Please call the Chugg Corporation helpline at the bottom of this page with any further questions.
[Our front-page article on September 5 mistakenly reported that Professor Caper had been removed from his administrative position at University. This was incorrect and we regret the error.]
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Chapter 99
Dreamer dove off the train before it had even come to a complete stop. She ran across the platform and nearly knocked her father over in her desperation to be next to him.
“I’m fine, honey,” Shiver said in his usual tone. “He just locked me up. You think that slop-hog would try to take a piece of me? I’m alright. How about you?”
Dreamer pushed her face into his shoulder. “I’m fine too, Dad. I think we’re out of trouble for now.”
“Come on home and tell me everything.”
She composed herself and walked with him away from the railroad and into the town. Along the way, she told him every detail she could remember. How they had joined with Boxer’s students and taken Mauler to the Karkus shrine. How Healer had publicly dropped his assumed name of Snapper and taken on the name his father had originally given him. How they had traveled up Ptera Peak and she had spoken personally with Optera.
By the time she finished that part of the story, they had made it to their house. None of the guard dogs disturbed them along the way. They sat on cushions in their living room.
“So yesterday morning we gathered up everyone who had helped us and went up to the Megatropolis gate,” Dreamer said. “Healer was ready for a fight, but Ponder and Mauler surrendered instead. They had some terms. They dropped all the warrants and charges so we could get back to our lives. They even bargained for your release.”
Shiver sat back with a vulnerable look on his face that his daughter had never seen before. “Well,” he said, “I hadn’t expected that. Those two creatures had more to them than I gave them credit for. They did right by us.”
“They sure did.”
“Where’s Snapper? Uh, Healer.”
“He passed out because the pigs hit him with a massive dose of tranquilizer. As far as I know, he’s still out. He’s at the clinic back at University. I know I should be there, but I had to see you. Caper told me to spend the weekend here.”
Shiver glowered. “Are you going back to University after all this?”
“Of course I am. Ponder gave me this amazing chance to start over.”
The ram thought for a minute and stood. “Well, in that case I got something for you. Pretty appropriate now that you’re telling me you’re on firsthand speaking terms with gods. I was going to wait until you came home for the long weekend, but now is as good a time as any. As long as you’re committed to sticking to your studies and staying away from trouble.”
“Believe me, Dad. I’m done with all that.”
“Good.” Shiver got up and walked to his wooden trunk in the corner. He dug through it and produced a small box with holes in the sides and a ribbon around the middle. Tentatively, he handed it to her.
“Dad…” she whispered. He had never gotten her a gift before. She held it gently, almost not wanting to open it. The gesture itself meant more than whatever could be inside.
“Open it,” Shiver said. “I want to explain it to you.”
Dreamer pulled the ribbon and took the lid off the box. Inside was a tiny flower. Its petals were vibrant purple and its leaves were a bright green. It was still budded, so she couldn’t tell what kind of flower it was.
“Thank you, Dad,” she whispered. “It’s beautiful. But what…”
“When you told me you were going to major in theology,” Shiver said, “I went and talked to the pastor. That old clucker nearly had a conniption fit when I told him I worship a god other than Optera, but he got over it. This is what he told me to get for you. This flower is an orchid.”
Dreamer looked up, startled. “Like Arghast. Dad, how did you afford…”
“Been saving up, honey. Don’t worry about it.” He got close enough to whisper. “The pastor told me there’s a rumor, but it has never worked for anyone he knows. He says after it blooms, you should take the orchid and make it real dark in your room, almost pitch dark. Then, you can talk to the orchid and he’ll talk right back to you. Arghast the Father Orchid, god of the sheep. If you believe in him, he’ll tell you secrets of the universe.”
She beamed. “Thank you so much, Dad. This is incredible.”
Shiver leaned in and hugged her, a rare display of affection. She hugged him back and kissed his cheek, clutching the gift close to her chest.
Chapter 100
“Well, good morning, sunshine!”
Healer squeezed his eyes shut against the unforgiving fluorescent light. He grew aware he was in a stiff bed with rough sheets. His entire body felt like soft clay. He wanted a thick blanket to pull over his head. Not for the first time, he missed his old green comforter that had burned up with his house.
Finally his eyes got used to the light. He recognized this room. He had come here to visit Swifter.
Boxer sat by the bed, a warm smile on his wrinkled face. “Good to see you joining the world of the living, Snapper. I mean, Healer. Ledger told me everything.”
Groaning, Healer sat up. “It’s good to see you. Are you alright?”
“Oh, fine.” Boxer waved a paw and laughed. “We just sat in a jail cell. No food, but no beatings. Like your dad used to say, you take the good with the bad.”
“How long was I out?”
“You’ve been in and out for about three days. It’s Monday afternoon.”
“Anything from Ponder and Mauler?”
Boxer frowned. “No word. But no clones or pigs have come to bother us either.” He pointed to his collar; his silver medal was missing. “Pincher’s completely excommunicated me. Guess my gym is my permanent home now. Caper’s fine, classes resumed today. The Chugg Report printed a redaction of all the nonsense they’ve been spouting. The Fleece City sheep bought it and sent all their kiddos back to class. That’s the state of the world as far as I can see it.”
