Bubba was sitting besides Catnap and Dogday, the other critters [except for Kickin and Hoppy] gathered around the two of them.
"Catnap...have you been eating plushies or something? Otherwise, I...I have no idea how this could've happened."
The elephant asked, staring at the pool of blood with a clear expression of concern on his face.
None of this made any sense. In fact...ever since the day Catnap and Dogday fought, things have been weird, but only when the two of them were around.
It was as if something happened to them, or that they were behind these strange occurrences somehow.
Catnap turned to Dogday for a moment, silently asking for help. The dog responded with a subtle shrug. He didn't know the reason himself, and he wasn't exactly in the right mindset to come up with an excuse.
"I uh...I...accidentally ate some of my plushies in my sleep."
The elephant's eyes widened.
"YOU ATE YOUR PLUSHIES, IN YOUR SLEEP?! HOW?!!"
The cat covered his hears due to the elephants yelling, the others all staring at the elephant as a small signal to quiet down a little. The elephant made a small cough, covering his mouth of course when he did.
"Sorry, I'm not mad at you or anything, but you do know that you're not supposed to eat those things for a reason, right? Besides- wait...since when did you have plushies? Let alone ones like these?"
Bubba picked up a plushie from the pool of blood, staring at it for a moment before quickly throwing it away once a strong scent hit his nose.
"They look...weird. And something about them gives me a creepy feeling. I don't know why though..."
The elephant let out a soft sigh, standing up as he checked his spare watch, one similar to the watch he gave Catnap. Who...
Wait...
Bubba looked behind him, staring at Catnap for a moment as he eyed the feline's wrists.
He...didn't have the watch?
Maybe he just took it off or something. Still...he seemed really happy when he got it. He'd have expected him to at least wear it for a few weeks or something. Especially with all the cool features it had.
Like some white noise for sleeping. You know, one of the cat's favorite activities.
Another weird thing about the two. Why were they acting so strange, yet normal at the same time?
Were they hiding something from them?
"Hey uh...we'll figure out something for the two of you, alright? Just stay here for the time being."
The elephant requested, garnering a few strange looks from the other critters. He could've sworn that he saw a bit of worry in Dogday and Catnap's faces, but maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him.
He walked up to the other critters, Bobby, Picky, and Crafty. He whispered to the three of them, making sure to be as quiet as he possibly could be.
"Let's head outside. There's something I want to ask the three of you."
Bobby and Crafty glanced at each other for a moment, before the four of them made their way outside Picky's makeshift 'Eclipse Resturant'
Once the four made their way outside, the elephant checked to see if Kickin or Hoppy were anywhere nearby. Unfortunately, they weren't, but he decided to continue despite that.
"So...I think we can all agree that the suddeb fight between Dogday and Catnap was rather strange, but I wanted to ask...have the three of you noticed any strange behavior from the two ever since then?"
Bobby immediately chimmed in, thinking back to a previous experience she had.
"Yes! I remember one time, I think...it was sometime after the two fought, I went to Dogday's to check up on him, but when he saw me..."
Bobby thought back to the dog's face when he saw her. His eyes widened in shock for a moment, and he then glanced down at her stomach for a moment, as if something happened to it, then back at her again.
He calmed down a little, but was still breathing heavily when he spoke.
She of course remembered the dog's excuse for the strange occurence.
"Oh uh! Hi thereee Bobby, heh...sorry, just uh...I just remembered a suuuper scary scene from a horror movie where uh...a bear got hurt! That's all!"
Despite the dog's excuse, Bobby still had a feeling that the dog was lying, as if he were trying to cover something up.
That, and he usually hates horror movies. In fact, it's part of why he always makes sure that Catnap is there with him when he watches one, to make him feel safe and protected.
Which...she had to admit, was pretty cute,
"He acted all freaked out or something, like he saw a ghost!"
Bubba nodded, taking out a small notebook and writing something down in it.
"Ohh dudes! Are we talking about the weird stuff Dogday and Catnap have done?"
