"That seems a little suicidal, doesn't it?"
Sid set down his newly finished rope as he nodded. "This fog has complicated things."
"I'll bet." sighed Lulu as she took a sip from her mug. "But I think I can help you out." A sly smile spread across her lips. "Of course, I'll just need a little something from you first."
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Nugget slowly opened her eyes. The dim light from outside the window was beating down on her face as she sat in the middle of the King-sized bed. She slowly stretched out her neck and tilted it all around as she shook back and forth and ruffled her feathers. Smoothly, she shifted up to her feet and hopped over from the bed to the vanity up against the wall. She looked herself over in the mirror, and then began to preen herself. Slowly and methodically, she cleaned and added oil to her feathers.
After about half an hour she seemed done, and she hopped down from the vanity. She flapped her arms to help her jump up to the door handle, and she placed one foot on the handle itself, and the other balanced precariously on the faceplate over the latch. She pushed her foot on the handle down and the door clicked open. She hopped down and put her foot through the crack in the door and pulled it open. After she walked out, she hopped up again, and grabbed the door frame with one talon, and the door handle with the other.
SLAM!
And just like that, the door was closed. The hallway was devoid of activity, and so she headed down the stairs. Each stair was too large for her to walk down normally, so she had to hop down each one individually. Although it was so smooth, it seemed like she was just walking down the stairs. Trizel was carrying a barrel up from the basement behind her, but she ignored him. Instead, she walked out into the main room. Her head slowly looked around the room. It was empty, which was unusual, but had happened before. She seemed to see no point in dwelling there, so she turned and walked behind the bar and into the kitchen.
She paused as soon as she crossed the threshold into the kitchen and tilted her head. Ted and Bakade were cooking various things on the stove. But, until she had walked into the kitchen, things had been completely silent. She stood just past the threshold for a little longer than she should have, as Trizel walked into the kitchen. He talked with Ted, and then deposited the barrel to the side near the freezer before he walked out through the kitchen's back door again.
Ted seemed to finally notice Nugget and waved at her. She bowed slightly in return. When Bakade looked where Ted was staring, she also waved at Nugget. So of course, Nugget bowed her head slightly to her as well. Then she just walked behind them over to the fridge. She jumped up, the same way she did with the door to her room and opened the refrigerator door with her talon before she hopped inside. She squatted down onto a small crate filled with hay and stared straight at Ted and Bakade. The two of them looked a little nervous as she plopped out a single egg. She stood up and jumped out of the fridge, which she closed by kicking it with the back of her foot.
As Bakade and Ted continued to work, the hen just walked right past them. She paused as she stepped out of the kitchen and glanced back. Ted and Bakade were still both working away on various things, but it was as quiet as the grave around Nugget. She hopped up onto the bar top and saw Death talking with Sentenza. She didn't seem all that interested as she walked right past them towards the front door. As she walked past, Sentenza tipped his hat to her, and she bowed her head slightly in response.
"Bawk," Nugget spoke in surprise as she stepped out of The Oasis.
A pair of glowing red eyes were staring at her through the mist. She instinctively took a step back as a low growl rang up from whatever was hiding within the mist. The eyes slowly began to close in, and she took another step back.
Nugget had a worried look on her face, as she let out a droning noise, "Bbbbrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaa."
The eyes continued to close in, and Nugget turned her head back slightly to look in The Oasis. As she broke eye contact, a gust of wind blew past her and slammed the door shut. She instinctively jumped slightly forward out of the way of the door before it slammed into her. As she turned her gaze back, a massive black wolf with piercing red eyes, and a small belt and dagger on his waist was leaping at her with his jaw wide open.
Nugget's eyes grew wide, and she quickly jumped to the side as the wolf slammed into the door with a loud, THUD! The wolf didn't let up and composed himself almost instantly before he lunged once again. Nugget barely dodged out of the way as the wolf slammed into one of the retaining walls of sand that was still standing. Except, this wall was not as sturdy as The Oasis, and as the wolf slammed into it, it exploded into a cloud of sand.
The wolf let out an angry howl as some of the sand got into his eyes.
Nugget didn't wait for him to recover. She began to sprint away as fast as her legs would take her. She ducked down and pushed herself harder and harder, but before long the sound of the wolf's massive paws could be heard coming up behind her faster and faster. Nugget skid to a stop as she approached the edge of the world. Her chest was heaving up and down from the exertion as the sound of the thudding footsteps stopped.
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She bobbed her head all around, but there was nothing visible in the mist, and all was silent. Minutes dragged on as the small hen stood with her back to the edge as she looked around. Then, her head perked up at the sound of a rock tumbling loose. She quickly jumped away from the edge as the wolf snapped its jaw forward while his lower body dangled over the edge. He had gotten the upper hand and his jagged teeth caught Nugget's foot and slammed her against the ground.
Wham!
Wham!
Wham!
The wolf slammed Nugget against the ground over and over as he made his way up from the edge. He had a devious grin on his face before he spit Nugget's leg out of his mouth. He looked down at the hen as she struggled to remain conscious.
The wolf walked up to her and grabbed her injured leg in his mouth again. She let out a howl of pain as he flung her back and forth in his mouth before opening his jaw and sending her flying off a few feet into the mist. Her small body bounced on the ground from the initial impact before she came to a stop.
