Shiro was not there. Even after he respawned with all the rest of his Comrades at the Heart of the Forest, Shiro did not respawn with them.
"Where is he?" Colin wanted to know.
After resting up and recovering from respawn-sickness, he wasn't entirely upset with Shiro, yet he was curious and wanted to know exactly what was going on.
But a call to Shiro only had an impatient "Yip!" in reply, and Colin couldn't sense out Shiro at this range.
Thoroughly puzzled now, Colin called the only person left he could think of who might explain the situation. "Michi?"
"Yes, Colin?" Michi sounded distracted. The Breeder who gave Shiro to Colin always seemed to be busy.
"Shiro's left me."
There was a short silence. Then; "Come again, Colin?"
"Shiro left me." Colin took a deep breath. "We went to the Continent of Eternal Winter, and he met this girl wolfcat, a white one, just like him, and he ran off with her."
Another short silence. "The Continent of Eternal Winter."
"Yeah." Colin winced. "He wasn't upset with me or anything, just… didn't want to be disturbed."
"Colin, were you at that continent tonight?"
"Um… yeah."
Michi half-groaned, then took a deep breath. "Colin, listen, stay off that Continent! It's chaos out there right now."
"I know. I was there when it started. Actually, I might have caused it." Colin winced.
He told her. Katrin needed a Command-type, and he went there with George and everybody kind of… ran into each other. The grenade hit the fan and… boom.
"That must have been quite a battle." Michi mused. "I'm checking the news now… it seems Kishin is out there cleaning out the Frenzieds. Soft Snows is all but destroyed."
"I was afraid of that."
Michi paused. "It does look bad, Colin. Your recent battle has just made a bad situation even worse."
"Worse? You mean things were bad before this?" Colin had to wonder. "What was going on?"
"The White Wraiths have a serious internal conflict." Michi told him. "Shiro's kin are fighting each other."
"The other white wolfcats? Why?!"
"I'm not sure, but it explains why Shiro's gone." Michi said.
"So he's really Abandoned me, then?" Colin said, slowly.
"Abandoned you? No. But he won't be back until it's over." Michi guessed. "It can't last much longer. If his side wins, he'll come back stronger than ever. If he loses, he might be Desolate and would need time and care to recover."
"Lose?" Colin stared. "I can't imagine Shiro ever losing."
"He's back among his own kind, and he's only a youth among whole packs of full grown adults. He has tactical advantages, but tactics aren't always enough."
"Can we do anything to help?"
Michi took a while to think it over. "I don't think so. This is something that must be decided by their kind. Besides, I should think you've got enough trouble already."
Colin sighed. "J-Knights and Gaians. Both sides in that war want me overkilled."
"And the Time of Ascension is at hand." Michi whispered, as if sharing a conspiracy with Colin.
"The what?" Colin asked, blankly.
"Shiro's not the only one who has to fight his own kind." Michi told him. "Come now, Colin, don't be coy. You're not sitting in the Heart of the Forest of Legends by accident."
Colin froze. "I was invited!"
"Of {course} you were invited!" Michi snorted.
"What are you trying to say?!" Colin demanded. "Who am I supposed to fight?"
"That should be obvious soon enough. They can't afford to wait much longer." Michi mused. "Tell me, Colin, has Lynn asked you to do three tasks for her?"
"Yeah. The Three Keys or something. Just answers to questions." Colin thought about it. "So far. Wait. Does this have something to do with 'fighting my own kind'? What does that mean, exactly? I have to fight people? Some sort of tournament?"
"Something like that." Michi said evasively.
Colin groaned. "It's the J-Knight Trial, isn't it? I have to defend myself in Court."
"That too."
Colin rubbed his forehead. "You mean there's even more? Couldn't you just tell me directly?"
"Nah. I'll leave that to those who should be the ones to tell you. Meanwhile, there's someone else who needs my help."
"Who?" Colin asked in spite of himself.
"Katrin." Michi told him. "Edward told me, she's just lost half her Comrades… again."
"Half?!" Colin stared.
He remembered, then. A lot of her Comrades had still been in recovery, or was suffering in the cold. {Being called to fight and then dying under those conditions…}
"I better call her." Colin said, and bade Michi goodbye.
Katrin, though, didn't take his call. Colin tried four times before he gave up and called Edward instead.
"It's bad." Edward said. "She's really upset. Colin, she had twelve when the pair of you went to the Continent of Eternal Winter, and she only came back with six, one of whom Abandoned her the minute after they got back. What happened out there? Couldn't you protect her?"
"Protect her?" Colin stared. "Ed, Katrin was…"
"She's your friend, isn't she? Why didn't you protect her? Where were you?" Edward demanded.
"I was right there! I died before she did!" Colin protested.
"What happened to all your super powers? You destroyed the entire Lamico Continent!"
