I'll Be Dog-Gone (1)

"I'll go down and visit them." Kara said. She liked Sixth's dogs. After all, she HAD given Sixth four of them. She really thought that there was nothing wrong with the dogs that a nice firm obedience course wouldn't cure, but with so many of them...

"Since we'll be gone for a while, I couldn't leave her here, even with a babysitter. You know how they howl and pine for us..." she said to Sixth, who nodded her head in agreement. "But I'm keeping her, so no new home for her, ok?" Mouse asked.

Chryse goes off to stow her bag in one of the rooms. she comes back with a bagful of doggie treats. "I brought these for games for the dogs 6thy. We'll need to keep 'em occupied while we find them new homes. I do like your dogs you know. They can be a handful, but so are kids!"

"Why thank you Vi," Sixth said, trying not to wince at the memory of Viridian's pink plaid party skirt. One of the dogs had bitten a hole out of it. Sixth took in the vision of Viridian in her pink overalls with her pink smock on top. Between her bugling pockets and the large rolling suitcase, Vi had arrived ready for anything.

"Oh!" Viridian said, "I brought something for the dogs; now where did I put it?" She patted her pockets absentmindedly. "I thought I put it in this one." She rolled her suitcase out of the way and started to empty one of the smock pockets, placing its contents down on the deck. Chryse came over to see what was happening and caught Sixth's smile as the pile of stuff grew. Viridian pulled out a packet of finishing nails, a pair of tweezers, a pad of post-it-notes, bubblegum, a subscription form to Martha Stewart Living, six pairs of vinyl gloves, a small tiara, kitty claw clippers for The Lovely Lucy, paperclips, a small bottle of glue, a pink highlighter, several brushes and a small jar of...

with her new cocker spaniel puppy, and treats for all the dogs. "Hi guys" she said as she came up. "This deffinately sounds like an adventure to me, and I can't leave Honey alone yet. She is too young. Besides, she should play with the others before they go to their new homes. By the way, Sixthy. I love your dogs. I think you should decide to keep one of them. And, Thor, of course."

Ragnar noted the latest canine arrival and wondered what exactly he had let 6th talk him into. At this rate he was going to be bringing back as many animals as he intended to leave behind...rats and just when he thought he would finally get them all out from under foot! *Sigh, 6th didn't know it yet but he had a whole pile of sewing set aside just for her. He was running out of trousers at the rate her dogs were chewing on them. Ought to wear the chainmail leggings more often, that'd teach them!

"Just how many of you gals have pets anyhow?" Ragnar mumbled low, not really wanting to be heard, and not really anti pet. All they needed now was the lizard, the bird and kitten and they'd have a full animal crew.....

"Uh excuse me folks...."all heads turned at the voice from the dock, 6th's heart skipped a beat, but no it wasn't her favorite deliverlyman, not bad looking though, not judging by the reaction the ladies gave. It was indeed however a delivery service and lookie there, he brought a box! :) Could it be a rush delivery?

The young man continued, looking up, and stumbling into a smile at the sight of all the gathering beauties, caught in the spotlight. His boss had warned him about this place. But my what a nice...errr place. Youth.

Ragnar pounded down the gangplank. "Sign here sir" the boy intoned thrusting out a electronic signiture tracking board but cringing as the big man blocked his view of the ladies. He sort of looked around the viking. Mouse waved and smiled, he blushed some more.

Off come the tape, off came the lid, in went the hands feeling between the piles of packing squiggles, spilling some out of the box. Feeling something inside she raised it into view. What had the viking bought her?

As Ragnar walked around the deck checking last minute details, Jila burst through the entry to the grotto and ran across the bridge to the dock. "Wait! Don't leave without me!!" Skidding to a stop at the bottom of the gangplank, Jila readjusts herself and walks quickly up to the deck. Her breathing sounds like 6th's dogs (pant, pant, pant) and her face is moist from sweat. "I'm not late am I?"

