Dededestiny

[Chevywolf30]

I'm sure everyone knows this already, but lemme say it one more time:
This story is connected to the ongoing roleplay on here called Boo's Pizza II: Electric BOOgaloo. I wrote because I wanted to get to know my OCs better and I felt that a written story would be a better way to do that than a roleplay. One last note, the title is pronounced Dedede-destiny, even though there's only 3 'de's in it. Without further ado:

“Well, now what?” the cream colored wolf, Aili, asked.

The wolves that formed the pack that guards the Wind Fish had just disembarked from quite possibly the greatest journey any of them would ever take. It was a journey that had had its start right on their own island, with a giant, evil frog named Wart coming in attempt to kill their patron deity, but he died to the Wind Fish after meeting with resistance from their alpha, Daggertooth and a girl named Cayde Shilen. Daggertooth’s younger brother, Chevs, left the island on order of the Wind Fish to help Cayde find her birth family, and as he was coming back home, he was captured by King Dedede, who had a killer robot called Funtime Freddy in his service. When they landed on the island, Dedede sent Funtime Freddy in search of Daggertooth, and Chevs managed to escape Dedede’s submarine to warn Daggertooth. He was too late, however, and Daggertooth was killed by Funtime Freddy. This led to Chevs being the alpha, which Dedede realized and promptly recaptured and brainwashed Chevs. King Dedede then used Chevs as his puppet to rule the wolves in an effort to terraform the island to make way for the Nightmare Fleet, which Wart was behind. However, Dedede botched the brainwashing process, and Chevs was able to break free after an altercation with some other servants of Wart. While the wolves were scattered around the island fending off various servants of Wart, the Shilen family came to the island due to Cayde’s worry for Chevs’ safety, because she was of special interest to Wart and her family’s hometown was one of the first targets for the Nightmare Fleet. After a few skirmishes, during one of which Dedede's submarine that he had arrived to the island in was destroyed, the occupation of the island had reached a stalemate, when Vincent Carbanzo, who’s brother Walter had a special grudge against Wart, and a plan and weapon to end him for good with, showed up. This led to the wolves, the Shilens and a couple of Wart’s minions who had turned against him to go to the Gap Between Dimensions, where Wart eventually met his demise. Now the wolves were back on their island, and they looked to Chevs, their young, naive new alpha for guidance.

Dededestiny: A Boo’s Pizza story​

“We need to have Daggertooth’s funeral,” Chevs replied. “It's been long enough that his body has probably decayed something awful now, and I don't want that to disfigure our memories of him. Aili, you'll have to help me with this, I was still very young when Father died.”

“Well for any funeral it's preferable to have the body, especially for an alpha's funeral,” Aili, who had been Daggertooth’s mate, replied. “The ceremonies cannot be properly completed and his memory not properly honored without the body there.” Chevs sighed. “Well, ok, hopefully it's not too bad,” he replied reluctantly.

“An alpha's funeral takes place at night anyway, and it's only been a couple of days, it should be fine,” Aili replied reassuringly. “He died near the beach, no?”

Chevs thought for a few seconds before responding. “It should be somewhere in the woods, right out from Dedede’s submarine, and the wreckage of that should be easy to find, it’s somewhere on this beach.” He looked both ways down the beach, which was on the southern end of the island, and then his tail perked up. “I think I see it down there. Aili, uh, what should we do to retrieve it?”

“There should be a tarp in the alpha’s secret room, but unfortunately the knowledge of where that room is died with Daggertooth,” Aili sighed. “I would constantly ask him, but he kept it very secret, more so than most alphas. Which is a shame because that’s where all the books with the codes and legends are kept, so we’ll have to go off of memory for the ceremony.”

Chevs put his head down. “He always took his work very seriously. Let’s just go find the body, uh, Aili we should just be able to carry it, I guess.” (The alpha pair of the wolves that guard the Wind Fish are each granted the ability to transform to a human form for purposes of negotiation, and Chevs was specially granted one because of his mission to assist Cayde Shilen in finding her birth family)

Aili nodded. “We should probably go and search for it before it gets too dark,” she urged. “Chevs, lead the way.” Chevs set off towards the destroyed submarine, dread in his heart of what he would find. He couldn’t remember how bad the impact from Funtime Freddy’s scoop had been, and what sort of shape the body would be in now. He walked up to the submarine’s wreckage and faced across the beach into the woods.

“Let me think, I ran out of the submarine and stood on the ramp, which is right here, and I saw him in the woods right over there…” Chevs struggled to relive the painful memory of his brother’s death, and being in the same place it had happened made it all the more difficult. “Wait. I think I see it,” he said suddenly, seeing a dark lump in the leaves. He walked up to it, prodded the leaves aside, and unearthed his brother’s body. It was caked in blood, and the head was bent at an odd angle, but decay had not set in yet. Chevs bent down, a lump in his throat, and sniffed, taking in his brother’s scent for the final time. Aili joined him, and they shared a moment of grief.

It was cut short, however, by a piglike brute wielding a massive axe bursting through the underbrush. Chevs stared at it in shock, then when it leaned down over Daggertooth’s body he realized what had attracted it and he let out a mighty growl, leapt over the body and tackled the monster, latching his jaws onto its neck. It tried to escape, but to no avail, and after a brief struggle Chevs snapped its neck. He backed off of it, revolted by the taste of its blood, and turned around to see the rest of the pack had gathered around Daggertooth’s body.

“Where did that thing come from?” Chevs wondered out loud.

“I’m not sure, but I think I smell more,” Aili replied. “We should hurry.” After saying this, she transformed to her human form, and beckoned for Chevs to do the same. After he joined her, she picked up Daggertooth’s back legs and Chevs took his head and shoulders, taking care not to do any more damage.

“Oken! Marin! Cutter! Byron!” Aili called to the rest of the pack. “Escort us to the meeting rock, in case I’m right about there being more of those monsters. One of you at each corner.” The four wolves moved to obey, and the pack set off on this most bizarre of funeral processions.
Twice upon the way they were ambushed, once by another piglike brute with an axe, and once by one with a sword and shield. Oken, Chevs’ younger brother was able to dispatch the axe one easily enough, but both Byron, Chevs’ other brother, and Marin, an unrelated she-wolf who claimed to be the only survivor of a shipwreck on the island’s northern coast, had to team up to kill the one with the sword.

Once they made it back to the pack’s meeting space, which was a clearing in the woods with a small rock cliff on one side where the alpha would stand to give announcements, rally the pack and anything else that might need to be done. Chevs and Aili gently placed Daggertooth’s body down in the middle of this clearing, then after readopting their wolf forms, Chevs looked to Aili for guidance.

“Now, didn’t we burn Father’s body whenever he died?” Chevs asked. Aili thought for a moment then replied “Yes. We need to make a pyre of logs around his body, then we begin the blaze at twilight. I can’t remember how we did it before, but I’ll be thinking about that while we gather logs. Just be careful while you do that you watch out for any other monsters, in fact? Let’s just split up into groups. Chevs, Byron, you two go together, Cutter and Oken go together, and I’d like to talk with Marin some. I know I don’t need to remind you lot about group etiquette and not breaking groups unless absolutely necessary. Let’s go!”

The wolves split into their respective groups and went different directions into the woods to find the wood. After about thirty minutes, they returned, each wolf carrying a sizeable load of wood in his or her mouth.

“So, anybody run into anything?” Chevs after dropping his sticks. “Because Byron and I ran into two of the spear ones at once. He used his stick very impressively to knock one to the ground by the neck, I must say. Much less nasty than my method of just chewing on the neck.” “Heh. Thanks,” Byron chuckled. Chevs playfully rammed into his brother’s shoulder then looked at the rest of the pack.

“Marin and I did see one, but we took a long way around and didn’t confront it,” Aili replied. “We already had a good load of sticks by that time and didn’t want to have to drop them.”

“I, ah, got clipped by one of their shields,” Oken said bashfully. “Cutter went in first, and she got it to turn around, so I tried running at it from the back but it heard me, and when it spun around it’s shield hit me in the shoulder.” Chevs walked up to his youngest brother and looked at his shoulder. “Yeah, there’s blood there, shouldn’t be much more than a flesh wound though. Does it hurt to walk?” Oken shook his head. “No, not really, unless I really try to put a lot of weight on that leg.”

“Well I wouldn’t recommend that,” Chevs replied, then gave Oken’s wound a couple of tender licks and turned to look at Aili. “So, did you remember anything about how to start the fire?” he asked.

Aili nodded. “Yes, and I’m surprised I forgot. Just dash a simple flint rock against something steel, you have some of his old knives on you, no?”

“That I do,” Chevs replied. “So now, do we, I mean, now let’s get that pyre built!” he asserted, trying to remember that he was now the alpha and in charge of the wolves, including Aili, odd as that felt.