"That was different! I'm not a Forester any more!" Colin said. "And besides, a battle like that…!"
"Well, whatever you did, she's really upset with you, and she was yelling at her own Comrades just now. That's why one of the Red Panthers went Frenzied right here."
Colin jumped. "Which one?!"
"The one that can shoot fire streams."
Colin closed his eyes. "That would be Cour."
"Well, whatever it was, it terrorized that little Lynxmouse of hers. Poor thing's shaking in the corner right now. Wouldn't surprise me if it went Frenzied next. The other Red Panther's rather put off as well. Only the evolved trio are sticking by her."
"Evolved…?" Colin frowned, remembering what George said, and how the bears and Bubba looked.
"There's some J-Knights here now. They're saying she's got to let go of the Desolates. That means the other Red Panther and the Lynxmouse have to go. Katrin's going to be left with only those three."
Colin sat down slowly. Very, very slowly. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all… it felt like a weight was on his own shoulders, dragging him towards the floor. {Was it my fault? Is Katrin suffering because of my mistakes…?}
But it was she who left him. She wouldn't even talk to him, and he didn't know why. And he did try to protect her, but she went and attacked May…
"You better think it over!" Edward said heatedly. "You better think carefully, now, what you've done!"
"What did I do?!" Colin yelled in frustration.
Edward hung up.
***
Colin had thirty seconds to stare at his watch in shock before someone yelled for help.
"Princess! Princess, we need help!" a girl's voice shouted. "There are Frenzieds on the eastern edge of the Forest!"
"Frenzieds?" Colin got up. "Which Forest?"
"THIS Forest!" the girl was small, and short haired. She looked intelligent, and quick, but even wearing dark leathers, she looked… small.
"This Forest…? Then Hot Springs…!" Colin realized he knew exactly where the Frenzieds came from.
"Where's the Princess? I can't hold them off much longer!" the small girl wailed. "My strongest Comrades are still in recovery, and that Red Panther's been rampaging around unchecked for over half an hour! The J-Knights told everyone to keep away and tried to handle it themselves, but they got stomped…"
"What?!" Colin stared. "Which J-Knights?"
"There was this guy with sunglasses and a curly haired girl, and a few others…"
{Foxtrot and Maggie. If they were the strongest J-Knights around, it's no wonder Cour wiped the floor with them.}
"What about the local Forester? Or one of the Rangers?" Colin asked.
"I {am} one of the Rangers!" she barked. "And the Forest of Legends doesn't {have} a Forester, it's the home of the Princess! Now, where's Lynn? We need serious help!"
"I don't know! She hasn't been here either. What about the Forester of South Sunshine Forest? Or…"
"And what are they going to do? There's no time!"
Colin shook his head and got up. "Fine. I'll handle this."
"You?" the small Ranger girl frowned. "Who are…"
She trailed off. Her eyes widened.
Colin followed her gaze and realized that his Comrades had joined him. Raiki and Sonia stood at either side, Kirin behind him, Eclipse on her back. Anyone working for Lynn in this Forest just had to recognize a Noble Shadow Hawk and a Noble Sonic Wolf when she saw it.
"That's impossible. The only ones who can bond Nobles are…" she trailed off, and her jaw dropped. "{You're} Colin!"
"Uh… yeah." Colin admitted.
"But you're so {short}!" she protested.
Colin spluttered. "You're one to talk! You're even shorter!"
"But… but!" she coughed. "You destroyed Lamico…"
"I had help. I just asked the Lords of the Wilds..." Colin frowned. "Actually, they already wanted to do it."
Raiki, meanwhile, had gotten busy. Eclipse and Sonia were dashing on ahead. Sonia lifted her voice and howled. Eclipse screamed into the open air.
And from the Forest, they were answered.
{They're calling their kin}. Colin realized. {They're both Nobles. They're calling the Shadow Hawks and the Sonic Wolves to help out.}
A huge shadow loomed over the doorway. Colin looked up to see Fenrix standing there, looking at him.
"Sorry." Colin told him. "But we need help. There's a Frenzied at Hot Springs Village…"
Fenrix nodded, and barked commands to his kin as they gathered. Dozens of Sonic Wolves who lived around the Heart of the Forest divided into attack squads. Six wolves formed up behind Sonia, clearly meaning to follow her.
But Sonia stepped forward with a growl, and for a wonder, approached Colin, folding back her ears expectantly.
{She wants me to pet her? Just before a battle?} Colin didn't know what to think, but he stroked her head obligingly. {Maybe it's one of those good-luck things…}
There was a short silence. Then, one of the bigger Noble Sonic Wolves leading a squad whimpered.
Sonia went over to that one and nuzzled him comfortingly.
"We don't have time!" the Ranger girl cut in before Colin could ask about what just happened. "The Frenzied..."
"Go!" Colin said, leaping for the exit.
