The Last Adventure
Prologue
The warmth of the sun. The sound of the wind. And the feeling of touch. When did it start? So much had happened, yet it feels like only a second ago I met those unique organisms. When I noticed them, they were already familiar with me. Such small beings… It was luck that we found each over, luck for the both of us. I was already dying back then, and I knew that when it would happen- my dying form would take the entire forest with it. So I gave away parts of myself, parts that controlled the forest.A little at a time, I gave each and everyone of them a small drop of power, for such a long time… so many of their generations, yet, not enough. The parasite drank my power, my essence, and I could feel the forest rotting away around me. I had only one last option, I left five small seeds on the ground above my dead roots. I hope you found them, and I hope you will save the forest, and will rid of the parasite that consumed me.
And so they did. But it was too late. The forest was barely alive, and when the great tree was gone, so did the hopes of the small devastated rats. The forest was unlivable, but the world outside it was unknown, they were scared to move on. It took one brave doe to steal one of the five seeds and leave the forest. She took with her a small group of desperate rats, and they were gone. And so, one after another, 3 more groups had taken off. Leaving the last seed with a buck named Saur, with a small and loyal mischief behind him. They planted the seed where the parasite had yet to reach, and so began the era of The Tree of Saur.
Chapter 1- The Last Adventure
Slowly, on the dark-brown soil, it took one step at a time. It’s black thorny leg pushing down into the ground just so it can move up one of the five others. It was gigantic, solely fascinating, with its size and power nothing could be stopping it from its ways. Maybe except for the even bigger rat, stomping on it with full force and turning it into a flat black spot- almost merging into the ground underneath.
“You are not listening,” the black buck, known as Rainspeed, said in an angry tone: “I was explaining to you how to defend yourself from danger, you need to learn if you want to avoid the same fate as your friend here…” He looked at the bug’s remains with his pure black eyes, standing tall on his two legs and crossing his arms.
Raybud looked up to his mentor, crouching the way he was, on all four, he was only as tall as his mentor’s gray belly fur. He got up and brushed his hands against each over to clean them from the soil. Now in his full high, he could almost reach as far as his mentor’s chest. Still having to look up to stare back into Rainspeed’s eyes, he brushed his nose one quick time with his now a bit less dirty hand before replying to the giant warrior: “I’m faster, so i won’t be squished as easily”
Rainspeed exhaled from his nose in an attempt to keep his face straight, but Raybud understood that the older rat does not believe in his extraordinary abilities.
“I will show you!” he exclaimed, angry for the lack of respect from his mentor. Rainspeed knows for sure who Raybud is, specifically who is his father- Runningwind, the great adventurer! Raybud shared his father’s silver-gray fur, even his light gray tummy. They look exactly the same. But what made Raybud so special was his unique adventuring spirit, just like his father, who was chosen to be one of the two only special adventures of their tribe. He would go farther than the borders of their territory, into new lands to find knowledge and treasure for the entire tribe- “The Tree of Saur”.
“Sure, that is a great idea” Rainspeed responded, for a second Raybud was filled with joy, finally he will get the chance to show his skills! He wanted to go further into the forest, across the river where all the cool and giant beasts live. Then he remembered exactly who his mentor was… Rainspeed usually talks with an apathetic tone, it’s sometimes hard for others to understand when he is serious or not, or when he is excited or sarcastic. Well, except when he is mad… then even a pink will get the message.Raybud has only been his bud, or apprentice, for barely a month, but he was starting to understand that Rainspeed is almost always annoyed, sarcastic or angry.
“How about you run from here to the end of the training ground,” he moved his face toward the far side of the treeless area, where buds usually train in fighting, without moving his arm, just pointing with his nose: ”then back again here. Let’s do this a couple of times” He moves his gaze back to Raybud, waiting for him to react. Does he want Raybud to get angry? or he just waits for him to start with what is clearly a punishment- and for no reason at all!
