Venturing: Pararun

There was shouting and screaming.
Footsteps rapidly running as if they were in a race. All the citizens were
heading away from their town. Why? No one dared to answer. And as I remained on
the sideline watching them flee like rabbits, I noticed the sad expressions on
their faces. Tears welled up filling the eyes to the point of having blurred
visions. They were in a panic. For as their hearts raced, their screams were
high-pitched. Constantly, I see pushing and shoving amongst the clusters of
citizens. All wanting to get out of town. But not because of vacation; it was
something else. The unknown and as I hear the voices, I turned my head away.
Closed my eyes and shook my head; knowing this be the last time I would see
them. To my amazement, my prediction was spot on, however.

My eyes opened up. Memories of
those voices were still on my head. The shouting and the screaming; it was
perhaps too much honestly. But I know deep down within myself, I cannot afford
to lose or break down and cry. Unknowingly, my arms stretched outward. My claws
planted themselves upon the underside of a rock. I pushed and made noises. My
strength slowly leaving me as if I did not want to do this anymore. The rock
above rumbled and vibrated to my surprise; my eyes widened and a small smile
imprint on my face. For with newfound strength and motivation, I pushed against
the rock.

It moved away from me. Opening a
hole that brightened up suddenly to my cold face as my eyes shut tightly and I
slowly pulled myself to my feet. Then I opened my eyes and looked at my
surroundings. It was just as I had expected. But the main question that was
kept on my brain was-

“Ling! Ling!” My ears perked up
and shifting my head towards the source of the sound; I grinned quickly
noticing the beautiful White silver dragoness, my girlfriend. She was running
to me from my left side; screaming rapidly with her high voice and at the same
time waving her right claw in midair. Her name was Yang. She ran up to me and
wrapped my body with her arms and claws; embracing me with a warm hug and maybe
a kiss or nuzzle here and there. After a few seconds of contact, we finally
separated and I noticed her expression had changed.

She was about to speak when I
interrupted her suddenly with words of my own “Where are Zander, Natty, and
Kuro? Were they not with you?” “They were…” Yang trailed in answer; her eyes
shifted to my shoulder blades then to my wings before she added, “But they left
me to find you. They had to check if the owner is dead and we killed him.” I
nodded slowly, taking her to answer as I looked away again. All around us was a
leveled ground. No buildings, cars, or civilization. All were gone in a couple
of seconds. And as I looked back towards Yang, I noticed she was quiet. 

Her scales were not shiny anymore,
instead, there were cuts and spots all about. The cuts seemed to be deep as I
could perhaps see bones within them if I looked carefully enough. Though I
shivered, I decided to look elsewhere. Her dark-shaded silvery wings were
ripped apart rendering them useless in times of flight. It would take forever
to fix them and harder to even find someone who could sew them together. I
turned my head away and looked over myself. My cuts were all over my blue dirty
scales. But no spots were found. The blood pooled out from them and ran down
towards the grounds below me. I had remembered that I used my strength to push
away the rock. 

And amongst the silence, Yang’s
voice cut through the silent air as our eyes shifted and met one another.
“Come. We need to regroup with the others.” “Do you remember where the hole was
then, Yang?” I questioned her. A nod escaped unconsciously from her head as she
turned around and headed in the direction from which she came from. I followed
seconds after. We walked through the gray blackish grounds beneath our feet as
our eyes rose high to the horizon. Watching the blue skies with white fluffy
clouds slowly running across, we continued on ahead. Luckily for us, it was
just a short walk before we arrived at our destination.

A large hole. Familiar voices
echoed in our ears and we knew instantly our friends were here. I heard sudden
footsteps and shot a look at Yang who already was moving to the hole. Her face
hardened as she reached the stairs. Descending below the hole thus disappearing
in my sights, I waited and listened to the sounds of her footsteps. The voices
inside snapped to attention and I knew instantly, they heard her.

Soon the footsteps stopped and in
their place was a conversation. It started off with a harsher greeting as I had
suspected the two parties were cautious if the other as an enemy. A second or
two afterward and I am hearing screaming sounds that brought me out of my own
mind. And quickly glaring onto the surface of the hole below, I leaned forward
a bit. Hoping that I did not fall. It was hard to hear the conversation as the
voices had dropped to only a whisper. I could only make out bits and pieces.

