OOOHHH!!! Oreos?!"
"Guess again."
"Oh, oh, oh, it's, um, a chessboard! Let's play Chess! If all of my pieces get to your side of the board, then I win!"
"Very close, but it's not a chessboard."
"Okay...I'm out of suggestions."
Dorothy poked Checkers. "Think harder..."
"It's me!"
"Yes! Finally," Dorothy sighed. "Your turn."
"Okay...I spy a bird."
"You can't say what it is, how many times must I repeat myself?" Dorothy said as the bird Checkers spoke of flew away. "Oh, what's that?" She pointed to a little clearing in the forest. "I think there's a sign in the middle." There was. Dorothy came closer to read it, and the sign said:
DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT CHANCES ARE HIGH YOU'RE CURRENTLY STANDING ON A POISON IVY PATCH.
"Oh! Oh! Oh, my!" Dorothy shrieked, hopping around to get out of the poison ivy. "What a wicked trick to play on passers-by!" "Ah, you're a natural bard," Checkers said to nobody in particular. "Will you make a song about me one day?" "Yeah, sure, why not," Dorothy said carelessly. "Awesome!" Checkers cheered. "Oh, and for something that rhymes with Checkers, try 'blackberries'." Dorothy sighed. "You're in need of some help, I think." "Oh, what?" Checkers asked. "I was so concentrated on that lovely flower..." "What time is it? Never mind. I think I'll go to sleep now." Dorothy yawned, laying down on the path. Loco bounded out of the trees and whispered something to Dorothy. "What? I know that's not a poppy." She said, and shut her eyes. Checkers leaped over to Loco so he'd have somebody to talk to. "Hi there." "Oh, hello. My name is Larry. How do you do?" Loco said. Checkers looked at Loco's blue and red fur. "Pardon my saying so, but your fur looks rather odd." "I can't say any different for you," Loco said, nodding. "Say, if you had some Velcro chess pieces, I think I could use you as a chess board." "Pardon me," Checkers barked. "I don't like to be called a chess board. My name is Checkers. Therefore, I should be--oh, look, a butterfly!" Checkers stared at the butterfly until it flew out of sight, then continued. "...Ahem. Therefore, I--waitasecond, did you hear that?!" Checkers yelped as something moaned in the distance.
"YIKES! Goodbye!" Loco barked, and he ran away. The moaning started up again. "Dory! Dory!" Checkers said, running over to Dorothy and poking her with his paws. Dorothy was still completely out. Checkers looked around frantically. The moaning was still there. "Oh, alright, since you hate nicknames so much. DOROTHY!!!" Checkers screamed in Dorothy's ear, and she bolted upright. "No, Auntie Em, I don't know where the house went!" Dorothy shouted, then she looked around. "Oh, hi, Checkers. What's wrong? Is the meadow on fire?" "No, no, no! Listen," Checkers whispered, and the moaning continued. "I'm having severe deja vu," Dorothy thought, and the wind blew hard, blowing some of the tree's branches back to reveal a dog crate. Inside was a little Scottish terrier with silver fur and what appeared to be a silver hat on her head. "Get me ooouuuuuut!" The terrier moaned. "I can't! The lock's stuck shut!" Dorothy told the terrier, looking around for something to break it open. "Aha! I see something!" Checkers said, pulling an oil can out from behind a tree. "Nice try, Checkers, but this lock needs a key." "Suit yourself, but I'll be the one moaning for this," Checkers said, and he began to gnaw on the bars of the dog crate. "Oh, dear. You're not really going to eat through the cage bars, are you?!" Dorothy shouted, biting her fingernails and worrying about the health of Checkers, whom Dorothy was actually growing a bit attached to. "Yes--I--am." Checkers said between bites. "Wow--this--has--some--flavor."Soon there was a hole in the dog crate large enough for the terrier with the silver fur to crawl through. She introduced herself as Destiny, and commented on how Checkers managed to eat solid metal. "I didn't even know dogs could do that," she said. "Only when we're starving." Checkers said, looking at Dorothy as if his hunger was her fault. Then he turned back to Destiny. "How did you get yourself into that cage?" "Well, it's quite a story..." Destiny muttered, and she trailed off, finding the clouds to be suddenly fascinating. Nobody said anything until Dorothy went back to sleep, and then Destiny started telling her story to Checkers.
CHAPTER 7
Destiny's Story
"How I got into this whole mess was when I was only a little puppy. Man, I was a cute little puppy. So fuzzy and...oh, sorry. I happened to live in The Emerald City! Imagine that. Every day I'd run outdoors and all of the people would be so happy and the grass was always green...My mother, Emma, would often cook this fantastic lunch of green peppers and noodles with this odd stuff put in to turn them green. Food coloring, Mama would call it. Though I had this odd thing with my fur, see? You see, everybody in the Emerald City had fur of some green shade. But mine was silver. I kind of liked it that way--I was unique, y'know? We happily lived and then, a few weeks ago...
"What happened?" Checkers prompted, interested in Destiny's story.
"...But then the monkeys came." Destiny shivered.
"The monkeys? I'm confused."
"The monkeys came in a gigantic metal thing that made this very loud sound...They jumped out of it and came and--well, if you hate depressing stories, then I'm going to stop right now."
"Did they kidnap everybody you knew and loved?"
"It's like you're telepathic."
"What?"
"Well, yes, they did. They took them to The Land of the West, which is inhabited by cats. I was taken with them. The monkeys, however, did not secure the dog crates we were captured in, and I fell out of the metal thing and landed in the forest below. I think I was knocked out, and when I woke up, I found myself in this predicament. I could reach some of the edible greens that were near the crate, but then when I'd eaten all of those, I got very hungry. I still don't understand how you could eat solid metal, Checkers..." "Eh, we have a food shortage where I come from." "Oh really? Where do you live?" "Terrier Town."
"Oh, yeah... Mama told me about that place. Haven't we sent you any boxes with food in them? We do that often when we have too much food." Checkers blinked. "Oh, sugar snaps, that's what those were..." "WHAT?!" Destiny shouted, almost waking up Dorothy, who muttered something about a bucket of water. "Sorry, sorry." Destiny brought her voice down to a whisper. "Don't tell me you ate the boxes." "Well, they didn't have anything in them!" Checkers whispered harshly. "Wait. You're saying they were empty?" Destiny looked shocked. "Yeah, they were. Do you think the food inside was stolen?" Before Destiny could answer, Dorothy was stretching her arms and saying, "so, intrepid explorers, shall we get out of this forest?" Destiny nodded ferociously and dashed ahead of Checkers and Dorothy. "What's her hurry?" Dorothy wondered out loud. Checkers shrugged as much as a Scottish terrier can and replied, "I think she wants to be free from this place. Also, oh, my, your feet." Dorothy looked down. The poison ivy had given her a rash. "Oh, great..." She muttered, and then she started walking ahead. Checkers waited for a minute, and then he followed her.
