DT: HEY!! IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I WORKED ON THIS STORY!! If you guys are already fans of the story, I suggest you go back and read it over again. I DID! Ok, now let's see if my memory serves me right in THIS chapter! Read on, my viewers, read on... And after THIS chapter, I am SO gonna have to change the rating on this story.
Murray drove like a wildman! He had only seconds to shunt in a certain direction in order to avoid crashing into trees, but it still didn't help much. Within several minutes of his crazy driving, he crashed into a tree so thick, that it was impossible for him to move around it at such a high speed!
Luckily, no one was hurt... except for Murray's driving pride...
"Oh, my poor baby..." he cried as he got out of the car, "Daddy will never drive like that again..."
"Never mind that!" said Scruffles, also getting out of the car, "We're only a few meters away from our target, so we can just walk from--"
"HOW CAN YOU TALK ABOUT LOST COOPERS AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!" Murray shouted, "MY BABY IS HURT!!"
"Sly, is he always like this?" asked Mae, who was still in the car with Sly.
"Sadly, I'm afraid so." he replied, "Murray lives for taking care of vans. It's his greatest past-time, not to mention the love of his life!."
Mae sat there in the car, staring at Murray. He had such a distraught look on his face about his most cherished vehicle, now smashed in the front. Big globs of tears slid across the pink hippo's face
'He must be very lonely...' she thought.
Scruffles' black nose twitched. "Are you guys just gonna sit in the car all day, or are we going to find this Cooper?" he hissed.
Without another word, he turned towards the thickest part of the forest and began walking through it, with his GPS blinking an orange light in his hand. Sly and Mae quickly got out of the car to follow him, but Sly stopped, noticing that Murray and Bentley weren't following.
Sly asked, "Aren't you guys comin'?"
"No, I can't leave her here by herself..." mumbled Murray through great bursts of sobs, "You go on ahead while I patch her up..."
"I think I'll stay behind too." said Bentley, "Murray's going to need some help. And besides, you've got another brain helping you guys out at the moment."
Sly sensed great spite in Bentley's voice. It was obvious that he was still not fond of this Scrufles kid. So, he decided to leave them alone and catch up with Mae and Scruffles.
The walk through the forest took fifteen minutes longer than expected. It would have been much faster and easier with the van, but due to Murray's wreckless driving, that was out of the question! Suddenly, brief gusts of ice cold wind began brushing against the warm faces of the Cooper Gang (or, rather, half of the Cooper Gang).
Mae kept rubbing her arms vigorously together in order to stay warm, while Sly put his hands in his pockets, shivering. Scruffles, on the other hand, paid absolutely no attention to the weird weather and kept his eyes focused on the orange GPS light in his hand. The beeping noise from the light was already at a slightly fast tempo, but he soon realized that the beeping soon began to pulse at breakneck speed. Quickly, he looked up, and the wind suddenly began dying away. Sly and Mae soon looked up ahead too, and there she was:
Lynn Higuruichi, resting in the middle of an unexpected clearing in the forest.
Sly, Mae, and Scruffles were only a few yards away from her. They stared at the young Cooper, grateful that they found her.
The Cooper, Lynn, was lying at the trunk of the only tree standing firm in the middle of the clearing. She appeared to be sleeping, but Mae and Sly weren't so sure. Again, they waited for a brief moment as they stared at her.
She was very small, but seemed to bear a kind of wild beauty. All of her fur was kept neatly together and, she too, wore the same, familiar, blue cap that Sly had always worn. Unlike Mae's hair, which was curly like Carmelita's, Lynn's hair was straight, but had curled in an odd manner at its ends. The clothes she wore, on the other hand, were not so great! They appeared tattered, raggedy, and worn-out. Even though the Cooper Gang was eyeing her at a distance, they could still see rough mounds of dirt embedded in her shirt and pants.
"When do we show ourselves?" asked Mae.
"I'm not sure..." replied Sly, "Whenever you're ready..."
And with that, they decided to go and approach the girl.
But suddenly, she jumped up from her sleep and climbed up the tree, blancing on its thin, decaying branches. She faced Sly and Mae with full discontent.
"Who's out there?!" she shouted violently, "Show yourself!"
The Cooper Gang was quite impressed. Not only did she climb the tree with such flawlessness and ease, but she knew that she was being watched! They then knew that they couldn't stay hidden forever and decided to come out.
"I know there's three of you, so COME OUT!!" Lynn continuously shouted. Her voice was full of anger, but it came off in a way that a child would say it.
