XI. HEAVEN'S GREEN LAKE
"Why are you glowing in moisture? Tried to clean off some oil with water but failed miserably?" A curious voice from the gallery questioned.
Maryl is atop a box containing the village's delicacies. His dirt and grime rubbing off on the food is payed no mind as he's captured the attention of everyone with his tall tale. "Bright eyed animals sustaining this content kingdom, I have washed ashore from the home of the Twin-Tailed deity! As you can see by the majestic glow of my fur, I have bathed in the holy fountain where it resides! Water so full of life it's as if it's no separate than the nature of the forest itself. Curious that it's hidden deep in the depths of darkness, but at the end of the void, lies a beam shining through from the heavens!"
Offycer Wyggler lifted up his fruit tart from his mouth and threw it in disgust at Maryl. "Why would I believe a rat? What have you ever done for me to believe any word coming from your disease ridden mouth? Where's your badge for cleaning this village of its pests?" He pointed to his Wynter Force badge with a smirk. "Hmph. If anything, I should put you behind bars for misleading the force on a wild goose chase!" He spit out the rest of his tart because of the bad taste being left by Maryl.
"Offycer Wyggler. I know we have bad blood. My accusation on your wife was not done to cause strife, but to clean up sins of the Force. How could our village ever be clean if the ones in charge of removing the garbage have sullied hands?" Before Maryl could get another word in, Wyggler began charging in like a rhino.
Wyggler rammed through the food box with shards making its way to his skin. "I know as a fact you're only here to cause doubt and misguide us. I will find the proof I need, but I know you're only doing this to get a kick out of us! You're dead meat, rat. Dead meat!" His blood made its way down to the audience before Offycer Whyte approached him.
"You've got to reserve your energy. Those cuts look deep. Emerald the Emergency Elk is right next door. I'll carry you." Whyte picked up her fellow offycer before making eye contact with the crowd. "Sorry for our intrusion. I'll be having a meeting soon with my team to see how we can make our amends." Her gaze went to Maryl and lingered for a moment as her body tensed up. While she doesn't have the whole story of what's been going on with Wyggler and Wynery, she cannot have her squad at each other's throats, let alone out for blood against helpless citizens when they already have close to zero trust in them. She carried him steadfast on over to Emergency Elk's before anyone could question her about the recent infighting. She had neither the time nor energy to play public relations offycer at a time like this.
"Hello? Emerald, we have an emergency!" Whyte darted her eyes around for Emerald, but the place is vacant of any life. Most of the shelves empty besides a few colored bottles here and there.
Now to sell everyone on her story as fact, Maryl reached from behind her back and brought out fur covered in blood. "Behold. My evidence of bathing in God's oasis. Here is a piece of Twin-Tale's fur itself! Lay your eyes on the prize I recovered from the heavens itself!" Maryl grinned like she never grinned before, but her celebration came into question as someone from the crowd spoke up.
"That smells like lion's blood. A lot like Lana's blood, actually." Emerald said with certainty as she is passing by with a bag of groceries. In them were plants for both leisurely consumption and for her medications.
"H-How would you know?"
"Because I was just helping Lana heal from her wounds yesterday. While I mended her wounds, she spoke to me about her direct confrontation with a Giant Walker. The smell of her wounds were a strange mix. Like that of a claw I've never examined with a salted odor as if it had its mitts cut deeply in some fish before it fought Lana off."
The crowd grew ever increasingly louder. The air of mystery Maryl tried so hard to make began to dissipate. Being caught in her fibs is nothing new, but this is the closest she's ever gotten to gaining the undoubting trust of Billowing Embers people.
"You speak of finding that fur in heaven, but what did that heaven look like?" Gianluca interrupted.
Maryls face began facing towards the ground. All her hard planning only to be called into question by one small objection? She was sure this her discussion to take home, but now it's all crumbling right in front of her. Is this negligence on her part by being unprepared of someone knowing the truth, or does the fault lie in being unlucky this time? As per usual, she chose to blame the world for its unfairness. With her esteem melting, barely anything of meaning came from her mouth. "W-well...I..."
