Author's Note: WHAT IS UP MUCKAAAACHUNGAAAAS!? IT'S TRAVEZTY! And Today I'm bringing you guys something that I've been trying to put together for a while and before you guys start asking questions, let me explain myself.
Now for a long time I have made it a point to not do requests for people in writing their stories. The first time I tried it, which was a Berserk story called "Berserk: The Black Wolf", I couldn't bring myself to finish it because, honestly, I was writing somebody else's story, and I hate doing the hard work for anyone at their request. Now, when it comes to the stories I wrote together with Dracoreaper, they are considerably different as, yes I am doing most of the Hard Work, he's pretty much our Lorekeeper for the stories and we work together to set the foundation and I'm let loose to go ham as long as I make sure to constantly check up with him to make sure that everything is kept to our canon, and if there are any clashing ideas, I make the edits before I do any posting. Now we do argue, but we're partners in this matter, and he is the first person I've genuinely worked together with on such big projects.
This story, however, is actually quite different. This story is actually a Gift for a longtime friend and fan of my work who goes by the Pen Name of TheRealD3lp0xL0v3r. He has been one of my most tried and true fans as well as somebody who has stuck with me and helped me through several failed or unfinished projects and giving his unbiased opinions of my work. Hell, if I may be so bold, he was the first person to ever leave a positive review on my stories, especially my very first story, "MHA: Viral Toxin", and he has been not only a very supportive fan, but also a real friend who has helped me through the first rough few years of actually writing on here! So allow me to say this:
Thank you so much Delphox, you're a true friend, and it's high time I give something back to show my appreciation for how long you've stuck with me and supported me!
Now… I have, on more than one occasion, asked him to give me an idea on what kind of story he would like to see, and after my recent flop with my most recent d story, he had one for me: a D Story with the Mascots of Indigo Park as the Heroes and Major Antagonist.
Now if you know me, you know that I don't often get very many D stories done due to how much they take out of me and how hard it is to write large stories and stick with them. Hell, I'm willing to say that Requiem of Ice and Fire and The Terran Dominion are the biggest projects I have ever undertaken and I still intend to work on them, i just need to take a break from Them for a while cuz I'm about to burn out on those stories due to writing myself into corners. So I'm actually going to be taking a different approach with this story than I usually do. One that was inspired by TFS at the Table episode called "The TFS at the Table: Saturday Morning Cartoon Special". It essentially turned the concept of their entire campaign into that of a Saturday Morning Action Cartoon with some whimsical aspects to it. This is what I intend to do, but with a bit of a twist to help me pace myself.
This twist comes in the form of something I had learned today that will really help me pace myself for future stories, at least as far as D is concerned. Today I had actually learned that Short Stories, if they do have chapters in them, are generally between 3-5 Chapters at most, while having a word count of anywhere from 1,000-10,000 Words. Typically, for me, my usually length for a chapter is anywhere from as small as 5,000 to… I think my longest ever written chapter was around 10 Thousand-something words. In any case, this lead me to discovering the concept of Novellas, essentially very short fictional stories that are longer than short stories but shorter than full-length novels, which is anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 words. So to make sure I can pace myself, here is what I am thinking for this series. I will be breaking up each "Episode" of Indigo-Go into 3-5 Chapters, making it so I can get the full length of the individual episode, but try to keep each Episode under the 50,000 Word Limit, if at all possible! However, by breaking it up like this, I can, hopefully, take breaks between them and work on them as more of a side-project than a fully dedicated one, so that I may be able to avoid any burn out, and keep my creative juices flowing.
In any case, this chapter will be the exception as I will be introducing the characters for this story, so it will have one more chapter than the rest. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let us begin today's Chapter of the Prologue of Indigo-Go! Please be sure to Follow, Favorite, Review, and Share this story with anyone and everyone you know who likes Indigo Park and Dungeons & Dragons content! Catch ya on the flipside! NATURAL 20!
Chapter 1: Let's Indigo-Go!
Rambleberry Woods, Indigo Plateau
A Tuft of Indigo fur is seen as a little racoon smiles as he takes his hammer as he is smacking a piece of metal with a smile on his face, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. "Perfect, the gear is ready, now I can get to work!" An indigo colored racoon says, smiling as he puts the large gear on his back, and jumps down a slide in his house, "Weeeee!" He says, smiling as he slides down to the bottom, where he sees a young macaw working on a plane. "Morning, Mollie!"