“How many times exactly?” Raybud does not hide his anger and disappointment for his mentor, his right foot twists angrily.
“Until I tell you to stop” he calmly answers. Raybud could swear he saw a quick and small smirk on his mentor’s face. With no other option, Raybud starts his running assignment.
The tribe was peaceful as always. The sun was starting to set, and Raybud could see the hunters of the tribe starting to get ready to go out. His littermate, Jambud, a bud with soft and pale brown fur, and pink shiny eyes- the same as their mother’s, was jumping with excitement around his mentor- a hunter with fluffy and shiny brown fur, with dark gray eyes- named Fluffspeed. She was a lot younger than his mentor, Rainspeed, and more importantly- kinder. Raybud would have been jealous of his brother, if he had wanted to be a hunter. He really wanted to be an adventurer- like Runningwind, his father. But Ashroot, the leader of the entire “Tree of Saur” tribe, said 2 adventurers were more than enough- he needed more warriors and hunters to take care of the tribe. So Raybud had to compromise by being a warrior bud.
“Once I will prove my worth and abilities, Ashroot will beg me to be an adventurer…” Raybud muttered to himself and immediately felt new energy increasing inside of him. His muscles were still sore after all the running he did for so long in the training ground, but deep inside he wanted to run and explore, to go on an adventure right now!
“I know this face, you want to go on an adventure!”
Without realizing it, Raybud had already passed to the over side of the camp. He found himself near the building station, standing next to Boacrystal’s giant working table. Boacrystal was the builder of the tribe, he made nearly everything around the camp, mostly by himself. Since Raybud was a pink, he was always scared of the old giant, loud, dark-brown buck. However, Snakebud- his best friend since forever, was drawn to him and his work. When he became a bud, Ashroot chose Boacrystal to be his mentor.
Raybud took a big breath then exhaled, trying to hide his physical exhaustion as he answered to his friend: “I do. Do you want to join me?”
The young black bud took a second to think about the offer before replaying: “I do, but isn’t it too late for that now? It will be dark soon” he moved his head up toward the darkening sky: “Maybe we will have time tomorrow’s morning”
“We always say that, but Rainspeed always wants to start the training super early! And then at noon you are too busy with Boacrystal!” Raybud stomped the ground with his left foot in anger and frustration.
“Well… maybe we can just wait until we graduate from being buds” Snakebud’s tried to comfort his friend, but Raybud felt even worse: “That will take forever! We need to prove ourselves! We need to learn how to explore!” He stomped the ground again.
“What’s all this racket?” Raybud heard the familiar low voice as he saw the giant dirty rat, bigger than even Rainspeed, walking out of the hole in the stone wall- his private den. Everyone says this old buck used to be orange- like the rising sun. All Raybud could see was the mud and ash covering his ungroomed dark fur. This was Boacrystal, Snakebud’s mentor, the tribe’s builder, and the one and only in the entire history of the tribe- a smith. He was weird from every angle, his paws were always black- even when he washed them. His tail was twice the length as Raybud’s or Snakebud’s, and instead of the dark pink color of their tail, his was dark brown and even black in some spots. His round ears were the only pinkness that was left on him, but still they too were different. While Raybud’s ears grow upwards, Boacrystal’s have grown sideways.
Raybud never actually talked to Boacrystal before, the old rat was making him feel uneasy, a little scared even… ever since he was a pink. Snakebud answered first: “we just talked about playing together” his small head dropping to the ground, ears slightly twisting.
“Y-yea…” Raybud froze in place, trying with all his might to not look into Boacrystal’s eyes, yet at the same time to keep his head up, to not to be seen as lying.
“You and Rainspeed have opposite training times… so we don’t have a lot of time to play…” Raybud added. He heard the old buck snore in amusement, he obviously knew they were lying, but did he know what they were lying about? Raybud glanced at his friend, but Snakebud eyes were stuck to the ground in shame. His friend wasn’t okay with lying to his mentor. With a small sigh Raybud lifted his stare to the old buck, Boacrystal’s back was facing them now. It could be he didn’t really care what they were planning… but Snakebud did, and that was the important part.