After placing the wood around Daggertooth, Chevs had the wolves nose around on the ground for a flint rock. After Cutter deposited one at his feet, he looked to the sky.

“Not quite twilight,” he said. “I wanted to have everyone go find something to eat, but that’s obviously too dangerous, there’s monsters out there.”

“Could we not split up into pairs again?” Aili suggested. “We did that for gathering the wood.” Chevs groaned and rolled his head around. “I don’t know, I feel like we’d be too zeroed in on whatever we might be hunting and not see anything behind us. Don’t we have some dried meat put away somewhere? Let’s just have that for tonight.” Aili exhaled irritably. “I still don’t think it’d be that dangerous, but you’re the alpha,” she said.

Chevs went up to the rock and after sniffing around its base, started digging to unearth a large slab of dried meat. He pulled it out of the hole and used his teeth to tear it into six equal portions. As he was distributing them to the members of the pack, Aili remarked darkly “Well, six is a lot easier to divide by than seven.” Upon seeing the glares that the other wolves sent her, she busied herself with her meat, remarking “Sorry, too soon I suppose.”

“Um, yeah, it really is,” Chevs said, before going after his own meat. It was chewier than fresh meat, and much less flavorful, but it was food nonetheless, and he went at it with vigor.

“You know,” Aili said after swallowing a mouthful, “I completely forgot about this when Natalie Shilen asked me if we had anything to eat,”

“That’s right, we did have this, and I believe that humans have something similar to this that we’re eating, jerky or something similar,” Chevs replied. “She probably would have appreciated getting to try it.”

“It’s hard to believe she’s also gone,” Marin replied. “I wonder how the Shilens are doing.”

“That’s right, she did die,” Chevs said. “Shot by that mouse fellow. I’m glad I finally got to eat him, even if he was nasty.”

“She’s not the one you needed to guide, was she, Chevs?” Byron spoke up. Chevs shook his head. “No, that was Cayde, her daughter, I was helping her find James and Natalie, who were her parents. I suppose I’ll have to give you all an account of what happened after I left the island, it was quite the adventure.”

“Why not now?” Oken asked. “Don’t we have time now?” Chevs looked into the sky. “We might, but I’d rather not cut it close on the twilight and the ceremonies for Daggertooth.” On saying this, he ate the last of his meat and looked back up at the sky. “Which we should probably get going on now, Aili, how does this work, aren’t I supposed to be up on the rock when the fire starts?”

Aili also finished her meal, and stood up. “Yes, and I’m the one who starts the fire,” she answered, looking around to find the flint rock Cutter had found.

“Alright. I suppose you’ll need a knife,” Chevs muttered, quickly transforming, dropping a knife at Aili’s feet, and reverting to his wolf form to stand on top of the rock.

“Well, my packmates, as you all know, we are all gathered here today to mourn the loss of our alpha, my older brother, Daggertooth. His life was tragically lost on his tenth birthday, he gave his life in service of his pack upon arrival of the nightmare fleet. He will always be remembered as the alpha who aided Cayde Shilen in slaying Wart for the first time, as well as a mate to Aili, and a brother to Byron, Oken and I.” On saying this, he nodded at Aili, who was kneeling in her human form next to the pyre. She struck the flint against the dagger, and stepped back as the flames devoured Daggertooth’s body. Chevs then knew it was tradition to have a song in honor of the deceased alpha. He threw his head back and began to howl the song that he had been working on for this very moment.

Daggertooth, oh my brother
You may be gone, but not from me
Dead at the hands of Dedede
And I was unfortunate enough to see
Daggertooth, oh my brother
Like you there will never be another

Daggertooth, oh my brother
Whatever shall we do without you?
I’m the alpha, but I don’t know what to do
I need the guidance of a wise one like you
Daggertooth, oh my brother
Like you there will never be another

Aili quickly picked up on the tune, and being back in her wolf form, harmonized Chevs’ howling with her own slightly higher howling, and together they brought chills down Chevs’ spine. Soon the rest of the pack joined in, and the six wolves poured out their grief and final respects for Daggertooth as his body burned. The howling and fire both reached to the sky late into the night, and eventually all the wolves were asleep.

 

[Chevywolf30]

CHAPTER 1:
Return of Dedede​

The wolves’ noisy ceremony did not go unnoticed. King Dedede had been left on the island to his own devices early on in the Nightmare Fleet’s occupation, and he had made many discoveries that pleased him greatly, one of the main ones being the alpha’s secret underground lair, where not only were texts sacred to the wolves kept, there were also things such as a phone for the alpha to contact the outside world in case any unwanted visitors, and King Dedede had taken full advantage of this, calling in an army of Waddle Doos to gather up the pieces of Funtime Freddy and set up a workshop to repair and enhance it, as well as bringing the tools to complete this task among other things.

A Waddle Dee scout had made Dedede aware of the wolves’ arrival back on the island earlier in the evening, but now he heard the ceremony for himself, because as neither the wolves nor Dedede were aware, the underground lair was directly under the pack’s meeting place.

“Them wolves sure can raise a fuss, can’t they?” Dedede remarked, looking annoyed at the ceiling. “You’d almost think someone died.”

“Well actually, one of them did,” the chief Waddle Doo, Charles, said. “Remember? The robot here killed one of them when you were first on the island!”

“Oh, right, I forgot about that one! That’s how Freddy's door got lopsided!” Dedede chuckled. “Hopefully he can get a few more, and hold up better with these new upgrades you’re giving him!”

“That we are,” Charles replied. “In fact he should be ready before noon tomorrow, so if you want to get some sleep before your big day, we’ll have this taken care of!”

“I could use a little shut-eye,” Dedede remarked, and waddled over to a makeshift bed that had been set in a corner for himself. He took off his jacket, hung it on a chair and laid down. He watched the Waddle Doos work for a while, but wasn’t able to nod off. Finally, he reached for his phone, and after making sure it was still connected over bluetooth to Funtime Freddy, he selected a relaxing music playlist and smiled as it poured out of the speaker on Funtime Freddy’s chest.

Unfortunately, this caused the animatronic to animate, rotating on his waist, raising and lowering the microphone and waving the Bon-Bon hand puppet in the air. This was unfortunate because the Waddle Doos were unable to work on it while it was moving, and Charles came storming over.

“My liege! If you must have music, could you possibly make the robot stand still?” the Doo fumed
“Oh, right, um,” King Dedede scrambled for his phone and opened the Afton Robotics app. After scrambling around in the animatronic options, he finally found the no dancing option. He selected it, and the robot stopped moving. The chief Waddle Doo waddled back over to Funtime Freddy, and after a brief inspection announced “Nothing was undone with that little stunt, luckily. Project still on schedule." King Dedede laid back with a smile on his face, and eventually drifted off listening to the music.

The wolves all fell asleep one by one, and eventually Chevs and Aili were the only two awake. Chevs came down off the rock, and sat next to Aili, who was staring into the fire.

“Well, we obviously need to have a talk about our relationship,” Chevs said.

“That we do,” Aili replied. “I’m glad it’s been on your mind as well. This is a rather unprecedented situation, or at least as far as I know, because again, Daggertooth wouldn’t let anyone else see the records.”

“But why??” Chevs asked. “He had to have been aware of the risk of this exact situation!”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I have my ideas,” Aili replied. “He always took his duties very seriously, and the secret nature of the lair was no exception. Although both you and I, you as the heir to the alpha position and I as the alpha female, were eligible to be told, he kept that close to his heart.”

Chevs sighed. “Well, what’s done is done. The question now is our relationship. Technically we’re now the alpha pair, but I can’t imagine us taking that all the way, but that raises the question, can we truly be the alpha pair?”

Aili nodded “My thoughts exactly. My feelings to you are more that of a mother to her son than anything, even though you are technically my brother in law. Which makes the obvious leading candidate Marin, what do you think about her?” Chevs sputtered, looked down and said “Well, I don’t know, she’s nice but I’ve never really considered to ask her if she’s, you know, interested.” Aili laughed. “Sure, I’ll just let you two figure that out,” she said with a wink. Chevs felt his nose burning, and the end of his muzzle where his whiskers grew began to itch like it always did when he was embarrassed. He attempted to scratch it subtly with his front paws, which was an impossible task, and Aili sat there watching him, silently chuckling.

Finally she spoke. “Well, I guess we might as well turn in for the night, I’ll let you make a speech about that to the pack tomorrow, say whatever you need to say.” With that, she winked, walked away from the fire and bedded down in the grass. Within a few minutes her body rose and fell slowly with the deep breathing of sleep. Chevs sat awake for a while longer, his mind full of the conversation he had just had, along with worries of the monsters on the island, as well as something had felt off about the funeral. He thought he remembered vaguely from when his father died, that the Wind Fish had done something at the end, wasn’t it to grant Daggertooth his human form? If so, why had the Wind Fish not come? Was it because he already had a human form? Had they done the ceremony wrong? Was he not truly the alpha? Finally he drifted off into a restless sleep.

