Carl started muttering again to himself as they waited for Russell to return. Rapunzel sat on a rock, with her arms wrapped around her knees, humming to herself. She could see now why her mother had longed to come here; it was a very peaceful, exotic place.
“I found the snipe,” came Russell’s voice, suddenly.
“Oh, did you?” mused Carl, humouring him.
Rapunzel adjusted her harness. “Good for you, Russell.”
“Are they tall?” asked Russell.
“Oh, yes, they’re very tall,” dicho Carl.
“Do they have a lot of colours?”
“They do indeed.”
“Do they like chocolate?”
Rapunzel frowned. “Chocolate?”
Both she and her father turned and jumped backwards at the sight of what Russell had found. It was a bird, alright, but it was enormous; probably about the same size as the house, with a long neck, a pointed beak, wide eyes and, indeed, a lot of bright coloured feathers.
“What is that thing?” exclaimed Carl, jumping in shock as the bird squawked at them.
“It’s a snipe,” declared Russell, proudly.
Rapunzel quickly herded him away from the bird, in case it was dangerous. “There’s no such thing!”
“But your dad said-whoa!” Russell laughed as the bird seized him in its beak, tossed him into the air and caught him on its belly, cradling him like a sea nutria holding an oyster.
“Shoo! Get out of here!” Carl snapped, waving his stick threateningly at the bird, but it screeched at him, and then leapt onto a árbol branch, with Russell in its beak.
“Be careful, Russell; try not to agitate it!” Rapunzel cried.
“Hey, look!” laughed Russell as the bird swung him por the ankle. “It likes me! No, stop, that tickles!” he laughed as the bird started to groom him.
“Oi!” Carl prodded the bird with his stick. It promptly put Russell back on his feet and hissed at the pair of them. Carl and Rapunzel backed off as it approached, menacingly, but then Russell threw himself in the way. “No, Kevin! Mr Fredrickson and Rapunzel are nice! It’s ok!”
“Kevin?” repeated Mr Frederickson.
“That’s his name I just gave him,” Russell explained.
Rapunzel laughed. “You think he looks like a Kevin, Russell?”
“Go on, beat it, vamoose, scram!” Carl ordered Kevin, waving his stick. Kevin, however, was in no way intimidated por Carl. He simply snatched his stick and tried to golondrina it. “Hey, that’s mine!” Carl cried. Rapunzel, unable to stop herself, laughed. Kevin choked and spat the stick out again. Disgusted that it was now covered in drool, Carl tried shooing Kevin away again, but Kevin merely imitated him. This only made Rapunzel laugh harder. Carl, disgruntled, seized the now soggy walking stick and hobbled over to where he had tied up the hose pipe to keep the house from floating away.
“Can we keep him, please?” begged Russell, using Kevin’s feet like stilts. “I’ll get the comida for him, I’ll walk him, I’ll change his newspapers...”
“No,” snapped Carl, shortly.
“Russell, for a start, it’d never fit in the house,” Rapunzel pointed out. “And we don’t even know what it eats.”
“An Explorer is a friend to all,” recited Russell, defiantly, “be it plant o pescado o a tiny mole!”
“That doesn’t even rhyme,” snorted Carl.
“Yeah, it does,” replied Russell. “Hey, look, Kevin!”
The three of them looked up to see Kevin perched on the roof of the house. “Get down!” shouted Carl. “You’re not allowed up there!”
Kevin swallowed one of the rosado, rosa helium-filled balloons. Rapunzel winced. “That can’t be good!”
The balloon popped and Kevin spat out the burst pieces of rubber.
“You come down here right now!” Carl demanded.
Surprisingly, Kevin obeyed. Carl sighed. “Sheesh! Can tu believe this, Ellie?”
“Ellie?” Russell seemed to realised and then clasped his hands as if praying. “Hey, Ellie, can I keep the bird? Uh-huh? Uh-huh. She dicho for tu to let me.”
