Hero 108: A New Beginning Ch 32

Do Re Mi Re Do
By: ARTgazer12

Liliac was once again making her rounds, exploring other areas of Hidden Kingdom. Today, however, she was joined by her sister Pink Spec and Richter. Spec was understood to come, but Richter, she did not. The human did not mind him, but she did not exactly like him either. They came across the Pondlands, a area of Hidden Kingdom speckled with many lakes and shallow ponds. Richter came up, “Darn it, now I have to walk.”

“Why?” asked Liliac. “Can’t you just go underneath the water?”

“You don’t know anything do ya kid?” he was punched by the cheetah, who gave him a very distasteful look. He groaned, “The ground is too soft to dig through. It would be like trying to dig through mud. Plus, if I do get solid ground and dig low enough, the water to the ponds might leak through to the tunnels; draining the water from the pond and filling the tunnel. And I rather not smell wet fur today.”

Liliac shrugged, understanding even though she did not fully. She took one step, and again, she was stopped by Richter. “What now?” she asked with a sigh mixed into her tone.

“See that castle?” the groundhog asked pointing over the horizon. Liliac held her hand above her eyes, shielding them from extra light. It was there that she saw a faint outline of a castle. “That’s Frog Castle. And trust me, what they do ta you guys won’t be pretty.”

Spec rolled her eyes, “It can’t be that bad…”

“Oh ya? Well, how would you like to be tied down, no way to escape, and to force you into…listen to them sing?!” Both Spec and Liliac nearly fell over from the unclimatic conclusion. “What?! Their singing is horrible! It’s like thousands of needles getting jammed into the deepest most sensitive parts of your ears! Just thinking about it gets me…AH! I HEAR IT NOW!” He began to burrow beneath himself as if his life depended on it.

“Wait, I hear something too…” Pink spoke. Liliac and her sister listened in, hearing a tune. It did not sound bad at all, it sounded pretty good. A few brightly colored music notes floated by them. Exchanging a similar glance, the two walked in that direction. Richter popped up, instantly jumping out and running to not get left behind.
The music was getting louder as they got closer. The individual instruments were starting to be heard; a flute, drum, guitar, and something that sounded like singing. A clearing was up ahead, a small enclosed pond surrounded by trees with several large lily pads in the center. On each of those lily pads was the source of the music. There was one giraffe, one panda, one frog, and one human. The animals did not have much altering features, but the human did. His short red hair seemed messy, but wild would be the better word for it. He wore a robe that bore a variety of colors, however they mainly concerned of red and orange, they did show a variety of shades. He currently had his back turned, but he was the one playing the guitar.

The human stopped, signaling the others to stop as well. “Good job everyone” he spoke with joy. “Sid, Darla, wonderful job on your instruments.” The panda and giraffe bowed at that. “Kermit, you did good too, but try to get deeper notes next time.” The frog frowned at the nickname, but let it pass.  The three animals all shared the same look when their eyes saw the crowd behind their leader. The human was confused, “What’s wrong guys?” He slowly turned, but the surprise of someone there was enough to spook him. He was startled enough to fall back into the water.

“Nice going” Richter commented to the two girls.

Once again, he was punched by Pink. Liliac extended a hand to the boy, who grabbed it and hiked himself up. “Sorry we frightened you” Liliac apologized with a bow. “We heard the music and we just followed.”

The boy was squeezing the water out of his clothing. It was at this time that Liliac noticed the boy’s most outstanding feature, his eyes. While they were multicolored, it seems like they were different in each eye. “It’s okay” he replied, “I did not expect anyone to be out here.”

“Neither did we.” The gray haired girl smiled, “My name is Liliac. The two with me are Pink Spec and Richter.”

Pink waved, “Hey Darla, hey Sid.” The two other animals waved. The frog waved, but the cheetah looked angry, “Oh, hi Hermit.”

“Pink, do you know these animals?”

Her sister nodded, “Yep, these are the princes and princess of their kingdoms. Darla is the daughter of Panda King, Sid is the son of Giraffe King, and Hermit is the son of Frog King.” At the mentioning of each of their names and titles they bowed. Liliac made a smile, seeing how cute the first two were. She was not fond of the frog at the moment. Richter waved the trio of royalty, however his greetings were replied with grunts, glares, or just ignorance.

The two teams started to chat a bit. It only took to mention the boy’s name that got the leader excited, “You’re Punk Rattler?! As in Rattle Diva?! The most amazing musician in all of Hidden Kingdom?!”

Pink leaned to her fellow animal royalties, “She’s a really big fan of music. Sometimes she can get a little…” Her claw moved around, giving the universal sign for “crazy.”
Back to Punk, he only shrugged. Liliac was shocked and almost grabbed him, but she was pulled back. Darla and Sid looked a bit uncomfortable. “Listen, Liliac” Sid started, “Punk never knew his mother. He’s never met her; we haven’t met her. But we did hear about her from our parents.” Darla nodded with a smile as her friend continued. “We’re not sure if she’s still alive or not…”

The young leader got the impression. She nodded in understanding. They were lucky that Punk was not like Liliac. Before her first incident, she would have killed to know if her father was alive or not. She didn’t want Punk to experience the same. They talked a bit more, but Hermit stood and hopped to another pad. The others of his team took notice. Their friend turned and ribbit once. Punk seemed to understand him, “Frogs! Their coming near! We can’t let them see us!”

The groups nodded just before rushing into the thicker swam area. Sid and Darla were having a hard time maneuvering. The giraffe spoke up, “Punk, the frogs check out every inch of this pondland, even the swamps.”

