"Shiro… Raiki… Rall… Warc… we need to break the wall down!" Colin gasped. "Attack the wall!"
"Yip!" Shiro agreed, and sent a Sonic Bolt at it.
The explosion shook the house, but Colin saw quite clearly that the wall was barely even dented. "Everyone! Hit it with all we got!"
They tried. They really did. Rall clawed at it, Warc sprayed it with exploding bubbles, Raiki and Shiro shot sonic bolts at it. But it was too slow; the wall was too strong.
"Yip!" Shiro looked upwards.
"The roof!" Colin realized. "Try the roof!"
"Yip!" Shiro turned to Raiki, then to Warc. "Yip, yip, yip!"
"Mew." Raiki said, sounding tense and angry.
"Wark." Warc replied. She settled down on the water the way ducks did, and gathered one big explosive bubble over her head instead of a stream of small ones.
Shiro swam up to her and formed a sonic bolt on her right. Raiki formed another sonic bolt above Colin's head.
Shiro turned to Colin. "Yiyip…"
Colin drew close to them. "Do it, guys."
Raiki linked her Sonic Bolt to Warc's bubble. Shiro, too.
"WARK!" Warc shouted.
"Yip!"
"Meow!"
They fired a single shot; three Comrades, linking their powers into one strike. Their combined attack blasted into the roof and blew up with enough force to make Colin's face shake.
"W-w-w-wow…" Colin's teeth were chattering after that blast.
Pieces were raining down on them, but a shield of yellow light appeared around them, covering them like an umbrella. Colin glanced to his Comrades and found the yellow light coming from Rall. "Thanks, Rall."
"Yip…" Shiro panted. "Yi…p…"
Shiro sank.
"Shiro!" Colin grabbed the white wolfcat before he could sink any farther. Shiro was panting heavily; Colin remembered Shiro's weak point was stamina. He tired quickly, and he'd been swimming against the current for quite a while now.
But Colin himself was going to sink if he held Shiro up with both hands. The best he could do was hold him up with one hand, use the other to swim and hope he had enough energy to keep them all up long enough for the water to go down.
If it ever went down. It kept going up and up, and very soon, it would reach the roof of the house. Colin not only had to keep himself and his Comrades afloat, he had to make sure they were under the hole when the water hit the roof, or they'd all drown.
And he, too, was getting tired.
"Someone! Help!" Colin shouted. "Anyone out there?! Mayor Henry?! Fanny? Anyone!"
What was it adults did at times like this?!
He could imagine what dad would say. Why did you get yourself into that in the first place?
Mom's answer would be shorter. {Pray, Colin.}
Colin groaned. {Pray?!}
"God, I need a miracle." Colin grunted. Then, he went back to yelling. "Can anyone hear me?!"
He was tired. Very tired. He could barely keep his head above water, much less Shiro. He grabbed on to the broken edge of the roof with his free hand, and almost didn't feel his fingers. His hand was going numb.
{Not good… at this rate, Rall is going to…}
Wait a minute… Rall was… {huh?!}
It was then that he realized that Rall was floating better than he was. He blinked. "Rall? How come you're floating?"
"Rawwrl." Rall didn't know.
Colin narrowed his eyes, looking closely at Rall and what made him float.
Then he realized what it was. "It's not you! It's the backpack! That wood we bought earlier is still in there!"
Five planks of newly cut wood… "Give me that and swim for a while, will you?"
"Rawrl…" Rall grunted, and climbed up to Colin's chest. He grabbed the edge of the open roof and turned around so Colin could get to the backpack. "Rawrl."
"Thanks." Colin said, putting on the backpack.
There! The backpack floated. It worked like a life jacket… sort of. But it carried more than just wood…
He had to empty it. Whatever was left from the loot earlier, he had to throw it all away. Meek wasn't going to be happy, but Colin knew it was the best thing to do.
He even dumped the tuna and the honey. The backpack was much lighter after that, and held him up safely.
The water was high enough to cover the roof now. Colin and his Comrades could see right outside the hole they made in the roof, and found everything outside just as flooded as the house was inside. "Rall! Can you climb out onto the roof?"
He could. Colin put Shiro and Raiki up there with him before climbing out himself, and then at last, he could lay back and take a rest.
"Whew." Colin breathed. He turned towards the mountain where the water was coming from.
