The flight from The O' Bloo all the way to our destination made me with I had never ate that blueberry funnel cake pie earlier. The entire ride made me think I'd hurl the more Yellow flapped his wings, but that wasn't the main thing churning the buffet in my gut. The Dodecahydra was one of the many things I was dreading to come across from the stories I heard as a kid.
There was a well-known tale about a man named Hercule the Great. He was a man of the most untested strengths and a huge icon in the face of all myths tales and legends. His final tale, however, was when he was tasked to go up against the great Hectas. Hercule walked through everything Hectas threw at him, but it wasn't until his final obstacle that he failed, and that was against the great Dodecahydra, a super massive titan in the form of a dragon with a cluster of 12 long powerful horns brimming with energy. Hercule failed to defeat him and had to retreat back home to recover. Hectas terrorized the land for years until Hercules son was born.
His name was Maximo the Great, and he was destined to beat the dragon. With the most powerful and fabled father of all tales, and the brightest most fiery supernova mother that brightened up the galaxy, he was destined to come out on top, and that's exactly what he did. He defeated the giant dragon and dethroned Hectas, granting the land peace once more.
I definitely didn't have a supernova as a mom or a legendary hero as a dad, so there didn't seem to be a way I could even come close to harming that massive dragon. Then again, the Dodecahydra was cast into the never-ending abyss and perished, so how could they be alive again? Rosslyn seemed too focused on not throwing up to offer suggestions.
I carefully pulled out the compass that Iro gave me, trying not to drop it. The needle pointed forward, which meant we were definitely going where we needed to go. As I looked over the compass, I couldn't help but notice how much it was shaking. Maybe it was because Mamble was moving eratically, or maybe because we were flying. It looked as if it was trying to get out of the little glass compartment it was closed in.
Finally, I choked out my first words since we took off.
"Are we there yet?"
Yellow flapped his feathers impatiently before nodding. "Yeah, nearly there, champ."
The floor to the jungle started to go lower and lower, bathing us in darkness the further we flew out. The jungle was big enough to fit a hundred kingdoms in it and still have room for more, and that wasn't even including all of the sky islands, tree houses, and caves riddled throughout the jungle. There were houses, and huts as well as dens and nests every now and then, but the closer we went into the deep cold recesses of the darker part of the jungle, the less common they became.
Light fog began to become thicker, making what was ahead of us darker than it already was. Fireflies fluttered around, giving us a little light to see, and the ground started to look mucky and moist. Trees began to look more and more knotty from the amount of moisture their roots endured. Reeds, lilipads, and tall grass poked up from the swampy water beneath us as it spread farther and farther out, eventually looking like an ocean of swamp and mucky trees.
It got so dark from the tangled up branches above us as they became more conjoined, blocking out the daylight almost completely, leaving glowing insects and fungi to light our way instead. The thick grey fog made it even harder to see. If it wasn't for our compass, we'd probably be completely lost, flying in circles forever.
Finally, Yellow landed us on a wide tree stump, overlooking what seemed to be a kingdom. The branches above the massive kingdom conjoined, making a barrier from the sky that was probably too thick to break through. Under the ceiling of branches, a vast mud village surrounded a small mansion surrounded by tall wooden fences, like an outpost. Many houses were made inside withering trees or out of dried mud and concrete.
The streets seemed empty right now, but considering the many farms, mills, and buildings used to help keep the village running, it couldn't have been completely abandoned. The wide compass in my hand pointed towards the outpost in the center vigorously. By now, it was basically pounding on the glass, making it hard to keep a grip.
Then, it slipped from my hands, and the glass shattered against a rock. Rosslyn punched me in the side of the head, which felt more like a fly running into me, then a punch from a dragon.
"Great job, you broke a gift from an eyeball giant."
Before I could defend myself, the compass began rattling again. I slowly reached for to flip it back right side up. When I did, the red metal needle shot out. It frantically moved around in the air, pointing at the outpost in a panic.
Was the needle sentient? And it could float?
Before I could even question it, the needle darted off towards the outpost.
Yellow quickly grabbed me and flew off after it. If a sentient compass needle tells you to do something, do it.