The next morning, Aili was the first wolf awake, and she had a moment of panic when she first woke up. She checked all the other wolves to make sure that they were unharmed, then nosed at Chevs to wake him up.

“What is it?” Chevs said drowsily. “We were lucky we didn’t get attacked last night, Chevs,” Aili said. “We should have set a guard." Chevs stared up at Aili. “Can you make up your mind about these monsters, Aili?” he moaned. “Last night you were all for us going hunting in the middle of them, now you think we should have set up a guard.”

Aili stepped back, affronted. “I’m just going off my best judgment here,” she replied. “Even if we would be zeroed in on our hunting, we would still be awake, but it’s impossible to be aware while asleep.”

“Oh whatever,” Chevs said, as he stood up, stretching his front paws in front of himself and yawning. “We’re all here now, no?” He did a quick headcount to confirm everyone was there, and after confirming this he said “Well, now the big problem really is food. We’re going to have to go and hunt, our emergency supplies can’t last forever. I’ll wait for everyone to wake up, then I’ve got a few things to say.”

“Chevs, I’m sorry that your being the alpha has gotten off to such a rough start,” Aili said. “Daggertooth never had to deal with anything like this, except for maybe Wart’s attempt on the Wind Fish’s life, and he took that very personally, he thought he had failed. You weren’t around to see it, but he was never the same after that day. I tried to get him to relax, and he finally was on his birthday when you came back.”

Chevs was silent for a moment then replied “Wow, I didn’t realize… I remember he was somewhat rude to Cayde, but I had no idea he was going to get worse.”

“None of us did,” Aili replied. “He was never outright harsh to us, but he was much stricter, and I don’t think I ever saw him truly happy after that day.”

“I’m so sorry,” Chevs replied. “Sorry both that that happened to him and that I never got to see him like that.”

“You being gone probably didn’t help his stress any,” Aili replied. “He remarked once to me about the pack ‘falling apart,’ and he refused to go on about it but I knew he was talking about you.” At this point, most of the other wolves were awake, and Marin walked up to sit next to Chevs. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and said “Well, what are we having for breakfast, Alpha-Chevs?”

Chevs jumped at the sudden physical contact, and stood up abruptly. “Well, I do have some things to say, and I was thinking I needed to give them from the rock, but uh, it’s less of a speech and more of a conversation, so I’ll just sit down and say it here.” With that, he sat back down next to Marin.

“Packmates, we’re in a tough situation on many fronts, including maritially, politically, culinary and spiritually. I’ll start with the last one, the Wind Fish did not show up to the funeral last night, and I’m almost certain he was supposed to, to grant me my human form, as well as other things because it was such a major event. Is it my fault? Did he not feel the need? I’m trying not to overthink this, but I’m worried I’m already messing things up.”

“It is a cause for concern, but I wouldn’t take it too personally,” Aili replied.

“I agree, that’s what happened to Daggertooth,” Byron said.

“Right, I appreciate the support,” Chevs said. “Now the next one is our food situation. The problem isn’t with the food, or even the supply as far as I know, but the fact that this island is swarming with monsters for some reason, making it dangerous and impractical to hunt.”

“Impractical how?” Marin asked, and Aili nodded to show her agreement. Chevs sighed. “Impractical because it’s impossible to divide our attention evenly between keeping an eye out for danger and actually hunting, we’d have to split the pack’s attention and I doubt only two or three wolves could catch enough for the whole pack to eat.”

“All we really know is that there’s monsters in the forest,” Cutter said. “We don’t know about the field that’s just on the other side of this rock.” She jerked her head behind her to indicate the rock, not fully looking at it because the sun was brightly shining over it.

“That may be our best option, but we still don’t know what might be out there. It could just be more of the same, it could be better or it could be worse. After we adjourn here, we might as well go out there and get a feel for what sort of unwanted guests there are.”

“And now our last two problems, politically and maritally are a bit more intertwined, and…” He paused. “Does anyone else hear that?”

There was a sound of machinery whirring, then a heavy footfall coming from the forest. More machinery, another footfall. The entire pack looked where it was coming from, and Chevs stood up, growling. “Who’s in there?” he snapped.

“Oh, I think you already know that,” said a dreadfully familiar, snarky voice. “Now one second…” After a moment, a horribly familiar, high energy song began playing, and King Dedede burst into the clearing, with Funtime Freddy right behind him. Before Chevs could fully process this, Dedede knocked Chevs out of the way with his hammer.

“I heard you having that funeral last night, it would be a shame if you needed to have another, wouldn't it? If we all just listen to me, Freddy won't have to necessitate another funeral!” Dedede said gleefully.

Chevs stood back up and shook himself off. After Dedede’s morbid announcement, Chevs jumped at him, mouth open, fully intending to rip his beak off his face. He never made it, and instead found himself floating midair, paralized.

“What the, how did you…” Marin exclaimed, moving towards Dedede, but Aili stopped her. “You don’t want the same to happen to you, do you?” she asked, and Marin nodded grimly.

“How did you do this?” Marin shouted at Dedede. Dedede smirked. “Glad you asked. Waddle Doos, show yourself!”

About twenty Waddle Doos came out of the woods, each one only about 2 feet tall and with a giant eyeball, stubby legs and arms, and not much else. They all had crackling energy around their arms, and they were all concentrated on Chevs. “And there’s more where they came from, so don’t get any ideas, understand?” Dedede smirked. “Now, to business. There was someone missing from the funeral last night, wasn’t there? Local patron deity? Well, if you would have looked to the sky, you’d see where he is. Follow me, if you would. Doos, if you would escort Chevs, we can all step into this field for a bit of sightseeing…” King Dedede waddled through the clearing and into the field, and the wolves followed. What else was there to do? The duo responsible for the death of their alpha was back on the morning after his funeral, and they meant business

Dedede gestured to the mountain on the north side of the island. On top of it was a giant egg with pink spots that hadn’t been there last time any of the wolves had checked. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Dedede said. “You know, there’s a lot of history behind this place, and that egg. I’ve spent the past few days reading about it in the ever so helpful library that you’ve provide for my reading pleasure, coupled with my own life story, and I’m realizing that Hyrule isn’t where I wanted to rule at all, this island is my destiny to rule, or should I say my Dededestiny!”

“Wait a minute,” Aili said sternly. “You found the alpha’s lair?” Dedede smirked “Well of course I did, how else do you think I was able to phone a friend to call in this lot to get Fredrick here fixed?” he replied. “Lots of fascinating information, and also instructions on how to put your patron deity into that there egg, he’s having himself a nice little nap now.”

On hearing this, Marin gasped and sank to the ground, putting her head between her front paws. This elicited another chuckle from Dedede. “Someone’s quite the devoted follower, aren’t you? Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, this island. This island has gone through many changes and forms, Subcon, Kololint, Dreamland, and whatever you wolves are calling it now, but I’m convinced this is essentially the very same place I was determined to steal all the food from years ago, and I believe that it wasn’t the Wind Fish Wart was truly after when he came here, I think he saw it as a homecoming of sorts. Well I will succeed where Wart failed, and I will go beyond just the food, although that does sound nice, I could go for some steak, but I will not only take all the food, I shall find the deepest secrets of this mysterious land of dreams and I shall harness them for even bigger purposes!”

Most of the wolves had been staring transfixed at Dedede during this speech, but Cutter had been sneaking around silently dispatching the Waddle Doos holding Chevs in the air, and finally he was able to break free.

“Dedede, you don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here,” Chevs said. “Now get off this island before we send you off of it.”

“Oh you really think you’re hot stuff, huh? Waddle Doos, grab him again!” Dedede said. Chevs moved to attack Dedede, but found himself paralyzed again. Dedede gave a subtle nod to the Waddle Doos, and they began to chant something. Chevs felt as if his body was being ripped apart. He looked above him, and saw a ghostly apparition; his human form, which looked as if it was a puppet being pulled out of him by a single string on the chest, then it disappeared. Dedede nodded. “Very good.” he said. “Now that we’re rid of that and you’re all just wolves, this should be much more manageable.”

“Wh-what do you want from us?” Chevs asked, swaying shakily on his legs.

“You will have the honor of being some of my first subjects for one,” Dedede replied after a moment of thought. “Everything else kinda falls under that umbrella, so I’ll let you know as the need arises. For now, I’ve got my own planning to do, so you all are free to go. Don’t try and plan anything, I have eyes and ears all over this island, and don’t even think about following me back to the secret lair, Miss Widow,” This last remark was directed at Aili, who simply growled.

Chevs watched Dedede waddle away, still shaken over losing his ability to transform. “Alright, is everyone here and safe? Ok, um let’s just go out into the field and uh, see if there’s monsters there as well,” he said after looking over his pack.

Aili gave him a piercing look. “Are you sure you’re up to this, Chevs?” she asked. “A lot just happened, I’m not sure any of us should just be parading around the island.”

