Chapter 9 - Holly
Onyx sighed a huge, doggish sigh. Both of them had been shoved into small cages (Onyx wondered to herself sadly whether the cage was smaller or whether she was just bigger) next to each other, which wasn’t exactly much of a plus for Onyx because Bolt was in a foul mood with her.
“Why did you do it, Onyx?” Bolt growled. “I don’t get you, seriously, I don’t!
“I would say this in a happy conversation and people would laugh,” Onyx whispered dejectedly back at him, “but my brain doesn’t control me, well, my stomach does.”
“I can see why people would laugh,” Bolt scoffed. “I just wish there was someone who could -“ Bolt stopped.
“Someone who could…?”
“Shh.”
Bolt had a sudden brain flash. From what Onyx had just said, a brilliant but potentially painful idea had formed in his head.
“Onyx, you genius!” Bolt suddenly complemented.
“Huh? I thought ya hated me?”
“Well, that’s before you were clever enough to make me think of this plan. Think about series three of the BOLT series, episode twenty three, seventeen minutes into the episode.”
“Oh! The bit where the Green Eyed Man locked ya away in that tiny cage, and ya escaped by rammin’ against the cage door with your super strength and smashin’ the door off?”
“Yeah, that bit.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You could do the same.”
Onyx blinked and waited a few seconds before finally getting what he meant.
“Oh, heck no! Was that an insult?”
“No, not at all! It’s a plan! A plan to escape! I don’t really have super strength, do I?”
“Neither do I,” Onyx stated blankly.
Bolt sighed. “… okay, fine, I mentioned it because your sudden heavy weight and the gravitational force of it would smash the door off, okay?” Bolt raised his voice slightly. “Then you can let me out and we can follow the plan like we were originally going to! It was sort of an insult, yes, but you’ll be thanking me later!!” Bolt panted, he hadn’t taken a break that through the whole rant.
“… Okay, fine, but I hope ya know what your blimmin’ doin’ here, Bolt!”
Onyx stepped back to the very back of the cage. She was going to go through with this plan, mainly because Bolt had made it up and she was his biggest fan, but also because she just wanted to go home. Wherever that was anymore.
Onyx wound herself up into a tight little ball at the back of the cage, squished herself up as much as possible, then sprang, yowling, at the door of the cage. First, her vision was just metal bars, then blinding white light as her head made full-on impact with it, then blackness as her face smacked against the hard marble floor of quarantine and knocked her out stone cold.
“Onyx?” Bolt said to her, and didn’t get an answer. No! Now she couldn’t let Bolt out! “Onyx, wake up! What if someone comes? Please wake up, I’m sorry I said those things!”
“Ugh… You’re sorry?” Onyx groaned as she got to her feet. She limped on her front paw as she trotted up to Bolt’s cage. “So, ya want out, I’ll let ya out,” she said groggily. Bolt gasped.
“Onyx - your face - I shouldn’t have made you do that, I’m so sorry!”
“What’s wrong with my face?” Onyx placed a paw to the side of her muzzle where it stung the most and drew her paw back - there were traces of blood on it (20). “Oh, it’s bleedin’. Oh well, it’ll clear up soon.” Onyx batted the slide lock out of place and the containment unit swung open. Bolt leaped out lightly, then jumped as Onyx cheered.
“Yahoo! There’s no cage in Phoenix that can keep in Bolt and Onyx!” (21)
A sudden croaky, dilapidated voice caught both of their attention.
“Escapees!” an extremely skinny and scruffy cream cat pleaded. “Please help me, I’ve been in here for months!”
Onyx stopped. “Bolt. Stop, c’mere.” Onyx, even through the croakiness of the voice, knew that accent, knew that voice, from somewhere. Somewhere so distant and sad that it made her want to cry.
Onyx went right up to the bars of the cage and observed the cat inside. She was a scrawny queen cat, with bright cream, almost yellow fur. She had that unique human-like hair that Onyx had too, but a deep blonde to mach the cream of her fur. Hidden amongst the fringe of her hair were startling brown eyes, staring back at Onyx with the same expression of recognition. Her tail was long and slim, which puffed out at the back when she curled or bent it.