"Rambley! You seem to be in high spirits!" Mollie says, "I think I overheard you say something about a gear?"
"Yeah, my Secret Project is almost finished!" Rambley says, "As soon as I put this in, I just need to get the power source and I can start traveling!"
"Traveling, you say?" Mollie asks, "That might be interesting if you'll let me go with you! I mean I need to get back home anyway!"
"I did promise I'd help you get back home, and I intend to find a way to keep it!" Rambley says, smiling, "Still I need to finish this project, which will make it easier for us to actually find what we need to get you to space!" Mollie smirks at him, sensing no deceit in his voice. That's one of the few things that everyone in the Rambleberry Wood doesn't know about.
One Year ago:
Rambley was sitting on a branch as he looked at the stars, just wondering what could actually be out there in the wider world… When he sees something in the distance, a glowing yellow light streaks across the sky. 'A falling star!' Rambley thinks as he closes his eyes, 'I wish I could go out into the wider world, to see the sights, and to…" He feels heat now as he realizes the falling star Is flying right at him! "Get out of this alive!" He jumps to a nearby tree only for his claws to miss as he hits a tree branch below him, and the little racoon desperately clings on. 'Thank you mom for teaching me how to climb!' He thinks as he turns to the fireball. "My tree!" he climbs down quickly and finds that his home is ablaze…
However, he notices something at the base of the fireball, and sees there is somebody inside a structure made out of metal, and his eyes widen in shock as he realizes the person is unconscious! Rushing to the container, he finds the glass and takes out a hammer he sees lying nearby. Picking it up, he hits it as hard as he can, finding the glass, despite being… well… glass… It's really sturdy. However, he sees a huge Crack in it and takes another swing, not dealing as much damage but causing the cracks to get worse. However, as he gets ready to swing again, he sees smoke filling the container the lady is in, and he needs to act fast. His next swing deals a significant amount of damage, one more hit will do it! However, the flames slowly pick up and he notices the wind getting stronger too, if he doesn't hurry, the flames will start to spread. With one more strike, he breaks through and grabs the woman, pulling her out as he hears a whistle being blown as the Indigo racoon brings her to the side and allows the Rambleberry Fire Department to take care of putting out the fire. However, that would be when a sharp pain hit him in the head and he would fall unconscious.
The next morning, Rambley would wake up in a very fine bed as a door would open, revealing a raccoon with a Grey coat, "Uncle Rumbler!" Rambley says, shocked. "Wh-where am i?"
"In Rambleberry Manor, Rambley, now relax, you took a bad conk to the head!"
"But the girl I was with!"
"She's fine! The doctors are looking over her injuries now." Rumbler says, in which a male fox walks up behind the man, carefully bringing out a notepad and pen. "Now tell us what happened!"
"Not much to say, uncle, I was just sitting on one of the branches of my tree when what I thought was a falling star started streaking across the sky… Then… As I was making a wish, I realized it was coming at me and I tried to get out of the way! After I got to the ground, I found that bird girl inside of… Whatever it was… and I got her out and as far away from the blaze as I could before I suddenly felt something hit me… Then I woke up here!"
"Interesting…" The Fox says, taking down notes.
"Who is this, uncle?"
"This, nephew, is Detective Traves Fox. He is a rising star in the RPD, and a registered adventurer." Rumbler says.
"A Pleasure to meet you!" Traves says, "Well with what I've gathered, I can safely say that the little lady isn't at fault for causing the fire, rather the one who shot her down is."
"Shot her down?" Rambley asks.
"I can't say much, but after the fire was put out, I found evidence of your new friend having been shot clear out of the sky, or rather perhaps even beyond the sky. What is known is her vehicle was shot down, and she tried to crash into the shores of the lake nearby, but something went wrong and you lost your home as a result." Traves says.
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine, miraculously got away with some bruising and injured wings, but other than that she is fine." Rumbler says. Rambley sighs in relief.
"Until we can find the guilty party responsible, I suggest you keep an eye on her, just in case whoever shot her down, and I directly caused the fire, comes looking for her." Traves says.
"We will, thank you, detective!" Rumbler says.
"Mr. Mayor." Traves says, bowing before walking out.
