Gaining Lost Time- Chapter Two
#3 of Gaining Lost Time
Chapter Two
"Where Am I?"
By
Furry Sith Lord
I ran as fast as I could because I knew I had to get away but the more I ran the more I realized that I was running away from my family. I made an excuse in order to leave the mansion because I needed to think things through.
Everybit of the inside was almost like the mansion my father owned. The only things missing were my bedroom and my brother's. It confirmed my suspicion that Oziah was indeed my grandfather and his son, Lou, was a fawn version of my father.
It made no sense because how could my father be a fawn when he was a grown ass adult? Where had my dad and my brother gone to? Time travel is thought to be impossible because time itself is thought to be changes that occur in the present but those changes cannot be revisited because they've already been changed. So theoretically there is no past or future to travel to.
I've heard other arguments that a time dilation, what they call time travel, is possible but there is no way to get back once you do it. However, how to do time dilation or any other way to travel through time is a complete mystery.
The letter my grandfather sent me said that a fur named Eastwood would help him build that machine my dad and I were looking at. When I checked it out I kinda figured it out but there are a few things that I have no idea about. Then when I spoke to my grandfather he started calling me Eastwood after I asked about the name. So now I'm totally confused.
This could be a dream, a really intense dream! It seemed and felt real enough but I was not completely sure. I needed to find a way to test this to see if I had really gone back in time or was this a dream or hallucination.
I wanted my father to be alive sooo bad that maybe I invented all this to make it seem like he was alive. I just was not sure why he was roughly the same age as me. I wondered if dad, Uncle Jon, and Bill would be the same age. Then it hit me that that would be a good way to test things. If dad, Uncle Jon, or even Bill were adults I'd know this was some sort of hallucination.
The problem was that I had no idea where they lived. Then it occured to me that I knew where they would all be gathering. Bearly Academy, the school my parents went to and the same one they sent Lyon and myself to. The trouble was how was I going to get there let alone pay for the tuition fees?
I was walking in the downtown area of the city next to our mansion and I wandered around realizing I was homeless and familyless. I realized I would have to return and beg for Oziah to take pity on me and try to find a way to stay there until I could find my way back to my family.
"Hey watch it, Buuud!" A gray colored rabbit said as I accidentally bumped into someone as I was too busy thinking rather than paying attention. The rabbit exaggerated the last word which struck me as odd.
"Sorry, my bad." I replied and he raised an eyebrow as he looked at me.
"You watch it Buud, or my foot will slap some sense into you." He replied and then a female rabbit ran up to us.
"Trever? What's going on?" She asked and I noticed her brown coloring and wondered if she was related to this gray rabbit.
"This goofball bumped into me and then he's like I'm bad so you better watch it." Trever replied.
"What? I never said that." I replied and the female rabbit gave me a look of disgust.
"He's one of those white creatures. Probably came here to start trouble! We better not get involved." She sneered again and they both walked away but not before Trev er stuck up his middle digit to me, pegging me off. I rolled my eyes and turned away, not really interested in starting a fight with him.
I found a public pay phone on a street corner and was surprised that it existed. The creation of cell phones made the need for them to become obsolete. I had seem pictures of them but never actually saw one. I saw a book hanging from a steel cord and opened it to see the names and addresses of various species listed.
I searched for my grandpa and after a bit I found his phone number. I made a note of his phone number but then noticed that I needed coins in order to get the phone to work. My grandpa lives a couple of cities away so it would be a long distance call. I doubted I could reverse the charges because if I had traveled back in time, my grandpa would have no idea who I was. I also had no idea how much money I would need because I had never used a machine like this before.
I saw a number of species around me giving me dirty looks and I felt like a cub again. I had forgotten how much my fur color made other species hate me. I was truly alone again and knew I had to make my way back to Oziah. I quickly started moving again as a police car drove by and I had the feeling they were looking at me.
I took off quickly before they tried to stop me and come up with some excuse to arrest me. My fur color alone would be enough for them to say I was causing a disturbance because the fragile species here seemed upset by rare white fur species.
"Hello General." Oziah replied as his military contact finally answered his call.
"What can I do for you Mr. Cervus-D?" The General said cordially. They had a long history of doing business though they really did not like each other.
