Now that the heroes need to head to the east, where are they going exactly? We'll see in this chapter.
Like usual, I own nothing but my OCs.
Here's chapter 3!
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Chapter 3: Counterpart Village
With the Creator guiding Roselyynn, Thunder and Penelope, they were unaware of the shadow following them as they continued to head east in the direction she guided them. They had been traveling for hours and hours now, though Roselyynn, being fairly impatient about this journey, was beginning to wonder why it was taking so long just to get to a location.
"Creator, just how far is this place from our village?" As she continued to guide them, the Creator remained speechless, only to leave Roselyynn to desire answers. Not that she was going to get any questions answered anyway, but she could at least try to. Yet when Roselyynn repeated her question, she found that she really wasn't going to get any answers.
Fortunately, there weren't many enemies the heroes had to deal with in the forest. At some point, they reached the other end of the forest, after hours and hours of walking. They reached a cliff which overlooked an area where a river stream flowed, and they saw a bridge going across. Following it by the view, they saw another village, which looked opposite in layout to the village they knew, but it also looked oddly more beautiful.
This village was close to a shoreline, like their own village, and they could also see a port. The Creator remained speechless, though somewhat sad (despite not being able to see her, it was interesting how it was noticeable at all) when they saw this village oddly enough, but the heroes moved on upon her request.
Once they got closer and closer to this village, they were getting a better view of the architecture and such. One thing noticeable is how their village had their architecture more focused around a French architectural theme, which was evident in the buildings and other décor in it. The village's personal theme made it seem somewhat similar to the other three villages they knew of with a theme, and it was quite the sight to behold.
However, Thunder wanted to check what the interior of the town looked like in case something had happened, to maybe explain why White Tuxedo attacked their village. Peeking in, it was noticeable that the Raposa of the town were working on repairs of various buildings… Though there was also a feeling of disconnection from this village.
"The Creation Hall. You need to find their creation hall and repair the connection point." The three heroes looked up at maybe where the Creator was, confused as to why she had suddenly made this request. She hadn't mentioned it to them up until now.
"What? What connection point?"
"This village, like the village you know, had been blessed by me, and like your own village, I was close to the citizens here… until White Tuxedo damaged the creation hall- my connection point between the Raposa and me. You need to find Mayor Maelynn and request her permission to repair the hall." The creator's projection of herself suddenly vanished, likely because of a fizzled connection from the Creation Hall. This left Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder to fend for themselves.
Considering the scene seemed safe, the heroes proceeded to walk into the village, trying to find the Creation Hall, but also the Town Hall. Penelope saw how the Raposa there suddenly were in awe, and the hope they thought they lost returned to their eyes. She didn't understand why they looked hopeless until now.
As they knew, the Mayor of the Village, for the most part, had the closest connection with the Creator, and this connection allowed them to be able to lead the village, with hope and guidance. Why it seemed lost from this village in particular was unknown, but they'd soon find out, as while they were walking, Roselyynn noticed the Town Hall.
The reversed layout either made the town seem simpler or more confusing depending on whom you asked, but before they could pass it, Roselyynn stopped them upon seeing it. Upon stopping, a door opened to reveal a female Raposa with blonde hair, holding a checklist.
At first, they didn't know if she was the Mayor or not until a Raposa whom they found and odd resemblance to Jowee approached her. He was the one who allowed them figure this girl was the Mayor. While the Mayor was speaking with this Raposa, the heroes approached her, and the Raposa who looked similar to Jowee poked her.
Most of the villagers seemed hopeful when they saw the heroes. However, it wasn't the same case with the Mayor here. Upon seeing them, they saw how she seemed… disgusted by their presence, but also angry.
"Hmph. The Creation Heroes from the other village." She began, sounding fairly rude. "If you didn't know, it's a little late to save us."
The three had varied reactions of her attitude, but Roselyynn took it the worst, seemingly taken aback, but also frustrated. Penelope decided to look away from the Mayor, pretending she hadn't heard that comment, leaving Thunder to be their spokesperson.
"The Creator requested us to fix the Creation Hall. She said it might help…" The Raposa mayor, Maelynn, proceeded to cut Thunder off.
"Creation Hall? Oh, why does it matter? She always preferred the other village anyway." Maelynn huffed. "If you really care about our village that much, go fix the Creation Hall. I don't care what happens to it now anyway."
She didn't even say goodbye as she walked off to check progress on the repairs of town. The Raposa who had just been speaking with Maelynn sighed.
