That Burning Sensation, Chapter 2
#2 of That Burning Sensation
Finding Trent asleep outside and thinking him in danger of never waking up, another cub rushes to his aid. Is he too late, or is his help unneeded?
That Burning Sensation, Chapter 2
by Dragonborn3
The Cold Chill of Fear
Nick was about as different from Trent as a pup could get. He was a husky/pit bull mix for one thing, and two years older. He was happy more often than not, and liked helping people. Even where they were similar, they were still different. See, Nicholas "Nick" Caner had been orphaned too. His mother had died during childbirth due to complications, and he was adopted by a human couple a few days later. So, like I said, he was different in just about every way.
He was a pretty early riser too, and for the past few years he'd even been the one making breakfast. One day though, after fixing oatmeal and toast, he found waiting for his parents to be too boring to bear. It was winter break, so he didn't have to get ready for school, and he didn't want to watch TV this early. There was never anything good on. So he slipped on a coat and left a note telling his mom and dad that he would be at the park for a little bit, and headed out into the snow covered world. If there was one thing Nick loved about winter, it was being the first to walk in freshly fallen snow. The bigger the crunch, the better! So when he made it to the empty park and found a single set of tracks, leaving a tunnel, he was confused.
The tracks were a bit smaller than his, and they looked like they had been partially melted. Did the owner of the tracks have electric shoes or something? How did they get in the tunnel without leaving tracks going to it? Youthful curiosity didn't allow caution a chance to show up, and Nick followed the tracks in the snow to a bridge. His mind kept coming up with wilder and crazier explanations for how the tracks were made and, understandably, he was surprised and a little disappointed to find a sleeping mouse under the bridge instead of an otherworldly being with feet made of red hot metal.
That's when he remembered that falling asleep in the snow could kill you, and ran up the slope under the bridge. What if the mouse was dead!?
"Hey! Wake up, please wake up!" He said as he grabbed the mouse and started shaking him. This mouse couldn't be dead, he looked even younger than Nick! "Come on, wake up!"
Trent did indeed wake up, his eyes opening to see a canine kneeling over him with an expression of worry on his face. Yelling, he pushed the strange boy away and caused him to roll down the slope. He watched as the unfamiliar canine rolled to a stop at the bottom and felt cold dread settle in the pit of his stomach. Now he'd beat him up for sure! This was bad, Trent was in no condition to fught, and running away would only make him hungrier and probably wouldn't work anyway; the dog had longer legs.
"Agh, why'd you have to go and push me?" The dog called out as he stood up and wiped dirst from his face. "I was just trying to keep you from freezing to death! Jeez, you always like that win you wake up?"
"I..." Trent started to say as Nick started back up the slope. "Stay back! I'm fine, really, I don't get cold!" The mouse tried to explain, hoping the dog would give up.
"Hey, can you calm down? I'm not going to hurt you, I swear."
"Why were you shaking me like that?"
"I didn't want you freezing to death. I just... it didn't seem right to not check."
"I don't get cold. Not anymore."
"How would I even know that? I've never met you before." Nick pointed out. "Besides, how could you not get cold out here? It's the middle of winter!"
"Don't matter." Trent replied, holding his ground. This boy seemed nice, but then so had Mrs. Kelin and Lan, and look at what had happened. "Sorry. For pushing you. I don't like people hanging over me like that."
"I didn't know. Sorry." Nick replied with a guilty grin. "My name's Nicholas, but people call me Nick."
"I'm..." Did he really want to tell this guy his name? He would tell his parents, and they'd call the police. He'd end up right back in foster care, maybe even with the Kelins again. He shuddered at the thought. "I'm Shawn. Nice to meet you, I guess."
"Yeah, hi and all that stuff. Hey, how did you only leave one thing of footprints back at the park? That was pretty cool."
"It wasn't me." Was that how Nick had found him? He'd have to be more careful.
"Aww, come on! I followed them and found you, so who else could it have been?" Nick had somehow managed to sit down right next to Trent without him noticing, and this realization made the young mouse uneasy. Nick put a gloved paw on Trent's shoulder to comfort him. "You can tell me! Was it magic?"
"No! A guy came through here earlier. It wasn't me."
Nick could feel Trent was lying to him, that talking about this made him really scared. Why though? What could be so wrong about telling him how he only left one set of tracks? It's not like he had been in that tunnel while the snow fell... right?
"Um... I know!" Nick said as he had an idea. "I'm really sorry about scaring ya like that. You wanna come back to my place for breakfast? That's how I'll apologize! I made it myself, and it's really good."
"I don't know..." That uneasy feeling in Trent's stomach was getting stronger. Going to Nick's house meant meeting his parents, and they'd ask all kinds of questions. But the uneasiness was overpowered by hunger after a few moments of indecision. "I guess I can. What did you make?"
"Just oatmeal and toast this morning, but I can make something else easy."
"Oh, okay then." Toast was good. He could hide some in his coat and save it for later.
"Come on then, my house isn't far!" Nick told the mouse happily. Success! Maybe he'd be able to figure out what was going on after 'Shawn' had a belly full of cinnamon blueberry oatmeal and buttered toast.