"Sorry to disturb you but I was wondering if you were familiar with a certain fur that I believe has been selling computers to the government." Oziah explained.
"Possibly, but if I did I fail to understand 'why' this would be any of your business."
"I found a cub abandoned on my front lawn and while talking to him he mentioned his parents sell technology and computers. He gave me their names so if it is true I'm most curious as to 'why' their son was on my lawn." Oziah said.
"What are you thinking? That they are some sort of foreign power looking to undermine us?" The General asked.
"I dunno, but the cub was a Bengal Tiger that has white fur."
"I see." The General replied.
"He might be a trophy son for a collector. Would be a shame if he lost one of his prized pieces." Oziah said, hoping the General was starting to see things his way.
"And you found this cub gift wrapped on your lawn?"
"No," Oziah said as he chucked. "He was found in only his fur on my lawn. I first thought it was some sort of hazing thing but when the color wouldn't wash off I began to wonder.
"What were the names of his parents again?" The General asked.
"Lou Cervus-D and I never got his other parent but he called one his father and the other his dad. He heard a soft snarl coming from the General because the army was not fond of male to male couples.
"Is that a fact?"
"It seems to be the case. Do you recognize the name?" Oziah asked.
"Not off the top of my head but I'll definitely look into it. Is the boy still in your custardy?"
"Don't worry about him. He seems to be harmless and doesn't have a clue what happened to his family." Oziah said, trying to think of a way get get the white tiger back under his control. He could use the lad as a bargaining chip with the General later on.
"I would suggest you keep a tight watch on him because if it turns out he's a security risk, then the last thing you want is to be blamed for letting him run loose." The General said and Oziah frowned trying to keep his composure.
"I plan to keep an eye on him until I can return him to his family. That way I can talk about the computers his family manufactures. I can use them in our weapons division which if I make better weapons I make a happier you.... Correct?" Oziah asked strategically. He knew that was the only thing the General really cared about. Keeping the General in the palm of his hoof was his top priority and he would do that even if he had to string this white cub along.
Oziah ended his call and saw the maid waiting at the door to his office. He smiled at her and motioned for her to enter.
"Sorry to disturb you sir but your... guest has returned and needs to speak to you." She said bashfully. The cub stuck his head to look inside and Oziah gestured for him to enter.
"I see you have returned. Did you forget something?" He said as the maid politely bowed then left.
"I actually need your help. It's kind of difficult to explain but if you help me I can make it worth your while." Tyger said and he looked at his feet with his ears lowered.
"Go on."
"Long story short, I need help. I need to get to Bearly Academy and my tuition paid. My family isn't here and I seem to be alone so I was hoping to strike a deal with you." Tyger explained.
"A deal?" Oziah asked but something in his voice sounded like his father.
"I'm willing to work to help pay my way. I can get a job on campus as a tutor and send you all the money I make. Plus I'll work for you during the breaks until I can find a way home and get the rest of the money to pay you back."
"It's not that easy. There are other costs. Clothing, because you cannot wear the gym clothes my son gave you. Books and materials. Then there is tuition and meals that need to be factored in. I doubt a part time tutoring job will get you more than a couple of bucks. Tuition alone is around $10,000. You'd have to work a hundred years to pay me back on your own.
I could attempt to call the school and see if we can get ahold of your family. Surely they were planning on sending you back there... unless you were not completely honest about what you told us." Oziah hinted.
"I'm not sure I can explain it but I may have been wrong about some things. The one thing I know is that I did go to Bearly Academy because my parents sent me there. The rest is fuzzy after that." Tyger lied but he hoped he could convince his grandfather about his supposed confusion rather than telling him he may have traveled through time.
On his way back here as he thought about what to say to his grandfather, he remembered all the movies that had time travel in them. They warned about changing the past because it could destroy the future. I also knew little of how my parents lived when they were cubs so that made things difficult.
"So then your family is not involved with computers or make tech of any kind?" He asked sternly and his annoyance made me jump. He made my father seem tame if I had to comp[are the two of them.
"I dunno... I just think my answers are at school. If I can get there I'm sure I'll know the truth. Is there any way we can strike a bargain?" I asked as he folded his hooves under his chin and he stared at me emotionless. He again felt as if my father was watching me trying to size me up for weaknesses.
