In this chapter, the heroes and the three Renard Raposa helping them are going to see what's up in Watersong and see how they can help the Raposa and Mayor Rose. We'll also learn a bit more about the Book of Truth and what it is, and also a bit more about the Gato.
Let's see what happens.
*Last chapter, about the thing with Circi not appearing to be dead afterwards. This is because of the fact that after beating Next Chapter Wii, instead of vanishing from the village, Circi still appears to be present there.
I own nothing but my OCs like usual.
Here's chapter 6.
-o-o-o-o-
Chapter 6: To Jivin' Rooftops
On the Gondola, the heroes rode in, with Roselyynn and Thunder slowly rowed into Watersong, admiring the buildings as they sailed in. When they got to the stairway, they got out of the Gondola and climbed onto the streets of Watersong, wondering about the damages.
And then Roselyynn and Thunder were astonished. Not astonished like "Wow, this place is exactly as it was before. What were we worrying about?"
It wasn't like that at all, nor was it that simple. Now, the damages to the city weren't bad to the point where they were crumbling down. But they were really bad and evident in the outer walls of the city. In fact, it looked like there had been some kind of fighting in the city, but they couldn't tell who was fighting in it.
From what Roselyynn and Thunder remembered and saw, the Watersonians weren't really the type to have weapons of war. So it couldn't have been a battle between the Raposa and the Blackpaw clan (noting that their symbol was etched into the Lighthouse purposely and with force).
So maybe it was with another Gato clan. That seemed possible.
Though that theory was uncertain. Regardless of such, Roselyynn and Thunder had frozen into place, shocked by what they had just seen. Penelope didn't understand why they were acting up like this. She did try to push them out of place, but it wasn't very effective. She noticed how Aurora eventually came looking for them, and upon seeing her, Penelope called her and the Raposa's ears stuck up. She was very quick to run over.
"Whoa! There ya are! What took you so long?" Aurora asked immediately once she stopped in front of them, not needed to take a breath of recovery. Penelope stared at her with an expression of some unamusement but also annoyance and confusion.
"Actually, we've been standing here for a while." replied Penelope to Aurora, and then with a hand on her hip, the rabbit hero pointed at the other two "idiots" behind her, her eyes narrowing a bit as she looked at them. She sighed and flipped one of her ears and then continued what she was going to say. "In fact, these two idiots decided to stand here in astonishment like it was some kind of oh-so 'shocking' thing how this place looked fairly wrecked. I don't know why it's so surprising to them that it appears so, since I've only really been here once."
Roselyynn and Thunder snapped out of it when Penelope insulted them, but they found it weird when she said she had been there once before. Thunder's black eyes met Roselyynn's lilac ones and their gaze stayed for a moment before Roselyynn raised an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes at her. "Wait, what did you just say, Penelope?"
"Hmm? Did I say something odd?" Penelope asked her back, her eyes with a dull glimmer. Roselyynn motioned for Thunder to say something before crossing her arms as she stared down at Penelope and tried to appear intimidating. Thunder had to think about what to do before quickly nodding in reply and saying, "Yeah, you did. About being in Watersong before."
Penelope flipped one of her heads and huffed. "You might've just been hearing things," she dismissed the comment. "And besides that, I'm also pretty sure you weren't listening in the first place since you were staring at buildings." Then, the rabbit turned to face them, now both her hands (or maybe paws but they don't look like either) on her hips and she narrowed her eyes, her ears twitching as she looked up at them. Aurora stared confusedly at them, starting to feel tension in the air, while Roselyynn and Thunder knew where this was going.
She was probably going to start lecturing them on some incompetence they had by her form, noting that they were on hero business now. Penelope usually didn't have the need to lecture them, but she had a reason behind this. "In fact, why were you two spacing off ("Oh no. Here she goes…" Roselyynn sighed, ready to brace what was coming)? I thought you were better than that, considering that you were perfectly capable of going on an adventure without my assistance before this hell wreaked havoc! Honestly, you two, sometimes you're such idiots! I shouldn't have to remind you of how to act, now should I?"
As Penelope went off on Roselyynn and Thunder for being airheaded due to some shock, Maelynn and Rikki were able to catch up with them, as they decided to go speak with some of the Raposa of the town to gain some intel on the current situation. But they didn't really expect to find Penelope nagging Roselyynn and Thunder, while the two just dealt with it. Maelynn frowned, looking at Rikki and then at Aurora.
"…What happened while we were gone?" Aurora looked back at Maelynn and then at the three heroes. She looked around, trying to think of what to say, but came up with nothing, so she simply shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, having no idea.
