And now to get the characters I've been obsessed with, long before I was introduced to 'Ni No Kuni'.

Disclaimer: I don't own these awesome characters. (dang it)

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Year: 1978

Place: Salem, Massachusetts

The town of Salem was filled with lively activity, as tourists walked around the streets, looking around at different booths and entering various shops that were open during late hours. It was the town's annual Midnight Magic Festival, which took place during the final week of October, ending after Halloween Night, which was the next day. The Festival was created to attract more tourism for the town, as the 'Salem Witch Trials' history was bringing in only a few patrons lately.

One set of tourists were a group of teens who had decided to pay a visit to the city, during their Fall Break. Two of the teens, a handsome boy with reddish-brown hair and a lovely girl with mocha-colored skin and black hair, were browsing around a booth that was selling novelties. "It was a great idea coming here for the weekend," the girl, Kim, said to her friend, as she looked at some small plush black cats. "I just wish Fall Break didn't have to end so soon,"

"Yeah, but it'll be nice to go back on campus," the boy, Biff, replied; he chuckled at a shirt that read 'If You Think I'm A Witch, You Should See My Sister!'. He then looked around for their two other friends. "I wonder where Fangs and Puggsy ran off to?"

Kim looked down the street, spotting them by a booth selling 'poisoned' caramel apples. "There they are, c'mon!"

The duo walked towards the other duo… who were in the middle of an argument. "Look, I didn't mean to ruin her make-up! I thought she was a real witch!" Fangs, the tallest of the group, was saying to his best friend. "The way she was chanting, I thought she was going to put a curse on me!"

"That wasn't 'chanting', you meathead, she was rehearsing a poem for the play- which WE won't be able to see since you dumped a bucket of water on her!" Puggsy, the shortest of the group, sneered at Fangs.

Fangs cringed. "I said I was sorry. It's not my fault she gave a convincing performance!" he gave a jolt as two people dressed as a warlock and a skeleton walked by. "Why did I have to tag along, anyway? You know this sort of stuff freaks me out!"

Puggsy grabbed him by the shirt-collar, glaring at him. "Because YOU still owe us for dragging us to that Medieval Fair last month!"

The tall, lanky teen gave a shrug. "I just went to watch the knight jousting." He pulled away, grabbing a caramel apple off the stand and swishing it around. "Besides, you gotta admit it was pretty cool how they fought with their swords! One was all *swish* and the other was like *woosh!* and-"

*Splot!*

Fangs flinched, noticing that the caramel apple slipped off the stick… and stuck to Puggsy's forehead. "…Precisely why we're never going again," he groused, wiping the caramel off his head.

"That'll be $1," the lady running the booth demanded, and Fangs sheepishly chuckled, handing her a dollar quickly.

"Well… it wasn't SO bad. At least dressing in costume was fun, right?" Fangs continued saying to Puggsy.

By this time, Kim and Biff had arrived. "I'll admit, it kind of was." Kim joined in.

"Yeah- though wearing tights under some armor got pretty uncomfortable," Biff joked.

"I'll say. I'm never dressing in some medieval garb again," Puggsy scoffed.

Fangs rolled his eyes. He flinched when a woman dressed as a witch passed by. "It was still more fun than this place," he muttered.

Puggsy elbowed him. "Ah, shut up! You're just being a coward,"

"I am not! I've just been getting a bad feeling ever since we came here..." Fangs rubbed his arm, feeling a cold wind blow by. "Can we at least go inside? I'm starting to freeze,"

"It has gotten a little cold out," Kim acknowledged, feeling the chill as well, and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Let's head into this shop," Biff said, nodding over at a quaint little shop across the street. "I saw they were giving out hot apple cider,"

Agreeing to the idea, everyone entered the shop. It was more of an antique store, full of shelves and stands filled with cauldrons, tools, encased weapons, and old-fashioned wooden toys; however there were some odd things to, such as necklaces made from fangs and claws, rhinestones with odd symbols carved into them, and jars of colorful powders, all which promised to ward off evil spirits. On one wall, there was a stand that held an interesting-looking staff with a dark-purple gem held in a circled star-shaped frame, the handle of it black and having a scale-pattern to it.

"These are some crazified antiques," Puggsy commented, looking at a bottle labeled 'Eye of Newt'.

"Just something I bring out every season," came a voice, as the shopkeeper- an elderly man with a thick beard and cheerful smile stated. "It's mostly for festive fun. A lot of people like to fool around, believing that ghosts, witches, and werewolves exist. Any of you kids believe in that?"

Biff, Kim, and Puggsy paused, looking over at Fangs (who at the moment was looking at some old arrows in a glass case). Unbeknownst to most people, the lanky coward can turn into a werewolf, Fangface, at the sight of the moon, or anything that resembles it. However, Fangs himself was unaware of this fact, and never believed his friends when they tried to explain it to him.

