Chapter 2-1: Colorless World

It's been almost a year or two since I started to tidy up the village. It took longer than expected: I had to cut down a few trees, clean all the buildings, farm Banya, and organize every little detail of everyone's house, restaurant, or workplace.

With my grey (which used to be white) rag, I finished polishing the sign of Cookie's restaurant. That was it. I did all of that work for about two years. I bet everyone would be proud of me.

Speaking of which, I heard a voice. I wasn't supposed to hear anything yet; Mike and Heather didn't die! Or…wait! Did they actually…
I saw Farmer Brown walk in with his wife and son. They were talking about how beautiful the scenery looked from the bridge. They took one look around the Raposa Village in awe, until they saw me. Farmer Brown just stared. I started to walk towards him, with a little confusion on my face.

"Mari," he said at last. "Did you fix all this?" With a sheepish grin, I replied, "I've been working very hard for the Creator, and the good of the village."

Mrs. Brown walked toward her house. With tears in her eyes, she dug out a Banya stalk and bit off the top. "It's been years since I've eaten anything," she told me. The son ran over and shared the rest of the Banya stalk with his mother. "Yummy!" he announced.

I felt so happy for them. Two years ago, it made me very happy to finally have Banya Bread for decades. I can't imagine how happy they must feel to eat Banya together instead of alone.

Suddenly, Chef Cookie and his assistants walked in the village. Once they saw the shiny reflection on their sign, they screamed with delight and rushed over.

After the return of the Cookies, everyone else came. I even got to see Zsasha and Cricket walk beside each other, having a nice conversation. Cricket capturing Zsasha was the last thing on his mind, compared to finally seeing the village for so long; not to mention, anything besides darkness.

I only saw a couple people not care about seeing the village or the other villagers: Samuel, Galileo, and Unagi all nodded at me when they saw me, and returned to work from their over-extended break.

With that, everybody surrounded around me and my house. I couldn't seem to find three people: Mike, Heather, and…Jowee.

I searched around the flurry of Raposa, but nowhere could I find his signature blue goggles he wears.

Trying not to keep the crowd waiting, I started speaking to them. "Um…" I started, not sure what to say. "Well, I'm glad you're all back. I'm not really sure what happened in all that time we were gone…but, uh…"

"Mari, you shouldn't concern yourself with this," a voice called out. I looked behind the villagers. "Who was that?" Dr. Cure asked. "It came from the bridge!" cried Isaac.

With a beam of orange light behind the figure, they stepped forward slowly toward the entrance gate. We were so quiet, that we could hear the bridge creaking with every footstep. Suddenly, the figure took shape.

It was a male Raposa, but that was all I could figure out. Until he took off his goggles and placed them on his head. No. Way. I thought.

"J-Jowee?!" I screamed. The figure nodded his head. It was definitely Jowee. He stepped through the crowd and stood beside me. "Villagers, we need to revolutionize Raposa Village."

Pirate Beard looked strangely at him. "Are you…Jowee?"

"I am," Jowee replied, casually. Did no one else notice how epic his entry was? The orange aura, the silence of the Raposa…it was a moment to remember…but I was the only one who actually did remember.

By the way, what was that orange light? It's not there anymore…but everything that the Creator gave us with the Book of Life is gone. Wait, where is the Book of Life?

"Jowee," I told him. "I need you to talk to the villagers. I need to look for something important."

Jowee smiled at me. "I'll talk to them. What are you-" I ran off, not hearing the rest of his sentence.

I flung my hands on my drawers, scrambling through all of my clothes to find the Book of Life. I can't believe that after all this time I've been here, I've never had a single thought about it. After finding nothing but clothes in my drawers, I checked under my bed, behind my dresser, but still I found nothing.

I breathed heavily, panicking more than I ever have before. If I didn't have the Book of Life, than the Creator wouldn't be able to help us survive! What if…Wilfre is back? That's it, Mari! Wilfre is still alive, and he stole the Book of Life! Oh, if Dad were here, he'd be really mad.

After that one thought, I had a small shred of hope. Wilfre is dead, right? And if he's alive, than Dad might still be alive!

"Yeeeeeeeah!" the villagers shouted. I guess Jowee gave them an inspiring speech. Giving up, I stepped out of my house and saw the villagers with their hands in the air, cheering as Jowee stepped back into the crowd.

I guess I have to speak. "Jowee, what was that you were saying?"

Jowee cleared his throat. "I was saying that we need to improve our lifestyle. We need to add technology to our lives."

"Like what?" Bubba asked with doubt in his voice.

Jowee "tsk"ed at him. "If any of you remember Galactic Jungle, they're way ahead of us over there. We need to start small. We need to create new ways of transportation; new ways of communication. I'm also thinking about ways to keep our village clean and healthy."

My interest was piqued. We don't have to rely on the Creator to keep our village clean. He may be telling us to do things on our own.

Jowee stepped back in front of the crowd. "I need your help to create a two-circle spin machine."

"How about we call it the…bicycle?" Galileo croaked. "The root for two is bi, and the root for spin is cycle." The village nodded at this. Bicycle it was. "What else do you have planned?" he asked.

"I have the speaking-from-a-distance device," Jowee answered, with uncertainty about the name Galileo would come up with.

Galileo thought hard about this one. He began, "The root for distance is…tele. And phone is the root for sound. How about we call it the phone-tele?"

Crazy Barks yelled, "Crazybarksdoesnotlikephone-tele! Crazybarkswantstelephone!"

Cindi spoke up, her voice more timid than ever. It must have been not speaking for so long. "I think Mistuh Cwazy Bawks said tewefone." A chorus of "aww"s came from the crowd.

