Story Telling - Unexpectedly Talking Animals

The group had been walking in silence along the train tracks for the better part of two hours now, ever since Prudish scampered back into the bushes. Buster seemed to be in his own little world while everyone else kept stealing glances of him, wondering what they had witnessed with him and the rabbit. Finally, Samuel broke the silence by saying, "Dude, what the heck was that all about back there? I have been going over it in my head, over and over, but I can't seem to make any sense of it. You talked to a rabbit! Did you know you could do that? Do you speak that language often? What the heck, man?" Everyone seemed started by the sudden outburst from Samuel, but they also seemed a little relieved that someone had finally broken the awkward silence and asked the questions that they were all thinking. Buster looked up at Samuel, then around to the rest of the group, then said, "I never knew I could do that. I don't know what language I was speaking. That was all new to me. Ever since I was a small child, I would spend hours, full days even, in my backyard playing puppets. I had some stuffed animals and I would have conversations between the puppets in a made up language. Sometimes animals from the forest would come around and seem interested in my plays. They would sit and watch, like they were interested in what I was doing. Sometimes it almost seemed as if they understood the little shows, but that has been happening my entire life, so I just assumed that it was a normal thing." "Well that's not normal," said Madi. "How do you know that we can trust the rabbit?" "I've never spoken to an animal directly before," noted Buster, "but somehow I know that they aren't capable of deceit. It is almost like they aren't really speaking from a voice box so much as I can hear what their heart is telling me. I mean you can all hear him speak, but I think you get what I mean." Madi nodded, but still looked very uncertain. She walked fast to catch up to Devon and then whispered, "I don't trust that creature, and I'm wondering if I should be trusting Buster either. You are telling me you didn't know about this power of his?" Devon looked at her intently and quietly said, "I told you what the council told me and I do not lie to my team. I understand that this is an unexpected scenario, but we need to make of it what we can. Here is what I know for certain. Buster has grown up in our town and his family has always been a very important part of our community. I have no reason to suspect that he is against us in any way. I saw the rabbit speak as well and I trust Buster when he says we can trust the rabbit." This seemed to calm Madi enough that Devon was not worried about her speaking out or causing any problems. The rest of the walk the group started engaging in small talk about the mysterious happenings with the weather and the animals, strange things they had seen in the past few months and what they thought might be causing it. None of them really had any idea, of course, but it seems to be human nature to provide opinions on things that we really know very little about. All of a sudden Devon signalled for the group to stop. No one saw or heard anything different, but they all understood why he stopped. In the last 15 feet they had walked, the temperature increased by about 20 degrees. They looked up and saw the trees looking healthier than they had previously. Madi climbed up one of the taller trees, found some fruit that was perfectly ripe and tossed them down to the rest. Then she said half-excited and half-uncertain, "Guys... I see the town." "Well..." started Devon, "what can you tell us? Are there villagers there? Do they look friendly?" "I don't see any people," she called down, "but the place doesn't look abandoned. And there is an odd building in the middle of the town that looks rather... umm... out of place." What Madi saw was a building - or more of a tower - covered with vines in the middle of the town. There was a pulsating light eminating from the building and it seemed to cast a glow over the town, extending to a point about 15 feet behind where the group was standing. Madi climbed down and walked over to the edge of the glow, which was barely visible unless you were really looking for it, and stepped across. "Amazing," she said. "The temperature changes immensely when you cross this line. It is freezing on this side." She told the group more about the town and the tower. "Well so much for meeting at Newmeadow," noted Devon, "because it looks like we just stumbled across the cause of whatever is happening." "If not the cause," chimed in Veronica, staring at the faint glow marking the edge of the boundary, "then at least something linked to what is going on." She turned back to the group. "Well Devon, what is our plan of action now?" Devon looked at the group, looked at the faintly glowing boundary, took a bite of his fruit and then turned to Buster. "It wasn't by accident that Prudish led us here. Any chance you could call on him, or some other forest creature, for some insight?" Buster's mouth curved into a smile.