Not good. The water was still coming hard and fast, and the pool was now a lake. At this rate, he only had a minute or two before the water covered this roof also.
Colin saw whole rooftops floating past. For a moment, he wished that his rooftop would float past too.
The more he thought of it, the more the idea appealed to him. "Rall… can you cut this roof away from its walls?"
"Rawrl." Rall groaned, but he got up and clawed at the walls. "Rawrrl."
Nope. The walls were as strong as they ever were.
"Never mind." Colin sighed. He took out the five planks of wood and threw away the backpack. The pack was waterproof and kept collecting water. "Take two."
Rall took two planks. Colin took two for himself, putting one under each arm. "Use them like this." He told Rall.
He put Shiro and Raiki on the fifth plank and held it in front of him. "Ready?"
"Rawrl." Rall groaned.
"We're going to the next house. The roof looks shaky enough to float away on." Colin explained.
"Rarl." Rall sighed, and shook himself. "Rawrl."
"Okay. Let's go." Colin said, and launched himself towards the next house.
The current pulled at him. He had to fight it to get there, swimming as hard as he could. The planks helped, a bit. If not for them, Colin would have been unable to keep Raiki and Shiro safe. He was sad when he had to let go one of the planks under his arms to carry Shiro and Raiki safely onto the next roof. Rall had to leave both of his behind to climb on.
Now with two planks, an exhausted Shiro, a non-moving Raiki, a tired Rall and a worried Warc, Colin sat down on the second roof and said, "Rall…"
"Rawrl." Rall replied, and clawed at the wall.
This one broke easily, but instead of floating away like a boat as Colin hoped, the entire roof went crashing down. Colin and his Comrades landed into another flooded house, and the waters closed in over his head as he gasped…
***
{He felt himself sinking…}
{Sinking into a swirl of chaos…}
Low delighted laughter mixed with the sound of low hissing filled his ears. Colin raised his head before he realized he was down on his hands and knees, saw the spectre of two red moons overhead.
{Where am I?} There was nothing but red mists around him, and black fog that writhed and roiled.
The two moons above enlarged, suddenly, shockingly fast. Colin's head snapped up in time to see them vanish for a moment, then regard him like… like…
Those are no moons. Colin gulped, suddenly realizing what he was looking at.
The two huge red eyes narrowed, viewing him with hissing laughter as the darkness around them roiled and took shape. Colin found himself surrounded, and gulped when he figured out what the roiling black shapes were.
{I'm surrounded by its body. Or rather… I'm smack dab in the middle of that creature's grasp. It's like a serpent's coils, or maybe a super-jellyfish… or something.}
He couldn't see it all… but it looked like a forest of giant tentacles out there, and the voice that laughed at him kept hissing like a punctured steam pipe.
"What… where… who…" Colin didn't know what to say, or where to begin.
"Princeling." The hissing doubled, and the eyes loomed over him closer than ever. Colin gulped; each of those looked larger than houses. They covered the sky, and he was fairly certain that neither was within arms reach even if he jumped. "The one called Colin."
{It knows me. It knows my name. That can't be good.} "Um… where am I, exactly?"
Hissing laughter redoubled, doubled and doubled again until the echoes of the hissing made the air shake. Colin shut his ears, would have fallen over if he weren't already down.
But then another sound interfered, and another. Sonic energy met sonic energy and cancelled each other out. Colin turned around to see Shiro and Raiki behind him, both glowing as if lit by spotlights, muzzle and whiskers tilted upwards, throwing out a sonic barrier that covered them like a dome, sheltering Colin from that hissing roar.
More laughter, but sharp and cut off, no longer reveberating to shake his world. The creature that covered the sky scoffed. "Cubs. What miserable protection. The likes of you, having the nerve to challenge me…!"
"He's not the one you should be worried about." A voice cut in from above. Colin raised his eyes along with the creature to see a distant figure of shining white. Humanoid and armored, Colin guessed, either winged, or just shimmering with lots of light, he couldn't be sure. In the red mists, and the roiling blackness, it was hard to see anything. "He shouldn't even be here."
The huge creature didn't bother to reply, though Colin felt sure that statement was one that all of them could agree to. The white light didn't wait for an answer either. Before Colin could so much as yell, the two of them had struck at the same time, and the world was filled with ear-splitting crashing and blinding flashes of lightning.
