[Slite]

Chapter 1

The hunt begins!

Montsnmags strode up to the camp-fire, removed his longbow, threw a couple of rabbits to the small grey dog who sat next to the fire and said:

"Hey, VR, clean these and cook them for us will you?"

The dog glared at montsnmags for a long time before he finally shook his head, heaved a big sigh, scratched himself for a minute and said.

"Why the heck do I always have to do the dirty work around here?"

"Dude, I catch'em you cook'em, OK?" montsnmags said while he fingered the wicked looking knife that hung at his side.

"Okokok, no need to get testy about it, I'll hop right to" VivaldiRules said and quickly skinned and cleaned the rabbits (which when you think about it is quite a feat without opposable thumbs)

"So, any traces of Queen Z or her kidnappers?" VR asked montsnmags when the rabbits hung over the fire slowly roasting

"None, they seem to be able to hide their tracks very well" montsnmags said while he stared into the fire contemplating what to do next.

They had been on the trail of the ones who had abducted Queen Zelda for the better part of a week now, and all they had been able to come up with so far was a trace here and there, just enough to convince them that they were on the right track. The Queen had been snatched away while out on her morning stroll. Montsnmags as the Queens champion had hardly taken time to snatch up his weapons, and of course pick up Vivaldi who he found in one of the more disreputable kennels in the shadier parts of town, before heading of in pursuit of the kidnappers.

"From the direction they have been traveling, it seems they are trying to reach the northern mountain range, and if they do, we'll never find them, so we can't let that happen" montsnmags speculated as he took one of the rabbits from the fire and started eating.

"Mruff, groff, bark" Vivaldi said, chewed quickly and swallowed, "Sorry, I meant to say, No, we must catch them before that, but it's hard to speak with your mouth full of rabbit"

They ate in silence, quietly pondering on the disaster that would befall Pinwheel if the Queens was not rescued as quickly as possible. Both knew that the Queens cousin Nate the Great was next in line for the throne, and seeing him ascend to it was not something either one of them liked to think about. They could just imagine the stately national anthem of Pinwheel being replaced by "Never gonna give you up". Not that Nate was such a bad guy really, he just had a very warped sense of humour that no-one wanted to experience for too long.

"Ok, let's go dog, you can put your nose to better use than sniffing the bushes!" montsnmags said as he put out the fire, shouldered his longbow and took of in the direction that Vivaldi has indicated before setting up the camp. "Still a long way to go"

They moved silently through the forest searching for signs of the passing of the kidnappers, and if it had not been for Vivaldis very sensitive nose, there would have been no way to spot that someone had passed through this way. But said nose attached to said dog did the job it was designed to do, so sure enough, every now and then. Vivaldi picked up a trace of the abductors and their abducted passing through.

"That way" Vivaldi said pointing to the left when the trail they followed suddenly forked.

"You sure?" montsnmags looked down at his small companion

"Yepp, one guy headed down the right fork to confuse me, but I can smell the Queens perfume heading down the left. Trust me on this one. I would recognise it anywhere after all the bellyrubs I had from her! I could never forge.... YIPP!"

The abrupt breakoff in recognisable speech on the part of VivaldiRules is due to the fact that a large foot suddenly came down grazing the tip of his tail. The foot was equally quickly gone again but a thunderous voice could be heard reverberating through the forest

"I AM THE SNACKER OF NATIONS! HEAR ME AND TREMBLE!"

"What the heck was that?" Vivaldi said with a slight tremor in his voice

"Oh, just DixieGal on another one of her rampages, don't mind her, she's harmless really" montsnmags stated while Vivaldi inspected his tail and counting all the hairs to make sure none were missing.

"Let's get going, we are falling behind already!" montsnmags started down the left fork at a run

"Oh, and by the way VR, if you don't stop whistling 'They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard' I'll neuter you right here and now!" montsnmags made a gesture towards the knife at his hip.

Vivaldi who had just started to draw in air to start whistling let it out in a huff, and started jogging after montsnmags while grumbling silently to himself...