[Chronos & Cider Doodle]

It wasn't terribly cold out, but the temperature would drop slightly as the sun set later on. They didn't anticipate they would be out for that long, but it was good to be prepared with the lighter coats just in case.

"You sure we shouldn't bring him with us? Might be good for him to have a look around," Cider turned to Chronos, who was still fiddling with his jacket. He was one of the types that couldn't decide if he wanted it zipped up all the way or just below his neck, and had to double-check each style.

"You know he tends to wander if he gets distracted," Chronos replied, finally settling on leaving his zipper at his neck. "Can you imagine us losing sight of him out here? It'd be a nightmare in several ways."

"I guess you're right, feel kinda bad leaving him though."

"Then don't feel bad. He's safe there, and it's a lot safer than out here," Chronos ended.

In front of them lay red, silver and black metal sheets put together in a makeshift fence around the "yard". The owner of the house beforehand must have placed them here. It wasn't the best looking in a fashion or landscaping sense, but you could tell it was a fence, and that's all that mattered. It wasn't very tall, and the height was waist-high, but it bordered the front lawn decently. A rusted metal sheet gate was attached to the fence and as one would guess, was also very loud as you opened it.

Upon the trio's first arrival, this gate could be heard for a mile, banging open and closed with every gust of wind. Chronos had detested the sound and fastened a metal rod between the gate and fence to keep it from making noises. He wondered if this gate was the reason why everyone left.

It'd certainly make him leave if he had to hear it every day.

What a fucking obnoxious sound.

After a bit, they gradually made their way out of the front yard and into what was meant to be the remnants of a city street. It was a struggle to tell what the names of the streets were; All the signs were missing. Either the wind whisked them away, or someone was quite into collecting street signs.

They journeyed down many missing-name streets, with Chronos following Cider a few paces behind. He didn't know where he was headed and relied on Cider, who had been out exploring many times. Cider seemed to know the area relatively well, though there were a few times he went in circles, claiming he "did it on purpose to test Chronos' awareness."

Chronos' curiosity slowed his strolling down the road, and he stopped to observe shop buildings nestled beside each other tightly to his right. He pondered what they could have been and what they might have left behind inside, but there was no reason to spend energy searching and sifting through items. The trio were well-off for the moment and they weren't that desperate.

"Let's go Chronos."

Chronos turned toward the obvious voice of a distant Cider. He tucked his hands into his jacket pockets, not moving from his spot near the shops.

"How far are we going? This seems a bit farther than I realized," Chronos called.

Cider spun to face him, kicking up dust as he did so.

"It's just around the corner, I'm sure this time," he waved his arms in the air for some reason. Chronos guessed that was a "round' the corner" motion. He didn't know what to think of it.

Cider skipped ahead, turning the corner to check if he was correct. He didn't want to look like an idiot today, especially not in front of Chronos. The guy was so tricky to impress, and he was hoping that he'd be the first to find what they were looking for so he could prove him wrong.

"Yeah, it's right here!" Cider's voice shouted.

Chronos followed him, turning the corner as well and sure enough, the city's junkyard lay in front of him. It contained everything a typical junkyard would hoard, from metal to metal.

It was all just metal.

And bits of metal parts from who knows what.

"This is where I wanted to go yesterday, but the sun was beginning to set, and you would've yelled at me for coming home late," Cider said, playing with a car hubcap he picked up. He tapped it for a few seconds before throwing it back on the ground. The sun had made the metal too hot to hold for more than a few moments.

"That's not our home," Chronos corrected. He brought his hand up to cover his eyes from the sun so he could see how far this junkyard spanned. It would be much time before they could locate what they needed; A new central power coupling for their ship. Unfortunately, they can't go anywhere far without it, as it routes the main power to their hyperdrive. Chronos knows it was either Cider or Zephyr who broke it, but none will admit to it.

He guessed none probably wanted to bear the shame of not heeding his instructions prior. It was a common recurrence.

"We should split up to cover more ground, it'll take too long if we work side-by-side," Chronos stated.

"Aight."

With his good friend taking the left side of the junkyard to work through, Chronos took the right side. Cider stood, his hand just under his chin, gazing at the piles before him. He was unsure where to start, there was just so much "stuff."

His eyes met something shiny near his foot, and he reached down to pick it up. It appeared to be part of an older smartphone screen, at least half of it. The edges were a flashy gold hue.

"Good color choice," he mumbled to himself.

He sat down on a grayed tire placed conveniently behind him and tried to rub out dirt that was covering the back of the phone. He was curious to see what the model is. That would give him a clue to how old it was, and maybe how long it had been here. He stopped when he realized his lime tail was also laying atop the tire, and the tire was dirty.

Disgruntled and with his wolf ears flattened, he wrapped his tail around his side, so it was resting on his lap, with no part of his groomed fur touching the dirty tire surface. He quickly swatted away any dirt that did stick itself to his lime fur, and once again the color was clean and bright.

"I don't hear you shuffling through any metal!" Cider heard Chronos holler. "And if I come over there, you better not be sitting on your ass!"

Cider glared in the direction of the voice.

"I found a piece of an old smartphone," he called back.

"That's great!" Chronos answered. "Is it smart enough to power our hyperdrive?"

Cider eyed the broken piece, no longer interested in finding out the model due to Chronos' sarcasm.

"Nope!" He shouted back before throwing the broken phone piece behind him. It'd be lost in all these piles.

"Hey, you told a joke there," Cider said, reaching his hand to paw away different broken bits in the heap that lay in front of him. He found a stretchy segment of rubber he began to toy with. "You never tell jokes."

"That wasn't a joke, it was a stab at your ignorance."

"No, see it was a smartphone, but it's not smart enough for that." Cider bent the rubber to see how far it'd go before snapping. He concluded it'd make a great dog toy, very durable indeed. "That's the joke, get it?"

Cider heard a low, unimpressed "hmm" come from Chronos. He grinned, because he knew Chronos realized he did make a joke, but didn't want to admit it.

He tossed the rubber segment behind him when he was through examining it.

It clanged against something quite loud.

It was such an intense & powerful clattering sound that he had to turn around and see what the hell it was. He didn't notice the area behind him looked like a hill and was scooped out, with a circular area carved out of the metals in a neat circle. It looked like someone had been picking through here too.

He suddenly looked towards his feet as something strange had caught his eye. His grayed tire from earlier had run off.

"Uh, my tire is missing?" Cider called out, though to no one in particular.

Chronos snorted laughter a few meters away.

"It was right here and now it's not."

"Sounds like a personal problem," Chronos replied. He pulled a long cord out from his jumble of scrap, but was disappointed when the end of the cord was broken and frayed, rendering it unusable.

"No you don't understand, I was just sitting on that tire."

"So you were sitting on your ass, I knew it." Chronos slyly retorted. He brushed his fiery orange bangs to the side. He should've just tucked them in with his ponytail to make this easier.

Cider returned his attention to the area the tire used to be. He could see a small trail where the tire had been dragged away, and the trail was pointing to the area that the loud clattering sound came from. His ears were normally so good! It was shocking to him that ears like his didn't perceive the hint of a dragging noise.

"Stealthy rodent, I ain't afraid of you." Cider muttered under his breath. He thought it must have been a rodent, as they can be very quiet on their paws. But what did it want with his tire? He wasn't sure, but he followed the squiggly trail to the edge of the cleared circle. He leaned down, examining the end of the trail and caught a glimpse of the grayed tire poking out through some scrap.

Cider grabbed on to the worn tire and pulled it.

He let go when the tire pulled back and let out a furious snarl.