Gem Hunts and Gold Quests Ch 2

Chapter 2

An hour later, Chris and Jay emerged from the cave and walked right back to the beavers, who were still waiting by the black Hummer.

"So you have it?" the tall beaver asked.

"Right here!" Chris holds up the ruby to show that it was retrieved.

"Hand it over!"

"With pleasure!" Chris calmly hands the ruby to the beaver, who snatches it out of Chris' hand and proceeds to the Hummer.  "So how about our fee?"

"Fee?" the beaver asked.  "For what?"

"For getting Estrella Roja!" Jay reminded them.

"Oh yeah!" the beaver says as he gets into the Hummer.  "Here's your stinkin' fee!"  The beaver peels out and drives off, leaving the two adventurers in the dust.  When he sees the Hummer out of their sight, Chris reaches into his pockets to try and find something.

"You know, that would bother me if they didn't pay us for finding it…" Chris slowly pulls out Estrella Roja from his pockets and takes a good look at it.  "…if they had the real thing that is.  Nice work making the fake one, Jay."

Jay smiles and says, "Thanks.  It's great to have the right 'stuff' with you."

"Yeah.  It's amazing what liquid plastic and glass can do!"

"And can you believe that all we had to do was pull it out of the wall, and the next thing you know, we get a bridge to help us cross over the snake pit again!  Talk about a reward for hard work.  So how long do you think it will take for the beavers to realize that they have a fake?"

"Ha!  Those dummies will be out of South America before they realize that they've been had!"  Chris stretches his body from his exercise before proposing a celebration.  "Anywho, I'm in the mood for a drink.  How about you?"

"A drink sounds lovely, Chris!"



In a nearby town, Chris and Jay found a quaint local cantina to grab some Cokes and enjoy their newfound treasure.  The village was pretty dull and it never gets any adventure from their sleepy village.  When a patron noticed the ruby, Chris felt it was his duty to regales the citizens of their adventure, with Jay shaking her head and snickering over Chris trying to elaborate such a story.

"…so there we were, about five feet from the pit.  My grappling hooks were the only things keeping us form imminent death.  These snakes were biting us right up, waiting to taste our flesh!  I knew I had to make a snap decision.  So, I grabbed my trusty whip, cracked it towards the nearest branch, and with one swing, I brought me and my lovely assistant to safety, narrowly avoiding the deadly pit of venom!"

The patrons become immersed with Chris' tale and the entire cantina had stopped what they were doing.  No one was at the dartboard or the billiards' table, and no bartender and server were handing out drinks.  They were all interested in hearing the tale of Estrella Roja.

"So how did you get back?" a young cat asked.  "Didn't you have to cross the snake pit again?"

"Yup.  But once we got the gem, a bridge was created to help us cross the snake pit again.  Kind of a reward for finding it."

"So the legend was true," another patron who was in the background commented.
"Right!  Jay was there.  Tell 'em Jay!"

Jay finished her soda, then got up and walked over to Chris. When she got there, she grabbed her whip, twirled it around her head for moment as the patrons watched in awe, then she snapped her arm over to use the whip to grab a brown beer bottle which was next to a green beer bottle on the bar, then pull back and grab the incoming bottle in her free hand.  The act was met with thunderous applause from the patrons.  "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" Jay challenged Chris, handing him her whip.  "Do the same with the green beer bottle."

The patrons encouraged Chris to do so, but Chris was becoming uncharacteristically modest.  "Oh no…no, no, no…I couldn't…"

"I insist." Jay placed the whip into Chris' empty hands and soon the entire cantina was filled with encouragement towards the young hedgehog.  Seeing that he was now caught between a fox and a hard place, Chris had no choice but to attempt the trick.  With the whip in his hand, he attempted to twirl the whip over him, but it was pretty sloppy compared to how Jay did it, as he was twirling it over all of the patrons, who in response tried to duck.  When it became time to crack the whip, Chris snapped his wrist towards the bar and actually did get the green bottle, but instead of grabbing it, he tipped it over and caused it to drop on the floor.  The patrons laughed at the spectacle and Chris was thoroughly embarrassed.

"Chris, you tell quite a tall tale," Jay comments.  "But…I love you none the less."  
This comment made Chris feel a bit better and both hedgehog and fox began to lean in for a kiss.  However, Murphy's Law gave them both a rude awakening when they heard, "YOU LITTLE PUNKS!"

