Buster Moon, current owner of the great Moon Theatre, was in a good mood. After his usual morning routine. He went downstair to greet his oldest assistant, Ms. Crawley.
"Good morning Mr. Moon". Said the old iguana in her familiar raspy voice.
"Good morning, Ms. Crawley, it's a beautiful morning, isn't it?".
"Indeed it is, Mr. Moon, I made you some coffee". Ms. Crawley said, holding out the steaming mug. Mr. Moon was satisfied that she haven't drink it while going up the stair. He pulled a deep swig of the hot drink, then went to his desk and start typing out some emails.
"Thanks, Ms. Crawley, you're my best employee yet".
"You're too kind, Mr. Moon".
Humming a tune to herself, she walked back down the stairs.
It had been almost a year since their successful performance of Out Of This World at Majestic Theatre. The show was a massive hit and tickets were sold out in in the first morning. That was one reason why he was in such a good mood, the other involved the reply from a certain echidna from Australia.
Will Dampbell and his band had agreed to collaborate with them for the upcoming show, Wizards And Beasts. They need to get it up in ten weeks' time and the optimistic koala had planned the show for days.
Now, as he sent replying emails to several businessmen that wanted to sponsor for their show, he thought about how many years ago, he had been a mere six years old, plotting a flight to outer space. His father had always been supportive of him, encouraging his son to achieve his dreams.
Dream big dreams, the old koala had told him.
Buster's eyes got a little misty when he recalled the quote.
"The dreams couldn't possibly get bigger, do they Dad?", he said. Then, he went back to work.
"That'll be 7.50, sir". Said the coffee vendor.
Johnny reached into his pocket and took out the money, he handed them to the dog at the counter and took his order, which consisted of a white cappuccino and a cheesecake.
He was in the mood for some caffeine today, so he had went to the local coffee shop and ordered a small meal. He sipped the drink blissfully and took a bite of the delicious cheesecake.
The radio in the shop was playing some Elton John and Johnny hummed the lyrics quietly to himself as I'm Still Standing, the song he had played on stage years ago, played on the radio.
After finishing his cheesecake, he began to take another sip of the cappuccino when his phone rang.
Curious, he took it out of his pocket and answered it.
"Oh, hello Mr. Moon!". He said.
Rosita was washing the last of dishes that her twenty five piglets had used for breakfast. She finished and slumped onto one of the chair gratefully.
After resting for about five minutes, she began her usual morning farewell to her children before they go to school.
"...goodbye Iggy goodbye Carla Goodbye Caspar".
When the last of the piglets disappeared behind the door, she began trudging.
"I wonder if there will be a time where I won't have to be so overworked". She said, then slapped her own temple with her hand.
"Oh for God's sake but get over it with!", Rosita told herself ,"They're only children. Ten years later or so and they'll be of minding their own things and you won't have to worry about them anymore".
As she sat silently for another minute or so, a flash of inspiration hit her,
She get up and turned on the CD player. She chose a song that was one of her favourites, Bamboleo. It was the song that she had danced to in the supermarket years ago, she now cranked the volumes up to max.
She began tapping her foot to the catchy beat. Then her whole body began moving to the rhythm, then when the chorus came, she was going full dancer mode. Remembering what Gunter had said to her years ago, let the music take control of your body parts, she pushed herself harder to the limit.
As Rosita danced and tapped and shook, she had never felt so happy. Bloods and energies coursed through her legs and arms and body, washing away all the weariness and replacing them with happiness and wonderful energy. As the song hits its final note, she leaped up inti the air and knee-slid the floor of her apartment. Her lips drawn back in a fierce smile.
She was about to do it all over again when her phone rang.
She walked up to it and answered, her voice was curious as she wondered who would call her in this time.
"Is that you, Mr. Moon?".
Across the city, at a large pub, a porcupine was finishing up one of her song.
Ash was performing at one of the location near Lake Bendagon. Her fingers were a blur of movements as they flew over the neck and frets of her guitar, the instrument spitting out the notes of the solo of Metallica's For Whom The Bell Toll.
Animals, drinkers and diners, were singing along to her, many of them head banging and at the least, tapping the foot to the beat. They all had heard of the famous soloist who brought down the house at the show in Moon Theatre and later delighted the crowd at Redshore city in a duet with the famous rockstar, Clay Calloway. The pub had done a roaring trade and many of the customers came here and order beers only to hear the young guitarist sing.
Ash lashed out the last chord on her guitar and the whole room cheered. There's nothing like some good rock n' roll to get a crowd's blood pumping, she thought.
Coins found their ways into her guitar case as the listeners complimented her on her guitar skill, slapping her on the back and thanking her for making their day. The manager of the pub, a large tiger, walked over to her.
"Well, I can't really thank you enough, girl," he said ",thanks to you, my pub had done a roaring trade, and it look like you could done in with some good foods".
"Thanks, sir." She replied, blushing slightly at the compliment. As he called to one of his employees to bring out some vegetables broth for Ash, she sat down on one of the table in the corner of the room, preferably unnoticed.
Not unseen, she thought. But then, sitting there will mean less attentions to her. She prefers to be as unobtrusive as possible.