"Ok, be funny. I had to wait for a babysitter because that crazy dragon thought he might tag along." Jila noticed the worried look on Ragnar's face and the sigh that followed it. "Hey, don't look so worried. He's not coming on board or anything. He just wanted to follow, or lead, and check out the other realms with us.

"What the hazmana are you bring?" Ragnar growls back as he heads down to the dock and grabs one of Artic's suitcases...and almost falls on his butt because the suitcase isn't very heavy at all. "Just what do you have in these?"

Ragnar stands there in shock for a second and then he bursts out laughing. "You have suitcases full of...Crunch?!" Ragnar chuckles as he reaches for a box and gets his hand smacked for his trouble "Hey! What did you do that for?!" Ragnar has a pouty face as he rubs his hand.

6th was hoping at least one more guy would show, hopefully one of the easily connible kind, so she could convince him to do her shoveling for her. And maybe the sewing as well.(She'd seen the pile of torn pants Ragnar had laying on a table in the map room) 6TH certainly didn't know how to sew! but she DID know how to get a guy to do what she wanted. Most of the time anyway.

She sat back down in her deck chair,thinking she would give the guys a bit more time to show up before they sailed off. Suddenly, she was bowled over as the great dane came charging by, followed by a grinning Thor.

"HEY! Who let HIM out?" Ragnar yelled, as the dog made a beeline for him. The girls snatched at Thor, but missed. The Great Dane tried it's best to climb up the viking, trying to get away from the Dinosaur. It halfway succeded, it's front paws on Ragnar's shoulders, it's back paws scrabbling for purchace on the viking's back. It whined as Ragnr tried vainly to get the large dog off his back.

"Well, I was cleaning out my wing when I got the message that we were taking a trip. So I just threw everything that I thought we might need into a pile and carried it here. I figured that we could sort it out later," Spyral replied.

Artist looks entirely out of place with his white tux and white bow tie - which somehow remain immaculate even thie the dogs pawing at him for atention, their paws muddy from scampering around the river bank. Artist idly scratches behind the ears of whatever dog presses it's head into his hand. "I was here all along - I fell asleep waiting for you"

"A. Who said they didn't? and 2. I don't get weekends so it was only one day to me." Artist grins then says "ooooooffffff!" as Kara lands on him, knocking him to the floor of the boat, making the boat rock violently in the water.

6th sighs and gives up, knowing that whether or not Artist had been there all along, he would steadfastly maintain that he was - and given the bizarre mysteries that seemed to enshroud many of his actions, he might actually have been there all along.

Rae pulls up at the last possible minute clutching something tightly in her hand. "Gottcha!" she announces, flinging her cape over her shoulder with a flourish. She holds a small golden ball up for all to see. "Now we can go." she announces.

"So the plan is to find homes for all these beasts?" Sun asked with a smile. It wasnt' that Sun didn't like dogs, she just didn't like so many BIG dogs at once. One big dog alone, was just fine for Sun, especially if it were a Newfoundland(Newfie). "Well who else are we missing?" Sun asked stowing her gear below deck and grabbing a life vest. She was taking no precautions with this gang.

"ok fine, there. Now I was thinking of going around to all of the different lands, maybe exploring some of the off-set islands. But, I can't make up my mind which one to go to first. I was never any good with choices." she looked up at the gang.

"So which place do you want to go to first? Comedy Land? Romance Land? You guys pick. As long as we go to them all, I'm happy. SO which kind of movies do you guys like best?" the gang looked at each other, pondering the choice.

"I mean that the characters in the movies we see, live on the islands according to what type of movie they're in. How hard is that to understand?" Ragnar said, slightly irritated that no one seemed to quite get it.

"Yes and no. The guy from Leathal Weapon would be on one island, and BraveHeart would be on another, probably on Historical Drama Land. They would just both LOOK like Mel Gibson. HE probably lives in Hollywood or something."