“Do I know ya…?” Onyx whispered to the cat.
“Do I know you too?” the familiar cat replied. “Strong Okie accent, tan fur, overweight…” Onyx gave her a quick scowl but said nothing. “… Onyx, sis? Is that you?”
“Holly…? My sister?” Tears welled up in her eyes. Onyx was right. She had just found her long-lost sister! (21.5)
“What’s going on?” Bolt asked impatiently, scared someone was going to come in and find them.
“I’ve only just found my sister, of whom I lost so early on!” Onyx sobbed. She unlocked the cage door and Holly leaped out, then they both wrapped their arms round each other in a sobbing greeting hug.
“You have a sister?” Bolt gasped, completely unaware of this before.
“Yeah, she does!” Holly said from over Onyx’s shoulder, for Onyx herself was crying too hard for speech. They let each other go and Onyx sniffed herself back into a speaking state.
“We were separated about a month after I got spayed,” Onyx said. Bolt grimaced.
“Ugh. Cut the details, will you?”
“Yah, right. Anyway, we’d known each other for about 15 human years, when Holly here got given away to Street Cats (22) by our old owners, and that’s when Mark adopted me, too. We haven’t spoken since.” Onyx smiled at her long-lost but never forgotten sister. “Until now. C’mon, your comin’ with us.”
“Are… where are you going?”
“Miami! We’re goin’ back to our old family, which has Penny, Julia, Mark, Mittens, Rhino…”
Holly blinked. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She had actually found her sister. For real.
Chapter 10 - Escape from Arizona
Onyx was still bleeding when they had got out into the crowds again, even if no one had realised. Holly waved a signal at her and Bolt, and the three of them darted from one side of the airport to the other, sliding and weaving through the legs of Americans and foreigners alike. Bolt skidded behind a particularly obese British man to hide himself, waved one paw to the left, and they ducked behind a huge potted tree again, panting.
“That was a close one,” Bolt breathed as a pram scooted past them with a screaming toddler inside it. All three of them had to cover their sensitive ears from the screeching.
“Okay,” Onyx wheezed, “what… plane is… ours? And… when does it… leave?”
“You’re so unfit these days, Onyx,” Holly said, grinning. Onyx punched her arm.
“No, seriously, she’s right,” Bolt said. “That’s really bad for what we’re going to need to do now.”
“More… runnin’?” Onyx whined.
“You want to get to Miami or not? Our plane is number 615 - and it leaves in two minutes!”
“TWO?!” As soon as she had said it, Bolt and Holly had pulled Onyx out from behind the plant and were on the move again. This was it. They were going home!
“Onyx, c’mon!” Bolt yelled as Holly darted between his legs and narrowly avoided collision with a suitcase trolley. Onyx slid from behind the potted tree and ran to Bolt’s side, looking into his golden brown eyes and gaining all the courage she needed from them.
Bolt sprang forward with a bark of freedom, shooting straight past one of the Animal Control Officers with a patronising lick of his face as he passed. Skidding past another pram with a, thankfully, this time sleeping child, Onyx rolled sideways commando-style to avoid running straight into an important-looking Chinese business man and tried to slide underneath the carrier conveyer, getting stuck halfway through. Clawing at the laminate flooring, Onyx dragged and squeezed herself out of the gap, stumbling and running into Bolt.
By now, there were Animal Control men swarming the area, all carrying nets and stern, animal-hating faces. Holly, who was taking a chance at an open space which lead right to the runway, got head off halfway by one officer who looked like a potato in Holly’s opinion.
“You won’t take me again!” Holly yelled at the man (although he only heard mewling), immediately detouring left without looking - and ran straight into the bars of a luggage-size-checking cage. She tried to pull free, tugging her head over and over, but it wouldn’t budge. She was stuck solid.
“Bolt! Onyx!!” Holly yelled just as they both passed her. They took a few paces back and looked to where the voice was coming from, then Onyx gasped.
“Sis!” Onyx cried, running over to her.