Kickin suddenly chimmed in from behind Bubba, causing the elephant's fur to stand on end.
"Oh, sorry Bubba! My bad haha!"
Kickin gently nudged the elephant, who simply shook his head. A small blush grew on his face before he responded.
"Well...yes. It's kinda because-"
"OH! DUDE! I HAVE THE PERFECT STORY FOR THIS!!"
Kickin pulled Bubba by the neck with his arm, nearing choking of the elephant for a moment.
"So like, I was hanging out with Dogday at my house a couple of days ago, and I told him that I was gonna go play outside with Hoppy, right? And guess what he did?"
Bubba gently nudged himself against the chicken, trying to pull his arm off.
"I'd LOVE to, if you'd stop choking me to death!"
Kickin glanced over at the elephant, letting out a loud chuckle as he pulled his arm off the elephant, instead wrapping it around in a half hug of sorts.
"Oh! Haha, sorry Bubba! Got a little too excited there."
The elephant was a little annoyed, but he let things go with a soft sigh, wrapping his own arm around Kickin as well.
"Anyways, when I told him that, he acted all freaked out or something! He started begging for me to stay! He even grabbed my leg and tried to pull me away from the door! But then when I told him that he was acting weird, he suddenly stopped, as if he realized something."
"He just asked that I let him go with me, which I of course said that I would, and then he sorta calmed down after that."
Bubba released his arm from Kickin for a moment to write something else down in his notebook.
"Hey I uh...have a small thing to mention myself if that's okay..?"
Crafty nervously spoke up, only for Bobby to give her a smile of encouragment.
"Of course Crafty! You're always welcome to chime in if you want!"
Crafty smiled back at Bobby, before she continued herself.
"Well...I was drawing, as usual and Catnap walked over. He seemed a little sad so I asked if he'd want to draw something together, and he took my offer."
"But his drawings...they were kind of sad.."
Bubba raised an eyebrow.
"Would you be able to show us any of those drawings of his?"
Crafty nodded.
"Oh yes! Actually, they should be right..."
Crafty flipped through her artbook, briefly eyeing each page until she found the pages Catnap drew in.
"Right here!"
Crafty turned her artbook around so the others could see.
One drawing was of Dogday being afraid of the cat.
Another was of Dogday...choking Catnap?! Dogday looked angry, and he seemed to have been yelling at the cat in the drawing, while the feline himself was crying.
What in the world?!
Crafty flipped the page once the others got a good look at those two.
The third, and final drawing was...well actually, it was more like several doodles than an actual drawing.
One doodle was of a metal hand in the corner. Bubba couldn't imagine why Catnap would draw that, but maybe it was for practice or something..?
Another was of the other critters, Bubba, Bobby, Crafty, Picky, Kickin, and Hoppy.
And scribbled all over the page was the words.
"I'm sorry."
Over
And over
And over
And over again. Some of them nearly overlapped with the cat's other drawings
However...the fact they didn't did confirm that the drawings, and text of course were no mistake. They were there for a reason. Hm...
The page after that was a drawing that looked much different in comparison to Catnap's, clearly showing that it was from Crafty instead.
She closed her artbook.
"I don't know what's hurting Catnap but...I hope that he starts to feel better soon."
Bobby gently pat Crafty's back with a soft smile on her face.
"Well, all I really noticed was that the two seemed a little hesitant to talk to each other for a while, but I just assumed that it was because they had a crush on each other or something. Or because of the fight."
Picky chimmed in. Bubba kept nodding as she spoke, jotting down what he saw from Crafty's artbook and what Picky told him in his notebook.
"Okay so...looking at what we have so far..."
Bubba read the small notes he jotted down. He took out some reading glasses, and put them on.
Kickin's smile grew once he saw the elephant with his reading glasses on. He thought that he looked pretty good in them.
And nerdy, too. But that's exactly what he loved about the elephant.
"It seems that Dogday has some strange, newfound fears...? As if he experienced a tramautic event of sorts. Or rather...a series of tramautic events, taking Kickin's story into consideration."