Gianluca folded his arms. "With all that bravado you had, you can't seem to answer such a simple question." He leaned forward to intimidate her. Not only did he want her gone from the spot to settle the gossip disrupting the village's productivity, but the mess needed to be clean. What kind of leader would he be if he let a bunch of ruffians ruin his image? Not a good one, he told himself. Not a good one.
"It all happened so fast..."
"What happened so fast?"
"T-the fight..."
"What fight?"
"Between Twin-Tails and, uh Lana..."
"Oh? Lana you say? You failed to mention Lana being in your story."
"Umm, I forgot."
"You forgot, or did you not have enough time to think of contingency plans for being caught?"
Emerald grew bored of the incessant arguing of trivial matters, but she is also curious of Twin-Tail's make-up. "Say. Lend me the fur, and I'll examine the DNA myself. Just to be absolutely certain, right?"
Gianluca puffed up his cheeks. "Wonderful idea, Emerald! Now we can put our worries to rest. Now, Maryl, if you could so kindly give your little artifact to the professional, we can all get on with our lives and return on the morrow for the conclusion."
Maryl slowly raised her hand, and her legs froze as solid as a rock. She is unable to move with the anxiety choking her body all around her. The wind caught the fur and ran off with the evidence. "W-whoops..! I guess we'll never know who that fur belongs to." Maryl gave off a nervous laugh, but no one bought it. After her last fib of overcooking tomatoes would turn them into bombs made the village paranoid of using them in any cooked dish. The paranoia ran as far as to being afraid to even leave a tomato out in the sun that an overwhelming amount of animals protested in even allowing any farmers to grow them in fear of the village becoming a ticking time bomb. The tomato farmers who caved into the rumors lost so much resources that they don't expect to recover from them anytime soon. Some aren't so luck as they won't be betting on recovering their livelihood at all.
Emerald panicked at the thought of losing possible evidence of connecting to the fabled creature. Her feet made a dash for the fur in the wind at the cost of dropping her grocery bag. "No! I have to know! Please, don't go!" Even when all the evidence pointed at her being right about it being Lana's fur, tears escaped her eyes. Not only possible information on the Twin-Tails, but information on Giant Walkers could satisfy her running mind for at least a week or two.
Gianluca wanted nothing more than to let the situation die down, but providing comfort to Emerald by sharing what he knew of "heaven." could boost the morale of everyone here. "'Heaven' is surrounded by water, but the water has an Earthly glow. Liquid so sublime that it takes the color of Mother Nature herself. You can see the life in its plant like green aesthetic. The beauty comes from the shine of a beam of light that comes from the heavens itself. They say the Kingdom of Heaven can only be found by venturing forth the darkest depths of the highest point of the land. At the end of the trail lies forbidden fruit unlike any other. You'll know you've found it as it falls from the heavens and right into natures tub."
The idea of forbidden fruit made noise within the peanut gallery. Emerald's eyes glistened at the thought of having a new ingredient to indoctrinate into her medical practices, or just a snack to indulge in if it's as good as it sounds. "How do you know so much, Mayor?"
The entire village quieted down when Gianluca raised his voice to match that of a stern parent. "The tale of heaven came from a dying fox who wandered into the village ages ago as the Giant Walkers had taken his species to extinction. He didn't make it after sharing his knowing's about heaven. What a shame. Now that the truth of Heaven has made its way to your homes, everyone's dismissed. Quit wasting your time entertaining a storyteller and get back to making this village prosper again."
Emerald knew words are no longer needed as she continued walking to her workshop. She is stopped in her tracks by the sight of her door being slightly opened. "A visitor?" Sneaking into her own home from the back is the only thing making sense to her in that moment. This is why she is known as the cautious Elk. While a break in has never happened before, the thought of some unsightly animal stealing her bitter medicine wouldn't leave her head. She peeked through the door hoping she could get a jump on the thief.
