Knock knock
"Hello...? Fishy...?"
For several days and several nights, the entire city tried to get Fishy to leave his room. They were all aware he was in there but no one knew what he was doing.
"Do you think we should break-in?" Clara's hand gently slid down the wooden door frame.
"I don't think that'll be possible." The elder grinned. "The entire house is wrapped in a barrier, and a powerful one that none of us would be able to break."
"Hmmm…" Clara took a step back and looked up at the house that emitted no light. No sound. Nothing. If it wasn't for the barrier, you'd assume nothing was in there.
"Ok… Guess we'll leave him be. We'll trust him."
"That makes it sound like you never trusted him originally."
"Shut up granddad." Clara bit back, storming off to go and continue her day.
The sun beamed brightly with butterflies dancing through the air and bees following behind. Everyone worked hard as people stormed the market streets. The economy was booming, or so Clara thought.
"We are seeing an increase in crime, and we have very little money. We are stuck in a heatwave. We have nothing going for us that would increase tourism. Our swimming pool was damaged the other day when Silmor tried to make it bigger and currently needs repairing. Trade has slowed and we are unable to keep people safe. I've manually had to patrol the streets at night just to make sure no crime is being committed. But we've spread out far, it is impossible for me alone to cover the entire city." Ziu read off of a document he prepared earlier.
Clara sat around the others. Tin, Silmor and the Elder all looked at each other., unsure of what actions to take. They didn't want to blame Clara, but it seemed as though none of this would have happened if Fishy was still in control.
One strange rule Fishy created when he was in charge was that all meetings were made public. Anyone in the city could sit in on a meeting, because of this, the pressure only increased.
Clara had an audience. Several villagers watched intensely to see Clara's solution.
All eyes were on her.
"Fishy intended us executives to enforce rules into our own hands. We are considered the strongest people in the city, we will enforce crime ourselves. Before we weren't allowed to use magic, but now we should use it to deter those."
It was a solution that could work, but no matter how much they tried to stop crime, it wouldn't fix their financial situation.
"What about money?" A voice from one of the side benches called.
"Will I be getting paid? Will I be able to feed my kid? We've already seen many bakeries close down!"
"Winter is coming up soon! Will we be able to survive?!"
The crowd didn't wait to get restless. There were too many questions being thrown at the executives, that they could only hope their leader, Clara, would have the right answers.
"I don't—" Clara was interrupted
"What about food? We have no trade?"
"We can—"
"Speak up!"
At every word, Clara got shut down. She was unable to speak, her body shaking and her lips quivering as her pink hair covered her teary eyes.
"F-fishy…" She sobbed.
"Enough of this, I'm leaving."
The crowd stood up in a hurry. They all were about to leave, but Ziu stopped them in their tracks.
SMASH
The hilt of his sword collided against the polished table, indenting its untouched surface.
"Silence!" He screamed, everyone's eyes were on him. "All those who wish to leave can do so. It's no secret that this place has gone downhill, but if you leave now, you'll be missing out on the gold mine we are sitting on."
Ziu smiled, showing a large amount of teeth. Everyone felt the confidence he radiated and sat back down. Clara breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Ziu, but the meeting didn't last long after that. As it had no reason to.
"Thank you, Ziu. But I'm afraid we have no reason to stay here any longer. For now, this meeting is dismissed."
A day passed and the city stayed the same. Trade continued to fall and poverty in the city increased. It was looking to be game over for the city, many people had already left and those that stayed were dying of starvation, all while Fishy stayed in his house, unaware to the outside situation.
Clara continued to walk past at each hour to check on him. To knock on his door to see if he'd suddenly open it, but that was pointless.
"Is this the place!" A triumphant call, followed by a fanfare of horns blasted from the other side of the city, alerting the entire city to the arrival of some unknown guests.
Clara ran over as fast as she could to see what was happening where she met a young man riding high on a white horse, draped in royal purple. A man wearing a golden coat and dyed blonde hair. Someone who could save the city.