Kickin made a small cheering motion with his hands, as if his favorite celebrity or something noticed him.
Bubba only playfully shook his head at the gesture, while Bobby let out a small 'Awww!'
"Which should explain why he was afraid of Kickin going outside and looked at Bobby weird. As for Catnap..."
The elephant adjusted his reading glasses slightly.
"He seemed to be nervous to talk to Dogday for a brief period of time, but that could he chalked down to his crush. However, what cannot be explained is the fact that he's apparently wants to say 'I'm sorry' to the rest of us, thinks that Dogday is afraid of him, specifically drew Dogday choking him, and knows a strange metal hand...thing."
The elephant stared at his notebook, trying to come up with an idea. Strange...the two's behavior seemed similar, yet different somehow...what conclusion could he draw from-
"WAIT! I have an idea!!"
Everyone's attention was focused onto Bubba as he spoke, a big smile on his face.
"Okay, listen up! What if...Dogday and Catnap experienced some kind of tramautic event together? Perhaps one that involves us somehow?"
"Like a nightmare?"
"No Bobby, but that is a good guess. Given their behavior, it had to be something more extreme than that. Sometimes real."
"Think of it this way. Maybe Catnap did something that caused a rift between himself and Dogday. I mean, have you noticed the emphasis on himself and Dogday in his drawings?"
Crafty opened up her artbook again to allow the others to take another look at Catnap's drawings. They nodded, seeming to be open to the idea.
"And maybe, this in turn is why he feels sorry to the rest of us. Dogday is our leader afterall. Maybe in this theorized event, we were all caught in the crossfire somehow! Now..."
Bubba flipped the page, pointing to the hand in third drawing with his hoof.
"I don't know how, but I have a feeling thst this thing is connected to this event somehow. So...maybe this thing influenced this event, said event caused the rift between Dogday and Catnap,"
The elephant then pointed his hoof at the other critters in drawing, which excluded Catnap of course.
"Which in turn caused us to get caught in the crossfire of said event, and then..."
Bubba turned the page back to the first drawing, pointing at the scared Dogday.
"Whatever happened made Dogday afraid of him. Then...at some point, the two fought. Maybe around when we broke up the fight? Though...I don't recall Dogday choking Catnap. Anyways, afterwards,"
Bubba turned the page back to the third and final drawing, pointing to the countless amount of "I'm sorry"s throughout the page.
"Catnap felt guilt for...whatever happened afterwards."
Bubba concluded. The other did find his theory to be rather convincing. In fact...it kind of added up and explained everything. The two being nervous to speak to each other, the sudden fight. It was all starting to add up now.
But there was still one problem.
How? If this involves them somehow, how did they not know about it? Or witness any of it?
"This is a great theory and all, dude, but...how did this happen without us knowing? Especially since we're involved?"
"Right...that's the issue, Kickin...hm..."
"I believe that only Catnap and Dogday could answer that. But I don't think they'd be willing to tell us...unless we have undeniable proof that something is off with them."
Kickin's tail wagged slightly. He knew that Bubba would get to the bottom of this somehow! Honestly, he was actually kind of impressed that the elephant found a potential solution already. He thought that it would've taken him at least a month!
But hey! That's his Bubba!
"Oh! Like what?!"
The chicken asked with a clear hint of excitement in his voice. The elephant proudly smirked.
"I'm glad you asked, Kickin! Remember those gifts we gave the two?"
Kickin's eyes widened. Right! The glasses! Why hasn't Dogday worn them?
Wait...did he secretly hate them?!
"Oh right! I swear, if Dogday took those glasses only to have thrown them out..!"
Bubba patted the chicken's back softly, as if telling him to calm down.
"Now now...we both know that the two would never do such a thing. In fact.. Catnap's missing his watch too. So...if they don't have them on, in theory, they should be kept in their house."
"Buut, it'd obviously be suspicous if we all barged into their homes and began to search through them. Which is why I propose that we have the two stay together in Dogday's house as a 'medical precaution', while we search Catnap's house for his watch."