“We want to go to an adventure” he said loudly enough for the old buck to hear, yet not too loud so only the three of them could hear him speak: “We want to explore the forest, like Runningwind”
Boacrystal spun around slowly, meeting Raybud’s eyes. Raybud shivered, but he forced himself to keep his head up. Snakebud lifted his head as well, looking at Raybud in surprise.
“Well, I know that you already covered most of the nearby forest, so you want me to give you two time to explore beyond the river?”
Both of the young buds were silent from shock, how did he know about their secret adventures? Did more rats were aware of them sneaking out?
“I guess I can take your shocked faces as a yes” Boacrystal made another amused snore.
“C-can we go today on an adventure then? I promise I will work extra hard tomorrow!” Snakebud was the first of the two to respond.
Boacrystal stared at the two buds in silence that felt like forever. Then, he answered: “You will have to work extra hard tomorrow, Snakebud”
The two buds looked at each other in excitement, Raybud made a little jump from joy, but the old buck wasn’t done: “You may go to the forest to the north. Not beyond the river.”
“But-” Raybud was trying to object, but Boacrystal wasn’t finished: “That forest is not your playground, you will go there when the time is right, when I and Rainspeed take you there”
“Yes, Boacrystal” Snakebud agreed immediately, Raybud had no other choice but to agree as well: “Yes, Boacrystal…” he murmured while looking at the ground.
“Do we really have to sneak around if Boacrystal knows where we are going?” Snakebud whispered in Raybud’s ear as the two young rats sneaked from the bud’s residentes toward Plotleaf’s den. Plotleaf was the healer of the tribe. Her mother, a warrior named Neriumspeed, was an outsider. Before Raybud was born, her mate- Rubyhunter, an adventurer like raybud’s father, brought her home from a far away land and together they raised Plotleaf as a tribe rat. When Plotleaf became a bud she decided to invest herself in the art of healing and caring, and gained the respect of all the tribe, even from the grumpiest elder.
“Boacrystal isn’t the chatter type, you should know that better than anyone” Raybud whispered back while sniffing around, anxious that someone might hear them: “We should still be caution” he added just before they reached the front of the den. In the dark of the night, even when so close to the opening, it was hard to see the small leafy den. As opposed to Boacrystal’s den that was made from rock and dirt, Plotleaf’s den was made from bramble, ivy and barks. In the sunlight the giant infirmary, linked to the small den, would be hard to miss, that’s where rats that are too old or sick for hunting or fighting come to rest. The older ones stay there permanently. Now in the darkness they could barely see it.“This way” Raybud grabbed his friend’s arm with his left paw to pull him to the direction of their secret tunnel, a couple of tail lengths from the west side of Plotleaf’s den.
They trotted toward the hidden opening, their belly fur touching the ground. Most of the camp was hidden by stones and the mountain, but on this side of the camp, to the north, the only separation from the forest were tightly linked bushes and ferns. A big predator, or even a grown rat, couldn’t fit inside all of that vegetation, but a growing pink could crawl himself into the forest beyond. Snakebud was the first to go in, Raybud heard his small squeak of pain as the thorns inside the tunnel brushed against his face. But that didn’t stop him, he kept crawling forward. Raybud was next, he learned from his friend’s mistake and while crawling on three legs he shielded his face with his right paw. Has the tunnel shrinked? No, he was just growing in size. This made the long crawl more difficult and painful, but that was nothing compared to the joy he felt with the knowledge of him growing. Soon he will be a strong and big warrior! No, an adventurer!
When Raybud left the tunnel, Snakebud was already out on the soft forest floor- covered with weeds and fallen leaves. He was sitting on his bottom while using his front paws to wash his face. He had a small scratch on his left cheek, very close to his snout, but it wasn’t bleeding and didn’t look deep.