Bolt suddenly had a really vivid audio flashback of when he was in practically the same situation back in New York. His head was wedged between two fence bars in Central Park, of which his super strength couldn’t bend, when three pigeons arrived. What had they said to him again…?
Turn… and pull. Turn… and pull! Vinnie, the green-headed middle pigeon had directed him in his strong Manhattan accent. Forget about it! You’ll be out - no time. (23)
“Turn your head sideways, then try pulling again,” Bolt barked at Holly. “Some pigeons gave me the same information once.” Another Animal Control man had stopped them, and had started heading their way. When Holly’s ears went back anxiously and she didn’t do it, he said quickly in a panic, “Trust me!”
Holly slowly twisted her head to one side, then with one big pull, tugged back. With a thud she fell backwards into Onyx, breathing heavily.
“It worked!” she cheered, then looked round. Her eyes widened and her pupils contracted as a torch was suddenly shone into her eyes by the officer who was right behind Bolt, dazzling her. She fell sideways, rubbing her eyes. “Onyx, Bolt! I can’t see! Help!”
They didn’t have anymore time to waste, Bolt was sure it had been two minutes by now. Picking up Holly in his mouth by the scruff of her neck, he legged it between the officer and a third pram (Bolt was beginning to wonder just how many prams one dog can witness in five minutes) with Onyx following close behind. He could see the runway and… Yes! The plane was still there! Number 616… was that the right one? It sounded right.
“There… it is!” Onyx panted, nodding her head towards the plane they were steadily getting closer too. Bolt could only nod, since the blinded Holly’s scruff was still firmly in his teeth.
There was a small conveyer belt going upwards into the belly of the plane, taking up suitcases and rucksacks and all sorts of other luggage. Two men were loading the luggage onto the conveyer, stopping every so often and looking away from it to drink coffee and have a quick chat. Just their conversation was… wrong. They weren’t speaking English.
“Je suis ennuyeur…” one man said to the other.
“Oui, vraiment ennuyeux!” the other replied with a short sigh.
“Well, it would be borin’, doin’ this job all day,” Onyx muttered as Bolt plonked Holly on the conveyer, then leaped up himself, dragging Onyx up with him. Holly’s sight was now back, and she blinked in surprise.
“You could understand them?”
“Oui - oh, I mean yes,” Onyx said with a quick nod as they travelled further up towards the plane’s interior (24). “They were speakin’ French. The first man said he was bored, and the other agreed that it was very borin’. Simple as.”
“French?” Bolt inquired.
“Oui, Français! Official language of France for I don’t know how long! Oh, they do gorgeous frogs legs in some French places, have ya ever tried them? And their French bread is so amazin’ it’s now produced all over the planet…” Onyx started to drool, but Holly stamped on her paw and brought her out of it.
“Onyx, quit thinking about food for once in your life and answer these questions for us. First,” Holly put one finger up to show it was question one, acting as though Onyx was stupid, “how do you know the French language?”
“Me and Mark went on holiday there quite a few times,” Onyx said whilst rubbing her crushed paw. “He has a way with Quarantine people, so I’ve never been in a six month Quarantinin’ in my life.”
“Second,” Holly pricked up a second finger, “why would French people be on an Arizona airport, packing bags for people going to Miami, not France?”
“Beats me.”
“And third,” Holly put up a final finger, seeing as she only had three anyway, “… did you know your face is still bleeding?”
“It is?” Onyx looked vaguely surprised as she placed a paw on the wet patch next to her muzzle, feeling the trickling blood. “No, I didn’t know -“
The three of them barked and mewed as they suddenly slid of the end off the conveyer. Onyx hit a squishy, bean-bag-like rucksack which broke her fall, then her bulk broke the fall of Bolt and Holly afterwards, winding her slightly. They were finally inside the plane itself!
An engine roared and rumbled into life underneath them, which made the whole compartment shake for a moment before it smoothed out and the noise became a distant growling, which Onyx was grateful of, since the engine was covering up her equally growling stomach. Out of all the trials of the day, she didn’t think she’d mention any more of her problems to Bolt, who seemed to have had enough of travelling already.