Eclipse and the Shadow Hawks joined them as they dashed out. Fenrix himself grabbed Colin and gave him a ride. The poor Ranger girl had to run, then leap from tree to tree trying to catch up.
"Can you give her a lift too?" Colin asked Fenrix.
Fenrix growled. {I will aid you, Noble One, but she…?}
Colin sighed. "Kirin?"
Kirin obliged, and Ranger-girl was grateful for the lift.
They saw the smoke long before they saw the Frenzied, and began to hear the battle soon after. Colin and his forces arrived to see a thirty-foot red-eyed, fiery-furred Cour smash the last of Edward's farm Comrades back to their Home. Katrin was on a ridge providing long-range support with some borrowed Comrades; Colin recognized one of Foxtrots flying foxes and a pair of Maggie's plants with her.
He didn't recognize any of the three guys in J-Knight armor getting their Comrades wiped. They kept sending them in and getting them killed; Foxtrot and Maggie were running around trying to stop six new Frenzieds. Colin would have bet that those six were the result of those J-Knights' idiocy.
"This is unbelievable." Colin shook his head. "Fenrix!"
Fenrix Howled and the entire army swarmed forward from the Forest.
At first, this incited mass panic. Colin could hear screams going up from Hot Springs Village as the tourists and spectators panicked thinking the Forester had gone nuts and they were about to face another Lamico case again. But when the fighting actually started and Sonic Wolves were tearing at the largest Frenzied from all sides, the screaming subsided. Eclipse and her kin swooped on the newer Frenzieds, hammering down from above so hard, the Frenzieds probably never knew what hit them. Foxtrot and Maggie pounced and Sealed the fallen Frenzieds before things could get any worse.
Meanwhile, Cour was getting battered. Colin winced when he saw the Frenzied Red Panther. {He was my Comrade, before I gave him to Katrin. Maybe that wasn't the best idea. Katrin's lost Comrades before; they went Frenzied too, though it wasn't entirely her fault…}
{It's not entirely her fault now either. But still… looking at Cour like this, I can't help feeling like I made a mistake giving him to her… giving all my old Comrades to her was something I did for her sake, to help her and all, but I didn't think of what it would do to them.}
{I knew what being Transferred did to Raiki. Even now, she hasn't recovered her Focused trait, although she seems happy enough. But Cour… and the others I gave to Katrin… they don't seem at all happy. Not even those Evolved three.}
"I'm sorry." Colin told Cour, as Fenrix approached like doom itself. Cour flailed, struggling to vent his wrath on anything and everything around. "I know you're just letting off steam. It's been painful for you. And it's not even your fault."
Cour let out a pained cry, and this time it was directed at Colin. It wasn't a complain, or a plea, or a scolding or anything of that sort. It was just a sound of pain, just to let him know how he felt.
"Stop." Colin couldn't go on. "Everybody, just stop."
They froze. Squads of Sonic Wolves, flights of Shadow Hawks, and the big red Frenzied himself all stopped. Nobody moved or said anything for a long moment.
"ATTACK!" Foxtrot let out a strangled cry. "Don't let it recover!"
"NO!" Colin growled, and an entire line of Sonic Wolves stood in between the J-Knights and the mourning Frenzied.
"CHARGE!" Foxtrot yelled again. "NO MERCY!"
Colin turned cold. "Wipe them out."
The Forest Wilds struck as one. Foxtrot, Maggie, and all those idiot J-Knights running with battle-cries were all taken down in a single concerted volley. Somewhere out there, Colin guessed, even more Frenzieds were being unleashed at whatever Home Base those guys had picked, causing even more trouble.
Serves them right. Some people never listen.
"Cour. Stop this." Colin stepped forward, touching the big red Frenzied on the nose where he lay. "You don't have to do this. I know it wasn't your fault."
Cour let out another bawl.
"Are you going to Pardon him?" Ranger-girl asked, eyes wide, still clutching on to Kirin as if for dear life.
"Pardon him?" Colin thought about it. "The only thing he really did wrong was to cause a mess out here. Other than that there's really nothing that needs forgiving. The rest of it wasn't even his fault."
"Does that mean you forgive him?" Ranger-girl stared. "You'll take him as your own?"
"Forgive him?" Colin paused, thinking. "Sure. And he was mine from the start. I'd be happy to have him back."
There was a rushing wind, and a broken fire, and then it felt like a huge weight lifted from the very Dreamworld itself. Cour's form shifted under Colin's hand, and when Colin turned back to him, the thirty-foot Frenzied was gone. All there was left under his palm was the five-foot Red Panther that he'd given to Katrin not long ago.
"The Frenzied has been Pardoned." Ranger-girl gulped.
{I had no idea ex-Foresters could Pardon Frenzieds too.} Colin shook his head. {There's so much about Forester powers that Lynn never told me about. Things nobody even hinted at.}
"Come on, guys. Let's go home."