As the moon rises, it reflects its light onto the nearby lake that surrounds us, forming a perfectly circular shape, only to be distorted afterwards by the water. My tiny lion cub body appears in the picture of the reflection as I try to get closer to the reservoir. The water here is so clear, to the point that its entire ecosystem, from plants to small animals, are visible. Ironically enough, the images mirrored on the liquid block the view of what’s on the bottom. I lift one of my legs and I shake it left and right to mess with the image.

Suddenly, the water starts to tremble, deforming my mirrored self and the moon near it. A dark green monster rises to the surface… is it a swamp monster?

“Caught you! I win, I win! Scaredy cat!”, Cragger growls, “Don’t mess with the Master of Stealth!”

Water sprinkles over my fur and drenches my blue tunic… which is terrible! My body flinches in agony by the feeling of a night breeze hitting my wet coat.

He grabs my hand and climbs over to the surface. An euphoric grin surges on his face, his slitted eyes widen. Our friend group gave him a nickname due to his amazing ability to hide around here, in addition to his long win streak on these types of games. Cragger’s dark green head is able to camouflage between the plants, and his olive green torso becomes invisible amongst the algae. Not only that, he’s able to climb trees and hide himself there.

I rest myself on the surface of the Forever Rock after this long session of hide and seek with my friends. I leave space for Cragger to cut another line on the stone, marking his new victory.

Unfortunately, not everyone is content with his achievement. Our youngest friend, Worriz, is fuming with rage, hopping around, making the funniest faces during his temper tantrum.

“I am serious!”, he swears from the top of his lungs, “Why should I play this if Cragger can just hide himself in water?! That jerk knows we can’t swim properly!”

Worriz comes from the Wolf Tribe. He inherited his great sense of smell from his father, one of the wolf elders.

Cragger marches towards the pup. Mighty stomps tremble the dirt. He stands his ground, and pushes the fluffy little guy with his chest. They exchange glares and they clench their wrists.

Worriz shoves his paw onto Cragger’s torso. “Unfair! I expected better from a… modest prince!”

The crocodile flares his nostrils and raises his eyebrow. He touches his moist, torn red loincloth, then, he proceeds to giggle.

“I bet you’re just jealous that you can’t ‘swim properly’. Fight someone your size, you pa- pathetic puppy!”

The wolf snarls and begins to swab his tongue on his snout, over and over again. It seems that standing on his toes is not enough to make him look bigger.

“Learn to speak properly before starting arguments!”

Worriz’ pelt sprinkled with dirt emits a nasty, sickening stench, mixed with the muggy scent of adrenaline coming from the sweat dripping between Cragger’s scales, like rain on a hot summer day.

I observe Cragger’s face being showered by tears as they inevitably join the sweat on his tense body. I feel his indignation – no, even worse, his pain, his wrath. Worriz always had a sharp tongue, but this childish quarrel has escalated into a disaster of targeting someone’s dignity and adding salt to their injury. Cragger fought to be able to speak, he overcame his difficulties so that he could express himself–

“You, Worriz, don’t know how much he bore. You do not have the right to judge someone for the way they were born.”, words escape from my lips.

Before I’m able to notice, my friends are staring at me.

“Hey, hey!”, I intervene, “It’s… it’s not like my friend is innocent anyways! He also can’t judge Worriz’ height!”

I snatch my best friend’s cold, thin arm. I cling onto him, but he pushes me away… and, in a matter of seconds, between our mutually fleeting gaze, he faces the forest behind us and propels his olive green scaly body in the direction of the bushes. The leaves rustle with his rapid steps until he disappears between the plants. My muzzle opens wide; how could he run away like that if all I did was attempt to help him?…

No… Did I hurt his feelings?

Worriz barks at me, puffs up his chest and repeats the words, “Ooh, my bestie ran away! What am I supposed to do?”, with a mocking melodramatic tone of voice.

I glance at Worriz; I know you’re trying to insult me. And this is your last straw.

I chase after my friend, going through the same bushes as he did, almost tripping over on the fallen sticks scattered around the ground. Beyond this direction are roads that cut throughout the tropical forest, leading to the entirety of the lands west.

He’s already fled with his Speedor. Mine and Worriz’ stone unicycles are parked near a big tree trunk.

I hop onto my vehicle and, at maximum velocity, I track down the marks left behind. The nature around me becomes blurry as I continue down the path facing left, on a precipice trail curved inwards. My surroundings change drastically from grass to dry soil. The rapid transition is nauseating—

Whoa!

My body flings forward.

The speed of my unicycle had decreased in the blink of an eye. I had forgotten that Speedorz don’t work properly on lifeless terrain.

This is the Great Divide, an arid, mountainous land. It’s called home by the Eagle Tribe, and this is where their domain, the Eagle Spire, is located; it’s the summit of this thin, gray block mountain. The area here is covered with sharp peaks that scatter even throughout the horizon. A few greens appear here and there, but there is not much life here because rainfalls are scarce in the Great Divide.

The road is slowly getting thinner, and it’s becoming easier to notice the elevation between the ground and I. I glimpse at the road track left previously by Cragger.

Wait… it seems that—

He made a sharp turn towards The Fangs!