“Finally,” Bolt sighed, padding over to Onyx and snuggling next to her, “we’re going home.” Bolt looked at Onyx’s face with a look of guilt, then smiled. “C’mere, let me clean up your face.”
Onyx felt herself blushing beneath her tan fur as Bolt started to lick and clean away the blood on her face with his tongue. Holly sniggered, then closed one eye and looked at Bolt licking her through a love-heart shape she had made with her fingers (25).
“Oh, shut up Holly,” Onyx said, grinning slightly. Sisters, honestly.
All three of them were simply exhausted after the manic day (or manic ten minutes in Holly’s case) they had all had. They all dozed off with thoughts of home - a comfortable bed, a family who loved them and in Onyx’s case, all of her BOLT show merchandise and a huge meal of everything she could possibly eat, waiting for all of them in Miami, where they were meant to be heading.
They were going to have such a nasty shock when they woke up at the other end of their plane journey.
Chapter 11 - Remembering Bolt
Penny stared blankly at the ceiling of the Rover as they travelled through ____, on their way to ____. She couldn’t stop thinking about Bolt - was he okay? Was he alive, and was Onyx with him? Penny hung her head.
“What’s wrong sweetie?” Julia asked her, when she heard her daughter sigh.
“I miss Bolt.”
“I know, I know,” she consoled. “Bolt loves you very much, and you’re here, with us. Wherever you are, Bolt always wants to be.”
“He must be so alone out there,” Penny sniffed.
“He may be with Onyx, for all you know, honey,” Julia noted to her.
“Oh,” Mark sighed with sorrow, “my sweet girl, Onyx. I hope she’s okay, and that she’ll be able to find us again. Anything could happen to her if she hasn’t eaten, bless her…”
“Like I said,” Julia said to Penny, trying not to let everyone get down, “Bolt loves you more than anything. He came back the first time, right? He travelled all that way just to be with you, and even brought back friends. Maybe he’ll do it again? I‘m sure he’s not far behind us, and neither is Onyx…”
Onyx sighed a huge, doggish sigh. Both of them had been shoved into small cages (Onyx wondered to herself sadly whether the cage was smaller or whether she was just bigger) next to each other, which wasn’t exactly much of a plus for Onyx because Bolt was in a foul mood with her.
“Why did you do it, Onyx?” Bolt growled. “I don’t get you, seriously, I don’t!
“I would say this in a happy conversation and people would laugh,” Onyx whispered dejectedly back at him, “but my brain doesn’t control me, well, my stomach does.”
“I can see why people would laugh,” Bolt scoffed. “I just wish there was someone who could -“ Bolt stopped.
“Someone who could…?”
“Shh.”
Bolt had a sudden brain flash. From what Onyx had just said, a brilliant but potentially painful idea had formed in his head.
“Onyx, you genius!” Bolt suddenly complemented.
“Huh? I thought ya hated me?”
“Well, that’s before you were clever enough to make me think of this plan. Think about series three of the BOLT series, episode twenty three, seventeen minutes into the episode.”
“Oh! The bit where the Green Eyed Man locked ya away in that tiny cage, and ya escaped by rammin’ against the cage door with your super strength and smashin’ the door off?”
“Yeah, that bit.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You could do the same.”
Onyx blinked and waited a few seconds before finally getting what he meant.
“Oh, heck no! Was that an insult?”
“No, not at all! It’s a plan! A plan to escape! I don’t really have super strength, do I?”
“Neither do I,” Onyx stated blankly.
Bolt sighed. “… okay, fine, I mentioned it because your sudden heavy weight and the gravitational force of it would smash the door off, okay?” Bolt raised his voice slightly. “Then you can let me out and we can follow the plan like we were originally going to! It was sort of an insult, yes, but you’ll be thanking me later!!” Bolt panted, he hadn’t taken a break that through the whole rant.
“… Okay, fine, but I hope ya know what your blimmin’ doin’ here, Bolt!”
