It hadn't even been more than few minutes since they approached this other village, and their further actions had already been brought to a halt. With their paws being forcefully held behind their backs, the group was escorted into the place they had encountered, but not to the location they were originally planning to go to.
As the unfriendly tiger that had stopped them not too long ago said, they were all being lead to the village's leader. As the aardwolves and the other guards alongside them dragged them forward, a strong sense of dread started to encompass the group. Judging by the immediate first impression displayed by that feline the very minute they arrived, it was quite easy to assume that this leader of theirs was going to be as equally mean.
Lifting his sagging head to see what was coming up in front of him, Jack spotted the remains of some once-standing building several yards away. The way it looked reminded him of the old religious sanctuaries and architectural ruins of the world he and the others started from. This spot they were approaching, he presumed, served as some sort of court for the village. And if his presupposition was correct, then this was where they would stand to be judged by the village's leader they were told they would be seeing.
As they walked up towards the ruins of this long-gone construction, there was a short step up in the path, one that someone would have easily tripped over if they were not paying enough attention. The path underneath their paws changed from dirt grounds to sedimentary rock that was reminiscent of the flagstone used for pavement. Broken columns of stone could be seen on either side. These, the group assumed, once held the construction together before its eventual destruction.
Once the guards lead them into the very middle of the place they had brought them, their walking was brought to a stop. Just then, the sounds of claws scratching against the rocks underneath their feet could be detected, coming from something further away.
Three darkly-colored shapes could be seen in the distance. As they started to get closer, Jack and the others saw that a trio of hooded figures were now walking briskly up towards them. One of them, from what he could see, was a taller mammal compared to the other two that were behind him. The cloaks masking the identity of who was behind them were deep red with hints of black and gold.
The cloaked mammal that looked like he was leading the other two pulled the hood down and revealed his face. Looking back at them now was a lynx with a crooked grin and a patch over his right eye. The hooded figures behind him joined him at his sides, pulling down their hoods and revealing their appearance as well. At the lynx's left was a beaver with a identically-evil expression written on his face, and to his right was a sable with dark brown fur.
That must be the village leader, Jack thought. Those other two beside him must have some sort of governing power over the mammals living here, too.
The buck remained silent as he observed the lynx in front of him and the others as he bowed his head and put his paws together, mumbling what sounded like some sort of prayer under his breath.
"Now then…" the lynx muttered. "Just how did this set of… unwanted mammals get here?"
The aardwolf guard on Jack's side bowed his head and replied, "Their purpose is uncertain at this moment in time. What is certain, however, is that they were spotted wandering just outside of our perimeter. As we were instructed by our superior, we brought them directly to you."
The feline eyed the rabbit and the those standing beside him, holding his paws behind his back as he looked over at them. "It has been quite time since someone had enough gall to even set paw or hoof around here. Despite the fear that we've driven into the minds of the surrounding provinces, we somehow managed to get a group seven frolicking within our land."
The tiger that had ordered his guards to bring them to the village leader stepped forward. "If I am able to add an important detail," he informed, "I must say that they mentioned one of our own inhabitants."
The lynx inquired, "Is that so?"
"It is indeed, sir," the striped feline replied. "They somehow knew of Donovan, despite the fact that he speaks practically to no one. They said they needed to discuss something that was of great importance. He barely makes contact with his own neighbors, let alone a complete stranger from somewhere we're not even sure of. What say you, sir? If they aren't spies and are as innocent as they say they are, how would they know of him and why would they to find him."
A momentary pause filled the air, eventually broken by the shuffling of the lynx's feet. He took several steps up towards the jackrabbit and looked him dead in the eye. "What are you doing here, and how did you know where to find Donovan?" he asked.
A frightened breath was the only response the came out of Jack in that moment. Telling him right then and there what he had experienced until now—that the ghost of his brother appeared to him and told him to find this mammal—would probably make the situation worse. While the story that he wished to tell them was nothing but the truth, it was safe to say that this lynx wouldn't believe a word of it. He was still under the impression that all of them had been spying on this village somehow, and it was going to be a difficult task to convince them otherwise.
"Well, if you're not going give us any information, then maybe one of your friends will." The village leader walked up to where the red fox of the group was and glared at him. "What about you, fox? What's a shifty, lowlife vulpine like yourself doing around these parts? Trying to snatch our goods from under our paws?"
Hey, I am not shifty!" Nick snapped in reply. "I'll have you know, good sir, that I have never done anything negligent in my life." After a moment of silence, he added, "Well, I did get one traffic ticket, but I paid that a long time ago-"
"Silence!" the lynx bellowed, causing the fox and the others around to shiver slightly. He looked back at the two hooded mammals near him and gestured for them to step forward. "You two," he told them, "search the doe and ferret over there."