And as I stood there listening to
their conversation, I hear a sharp sound of a wind that almost sounds like a
wolf howling to the daylights. I snapped to attention and turned around. There,
I noticed a foreign group a few steps from where I stood. I blinked momentarily
noticing that the foreign group was a mixture of silver dragons and birds.
Saying nothing, I threw my right claw towards my pants, snatching my pistol
from its holder. Drawing it up leveling with my head, I yelled at them “Hands
up where I can see them!” But they never obeyed. Instead, they stared at me,
ears held back as their eyes poke daggers against my scale. I walked to them
confidently and with a hardened face

“I said hands up-“ I repeated but
a member of the foreign group just chuckled. He stepped forward closer to me.
Threw his claw onto the head tip of my pistol before pointing it to the grounds
below. I just stared at him. Another silver bulky dragon whose wings were
larger than mine. His horns sharp and pointy. His scales are bright silvery so
that it seems the sun’s rays are reflected against it. The silver dragon stood
amused to my antics and spoke with a small confident smile on his face. On his
head was a black hat; a strange-looking symbol was imprinted.

“And why should we listen to a
pretending officer of the law?” I growled at him, my eyes narrowed as I yank my
claws to life. Startling the dragon and he stepped back; he looked to me
bewildered and I responded to him with a smug. But that was short-lived when I
changed my expression again and raised the pistol at him. “As I said before…
hands up.” And the group did. I heard rapid footsteps behind me. As they came,
I heard Yang yell “What happened? What is going on now?” “We got trouble?” Kyro
asked, noticing my pistol was already out of its shell. I shook my head and
tilted it, pointing straight towards the group in front of me.

No one said anything in the
seconds that passed by. As I watched my unit then the group in silence before
Yang stepped out and her face hardened. A million questions bombarded the group
and all they could do was stammer in disbelief. Earning a few chuckles and
laughs from me and the others while I withdraw my gun; taking a glance over at
the group once again. ‘None of them seems to be around here, perhaps they were
in other towns or cities close by?’ I pondered raising a claw to my chin as I
gave an ear to the conversation at hand.

The group was actually split apart
and so happens to meet up at the edges of Vaster. The silver dragons came from
a kingdom that was not far from where we were. But when pressured about their
goal into coming here, none of them answered. They only say “They came because
of an explosion.” Upon that word, my mind instantly returns to the battle
before the explosion and a single question popped into my head. Though I kept
it inside; a quick look to Kyro and Natty when they stared at me and instantly,
They knew what I was going to say. 

The birds who were with the
kingdom dragons were actually ravens. Black feathered body head and wings.
Their eyes were bloodshot red as if they had not gotten any sleep lately. Their
leader was named ‘Enzo’ or ‘Erzo’. A black feather raven. He was shy and quiet
to talk. He seemed to be pressured into talking with Yang by that other raven
adjacent to him. I saw Yang nodded in response before introducing herself and
her unit, which was us by the way.

After a round of introductions, it
had seemed that the tension brewing within the two groups have faded and all
that was left was chatter. But even that was short-lived when I heard Kyro
shouted something that caught our attention. And with eyes to him, he seemed to
be pointing at a distance. Taking a quick look, my eyes widened. A grayish
stressed wolf was running across the horizon, weaving herself through the
brokenness that was around her. Her body was slim and flawless as if she was a
running animation. Her tail was short. Eyes yellow but were missing pupils because
of stress. As we watch her go, seconds after we notice who was chasing after
her.

A bunch of cats. 

“Now that raises a lot of
questions.” I heard Kyro answered receiving a few nods from Yang while the
silver dragons and ravens looked at us with mild concerns. I nodded in replied
silently then shift my eyes back to where we had spotted the wolf and the cats.
They seemed to be far away now, but that did not stop us from wondering why the
cats were chasing the wolf. When in reality, it was supposed to be reversed.
With that thought in mind, I looked over to Yang who had a bright smile upon
her face like a hatchling on Christmas morning. For we knew, investigations
were our thing as officers of the ruined town. Yang spoke but her words were to
us.

“We need to cover more ground.
Time is perhaps against us at the time due to how close those cats are towards
the wolf.” “Yeah.” Came to a response which I presumed to be Zander. Kyro and
Natty nodded their heads, smiling only faintly as Yang nodded back to the pair
before addressing our assignments

And during which, I stole a look
over my shoulder. Spotting that the group was somehow gone. Vanished as if thin
air. I blinked in surprise and quickly interrupted Yang as she looked over to
me. I rose a claw and replied, though it seems Kyro beat me to it first.

