(Socks PoV)

As we continued back to the clearing, we were immediately met by Blaza and Woolf, coming from the Gulag. Woolf looked a bit worried, while Blaza was... strangely calm.

"Woolf, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Could ask you the same thing, what the hell happened to Joocie?" Woolf asked.

I opened my mouth to speak, but remembered Laff's words.

I shook my head. "He tripped onto a sharp rock."

"We need to get him to Meme," Woolf said, "Do you know where he is?"

"Woolf, Meme's been missing for four days," I said sternly.

"Wait... what?!" Woolf said, perplexed, "How did I not even notice?!"

I shrugged.

"Well, to answer your question, Dino is dead," Woolf continued.

"How?!" I said.

"The cloth came off the window. Burned him," Woolf explained.

"Oh..." I said.

"Well, come on, let's get Joocie somewhere safe," Woolfster said. I nodded, and followed the furry and Blaza to my house, since we didn't know what else to do with him.

I opened my door, and quickly rushed over to a drawer in my kitchen, where I knew I had some supplies. Not really knowing what to do, I grabbed some glue and walked back to where the others were standing.

"Do you just so happen to have grabbed the chip?" I asked Joocie. Joocie, keeping one hand over the chipped area, which was still slightly dribbling a few droplets of juice, reached into his pocket and gave me the small glass chip. I took it, and used the glue to carefully fasten it back to where it had cracked.

"That should work for now," I sighed, "If anything happens to it, you can come back here, unless you know someone who could do it better. Meme's the medical guy, so I really don't know what I'm doing."

Joocie nodded. It made me feel a bit better that the chip stayed in place when he moved his head.

"I'm gonna go," Woolfster said, "See ya guys!"

"Might as well go with him," Joocie added, "I'll come back if the chip gets loose. Thanks, Socks."

"No problem," Socks said as Joocie and Woolfster left.

Blaza had been staring off into space the entire time. I nudged him.

"Hello? Earth to Blaza?" I said.

Blaza blinked, looking down at me. His white eyes glowed compassionately.

"Need something?" he asked.

"No, no, I was just making sure you were still in there. You were kind of staring into nothingness," I chuckled.

Blaza seemed to stifle a laugh.

We kind of stood there in awkward silence for a minute. At some point, I felt Blaza's hand touch mine. His skin was cold as ice. Probably a postmortem thing. He slipped his hand into mine, and it made me feel safe. Like his touch blocked out the evil in the world.

Still kind of awkward, I cleared my throat, and I dropped my hand to the side.

I couldn't help but notice a flash of hurt in Blaza's eyes.

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501 words