Blanket Dog & The Two Loners

Chapter 7, You're the Chosen One, and You Don't Even Know it.

Not too long after our small detour started, a distant village came into view out of the fog that lays gently on the ground. Waving my hand in the direction of the town, I bounced excitedly. “I think we’re almost there!”  My two friends glanced to one another before shrugging and looking back ahead. 

“Are you sure we should stop here? You don’t think we look… Odd?” Zero’s question made me shake my head with confidence and stop walking to turn to her. They both stopped and took a step back in surprise as I spun around quickly.

“Oh, of course not! We look perfectly normal!” Zero glanced down to her rather bare clothes, then to dust and his ragged fur and plethora of scars, and finally down to me in my blanket around my shoulders. 

“Yeah… Perfectly normal…” Zero grumbled in a rather sarcastic tone, walking past me towards the village again. Dust glanced down to me and shrugged. After he started walking past me as well to catch up to the grumpy demon wolf. Jumping up and turning around in the air, I scrambled to catch up to the older animals.

I slowed down when I caught up to Zero and Dust, walking in the middle of them. While we walked closer, it became clear that this wasn’t a big town like it had seemed from far off. In fact, it was only a few buildings and a couple tents. There were only two animals in view of us, they stood in front of a small fence surrounding the village. It looked like they had axes. They must have seen us, because they raised their axes from resting on the ground and pointed them at us, with rather aggressive looks on their faces. Oh yeah, we’re casually walking around with the King’s ex second in command with us, that might be a wee bit suspicious. 

I wave to the two guards, skipping up to them. Well I didn’t get very close because they started to shout at us. Zero and Dust instinctively stepped in front of me. 

“HEY! Stop right there! You’re passing into Riverdown village’s territory, and you, wolf, don’t think we don’t know who you are!” The one to the right shouted, baring his teeth at us. This guy was a Ferret, and the boy was really aggressive. The other was female, and she was also a ferret, and she was also baring her teeth. 

I raised my paws, and by my action the two suddenly stopped growling at us, and changed their looks of anger to ones of surprise. “We don’t mean any harm! Even Zero, she’s decided to change her ways and help us defeat the king. Can you please let us inside?” The two shared a look before dropping their axes, and kneeling. 

“Welcome to the village, chosen one.” The girl whispers in a mysterious tone.

“Yes, welcome. Forgive us for our anger.” The male followed after. He lifted his hand and reached into a bush, pushing down on what I assumed was the lever to the gate, as it began to open right after a click sound was made. Dust shifted his eyes to the gate, and Zero made sure to keep an eye on the two ferrets. They appeared to be shaking ever so slightly as we walked near them. We slowly walked into the village, and surprisingly there were actually people walking around.

“Well, this is Riverdown… No wonder they’re all… Ferrets.” Dust itched at his left paw, flicking his ear as he turned his gaze from a building to me and Zero. I so badly wanted to smack his shoulder, but Zero beat me to it. 

“Hey, be senseful.”

“That’s coming from a demon.”

I rolled my eyes, laughing to myself as I pushed past the two while they silently bickered. “Come on, you two! Let’s look around, there's so much stuff to see! Maybe we should buy something?” Zero laughed loudly, making a few villagers look at us wearily. 

“I suppose we could. Hell, we could probably buy this whole village. I’m so rich, in fact, I could buy a villager themselves,” I glared up at her, making her chuckle awkwardly, “but, I won’t.” 

I shake my head and glance down the dirt road that leads into the village. I didn’t even notice I slightly started to bounce before running off down the dirt road. Zero and Dust barked at me to stop or slow down, but I ran right into a weapon shop. Not too long after I walked in, Zero and Dust walked in through the doors right after me. 

“Blanket Dog, we told you to- woah…” Zero was growling, but all the sharp objects made her eyes sparkle. “This must be the blacksmith… Look at all these cool ass weapons!” Zero instantly forgot about me, and instead was browsing the sharp goods, the tip of her tail wagging slightly. There were a lot of different weapons, like axes, spears, different swords, daggers, and much more. Although Zero seemed gravitated toward the bigger items.

A gruff looking ferret wondered up to Zero while she was glancing at huge swords, and tapped her side. “I see you’re looking at the enchanted swords. Would you like to see our strongest, sharpest collection?” His voice wasn’t nearly as rough as Zero’s voice, but it was pretty tough. Instantly Zero nodded, and pointed down to him.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, little man.” The ferret grumbled gruffly, turning and waddling over to a huge shelf full of glowing scythes. Dark black sticks, with silver blades, glowing with different colors and words of enchantments engraved on their blades. Their glows seemed to reflect off her eyes, and she smirked to herself. “This one,” her sharp claw pointed to the biggest scythe, with a dark silver blade, while glowing dark red and the enchantment of flame on the blade. The ferret seemed shocked, before turning to her and pulling the scythe off the shelf. The blacksmith was about half of the scythe’s height, until he handed it to her. 

“This is our most expensive scythe. It’s going to be 12,000 caps.” Zero smirked and pulled out a sack from her jacket, dropping it in his paws. 