“NO, I AM NOT UP TO THIS, OK?” Chevs suddenly shouted. “DAGGERTOOTH’S MURDERERS ARE STILL ON THIS ISLAND, AND THEY JUST WON. HE’S LISTENING TO OUR EVERY WORD, AND IF WE STEP OUT OF LINE, WE’LL GO THE SAME WAY AS DAGGERTOOTH, AND FOR WHAT? THERE’S SO MUCH WE DON’T KNOW AND IT’S ALL BECAUSE DAGGERTOOTH DIDN’T LET ANYBODY INTO THE SECRET ROOM.” Chevs began to sob. “What are we going to do? I don’t even know if this has ever happened to the Wind Fish, or if there’s anything we can do to fix it.”

Most of the wolves had been defeated by the fate of their patron deity, but Marin was still staring up at the egg, muttering to herself. After hearing Chevs’ outburst, she turned to face him.

“Aili is right, you really need to lie down somewhere,” she said. “Yes, food is an issue, but we need to get ourselves adjusted to this new way of life.” There was a fire in her eyes as she said this, and Chevs began to suspect that she knew more than she was letting on. He sighed. “Alright, fine,” he said. “I apologize for the outburst, and you’re right, we need to allow our new normal to sink in.”

The pack filed to their den, which they hadn’t visited since returning, and Chevs remembered the last time he was there, how Cayde had been forced into a robot suit against her will, and the struggle that ensued trying to free her. He felt a wave of anxiety when he realized that Dedede’s return was in a way in the same string of events, and walked into the den. He plopped down on the floor and closed his eyes, not realizing how tired he was after his short night of sleep the night before, and then he felt someone standing over him. Opening one eye, he saw Marin leaning over him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Shh, just listen to me,” she said into his ear. “I know what’s going on with the Wind Fish, because I’ve seen it before.”

“How-” Chevs started to ask, but Marin shushed him again. “I was a human on this same island at one time. The same thing happened to the Wind Fish then. There was a young man named Link that came to the island and played a special song with sacred instruments that were hidden around the island. I’m not exactly sure what happened after that besides the Wind Fish waking back up, this all just came back to me, but if we can find those seven instruments, we might have a chance.”

Chevs began to reply again, but Marin cut him off. “Don’t talk about it here, I’ll take you to where I think the first one is hidden later. Just rest now.”

 

[Chevywolf30]

CHAPTER 2:
Marin​

Chevs closed his eyes and was soon asleep. Next thing he knew, Marin was gently prodding him to get him to wake up. “Chevs, let’s go, it’s almost midnight now,” she was saying. “Midnight? Chevs said “Why are we going out so late?”

“Just because we can, and besides it’s a full moon,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. Chevs then remembered the conversation they had had before he fell asleep, and stood up with a yawn and stretch. “What did you guys do all day while I was asleep?” he asked. “Shh!” Marin said. “Everyone else is asleep now! I’ll tell you outside!” She bounded out of the den, and Chevs followed. He stood in the mouth of the den, drinking in the cool night air, but Marin had other ideas. She went into a play bow right in front of him, and before he realized what was happening, she had tackled him.

“What the- Hey!” Chevs laughed, jumping back to his feet and chasing Marin into the open field. She then turned around to face Chevs with another play bow, then leapt at him. He danced to the side, and she crashed to the ground. He put his front paws on her shoulder while he was down and leaned down over her. “Gotcha!” he said, before dancing backwards. She jumped back up and slowly began to stalk him, playfully growling. Chevs also crouched down, then Marin jumped and tackled him. Chevs allowed this to happen for a second before rolling to the side and looking around the field. It was a clear night, no monsters or anything else in sight.

“I’m starved,” he said. “Hear any rabbits around?” Marin giggled. “That’s my next surprise,” she said. “Aili led us on a hunt while you were asleep, and we caught a deer! I set some aside just for you without anyone else realizing.” she said coyly. “Follow me!” She trotted back into the woods, and Chevs followed her, feeling truly at ease for the first time in a while.

Marin pawed some leaves out of the way, revealing a deer’s entire right hind leg. “Here it is, and it’s all for you, Chevs!”

“Oh thanks so much, I really appreciate this,” Chevs said, and dove into his meal. He buried his snout deep into the still somewhat fresh meat, enjoying his first taste of truly bloody meat since before he left the island with Cayde. After finishing, he looked back up at Marin and happily asked “Well, you’ve obviously got a whole night of surprises planned out, what’s next for us?”

“I think you already know,” she said, in a much more serious tone. Chevs nodded. “Let’s go,” he said in reply. Marin set off to the southeast and Chevs began to follow. Realizing that their change in tone might seem odd to any spies of Dedede’s that might be watching, Chevs whispered in Marin’s ear “Hey, we’re out tonight to have fun, remember? Keep frolicking around.” He loped ahead of her, playfully calling out “Betcha can’t catch me!” Marin laughed, then easily caught up to and passed Chevs. “No, I bet you can’t catch me,” she called back at Chevs, who increased his speed to pursue her. Although he came close a few times, he never really tried to overtake or tackle her, because their playful chase was actually just Marin guiding Chevs to the first instrument.

Marin finally began to slow her pace, coming to a cave just off the beach a little bit east of where they had first landed. “This is Tail Cave, the hiding place of the first instrument,” she said. “I’m not entirely sure what’s in here, Link never elaborated, but I know it’s dangerous, so we’ll have to stick together.”

“Wasn’t this Link a swordsman? Maybe we should get Aili for this, she has a sword,” Chevs said nervously. Marin laughed “Oh maybe, but I think that whenever Link went through, it was blocked off and he had to figure out a way in. It’s wide open for us, so it might not be that big of a deal this time.” With this, she walked confidently into the cave, and Chevs followed her in.

“Sure is dark in here,” he said. “Should we go out and find a torch or something?”

“Yeah, you may have a point,” Marin replied. “Maybe there’s torches further in.” Chevs made a doubtful noise. “I really don’t like the idea of us getting lost in here… Then again, what do we have to lose? And we could probably follow our own scents out,” he said. He suddenly laughed. “This is exciting! Let’s go find that instrument!” Looking around, he realized that his eyes had adjusted to the scant moonlight that was finding its way into the cave. The entrance room was a rough rectangle, with passages leading to the left and straight ahead. If he strained his eyes, Chevs thought he might be able to see some light down the passageway that was straight ahead.

“I think I see something down that way,” he said, and set off, motioning with his tail for Marin to follow. The two wolves walked until it was pitch black.

“Well, we might as well turn back,” Marin said. “Unless you still think you see something?” “

“That’s the thing, I’m not sure,” Chevs said. “It might have been my eyes playing tricks on me.” He paused. “I think I see something, but that might just be the moonlight at the entrance, I’m thinking let’s just go for that now, either it’s something good in the cave or the entrance, I have no idea, let’s just go for it.” He set off in that direction, when suddenly there was a loud rushing noise and a bright white light filled the cavern. Chevs tried to see what was responsible for this, when suddenly a loud, raspy voice echoed through the cavern.

“HEY BON-BON, I THINK SOMEBODY’S AWAKE WHO SHOULDN’T BE!” Funtime Freddy shouted. Chevs’ heart stopped upon hearing that voice again. Last time he had heard it, Daggertooth had died shortly afterwards, and as his eyes adjusted, he saw that the animatronic was standing between him and the exit, his faceplates open and his eyes were responsible for the light now flooding the cavern. Chevs slunk backwards towards Marin, who was cowering against a wall.

“How did he find us?” Marin whimpered. “And what’s he going to do now?” Chevs made sure to position himself between Freddy, who had turned to face the wolves, and Marin. “He’s not getting to you until he gets through me, and he’s not getting to me without a fight,” he said.

“You naughty puppies should have been asleep!” said the Bon-Bon puppet. “Now you’ll see what happens to doggies who stay up past their bedtime!”

“Ok, if I remember from whenever Daggertooth died, it takes a second or two before he can really launch the killer scoop from his chest,” Chevs said to Marin. “On my signal, run around his left, I’ll go around his right and we’ll regroup behind him.” Before Chevs had finished speaking, the large pink plate on Freddy’s chest had started to move aside, and as it did, Chevs shouted “RUN!”

Both wolves went around behind Freddy as the scoop extended from his chest and clanged against the cave wall.

Bon-Bon giggled. “You silly wolves. Freddy’s just trying to do his job!”

“Don’t listen to it, Marin,” Chevs said. “It’s trying to scare us.” Freddy began to turn himself around, and Chevs looked at it intently. “Ok, once it gets turned around, go back around the way you just came. I think that if we just keep wearing it down and dashing the scoop against the rocks, it’ll eventually break down.”

