42 Phase 35: Redecoration

Colin thought about the Journey's End and Michi's Legacy all the way back from Forest Village. He thought about what he should do and why, even while taking on package deliveries for Sunrise town and Sunrise Comrade Home.

Finally, when he was done with his last mission for that night, he concluded, "I should just leave the Journey's End alone for now and settle Michi's special experiments first."

Shiro, giving Sonia a break at last, twisted his head at Colin then pawed his knee. "Yip?"

"There's too much I {can't} do about the Journey's End. I think that's the way it's supposed to be. I just started as a Traveler. There should be a long way to go, or this Journey isn't really much of a Journey, is it?" Colin pointed out.

Shiro shook his head, then nodded to the right as if saying {not that, the OTHER issue.} "Yip."

"Michi's earlier special experiments…" Colin sighed. "I don't even know if we can find them again, and even if we did, how would we Tame them? Professor Jijin said that a Purple Badge might have weakened them badly, but I'm not even Blue badge, much less purple."

"Yip." Shiro agreed gloomily.

"And more importantly…" Colin trailed off. "I didn't want to think about it, but in the end, I have to. What about those Green Men?"

Shiro whined. He definitely didn't like the Green Men.

"It's going to be morning soon." Colin said, as they continued down the road from the Sunrise Town Comrade Home to Farmer Edward's place. "There's not much more we can do tonight. I'll just check on Katrin and all, and then… see if I can find an answer by tomorrow night."

"Yip." Shiro sighed.

***

Katrin wasn't there when they arrived at their home base.

"She went to some meeting with the Justice Knights. I think they're discussing the Green Men." Farmer Edward explained. "We had one huge fight at the arena today. You should have seen it! Everybody went at the Green Men with everything we had. Some of us even died from friendly fire."

"People died…?" Colin winced.

"Not your fault." Ed told him. "Some guy got in the way of a Crysa-Flower just as it released a charged-up Solar Beam… and a bunch who were too close died when some other guy dropped meteorites on the scene. I suspect it's the same bloke who broke the bridge west of the airport."

Colin lowered his head, not knowing what to say.

"In any case, it's a good thing. I don't think those Green Men would be coming back to kidnap anyone for a while yet. Katrin said that the J-Knights put them on the KOS list."

"KOS?" Colin blinked. "What's that?"

"Kill-On-Sight." Ed told him. "It's a very short list. Everyone who's ever been put on it never came back to Nakama World once they found out. Right now, the Green Men and the Precious Items Stealer Gang are the only ones on it. And even if the Green Men weren't on that list, everyone's still going to attack them if they show up."

"They'll just take off their armor and go around looking like normal people." Colin said, shaking his head.

"Maybe." Ed frowned. "But we're all on the alert now. That makes a difference."

"I'll keep an eye out too." Colin glanced around the farm. "Hey, Ed… do you use Squads?"

"All the time." Farmer Edward answered. "It's a Green Badge function. But if you're going to raise an army, you're going to need more space than just your room. That room can take one squad, or just your squad leaders, but it can get crowded quite fast."

"Does Katrin use Squads?" Colin asked next.

"Sure does. She had this pink squirrel leading one today." Edward let out a short laugh. "She's getting strong. I almost didn't manage to beat her this time."

Colin remembered the squirrel squad they died saving.

"But don't get too many new Comrades too quickly." Ed cautioned. "It's still best to get to know each one properly."

Colin went back to his room check on Bubba. The Bubblesaur was looking at the wall without really seeing it.

{This is bad. I need to get him a habitat. Or something.}

Rall, meanwhile, was sitting beside Bubba looking rather blankly from Bubba to the wall, wondering what it was Bubba was staring at the whole time. He scratched his head.

"You alright, Bubba?" Colin sat down on Bubba's left, opposite Rall. Shiro joined him, sitting on Colin's left. Sonia took one look at sat down on Shiro's left so that all five of them sat in a straight line looking at the wall.

"Riao?" Fireheart let out a puzzled sound behind them all.

"Mew." Raiki told her from Colin's hands.

Bubba darted a short glance at Raiki, who spent practically the whole night in Colin's hands, and turned back to stare at the wall again.

{Uhoh. He seems jealous.}

Colin studied Bubba's size and form, calculating. {Shiro, Raiki and Sonia don't take much space. I can fit him in the sidecar with Fireheart. He won't be much help in battles, but maybe he'll recover faster. He joined me because he wanted to Travel, after all, not sit at home in some habitat. If that's all he wanted, he'd have been better off staying with Ed. No, I better take Bubba with me. Rall's the one who likes to stay home. I should get HIM a habitat.}

Fireheart gave up and joined the line, sitting on Rall's right. Together, all seven of them sat there watching the empty wall. Colin and all of his Comrades just…

Colin paused. {All} of his Comrades? Two were missing. "Where's Warc? And Meek?"

"Yip." Shiro nodded to the window, then went back to concentrating hard on the clean white wall.

Colin put Raiki down, saying, "Here, sit in for me a while…" and checked the window.

There was Warc, flying around outside with about ten other Rainducks. {Are those Ed's ducks…?}

"Warc! Hey, Warc! Get in here and join the line!" Colin called.

Warc swooped in with all ten friends and landed around the window, three of them on Colin's head and shoulders. Warc studied the line and let out a loud "WARK!"

Then Warc and friends took off flapping, leaving Colin with feathers raining all over him.

