User blog:SaenihpNnylf/Things Just Got Real Chapter 1

Co-Authored with HTFan

"Look out!" An unidentified voice rang out through the street as Mole's car came barreling down, plowing over Nutty and scattering the huge bag of candy he was dragging from the store. The car kept going, missing a screaming Flaky by mere inches before disappearing into the distance.

With Death sparing her for however long he has decided to give her, Flaky, panting heavily with her heart beating out of her chest (figuratively), slowly pushed herself up onto her feet after dropping down onto the sidewalk for cover. Brushing the small specks of dirt and dust off her chest, she looked back to the direction the vehicle was heading, nodding her head to see it was nowhere to be seen.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead and let out a relieved, yet still depressed sigh. "When will this curse ever end and give us at least one hour of peace? Would it hurt to make the world somewhat safe for once?" Flaky looked down at her feet, and closed her eyes as she shook her head. "It can't get any worse, can it?"

"Hey, Flaky! Over here!" Letting out another depressed sigh, she turned her head around, praying silently the voice she heard was nothing more than her awful imagination. Sadly, it was indeed a reality as her eyes met the sight of a familiar, energetic yellow rabbit waving in her direction and beckoning her to come over.

"Obviously it can."

Cuddles came running over to her, ignoring the mess of Nutty's organs and candy he ran through coming over. "You'll never believe this, Flaky! Come on! It's going to be fun!" He latched onto her wrist with the vice-like grip she knew far too well and started pulling her in the direction he came.

Flaky looked at her friend with pleading eyes, hoping for once in his immortality he would actually listen to her but kept walking along with him, only to avoid being dragged along the ground. "Cuddles, I don't want to go wherever you're taking me! It's always scary and gets me killed."

Cuddles just laughed, not realizing how serious she was being in her request. "Don't be a chicken, Flaky. You haven't lived your life if you haven't risked it. Besides, it's not like risking your life is all that much here."

Flaky went silent as she listened to Cuddles' last words flowing out of his mouth, and took it in deep consideration. Risking your life is not much here? True indeed, life is, in a sense, endless in Happy Tree Town when death is not a permanent truth. But yet, life is such an important aspect of living; a precious item which should be watched out for despite immortality being a reality or not.

She shook her head in disbelief. Flaky, when comparing herself to someone like Cuddles, thought from time to time she was really the only Tree Friend to try and protect her life as if it were her last, to preserve it long enough to enjoy living, and to care the meaning of life as a whole. Constant death and resurrection was not a way of living for her, yet she had no choice but to accept it.

Still being dragged against her will, Flaky looked at Cuddles, who still held an energetic and excited look on his face. "Can you at least tell me where you intend on taking me this time, Cuddles?"

Cuddles laughed as he kept his tight grip onto Flaky's wrist, turning his face behind him only for a brief moment to respond. "Oh, it's a surprise! Come on, you can trust me Flaky! It'll be much more exciting when you see it in person, you'll see!"

Flaky closed her eyes as she let out a soft sigh, mumbling to herself quietly. "Yeah, I'm sure it will be exciting for the first 10 seconds before ultimately being killed by it..."

She knew she had no choice but to be dragged along, she had tried many times before to try to break from the rabbit's grip, but all were in vain. He was much stronger than she will ever be. The chances were higher of ripping her arm clean out of its socket trying. She obviously didn't want this to happen, so she went along with him, with a constant mantra going through her head, 'Please don't be too painful. Please don't be too painful.' Who was she kidding? Of course it was going to be painful.

"Alright, Flaky, we're here! You can open your eyes now." She suddenly heard Cuddles speak and noticed they were indeed no longer moving forward, though his grip on her wrist didn't loosen and neither did her eyelids from each other.

"Those words don't go together, Cuddles!" She yelled, somehow fooling herself into believing if she doesn't see whatever dangerous thing Cuddles dragged her to see, it won't exist and therefore couldn't hurt her. It was a very childish thought, but her fear stuck her to it.

"Now you're just being ridiculous!" Cuddles laughed and looked at her quizzically. "How are you supposed to see the surprise if you don't open your eyes?" His lips pursed trying to think of a way to get her to open her eyes. Suddenly, he let out a scream.

