"Well...seems we've attracted new guests. Please forgive those two. My name is Devland..."
The gates to the community opened wider.
"And welcome to Lensvile."
The words ran through Knox and his group's ears as they took in the cut-off world through the gaps.
A place where they could find definite reprise from the struggles.
A place of both humans and mutes.
"Close the gates." Devland ordered suddenly, keeping eye contact with the newcomers.
A slight pang of worry floated through Kara's stomach as the gates closed again.
"You can trust us, Devland! We all just want a-"
"You'll have to earn it." Devland cut off swiftly, giving her a grin. He paced back and forth slowly in front of them, stopping as he seemed to trail his eyes behind them. "If you heard our friend correctly from the squirrel mute...Jessie's her name...this safe haven didn't stay a safe haven by default. Everyone within these walls have proven very well that they're resourceful, hard-working and truly trustworthy."
Devland brought his eyes on Knox in particular, eying the katana strapped around his shoulder. He grinned wider. "How about this. As with any potential guest we take in, I'm giving you this one task for you all to complete as admittance into our lovely community..."
Devland walked up closer and addressed them clearly.
"Bring back three things of importance. Of my choice, of course. And within three days. After that, you are guaranteed full entry into our wonderful abode." Devland declared, gripping his suit tie. "I'd say that's fair task for safety, am I wrong?"
Knox, Kara, Lute and Piercer all looked at each other. They had spent so much time just surviving and moving about just trying to make it to another day...and they were being sent out again. They saw no other choice. The reward in return was simply too great to pass down.
"We agree to those terms...but why are you even making us do this?" Knox questioned."What's the actual point?"
Devland clasped his fingers together. "Glad you asked! You see..." The human gestured an open hand at the community behind him.
"Everyone is the community has succeeded in the task you are soon to attempt to complete. All of the community members here are relatively exceptional at finding things, tracking things, and bargaining things as well..." Devland told them. "And that is how our community thrives. We have much of what we need that will last us a very long time thanks the hard work and usefulness of our associates and neighbors here."
"Can we at least bump it down to two items?" Lute asked out of the blue, putting on a wide smile of desperation.
Devland was unamused.
"It was originally going to be four; one for each of you. But I felt generous today." Devland divulged, pulling out a small notepad from his back pocket. He reached for the pin clipped to his suit and began to jot something down.
"Here."
Knox took the note and read it's contents. Three items were listed.
1. A wooden figure carving.
2. A book of a scientific study.
3. A Pocket watch.
Sighing deeply, Knox brung his eyes up to the human, who was tapping his shoes against the ground. Clearly he was in some kind of rush.
"Alright. And we only have three days to do it..." Knox handed the paper around for the group to read before he folded the piece of paper and put it in his back pocket.
"Three days. Just in case you already forgot." Devland remarked, tucking his pen back in his suit pocket.
"Yeah, we didn't." Piercer shot back rather quietly.
"Please, do be on it. I would hate to clarify that today counts as one of those days."
Devland's words caused everyone's jaws to drop.
"Are you kidding?" Kara said, raising her hands in front of her, palm-up like claws. "Can you give us a break, man?"
"Today counts as a day. Take it or leave it. It shouldn't be a problem if your truly ones worthy of admission here..." Devland turned back towards the community gate, waving for it to be opened once more.
"The clock has already started. Show me that your skill sets are truly of any value to this wonderful place. We'll be counting the days." Devland last stated as he disappeared behind the gate, leaving the group all alone.
Knox and the rest eyed the gates of their sanctuary should they finish their fight for it.
"Okay." Knox began. "It he wants to play it the hard way...let's play it harder."
"Yeah, we got this. Matter of fact," Lute pointed out to the wide array of various buildings and houses a few corners away.
"Let's start with those. This shouldn't be too hard."
Lute struggled to keep his eyes open as he weakly pulled out the last item of the toy chest in front of him.
"How are there no carved figurines in a place like this? C'mon, at least give me a fake one..."
Kara appeared from the room next to his.
"No luck, either." Kara mentioned irritatedly, leaning against the frame of the door. "People here aren't big fans of watches, wood stuff or anything scientific. Shame, really."
Lute got up and moved towards the room's window, catching the sun on it's last glow just above the horizon. It was soon set to disappear.
"Looks like it's time to move on." Lute said, tossing the wooden sphere still in his hand off to the side.
