Episode 73 - A Prickly Predicament

## Synopsis

The student’s pets stood in a grand forest, a warm breeze drifting through the tall trees.

In front of them stood a noble frog, who bowed and said, “*It is with greatest humility that I welcome you to Aleton Valley. The Grand Duke awaits your arrival, oh great heroes and champions of prophecy*.”

Crowrigami found himself able to speak. “*What the devil are you?*”

Mr. Wiggles said, “*You’ve got some major explaining to do here*.”

“*Yes, most gracious hero, perchance could it wait till we depart from this, the Forest of Whims.*”

“*Is this some kind of dream? Am I dreaming right now?*”

“*Well, of course not my great feline friend. You are in the Valley of Aleton, greatest realm for pets ever known.*”

Crowrigami asked, “*What have you done with mother?*”

“*Why, you still exist with your mama, but I have just brought you here in spiritual form so that you might fulfil great prophecy and destroy the cruel beast of the land!*”

“*Prophecy, shmophecy*.” Wiggles was not impressed.

“*I must implore you that we leave the forest at once, my calculations regarding our arrival in Aleton were incorrect, we appear to be a few minutes outside the city. Quite dangerous if you ask me.*”

“*Virgil*,” Ida said, “*I think a prophecy is a snack.*”

The purple hedgehog looked at her. “*You know, it’s past my bedtime, I kinda just want to go to bed.*”

The frog pleaded, “*Great heroes please, we must go quickly else the great beast will be upon us shortly and your stint in this wonderful place will be short-lived, as will mine!*”

“*A great beast!*”—Ida ran away—“*Which way?*”

Mr Wiggles ran after her, somehow rubbing the temples of his cat head.

Crowrigami called after them, “*Feline! Do you do think this is some kind of jape? Or do you believe this foul frog?*”

The fancy frog stuttered, “*Please great champions, in the sacred text you are regarded as quite noble heroes. Please, this way”—*They pointed towards a small settlement in the distance—*“Please just accompany me and see the Grand Duke, they will explain all which needs be explained and begin your task so that your spirits might be returned home.*”

The frog continued to plead for the pets to follow him, and eventually won them over with the promise of a feast. As they walked back, Ida and Mr. Wiggles heard cracking and snapping sounds behind them, as well as the grating of metal against wood. After hearing this, the frog paled and quickened their pace towards the city.

They exited the forest, finding themselves on a cobbled road leading into a small medieval city. The houses around the edge of the city looked burned, and destroyed. As they walked further into the city centre, other animals of all shapes and sizes stopped to stare at them, whispering about the prophecy.

They arrived at a large manor, animals had stopped and formed a circle around them, just staring at the pets in awe. Mr Wiggles revelled in the attention, while Virgil shied away from it, and Ida ignored it in favour of chasing her tails.

The frog cleared the throat and addressed the crowd, saying that the pets were the prophecies heroes who would defeat the beast, and return peace to the Valley. The crowd clapped, and the frog continued, saying he would take them to the Grand Duke to explain their situation. The crowd cheered as the pets climbed the stairs to the manor.

The frog led them through doorway after doorway, through extravagant rooms and walkways, until they arrived in a grand hall. A table had been set with a grand feast, and seated at the far end of the room on a large chair, was a finely dressed red dragon.

The dragon looked to the pets and welcomed them to its town, it introduced itself as the Grand Duke Crazax. It invited them to eat the feast in front of them, and sent the frog—whose name was Ribbeton—to fetch water for them.

After they had eaten, Crazax asked the pets to come before him, as he had a favour to ask. The pets slowly made their way to him, and Crowrigami first asked what the prophecy was that had been mentioned.

Crazax pointed his claws to the ceiling, where the pets saw a mural. An amethyst hedgehog, a cat, a paper bird, and a nine-tailed squirrel, stood on their hind legs in the rain, facing a large metal beast. The monster had the face of a pig, the arms of a monkey, dark black wings, a long scorpion tail, and long goat legs, all coated in a golden metallic sheen. The mural showed the pets all striking this beast down.

“*The prophecy has long foretold a great metal beast will return to these lands and destroy our society. But at the last moments, the four great heroes will be found somewhere out in the world, and will come here to fend off the evil, and return to us our joyous and prosperous time. Ribbeton assures me that you are those four, I sent him away many eons ago to find you four, and he has returned. So I ask of you, do what has been prophesied by fate, and strike down this great evil which plagued our lands.*”

Crowrigami asked, “*By striking down this creature, is this how we return to our world?*”

The Duke looked to Ribbeton, who shrugged. He turned back to the pets and said, “*The matter of your return to your own world, I will personally ensure that it happens.*”

After a moments thought, the pets hesitantly agreed to help fulfil the prophecy. The Duke clapped his hands, and a small mouse in a long robe entered the hall. They carried a small map of the Valley, which they presented to the pets. Ida asked for a contract to be made, as Integrity had told her to always sign a contract. Hailey the mouse quickly scribbled a contract, and Wiggles asked to add monetary wealth and a house to the rewards.