In spite of what her previous instincts had been telling her, Flaky's eyes immediately shot open, needing to see if he was okay. In hind sight, it should have been a dead giveaway: the grip on her wrist never faltered. However, she was shocked and angered to find Cuddles just standing there, now laughing instead of screaming. "Cuddles! That isn't funny! You scared the living daylights out of me!"

"Fluffy chicks scare the living daylights out of you. Besides, it worked. Your eyes are open."

Her cheeks turning red, both out of hearing the embarrassing truth restated by Cuddles and rage of being brought into another situation without her consent, Flaky looked around where she now stood and noticed it was a very familiar place... which only reminded her of the deadly disasters it always bestows onto its visitors.

"Cuddles... why are we at the playground? What's there to see here?"

Cuddles chuckled lightly as he let go of his tight grip on Flaky, and beckoned her to follow him. "It's over here, by the sandbox."

Flaky, reluctant to follow Cuddles any further, felt she had no choice but to pursue to Cuddles' point of interest. As she tailed cautiously behind him, Cuddles spoke more of his surprise. "You're going to be so shocked when you see what I found, Flaky! It was so random too! Sniffles and I were just sitting there digging in the sandbox, and BOOM, pops out this... thing, all bronze-looking and shiny. I told Sniffles to wait here and hold onto it while I went to get you, and he said we would go over to his lab to study it further..."

Cuddles looked around the playground in confusion. "In fact... where is he? I told him to wait here in the playground..." Cuddles dropped his confused expression and replaced it with his energetic grin as he looked towards the empty sandbox. "Ah, he at least left it for us."

While Cuddles ran towards the sandbox in excitement, Flaky stood still in a state of fear and insanity. The exact description how Cuddles described this... thing he found, out of nowhere, just randomly in the middle of the playground. Bronze-colored... shiny... the sandbox in the playground... "Oh no..."

Sure enough, Cuddles came up back to her with The Cursed Idol gleaming in his paws. It was a miracle he made it so far without dying carrying the thing. "Cuddles! Put that thing down! It's cursed!" Flaky screamed and tried to get away, though Cuddles had taken her arm back with his free paw.

"Cursed?" Cuddles repeated, examining the statue in his hands trying to figure out what she could possibly mean, having never encountered the Cursed Idol himself before. "So what? I'm cursed, you're cursed, that shovel there's cursed, everything's cursed. Besides, isn't this so cool!"

Flaky shook her head rapidly. Involuntarily thinking back to both of her encounters with the Idol, one of which in this very playground. "No, no, no, no this isn't like that. You have to believe me on this one! I saw monkeys rain out of the sky! I was eaten alive by flowers! That thing is more dangerous than anything else here!"

Cuddles just laughed shaking his head. "Don't be ridiculous, everything in this town is dangerous and I seriously doubt this is anything special. Besides being super cool, obviously."

"No, I think my reputation exceeds me there," a beaming, powerful voice from neither of them suddenly spoke.

Flaky just started screaming and even Cuddles dropped the Idol as if it suddenly burned him, which it didn't. "Oh, what the hell?!" Cuddles asked, though he could barely be heard over Flaky's screams. He looked at the Idol in a mixture of shock and confusion.

Neither of them had expected the Cursed Idol to talk.

The two frightened Tree Friends huddled together as they placed a good distance between them and the now-suddenly-talking Cursed Idol. As they both let out a fast pace of scared breaths and their bodies shaking violently out of fear, they stood still with horrified expressions on their faces, their minds unable to comprehend the situation, or make a decision to run for the hills, or wait for their ultimate demise.

Flaky stuttered as she attempted to communicate with Cuddles. "C-C-Cuddles? D-Did you k-know it c-c-could talk?!"

Cuddles, looking almost as horrified as Flaky, which was a shock to say the least for this fearless rabbit, shook his head while placing his right hand over his heart, preventing it from bursting through his chest. "N-N-No, I d-did not!"

