~Canyon~
That night, their hang out was at Ella’s Saloon this time. Much more spacious, much more comfortable. More seats, and of course, milk and milkshakes on the house for the establishment owners' dear friends.
“Alright now Bun,” Ella said as she put her stuff down onto the counter, “You said you had a plan, what is it and what happened?”
Uncle Bun explained everything; the teenagers, the gun, the red wolf they had apparently seen, and Bun and Tios ongoing suspicions that it might be an old friend of his.
“Well-“ Ella said, “It could’ve been an outlaw that had your gun!”
Uncle Bun immediately got uneasy, Tio noticed. He grabbed his friends’ paw from under the table, giving Bun the reassurance to keep talking. Internally, he was at a crossroads with himself… does he tell everybody about his past as the bunny bandit? He’d have to if somebody asked why this was so important to him.
But what would he even say? “Yeah I’m the infamous and brutal bunny bandit you all were warned about as kids, but don’t worry I’m not a bandit anymore so you don’t gotta worry about me killing you all!!!” No. That’d be stupid. Friendship-ending levels of stupid. He’d lose the whole group, the only group of people he actually feels close too; everything he’d oh so perfectly crafted over the years would fall apart and—
“Well—“ Bun began, “It could’ve been; but I don’t think it was. I mean it is possible- but not highly likely.” Ella and some others nodded and hummed in agreement.
“Well I hope you find the guy you’re lookin’ for Uncle Bun,” Dusty added, Uncle Bun nods with a smile. Dusty continues: “Is Tio coming with you?” Uncle Bun looks at Tio and then Dusty, nodding his head. “Mhm; me and him talked about it earlier and at some point tomorrow—if it’s possible we’re thinking about going in the morning—we are going to head off to Tight Squeeze pass where that boy and friends said that they saw the red wolf guy.” The others nodded and hummed in understanding, Bun smiled and quietly sighed in relief, thankful that he didn’t get questioned too much.
The night ended with everyone talking, drinking milk and milkshakes, farmer Stinky playing his saxophone, and talking about life. All-in-all, a good night.
The next morning Tio and Uncle Bun got ready. Uncle Bun rode atop his horse Odis, and Tio got behind Uncle Bun on the horse. Uncle Bun had insisted that Tio ride with him, though Tio couldn’t figure out why. Wouldn’t it be more practical for Tio to take his own horse? No matter, they had a wolf to hunt. Besides, he liked being close to Uncle Bun.
“Alright Odis, HYA! To Tight Squeeze pass!” The grey horse let out a loud neigh and it rode off.
Once getting to the canyon's edge, Bun looked onwards, just to make sure nothing suspicious was afoot. Once he was sure that nothing was wrong, he gave Odis the signal to ride on in. Uncle Bun had learned that as a bandit; you never just run into a canyon without making sure other bandits or the law were there first. If Flame had taught him one thing he still used today… it was that you always keep a good lookout of your surroundings. You never know when danger is gonna be afoot, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Riding down the canyon they couldn’t see much, and the entire time Tio kept staring down into the end of the canyon. Bun knew why, Yonderville was down there. Yonderville was where Tio's little sister Tia lived. The two called frequently; at this point Tia knew more about Nice and Friendly Corners then governor groundhog did.
“Bun… if it is not too much trouble… Can we go visit my sister Tia?” Tio asked nervously.
Uncle Bun smiled a little bit, letting out a little laugh as he did. “Yeah Tio, sure. If we can’t find Flame, then we’ll go visit your sister.” “Yaaayyy!!” Bun laughed happily as they continued to ride into the canyon; all of a sudden… they see something… a cart. A familiar cart… Tricky Travis and Oswald’s cart. All emotions stopped dead in their tracks, and so did Odis. The horse stopped right near the cart, which a familiar looking weasel was fixing the wheel of.
“Hey! Travis!” Uncle Bun called out, grabbing the attention of the weasel and the bear sitting on the cart's front seats. “Well hi there uncle bun- ah— what are you doing down here?” Travis asked as he stood up. “I got word that some old red wolf went through here, you two see him anywhere?” The two tricksters looked at each other, and then the tow on the horse. “We saw a wolf fella looking for something in here earlier; we tried askin’ but he wouldn’t give us an answer; after that he ran off into Yonderville!” Tio smiled, Uncle Bun nodded. And with that, they rode off into Yonderville. They rode off looking for a man that they didn’t even know was alive or not.
