92 Phase 79: Dilemma

He came for her, as she knew he would. Colin was too kind-hearted to let a sad statement like that go unanswered.

"Colin." Katrin greeted him, finding a relieved smile on her face in spite of herself. She knew he'd come, but it wasn't until he was really there, in front of her, that her fears melted away. Still, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

They were back on Crabby Island, once more on that cliff.

"You sounded… hurt." Colin said to his feet.

"Are you still mad at me for kicking you off the cliff?" Katrin guessed.

"Not really." Colin answered.

"Why don't you just kick me off too, then we can count it even?" Katrin asked, turning away to view the beautiful sea.

{It would be so nice if he'd hug me from behind and say he forgave me and told me something sweet…}

Colin kicked her off the cliff.

***

Katrin disappeared in a flash of white light.

Moments later, he got a call. Katrin was yelling at him, respawn sickness or no. "COLIN!!"

"What?" Colin asked, irritably.

"What are you doing?! You kicked me off the cliff!"

"That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"That's NOT what I wanted!"

"Then why did you ask me to do it?"

"YOU…!" Katrin went off in a fit of coughing.

"Hey, you kicked me off it first! And I didn't even ask you to!" Colin pointed out. "Where are you, anyway? I don't see you respawning back at the village square."

"I'm at our new farm, idiot! Our Comrades all recovered and we've started planting on the farm already! We started last night!" Katrin barked. "We're right beside your precious Forest of Legends, next door to your Home Base!"

"My Home Base is quite deep in the Forest, Kat. It's nowhere near Hot Springs Village."

"Whatever! Come find me here if you want to talk!"

"Why don't you come over to Lamico if you're so keen on seeing me? You haven't even seen the Forest I'm in charge of!"

"And you haven't seen our new farm!"

"I'll see it when I get back!" Colin growled. "What did you want to see me for, anyway?"

"I just… aargh, forget it!" Katrin yelled, and cut the link.

Colin sighed. "{Now} what am I going to do?"

Shinji had given him a rather expensive lift to Crabby Island, but he said he'd be busy fighting the Frenzieds later. Colin was stuck on Crabby Island, unable to take the plane to Lamico because the airport was destroyed, unable to take the ship because the seas were chock full of Scopic Pirates.

"I'll just {die} my way back." He grimaced. "At least I have that leaf Lynn gave me."

He jumped off the cliff.

***

Unknown to Colin, eyes were watching.

Many eyes.

In the weeks that followed, that cliff became legendary as the famous 'Kick Off Cliff'. Couples across Nakama World came from far and wide to break up there by kicking their ex off it. It was also traditional for the kicker to take his or her own suicide jump off the cliff once ensuring that their ex had died their way back to their Home or Outpost Bases. A less popular custom was for the previously kicked to come back and take revenge on the first kicker in turn.

Crabby Island, therefore, became famous for two things; crabs and the Kick Off Cliff.

***

Meanwhile, Colin found himself back at the West Lamico Forest, in his hut, feeling sick and dizzy. He took out Lynn's leaf and sniffed it, grateful for the relief, somehow wondering if he should have given Katrin half when he had the chance.

Well, too late now. He had work to do.

Shiro, Raiki and the rest of his Comrades were sitting around, looking at each other in bewilderment. "Yip…?!"

"Sorry. I died." Colin explained. "Were you in the middle of a battle?"

"Yip…" Shiro shook his head. {Not really. Just resting.}

Colin rested and sniffed for half an hour, recovering quickly. He noticed something odd. "You know, even after dying, Sonia hasn't come back with us. Why is that?"

"Yip…?" Shiro scratched his head.

Colin thought it over. "Maybe it's because she's in the Forest of Legends. If she's already at the Home Base, there's no reason for her to respawn at an Outpost Base, is there?"

"Yip." Shiro shook his head. He didn't know.

"Wonder how she's doing?" Colin voiced. "She's with her clan, isn't she? With you guys doing overday training all the time, she might be lagging far behind."