“HEY BON-BON,” Funtime Freddy shouted. “WANNA GO AFTER THESE WOLVES?” Marin cringed. “Doesn’t that thing have a volume control?” she wondered, and Chevs laughed. Freddy scanned the cave with his brightly shining eyes, before finally noticing the wolves. “Please remain calm,” Bon-Bon said, but Chevs ignored him, watching the pink door open.

“NOW!” Chevs shouted, and the pair of wolves circled back around. Freddy’s scoop once again landed on nothing, except this time the wall was far enough away that it didn’t hit anything. “Dangit,” said Chevs as the animatronic began to turn around. “We’ll have to do two of these dash routines to get one hit on the scoop.”

“Not necessarily,” Marin said. “We could run to the other wall whenever we go around, it would have to walk up to us that way and you could get a better look at it.”

“Good point,” Chevs replied. “I didn’t really have much time to look, but I think it might have been a little lopsided.”

The light from Freddy’s eyes swept over the two wolves, and Freddy began once again to try to scoop one or either of them. Its door began to open, and Chevs was getting ready to give the signal to run when it suddenly stopped. This worried Chevs more than the threat of it scooping him. While he was wondering what to do, King Dedede waddled into the cave.

“Excellent work, Freddy!” he called. “I came as soon as your alert came in!” Dedede looked around, then noticed Chevs and Marin. “And you found the alpha!” he exclaimed with glee. “This is too good! I failed with the brainwashing once before, that will not happen again, I can guarantee. And of course Marin, the seagull girl. You won’t make it out of this cave alive, I know why you came here, you’re trying to find the Siren Instruments. I wasn’t expecting any of you wolves to know about them or the Ballad of the Wind Fish, but now I see you’re not just a wolf. Now, for some music.” With this, Dedede pulled out his phone and after making a few selections, a rap song beginning with “Oh, this what we doing? Alright,” and some gunshots began to play.

“In case either of you miss the significance of this, it’s Eminem’s album ‘Music to be Murdered by,’” Dedede said. “I thought I’d give it its due this fine evening!” He looked back down at his phone, and after a few taps, Funtime Freddy began to move again, and began scanning the room for the wolves.

He was unsuccessful, because the second time Dedede had looked down at his phone, Chevs had signaled for him and Marin to leave, which they did. Freddy realized this a moment before Dedede did, and chased them out of the cave.

“Hey, where are you going, Freddy?” Dedede shouted, then he saw the wolves had escaped. “Oh, wait what?? How’d they get away??” he shouted angrily and began to run after Freddy. “Man I wish I had my hammer,” he puffed as he ran.

Chevs and Marin ran back towards the den, easily outrunning the robot and the penguin. They burst into the den, waking everyone up quickly, and Chevs said “I have some really bad news and some potentially really good news, but we gotta get out of here.” Most of the wolves woke up easily enough, but Oken wasn’t willing to get up.

“You’ve got to get up now,” Chevs said to him urgently. “Your life depends on it!” He finally managed to get him on his feet, then all the wolves left the den.

“What in the world is going on, you two?” Aili asked, looking at Chevs and Marin.

“I’ll explain it all here in a minute, just need to find somewhere to hide,” Chevs replied, then looked to Aili. “Any secret hiding places you might know about?” he asked her pointedly. Aili shook her head. “Nope, I’m surprised you want us to leave the den,” she replied. “It’s pretty hard to find.

“Well Dedede probably already knows where it is,” Chevs replied, then turned his ears towards the field again. “I can hear that awful music that that robot thing is playing,” he said. “They’re close.”

“Let’s just go back into the den,” Aili said. “It’s got a pretty low and narrow entrance, I doubt the robot could fit inside.” Chevs shrugged and motioned for the wolves to follow him back inside. Once they were all seated, he addressed them.

 

[Chevywolf30]

CHAPTER 3
The plan​

“Ok, so, Marin here is actually a lot more connected to this island than most of us,” Chevs began. “And she knows of a way to free the Wind Fish from his prison.” There was excited murmuring from the wolves at this, then Chevs spoke again. “Only problem is, there’s 7 musical instruments hidden around the island that we’d need to collect, and Dedede knows about them, and he’ll have them guarded.”

“So what do we do?” Byron asked. “Even if we could get them, how would we be supposed to play them?”

“I wondered that too,” Chevs said. “Marin said there was a certain song that needs to be played, so not only would we need to figure out how to play these instruments, we’d need to learn the song.”

“So, in other words, our only option is the impossible,” Cutter said, with disappointed agreement from the rest of the pack. “Well, I thought so too, until-” Chevs was interrupted by Funtime Freddy screaming at the entrance to the den.

“I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE, NOW COME OUT AND PLAAAY,” the animatronic called, while still playing violent rap music from his speaker. Chevs looked towards the entrance to the den and saw that Freddy was leaning over, too tall to fit his robotic frame into the mouth of the den. Chevs opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it and turned back to the pack.

“Well, Aili, you were right on that call, nicely done,” he said. Aili thumped her tail on the floor proudly.

Chevs was about to speak again when Funtime Freddy screamed “HEY BON-BON, GO G-GET ‘EM!” There was a click, then Freddy’s Bon-Bon hand puppet flew into the den. Luckily it missed the wolves, and instead crashed into the back wall and lay there, unresponsive, with the head detached from the body. Chevs chortled, and almost laughed more but decided it would be unwise to taunt Freddy. He was about to speak again when there was more noise at the entrance to the cave.

Dedede came huffing and puffing up to the den entrance. “Are they in there?” he asked Freddy, but instead of waiting for a response, he walked in himself. Chevs stood up growling aggressively at him, hackles raised. The rest of the pack stood up and followed his example, and Dedede began to slowly retreat.

“Oh I’ll be back here very shortly,” he said. “And I’ll have my hammer and backup, so just be ready, because it won’t be pretty.” He began to laugh maniacally and as he left shouted at Freddy to “Stay there and don’t let them get away!”

“Ok, so as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted,” Chevs said exasperatedly “Yes, I thought we were doomed, no way to wake up the Wind Fish, but now I have a theory. Hear that awful excuse for music coming from out there? That’s playing from Funtime Freddy, and I think that Dedede’s phone controls it. So, this is a massive gamble, but if King Dedede’s phone has some sort of music generator on there, then maybe, just maybe it might have the Ballad of the Wind Fish, and we can maybe somehow get Funtime Freddy up to the top of the mountain, and get him to play it, and hopefully that works to wake up the Wind Fish.”

The wolves stared at him in disbelief. “Is that really our best option?” Cutter asked. “Who’s supposed to operate the phone?” Marin asked.

“That would be Aili, the only one of us with thumbs,” Chevs said. “Me? B-but I’ve never even used a phone before!” Aili said in shock. Chevs shook his head encouragingly “Don’t worry, I have, I’ll just have to show you how," he replied. "We’ll need to hurry to devise some sort of plan, I don’t know how long it’ll take Dedede to get back. We’ll have to get the phone off of Dedede, go somewhere where Aili can figure out how to use it, and find the music generator and the controls for Freddy, all without any intervention. It would be best if he doesn’t even realize he lost the phone, so Aili and I can just slip off together with it," he went on.

“I think we might be able to just bump it from his pocket,” Oken said. “Just, you know, body slam him and make it fall out.”

“That is an excellent idea,” Chevs said. “It’ll be hard getting past that hammer though… One of us would have to distract his attention elsewhere.” He looked around the room, waiting for volunteers.

“I think I should confront him with my human form,” Aili said. “I feel like my sword would be a good match for his hammer.” Chevs nodded. “Great idea. Although, maybe it’s not,” he added doubtfully. “I don’t think he knows you have a human form, or he would have stolen it when he took mine. And then it would be harder for you to slip off, because he would be focused on you specifically.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Aili said. “Neither of us should be the two that distract Dedede and make him lose his phone, but one of us should grab it.”

“I agree,” Chevs said. “So, that’s two of us making the getaway, two of us making him lose the phone, and the last two of us should go out early to get Freddy away from the door. I say that Cutter and Marin should do that, you females are better runners.”

“Darn right we are,” Cutter said smugly. “About time you recognize that.” Chevs growled faintly “When have I ever not? There hasn’t been any reason to until now, and-” Aili cut him off. “Oh be quiet, Chevs, you and Cutter always have to bicker about something and it drives me crazy.”

“Right, sorry Aili,” Chevs muttered. “So anyway,” he said in his brisk tone again. “Marin and Cutter distract Freddy, Oken and Byron make Dedede lose the phone and keep him busy so he doesn’t notice Aili picking it up and the two of us making the getaway. Any questions?”

Marin nodded “Yeah, when are Cutter and I supposed to make our little getaway?”

“That is a very good question, Marin,” Chevs said, looking at her. “I guess we’ll just have to play it by ear, watch and see when Dedede’s coming back.”

This prompted Byron to speak up “Maybe we should all burst out of the den at once, that way we won’t have to worry about fighting Dedede in this closed space, and it would be easier for you and Aili to get away unnoticed,” he said. Chevs nodded “You have a point there. So maybe we wait until we see Dedede coming, then send out the girls to get Freddy out of the way, then the rest of us go out after Dedede. That sound good to everyone?”

