//------------------------------// // Chapter Forty-Eight: Unintentional Chaos // Story: The Lion and the Lamb // by CrazyChickenLady //------------------------------// Chapter Forty-Eight: Unintentional Chaos “… And he also cooks really, really well,” Fluttershy finished, coming off of gushing over Smokey. “And Chenoa! Oh, I haven’t even begun on her. She’s such a sweet baby, and so adorable. She’s Mommy’s little angel -- oh. I mean, not Angel bunny, but, Chenoa is so well-behaved and so pleasantly mannered! She’s such a good girl!” *** The aforementioned griffon chick was happily wandering around the tunnel system, exploring to her heart’s content while unintentionally slipping underneath the detection of any diamond dogs she passed. While her scent had been detected by a select few, it had been carelessly written off as a mere gopher’s. Turning around a bend and heading deeper, she passed another small group of the canines transporting mine carts. The tiny creature’s attention was soon stolen by a bright light originating from a headlamp that had been discarded on the dirt carpeted floor. She was drawn to it like a moth, eyes wide with wonder… and her body casting a large and abstract shadow upon the wall where the beam of light was shining. Taking notice of the shadow, the dogs abandoned their work as they were overcome with shock and terror, thinking that some beast had found them. Running around, shouting in several keys, one of them eventually crashed into one of the mine carts… and sent it rolling down a steep slope. *** Rover, Fido, and Spot paused in mid-step, ears twitching as various screams coming from one of the tunnels reached them. “What’s going on down there?” Rover muttered, mostly to himself. “Sounds like screaming,” Fido answered. “I can HEAR that!” A short lapse passed and he turned to the other two. “Well? What are you two waiting for? Go check it out!” Fido and Spot nodded, departing to do just that with Rover bringing up the rear. All three of them were nervous, hearing the tonality in the screams, but they were curious. In case there was anything dangerous, Rover was ready to run, and he was certain his two comrades would slow down any beast and enable him to make a safe getaway. *** Spike and Smokey rambled through the winding tunnels, searching vainly for the lost child. “Did you hear that, Spike? Sounds like somepony’s in trouble,” Smokey said, his ear frills flaring and perking into the direction of a separate tunnel in another fork. “Yeah, I hear ‘em! … Should we go help?” Spike queried. He knew that their priority was finding Chenoa, but perhaps if they helped whoever was in trouble, they might be helped in return. “Maybe we should… I would be the right thing to do,” the scarlet dragon stated, his intonation giving away that it was evident that he was fully focused on finding his baby. “Maybe they will help us after we help them.” “That’s what I was thinking!” Spike proclaimed as he and his friend dashed down the tunnel where they heard the screams echoing from. “And, hey, if we’re lucky, we might even find Chenoa there and not have to worry about getting any help! “… I just hope she’s okay…” “So do I…” Smokey permitted his anxiety to show on his face, his scaly features scrunching and brows arching to express his worry for his little girl. If something were to happen to her, he didn’t know what he would do… What would Fluttershy say? Would she ever forgive him? As the two of them emerged from the tunnel, they paused at the entrance of the next chamber. Eyes going wide, Spike extended an arm to point. “Ack! Smokey, look!” Screaming diamond dogs running around like chickens with their heads chopped off, they were blindly flailing about helter-skelter, knocking into things and colliding into each other. It was complete pandemonium! “What do you think’s got THEM spooked?” he asked his companion. “I don’t know, but we’ll find out once they calm down.” They watched idly as the canines continued running amok, going absolutely nowhere and often repeating the same paths. Smokey sighed as he observed a dog scamper past him screaming at the top of his lungs like a girl. Spike blinked, an expression of bafflement, concern, and yet amusement. The canines not showing any signs of calming down just yet, he considered taking a page from Pinkie Pie’s book and relax in a lounge chair with a bag of popcorn. Since he had neither the ability to spontaneously summon such chair or popcorn, he contented himself with merely leaning against the tunnel wall. While the sight was indeed amusing, they were wasting time. Reaching out to grasp a passing diamond dog by the scruff of the neck, Smokey pulled him back towards him to face him. “What is going on?” “Gaaah!” the diamond dog shouted. “Big! Horrible! Ugly! SCARY MONSTER!!” Surprisingly, the canid didn’t seem to care that he was being held up by a dragon. … At first. Gazing into the reptilian’s sea green eyes, the realization of WHAT he was being held by dawned upon him, and then started panicking even worse. “GaAaAaAaAhHhHhHhH!! DRAGON! DRAAAGOOOON!!” Not wanting to get hit by the dog’s thrashing appendages, Smokey released him from his grip and let him run away. Even these canines were afraid of him. If it weren’t for the fact that he was so set on finding Chenoa, he may have been upset. Wait… Did he say… “Monster?” “That’s what I heard him say!” the diminutive dragon told his larger counterpart. “You don’t think Chenoa’s…?” He gulped, glancing further into the caverns, and the chaos that was running rampant through them. If Chenoa was really in there, AND a monster… Things were going to be far more difficult than they thought! “No!” Smokey refused to even think about the possibility that Chenoa could already have been eaten by the said monster. Spurred by an even more prominent desire to find her, the red-scaled dragon disposed of the idea of helping the diamond dogs in favor of finding his child and took off into another fork in the road. The baby dragon hesitated only for a moment. While part of him did want to help the diamond dogs, a bigger part of him wanted to find Chenoa. It didn’t take him long to remember that it was due to the canines that they were down