After Perros and Nazo successfully brought Cyra back home. For the rest of the day and for a while afterwards, they celebrated with the others.
The next morning, Esco was the first to wake up. Others were still sleeping on the ground.
"C'mon, let's go..." Esco said impatiently.
"Don't worry..." Bruno said sleepily.
"We have plenty of time." He added and yawned.
"Next time you wake up... you'll have something brown and small in your breakfast..." Esco said subtly.
"Okay, everyone." Perros stood up.
"Let's get something to eat and then we'll move on." He added and stretched.
"Good idea." Nazo said and went home to see Cyra.
Perros looked at him and smiled.
"I'm glad we finally accomplished that..." Perros said and looked at Bruno who was still sleeping.
"Look, a cook with a new dish!" He said it out loud on purpose.
"W-What? W-Where?" Bruno said in confusion and quickly stood up.
Bruno looked disappointedly at Perros.
"Will you make us breakfast?" Perros looked at him with puppy eyes.
"Sigh... Esco, do you eat the same things as humans?" Bruno asked and looked around.
"Of course I do...." Esco replied.
"But you can put more greens in it...." He added quietly.
"As you wish." Bruno smiled and walked away.
"Is he a good cook?" Esco asked suspiciously.
"The best I've met." Perros smiled.
Bruno went to cook some breakfast. Meanwhile, Nazo went to check on Cyra.
He slowly opened the door to his house so that he wouldn't wake anyone up. But his mother was already awake.
"Doesn't your back hurt?" She asked.
"Well, I've been sleeping on the floor lately so I'm used to." Nazo explained.
"I could absolutely not." She giggled.
Nazo's mother looked at him, came closer and hugged him.
"I'm glad you're staying." She added, hugging him.
"I'm sorry to say..." Nazo said.
"But I'm not going to stay here." He added and slowly pushed her away.
"Right..." She said disappointedly.
"Don't worry... I'll be sending letters." Nazo smiled and kissed her on the forehead and left.
She smiled and looked at the slowly closing door.
When Nazo returned, Bruno was ready with breakfast.
"Here you go, guys!" Bruno said and handed everyone their portion.
"With extra greens." He added and looked at Esco.
"Thanks..." Esco smiled.
"Oh, you can smile too?" Bruno said mockingly.
"I can do a lot of things..." Esco replied grumpily.
"Come on..." Perros fumed.
"EAT! That's an order!" He ordered and took a bite.
Esco was also using cutlery, even though he was an animal.
"It's good..." Esco said softly.
"What?" Bruno asked questioningly.
"It's good, okay?" Esco said out loud.
"I knew you'd like it." Bruno said proudly.
When everyone had eaten breakfast, they went back to the jungle together. Their new goal was to find the base of the Twin gang.
"Does anyone have any idea where it is?" Perros asked as he made his way through the jungle.
"Even the people in the village don't know. And that was supposed to be our main lead." Nazo said seriously.
"That means we have to look for their God-knows-what base..." Bruno said and looked around.
"Ahem!" Esco sounded loudly.
"I think you are forgetting someone..." He added
"Yeah, Esco, you should know your way around." Bruno said with relief.
"Yeah... But I don't." Esco said plainly.
"Why not?" Bruno asked.
"How am I supposed to 'get around' when I haven't been on the surface my whole life." Esco said annoyedly.
"Right..." Bruno said knowingly.
"But I have a good sense of smell..." He added and started sniffing.
"Yeah, you're an animal. I completely forgot about that." Perros laughed.
"I have something... It's faint, but I can smell it." Esco said and slowly took the lead.
Perros, his partners and Esco walked through the jungle for a while.
"You know, we should probably take some distance." Perros said.
"What if they have guards here." He added.
Esco stopped and looked at him.
"If they were here, I could sense them, but if it makes you feel better." Esco said and continued.
So Perros and the others pulled back a bit and Esco still led.
"There!" Esco said.
"Wait here, I'll go and check out their entire base myself." He added and continued on.
"They'll notice you, Esco. You still have your glasses and clothes on." Perros warned him.
"Sigh..." Esco sounded and took his clothing off.
"If I'm not back in less than an hour, go out there and find me. But I'll be back." He added, heading for where the enemy base was located.
"I hope it's the Twin gang base." Esco thought to himself.
A few minutes had passed since Esco had left Perros and the others. When the smell of people grew stronger, he could even hear them.
"I must be getting close." Esco thought to himself once again.
On all four Esco came into the base of Twin gang. It looked like a camping site. With a wooden cabin somewhere in the middle surrounded by small houses for one person. Esco also noticed several cages with prisoners that had been captured somewhere. One of them was screaming a lot, even though he was a man. There weren't many gang members, just a few who were on guard duty. To ascertain their numbers, Esco also looked into the houses. And even the main cabin.
"That should be all..." Esco said and headed back.
Perros and the others were ready to go after him.
"It's been fifty minutes, where is he?" Perros asked worriedly.
"Give him some time. With legs like his, it sure is hard to walk fast." Bruno chuckled.
Even Nazo laughed a bit at this cue.
Just as they were ready to go, Esco came back.
"So how is it?" Perros asked.
"There are few guards around the camp...." Esco told them everything he knew, saw and heard.
"And there are some imprisoned people aswell." He added.
"It looks like we have a lot to do." Perros giggled.
"Let's go then." Nazo said and headed first.
They all approached the camp. But they ran into the first guard of the day.
"Who's there?" The guard asked in alarm.
Something appeared in the bushes in front of him.
"Oh, it's just a raccoon." He added and looked at Esco.
"He is, but I'm not..." Nazo appeared behind him and knocked him out.
Nazo took him behind a bush to avoid being noticed by the other guards and approached the enemy camp with the others.