Chapter Text
The countryside of Prism Plains was often a quiet place. Most of the time, all one could hear in the vast mosaic of prairie and farmland is the chirping of birds or the bleating of sheep. In the wee hours of the morning, it would be expected to be even quieter.
It was not exactly quiet on one stretch of road. The roaring of an engine filled the air with a rhythmic thrum, as the red car who possessed the engine made its way through the countryside.
The car currently held four of the most unlikely passengers. In the back of the car, there was police inspector Jecra, with his fiancé Garlude. In the passenger seat sat the inspector's arch-nemesis: the master thief (and manager of the inspector’s favorite cafe), Daroach.
Most odd of all was their driver. At a passing glance, one could not exactly discern exactly what was driving the posh red carriage: he wore a heavy cape and large hat, disguising his frame. If one were to be able to get a better look at this shrouded figure, they'd find him to be a beast composed of many different caniform attributes: he had the face and paws of a Gaw Gaw, the feathered ears and bushy tail of an Awoofy and the fur and claws of a Gao Gao. His cape hid Pteran-like wings, and his body hid the mind of a Puffal.
In actuality, this hodgepodge creature was none other than Sir Meta: an aristocrat from Diamond Town. Due to a poison currently unknown to him, he was forced to appear as a creature resembling his heraldic animal: a gryph-gaw. His passengers all knew his true identity, and had joined forces with him to help him reverse the effects of the poison.
It had been several hours after the start of this grand adventure, and already most in the car were either half-asleep or fully asleep. Only Meta remained entirely awake, fueled by adrenaline and determination.
Unfortunately for him, his car could not likewise be fueled by adrenaline and determination. He was well aware of it: while he had a spare can of fuel in the back of his car for just this purpose, that had already been used a while back. He looked anxiously at the fuel meter now, which was showing it was dangerously low.
Meta knew what he had to do. He had to alert his dozing co-pilot.
“Gaw! Gaw!” He barked, right in the ear of Daroach. While he wished he could use more eloquent language to alert his copilot, the effects of the cursed poison reduced him to Gaw Gaw-like vocabulary.
“85 lunch specials to go!” Daroach shouted, clearly coming out of some nightmare.”...urgh. What is it, Meta?”
Meta whined, pointing at the fuel meter.
“...I can't see what you're pointing at. Remember, I don't have as good of night vision as you.”
Meta sighed, then pointed again, this time to the floor of the vehicle.
This command was something a bit more familiar to the mouse. “Do we need to stop?” He asked his gryph-gaw driver. When the driver nodded, Daroach used his cane to displace the rock on the gas pedal, letting the car slow down. In a few moments, the car was completely halted, and Meta gestured to turn the car off.
Once that was done, Meta ran to the back of the car, opening its trunk (as he had finally figured out a way to do so even with his clumsy paws). He sniffed around, hoping that he had accidentally put an extra spare can in there. Oh, how he wished he'd remember that in his rush to escape!
“What are you looking for?” Daroach asked, staring into the darkness of the trunk.
Before Meta could even attempt to answer, another voice joined in the questioning. “What's going on?” Garlude asked, now fully awake due to the sudden lack of movement.
“Meta’s stopped us for something. What that is, I have no idea.” Daroach responded to the lady.
Meta was just about ready to slam his head on the car. This whole curse was a massive frustration to him more than anything else. How else was he going to communicate with his companions? He looked down at his paws, sorely wishing he had that chalkboard back at Daroach's cafe with him.
That's when he realized something. He didn't need the chalkboard at this time! He had everything he needed right now at his very paw tips!
He dashed over to a patch of lighter clay dirt that could easily be distinguished in the moonlight. “Ga-gaw!” He cried, beckoning Daroach over. The aristocrat then started to dig in the dirt, using his claws to score marks on the path.
When Daroach made his way to where Meta had dug, he could clearly see what he had written. “Fuel,” He read aloud.
“Fuel! Ha!” A voice shouted from the field across from the duo.
“Who goes there?” Daroach called back.
