PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter VIII Part IV

Dell was absolutely freaking out. The worst part of all of it was that the terrier would have to stand Coco's presence for minutes, somehow. She couldn't forget the fact the cat was a murderer who'd probably skin Dell alive if she knew the terrier remembered what happened. Patches had told her all about the cats she'd likely see while he was being wheeled around in the bin; all she had to do was find the pink-haired siamese, take the wand, and then hold them hostage... Oh, dog, there was no way she was going to be able to do this.

Dell paused in her step, taking a moment to breathe and recuperate herself. Her thoughts still lingered on Brownie and the horrible state she was in; Dell tried to not feel so bad for the corgi, but it was impossible to not grieve at her appearance after what had been done to her.

Dell squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh dog oh dog oh dog, I'm so dead, I'm so dead." She repeated the words as she walked along the dirt road as it grew more coarse, eventually becoming more like gravel. Dell was cresting the final turn along the dying dirt road when she saw the black cat of her nightmares right in front of her face- well, not in front of her face, more 40 meters away or so, but it felt far closer. She stood there as time slowed to a crawl, and the eyes of Coco came to meet hers. Coco was waving before Dell knew it, her school uniform rustling with the motion, and she slowly found herself waving back.

Dell took another deep breath, then began to mutter to herself. "Okay... Find Mitt. Get close. Take them hostage. Steal their wand. Convince Coco not to kill you... Coco, Coco, Coco, Coco." She repeated the name to herself; it rolled off of her tongue like rat poison, and each time she said it, more of her muscles tangled themselves up in apprehension.

Dell continued to walk towards the group, slowly digesting who was there. Among the cats were a huge tiger-looking cat, a meek greenish sphynx, and the two siamese cats Patches had told her about. She hoped none of the other cats would be so problematic, and she especially hoped none of them could use magic.

Dell's superior hearing could already begin picking up traces of the conversation they were having, and immediately she noted it was about herself. "-I don't know, the forest somewhere." Coco said, seemingly trying to quell the fears of the furless cat.

The furless green cat opened its mouth to speak. "B-B-But w-wh-hat if they try to e-e-eat us!? I-I-I still d-don't have my wand!"

'Oh dog that voice is so irritating, even from here,' Dell thought to herself.

Coco looked tired, rolling their eyes and refusing to engage in the conversation further.

"Hey, don't worry little dude, I'll make sure they don't try and eat you, alright?" The huge tiger said. Dell was still in awe at their size; she didn't know any girls who were as big as her, or hell, even any guys.

With a grimace and scowl, Mitt, one of the siamese, spoke up with worry thinly veiled by frustration, "Can we please just keep an eye on the treeline? He could pop out at any moment and then we'd be dead." Their gaze fixed on Felix, piercing through the cat's furless green hide with furrowed brows. "Don't forget, he still has your wand, Felix."

Whisk, the male siamese, piped up with a smirk. "Really, you should just tell your parents what happened. They'd ground you, but it's better than you being mauled by that dog over there!"

Felix ran behind the tiger, using them as a shield against Dellanor.

"Guys she can hear you, you know. Don't be such asses, please?" Coco said. Mitt looked incredibly crossed, but a pat on the back by their brother stopped the cat from having an outburst.

"Hey there!" The tiger said, raising two digits in a salute; Dell realized each motion, no matter how small, resulted in the entirety of the cat's biceps flexing, intentional or not. Dell had never really liked jocks, but even she had to admit this lady was impressively ripped.

Finally, Dell was in the group's conversation range but remained silent as Coco approached first.

"Sorry if you had to hear all that." Coco frowned, looking sullen. "Tensions are running a bit high, especially with the twins, but, it's nice to see you again... Uhhhhhhhh."

"I never gave you my name." Dell interrupted, suddenly and violently thinking of all the metaphorical ways to mount Coco's head on a pike, her fantasies only soured by the fact they hadn't been realized yet.

"Oh thank Cat. I swear, I've been so exhausted recently, I can barely even remember the name of my parents." Coco looked relieved while Dell still looked nothing short of livid. "So, what is it then?"

Jealousy welled up in Dell's heart; Coco had a brother, all these friends, someone who loved her, and magic to boot. Why couldn't Dell have that stuff? Why did Dell have to be the one fighting Coco? Why couldn't she just have forgotten the massacre, like every other dog in school?

"Uh... do you not have one, or...?" Coco asked rhetorically, then sighed. "Crap, I did forget it, didn't I? You don't need to be polite."

Dell glared at the dog for a moment as a fit of deep anger overrode her better judgement. "It's Jello," Dell said, her eyes narrowing as if challenging the cat to object to the name.

"Really? Well, alright."

"Your name is Coco, that's hardly any better," Dell said in the bitchiest monotone she had ever produced. She felt possessed by her frustration, and the dumb name was conjured purely to insult the cat's intelligence.

"... Okay, so, why did Sparky send you here?"

Dell took a moment to remember what her cover story was. "Just wanted to make sure you arrived safely."

"And Patches?" Coco asked, face and voice filling with uncertainty with each response she got.

"... Nothing yet. He probably ran away."

Coco put a paw up to her cheek, scratching while in thought. "I still don't get it. Knowing Patches, he would've done something by now." She paused, turning her head away from the terrier and mumbling to herself, "Cat, why is this happening?!"

Dell quickly responded. "You tell me," in a hushed whisper, loud enough for Coco to hear.

Coco looked pretty uncomfortable from the comment. "Yeeaah, okay. I'm just gonna keep an eye out, then." She started to ignore Dell's totally inconspicuous glare as the group kept walking.

Dell took the opportunity to get closer to the rear where the twins were, finding it difficult to slow her pace and not collide with the brick wall of a cat just behind her. She moved herself to the side just enough so she wouldn't be anywhere near the mountainous, sentient muscles. She kept her eyes peeled for the moment to strike, her paw going over the wooden handle concealed by her pants pocket.

--- Author's Note:

Out of all the chapters, chapter 8 is probably the one that went through the most amount of changes (other than maybe chapter 1). There's a lot of info going real quick in this chapter, and I always worry about lacking a description for characters, but I'm pretty awful at describing character's outfits and everyone here knows what these boys look like anyways, so /shrug.

Balancing Dell's confidence/fear is also a big thing in this book, and something I've had to take into account constantly. I feel this chapter particularly has the biggest leap from scared to confident.

One last thing I've realized about this chapter (and the characters in general) is that there are some personalities that are interesting to imagine bouncing off one another, which are very easy to form (such as Felix/Tigger). The fact that half of the characters in PA get like, 20 lines or less through the three games, and they're still beloved by many is just a perfect indicator of the amazing characterization the devs were able to pull off in such a short amount of time, something I really admire about the games.

up next: I try to write tigger dialogue