Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

84. Hunting Hunter.

-Equus, Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack-

If it ain’t the darnedest thing that I ever done saw… I was watching Big Mac and Paprika try to move Arizona’s hoof, they were using four hooves, putting their backs into it and every ounce of muscle they could.

Arizona sat on the other side of the table giving them a dull look and yawned as right her hoof didn’t move a single millimeter.

“Have you guys started yet?” Arizona asked casually.

What were her muscles made of, pure dark matter?!

I moved forward and started pushing at her hoof myself.

Yet Arizona was still holding us off, all of us with one hoof. The other was, of course, literally tied behind her back with some of her own rope.

“This is getting kind of sad now… okay, here I go.” Arizona said lazily, with the barest twitch of her right hoof we went flying away from her and over the house and we landed in Carrot Top's garden next door.

“Howdy, need some help neighbor?” May as well offer since I was here. “We’re having a slow day.”

Carrot Top rolled her green eyes, flicked her orange curly mane, sighed and just nodded.

-Earth, Camden Town, Streets, Pom-

“So what or who are we looking for?” Diesel finally asked as we had been looking around the streets a bit randomly, but we were staying in the Camden Town area.

“We’re looking for Hunter De Ville. You know, the duck that saved Dorothy from his aunt, that evil lady that captured us all?” Da Vinci had a soft voice and she was adorable, but I did have to wonder why she had a blue tongue. I can understand why the fur of her front paws were practically dyed colorfully, the spots on Da Vinci’s body were black, orange and blue plus a hint of other colors too.

“Oh… why didn’t you say so earlier, I smelled a trail to him about three minutes back that way.” Diesel was a little loose in the mind department, both his brother Dante and his Sister Da Vinci groaned in agreement with my assessment.

We all turned around and followed Diesel’s directions as he sniffed out the person we were looking for.

“Diesel might not be the brightest puppy around, but he is really quite talented.” Dante went on to explain that Diesel had the ability to dig through solid concrete and could identify just about anything by smell alone after only sniffing it once. It was around the time that he got finished with explaining Diesel’s talents that we found Hunter. “So he knew that the duck biped visited their mother, but has never smelled the guy’s mother before. Oh look, there he is… and he’s surrounded by geese!”

The duck kid had long feathers pulled back into a ponytail, he was wearing a red jacket, a shirt, a simple black tie, red shoes and gloves without digit coverings.

Hunter was currently being held up by his shirt.

Dante growled, Da Vinci whimpered and hid behind him and Diesel was sporting a vacant look that everyone in his family has come to know him for when he wasn’t digging or smelling something. Still, that vacant look seemed to have some hint of anger in it.

“Now come on fellas, can’t we talk about this, there’s no need for you to get violent… right?” Holding up his hands in as placating a gesture as possible, Hunter looked like he was about to get roughed up by the group. “Can you please stop and think about this first?”

I started making my way forward to put a stop to this.

“Why should we stop, no one’s coming to help you De Ville!” The goose said into Hunter’s face while bracket by four guys who were chuckling. “I think we can get away with hurting a rich kid like you as much as we want, we can do even worse to you then last time, right guys! No one will care, not… one…”

I stomped my front two hooves loudly earning their attention and I glared at them, they were blatantly picking on that poor duck and it’s who Dante wanted to find.

We needed his help with something Dante saw in a grimm vision and I took those seriously due to Mr. Grimm, I took my Cu Sith beastie even more seriously than that as he spoke only in the presence of immediately deadly danger.

Hunter’s aunt Cruella sounded like a nasty piece of work, but Hunter was innocent as far as the Dante’s family was concerned. He was a pawn in Cruella’s planned murder spree and Hunter hadn’t a clue what Cruella truly intended to do with the Dalmatian family until she locked him up with said Dalmatians.

At least he tried to redeem himself for causing the dogs so much trouble and he stayed well out of their lives afterwards so they could live in peace.

As for Hunter himself, this wasn’t peaceful by any stretch of the imagination.

Five near adult teenage geese picking on a kid? Yeah, this is the kind of situation I would never be able to turn my back on in Huoshan.

I marched forward and went to standing on my hind legs in a stance.

“Oh, look an animalistic, here I thought nobody would care about someone who’s stuck with such an ugly legacy." He went to grab me and I reacted. "how about we make an ex…”

I blurred forward for a second and was back in my spot the next, nobody seemed to react as the lead goose froze up and one of the four guys with him looked at him strangely.

“Uh Gary? Bud... Sheldgoose…? why did you…” The goose flinched when he saw the goose holding Hunter suddenly dropped him. This Gary’s head jerked to the right and he fell backwards just as suddenly as his head jerked, only then did the left side of his face started swelling up with a hoof shaped imprint in it. “What the heck?!”

