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"Revenge of the Squirrels" (Somewhere in between Toto and Muse) THUNK! Something small hit Elza on the head. She woke up from a dreamless sleep mumbling, "The sky is…falling…the sky…" She snapped out of it when she saw a small acorn not far from where she lay. She looked around and realized that she was in the middle of a grass-covered area and there was not a tree in sight, much less an acorn tree. She picked it up and wandered where it came from. All of a sudden… THUNK-THUNK! … THUNK! Two more had landed on her head and one on Artemis' head, who was already awake. She looked up this time and saw one squirrel with a cape flying over head. No, two squirrels…four…six…eleven…hundreds! Each squirrel held an acorn or more and dropped them together, acorns raining on Elza. She thought back to last night and remembered a squirrel, very much looking like the ones above. "Looks like a scared that one last night a little too badly…oh well, a few acorns won't hurt me." Then she saw something she would have never imagined. Flying among those squirrels was another squirrel…twice as big as Elza. She gaped and then shrieked, "IT'S SQUIRREL-ZILLA!!!" The giant animal started to dive towards Elza and she quickly jumped on Artemis and yelped, "Run Art, RUN!" The horse needed no more encouragement and galloped away from the group of fur and capes like mad. With Artemis running at his full speed, the squirrels were soon long behind them, though the huge one was still there and gaining fast. She grabbed for her pistols, not intending to shoot the thing, but just to shoot up into the air and hope that the noise would distract it, slowing it down. This, however, was just a waste of ammunition, for the squirrel kept going, as if it had never heard anything. Elza was loosing hope when she saw something off in the distance. It was…was it? … "Yes!" Elza shouted, "Muse! It's really Muse!" She made the horse use its last burst of speed to outrun the large squirrel, and shot through the wide open gates of Muse. In her hurry, she almost didn't notice a middle aged man, who was already graying, in her path. She quickly stopped Artemis, who, with such a yank from his rider, skidded to a halt. It had to get on its hind legs to keep from bashing into the man. The man was unshaken by what could have happened and just said calmly, "What's the rush, stranger?" "A giant, huge, large, abnormally big squirrel is after me!" She shouted at the man. He stared at her as if she were nuts (and who wouldn't after hearing that out of anyone?) and after a moment had passed, he looked up and said, "What squirrel?" "What squirrel? What squirrel?!! That-" Elza turned around and pointed at…absolutely nothing. "-squirrel?" The man stared at her again and replied, "Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say, ma'am. There is a huge squirrel there and I'm the mayor of Muse." Elza first was at a lost for words, but then stuttered, "B-but you don't understand! There was an acorn, see?- - hit me on the head - - sky filled with squirrels - - squirrel-zilla - - gun shots in the air - - Muse - -" Obviously, Elza was not helping the situation with her rambling and finally stopped and took a deep breath. "…You were saying?" The man asked, completely confused, but thought one thing was for sure. This chick was off her rocker. Giving up on it, Elza finally mumbled, "Forget it. Just…just forget it." The man stared one more time, shook his head and left. "I hate mornings," Elza said under her breath, "and they hate me." She looked up one more time to make sure there was nothing in the sky, then put the subject aside in her mind. She had little time to worry about these things, for it would not take Clive long to get to Muse, if he wasn't already there. Elza left to entrance of Muse to look for her friend that would tell her the value of the box, and maybe even have ideas for getting it open. Mean while, Clive had not made it to Muse yet. Even though he had had a little bit of a headstart from Elza, she had been the one riding the horse. Clive decided to sit and rest, when he noticed a small furry creature in a red cape walking up to him. He just stared for a moment, then started cracking up. "What the heck is that supposed to be?" He asked in between laughs. His laughing soon stopped as other creatures that looked almost the same accompanied their companion. Among them, was another of the furry animal twice his size…
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