Sky Oak - A Chipmunk Tale pt2

Three ghostly shapes could be seen clearer this time
As they almost simultaneously broke out of the high cloud cover
Leaping up into the clear air
Trailing wisps of water vapor behind them
Staying in clear view for perhaps ten whole seconds
Rough woody trunks flexing
Green spoilage streaming out from branches as they went

Sky Oaks
Heavily laden with their acorns
On their annual migration to the breeding grounds
A place where no chipmunk dared to go anymore
Which made the time of migration the only time the nuts could be harvested

The three Oaks slid back beneath the clouds
Seemingly oblivious to the smoking steaming zeppelin only fifty yards astern
With a virtually insane chipmunk in command
His face practically plastered to the front view window
Madness in his large dark anime sized eyes

"Man the harpoons!"
Barked the Captain into his brass comm tube

Springing into action
Two crew chipmunks scampered up the superstructure
Into the envelope area
Running and jumping across catwalks that ran in the lift tank area
Bursting out a small hatch on the upper nose of the craft
To man the two steam harpoon cannons that resided on a small platform there
Their black beady eyes scanning the clouds
Looking for movement
Quivering with anticipation
Their cannons hissing steam out the seals and overpressure valves

The Captain locked his silver hooked prosthetic onto the frame again to steady his slight body
"Ready on the throttle and elevators!"

Almost as he said it
The three Sky Oaks broke the clouds once again
Now only twenty five yards out
Dead ahead and down

"More speed and dive!
Go! Go! Go!"
The Captain would have jumped himself if the thick glass had not stopped him

But that command would be his last
As the already overworked steam turbines surged at the influx of new pressure
Chugging hard repeatedly
Two of them breaking their mounts to fall spinning into the soupy clouds below
The remaining two engines simply detonating in place
Throwing hot shards of metal everywhere
Ripping the Hunter Zeppelin Wild Weasel  to shreds

The explosion threw the Captain forward
Through the opening where an instant before had been the main front glass of the bridge
Straight for the Sky Oak
Which was lazily on it's own little arc up out and back down to the clouds

With his zeppelin falling in pieces in his wake
Captain Blighter folded his four limbs back along his body
Tail fluttering madly behind him
He screamed a high pitched chipmunk war cry
Flying straight at the mid trunk foliage of the mighty oak

Landing hard he rolled twice before gripping the thick bark covering on the tree's hide
Gleefully yelling in triumph
He barely had time to revel in his mad pointless conquest
Before the oak dove back down into the clouds with it's two mates

Suddenly blinded by the high cloud vapor
Captain Blighter tried to catch his breath in the thick moisture
Suddenly losing his balance
He gripped the bark as hard as he could

Blinded now he couldn't adjust his balance quickly enough to know what was happening
As the Sky Oak rolled itself in the cloud coating all of it's leaves with an equal amount of moisture
Dripping off the excess
Fluttering in the wind of it's forward progress North

The Captain found himself on the bottom side of the tree
And unable to hold on
His left hand prosthetic unable to find purchase on the thick bark
He valiantly held on for almost six seconds
Until his claws gave out and broke off

And he fell
Following distantly the wreckage of his zeppelin
Falling

To the treeless grassy plains far below