"Yip…" Shiro scratched his head again.

Colin checked his summary.

.

Image link

https://imgur.com/gEXwa5n

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Colin gaped. "Sonia's power has shot up like crazy!"

Everyone else had gone up a few levels a day during overday training, plus a couple of levels in helping clean up the water and deliver compensations. Since he left her with Lynn, though, Sonia had gone up… what… Fifteen? Twenty levels? She was on par with Raiki now. "At this rate, she's going to match Shiro's levels by tomorrow night."

"Yip!" Shiro sounded impressed.

Ardent and Glide were adults. Colin blinked, and turned to take a closer look at them.

Ardent was, indeed, bigger. Sitting on Kirin all the time, half-covered with her stretching feathers, it wasn't easy to notice, but sitting on the floor of the hut without any feathers around him, it was plain to see. Ardent was a three foot tall, four feet long wildcat adult.

Glide was still less than a foot long, but her wingspan had stretched to two feet, even backward swept as they were. She also looked more graceful in her curves and streamlined in her form.

Everyone else remained skinny, gawky, and long-legged. Except Shiro. Shiro still seemed to switch between cub-sized and three-foot long juvenile at will.

"Arf!" a loud voice called from outside.

Colin went over to the window and found his front lawn scattered with what looked like huge bowls of ice cream surrounding one gigantic bowl of black pudding.

He had to laugh. "Okay, Streak Foxes, you've had your fun. What's the matter?"

With puffs of smoke, all the ice cream revealed themselves as Streak Foxes: Whitestreaks, Graystreaks and Blackstreaks. The pudding turned out to be Kyubia, Lord of the Streak Foxes. She grinned at him, waving all nine of her black tails in the air. The Starstreak shimmering on her back seemed to glow with her humor.

"Arf!" she told him. "Arf, arf!"

"You just want to play…?" Colin winced. Somehow, playing with the Lord of the mischievous Foxes sounded like a bad idea. A very bad idea. He turned to Shiro. "What do you think?"

Shiro whined, shaking his head furiously.

Foxie pawed him on the nose for it.

"Hey, Foxie." Colin nudged her. "Why don't you go play with them?"

Foxie blinked. "Arf?"

"They're your clan, right? You're the one who understands them most. I'll appoint you our representative!" Colin grinned. "You can go play with your friends."

"Arf…?" Foxie scratched her head. "Arrf."

"What do you mean, she wants to play with {me}?" Colin pulled back. "You're a much better match to be her plaything… I mean, her {playmate}, so…"

"Arf." Foxie accused him.

"I'm not being rude! I just… well…" Colin winced.

All the Streak Foxes erupted in laughter.

Just then, a silver Bristle Boar charged in and snorted. [No time to play. Danger.]

"What danger?" Colin asked, for the first time half-glad to face more fighting.

The boar snorted. [Yellow Coats.]

"The Union's attacking?" Colin blinked. "Where?"

The boar snorted. [Big pool in middle.]

"Lakeside Ville?! Who are they attacking?!"

The boar let out a big snort.

"They're attacking {us}?!"

***

Colin turned to Kyubia. "This isn't one of your games, is it?"

But Kyubia was serious. She shook her head, barked commands and Streak Foxes darted off in all directions. She was sending for the other clans.

"Meanwhile, we have to go see what's happening. I can't believe they'd attack the forest itself…" Colin said.

"Yip?" Shiro asked.

"Maybe they're just expanding their logging camp." Colin suggested hopefully, but even then, he felt it.

There was a coldness, and a tension in the air that told him that something terrible was happening. As if the forest itself gasped and dared not breathe for fear of being heard.

"Yip." Shiro sounded doubtful and serious. "Yip."

"Let's find out." Colin said, running for it.

Kyubia didn't wait for him to get there on his own feet. She snatched him up with one tail, stuck him on her back, and raced the silver boar to Lakeside logging camp. She even won the race.