Back to Present
Rambley smiles at the Macaw as she sets to feeding an adorable little cat-sized creature as he rushes off into the woods, bouncing from tree branch to tree branch to cut some time out of his trek as he makes his way into Rambleberry Plaza, where the citizens of Rambleberry Woods go about their days, with the sound of a band playing from a large building nearby as he can hear the majestic singing voice of one of the singers inside. The town itself is actually one a person from. Outside the Indigo Plateau wouldn't expect for forest dwelling folk, as it looked like a modern town, albeit one made of stone and mortar, with stone roads that made things easier for traveling. The buildings however, were also built with natural fixtures growing out of them, much as trees, bushes, flowers, vines, it was a society that only utilized metal what it needed and didn't take from nature more than that, trying to show respect to the forest while advancing themselves over time, creating a society of green technology and magic. The buildings that were made out of wood were made out of still living trees, using the natural processes influenced by magic to create living buildings that were reinforced to make use of modernized technology without harming it. This was why Rambley wanted to explore the outside world, to better his town by bringing other technologies from the outside world and then adapting them to fit their needs and culture.
Running through the street Rambley finds his way to one of the bakeries that sells pastries. "Ah Rambley! Good morning! What will it be today?"
"One Rambleberry Danish!" Rambley says, smiling.
"Make that two!" A voice says as somebody walks in, in which Rambley turns to see a lion with a blue nose walks in. "Yo!"
"Lloyd!" Rambley says, "You On break?"
"Yeah, my pops just let me take a break, and I have a bit of a sweet tooth to satisfy! Still it's odd to see you here! I thought you and your girlfriend would be back at your tree!" Lloyd says, smirking. Rambley blushes at that.
"Sh-She's not my girlfriend!" Rambley says, his Indigo cheeks turning a shade of wine.
"Not yet, anyway! Although, I have been hearing whispers of you running off into the middle of the woods banging on something metallic! Care to give a friend a hint?"
"Nope! It's actually a surprise for the entire town! Knowing you, you'll spill the beans during one of your performances!"
"Aw come on, man!" Lloyd says.
"Nope! Besides, I intend for you to be at the performance of it's debut if things go right!"
"Are you trying to make an offer?" Lloyd asks, his eyes twinkling a bit.
"Maybe!" Rambley replies, holding his chin as one of his fangs gleams at the tip as he smirks.
"Alright then, I'll hold you to it!" Lloyd says, smirking as the lady brings up the pastries, "Allow me! I owe you one for fixing the stage when it would've cost my parents money to have it fixed!" He places a few coins on the table, Rambley smiling at the lion as he walks away, and then he dashes out into the woods with his pastry in his mouth. A Smile flows across his face as he remembers the first time he actually Met Lloydford the Lion, it had actually been one of the most interesting days in his life.
5 years ago
It had actually been a rather boring day when he was wandering about the town as he found a location carefully being cleared as the druids and priests were giving sacred prayers of gratitude for the Trees as they were preparing to clear out the area in the town. Once the Prayers of Gratitude are finished, the trees are carefully cut down and then, with careful motions, they carefully bring dig up the stumps and began to rearrange them into a set order before placing down the saplings into them and then using magic to allow the older tree's stumps to merge with the younger ones, then, utilizing their magics, the clerics and druids would cause the trees to grow in a specific way to allow for a beautiful building to be carefully formed out of the still living wood. Eventually, once it is finished, the workers then set about painting the building, and carefully creating a sign that reveals the name of the new building: The Mane Stage. It would only be a day later when Rambley would get a look inside, and would find that the entire place was a mix between a Restaurant, a Bar, and a Theatre. The entire place appeared to be high class in style, but, as he would find out with his Uncle Rumbler, it was only designed that way because the family that had actually moved everything they could from their original establishment to Rambleberry.
This would be when Rambley met Lloyd, who was not only a talented musician, but also a charmer who had a knack for discerning what foods would certainly get the taste buds of his customer's rolling. He actually even took suggestions from local favorites and songs, incorporating them. Not only that, his father managed the kitchens and the bar while his mother managed the family's finances. But, more than that, Lloyd was actually quite the entertainer, and could do anything from music, to acting, to even stand-up comedy! Not only that, Lloyd even had big dreams of traveling back out into the wider world to bring new forms of entertainment back to Ramblewood as a show of appreciation for the community that allowed his family to get a fresh start. "So what had caused your family to leave behind your old life?" Rambley had asked after a year.
"Honestly, not something I want to be reminded of…" Lloyd says, "But, after getting to know you, you'll yak my ear off trying to convince me until you get an answer, so I'll tell you, as long as you swear not to bring it up until I do so."
"You have my word!" Rambley says.