“Uh Pom... just how fast are you really?” Dante said wide eyed and a little scared of me, Da Vinci looked at me with undisguised awe. “I mean I know you can run real fast, especially if you can escaped ninety puppies chasing after you around our favorite park so easily, but I don’t think any of us saw exactly what just happened there. It was like you didn’t even move.”

I stopped looking at Dante and thrust my left hoof out in a jab as I held them both up prepared to defend Hunter from these hooligans. They seemed very reluctant to start a fight with me after I hit their leader with a quarter strength right hoof, but at the speed it was going… that definitely left a mark.

I motioned to the goose on the ground with my right hoof and then made a shooing motion with my left hoof, then I brought them both up and started to jab at the air idly with both of them.

I was waiting for them to make a decision while glaring them down, I seriously hoped I didn’t have to hurt anyone else.

“Uh… can you see how fast that animalistic is moving her hooves?” One of the geese in the back said as my hooves blurred indistinctly in the sunlight.

“No… I think we should just take Gary and get out of here.” The gang like jacketed member of the geese lifted up their leader and started to drag him away, one of the other geese got his legs and they were quickly off without looking back.

“Whoa… did that just happen?” Hunter stated as he looked up at me from the ground. I held out my right hoof to his feathered hands, he got a grip on my hoof and I helped him stand up. “Who are you?”

“Yeah, about that… hey Hunter.” Why did Dante seemed a bit embarrassed to see Hunter? They were friends… right? Or maybe they weren’t close friends and are at best not enemies. They likely haven’t interacted with each other much since Cruella kidnapped his entire family and almost started killing them off. “I know you’ve been trying to avoid our family, but we kind of need you for something.”

I nodded to Hunter.

“Um… do you know who this animalistic is uh…? Sorry… can’t exactly remember a hundred and one names off the top of my head. I’d know Dylan, Dolly and sweet little Dorothy though… also Triple D of course.” Hunter stood there awkwardly as I went back to all four hooves. “She just saved me from a rather painful pounding.”

“Yeah, she’s with us. Her name’s Pom and… she’s currently mute until her throat heals up or at least that’s what she's hoping for. We came looking for you because we needed your assistance with something.” Dante glanced at me for a second and then turned back to Hunter. “Also she can understand dog… and has written down that she can even speak it too… look, it’s a bit of a long story dude, but can you come with us to the local library?”

“Well… if it’ll help you out, I do owe it to make up to your family for all the stuff I did.” We started heading towards the library with Hunter in the lead and he pulled out a curious square device. “I’m still one of Dallas’s biggest fans you know.”

“Good to hear, maybe I can swing you a personal autograph from my sister.” Dante said conversationally as we walked along. “So… how has life been without that evil witch?”

“Pretty good now that I don’t have anything to do with her. I made sure Cuddles went to a better family, better than ours ever was to him at any rate.” Hunter sounded both sad and relieved at the same time when he said that. “He won’t get caught up in my problems any further, nor will he be causing your family problems either.”

“Nice to know… as a refresher I’m Dante, the crazy one that got captured by you on purpose… I having an off day.” As Dante spoke I noted that Da Vinci was relaxing as she stayed next to Dante and me, she was a fairly sensitive dog and really didn’t like confrontations. Diesel seemed to be lost to the world as he followed us along. “Anyway, this is my shy sister Da Vinci and… Diesel is recognizable as the only dog that can dig through hardened cement around here. I’m not sure why he isn’t more famous for that.”

“So what’s up with this… Pom? She seems… unusual somehow. I mean aside from understanding dogs like I do.” Hunter was able to talk to them which was part of his psychological trauma of being locked in a cargo container for six months and forced to survive off of dog food. I don’t think I would have been able to stomach it… especially with how little room he had when he needed to do his business.

Some things about what happened to Hunter were better left alone, that his aunt didn’t care enough to free him until the timer on the container finally ended made me like Cruella even less. I hadn’t thought that was possible at first.

“About that, her arrival was fairly noticeable to all the dogs in the area. I’m just surprised that no biped or animalistic looked up from their devices to see how she got here.” Dante rubbed the back of his head looking a little wary. “She came out of a portal and landed in the middle of the park, she’s an alien and she can do some magic. Which is why we need to look up ‘something’, my predictions were vague on what we’re looking for, but it’s about your family history.”

“A magical alien, that’s so sick… wait… my family history?” Hunter seemed like he really didn’t like the idea. “Why would we ever want to go looking into that possible horror show?!”