"Sorry about her. Ever since White Tuxedo attacked and damaged our Creation Hall, Maelynn hasn't been able to get to the Creator. Because of it, she's been assuming that the Creator's abandoned us and is too focused on the other village to the west to care." He explained to the heroes.
Penelope didn't seem as surprised as the other two when it came to this matter. If anything, she seemed to be expecting this, though she was curious as to why Maelynn thought that. "The Creator hasn't abandoned you. She sent us to help you."
"I can see that. Though I don't know why Maelynn assumed why she abandoned us for the western village though…" The heroes proceeded to explain how their village tended to be overly dependent on the Creator, and that they were initially going to leave because of misuse of their roles and dependence. However, when they left their village defenseless in those moments, White Tuxedo attacked and kidnapped the whole village, similarly to Wilfre.
"Wilfre? Isn't he that one Raposa who tried to become a Creator to show the Raposa didn't need to be so dependent? We're fairly independent, but we let the Creator create and draw to help us, though most of this village is what we created without her help." He explained. That whole idea of being a village of independence, but also a village that had loyalty to the Creator seemed unreal.
These Raposa had the Creator help them, but they mostly built their village by themselves. No wonder the village had such a special feel to it! Though… it did too feel sad, especially in its current state.
However, now wasn't the time to worry about that? "Actually, why does the Mayor hate our village, sir?" Thunder asked, though the Raposa they currently spoke to corrected him.
"Call me Rikki," He told Thunder before moving onto the next point of importance. "Anyway, Maelynn noticed how the Creator always seemed to be aiding the other village. She didn't mind it at first, but when White Tuxedo attacked and the Creator didn't come to aid us, she felt that the creator had truly abandoned us for them."
Penelope proceeded to explain how the Creator never mentioned the other village to them, and they were unaware of all the pain and sorrow they were dealing with. Another point she brought up was that there was a chance that the Creator probably didn't mention the other village in their own village's time of sorrow when it was covered by darkness as she likely didn't want it to be a target.
"Considering how independent your village tends to be, I'm guessing that she overlooked your situation and wasn't able to come to your aid in time until it was too late when the connection was broken. Though we need Maelynn's permission to fix the hall."
Rikki blinked at them before motioning the three to follow him. The heroes didn't quite understand, but they soon found out that he was leading them to the Creation Hall the whole time when he stopped. Before them, they saw a beautiful Creation Hall, with bright and beautiful colors that fit with the normal architectural theme of the village. But now, those colors seemed dulled, almost like this place had been abandoned, and the hall also appeared to be the most damaged building in the village. But also showed that nothing had been done to fix it.
Rikki stood in front of the door, which was the least damaged part of the Creation Hall. "This is the Renard Village Creation Hall. I don't know how you're going to fix it, but Maelynn hasn't concerned herself with it ever since the attack." The dark-brown furred Raposa told the three heroes.
Unlike the other two, Penelope had been observing the Hall carefully, trying to find the connection point, and when she did, as Rikki was talking, she brought his speech to a screeching halt when she jumped up in the air, her ears stretching and shooting out like claw shots and gracefully landing on the roof.
Rikki walked over to the heroes, taking Penelope's spot and turning to face where she was. He seemed fairly irritated with her as he said after her, "Hey! I know this place is broken, but you don't need to break it any more!"
Penelope huffed at him, her brown eyes glaring at him. "I didn't intend on doing so. I found what I was looking for."
They didn't seem to understand until Penelope stepped aside to reveal the broken sun emblem, which was split perfectly in half. "This emblem is the connection point." The rabbit heroine explained, only for Roselyynn to object as she shouted at her.
"Are you crazy? It's just a sun sculpture!"
Rolling her eyes at Roselyynn, Penelope used her ears to put the sun emblem back together, and it pulsed a brilliant white radiance.
"It may be, but the Sun likely has a great importance to this village, similarly to the Creator," Penelope began saying to Roselyynn and Thunder, with Rikki as her witnesses, and she continued her explanation.
"The bright, beautiful colors of this village likely reference the sun, and as the sun can be a symbol of the mind and intellect, it can also reflect here, as the Raposa here used their intelligence, but also had help from the Creator, the light of her guidance bringing the Raposa here hope and the courage to continue. That's how I figured it out, as I could sense the Creator's broken presence from this sun symbol."
Something that was noticable was how the three stopped paying attention at the end of Penelope's statement, as a young raposa girl came into the picture, her short lilac hair bouncing a little as she ran over. "Rikki, Rikki! The Creator is back!" She shouted at him, seeming unusually excited. At first, it was hard to tell, but then it was noticable that the Creator had begun helping with fixing the village now, her light shining down on each fixed building.