Chris and Jay turned towards the doors where the shouting came from and saw the three beavers that had captured and forced them to find Estrella Roja.  They looked really mad, but none compared to the tall beaver who was seething with rage.

"Can I help you?" Chris asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah!" the tall beaver shouted walking right over to the two.  "You and your woman gave me a fake ruby while you two kept the real one!"

"I see," Chris said.  "Well…we figured that you wouldn't pay us anything for finding it.  So we decided to take the gem for ourselves and give you a gift Jay here made."

"This?" the beaver incredulously shouted, holding the dummy gem in his hands.  "You call this a gift!?"  The beaver shouted as he spiked the phony gem on the ground, smashing it into pieces.

"Now that's mean," Jay sarcastically commented.  "It took me hours to make that!"

"Well I hope you know how to make explanations, because I have to explain this to my boss!   I told him that I would get Estrella Roja for him, and now I have nothing to show except a shattered piece of crap!"

"It wasn't shattered before you threw it down!" Chris chuckled.  Jay was also cracking up as well, and soon the patrons began to laugh.

Humiliated and raging mad, the beaver threatened, "You think this is funny!?  Well when I knock you both into next year, I hope you both find it hilarious!"  He starts to laugh menacingly as he pounds his fisted right hand into his left hand.  "I've taken amateur boxing…I'll whoop the tar outta ya!"

"Impressive," Jay flatly stated.  "I'm just a New Jersey state champion..."  With that, she quickly does a short jump forward, while thrusting her right leg up in the air, then lowering it down onto the beaver's face, delivering an axe kick that hit him right on the nose.  Jay got into a stance by spreading her legs apart and her fists at chest level to prepare herself for more.  "…in taekwondo."

While the tall beaver held his nose in pain, the other two advanced on Chris and Jay.  The heavier of the beavers walked over towards Chris and threw a couple of punches his way.  Chris; however, was also a state champ in taekwondo in his home state of Texas and easily dodged the punches before uppercutting the beaver in the chin.  He followed it up with a kick to the stomach and a finishing hook kick to the head.

The less portly beaver grabbed Jay from behind and locked her in his grasp.  Jay struggled to free herself, but had no luck.  So she tried to distract him by stomping her foot hard on his foot.  The beaver shouted in pain, surprised that when Jay kicks or stomps on someone, her sandals packed so much wallop.  He loosened his grip on Jay's right arm, which allowed her to punch him in the face.  She then used her right hand to grab his shirt collar and throw him down on the ground, causing him to lose his grip on her left arm.

The tall beaver took his hands off his nose as the pain from his nose was starting to go away.  But there was going to be more pain to come as Chris and Jay simultaneously do jumping back kicks at him, sending him right out the door.  His two partners followed him right out thanks to the patrons who didn't look too kindly on people starting trouble.  The tall beaver got into the Hummer and drove off, leaving the other two to run after him.

The patrons cheered for the hedgehog and fox, who waved their hands at them, modestly accepting the kudos.  Chris then turns to Jay and asked, "Now where were we?"  And with that, they finally kissed each other.

"It's great to do things together," Jay remarked.

Before Chris could say it, a mysterious voice said, "I couldn't agree more."  Chris and Jay turned around to find the voice's owner: a white male rabbit with brown hair wearing a black collared shirt and brown cargo pants.  He had American flag patches on his sleeves and a blue patch on his shirt with a yellow "A" on it.  He continued by saying, "In fact, I was wondering if you'd both be interested in a job."

"Depends," Chris told the rabbit.  "We don't search for just about anything."

"We're treasure hunters," Jay added.  "We only look for gold, jewels, paper bills, you know that sort of thing."

"Unless it's shining or has some dead world leader on it," Chris boastfully remarked.  "We aren't interested."

"Oh don't worry," the rabbit assured the treasure hunters.  "This job is worth something VERY valuable."

Chris turns to Jay, who shrugs at him, and taking the shrug as a signal to at least hear the rabbit out.  "We're listening," Chris responding.

"We need your help in finding the treasure of an ancient Persian king."

"Sounds exotic!" Chris exclaimed.  "We've never been to the Middle East.  Perhaps we'll have some time to relax in beautiful Dubai!"

Jay was a bit more hesitant than Chris.  Jay noticed the badges on the rabbit's shirt and had some discretion over this situation.  "I have a question.  What organization do you work for?"

The rabbit looked at the vixen with a confident smile before answering her question.  "Let's just say we're a very…'global' company."