"Back?!" Maria cried pressing her hat down onto her ears, "I don't know any 'back!'"
"Right, me neither, but better to be strangers back home than strangers in this home, right?" Kokoso smirked mischievously and patted his hat, "Right, I have a few friends who should be able to help with that!"
"We really shouldn't leave, though...this is crazy, the ocean is forbidden!" she pointed out.
"That is it's name." Kokoso shrugged and walked towards the beach, "I know you're concerned with what will happen if we get caught...but think about what happens if we stay! We'll be found out, and people will probably treat us like a two man circus, before sending us into the Forbidden Woods, I don't want that. If you want, we can try disguises, but sooner or later, our secret will be exposed."
Maria turned her eyes to the sea, "This is a lot to take in...we don't even have a ship."1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXvUHHnhUU4
"That's where my friends come in, Cathryn and Byrd are like us, except one can fly, but he's nearsighted, so...that's where Cat comes in!"1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJI2FWrol7L
"Wolfe...I'm beginning to see a pattern here." Maria mused at her last name, she never thought it would have such an ironic significance.
"Fortunately they haven't suspected anything!" Kokoso said cheerfully, "they" being whoever happened to take notice of the pair on the beach.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJidcaAMMk
"Duck!" Maria shouted, pointing at a shape falling out of the sky.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskZ0PWoMTh
"Nah, that's Byrd." Kokoso's eyes widened and his hat tipped backwards, a testament to the strength of the ears under the hat, "Oh."
The pair were scooped up by powerful talons, the beat of the wings made Maria think her hat would fly off, so she held her hands over her head, then realized she didn't need it, she was flying to freedom. She stared at the ground under her and laughed, "We're flying! We're actually flying!"1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6UWKs4PVw
"Y-yeah, wake me when we land!" Kokoso cried.
Maria gave him a sad smile before her eyes drifted down to the ocean below. She could see the orange buoys that warned people they were outside of the city's waters, and couldn't help but frown at the state of the water, in some places, orange, in others, brown, but still others were lime green or uncomfortably yellow. No wonder people complained about seafood these days, the ocean below was a stew of dead fish and seagulls, floating where the tide bade them.
Slowly the eerie sea grew cleaner, and by that time Cathryn called out that they were almost there. Maria closed her eyes and shuddered at the memory of the ocean bordering the city, which she had compared to the markedly cleaner waters below her.
Kokoso's pulled up legs made him short enough that Byrd didn't notice anything strange until Maria was shaking the stiff boy, who remained firmly in place.
"He's fine, let me show you around." Byrd yawned, scratching his head.
"You? No way," Cathryn objected, "you go and find your glasses...and put on something other than pajamas, why don't you; sheesh!"
"Um, is it okay to leave him here?" Maria winced, staring at Kokoso, who's hat had fallen off his ears, so far back they bent.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowbI1lTG2l
"He'll be fine, Mother Goose will look after him, she must've sensed our arrival by now." Cathryn yawned, "Apologies, I had to wake up purr-ety early today to see to you, Byrd and I were flying circles for a while there, I was sure we'd be shot down."
"Shot down?" Maria repeated.
"Yeah, the Company doesn't like us too much, so if they see us, they shoot us with their battleships and run us off." Cathryn explained, "So, neither of us are exactly what you'd call early birds, Byrd's actually a bit of a night owl, and I can take...excessively long catnaps."
"I see, so you were both drowsy when you came to fly us here?" Maria stepped back with a shocked expression and she looked around, "Where is here, anyways?"
"Now the full effect of this place's unconcealed power disturbs you." Cathryn remarked, "Just try to stay calm, you'll get used to it, eventually it'll be an armor to you, I mean that literally and figuratively, just try to stay calm."
"Thanks...now I'm worried about Kokoso."
"He's fine, he'll have time to grow accustomed to the foreign sensation soon enough, but he won't grow use to the raw power around him until he wakes up, it's less an effect on the body and more of an effect on the mind, the more time you spend here, the more attuned to the Wilds you are."1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfupfGgfYC1
"Wilds...is that what this entire...the beach, the-" Maria pointed to the trees in the distance and turned silently to Cathryn for an explanation.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbtnzIL1QOk
"The Wilds," Cathryn nodded, "is anything that's not a part of the ever growing city, but yes, namely this beach and the woods directly behind it." 1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKNCByuS5N
"The power of the Wilds-" Maria stared at the sand and let out a deep breath, not long ago she was dreaming of a wilderness.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFqpTfX0YF6
"It's source is yet undetermined, but it seems limited to any land not dotted by steel and regular humans."1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS8DCNusDqV
The two stopped in front of a small shack by the sea and Cathryn produced a key from her pocket and approached the door to the rundown place. She unlocked the door and slowly opened it, "Welcome to 'Sea Side Wolfe', Wolfe."
"What did you call this place?" Maria asked, regarding the cat and building with mild suspicion.
"The Sea Side Wolfe, it's a place that's been in your line for a few generations, beginning with your great-great grandfather, ending with your father and mother's-'" Cathryn stared at the sand and pulled the door shut, then turned to a stretch of the beach, continuing on the direction they'd been walking.1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eFU1FOhIV
"Cathryn?" Maria followed the silent young woman to where the beach bent around a large, red-brown slope who's arch climbed high above the village and grew all manner of vegetation. In the secluded beach Maria found Cathryn staring at two beams of a mast that had been smashed in some long-forgotten shipwreck.
"They were happy here, life was good, but then we started getting visitors...they worked with some people called the 'Company.'" Cathryn stepped away and gestured to the two masts, "Your parents helped us repel the initial attack, the Company hasn't been back sense then...Mother Goose sent you away afterwards, in fear that they'd be back."
Maria stared numbly at the masts and stepped away, "This can't be real."
"That's what I thought, too, when she brought me back," Cathryn turned away and stared at the clouds darkening on the horizon, "oh...you meant-"1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwgZg64N1f
"It's fine...if only things had been different." 1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOsUo4QOS0
Cathryn took a quick glance at the sky, "We should get you settled in before a storm rolls in...Mother Goose probably wants to see you, maybe Kokoso woke up by now."1072Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZLSGppCnoH
"Yeah." Maria turned to find the cat girl already making her way back. "Back...there's that word again."
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