Monster Rancher Fan Fiction ❯ Demon Rancher ❯ Chapter 2

Demon Rancher chapter 2

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Vickie and Sheila stop in front of the Association clerk's desk, panting. Cynthia looks down at the two girls in confusion, when they look up at her, she smiles them. “What can I do for you, girls?” she asks. Vickie looks up at her, still panting and said “Can we… can we see the new monsters?” Cynthia once again, looks confused. “New monsters? What are you-“

“The Demons!” Sheila exclaims, pounding her fist on the desk and startling the poor receptionist. Slowly the composure comes back to the blond woman as she narrows her eyes “Who told you about…” her voice trails off into nothing when a much louder voice calls out. “Sheila Shadow! I see you've brought your sister with you!” Vickie and Sheila turn around to see a bald old man with a white mustache and big glasses comes through an open door. Sheila gives the man a toothy grin. “Hello Mr. Karnab!” the man's bushy white eyebrows knit together to make a unibrow. “That's Dr. Karnab. Honestly, why do you keep forgetting this?”

Dr. Karnab looks down at Vickie and grabs her hand with a smile. “I haven't seen you in a long time Vickie. When was the last time you went exploring? Your 1st time was a great success!” Vickie blushes as she yanks her hand back. “I don't know, maybe 6 months?” Dr. Karnab slowly nods his head. “I see…hm?” Dr. Karnab looks to his left to see Sheila pulling on his sleeve. “Mr. Karnab, we came to see about getting new monsters.” Sheila's eyes tear up “I just lost King and Vickie's going to lose Simba really soon!” Dr. Karnab slowly shakes his head and places a hand on both girls' heads, who were all of a sudden, teary eyed.

“You poor girls. Those were your first monsters weren't they?..” Vickie and Sheila nod their heads, tears beginning to stream down their faces. Dr. Karnab's glasses fog up as he looks past their pitiful faces to the door across the hall. Then he stoops down low enough to talk to the girls face to face. “Well you have to keep this a secret girls, alright?” the twins nod their heads as Dr. Karnab points at a door some 10 feet behind them. “Do you know what's waiting for you behind that door?” Sheila and Vickie turn in union in the fingers direction. Slowly they shake their heads. Karnab smiles. “Your new best friends.” Vickie's eyes widen and Sheila's grin is back in place. Dr. Karnab gets up and walk around the two towards the door. “Now you have to be nice to them, and raise them to be the best they can be!” he lectures to the wall.

The Twins look at each other and smile, not a tear in sight. As Dr. Karnab reaches the door, he turns around and motions for the girls to follow. Eagerly, the Shadow Twins run up to him. Karnab smiles and opens the door which leads to a Dark hallway with only one bare light-bulb for light in the center of the ceiling.

Vickie looks around in wonder and catches a spark of silver in the darkness. When she sees it again, she starts to walk in it's direction, when she's pulled back by her sister. Dr. Karnab doesn't notice a thing. Vickie shrugs her shoulders and keeps walking after Dr. Karnab until she sees purple eyes looking at her. “Eep!” she starts as she stumbles back into her sister. “What was that?!” Karnab turns around. “What's what?” Vickie points in the direction of the eyes. Dr. Karnab pulls out a flashlight and points the beam in the direction of the purple eyes. A tall, blond haired winged woman holds her clawed hand up to protect her eyes from the glare and screeches as she moves away. Vickie sees the silver band on her arm catch the light and reflect it in her sister's face. Sheila looks at the woman in wide eyed fascination. “Mr. Karnab…Can I have that?” the woman lowers her hand to glare at Sheila. Dr. Karnab walks closer to the woman and lowers the light to inspect her armband. “I'm sorry Sheila…This one is too old for a beginner. Maybe in a few more years you can get a Harpy.”