Rapunzel opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. Actually, if her mother were here with them, it would have been the kind of thing she’d say; why, Rapunzel could even hear her saying it in her mind.
“But I told him no!” protested Carl to the sky, and then “I told ya no! N-O!” to Russell.
Kevin hissed at Carl again, defiantly. Rapunzel flinched. “Daddy, I don’t think you’ve got much say in the matter. Mom would let him keep it, if she were here. Anyhow, we’re wasting time. We need to get to Paradise Falls, with o without this tag-along.”
Carl sighed and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, Rapunzel. Let’s get going.”
Half an hora later, they didn’t seem to be getting any nearer to the Falls. “I see tu back there!” Carl called to Kevin, who immediately tried to hide behind a large rock pile.
Rapunzel giggled as Kevin broke up some chocolate and threw it on the ground. “Russell, tu shouldn’t encourage him. It’ll just be harder to let him go when we have to leave.” She paused, thinking hard. How were they going to leave?
“Go annoy someone else for a while!” Carl snapped to the bird.
“Hey, are tu ok, over there?”
The trio turned, peering into the mist ahead of them where the voice had issued from. Rapunzel squinted. The outline of a person was just visible through the mist.
Kevin immediately shot away from the group. “Uh, hello?” called Carl into the mist, spotting the shape Rapunzel had seen. “Oh, hello, sir! Thank goodness! It’s nice to know someone else is up here!”
“I can smell you!”
“What?” Carl frowned. “You can smell us?”
“I can smell you!” the voice insisted.
Puzzled, the trio moved closer to the shape, and as the mists cleared, they saw it was nothing but...
“A rock?” Russell giggled. “You were talking to a rock!”
“Two rocks,” Rapunzel pointed out. They formed the shape of a man within the mist.
“Hey, that one looks like a turtle!” Russell pointed. “And that one looks like a dog!”
The rock moved and the three of them jumped. “It is a dog!” Rapunzel laughed.
“ Hey, I like dogs!” Russell said, petting the dog’s head.
“We have your dog!” Carl called, looking around. But there was no one in sight.
“I wonder who he belongs to?” Rapunzel said, bending down to brush mud off her shoes.
“Sit, boy,” Russell ordered, and the dog did so. “Hey look, he's trained! Shake.” The dog did so. “Uh-huh. Speak.”
“Hi there.”
The three of them froze. “Did that dog just say "Hi there"?” asked Carl.
“Oh, yes,” replied the dog.
The three of them jumped with a loud gasp and stared. The dog put his front paws on Carl’s chest, panting in delight. “My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I amor you.”
“Wha-?” Carl spluttered.
“My master made me this collar,” Dug went on, tail wagging like mad. “He is a good and smart master and he made me this collar so that I may speak. Squirrel!” He looked into the distance for a few minutos and then turned back to Carl. “My master is good and smart.”
“ It's not possible!” Carl spluttered.
“Oh, it is because my master is smart!” Dug insisted.
“Cool!” Russell began fiddling with the dials on Dug’s collar. “What do these do, boy?”
“Hey,” exclaimed Dug, his voice changing as Russell fiddled, “would tu - cuerdo con tigo - I use that collar - watashi wa hanashi ma - to talk with. I would be happy if tu stopped.”
“Russell, don't touch that,” cried Carl. “It could be... radioactive o something.”
“I am a great tracker,” dicho Dug, sniffing around them. “My pack sent me on a special mission, all por myself. Have tu seen a bird? I am going to find one, and I am on the scent. I am a great tracker; did I mention that?”
Kevin suddenly sprang out of nowhere and pinned Dug to the ground with a loud screech. “Hey, that is the bird!” Dug exclaimed. “I have never seen one up close, but this is the bird. May I take your bird back to camp as my prisoner?”
“Yes, yes, take it!” Carl agreed. “And on the way, learn how to bark like a real dog!”
“Oh, I can bark,” Dug replied, barking. “And here’s howling.”
“Can we keep him?” Russell begged. “Please, please, please?”
“No,” replied Carl.