Onyx stepped back to the very back of the cage. She was going to go through with this plan, mainly because Bolt had made it up and she was his biggest fan, but also because she just wanted to go home. Wherever that was anymore.
Onyx wound herself up into a tight little ball at the back of the cage, squished herself up as much as possible, then sprang, yowling, at the door of the cage. First, her vision was just metal bars, then blinding white light as her head made full-on impact with it, then blackness as her face smacked against the hard marble floor of quarantine and knocked her out stone cold.
“Onyx?” Bolt said to her, and didn’t get an answer. No! Now she couldn’t let Bolt out! “Onyx, wake up! What if someone comes? Please wake up, I’m sorry I said those things!”
“Ugh… You’re sorry?” Onyx groaned as she got to her feet. She limped on her front paw as she trotted up to Bolt’s cage. “So, ya want out, I’ll let ya out,” she said groggily. Bolt gasped.
“Onyx - your face - I shouldn’t have made you do that, I’m so sorry!”
“What’s wrong with my face?” Onyx placed a paw to the side of her muzzle where it stung the most and drew her paw back - there were traces of blood on it (20). “Oh, it’s bleedin’. Oh well, it’ll clear up soon.” Onyx batted the slide lock out of place and the containment unit swung open. Bolt leaped out lightly, then jumped as Onyx cheered.
“Yahoo! There’s no cage in Phoenix that can keep in Bolt and Onyx!” (21)
A sudden croaky, dilapidated voice caught both of their attention.
“Escapees!” an extremely skinny and scruffy cream cat pleaded. “Please help me, I’ve been in here for months!”
Onyx stopped. “Bolt. Stop, c’mere.” Onyx, even through the croakiness of the voice, knew that accent, knew that voice, from somewhere. Somewhere so distant and sad that it made her want to cry.
Onyx went right up to the bars of the cage and observed the cat inside. She was a scrawny queen cat, with bright cream, almost yellow fur. She had that unique human-like hair that Onyx had too, but a deep blonde to mach the cream of her fur. Hidden amongst the fringe of her hair were startling brown eyes, staring back at Onyx with the same expression of recognition. Her tail was long and slim, which puffed out at the back when she curled or bent it.
“Do I know ya…?” Onyx whispered to the cat.
“Do I know you too?” the familiar cat replied. “Strong Okie accent, tan fur, overweight…” Onyx gave her a quick scowl but said nothing. “… Onyx, sis? Is that you?”
“Holly…? My sister?” Tears welled up in her eyes. Onyx was right. She had just found her long-lost sister! (21.5)
“What’s going on?” Bolt asked impatiently, scared someone was going to come in and find them.
“I’ve only just found my sister, of whom I lost so early on!” Onyx sobbed. She unlocked the cage door and Holly leaped out, then they both wrapped their arms round each other in a sobbing greeting hug.
“You have a sister?” Bolt gasped, completely unaware of this before.
“Yeah, she does!” Holly said from over Onyx’s shoulder, for Onyx herself was crying too hard for speech. They let each other go and Onyx sniffed herself back into a speaking state.
“We were separated about a month after I got spayed,” Onyx said. Bolt grimaced.
“Ugh. Cut the details, will you?”
“Yah, right. Anyway, we’d known each other for about 15 human years, when Holly here got given away to Street Cats (22) by our old owners, and that’s when Mark adopted me, too. We haven’t spoken since.” Onyx smiled at her long-lost but never forgotten sister. “Until now. C’mon, your comin’ with us.”
“Are… where are you going?”
“Miami! We’re goin’ back to our old family, which has Penny, Julia, Mark, Mittens, Rhino…”
Holly blinked. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She had actually found her sister. For real.
Chapter 10 - Escape from Arizona
Onyx was still bleeding when they had got out into the crowds again, even if no one had realised. Holly waved a signal at her and Bolt, and the three of them darted from one side of the airport to the other, sliding and weaving through the legs of Americans and foreigners alike. Bolt skidded behind a particularly obese British man to hide himself, waved one paw to the left, and they ducked behind a huge potted tree again, panting.