As the two stood side to side, they could hear a sadistic laugh emitting from the Cursed Idol in front of them, lying motionless on the ground. "I expected this from you, Flaky but really, Cuddles? You look pathetic." The voice rang out.

Taking the blow to his pride, Cuddles tried to stand up straight and seem as brave as he's supposed to be. It didn't take someone omnipotent to tell it was completely forced, even if they didn't see how he had been a second ago. Then it clicked though and the façade dropped. "How do you know our names?"

The Cursed Idol laughed again, "What a naïve question. I know everything in this town." They both knew they had to get out of there but when the thought had barely entered their heads, the three of them were surrounded by a tall plantation of cacti.

Once again, the Idol laughed enjoying their horror, especially from Cuddles since it was so common from Flaky. "I just said that I know everything and you expected me not to know you were going to run? I need to talk to you two, and then maybe I'll kill you. I haven't decided yet."

"Wha-what d-d-d-do y-you w-w-w-want?" Flaky asked, stuttering worse than ever and trembling so hard it appeared to be snowing around her as her signature flakes shook lose.

The Cursed Idol could only laugh sadistically as he watched two frightened Tree Friends cower before him. With a sound of someone clearing their throat, the Idol spoke in a rather calm manner, "Why only your attention, of course."

The horrified expressions on the cowering Tree Friend's faces were replaced with confusion, Cuddles shaking his head after hearing the calm yet baffling statement from a statue which had almost killed them a few seconds ago. "Attention? What do you mean by that?"

The Cursed Idol sighed in agitation. "I mean I want you to listen what I have to say, Numb Nuts! It's as simple as that."

As Flaky huddled behind Cuddles out of fear, she hoped the yellow rabbit, who certainly had more, even if a bit idiotic, courage to stand up against such an evil work of creation, would defend her. Cuddles, however, could only snicker at the Idol's demands. "And why would we want to listen to you?"

There was a brief moment of awkward silence, with Cuddles having a stare-down at the bronze statue laying beneath him. The silence would be broken with the sound of Flaky's crying screech as she pointed her right index finger to the sky. "Cuddles! Look out!"

Looking up sharply, Cuddles gasped and ducked down for cover as if it were instinct. He closed his eyes tightly, hoping whatever object was falling from the sky would kill him instantly instead of being smashed into a pile of rotting guts.

However, after noticing his heart was still beating, and his bones perfectly intact, Cuddles took the risk to look up and see what exactly came down from the sky and scared the living life out of them both.

The sight almost wanted to make him puke as Flaky pointed out the obvious. "Sniffles!"

Before them, impaled at the top of one of the surrounding cacti, was the mangled, destroyed body of the blue scientific anteater they all knew, his body torn to shreds with his tongue ripped straight from his mouth and tying him up with his own ripped organs. It was certainly not a pretty sight to behold.

As Cuddles and Flaky stared at the bloody mess, the Cursed Idol spoke angrily. "That's going to be you in ten seconds if you don't let me speak!"

Without hesitation, Cuddles and Flaky stood still, giving the Cursed Idol every bit of attention they could muster.

The Cursed Idol laughed again, relishing in every bit of fear he was getting from the pair, before continuing on with what he actually brought them here for. "Now that I have your attention, it's blindingly obvious that neither of you like the way you are 'living.' None of you do; though, it's most obvious with you, Flaky."

Flaky just looked down at the cacti only inches away from her tissue paper-like flesh, outright refusing to look up at Sniffles' corpse, though it was impossible to ignore its presence as a constant flow of blood ran down the plant. Of course she hated it, though, as impossible as it sounds; she always thought Cuddles had loved it, that's how he usually came off at least. Though, from the idol's comment, she wondered if everyone was actually as messed up as she was and was just better at hiding it. Though she didn't say anything with the threat literally looming over her, the Idol still got the question.

"Well, yes but that's not important right now. What's important is that I'm right. What if I told you that there was somewhere you could go that you wouldn't have to die all the time?"

They both tried to process exactly what the Idol was saying but suddenly Cuddles eyes narrowed, even knowing better himself. "Yeah? And what's the catch?" He asked, hoping in the back of his mind doing so didn't just damn himself.