The village was sad. It felt like a ghost town more than a thriving village. The streets were paved with dustone, or stone of dust, and hardened swamp minerals and rocks. Their seemed to be streetlights, but the fire inside them had all been blown away. In a dark village like this, you'd need all the light you could get, so it seemed weird that they'd be out.
We caught up with the needle, which was waiting outside of a large wooden gate that bordered the village from the outpost. It seemed crusted shut, like it hadn't been used in years, and the entire outpost had been covered or surrounded in dust and cobwebs.
An old gnarly voice spoke, nearly making me jump out of my shoes. The voice echoed throughout the village as if speaking to everyone, and not just us.
"The dragon of 12 horns is but a fallacy. The true threats hide and must be lit aflame to be level with defeat."
A shiver went up my spine as if a ghost walked right through me. Right after the voice finished speaking, a huge cloud of dust popped off from the giant doors. Browning vines slithered off of the hinges as it slowly creaked open, revealing the insides of the walled in outpost.
Behind the door was a large area filled with training equipment, attack dummies, and weapons scattered across the floor. In the very center was a small mansion house that seemed to have a light on in the main room.
Me, Yellow, and Rosslyn slowly walked inside, careful of where we stepped. There must have been a reason that the entire village was empty like it had been abandoned. It made me think back to the Lanta Grove, the Geodian village, and even Eagle Tree village. Ever since Zyloff's rule, and sometimes even before, there's been problems with the people and their village.
Tymir's lava, the rat's taking over, and the Hawks rebelling against the Eagles.
Maybe the same thing was happening here in this mud village. Maybe the Dodecahydra scared them all off. Maybe they were the one attacking the Klumpfs.
We walked closer and closer to the mansion, wading through the fog to get to the eerie light in the mansion. I don't know if it was just me, but I felt my hands get colder and colder the closer I got. We were at the dust covered steps when we heard what sounded like a monster roaring from the inside.
I guess the adrenaline encouraged my bravery because I dashed to the door and opened it without a second thought.
I expected to be met with a huge dragon ready to fry me to a crisp, but instead, I saw something much different.
"Visitors?! You said the land was undiscoverable!"
Standing before me were three people.
One was a blue, scaly, tall man with purple eyes, and what looked to be a crown of 12 horns sticking outward from the top of his head. He had a huge white beard with streaks of green around the edges. He must have been the man who roared... and the Dodecahydra.
The second was an old man with a tightly braided beard. He was at least four feet tall and had his beard hair, his eyebrows, and his eye lashes covered in microscopic green gems. He held a staff with a dragon head at the top that looked just like Mamble's, the only difference was the staff was made out of green mosaic tiles, and the dragon head seemed to be alive.
The third and last person was Mamble. His eyes lit up once he saw us.
"They aren't visitors. They're the heroes!"
He ran in to hug me and Rosslyn as the Dodecahydra groaned.
"Our heroes are a boy, a rat, and a yellow bird?"
Mamble smiled at us with surprise and then asked, "Where have you two been?"
We got him caught up to speed on everything that happened with us, and he caught us up to speed on everything with him. Apparently, he came out here because it was where the Jinjaga village was hidden. Without his staff, he would've never found it. The village was supposed to be bright and vibrant, but instead, it was like this. The mansion we were in hadn't been entered since the war because it was unruly to enter the domain of the king if he never came back.
People began to think he was dead and that someone else should take over, but the loyal men and women of the king knew better. The village went without rule for decades, and the outpost went untouched. But the king was alive all along, just cursed. He didn't die, he actually helped us win the war, but with the life of all the warriors he brought having been spent acrossed the battlefield, he didn't think the Jinjaga village would thrive without them. He suspected the village would get too weak to defend themselves without their men who went to war, so he made a deal with the Old Emperor before he faded away.
Prosperity, for the Jinjaga king. He was doomed to his untouched outpost until the day came that he kingdom would fall. Until then, the kingdom would have the power to lead itself. But now, they are all divided. The swamps overtook the sky, the water, the land, and now their starting to take over the air. The Dodecahydra was revived, but he was nowhere near as strong as he used to be.
