Revenge of the Three

Revenge of the Three


    Ranger was a Moon Wolf, a talking wolf that had the lifespan of an average human. Just a puppy, his only companion was a boy named Nathan. Chester, the constantly talking Tree Squirrel, was often with them as well; Ranger never counted him as a companion, however. He lived in a town where women wore pants with skirts; where men wore deep brown coats with bright green buttons and fedoras. He also lived in a town where owning a horse was the best thing in the world and the wagon was the fastest vehicle to drive. 
      When Nathan went away to school, Ranger would often lay beneath an apple tree and wait for Nathan and the children to come out again. Rain or shine, that was what he did. And yes, it was boring. Although he would never admit it, he missed it dreadfully when Nathan was away. He could hear the teacher’s loud, rumbling voice carry on and on about subtraction and addition from where he sat a good ten leaps away under the apple tree and ached for Nathan’s adventurous spirit being crushed under the monotonous learning of men.
       And this was where Ranger was right now, chewing on a delicious deer bone that had been harvested in the auburn woods by Nathan’s father. It reminded him of a bone his Moon Wolf father would give him after the pack had hunted a deer down. But after Ranger’s mother and father had died, he had never thought he would taste another treat like this again. Gnawing happily, Ranger closed his eyes and savored the clinging meat.
     With the bustling town behind him, Ranger only focused on the schoolhouse. Prickly, dry grass pressed against his thick coat of fur and the smell of the lingering meat on the bone was mingled with the biting cold of the wind as it warned of winter. He could also smell sticks.
      Sticks...
      “Acorn!” baby Chester squeaked, gnawing happily as well. But he got a new acorn every day, so this rodent’s joy was nothing compared to Ranger's excitement about his bone. Besides, he looked ridiculous gnawing it while flipped over on his back, his tail still quivering.
      Ranger rolled his eyes, but he suddenly heard the tumultuous sound of children’s feet stamping, books slamming, and laughter and chatter brightening up the solemn school-house. The children would soon be outside and then Nathan and he would go to their favorite fort that they themselves had crafted.
      This fort was the pride of the young males. They had found old blankets, thrown-away candles, matches from their father’s desk, stumps, old knives, one of which suspiciously looked like mother’s cutting knife, and the pride of the fort, an old, rusted farm tool. But in the youths’ eyes, it was a battle sword that had defeated many a foe. (They were lucky they hadn't lost a toe yet. Yet.) Together, they had constructed a shabby looking fort that would blow away at a moment’s notice, but all Nathan and Ranger could see was a fortress fit for a highwayman. They had no idea what that word meant, but it sounded cool.

     Ranger, wagging his tail and grabbing his favorite bone, stood up excitedly.
      When Nathan raced out, his light jacket barely on his thin body and his books precariously held like a football, Ranger and Chester joined the sprint and quickly followed him into the edge of the forest. Slipping and twisting about flora, the youngsters pretended to be mighty hunters of the forest, men who protected their home and let no-one near.
      Nathan was already dumping his books on the forest floor and grabbing his homemade eyepatch. But the happy trio froze when they heard female laughter coming ahead of them. After hiding behind trees, because girls are scary, Ranger sniffed the air. There were females in their fort!
     Nathan and Ranger exchanged glances. They could both hear the girlish laughter and the clinking of teacups, an insult to the manliness of their fortress.
     Chester stopped and turned back to look at them. “What’s wrong?” he squeaked.
     Ranger stiffened when the laughter stopped and the girls began whispering. They had heard them.
      Chester shrugged and then bounced to the door. “Hello!” he squeaked.
      A pot instantly sailed over Chester’s head. The poor squirrel screamed in terror and then dashed away when a dull butter-knife was thrown next.
      Three mean looking girls then stepped out. Ranger tensed. He remembered them well. Nathan always had trouble with them and would usually be the one getting punished in the end because of their pretended innocence when he erupted after getting bullied too long for his temper or patience to handle.
     “This is our fort,” Susan said. She was taller than Nathan by two inches and a year younger than him. She crossed her arms and raised her chin in victory. “So go away.”
     “Uh uh!” Nathan said, stepping forward, his eyes ablaze in fury. “This is our fort! We made it!”
     Jessica, the second tallest girl and a bit wide, shook her plump head and said, “No way, Nathan. Finders keepers.”
     “Weepers losers,” Klaire, a thin girl, added when the trio spotted Nathan’s lip tremble with rage.
     Ranger let his hackles raise and growled, dropping the bone in the process. “You’re going to regret messing with my brother!”
     “Ha! What are you going to do, puppy?” the girls taunted.
     Ranger took a step forward and gave a sharp bark.
     The girls screamed and raced back into the fort. Thrilled with his victory, Ranger sprinted after them. But as quickly as they had come in, the girl trio came out… holding the prized farm tool, a pan, and a stick. Ranger yelped and backpedaled, barely escaping getting clonked on the head by a tree branch.
      “So go!” Susan shouted, clumsily waving the heavy frying pan in her clasped hands.
      The boys hesitated, but when the girls came rushing at them again, they ran. To their credit, angry females are terrifying with or without weapons.
 
