“Cup! It’s me, Dawn,” I can hear Dawn’s raspy voice wake me up.
I rub my eyes and spot Dawn hovering above me.
“Why are you even here?” I ask.
“It’s because all of us need to train. The battle is coming in four hours. We must be prepared. We can’t lose another life…” he seems to be lost in deep thought.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” I open my eyes wide and get ready for the day. Whatever happens at noon, I will be there to help everyone.
I trot out of the den and spot Nova outside. She is helping Rosa learn new fighting skills. I don’t feel like training, though. I need to speak with someone.
Rapicik is sitting by the edge of his large den. This is who I will talk with. I calmly walk over to the doorsteps of his den and sit down by him.
“Rapicik, I’m nervous,” I admit to him without looking him in the eye.
“Kurkah has been defeated before, and he will be again,” he guarantees.
“But we had help from the Tribe of Ersel Animals. I should communicate with him and see if he will help us again,” I suddenly get the new idea.
“Maybe that would help. But how could a whole tribe get prepared for a battle and travel all the way down to Jamaa- in only four hours?” Rapicik’s thought makes sense.
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a try,” I get onto my paws and sprint towards my den. Maybe I can get Ersel and his tribe to help us.
Once inside, it’s very dimly lit. The windows are all shut and the blinds cover them. I scramble over to the table, where I have the orb sitting. I follow the directions that Ersel had told me.
The orb suddenly has static on it. What’s going on? I can hear voices in the background of it, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.
Then everything goes silent again. There is no static. I just shrug it off. That was weird. Does the thing even work?
I exit the den and see animals training everywhere. Then Nile comes up to me.
“Cup, I want to tell you something,” he begins to say.
“What is it?” I wonder.
“Last night I had this weird dream. That a black wolf was born and bullied. He ran away and went to-” he starts to say, but Liza interrupts him.
“All animals must listen! We can see the Phantoms in the distance, near Mt. Shiveer. Be prepared for battle now. They have arrived early! Get to the center of Jamaa and be ready to fight for our freedom! Now!” she demands.
“Sorry, Cup, we’ll have to finish talking later,” Nile says. Then both of us dash to the center of Jamaa Township, where the large crowd of animals is increasing.
The sky is darkening. It looks like a thunderstorm is nearly here. It is coming from Appondale. Hopefully it won’t be too bad, otherwise Kurkah will easily defeat us.
The swarm of nearing phantoms mixes with the storm clouds. The sky's completely black and it’s hard to see. Oh, no… the Phantom will attack us out of nowhere.
Then silence sweeps over Jamaa. Nothing can be heard, not a single sound. Everyone is silent. The thunder is gone, and there is no buzzing of Phantoms. It’s almost as if we’re in a random spot of the universe, with no sound at all.
“What’s going on?” I can hear Rosa’s innocent voice suddenly sound from behind me.
Out of nowhere, the rain starts pouring down like buckets of water. It is torrential rain and makes it almost impossible to see.
A huge, dark Phantom pounces onto me from out of nowhere. I shriek in pain as its tentacles pierce into my left paw. Blood starts trickling out, but I ignore the pain. The rain makes it hard to see where the Phantom is, but I barely manage to tackle t to the ground. I can hear the Phantom whimper as I bite down as hard as possible, killing it.
“The Phantoms are here!” I scream, making sure that every Jamaasian can hear the sound of my voice.
Two more huge, deadly Phantoms come out of nowhere from the rain. I can hear the shriek of many animals behind me. I struggle beneath their grasp.
I will not go down! I will save Jamaa!
I bite down on the first Phantom and kick the other. Both of them stagger back. Then I remember what Faber had taught me back in Zone Two. I start dancing around very quickly, making the Phantoms confused. Then I come out of nowhere and strike one of them. It shrieks in pain as I kill it off. The other Phantom then tries to pounce on me, but I get out of the way just in time. It lands on the dead Phantoms, and the tentacles pierce into its dark black skin. It slowly dies after the collision.
I can’t see any other phantoms in the horrible rain, nor can I hear the cries of help anywhere near. The rain is so fierce it is impossible to battle.