"Alright, it's a long story, but I'll just give you the short version. My family was extremely well off back in the big cities outside the Indigo Plateau, namely due to the fact we ran a chain of successful dinner theatres around the Kingdom. We were so successful that we managed to earn our way into lower nobility. Boy were the Nobles mad when they found out the King not only enjoyed our food, but also our entertainment value as we knew what the people liked and gave them a means to escape the monotony of their everyday lives for a few hours whenever they came to our eateries. We treated commoners like kings, and they kept bringing us more money. Add in the fact that my father and the King used to be members of the same adventuring party, as well as best friends, in their younger years and it royally ticked them off how somebody like my father could be so well connected, pun intended." Lloyd says.
"Wow!" Rambley says.
"Unfortunately, that was until the incident happened, and one of our rivals, a man who claimed to be the King of Eateries, challenged my father to a duel in accordance with our dinner theater's style. My father, though unwilling, accepted the challenge, as the man had done so in a way that, in accordance with our dinner theatre's rules, that he couldn't refuse. What's more, the actual king was in attendance, and he was to officiate the duel. The challenger came out fully decked in armor, while my father completely stripped down to his pants, revealing the several dozens of battle scars he had on his body. The duel was easily won, however, as my father was crowned the victor… That's when it happened… The King, as he was proclaiming the victory, had grabbed his throat and many of our medical staff rushed over to him. They were able to save his life by discovering there was poison in his wine, and they were able to detoxify him." Lloyd growls as his claws come out and clenches his fists, "An investigation later revealed that the damn bastard had slipped poison into the King's Drink and had intended to plant evidence of our "treason" and assassination attempt, not only to soil our reputation, but also to allow a usurper to claim the throne."
"Unfortunately for him, my father had all of his medical staff prepared for such an occurrence as he had, in his younger days, been an adventurer and had seen the usages of poisons first hand, and only hired the most well trained of medical experts on his team should injuries happen during the entertainment or an assassination attempt took place in his establishments without his knowledge. Unfortunately, even though we were cleared of the charges, and my father publicly pardoned by the King himself, the shame my father felt drove him to bring us as far away from Pride Rock as possible. The Fact and shame that he had been an unwitting and unwilling pawn in an assassination attempt on his best friend's life was too much for my father to remain in the same city as the King, and thus he closed down our chain of dinner theaters, and we left, looking for a fresh start. I can still remember the king's sorrowful roars as he tried to beg my father to come back…" Rambley couldn't stop himself from crying as he heard the sad tale, but at Rambley's suggestion, he had the first big performance of the Mane Stage Dinner Theatre be that of the building's backstory.
To say that people were moved to the point of tears because the story had been truly astonishing, and had not only secured the people's respect and love of the place, but the food from the outside world, and the service had brought them back. Truly, it was a delight and everyone loved it, and thus the Mane Stage has been a truly successful business for all corners of the Indigo Plateau since.
Back to Present
The Indigo Raccoon, coming out of his vision, smiles as he jumps off a tree branch and does a triple frontflip before landing perfectly onto a rock with a smile on his face. Looking around with a smile as he carries his bag, looks at what is in front of him, something that he had been working on fixing for years, a large mechanical contraption that appears to be an indigo colored train. Smiling as he looks at it, he carefully climbs down the rockface, his claws finding purchase in the stone cracks as he makes his way down, before making his way to the ground and slowly making his way to the machine and looks around it. For the past few months, Rambley has been working carefully on repairing this thing, and he can feel it in his fur that he is getting close to completion as he brings the gear towards one of the parts of the machine, what appears to be an internal generator that seems to provide power. Taking out his tinker tools, he carefully inserts the gear and begins working on the generator's wires, smiling as some sparks start flowing out of the wiring. "Whoa!" Rambley says, looking in shock, but then smiles as the engine seems to come to life, and the train's whistle begins blowing loudly, sending its shriek all over the woods. "IT'S ALIIIIIVE!" Rambley shouts, cackling like a mad scientist.