"Well, you're going to have to figure that out yourself. There's five spots, I can trust you both to get the word out." Without warning, the Cursed Idol as well as their cactus trap disappeared into thin air dropping Sniffles' corpse down to the ground.

Cuddles and Flaky now stood still together in the middle of the empty playground (excluding the dead mangled body of one poor anteater). Amidst their shaken breaths from encountering a sadistic inanimate object wanting to make a deal was a cool and gentle breeze, which did not really fit the emotion of their situation right now.

After a few seconds of getting their bearings, Cuddles straightened himself up while Flaky looked around cautiously, trying to avoid visual contact with Sniffles' corpse.

Flaky's attention was then captured by Cuddles clearing his throat, making her jolt slightly but nonetheless giving the yellow rabbit complete attention.

Cuddles looked at Flaky with a concerned look, then shrugged his shoulders. "So... what three other people should we bring with us?"

Flaky, completely dumbfounded, shaken and even angered by Cuddles' question, took a step back away from the yellow rabbit, looking at him in disgust. "W-w-w-what?! What are you talking about?!"

Cuddles sighed and leaned back, giving a small smirk on his face. "I mean who should we bring with us to this new world? We got three spots left, so who should we tell?"

Unusual to her character, Flaky was more angered by Cuddles’ question than she was worried. Cuddles may have made some poor choices in life, which normally resulted in both their deaths, and she tried to always show reason and perform a more cautious approach, but to make even a consideration for this deal was something too far for her. "Cuddles! A-a-are you honestly considering agreeing with t-t-that... thing's deal?!"

Cuddles shrugged his shoulders a second time. "Yeah. Why the hell not?"

"Because it tried to kill us! And it'll probably try to kill us again later! Cuddles, you can't be serious on actually trusting this idol and thinking nothing bad will happen."

Cuddles shook his head. "Now hold on Flaky; I didn't say nothing bad could happen if we accept this deal. Something well indeed could happen and get us all killed like it always does in the end."

Flaky waved her arms upward in agitation. "Then why do you want to agree to it?!"

Cuddles, seeing Flaky was only going to question the dangerous act and show little urge to agree, decided to give a clear answer. "Flaky, it's like this. We can either go out to this new world and something COULD happen to us, or we stay here and something will DEFINITELY happen to us. One of these choices gives us just a slim chance, a slim chance I emphasize, of actually not dying for once. Flaky, I don't know about you, but if there's a possibility of getting out of this hellhole, and not have to live through another painful death every day, then why would I even consider saying no?"

"Because the offer is coming from an idol that JUST TRIED TO KILL US! Nothing good will come out of this, I just know it!" Now becoming more angered and concerned over Cuddles' increasing stupidity of not listening to reason, Flaky reached out her right hand to Cuddle's right shoulder, and gave him a concerned look. "Cuddles, p-p-please listen to me for once. Something bad will definitely happen if you go through with this; no good will come from this deal. Please, just... just don't do it."

Cuddles stood still for a brief moment, completely silent and staring blankly at Flaky. He then spoke in calm but serious manner. "So, I take it that means you are not going."

Flaky shook her head. "No, Cuddles. I'm not going through with this. It just doesn't look safe."

With her answer given, Cuddles pushed away Flaky's hand and walked away from her. "Suit yourself, then. I thought you were stronger than this, Flaky; that you could actually try to take a risk for once. But I guess I'll just have to find another friend that'll actually stick by me instead of cowering behind a door."

And with this dreadful statement said, Cuddles left the scared and lonely porcupine alone in the park, making every attempt to ignore the sad look on her face.

Going nowhere in particular, Cuddles stomped down the street away from the playground, trying to stay mad only to avoid the only alternative which was to start crying.

The one time he tried to speak actual reason to her and she barely even listened to a word he was saying, then had the audacity to accuse him of not listening to her.

He was listening. He knew all the risks. He always knew all the risks. Normally, he did it otherwise because he knew the risks were no higher than the risks trying to be careful but this time, the risks of taking the offer were just slightly lower.