Colin arrived in time to see nets being thrown around Wilds, many of whom were down and unmoving. There were at least twenty men in yellow coats, part of the Union's forces, and they had their armies of Comrades with them, well into the hundreds. They were, Colin realized, quite literally attacking the forest Wilds and netting those rather than Tame.

"What are you doing?!" Colin barked as they arrived.

"We're Taming new Comrades!" someone replied with a nasty laugh.

Colin recognized him. That was the same guy who swung the axe at his head. "You're invading in force!"

"What's the matter? We're not chopping any trees or anything." He said, grinning broadly. "We're doing what Travelers do; fight the Wilds, Tame those we can, and either sell them or bond them."

"You're slaughtering everything in sight!" Colin protested. "You're not Taming anything!"

{As if our Forest Wilds would accept being Tamed by THEM!}

"Ain't this the same thing Travelers do? That's what Wilds are for, aren't they? They're for us to fight, and defeat, and Tame. We just prefer to sell them to the Comrade Homes for Travelers instead of Taming them ourselves."

"But this…!" Colin spluttered.

His mind told him that they were right. In fact, Colin himself had sometimes attacked every Wild in sight just to train up his Comrades levels. He bonded those he thought were worth bonding and let the rest go.

Only recently, he'd sold Tames to a Comrade Home for money. This was the same thing… wasn't it?

{But they're taking everyone!} Colin felt the shock of it.

But hadn't Colin himself all but cleared out the river of fish? Worse, he'd fed the fish to the Forest Wilds as payment for their help in keeping the waters clean of ash. All the Wilds captured here, however cruelly, were merely going to be sold to Comrade Homes, and given a chance to Travel with Dreamers somewhere someday.

Wasn't that what Colin himself did?

{But it was never like this! They were never frightened and angry! This is… what IS this?!}

"Hey! Look at all those Woodstreak Foxes!" the man called, pointing at Kyubia and her clan. "Get them!"

Satrox would have let them go on. He might even join them, and claimed a few prize Wilds to bond himself.

But… but…!

Kyubia screamed and her clan rose up to fight. The bristle boars charged in from the side, completely unorganized, right into the traps laid by those armies of trained Comrades. The owls dove in from overhead only to get webbed by steady formations of Arachnids. The forward charge style that Lynn had used in punishing Floras Town only served to land more and more Wilds into the Union's trap.

"Thanks for the help, boy!" the guy who swung his axe at Colin's head laughed. "We're getting so much more now!"

Colin found himself caught between screaming furiously and freezing solid.

"Yip." Shiro whispered.

Colin glanced at Shiro, his First Comrade.

He remembered what Michi said. To the Kat, I gave a Cat. To the lost, I gave him one to help him find his way.

"What do we do?" Colin asked.

"Yip?" Shiro nudged him. [What would Lynn do?]

"She'd order a straight charge and send them all into those traps." Colin pointed out.

"Yip." Shiro gave him a flat stare. [Do you think I would do that?]

"No, you're smarter than that." Colin paused. "I hope."

"Yip." Shiro answered softly. [The Wilds are angry. Too angry.]

"Want to take charge?" Colin asked.

Shiro shook his head. "Yip." [YOU take charge.]

Colin gulped. "But…"

"Yip." [You are the Forester. It's YOUR job.]

Colin looked around, finding half the Wilds present already captured. He glanced at Shiro. "We're outnumbered, and even if we weren't, it's already too late. They've captured too many."

The Wilds of the forest were crying. Furiously, they tried to fight back, but against an organized army, they were trapped before they realized what was happening.

Kyubia herself let out a hurt scream, half netted and surrounded on three sides with spears and hound-types. She had lost most of her clan and was now being cornered very quickly. Colin saw her struggling, trying to save her clan.

Spears and men moved in for the kill.

{No! Kyubia!}

"Yip…" Shiro began, then blinked.

Colin was gone.

***

"Yip…?!" Shiro looked around wildly. [Colin…?]

Found him. "YIP?!"

Colin was sitting on top of Kyubia, his staff in his hand, batting away the nets. He didn't say anything.