"OR SOMETHING!" Ragnar growled, "Look, can't we just pick one and go? The sooner we go, the sooner we can get rid of the dogs, and the sooner I can get back so I can finish cleaning the boat. WHICH I will probably have to clean all over again, due to those hungry teeth-filled things you call dogs." he huffed.

Jila seconded the suggestion. "Although my suggestion would have been Fantasy Land." She tapped quickly on the map. "There is a section of the island called Pern and Geradan has some cousins there. They are mind-bonded to humans, like Geradan and I. Perhaps we could go there after?"

Mouse yelled from the hammock where she was debating with herself which land she'd like to visit first, "Where's your black box? Is it still attached to that TV? Maybe we should get it and leave it here (with the instructions, of course) where the longboat is in case anyone else wants to join us enroute." She then headed down below to check and see how Juno and Honey were getting along with their new friends.

"Oh, and Ragnar," Mouse sniffed as she walked by him, "they are not ALL 'hell hounds' as you so nicely put it!" However Juno decided at that moment to tear up the stairs and indulge in one of her infamous "puppy moments" where she took off and tore around the longboat upper deck for about 3 minutes or so at top speed, and then flopped on the floor.

I was in the mood for a Comedy." Rae says. "Of course, cartoons are good too. I like the devil from God, the Devil, and Bob. Never could resist a guy with an accent." Rae shrugs. "Drama can be so... dramatic, though. And I'm ONLY going to Pern if it's an Interval. End of story." Rae sighs. "In other words, I'm pretty well undecided. You guys pick."

Ragnar moved amid ships and began the process of unstepping the mast. Sun had been right, the mast would not do for the first leg of their journey. He had only put it up to paint it anyway. It looked like now that would be keeping.

Hoisting the ropes and humming to himself he wondered how long it would take them to get this decision stuff out of their system. If they would just think a moment there was really no decision to be made at all. Being the Captain of the ship, and a practicle man by nature, he already knew it took folks a bit of time to get used to thinking of travel on the river scifi.They didn't refer to these parts as the uncharted territories for nothing. You couldn't simply jump from spot to spot. The destinations they wished to reach were fixed, and they already had an order to them. They would reach some obviously even before they came close to others. He had to follow the river into the gulf and then onto the ocean.

He was sure someone would get it shortly. He seldom shared the maps for they were a sacred trust in his keeping, not many even knowing what lay beyond these grounds. If you were to lay them all out, not that he was about to give them to the gang to do so an this juncture, you would see that the realms radiated outward with Reality at the center.Dreaded Reality, the bane of them all! The mere thought of that place sent a shiver thru him. He had spent far too much time there in his youth. It was a prison, a prison that was not content with what it had. Reality was already showing signs of expanding. One day he feared they would have to be dealt with...shudder...but that would be another tale. There was still time to prepare. If only the imagination would last a few more cycles.

The uncharted territories and thus the SciFi Dominion by association were a long way from Reality and thus on the fringe. More dominate themes bulged in one direction or another from Reality. Since the themes were somhow related to those nearest them, after all something had to have brounght them into being, the nearest spots were other hardcore scifi, and fantasy lands. The Herculies and Zena boards were not far away at all.

Hmmm...but if they wanted to skip the immeadiate neighbors and start with the islands...not a bad idea in his boom since he doubted any of the mutts...err dogs could swim that far to find their way back, the nearest would be Kara's suggestion, the Comedy Land. Comedy land was more like a atoll really. Folks had such a hard time agreeing on what was funny that they sort of splintered themselves all over the place. They seeped into just about all the lands but Reality. No real humor there.

Yep, it would likely be the Comedy Land first, with a needed a provisional stop for supplies at Reality trading post along the Dominion border...unless they wanted to eat the dogs but he doubted that. Even he wasn't quite that bad.