“How is Dreamer?”
“Just fine. She’s in class right now. She spent the weekend at the quarry looking after her old man. Which reminds me, one of the other sheep around here was real worried about you, let me send him in.”
Boxer vanished. Healer heard voices in the hall. When the dog returned, Swifter was with him.
“Snapper, dude!” the large sheep called out, running to his bedside. “I saw the papers! I thought you were a goner, man. They accused you of all kinds of crazy stuff.”
“Hey, Swifter,” Healer said with a genuine smile. “Glad you’re back.”
“People are saying you went public about the whole magic powers thing. Is it true? You changed your name to Healer?”
“Yep. That part is true.”
“Well, cool. I never really thanked you for fixing my ankle. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if all of that really happened. But you should know I appreciate it. That thing you do… it’s a gift. Use it for good.”
“I will.”
“Alright. I got to get going. See you tonight, huh?”
“Sure thing, bud. Thanks for coming.” Healer waved as Swifter disappeared into the hall. Tossing aside the sheet, Healer slid to the floor and stretched.
Boxer cocked an eyebrow. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To tell Caper I’ll be waiting for him in his office. Dreamer too. The four of us need to meet.”
Chapter 101
Dreamer walked into Caper’s office to find Healer sitting behind the owl’s walnut desk. Boxer and Caper stood near the door.
Healer kissed Dreamer’s cheek. “Hey, love. How’s your dad?”
Dreamer smiled. “He’s doing well. I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. We’re all here now. We can start discussing the next step.”
“The next step? What do you mean?”
“Getting Ponder a
nd Mauler out, of course.”
Dreamer drew back. “Are you serious?”
Healer faltered, obviously surprised by her answer. “Y-You’d just leave them there?” he stammered. “They spend three months underground, they get a couple of days of freedom, they learn their purpose, and they go right back in a jail cell? We were given all these new powers by the gods and never got a chance to use them. I won’t stand for it.”
Caper opened his mouth to speak, but Boxer stopped him.
Dreamer was so frustrated she could only laugh. “Healer. Did you not hear the last thing Ponder said to us? ‘Live your life.’ She said in the quarry that my dad had given himself up so we could have a chance. Now she’s done the same thing for us. We should honor it.”
Healer shook his head. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The faithful one, the one who wanted to see it all through no matter what, she’s quitting.”
Dreamer felt her eyes welling up. “Healer, we’ve done it. We saw it through. It’s in the hands of Optera and Karkus.”
“They haven’t fulfilled their purpose yet.”
“How can you say that? They got Caper and Boxer free, which is what we set out to do. So Ponder and Mauler paid back the debt they owed for their rescue in the first place. They got you and me out of trouble so we can get back to our lives—lives you threw off track with your little temper tantrum on our first date, I might add.” She got right in Healer’s face. “And the big one, the one you should appreciate—Ponder got them to promise to stop the sacrifices! If that isn’t world-changing, Healer, I don’t know what is! What more do you want?”
“I want the Chugg Corporation gone!” Healer snarled. “I want the ones who destroyed my family to face justice. We could have had that, but we let our chance slip away in exchange for some half-assed promises. We can’t trust those pigs to keep their word. They’ll find some way to get right back to hurting us.”
Dreamer’s years of dealing with her temperamental father had given her the strength to fearlessly withstand Healer’s anger. “I’m sorry about what they did to Old-Timer,” she said evenly. “Really, I am. He deserved better. I can see you loved him. And you’re right, maybe they will find a way to keep doing to us what they did to him. But Ponder trusted that she had won us at least a little bit of peace. I plan to take advantage. I’m going to finish my theology degree. Be mad for as long as you want, Healer, but I’m going to be building whatever life I can.”
Healer went quiet. He paced back and forth for a minute. His emotions ran so hot that they were broadcast to her as plainly as if they were on a banner hanging from the ceiling. Anger. Betrayal. Longing. And the one she had both expected and dreaded.
“Fine,” Healer said. He looked steadily at her, but she could see that what he was about to say was tearing him apart. “I’m going to keep fighting. I’ll free Ponder and Mauler, and I’ll make sure the Chugg Corporation gets exactly what’s coming to it. I’ll do it without you if I have to.”
Another long silence. She hated what she had to do. She knew he hated it too. But he had been the one to put it on the table.
“You’re right about one thing,” she said slowly, trying to keep her voice from breaking. “It will be without me. I love you, Healer, with everything in me. We have changed the world together. But if it can’t end here for you, then we have to end here.” She stepped away from him and towards the door. Caper nodded to her as she passed. She pushed through the heavy wooden door and left.
Chapter 102
Healer did not move or speak as he tried to process what had just happened. Half of him wanted to go running after her, to apologize, to tell her he’d do anything to keep her by his side. But if he did that, he would be abandoning his imprisoned friends.