Crowrigami asked them what they knew about the beast. Ribbeton told them it had arrived many moons past, and that scholars called it ‘*The Prickled Pest who Pursues*’. It had burned down farms, ruined the mines, attacked travellers, and was generally a blight on society.

Ida asked if anyone else had tried to kill it, and the Duke informed them that while many knights had been sent out, none had returned. The pointed back to the mural and told them that was why they had been looking for the pets. It had resisted any attack they had thrown against it, including the Duke’s fire breath. Virgil asked if they had tried to befriend it, to which the Duke told them he would never, it had killed too many of his people.

Hailey finished writing the contract, and presented it to Crowrigami who saw it promised them land and riches beyond their wildest dreams, should they defeat the Pest. They all scribbled their agreements at the bottom, and Hailey rolled up the contract and left the room.

Looking at their map, the pets decided to investigate the forest where they had previously heard the metal beast. The animals outside cheered as they left the manor, and headed into the trees.

The pets looked around the forest, sniffing and searching for any signs of the Pest. As night began to fall, Crowrigami flew into the air, and saw a path of broken trees heading across the river, and into a clearing by the lumber yard.

Realising that none of them were well equipped to deal with water, they made their way to a nearby bridge. As they crossed the emerald-green water, Crowrigami and Virgil felt a slight rumble in the ground, and heard the snapping of trees from the other side of the bridge. Illuminated in moonlight, across the bridge, they saw a large metal construct walk onto the bridge. It did not look like the beast in the mural, more akin to a rusted metal humanoid with a large beetle-like carapace on its back. Embedded in this shell were several spikes, on which the bodies of different animals had been impaled. Two glowing red eyes looked at the pets as it said, “*So you are the heroes prophesied to destroy me?*”

Crowrigami examined the beast. “*Well are you the monster in the tapestry, you appear rather different.*”

Virgil asked, “*Wait were you just hanging out in the forest, waiting for us to appear then like fight you?*”

“*Of course!*”

“*Are you ok?*”

“*You are my foes, as dictated by the prophecy! Therefore I must destroy you, I do not wish to harm you, I wish to kill you!*”

Anticipating a fight was coming up, Mr. Wiggles cast *Blur*. His body began shifting and flickering as he ran towards the middle of the bridge. The Pest threw one of the bodies on its back towards him. As the body of an armoured armadillo hit the ground, a purple spirit emerged of the same armadillo holding a halberd, and stabbing towards Mr Wiggles, missing thanks to his shifting image.

Ida climbed onto the bridge railing, and jumped onto the Pest’s arm. She grabbed its finger in an attempt to break it, but the Pest managed to retract the finger back into its body before she could do so.

Virgil charged at the Pest, and stabbed its leg with his quills. He pierced through the metal shell, and became lodged inside it.

Crowrigami fly above the Pest, letting out a war cry, then *Hexed* it. He then divebombed the Pest and slashed into its arm, before flying out of reach once again.

Wiggles vanished, before suddenly reappearing besides the Pest. His sudden arrival shocked them, causing them fall over on their side. The bridge shook as they fell.

The Pest thrashed it’s arms around, missing Virgil, but throwing Ida back onto the stone bridge. It then spoke and said, “*I assumed that my prophetic rivals would do better than this. I have been waiting my entire life to vanquish you*.”

The armadillo spirit vanished as the pets asked why it wanted to kill them so badly.

“*It is my fate to destroy society.*”

The Pest then slammed its arm into the bridge, attempting to destroy it. It shook, and several areas of the bridge collapsed into the water, including a section near the Pest which it started to crawl towards.

Ida stood up and ran towards the Pest again, climbing onto it again. She scrambled over its body, trying to find any weak spot in its armour. She saw that it’s eyes were softer, and fleshier, than the rest of its body and punched one of them. The Pest recoiled and yelled in pain as its eye began to water.

Virgil removed himself from the Pest’s leg, and turned to face them. “*I don’t think you’re the villain, I think the villain is societal expectation of us to fulfil these strange roles.*”

Crowrigami swooped down again to cut the Pest, narrowly missing the crawling construct. He disappointedly hovered above the Pest.

Mr. Wiggles shot an *Ice Knife* towards the Pest’s leg. The frozen shard exploded, driving small spikes of ice into the Pest.

The Pest once again threw Ida away from it’s face. Her body slammed into the railing, and fell unconscious on the ground. “*We will meet again, and I will defeat you in prophetic combat!*” The Prickled Pest who Pursues dropped into the river below them and floated away from them.

Virgil ran to the edge of the bridge and yelled, “*You really need a hobby!*”