She spoke at one point, interrupting Rikki while Penelope was still scolding them. "Mom mode happened I think? Or maybe angry mentor mode? No idea."
Maelynn cleared her throat and closed her eyes. "Okay, Penelope. That's enough now. You can stop mom-ing them." She stated, only to find that Penelope was so heated up with it that she wasn't going to stop. Maelynn raised an eyebrow and opened her eyes, sighing when she found that it didn't work.
"Penelope, seriously. You can stop." Nope. It still didn't work. Maelynn frowned, shaking her head at Penelope and starting to get upset. She called her name, but there was no response. She tried a few more times, but that didn't work either. Her face began to get red.
"PENELOPE!" Maelynn yelled, and then there was the sound of a loud crash and a boom and it came from a somewhat close-by area almost immediately after she spoke. The Raposa's ears stuck up and they all looked in the same direction.
The blonde Raposa trembled for a moment. "Did my… did my yelling just cause destruction?"
"This isn't Skyrim for the Creator's sake! It was coincidental, but that can't be good." Penelope spat back before summoning her Slinger and motioning for Roselyynn and Thunder to follow her, instructing Maelynn, Rikki and Aurora to stay there. The other two heroes followed Penelope up to the Jivin' Rooftops area (since that was where the sound went off), going up the stairs, only to find that the entryway had crumbled.
Rikki seemed fairly annoyed that Penelope told them to stay by the area where the Gondola was. "Who does she think we are? Does she think we can't protect ourselves or something?" He asked, quite frustrated before pulling out a weapon that resembled a gear but also a slinger and then heading to the area, with Maelynn following, the Book of Truth at hand.
Aurora scrambled after them too, and when they met up with the heroes again, they found that they were trying to fix the entryway. Maelynn rolled her eyes and then looked at the other two, a smile forming on her face as she showed them the Book of Truth and they knew what to do. She took a deep breath as she approached them.
The heroes saw the Raposa and were somewhat frustrated (well, Thunder stayed calm, but he didn't get why they ignored their orders). Before they could say anything and complained, Maelynn said, "You can't just access the area by moving rubble out of the way. It'll take way longer than necessary. Let me show you how it's done."
Roselyynn and Penelope sighed and then, they and Thunder got out of the way. Maelynn knelt down in front of the rubble, setting the book down and opening it to a certain page, and then she closed her eyes, beginning to pray to the Creator. A flash of an outline appeared, but vanished, and the rubble flashed with the same light as well.
Then, the rubble began to float up, and the outline flashed again. The rubble vanished, and the outline seemed visible now. Then, it appeared that the doorway was damaged, only for it appear that the Creator began to do her work, and the doorway was as good as new many moments later. A smile appeared on Maelynn's face again and she thanked the Creator, standing up and bringing the book up with her. Finally, she closed the Book of Truth, keeping it held at her side.
She turned around to face the Creation Heroes. "And now you can access the area. See? Isn't the Book of Truth helpful?"
Roselyynn shrugged as she and Thunder began following Penelope into the area. "I guess. It wouldn't be as effective as the Book of Life though."
"Ah, but can the Book of Life create templates?" Maelynn questioned back.
"No, it can't," the pinkette replied. "But at times it seems more like an accessory to the Book of Life rather than an actual book? I dunno."
Maelynn groaned at their disrespect, and then she, Rikki and Aurora began to follow them into Jivin' Rooftops, only for the heroes to stop and stare at them. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you guys think you're going?" Thunder asked them, tilting himself to the side to look at the Raposa. Roselyynn and Penelope seemed just as equally confused as he was.
"With you. Knowing how the entry was crumbled, more of the area may be damaged. And also knowing the Blackpaw clan may show their faces, we can't leave you to face them without knowing how to deal with them."
The heroes disagreed. "We can't risk putting you three into danger, especially considering that Maelynn has the Book of Truth with her," Thunder argued. "And plus, it'd be bad if we lost another Mayor and another Book."
Aurora sighed and Rikki seemed even more displeased than before as the Heroes turned around and began to head into Jivin' Rooftops once more. Maelynn was about to make another point only for Rikki to interject. "Stop acting like we CAN'T protect ourselves. I don't know where you got the mentality that we're defenseless, but we're more than capable of protecting ourselves, okay?!"
Roselyynn chuckled and was about to bring up the point of weaponry. And then, there was a ching and Roselyynn was hit in the back, losing a health piece and she and the other two turned around to see the gear on Rikki's slinger-like weapon return to him. Maelynn pulled out a rapier, keeping the Book of Truth in place and Aurora got out a magic wand-like weapon.