“There’s 15 thousand. You’re welcome.” Zero turned and walked over to me again, the scythe sitting on her shoulder as she grabbed my wrist and pulled me along gently. We met up with Dust by the door, and left the blacksmith’s shop. While we continued down the road, Zero silently admired her beautiful weapon of death and fire. 

Dust stopped in his tracks when he saw a magic’s shop. Instantly he ran toward it, making me and Zero shrug and follow his paw prints in the dirt toward the shop. We walked in, and he was observing all the scrolls this shop had. There were other things too, like potions and ingredients to make potions. In fact, there were so many unique items, Dust looked like he was a kid in a candy shop. His eyes glazed over everything, well almost everything. He was glancing at the potions when a short figure, probably a ferret, in a large wizard’s robe approached him. 

“You… I sense you have potential, a huge destiny ahead of you.” The wizard turned and started to walk away, before stopping a few feet away from Dust to wave him along. When Dust started to follow him, he was led into a small room full of glowing scrolls. 

“Should you have the coin, I can offer you a scroll of magic. Each one of these ancient pieces of magic have extreme power, beyond your mind’s understanding. To put it simple, they’re stronger than you would think.” This really got Dust’s attention. He pointed to one glowing blue and black. 

“What is this one?” Dust asked with a glint in his eyes, a huge smirk on his face.

The wizard shook his head. “The scroll of water magic. But for you, I think you’ll like this one.” The wizard shuffled over to one scroll that sat alone, glowing black. “This is the scroll of pure strength.” Inside his hood was dark, but a small glint of red appeared where the ferret’s eyes would be. 

The scroll was laid in Dust’s paws, and it reacted by glowing brighter. “It’s chosen you…” The ferret muttered to himself, pointing to a sack of money that Dust had. Without saying a word, the cheetah reached over and handed the ferret the sack of coins. The scroll started glowing more, and Dust was pushed away. 

Zero and I noticed he was walking toward the exit, and approached him as he walked into the center of the road again. Dust was staring down at the paper in his paws, before shoving it in a satchel he bought in the first store. 

“Whatcya got there?” I peeked over around him. Dust jumped slightly, before shaking his head. 

“Just a scroll.” He answered, before standing up again and walking down the road. Continuing our adventure in the village. Zero walked after us, but from a farther distance. As if she was suspicious all of a sudden, and her shifty look didn’t help her case.

I finally saw a store that made my eyes shine. A wizard’s hut. Different from the shop we were just at, I pointed towards it. “Zero, Dust, i'm gonna go over there!” I shouted, running over to the big doors of the building. 

Slowly slipping in, I look around to find it completely empty. There’s one ferret at the desk, and they have a long purple hooded dress on. I shyly approached the front counter, tapping my paws together awkwardly. “H-hello…” The ferret glanced up from their book, before jumping back in alarm. 

“I-it’s you..! I-i-i can’t believe it’s you!” He sounded exasperated, pushing back on the counter. 

“What do you mean, ‘it's me’? You sound as if I'm here to hurt you in some way…” I tapped my fingers together, glancing down as he fixed his hat and sat back up. 

“The prophecy is real… YOU are real..!” This guy is really starting to creep me out now. I lowered my ears as I slowly raised my gaze back toward the wizard. 

“What are you talking about..? Of course, I’m real…” He shot his hand forward and shut my mouth, making me yelp in complete surprise.

“Shut! Shut up! You don’t even know what you’re worth in this world. Come, yes come, follow me and I’ll show you just who you are.!” He jumped off the chair behind the counter, letting go of my muzzle before he pointed to a doorway. It was right behind the restricted area zone, and inside was quite dark. 

I shook my head, taking a step back away from the desks and countertops. I was about to turn around to leave, but the Wizard lurched forward and grabbed my left wrist, pulling me towards him. I hissed and he dragged me into the restricted area, right into a room full of mirrors and other random objects. He practically threw me over to a seat, and sat down on the other side of a table. Reaching into his robe, he pulled out a wand. 

“I'm about to show you something you wouldn’t have ever thought you could be. The reason people both fear, and respect you. The reason you’re one of the most wanted people in the world right now. You’re about to see it all…” His loud, booming voice echoed down into a hushed whisper as he waved the black-wood wand around. Then in one swift motion, stopped the circling and tapped the end of the rod on the tip of my nose. Suddenly the world began to spin, and everything turned insanely bright white. I was forced to shut my eyes from the nausea.

When I was able to open my eyes again, the world around me was a deep, dark red. I appeared to be in the sky, even though I couldn’t fly. The fur on my back pricked when a voice spoke behind me. 

“Welcome to where the little buddy inside you was born, Hell.” The ferret flew next to me, pointing down to what appeared to be a lime green ghost walking down the streets. His whole body was transparent, and only a differential of color was in his fading paws, which faded to white. He was a quad-walker, meaning he walked on all fours. 