Then I see Wandel struggling beneath a Phantom. I can barely make him out in the rain, but rush over to the Phantom and jump onto its back. It gasps in surprise, and at that moment, Wandel bites onto its body and clamps down with super strength. The Phantom dies.
“Thank you, Cup,” Wandel dips his head. I nod, just barely being able to hear him.
Archie is in the distance, battling three Phantoms. He does well in the fight. He kills one of them, and as the other two try to pounce on him, he dodges them and they slam into the walls of Jam Mart Furniture. They are knocked out from the impact.
Nova and Ranel fight side by side. They kill off the phantoms easily, as they are stronger than expected. So far, we are winning this battle!
Rocky is taking on seven phantoms at once. He is doing well, but they are beginning to surround them. I struggle through the rain and bite down on one of the Phantoms. It screeches in pain. The other Phantoms turn around to see what happened, and at that moment, Rocky and I both pounce into the crowd of huge Phantoms and bite down. Two of them are killed by our grasp, but the others stay and try to fight us off. I shove one of them backwards, and as it lands on the ground, I jump onto it and finish my job.
Rocky manages to kill off the rest of the attackers and then we both stand in pride. Kurkah can come at any time, but everyone will be ready.
Rapicik, Faber, Dawn, Mincero, Greely and Sr Gilbert all fight together, taking down the Phantoms with ease. They are destroying every phantom that gets near them. Before long, this battle will be over!
The rest of the alphas also fight together. I can see Armin killing a phantom, and Varlonn pinning one down with his quick skills. Despite his age, Varlonn still seems to be a great fighter. He is much more healthy than Sinsar.
Katira and Daymond take on five Phantoms together. With their training from today, they kill them all. Nile, Quinn and Orellan all fight the Phantoms together. Orellan is actually a great fighter now. He moves around with the speed of Varlonn and bites onto the Phantoms when they can’t see him.
A huge, completely black arctic wolf jumps onto me and slams onto the cement ground. I groan in pain. It pins me against the ground with amazing strength, and then puts its claws against my throat.
“There’s nobody to save you this time, Cup,” I look up. Kurkah’s deformed and battle-scarred face stares directly at me. His teeth have grown even larger now. However, his left eye is completely gone and he stares at me with a bloodshot, large eye. His nose is twisted from the injury from Ersel. There is a huge bite mark across his left cheek to the other cheek. It is deep, but taken care of now. His claws are also much larger. I’ve heard stories about gargoyles, and right now, Kurkah looks like one. He is growing tentacles out of his huge arctic wolf body, but they look more like wings.
“But- Ersel killed you!” I croak out as his claws get closer to my throat. The rain makes it impossible to see us, and that must be why nobody is here to help.
“And I was brought back to life through the Dream World. I am helping someone take over Jamaa right now,” he laughs under his breath. Kurkah’s muscle is so huge now. He must’ve been trained to fight after being alive once again. But by who?
“Well, Cup, I guess this is goodbye. Goodbye because I’m going to kill you!” he grins widely, showing his humongus, bloody teeth. Then he bites down on the ground. I’m out of his grasp, but he doesn’t realize it because of the torrential rain. He wasn’t paying much attention to his hind legs, and I managed to squeeze out from behind him.
“Where did…” he whispers in a growling voice.
I pounce onto his back, knocking him to the ground. I bite down onto his nose and don’t let go. He screams in pain, trying to get me off, but I won’t let go.
Kurkah finally grasps me with his hind legs and flings me off like I’m just a flower. He sprints at me faster than Varlonn and knocks me to the ground. His claws pierce into my face and blood trickles down them. He gets ready to bite my neck again, but I reverse his grasp and pin him down. As quick as lightning, I bite down on his neck. Blood gushes out of it in weird, phantom color. He growls so loud that I stagger back from him. He doesn’t care about the gash in his neck. He dashes directly at me and grabs me before I can do a single thing. He picks me up and slams me against the ground, holding my throat with one of his claws. He gets ready to bite down one more time, but Rapicik jumps onto his back. I get up, rubbing my neck and see Rapicik wrestling on the ground with Kurkah.
