To the editor from Bluey, fluffy reporter. Subject: Stowing away.
When we last left, I had ended up being kidnapped by a ring of fluffy smugglers. Though I feared the worst, the Captain had managed to infiltrate the ship and free me from my cage, along with two other fluffy ponies the smugglers had captured. But perhaps the Captain could have avoided opening the two other cages and made his getaway quicker, as one of the smugglers had entered the room, and caught us red-handed. Looking at her face, I recognized her as the dark-skinned woman who had never made a comment.
âNala?â
As the Captain said that name, I then remember who this person was. The Captain had many people throughout his years working on both merchant and military fleets, and Nala was a contact he had in Africa. Neither the Captain nor I would ever suspect that she would be involved in something as sinister as this.
âWhatâs the meaning of this, Nala?â the Captain demanded.
Nala refused to answer.
Just then, the light from another torch shone into the room, as another gangster came in.
âCaptain Nala, whatâs going on,â
The manâs response was cut short, as he saw the interloper and his three fluffies beside him. With a deft motion, he grabs a pistol from his holster, and aims it at Captain Johann.
âDonât you dare move,â he sneered, âIâll shoot you down right here.â
âStand down, Pedro. This is Captain Johann. Shooting him would have the police after us.â
Pedro let out a quick chuckle, as he realized, âWell, well â one of Sam Adamâs chumps. Whoâd imagine heâd go this far just to get back a worthless fluffy pony?â
Though visibly angered at the statement, the Captain tried to maintain his composure. He demanded, âWhy are you kidnapping these fluffies? Where are you taking them?â
âJohann, please, donât make this situation any worse than it already is. I can let you take back Bluey, but you have to get off this ship.â
âGet off?!â asked Pedro in bewilderment. âI thought the boss paid us big money to get that fluffy âreporterâ over there.â The way he said âreporterâ was so condescending, you could tell that he could scarcely believe I held this occupation.
âIâm disgusted with you, Nala. Fluffy smuggling? Off all things?!!â
The situation as tense. Pedro had the gun to the Captainâs head, while Nala held her arm up, trying her best to defuse the situation. The three of us were staying still, unsure of what to do. Frozen in my position, my eye veered to the right, and saw that Wind was, like me, frozen in fear. As I looked left, I saw the beige fluffy that the Captain had freed was walking back, perhaps planning to re-enter the cage he was freed from.
âOI DUMMEHS! GIT SMAWTY OUTTA HEWEâ
Seems like the cocky smarty with the shades had got up. Pedro, slightly distracted, yelled out.
âWill you SHUT UP you shi-â
Before Pedro could finish his sentence, the Captainâs first flew right into his mouth. The resultant blow knocked the gangster out of his senses, and he lost his grip on his firearm. The Captain proceeded to pummel at Pedro, as he yelled out to the three of us.
âDONâT WAIT FOR ME! GET TO THE BOAT!!â
Unknown to the Captain, (and myself at the time), the Captain had dropped his key during the ensuing struggle. I did heard the sound of a key hitting the floor, but it did not seem apparent to me that the key belonged to the Captain. Realizing what the Captain meant, Wind yelled out, âWun!!â
As the three of us ran away, I could see the Captain fighting with both Nala and Pedro. Rushing into the hallway, we then saw the other gangsters who were still awake. Judging from the sailor gear they all were wearing, my hunch was correct â we were on a ship, perhaps somewhere over the Atlantic Sea.
The three of us narrowly dodged the various men who chased us across the maze of corridors, but we had no idea where to go, or where to escape to. As we quickly ran, we manage to get ourselves into an otherwise deserted store room. However, the yelling of the men could be heard hot on our heels.
âFwens! Hewe!â
Whisper pointed at a vent. These vents would be difficult for the humans to crawl through, but for more agile fluffies like Wind and myself, this was perfect. The three of us climbed into the vent, trying our best to be as stealthy as possible. It was a forever as we moved through to the vent, but we managed to reach what seemed like a safe enough position from the men to detect us.
The three of us were still trying to catch our breath as we convened in the vent.
âFwuffy hab to save da Kapten.â
It was a dangerous idea, and the pinky fluffy pointed that out.
âIt am biggesâ dangew! Hummeh fwen sed fwens hab to git to da boatie!â
I sighed, as I explained, âFwuffy dunno whewe boat is. Fwuffy need da Kapten.â
Poor Captain Andersson. Perhaps the Captain, blinded by his brashness, had not realized that the three of us wouldnât even know where his boat was. And did he even come with anyone in the first place?
âFwuffy hab biggest scawedies,â said the pink fluffy.
âMebbe, mebbe dewe am a wei,â said Wind, as a thought came to her mind. âBut fwens wiww need a big toughie.â
I raised an eyebrow as I asked, âToughie?â
âBig, BIG fwuffy. Fwuffy hab heard da gangsta hab tawkies abow putting a big fwuffy in anudda cage in anudda woom. Big fwuffy, wif big muscwe. Maybe witâ dis fwuffy, fwens can save da Kapten.â
It seemed foolhardy. But it was either that, or stay in the vents and rot.
~
Navigating the vents wasnât easy. We had to be careful not to go near those dangerous fans. As we kept walking, we noticed the vents were above a few brightly lit rooms. Over one of the rooms, we could see the sailors talking about the intended destination.