A waiter brought out her food and she began eating up the broth gratefully. She was hungry and tired and needed just a little rest. After she swallowed her fifth spoon, Ash took out her phone and began chatting to her best friends, Nooshy.
Nooshy was a dancer, and a very good one. She had trained Johnny a less than a year ago at Redshore City, where they had performed the first Out Of This World show. She now lives in an apartment near Dalbion.
"Sup, Ash. How's the performance going?"
"Very well. Wanna go to a McDonald later?"
"Sure"
Ash finished her broth and was thinking of performing another song when her phone rang.
"Hello... Is that you, Buster? What? Ok, i'm coming".
Ash tucked her phone into her pocket and heaved her guitar case up, slinging it over her back. The manager of the pub walked pver to her".
"Leaving already?" He asked, surprised.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Frank, but I need to go to one my boss's meeting".
The tiger nodded his understanding.
"Very well, remember to come back sometime, yeh?".
Ash grinned."Yes sir." She said.
She walked out of the bar, and was about to head for the train station when a small truck came next to her. It came to a stop with a skid and a teenage gorilla's head poked through the window.
"Need a ride?" Johnny asked, grinning.
Porsha Crystal was sleeping in, as usual. Her apartment was quiet except the loud, very unladylike snoring she was doing.
She was dreaming. It was a nightmare about the horrifying night back in Redshore, on the top floor of Crystal Theatre, where her dad, Jimmy Crystal, had attempted to murder Mr. Moon by throw him off the roof.
Porsha had interfered, running in vain to save the koala before it's too late. She threw herself against her father, throwing him of balance and causing him to drop Mr. Moon in the process. He fell, screaming down the dizzying height, and the young female wolf watched in helpless horror as he plummeted to his death.
Suddenly, she saw herself face-to-face with her dad. The dead, insane look in his eyes chilled her bones and froze her like a bird frozen by a snake.
"Porsha..." he roared in fury, then grabbed her by the collar and swung his arm, letting go of her. She screamed as she felt her stomach rushed to her throat as she fell down the never ending drop, toward her death..
The wolf woke, panting. Sweats poured down her face and she could have sworn that her collar was slightly wrinkled. Then she realised what had woken her.
There was a knock on the door, she get of her bed and called to the person standing outside.
"Coming!" She said, her voice slurred with sleep and drowsiness. She hastily changed out of her sleeping clothes and went to open the door.
Standing in the other side was Nooshy. The street dancer was wearing her usual clothes and hoodie and Porsha wondered what she's doing here.
"Hullo, Noosh," she said, grinning tiredly "what brung you here?".
"It's Mr. Moon," the lynx answered "it looks like we've got a meeting".
"A meeting?" Porsha said, intrigued.
"Yea," Nooshy said, shrugging, "dunno what's it's all about. I say we find out when we get there. I think Rosita is getting Meena. Oh, and Clay and Gunter is coming to".
"Must be really important meeting." Porsha muttered to herself. She went inside to get her handbag, then followed Nooshy out.
Mr. Moon studied those who were assembled in the room, then signed. The door flew open and Johnny and Ash came in, slightly flushed from having to run.
"Sprry..Mr. Moon...for..be..being late." Johnny panted.
The koala raised his eyebrow, but he said nothing.
Clay, who was the first to arrive, shook his head in disgust.
"Young people," said the old lion ,"pathetic bunch. Glad I'm not one of them".
"It's ok, Mr. Calloway, they're not that late, but I still say they improve their discipline in the future." Mr. Moon said.
The koala cleared his throat, then addressed the entire room.
"Today, I've told you all to come me here to announce a very happy news."
The whole troupe was now intrigued, wanting to know what this happy news might be,
"As you know, I have planned a new show for the 70th anniversary of Calatonia's entertainment history. The sponsors of this show do set a high standard for all the theatres participating and I believe we're going need to put up our best effort if we want to please the crowd."
There were nods of understanding around the room. Mr. Moon paused, then continued, his excitement growing.
"With our show being fantasy themed, I say we're going to do things differently, with metal-orchestra musics as our base soundtrack".
This earned instant nods of approval from Ash, Johnny, Rosita and Clay. Nooshy and Gunter hesitated before nodding as well. Porsha thought about it for a moment, frowning to herself. But she said nothing.
"With that, we're going to need a good guitarist".
There were protests around the room and Mr. Moon held his hands up to stop the flow of questions.
"I know, I know we've got Ash and Clay," he said, looking apologetically to the two rockers ,"no offence, but you too are simply not enough. This show is a big one and two guitarist'll not provide the necessary amount of...you know..." He said weakly
Ash and Clay nodded their understanding.
"So, i've contacted the students of the Academy Of Music and a well-known rock band from Australia to collaborate with us."
There were outbursts of excitements in the room at the latter.
"Black Eagles?" Asked Ash.
"Acca Dacca?", Nooshy said hopefully.
Johnny scoffed at the lynx.
"Do you think Buster will get such a legend to work with us?" He said.
"Sons Of Stone?" Clay suggested.
"That's the one." Mr. Moon said, smiling at the old lion.
"Sons Of Stones?" Porsha squealed in delight ," you mean the real Sons Of Stones? With Will Dampbell?"