“I don’t see why not,” Aili replied, and the rest of the pack agreed, even Cutter. “Alright then, now we wait,” Chevs said, and the wolves lined up in the mouth of the den, Cutter and Marin first, then Byron and Oken and Chevs and Aili last.


King Dedede ran through the woods and burst into the secret lair, where the Waddle Doos were sleeping. *Wake up, you lazy things!” he called ecstatically. “Freddy’s got the wolves pinned in their den while they were trying to stage a rebellion! Now’s our chance!” Instead of waiting for a reply, Dedede grabbed his hammer and left the lair, sprinting back to the den.

Back in the den, the wolves tried to look past Funtime Freddy’s maniacal screaming and threats, while it was still loudly playing Eminem. “Yeesh, this thing is really getting to me,” Marin said. “Anytime Dedede wants to come back is fine by me." Shortly after she said this, she pricked her ears towards the woods. After narrowing her eyes and leaning her head forward, she called out “I see him, he’s coming.”

“Alright, how close is he?” Chevs asked. “I don’t know, about 20 trees?” Marin said. “He’s running so he’s getting pretty close, even though he’s not very fast.”

“Go, go!” Chevs called. “No time to waste!” Marin bolted from the den, and Cutter followed after a second. The two she-wolves bolted from the den and veered right, and Freddy gave chase, calling after them “COME BAACK, I NEED TO GIVE YOU A SURPRIIISE!!”

“No!” Dedede screamed, who at this point was almost to the den. He watched the wolves lead his robot away, and while his attention was directed there, Byron and Oken ran out of the den and attacked Dedede, Oken bit onto his right flipper, which wasn’t holding the hammer, and Byron began to tug on his jacket.

“Hey, what are you two doing??” Dedede said, momentarily panicking. He quickly regained his composure and swung the hammer around, knocking Byron backwards and shaking Oken off. The two wolves circled around Dedede just out of range of the hammer, both looking at him and growling. Oken faked as if he was going to go in for a bite on Dedede, with the consequence of Dedede swinging the hammer at him. While Dedede was distracted, Byron ran in, and instead of biting him he just rammed his shoulder into Dedede’s side and kept going. Dedede swung around, expecting there to be an aggressive wolf, but instead the hammer met empty air.

When Byron rammed into Dedede, it pushed his phone towards the top of his pocket, and when he swung around, it flung from his pocket and landed on the ground a few feet away. “Look, he got it,” Chevs said to Aili from the den. “I’ll go first and grab it, and you follow.”

“Wait, if I’m the one that’ll be using it shouldn’t I grab it?” Aili asked. Chevs sighed. “You’ve never even seen one before, you might accidentally bite it too hard and break it, I’m familiar with how they work so I know how to grab it in my mouth without messing anything up.”

Aili shrugged. “Whatever. Just a thought.” Chevs nodded, then burst from the den just as Oken went in for another hit on Dedede, thus distracting him and giving Chevs a window to grab the phone and bolt. Aili went out shortly afterwards, leaving Chevs’ younger brothers to tackle the penguin who had caused their pack so much pain on their own.

Oken was persistent on biting his right flipper every chance he got, and Byron had picked up on this pretty quickly and was dancing around Dedede, trying to give Oken opportunities to attack. Finally, Dedede was able to hit Byron in the side with his hammer, sending him sprawling, and then he spun around and knocked Oken in the head, and Oken crumpled to the ground.

“OKEN! NO!” Byron wheezed from the ground, too winded to do much else. “Now, where is everyone?” Dedede said, holding his bleeding flipper up in the air. With a scowl at Oken’s unconscious form, he tore off the cuff from his jacket and used it to make a clumsy sort of bandage. He then walked to the den and looked inside.

“Empty, of course,” he said. “Wasn’t there six of them? So if two of them ran Freddy off, and I just took out two of them, that would mean there’s two more out there somewhere.” As he was saying this, the Waddle Doos marched up to the den.

“My liege, here we are,” Charles said, standing at attention as best as he could. Dedede nodded and replied “Good, tie these two up then we need to go looking for the rest.” The Doos moved to obey, then Charles noticed Dedede’s bandaged flipper. “Are you ok, my king?” he asked. King Dedede grimaced. “No, but I’ll be ok, we can worry about it later. We need to concentrate on finding those wolves for now. Actually, I can check in on Freddy and see where he is and if there’s any wolves with him.” Dedede reached into his coat pocket, looking for his phone, and his alarm grew as he couldn’t find it. “Um, first order of business is to find my phone,” he said. “It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was running or when the wolves attacked me.” The Doos began to search around on the ground under their king’s watchful eye.

Meanwhile, Chevs ran through the woods with Dedede’s phone gripped firmly yet gently in his teeth, and Aili followed behind him. The two wolves ran north until they came out of the woods into a plain at the base of the mountain.

“Ok, that should be far enough,” Chevs panted, dropping the phone on the ground. “First thing you’ll want to do is pick it up, this is the top right here,” he said, tapping his claws on the top of the phone. Aili transformed and picked up the phone as Chevs had indicated, then sat down cross legged in the grass.

“Alright, there should be a button on the side,” Chevs said, peering at the phone in Aili’s hands. “Yeah, right there. Press that.” Aili did as Chevs instructed, then looked at the other side of the phone. “What do these do?” she asked. “Those are the volume buttons, you can adjust how loud the sound is, but since we’re going to be using Freddy’s speaker you shouldn’t have to worry about those,” Chevs answered. “Now, you’re holding it in your left hand, good, and using your right pointer finger, swipe on the screen to unlock it.” Chevs dearly hoped Dedede didn’t have a screen lock, and luckily Aili was able to swipe open the lock screen to access the home screen.

“Alright, now, those little pictures are different apps, each app is something different the phone can do,” Chevs said. “Now I think the black one with the green circle is the music, go ahead and tap that with your finger.” Aili obliged, and the phone opened up to the Spotify player, still playing Eminem’s album Music to be Murdered by. “Ok, good, go ahead and stop that for now, the next thing we need to figure out is how to control Freddy from there, press the big rectangle button at the bottom of the phone to go back to the home screen,” Chevs said. Once Aili stopped the music and returned the phone to the home screen, Chevs peered thoughtfully at it.

“Hmm… Maybe the one with the speech bubble and the jagged line, Messenger? Like, he uses it to send messages to Freddy?” Chevs wondered. Aili pressed it, and a list of names and faces came up. “Drag your finger up the screen, let’s see if any of these are Freddy,” Chevs said, and after watching Aili scroll past several names, Chevs noticed a pattern and shook his head. “Go back to the home screen, it’s not this one, these are all real people,” he said.

Aili pressed the home button, and the pair stared at the screen. “It’s gotta be one of these…” Chevs said. He then noticed one and his eyes lit up. “Look! Right there! That one that says Afton Robotics, try that one.” Aili opened the app, and a menu popped up prompting the user to choose the robot they wished to work with. Funtime Freddy was the only one, and Aili pressed it. Several options came up, and Chevs read them “Let’s see, bluetooth connection, dialogue options, tank levels, movement… try that one,” he said thoughtfully. Aili pressed it, and Chevs began reading the menu that came up. “Hmm, dancing options, detach Bon-Bon puppet,” Chevs snickered on reading that one. “Oh, he’s already done that, oh here we go, return to me, Aili press that one,”

“Cutter, take a left here, there’s a cave we could probably trap him inside!” Marin said between breaths. “Yeah, that’s great and all, but your boyfriend wanted it to get to the top of the mountain and it can’t do that if it’s trapped in a cave,” Cutter said sarcastically, but obliged. Once inside, Marin scoffed. “Well if you want to run all night, be my guest, but I’d rather just get it somewhere and make it stay put there, then we can get it out later once Aili figures out how to control it,” she replied, panting heavily and sitting on the floor of the cave. “And Chevs is not my boyfriend, he’s the alpha and, well,” Marin trailed off and went silent. She was going to say something about Aili being the alpha female but that was under Daggertooth. Was Chevs going to take Aili for his own mate, or would Aili surrender her position as alpha female? Was she, Marin, destined to be the alpha female of the pack alongside Chevs? She thought back earlier in the night to when it was just her and Chevs. At the time she hadn’t meant anything romantic or flirtatious about it, or so she thought. She was interrupted from these ponderings by a loud hissing noise at the mouth of the cave.