I follow the curve with a heavy drift. Parts of the cliff tumble down behind me– I swear I could’ve fallen too. 

My Speedor bumps into piles of debris. The stone unicycle rattling is unbearable. My wheel is chipping with the slightest collision. I should be more careful with my driving skills.

The sky is closing by the minute and I’m barely able to see where I’m going. How could someone be this reckless to run into the Fangs? He’s risking his own life because of insults!

Everything is now black and white. The moon coats the land with light, and it bounces varying tones of gray into my eyes. Sharp, fang-like pinnacles are dispersed everywhere and form an disorganized barrier around the region. Not so far away, a slim and animalistic silhouette is leaning down near a crocodile head shaped Speedor. A silhouette so bright it could bear the appearance of a spirit.

I decelerate my Speedor and brake all of the remaining momentum by piercing my hind claws into the solid dirt, then I proceed to hop off my vehicle. I have finally found Cragger, but there is no time for relief now. My next move might put us at any risk. Of course, I still wish I could run after him. I can’t leave him alone like this.

Step after step, I get closer to Cragger. He notices me, still upset from the moment before, and at this point we are at a comfortable distance away from each other.

“Cragger… None of us were expecting Worriz to act the way he did. I promise this won’t happen again; I’ll sort things out with him, and maybe he’ll get grounded for what he said.”, I murmur, “Please relax, okay?”

The crocodile hesitantly opens his mouth, and tightens his shaking hand.

He musters the courage to reply. He groans, “I’m trying to, Laval… I’m trying!

“D- do you think it’s easy to let go of things like that? Or that words simply dissolve into the air like they’re nothing? Tell me!” He covers his head with his hands. 

His cry launched itself from left to right, jumping off one pinnacle towards another. If someone was here, they would’ve certainly picked up on our presence.

“How’re you able to simply ‘sort out things’ with him? Did– did you even understand what he said? Or what he meant? He insulted the effort of my parents– if it weren’t for them, I would’ve been mute, or even dead!”, he shouts again.

Words leaked through Cragger’s lips; waves after waves of uncontrollable anger rose high until they hit the ground. I never expected anything like that to happen.

His grunts start to fade away, as my mind boils with intrusive thoughts; dead… what could this mean? Why was there a possibility of Cragger being dead, why would that even happen? What would I be without him, how would I live without his audacity distracting me from rigorous royal rules… How would his parents react to their sweet child dissolving into the air—

A petrifying chill rushes through my nerves; both of my shoulders stun by the pinch of a scaly pair of hands. In the blink of an eye, my entire body is shaken viciously. The constant brute movement mixed with the intense emotions make me dizzy. I’m unable to react properly; everything seems fuzzy, my head feels light, my body starts numbing.

 “Silly lion, when will you stop freezing like a cub and come back to reality? Toughen up a little bit!” he cackles in a sudden change of mood. Perhaps I lost the notion of time’s passing.

My eyes widen and my muzzle droops into an awkward expression, though I can’t stop myself from laughing too, “Haha… I don’t know– do I really paralyze that often? Well, it’s surprising how much you tolerate me”, incomplete syllables mumble from my mouth due to my dizziness.

I sigh, “… I’m glad you aren’t strict with me. My dad is already too much.”

I stretch my arm onto one of the sharp pinnacles, then I firmly close my eyes.

“Just breathe, aight… You’ll be fine, because I’m your friend! Friends are supposed to help each other.”, says Cragger.

I’ve got my friend’s back. Now, maybe we could travel on foot towards the Eagle Spire, get help there and go back home. Staying up late alone is not safe. Cragger stares at the moon. It’s full, and nearby where we are rests the Wolf Tribe’s outpost, which changes location ever so frequently. He points out that it looks quite purplish tonight; I can’t see colors at night, but the moon’s appearance is darker than normal. Strange.

I stick up my neck and look at the sky. Right now, it feels like a pitch-dark void is covering us. From sight alone it emits a silky, soft feeling on my paw pads. The round, allegedly purple moon stands out like a sore thumb.

Oh—

My ears turn sideways. Screeching noises, like claws scraping on rocks, buzz inside my eardrums. The high pitch of these sounds itch throughout their way into my ear canal.

This disjointed sound pulls the trigger of my anxiety and the adrenaline rush pumps throughout my veins.

I’m fed with these obnoxious panics of mine, but it unleashed a gut feeling I can’t pinpoint properly. My body drowns with nausea; fired up aches spread inside me a bit, I sense some kind of dampness that flows from the stomach to my mouth. It’s weird and uncomfortable, but I hope it won’t last for long…

Argh! Hoarse cacophony vibrates all around the vast land. I… I can’t keep up for long!

I move towards the sound, folding my ears to avoid hurting my eardrums. Everything’s blurry again, and I’m unable to hear my surroundings. Far away, I glimpse at a shadow near a rock. Is it the same rock from the noises?

As I get closer, a strange ringing becomes stronger. The shadow’s long, thin body twitches in my direction. Huh?

It dashes. Straight to me. Out of nowhere.

I let go of my ears for just a second, long enough to hear:

“Get away from my friend! Now!”

Cragger pushes me aside and I fall head first on the ground; there, I squint my eye for a last second, as I fainted, and the shadow wasn’t gone.