by Aaron Oster
“Mom! Dad!” Hopps yelled, taking off for the village in massive leaps.
A moment later, Arthur snapped out of his stupor and ran after his friend, followed closely by Talia.
“Hopps, wait! We don’t know if whoever did this is still here!”
His friend ignored him, and Arthur had to work hard to catch up to him, leaving Talia far behind.
The two of them barreled into the village, where they began frantically looking for the pair of massive frogs. Fires blazed all around them, sending choking smoke into the air and making it hard to see. Screaming villagers ran around them on all sides, either bleeding, burned, or both.
They came across more than a dozen corpses; their bodies rent beyond recognition. Then they found him. Chuck lay in the center of a destroyed house. His body was covered in so many cuts and burns that the only way he was recognizable was by his massive bulk.
“Dad!” Hopps yelled, his voice cracking as he bounded over to him. “Dad, wake up!”
But Arthur already knew it was too late. The massive Bullfrog was very obviously no longer among the living. The only question was, who could have done this to him? He was at level 25! His level was way above anyone else’s in the area, except for his wife’s.
His wife!
“Hopps! We need to look for your mother!” Arthur yelled.
Hopps, who’d been shaking his father’s corpse, trying to get a response from him, turned to look at Arthur with tear-filled eyes.
“Arthur,” he said in a half-whisper, his voice choked with sadness. “My dad…he’s…”
“Your mother! We have to find your mother!” Arthur said.
He could sympathize with his friend. His father had just been killed, but he couldn’t have him shutting down now. The attackers could still be here, and if they were, the best place to be would be near Flora.
“I’m here, what’s going…” Talia trailed off as she came to a stumbling halt, her eyes widening as they landed on the shredded corpse of the Bullfrog Berserker.
“Hopps’s mother! We need to find her,” Arthur said. “Come on, Hopps! Now!”
He hated to do this, but it was necessary. His friend seemed to snap out of his state of shock then, the idea of finding his mother spurring him into action.
“Right! We need to find Mom,” he said, his eyes hardening, though the pain and sadness were clearly still there.
Arthur nodded, and the three of them began combing through the village, heading to the pond first and picking their way through carefully. They found nothing, not so much as a hint of where Flora might be. It seemed that she just vanished into thin air.
They did spot several Feline footprints, pointing to the culprits of this attack. The questions were mounting now as the three of them crouched behind the house where he’d been staying, the only place they had yet to check.
Hopps was quivering with rage at this point, and it was all they could to do keep him from running after the attackers. They’d found their tracks to be leading out of the village, headed in the direction of the Feline city Raya.
They’d found no trace of any Felines left in the village, but that didn’t mean that any weren’t still hanging around.
Arthur and Talia shared a look, then moved to kick in the door. The three of them entered the room, sweeping their gazes around and looking for anything out of place. Oddly enough, Arthur’s items remained where he’d left them. His only piece of armor hung on the wall, and his Bag of Holding lay on the bed.
The only thing out of place was the scrawl of text across the back wall in red paint. It took Arthur only a second to realize that it wasn’t paint, but blood.
“What does it say?” Talia asked, spotting the bloody writing on the wall.
Arthur walked over, crouching and leaning in close to read the scrawl. It wasn’t neat and had been done in a hurry. Thankfully, it was still eligible enough, and since it hadn’t dried, he knew it couldn’t be too old.
“It says: Betrayed. They know what we’re planning. Watch out for the Raven. Be safe.”
That was it.
Arthur could have screamed in frustration. Why did these last-minute messages always have to be so damned cryptic?
As soon as he stepped away from the wall, he was greeted by a new quest.
Quest Available: Fury and Oppression - I
The village Hopps called home was ransacked and destroyed by the Felines. Who organized the attack and why they did it is still a mystery. Flora Croaksalot has also gone missing and is presumed to have been captured by the Felines. Travel to Raya to unravel this mystery.
Objectives: Travel to Raya and find out who organized the attack
Failure: Fail to find the responsible party
Difficulty: B+
Rewards: 25,000 XP, 50 Gold, 1 Legendary Item
Will you accept?
Yes/No
Arthur immediately accepted the quest. Sure, it was dangerous and would likely end up in their gruesome and untimely deaths. But hey, what was life without a little risk?
“Hopps, we will find the ones responsible for this. They won’t get away with this!”
Hopps was openly bawling by now, and Talia had to hoist the frog up on her back as he refused to budge. Arthur slung his armor over his back, pulling the straps tight, and grabbed his bag before heading out, followed by Talia.
The village was in ruins, the few remaining villagers wandering around with hollow looks in their eyes. There was nothing left for them here. They would have to leave, either to another village or to Raya itself.
Arthur looked back to Talia, who seemed to be holding it together better than Hopps. It couldn’t have been easy on her either. She’d only just gotten home, and they hadn’t found her cousin while searching the village, which probably meant that the poor guy had been taken prisoner once again.