The heroes stood aside as their three Raposa companions began to go in, and Maelynn made one last remark. "Just to let you know, I'm not going to lose the Book of the Raposa so easily, nor would anyone really try to steal it unless they knew what it did. Say it's the "New Testament" to the Book of Life, if you would."
Penelope looked at the others somewhat confused. "Did she just say the Book of Truth is like a new testament to the Book of Life? And what did she just call it?" She asked, and the other two shrugged. This was something that had to be looked into.
They followed the three into Jivin Rooftops, not noticing someone watch them from a rooftop looking over the area and with a flash of shadow; they seemed to follow into the area after them.
XxXxX
Jivin' Rooftops
XxXxX
It took the heroes only a brief moment to catch up with Maelynn and the other two Raposa into Jivin' Rooftops, which appeared to be damaged. But the three also seemed to have stopped. "Maelynn!" Penelope called, only for an exclamation mark to appear over her head, and she, Aurora and Rikki looked at her in surprise, approaching them, but cautiously.
"What did you mean about…?" Penelope was whacked on the head by Maelynn with the Book of Truth and she shushed them, and in a harsh whisper, she told them, "Be quiet! There are some Gato ahead. Talk after we figure out what they're saying."
She cocked her head over to the side, and the Raposa hid up against a wall in an alleyway, and motioned for the heroes to do the same. Once they did, Maelynn looked out to see two Gato talking, but they didn't look like they were from the Blackpaw clan. Looking closer, on their capes, she saw a silver paw but with claws above it and there were three of them. Then, there were two curved slashes by the paw that were on opposite sides of it and were curved diagonally.
Maelynn's eyes widened and she hid up against the wall again. "By the looks of it, there are two warring tribes in Watersong at the moment." She answered quite worriedly, keeping her voice down, and her teammates frowned.
"…Did you see a catfight?" Thunder asked, not resisting. Maelynn shook her head quickly, and replied a bit louder, rather flustered, "No, there wasn't a fight! There would be a lot more noise if that were the case!"
"Maelynn, chill! We don't want to let the Gato tribes know we're here," Rikki reminded her, keeping his voice down. "Besides, which tribe was it? Most tribes wouldn't be willing to come to Watersong to hunt down the Blackpaws, unless it was them."
"Yeah, it was them, Rikki. Who else would be willing to come to Watersong?" The Renard Mayor quickly replied in a harsh whisper.
Thunder raised his hand, and Maelynn sighed. "Yes? What is it?" she asked.
"Who are you talking about? I don't understand." He asked in response, putting his hand down.
"The Whiteclaw clan! They're the opposing tribe against the Blackpaws." Then, it went silent. The Raposa had no idea why it went silent, but then Maelynn stuck her head out to see what was going on just in case. A breeze flew through Jivin' Rooftops, and tension in the air began to linger from the silence that resulted. As Maelynn observed the two Whiteclaw gato, who appeared to be on guard and watching for enemies.
Why did the heroes go silent though? Well…
"…The Whiteclaw clan." Penelope suddenly growled, and Maelynn moved her head to look at Penelope, as did Rikki and Aurora, who had started to space out from waiting. Her small brown eyes seemed dull and also irritated for some reason.
"Yeah? What about them?" Aurora asked Penelope, only for the rabbit to repeat the name bitterly, and it was hard to figure out what was going on until she made a certain remark. What was it?
Raising her voice, she asked, "May I please speak with their leader or something? Just HOW BAD are Gato at coming up with names? And why?"
Maelynn quickly looked out at the Whiteclaws to see if they heard, and fortunately, they didn't, but the first Creation Hero wasn't done talking. "What, is their leader's name White Cat or something? If that's the case, I'm ready to go out and slap them."
As the Renard Mayor continued to look out, her blood ran cold when they (as in the Whiteclaws outside that were a fair distance away) looked in the direction from where they were and she quickly whipped around the wall as she began to pale up. She knew they were starting to come in their direction. Rikki noticed this and when it was evident that it wasn't going to be that easy to silence Penelope, he decided to get it done himself.
"Shut-up! They're coming!" He snapped at her in a low voice and Penelope went silent. Roselyynn smirked. "That's what happens when you run your mouth." The tall hero whispered and gears began to turn in Penelope's head.
When the Whiteclaw Gato were closer by, Penelope asked, "Maelynn, do you know if the Gato go in depth when searching for foes?"
She nodded in response, her earrings slightly jingling. "Yeah. Most Gato are like that. Why?"
There was silence for a moment before it was understood where Penelope was getting at. "Oh. OH." Now Maelynn began to freak out, as did the others except for Penelope, who seemed to regret something. As she heard the quiet chatter of her comrades, thoughts came into her head.
