1048 Sunset Boulevard

Coal Wars-Chapter 1 (Redone)

April 25, 2009 | Check-in, Uncategorized

Alright, this is the re-write version of the first Coal Wars chapter. Hopeful it will be the same, but different, then the first version. Let see…

Chapter 1: The start of a big problem

The rays of the early morning sun made their way into Rosalin’s den. She heard the whispers of the forest as the wind blows through the leaves, and smells the warm, dry air. She slowly opens her heavy eyes, licking her dry lips. She waited for motivation to get her out of her leaf bed, but non comes; she got up anyway. Shaking stray leaves from her short creamy fur, she stretches her deaden muscles.

Rosalin took a few moments to smooth her ruffled fur before scratching her ear and taking a few steps toward the enterance of her den. Leaves crackles under her feet, and she knew it was time to try and find new bedding. She took a few steps, stops, and lets her eyes adjust to the light. When she finally is out of her den, there isn’t much to see. The grass around her burrow is yellow and dead. An unmoving silence drapes over the nearby trees, and nothing moves. The wind she had heard earlier is gone. Now the air is hot and silent, and she wonders if it would be better to just crawl back into bed.

The sun spies at her from tiny gaps between dull green leaves. Her long brown ears twitch, as does her tail, but she ignores the movement. She stares at the dirt that surrounds the hole leading to her den. Its starting to crumble and cover the opening. Rosalin decided it would need to be moved. She didn’t want to have to move her burrow someplace else. She quite liked the calm, quiet clearing where she lived.

A blue jay sang in the distance. Rosalin rubbed her nose and crawled out of her burrow, taking a few steps further into the clearing. She paused, raising her right ear. Had she heard something? She waited, quiet. There, again, further into the trees. The voice sounded familiar. Rosalin lowered her ear and went toward the sound. She soon came to an oak tree with golden leaves. Most of the branches were bare, but Rosalin could see one figure high up in the branches.

A small squirrel like creature sat near the top, her fluffy tail lazely drapped over the edge of the branch as she fiddled with a green leaf. The one raindrop shaped ear on the side of her head twitched as the rockhopper below her approached, and she flicked her gaze down to Rosalin.

“Oh! Hello Rosie!” she squeaked. Rosalin sat down, licking her paw in a cattish fashion, tail settled on the ground beside her feet. “Hi, Susan. Good morning.” The light brown Unsquir blended in with the branches and leaves of the oak, but her jade green eyes shone like emeralds burried in ancient rock. Her tiny white paws released the leaf and she hopped down, branch to branch, landing at the base of the tree with the grace all Unsquir’s had. She scurried quickly over to Rosalin. “I havn’t seen you in the past few days. What’ya been up to?” she asked.

Rosalin shrugged as the Unsquir jumped onto her shoulders and took up residence on the crown of her head. Her front paws lied on Rosalin’s forehead, and her back legs balanced on her shoulders. Susan’s tail hung down Rosalin’s back, tickling her sides when it swayed. “Not much of anything,” Rosalin answered. “Just walking around, looking for food. You know, everyday stuff.” She made sure to leave out the part about her brooding about the weather. The last few weeks had brought no rain, and Rosalin was almost certain that the Dragons had something to do with it. They had always hated the rockhoppers, greedy for their oil rich soil. The reason really didn’t matter to Rosalin, because she hated them just as much. Their slimy cold scales; sharp, cruel teeth and claws; forked tongues and nasty, twisted ways. Though she had only met one Dragon in her life, she loathed them with a passion that was fueled by grief and regret.

Susan made a kind of satisfied humming sound, and said to Rosalin, “Let’s go get something to drink, Rosie. I’m thirsty, and I want to tell you about the other day when I had found this huge pine cone!” Rosalin smiled and turned towards the nearby pond. She actually hadn’t been there in a few days. Rockhoppers didn’t need water as much as regular animals. Rosalin could go about two or three days without much. They passed nettles and heather, roots and weeds. The branches of the tree’s hung low, providing them shade, though it did not help much with the heat. Most of the grass was yellow or brown, and crunched under Rosalin’s paws. She jumped a log, hearing Susan complain, “Hey! Be more careful!” She smiled and hopped back down, continuing toward the pond. Susan moved, and Rosalin paused. The Unsquir hopped off Rosalin’s head and scampered off ahead of the rockhopper. Rosalin smiled again. It was always nice to see Susan happy and active. It made her feel better about the current situation. It have her a bit of hope every time she smiled. Susan was always a carefree little thing, even a bit naive. She had a tendency to get herself into trouble, Rosalin knew. But she was always a good friend. She had been Rosalin’s good friend ever since she was a kit.

Rosalin sighed, content with the silence she had began to dislike, when she heard an unexpected squeak. Rosalin snapped open her eyes. “Susan?” she called at the bushes. She walked towards the brush. “Susan, what happened? Are you alright?”

“…Rosie… Oh, Rosie…!”

Rosalin pushed her way through the bushes, ignoring the tiny twigs and branches that scratched at her sides. Once on the other side, she saw Susan, standing at the edge of a round hold in the ground…

Rosalin’s eyes stretched wide. Her blood froze, and all color drained from her face in an instant. She thought she might faint, but her paws uncontiously went towards the indent in the earth. It was about twelve feet in length, and three or four feet deep. In the middle, a small puddle of muddy water sat. A greenish yellow fish lay at the edge of the water. Its gills were gasping for oxygen it could not have. Rosalin knew even if it could get back into the water, it would die. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly drier then it had been in days. Susan whimpered. She hurried over to Rosalin and threw her tiny white arms around the rockhopper girls foreleg, hiding her face. “Oh Rosie, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know Susan… I just…”

Spearow pond, the biggest and deepest pond in Clear Rock forest was no bigger then a puddle.

This was bad.

This is where the trouble would begin.

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