“This is the parasite living in your body. He’s a demon, and has been dead for decades now. He has a one way ticket to the overworld, which is how he got into your system. The only reason he’s in you, and not in Hell, is because of his Boss. The King, who used to be his friend in the ‘Other World’.” I tilted my head, and looked over toward the Wizard with confused eyes.

“The Other World? What’s that?” He shook his head, before sighing.

“Nobody knows, it’s only been described as, ‘what happened before the explosion.’” The ferret Wizard pointed back down to the ghost. We flew toward the ground, landing. Nobody noticed us, though, as we appeared as ghosts. Nobody could see, or hear us.

“Watch him carefully.” We walked around, following the ghost who was possessing me all over the city. “This is what he always sees from you. He’s always observing like this.”

“But why is he watching me? Why did he choose to possess me?” I asked, a little freaked out knowing that somebody is always watching me. 

“It’s not his choice. It’s merely what his boss, and owner, told him to do. In fact, if it wasn’t for his boss, he wouldn’t be in Hell.” 

“Really?” I watched as the ghost stopped in front of us, and we stopped too.

“Yes, and his name is actually Ross.” The Wizard pointed out, as if being able to hear my thoughts. “He was born in the biggest city of the world, before today’s time, and lived a normal life until a certain man, who called himself the ‘King’, entered his life. The man he thought would be a father figure would wind up ending his life.” I gasped in surprise, looking down at ‘Ross’s’ paws as he took off running. 

Before I could recuperate, the Wizard dragged me off to catch up to Ross. I groaned as he let go of my wrist again, shaking my head and rubbing behind my ear with my hands. When I was able to catch up mentally, I saw Ross sitting in a dark alley. He was sitting in front of a pitch black area of the alley, where two boiling red eyes glared down at him. 

“You’re late.”

“I'M SO SORRY, BOSS!”

“Not an excuse. You owe me for wasting my time, that and I saved your life more than once. I need you for a plan. You’re going to stop the destruction of my plans, as they’ve come up with a prophecy. One that goes against my ruling.”  

Ross bowed his head, white tears streaming down his face and onto the blood red concrete. “Yes, sir..!” The shadow disappeared, and Ross clutched the top of his head with his claws, crying to himself in that dark alley. 

I wanted, so badly, to take a step forward and comfort the dismayed boy. The Wizard sighed and snapped his fingers, and in a flash, we were sitting in the seats in the shop once more.

“Why is he so sad?” I asked, my ears drooping in response to seeing somebody so sad. The Wizard only shook his head, before pointing his want to me again. 

“Now, he’s stuck within you until he completes his mission. To get you killed.” My eyes widened in shock.

“What? He can’t do that, not with me in control!”

“That’s where the fear of you comes into play. He can take over whenever he feels, at least right now with you having no resistance to his control. He can make you go on a rampage, killing millions if let.” The Wizard then put the wand away, staring deep into my eyes.

“You mustn't let him control you. You’re part of something much greater than you know. If you fail, the whole world will perish under HIS control. You’re our last hope.” The Wizard sounded like he was pleading at this point. I felt so bad, and guilty. I was this world’s last hope? How? I'm only a child. I can’t do this alone!

“I know what you’re thinking, child. And I assure you, you’re not alone in this tough situation and time. You have your friends, the two who guided you here. They’ll do anything for you, to protect and aid you. They love you, and want to see you succeed in saving our home. There are people out there who can’t fend for themselves, and you need to aid them. So go, stop wasting time in here. Just know, if you need me, you know where to find me.” And suddenly, in a cloud of smoke, the Wizard vanished from the table. Leaving me in silence, darkness, and paranoia. 

Slowly walking through the big doors of the Wizard’s shop, I spot my two buddies sitting on a bench bickering again. How can they be my aid in the war, if they keep arguing with each other? If they can’t stop fighting with one another, how will they be able to stop when a real threat arises?

I’m doubting them, and I hope it doesn’t show. I don’t want to be rude and think they can’t handle it. Because if anybody can handle this more than me, it’s them.

Walking over to Zero and Dust, I look up with conflicting eyes. Both of them stare down, confused as to what happened in the shop. I say nothing, and turn away. I take a few steps before sighing, and turning my head in their direction. 

“Are you two coming? I’ve got a plan. We need to find the King’s hideout.” For some reason, I just knew nobody but the King, not even Zero, knew this information. Meaning we’ll have to find it ourselves. If we can get the jump on the King while he rests, works, plans, something or other, then we might just be able to catch him off guard and win this war just like that. 

Zero and Dust slowly approached me, making me turn my head back forward and continue to walk. Looks like we’re not spending the night, I think I’ve caused enough instilled fright in the folks of this town. We might as well start heading out now, seeing as we all have what we need. Information, equipment, and a plan. Even if it’s a rather loose one, a plan is a plan.

They never said anything, and neither did I, as we crossed the gates into the wild world once more. The guards' eyes burned into my back as we walked away from them. They were suspicious of me, and my team, I know that, but we came and left relatively peacefully. I have to keep my composure, or this all goes down and we lose the game.