He looked over at a burning office building hoping no one was being roasted alive in there.

He closed his eyes letting a few tears fall. He did not want to leave Flaky behind, she was his best friend and he felt if he went and by off chance, the Idol was telling the truth, he would feel terrible for leaving her behind to continue this 'life' for the rest of eternity.

He opened his eyes back up and took a real look around, by this time of day, the town barely even tried to hide the reality of the situation. He walked on stepping over an unidentifiable body, trying not to think too hard on who it might be.

He just narrowly jumped out of the way of a falling telephone pole. "I can't stay here." Cuddles whispered to himself, staring at the pole which had just almost squished him like an overripe tomato. "I just can't. I refuse to do that to myself. I'm sorry if you can't see that, Flaky."

He had to admit he knew absolutely nothing about this new world they were being offered, but as it seemed, worst case scenario, it's exactly the same because it simply wasn't possible for anything to be any worse. Just thinking of some of the deaths he's been forced to suffer through threatened to turn him into Flaky.

So, when it's all said and done, he has nothing to lose. If only he could somehow convince Flaky to see things this way. He wasn't crazy. He just wanted a better life. Or at least a life lasting longer than a day or two. And would he sell his soul for this chance? Absolutely.

As Cuddles left the poor paranoid porcupine in the confines of the playground, along with the rotting corpse of Sniffles, Flaky could not hold back the waterfall of tears slowly running down her red cheeks. Both depressed and tired of the terrible aroma of Sniffles, Flaky ran to the nearest tree in the playground and hid underneath its lonely, dark shadow, resting her body against the cold bark at the base.

Weeping alone and scared, fearing this own tree, acting as her only place now for protection to hide her embarrassing trait of being a coward, would fall and crush her any second, Flaky kept her eyes closed as she tried to forget the memory of being left behind just now, though with little success.

Despite all the trouble he always gets her into, normally resulting in her own demise, Cuddles is possibly the closest thing she has to labeling to as a friend. With such a solitude lifestyle in her own home, making friends was one of the hardest things for her to carry out, next to trying to survive the inevitable destruction and death of everyday life in the town she resided in. Thus, Cuddles acted as the one person she could at least talk to or even hang out with ease, even if she didn't always like the things he did.

Because of this, deep down inside her, when she looked passed the troubles the risk-taking rabbit always got her in, Flaky still cared for him. She didn't hate him at the slightest; it's not in her personality to really hate another. Rather, she was always concerned for him. The dangers he took without having a care in the world, and watching him die in front of her own eyes every day, it was heartbreaking to her.

Which is why she didn't want him to go. Her cowardliness may not mix well with his risk-taking attitude, but she was only trying to look out for him, to try and think of his safety. The world is a dangerous place, and people must rely on others to support and protect through these dangers. She wasn't trying to be a coward or hindrance. She was only trying to protect him... from himself.

As Flaky sniffled her nose and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes, she leaned her back against the tree and looked up to the dark green leaves of the tree. She shook her head as she let out a depressed sigh.

She knew, no matter what she said or tried to do, Cuddles was going to be dead set on going forth with this deal. She can't reason and stop him from getting himself into another life-risking situation and possibly getting himself killed again. Cuddles was going if she liked it or not, and she certainly did not like it.

And if Cuddles goes without her, he'll probably bring one of his equally risk-taking buddies like Toothy, which will only increase the chance of him facing his ultimate demise. Without someone with actual sense and caring for safety along his side, there was a likely chance he was going to get himself killed sooner rather than later.

With this in mind, she clenched her hands into a fist and hit them against the ground in annoyance, hitting the back of her head lightly against the tree. There was only one thing she could do in order to, at the very least, attempt to keep her friend safe. "Damn it, Cuddles. Why do you have to make me do this?"

She jumped up to her feet, scratched a few flakes of dandruff out of her itchy scalp, and went off to find the yellow rabbit which has, miraculously and once again, persuaded her in going on another one of his risk-taking trips.