The three of them headed through the destroyed village quickly, trying to blank out all the horror surrounding them. To distract himself, Arthur decided to run the message over in his head and try to piece it out.
The Betrayed part and the Watch out for the Raven bits were pretty easy if he was reading the situation right. The Raven was Sqwak, and he’d clearly ratted them out to the Felines. The only question was, what did they now know?
Chuck had hinted at some sort of a resistance but hadn’t actually told him anything. He had nothing to go on there. The only thing that made no sense was why Sqwak had sent them out into the woods instead of just letting them stay and be butchered, or captured by the Feline raiding party.
Seeing as the Raven was nowhere in sight, they wouldn’t be able to ask. Arthur didn’t even know if they’d be able to take the Raven on, even if they did find him. They didn’t know his level, after all.
“So, what do we do now?” Talia asked, her voice sounding hoarse from smoke inhalation.
They were now standing on the outskirts of the smoking village, a clear trail stretching into the thick foliage. Hopps was still inconsolable on her back, and it broke Arthur’s heart to see his friend so distressed. He could hardly imagine the pain of losing someone like that.
He decided he could give his friend one thing, even if it didn’t bring his father back from the dead. They could still get revenge. Plus, his mother could still be alive. Even if the quest hadn’t straight out told him to go to Raya, he would have just assumed that was where they’d went.
“We’re going after them,” Arthur said, his voice hardening. “We’re going to find the bastards that did this and make them regret the day they were born!”
21
Hopps finally fell silent around six in the evening by Arthur’s estimate, when the trauma and shock finally gave away to exhaustion. Talia had carried the bawling frog the entire way without complaint, her gaze set in a hard expression that promised violence.
He had no idea where they were going, his only sense of direction being that of the footprints they followed. After the first couple of hours, the path had vanished, becomin
g overgrown with vegetation, but the trail left by the raiding party was still quite clear.
Arthur had no idea how many Felines had attacked the village. It could have been ten or a hundred. It really all depended on the levels of those attacking. His mind wandered back to the devastation wreaked on the poor villagers, and his stomach heaved. There had been so much carnage, but he’d been too focused on keeping them all going and not allowing Hopps to dwell. He’d had plenty of time to think while the three of them walked, though.
Hopps’ soft sobbing aside, it was relatively quiet in the rainforest. Oddly so, as there were normally sounds of birds and insects. This told him that they couldn’t be too far behind the Feline raiding party. Animals tended to go quiet when there were predators around.
His eyes flicked back to Hopps, now slumped over Talia’s shoulder and sound asleep. It was hard to believe that the large frog was only two and a half years old. He didn’t know what that was in frog years, but it was still very young for an intelligent creature.
“I think we should stop here for the night,” Arthur finally said, gesturing to a small open spot between a few trees.
It wasn’t large enough to be called a clearing, but it was well hidden and would provide shelter during the night. Talia let out a grunt of agreement and went to set Hopps down near one of the trees.
Arthur slumped to the ground across from his sleeping friend, and Talia, surprisingly, took a seat next to him.
Neither of them said anything. Arthur, because he just didn’t know what to say to someone who’d just lost their home and Talia, because she didn’t much feel like talking. They sat that way until the last rays of sun vanished, plunging the forest into pitch blackness. Arthur had begun to doze off when Talia finally spoke up.
“Arthur, are you awake?”
“Yeah, I’m up,” he replied curiously.
She’d only called him by his name one other time since they’d met. Her tone was also somber, letting him know that it would be better just to listen.
“I don’t know what to do…”
Her voice was quiet, sounding just a foot from his right ear. She sounded lost. He remained quiet, allowing her to say what she needed to.
“It’s just…My entire life, I’ve only had one purpose: protect the village. I never knew my parents, though I did have some family there. I was happy with my life. But now everything’s gone. And I…”
Her voice cracked, and Arthur heard a sob escape her lips. It seemed that now that they weren’t moving, the events of the day were finally catching up with her. Arthur couldn’t understand what she was going through right now. The closest thing he could compare it to would be his being trapped here forever and never seeing his family again.
He didn’t know what had happened to them. Were they even still alive?
“I honestly don’t know what to tell you,” he finally replied. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, patting her gently.
“All I can say is that you still have Hopps, and even though we’ve only just met, you have me, too. I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now. But I’m here…” He trailed off awkwardly, not really sure how to continue.
He felt Talia lean into him, placing her head against his shoulder. It was all he could do not to collapse under her weight, but he held himself up by shifting his body to brace against the tree.
She didn’t say anything, just lay there against him, her body shaking. Soon, she grew still, and her breathing evened out. It had been a very long day, and though it had not been physically exhausting, the mental strain had been enormous. It wasn’t long before Arthur drifted off as well, allowing the void of sleep to claim his troubled mind.
Arthur awoke the next morning to a crushing weight on his chest. He gasped, trying desperately to get in a lungful of air. At first, his mind panicked, thinking he was under attack, but then his eyes focused, and he realized that Talia was lying on top of him. Her body was draped across his, with her stomach pinning him to the ground, while her head rested at an uncomfortable-looking angle against a tree.