{I'm going to go deaf and blind…} Colin huddled with Shiro and Raiki, and they put up that barrier again, but it looked pitiful compared to the maelstrom breaking overhead.
One mountain-thick tentacle flailed nearby, threatening to quash Colin just by-the-way. There was another brilliant flicker of light, and Colin felt a hand – a human hand – before he found himself tumbling through red and blue mists endlessly.
***
His watch beeped.
Colin gasped, and found himself floating next to Rall on a stack of planks. "What the…?!"
He was back at the flooded Hot Sands Village.
His watch beeped again. Someone was calling him. "Yeah?"
"Colin!" Rita sounded relieved. "I was so worried! Where are you? Are you all right?"
"Rita! I was about to ask you that! Where are you?"
"I'm still on the mountain. The road down is flooded." Rita answered. "But I'm still dry, at least. What about you?"
"Me?" Colin groaned. "I'm totally wet. We almost drowned because we were trapped in a house and the water filled the whole thing…"
Rita gasped.
"Now we're floating on some planks in the middle of the lake." Colin said, squinting. "The mountain's on my right, and the forest is in front. Behind me, all I see is sand."
"Well, that doesn't tell me much, but you're safe now, right?" Rita asked, worriedly.
"I think so." Colin took a deep breath. "Rita, the whole village is gone. Everything's under water."
"Yeah. I can see that." Rita answered. "I'll call Mayor Henry to fetch you. He can send a boat." Rita offered. "I think I've found you. The planks with the bear and the rainduck?"
"And a cub and kitten." Colin agreed. "How long will Mayor Henry take to get here?"
"Let me call him." Rita replied, and ended the call.
Colin turned to Warc. "Hey, Warc! Can you bring Mayor Henry here? He's on a boat!"
"Wark!" Warc replied, and flew off in one direction.
Mayor Henry arrived quickly, with two other people in a boat. "Colin! Are you all right?! I should never have asked you to get Rita…"
"Never mind." Colin groaned, climbing on board his boat. "Just get me out of here. Rita needs a lift too."
"Sure thing. Hop on."
***
Rita burst out laughing when she saw Colin. "Oh, my! Colin, you look… terrible…"
Colin glanced down at himself and his Comrades. They were all muddy, and drying off had left Shiro's, Raiki's and Rall's fur rather fuzzed up. Even Warc looked dirty. "Rita, we were fighting for our lives back there…"
"You're Dreaming, Colin." Rita reminded him. "If you died, you'd just end up back at your Starting Location."
"And lose lots of stuff, wouldn't I?" Colin pointed out.
"What else do you have to lose?" Rita asked. "Your backpack's already gone."
It was true. All his items and equipment in it had been thrown away. All he really had left was his visor and money.
"My Comrades survived, at least. They'll be upset if they die, won't they?"
"They will be." Rita agreed. "But they're not going to be upset forever. One night perhaps, or two. It's not the same as what Raiki is going through now."
"Well, I wouldn't want Raiki to die after everything she's already gone through. Her or any of the others." Colin said. "I don't want to die either."
"Nobody does." Rita agreed.
Colin turned to Mayor Henry. "What about May?"
Mayor Henry's face turned gray.
"What happened to May?" Rita asked, frowning.
Colin told her as the boat headed for dry land. There was a crowd of people there pitching tents, but there were far less people than Colin expected.
{Another kid gets kidnapped…? Why?!}
"Lots of people seemed to have gone away." Rita noticed it too. "They must have decided to go Travel or find another place to live."
"I think everyone will have to do that." Mayor Henry said. "We don't have anything left here to stay for."
"I thought you lived here for the water, the sand, the forest, and the mountain all together." Rita nudged him. "They're all still here… there's just a lot more water."
"We'll have to build everything again…" Mayor Henry sighed. "And we'll need to take a boat to get to the mountain now."
"So? That's a job for Pepper Tourism, isn't it?" Rita asked.
"It is!" Fanny stepped up. "We'll have ferrying services up and running by the end of the week! For a fee, of course."
"Fanny…" Mayor Henry shook his head. "We're not going to rebuild."
"We're not?!" Fanny stared. "Why?"
"Because Scarlet wants the village destroyed." Mayor Henry reminded her. "And she's already taken May. If we rebuild, she might just come back and do it all over again."