“I should be asking you folks that!” The voice responded. The sound of an old wheelie puttering then grew more and more apparent to all those awake. Soon enough, a portly cappy rode in, on that same old wheelie.
Meta acted quickly, wrapping his cape around his body as tightly as he could, making sure to tuck his tail underneath it.
“You city folks are up awful early!” The cappy chortled. “At least you two gentlemen; I sees you got some people out cold in the back of your carriage!”
“Actually, my good sir,” Garlude responded, “I am awake.”
“Aw, you can call me Harold; and this ol’ girl is Steady Sue!” He patted the wheelie on her fender, making her purr in contentment. Harold then continued, saying: “So, what's all this about fuel?”
“Well, we're from Diamond Town, but my friend here has urgent business in Tiramisu City, to help a condition of his. We've been driving nonstop since last-.”
“Wait, let me stop you there,” Harold said, cutting off Daroach. “You mean to tell me that you plan on taking that thing all the way over to Tiramisu City without having enough fuel?!”
“I apologize, but none of us barring my infirm friend knows anything about these carriages, and he's not exactly in the best of shape.” As if on cue from Daroach, Meta made a coughing sound to sell the mouse’s story. “We all left town in a rush, and it's very important that we get to Tiramisu City as soon as possible.”
“Well, if you ain't got fuel in that carriage of yours you ain't getting to Tiramisu City as soon as possible! That's the problem with those ‘wheelie-less carriages’: Steady Sue here just needs to chomp some grass to refuel!”
“Unfortunately, all we have is this carriage,” Garlude responded with a polite tone. “Would you happen to know if there's any place where we could get more fuel so we can make it to Tiramisu City?”
The cappy put a hand to his chin. “Well, Quartsun is just a few minutes' ride away from here. You're lucky ‘bout that. Not sure if they have a place for carriage fuel but there's a train station there. If ya really need to be in the city that quickly, yer gonna wanna take that train! It's at least half a day on the train, so who knows how long that hungry carriage is gonna take ya!”
Meta whined quietly, and looked at his car. While he wanted to get to Tiramisu City as soon as possible, he also didn't want to leave his most prized car out in the open where someone could take it.
Daroach, seeing the aristocrat's concern, said, “Is there any chance that you could hold onto his car while we're out taking care of his condition?”
“I'll cover any costs that holding it might bring,” Garlude added.
“Sure!” Harold laughed. “Might make Sue jealous but it'll look mighty fancy in my barn for the time being. I'll have it towed in the mornin. In the meantime, I'll ferry ya over to Quartsun; it'll just be ‘bout half an hour whilst I get Sue some backup and a wagon for y'all's to ride in. Why don't you get your affairs in order while I do that. See ya!”
With that, Harold goaded his wheelie into motion, riding off into the darkness.
“Well then,” Daroach said, turning to Sir Meta, “Looks like we're taking the rail to Tiramisu City. Sorry that your car plan didn't pan out like we had hoped, but at least it was the experience of a lifetime!”
Meanwhile, Garlude was attempting to get Jecra up from his sleep, so he could be ready for the connecting drive to the train station. “Jecra!” She said, shaking his organic arm as she did so, “we need to be moving!”
“Hrrmmm?” Jecra said as he slowly stirred awake. Despite being an early riser for a Diamond Town resident, he was a very heavy sleeper.
“We've got to be ready to head to the train station in half an hour!” She said in a hushed tone.
“I thought we were going to do our train trip after our marriage,” the inspector said, still half asleep.
“It's not for our honeymoon, Jecra,” Garlude said, now with a smile on her face. It sounded like he was ready for that trip too. But now was not the time for things like that: she had to remind him of current events. “It's for your big case.”
“We've had a bit of a communications problem,” Daroach told the inspector, now wide awake. “It turns out that while the good Sir Metians car is fast, it doesn't have good stamina: as such, we need to take the rail to Tiramisu City.”
Meta just stood there, stiffly. He wished he could talk in more than just scratches in the dirt. Maybe soon they'd find a more elegant solution to his communication problem.