“That was a close one,” Bolt breathed as a pram scooted past them with a screaming toddler inside it. All three of them had to cover their sensitive ears from the screeching.
“Okay,” Onyx wheezed, “what… plane is… ours? And… when does it… leave?”
“You’re so unfit these days, Onyx,” Holly said, grinning. Onyx punched her arm.
“No, seriously, she’s right,” Bolt said. “That’s really bad for what we’re going to need to do now.”
“More… runnin’?” Onyx whined.
“You want to get to Miami or not? Our plane is number 615 - and it leaves in two minutes!”
“TWO?!” As soon as she had said it, Bolt and Holly had pulled Onyx out from behind the plant and were on the move again. This was it. They were going home!
“Onyx, c’mon!” Bolt yelled as Holly darted between his legs and narrowly avoided collision with a suitcase trolley. Onyx slid from behind the potted tree and ran to Bolt’s side, looking into his golden brown eyes and gaining all the courage she needed from them.
Bolt sprang forward with a bark of freedom, shooting straight past one of the Animal Control Officers with a patronising lick of his face as he passed. Skidding past another pram with a, thankfully, this time sleeping child, Onyx rolled sideways commando-style to avoid running straight into an important-looking Chinese business man and tried to slide underneath the carrier conveyer, getting stuck halfway through. Clawing at the laminate flooring, Onyx dragged and squeezed herself out of the gap, stumbling and running into Bolt.
By now, there were Animal Control men swarming the area, all carrying nets and stern, animal-hating faces. Holly, who was taking a chance at an open space which lead right to the runway, got head off halfway by one officer who looked like a potato in Holly’s opinion.
“You won’t take me again!” Holly yelled at the man (although he only heard mewling), immediately detouring left without looking - and ran straight into the bars of a luggage-size-checking cage. She tried to pull free, tugging her head over and over, but it wouldn’t budge. She was stuck solid.
“Bolt! Onyx!!” Holly yelled just as they both passed her. They took a few paces back and looked to where the voice was coming from, then Onyx gasped.
“Sis!” Onyx cried, running over to her.
Bolt suddenly had a really vivid audio flashback of when he was in practically the same situation back in New York. His head was wedged between two fence bars in Central Park, of which his super strength couldn’t bend, when three pigeons arrived. What had they said to him again…?
Turn… and pull. Turn… and pull! Vinnie, the green-headed middle pigeon had directed him in his strong Manhattan accent. Forget about it! You’ll be out - no time. (23)
“Turn your head sideways, then try pulling again,” Bolt barked at Holly. “Some pigeons gave me the same information once.” Another Animal Control man had stopped them, and had started heading their way. When Holly’s ears went back anxiously and she didn’t do it, he said quickly in a panic, “Trust me!”
Holly slowly twisted her head to one side, then with one big pull, tugged back. With a thud she fell backwards into Onyx, breathing heavily.
“It worked!” she cheered, then looked round. Her eyes widened and her pupils contracted as a torch was suddenly shone into her eyes by the officer who was right behind Bolt, dazzling her. She fell sideways, rubbing her eyes. “Onyx, Bolt! I can’t see! Help!”
They didn’t have anymore time to waste, Bolt was sure it had been two minutes by now. Picking up Holly in his mouth by the scruff of her neck, he legged it between the officer and a third pram (Bolt was beginning to wonder just how many prams one dog can witness in five minutes) with Onyx following close behind. He could see the runway and… Yes! The plane was still there! Number 616… was that the right one? It sounded right.
“There… it is!” Onyx panted, nodding her head towards the plane they were steadily getting closer too. Bolt could only nod, since the blinded Holly’s scruff was still firmly in his teeth.
There was a small conveyer belt going upwards into the belly of the plane, taking up suitcases and rucksacks and all sorts of other luggage. Two men were loading the luggage onto the conveyer, stopping every so often and looking away from it to drink coffee and have a quick chat. Just their conversation was… wrong. They weren’t speaking English.
“Je suis ennuyeur…” one man said to the other.
“Oui, vraiment ennuyeux!” the other replied with a short sigh.