Thankfully, Fangface wasn't like the killer, blood-thirsty kinds of werewolves talked about in myths and legends; actually, he was more of a hero, as he helped the teens out of tough situations, especially when it came to facing off with villainous masterminds. Outside of some of their foes, the werewolf wasn't much of a hassle…

…except for Puggsy. "In a way, yes. Unfortunately…" the short teen muttered, then browsed the bottles. "You have anything that repels weird-wolves?"

The old man chuckled, pointing left. "Wolfsbane, top shelf," he said.

Biff looked over, seeing the staff propped up near the back of the shop. "Would you check out the detail in this!" he said in awe. "This must have cost a fortune to make!"

"It probably costs a fortune to buy," Kim added, looking at it. Fangs and Puggsy walked over to take a look at the staff as well. She turned to the shopkeeper. "Where did you find it?"

"Some fellow donated it some time ago. Strange young man, he wore funny-looking clothes. He claimed he was 'sent' here to drop it off. Gave some sort of warning behind it too, claiming that no one should touch it- 'For if it happens that a person has magic within their veins and should cast a rune, the wand shall take them to a world unlike your own,' he said." The shopkeeper stated, rubbing his beard as he thought back. "It was quite unusual, but I decided to take it off his hands as he was itching to get rid of it. Didn't want a penny for it, though. It was enough to make me think it was cursed, so I decided to keep it in storage with my 'mystical' props, and tell the story to anyone who'd care to listen."

"So you believe the story?" Biff asked.

The old man shrugged. "Both yes and no. I believe that there must have been something wrong with that stick if he wanted to get rid of it so bad, but I don't think his little fable is true. For all I know, he might've just stolen it from someplace and wanted it kept hidden until the heat died down! I keep expecting him to show up again any day, asking if I still have it."

"Who was this man?" Kim inquired.

"No clue. Didn't get a name or anything- he just came, gave me the wand with a warning, then just vanished as if he never came at all." The man gave a short gasp. "Oh, I nearly forgot- would you kids like some apple cider? It's on the house,"

"Thank you," Biff replied, as the old man poured some hot cider into some Styrofoam cups.

Fangs and Puggsy, however, were still looking at the wand. The shorter teen gave his friend a nudge, smirking. "Dare ya to touch it," he stated with a smirk.

"But the guy said we couldn't!" Fangs replied.

"The guy who gave him the wand said no one could- you don't believe that story, do you?"

"N-no, of course not! There's no such thing as magic," Fangs crossed his arms indignantly. "Everyone knows that,"

"Then go on and touch it! Or are you chicken?"

Fangs gave him a glare. "I'll only touch it if you do!" he prodded his friend in the chest. "If, you're, so, tough!"

"Alright then, pinhead, you're on!"

Both of them reached for the wand, grabbing it and lifting it up. "Ha! See? Told you I'm not-t-t-t-t…t-t-the heck is going on?!" Fangs stammered, as the gem in the wand suddenly began to glow!

"What did you guys do?!" Kim cried, as she and Biff dropped their ciders and ran over.

"What in the world…?!" The shopkeeper gasped, shocked at the display before him.

"Put it down!" Biff exclaimed, as he and Kim tried to take the wand from their friends, but to no avail.

"I c-c-can't let it go!" Fangs stammered, as they ended up waving the wand around to get it out of their grasps, making lines in the air… and suddenly a bright symbol appeared within the lines, glowing brighter than the gem itself. "H-Huh?!"

"It's like it's stuck to us-" Puggsy yelped as the light grew brighter, and suddenly a mist began to envelope them. "Gah! What the jumping ignorpotomases?!"

"Someone help!" Kim cried.

The shopkeeper ran forth to assist the kids… but in a flash of light, they had disappeared, the mist lifting. He took several deep breaths, looking around the shop, rubbing his eyes as if feeling it was just a bizarre nightmare. He then remembered the warning he had told the kids about. "No… it couldn't be… could it?" he whispered to himself, stunned.

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For Fangs, what happened next seemed like a nightmarish drug-trip (or at least how he'd imagine one). The light flashed at it's brightest, and suddenly he and the others found themselves being pulled through a portal, leading God-knows-where!

All the lanky teen could do was scream. "AAAUUUGH! I KNEW SOMETHING BAD WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" Fangs yelled, gripping the wand- involuntarily- as it pulled them through the vortex.

"SHUT UP AND BRACE YOURSELF! I THINK WE'RE ABOUT TO REACH OUR DESTINATIONARY!" Puggsy cried out, seeing the end of the portal.

All at once, they slipped out of the vortex, and dropped onto the ground of a large, green field. Everyone steadied their breaths, trying to calm their racing hearts, as they took in their new surroundings. "Where… where are we?" Kim gasped.