“But it's a TALKING DOG!” Russell cried.
“It's just a weird trick o something,” Carl insisted. “Let's get to the falls.”
“Anyway,” agreed Rapunzel. “It sounds like he already has an owner.”
Kevin followed them as they headed onwards, and Dug followed Kevin, begging “Please be my prisoner! Please, oh, please be my prisoner!”
Several hours later, everyone was getting tired and tensions were rising as Carl was getting frustrated and Dug was clinging to Kevin’s leg, still begging. “Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please be my prisoner!”
“Dug, stop bothering Kevin!” Russell scolded.
“That man there says I should take the bird,” Dug argued, “and I amor that man there like he is my master.”
“I am not your master!” Carl snapped.
“I am warning tu once again, bird!”
“Hey! Quit it!”
“I am jumping on tu now, bird!”
“At this rate we'll never get to the falls!” sighed Rapunzel.
“Here, bird!”
Carl stumbled as Russell ran to stop Dug jumping on Kevin. Rapunzel, caught in the middle, also stumbled, and as Carl toppled backwards, the house knocked into a large rock. Carl and Rapunzel gasped as a window smashed. Angrily, Carl glared at Rusell, Kevin and Dug and they all quickly straightened up like soldiers.
“I am nobody's master, got it?” he snapped, pointing at Dug. “I don't want tu here,” and he pointed at Kevin, “and I don't want tu here!” He pointed at Russell. “We’re stuck with you! But if tu two don't clear out of here por the time I count to three-!”
“Oh! A ball!” exclaimed Dug, seeing the tenis balls on the end o Carl’s cane. “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! A ball!”
Chuckling, Carl popped it off the end of the stick. “You want it, boy?”
“Yes, I do! I so ever do want the ball!” Dug begged.
Carl threw it. “Go get it!”
“What-?” Rapunzel began as Dug shot off after the ball, begging “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! I will go get it and then bring it back!” Then, realising what her father was up to, she picked up a piece of Russell’s chocolate from the ground and flung it into the bushes. Kevin ran off after it.
“Come on!” cried Carl, seizing Russell’s arm.
“Wait, wait!” begged Russell, not realising the significance of their actions, but neither Carl nor Rapunzel paid him any heed as they hurried along, trying to put as much distance between them and Kevin and Dug.
“There,” Carl panted, eventually. “We should've gone enough. We should be rid of them now.”
Sitting down, he turned to his left and Rapunzel stifled a giggle as they spotted Dug sitting there with the ball in his mouth.
“Hi, Master,” Dug said, dropping the soggy ball onto Carl’s lap.
Rapunzel glanced to the right as Kevin shrieked at them. It looked like there was no getting rid of their new friends. Before she could say anything, however, there was a clap of thunder overhead as it began to rain. “Oh, no,” she sighed. “My coat’s in the house!”
It was alright, though. The five of them sheltered under the house as it began to get dark.
“Well, thanks for keeping us dry anyway, Ellie,” Carl muttered, sitting on a rock. Rapunzel sat down too, huddling into herself and playing with her hair, as Russell tried to pitch a tent, with a great deal of difficulty. Eventually, however, he sat up and grinned.
“All done!” he beamed to Carl. “That's for you!”
The rather badly made tent promptly collapsed.
“Aw!” Russell sighed. “Tents are hard!”
“Wait, aren't tu "Super Wilderness Guy?" With the GPM's and the badges?” Carl asked.
“Yeah,” Russell replied, sheepishly. “But... can I tell tu a secret?”
“No.”
“Daddy!” Rapunzel reprimanded him. “Go ahead, Russell.”
“Alright, here goes. I never actually built a tent before. There. I dicho it.”
“You've been camping before, haven't you?” Rapunzel asked.
“Well, never outside.”
“Well, why didn't tu ask your Dad how to build a tent?” Carl asked.
“I don't think he wants to talk about this stuff,” Russell shrugged, sitting down beside her.