Kurkah claws Rapicik across the face and he screeches. But Rapicik ignores the pain and flips Kurkah onto his back, biting down onto his neck once more. Kurkah then grabs Rapicik with ease and slams him onto the ground, just like he did to me. As he gets ready to kill Rapicik, the wise fox slips out from underneath him where Kurkah forgot to secure his pin. As Kurkah turns around, Rapicik bowls into him and pins him to the ground, securing all areas. Kurkah looks frightened as Rapicik shows his large teeth.
Kurkah whistles underneath Rapicik’s grip and instantly many Phantoms come to his rescue. Rapicik is just about to bite down on Kurkah’s neck to finish him off when a huge Phantom picks him up and tosses him off. Rapicik immediately gets up, but the Phantoms guard Kurkah to make sure he can’t be harmed anymore. In the distance, I can see the Phantoms overpowering the Jamaasians now. They have gotten bigger in numbers and size. And now that Kurkah is here, they will be unstoppable. The rain is also making the battle harder.
“Retreat! There are too many Phantoms! Head into the forests of Sarepia!” I can barely hear Liza’s voice over the sounds of battle.
“Looks like you’ve lost, and we own Jamaa now,” Kurkah laughs, blood pouring out of his neck.
“With that wound, you’ll never live!” I jump directly over the tall phantom and knock Kurkah down again.
“I will kill you!” I shriek as the two of us wrestle on the ground. This battle is not over for me!
Kurkah finally gets the upper hand and he pins me to the ground, now securing all of the places.
“No there is no…” he starts to say. Nova crashes into his side and claws him across the face repeatedly.
“Once again, thanks for betraying us!” she screams as blood pours out of his face.
The Phantoms rush to kill Nova, but she dodges them, and they collide together.
“Come on, Cup, we have to go,” she orders. I nod, then take one more look at Kurkah. He growls at me, but a large smile appears on his face as he realizes he’s won.
This battle is not over.
“We have lost the battle. But that doesn’t mean we have lost hope. We will return to Jamaa soon and battle Kurkah once more for our land,” Liza’s voice is full of pride as she speaks. We recently went to Sarepia Forest, but the Phantoms decided to take over all of Jamaa. We’re now in the prairie behind Mt. Shiveer.
“That will not be the last of our battles, though,” Sinsar interrupts.
“The final betrayal is yet to come. Kurkah has been working with someone else. After we battle Kurkah again, the other enemy will rise,” he warns. He then holds in a cough. A tear rolls down his cheek. I feel horrible for him. He is now going to die in the next few days. It has already been confirmed by Mincero.
“But the three disasters are over. We can now prepare for the next two battles,” Liza responds. Everyone cheers.
Rapicik is in the back, injured. He defeated Kurkah in a fight, but couldn’t take on the Phantoms, too. He broke a bone and is being taken care of.
“Oh, and there are also four new alphas to be named,” Faber interrupts Liza, smiling.
“Yes. Once we return to Jamaa, and I promise we will, four animals will become alphas,” Liza promises.
“Those new alphas are going to be Rapicik, Cup, Nova and Rocky,” Faber finishes.
Is this what they were afraid to tell me about? Maybe it’s because I could die from it. But I will not. Deep down, I know that my destiny has always been to become an alpha.
Everyone claps, and I blush. I can’t believe that I will become one of the greatest animals in Jamaa!
“But there is also bad news. We have lost two in battle, and four have been injured. I would like to give respect to Likar and Kylakar,” Liza dips her head. I don’t know any of them, but losing fellow Jamaasians is a horrible thing.
“Rapicik has broken a bone. Nile has lost his memory from a deadly blow. Rocky has been injured in the right paw, making it hard for him to walk. And Daymond has injured his wing, but it’s not that bad,” explains Liza.
“All four are expected to heal,” she finishes.
Nile has lost his memory. But he was going to tell me about his dream! I could’ve found out many new things. I hope that he heals soon, and not just because of his dream, but because we are friends.
I decide to speak to the crowd. I ask for Liza’s permission, and she nods.
“I’d like to say something. Jamaa is a wonderful place, full of amazing animals. And there have been many tragedies lately. But I will not give up. Giving up is for the ones that don’t care about others. We will unite and become one. We will defeat Kurkah and the other enemy, even if they’re stronger. We are Jamaa, and we will survive!”
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