The area was made up of tall hills, with pathways leading to forests in the distance; a long mountain-range surrounded half the land, and not too far off was a sea coast. One outstanding feature were what appeared to be giant rib-like bones that jutted out of the ground, perhaps remains of some ancient creature. As for the living creatures… well, they were the most bizarre the gang had ever seen- and they had come across quite a few oddities in the past! They saw a herd of what appeared to be some sort of large, brown creatures with horns running down a path below, while strange-looking creatures that looked like sheep with unihorns ran along by a creek.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Puggsy nervously quoted.

"…I thought we were just in Massachusetts?" Fangs questioned, not quite getting the reference.

"I don't know where we are either, but I do know one thing- this wand is the cause of this!" Biff stated, pointing at the wand, which lay on the ground before them.

"Well if it brought us here, it should take us back!" Puggsy sneered, gripping the wand in disdain and shaking it, but nothing happened.

"No way I'm touching that thing again," Fangs gulped, backing away from it. "Something else might happen!"

"Fangs is right. I think before we do anything else, we should at least find out where we are- much less the full story behind this wand," Biff suggested.

There came a snarling sound, and Kim looked over, gasping. "I-I think we've already found something- trouble!" she yelped, drawing everyone's attention to two dog-like creatures, who seemed ready to pick a fight.

"Yikes! What are those things?!" Fangs stammered.

"I don't know, but I don't like the way they're looking at us!" Puggsy stated as the creatures snarled, and ran towards them.

Biff quickly pulled out a picture of the moon. "There's only one person who can take them on- Fangs, look at this picture!" he said, quickly.

"Biff, this is no time for taking an interest in art-!" Fangs began to argue, until his eyes fell on the moon in the picture.

The lanky teen's eyes then began to swirl, orange smoke puffed out of his ears, and his head began to shift. All at once, he swirled around, spinning like a top. Once he stopped, in his place stood a werewolf with light-brown fur with tan paws, feet, tail-tip and muzzle, wearing nothing but a red baseball cap and baring a single fang. "Arrrooooooooooo!" Fangface howled, the werewolf looking around, turning in the direction of the attacking creatures. "*grr* You're in big trouble now!" He leaped-

…and tackled Puggsy to the ground. The two creatures paused, cocking their heads in confusion.

"Ha! You're in for it now, Pugs! *grr* I'm gonna rough you up good!" Fangface then began to shake his friend around.

"Let go of me, nit-wolf! We've got trouble!" Puggsy snapped, pointing at the two creatures, who had turned their attention to Biff and Kim and were about to lunge at them.

"Ooh, ooh, no one messes without dealing with ME first!" Fangface then ran at the two strange-looking dogs.

The dogs looked over their shoulders just in time for the werewolf to attack! In a dust-cloud, they got into a vicious brawl, before the two wild-mutts managed to get loose and stand before him, the werewolf snarling at them viciously. One of them ran at him, snapping at him, while the other one seemed to be shaking- but not in fear.

"Arroooo!" the second hound howled… and its voice was a lot louder than Fangface's- so much, that it caused an ear-splitting pain for everyone who heard it!

"Oww! Ooh, ooh, lower your voice!" Fangface yelped, the howl having caused damage to his hearing as well. Meanwhile, the mutt he was fighting suddenly rolled through the ground, bull-dozing him over! "Oof!" The werewolf landed on his back, seeing stars.

"Fangface! Are you alright?" Puggsy gasped, rushing to his friend's aid.

"…Strike… *grr*" Fangface said in a daze, but shook it off, getting back on his feet. "What kind of dogs are these?!"

"I don't know- but here they come again!"

The two wild mutts ran forth, but this time Fangface was more prepared. He leaped over them, landing behind and grabbing them by their short tails, and then began to spin, faster and faster before letting go, sending the creatures flying clear through the air, howling in defeat as they landed two hills over! "That'll teach 'em, *grr*" Fangface huffed, dusting his paws off.

"Did… did you see what those dogs did?!" Kim gasped. "One howled loud enough to stop a train, and the other was strong enough to knock Fangface off his feet!"

"And the rest of these creatures can probably do worse, unless we can get to safety," Biff stated, scouting the area; he pointed northward. "Hey, I see a town up ahead!"

Everyone looked, seeing what appeared to be a stone-walled kingdom in the distance. "Let's hurry and get there then- I don't want to find out what other monsters roam around out here," Puggsy said.

"Ooh, ooh, same here! *grr*" Fangface agreed, then paused, looking around. "Um… hey guys? Where exactly ARE we?"

"That's what we're going to find out… I hope," Biff said, and the gang headed down the path leading to the town in the distance.

Hopefully, they wouldn't come across any more trouble.

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A/N: If I laid down too much foreshadowing here, I apologize XD

Next chapter, the gang get a few answers, and we get some more suspense!

Please review, but hold back on the flames.