Darla sighed quickly to the boy. Punk smiled, “Yeah Darla, that is a great idea! We can go to Pandaffe Castle!”

“What’s a Pandaffe?” Immediately, Liliac was given the most awkward of looks. It was like she said the most idiotic thing possible. She grew worried, a bead of sweat ran down her brow, “What?”

“Pandaffe Castle is the castle where the Pandas and the Giraffes go” Richter said. “And you’re supposed to lead?” He was once again, smacked over the head by the cheetah. “Ow! And don’t worry ‘bout it, I made a tunnel before we even got here. We can use that.” He muttered, “If it isn’t filled with mud right now…”

“What was that?” asked Pink.

“Oh! Uh, forgeta ‘bout it!” As they made it to the edge of the pondlands, Richter uncovered the hole he made about an hour ago. The others quickly went down into it. His statement was true, for the hole was starting to fill with mud. As the frogs arrived, it looked like the natural terrain.

A few minutes later and lots of miles away, the team surfaced. Pink Spec climbed out first, her tongue out of her mouth, “Did you have to dig through EVERY mud puddle in Hidden Kingdom?!”

The others climbed out, and strangely enough Richter was last. “Hey” he spoke, “You wanted to go through my tunnel.” Everyone was either wringing out or wiping off the mud. The Groundhog Prince simply shook off the mud. One thing that did make approaching the castle easier was that ever since the takeover, animal rulers did not have much need for scouts. So entering a castle was much easier. They tried to talk with Punk on Big Green, but since he was much younger than Liliac and the others, he didn’t exactly care.  When they got to the door, Sid and Darla were big enough to cover the others, and Punk was allowed in because of family matters. The doors opened and the others followed. Richter held his staff close, not feeling right. “Something seems off” he spoke.

“Oh relax…” Pink spoke. “Just because you’ve never been in another animal castle before doesn’t mean that our worst enemy is inside.”

Punk stopped, causing the others to bump into him. They all looked at him, but only Darla and Sid saw what he saw. They bore expressions of fear, while Punk bore an expression of joy, “Uncle High Roller!”

Pink stopped, “I’ve been wrong before.”

Before anything else went down, Hermit hop tackled the trio of heroes into a separate corridor. Before he could say anything, the Frog Prince covered Richter’s mouth so no rude comments could be made. The team looks back at the scene. Liliac had to hold back as much as she could to not run out and blow her cover. There he was, High Roller, the one human responsible for imprisoning her father; probably also responsible for cutting his arms off. His appearance did not change much over the years. He still wore the usual blue cloak and accessories that made him look like a jester. However High Roller seemed a bit more evil looking, if that was even possible for a human like him. It was just something about his expressions that scared them. She clenched her rod, the blades on each end coming out. Pink saw this, and was worried. Aside from eagles, High Roller was one of the things her sister hated most of all. She rested a paw on her shoulder. The simple gesture was enough for Liliac to calm down.

Punk looked back to find his new friends gone. However he assumed they were playing Hide and Seek, so he just went back to what he was doing. High Roller ruffled Punk’s hair when he got close, “How are you kid?”

“I’m fine!” he answered happily. “What are you doing here Uncle?”

“Just checking up on Panda and Giraffe King is all.” He sees the prince and princess, “I see you’re having fun with those two.” The two animals waved before he ruffled the kid’s hair again. “Well, I’m just about done here.”

“Aw…” Punk whined, “You’re leaving already?”

“Sorry, but I have other places to be. But I’ll tell you what.” He leans down slightly, “Next time you’re near East Citadel, you can come over and eat all the candy you want.”

“Yay!” Punk hugged him, “Thanks Uncle High Roller!” Giraffe King and Panda King bowed to High Roller before he left through the main gates. The two kings left, allowing the others to show themselves. Punk had a smile, but Richter stomped over.

“Okay you snot nosed brat” he spoke, “You have five seconds to explain what the heck just happened here before I-” His mouth was covered by Hermit. He croaked to him, but only the animals really understood him. Richter nods, and as Hermit took his hand off, the Groundhog came by and patted Punk’s head. The human smiled.

“So…” Liliac finally spoke up, “Uh Punk, would you like to join Big Green? There are lots of more animals to play with.”

Punk looked to his new friend. These three looked fun, but he needed to test them. One looked between his band members, and they had the same idea. “We’ll join, if you can beat our challenge.”

“Challenge? Ha!” Richter proclaimed, “Whatever it is bring it on!” However, a few minutes later, he pouted, “Seriously?” He was holding a guitar. Liliac had a flute and Pink had drums. “Why couldn’t I have gotten the drums?”

“Because you were too edger and wanted to go before anyone else” Pink spoke. “Besides, I like the drums.”

The band across began to play. “The rules are simple” Punk explained, “Each of us will play a rhythm with our instruments. You guys copy it. If you do good, we’ll join.”

“We’re doomed” Richter commented.

“Ready…? GO!” All three band members played their instruments at once. This startled the Big Green team as they rushed into it. The music clashing was horrible; one side played good while the other played horribly. Despite the awful music, Punk and his band kept playing. As time went on and as they went solo, Liliac and her team were getting better. They were not as good as the other band, but Punk’s main thing was on having fun. If he has learned anything, it’s that if you do not have fun, then it’s not worth it. In the end, Big Green had four new members.

PUNK RATTLER 076
SID THE GIRAFFE PRINCE 005
DARLA THE PANDA PRINCESS 030
HERMIT THE FROG PRINCE 047