Lute and Kara met up with Knox and Piercer as they left the neighboring building beside theirs. Knox brung a hand down his visibly exhausted face and Piercer's eyes struggled to keep alert. They were clearly devoid of sleep, given they were faced with the possibility that their two friends were deceased, were chased by mute wolves in a rainstorm, nearly bludgeoned to death by Scooter Skunks and denied entry to the only secure place within sight.
All without properly resting.
In other words...
"Almost midnight, everyone. It's going to be extremely hard searching without a reliable source of light...and we definitely need to get sleep before we pass out." Knox told everyone as he eyed the building Kara and Lute left. "Let's rest until early morning. We should be fine then. As soon as the sun hits are eyes, we get back on it. We definitely deserve some shuteye."
With everyone in unarguable agreement, they moved towards the house.
The sun was back in it's full glory above the sky with only the clouds to steal it's reign as they past over every now and then.
Giving up on the neighboring district to Lensvile, the group decided on moving further into the city and hoped to find any more places of noticeable interest. An old library, an antique store...anything.
And still no luck.
So they decided to leave behind the urban cityscape and follow way to a secluded part of the area. The stretch of various houses and were behind them as they came closer to a rundown, but still standing structure. It's faded pink paint still stood the test of time as it's color vibrated in the shining light. The giant logo of the letter 'P' stood center of the building.
Piercer kicked the old empty can across the ground as he followed Knox, Lute and Kara from behind.
"Piercer, you mind watching us on this one? Place looks big but we shouldn't be more than ten." Knox asked the Archerat as the mute got out his dagger, twirling it in between his fingers.
"I got you all covered." Piercer replied as Knox nodded and led Kara and Lute into the old building.
Piercer ran a hand down the back of his head fur as he turned and kicked a rock into the near distance, following it's path down the nearby grassy embankment. After glancing back at the place his group had entered, he traced his eyes down to his personal dagger.
The blade had a brown, wooden grip and a shiny golden cross-guard which separated his hand from the silver blade. Piercer's eyes looked It was the last thing he had to remember his clan by. Given to him personally by his elder, Arrus. He missed his clan. He missed his old friends. He missed his Elder. None of it should have happened.
His grip tightened, a sudden anger overtaking him.
"Those damned Humming Bombers..." Piercer looked for another rock and found one, throwing it over the pink building where his friends resided.
"And Scarlemange..." he mentioned bitterly through gritted teeth as he searched out another rock and threw it across the large rocky hill to his right.
"When I find them...they're gonna pay for what they did..." Piercer growled as he clutched the next rock harder than before, no longer holding back his frustration.
"Argh!" Piercer grunted loudly as he hurled the larger rock over the same rocky hill that walled him from whatever was beyond it.
A few seconds of seething before he heard an audible 'bonk' on the other side.
"RAAUUGH!"
Piercer's fur stood on end, the loud and echoing roar sending him stiff.
The Archerat's pink eyes grew wide in a wordless shock as the white head of a gigantic mega mute poked it's head past the large rock formation, blinking it's eyes tiredly around in a confused frustration.
Then it settled it's sights on him.
The sound of banging sent Knox, Lute and Kara back to the front faster than they already were, finding Piercer banging hysterically on the glass door.
"Was that a roar? The heck is going on?" Kara asked herself as they got to the door.
"No time! Just run, and run fast!" Piercer screamed dashing back down the path they came. "Don't even look back!"
They followed behind the Archerat, but Lute had the unfortunate luck to be the first one to break the desperate bidding. Lute's eyes opened up as wide as they could as he caught eyes on the enormous white-furred Mega-bunny that was just now climbing over the wall of rocky terrain, sending pebbles down as pieces of it began to crumble apart.
Then the Mega-bunny laid eyes directly on them.
An even larger roar was emitted behind the group as they ran as fast as they could, trying to find a quick escape.
"No, down that bridge over there! We can't lead it back into the city!" Kara shouted as she led evenly beside Piercer with Lute not far behind. Knox was last in line to the bridge, the ground shaking underneath them as the stomps came closer and closer. They dared not look back again.
It was only after their approach to the bridge that they noticed the raging water below it.
"We can make it, but we need to be fast!" Kara said, her feet hitting the ground as fast as she could muster. "Pick up the pace everyone! The gap will slow it down when we cross!"
The Mega-bunny roared once more, it's black and beady eyes narrowed at the ones who awoke it. The tremors it's footsteps made against the ground as it neared sent Knox down and sliding against the bridge just as everyone else was half-way.
"Knox!" Lute called out, cringing terrifyingly at the sight of the Megabunny practically on top of them. "Knox, get up!"