She must have fallen onto me at some point, he realized.
He took in a deep breath, trying to fill his lungs with air then attempted to shift the oddly dense girl off himself. He still didn’t have the Strength to do that. Finally, after about five minutes of huffing and pushing, he had to give up.
“Hey, Talia,” he said, poking her shoulder. “You mind getting off me?”
“What?” she asked sleepily, turning to look at him through bleary eyes.
Then she realized where she was, and her cheeks colored slightly.
“Sorry,” she said, quickly sitting up and allowing him to move.
Arthur tried not to gasp in relief, as he knew some girls could be sensitive about their weight, and it was also just rude, but he couldn’t help himself, taking a huge gasp of air she sat up. His face flushed, though it would be less obvious with his red and white patterned skin.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s fine,” Talia said quickly, brushing him off. “I know I’m heavy. It’s an insect thing.”
“Right,” Arthur answered, sitting up as well.
This is so freaking awkward. What the hell am I supposed to say now!?
“Guys, what’s going on? Where are we?”
They both turned, thankful to have someone break the awkward silence, to see Hopps, looking around in confusion. He had a few leaves stuck to one side of his face, and his horizontal slotted eyes were tinged with red from all his crying the previous day.
“We’re in the forest,” Arthur said carefully.
“Oh, I see…”
He and Talia shared a look, then the ant-girl spoke.
“How are you feeling?”
“What do you mean?” Hopps asked, rubbing at his eyes.
He and Talia shared another look before she continued.
“You know. About your…parents?”
Hopps’s face fell then, and a look of profound loss and sadness overtook him for a few seconds. And then it was gone.
“It’s…strange,” he said, looking at the two of them. “I know I should be sad, and I am. But something seems to be, I don’t know… Muting them, somehow. I don’t feel any less sad, and I still want the ones responsible to die horribly, but I also know that my mom is counting on me. I can’t afford to break down now. Does that make any sense?”
Talia nodded as though understanding perfectly, but Arthur wasn’t too sure. Something was definitely off, and either the game world or the one in charge was actively messing with people – animals – ani-humans – whatever!
Might as well think of them all as people from now on, Arthur decided.
He’d experienced something similar back when he’d first entered the Animal Kingdom. He’d killed three people and in a brutal fashion. He’d nearly lost it, but then his panic had leeched away. Did the game block out extreme or crippling emotions?
He could still feel fear, sorrow, pain, and anger, so it clearly wasn’t blocking all negative emotions. Then, there was also the uncontrollable rage that had affected not only him, but Hopps as well, and Talia when they’d first met her. The two had to be connected, but Arthur just didn’t have all the pieces to figure this puzzle out yet.
“Arthur?”
“Huh?” he asked, snapped from his thoughts.
“We were just talking about our plans moving forward,” Talia said, giving him an odd look.
“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something,” he said, turning his attention back to his two companions.
“So?” She raised an eyebrow.
“So, what?” he asked, confused.
“What are we doing?” she asked, sounding a bit exasperated.
“Right. We’re going to continue following the trail,” he said, pointing to where his Perception picked out a couple of cracked branches.
“Yeah, obviously,” Talia said, rolling her eyes. “What I meant to ask
was what are we going to do once we reach the city?”
Arthur shrugged at that, rising and brushing off his pants – they were very ill-fitted for the wilderness and were already tearing. He would need to replace them once they reached Raya.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been there before. Have either of you?”
Hopps shook his head, but Talia reluctantly nodded.
“I visited a few times to buy goods or weapons. We didn’t really have a good smith in the village.”
“Do you know anyone there?”
“Yeah, a few people. Merchants, mostly.”
“Then that’s a start,” Arthur said. “How far is it, by the way?” he asked as they started moving.
“I’d say around four or five days if we really move.”
“Will there be any predators around?”
“Not if there’s a big Feline party moving through. Especially one with someone powerful enough to kill…” She trailed off, shooting Hopps an apologetic look.
The frog’s face fell, and his eyes began watering again. They stopped, and he seemed to calm down. He was by no means his usual cheery self, still somber and subdued, but neither was he the bawling mess he’d been the entire previous day.
No one talked much that day, nor the following day either. They traveled mostly in silence, each caught up in their own thoughts. When they did speak, their conversations were mostly limited to a few clipped words or phrases.
Occasionally, Hopps would start to tear up again, only to stop seconds later. Talia was a bit more composed, seemingly having gotten over the worst of it, which made sense. If she’d been a fighter her entire life, she’d be far more used to death than the much younger Hopps.
He wondered how old Talia was. She appeared to be in her late teens, like him, but one couldn’t really tell in the Animal Kingdom.
Despite Talia’s assurances that there shouldn’t be any fights, they were forced to confront several creatures that were less than friendly over the course of their trip. Both Talia and Hopps seemed almost eager to fight, both jumping in with reckless abandon and fighting with more ferocity than he’d ever seen from either of them.