“Look, I don’t know why we need to do it, I just know that we have to for a really good reason. Ever since learning that magic and aliens are real, I’ve since learned that the predictions I make might be related to one of my ancestors being a Grimm. It’s a type of magical dog specifically able to see bad things coming, but not entirely the exact details on what those bad things are. It has certainly put my 'end of the world' ravings into perspective.” At least Dante seemed happier knowing that the end of the world wasn’t always today or tomorrow. “Pom knows a dog with similar abilities and told me how to handle it… for the most part.”

“This is the most I think I’ve ever heard Dante talk without shouting about the apocalypse… I might actually miss that.” Despite her quiet tone, Da Vinci was smiling a bit.

Hunter glanced at her and seemed to gain a look of some sort of recognition in his eyes.

“Oh right, I remember you… you do really good art. Hold on a second.” We stopped at a street crossing and he pulled out his device and eventually brought up an image of three similar looking dogs. If I remember correctly, they were the triplets Destiny, Dallas and Déjà vu of Triple D from Dylan’s side of the family. “You make quality stuff… sorry that I found out where you lived because of that. If I had known what my aunt was going to do… Anyway, why did you do this piece of dark wall art?”

He brought up another image, Dylan, Dolly and a Pomeranian surrounded by dark swirling clouds.

“Oh well… you probably can guess this, but I was the T-shirt artist that got called a… ugh… ‘mystery artist’. Our family needed the money to fix our backyards wall and… well… they were driving me too hard and I had problems speaking up.” Da Vinci whimpered. “I just wanted recognition for all my hard work, at least people loved it even if they didn’t know it was me. I took my frustration out on that wall in the only way I knew how to relieve all of that pressure… by doing art. I know our parents work so hard to keep us all fed. We usually need Triple D to do commercials for a quick boost in money to fix a broken wall or for other troublesome things like the water pipe Diesel accidentally broke through with his paws… but they were sick that week and I had to step up to help my family.”

“Huh, so that explains this picture.” He brought up the first picture as the cross light turned. “So you did an art piece of Triple D while they were incapable of doing a job, I must say you’re a great artist Da Vicni and I might be a fan of yours too given that I bought one of those designer shirts personally.”

“Thank you.” The meager voice Da Vinci spoke in was adorable as we crossed the street together, but she seemed happy that someone recognized her efforts.

“So when you say magic is real Dante… please don’t tell me this somehow involves my aunt.” The shivering Hunter did before he hugged himself was telling, as much as the haunted look in his eyes. “I can’t even begin to imagine what she could do if she had magical powers.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of one of the things we want to find out here today while we do some digging around in the library for your family history.” At the word ‘digging’, Dante seemed realize something and groaned loudly as Diesel perked up immediately.

“Where are we digging?" Diesel wagged his tail happily. When they said Diesel busted through a water pipe… did that mean he could dig through solid metal?! "I can show Pom how good I am at digging!”

“Not that kind of digging Diesel, but your already here anyway and I guess I need to be the responsible one. So no wandering off… please.” Dante didn’t seem to like the idea of being the leader of his brother and sister, but he was responsible for them as they followed us here. “Da Vinci I’m sorry to ask this of you, but can you make sure he doesn’t do anything?”

“I’ll try… but in return can you stop spooking the pups that don’t like it so much?” Da Vinci was probably one of the dogs that didn’t like being spooked by her brother Dante.

“I can try, no promises though… I like hiding and popping up in dark places.” Dante was certainly a bucket of sunshine.

We stood outside the library and Hunter looked at all of us, he took a deep breath and put his hand on the door.

“Okay… maybe what we discover about my family won’t be so bad?” At least Hunter tried to have a positive attitude, but Dante, Da Vinci and even Diesel didn’t seem to think so highly of his family given their looks. I’m guessing that when even Diesel shared a thought like that, you knew it was serious. “Oh wait… can you guys even get in?”

“Don’t worry about it, as long as we keep Diesel under control and don’t cause a mess, which also means no painting Da Vinci.” Dante got a nod from Da Vinci, Diesel didn’t seem to be paying attention and was zoned out again. “The librarian will let us in… she did last time.”

-An hour later-

“Okay, this is concerning.” Between his device, the thing called a computer and a book, Hunter looked a little pale.

“What is it?” Stated Dante with some worry as he came over after making sure Diesel wouldn’t wander off from his book about digging machines and mining safety regulations. It seemed like Diesel was engrossed with it and was currently as occupied as Da Vinci was with her book on various types of paints.

“I think… I think my family has a history of killing off the good people in it and they always make it look like accidents. I thought my parents might have died in an accident, but have a look at this.” He brought up numerous cases on the computer about the De Ville name… all of them being linked to some so called near or actually quite lethal ‘accidents’. “I have some living relatives… at least one is in Calisota Duckberg named Lena De Spell… currently, and legally, under the adopted name of Lena Sabrewing. The other… I’ve managed to find… well… she caused this.”