"How?" Fanny asked flatly. "The dam's already broken. This is as big as the lake is ever going to get. Already, there's a new stream running into the Forest of Legends. The Forest Princess is not going to be happy about it, but it'll be up to her to deal with the problem."
"She can just blow it up." Mayor Henry suggested.
"She didn't manage it before." Fanny pointed out. "All of us together could have hunted her down and defeated her, if the dam hadn't broken when it did. Besides, now that she's an official threat, we can ask the knights for help."
"Knights?" Colin blinked.
Rita poked him. "Ask later. Let them talk."
Colin sighed. "Well, whatever it is, I think we're done here."
"We are?" Rita blinked. "What about May?"
"We'll have to leave that to Mayor Henry and the rest. You and I are no match for the Lady Scarlet." Colin pointed out.
"Well…" Rita paused. "What about Satrox?"
Colin froze. Slowly, he turned back to the lake.
"Uhoh." He said. "Satrox…"
A few bubbles rising to the surface was all they could see of the shop that Satrox had had on the north side.
Meek…
"Satrox is fine." Fanny told Colin. "We got him out in time. He's got a tent over there."
Relieved, Colin headed towards the blue tent that Fanny pointed to. Rita kept up with him, saying nothing, which was rather rare for her.
"Satrox!" Colin called as they neared the tent.
Satrox, blue hair, blue eyes, and wearing a blue shirt, poked his head out of his tent and waved. "Ron! Don't worry! I completed the project before the water started coming in!"
"I'm not Ron!" Colin told him. "There's been a mistake! Ron cancelled!"
"Ah. I {thought} your Lynxmouse seemed too easy to handle." Satrox mused. "Ron did say that his mouse was extremely bad tempered."
"Where's Meek?" Colin asked. "And what have you done with her?"
"Well…" Satrox scratched his head. "Let me bring her."
***
Meek looked exactly the same as she did when Satrox snatched her away by mistake. She just looked happy to see Colin again. "Mik!"
"She looks well." Colin said, checking just to make sure that Satrox hadn't turned her into a half-robot or something.
"So… what {did} you do to her?" Rita asked. "What is this project about?"
"Well…" Satrox said. "Ron wanted a new Lynxmouse, something nicer and stronger than his current Lynxmouse, but he wanted it to have some traits from his current mouse too. The best way to do it…" he trailed off.
Rita's eyes went wide. She turned to Meek slowly.
"What?" Colin asked. "What did he do to Meek?"
"Well… I don't think it was {him} exactly, who did it…" Rita paused. "Um…"
"Nothing unnatural." Satrox told Colin. "I just gave your Lynxmouse a special playmate to spend some special time with in very cosy place."
"Huh?" Colin blinked.
Rita sighed. "Colin, do you know what 'Breeding' means?"
Colin stared at her, then turned to Meek, then turned back to Satrox. "Uh…"
"Meek's pregnant. Her cubs have a strong father, so I think they'll be stronger than their mother." Satrox told Colin.
"Cubs…" Colin put a hand to his head. "How many?"
"Five? Ten? Fifteen?" Satrox shrugged. "Who knows?"
"How soon?" Colin asked.
"A week or so." Satrox answered.
"Oh boy…" Colin rubbed his forehead. "A whole bunch of Lynxmouse cubs…"
"Most people sell them." Satrox said. "Their father's a Desert Lynxmouse. If they turn out to be Desert Lynxmice, people might buy them for a 100 Clira each. If they turn out like their mother, Common Lynxmice, well, they'll still be stronger than Wilds, so you can probably sell at 40, maybe even 50. Otherwise, there's always the Comrade Homes."
Colin sighed.
Rita gave Satrox a narrow look. "And just how much is this project going to cost Colin?"
"Well…" Satrox paused. "Ron did agree to 1000cr."
"A thousand?!" Colin choked. "I can't afford that!"
"I can." Rita said. "It comes from the sale of the watch you gave me."
Colin shook his head. "That watch was yours. I'll pay you back when I can."
"Whatever." Rita shrugged. She gave Satrox the money and said, "Now, what?"
"Well… there was one more reason we came all the way out here." Colin turned to Satrox. "Have you heard of a boy named Henry? He's a friend of ours. He wears glasses, and has a pair of Lynxmice."
"Henry?" Satrox blinked. "A friend of yours?
"How do you know my brother?"