“Are you okay?” Raybud neared his friend, sniffing his smaller scratches that covered his body. Snakebud licked his front paws one more time and rubbed his face for a quick moment before staring back at Raybud to answer: “I’m fine, are you okay?”
Raybud stood on two legs and scanned his own body, he too was covered with small scratches from the tunnel. He sighed: “I guess we are too big to use this tunnel anymore… When we get back, let’s sneak from the training ground instead” His friend agreed with a nod, and placed his front paw onto the ground, standing up on four: “Where should we go? I want to find something useful for Boacrystal, so he will see this adventure is more than just a pink’s play”
“Then we should go farther from the tribe, north from here” Raybud didn’t have to think before answering, he planned to go there from the beginning. Snakebud gasped: “Into the mice’s territory?!”
“What? no!” Raybud shoved Snakebud’s nose playfully: “Just close to it, they won’t do anything… they are just mice!” he chuckled at the thought of the tiny rodents trying to attack them, he could deal with them even without Snakebud at his side.
“I don’t know…” Snakebud sounded skeptical, Raybud started moving forward: “That’s the only place we haven’t explored yet, so that’s where all the secret treasures are”
Snakebud didn’t answer, but still hurried after Raybud.
They ran through the forest as fast as they could. Even though the forest wasn’t that big, they had limited time if they wanted to get back before sunrise. And the northest part of the forest was also the farthest away.
Raybud made a quick jump, as high as he could, when he almost stepped on a small snake, hiding well under the brown-orange leaves with his brown scales. Good thing his eyes stood out with their bright blue glow. Snakebud changed his course so he would avoid the long legless creature as he saw Raybud’s quick escape. A snake this size won’t attack them, if they won’t step on it. The most dangerous ones usually hide on trees or near the river, those are big enough to wrap their bodies around grown rats, strangling them before swallowing them full. But they are usually lazy and slow, when not starving, and Raybud knows how to avoid them, otherwise he would not have been here to run around the forest today.
“Stop!” Snakebud yelled as he stopped running and stood high on his hind legs: “I smell blood…”
Raybud stopped and got closer to his friend, standing too on two legs while sniffing the air: “It’s faint” he got down back on four, almost touching the ground with his snout while sniffing: “We are pretty close to the mice… you think it’s them? or maybe a prey they caught?” it was not long ago that he had become a bud, he still had a lot to learn- like understanding the different smells on their territory. He lifted his head to Snakebud, he was a bit older than Raybud, and so a bit more experienced too.
“No, I think it’s iron!” Snakebud answered with excitement. Iron was an extremely rare metal that was near impossible to find on their territory, sometimes one of the tribe’s adventurers brought a little from their journeys. Boacrystal was always happy to receive some.
“Does it bleed?” Raybud asked with uncertainty, he had never heard about the smell of metal, and it felt really unlikely that it would be so easy to find in this well explored forest.
“No, but it smells just like blood! Boacrystal showed me! I’m sure of it!” Snakebud was certain, and very excited.
“It smells like just old blood to me… but I guess it won’t hurt to go investigate… but we need to be careful” Raybud knew he won’t be able to change his friend’s mind, so he will better follow him. Even if it will take away precious time from their adventure.
Snakebud got back on four and sniffed the ground closely. Raybud moved his snout above to get a better smell of the surroundings, keeping guard while his friend was focusing on the blood’s smell. As the two buds kept following the scent, it grew stronger… but still not fresher. Was it really iron they were tracking? If iron could be smelled from so far away, wouldn’t Raybud have smelled Boacrystal’s iron from his den back home?
“Wait…” he touched Snakebud’s shoulder as he stopped, Snakebud pushed his paw away but still halted. Under all the trees the moon’s shine could barely be seen, and complete darkness surrendered the duo. Raybud could still feel Snakebud’s annoyance without seeing his face or hearing his voice.