The beaver approached Judy, noticing what she had clipped to the side of her uniform, he turned back to the village and leader and informed, "The doe has some suspicious objects with her."
The tiger guard nearby chimed in, "I knew they were spying on us!"
The beaver took the communication device that had been on her uniform, while the guard behind her kept her paws behind her back.
"Hey!" Judy yelled. "Stop!"
The beaver walked over towards the lynx, holding the device in the grasp of his webbed paw.. "She had this on her, sir," he said, handing the object over to him. "I know not what it is—never saw something like it before—but I assume it's dangerous."
The village leader looked at it with uncertainty. "Now just what sort of weaponry is this?" he muttered. He flicked a finger against one of the buttons that was on it, and ear-piercing static arose from the speaker built within the device.
Upon hearing this sound, which was foreign and very disturbing to his ears, the beaver shouted out of fright. The lynx jumped slightly at it before tossing the device, still resonating with staticky noise, hard onto the ground. The sound of its front screen cracking could be registered within Judy's ears.
"Darn," the doe mumbled under her breath.
Meanwhile, the sable searched Travis in a similar way. "And what about you?" he snarled. "Do you have one of those things that let out that unsettling noise, too?"
"I'm tellin' ya," Travis told the sable, "I got nothin' t' hide. And that thing you're sayin' is scary is not a bad thing at all. This just a big misunderstanding. That's a promise, from one mustelid to another."
The brown-furred mammal in front of him snickered. "Using remarks like that aren't going to save you and your friends."
"They are not spies," Lord Bogo proclaimed to the village leader. "What they have told you is the pure truth."
"You have just as much of an ability to prove it as they do, and that isn't much," the lynx snarled. "What makes you certain you know the difference of who is innocent or guilty? Are you saying you know more than me, the leader of this village?"
The tall cape buffalo nodded his head. "As a matter of fact," he answered, "I am saying that." There was a moment of silence before he continued onward. "You are speaking before a god. More specifically, a god who descended in an effort to bring an end to the polluting evil that has lingered far too long. And by that, I pertain to mammals like you."
"He's right," Jack said. "However, this is one thing I must do before we continue on our venture."
"And what would that be, rabbit?" the lynx hissed.
A grin coalescing across his muzzle, the jackrabbit answered, "I must channel the energy..."
He suddenly delivered a backwards kick to the guard that was behind, and started to place his primary focus on doing as he said. Once he had channeled the energy within him, the orange ball of light that had formed when he did this previously take shape. He casted towards the nearby beaver guard, who fell flat onto the ground in fear.
The other surrounding guards took notice at what the striped buck had conjured before their eyes, suddenly backing away and preparing to defend themselves. Judging by the looks on their muzzles, it was evident that these guards weren't as fearless as their appearances lead them to be.
Lord Bogo, whose hooves were now free from the grip of the guard that was previously behind him, teleported away from where he stood. He reappeared over where Jack was.
The lynx gritted his teeth in a mixture of frustration towards his guards and confusion at what was occurring in front of him. "What are you all, imbeciles?" he snarled. "Seize this group before they flee!"
Right then and there, despite showing evident amounts of trepidation a moment earlier, the guards got into position to fight the cape buffalo and those with him.
"We're not afraid of you," Jack muttered to them, ready to defend him and the others.
A Few Moments Later...
They ran faster than they ever did before. Even though Lord Bogo had managed to teleport them a good distance away from the group they had defeated, it was smart that they continued to sprint from any potential foes that were possibly lurking in their midst. The buffalo had told them that it was better to be more cautious than not cautious at all, and those words rang true during moments like these.
Jack heard the voice of his brother's apparition call onto him once more. "You must meet him…" it beckoned. The voice was much louder, much clearer than the previous times he heard it. Perhaps that was a sign that they were approaching wherever that squirrel by the name of Donovan was.
The buck knew that they needed to find him and talk to him. He was not, however, sure what the reason was for having to do so. It was only a matter of time, quite likely, that he received the answer to that question.
Jack and the others soon felt themselves tiring down from all of the running, and they felt their pace starting to gradually slow down. Lord Bogo quickly scanned the horizon to ensure that nobody was around to potentially harm them. When he nodded and informed them that the coast was clear, they felt safe enough to pause for a few seconds.
The group could see what appeared to be some sort of steep rock face not too far away from where they were all standing.
