I've Found What I'm Looking For

Chapter 3

CRACK! CRASH! PLUMP!

Ash's eyes dropped open the second the loud racketing noise hit her ears.

She sprung up instantly on the spare bed she had been sleeping in, and hurriedly got to her feet, rushing across the hall and ramming open Clay's room where all the chaos was coming from.

This time, her jaw dropped open, when she saw the old lion on a ladder with a huge hammer, whacking the ceiling hard and breaking it apart.

"Cal!" She called, in honest terror, running over to the ladder and trying to climb up it to get him down. When she reached the opposite step from him on the other side of the metal ladder, her eyes widened in shock, as she felt the cold breeze sink into the room from the roof.

"CAL!" She yelled again, as he wasn't stopping the terror on his house's ceiling and finally she grabbed hold of the hammer's wooden end, trying to pull it away from him, finally shouting in desperation, "CLAY!"

He seemed to freeze up the moment he finally heard her loud cry of his name, and he took his eyes off the ceiling, down to the porcupine that was hanging at the edge of his wooden hammer's handle.

"Ash...?" He asked, sounding perturbed and so mightily confused. She gave him a very angry expression as she hung in the air. An incredibly pissed-off face.

"What," He uttered, his voice sounding confused and he finally lowered her back on the opposite metal step of the ladder, "What are you doing..."

"ME?!" She yelled in total disbelief, and she shivered there on that ladder, as a cold breeze blew in from above, "What are YOU doing?!"

Calloway remained silent for a moment, analyzing what his answer should be, before sighing heavily, his chest deflating as he finally replied, "I'm making a sky roof so I can see stars, the moon."

"In the middle of WINTER?!" Ash had to make clear, not understanding this old lion at all.

Calloway, again, remained silent and closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling slowly through his big nose. He didn't want to admit the reason why he was doing this to this young porcupine... but he wasn't a liar. That he never was.

"It's..." He finally proclaimed, his heart aching inside at what he was about to say, "It's what Ruby would've wanted."

"What RUBY would've wanted," Ash began to say back to him, staring him right in the eyes, "Is for you to MOVE on."

Calloway was shocked. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No, you see-" He started to say, but didn't know how to finish, "She... she would've..."

"Wanted you to be happy."

He stared back into Ash's eyes and he swallowed a hard gulp.

"If Ruby wanted that then SHE should've NEVER DIED!"

Ash wavered back the second Calloway roared this, like a true fierce lion. Like the incredible predator he was.

"But SHE did." Ash finally said back to him, her eyebrows lowering and she looked around the room... the destroyed roof. She had to say it again, even if he didn't want to listen.

"You HAVE to get away from this HOUSE."

He could swear his heart was galloping like a racing horse. He was trembling inside, shaking his fierce old head from side to side in denial. He had been in such denial for so long that the emotion felt real. It felt so real.

Suddenly he felt something wet and cold brush off his muzzle and he slowly turned his eyes upwards, seeing a heavy white cloud was above them, and from that cloud came the sprinkling of snow.