Ah! A brand new day! I finally can head through Route Three into Emerald City. I slept with Indigo out of the sealer in a hotel (I had enough money made from battling with my friends).
Indigo, my pet ravo, wakes me up in the main room of our spot in the Marble Town Complex by tickling me in the side of my upper right arm.
“O-oh! Indie! Time already?”
Indigo nods.
I take a look at my battery powered digital clock: 8:30. Perfect. That’s plenty of time for breakfast and a trip to the town shop.
“How’re you feeling, Indie?”
Indigo nods again.
“Good. So this past night must’ve been effective, huh? I’ll be sure to keep it up then. Just let me give Megan a call, okay?”
Indigo joyfully caws while I reach in my red book bag for my cell phone. I type in Megan’s number and wait for an answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Megan.”
“Oh, James! Glad to be hearing from you so soon. How was your trip to Marble Town?”
“It’s was alright. I’m going to be on my way to Emerald City after I run an errand here.”
“Oh, okay. Good job maintaining your supply.”
“Indie can never accompany me without those gummies, I tell ya. Well, Megan, I’ll call you back when I get to Emerald City, okay?”
“Perfect. I expect to hear from you tonight then. Bye, James.”
“Talk to you later. Bye.”
I hang up the phone and put it back in my bag, then finally stand up beside the bed and put on my bag.
“Ready Indie? We will be taking on our first forest together: the Marble Forest. Should run wild with new anicom we can find.”
Indigo begins to purr, no doubt at the thought of gaining new friends along a path to our next destination. She hovers onto my right shoulder as I pick up my toolbelt that is rife with useful gadgets, including my one and only digital glossary.
-=-
Breakfast turns out to be pretty good. Pancakes, cereal and toast, all in the cafeteria. Going to the shop also turns out to be a breeze, although now I don’t have much money left from Routes One and Two. So, with breakfast out of the way as well as the extra aiding drinks we need as well as a bag of ham-flavored gummy bears, Indigo and I head out of Marble Town, starting for Emerald City through Route Three and the Marble Forest.
As the time passes, Indigo and I hear the noises of many anicom from caller, morpher and bird alike. Voro, Erena, Vocora, and Sanago are just some of the many species we hear from.
“So, Indie, what do you think is gonna leap into our path?”
Indigo’s rolling coo probably means that she doesn’t know.
Closeby, two chatters emerge, somehow making my spine rattle. Indigo turns her head rapidly, providing a bit of a breeze for my head. That is until she stops and taps my right shoulder with her left claw. I gasp.
“What is it, girl? Are we going to have a new friend join us?”
She briefly rests her side on my head, meaning we might have one.
“Alright, Indie. Get ready then. Anything could leap at us at this point.”
“HAW!!!”
Suddenly, the chattering from nearby turns to a fading whimpering that pans further to my right as I look ahead in the dark path.
“Huh? What was that?”
I allow Indigo to take to the canopy and see where the whimpers came from while I take the path of the whimpering that is barely audible to me by now.
In the middle of my running, Indigo calls to me and faces in the direction I’ve been running.
“I know! Wait a minute... it... stopped traveling?”
The source of whimpering seems to have halted its path. I run a bit further at where I was just headed when chasing the source, and then... I see something... unusual. There’s an unusual creature- no, three of the same unusual creature. I completely stop in my tracks, about five yards before them.
“What the...”
The three of them and I have a good look at each other. They have the shape of most backride, but they also possess trademarks of most morpher, like glowing eyes and the appearance of chitin, not to mention the wings that seem to resemble that of a Sanago. All of that, plus their surprisingly small size, adds up to three adorable, albeit mysterious, anicom.
“My glossary has to have something about them. They must be one of the species I haven’t seen yet.”
No identified anicom.
“Okay, what about if I point it to Indie?”
Indigo: your starter anicom... A ravo... She has properties similar to most bird but also possess all criteria of furlove, the type all ravo are classified as.
“Huh, this has to be working right if it recognizes Indie. I should probably see if it works on those three again.”
No identified anicom.
“Aww... I thought we’d get lucky this time. Oh well. Indie?!?”
Indigo hovers back to me and lands back onto my shoulder.
“Seems like that wasn’t it. Let’s go, Indie.”
Despite the sound of confusion at first, Indigo agrees to come along with me as I depart for Emerald City.
Suddenly, Indigo and I hear the chatter from earlier, causing me to stop in my tracks.
“So you were the ones making all that sound?”
The three strange creatures nod.
“C-can you talk? You seem to have a lot of traits that many morpher have. Anisa and Ora are the most vocal of the type, and those species can learn to talk.”
They share a look of confusion.
“W-was it something I said?” I chuckle.
Suddenly, the front of the three steps closer to me and starts chattering, only to realize for some reason that something is very wrong.
“Oh no, what happened?”
The front one chatters worriedly to the other two about this problem I don’t know about and they start to panic themselves.
“Hey, hey, hey! Hold up there, you cuddleballs. Before you all start scrambling about, I think I can talk to my teacher about this situation. Maybe she knows what I should do with you.”
So, I get my cell phone again and begin typing Megan’s number again. However, when I try to get an answer, there appears to be no service.
“Drat! I guess I’ll have to call her at Emerald City then. Wanna come?”
The three begin to hover around me in excitement.
“Come on then, it shouldn’t be too far from here by now.”
And off we all go to the next destination: Emerald City.