The striped jackrabbit squinted his eyes and tried to look at it as best as he could. Something over there had managed to catch his attention. "I'm not quite sure," he said to them, "but I believe I see someone standing near the edge of that cliff over there. It looks like nothing more than a dot within my vision, though."
"Stop him…" his brother's spirit compelled.
Jack turned around to look at the others. "Someone is definitely on top of there. We better go see what is happening."
"I will try and get us there," Lord Bogo said, raising a hoof stiffly into the air and teleporting them all.
They reappeared, thankfully, on the top of the cliff that they needed to travel to. Just like Jack had said, there was a figure standing near the very edge of it. They slowly walked forward to see that it was a squirrel, who they could only assume was the one named Donovan that they had been searching for.
Jack got a little bit closer to him, noticing that the bushy-tailed mammal was actually sobbing bitterly. "Donovan?" he said to him.
The squirrel turned his head, staring back at the buck with eyes that were bloodshot from tears. "Who the hell are you, and how do you know who I am?" he inquired. "I've never made acquaintance with someone of your species before."
"My name is Jack. I was called to find you."
Donovan paused a moment before turning his head away from the lagomorph. "Just go away," he said to him, gazing down from where he stood at the hard ground that awaited him down below. "Leave me be."
Jack quickly realized that he was planning to jump from the cliff. "Don't do that," he pleaded, holding a paw outward.
"Silence!" the squirrel immediately snapped back, getting choked up once again. "I said to go away."
"Please," Jack replied. "We traveled this way because we needed to-"
"I know why you came here," Donovan interrupted. "Just like my neighbors within the village, you must of spotted me and felt concern as soon as I trekked off towards the cliff that I'm now standing near the edge of."
The striped rabbit shook his head. "I am not a native of Outworld, and neither are the mammals that are standing behind me," he informed. "I was beckoned to find you from a spirit, not someone around here."
The hot tears came rushing down the squirrel's face. "I can't take it," he sobbed. "Things have been too grave for too long."
"What is wrong?" Jack asked kindly. "You can tell me."
"You wouldn't understand at all," Donovan said in reply. "Unless you witnessed what I experienced in the past, you wouldn't understand how about it haunts me. Despite being the one"—he wiped the tears from his eyes—"who brought me so much pain, he remains unpunished and actually is a delegate for that tyrant lion."
"Leodore," the buck said under his breath. "He is the reason we crossed from our realm into this one. We all hope to bring an end to the suffering that he has caused since he has been on his throne."
"It is not only Leodore that has scarred my memories," the squirrel muttered back in reply. "He has added greatly to my pain, but he is not the source. It started with a rat by the name of…" He paused for a brief moment, and the leporine to his left could tell that it was hard for him to bring up the mammal he had mentioned. "Armaros…"
"Armaros," Jack repeated under his breath, listening to the squirrel attentively.
"There is a reason," Donovan continued, "that his name actually means 'cursed one.' Something unusual about his appearance was that he had two tails, almost as if he was cursed with that distinction. The things he has done make me wish the worst upon him. He… he killed my family when I was really young."
The jackrabbit was in total shock and wasn't sure what to say to him. To see his brother die in the paws of Leodore was painful to see, so he could not imagine how much more painful it was for him to witness what he had at such an early point in his life.
The squirrel carried on, remembering the details of what happened quite vividly. "Armaros had an army of loyal servants that were willing to do anything he told them to do, even if it went against all morals. He wanted to overtake the nearby villages, so one day, when no one in my village was expecting it, they took things over using brute force. His soldiers stormed the houses that surrounded ours, but Armaros marched directly into ours. My mother quickly told me to hide, and I did what I was told because I always listened to her. I heard Armaros saying he wanted to personally take care of our family himself… And the last thing I remember hearing was my mother screaming for her life before I ran. It turned out that there were other children that managed to flee the village as well. We ended up undergoing a journey to seek shelter from the one who destroyed everything, and eventually we found grown-ups that took us in until we found another safe haven."
It boggled Jack's mind that this terrible, terrible mammal wasn't punished for the things he had done.
Donovan stopped once again to wipe away tears that had reappeared. "I regret to this day not trying to save my mother from that terrible fate," he bled. "But I was so small and so scared, and I didn't know what else to do except run away from danger. And what bothers me the most is that the rat hasn't received retribution for his wrongdoings. Leodore actually celebrated his accomplishments in the past, electing him to serve as a delegate."
"Which is why were here to stop Leodore once and for all," Jack said, "so he can't create suffering for anyone else. I, too, have lost someone because of him. I watched in shock as he took the life of my brother, and I plan to avenge him by defeating the lion."