“I have a bad feeling about this… The more we keep going, the stronger the blood’s scent is…” he whispered, for an unknown reason he was afraid. His friend didn’t share those feelings and cut him off loudly: “That’s because we are getting closer!” Snakebud’s answer felt like a scream in the silent forest, for some reason- that scared Raybud even more.
“But all the other scents… they get fainter…”he continued to whisper, hoping that Snakebud will answer in a lower voice this time.
“It’s the smell of blood, they are scared. But we know it’s just iron, and it’s safe” Snakebud lowered his voice as Raybud hoped, understanding his friend’s fear he tried to sooth him by pressing himself to Raybud.
“Are you sure it is iron? if there were iron here, don’t you think the hunters or warriors would have found it already?”
Snakebud didn’t answer. Raybud hoped Snakebud was finally thinking about other possible sources to the smell. It felt like it was getting closer, and Raybud could suddenly smell rotten meat too.
“Do you smell that?” He asked Snakebud: “I think this is just some dead animal that started to rot” Raybud could hear Snkaebud’s sniffing next to him, suddenly he could feel snakebud’s heart rate increasing: “Why does it getting closer?” He whispered in a panic. Raybud too was panicking, the smell did get closer!
“M-maybe something is moving it…” he mumbled: “we should get back to the training ground… I think we have explor-”. A screeching wail interrupted his sentence, so loud he had to cover his ears with his front paws. The stench of dried blood and rotten meat got even closer, Raybud could barely breathe and his eyes stinged so bad he couldn’t keep them open. As the wail started to fade, he let go of his ears, loud big steps were getting closer to them. Raybud could hear something big being dragged along with the scary steps.
“Run!” Snakebud shoved Raybud out of his shaken state, and Raybud Jumped after his friend, running as fast as he could. The stinging smell and loud wails retained all of his senses. He could only feel, hear and smell the thing. It was following them! Chasing them!
“Snakebud!” he screamed for his friend. “I’m here! We have to hurry!” Snakebud answered, Raybud could hear fear in his words.
Splash! He fell into the shallow part of the river. He could hear Snakebud’s splashing not far from him.
“No! No! I thought we were heading into the training ground!” Snakebud squicked in desperation. Raybud could hear, smell and feel the thing coming closer and closer.
“Maybe it cannot swim!” he said, and without waiting for Snakebud’s approval he started to run, and then swim, further into the river. The splashes behind him told him that Snakebud was following his lead.
The river was calm, luckily, and even thought this was his first swim ever- instinctively he knew how to keep his head out of the water while moving himself forward with all his legs. As he kept going as fast as he could, the forest behind him got further and further away. The moon and stars shone brightly above him and he started to see the gigantic trees of the forest on the other side, they were getting closer. He kept going on for so long he thought the sun would come out any moment, but as he got to the shallows on the other side, the moon and stars were still shining above him in the sky. Behind him he saw black wet fur swimming toward him, he grabbed Snakebud’s front paws and helped him by dragging him outside of the deep water. At the wet ground they fell on their side, exhausted from running and swimming. Raybud used the last of his adrenaline to sit up, moving his head from side to side as he tried to see the forest they had fled from. There was nothing there. He made a big sigh of relief and fell on his back on the wet ground underneath him. The two buds stayed on the edge of the river gasping, whatever was chasing them- they outrun it. Snakebud was the first to sit up and started to wash his face, Raybud watched him from the watery ground, trying to find the energy to get up and do the same. Suddenly, Snakebud stopped washing and started to move his head from side to side while squinting his eyes. He was watching the other side of the river. Raybud quickly sat up and did the same, it was hard to see from so far away in the dark, but he still could recognize a big shadow slowly crawling into the water. The rotten smell caught his nose and panic quickly overwhelmed him. Whatever that thing was, it was big. and it could swim. He felt Snakebud’s paws pulling him to his legs, and without a choice, while still exhausted, the two buds ran as fast as they could into the unfamiliar woods.