“Well, it would be borin’, doin’ this job all day,” Onyx muttered as Bolt plonked Holly on the conveyer, then leaped up himself, dragging Onyx up with him. Holly’s sight was now back, and she blinked in surprise.
“You could understand them?”
“Oui - oh, I mean yes,” Onyx said with a quick nod as they travelled further up towards the plane’s interior (24). “They were speakin’ French. The first man said he was bored, and the other agreed that it was very borin’. Simple as.”
“French?” Bolt inquired.
“Oui, Français! Official language of France for I don’t know how long! Oh, they do gorgeous frogs legs in some French places, have ya ever tried them? And their French bread is so amazin’ it’s now produced all over the planet…” Onyx started to drool, but Holly stamped on her paw and brought her out of it.
“Onyx, quit thinking about food for once in your life and answer these questions for us. First,” Holly put one finger up to show it was question one, acting as though Onyx was stupid, “how do you know the French language?”
“Me and Mark went on holiday there quite a few times,” Onyx said whilst rubbing her crushed paw. “He has a way with Quarantine people, so I’ve never been in a six month Quarantinin’ in my life.”
“Second,” Holly pricked up a second finger, “why would French people be on an Arizona airport, packing bags for people going to Miami, not France?”
“Beats me.”
“And third,” Holly put up a final finger, seeing as she only had three anyway, “… did you know your face is still bleeding?”
“It is?” Onyx looked vaguely surprised as she placed a paw on the wet patch next to her muzzle, feeling the trickling blood. “No, I didn’t know -“
The three of them barked and mewed as they suddenly slid of the end off the conveyer. Onyx hit a squishy, bean-bag-like rucksack which broke her fall, then her bulk broke the fall of Bolt and Holly afterwards, winding her slightly. They were finally inside the plane itself!
An engine roared and rumbled into life underneath them, which made the whole compartment shake for a moment before it smoothed out and the noise became a distant growling, which Onyx was grateful of, since the engine was covering up her equally growling stomach. Out of all the trials of the day, she didn’t think she’d mention any more of her problems to Bolt, who seemed to have had enough of travelling already.
“Finally,” Bolt sighed, padding over to Onyx and snuggling next to her, “we’re going home.” Bolt looked at Onyx’s face with a look of guilt, then smiled. “C’mere, let me clean up your face.”
Onyx felt herself blushing beneath her tan fur as Bolt started to lick and clean away the blood on her face with his tongue. Holly sniggered, then closed one eye and looked at Bolt licking her through a love-heart shape she had made with her fingers (25).
“Oh, shut up Holly,” Onyx said, grinning slightly. Sisters, honestly.
All three of them were simply exhausted after the manic day (or manic ten minutes in Holly’s case) they had all had. They all dozed off with thoughts of home - a comfortable bed, a family who loved them and in Onyx’s case, all of her BOLT show merchandise and a huge meal of everything she could possibly eat, waiting for all of them in Miami, where they were meant to be heading.
They were going to have such a nasty shock when they woke up at the other end of their plane journey.
Chapter 11 - Remembering Bolt
Penny stared blankly at the ceiling of the Rover as they travelled through ____, on their way to ____. She couldn’t stop thinking about Bolt - was he okay? Was he alive, and was Onyx with him? Penny hung her head.
“What’s wrong sweetie?” Julia asked her, when she heard her daughter sigh.
“I miss Bolt.”
“I know, I know,” she consoled. “Bolt loves you very much, and you’re here, with us. Wherever you are, Bolt always wants to be.”
“He must be so alone out there,” Penny sniffed.
“He may be with Onyx, for all you know, honey,” Julia noted to her.
“Oh,” Mark sighed with sorrow, “my sweet girl, Onyx. I hope she’s okay, and that she’ll be able to find us again. Anything could happen to her if she hasn’t eaten, bless her…”
“Like I said,” Julia said to Penny, trying not to let everyone get down, “Bolt loves you more than anything. He came back the first time, right? He travelled all that way just to be with you, and even brought back friends. Maybe he’ll do it again? I‘m sure he’s not far behind us, and neither is Onyx…”