"Leodore took something of mine as well," said Clawhauser as he stepped forward, and the others followed behind him.
Jack turned around, wondering what he was pertaining to by that. "Benjamin," he said to the cheetah. "What has he taken from you?"
The portly feline replied, "When I was just a cub, my father went off to fight Leodore, only to never return. We were very close, and it hurts me even now to no longer see him."
"I'm… I'm so sorry," Jack responded. "I didn't know that. I don't believe you mentioned this to us before."
The cheetah nodded his head. "I've tried my best to smile through all of the hardships that I have faced, living in my village with hope that someone would come about and bring an end to Leodore's sovereignty."
The lagomorph then looked back Donovan, who was now stepping away from the edge and back towards safety. "Would you join us in our venture to end Leodore's reign?"
"You would let someone like me journey alongside you?" the squirrel asked in reply. "In that case, I will join in this venture, that way I can avenge my family."
"I am glad that you decided to do so," Jack replied. "I assure you that it was the right decision to step away from the edge, for your life has great purpose."
"Everyone living has their reason for being here," Lord Bogo chimed in, "though they might not yet know it."
Just then, a grunt came from Skye, who tugged at her arm as if she were in pain. "Dammit," she uttered as she clenched her teeth.
"What's wrong?" Jack immediately asked. "Is your arm getting worse?"
The vixen let go of her arm, and Jack saw that the mark that she was covering with her other paw was starting to look progressively worse. The claw mark remained dark red against her fur, but patches of black started to appear around where the scratch had been made before. "It feels a bit heavier than before," she said. "But I'll be okay. You don't need to worry about it."
"I have to make sure that it doesn't get any worse than it is right now," the buck said out of concern. "I don't like the way it's spreading, and there isn't a medicinal plant that could help you anywhere around here."
"So what do we do now?" Nick chimed in.
"I think-" Jack started to say, only to find himself being interrupted by a sudden noise.
A deafening rumbling sound booked around them, making everyone stop and shudder for a brief moment. Several seconds later, a thick, bluish-colored beam entered the sky, looking as if it was growing from the ground up. The beam started to become wider and wider, as if it were a tornado that was gradually gaining intensity.
The blue tint eerily filled the darkening skies, and they couldn't help but stare at the current phenomenon in utter shock. This was definitely not a positive sign whatsoever.
"I've seen enough apocalypse movies to know where this is going," Nick muttered in that moment.
"What is the meaning of this?" Clawhauser asked. "Why does the sky look so strange all of a sudden?"
"This is most certainly the work of sorcery," Lord Bogo responded, his hooves clenched into fists.
"Leodore..." Skye growled under her breath.
Donovan, who was now involved in the group's quest, stood there in a state of shock. "This is not good," he said, even though that was quite obvious.
Meanwhile...
Finn and Eva Otterton frolicked giddily around their village home, staying in their mother's sight. The two otter pups continued their pretend adventure, smiles present on their faces that hadn't been visible for quite some time. Now that their father had returned home and was safe, they were the happiest they had been in months.
The two siblings came around the corner, carefully jumping over some flowers that had been planted in the ground and running towards the front door of the house. They paused a moment and looked over at their mother, who smiled back at them from a handmade wooden chair that rested several inches away.
Finn turned around and looked upward, his mouth agape upon seeing what was going on in the firmament above. He froze as he gazed up at the sudden darkening of the skies, completely confused as to what was happening right now. There wasn't any signs of bad weather earlier, so that couldn't have been the reason for this occurrence. This didn't look any kind of storm formation; this was something entirely different.
"Eva, look!" Finn said as he pointed up at the phenomenon.
His sister looked up at the sky and reacted similarly. She couldn't wrap her young mind around what was happening either. "What's wrong with the sky?" she asked, turning her attention back to Finn.
"I don't know, Eva," was her brother's response.
Finn and Eva both came running towards their mother, who got up from the chair and hugged them tightly. She could sense that they were feeling a bit of fear at what was going on. She was experiencing some as well, and she knew very well that this had something to do with the ruler of the realm.
"You'll be okay, children," she told them. "I won't let any danger come near you. We just need to have faith that everything will be fine. Now then, we better head back inside."
The three walked towards the front door together, looking back at the sky once more before stepping into the safety of their home. Finn remembered the buck that had helped bring his father back home safely, and remembered him saying about how he hoped to stop Leodore. He surely hoped that he was able to do what he said he planned to do. But there was nothing he, a young otter pup, could do to end the scary phenomenon in the sky.
All they could do right now was do what Mother told them to do, and that was to have faith for something positive outcome in all of this.