Again a shudder in his thoughts. Reality Trading and Entertainment was the outfit that seemed to link all the realms together. Their trading post had popped up just about everywhere there was a border. He didn't like that a bit. His good buddy SWORD and he had oftened mussed that letting reality in was just the first step in being drug back into it. No thankyou. He'd stay in the uncharted territories as long as he remained unfound.

Fortunately he knew a secret passage thru the Non Fiction Reef that would get them thru without bringing them too close to realistic sanity. He might have to blindfold and deafen the crew so they could get thru but hey...he'd made a time or two already so....

was painting, kitten stole onto the ship (still sore about not being able to keep HER Duckie) she made her way into the map room. *Now if I was Duckie where would I hide?* Looking about kitten spy's Duckie sitting on the book shelf behind Ragnar's Captain chair. *Gotcha!* Kitten gives an evil chuckle and takes a flying leap (hi there buddy!) at the chair. As she clings to the side of the chair her claws make a popping sound as they penetrate the surface of the leather chair. *Oops!* Kitten freezes and looks left and right...no one coming...with a shrug she continues her climb up the chair. <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> <pop> until she reaches the top of the chair. Balancing precariously on the chair back kitten makes a swipe at Duckie *Frell! I missed!* Taking another swipe…she hooks Duckie with one of her claws, Duckie comes off the shelf straight at her. Kitten tries to hold Duckie and keep her balance but she can't…she falls over backwards Duckie and all...hits the chair seat <BOUNCE> <BOUNCE> <bounce>

Suddenly she hears 6th and the dogs! *They can't have Duckie...where to hide?!* Kitten takes off like a rocket (okay...more like a turtle...she is dragging a Duckie!) towards the bowls of the ship. Listening carefully she hears Ragnar and 6th in the map room *Geez! That was close! Now where would Ragnar never find me? Hmmmm...the hold…it's big enough...he will never find me!* Feeling very proud of herself, kitten trots into the hold with Duckie. As soon as she enters the hold she drops Duckie *Try to get away from me will you! Take that! And that!* kitten takes a 'Superfly' leap (Oops! I did it again! Isn't that a song?) <SQUEAK> <POUNCE> <SQUEAK> <POUNCE>

Kitten is so busy wrestling Duckie into submission that she almost doesn't hear 6th coming with the dogs! "I'll just put them in the hold Ragnar! You won't ever notice they are here!" Kitten freezes for a second and then runs with Duckie like a bat out of hell to some boxes. Climbing onto the top of the boxes she flings Duckie onto one of the wooden beams above her and then claws her way onto the beam herself just in time for the hounds to be let loose into the hold.

*Great! Another fine mess you've gotten me into!* kitten cuffs Duckie in the back of the head <SQUEAK> which gets the dogs attention...the dogs begin to bark and carry on when one of them sees kitten high above them on the beam. *You stay here Duckie...I will lead them away* and with that said kitten begins to run up and down the ceiling beams with the dogs running, jumping and barking below her.

6th panics as she sees Ragnar stomping down the stairs "Wait! I'm sure there is a perfectly good reason…maybe a rat!" Running after Ragnar she catches up with him at the door of the hold and grabs his arm "Don't hurt them"

Ragnar frowns at 6th "I'm not going to hurt them…but they have to learn that they can't behave like this" Turning back to the door Ragnar flings it open "Alright! Enough is Enou..." Ragnar doesn't finish his sentence as kitten comes fly at his face *MEOW!* jumping onto his helmet kitten then jumps to the top of 6th's head and tears off up the stairs and to the top of the book shelf. Ragnar and 6th are the only barrier between the dogs and they're prey...not much of a barrier. First comes the Great Dane who knocks Ragnar and 6th flat on they're backs, next they are trampled by the other dogs as they can't get back up before the tide of mutts waves over them.