“Why don't tu try him sometime?” suggested Carl. “Maybe he'll surprise you.”
“Well, he's away a lot,” Russell shrugged. “I don't see him much.”
“He's got to be inicial sometime,” Carl said.
“Well, I called, but Phyllis told me I bug him too much.”
“Phyllis? tu call your own mother por her first name?”
“Phyllis isn't my mom.”
Carl and Rapunzel exchanged a glance. “Oh.”
“But he promised he'd come to my Explorer ceremony to pin on my Assisting the Elderly badge, so he can mostrar me about tents then, right?” Russell added.
Again Rapunzel and her father shared a glance. “Sure thing,”
“Hey, uh, why don't tu get some sleep?” added Carl, uneasily. “Don't want to wake up the travelling flea circus.” He nodded towards Dug, who was sleeping curled up around Kevin’s leg. Kevin was asleep too, with his head under his wing.
“Mr. Fredricksen,” dicho Russell, “Dug says he wants to take Kevin prisoner. We have to protect him.” He lay down on a rock. “Can Kevin go with us?”
Carl sighed. “Alright. He can come.”
“Promise tu won't leave him?”
“Yeah,” Carl muttered.
Russell yawned. “Cross your heart?
Rapunzel smiled, remembering that gesture her father had always made in her childhood. Evidently he remembered it to, all those times back when Ellie was still alive.
“Cross my heart,” Carl said, nodding to his daughter.
Rapunzel took one last look around at the group and then settled down to sleep herself.
“What have we got ourselves into, Ellie?” Carl asked, before he too went to sleep.
The siguiente morning, it took Rapunzel a while to remember where they were, and why her cama was so hard. Then, she pushed herself up on her rock and remembered. Carl sat up and pulled on his glasses.
“Morning, Daddy,” Rapunzel said, rubbing her eyes.
“Morning, sweetheart,” Carl replied, smiling up at their house. “Morning, Ellie.”
The balloons on the house were visibly wilting. Carl shook his head. “We’d better get moving.”
Rapunzel looked around. “Kevin’s gone.”
“Huh.” Carl shrugged. “Maybe Russell won't notice. Alright, everybody up!”
Russell sprang awake with a snort. “Where's Kevin? He's wandered off! Kevin! Dug, find Kevin!”
Dug woke up and began to sniff, muttering “Find the bird. Find the bird...POINT!”
“Oh, look!” Russell pointed upwards. “There he is.”
Once again, the bird was on parte superior, arriba of the house. “POINT!” Dug corrected himself, pointing at the house.
“Hey! Get off our roof!” Carl shouted.
“Yeah, get off their – woof!” Dug agreed.
Kevin cried out, suddenly, into the distance. “What’s he doing?”Rapunzel asked.
“The bird is calling to her babies,” replied Dug.
“Her babies!” Russell repeated, excitedly, and then “Kevin's a girl?”
“Looks like it,” replied Rapunzel, with a smile.
Kevin leapt off the roof. “Her house is over there in those twisty rocks,” Dug explained, nodding towards a labyrinth of rocks. “She has been gathering comida for her bebés and must get back to them.”
“Wait, Kevin's just leaving?” asked Russell, as Kevin “hugged” him goodbye and patted Rapunzel and Carl on the heads with her beak. She hissed at Dug. “But tu promised to protect her! Her bebés need her, we gotta make sure they're together.”
“Sorry Russell,” shrugged Carl. “We've lost enough time already.”
“He’s right,” agreed Rapunzel, patting his shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. This is her home, after all.”
“Yeah...” Russell agreed, slowly.
Kevin hurtled off. Russell picked up his chocolate bar.
“This was her favourite chocolate,” he said, his voice quavering. “Because tu sent her away, there's más for you.”
There was a rustling noise behind them.
“Huh?” Carl turned.
“Kevin?” Russell asked, turning hopefully.
Rapunzel gasped as three large dogs, all wearing collars like Dug’s, suddenly emerged from the bushes, snapping and growling. Dug cowered as they approached.