This was great! I should make Jowee my secretary or something. Maybe we can create more transportation and communication. We could even make alliances with other villages overseas! The possibilities were endless.

The future was a really bright place. Or so I thought.

Just as Jowee opened his mouth to speak, the clouds turned grey. They spiraled into a giant blanket of stratus clouds. What was going on? Was Wilfre back?

Lightning began striking down. The first bolt hit a few yards away from my house. The villagers screamed in fear and ran off to hide.

Jowee and I froze. The next bolt hit closer. The third hit closer. The fourth was about an inch away from my house. "No!" I cried out. "Jowee, my house…"

Jowee placed his hand on my chest and walked backward. I guess I should step back too. Finally, the light struck. I screamed.

Wait. My house is still here. No flames or anything. It was just normal light. But then I saw a figure float down from the sky. It was a woman in a cloak. I couldn't tell what the color was…it looked like a mixture of black and green, maybe tan…I really couldn't tell what color it was!

The woman placed her feet on my roof. She lifted her hood to reveal a Raposa with glowing white eyes, a smile so grim that it could turn Medusa to stone, and bright red hair that waved in every direction.

Our voice betrayed us. Jowee and I grabbed arms while the woman cackled with laughter, followed by lightning bolts striking several trees.

The woman spoke, her voice deep and mysterious, the world so silent you could hear her echo. "Fools who stand in front of me…I am the Shadowess, a being of…complete destruction."

Jowee's grasp on me tightened. The Shadowess looked more frightening than Wilfre ever did.

The Shadowess continued. "I have been summoned…to destroy all worlds and create a perfect one…starting with your village."

I called out to her, "What are you going to do to us? To our village?"

The Shadowess wiggled her left-hand fingers about, as a purple and red flame appeared above it. She wailed as she raised her hand up, and threw the flame like a ball toward a nearby bush.

The bush shook, and became distorted. Suddenly, the lush green leaves started to turn black. After the whole bush was covered in shadow, something happened. It looked like the bush was disappearing, but it was still there.

It looked like the bush was completely cut out of the world, and in its place, a color that nobody has ever seen before. It hurt my eyes just looking at it. It was both bright and dark, weak and strong, and in a way, a combination of every other color.

I shrieked and stumbled backward, and Jowee did the same. "Surprised?" the Shadowess asked with a small giggle. "I'd expect nothing else. This you see here…isn't a color at all."

"Huh?" I asked. "Not a color? Is that even possible?"

The Shadowess made the burgundy flame again. She looked so evil and mystic, Wilfre doesn't even compare to her. I shivered in horror thinking about what Wilfre and the Shadowess would do if they had an alliance. She sighed and began, "Mari…"

"How did you know my name? I never said-"

"I am a being who creates destruction, a being of destruction, and a being that is the definition of destruction. Wilfre's pathetic attempts to destroy the worlds were nothing compared to what I will do."

I could hear the pitter-patter of a Raposa coming towards us. It was…it was…?

The Shadowess leaned her head towards us. "He tried to cover your lands in shadow. He tried to drain the color as well. I, will destroy it completely."

Jowee shuddered as he held his finger up at the former bush. "S-so, that was...it's g-gone?"

I dared myself to look at where the bush was. It hurt my eyes so much to look at; wouldn't you be surprised if whoever you worship lays out a brand new color in front of you? Or, if they lay out something colorless?

The sound of feet shuffling grew a tad louder. I turned around to find…

Jowee turned around as well. His eyes started to tear up as he saw the figure behind him. He struggled to get the word out of him. "M-M…M…"

I couldn't believe it. "Mike!" I cried out. I rushed over to him, and hugged him around the waist. I got down on my knees, with tears streaming down my cheeks. Sobs interrupted me saying, "Mike! You're…you're here!"

Mike didn't react. "Mike?" I asked. Still nothing. What was wrong with him? I looked at his face. He had a giant cut from the left side of his forehead to the right side of his chin. Dried blood stained his expressionless face.

Mike walked toward the Shadowess, ignoring me entirely. When he stood in front of the Shadowess, he did something I would have never guessed he would have done in a million years.

He turned around.

The Shadowess cackled with delight. "Mari, Mike is now under my control. You chose the flower, and he chose evil."

Those words hit me in the heart. My eyes have never been shut so tight before, trying to hold back tears. The Shadowess pulled Mike by invisible force, as Mike shrunk into her hands. A purple and red vortex appeared behind her, and she disappeared in a flash.

Suddenly, the top of my house started shaking. The rest of the villagers ran up to get behind Jowee and I. The top of my house started to distort. That meant…that my house would be destroyed!

"Everyone!" I shouted. "Get to the docks! We need to get out of here!"

Isaac shifted his glasses. "What about supplies? We need supplies!"

I thought about this. "Get supplies from the farthest houses from my house. They'll be the last houses to get affected!"

Every Raposa ran off in every direction to get food, water, and other supplies like weapons and maps.

Heather started to walk through the gates. This didn't surprise me at all, compared to what just happened. Praying to the Creator that she wasn't evil, I hugged Heather. I looked at Heather's face, and the shadow was gone completely. In its place, a cut identical to Mike's. She looked relieved to see me. I guess she wasn't evil.

"Heather," Jowee said with heavy breaths. "You're back."

"I am," replied Heather. She walked over to hug Jowee. Today has been the most emotional day of my life.

After a few minutes, every villager was on the docks. We couldn't turn around without the colorless world hurting our eyes. Even if they were closed, it wouldn't help.

Turtle Rock was right in front of us. Every villager stepped on. We weren't sure where to go…

…but somewhere.