here to begin with, and he was off after Smokey, hoping fervently nothing bad had happened. Even he wasn’t sure how Fluttershy would take it if anything happened to the chick. He certainly didn’t want to find out. Smokey weaved through the tunnels at high speed, but not too fast so that Spike would lose him. By the time he put on the breaks, he was at a crossroad and in the middle of the intersection was a sack of gems. The same sack the trio they encountered above ground possessed. This time, Spike was actually able to keep up relatively easily. As he spotted the bag in front of the other dragon, he skidded to a halt next to him. “Hey, isn’t that…!” he gasped, but already knew the answer, and was practically on top of the bag to yank it open and peer inside. Within seconds, he lifted his head. “She’s not in here!” This announcement made Smokey’s blood run cold all over again. If Chenoa wasn’t still in the sack, then she was wandering around all alone with a monster on the loose! “Do you see any footprints anywhere??” he inquired, already scanning the dirt around the bag. Spike bent down closer to the ground to examine it. “There!” he exclaimed, pointing. Sure enough, lightly embedded in the dirt was a set of tiny tracks leading away from the sack. The darkness made it difficult to discern, but they were visible. The winged reptilian precipitated himself to the row of dirt consisting Chenoa’s footprints. Analyzing and acknowledging that they matched the griffon’s, he rocketed from his spot to follow them. Spike was nearly knocked off of his feet when Smokey bolted off again. Stabilizing himself, he rushed after him, arms pumping and praying that Chenoa was safe. Some distance off, Fido was the first of the trio to turn the corner and yelped as he saw the beast that was terrorizing his fellow canines. The shadow cast upon the wall was large and imposing -- frightening even -- causing him to jump back. Gazing over and around at Spot, the much smaller dog grunted. “Yow! Didja see that?! What the heck d’ya suppose THAT is?!” Without really waiting for a response, he poked his head around the corner again. “Hey, wait a minute… Dat’s not a monster at all!” “You’re right!” Fido proclaimed, pointing a finger at the source of the shadow, and revealing the creature’s identity… It was a white-pelted griffon chick, chasing after her own little tail while squealing with mirth. “It’s a baby griffon! Wait till Boss sees this!” The pitbull inserted himself between his two companions, rubbing his hands with a grin. “Heh, oh, the look on his face will be priceless!” Wandering out from the corner, his previous fear now completely gone, Rover sauntered over to the baby, holding his hands up to ready them to snatch her up. “Ain’t you an adorable little brat. You’ve caused a lot of trouble…” Ceasing her antics, Chenoa tilted her up at the dog closing in on her. She recognized that pose… It matched the same one Smokey used before catching her when it was time to take a bath. Did he want to chase her? Since she was too young and innocent to understand his true motives, she decided he did. Letting out a giggle, she kicked it into gear and dove between his legs and out of reach. Rover was alarmed when the baby just moved right out of the way and between his legs. Bending over to gaze between them, he immediately spun around, eyes snapping open. “Gah! She’s getting away! Stop her! Stop her!” Fido and Spot joined in the chase, twisting and turning, diving and swiping at the child as they neared her. One dog pile later, she was rendered helpless as she fell over onto her side laughing. “Quick! Get her!” Rover commanded. Try as they might, the diamond dogs couldn’t catch her. Despite their size and strength, Chenoa was too quick and slippery for them -- being able to nimbly duck under and dash between their legs, laughing and squealing the whole time. Though, eventually… “Gotcha!” Rover hollered as he snatched her by the sides, hoisting her up. “Alright, you little brat, you’re really gonna get it now!” A pause. “So, what do we DO with her, boys?” “Ehhh, let’s take her to da boss,” Fido spoke up. “Maybe he’ll know.” “Right, let’s go,” said Spot as he and Rover waited for Fido to retrieve the sack of gems and quickly left. Chenoa squeaked and flailed her legs in an attempt to escape, but with no avail. Halting her movements, she just allowed the canine holding her to carry her. She had her fun, and maybe they will let her have more fun later. The three of them, baby in hand, made their way back to the main chamber. Smirking, Rover raised his arms to hold up the baby out to the top dog’s direction to show him what they had found. “We got yer gems, Boss. And we found THIS little runt sneaking around and causing problems. What should we do wit’ it?” The expression of befuddlement on Mr. T-Bone’s face was priceless once he got an eyeful of the child. Where did it come from? Why was it here? How did it even get down here? Before he could open his mouth to voice a reply, another one of his right pawed dogs entered the room from a path behind the massive gemstone pile. “Oh, my goodness! It’s adorable!” he gushed in a rather flamboyant lisp, clasping his paws together. Unlike Rex, he was of normal stature, with wavy golden-yellow fur and flopped over ears, giving him a golden retriever appearance. A long silky blue scarf was wrapped loosely around his neck and was wearing a pair of black framed glasses with rectangular lenses. Rover suppressed a groan. He never much cared for this pampered poodle of a diamond dog -- even though he wasn’t a poodle at all. “We don’t know where it came from,” Rover said. “No idea how it got down here, Boss,” Spot added. “But, that was the monster everyone was running scared of! One of the headlamps was casting its shadow against the wall, and that was what was freaking everyone out!” Mr. T-Bone did find that rather amusing. Rex and the dog clad in the scarf especially as they barked out a few laughs and clutched onto their guts. By the time they were done laughing, the taller dog leaned in towards his boss. “Can I keep it?” Mr. T-Bone appeared positively surprised at this request, but nodded anyway. “Just keep the kid outta trouble.”