"Do you think I'm a fool?" He asked coldly.
"No sir!"
"You think, I'll just give money to anyone with a sob story?" I felt that sinking feeling like I was watching a character from my video games jumping off a high cliff and my stomach made me feel as if I were the one falling.
He rose and went to the door of his office. Then yelled louder than my father had ever yelled for us. If Ozia
"Lou!!!!!" He yelled and a few minutes later Lou ran into the office as fast as he could.
"Yes sir!" He said and he bent himself forward breathing heavily. Tyger tried not to laugh because both Lyon and him had done the same thing when their father shouted for them.
"Take a seat son, I expect you to make me proud." Oziah said and he gestured to a chess set set up on a table with two chairs facing each other. Tyger's face lit up because he knew how good he was at chess but when he saw that his supposed father was his opponent, he remembered how much his father hated to lose.
"Eastwood, you mentioned you played chess. If you can beat my son we'll make a deal with you but fail and I'll know everything you said was a lie." Oziah explained and I saw an evil look in Lou's face.
"No offense but wouldn't you rather challenge me? I've never seen your... son play with the club at school so I doubt he is up to par with me." I replied, getting the little dig in.
"I happen to be captain of the chess club. I've never seen YOU play and I think it's time to end your tall tales you keep telling." Lou replied.
"Are you calling me a liar, sir?!!!" I said incredulously. Tyger wanted to spare his feelings so that he would not lose in front of his father. He was so determined to lose then Tyger was now willing to oblige him. Even if Lou might be his father he was not going to back down now that he had been called out.
"Pick one." Lou replied as he held both hooves up and each one was curled into fists to hide the chess pieces they held. Whichever one he picked would be the color he played as. Tyger tapped his left hoof and Lou opened it to reveal a black colored piece.
Oziah watched them both carefully as they fought to outdo each other. He remained silent although occasionally he muttered the word 'interesting' when Tyger made a move. Tyger saw a small bead of sweat forming on Lou's brow as he concentrated. Tyger already had his plan set in place to win; he just needed two more moves to do it.
Oziah seemed to have figured it out and watched his son with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. It seemed he hated to see his son lose almost as much as Lou hated to lose. Finally, Lou saw he had no choice and he reached out to topple his king. Oziah let out a cry of disappointment and Lou quickly left with his head hung low from the shame of losing.
"You are one of the best players I have ever faced. I look forward to a rematch." Tyger said and Lou nodded but still left with his gaze looking downward.
"You have an interesting style when you play." Oziah said after they were alone again.
"I got lucky," Tyger replied but Oziah gave him a cold hard stare.
"My son doesn't lose so easily. I may not always show it but I am very proud of him. For you to best him is quite a thing. He will have a tough time living it down." Oziah said.
"Have I proven myself?" Tyger asked.
Lou's eyes began to water as he made his way back towards his room. He curled up his hoof into a fist and banged it against the wall to try and release how upset he was. He could not believe he had lost to that creature! Even after bragging that he was captain of the chess club he was made to look like a liar.
"Eastwood, I'll make you pay!" He said as he rubbed tears from his eyes. He thought about ways to make fun of the tiger's name and it occurred to him that Eastwood could be shortened to EW or eww. It was exactly what he thought about him! Once they got back he would find any friends of the tiger and make sure they joined him in making fun.
He would get revenge for being humiliated in front of his father. It would be bad enough how his father would treat him now that a rare white fur tiger had beaten him in a game as simple as chess.
"There is more to you than I originally thought. I could see through your strategy but you set the board up in a way that there was no way to avoid it. My son is no slouch when it comes to chess but you spanked his bottom as if he were a fawn."
"He is a fawn," I joked but Oziah just stared at me for interrupting him. "I was taught by the best and my father IS the best." I said but felt a pang of guilt again for lying. I still had trouble admitting that my father was dead. The thought that I had just beaten the fawn version of my father, made things worse.
"In that case I would love to meet them."
"Well you can't! Nobody is home...yet." Oziah roxse from his desk again and went to the doorway.
"Lou!!!! Get back here!" He yelled into the hall then turned to face me after he sat back down again. "Is that the best you can do? Come on boy, if you are gonna lie to me make it a good one."
