The train station was only a fifteen minute walk from my house so I made it there relatively quickly.
It's surroundings were beautiful, a park filled with benches and various species of plants. One end of the park led to the beach, where the azure-blue ocean sent waves washing over the shore. It wasn't surprising that the station had been situated by the ocean. Most of the trains these days have tracks that run across the ocean. Those tracks appear as the train moves faster, disappearing behind it as it goes. How that was possible, I wonder if I would ever know. However, I suspected that this had something to do with the spiritmals.
The station itself was exactly how I thought it would be; bustling with life as people rushed from one platform to another. I walked to platform D and sat down on a bench there. Looking at my watch, I found out that I apparently had a thirty minute wait that I would have to endure before my train would arrive. Having nothing to do, I decided to take a walk in the mall connected to the station. Setting myself a timer so that I wouldn't forget about the train, I walked into the mall. As I was about to go into a supermarket to get some snacks, I heard a desperate voice coming from the direction of a potted plant.
"Has anyone seen my spiritmal? He looks like a wolf and it's roughly grey, black and white in color. Please, someone, help..."
Hearing that someone lost their spiritmal, I immediately abandoned my earlier plan to buy snacks and instead went towards the direction of the plant.
Behind the plant, I saw a postman holding up a picture of a beautiful spiritmal that matched the description that I had heard earlier.
"Hey!" I called out. "Need some help?"
"Oh my goodness! Someone has spotted my Fang? Where have you seen him?" The man kneeled down and seemingly worshiped me, making me feel extremely awkward with the way he was acting. This man sure is more than a bit dramatic!
"Well... I haven't spotted your spiritmal." I answered. Immediately regretting my decision to tell him that when I saw the hope in his eyes die down.
"Whoa there... I don't mind helping you find him." I continued, happy to see the hope return to his eyes.
"Oh you kind, kind soul!" He said, bowing down. God! Why is he so dramatic? "May I know your name young lady? Mine's Tim."
"The name's Emily."
"Nice name."
"Ummm... thanks? Where do we start looking for your spiritmal?" I hurriedly changed the topic.
"Oh, Fang? He could be anywhere! He must be in trouble to disappear like that and not come back within the hour. I sent him to deliver something to this stall two hours ago" Tim explained while gesturing to a soap stall right beside us. "At first I thought he was late but..." Tim sighed, shaking his head.
"Let's look around the mall then!" I suggested.
"I've already looked through this area for him. But I still have a lot of the mall I have yet to cover."
"I'll help you search!" I offered.
"I can't thank you enough Emily! This means a lot to me. Would you mind searching the east wing of the mall? I'll search the west."
"Ok"
"Here!" He says, tossing me a walky-talky. "We will use these to communicate. Tell me if you find him!"
I agreed and ran of in the direction of the east wing.
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After twenty minutes of aimless searching, I heard a faint howl from my right.
"Fang?" I wondered, running off in that direction.
The howling got louder as I continued in that direction.
"Fang? Fang where are you?"
Just then, I saw a hole in the floor. In it was puppy like creature staring up at me. I gasped. The color of the puppy was a mix of grey, black and white. Weird... didn't Tim say that Fang looks like a wolf? Still, I better call him. What's a hole doing in the floor of the shopping mall? The hole itself was cornered off, yes. But that still didn't explain why there was a hole there. To make matters worse, all the shops there were closed.
"Hello? Tim?" I asked through the walky-talky. I think I found..."
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"Emily? Is that you?" I heard a call from behind me. Upon seeing who it was, I waved at the incoming Tim.
"Goodness! You really found him!" He exclaimed. "Wait... what's a hole doing in a shopping mall?"
"Beats me. Anyway, didn't you say Fang's a wolf?"
"Oh yea, I did. That's not Fang's true form you see." He answered, using a rope he had bought to pull Fang out of the hole. It was then when I saw that there was a piece of rotting meat, most likely from a pigeon, on the floor.