She carefully headed into town trying to rack her brain for where her reckless best friend would have gone in this situation. Part of her felt like she should know him better than anyone but she had to admit Cuddles was unpredictable and she was left racking her brain on where to go, not realizing Cuddles had no idea where he was going either. There was only one thing which came to mind which might help her figure out where to go.

His last words to her rang though her head, being both helpful and hurtful to her. "Suit yourself, then. I thought you were stronger than this, Flaky, that you could actually try to take a risk for once. But I guess I'll just have to find another friend that'll actually stick by me instead of cowering behind a door."

"That must be what he's doing, trying to find someone that will stick by him instead of cowering behind a door. Whatever that means?" Flaky said to herself, trying to wrap her head around what a door had to do with anything. It wasn't a very adequate thing to cower behind. It didn't offer very much protection. "He must just not know how to cower." She incorrectly concluded and tried to think of who he might take, they would have to be as brave and risk-taking as he was. Well, the answer there was obvious.

She immediately turned and made her way towards the house. She didn't come across Cuddles on the way there but she knocked on the front door hoping he might be inside.

Because of Flaky's paranoia, her ears can pick up on some of the smallest noises most people wouldn't be able to by simply paying close enough attention. And this time, she picked up sobbing from inside the house which, though footsteps were soon heard in addition to the sobs, they never did stop as the door opened.

The original question died on her lips as she saw the friend on the other side. Tears running down one side of his face, blood running down the other. Her caring nature took over in a different way as his paws tried to clasp on the empty socket. When she saw him this way, any thoughts of Cuddles had temporarily left her mind and she asked, trying to fight the urge to unravel her lunch. "Toothy, what happened to your eye?!"

"Lunch... fork... oh it hurts!" Toothy wailed between sobs, barely intelligible, even to Flaky.

"Come on, I'll get you patched up," Flaky insisted, inviting herself inside and leading him with her. The fork with Toothy's eyeball stuck on it still sitting on the kitchen counter. She tried not to look at it as she dug through the cupboards finding a roll of bandages. She patched him up but when she did she could already tell he wasn't going to make it. He had lost too much blood by this point.

In this moment, the important question reentered her mind, and, as selfish as it sounded, she knew she had to ask it fast. "Toothy, was Cuddles here?"

His voice was weak and he was still crying but Flaky was able to work out the answer. "No, not since yesterday." He expired before she could get anything else out. She finally ran to the bathroom and threw up, to this day unable to stand the sight of dead bodies. She flushed the toilet and left the house trying to figure out where she could go now.

Going through a possible variety of places Cuddles could be at right now, she decided to start with the most simple. "You better be at home, Cuddles."

Cuddles sat on a cushioned rolling chair by a medium-sized wooden desk at the end of the room. He sat silently, looking down with a blank stare at a small piece of notebook paper, with small amounts of eraser shavings and lead scattered on the sides. The clock in his room ticked away as his eyes stared at the lone piece of paper in front of him.

As he kept a light grip on the number 2 pencil in his right hand, he looked over the writing on the paper without moving an inch on his seat. At the top of the heading, there was a title written as 'Friends I Should Bring with Me', styled with rather neat handwriting. Beneath the title was a list of every friend he knew of, as well as multiple bullet points underneath said names stating both positive and negative attributes of their personalities.

Cuddles wanted to make sure the people he brought where ones he could trust and have the most fun with. Toothy seemed to be a good choice, but there were plenty of others who looked willing and perfect to join him. He looked at each name multiple times, adding and subtracting traits from each name time to time as he paid close attention to detail of the people he knew.

But, as he pondered the people he would want to bring, there was one name he still could not get rid of on the sheet.

Flaky.

The name of one of the closest friends he knew bothered him significantly as it was held by a person he was certain, no matter how hard he could try to convince, would never come with him on this trip. Flaky was a kind and caring person, a Tree Friend perfect to tag along with on this trip. Though, as much as he tried to deny it, it was never going to happen.

A tear crawled out of the duct of his left eye, crawling down his cheek as he placed the pointed edge of the pencil over the familiar name, slowly crossing it out and forever leaving it out of his mind.

"C-C-Cuddles? Y-Y-You i-in t-t-there?" A stuttering feminine voice, and the consistent knocking at his front door made Cuddles jolt on his seat, his mind at full alert as he sharply turned his head around.