Vickie steps closer to the woman. “That's a Harpy? She's beautiful…” the Harpy Lady looks at Vickie and smiles a toothy smile. Full of fangs. “Aah!” Vickie hides behind Sheila, who stares at the Harpy lady in wonder until Dr. Karnab moves the light away. “Shall we continue?” Dr. Karnab asks while walking away, not giving the girls a choice. Now it's Vickie's turn to pull Sheila on the right track. “C'mon, Sheila! Lets go!” Sheila nods and walks with her twin in a daze down the hall.

When they get to the end, Dr. Karnab opens another door leading outside. The twins hear the barking and howling of a kennel. The girls follow him down a trail with cages and link fenced runs on either side. “You can pick anything you want here.” Dr. Karnab tells the girls and they run off down the split path, going their own separate ways. Oblivious to the signs pointing to the `wild' and `domestic' sides.

Vickie runs down the path, passing up cats, birds, and lizards without even looking at them. She didn't stop until she got to the barking section. There she saw a litter of multicolored puppies. She opens the gate to the run and a large black and tan dog leaps at her, trying to lick her face. Vickie laughs and pushes the dog down. “Too jumpy!” as she walks further in, the dogs part until one spins in a circle in front of her, yapping it's head off. “Too much of a talker!” she shouts over the din and keeps walking. Another dog, a reddish one falls on its back and wags her tail furiously. “Aw, your so cute!” she says as she rubs the pup's tummy.

As she looks up, she sees another pup, who looks at her with sleepy yellow eyes. Vickie gets up from the female's side and walks over to the white puppy. The only white puppy in the pack. Vickie moves her head closer to the pups'. The white puppy lifts it's head up to sniff Vickie, accidentally bumping his nose into hers. Vickie squeals and hugs the puppy close, the noise making it's ears go back to better catch the noise…

Sheila runs down the path, ignoring the alligators, hawks, and bear cubs. She screams and runs off the path when a lion roars at her. She winds up falling in the wolf den screaming in pain. She quiets down when she sees some dogs howling with her. When they stopped making noise, they cautiously walked up to her. Sheila is about to pat one on the head when a brown blur streaks past and knocks over the other pups.

Sheila raises an eyebrow at the potential speed Demon as he makes a U-turn and winds up in front of her, head down, growling and baring it's milk teeth. Sheila smiles at the challenge, showing her own teeth and holding out her hand, palm up. The wolf pup's growl wavers as he picks up her scent as female and walks closer, stiff legged. When he gets close, he takes a better sniff at her wrist and a growl comes from Sheila as she flips him over. The puppy struggles and tries to nip at her restraining hands, but fails as one moves to rub his tummy. Sheila bends over him growling softly in his ear. The puppy's ears go down as she gets closer to his face. Sheila nips him on the top of his muzzle and receives a cautious lick on the lips. She looks him in the eyes and the puppy squirms and whines at her. Sheila smiles and scoops the wolf pup into her arms and walks out of the den. The other puppies look at their fallen leader in amazement as he gets taken out of his home…

Vickie walks back up the trail holding a round ball of white fluff leaning against her chest, a medium (for a puppy) fluffy tail hanging over her wrist, curling inward. When she sees Dr. Karnab waiting at the crossroads, she shouts a greeting. “Hey Dr. Karnab! I got a puppy!” at the same time, Sheila comes up the other path, holding a lean brown wolf leaning with his back to her chest, tail hanging limp. “I got a puppy too, Mr. Karnab!” when the two pups see each other, they squirm in their owner's hands and growl at each other, tails erect and stiff in the air.

Dr. Karnab looks at the two pups and nods his head. “You couldn't have picked any better. Congratulations. You're both the proud owners of Demon Princes.” Vickie and Sheila tilt their heads in union. “What?” they ask at the same time. Karnab points at Vickie's white pup. “That is the Dog Prince.” He turns to the brown pup. “And that is the Wolf Prince. Both are born leaders of their kind.” Dr. Karnab smiles. “And you get to raise them. How exciting!”