“Where did they go?” Kyro
exclaimed. We heard a sigh coming from Yang as she shook her head; a low
sounded pitch growl came from her mouth as her eyes narrowed towards the
perhaps general direction of where they had gone. “Kyro and Natty head
northward towards our second former HQ. Stay there and find some evidence.”
Both dragons nodded, spread their wings before flying off. Which left me and
Zander together. I really do not mind, however.

As I looked at Zander, I noticed
that he was preoccupied with his thoughts swirling around his head. That I
frowned at him before raising a claw at his shoulder and tapped him. Zander
flinched in response before scowling at me afterward, I faintly smiled before
motioning him to follow me. He did regardless as we left Yang by herself 

Heading leftward, down the ruined
streets where buildings and houses were broken beyond repairs. It was like a
tornado had ripped through our beloved town while we were taking shelter underground.
We resumed our walk, our footsteps echoing silently in our ears and eyes
looking to the horizon where the sun beats down upon our faces. My wings were
folded, but constantly I flapped them unconsciously as I stared looking onto
the houses surrounding us.

The streets were narrowed but
long. Thousands of mailboxes littered in front of us. All of which were broken
or destroyed. We tried to step over them, most we could, however. But to those
that we could not, we were forced to walk around them. So that what we been
doing for five minutes into our stroll down the street. And upon reaching the
end, I stopped while Zander continued on ahead.  In the corner of my eye,
I noticed something bright and yellow. I turned to it before walking closer
towards the objects that interested me.

Up close, the bright light was a
lamp. It was a silver cover; the bulb was crystal clear. The lamp was wireless
which only means it runs on battery power. I stretched my claw to the lamp and
gripped it tightly before hoisting it up on eye level. The heat from the lamp
transferred to my claw to the point that it was almost unbearable to withstand
it anymore. So I dropped the lamp, but to my surprise, it did not shatter.

I heard footsteps behind me and
turned around to face it, I spotted Zander. He was huffing, seemingly exhausted
from having to backtrack to get me. As his scowl lingered on his face and his
arms impatiently crossed his chest, I sidestepped and showed what I had found.
“A lamp that works?” Zander questioned, shifting his eyes to me and the lamp.
His face softens as I nodded in reply adding “Be careful Zander. It is warm.”
But Zander scoffed and laughed a bit before grabbing the neck of the lamp
hoisting to eye level before we exchanged glances

“See!” Zander boasted “Easy
pissi!” I rolled my eyes and said nothing to him as we resumed our patrol. At
the end of the street was a crossroad. Both ways were again littered by wood
coming from the houses surrounding the roads. There was a big pile on both
sides, so walking is out of the question. I spread my wings without a second
thought as Zander had done the same. And jumped to the air we go, hovering just
above the grounds below before we flew northward with hopes of catching up to
the others.

We ended up upon a building that
was still standing tall which shocks both me and Zander while we kept eyes on
it. We flew to the building and landed upon the streets. Folding our wings, I
turned my head around and scanned the surroundings. Everywhere I looked was
empty and dull. Smoke was rising from one of the ruined houses at a distance.
Adjacent to it was nothing else. The trees snapped and broke into two. One of
the trees smashed onto a house behind it, further damaging it. As I looked onto
the scene with a neutral expression upon my face, my ears perked and I turned
to the source. Spotting Zander walking forth to the building before us and I
said nothing but followed him in.

Approaching the door, we noticed
that it was already opened. We looked to one another with surprise looks upon
our faces before grabbing our pistols, hoisting them up into the air. Zander
peered in first before pulling away. He allowed me to look inside which I took
for granted as I replaced him as spotter before looking in. A single room
stands before me. It was large and full. Words were filling the air, followed
by some static that I perhaps deduced as a turned on a television set. I was
worried and slowly fear climbed from the depths of my stomach while thoughts
filled my-

I was pushed forward. My feet
acted on their own. Two three steps forward of losing my balance as I growled,
glaring onto the dragon behind me who stared back without regret of what he had
done. However, instead of sharing a few words with him, I looked around the
room. Paying attention to the details as much as I could before relaying the
information to my partner, Zander. Around the room were five rotten wooden
doors. One of the five was opened; allowing cold air to nip against my feet and
scales. I shivered responsibly and motioned with a claw wave to Zander who
nodded in response.

