Finding The Way Back (A Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Fanfiction)

[5] What They Have is You

"EEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Chess rushes forth from the closet, tackling right through the door.

"Oh! Chess, what were you doing in the closet?" Kipo waves to him.

"Wait a minute, what is that you're holding?!" Wolf points to his chess piece.

"Rrrrggghhh!" Chess points his chess piece at the snakes. He plans to beat them and force them to release his family.

"Uh, Camille...what does he want with us?" Cotton looks at her snake companion.

"I think it has to do with the Timbercats in the Glamorynth." Camille guesses, to which she is right.

"Wait wait! Chess!" Kipo quickly gave back Cotton's guitar as she steps before the two Umlaut Snakes. "We already got this under control!"

"...eh?"

"Look, it's fine," Kipo slowly approaches the Timbercat and lowers his weapon. "Everything's patched up!"

Chess blinked...it's over? That fast?

"Try not to think too hard about it. Kipo's like that." Benson pats him on the shoulder. Chess still looks like his brain has short-circuited.

"Look, furball," Chess snaps out of his stupor upon seeing Camille wrapping her tail around him. "Just come with me if you're not convinced."

Chess didn't really have a choice as he's, more or less, lifted off the ground. The snake exits the bar with the tuxedo cat in tow. And he's still confused, and he knows it's because he didn't have the full context of what happened earlier. Regardless, it feels like a weird change of pace. As the two continue down the sandy road, Camille starts talking with him.

"Look, I don't know what's gotten you so interested in those humans." Camille turns her head to the wrapped cat as she continues to slither. "That Kipo girl did put on a good show I gotta admit."

"Mmmm." Chess made a few gestures to show that he's admitting that there is indeed a reason why.

"Still, I've never seen a human actually care about us. Usually, they care more about themselves." Camille takes a turn. "Maybe that's what you see in her. She's more than the ones we have seen before."

Chess nods in agreement. "Mhmm."

"Heh," the snake smirks. "She's too good of a rockstar to give to Scarlemagne or to be eaten. And she's definitely crazy. The best guitarists usually are anyway."

So that's what all that racket was back then. It really wasn't his kind of thing but since he's wrapped around the snake's coils he keeps that opinion to himself.

Plus, his head felt like it was being thrashed, so there's that.

"Alright, here we go." Camille places the tuxedo cat on her back. "Just sit back and watch."

Chess watches as Camille approaches a bunch of Umlaut snakes watching over upright boards of wood, painted with the glamour and flashy color seen in rock concerts. Pink, cyan, cream yellow, and black. It's full of eyecatching colors mixed with cacti on the corners that can't be covered by the wood boards. His cat ears pick up the sound of the other Timbercats being chased by the snakes in the maze.

"Alright guys, we gotta stop." Camille almost sounds like she's so done with it. "Cotton's orders."

Somehow, all the snakes heard that as they stop and sigh in frustration and disappointment. The snakes (reluctantly, judging by their faces) push the wood boards and the cats flood through, all panting and gasping from having to run for however long they've been there. Though some cats seem to have been swallowed, the bellies of some Umlaut snakes bulging and wriggling as the live cats struggle inside