Funtime Freddy stood there, faceplates open and his eyes once again shining like flashlights. “HELLO WOLFIES,” he cackled. “ARE YOU READY FOR A SU-SU-SURPRIIISE?” Marin froze in horror, her tail tucked between her legs. What she did not notice was that the music had stopped. “Way to go, Miss Alpha,” Cutter said. “You really backed us into a corner.” Marin tried to slink to the wall, but Cutter moved between her and the wall. “No, you’re the one that wanted to confront him in the cave, so you go out there and confront him,” With this, Cutter pushed her shoulder into Marin’s rump and made her stumble forward. She stared up at the killer robot, just as the door on its chest began to open. She moved shakily to the side, just as the scoop went right over where she had just been standing. Her moving made Freddy lose track of her, and so when the animatronic looked down again, it targeted Cutter, who didn’t realize what was happening until the scoop began to extend towards her. She turned to the side, and the scoop hit her in the shoulder, knocking her down. Freddy retracted the scoop, came a step closer, and his chest door began to slide open again. Cutter simply laid on the ground, frozen in terror and pain, waiting for the fatal blow.

It never came. Freddy simply turned around and left the cave. Marin watched it leave in disbelief. “Let’s hope that was Chevs and Aili calling it away,” she said, then turned to Cutter. “You ok? I think I saw it clip you a little there,” she asked.

Cutter groaned, lying on the ground in a growing pool of blood. “No. I am not ok,” she said. Marin felt her heart drop into her paws. “Oh no, oh no, hang in there Cutter,” she said, looking around in panic. “I need something to wrap that with, I’m going out to look for it, please don’t die on me,” she said, and left the cave. She saw Funtime Freddy walking away to the north, and then began sniffing around on the ground. She finally found some rocks with moss on them, and very carefully dug it off and then picked it up gently in her mouth and carried it back to the cave.

When she walked into it, Cutter lifted her head. “Oh, thank the Wind Fish,” Marin said. “You’re alive.” She placed the moss down on Cutter’s shoulder. “Alright, I’ll press on this gently, tell me if it’s too much, ok?” Marin said. Cutter nodded weakly, then Marin lifted one paw and began to press gently on her shoulder. Cutter groaned, and Marin let off.

“No, keep going, but it’s definitely broken,” Cutter said.

Marin sobbed “I’m so sorry, this was a terrible idea on my part to go into the cave and you’re the one that paid for it,” she said while nursing Cutter’s wound.

“I’m sorry too,” Cutter said. “I was way too harsh on you there, I’ve just been irritated with a lot of the things Chevs has done as alpha, he’s too young in my opinion, Aili should have taken over until Chevs was old enough, and I’ve been mourning Daggertooth and I just haven’t handled any of it very well.

Marin continued to gently massage Cutter’s shoulder silently for a moment, then spoke. “Thank you,” she said. “Losing Daggertooth was hard for all of us, and I know how much you looked up to him.”

Cutter thumped her tail on the ground, then closed her eyes. “Cutter, NO!” Marin panicked, and Cutter’s eyes fluttered open again. “What? I’m just closing my eyes to get some rest,” she said tersely. “Oh, I thought you were dying,” Marin said. “No, I don’t think I’ll die from this,” Cutter replied. “I’m still very weak, but I think my will to live is stronger than the wound at this point. I’ll be fine. I would like to get out of this pool of my own blood, however.”

Marin let out a sigh of relief, then began to ponder Cutter’s request. “I’m not really sure how I can help you do that,” she said. “Are you sure you can’t stand on your own?” “Certain,” Cutter replied. “And I don’t want to scoot myself either because then I would just smear the blood all over the place.” Marin leaned down and sniffed the moss. “I’m going to get some more moss,” she said. “Be thinking about ways to get yourself moved while I’m gone.”


“Stick these two wolves back into the den,” Dedede said. “I’m retracing my steps to the lair to find my phone, once the wolves are in the den, follow me back there.” Dedede walked off through the woods, and the Waddle Doos picked up Byron and Oken, who had begun to wake up, and carried them into the den. Once they had put him down, Oken started thrashing around. “Let me go!” he said. “I’ll rip each one of your eyeballs out! Byron, you awake? Help me chew through these ropes!”

Charles shook his head. “No, this won’t do at all,” and with that statement, he cast a spell to put Byron and Oken to sleep, then left the cave with the rest of the Doos to help Dedede look for his phone.

While Charles had been casting the spell, Freddy walked past the outside of the den, on his way to Chevs and Aili.

“I hope that that return button was the right one,” Chevs said. “It’s been, what, 5 minutes? I guess Freddy only runs when he’s chasing something.” Aili nodded absentmindedly, looking around the moonlit plain with her hand on her sword. “Chevs, have you noticed that all the monsters are just… gone?” she said. “They were everywhere yesterday while you were asleep, they nearly ruined our hunt, but they’re nowhere to be seen right now.”

“I think they’re just all asleep for the night,” Chevs said. “I saw something that might have been one curled up under a tree while we were running here.”

“What are we going to do to get rid of them?” Aili asked. “That’s what’s concerning me.”

“The Wind Fish will be awake then,” Chevs said simply. “He’ll be able to help.” The wolf and woman sat for another minute, then they heard movement in the woods and Funtime Freddy walked into the plain. Chevs froze in terror for a moment, even though he knew that he and Aili had power over it now, this was still the machine responsible for the death of his brother.

“Alright, Aili, wasn't there a follow me option? Let’s see how this thing handles lots and lots of steps,” Chevs said. Aili turned the phone back on, and after making a few selections looked up. “Alright, it should follow us now,” she said. “The phone said something about Bon-Bon confirming it, but since that thing is dead in the den, we’ll just have to accept that he’s following us.” On saying this, she began to walk across the plains to the staircase that led to the top of the mountain. Chevs followed after seeing Funtime Freddy began to walk in that direction as well.

King Dedede stormed out of the lair. “Where on this stupid island is my phone??” he shouted at Charles, who had led the Waddle Doos back to the lair. “I don’t know sir, we looked all the way here so if you dropped it when you were running to get your hammer we just missed it,” Charles replied. Dedede scowled. “Well, forget the phone and Freddy, let’s just go looking for the last two wolves,” he said. “I think one of them is Chevs, and boy do I have some words for him. Let’s check if they left any prints away from the den,” Dedede said, and he and the Waddle Doos set off in that direction.

“Look sire, there’s pawprints here, but also, Iook at this: Aren’t these Freddy’s footprints? He must have been following them,” Charles said once they had arrived at the den. Dedede looked down at the prints the head Waddle Doo had indicated. “Yep, that’s Freddy’s footprints,” he said. “That’s the opposite direction from where the other two wolves ran. Did Freddy finish them off? Charles, you take the Doos and investigate that, I’ll be able to tackle Chevs and whatever the blonde one is called.” Charles saluted. “Yes sir!” he said, and Dedede and his minions separated.

Dedede walked into the plain where Chevs and Aili had summoned Freddy and looked around. After walking into the plain and looking around, he saw the stairs and saw Aili, Freddy and Chevs almost halfway up. “Why isn’t Freddy ripping their guts from their bodies?” Dedede said. “And why are they going to see the Wind Fish?” Worry growing, Dedede started up the steps as well.

“Don’t look now, but we have company,” Chevs said in an undertone. “I think we should be able to make it first, we’re almost halfway. Are you fine?” Aili nodded. “I hope the robot holds up as well as I am,” she said. They continued to toil up the steps, watching as Dedede drew closer, for although he was in rather poor shape, he wasn’t being hindered by guiding a giant animatronic. Finally they reached the landing, with Dedede only about twenty steps away.

“Ok, go to Spotify on the phone,” Chevs said. Aili pulled out the phone and opened Spotify, and held it down for Chevs to see. “Ok, down there at the bottom,” Chevs said. “The little thing that says search, tap that.” Aili tapped it, and a search bar with a keyboard came up. “Ok, now you need to type ‘Ballad of the Wind Fish’ and hope that something actually comes up,” he said, looking back and seeing that Dedede was only ten steps away, and still coming, albeit slowly and breathing heavily.

“I, uh, where’s the B?” Aili panicked. “Oh, right, keyboards are confusing, you know what? You go stand guard and don’t let Dedede get to me, I should be able to use my claws to type this out,” Chevs replied. Aili placed the phone on the ground, drew her sword and stood to face Dedede, who was now only five steps from the top and still climbing resolutely.

“What… are… you… two… planning?” Dedede wheezed. “Are you… the blonde one? I didn’t realize you had a persona as well… My mistake.” Aili pointed her sword down at Dedede, who was lying on the steps. “Give it up, Dedede. My mate will be your only fatality. Your attempt at a reign of nightmare has failed,” Aili said. Behind her, Chevs worked as fast as he could trying to type on a smartphone with paws. “F… t… h… Oh my stupid paw pads keep interfering, backspace backspace, e… W… i… Oh awesome, this one says Ballad of the Wind Fish, please please please work”

King Dedede looked up at Aili, a wicked smirk on his face, and leapt high into the air, just as music began to play from Funtime Freddy’s speaker. He landed on the landing, with Chevs in between him and Freddy. After landing, he used his hammer like a golf club to knock the phone down the stairs, and began to walk towards Freddy, holding his hammer in both of his flippers. Chevs realized his intentions and grabbed the hammer’s handle in his mouth, placing his paws on Dedede’s large stomach and fighting him to try and stop him from advancing. Dedede struggled against him as Freddy continued to play the Ballad of the Wind Fish. Finally, Dedede flung Chevs to the side, then swung his hammer right into Freddy’s chest, causing the animatronic to break into pieces and launching the chest down the mountain, and the head rolled to follow it.