“Oh no!” Rapunzel exclaimed, in terror.
What now?
“I found the snipe,” came Russell’s voice, suddenly.
“Oh, did you?” mused Carl, humouring him.
Rapunzel adjusted her harness. “Good for you, Russell.”
“Are they tall?” asked Russell.
“Oh, yes, they’re very tall,” dicho Carl.
“Do they have a lot of colours?”
“They do indeed.”
“Do they like chocolate?”
Rapunzel frowned. “Chocolate?”
Both she and her father turned and jumped backwards at the sight of what Russell had found. It was a bird, alright, but it was enormous; probably about the same size as the house, with a long neck, a pointed beak, wide eyes and, indeed, a lot of bright coloured feathers.
“What is that thing?” exclaimed Carl, jumping in shock as the bird squawked at them.
“It’s a snipe,” declared Russell, proudly.
Rapunzel quickly herded him away from the bird, in case it was dangerous. “There’s no such thing!”
“But your dad said-whoa!” Russell laughed as the bird seized him in its beak, tossed him into the air and caught him on its belly, cradling him like a sea nutria holding an oyster.
“Shoo! Get out of here!” Carl snapped, waving his stick threateningly at the bird, but it screeched at him, and then leapt onto a árbol branch, with Russell in its beak.
“Be careful, Russell; try not to agitate it!” Rapunzel cried.
“Hey, look!” laughed Russell as the bird swung him por the ankle. “It likes me! No, stop, that tickles!” he laughed as the bird started to groom him.
“Oi!” Carl prodded the bird with his stick. It promptly put Russell back on his feet and hissed at the pair of them. Carl and Rapunzel backed off as it approached, menacingly, but then Russell threw himself in the way. “No, Kevin! Mr Fredrickson and Rapunzel are nice! It’s ok!”
“Kevin?” repeated Mr Frederickson.
“That’s his name I just gave him,” Russell explained.
Rapunzel laughed. “You think he looks like a Kevin, Russell?”
“Go on, beat it, vamoose, scram!” Carl ordered Kevin, waving his stick. Kevin, however, was in no way intimidated por Carl. He simply snatched his stick and tried to golondrina it. “Hey, that’s mine!” Carl cried. Rapunzel, unable to stop herself, laughed. Kevin choked and spat the stick out again. Disgusted that it was now covered in drool, Carl tried shooing Kevin away again, but Kevin merely imitated him. This only made Rapunzel laugh harder. Carl, disgruntled, seized the now soggy walking stick and hobbled over to where he had tied up the hose pipe to keep the house from floating away.
“Can we keep him, please?” begged Russell, using Kevin’s feet like stilts. “I’ll get the comida for him, I’ll walk him, I’ll change his newspapers...”
“No,” snapped Carl, shortly.
“Russell, for a start, it’d never fit in the house,” Rapunzel pointed out. “And we don’t even know what it eats.”
“An Explorer is a friend to all,” recited Russell, defiantly, “be it plant o pescado o a tiny mole!”
“That doesn’t even rhyme,” snorted Carl.
“Yeah, it does,” replied Russell. “Hey, look, Kevin!”
The three of them looked up to see Kevin perched on the roof of the house. “Get down!” shouted Carl. “You’re not allowed up there!”
Kevin swallowed one of the rosado, rosa helium-filled balloons. Rapunzel winced. “That can’t be good!”
The balloon popped and Kevin spat out the burst pieces of rubber.
“You come down here right now!” Carl demanded.
Surprisingly, Kevin obeyed. Carl sighed. “Sheesh! Can tu believe this, Ellie?”
“Ellie?” Russell seemed to realised and then clasped his hands as if praying. “Hey, Ellie, can I keep the bird? Uh-huh? Uh-huh. She dicho for tu to let me.”
Rapunzel opened her mouth to argue and then closed it. Actually, if her mother were here with them, it would have been the kind of thing she’d say; why, Rapunzel could even hear her saying it in her mind.