It’s better for her if she keeps her distance from whatever comes next, he thought. I don’t need to drag her into more trouble. He hated it. But the truth of it was, he loved her too. If she was better off pursuing her studies and staying away from all this, then he had to let it be.
Caper cleared his throat. “Boxer… if you don’t mind, I would like to have a minute alone with Healer.”
“Of course. I’ll be right outside.” The chestnut dog bowed out.
Caper waited for him to leave, threw the deadbolt, and stood with his eyes closed in a manner that could only mean a lecture was coming.
The owl took a deep breath. “Before I say anything else, know that Boxer and I are grateful to you. You were instrumental in winning our freedom and we are in your debt. That being said, we’ve been made aware of everything that has happened since our arrest. The purpose of Ponder and Mauler coming to us has been made clear. And, Healer… you’ve ruined it. You have completely and irretrievably ruined this chance at changing the world. You think you’ll keep fighting, but the truth is that you killed this opportunity before it was even fully formed.”
Healer walked around the desk. “Excuse me?”
Caper approached him. “I asked you to do one thing, just one. I asked that you keep what you saw to yourself. I showed you where I was hiding them so you might have some closure about your father’s death. If I had known you were not ready to accept his fate and yours, I’d never have trusted you with that much responsibility. Your failure to keep this secret led directly to my and Boxer’s arrest. Now our charges are lost to us in the Megatropolis.” He raised a foot and pointed one quivering talon at Healer. “Your father asked me to raise you to manhood, Healer, but I have learned you are not ready to be treated as an adult.”
Healer swung a hoof and slapped the professor’s foot away from his face, causing Caper to draw back in shock. The sheep started forward, utterly livid, keenly aware that the odd pounding in his temples had resumed. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told my dad, old man,” he growled. “You’re a hypocrite. Just like him, you take the biggest risk of all by going against the pigs, but you soothe your own conscience by quarantining other people and couching it in terms like ‘for your own safety.’ I was tired of it from him long before I met you.”
Now Caper was backed up against his own bookshelf, eyes wild with outrage, but his anger was dwarfed by Healer’s.
“If we’d done it your way,” Healer continued, “Ponder and Mauler would have gathered dust in your little safe room until the end of time. You knew they had the chance to make real change in the world, so what did you do? You took charge of them and locked them away. Sound familiar? It was done to me. By my dad, then by you.”
“Enough!” Caper bellowed. “You won’t speak that way to me or about your father! If you had any idea what he did in the name of giving you a better life—”
“The difference between you and him,” Healer cut in, “is he raised me that way because he truly had no other option. He had no idea something better was coming. But you’ve been told the truth. You’ve seen firsthand how valuable those two are to the pigs, yet here you are telling me they should still be underground!”
Caper quivered, eyes still wide, but said nothing.
“You’ve got no fight left in you, owl,” Healer said. “At least when my dad saw his death coming, he met it head-on. My father did things. When I met Dreamer and I saw a chance to do something for Ponder and Mauler, I took it. You don’t do things. You just want to hide and you’re mad at me because I don’t. Well, you can stay here and hide. I have work to do.” He turned for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“You do have one point. My father did a lot to make sure I’d have a better life,” Healer said. “I’m going to find a way to free my friends and set them back on the path to fulfilling their purpose. That’s going to take time, money, and influence. The best way to get those is to build the life my dad wanted for me.”
Caper sighed. “You’ll be staying on and graduating from University.”
Healer let out an ugly laugh. “No. I’m finished with you and this place. I’m doing things my way from now on. You’ve proven you have no interest in anyth
ing other than keeping things exactly as they are.” He unlocked the walnut door and let himself out, passing Boxer in Mrs. Flaxer’s office.
The sad look on the old dog’s face told Healer his keen ears had heard the conversation through the door. But Healer just passed him by without saying a word.
Healer walked out of the school and into the plains. It occurred to him he was not worried about anyone pursuing him. Silently, he thanked Ponder and Mauler for the relative peace.
I should also thank them for this gift of purpose, he thought. He was completely alone in the wide-open field, with no direction and no home. But for the first time since the death of Old-Timer, he knew exactly what he was going to do.
Chapter 103
Specter wanted to be angry, to be intimidating, but he found it difficult to be anything but terrified in the office of his employer. He sat in a wooden chair across from the boss’s desk, which was little more than a hammered block of iron bolted to the floor.
The top of the desk was stained with blood and was sparsely decorated—the boss’s ashtray, the horned skull of a ram, a dead black plant in a tiny terra cotta flowerpot, and a brass nameplate marked “C. CHUGG, CEO.” Today, a fifth item lay across the desk. It was the mechanical body of Durdge, sprawled out, inert, with the head shell open and the brain missing.
The boss’s cigar smoke wreathed the decorative centerpiece of the room, a huge suspended statue built into the ceiling. The massive insect-like head was made of the same black iron as the desk, with multiple sets of curved jaws poised to strike. Compound eyes glared down at the boss’s three guests.
In the chair to Specter’s right, General Pincher did not seem bothered. On Specter’s other side, Scurvert squirmed, clearly anxious. He pointed to the body draped over the desk.
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