A choke cherry crashed into Whyte's face. "What's this?! An attack?! Show yourself, intruder!" Whyte readied her fangs as she went on all fours and scanned the room with the intent to kill.
Emerald broke into laughter. "You're the intruder here, scary lady."
"Hahaha. When will you grow up, Emerald? You're an adult elk, but you insist on being a calve."
"Not my problem now, is it?"
"We're the same age, yet I grew up in half the time you've been alive. Don't you feel any shame for your lack of professionalism?"
"Look, just because you didn't have a childhood doesn't mean you have to be everybody's mother."
Whyte turned around and turned her gaze to her feet. "We shouldn't be wasting time. Wyggler needs your aid right this instance."
"You're correct. Let me tend to Wyggler's wounds. Lend me a hand, Offycer Whyte."
"Of course. What do you need of me?"
"I need you to crush, then cook, these choke cherries for me. Once they're all nice and blood red like Wyggler's wounds, mix them with the herbal water with the #3 label up on the shelf."
"Got it."
Emerald put her hands to her nose. "Protect your nose. You don't wanna be the target of their smell. You'll be choked to death!"
"Haha, very funny." Whyte began to crush the cherries, unprepared for the assault on her smell. She gagged in her mouth and ran straight to the bathroom.
Emerald grabbed pliers to remove the shards of broken wood embedded in Offycer Wyggler. "My, my, my. You really are quite the brute. Tone it down, or you may end up six-feet under like all the other 'brave' Wynter Offycers." She took a deep sigh. Violence is not her thing, but she isn't one to ignore the injured. While she wished the force isn't needed, she knew part of her peace is because of them. She had been thinking of asking for assistance from the force to escort her in going out to examine the Giant Walkers for some time, but she didn't want even the fearsome beasts to be hurt due to her insecurities.
Whyte barfed everything she's had in her from the day out. Her mouth reached for the toothbrush without a second wasted. The vile stench needling itself into her fur made it impossible to gather her senses. Water hit her face as her anxiety from the smell melted off. As her eyes hit the mirror, she spoke to herself, "I sure haven't taken care of the way I look in a while...gosh, what a mess...is that really me?" Her reflection only spelled out insecurity the longer her eyes couldn't look away. Echoes from the running tap water going to waste numbed her senses.
Wyggler let out a scream as loud as an exploding barrel. The destruction of everyone's eardrums came about because Emerald began cleaning his wounds. The screams deafened Whyte's composure enough to neglect turning off the water. One feet in front of the other as ran to the noise. "What happened?"
"Welcome back, princess. Nothing to worry about. I'm just deep cleaning Mr. Macho here's wounds with some lavender oil ointment. His own scream knocked him back out. What a little boy, hahaha. It'll be as quiet as a sleeping nursery for the time being. Let's hope he doesn't wake back up. I can't stand a man-child throwing a tantrum in my abode."
"Ha. He never grew up. I'd say he's the same Wyggler from grade school. Did you know he threw tantrums for not being able to add double digit numbers? The teacher would constantly tell him he needs to feed his brain, not his arms. In all fairness, I haven't noticed anyone changing much as the years pass us by--at least no one in the force has done any growing up." Whyte shielded her nose this time when she handled the choke cherries. Steam began to brew as she began to cook them up. Emerald walked past her to get to the back of the room to her snack cabinet. "What exactly are these choke cherries for? And the numbers on these medicine cans? Need them to help you count how much you got left?"
Loud crunches came from Emerald's direction. She began to munch on her Crunchy Aspen Tree Bar(k). "Mmm. Delicious and nutritious. Mmm." She took a moment to savor the taste. The joy of food is in being actually able to taste the food, right? "Nosey, aren't you, Mrs. Whyte?"
Whyte's breathing shrunk for a moment as if she her body forgot how to breathe. Hearing that word brought her body into shock as she forgot what she had lost recently. Air began circulating within her as space to not answer immediately gave her room to breathe. Her voice cracked with her timid speech. "Um, It's Miss Whyte now..."