"Fang must have smelled that and jumped in" Tim answered my thoughts. "Fang's a wolfabeast, a monotone wolfabeast to be accurate, so he can smell meat like this up to five kilometers away."
Well, at least that answers my question.
The newly rescued spiritmal jumped into Tim's arms. Licking him all over. "Hey Fang that tickles!" He giggled as she slowly placed him on the ground.
"What are the two of you doing here?" We turned around to see a security guard. Tim explained the whole story to the guard.
"Oh, so that's what happened. You see, there was an accident yesterday where a spiritmal went on a rampage and made many holes in the floor like this one here." The guard pointed to the hole. "We were going to corner off the entire area today hopefully before anyone gets into trouble but it's seems like we're a little late." he scratched the back of his head.
"Hey, it's not your fault some spiritmal decided to go on a rampage." I answered, Inwardly wondering what would have made a spiritmal go on a rampage. It was indeed quite peculiar as hardly any wild spiritmals came by this area.
I heard a beep from my watch.
"What's that?" Tim questioned. Looking at my watch.
"It's my alarm!" My blood ran cold. "It looks like I'm going to miss my train and my first chance to watch a live spiritmal race." I sighed. It looks like I'm just going to have to save up my own ticket to attend a race. "Well... there's always next time... I guess..."
I continued as we walked out of the newly restricted area.
"Is there anything I can do? You did help me find Fang after all, it's about time I return the favor."
"There's not a need to!" I smiled. "I don't really regret it. After all, meeting and having a chance to save Fang is an awesome enough experience. You know, Fang's the first spiritmal I've come this close with in my life!"
"The first one?"
"Yea. My village doesn't really have many spiritmals. Sometimes I'll see one or two around but their owners would never let me play with them." I looked down, kind of ashamed as most people my age usually grow up surrounded by the magical creatures.
"Goodness! You are just making me feel worse being the reason why you missed your train in the first place! Surely there is something we can do..." Tim thought for a moment. Brightening up almost instantly.
"Is the race that you were going to watch happen to be in Seamon Town?" I nodded my head. "How'd you know?"
"I saw an ad on the television! I'll take you!" Tim decided. Smiling at me.
"What?" I exclaimed in shock. "Really, Tim, there's no need to."
"I insist!" He grinned. "Besides, I just happened to be heading there to make a delivery."
"But how? Even if you do help, I don't think I would be able to make it there on time..."
"Simple!" He turned his head to Fang.
"Fang, delivery time!"
Fang barked in excitement as white light engulfed the little puppy-like spiritmal. For a moment, I was blinded by the bright light emitting from Fang. However, it left as soon as it came.
I gasped.
In the little puppy's place was a shining wolf, it's fur coat sleek and shimmering slightly. Whoa... Fang really lived up to the name of a wolfabeast...
"Hello? Earth to Emily!"
"Huh what?" It was only then I realized I was lost in my own thoughts of Fang. "Oh um... sorry. I've never seen a spiritmal transform before. The races on television only capture the race itself." I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.
"It's ok. For a girl who's never seen many spiritmals before, I guess that reaction would be perfectly normal."
"Thanks."
"What are you waiting for? Hop on!" Tim gestured to Fang. Waiting for me to follow his instructions.
"Re...really?" I stood in awe, stroking Fang's silky fur coat.
"Of course!"
I hoped onto Fang's soft back, petting his head. Whoa! I'm actually riding a spiritmal! It was almost like all my dreams come true at once. I had never ridden a spiritmal before but it had always been my dream.
"Hold on tight!" Tim warned, right before Fang started running at a tremendously fast rate.
"Whhoaaaa!" I screamed, holding on as tight as I could. I could feel Fang's movement below me as he raced off the land and onto the ocean. I wasn't concerned, however. Spiritmals can run so fast they can literally walk over water. Quite a number of spiritmal races were over the ocean anyway.
Right now, I decided to sit back and enjoy the wind whipping past my ears as me and Tim headed towards our destination, Seamon Town.