“But I told him no!” protested Carl to the sky, and then “I told ya no! N-O!” to Russell.
Kevin hissed at Carl again, defiantly. Rapunzel flinched. “Daddy, I don’t think you’ve got much say in the matter. Mom would let him keep it, if she were here. Anyhow, we’re wasting time. We need to get to Paradise Falls, with o without this tag-along.”
Carl sighed and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, Rapunzel. Let’s get going.”
Half an hora later, they didn’t seem to be getting any nearer to the Falls. “I see tu back there!” Carl called to Kevin, who immediately tried to hide behind a large rock pile.
Rapunzel giggled as Kevin broke up some chocolate and threw it on the ground. “Russell, tu shouldn’t encourage him. It’ll just be harder to let him go when we have to leave.” She paused, thinking hard. How were they going to leave?
“Go annoy someone else for a while!” Carl snapped to the bird.
“Hey, are tu ok, over there?”
The trio turned, peering into the mist ahead of them where the voice had issued from. Rapunzel squinted. The outline of a person was just visible through the mist.
Kevin immediately shot away from the group. “Uh, hello?” called Carl into the mist, spotting the shape Rapunzel had seen. “Oh, hello, sir! Thank goodness! It’s nice to know someone else is up here!”
“I can smell you!”
“What?” Carl frowned. “You can smell us?”
“I can smell you!” the voice insisted.
Puzzled, the trio moved closer to the shape, and as the mists cleared, they saw it was nothing but...
“A rock?” Russell giggled. “You were talking to a rock!”
“Two rocks,” Rapunzel pointed out. They formed the shape of a man within the mist.
“Hey, that one looks like a turtle!” Russell pointed. “And that one looks like a dog!”
The rock moved and the three of them jumped. “It is a dog!” Rapunzel laughed.
“ Hey, I like dogs!” Russell said, petting the dog’s head.
“We have your dog!” Carl called, looking around. But there was no one in sight.
“I wonder who he belongs to?” Rapunzel said, bending down to brush mud off her shoes.
“Sit, boy,” Russell ordered, and the dog did so. “Hey look, he's trained! Shake.” The dog did so. “Uh-huh. Speak.”
“Hi there.”
The three of them froze. “Did that dog just say "Hi there"?” asked Carl.
“Oh, yes,” replied the dog.
The three of them jumped with a loud gasp and stared. The dog put his front paws on Carl’s chest, panting in delight. “My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I amor you.”
“Wha-?” Carl spluttered.
“My master made me this collar,” Dug went on, tail wagging like mad. “He is a good and smart master and he made me this collar so that I may speak. Squirrel!” He looked into the distance for a few minutos and then turned back to Carl. “My master is good and smart.”
“ It's not possible!” Carl spluttered.
“Oh, it is because my master is smart!” Dug insisted.
“Cool!” Russell began fiddling with the dials on Dug’s collar. “What do these do, boy?”
“Hey,” exclaimed Dug, his voice changing as Russell fiddled, “would tu - cuerdo con tigo - I use that collar - watashi wa hanashi ma - to talk with. I would be happy if tu stopped.”
“Russell, don't touch that,” cried Carl. “It could be... radioactive o something.”
“I am a great tracker,” dicho Dug, sniffing around them. “My pack sent me on a special mission, all por myself. Have tu seen a bird? I am going to find one, and I am on the scent. I am a great tracker; did I mention that?”
Kevin suddenly sprang out of nowhere and pinned Dug to the ground with a loud screech. “Hey, that is the bird!” Dug exclaimed. “I have never seen one up close, but this is the bird. May I take your bird back to camp as my prisoner?”
“Yes, yes, take it!” Carl agreed. “And on the way, learn how to bark like a real dog!”
“Oh, I can bark,” Dug replied, barking. “And here’s howling.”
“Can we keep him?” Russell begged. “Please, please, please?”
“No,” replied Carl.
“But it's a TALKING DOG!” Russell cried.
“It's just a weird trick o something,” Carl insisted. “Let's get to the falls.”
