Chapter Text
~.~.~.~
The Song of Hope:
A Chipmunk Story
Book One:
Forgotten
Chapter 8:
“Lost & Found”
~.~.~.~
Jeanette dreamed of an endless sea of stars. She drifted and swam through the dark like a comet, and all the beauty of the cosmos was hers to behold. The stars hummed together in harmony, and she sang along to their song-
Jeanette dreamed of a beautiful field. She raised her hand and struck a silly pose, and the flowers around the field stood up to greet her. She giggled and swayed, arms astray, and the flowers bent and danced with her-
Jeanette dreamed she was a butterfly, helpless inside a chrysalis. She tried and tried to break free but there was no room to move. Her eyes were too poor to see outside. Push as she might, her fragile wings were too soft and weak. She couldn’t breathe-
Jeanette dreamed that she danced with a young girl on a stage made of starlight. The girl was small like herself, with beautiful fiery hair and fur, and eyes like a summer sky. She looked so familiar that Jeanette began to cry, but she didn’t know why-
Jeanette dreamed that she cried, but she didn’t know why-
She didn’t know why-
She didn’t know…
~.~
The soft sound of thunder heralded the new day, as overcast and miserable as could be. Fat raindrops occasionally plopped among the leaves as Brittany and Ellie carried Jeanette to her litter and tied her down for safe travel. Brittany could only sigh as she brushed her sister’s messy hair from her brow. Beneath their lids, Jeanette’s eyes quivered but never opened.
Brittany had awoken to find Jeanette soaked with sweat, shuddering as if freezing cold, but her body was awfully hot to the touch. Her neck, chest, and face were flushed red beneath her fur.
Brittany herself had barely been able to sit up without Ellie’s help, only managing to get her footing when the young chipmunk had used her short self like a crutch. Odd shapes and colors drifted across her vision and twisted her empty stomach with nausea. Her tail dragged behind her as she went.
“Just hang on, Jeanette,” Brittany murmured, looking wearily at the overcast sky and shivering from the cold. A cold raindrop bounced off her brow, and another brushed her whiskers as it barely missed her nose. If only she could catch enough in her mouth.
She wished more than anything that the three chipmunks could just curl up in the darkness of a shelter, sharing warmth and singing songs while the bitter weather passed, but she knew time was running out.
Brittany and Ellie took up the harness of Jeanette’s litter and started off, one painfully slow step at a time. Behind them, the stricken chipmunk murmured and groaned in her fevered sleep, trembling hands reaching for the sky.
~.~
The rain was light but terribly cold, only pausing when the occasional bitter gust of wind would whip through the trees and spray the tiny travelers with mist and detritus. Brittany shivered so fitfully that she stumbled as she walked, her bare fur dampened and dirty. Ellie snapped out some feral curses as a soggy leaf slapped onto her face, ripping it off and flinging it away, only for another to splat onto her head once again.
“Needa stop!” Ellie whined over the rustling of the wind-stroked forest as she spat out slimy bits of leaf.
“We c-can’t stop, Ellie,” Brittany croaked. A peal of thunder sounded from somewhere in the distance, and she glared defiantly at the clouds. If she had her voice, she would’ve growled right back.
“Cheepa f-freeze!”
“I’m c-cold, too, I kn-know.”
“Make a burroom!”
“We c-can’t stop to make a b-burrow. We have to k-keep going,” Brittany said firmly. If she went down again, she wouldn’t be getting back up again. Maybe at all.
Ellie looked back at Jeanette, then back to Brittany, her ratty hair flying about her head and her brows scrunched with uncertainty, but Brittany refused to meet her gaze and kept marching forward. Ellie had little choice but to follow, grumbling as the occasional raindrop popped across her head and shoulders.
On and on they marched, and the going only got more treacherous. Brittany stopped once to tie a big leaf over Jeanette’s litter to try and shield her from the rain. Both chipmunks found themselves having to wade through mud, up to Brittany’s knees and Ellie’s middle, dragging Jeanette over the surface. Twice Brittany tripped and fell, and only rose again when Ellie forced her to do so.
It was midday before the misfortunate travelers crested a sandy knoll to look down on the woodland below, where endless dark trees swayed and churned under the chilly breath of winter. Brittany sank to her knees, shivering pitifully. Everything was so huge, and so far away, and she was so little. She had never felt so little.
“I’m sorry, Ellie,” Brittany whispered, burying her face in her hands.
“Cheepa geddup!” Ellie snapped. Brittany felt the little chipmunk kicking her, but was too despondent to care.
“Go dig a good burrow and find yourself some food,” Brittany continued, “Winter isn’t that long. You’ll be okay.” She felt like her head was underwater. Everything was muffled and bleary.
“Brinney!” Ellie barked, “Looka!”
“Ellie, I’m sleepy-”
Grabbing the eldest chipmunk by her drooping cheeks, Ellie lifted her head towards something in the distance. There, moving through the trees near the horizon, were some pale yellow headlights. The soft thrum of a petrol engine was barely audible over the wind.
Brittany shook the veil from her eyes and stood, squinting as she watched the lights disappear. She turned to Ellie and took her by the shoulders.
“Ellie, you kn-know what that is!?” she exclaimed, pausing to cough, “There’s a road!”
“Arood!” Ellie echoed, brightening.
“That means there’s people!”
“Peepa!”
“Come on, Ellie, we have to get to that road!”