"If we don't find it, then it must have disappeared somehow, and the two will have no choice but to give us some answers."
Kickin pulled Bubba into a big hug, a large grin on his face.
"Woah dude! You're a freakin genius! Also...I'm not gonna lie, disappearing objects sounds pretty freaky if you ask me, haha!"
Bubba blushed a little from the hug, letting out a small sigh.
"Which is exactly why we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. So...you four in as well?"
"I don't know...this seems like an invasion of privacy..."
Crafty shyly commented. Bubba frowned a little..he didn't like doing this himself but...it was the best solution he could think of.
Otherwise, Dogday and Catnap are just going to continue making excuses to try and cover things up.
"I know, but the two aren't going to just give us the answers at this rate. We have to do something."
Crafty nodded, but didn't say whether she was in or not. Bubba decided to take it as a no.
"Sorry, but I have to remove all of those decorations back at home haha!"
Another no from Picky.
"Well, I have to make sure that a certain someone doesn't destroy that poor kitty's house AGAIN."
Bobby glared at Kickin, who let out a nervous chuckle in response.
"H-Hey! That was a skateboarding accident! I was trying to do a cool trick!"
'Classic Kickin...'
The elephant thought to himself. Well, he could assume that that's a yes from Bobby, and judging by Kickin's response a yes from him too.
Well...Hoppy still wasn't around, so he didn't have a chance to ask her.
Oh well. Three was enough anyways. Especially with his favorite chicken around.
"Alright well, that's good enough to me! I'll go tell those two to stay home now."
Bubba then left to update the two, while Crafty left to head home for the day. Picky followed Bubba inside to begin taking down the decorations she put up for the two lovebirds.
Dogday looked up once he saw the elephant approach him and his kitty.
"Alright! So, we discussed things, and we figured that it'd be best for the two of you to stay at Dogday's house together! That way, Dogday can make sure Catnap's safe. If either you ever need help, you both can use the phone in his house to contact any of the critters!"
The two stared at each other. This felt weird...Bubba almost seemed unbothered, which contrasted with his initial reaction. Then again...he's usually on the calmer side, so maybe...he just feels better now that he has a solution.
Dogday stood up, holding out a paw for Catnap. The cat took it, holding the dog's paw in his as the two made their way to Dogday's house.
Once the two made their way inside, Bubba regrouped with the remaining two critters; Kickin and Bobby. Picky closed the door to her house, so that she won't be interrupted while she redecorates her home.
"Alright. You two ready to search Catnap's house?"
"Heck yeah!! I CAN'T WAIT to see what secret goodies he has hidden in there!"
Kickin cheered a little too enthusiastically. He got an intimidating glare from Bobby in response, which made the chicken pipe down a little bit as he nervously chuckled.
"Remember, we're only checking to see if Catnap's watch is still there, we are NOT trying to dig into the cat's personal life, Kickin."
The elephant reminded the chicken, who let out a small groan in response.
"Ugh, the two of you are such killjoys!"
The chicken whined. The three began to walk their way to Catnap's house.
"And this 'killjoy' is the only reason why the other critters haven't tried to kill you in your sleep, Kickin."
The elephant playfully commented, though he knew he was partially right. The others would have probably hated him a bit more if it weren't for the elephant's advice.
Well, maybe Bobby and Dogday wouldn't, especially Bobby, but still.
He couldn't imagine what it'd be like to face Catnap's wrath, and he'd rather not think about it.
"Right right, I guess that's true haha! Fair enough!"
The chicken then gently brushed his hand against the elephant's hoof, as if silently requesting that they hold hands.
The elephant smiled, taking the chicken's feathered hand in his...hoof, holding it as the three walked their way to the cat's house together.
"Gosh...now the two of you are making me feel single.."
Bobby pouted as she crossed her arms. The chicken and elephant shared a small laugh together from the bear's comment.
At least Bobby and the others were their usual selves.
And hopefully, if they play their cards right, they can get Catnap and Dogday to explain what's going on between the two of them.
☆