“Sweet Celestia, this place goes on forever…” Derpy sighed after a while.of walking with Procione for a while.
They came to a fork, stopping, “Alright, Derpy. I’ll try right first, and see where it goes. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Stay here, okay.”
“Um...are you sure?”
“So far, this seems like the safest place. I will come back.” he nodded, going off.
Derpy waited for a few moment. Her wonky eye noticed a bit of light from the left. She looked over back to the right again...no Procione. She looked between the two...her mind reeling with the conundrum. If she got lost, or he came back before she did...what would happen? The light shined brighter. Her curiosity overwhelmed her better judgement, “I won’t turn...just strait there...straight back…” she told herself, walking to see what was making that light. She followed to a short hallway. She turned her head, expecting to see another mural of the odd creature, but instead she saw something odd. It was like a window in the wall, white lined the oval window with the inside changing from dark to light as if battling itself for dominance. Derpy tilted her head, taking a step for a closer look. The window seemed to slowly form itself into a picture. Everything was dark inside except for strange blue lights emitted from odd geometric shapes jutting out of the foreign space. There was a fight between two of the strangest creatures Derpy had ever seen. One was all black, and looked like some kind of machine walking on hind legs. It breathed with a strange raspy hiss like some terrifying steam engine. It held a glowing red sword, and was swinging it against a green sword held by another creature. This creature looked far less alien to her. It at least had eyes that she could connect with. It too was on its hind legs, wore simple clothes, and had no hair to speak of except for a short mane. The swords made frightening buzzing sounds with every swing, save when they collided, which set off a flash of white sparks and a noise that reminded her of lightning. Derpy wondered why the two were fighting. The feeling she got from watching it shook her to the core, but still she was curious. She took another step towards its lifting her hoof to try to touch the window, trying to understand the scene before her.
“Derpy! Where’d you go?” Derpy’s head snapped to her name called. Looking back, the oval window was gone, and now only a blank wall was in its place. She blinked in confusion and felt the wall. It seemed solid enough
“DERPY!”
“Coming!” she yelled back, going back the way she came. Maybe there is a bit of magic in this world.
She found Procione a few minutes later, looking frustrated, “You can’t go wandering off like that. What if you got lost?” Derpy was about to explain, but Procione put up a paw, “I found the way out. Follow me!”
Derpy went out, taking one last look back. No light came from the wall. She was beginning to wonder if she somehow imagined the whole thing. She shook her head, following Procione to the outside. They were near the top of a very large hill covered in vines. She followed close by Procione. The odd oval window had her feeling uneasy as they went. “You know, we could be walking away from the city, and not even know it.”
“I know, but we don’t have much choice. Maybe, if I find a tiny piece of metal back in the ruins, we can make a compass...but that wouldn’t be much help since we aren’t sure what direction we ended up facing. There are too many variables.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll-” Derpy stopped, her other eye noticing something, “Did you see that?”
“See what?”
“There was something moving…” Derpy moved closer to Forsker.
“Where?”
“Over there.” Derpy pointed. “Wait, there’s another, that way…”
“Maybe it...it’s just the wild life.”
“”Maybe…” Derpy hoped, but her heart raced with worry as they made their way to the bottom. More movement caught her eyes. She wondered if she should let Procione know. She tapped him with her hoof, and he jumped a foot in the air. Maybe it’s best not to…But, from what she saw, they were headed straight to the movements, and more were coming by the moment. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Procione, we-”
A huge tribe of raccoons jumped out at them, holding sharpened sticks their way. The two turned to try to run, but the tribe quickly closed the gap they had come from. The fur on these racoons was far more unkempt, with odd symbols drawn all over their fur. Most eyes looked much more crazed by the look of them. A few of them made a deep guttural growling noise that almost had a bit of a hiss to it. Forsker was shaking like a leaf. Derpy felt her heart drop. She would fly away with him at that moment if her wings weren’t bound. One of the Imbuka spoke up, “Basura Colla!”
A chant bounded through the entire group, “Ba-sura Colla! Ba-sura Colla! Ba-sura Colla!”
They poked and prodded at the two until they followed deeper into the woods. There they found houses made naturally from the trees. Imbuka held their children close, joining in the chant until they came upon a hut. Inside was the biggest raccoon any of them had ever seen. He was easily twice if not three times the size of the others. He stood from his wooden throne, adorned with random nick-nacks of glass and metal, looking upon his guests. He took one look at Procione, a smile creeping on his lips, “New Imbuka!” he lifted his paws up.
“New imbuka! New Imbuka!” The civilization cried.
“No. I’m not! I won’t-”
Basura Colla ignored Procione, turning his gaze to Derpy. He tilted his head in confusion at the odd creature before him. His eyes met hers. He gasped as he gazed at her, “Haoss Begis…” he whispered before shouting louder, “HAOSS BEGIS!”
“Ha-oss Be-gis. Ha-oss Be-gis!” Her chant continued as a group of raccoons threw flowers around her neck.
“Um...what is Haoss Begis?”
“Your name, little creature.” Basura nodded in a deep, booming voice.
“Sorry...my name is Derpy.”
“Here, we call you Haoss Begis. We welcome all from city to join us. Imbuka take care of Imbuka. Haoss honorary Imbuka now. Haoss safe from predators like Slugeen when stay with Imbuka.”
“You say that, but you really just want to lull us into security before you eat us alive!” Procione countered.
“Hehehehe...new Imbuka funny. Imbuka never eat other Imbuka. Now, rest, eat, stay. We make big feast for new family members.”
The two were dumbfounded as they were the heads of a table in a celebration. “Eat nothing…” Procione breathed.
Derpy’s stomach growled in protest. Some food looked absolutely disgusting. Fish heads on plates didn’t help her appetite, but her eyes noticed a plate piled with berries. She ate them to Procione’s dismay, licking her lips.
After dancing, fun, and food, Basura Colla stood up, holding his paws out for the tribe to stop their chatting. “Brothers and sister, four hundred moons ago, our land blessed by chaos bringer. He opened our eyes to idea that nothing in this life can be planned. We have lived lived in honor of creature who showed we can create anything if we only wish it. Creature helped our culture through terrible sickness outbreak time and time again. His lesson of wisdom sit well with us to this day. No raccoon knows what became of Chaos, but we may now have a sign!”
“Uh oh…” Procione muttered.
“Newcomer, whose eyes split in show of pure amazing chaos has blessed us with presence. With her help, we may finally find chaos bringer once more!”
“Haoss Begis!” Their chanting started again.
Derpy bit her lip, fear overcoming her, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to help.”
“With eyes like yours, dear Haoss, I am most certain you shall. Tomorrow morning, she will help us in our search!”