He thinks that it was because he was too powerful and could've overthrown Zyloff, but that begs the question: "Why would Zyloff revive him at all?"
We only had more questions now. Who was terrorizing the Klumpfs? How could we save the Jinjaga kingdom? Why was the Dodecahydra here? The compass needle flew into the mansion and stabbed itself into a wooden pillar before pulling itself out and pointing out a window at an old windmill. They had already found Mamble. Why were they pointing at something completely new?"
Mamble opened the window, and the needle zoomed through it, circling up the windmill and pointing out at something else.
"Maybe we should follow it."
I pulled off my bag and set it on the floor before hopping out the window and walking up to the tall windmill. It seemed rickety, but somewhat sturdy. Hopefully, it's sturdy enough. Rosslyn jumped off my shoulder and scurried up the tower, leaving me to follow. I rolled up my sleeves and grabbed onto the peeling wood before hoistering myself up and beginning my climb.
I was never really scared of heights growing up. I climbed trees twice the size of this windmill plenty of times before, so this wasn't much of a challenge. I was pretty accompanied by the rooftops of the houses in Eagle Tree. I would love to stargaze on our neighbors house all the time because she had the least number of trees near her. She loved to bake and could never get much sleep at night, so I got to look at stars while eating pink chocolate chip cookies. I would climb all the time growing up. No matter how high the tree was, I'd find a way to the top.
Before I knew it, I was at the top of the tall rickety windmill. I could see for what would've been miles if the fog wasn't so thick. Rosslyn climbed on my shoulder and looked in the direction of the needle. Far put in the distance, I could just barely make out a silhouette of a boat. A very big boat. Rosslyn must have had better eyesight than me because she saw a lot more than I did.
"Oh, I know those types of boats. They belonged to uh... agh, I can't remember. All I can think of is jungle people, which is pretty irrelevant out here."
As I tried focusing a little harder, I could just vaguely see what looked to be hooded people walking around on the boat in the swamp. They had yellow piercing eyes under their dark hoods and looked vaguely similar to the rat people.
The floating needle turned to me as if to make sure I saw what they were pointing at. They must've been the ones terrorizing the village, and if that was the case, it wouldn't be too farfetched to say that they were the ones attacking the Klumpfs.
Rosslyn hopped on my shoulder to be level with my face. "We gotta get closer."
By the time me, her, and the needle got back inside the mansion, Mamble was the only one there. All he could do in his defense was shrug.
"One second, they were right next to me. The next, they were gone. What'd you find?"
We told him about the boat and the hooded figures, and he just crossed his arms and sighed. Clearly, he knew a little more than we did.
"Japes. Basically a chapter of the Old Testament that terrorizes the jungle so they know their day of reckoning is coming."
So the Old Testament really is back. If that's the case, then we didn't have a lot of time. When they first started out, their first act of infamy was to try and burn down the jungle of Artlandia. It was mostly effective and created the desert that takes up half of Artlandia that Artemis' temple resides in. I thought back to the map and how the edges of the jungle were withering away and had a horrible feeling.
I pulled out my map and rolled it out on the floor to reveal the three kingdoms. To my horror, my horrible feeling was justified. The edges of the jungle had receded back further, revealing a massive wildfire eating up the trees and slowly getting closer to us. Artlandia was almost half desert by now, and pretty soon, the fire would reach the Klumpf villages. It was terrifying thinking about the entirety of Artlandia being a dry dead desert. It was already hard to rebuild after the first fire, but now it was being threatened in its entirety.
We had to take down the Japes before it was too late. The longer we waited, the more of the jungle that burns. Smoke was starting to fill the air between the trees, making it next to impossible to see. Pretty soon, the entire jungle would be full of smoke, and after that, it'd be ashes.
It took me until now to realize that the fog plaguing the mud village wasn't even fog. It was smoke, and when I looked outside, it looked a lot darker. The air felt hotter and harder to breathe. The Klumpf village wasn't too far from here, which meant it could be next. There was no way we could put out the fire to save the village, it was was way too massive. There's only one person who can save us. Only one person who can save the jungle.
And that was Artemis.