Emerald raised her brow. One of the most respected couple in Billowing Embers, let alone the best couple the Wynter Force ever had, broken apart? How could this be? "Oh? Do tell."
"...Not now...It's too soon..."
"Bleh. What a party pooper. Here I was hoping for the scoop of the century: Picture Perfect Police Proposal Perishes. Oh well. Since you're just dying to know, the choke cherries aren't to heal his wounds, but to help calm his mind so he can heal himself efficiently. As for the labeled cans, each number is for a different taste. The higher the number, the sweeter it gets. #5 being the sweetest. Would you really want to taste something as putrid as what just made you run to the bathroom quicker than lightning striking the tip of the mountain?"
"Oh, gosh, no, but why #3? Wouldn't #5 be the better choice?"
"Oh, please. And waste some of my rarest ingredients on that animal? Not a chance. #3 is good enough for him. #5 is only for the people I love, like moi. He better appreciate getting a number as high as #3. Aren't I just the sweetest?"
"Like an angel sent from God himself if I do say so myself."
"You butter me up, buttercup. Hahaha."
Grumbles came into the conversation from a sleep talking Wyggler. "Mrmph, bttrbscut"
Laughter came from Emerald as her eyes locked onto Whyte's. "Even in this bore's sleep he makes unreasonable demands."
With the weight of the world becoming lighter on Whyte's shoulders, she had enough strength to give a smile to Emerald for all she's done today.
A giant snort as disturbing as a farting rhino came from Wyggler as he began to wake up. Thumps were had as he let his heavy arms toss around the floor. Flailing arms not only hit the floor, nearly knocking the medicines down, but the big idiot smacked his own face in the process. "What in the freak?! I'll freakin' kill you!" An earthquake shook the store as he jumped onto his feet, face breathing heavy from the anger spilling out of him.
Whyte and Emerald broke into laughter at seeing his self-inflicted dismay causing him to unknowingly belittle himself. At the very least, Wyggler is providing entertainment with the healing power of laughter for those two. If only he could get a laugh for himself. God knows if he's ever had a hearty laugh. No wonder he moves with stick in his butt. No fun allowed in his life.
"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny. Laughing at the injured. How very noble of you two. I'm out there bustin' my face for ya, and you pay me back by gettin' yer kicks outta me hurtin' myself."
Even with his defenses up, Wyggler let Whyte's paw gently caress his forehead. "There, there, you big baby. You got tough skin, but a soft heart I see." Seeing her opportunity to get Wyggler's emotional guard broken for the very first time, she put on her best puppy dog eyes and let out a soft yelp.
What kind of degrading act is Whyte bringing forth? Wyggler thought as he shoved her hand aside. Pride wouldn't let the word soft be used as an entitlement for his demeanor. The only appropriate time the word "heart" and his name should be together is when he's crushing them with his bare hands. "Yer all a bunch of freakin' uptight royals with no attention to human decency. Pike off."
"Did you even think that one through? What does that garble of words even mean?"
Wyggler crossed his arms tighter than any knot he could ever tie. His back made itself known to Whyte as he let out a loud puff from deep within his rock hard chest.
"You're obviously having an emotional breakdown in there. I'll back off."
Wyggler stomped the hardwood floors towards Whyte to put his nose above hers. "One more word outta you and I'll show you a physical breakdown!" Dirty breaths traveled down Whyte's neck, each one becoming shallower and shallower as time passed.
Emerald grabbed her medicine to shove down Wyggler's throat before the situation broke down her home. Berries and bright flowers gave her home atmosphere. No way will she let some raging monkey kill off her nature enchanted décor. The relaxing essence she built it is a part of her healing practice. The beauty of her office isn't just for show, but to calm the soul. Healing the heart is just as important as healing the body or the mind to her.
Half of Wyggler's face shut down as the opposite side had a full blown metaphorical seizure at the mere taste of the bitter choke berries barely being subdued by the teeny weeny bit of #3 sugar flavoring. "This brown-green medicine tastes like you dipped cotton candy in the butt of a swamp!"
Comments
Post a Comment