"Oh, hey, Cutiepie, welcome back to the world."

Tegwen focused on a bulldog in a law enforcement uniform.

"Huh?" Tegwen blinked. "What's going on here?"

"There was a fire at the gym," another police officer spoke up, this one an ostrich. It was the second voice of the two Tegwen had overheard as she regained consciousness.

"Do you feel up to walking, Sweetiepie?" The bulldog asked, bending over to help Tegwen up.

"My arm--" Tegwen gasped as a searing pain pulsed from her elbow to her wrist. "My leg!" With a wretched cry, she yelped. "My ribs!"

"You can get an ice pack at the station," the ostrich told her, opening the back door of a police car for her.

"What's going on?" Tegwen asked, feeling panic beginning to well up within her throbbing chest.

"You're just going to the Duckburg police headquarters to answer a few questions for us." The ostrich closed the door gently once Tegwen was safe in the back seat. "It's nothing to worry your pretty little head about." The ostrich gave her a reassuring pat on her headband through the open window.

Tegwen flinched. Above it all, her head was aching, too.

"Take her over," the ostrich mumbled to the bulldog. "I'll take care of things here."

The bulldog nodded slightly and took the steering wheel.

As the police car pulled away, Tegwen was given a clear view of the situation she was being removed from.

The gym was a smoldering pile of bricks, strewn in heaps here and there. Four fire trucks were parked along the blacktop surrounding it, along with two ambulances and about twenty Dalmatians. That sight unnerved Tegwen enough on its own, the gym being reduced to rubble, but it didn't compare to the sight of five dark gray body bags, all lined up beside the charred ruins of the school gym.



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