"Yes sir?" Lou asked as he struggled to take deep breaths. I saw his face was red as he took deep breaths to try and fill his exhausted lungs. He looked at me and glared slightly before turning his attention back on his father.
"That cub is an idiot! His parents are probably idiots too. If you ever have a son like this I'll disown you, do you understand?" Oziah said and Lou struggled to catch his breath enough to respond. I rolled my eyes and had to chuckle because if he knew what I knew he might not be so brazen.
"Want me to help you to your garden? Maybe get some yummy asher to eat?" I asked as I put my arm around Lou and both he and his father stared at me again.
"What?" I asked feeling stupid for some reason with the astonished looks on their faces.
"What garden?" Oziah asked. Lou stood upright as he finally stopped breathing heavily and I saw the look of hatred in his eyes.
"Oh, you guys don't have one? My father grows his own garden where he has imported grasses growing there so he can snack on them. Anytime my tummy gets sick he brings me fresh clover from it and we eat it together. I just thought it was something every deer did." Again feeling guilty for the small lie at the end.
"Your father pays someone to tend to it?" Oziah asked.
"No, he does it himself. He gets afraid his garden will be trampled on by anyone other than him." I replied and Oziah snorted and dismissed the idea but I saw Lou lower his head as he looked at his feet.
"You can't run a proper company with your head stuck in the grass." Oziah said dismissively.
"What if you're wrong?" I asked and they both looked at me questioningly.
"What nonsense is this?" Lou asked as he came to his father's defense.
"Do you play chess Mr. Cervus-D? I'll tutor your son and if he wins you let him build a garden where he can grow all his favorite grasses and plants he loves to eat." I said and Lou looked at me in horror.
"And what do I get when I win?" Oziah asked as he gave a stern glance at Lou. I saw Lou look at me pleading for me to not go on but unfortunately for him, he was not getting out of this.
"What would be an acceptable offer in your estimations?" I said and Lou's face almost turned white. My father always said never give control of a deal to the other party. The strategy here was to get him drunk with power in order to trap him as I did his son in the chess game.
"I don't think you have much to offer." Oziah said and I tried not to smile because he had set his foot in my snare.
"So then you're forfeiting?" I replied and Lou suddenly grinned as he saw what I was doing.
"Never, but you have nothing to offer me that is worth the costs involved for creating a garden for my son.
"Not even an unreleased bit of tech my father's company is developing?" I asked as I leaned in towards him.
"You have my full attention." Oziah said and I looked at Lou.
"Then let's send junior here away so we can get down to business." I replied and Oziah used his head to gesture for Lou to leave. His son frowned at me then left the room once again and I politely closed the door behind him.
"The floor is yours." Oziah replied.
"Do you know what a perpetual energy machine is?"
"Of course." He asked skeptically.
"My family has been working on a machine that, using almost the same principles, would create a self-sustaining operative and could amplify the amount of energy put into it and increase it exponentially so that putting the energy of a battery into it could power an entire city for over ten years." I explained. Oziah looked at me skeptically.
"Ever since species first made a perpetual wave machine they have been trying to use it to create a new source of energy. This proves impossible but the exact reason why I do not know. I am not a scientist." Oziah said.
"Is it? What if I could build a small model and prove that it can be done?" I asked.
"So you are going to make a perpetual wave machine and then expect me to believe if I make a bigger one it will power my entire mansion?" He replied and raised his eyebrow as he stared at me.
"I'll prove it! We take a car and remove the battery from it. Then hook up my miniature version of the device to the car and see if it can make the car start up. My device needs an energy source fed into it to start the process. I'll take a small size 'D' battery and feed it into my device and you'll see the car come to life. No gasoline required because the whole car will run on a size D battery."
"This sounds like a scam to me." Oziah said.
"Afraid I'm correct?" I replied.
"Just the opposite. You expect me to spend an incredible sum of money with nothing to go on but a promise you can make me a machine to pay me back."
"How about if I become your slave? I'll have no way to escape and you can quiz me to see if I'm telling the truth." Oziah folded his hooves under his chin again. I could tell he was considering it but this I had planned on. I knew he would become greedy and think to use the slave collar to try and take advantage but this is where I would win. I had already guessed what he would do and was ready for it to then turn it to my advantage.
To Be Continued...