The three of them walked out into the clearing, trying carefully not to scare her away, but as they stared at the girl's face, they realized something about her eyes.
There were no pupils!! It was completely, blank, white, and plain.
Was she blind...?
No...
Could she?
.........But then how could she know they were coming? The Cooper Gang made sure that they didn't make any noise when they approached her, so then how is it that she sensed their presence.. and let alone climb up a tree with such ease?
Sly, being the most curious out of them all, was bold enough to ask.
"Are you able to see us, Lynn Cooper?" he said.
Lynn then climbed up higher into the tree, as high as she could, onto weaker, thinner branches.
"How do you know my name?" she demanded, "I don't exist anywhere... and yet... how is it that you--"
Suddenly, decayed branches finally gave in to her weight and snapped in half, as violently as her words were. And, just as violent, she came down hard to the ground with a now serious pain on her backside. She looked up with her colorless eyes at the Cooper Gang.
"Curse my deformities!" she snarled.
"So you really are blind..." said Mae as the small girl nodded her head.
"But then how did you know we were here?" asked Scruffles.
"My eyes see things that others cannot..." she said, "Let's just leave it at that... but I must ask you... who was it that called me "Cooper"?
"That would have been me!" said Sly.
"What is this... Cooper that you speak of?" she asked.
Sly's mouth dropped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing! A Cooper not knowing about Coopers?! What is the world coming to? Before he could say anything, Lynn began sniffing the air. Sly and the others were confused at what she was doing, but they decided to leave her be, lest she shout at them again! When she finished, she gave out a sigh of relief, which confused the Gang even MORE!
"You do not smell of blood. That's unusual... but good." she said happily (For a change)
"Why is that unusual?" asked Mae
"All I smell is our sweat, blood, and tears from being overworked for so long..."
"What do you mean our blood?" asked Scruffles.
Suddenly, she jolted up, causing the Cooper Gang to take a step back. Unexpectedly, the "white-eyed" girl looked worried and scared.
"You have to take me back!"
"In the tree?" asked Sly.
"NO, STUPID!" she shouted, "You have to take me back to the orphanage!"
"What for?" asked Mae.
"I have to help the others... They must escape!"
"Slow down there, Lynn." said Sly, "Who are these others that you keep mentioning?"
Again, Lynn paused briefly, not sure how to piece it all together.
Finally, she said, "There are others... others who desire the sweet taste of escape; as I have. The others can't take much work for very long, but they are then lynched... almost to death... and then they are forced to work for however long the elders say to work. These others...... are the children of the orphanage, forced to work in the underground mines. Please try to understand... I am their only hope of survival. If the Headmistress of the orphanage, Visuka, keeps hold of the children, then they will never see the light of day again. and when the children grow too old...they......they..............."
Suddenly, the frantic Cooper burst out in sobs, similar to Murray's. Sly was dumbstruck and Mae and Scruffles were speechless.
And even in her thickest of sobs... Lynn continued, "Come the day these children turn thirteen, they are killed, hung in front of everyone. But sometimes... when the Headmistress is watching, the elders would kill the child with the same pick and axe the child was using in her mines!" It was horrible!!!"
"But wait..." said Sly, "If you're blind, how can you see all of this?"
Lynn took a minute to clear her face. "And that's another reason why we must go back to the orphanage." she said, "Now that I have help, we can go back to the orphanage and retrieve my cane. Only with the cane am I able to see."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" exclaimed a nasaly voice from behind.
Lynn jumped at the sound of the voice.
"Who is that?" she demanded aggressively again.
Sly, Mae, and Scruffles turned around to see none other than Bentley and Murray, listening in on the conversation.
"We've got some kids to save!" said Bentley.
Both Sly and Mae nodded in agreement as they took Lynn by the hand and headed back for the van.
Scruffles dragged behind, swallowed by confusion and curiosity.
'That's very strange...' he thought, 'Very strange indeed... How is it that this Cooper knew exactly wehre me, Sly and Mae were, but when Benltey and Murray come over, she had absolutely no idea where they were? That's quite a strange mystery...which I intend to solve...'
He then gave off a deviously childish smile as he eyed the Cooper from behind.
But Scruffles wasn't the only one who couldn't keep his eyes off of Lynn!
Murray couldn't help but glance at her every five seconds until they finally reached the van!!
This seems kinda cheesy, but gimme a break; I've been taking far too much time off on this story. All of you thought I would NEVER get to this, but you're WRONG!! I CAN get to it in time!! HAHAHA! (And now, back to the Assassin's Creed story...)