“Anyway,” agreed Rapunzel. “It sounds like he already has an owner.”
Kevin followed them as they headed onwards, and Dug followed Kevin, begging “Please be my prisoner! Please, oh, please be my prisoner!”
Several hours later, everyone was getting tired and tensions were rising as Carl was getting frustrated and Dug was clinging to Kevin’s leg, still begging. “Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please be my prisoner!”
“Dug, stop bothering Kevin!” Russell scolded.
“That man there says I should take the bird,” Dug argued, “and I amor that man there like he is my master.”
“I am not your master!” Carl snapped.
“I am warning tu once again, bird!”
“Hey! Quit it!”
“I am jumping on tu now, bird!”
“At this rate we'll never get to the falls!” sighed Rapunzel.
“Here, bird!”
Carl stumbled as Russell ran to stop Dug jumping on Kevin. Rapunzel, caught in the middle, also stumbled, and as Carl toppled backwards, the house knocked into a large rock. Carl and Rapunzel gasped as a window smashed. Angrily, Carl glared at Rusell, Kevin and Dug and they all quickly straightened up like soldiers.
“I am nobody's master, got it?” he snapped, pointing at Dug. “I don't want tu here,” and he pointed at Kevin, “and I don't want tu here!” He pointed at Russell. “We’re stuck with you! But if tu two don't clear out of here por the time I count to three-!”
“Oh! A ball!” exclaimed Dug, seeing the tenis balls on the end o Carl’s cane. “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! A ball!”
Chuckling, Carl popped it off the end of the stick. “You want it, boy?”
“Yes, I do! I so ever do want the ball!” Dug begged.
Carl threw it. “Go get it!”
“What-?” Rapunzel began as Dug shot off after the ball, begging “Oh, boy! Oh, boy! I will go get it and then bring it back!” Then, realising what her father was up to, she picked up a piece of Russell’s chocolate from the ground and flung it into the bushes. Kevin ran off after it.
“Come on!” cried Carl, seizing Russell’s arm.
“Wait, wait!” begged Russell, not realising the significance of their actions, but neither Carl nor Rapunzel paid him any heed as they hurried along, trying to put as much distance between them and Kevin and Dug.
“There,” Carl panted, eventually. “We should've gone enough. We should be rid of them now.”
Sitting down, he turned to his left and Rapunzel stifled a giggle as they spotted Dug sitting there with the ball in his mouth.
“Hi, Master,” Dug said, dropping the soggy ball onto Carl’s lap.
Rapunzel glanced to the right as Kevin shrieked at them. It looked like there was no getting rid of their new friends. Before she could say anything, however, there was a clap of thunder overhead as it began to rain. “Oh, no,” she sighed. “My coat’s in the house!”
It was alright, though. The five of them sheltered under the house as it began to get dark.
“Well, thanks for keeping us dry anyway, Ellie,” Carl muttered, sitting on a rock. Rapunzel sat down too, huddling into herself and playing with her hair, as Russell tried to pitch a tent, with a great deal of difficulty. Eventually, however, he sat up and grinned.
“All done!” he beamed to Carl. “That's for you!”
The rather badly made tent promptly collapsed.
“Aw!” Russell sighed. “Tents are hard!”
“Wait, aren't tu "Super Wilderness Guy?" With the GPM's and the badges?” Carl asked.
“Yeah,” Russell replied, sheepishly. “But... can I tell tu a secret?”
“No.”
“Daddy!” Rapunzel reprimanded him. “Go ahead, Russell.”
“Alright, here goes. I never actually built a tent before. There. I dicho it.”
“You've been camping before, haven't you?” Rapunzel asked.
“Well, never outside.”
“Well, why didn't tu ask your Dad how to build a tent?” Carl asked.
“I don't think he wants to talk about this stuff,” Russell shrugged, sitting down beside her.
“Why don't tu try him sometime?” suggested Carl. “Maybe he'll surprise you.”
