"Nicholas, Judith, I have good faith that there's something up ahead."
The fox and rabbit being spoken to got curious as to what the grizzly bear in front of them was seeing. After trekking through miles of tenebrous greenwoods, to know that something possibly positive was in view brought a smile to both of their faces.
"What is it, Sebastian?" Judith inquired.
The large bear replied, "It looks like a village of some sort."
Nicholas sighed with relief. "Thank the gods," he breathed. "Civilization at last."
The pace of the three adventurers quickened slightly as they all tried to get closer to the settlement that they managed to catch sight of. The woodland trail ended, cutting off into a lane as they followed the path in front of them.
However, much to their dismay, their hopes ended up being shattered like broken pottery. The settlement looked established from the distant forest, but ended up being completely dilapidated when they all got a closer look at it.
Where they were might have been thriving many years ago, but its current condition gave off the impression that it had been long abandoned. What looked like small houses were either without a roof, exposed to the elements, or basically in ruins. Larger buildings, presumably stores that once supplied a community, appeared to be choked with vines that coiled around the exterior of them.
Looking over to the right, Judith noticed a series of signs made out of splintery wood nailed into the ground below them. All of them carried the same message to those passing through, saying things such as "Turn Around" or "Leave While You Can."
If anything, the forsaken village appeared to be just as eerie in condition as the forest that the three just got out of.
The common mammal would have taken in their surroundings and instinctively turned around, obeying the orders placed by the signs. But the three brave mammals were on a quest, and under no circumstances would they ever show fear.
Judith stepped in front Nicholas and Sebastian, slowly making her way onto the grounds of the decrepit settlement. Without warning, the doe heard the approaching noise of someone minaciously chuckling. Judith stopped dead in her tracks, her ears perked up slightly at the sound.
Acting upon instinct, Nicholas pulled out his bow and arrow, and Sebastian pulled out his sword and held it chivalrously above him, anticipating whatever foe might come their direction.
The three slowly moved forward, and the sounds of the sinister laughter greeted them again.
Responding to the source of the noise, Judith remarked, "Show yourself."
Suddenly, a figure appeared from inside a building that looked more intact than the rest surrounding the village. It started to gradually come forward, looking as it it were levitating a few inches off of the ground. Appearing before the three was a white tiger, clothed in what looked like a purplish-blue cloak.
Landing firmly on the ground, the feline grinned and taunted, "Your lives must not be that important for you to have stepped paw here. If I were to be honest with you three, I would have listened to the signs and turned around back. That is, unless death is what you're seeking."
Judith huffed. "If you believe we are afraid, then you are sorely mistaken," she remarked.
"Besides," Nicholas said, chiming in, "There is three of us and only one of you."
"Very well," the tiger replied.
The feline levitated off of the ground once again, and he started to recite what they could only assume was some sort of incantation under his breath. As he neared the end of his spell, his voice got louder and powerful.
A moment of silence came about before the soil beneath their paws began to quake. Several fissures opened within the ground near the white tiger, and a small number of creatures that he had summoned up popped up before them.
"Get those three!" the feline commanded to his newly-formed adversaries.
"The tiger's undead army starts to menacingly approach you," Finnick informed. Turning his head to Nick, he asked, "What do you do?"
"Well, let's see what I can do here…" the vulpine hesitated. Nick looked at the sheet a paper in front of him, deciphering a possible option. He grabbed for one of the few blue-colored dice laying in front of him on the table. "All right, I think it's time to use that special arrow I picked up awhile back," Nick remarked.
Judy watched as her fox picked up the die, eagerly anticipating what number would appear and if he would make the shot.
When the doe kindly accepted offering to join Nick, Finnick, and a good friend of theirs on their next round of Mazes and Mammals, she wasn't exactly sure that she would enjoy it. However, after grasping some of the complex rules of the game and understanding how all of the dice work, she surprisingly found herself enjoying the game.
Finnick sat on the other side of the table, the handbook to the game laying out in front of him. The fennec patiently waited for Nick to roll the die so he could determine what happened next within the story that he had unfolding.
Nick let go of the die in his paw and watched as it rolled onto the table. "Eighteen," the fox said. "And adding my bonus makes that"—he double-checked his paper one more time—"a total of twenty."
"Good roll, Slick," Judy congratulated.
Turning his to the doe beside him, the vulpine joyously remarked, "With that number, Carrots, nothin' can stop us now!"
"I wouldn't get ahead of myself if I were you, Wilde," Finnick interrupted. The fennec fox grinned as he pointed a paw to a certain spot on the page in the handbook. "The shot still missed."
Author's Note: My apologies ahead of time for such a ridiculous story addition here. I know this was pretty silly, but I hope that it was enjoyable nonetheless. This was again inspired by my own geekiness.
Trying to overcome some of my previous writer's block, I ended up typing out a little scene involving Nick and Judy against a different kind of setting, and that eventually evolved into this.
'Til next time! :)