Chapter Eight: The Unpredictable Horse

“I don’t want to do that anymore,” Montgomery the Moose said to his friend after a few hours of silence, as they continued their walk through the woods.

“What do you mean?” Montgomery the Mouse asked.

“I don’t want to just break things all the time.”

“I know…”

“I just wanted to tell them about the machine, and let them know how to get it back,” he continued.

“I know…”

“What could I have done differently?” he asked.

Montgomery the Mouse wasn’t sure if his large friend was asking him directly, or just thinking out loud.

“Well…” he ventured, and waited to see if his friend wanted him to continue.

“Yes?”

“You’re just very large. It’s not your fault. You’re just… a Moose…”

“Yeah…”

“But you did kind of jump out at those people. And I know you’re friendly, but for creatures that don’t know you like I do, you’re kind of… intimidating.”

“Intimiwhatting?”

“Intimidating. You’re big. And for things smaller than you it’s hard not to be a little worried.”

“Hmmm… But I’m friendly!”

“I know. But creatures only know that when they spend time with you.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Montgomery the Moose said, saddened by what his friend was saying.

“I know. But it’s okay. Look, I’m your friend and I think you’re awesome. I’m pretty sure we’ll have a lot more friends soon.”

At that exact moment, as if on cue, a brown horse suddenly appeared about ten feet to their left. Montgomery and Montgomery both looked at the horse, confused about where it just came from. There was no horse there a moment ago, and they hadn’t heard one walking towards them.

The horse turned its head from side to side, and saw them. Then it spoke.

“Ah! Montgomery and Montgomery! Good to see you!” he said with great surprise.

Montgomery and Montgomery were dumbfounded, and didn’t know how to respond.

“Uh,” the horse looked at them with his own look of confusion.

They all stared at each other.

“Oh, waffles,” the horse said, and dashed through the trees away from them.

Montgomery and Montgomery were so confused that for a moment they didn’t move. But then they realized the horse was getting further away.

“Wait!” Montgomery the Moose shouted after the horse, following it through the trees.

At this point the horse was running at full speed through the woods, and Montgomery the Mouse held onto Montgomery the Moose’s head as they sprinted to follow him.

“Wait! Horse! Come back!” Montgomery the Moose shouted as he ran.

They came out through a clearing in the trees and realized they were next to a road, where several metal boxes with wheels were stopped while the horse was walking across. Montgomery tried to catch up but the metal boxes started moving again once the horse was on the other side of the road, and since he didn’t want to break any of the boxes he waited until more of them stopped so he could cross also.

They both kept an eye on the horse, though, and when they finally crossed the road, they followed him through a parking lot. It seemed to them like the horse wasn’t going anywhere in particular – it was just running from them.

As they got closer, they saw a person getting out of one of the metal boxes which had stopped in the parking lot, and as she stepped out, they heard the horse say, “oh, thanks!” and uncomfortably try to climb inside the box before she could close the door. Then they saw the person shout at the horse and whack it with a bag. The horse backed away and looked at the woman as if she was being very mean to him.

Realizing he wasn’t going to get into the box, the horse turned back, and when he saw Montgomery and Montgomery, he seemed to panic again.

“Ah!” he exclaimed as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “Umm,” he continued. “Oh yes,” he added. “I forgot,” he mumbled. “See you later. Or earlier. Or, um… Oh, waffles…”

And with that, the horse disappeared into thin air as if he’d never existed.

Montgomery and Montgomery couldn’t believe their eyes. The woman who had just hit the horse with a bag was mumbling angrily to herself as she walked away, and Montgomery and Montgomery looked at her to see if she also just saw this horse disappear into thin air.

The woman just walked past them saying, “…and don’t YOU try getting in my car. It’s bad enough when horses try to get in, let alone moose!”

When they were alone again, Montgomery the Moose finally broke the silence, saying to his friend what they were both thinking. “What just happened?”

“I… have no idea…” Montgomery the Mouse replied. “What was that creature? You called him Horse?”

“Yeah,” Montgomery the Moose replied. “A Horse. But horses aren’t usually that crazy. That… was the most… unpredictable horse I’ve ever seen.”

They both stayed baffled for a few minutes as metal boxes drove around them and people leaned out of the metal boxes to shout at them. But gradually, a smell that was faint at first became clearer and clearer to them both.

Chocolate.

The smell woke them out of their daze, and as Montgomery the Moose leaned his head down to nibble some chocolate from a sidewalk in front of a building, Montgomery the Mouse climbed down and nibbled on a few smaller pieces of his own. But every time the door in the building close to them opened, the chocolate smell became stronger and stronger. And before long, it dawned on Montgomery the Mouse why.

“Montgomery,” he said to his friend in awe.

His large friend was too busy munching his chocolate to pay attention.

“Montgomery!” Montgomery the Mouse said again. “This…” he said, pointing to the building in front of them. “This…”

Montgomery the Moose finally looked up and with a gasp, he realized what he was looking at. He responded to his friend with amazement.

“A chocolate shop!”

Click here for Chapter Nine.