Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Aurora and any alterations to the original storyline plot her presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.
Magic Of The Golden Flower 2 Chapter 6
Aurora really had to fight the smile on her face as she listened to Raka speak to the scavenger and Noa as they were riding together. It warms her heart to hear her dear friend so happy and content.
"…Then, of course, there is the gibbon. Very, very long arms. It is most unfortunate that the human can only use its feet for walking," said Raka.
"Humans only need their feet for walking, Raka, because we don't usually do that much climbing," said Aurora, gently.
"Yes, yes, I know, but imagine if you were falling from a tree. You only have two appendages to save your life. But if you were able to use both of your hands and both of your feet then that's four times the safety," argued Raka, logically. "And I imagine that if I came across a special…"
During this conversation Shadow was a few feet ahead of the party, scouting the way. All of a sudden, the canine goes instantly on the alert, freezing in place with his head lowered and eyes focused ahead.
Noticing this, Noa raises a fisted hand signaling the rest of them to stop and slow down with caution.
Raka immediately falls silent as they push the horses to stand beside Shadow.
Raka and Noa stare in bafflement at what's before them.
"What is that," said Raka.
Aurora may not have ever seen one in person before, but she knows exactly what it is by its features.
"A zebra," said Aurora, smiling.
It's a young mare, grazing in the sunlight.
At Aurora's urgings, they dismount and carefully move closer.
Turns out it is a whole herd of them drinking and grazing at a stream. All of them stare in wonderment as a zebra walks up the embankment passed them without even glancing in their direction.
To prevent Shadow from giving chase after any of them, Aurora keeps an arm wrapped around his neck in restraint with the other hand being used to scratch behind his ear.
"Horses with stripes," observed Raka, slowly. "Quite striking."
But the scavenger isn't looking at the zebra anymore. Her attention is now trained on something else entirely.
From the underbrush around the zebras emerge feral humans covered in dirty, grime, and wearing animal skins of various ages, young and old.
All at once tears start to build in the scavenger's eyes though they have yet to fall. It's obvious that this scene has a profound effect on her and not in a good way.
Moving to stand beside the scavenger, speaking in sad melancholy, Raka said "We feared the herds ceased to exist."
Noa remounts his horse, fully prepared to leave on his own, reaching the conclusion that Raka and Aurora have found a proper place to continue the work they hold so dearly and will not be continuing the journey with him.
Raka and Aurora share a look. The former goes over to speak to Noa to try and convince him to stay with them. Aurora watches Shadow as he mixes in with the feral humans, wagging his tail in a non-threatening manner so as not to frighten them away. They allow him to approach and mingle among them. A couple of the individuals kneel and touch his fur in wonder. More than likely never met any friendly canines out in these woods where predators are all around.
When Raka returns to her side it is without Noa and his prized medallion.
"Well," said Aurora, quietly.
"Noa will not stay with us. He is determined to finish what he started," said Raka, somberly.
Cursing under her breath, Aurora said "Dammit. If he won't stay, then we're going to have to choose how long we can stay here with this group before moving on. We must not lose track of Noa."
"I agree," said Raka, tapping the spot where the medallion previously hung. "Still, I gave him a symbol so he can remember Caesar's words. Who he was. And that it is important.
Nodding approvingly, Aurora sighed "It's a start."
Shadow is lightly barking, happily jumping around some of the feral humans to draw them into a game of chase.
The scavenger remains watching them, blank-faced.
Going over to the girl, Raka said "They are like you. Would you like to join them?"
The scavenger doesn't answer. Instead, she turns, watching Noa ride away on his horse.
The scavenger looks like she very much wants to follow him but is stopped by Raka.
Gently taking the reluctant girl's arm to lead her back over to the feral herd, Raka said "He has his journey. We have ours. Come."
Out of nowhere, a loud horn blares nearby. Then another and another.
All the humans and zebra's freeze. Shadow ceases his game and immediately starts to growl, baring his teeth.
Aurora immediately recognizes it for what it is.
"Shit," whispered Aurora.
The Masks.
They're here.
Authors Note:
How do you think Aurora is going to handle this?
Now that the movie is finally out on digital things should be moving along a lot faster.
For those of you on fanfiction I'm sure you've been facing the many unwanted ads when you're reading a story. Well, yesterday, I finally had enough, and I got an adblocker app. It worked! No more ads on any level! The one I got is Adblock Pro: Safari Ad Blocker. It really works. Just follow the instruction video that it attached to it.
Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.
When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.
Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.
Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.
Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.
I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D
For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.
So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.
I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.