"Great. Now look what it's come to," Penelope thought to herself. "Roselyynn and Thunder are definitely going to hate me once they find out some truth about me, but I have no choice."
Penelope took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Familiar shadow began to dance around her, which caught Roselyynn and Thunder's attention, and quietly, they asked, "Penelope? What are you…"
But they were cut off when it began to engulf her, and at first, they thought that Penelope was actually their old foe, Wilfre, in disguise, only to find that wasn't the case. She changed into a shadowy version of herself, and with her voice slightly distorted, she spoke. "It appears that it's come down to this. Whatever you do, don't freak out."
Penelope waved her now shadowy paws back and forth, and medium sized shadowy circles appeared under herself and her comrades. Roselyynn and Thunder were about to question what was going on and what happened with the Penelope they "knew" only for her to pull them down into the shadow circles and she slipped into her own. The shadows blended in with the environment so it didn't appear they were there.
"Don't utter a word, understand? They'll hear us if we do." She explained, and it went silent as the two Whiteclaw Gato approached. One of them appeared to be a female, with short hair tied into pigtails, and another was a guy, who had longer fur that slightly resembled the mane of a lion. They also appeared to be adorned in red robes, with white capes trimmed with red with their emblem on the back.
They looked at each other, and the girl spoke first. "I could've sworn I heard someone talkin' around here, but they must've left?"
"Or maybe they're Blackpaws hidin' from us. The Chieftess would be pissed if we didn't search the area just in case." The male Gato told her back, and the female sighed.
"Kay then. Let's do a quick search before reporting back to Chieftess White Blaze. She'll be mad if we stand around and wait for too long." The female stated before they searched around in the alleyway. They couldn't find anything, despite checking everywhere possible. Upon exiting the alleyway, they nodded to each other before rushing back in the direction they came, and the heroes and the Renard waited a few minutes before Penelope allowed them to re-emerge, and with an inhale, she forced herself to change back to normal before exhaling.
But Roselyynn and Thunder were quick to point their weapons at Penelope, who didn't see what their problem was. Right before an interrogation began, Maelynn let out a big sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness you did that, Penelope! We would've been captured for sure if you hadn't saved our skins."
"Are you CRAZY?! She's a possible threat!" Roselyynn exclaimed, her face reddening.
"Uh-huh! She might be allied with Wilfre if that's the case!" Thunder added, just as freaked out as Roselyynn was. They would've expected the three Renard Raposa to be on their side of the argument. And yet, that simply wasn't the case.
Aurora burst out laughing before saying, "Aw, you're just being paranoid! At the moment, that Wilfre seems to be less of a problem than White Tuxedo and his Gato allies. Plus, being captured by one of the warring Gato clans would be bad too. He seems to be less of a problem at the moment."
Roselyynn narrowed her eyes. "You've gotta be kidding me." She stated as she watched the three Raposa begin to leave the alleyway, and Aurora smiled, motioning for them to follow. Penelope easily escaped from weapon point and followed, and hesitantly, they did the same.
However, as they moved, they did so cautiously.
The figure that had watched them before emerged from the shadows on a rooftop and watched the heroes go by. Shadow flickered in the air above them as they observed in silence. Noting the current situation, they sighed. "For now, I'll keep watching until there seems to be a purpose to actually 'help' my foes."
Before moving along to the next spot to keep an eye on him, he frowned. "Though I'm starting to wonder who the 'antagonist' is now."
The shadowy figure, or rather, Wilfre, the raposa whom the heroes and most of the Raposa from the Raposa Village thought was dead, hid back in the shadows and kept moving, following the heroes in their tracks as they moved ahead.
Though of course, they didn't know what was to occur next. Nobody did really, as it wasn't like they could move through time.
But it couldn't be good, especially if the fighting amongst the Whiteclaws and Blackpaws kept on occurring in Watersong.
So the best that could be done was to move ahead.
Because now, that was what they had to do.
-o-o-o-o-
I had to rewrite this chapter at first since I didn't really agree with it, but I liked how it turned out. I was going to have more depth about the Book of Truth, but I'll dive more into that the next chapter considering the length of this one.
But I've gotten a lot of inspiration for this story lately considering what's to come up ahead.
So, as for the next chapter, we'll learn more about the Book of Truth (as I couldn't cover it like I wanted in this chapter), we'll learn more about the Gato and the enemy at hand and also Wilfre's role in the story.
If you'd like, you may review, though try to refrain from flaming I suppose, and please tell me how I can improve.
That's all I have to say for now.
I will see you all in the next chapter.
Ciao!