The Secret of Wicketwoods

As Cole walks he still gets strange looks from people passing by. He finds a museum wedged between a library and an employment office, all residing in seemingly historical buildings of sturdy bricks. The trees in this area of town seem more lively. Their canopies almost completely shield the streets from the sun making the sky seem much darker and less harsh. Specks of light that make it through the leaves give a soft and filtered lighting. Cole heads along the sidewalk and into the museum, this time keeping his head down.

He enters an intricate lobby with detailed tiled floors and a painted ceiling. Art hangs along the walls with informational panels between marble pillars. On either side of the room are wooden desks with someone at both and a doorway straight ahead with a green and gold rope blocking it. One of the women at the desk looks up at Cole and gives a hospitable smile.

Cole gives a small wave as he realizes he hesitantly walks over with a sigh.

The woman smiles at him and folds her hands on the desk, "Welcome. Would you like to purchase some tickets for entry today?"

Cole notices a small security camera in the top corner of the room. He stares directly into it for a second before responding to the woman, "No thanks, just wanted to take a look around."

She nods happily as Cole instantly turns to leave. He hears her as he steps out of the building, "Come visit us again sometime soon!"

Cole then makes his way to the library next door. As he enters he notices it's a bit old, much like the building itself. Large wooden bookcases each with built in ladders line one side of the room. The other side of the room has a counter and a librarian towards the front, a few sofas and tables in the middle, and desks with computers towards the back. Only one camera sits in the corner near the front desk and entrance. A few nonferals are in the room but are quietly occupied with books or papers.

Cole scans the shelf labels for a mention of history, briefly glancing at the camera.

He finds some rather easily but also starts to get a strange feeling of unease. Most of the books however seem rather basic and depict the entire world rather than one location. That is except for one. Wedged between some of the books is a misplaced kid's book that stands out from the rest. Its spine has golden lettering that reads, "The Secret of Wicketwoods."

Cole raises an eyebrow as he grabs the kid's book and looks it over. The cover is a bit worn from a lot of use and depicts orange trees much like the ones outside. He decides to look through the book.

The first page shows a nonferal grabbing the sun and stashing it away in their pocket. The page says, "Catch the sun and stow it low."

The second page shows a line of trees, each with a nonferal hiding in its shadows. The page says, "Disguise of all the thieves."

The third page shows the nonferals climbing the trees and using ropes in an attempt to steal the moon, "hope and pray the moon will stay."

The fourth page shows a sad nonferal in the heat of the sun around trees that were chopped down. The page says, "And Never blame the trees."

The final page is an artistic mashup of all the previous pages with the people, thieves, sun, moon, and trees along with the last lines of text, "Oh the forest, oh forest,

forest of Wicketwoods! I hope and pray that your loved ones stay in the arms of Wicketwoods."

Cole closes the book and puts it back and sighs as he mutters quietly, "That was ominous." He resumes his search for a general world history book.

He finds one simply titled world history with a familiar image of Earth across its cover. Cole starts feeling watched. He starts taking deep breaths as he grabs the book and starts flipping through it.

The countries and even states he sees are all accurate. Though any people mentioned have different names and depict nonferals of various hybrids.

Cole looks for a map of whatever he's on but can't seem to find one.

Cole sighs and puts the book away and walks over to the librarian with his head down and asks, "Uh question, what state are we in?"

The librarian looks up from her computer and furrows her brow, "...Uhm. Tennessee Dear." She seems a bit puzzled at seeing Cole's face.

Cole doesn't talk for several seconds, "Cool....awesome...thanks-" Cole then briskly leaves the building.

He leaves safely but still feels as if he's being watched. Cole resumes looking for the festival, keeping his head down.

He finds it pretty easily as it's just around the block. He sees the area with traffic cones and food tables set up surrounded with nonferals and music. The feeling of being watched is getting worse.