âSo this is your first day on the job?â
âYeah it is, but I heard that I could get to see fluffies die in some horrible and excruciating ways.â
âOh, youâre in for a treat. The Boss has an island where he hosts the big battle royale event for fluffies. Almost no fluffies survive it, so heâs been looking for some smarter or unique fluffies to enter into this competition.â
So they were going to take us to some death game. Disgusting.
âWut am a âbattwe woyaweââ? asked Wind.
Tyring my best to explain it in fluffspeak, I said, âIt am big twabbo.â
As we kept moving on, and perhaps by some rather ironic luck, we were directly above our target, Captain Andersson. The Captain, however, was bound and gagged. One good thing was that knowing the Captain was gave us a sense of direction as to where to head to. And we were about to conintue our way, until the metal door opened, and Nala entered.
âMeanie wowstest munstah,â said Wind.
âShh!â
As we looked into the vent, we saw Nala approach the Captain with a bowl of rice and a glass of water. Taking a spoon of the rice, she places it into the Captainâs mouth. However Anderson, in a fit or rage, spits out the rice at her.
âJohann, Iâm trying to be nice. These men would rather kill you.â
âThen why donât they? Youâre not going to get away with this.â
Nala did not seem to enjoy the situation she was in. Her face was not one of anger. Rather, it was one of shame, as she gritted her teeth.
âDo you think I want to do this? Do you think I want to get involved in this illegal trade?!â
âThen why the hell are you doing it?!!â
âThey have my family hostage!â
The Captainâs mouth remained opened. Nala, not wanting to face Johann, looked to the ground, as she continued.
âI didnât want to do this. I was just looking for work as per normal. I then heard about a lucrative offer to send cargo to a remote island. I didnât think much about it at first, until I found out I was ferrying illegally sought fluffies. When I tried to cancel my contract, they took my family. Theyâre now being held hostage on that island, unless I finish this job.â
âWhy didnât you tell me? Why didnât you tell anyone?â
âItâs not that simple. Thereâs a reason why I wanted you to escape, and to take Bluey back with you. Maybe you canât save all the fluffies, but you and I both know that Bluey is a lot more important than the other fluffies weâre ferrying.â
There was a brief moment of silence. After a few collections of seconds, the Captain then grimly said, âAll fluffies are special, one way or the other.â
Nala sighed, as she said, âWell, you blew our chance. Now they want to ransom you. They know they canât kill you without there being a huge scandal and the whole cover on the operation being blown.â
I wanted to hear more of the conversation, but Wind started tapping me.
âIt betteâ we go.â
~
After what seemed like an endless amount of crawling, we managed to reach a room where two sailors were talking in front of a really large cage. In that cage was a mountain of a fluffy. I mean, he was a really big fluffy. One could confuse him with a fluffalo, if not for the fact that he didnât have horns. What was distinct about him though, was he too was wearing a helmet. However, unlike the helmet Wind was wearing, this was a big helmet of iron, one that ancient human warriors fought in a distant time, unimaginable to us of the fluffykind.
As we watched, we overheard their discussion.
âSo exactly who is this big guy?â
âNameâs Quesada. Apparently, heâs some rare Castillan breed fluffy. Youâd think heâs a fluffalo, but heâs just a really big fluffy. Can think of one other fluffy thatâs bigger than him, but this guy packs a wallop. We were told by Captain Nala to keep him away from the others and in this room, and to watch him at all times.â
âAll times? What are they going to do? Fluffies are so stupid, and its not like this beast is going to bang its way out of this cage.â
As both men laughed, one of them said, âCome on, lets go get some smokes.â
It was the perfect opportunity. The three of us climbed into the room, and saw Quesada, place in his special cage. We located Quesada, but now came the big question â how were going to get him out?
âHowd on fwens. Fwuffy am gonna twy sumtinââ
As the pink fluffy said this, he inhaled, and tucked in his stomach. I could see his face turn a little green, as he started to vomit a small pool of bile onto the floor.
âEEEW!â yelled out Wind and I in disgust.
But as this happened, I noticed that a shiny object was residing in the pool of bile that the pink fluffy had regurgitated. It was the Captainâs skeleton key. As I gingerly picked up this priceless artifact from the disgusting bile, I slowly brought the key into the lock that held Quesada.
âWho am dewe?â
Looks like the beast woke up. And thankfully, I was able to unlock the lock in time to answer him.
âFwens am hewe to wescue âou.â
âOtay.â
Quesada cracked his neck to the left and right, as he stepped out of his cage.
âWhew tuu?â
âIn da vents, fwen. We hab to save a hummeh fwen.â
As Wind and Quesada crawled into the vents, I noticed that the pink fluffy had gone to consume the skeleton key. Looks like he was going to hold on to it in case it was needed again.
âFwen, thanks.â
âIt am no twabbo. Fwuffy thinkies dat keysie am impowtanâ.â
He was definitely right, I then realized that, all this time, I didnât even know who he was.
âWut am fwen name?â
The pink fluffy smile, as he said, âZanda.â
And so there it was. Wind, Quesada, Zander and I. We were on our way to rescue the Captain.
And hopefully, get ourselves off this damn ship.