Knox fought through the distortion of the trembling and looked up, the sight of a humongous Mega-bunny foot coming down right where he laid.
No time to think for him.
Kara, Lute and Piercer looked on in horror as Knox dove from the bridge and into the raging waters below just as the Megabunny's foot came crashing down on the bridge, directly where he once lay.
The force of the Mega bunny's stomp sent the bridge into a broken mess just as the others cleared it, now safe on the other side. Kara looked on in a stump for what to do as Knox resurfaced from the tough currents of the water stream as it carried him further down.
He realized too late was his desperate move had cost him.
"Knox it's a waterfall, swim out!" Piercer screamed at the top of his lungs to rival the loudness of the ravenous waters.
Knox turned to find himself edging towards a steep drop.
"No, no, no, no, not like this!" Knox yelled out as he tried in vain to swim for terra firma. The current was too strong for him.
Kara's heart felt like it cracked when a scream emitted from Knox as he disappeared behind the waterfall's end.
"Nooo! No, Knox!" Kara called out in a heart-wrenching voice. She ignored the Mega-bunny that was steadying itself from the tumble it made and ran to the edge upon dry land, looking over.
She breathed out the biggest exhale of her life.
A drenched Knox was getting to his feet, having landed on a building jutted out of the waterfall's descending row of water not too far from where he fell.
"Thank god-" Kara was cut off by Knox's quick thinking.
"I'm fine! Our luck is really being tested! But I can find a way to you! You see that radio tower over there? With the truck on top...somehow? We'll meet back up there, just lose the bunny first!" Knox shouted out through cupped hands around his mouth.
Knox awaited a reply and got one.
"You got it! Be careful!"
Another roar as the Mega-bunny finally found it's footing and stepped out of the raging waters, following the group further ad further away. Then all grew much quieter, save for the conscious flow of water that permeated his ears nonstop.
Knox took an extremely cautious peep down from the roof of the building that saved his life. He then immediately regretted the decision.
The human was met with almost three-hundred feet of a death that potentially awaited him. It was making him nauseous, so he pulled himself away from the weird draw of the height he was at. Sighing, he attempted to calm his involuntary shaking as he went to work. Looking up to where he fell, Knox found no vines or further method of getting himself any higher.
He quickly realized that going up was going to be a harder task then going down.
There were a few more structures that were broken off from other old, dilapidated buildings that proceeded further down. And if Knox were to be able to reach them, he would be half-way somewhere with his decent.
"Ah, this is crazy..." Knox muttered to himself as he pulled out the note he received from Devland. It was now drenched. Though somewhat still eligible, Knox went back over in his head the three items they all needed to retrieve that was on it. Just in case.
Knox eyed the window seal on the lower section just below and took in a deep breath. He began to lower himself down upon it, taking no time to over-think what we was about to do. After his foot made contact, he found himself glancing back at the roof of the nearby collapsed building which stood slanted right below.
He was going to have to jump and there was no room or margin for error.
"Okay...I got this." Knox consoled to himself as he found his courage.
And then he pushed himself away from the ledge.
The rush that followed was almost like at Cactus Town.
Knox immediately rolled as his foot met the top of the building he aimed for but the impact was a lot rougher than he expected. The force of his fall sent his roll further towards the edge than he calculated, bringing him into a panic as his form tumbled closer it.
"Aww crap!" Knox yelled as he passed the edge, holding on to the corner of the building with one hand. His suspended form crashed against the side of the collapsed building as he was forced to look down below at the gathering of deep water the waterfall had produced. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. His grip on the side of the building was losing strength and before Knox knew it it, he unwillingly let go, his fingers exhausted of their strength.
Everything was a blurred as Knox flailed about, descending closer towards the large pool of water below.
His life flashed before him. Everything he had ever witnessed seemed to pass through his mind at light-speed.
His youth.
Kara.
Lute.
Piercer.
His father.
Knox felt the force of the frigid waters as he torpedoed feet-first, now emerged in the waters.
Everything soon went hazy and faded to black.
A furred hand gripped the human's wrist, the unknown form grunting as it pulled Knox out of the water. The human's unconscious form was dragged across the soft sea of grass before being let go, leaving him safe on solid ground.
Knox began to blink weakly. His body ached all around.
The human gradually lifted his head just in time to see a form rush hurriedly for the nearby forest of trees.
Although his vision still swam from the death-defying ordeal, Knox's eyes were unmistakable in their assessment.
It was the form of another wolf.