Present Yourself!!!
Logan got up from the ground and headed in the direction that he felt a pull from. Morph appeared on his shoulder and was looking around like a tourist.
"Home? Hehahahhahe."
"That's right morph, this is the first time you have been here since you woke up with me isn't it."
Morph just bounced up and down and kept looking everywhere. They didn't travel for too long before they came to a cave. Once they entered, they met a group of... Residents.
The one that stood at the forefront of the group was massive and brown in color. Its face was nothing human, but you could still make out a nose and mouth. The rest of the face was covered in horns, that was the only comparison Logan could come up with. Long and curly, like a mix of ram's horn and deer antlers.
It appeared to move by walking on all four limbs and its chest was covered in bone. Logan thought maybe it had an exoskeleton but was covered in brown hair.
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Beside that one stood a creature that looked much like a sasquatch of legend. But behind them was another figure that had a humanoid face but had two noses on its face, one above the other.
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Another cave inhabitant had a face that looked like a Camel, but it had a single horn, like a Rhino. As Logan took in the appearance of another that looked like a mix between a tiger and a man, "We have called you here, not to introduce ourselves, but to give you an order Mortal."
Logan had put himself very low on The Red's totem pole and was admittedly still a good bit star-struck meeting some of his Comic Age heroes. He felt he had a lot to learn before he was confident to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with many of them.
Since arriving here, no one had treated him with so much unveiled hostility and disregard as this bunch did now. Logan looked at the group with disdain in his eyes. "So?"
The figure in the back spoke, "Show some respect, Mortal. For we are the Parliament of Limbs."
"And that means what to me?"
The Brown one in the front answered, "We are the Avatars of The Red, from past generations. You owe us your respect."
"I respect deeds, not titles. If you are indeed Avatar's of The Red, then I wonder how you would react in my place? I don't know you, all I know is the moment I met you, you held contempt for me, so I returned the sentiment."
The Camel Rhino, "We as the past avatar can remove your access to The Red, and also your participation for the next Avatar. If we deem you, unworthy."
"Now you threaten me yet again. Why should I hold you in anything but contempt? The first time we have met and yet it's the second time you have threatened me."
The group paused for the first time and looked at each other. "We know not of this. Explain."
"Well, when you had Monkey give me the grand introduction. He also told me that you all had the ability to cut me off from The Red. At the time I didn't think much of it, but later I realized it was your attempt to set it in my head that you held the power to take my ability from me."
Tigerman, "What makes you think that we do not hold the power to remove your access to The Red?"
"That's easy, because YOU didn't give it to me, did you? I am not saying you can't stop me from being the next Avatar, but stopping me from accessing The Red? I just don't think so. Unless you consider yourselves the masters of The Red."
At Logan's words, the cave rumbled. Dust fell from the ceiling and the Avatar's looked around with a hint of concern.
"We speak nothing of the sort, Mortal. Put not your words on our mouths." Logan didn't see who shouted this.
"My access was given to me by The Red, just as yours was. To try and make me believe you could take that access away is something only a child would fall for."
The lack of response from the group in front of him gave Logan all the answers he needed.
"Regardless of your thoughts Mortal, there is a mission placed upon you. We have that right. The Green and Red have sensed a disturbance, something... Outside the normal flow seeks to subvert a portion of The Green. Your mission is to find this and destroy it, no matter its form. The Green cannot speak to those of its kind, or it risks speaking to those trying to subvert it."
Logan turned around and walked towards the exit of the cave, "I have heard your mission. I will return to my world now." Without a backward glance he and Morph left the cave.
Morph didn't seem too happy at the way we had been treated either, growling at them over Logans shoulder as they left.
Once out of the cave, Logan decided to make the most of his trip to The Red. He walked away from the cave for what seemed to be 20 minutes. Once he felt far enough away, Logan sat in a cross-legged pose.
As he sat and meditated in The Red, the bones he had injected Flow into glowed Red in color. (Had anyone been watching his sleeping body, the glow would have been seen by the naked eye.)
Morph also moved away from Logan, he spread out and sank himself into the ground of The Red.
They both stayed this way, for what felt like hours. After some time, Morph was the first to pull himself together and return to Logan. Not long after that, Logan also woke up and stretched himself feeling more comfortable than he had in a long time.
Not knowing what else to do, Logan just willed himself to leave The Red. Suddenly he felt his body stirring and his eyes opened as if from sleep. He felt a pressure on his chest and looked down to see Hazel curled up over his heart with her head set like she was listening to it.
He looked over to see Pam was sleeping on her side facing him and Rose was snuggled up to her. He didn't see Thorn in the bed, so he grew a little worried. He sat up and set Hazel on the bed next to her sister and got up.
The first thing he did was look under the bed and low and behold he found himself staring into the scared eyes of the little girl he was looking for.
Whispering so he didn't wake anyone, "Morning little one. Did you get scared when you woke up?"
Thorn nodded her head.
"Do you want to stay there or come out with me and explore the house? We just need to be quiet, so we don't wake the others."
Thorn just looked at him with skepticism, as if asking why she would want to do that.
Realizing that he needed to give her a better reason to come with him, "The sun will be coming up soon, if we go to the patio, we can watch it. It's a giant ball of light that hangs in the sky. Much brighter than the lights you go to see last night."
Seeing he was starting to get her attention. "Remember last night when you looked up and saw all the dark with lots of little lights?"
She smiled and nodded her head.
"Well when the sun comes out it makes all that dark go away and brings lots of bright new colors, I bet you haven't seen many of those pretty colors."
Seeing she was still hesitating, "I'll tell you what. I will leave the door open and go unlock the patio. That way if you feel like it, you can come see the colors when you're ready."
Logan stood up and looked back towards the bed, only to see Pam's eyes close quickly. He smiled to himself and went to do as he said. Once on the patio he just sat and waited for the sun to come up.
As he waited, he entered his mindscape and used about half his mental energy setting up more forest for his defenses.
When Logan exited his mental realm he could feel Thorn at the door behind him, hiding behind it and watching him. Moments later the sun started to peek over the horizon and bring color to the world.
Slightly distorted by the layer of smog, and delayed some from the surrounding buildings. But despite all that, the sun came up for the first time in Thorn's life. Logan could feel the wonder come off her in waves. All these colors she had never seen before, a whole world she didn't know existed.
He thought about inviting her out to sit with him, but he decided to let this one happen as naturally as it could. She put out her hand as if to capture the light in front of her, but when she turned her hand, she saw it was empty.
As the sun got higher, its life-giving rays started to cover her, "Warmmm!!"