Cole looks visibly uncomfortable but continues to ignore it, hoping it's just a hallucination as he tries to see what they're eating. He can see Wendell through the crowd busy talking to some nonferals near a table. Something feels off, or lighter. Cole starts patting himself down while still looking for what food they might be eating. Just before he gets close enough to see the food, he quickly notices his revolver is missing.

Cole's eyes widen as he quickly spins around and starts searching for anyone running away from him. Most people are stationary or walking slowly. That is except for one who he gets a glimpse of darting into an alleyway.

Cole bolts after the glimpse while muttering, "God damn it, fucking thieves."

He enters the alley and finds the stranger wearing a black cloak as they finish climbing a chain link fence and hop down to continue running. Cole leaps onto the fence and hops down on the other side to continue chasing.

The stranger then sprints through a busy street with cars passing. They slip slightly on the extra piles of leaves before running into the next alleyway.

Cole sprints through the same street without any fear as he continues chasing them into the next alleyway, "GIVE IT BACK!"

Past this alleyway, the stranger leaps up and scales a tall cement wall about 9 feet tall.

Cole easily jumps on top of the wall and stares ahead at the stranger, "Hand it over, now."

The ground on this side is equal with the top of the wall and leads into a form of garden. The stranger doesn't respond or stop as they dart between the hedges and rose bushes.

Cole groans loudly as he continues chasing, "I can run for miles, you are merely tiring yourself out." Cole starts speeding up in an attempt to get closer.

Turning the corner around one of the rose bushes, Cole is suddenly face to face with a feral pet guard dog that snaps at his legs.

Cole kicks the dog clear out of his way as he continues sprinting, slowly going faster and faster. All he hears is the instant yelp before going past it. He quickly catches up to the cloaked stranger who pivots and tries to jump towards an inground swimming pool.

Cole snags the cloak to prevent them from jumping into the water, "YOU LITTLE SHIT GIVE ME MY FIREARM BACK!"

On grabbing the cloak he hears a click as the stranger has taken off the cloak and falls into the water, leaving the cloak in Cole's hands.

Cole throws the cloak on the ground and stares at the water, clearly debating something. The stranger under the water starts swimming for the other side.

Cole groans in annoyance as he knees down by the water. He reaches dow to put his hand in the water as there's a faint electrical zap.

The stranger jerks slightly under the water before swimming up to the surface. She puts her arms up on the edge of the pool while coughing up some water. Without the cloak he can see that it is a small brown tiger nonferal with messy short dark brown hair over her eyes, the long nose of a fox and the tail of a fox.

Cole yanks them out of the water by the back of their shirt and searches them for his revolver. She wears the revolver on a holster on one side. After he grabs the gun she tries to scoot back away from him.

Cole holsters his revolver as he grabs her ankle, "First of all, who the fuck do you think you are? Second of all, you aren't getting away until you give me a clear explanation as to WHY you stole my revolver."

She stops scooting back and he can feel that she's started shaking in fear. She stays quiet while looking in his direction. Now no longer in the water, he can see she wears a hoodie with the town name and a number, and dark gray shorts.

Cole stares for several seconds before realizing something, "Oh... sorry." Cole lets go of her ankle.

She instantly scrambles to her feet and starts spriting for another fence. Cole watches her leave with a sigh then starts walking back to where he was. As he walks he sees the dog he had kicked now laying in the grass nearby.

Cole continues walking, not caring much for the dog, assuming it's some kind of stray. The stranger who was about to scale the next fence pauses as she sees Cole walking away. She watches for a moment.

Cole starts looking for some kind of park as he looks up at the sky to get an estimate of what time it is. The sun is already starting to set as the streets become less and less busy. The chatter from the festival has now ended.

He spots a walking track after a few blocks. It has large well cared for trees and mowed grass. Along the track are wooden benches, signs, light posts, and trash cans.

Cole heads down the walking track and searches for a secluded area. He stops near a part of the path that is almost in the center and surrounded by bushes and trees. Beside it is one of the benches and a lightpost.

Cole lays down on the bench and sighs as he mutters, "Goodnight, lets just hope this is a bad fuckin dream..." then eventually drifts off to sleep.