~.~
Down the hill and through the trees, Brittany and Ellie went, nearly slipping and bowling themselves over with Jeanette’s litter multiple times along the way. They had to pass through a narrow, muddy stream, holding Jeanette over them as they passed through it. Ellie shook from the strain, but fought to keep her footing until they could reach the opposite bank.
Both chipmunks were shivering by the time they freed themselves from the icy water. Then it was a matter of pulling Jeanette up the slippery incline without letting her slide back into the stream.
Brittany heard another engine growl past them, tires crunching over wet dirt, just before they reached the crest of the bank. She saw the blurry red of taillights winding away from them through the trees.
“Wait!” Brittany coughed, leaving Jeanette and Ellie where they were as she stumbled down the embankment and splashed through a ditch, gasping at the cold. She crawled on all fours up to the side of the road, looking one way, then the other. The vehicle was gone.
Another came soon enough, a boxy blue truck with a missing headlight rounding through the trees. Brittany perked up, waving her arms and stumbling along the side of the road as the headlight passed over her little shape.
“Hey!” she called, straining her hoarse voice as hard as she dared, but it was swallowed up in the storm, and by the sound of the engine. “Hey! We need help! Hey you! Stop, p-please!”
The truck drew nearer, and Brittany realized too late it wasn’t stopping. She scrambled back away from the road, but the big tires plunged through a puddle and sent a splash of freezing, cloudy water over the unfortunate chipmunk. Coughing and sputtering, Brittany lay on her hands and knees in the grass, dirty water dripping from her ruined bangs and ponytail as she watched the truck disappear.
“Brinney!” she heard Ellie’s voice calling, and slowly rose to her feet again.
“I’m f-fine,” Brittany answered, shivering for all she was worth. She shook the gray water from her fur and turned back to the road.
Another car passed, sunny yellow with a blue driver’s door, but it, too, either ignored Brittany or missed her entirely. A third came and went, even as Brittany threw pebbles at it out of frustration. For the fourth, she desperately tried jumping for its attention, only for it to blast a horn at her as it sped past. Her ears were still ringing painfully from the noise as she waited on the edge of the road.
The fifth and most malicious vehicle waited until it was near before swerving at her, causing Brittany to scramble into the ditch to avoid being crushed. She heard the petrol engine roaring as it sped away, leaving the stunned chipmunk breathing heavily in the ditch, shaking with fear and cold.
Brittany only managed to crawl her way back up after Ellie scampered down to help her. Standing once more on the side of the road, Brittany looked down at Ellie. Her tiny eyes stared back, the drops of rain revealing hints of a pretty golden brown under the filth in her fur and hair.
Brittany looked up at the bank where Jeanette lay beneath a leaf on her litter, thinking of her sister’s fluttering eyelids, burning fever, and the ugly wound on her head.
Another truck passed by, followed by another.
“Watch over Jeanette for me, Ellie,” Brittany murmured. She heard the purr of another engine approaching, and sure enough the headlights appeared in the overcast gray of the woods, just around the bend.
Ellie watched in disbelief as Brittany strode out into the middle of the road.
“Brinney!”
Brittany was angry. She was angry at the storm that took her home and hurt her sister, she was angry at the cold that ruined her nights and made her miserable, and she was angry at herself, for being so small and insignificant that no one could see her. Well they would have to see her now.
As the headlights turned and cast her in a pale golden light against the gray of the overcast woods, Brittany stood as tall as she ever had, her dirty orange fur shining, her ruined ponytail trailing in the wind.
She raised both hands and waved, her heart pounding.
“We need help!” she cried, knowing her scratchy voice wasn’t enough, but she tried anyways, “We need you! Please! Stop!”
The pupils of Brittany’s eyes turned to pinpricks as the harsh lights bore down on her, the sound of the engine growing louder. Ellie looked between Brittany and the car, covering her mouth in terror, but Brittany did not back down.
“Stop! I need you to stop!”
Brittany could just barely make out the silhouettes of people through the windshield.
“Stop!”
The light was so bright she had to close her eyes. Her heart tremored madly in her chest.
“Stoooop!”
All at once the car slammed on its brakes, sliding ruts into the slush of the wet dirt, rotors squealing in protest. As the light faded from Brittany’s face, her eyes flickered open. She saw her warped reflection in the chrome of the car’s front bumper, inches from her face…and laughed. The sad reflection laughed back.
The excitement was the last Brittany could take. With her vision swimming in circles, she didn’t realize she had fallen until she blinked and realized she was looking at the sky, cold raindrops pelting her soft face.
She heard the click and thump of car doors opening, deep and unfamiliar voices, and Ellie yapping and barking and calling out. It all sounded like she was underwater.
“...Brinney!...”
“...careful with that thing…”
“...might bite you!...”
“...one up there, too…”
“...doesn’t look so good…”
Brittany saw a couple of huge shadows loom over her, behind the pale beam of the headlights. Then, a soft towel was thrown over her, blinding her entirely, and some huge hands grabbed up her and the towel together, wrapping her up tightly inside.
“...in the back…”
“...where is it?...”
“...Brinney!...”
“...noisy little thing!...”
“...to the animal hospital…”
It was warm, and music played somewhere in the background over the din of deep voices as the vehicle accelerated beneath her, rocking and bouncing down the dirt road. Brittany was still, until finally her exhaustion took its toll, and she lulled into a fitful sleep…
~.~.~.~