He quickly wiped the tear off his cheek and quickly ran for his door across his room, wasting no time to keep the person waiting by his door. With a smile on his face, he opened the door and noticed a good friend just waiting outside for him to see. "Flaky! What..."

Just now recalling the events earlier today, Cuddles shifted his happy demeanor and joyful smile with a rather serious and aggravated voice, as well as a scornful look at the red porcupine in front of him, which seemed to only make her look more worried and upset. "What do you want? Shouldn't you be cowering back at your home after saying you don't want to come with me?"

Flaky, upset to see Cuddles still holding the grudge against her, stood up straight and spoke as calmly as she could. "Cuddles, there is something I wanted to tell you..."

Cuddles rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What is it?"

Taking a brief moment to take a deep relaxing breath, Flaky stood tall and made her best attempt to not stutter, speaking rather firmly. "Cuddles... if you honestly are still dead set on actually going on this trip... that you still are not thinking of any of the possible dangerous risks and just don't care about dying at all... then you are, without a doubt, the stupidest person I have ever met, and even make Sniffles look sane in comparison."

Baffled and angered by Flaky's comment, Cuddles gritted his teeth and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Gee, thanks Flaky for re-stating that to me. Now, why don't you get the-"

"So that's why I'm here asking if I can still come with you."

Cuddles stood still in confusion and shock, he jaw dropped for a moment as he tried to comprehend exactly what came out of the mouth of possibly the most paranoid person in Happy Tree Town. "Um... what did you just say?"

Flaky sighed, shaking her head as she herself couldn't believe was actually doing this. "C-Cuddles, you're reckless, you're carefree, and you honestly seem not to care when thinking what could go wrong. If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that if you go on this trip, you will get yourself killed. I don't like this idea, as it sounds like a big trap to get you and your friends all in one strange place we have no idea about and kill all of you at once."

Cuddles continued to stare at Flaky with a confused look. "Yeah, you established that already."

"And I know that, if you don't bring someone that actually tries to think of the possibility of dying a horrific death, someone that actually cares, you'll just bring someone reckless as you, and get yourself killed sooner rather than later."

Flaky sighed once more, closed her eyes, and nodded her head. "But Cuddles, as annoying as you are to me, getting me killed on several occasions, you're still my friend and I care for your safety. I'd hate to see you get killed when I could have been there and acted as some sort of reasoning to stop you. I don't want you to go, and I certainly don't want to go. But if you really are going to go through with this, then... then..."

She opened her eyes, and took a step forward to Cuddles. "Then I guess I have no choice but to follow with you again, to at least try to keep you from killing yourself. I'm not going to enjoy this, and we will certainly die in the end, but I can't let you go off and do it alone... t-that i-is... if you still w-want me to c-come with y-you!"

Cuddles stared at the shocking statement from his friend, blinking slowly as he stood like a statue in the open. He then suddenly reached out and carefully hugged Flaky, making sure not to get his arms and hands pierced by her dirty quills on her back. He smiled and nodded his head. "Of course I still want you to come with me. Why would I say no to that?"

Flaky, too shocked to return the hug or speak, murmured under her breath. "I wish you did..."

"What was that?"

Flaky slowly broke the hug from Cuddles and brushed her flakes out of her quills, returning to her usual stutter. "O-Oh, nothing. So... w-who else do you think should come with us?"

Still holding the smile on his face, Cuddles place his right hand on his chin, making an 'hmm' sound with his closed mouth. "Well... I was just going over that just now. If you want to help, you can suggest some people to bring with us? You have a good eye of picking out good people, so I could use your input."

Flaky shook her head, and shrugged her shoulders as she looked down. "I guess I can take a look. I know some Tree Friends who might want to come with us..."

Cuddles made a large grin and gave an excited nod. "Great! Come in... oh, and watch your step. Don't want you getting hurt now before we go on the trip."

As Cuddles entered the house with a large grin, Flaky followed in pursuit in a depressed look. "Oh why do I let myself get involved with this stuff?"