Something was odd about Colin. Something was odd about Kyubia also. They were completely surrounded now, but they seemed calm. Very strangely calm.

"Yip?!" [Kyubia's not berserk? She's not even angry?]

And then they struck.

Kyubia moved with blurring speed, and Shiro expected to see Colin fly into the treetops, but amazingly, he kept his seat even as those black tails lashed out in all directions.

"Yip…?!" Shiro blinked as five yellow-coats and half the hounds surrounding Kyubia vanished in an instant. Kyubia barked, and an intense sonic scythe shot past an offending hound, hitting the Dreamer controlling the Arachnids squarely in the face. He disappeared too.

Colin said nothing.

Kyubia charged, then suddenly leapt to one side, surprising everyone trying to surround her. One claw struck two men down, the other slammed right into them, finishing them off before she moved forward in a different direction.

"HEY! What the-?! Since when do Wilds fight like that?!" men were yelling, running around in shock. "Everyone…"

He died next, stabbed through the throat with one of Kyubia's nine tails. He was not the only one.

"It's too accurate! She's targeting our leaders!" someone spluttered. "How does a Wild know who's in charge?!"

Kyubia chased that man, ripping down two other loggers in her attack, then swept him into a tree with her paw.

Then she lifted her voice to the sky and howled.

There was an understanding, even among men, that when canines howled to the sky, they were calling to their own kind. As if in their own blood, there was a bond of loyalty, canines had their own way of answering.

Kyubia was more than a mere dog, or a wolf. She was the Lord of the Streak Foxes, the ruler of her own clan. When she called, they answered. Not just with their voices, but with their powers, their unique ability to create illusion.

The whole world turned into chaos.

And up to this point, Colin had said absolutely nothing.

***

[Beyond the dream, and from the heart of your darkest fears, I summon the terrors of your own soul!] Kyubia's thought echoed Colin's. [By your own voice and by your own hand, you have walked into the guilty's land!]

Colin moved, and Kyubia moved, and she knew what he knew to be true. That man there was preparing something big, trying to escape the illusion of mists and horrors that had arisen from the minds of the greedy.

She/he struck. [What is your dearest hope, Dreamer? On what do your daydreams dwell…? See it now before you… see it lost… forever… by your own doing.]

He screamed. He ran madly into a tree, then clawed at it with his bare hands, half trying to climb it, half trying to tear it, but his fingernails were no match for solid wood. Red stained the bark of the unmoving tree.

[All the things you do… for what do you do them? For whom do you labor and toil?] Kyubia roamed a forest that nobody saw, saying without a voice all the words that everyone heard. [Should they know what…you…DID?]

Screams echoed through the battleground that had turned into a shared nightmare. Kyubia's power, Colin's power, struck their very minds, and turned them against themselves. When she spoke with her powers, she spoke with the strength of her entire clan, and they proved overwhelming to the poor, clueless loggers who thought they were going to bully a boy and his forest friends.

Colin/Kyubia felt a wave of uneasiness. {Too much. This is too much. This should not be possible! What IS this?!}

{Who… ARE you?!}

The connection broke. The illusion fell apart. Colin dropped right off Kyubia's back as all the loggers and every last one of their Comrades fled screaming towards Lakeside.

Shiro, Colin's other Comrades, Kyubia's clan, and all those other Wilds were left scratching their heads.

Colin and Kyubia stared at each other, eyes wide.

And said not a word.

***

There was a period of silence at the abandoned logging camp. Colin and Kyubia went on looking at each other, doing nothing, saying nothing.

The clans of the forest started to arrive. The Bristle Boars, the Tree Cougars, the stragglers of the Streak Foxes, the Feelo Wasps and the Oakin, the Twig Lizards all nasty and spoiling for a fight, the Wood Owls and the Crested Falcons.

They gathered in the hundreds, and only then, when the abandoned logging camp was filled, every inch of it, with Wilds from every clan of his forest, did Colin finally speak.

"Destroy Lakeside." He said.

And so they did.