NTS-HD-05 Sundered Hearts
By Darrel James Vanwinkle
May 4th, 2013
Chapter Forty-One
By Darrel James Vanwinkle
May 4th, 2013
Chapter Forty-One
Back in Meta Star City, snow was falling as December had just begun. Rudolph was unhappy and miserable because they still didn't know where I'd disappeared to. Krypto was fed up as all of both his and Ace's informants had no information on what had happened to me. There were now Missing Canine posters all over the city. But since I wasn't in Meta Star City, none of the posters were generating any leads.
"Try your super ventriloquism again, Krypto," said the Bat Hound. "Maybe you will get lucky this time. He has to be hearing you."
Krypto sighed but it was all he could do to keep his sanity. I had never run away before so he couldn't figure out why I would do it now.
'Harold, this is Krypto. Rudolph and I are worried sick about you. Please come home.'
At that moment, our vagabond hound rail car was sitting on a side ell near Pecos in QC Texas. Our group had expanded to a nice pack sized group of nine hounds and one rat who were all down on their luck. But no matter where we went, no one dared to make us abandon our claimed rail car. One of the hounds was softly playing a harmonica while the rest of us shared a sparse meal which I had procured for us. And then... I heard Krypto's message. And the tears in my eyes began to well up as I realized that I was making their lives unlivable because I had left without telling them where I was going.
The older hound looked at me as he lay a paw on my shoulder. "Thinking about loved ones?"
"Y-yeah... I messed up things back home and now... they want me to come home."
"How do you know that? You're just a vagabond like the rest of us."
I slowly stood up and magically caused my collar and my cape to appear, which caused the hounds to step back from me. All of them suddenly recognized who I was.
"Night the Superdog! In our rail car!"
I sighed. "Nighthunter, as I told you before."
The rat said, "BULL! You're Night the Superdog!" He pulled out one of the posters and held it up. "I can't believe without the collar and the cape we never recognized you!"
I sighed again. "I accidentally torched the Union Script Building and fried one hell of a dumb assed toon. And he wasn't even a cute donkey."
Much to my surprise, the hounds slowly applauded what I thought was a bad thing. Then the owner of the harmonica said, "Doesn't matter who you are, Night... you have always been there for us and even defended us from the railroad engineers. You obviously have a home but the rest of us... we only have this rail car. We're vagabond hounds."
I nodded my head. "Krypto and Rudolph want me to come home. But even if I do, I can't get any work in Meta Star City. I've been banned from the Union Scripting Department."
"So this is where you went..." Standing just outside of the open rail car door was the Wolf With No Name. "Took me forever to find you." He then saw all of the vagabond hounds. "Building a pack, are you? Well, that doesn't surprise me. Hunters are permitted to have them. Better be glad I found you before the Producers did. They are all over in Amarillo where a sighting of you was reported."
"That was two weeks ago, WWNN," I replied. "Our rail car was there then and if I hadn't acted when I did, that poor child would have been killed."
"You made one mistake, Harold; It isn't the end of the world," he said looking quite annoyed. "You're a Hunter. Now are you going to go home on your own or do I have to attack you and carry you back in chains?"
That's when he saw the glow in my eyes and it wasn't the glow of hell hound fire. It was the Kryptonian eyes. "These guys stay with me, wolf! We're vagabond hounds!"
WWNN grinned. "You know... you should turn this into a TV series. Get these people back into the spotlight. Surely they haven't been through all you have, but maybe they think they belong. You accepted them as your own. They are your pack. You don't abandon them, Alpha. Now get your ass back home to Krypto or else I will fight you in such a bad way that we will both get hurt. I mean it, Harold. If I have to come after you again, I'll use Kryptonite."
I grinned in return. "Kryptonite only affects Kryptonians, WWNN; I'm from Earth." I winked slyly.
End of Chapter Forty-One
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