However, that is when there is a screech as Rambley turns around, knowing that didn't come from the train as something comes out of the woods nearby, snarling in fury. "Uh oh!" Rambley says, shocked as he falls on his backside and scurries backwards. It is a massive boar with two giant tusks that curve in front of its face, being razor sharp, in which Rambley looks in fear as the beast charges at him. "HEY UGLY!" A voice calls out and suddenly there is another screaming sound, but more drawn out as a Rambley looks up and sees somebody descending from above and slamming a kick into the side of the Boar's head. The Boar squeals as it reacts to the sudden attack, in which it reels at this but then turns to see who it was who attacked it… What he sees is a beautiful marbled fox coating of pure white coat that is as white as freshly fallen snow, with a head of hair that is black and silver and a matching ruff, whilst having a large black crucifix shaped mark across his back, and his long bushy tail having a black tip. The Giant Boar squeals angrily as it looks at Investigator Traves Fox, who screams at it again, attempting to intimidate it, bearing his teeth in anger as his fur stands on end. The Boar, looking at the fox, slowly backs away before turning tail and running off. Snorting loudly, Traves turns to the Indigo Raccoon, who looks in awe, "Hey, you okay?" Traves asks.
"Y-Yeah…" Rambley says, "That was… That was so cool!" However Rambley runs over to the fox, who smiles, but then grabs the Raccoon by the ear. "OWOWOWOWOWOW!"
"You are so lucky I was already out here when I heard that gods-awful scream coming from this… Thing!" Traves says, looking at Rambley. "You do know this is boar territory, right!?"
"I-I do now, officer!" Rambley says, "But I swear I had no idea until that thing showed up!" Traves then lets go of the Raccoon's ear, sighing at this.
"Geez…" Traves says, "So what can you tell me about it?"
"Huh? You're interested?"
"Of course, I heard how you're an up and coming Artificer, and, while I might not look it, I do enjoy creating things myself, though my expertise is normally centered around boots." Traves says, "I do that as a bit of a side-hustle!"
"Well then let me introduce you to this piece of wondrous technology that I have called the Indigo-Go!" Rambley says, "From what I can tell from looking into Lloyd's books, this is actually what is known as a Lightning Rail Train, a facsimile of the Eberronian Lightning Rail Trains, only this one, instead of using elemental spirits from the Plane of Air, utilizes a completely clean and infinite form of electrical power called a Violet Compact Power Generator that uses powerful magnetic gears to provide and infinite source of power using Automatic Repulsory Cycling to rotate the gears around copper and silver coils to provide electrical currents to the entire system."
"Huh?"
"Basically by using magnetized gears and having them face the same way as each other and giving them just a bit of motion to get them to start rotating, the system creates an infinite power source without needing to stop. You just have to manually disengage one of the gears and the entire power loop ends because they cannot connect and generate enough electricity to power the entire system!" Rambley says, smiling as he looks at the Fox, who rubs his chin as he thinks about this, "So what do you think?"
"It is… Interesting to say the least, are there any other features of this train?"
"I'm so glad you asked, cuz before I got started, I took a look inside and fixed up the place, and I found things that were just amazing!" Rambley says. He then shows Traves the primary part of the train, the Engine that powers the entire machine. If on were to take this train and compare it to any trains in your world, dear viewers, it would appear to be a 4-4-0 style Steam Locomotives with the classic Old Western Design, with a similar design scheme as the Roy O. Disney Locomotive of the Walt Disney Worlds Railroad, but with varying shades of indigos, blues, and purples. The Locomotive Engine itself also has something very interesting about it, "I discovered that this specific Lightning Train is actually something that was built specifically for battling giant monsters, with each car in the train having a very specific purpose both inside and outside of combat!"
"Oh?" Traves asks, to which Rambley rushes over to a part of the engine and presses a button, which reveals there is a large drill coming out of the front of the locomotive with electricity crackling around it.
"Whoa!" Traves says as he gets in front of the train and looks at it. "Interesting!"
"I know right?" Rambley says, smiling as he bounces excitedly. "This train has so much that can be done with it! And this is just the engine!" He leads him into the next car, which, much to Traves's surprise, thought it looks to only be 10ft wide and 50ft long, it is so much bigger on the inside! "Tada! Welcome to the Passenger Car!" Rambley smiles big, "From what little I could get in terms of research, I've discovered that this place is under the permanent influence of a Magnificent Manor Spell! The spell, however, runs on the energy from the generator, which, after I found it for the first time, I got the information from the servants that are here! So yeah! But this car also, like the Engine, has a secondary purpose!" He then hits a button and the two of them find themselves inside the car in reality, which, shockingly, contains what appears to be a a massive and inoperable machine shaped like an animal's head.
"What is this?"
