Home Alone in Pure Heart Valley

Chapter 4: Day 2

It was a new morning back at the Sheriff's Department, and inside, Adorabat was getting ready for another small bout of fun. She was able to get over the shocking movie she only watched last night, surprisingly, but the fresh memory was enough to have the little bat girl mellowed out for the time being.

Today, she opted to go for something simpler. On top of the attic staircase, she sat on a sled, aiming it for the front door which was wide open, showing the front yard outside which was covered in a deep layer of snow. She held on to the sled as it teetered on the edge, and then let it tip forward until it rapidly began its descent down the stairs.

Adorabat let out a long cry of excitement as she experienced the tobogganing of a lifetime. It was one thing to do it on a snow-laden hill as per tradition, but no one ever conceived that the same could be done indoors on stairs and through a door so far, all except for her. As soon as the sled she rode on cleared the stairs, she directed it right between the couch and TV (she had previously moved the coffee table beforehand) and then streaked out the door. She flew in an arc over the porch steps and made a graceful landing on the snow below, going for a few more inches until she stopped short of the bushes.

Adorabat got off the sled and grabbed it before making her way back to the house to do it all again. For her, it really was fun, more so with the fact that she pioneered this new tobogganing experience.

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Back on the public aero-transport vessel, something almost akin to a crime scene was happening in one of the cabins. The kids were out of their seats and with Badgerclops, standing around Mao Mao and Eugene collapsed on the carpeted aisle floor. Badgerclops only looked at his friend and Adorabat's father for so long when a stewardess on the vessel approached him.

"The captain's doing all he can, but we still can't get a connection to your phone line," the stewardess reported. The badger only gave a nod before turning his attention back to the two adults on the floor at his feet. Mao Mao was lying on his back, eyes open in a catatonic state. Eugene just stuck to sitting with his back against a nearby seat, his wings clasped over his head as he sweated and hyperventilated from the pressure of the sudden realization.

"How could I do this?" Mao Mao whispered tremblingly, speaking to no one but himself. "We forgot Adorabat."

Badgerclops got right to trying to play the comforting reassurer. "Easy, Mao. We didn't forget her. We just miscounted."

His words didn't quite seem to reach Eugene's ears. "What kind of father am I?"

"Well, if it makes you feel better," Badgerclops made a second attempt to salvage the cat's and bat's emotions, "I forgot to bring the aerocycle." All he got from saying that was a confused look from Eugene and a piercingly emotionless death glare from Mao Mao, who was still lying on his back.

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Back in Pure Heart Valley, it was nightfall. The Sweetypies in town had just settled back in their homes to get warm and cozy, as the sun had went down and thus the winter environment for a whole lot colder. It should be expected that no one would be outside at this hour, but it wasn't the case. Hidden at the edge of the forest, two individuals – a fox and raccoon – stood in the snow and peered around a couple tree trunks, scoping out the Sheriff's Department HQ just meters away.

"This is it, Reg," the fox whispered to his shorter raccoon partner. "Can you feel the anticipation?"

The raccoon called Reg looked a little giddy. "Oh yeah, I do. What about this are we feeling?"

The fox looked at HQ in his own state of gleeful contemplation. "Why, we're going to be doing our first burglary in this valley, going to every house for loot...but what better house to start with than the home of that blasted sheriff?" He narrowed his eyes and let out a devious quiet chuckle. "Now that sheriff truly will pay."

Reg the raccoon then looked a little worried. "But you sure you wanna be doing this while he's home, Rufus?"

"Reggie!" the fox called Rufus hissed. "Just so you know, the sheriff and his deputies are away on vacation, from what I heard. This is the perfect opportunity to give him the scam of a lifetime! We can always rob the other houses, but first, we're going to take every last thing from his precious little home! Then he'll learn to never mess with us again!"

Reggie, as the raccoon was truly called, nodded slowly and allowed a smile of realization to creep on his face. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's get it then!"

"Right, we will," Rufus affirmed in his signature sultry drawl. He and Reggie came out of hiding to begin their sneaking towards the house.

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Inside HQ, Adorabat had apparently dozed off on the chair behind Mao Mao's desk, having picked an alternate place to nap apart from the couch. From the fact that the darkness of the main atrium was faintly aglow with the TV being on and playing, Adorabat was once again occupying her evening with another movie. Though this time, she chose to play something a little more kid-friendly this time around. There were still snacks scattered all over the couch, but they weren't as messy as yesterday's ice cream. It was mostly just popcorn, chips, and other dry snacks courtesy of raiding Badgerclops's stash.

Adorabat continued to lay curled on Mao Mao's chair, slumbering away with the hope she could see her hero in her dreams, but the faint sounds of clattering on wood quietly jolted her awake. She carefully peeked over the desk to spot a shadow behind the top screen of the front door. It was silhouetted, and Adorabat hoped it was Mao Mao or Badgerclops or even her dad. But it was when she heard a voice that was decidedly none of those three that turned on the alarms inside her.

Outside on the porch, Reggie was trying hard to pry the front double-doors open, but struggled to do it successfully. He quickly have up to no fruitful results. "Man, it's locked really tight!" he whispered.

"Let's try another door," Rufus suggested, signaling the raccoon to follow him over to the duo's right side, which was in the direction of the house's kitchen side.

Adorabat gasped, getting off the chair and staying low to the ground, following the two silhouettes outside to the kitchen. As she did so, she flipped on every light switch she could find and when she got to the kitchen, switched on that room's light as Rufus and Reggie got ready to try and open its neighboring outside door.

Reggie was surprised at the suddenness of seeing a light turning on, along with the fact that his friend seemed to be wrong. "What? Rufus, I thought you said they were gone."

Rufus was equally and mutually confounded. "I thought they were too. Let's get out of here." With a beckoning hand, Rufus turned away and led Reggie with him away from the house, opting to come back at a later time.

At the same time, Adorabat was huddled against the bottom of a cabinet in the kitchen, pressed clear of the window facing the front yard of the house. She stayed quiet and only went up to take a peek once she was sure that the intruders were gone. She normally would have confronted the baddies head-on, but whenever that was the case, it was only when Mao Mao and Badgerclops were around, and right now, they weren't. Knowing the cat, badger, and the rest of the group were far enough away that they were effectively out of the valley made her feel even more uncertain. If she tried anything and it went wrong, there would be no one to help her out.

Adorabat wondered who those two were anyway, since it was dark outside and she didn't take the time to get a closer look.