'What If...' No. 1

Chapter 5 - Filbo

Once I'd made it back home, I immediately tidied the house from top to bottom. When Buddy would get back, they'd probably appreciate a nice tidy house. Hoovering the carpet and cleaning the kitchen sides, I thought to myself, "I wonder when Buddy will get back. I'm sure they'll be back soon." With a smile on my face, I went back to cleaning.

[A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER]

With the cleaning finished, I took a seat on the fluffy blue armchair in the living room, staring at the door and the clock, waiting for them to come home. I began to swing my legs back and forth as I bobbed my head. "They're taking their time with the walk back home." I thought, feeling worried, "Maybe I should have stayed with them..." Quickly, I brushed off all negative feeling and began to think more positively. "It's fine Filbo! They've probably just taken a longer route home."

After a moment or two, I stood up and walked into the kitchen. I filled up a glass with water and looked up at the clock. 6:30. "They must have gone quite a long way home, since they should have got back by now..." Once again, I tried to think more positively as I took the glass of water and sat back down in the armchair.

I looked back up at the clock again. 8:00. "Ok, there's something wrong. They would never take this long to get back!" Quickly, I stood up and ran toward the door. I flung it open, walked out and shut the door behind me. The second that door was shut, I sprinted into the town. "I've got to get the others, it may be late, but this is IMPORTANT."

After a few minutes, I made it to one of the houses. I banged repeatedly on the door and a voice could be heard behind it. "Alright, alright, I'm comin'. Just wait a bit." The door then opened and a tired and grumpy Wambus stood there. He looked even more annoyed after noticing I was there. "Oh. It's you. What'd ya want Filbo?" He crossed his arms as he leant against the doorframe.

"Look, I'll tell you later- but it's really important that we get everyone together NOW." Wambus rolled his eyes. "Fine. But this is for some stupid reason, you can bet that I ain't gonna be happy with ya." Wambus opened the door fully and I walked inside and into the main room. Triffany was sat on the sofa as she looked up at me.

"Oh! Hello Filbo! Pretty late to come round for a visit." Wambus stood behind me. "He's tryin' to get the whole gang together sayin' it's some 'important reason'." He then walked off, hopefully going to call the others. Triffany smiled at me and patted the sofa beside her. I then sat down. "Thank you. Sorry to bother you." "Oh no need to worry about that." Triffany smiled sweetly. "If somethings troubling you, then feel free to come knocking."

After a while of talking to Triffany, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it." Wambus said as he walked towards the door. Beffica quickly walked inside, followed by Cromdo who looked annoyed. "This better not be a waste of my time- I've got a business to run!" Cromdo said as Beffica laughed. "More like a big scam." Shelda walked in and sat in the floor in the main room, as she began to meditate. Wiggle walked in strumming her guitar and humming a catchy tune with Gramble by her side.

"Wambus." He said, with a glare. "Gramble." Wambus replied, with a more menacing glare. The pair glared at each other for a few moments before Gramble walked into the main room and sat beside Wiggle. After a couple of seconds, Snorpy and Chandlo walked inside. "This better not waste too much of my time. I don't want to leave my house again today after this." Snorpy said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Lizbert and Eggabell walked in. Lizbert looked over at me and smiled. "Nice to see you Filbo! It must be quite important to you if you got the whole gang together." She said as her and Eggabell walked towards me. "Especially this late too." Like most of the others, Eggabell sounded just as annoyed. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I'll make this quick!" I tried to sound as positive as possible, but the sudden disappearance of the journalist... my buddy... it just worried me too much to wait until morning.

Wambus looked into the main room from the front door. "Is that everyone?" Snorpy gazed around at everyone before speaking, "It appears we're missing that journalist..." he seemed annoyed as he continued to speak. "And Floofty. It's not like my sibling to be late."

"Well it doesn't matter about the journalist not being here cause that's why I called everyone here today." I said, sounding worried. "After the picnic, they didn't come back home. I thought they were just taking a longer route, but when it got really late I just knew something was wrong. And so, here we are."

Everyone stayed silent for a moment as they were hopefully processing what I had just said. "So what are we gonna do about this then bro? We can't find that journalist cause we don't know where they'll go." Chandlo leaned back on the chair he was sat on. I went to speak, but Beffica quickly began to speak. "Yeah. My bestie doesn't have any social media accounts at all. Not only is their life sad, but it's also untraceable."

Once again, I tried to speak but ended up being interrupted "We also have the matter of finding my sibling as well. Floofty isn't one to simply run off without reason." Snorpy spoke. "Maybe that science weirdo kidnapped that book writing guy." Cromdo said, seeming suspicious of what Floofty and the Journalist could be doing. "Seems like something they'd do."

Finally, I tried to speak... but once again I was interrupted, this time by Lizbert but since it was her I didn't mind so much. "I believe the best idea is to retrace our steps as far back as we can. We can head back to that grassy patch we had that picnic at and try and find some clues." Beffica seemed intrigued. "So like some detective stuff? Sounds totes interesting."

"Can we pick this up in the mornin'?" Wambus said sounding tired. "I'm sure everyone's just dyin' to hit the hay." Lizbert looked over at Wambus. "The longer we wait, the less of a chance we have to find them. We leave now." Lizbert stood up and waited by the door as everyone stood up one by one and walked out of the door.

I walked over to the door and pulled Lizbert into a hug. She seemed confused at first, but she then just hugged me back. "Thank you. You always know the right things to say and how to help." Lizbert smiled as we separated from the hug. "It's no problem Filbo! Now let's find that Journalist."

Walking back along the path we went along, everyone either seemed tired, annoyed or worried, with the exception of Beffica who seemed to think if this like some sort of old fashioned detective film. Not many of them seemed to care about the missing journalist or Floofty.

I could feel myself getting more and more worried every second. "What if we never find them? Where could they be?!" As we all walked along, Beffica quickly shouted out something. "Hey, where'd the ship go?" Once she said that, we all looked over and noticed that Beffica was right. The ship was gone.

"If the ships gone as well as my bestie and that science weirdo..." Beffica turned around to face us. "Does that mean they went back to that... hellhole?" I went to speak since she was probably wrong, but what she was saying made perfect sense. That was a journalist who always knows where to find good stories and a scientist who studies some sort of stuff with eating Bugsnax on a ship back to Snaktooth.

I stood up straight as I turned to face everyone. "Where can we find a ship?" "A ship?" Cromdo spoke with confusion in his voice, "What would you need a ship for?" Taking a deep breath, I smiled. "We're heading to Snaktooth."