"As far as I can tell, this is a weapon built into the main body of the car to defend the passengers, I've mostly been focusing on repairing the Locomotive than anything else, so this will take me a while to fix, and a lot of resources." Rambley says, his ears drooping. "The other cars are similar, each being armed with a special weapon whilst having a Magnificent Manor Spell cast upon it that uses the Violet Power Generator to ensure the spell is permanent. It will take me months, if not years, to fix them all up and have them ready to defend the passengers." Rambley says, sighing in defeat. "But, at the very least, I've managed to get the passenger functions back up and running now that I've fixed the generator! Now the only question is how to get it out of here because, as far as I know, this train doesn't have any tracks to run on!"
"Well think about it, you said this Lightning Train is a facsimile to that of the Lightning Rails of Eberron, what did the Eberronian Lightning Rails use?"
"Conductor Stones, which act as the tracks." Rambley says, but then holds his chin, and then rushes back to the engine. "Okay think think think think think…" Rambley says, and then notices a switch, "Aha! This one!" He pulls it and then suddenly the whistle goes off again and suddenly there is the sound of the contraptions in the wheels as they begin to groan as they turn, and push the train forward, and, much to both Rambley and Traves's surprise, train tracks seem to manifest in front of them, and the train begins to make its way forward, only for Rambley to discover there are two levers in front of him, one of them marked with arrows that lead left and right, and the other up and down, and… That is when Rambley realizes that they are going to crash into the trees and he pulls the lever marked with "up or down", pulling it towards him as the train rises up, into the air. Once they clear the forest, Rambley, acting on instinct, pulls the lever back into a neutral position and the machine levels out, the rails flowing out in front of it as they look over the side. "Wow! We're flying!"
"Looks like it!" Traves says, smiling as he looks over the side. "So how are we going to get back down?"
"I think that is easy enough to do!" Rambley says, carefully calculating how to do this and starts descending the train down towards the ground, but configures the switchins in a way they do so in a wide spiral that grants them time to actually calculate how to land. It takes Rambley well over an hour to return the Indigo-Go back to it's original position, especially since the throttle switch has to be thrown back in the opposite direction to back up. Once the Indigo-Go is back in its original place, Rambley is breathing hard with a smile on his face. "Woo! That was fun!"
"I think that was interesting to say the least, though I do believe you will need more practice to get this down right!" Traves says.
"TRAAAAAVEEEEEES!"
"A-Ana?" Traves asks, turning around to see a Tabaxi woman walking over to them, glaring at him.
"Where the hack have you been!? I've been looking for you everywhere!"
"I was just on my usual patrols through the forest then…" Traves says, panicking.
"It's my fault, ma'am!" Rambley says. "I was working on this magnificent machine when a giant boar attacked me. The Detective managed to scare it off and I started to show him around the train when… Yeah…" Rambley says, looking at her as he speaks earnestly and from the heart. "I'm so sorry if I delayed him for whatever date you were going to have."
"D-D-D-D-D-D-Date!?" Ana asks, shocked.
"W-We're not dating!" Traves says, his cheeks turning red with shock.
'Not yet anyway…' Rambley thinks with a smirk.
"So this thing is what you got sucked into viewing?" Ana asks, "Typical of you, Traves, once something catches your interest, you immediately get sucked into investigating it!"
"Hey, it's what makes me a good detective, doesn't it?" Traves asks, smirking at the Kitty, his tail slyly wrapping around hers, causing the cat to give him a look that says "not now, foxy", in which the fox immediately moves his tail away. Rambley can't help but smirk, but then notices a scent in the air as he turns around to look behind him. However, the moment he does so, the scent is gone…
'So they have managed to get that old pile of junk moving huh?' A figure standing in the trees thinks, popping a rambleberry in it's mouth as it looks at the group. 'Well looks like things aren't going to be boring this time around.' A ray of light flows through the foliage and if one looked they can see a jacarta colored tail with a light purple stripe flowing up the center of it, and a glistening bandalere of what appear to be potion vials and flasks along the wearer's chest. A smirk is seen with a glint of teeth, one nearly imperceptible… "Cuz this forest is just too peaceful and quiet…" the creature turns around to see a creature come into view, the Boar from earlier, shift and transform into a monster. "You know what to do, and give me a show, my pet." The creature holds up a vial as the Creature looks at it with desire.
"Yes, master…" the boar monster says as the creature tosses it at him, the creature squealing loudly in pain and exhilaration as the glass shatters and the mist covers him, a maniacal smile on his face.
"And Remember, your objective is to cover that damn cuff, but if you can get rid of those interlopers at the same time, all the better."
"Understood…"