Maelynn's presence returned out of curiosity when the Creator restored the final building in great need of repair, which was the Creation Hall. The blonde seemed fairly panicked and confused when she approached. She saw the holy light surrounding their Creation Hall. "What's going on, Rikki?" Maelynn worriedly asked him.
He didn't need to reply to her, as the Creation Hall showed the work in progress. The bewilderment on her face was astounding, though the one who had a triumphant smirk happened to be Roselyynn. "See? The Creator didn't ditch you after all. We fixed the connection point."
Roselyynn got smacked across the face for how she was acting though. "You aren't Jowee, rosehead! Don't take the credit for doing absolutely nothing!" Penelope snapped at her. Thunder took Penelope's side, especially considering how pissed he was when Jowee acted like he was the one who found the Promise Conch.
Sure, he had a part in finding it, but Roselyynn and Thunder were the ones who actually had to deal with the hells of the Abyss they had to go through in order to get it. Roselyynn had almost drowned at some point, so the Creator had to quickly arm the heroine with scuba gear from their previous adventure or some… unfortunate things would've happened.
Thunder was probably the only hero who didn't drown underwater, which was pretty fortunate. Especially for the group in general.
Despite some of the dysfunctionalities of the three heroes of the western village that would've likely made them appear improper, Maelynn ignored that. Instead, she showed her sincerest apologizes to the heroes for her poor manners.
Turning to face her, the heroes were at first speechless. But something evident in Maelynn's eyes were the regret she held. The blonde stared down at the ground at first, before shaking her head and straightening herself up, adjusting the green necktie around her neck.
"As Mayor of the Renard Village, I humbly apologize for my poor manners. It was awful of me to have such poor manners towards you three in response to my loss of faith in the Creator and out of my jealousy for the village you originate from."
Maelynn's apology was accepted with no second thought (if Penelope didn't whack Roselyynn again, she'd probably have second thoughts). A genuine smile appeared on the usual frowning face of the Mayor, much to the surprise of Rikki and the lilac-haired raposa girl, and Maelynn sighed in relief, closing her eyes with a moment.
When Maelynn opened her eyes, a wider smile appeared on her face as her eyes twinkled with the revived hope she had previously lost- as bright and beautiful as the rising and setting sun. Her voice sounded much kinder when she spoke again. "Heroes, we of the Renard Village are in your debt. How may we help you?"
The current situation was explained to Maelynn, and shock appeared on her face upon hearing the news. Disbelief replaced the shock then, with her trying to refuse the truth.
"You mean to tell me that he also devastated your village, and captured everyone within it? That's truly wicked of him," Rikki and the other girl nodded in agreement to Maelynn's statement. As she put a hand on her hip, she asked, "Do you know where Tuxedo even put the villagers? Or the Mayor?"
"We don't. In fact, there's another part to the story." Maelynn and the others were curious as to what it happened to be. Though considering the information in particular, it wasn't necessary the best information.
And Thunder was the only one who was willing to tell the truth on the matter, mainly because he probably had more courage than Penelope and Roselyynn when it came to breaking pride. He gulped, and was about to make the confession, though Roselyynn ended up being the one to say it. "We left our village because we were sick of the Raposa being so lazy and over-relying on us! Conveniently after, White Tuxedo attacked and we were too late to stop him."
Moments of silence passed as Roselyynn broke down into tears.
"I can understand that, heroes. In times of prosperity, ignorance and selfishness can only bring despair to those who worked the hardest to create those times. It is only a flaw in us Raposa, and unless you overcome that, it will only lead to sadness and unhappiness. However, opposite times of suffering and sadness can also create the same despair when harmony is broken." Maelynn calmly stated as she walked towards the door of the Renard Village creation hall, opening the doors and motioning for Penelope, Roselyynn and Thunder to follow.
Rikki and the raposa girl were left outside to wait for Maelynn, having a feeling they'd know what was coming next.
Because on normal circumstances, the Mayor would never allow anyone into the Creation Hall unless the situation happened to be that dire.
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Wow. This chapter had absolutely no breaks in it.
And if I tried to put breaks in it, it wouldn't work because it actually would disrupt the chapter.
Though this chapter might've been long and boring, but I apologize for that. We'll just have to see what'll happen next.
Like usual, please review if you'd like, I'd prefer if you didn't flame, and please tell me how I can improve.
I will see you all in the next chapter.
Ciao!