The wolf slowly walked up towards her with a cruel smile on his lips as he stared down at the battered and bruised chicken. Once again, he grabbed her same leg in-between his teeth. This time, he tossed her up in the air and then, as she came down, he caught her by the same leg. Nugget struggled to keep her eyes open as the wolf played with her. Finally, he didn't catch her, and simply let her fall onto the ground with a wet thud.
"Aaaaaaarrroooooooo!" The wolf tilted his head up and let out a proud howl as Nugget lied on the ground in front of him. Her feathers were a mess of blood and dirt, with hardly any seemingly in the right place.
As the noise reverberated around them, Nugget struggled to keep her eyes open. With a lot of effort, she managed to flip herself up onto her feet, but she struggled to put any weight on the one the wolf had bitten.
When the wolf noticed Nugget struggling to stand, he tilted his head back down with a wicked smile. Then, he let out a low growl as he stared at her throat.
Nugget's heart was beating a million miles a minute as the wolf stood over her. Slowly, she closed her eyes, and after a minute, she started to slow her breathing. She limped as she turned to face the wolf. Her eyes now filled with determination instead of fear. The wolf let out a small series of growls that almost sounded like a laugh as it took a powerful step towards Nugget. However, this time she didn't move. She didn't even flinch. As his paw shook the ground, she just stood there looking up at him.
The wolf seemed to frown as it stared down at the defiant chicken. He lifted up his paw and swung it down at her. This time, Nugget jumped up at the last second, and scratched at his extended leg with her talon before she leaped back a few paces. However, the wolf's skin was too thick and leathery.
Her talons we're not sharp enough to actually pierce through it. It just seemed to upset the wolf who responded by bending his head back towards his side and pulling out his knife with his teeth. The wolf let out a low growl as he turned his gaze down at the defiant chicken. Nugget's eyes moved down to the dagger for just a moment before she returned to staring right into the wolf's red eyes.
The wolf didn't lunge again immediately. Instead, he began to slowly walk around her, as he made sure not to get any closer or any further away from her. The knife in the wolf's mouth almost blended into the fog. Nugget tilted her head around to keep the wolf in her sight but didn't actually move from her spot.
Finally, the wolf stopped circling her, and almost seemed to smile as it backed up into the mist and out of her sight. Nugget glanced around quickly, but then paused. She closed her eyes and knelt her head down towards the ground. She placed the side of her head against the dirt and slowly lowered herself closer to the ground. She opened her mouth and took a bite out of the ground. The dirt filled her beak, but she didn't swallow. Nugget lifted her head back up and slowly spread her wings as she kept her injured foot off of the ground.
Silence.
Nugget stood still in her pose as the wolf stayed back behind the curtain of the mist. Finally, a low growl arose from her left, but Nugget didn't move. His thudding footsteps came from her right, but Nugget stayed in her pose with her eyes shut completely. Various noises from the wolf kept appearing all around her, but Nugget stood still through it all.
Then, it all stopped and returned to silence. This pattern repeated as the wolf toyed with Nugget. Noises would appear all around her from different directions one after the other, and then a long period of silence.
Finally, the wolf actually leaped towards her with his head tilted to the side so he could slash her with the knife in his mouth. Nugget finally opened her eyes and tilted her head back as she began to flap her wings. As the wolf began to slash towards her, she flung the dirt that had mixed with the saliva in her mouth at the wolf's eyes. The impromptu mud splattered against his eyes and blinded the wolf.
But the beast didn't let up on his assault. It continued on the same path as it let out an angry growl. The knife slashed forward towards Nugget, but she was already moving back out of the way, using the flapping of her wings to help push her backwards faster. The knife missed by quite a way, but the wolf, since he could no longer see, began to slash around wildly. Nugget was struggling to move, but instead of continuing to dodge, she jumped up onto the wolf's head, and pecked down at his nose. His skin there was still too tough, so she tried to peck out his eyes, but even his eyelids were too thick for her to get through.
The wolf was getting more frustrated and dropped the knife as he began to snarl and try to bite at Nugget. She was safe on top of his head as he began to shake his head back and forth furiously. When that didn't work, he lifted up his giant paws, and tried to smack her.
This forced Nugget off of his head, as she hopped down towards the discarded knife. The wolf's ear perked up as she landed, and he immediately lunged towards her. Nugget quickly knocked the knife into the air with her foot, and then with a powerful kick to the handle, sent it flying towards the wolf.
The knife flew into the wolf's open mouth and found its mark. The wolf let out a pained whine as it slammed into the ground just short of hitting Nugget. The wolf seemed to keep itself going, despite the knife and forced itself up. Nugget jumped away, but the wolf still managed to chase after her. The two of them were now limping in their own way, and Nugget tripped and fell over herself on the ground as she tried to stop. She had gotten turned around and almost went straight over the edge.
The wolf was hot on her heels and raised a paw to crush her while she was on the ground. But Nugget managed to roll out of the way in time. The wolf was not so lucky and realized too late that they were at the edge of the world.
He scrambled to stop as his body started to go over the edge. But he managed to dig his claws in and keep himself from completely falling over. He let out a small whine as Nugget struggled to her feet. The wolf looked up at her with pleading eyes as it whined and struggled to try and find footing to push himself up with his back feet.
Nugget looked down at his two paws that had managed to hold onto the edge. She turned her gaze back to his sad eyes, and while looking at him slammed her beak down into the ground and then twisted her head. A crack spread and the wolf let out one final whine as the edge collapsed around his claws. He let out a pained howl as he fell, but Nugget seemed to ignore it. She just ruffled her feathers and started to limp back towards The Oasis.