He enlarged an image and we saw a green feathered duck with a mass of swirling shadow monsters that vaguely resembled various bipeds swirling around her as she held a staff high up in the air.

I freaked out and leapt backwards as I pointed at one specific shadow with red eyes that resembled a familiar evil looking thestral poking out of the portal in the clouds above the hovering duck.

One that I had last seen getting blown straight into the shadow dimension by Oleander after being directly kicked into the path of her charged up horn beam by an upset Paprika.

That happened back when we saved Equus from the shadow monster incursions.

“Apparently, I’m also related to this… Magica De Spell? Our families are distant cousins. She’s apparently been around for a long time and she still looks this young?” Hunter didn’t seem too happy with the news he found, maybe because it might relate to Cruella looking young. “This event was written off as a special effects stunt gone wrong by a lot of people and that the movie that was being filmed has been cancelled since then… really, that’s what they went with to hide all of that? Judging by your reaction Pom… it’s very much real isn’t it?”

I nodded with what had to be a horrified look on my face, judging by Hunter’s worried gaze.

Hollow Heart took on all five of my friends and me, he nearly succeeded in stopping us from sealing the shadow monsters off from consuming Equus. That was before we all went to Fœnum to meet all of our counterparts there at the behest of Arizona trying to find out where her mother went.

“Well… your lucky that you don’t have a family that’s messed up like mine is Dante, but I might be able to get in contact with this Lena at least. I don’t think getting into contact with Magica would go over all too well.” Hunter then seemed to slump into himself and that made Da Vinci come over out of curiosity. She crawled up into his lap and licked at the bottom of his beak, he carefully patted her head and she smiled at him. “You dogs are more my family than Cruella ever was, she might even be responsible for what happened to my parents. Remember how I told you guys that I was so lonely and had wanted Cruella’s recognition after I was locked up with you? Well, I’m not as lonely as I thought, misery loves company and this Lena might be able to help me see that not every part of our families are pure evil. She’s my cousin and a family member that got out of the sister family to the De Ville’s.”

“This still doesn’t confirm whether or not Cruella has magic or is a literal demon.” Dante intoned while looking through the images on the screen at the various incidents involving the De Ville family and an exceedingly frightening number of cover ups.

“No, there’s not even any evidence she might be involved in my parents deaths, but my family does clearly have a history of complete psychopaths.” Hunter whined with a wide eyed look as he stared off into space, petting Da Vinci who was happy to be there for him. “I’m now very glad that I’m not one of those, I’m probably the only good De Ville that’s still alive unless there are others in hiding.”

“Well at least you have us right, we’ll be your family.” Diesel wasn’t the brightest puppy in any room, but he still had a heart. He came over and hopped into Hunter’s lap to snuggle up against him getting dirt all over his clothes. “You can always talk to me about all the weird and disgusting things I found by digging all around the Camden Town, you wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen!”

I idly wondered what bath times for Diesel were like, it was probably hard to get him clean and even harder to keep him that way when his first instinct was to ram his head into some dirt and dig around randomly.

“Yeah dude, so your family is full of… right, let’s just not talk about them.” Seeing the look he received, Dante decided to just crawl into Hunter’s lap with his sister and brother to comfort him. “At least you’re one of the good De Ville’s, Dorothy wouldn’t have warmed up to you like she did otherwise.”

Hunter hugged the three dogs and started to cry, I eventually moved forward and put a hoof on his shoulder and gave him a smile as he looked to me.

“Hopefully this Lena is reasonable and willing to talk to me, she might even be… nice…” Hunter mumbled, he did something with his device to send a message. “And possibly more family than I’ve ever actually had.”

Hunter was an inspiration in still being willing to try and bridge a gap with any family he had, despite learning some horrible truths.

So his family had some notoriously known evil people throughout this world's history.

Family wasn’t always blood, sometimes it was great friends.

Author's Note:

Geese are quite menacing and territorial.

If Pom can dodge a miniature sun firing random beams of deadly raw energy with Shanty on her back, then she can move fast enough naturally without being seen.

Imagine finding out that at least eighty percent of your family is loaded with psychopaths, now imagine that you might have a sliver of hope in finding out about a cousin that's not one of them.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

I have some living relatives… at least one is in Calisota Duckberg named Lena De Spell

Well, that's convenient for us. Mind you, Clockwerk is canonically kept alive by his sheer hatred for Sly's family so they probably won't be catching up with Shanty anytime soon.

[Elderlichlord]

To be honest my personal thought was that the film “Cruella” either took place in an AU or simply did not go into enough of the details.