Just then, the white kitten streaked up the hold stairs like the hounds of hell were after her. Right on her heels were the hounds of hell, barking at the top of their lungs. The kitten flowed up the side of the mast and perched on the tippy top, her fur standing out like a hairbrush and easily doubling her apparent size. The dogs danced and jumped and barked, looking up the mast.

said chryse. she took out her lute and began playing quietly, almost inaudibly. At first, no one paid any attention, least of all the dogs. But as the music continued, everyone looked over at chryse and listening to the music.

The dogs heard too and stopped barking. Even the well behaved dogs were listening. They walked over to chryse and sat in front of her as she played. Chryse noticing that the music was finally having an effect on the animals, got up and walked over to the hold. The dogs followed. She went down the steps. the dogs followed. ArticKitten could be heard mewling softly with the music, but that didn't distract the dogs either. They quietly went into the hold and lay down to sleep. Still playing, chryse walked up the stairs and played one last refrain before ending the song. Quietly, she closed and locked the hold. Turning around she saw everyone staring at her.

"Oh, don't worry. The dogs are going to be fine. The song is similar to what the Piper of Hamlin played for the rats, but this one was a lullaby. They'll wake up in a few hours, none the worse for wear. It won't work too often though. They can build up a resistance to it."

The ladies politely stood out of the way as Ragnar directed the men in taking down the mast. Soon, kitten was down safely and the mast was stowed away. Checking everything one last time, Ragnar prepared his ship to go.

"Ragnar can we have a a small bowl to get the kitten some..."Artickat paused as walking in the room she saw the expression on his face. In her arms she clutched the small kitten, comforting her after her ordeal. Amazing how their colors matched perfectly."...milk?" The end of her request spilled out. He glared at the sight of the....the...the furball!

"But nothing. Kiiten's a memeber of the gang too, and though I'm sure the dogs didn't mean it. She's scared. Milk is just the thing." She wasn't about to get into how she remembered to bring all that peanutbutter crunch but forgot the milk. Maybe Ragnar'd miss that point.

"So we all agree?" Ragnar said, his map back in his pocket, feeling more like the captain. He'd have to keep an eye on 6th though. He had the distinct feeling that she wanted to "play" captain for a while...be she wasn't going be doing that, not on HIS boat, not while I'm still breathing! he mused.

The gang all nodded. They had all realized about the same time that regardless of where they wanted to go, the first stop was the Reality outpost for supplies, then through the Comedy land toll and on to Cartoon island. It was the closest. They could island hop, sailing from island to island, and traversing the seas several times over, but none of them wanted to spend the next several years on the boat. The best plan was to sail to each island that presented itself, and hope that they wouldn't have to get too close to Reality in order to find the dogs homes.

6th herself was startled when she heard the rumbling underneath her feet. She'd almost forgotten that this particular Longboat was equipped with all sorts of high-tech devices, including engines. Ragnar, meanwhile, flipped another switch, and the anchor began to haul itself in.

6th sighed, watching the boat pull out from the dock and turn towards the tunnels, instead of out into the lake. The ship slid into the tunnel, the air darkening around the Scoobs. The walls were lit with torches that let off an errie glow, creating shadows, there was an almost inaudible <click> from the control room,(Sounds being amplified in the tunnels) as Ragnar turned on the "runway lights" and little strobes began to flash in sequence down the tunnel walls, leading the ship out.

6th lit a cigarette, watching it glow in the dark, and sighed peacefully. Kara was to busy with Artist in the dark to scold her for smoking this time, and 6th chuckled, listening to Kara's "Oooo Artist, you wicked thing!" She wondered if the scoundrel would behave, and giggling, sincerely doubted it.

"Auto pilot." Ragnar said. "I installed it for the specific reason of keeping an eye on you." he eyed her. "And the others too. Who knows what kind of damage you would cause to my boat if I stayed up in the control room the whole time." 6th cocked her eyebrow at him.

"Who said anything about HURTING you?" 6th countered, grinning widely. In the errie glow of the lighted cavern, her grin looked particularly wicked, and Ragnar gulped inwardly. *Just what kind of mess have I gotten myself into now?* he thought to himself.