Smell the Scents: Part Two

     “Timmy, wake up!”

     Timmy still didn’t wake. Getting impatient, Max got up and walked over to Timmy’s bed. He grabbed the covers and pulled them off. He also grabbed his pillow and Timmy’s pillow and dropped them on the floor.

     Timmy half woke at this, but he still felt tired so he just rolled over and groaned. By now Max was getting extremely annoyed and was running out of ideas on how to wake Timmy. He decided to give up for now and go downstairs to make breakfast.

     ‘Perhaps the smell of toast will wake him up,’ he thought, popping some bread into the toaster.

     He poured himself a glass of orange juice, not bothering to save any for Timmy. Instead he poured Timmy a glass of water.

     A moment later the toast popped and Max ate his share of it before taking the other half upstairs for Timmy to eat. He placed the toast and glass of water on Timmy’s bedside table and shook him to try and wake him up. Timmy groaned and rolled over.

     He was fully awake a few seconds later though because Max, getting extremely annoyed, had poured his glass of water all over Timmy’s face.

     “What was that for?” asked Timmy.

     “Well, I had to wake you up somehow, didn’t I?”

     “But why? It's only dawn,” said Timmy, bewildered. He had completely forgotten about Bella.

     “Because we need to find Bella. In case you have forgotten, which by the sound of it you have, she ran off and got lost in the woods yesterday,” snapped Max.

     “Oh great Sloth! I had forgotten. Well, I will quickly get myself some breakfast and then we can go. Is Mum up yet, or shall we leave her a note?”

     “I have made you some toast; it is right next to you.”

     Timmy hungrily started eating his toast, while Max continued with what he was saying.

     “And no, Mum isn’t up yet. I will write her a note while you hurry up and eat your breakfast.”

     A few minutes later Max and Timmy were standing by the front gate, about to set off.

     “How do we know she is definitely in the woods?” asked Timmy, the thought suddenly occurring to him.

     “Because she has been begging Mum to take her there for almost a week now. Don’t you remember the tantrum she had the other day?”

     “Ohh yeah, I remember that. She threw her plate on the ground. It would have broken if it hadn’t been plastic. As it was, it managed to get a crack.”

     “Yes, so I expect she decided that since Mum wouldn’t take her into the woods, she would go there herself. Now, are we going to stand here talking all day or are we going to search for her?”

     The two Gelerts headed off into the woods.

     After a short amount of time wasted wandering around aimlessly, Timmy stopped to sniff a little clump of grass that had decided to grow in the middle of the footpath. Almost instantly, Max yelled at him.

     “What are you doing that for? We are supposed to be looking for our sister, not smelling things! Come on!”

     Timmy looked hurt. “I was only trying to catch her scent. If we could smell her, it would save a lot of time just wandering about you know.”

     “It was raining a lot last night. It would have washed away any scent that she had left. Honestly, Timmy, don’t you have any brains?”

     “I was only trying to be helpful. You don’t need to snap my head off, Max.”

     “Sorry, but I do wish you would use your common sense just a little bit more. Now let’s carry on.”

     They headed off farther into the woods. It was a pleasant day and the woods were full of life. It wasn’t one of those scary woods where there isn’t much colour and dangerous things might happen. It was actually quite pretty. The sun was shining on the trees, lighting them up and showing them to be a pleasant light green colour. There were lots of other plants around too. Everywhere was full of life. There were petpets all over the place, hiding under bushes, sleeping on rocks, flying above the trees and doing various other things. It would have been paradise for Timmy had he not been looking for his sister.

     All the same, he couldn’t help taking in deep breaths and smelling everything. He couldn’t stop to have a good sniff, but he could catch the whiff of many scents just by breathing.

     After a short time he caught a faint scent that he seemed to recognise. He stopped and breathed in again. Yes, there was a scent. It smelled of Bella, and it was coming from a path to the right.

     Max noticed that Timmy had stopped again.

     “TIMMY! What are you doing? I have told you already that we need to find Bella. And that isn’t going to happen if you keep stopping like that. Now will you hurry up please?”

     Timmy ignored him, still concentrating on the scent. Max got annoyed and jumped on top of him, bowling him over.

     “Owwww,” groaned Timmy. “What in Sloth’s name was that for?”

     Max glared at him before replying.

     “It was to get your attention. I am sick of the way that you keep stopping to smell things. This isn’t any old walk, this is to find Bella. Do you really forget things so easily?”

     “I hadn’t forgotten. I thought I could smell her scent coming from that path to the right there,” said Timmy, pointing to the patch he meant with his tail.

     “Oh really, Timmy? I believe I told you not long ago that the rain would have washed away any scent. I think we should shout out her name occasionally, because we aren’t going to smell her.”

     “We might smell a scent if it had been made this morning. And we might as well go to the right. You don’t seem to have a better direction to go in and I think I can smell Bella.”

     “No, we will keep going straight ahead. I don’t trust you at the moment. Knowing you, you have smelled a squished lemon or a petpet of some kind. Now COME ON!”

     Timmy took one last look down the pathway to the right. He knew Bella was that way, no matter what Max said.

     “Bella! BEEELLLLLAAAAA!”

     Timmy nearly jumped out of his skin when Max began to shout. There was no reply either, so Max continued to shout her name as he walked.

     “BELLA! Where are you? BELLA!”

     There was still no reply, and after a short while Max’s throat began to hurt.

     “Timmy, you should shout for her. I am not doing everything. Go on, make yourself useful for once.”

     Timmy opened his mouth and was about to shout when he caught a faint scent. It wasn’t the sweet, baby scent of Bella this time, though. It was something a lot stronger. It had a faint smell of rotten food and it seemed dangerous. Timmy stopped in his tracks and turned to face Max.

     “Max,” he whispered. “I can smell something. I think there is a dark faerie around. It smells of rotten food. Can you smell it?”

     “Nonsense. I expect someone left a piece of fruit lying about somewhere. Come on, let’s keep going.”

     “No, Max. I think there is something dangerous around the bend. I am going back the other way and I think you should come with me.”

     “Wow, that’s the kind of thing Bella would say. You are so paranoid. Fancy being scared of that. Well, I am going on because I know there is nothing there. Goodbye!”

     With that, Max had disappeared around the bend and Timmy had headed back the way they had come. He meant to go to the path where he was sure he had smelled Bella.

     He soon found it and headed up it. He could still catch Bella’s scent, though it was slightly fainter. He decided to follow it, and it led him on a wandering path for a while. It stopped at a river where Timmy could see some messed up footprints in the mud.

     He sniffed them. They smelled of Bella, and they were slightly fresher. He tried to scent where they had gone after that. He couldn’t smell anything else though, and he started to worry that Bella might have fallen into the river.

     ---

     Meanwhile, what had happened to Max? He had continued down the bad smelling path, not taking much notice of anything and occasionally yelling out Bella’s name. He was also thinking furiously of how rude and cowardly it was for Timmy to desert him like that. He made up his mind to find Bella before Timmy did.

     When he got around the bend however, all plans fell out of his head. He stopped in surprise, for standing in front of him was what appeared to be a dark faerie. He only got to glance at her for less than a second before he was knocked over the head. Or zapped by the faerie’s wand. He would never find out which.

     Whatever it was though, he was knocked out and put into a sack. The faerie disappeared with him in a cloud of bad smelling smoke, and reappeared just outside a building. She dragged the sack inside and dumped it inside a small room. She left the room, taking care to lock the door behind her.

To be continued...