by Mark Mulle
“Will do, Kami.” Steve said.
Day 17
We said our goodbyes to Kami and left his nice village. Now, we’re heading to Epheral city, to the North, where Steve has a friend named Jeremy. Living in a city where humans share information and other useful knowledge, Jeremy might know something to help us.
- “I don’t even know if Jeremy will recognize me! It has been so long…” Steve said.
- “What could humans possibly know about this? Even Kami the village doesn’t know a thing; I doubt they will be of much help.” Susi said.
- “Like Steve said, Jeremy lives in a city full of humans, honey. They are always researching and travelling and studying everything. You know how smart humans are.” I said.
- “If anyone in this world knows anything about the missing wild animals, they must be in that city.” Elly said.
- “Do you think it has anything to do with the Zombie Leader? Steve didn’t defeat him for good, as I recall.” Oopa said.
- “That’s true. Steve spared his life because he knew the Zombie Leader, who was very weak after the battle, wouldn’t have enough time to return to his base before the sunrise. Zombies are weak against the sun.” I said.
- “Exactly. There’s no way that creep would have gotten away like that. Besides, he is still very weak like Kami said himself. What could he possibly do with his weak powers? Invoke a baby zombie?”
We all laughed.
- “Innocent or not, keep your heads up. We don’t know who we might be running into.” I said.
Day 18
Another day just travelling across the land. Epheral city is really far, just like Steve said.
- “Keep it up, guys. We mustn’t be far!” Steve said.
- “Sigh… I really missed going out on a journey, but I’m already tired!” Oopa said.
- “Probably because we haven’t exercised in a while, and keeping up with the horse Pegasus is not easy at all.” I said.
- “You’re right. I am totally out of shape.” Oopa said.
- “Come on Oopa, you’re the one who was most excited for this trip. Get yourself together now!” Elly joked.
- “Okay honey, I’m ready!” Oopa said.
Day 19
We made it to Epheral city today.
- “Phew, that was not hard at all!” Oopa said.
- “See? I told you we just had to keep up with Pegasus.” I said.
- “So this is what a human city looks like? It is like Steve’s home… but with ten times the number of structures.” Susi said.
- “More like a hundred times!” Elly said.
- “Here we are boys. Epheral city! The home of Jeremy and other humans. Let me go talk to them and we’ll get inside.” Steve said.
The city was protected by a moat, surrounded by a tall wall and guarded by several humans on the front gate. A truly heavy defensive system.
- “Good afternoon, gentlemen! My name is Steve and I am from a distant land. I’ve come here to visit your nice city and see my old friend Jeremy, who lives here. Have you heard of him?” Steve asked the two guards.
- “Sorry sir, but your entrance is not permitted.” The guard said.
- “Pardon me?” Steve said. “Can you tell me why?”
- “Animals are not allowed in Epheral city, sir. City rules.” The other guard said.
- “Excuse me? What do you mean with animals are not allowed? But this horse is mine; I came riding him all the way from home! And these four wolves are tamed; they protect me everywhere I go!”
- “Sorry sir, but we’ll have to ask you to leave. Animals are not allowed here and we won’t make an exception.” The guard said.
- “Alright, take it easy. I’ll leave then. May I ask you something before I go? Why are animals not allowed?” Steve asked them.
- “According to the city’s rules, animals are the cause of the entire world’s chaos. Therefore, they’re not allowed in the city grounds. Orders from the citizens.” The guard said. “Now, get lost!”
- “Okay, sorry to bother you. I’m leaving right away. Come on boys, let’s go.” Steve said.
We quickly left the city gates and returned to the woods. Steve didn’t know what was going on.
- “Why are they treating animals as some kind of a disease? They don’t want to let us enter the city because of some silly rule!” Steve said. “This is weird. This is REALLY weird. I feel like this has something to do with why the wild animals have disappeared.”
- “What’s going on there? Why won’t they let us in?” Oopa said.
- “You heard the guards… They have a specific rule for that. Why they have that rule, I don’t know. I do know that we are not welcome inside, though.” I said.
- “This is strange.” Elly said.
- “You know Steve. He won’t stop until he finds out what is happening there.” Susi said.