Chevs stared in shock at the legs of the animatronic falling to their knees just like Buzz’s legs fall at the beginning of Toy Story 2, although he had no way of knowing this. Dedede began to laugh. “Well, so much for your little insurrection! Now do you want me to kill or brainwash you again? I’m a good king, I’ll let you decide,” he taunted.

Chevs just stood where he was, breathing heavily. Was this it? He was shocked, but felt a surprising lack of panic. He looked over the island and noticed that the sun was rising, and then he felt a rush of wind from behind him.

The egg that the Wind Fish was trapped inside was cracking open, then it shattered and revealed the Wind Fish.

 

[Chevywolf30]

Chapter 4:
Endings, and beginnings​

“King Dedede,” the Wind Fish boomed. “Although, it was not just you acting, for you are at least partially controlled by the forces of nightmares. I had hoped that the end of the Nightmare Fleet would be the end of nightmares in general, but I see now I was mistaken. So, you, Nightmare Dedede, you are going to Brazil.” The Wind Fish blew sharply on Dedede, and Dedede was flung away rapidly, screaming “AAH-” All Chevs felt was a small breeze.

“And you, Chevs, the new alpha of my wolf pack. I regret that I have not been able to speak with you about this, I was on vacation when Daggertooth died, then I came back while you were in the Gap, then Dedede put me to sleep before you got back. Many unfortunate circumstances have prevented our meeting, and I am afraid it must be delayed once more, your pack needs your assistance. But before you go, allow me to bestow back to you what has been lost.” The Wind Fish then blew onto Chevs, granting him his human form again. Chevs bowed, then set down the steps of the mountain again, Aili following.

First, Chevs went to the den, where he saw Byron and Oken had both awoken and were trying to chew each other out of their bonds. “Let me help you two with that,” he said, chewing them out. “Alright, you two stay here, I need to go find Cutter and Marin,” Chevs said. He set off in the direction they had run when luring Freddy away.

He came across a cave where the Waddle Doos that King Dedede had brought along were trying to get in, but Marin was taking advantage of the narrow door of the cave to keep them at bay. Chevs ran up, shouting “Hey! Leave her alone!” and the Waddle Doos turned to confront him. Chevs transformed, intending to kick the Doos around, but then found that the Wind Fish had restored his pistol, which he had abandoned in the woods during the Nightmare Fleet’s occupation of the island. He pulled it out and gunned the oncoming Waddle Doos one by one, running out of bullets when there were only five left, but by that time they had begun to scatter into the woods. Chevs let them go, figuring that only five of them wouldn’t be enough to constitute a threat, as well as the fact that he had killed the head Doo, Charles.

“Oh thank the Wind Fish that you’re ok, Chevs,” Marin said. “I see you’ve got your human form back, how’d that happen?” Chevs gestured towards the mountain. “See for yourself,” he said. “The Wind Fish is back awake, the plan worked. He sent Dedede away to somewhere called Brazil, and during the fight, Dedede destroyed Freddy. How did you and Cutter fare?”

“Not good,” Marin replied. “Freddy hit her in the shoulder once with the scoop before you and Aili called it away and she was bleeding pretty badly. I have moss on her shoulder, but I wasn’t able to move her out of her own pool of blood, which just adds insult to injury. Honestly, it should have been me”

“You know I can hear you from out there, right?” Cutter’s voice came weakly from the cave, but still full of her typical cutting sarcasm. Chevs grimaced before walking into the cave.

“Hey there, Cutter, you good?” he asked awkwardly. Cutter gave a small laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to be rude,” she said “I know I’ve been rude to you in the past, but I’m over that now. You’re the alpha, and I’ll respect that.”

“I appreciate that, Cutter,” Chevs said. “I’ll do my best not to be rude to you either, but these aren’t dying regrets are they? You can’t die on us now.” Cutter laughed, then grimaced. “Marin thought the same thing,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll live, but I don’t think I’ll ever be the same, I’m so sorry.” Chevs shook his head. “Don’t be!” he said. “You’re alive, and that’s all that matters. And you took a hit for Marin, I can’t thank you enough for that.” Cutter smirked. “So you are her boyfriend, I knew it,” she said. “I- Uh- You- What??” Chevs sputtered, which made Cutter smirk all the more. “Just get me out of this cave please, Lover Boy,” she said. Chevs bent down and picked the wolf up on his shoulders. “Ugh, we’re both going to need to clean up later,” he said.

“Marin, go get Byron, Oken and Aili, and tell them to come to the meeting rock,” Chevs said. “I’ll carry Cutter there.” Marin ran into the woods, and Chevs carried Cutter to the rock, placing her down gently on her side. Once the entire pack was at the rock together, Chevs transformed into his wolf form again and spoke. “Ok, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, our last two problems, politically and martially, are a bit more tied together. As it stands, Aili and I are the alpha pair, but we’re in no way interested in being mates. So, my public proposition is… Marin, will you be my mate and the new alpha female of the Wind Fish’s guardian wolf pack?” His heart was beating rapidly now as he looked at Marin, who looked into his eyes and nodded. “I thought you’d never ask,” she said, and Chevs let out a triumphant and excited howl, while Cutter and Aili looked on with satisfied expressions, and Byron and Oken stared with their jaws dropped. Chevs and Marin rubbed their noses together, then Chevs licked Marin’s nose.

“Isn’t there something else you need to do, Chevs?” Aili said with a smile. “Oh, right,” Chevs said, stepping back from Marin and walking up on top of the rock. He howled the song to call the Wind Fish, who appeared shortly after.

“Chevs, I know why you have called me here today, and that is so I can properly initiate you as the alpha. You have more than proven yourself as worthy for the position, as well as already being specially granted a human persona. Now there is nothing left but for you to choose a mate. Have you chosen one of the pack’s she-wolves to be your mate?” the Wind Fish asked.

“Yes sir, I have asked Marin and she has agreed,” Chevs replied.

“And you, Aili, do you agree to surrender your human persona and place as alpha female?” the Wind Fish said to Aili.

“I do,” Aili said with a nod.

“Then it is settled,” the Wind Fish said. “Marin, come up to the rock to receive your role as the alpha female!” Mairn walked shakily up to the top of the rock, and the Wind Fish breathed a sacred wind on her. The Wind Fish turned to the rest of the pack and said “All hail Chevs and Marin, your new alpha pair!” The wolves on the ground howled in celebration, and Chevs and Marin both adopted their human forms, Marin’s being a young human woman with long red hair with a flower in her hair and a blue dress, and they shared a kiss.

“Chevs, there is yet one more matter, and that is the matter of the alpha's secret lair." the Wind Fish said. He then leaned down and whispered the location in Chevs' ear, then pulled back. "You may do with this information as you please. Keep it to yourself, tell your mate or the entire pack, I will not stop you." said the Wind Fish. Chevs turned to face the pack. "I will make mistakes as the alpha, but I will also learn from the mistakes of myself and others. Today, let it be known that the secret lair is one hundred paces north of the den, and the entrance is inside the large oak tree!"

Later in the day, Chevs walked into the den back in his wolf form and saw the remains of Bon-Bon. He stared at them for a moment, then lifted his leg and peed all over it. He then leaned down to carry it out of the den then realized what he had done. Just then, Marin walked in, still in her human form.

“Wow, these hands are really cool, I’ve always thought they look weird, still kinda do, but wow I can tell how useful they would be,” she was saying. Just then she noticed Bon-Bon and the darkened ground around him, and Chevs leaning over it with his mouth open. Marin crossed her arms. “You marked that thing just to be petty did you?” she asked. Chevs nodded sheepishly. “And now you want it out but don’t want to taste your own urine, am I right?” she went on. Chevs nodded even more sheepishly. “Oh you dingus, I love you,” she said, then leaned down and carried Bon-Bon out of the den. Outside, she readopted her wolf form, then dug a hole and buried Bon-Bon inside. Chevs had stepped out of the den to watch this, and Marin walked up to him and sat down next to him, putting her head on his shoulder.

“So, what now?” she asked.

“I know there’s things that need to be done, we need to find the remaining Waddle Doos, we need to tend to Cutter, and surely there’s other things, but for now, I just want to relax. I don’t know when the last time I was truly relaxed was. There were some moments with the Shilens, but now that I’m home again, I just want to spend the whole day doing nothing,” Chevs answered.

“Well I’ll be here to waste the day away with you,” Marin said, and licked him on the nose.