Zander stepped away from the main
door; closing in onto me as he gripped his pistol tightly against his claw.
With each step, his face grew harder and darker as if he was working on an evil
scheme to get rid of someone. When his feet lined up against mine, he turned
around and glanced at the opened door. Then he slowly looked at me. I nodded in
response as we walked forth. Smacking our scaly bodies against the walls on
either side of the opened door before throwing ourselves in. For once we were
inside, we were shocked to see Kyro and Natty here as they raised their heads
to us, a smile appeared on their faces. 

Putting away our pistols, we
walked to them. The room we were in was dusty, a bunch of books clustered upon
the bookshelves. All of them were gathering dust. Two opened windows stood on
either side of Natty and Kyro as we heard faint chirping sounds outside. As we
walked to the pair, Natty waved at us. I responded with my own as Kyro asked
“Why are you guys here?” “To ask about something…” I started which gave a
concerned look on their faces. I shook my head in answer and rose my claw
signaling Zander as he stepped to my side. Revealing the wireless lamp that we
found lying on the ground. Kyro and Natty gasped in response before they took
pulled out something too.

A circle of cheese…

It was moldy, smelly, and
disgusting to look at. Even I held my nose when I saw it. As I and Zander
reeled back with Kyro chuckled faintly, Natty explained “We found this at the
kitchen…” “why would anyone leave behind a moldy expired cheese?” Zander asked
his eyes to them. Natty shrugged silently and frowned, her wings folded and she
looked relaxed as her head glanced to the cheese between us and shrugged again
as if she did not have any other explanation. I huffed bringing the silence to
me once again. And the room followed behind while we listened to the sounds of
chirping outside our window. 

Then the silence was shattered
when we heard footsteps about. They were faint, almost hard not to hear if one
was not concentrating hard enough. As we listened to the footsteps; we were all
prepared. We grabbed our pistols and turned around, facing the opened door
behind me. Raising and poising our guns at the door, my lips parted and I found
myself shouting “Vaster Police! Come out of the room now!” Then there was
silence. My eye twitched as I gripped my pistol tightly and stepped forward to
the door. Zander Kyro and Natty behind me for backup as we move like a unit
towards a prey. As we stepped, I felt my heart pounding in my chest and I had
become anxious. I often found myself shivering uncontrollably or something else
I was not aware of. 

As we closed in onto the door, I
heard Zander shouted behind me. “Last warning perpetrator! Come out now.”
“Perpetrator?” Answered the voice; it was familiar however to our ears as I
blinked suddenly three times before popping myself out from the other side of
the door. And there I saw was the silver dragoness dressed in blue, “Yang…” I
grinned as she nodded, mirroring that smile back at me while we all walked back
into the room.

“What have you all found lately?”
Yang asked after seconds in the silence. Only Zander and Natty pulled out their
findings. A lamp whose bulb was flickering about after being on for hours and a
circle of cheese. We all looked to Yang who suddenly nodded silently; taking in
our offerings and at the same time pondering over her next train of thoughts.
This had gone on for a while before the silver dragoness speaks; “It makes
sense… somewhat.” She concluded, shocking us as we looked at her

“B… but how?” I protested, my
voice increasing in volume and my eyes stared at her. But with a smile on her
face as she nodded again in confirmation, she held out the last piece of
evidence and placed it on the floor for us to see. What we saw was a deflated
blue balloon, it was not new or old as Yang quickly explained. “This balloon I
found was at a nearby trash can inside of the park. I was tailing the cats and
wolf, wondering where they were going.” “Well…?” Kyro pipped up as he looked at
Yang

“Where were they headed? What was
their destination? And why three items?” A round of murmurs quickly surfaced as
we each threw in our acknowledgments, concerns, and comments. But that too was
dispersed when Yang answered him “Their pattern was an odd one, Kyro. It was as
if they had rehearsed this somehow.” She said becoming quiet for a second
before resuming when no interruption occurred, “They were moving in a rectangle
shape when they reached the center of Vaster Town. Then from that shape, they
suddenly moved Northwest to its edge and stopped there…”

She looked back at us and frowned
“I have not seen the wolf or the cats after that. I presumed the wolf was
captured.” We fell silent after that, processing the information we had through
our minds. The room fell silent, we all kept our eyes to one another before I
found myself speaking. Shattering the room, I asked quietly and hesitated as if
I was embarrassed by my question “Where did they go?”