Ratchet's eyes darted around, scanning the surrounding area for any possible threat. He was nervous. This was the furthest he had ever been from camp in a while. He could tell that they were nearing the edge of their territory because the scent trails were beginning to fade. Soon, they would be crossing the border into what he considered to be the human domain.
"Where exactly are we going, Taylor?" He asked the silver-haired girl, who was sitting between his shoulders. His anxiousness was evident in the tone of his voice.
Taylor didn't seem too worried about being so far from camp. She was excited, actually. Ratchet could feel her bouncing a bit on his back. "There's a farm not far from here with a huge pumpkin patch! Don't worry, it's been abandoned for a couple years now, so we can go wherever we want!"
"We're going into human territory? Taylor, I don't think this is a good idea."
"Relax, Ratchet! I said it was abandoned!"
"What if someone lives there now?"
Taylor rolled her eyes. She had expected Ratchet to argue with her about this, which is why she didn't tell him where they were going until they were practically there. "It's literally in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing for miles! Trust me, we'll be fine."
Ratchet opened his mouth to retort, but closed it instead. There was no point in arguing any further. They had already come this far and turning back would just waste time.
The old medic sighed heavily and shook his head. "Okay, fine, but we aren't going to stay for long. As soon as the sun begins to set, we're leaving."
"Yay!" Taylor cheered, happy that Ratchet had agreed to stay. "We're almost there. It should be just through that gap in the treeline."
As they left the safety of the forest, unfamiliar scents began wafting into Ratchet's nostrils. He could no longer smell the familiar scents of the others. He cautiously approached the wide open field, sniffing the area as he went. The medic could smell a hint of a carcass on the breeze, but it was too far away to be worth investigating.
"Alright, we're here!" Taylor exclaimed, sliding off of Ratchet's back once he had slowed to a stop. She stood there for a moment, admiring the miles of pumpkin patch surrounding them.
Ratchet was perplexed by her excitement. He noticed that she was looking at the large, round orange objects in the field and frowned. What were they? Bending down to sniff one, he concluded that it was some kind of plant.
"What are these... orange things?" He asked her, nudging the one he had sniffed with his paw. It rolled over onto its side and startled him a bit.
Taylor couldn't help but giggle a bit as she watched him. "They're called pumpkins! You can either eat them or you can carve faces into them for Halloween!" Ratchet only seemed more confused. "I'll explain later." She said, waving her hand dismissively as she knelt down beside a pumpkin that had been busted open. Reaching inside, she grabbed a fistful of seeds and brought them out. "I've never had raw pumpkin before, but the seeds are pretty good!"
Ratchet wrinkled his snout in disgust upon seeing the seeds. They were covered in some sort of orange goo that looked absolutely awful. "That doesn't look very appetizing." He said.
"Yeah.. these probably aren't good to eat anymore." Taylor replied with a chuckle, shaking off the goo on her hands.
As she pushed herself to her feet, a crow cawed off in the distance and grabbed her attention. Turning to look where the caw had come from, she could see a rather large crow circling off in the distance. Its inky black feathers made it look like a dark smudge in the bright sky.
"Look, a crow! There must be something dead nearby." She said.
Ratchet turned his head to look at the crow, his eyes narrowing. He initially thought it could just be a crow simply waiting to scavenge from that carcass he had smelled earlier, but something felt... off. That crow looked far too large to be a normal crow, even from the distance they were watching it. Then, it dawned on him.
"That's no ordinary crow." He mumbled.
"What do you me— hey!" Taylor exclaimed, not expecting to be yanked off her feet. She dangled in Ratchet's jaws as he hurried towards a low ditch that was sheltered by a few small pine trees. "Ratchet, what's going on? Why are we hiding?"
Ratchet said nothing as he slunk down into the ditch and turned himself around so he could see. He gently set Taylor down at his paws and crouched low on his belly, every muscle in his body tense. After a brief moment of silence, he spoke. "That was Laserbeak; Soundwave's pet. Hopefully he didn't see us."
Taylor hugged her legs close to her chest, watching as Laserbeak continued to leisurely fly around in the sky. "Why? He's just a bird, what harm could he do to you?"
"While he wouldn't be able to deal much damage to me, Laserbeak could snatch you from the ground if he wanted to. And where he goes, Soundwave usually isn't far behind. He's the one we have to worry about."
Soundwave...
Taylor wracked her brain for any possible memory of the Con, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of flapping wings nearby. She heard Ratchet curse and felt him bring her closer with his paw. Her heart began to hammer in her chest. Was it Soundwave? She couldn't see out of the ditch as well as Ratchet could.
Ratchet stared at Soundwave intently, watching as the Decepticon folded his wings and looked around. He nearly jumped when Laserbeak's caws grew closer, but somehow managed to keep still as the crow passed overhead and flew towards the slender Dragon. The medic held his breath, waiting to see what Soundwave was going to do.
Right now, they were sitting ducks.
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Ahaha! A cliffhanger! Sorry, I just had to. XDD
I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned for the next one!