“Well, he's away a lot,” Russell shrugged. “I don't see him much.”
“He's got to be inicial sometime,” Carl said.
“Well, I called, but Phyllis told me I bug him too much.”
“Phyllis? tu call your own mother por her first name?”
“Phyllis isn't my mom.”
Carl and Rapunzel exchanged a glance. “Oh.”
“But he promised he'd come to my Explorer ceremony to pin on my Assisting the Elderly badge, so he can mostrar me about tents then, right?” Russell added.
Again Rapunzel and her father shared a glance. “Sure thing,”
“Hey, uh, why don't tu get some sleep?” added Carl, uneasily. “Don't want to wake up the travelling flea circus.” He nodded towards Dug, who was sleeping curled up around Kevin’s leg. Kevin was asleep too, with his head under his wing.
“Mr. Fredricksen,” dicho Russell, “Dug says he wants to take Kevin prisoner. We have to protect him.” He lay down on a rock. “Can Kevin go with us?”
Carl sighed. “Alright. He can come.”
“Promise tu won't leave him?”
“Yeah,” Carl muttered.
Russell yawned. “Cross your heart?
Rapunzel smiled, remembering that gesture her father had always made in her childhood. Evidently he remembered it to, all those times back when Ellie was still alive.
“Cross my heart,” Carl said, nodding to his daughter.
Rapunzel took one last look around at the group and then settled down to sleep herself.
“What have we got ourselves into, Ellie?” Carl asked, before he too went to sleep.
The siguiente morning, it took Rapunzel a while to remember where they were, and why her cama was so hard. Then, she pushed herself up on her rock and remembered. Carl sat up and pulled on his glasses.
“Morning, Daddy,” Rapunzel said, rubbing her eyes.
“Morning, sweetheart,” Carl replied, smiling up at their house. “Morning, Ellie.”
The balloons on the house were visibly wilting. Carl shook his head. “We’d better get moving.”
Rapunzel looked around. “Kevin’s gone.”
“Huh.” Carl shrugged. “Maybe Russell won't notice. Alright, everybody up!”
Russell sprang awake with a snort. “Where's Kevin? He's wandered off! Kevin! Dug, find Kevin!”
Dug woke up and began to sniff, muttering “Find the bird. Find the bird...POINT!”
“Oh, look!” Russell pointed upwards. “There he is.”
Once again, the bird was on parte superior, arriba of the house. “POINT!” Dug corrected himself, pointing at the house.
“Hey! Get off our roof!” Carl shouted.
“Yeah, get off their – woof!” Dug agreed.
Kevin cried out, suddenly, into the distance. “What’s he doing?”Rapunzel asked.
“The bird is calling to her babies,” replied Dug.
“Her babies!” Russell repeated, excitedly, and then “Kevin's a girl?”
“Looks like it,” replied Rapunzel, with a smile.
Kevin leapt off the roof. “Her house is over there in those twisty rocks,” Dug explained, nodding towards a labyrinth of rocks. “She has been gathering comida for her bebés and must get back to them.”
“Wait, Kevin's just leaving?” asked Russell, as Kevin “hugged” him goodbye and patted Rapunzel and Carl on the heads with her beak. She hissed at Dug. “But tu promised to protect her! Her bebés need her, we gotta make sure they're together.”
“Sorry Russell,” shrugged Carl. “We've lost enough time already.”
“He’s right,” agreed Rapunzel, patting his shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. This is her home, after all.”
“Yeah...” Russell agreed, slowly.
Kevin hurtled off. Russell picked up his chocolate bar.
“This was her favourite chocolate,” he said, his voice quavering. “Because tu sent her away, there's más for you.”
There was a rustling noise behind them.
“Huh?” Carl turned.
“Kevin?” Russell asked, turning hopefully.
Rapunzel gasped as three large dogs, all wearing collars like Dug’s, suddenly emerged from the bushes, snapping and growling. Dug cowered as they approached.
“Oh no!” Rapunzel exclaimed, in terror.
What now?