"Odd." Colin frowned. "I thought…"

{Whatever happened to Warc…? }

"Hold on, guys. I'll be right back." Colin told the others, and went to find Edward.

***

"Warc…?" Ed scratched his head. "Well, she's been with the other Rainducks all day. I think she's found a mate."

"A mate…?" Colin paused.

"Probably that drake over there." Ed pointed. "The one with brown specks."

"He's good looking." Colin observed.

Edward shook his head. "Colin, Warc's a duck. She's not the best Comrade to take around to dangerous places. You've got a bear, a panther, a saurus, and three very promising young cubs that can fight. But… a duck?"

"I should get a Watergull. Or a Fisherbird." Colin said, remembering. "But I need something that can fly in order to even Tame one."

"Not necessarily." Ed shook his head. "You can get them from Comrade Homes."

"Oh yeah…" Colin paused. "Ed… maybe I should leave Warc with you. Shiro and Meek won't be happy with me, but I think she wants to stay with her mate. And it's not like we won't be seeing each other every night."

"Sounds fine to me." Edward scratched his head. "What about that mouse of yours? She ran out of the house earlier tonight and dashed off into the barn. I think she's playing with her friends too, or something."

Colin groaned. "Shiro's going to bark at me if I give you two of his oldest friends in a single night."

{But now he's got Sonia… maybe she'll be enough to comfort him…}

"Colin, I'm a farmer. I get rid of Lynxmice, I don't bond them." Edward pointed out. "In fact, I was thinking of finding a good cat to handle the mice problem in the barn. If Meek's there when my new cat arrives, she might get killed. That's going to be a problem, because she'll pop right back in your room and come back to get killed all over again. She might die several times a night, every night."

"That's bad." Colin shook his head. "I'd bring her with me, but she's pregnant."

"PREGNANT?!" Edward jumped. "She's going to give birth to more mice?! Oh, mercy, I need more cats…"

"NO!" Colin yelped. "I'll keep her in my room! I'll set Rall to watch her so she doesn't get away…"

"Well, you better get her a better habitat, then. Hay just isn't going to keep her there. It will remind her of the barn and then before you know it, she's back with her old buddies."

Colin paused. "I was thinking of a forest habitat…"

Edward gave him a flat look. "Colin, if you want a forest, it's easier to put your base in the forest than to put the forest in the base."

"I can do that?" Colin blinked.

"Yeah. You'll just have to buy a piece of land in the forest somewhere." Edward said, thinking. "The area around here is for farmland, but I think the area near the Forester's Hut would be allowed. Or maybe in the East Sunshine Forest. It'll cost you some tens of thousands for a small piece of land."

Colin gulped. "That's too much! I'd rather cut a few branches and stick them in my room!"

Edward blinked. "That might work too."

***

Colin got back to his room in time to see Shiro wag his tail at the wall. All six of his Comrades up there were looking at the wall rather happily now.

"Yip!" Shiro called Colin over as he arrived.

"What are you…?" Colin began, then stared.

Where before they had had a clean white wall on their room, the wall now had pawprints all over it.

Not dirty pawprints either. These pawprints looked like signatures, much like the prints they left on the registration tablets… and there was one of each all arrayed in a straight line according to where each Comrade sat.

Colin inspected the wall, noting the prints from left to right. "Sonia, Shiro, Raiki, Bubba, Rall, Fireheart…"

"Yip!" Shiro barked, happily.

Colin sighed, and put his own hand to the wall right where he stood, several feet above Raiki and Bubba's pawprints. Fireheart glanced at it, and let out a small stream of fire, outlining his hand where it was.

"And Colin." He said, as his handprint was added to the wall.

***

As for the rest of the night, Colin and his Comrades spent it cutting down branches and carrying them to their room.

"Huh? What's this?" Colin blinked, as Shiro brought him something, dragging it by in a net of vines.

It was an egg. "Where did you get this?!"

"Yip." Shiro answered, nodding at the biggest branch they cut down. This one was seven or eight feet long and would be hard to take through the doorway, but they wanted something big to give the forest idea a stronger look.

"What egg is this?" Colin asked. "It's as big as my head."

Thoughts of giant snakes came to mind then, making him shiver. But that wasn't possible. This was the South Sunshine Forest, and the only Wilds around here that laid eggs were either Rainducks or Watergulls.

"This is too big for a Rainduck egg." Colin observed. "It's as big as most Watergulls. Whatever could it be?"

"Yip." Shiro told him solemnly. "Yip."

"Well…" Colin trailed off. "I guess we could hatch it and see. We'll take it to the Comrade Home tomorrow. For now, let's get that branch back to our room."

It was a struggle, but they made it. Colin took a break after they got it in, and studied the egg again as his last minute in Dreamworlds that night passed by.

"Good morning, guys." Colin told his Comrades, all busy shifting branches and leaves around in their newly redecorated room. "See you tomorrow night."

And with that, Colin Woke Up.

***

"Dad…" Colin began at breakfast.

"Colin, have you heard about the Green Men?" Dad said, musing over the food. "They caused trouble in Nakama World. Did you run into them?"

"I've met them." Colin said, relieved that Dad already knew about them. "But I got away."

"Good. Keep it at that." Dad answered. "Everyone's calling Dreamworlds Admin about it. Just stay away from them until Admin fixes things."

"I'll do my best." Colin promised.