      When the girls had chased the boys far enough away to where they were satisfied, they turned back and went to the fort. The boys ran a couple yards more and then finally slowed down. Looking back, Nathan clenched his fists and then began to stomp around. Ranger had never seen Nathan so angry before. The boy paced back and forth, occasionally stomping his foot and hitting his fist against one of the unfortunate trees that stood in his path. Ranger’s throat rumbled angrily and he opened his mouth to do some gnawing. A deep shock raced through his body. He had lost his bone!
     Nathan noticed, too. “The girls have your bone!” Nathan cried. “I’m tired of letting having them bully us around! There is no way that you are going to lose that bone.”
     Ranger barked his agreement.
     “They have the fort,” Chester said dejectedly, his poor tail twitching like a piece of frying meat. The knife sailing at him had done him in.
     “We are going to get that fort back!” Nathan cried, turning to look at the Ranger and Chester. “And I know just how to do it!”
     When the boys had agreed on the best tactic, they quickly went out to collect the items. They knew the girls were afraid of anything girls were afraid of, so the longest, biggest snakes were chosen by Ranger; the creepiest, crawliest bugs, worms, and two huge bullfrogs were acquired by Nathan; and a couple of large, thick-shelled walnuts and some string were added to the revenge pile by Chester.
      “Do you really expect Chester to realize how to create a good revenge plan?” Ranger asked Nathan when they saw Chester bouncing forward with the oversized walnuts in his tiny arms like a kangaroo. A jumbled ball of silver twine sat on top of the pile, threatening to fall off and tangle Chester’s feet.
      Finally, the boys put all the items into place to bide their time till the day. When all the kids went outside for lunch, Nathan slid away to join Ranger and Chester in the fort.  They hid the snakes underneath the two quilts that had served as cloaks and now were beds, the worms in the ridiculous teacups and saucers, and the bugs anywhere Nathan deemed worthy. Chester just put the large walnuts in the middle of the fort.
      Ranger searched for his bone, but he couldn’t find it. Dejected and very, very angry, he stalked over to the boy’s hiding spot, a small gulley between two trees. This area had often been used for snowball fights.
      Finally, they waited. Nathan would certainly miss half the day of school, but that was no concern of Ranger’s. It wasn’t like he would be learning anything new today.
      Ranger heard bushes crackling and his ears raised in excitement. Crouching further against the grass, he could barely keep his tail from wagging with anticipation. The girl trio cautiously appeared, looking around for Nathan who had suspiciously missed the afternoon class. But, bold with their last victory, they entered the fort.
      Ranger’s tail wagged. He couldn’t wait to hear their shrieks…
      ZZZZPT SSShhhhhh. Chester was holding a lit match awfully close to the Moon Wolf’s fur. Ranger concealed a yelp of terror and quickly wiggled away.
      “What are you doing!?” Ranger hissed.
      And that was when Ranger also saw the end of the silver twine in Chester’s hands. Giggling like someone on the edge of hysteria, Chester lit the wire. Ranger watched it travel down the line and toward the fort and toward the nuts. His eyes widened and Nathan wiggled forward just a little bit.
      “Expwosives,” Chester said manically, his paws rubbing together like some mad dentist about to pull all your teeth out. “Uncle Almond’s specialty.”
      The girls quickly saw the wire too and screamed, dashing out like rats at the sight of fire. The snakes and bugs also abandoned ship, scurrying out as fast as they could go. The trees almost seemed to shrink away as well.
      “Wait, what happens to our…?” Ranger couldn’t finish because a bright white flash and the biggest boom, like the shot of a cannon, demolished the fort. Everyone slammed against the ground as blue, red, and orange flames and light crystals were flung into the air. When everything quieted down for just a moment, Ranger began to lift his head.
      BOOM!
     The second round exploded, sending dirt flying into the air and raining on the boys like torpedoes.
     Then there was silence except for the deafening ringing in their ears.
     However, there was a distinct smell of smoke and charred earth. In some places where the dry grass had managed to stay undisintegrated, small fires threatened to grow. Nathan and Ranger looked at each other and then frantically tried to put the fire out with their shoes. Well, Nathan was the only one who had shoes, so Chester and Ranger’s paws were burned dreadfully, but there wasn’t any choice. Nobody could find out about this or else they would be dead. But Ranger could imagine the girls still screaming in terror, fleeing for the town.
      “They’re going to tell everyone!” Nathan cried out, thinking of the same thing.
      “But that was awesome!” Ranger panted excitedly.
      When everything had quieted down enough and the ringing had stopped, the singed Nathan, Ranger, and Chester lifted their heads to see their masterpiece. There wouldn’t be anything growing in this spot for a while. There was also a small crater in the middle of the forest. Thankfully, squirrel explosives are more like large fireworks that send up showers of sparks, so it wasn’t like the man-made ones that would have certainly killed the boys. However, when it was all lit at once…
      Chester was still giggling, the little end of his tail smoldering. Ranger quickly snuffed it out for him with a small lick. Nathan grinned and Ranger panted. His tail wagged.
       “That was awesome,” Nathan said. “We’ve got to do that again!”
 

       Well, it was awesome, until they heard “Nathan, Ranger, and Chester! Getohere!” And then they were whitewashing floors for a month and doing double the chores. The girls got away with their bullying, again, but they were a bit more tentative about teasing Nathan after that. Later, Ranger found his bone, which had been tossed a good bit away and wasn’t damaged by the fireworks. Sadly, I really don’t think they ever learned their lesson. Have I ever mention the time when they lit a squirrel explosive in the school?