- “You’re right, honey. And I bet he is already planning what to do next.” I said.
Steve built a small wooden hut so we could sleep for the night.
Day 20
Steve woke up early and asked us to stay in the wooden hut.
- “Guys, I have a plan.” Steve said. “I will infiltrate Epheral city and I’ll see what I can find there. But in order to do this, I need you all to stay put. They won’t let us in if you are with me, sorry about that. I am sure you understand, right? And you can count on me. I will go get Jeremy and talk to him. I bet he knows why the guards are acting strange like that; maybe they’re just imposing this silly rule because they don’t trust me yet. I will be back shortly! You four stay here along with Pegasus.” Steve left the hut and we stayed.
- “Good luck, Steve. I hope you find your friend Jeremy.” I said.
- “Don’t be so gloomy, Boris. Everything will be fine! I am sure this was just a misunderstanding. When they get to know Steve better and see that he is friends with Jeremy, the guards will let us in!” Oopa said.
- “I admire your optimism Oopa, but I gotta say… I don’t trust them.” I said.
- “Why not?”
- “There’s something weird going on in the background, but we still don’t know yet. I can feel something is totally off from that city.” I said.
- “I know the guards are not really friendly, but hey, give Steve a chance to explain the situation!” Oopa said.
- “Oopa, maybe Boris is right. Don’t you think this is weird? First, the wild animals from the world simply disappear. Gone! Next, we came to visit a city far away that doesn’t let any animals inside? There must be a connection here.” Elly said.
- “I understand honey. For now, we can only wait for Steve to sort things out.” Oopa said.
Day 21
Steve returns to the hut only this morning.
- “Oh, hello guys. I made it into the city yesterday. But uh… things didn’t go as I expected.” Steve said.
- “What could have happened?” I said.
- “So, I talked with the guards and, even though they didn’t want to let me in, they had no choice since I wasn’t with any animals. Once inside, I felt… weird. Everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of alien. I asked around for Jeremy, and I managed to find him. Jeremy lives in an old house on the other side of the town.”
- “Oh, he found Jeremy! That’s great!” Oopa said.
- “Shh, he hasn’t finished the story yet!” Susi said.
- “I went to where Jeremy lives and he was still living in the same house. But he was not the same Jeremy I had met a few years prior. He was… different. I could see it in his eyes, he was totally changed. I asked him about the city’s weird rule against animals, and he actually defended the rule! He said wild animals attract bad luck, that they should be banned forever. I asked him what was wrong, what was going on, and who was behind all of it. Then he became aggressive, telling me to leave immediately otherwise he would call the guards on me. I left the place before things got worse. And now I can’t help but think what is going on inside that p
lace? What have they done to my friend Jeremy?” Steve said.
- “This is getting weirder by the day.” Susi said.
- “Doesn’t his friend remember him anymore?” Oopa said.
- “He does, but he has changed.” I said.
- “What now?” Oopa said.
- “I don’t know, Steve didn’t say what he wants to do.” I said.
Steve was thinking… He was confused about his friendship. His friend didn’t seem to recognize him anymore, and the city was hiding something.
Day 22
We were asleep in the hut when we heard footsteps outside.
- “It this from them? It has to be!” We heard a voice.
- “Take it down quickly!” Another voice said.
- “What the heck is going on outside?” Steve said. He opened the door and found over 20 humans from the city, standing with swords and axes at hand.
- “We’ve come here to check what you’re doing in the forest.” The guard said.
- “What do you mean? I am just sleeping here with my wolves, of course!” Steve said.
- “Negative. This is against the city rules, and you must leave immediately.” The other guard said.
- “What are you talking about?! I am not even inside the city anymore! This is the forest, totally far from Epheral!” Steve said.
- “Be gone with your dirty beasts from this place, or we’ll hunt you down! We don’t want any of those bests near our children!” A person said.
Steve called us outside, hopped on Pegasus and we fled the area quickly. In the meantime, the citizens burned down the wooden hut and stared at us as we leave.
- “What is wrong with these people!? They’re completely out of their minds!” Steve said. “Let’s go back to Kami’s village, guys. It’s