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Karo grabbed the folded stack of clothes he liked and followed the directions to his room. Above the door in Rainbow lettering, there was a neon sign that read; The Paw Pad. The Kangaroo couldn't help but smirk at this, and pushed the door open. He was astonished at what all he found. Karo set the clothes down on the large bed. The blanket on the bed was zebra striped and looked to be korean mink or something, but maybe it was just faux fur. The carpet in th eroom was black, soft and fuzzy like, and paw printed in a rainbow of different colored prints, mostly candid looking prints.
There was even a bar, stocked with mountain dew and rum and some type of phosphorescent liquids that were labeled; for glowy drinks, safe for consumption. Along the walls were all manner of pirate artwork, much of it involving sexy wenches. Plush animals were stacked in a fuzzy black hammock chair in one corner with a TV placed so that one could watch it from that particular seat. As Karo looked around more, he happened to look up and notice that this room had a tower on it, and there was a rope ladder coming down from a small platform above. The Neon Kangaroo Karo decided to climb up and investigate this as well.
Once above, he could see there was a rainbow colored hammock with a large black paw print in the center. “They really got my foot fetish down, but how do they know I love paws so much?” Karo mumbled to himself as he continued to search about.
The tower obviously used to be an observation platform of some sort but had been converted to a room. It resembled a lighthouse, with windows all around, but they were more doors than windows, just with full glass panes. All were open, or at least every other on around the octagonal shape, the ones that had hinges and locks. Karo smiled and stepped out onto the balcony that ran around the room. As he did so, his attention was in sudden aw and in a mixture of curiosity.
From this vantage point he could see what lay strewn across the land. It looked to be a whole fleet of ships, but not the typical naval vessel, no these ones looked as if they sailed the skies at one point. There were large propellers and scraps of old dirigible balloons. He could see decks jutting out of the ground. Big engine looking things like what one would see on an airline. Karo was completely astonished at the sight of an airship graveyard. And even more so it looked from here as though the structure he was residing in with Kalena and the Kangaroos was one itself, half buried and added onto in places to make it a livable environment. He looked back up to the horizon and tried looking a bit farther, even noticing a small telescope sitting on the railing and picking it up.
In the very far distance Karo saw the tower of a castle. And by using the telescope he found, took a closer look. There was a small window in it and a faint glimmer of green. He tilted down to see what he could of the rest of the structure. It looked war torn, battle ravaged and time tried. The walls were blackened as if a large fire had consumed it at one time. Its walls had large holes in it looking from explosions.
Karo put down the telescope and stuck it into his belt. “I’ve got to go investigate that place; I feel it calling to me. There’s a small village over there I can say I’m going to look at it, maybe there’s a café there or something, I’m sure Kalena has some currency to lend me.” He muttered as he descended the rope ladder and grabbed a pirate-ish styled jacket hanging on a post near the door.
He hadn’t planned on the added fact of learning his way around the structure he was living in. It turned out to be larger than projected and was definitely an old shipwreck. However after trying many doors, seeing every one of the female Kangaroos naked, and oddly enough they didn’t mind and seemed a bit frisky which all the more disturbed Karo about Claire since the thought that she is technically his mother now kept running through his head. The fact that he thought she was cute was a guilty and odd enough thought as it was, he finally found Kalena. She did have some currency, but it was all in the form of a card that had his name on it. She apparently meant to give it to him earlier and forgot. She said it was entrusted to her by a good and mutual friend that had an idea that Karo would be coming back and about where he would be landing. Kalena imparted the information now that they knew he was going to land in the general vicinity of the Australian outback, Kalena had been given information and the charge of being on the lookout. This made Karo suspicious, it seemed Kalena, the Kangaroos and this mutual acquaintance she mentioned but would not go into detail on, were part of some secret society.
Karo was told the card had a lot of currency on it and he was also told how to check it once he got into town. He put it into his pouch, hoping he wouldn’t loose it in there. After looking into it, it was confusing and seemed like a void of black nothingness that seemed to go on forever. “Whoa…that’s deep” He said with some astonishment.
He went on and stepped outside after finding the door, after being forced to carry a knife and a small pistol by Kalena’s order. She seemed oddly concerned about him not being armed. As Karo made his way across the airship graveyard, he made It a point to ask about what had happened here. He seemed to come out of the airships and into an open plains area. Once he got out into about the middle of it, he could see the treeline and a small road that headed into the town. Karo began toward it now and happily took in the area and surroundings.
A fait thump was heard behind him, and Karo stopped, he felt his ears moving around to attune to the source of the noise. There was another thump, slightly louder than the first, then they began coming in sequence, and successfully louder and slightly faster each time. The louder they got, the closer something was coming to him. Karo could feel the ground rumbling with each thump. Until one final one shook him so much he nearly fell over, and suddenly he was in the shade.
Karo looked around; to his left he saw a large Green fuzzy wall, no not fuzzy, furry. Too his right, he saw the same. He stepped back, went in circles in place, and identified the Green walls as large feet. The little roo scampered out to the Toes and looked up to see what was blocking the sun and what had nearly crushed him. He looked up to see a massive, Giant Emerald Green with sort of a lime-ish green belly fur, Kangaroo. “Holy crap! B-big roo, very very large Kangaroo! He’s the size of one of the dragons” Karo said assuming the big one couldn’t hear him down here or maybe didn’t speak, or understand English, how could he know this land was somewhat new to him.
“What the? A neon Green bellied bug? You’re a little roo, hiya!” The big green one said “Yeah I’m pretty big. There are bigger though, well not roos, but bigger macros than me. I don’t know how many dragons though, I don’t hang out with too many, and they’re weird. Most of em is still on about that guy some year’s back that killed a mess of them. Anyway I’m Duncan, nice to meet ya tiny.”
Karo just stared up in disbelief, then managed to sputter out a response. “I, er hey my name isn’t tiny. I’m Karo Hardskale. How does one get so big? And so green?”
Duncan just shrugged down. “I dunno, I’ve always been this way. Well nice to meet you Karo, sorry I almost hopped on ya there, I’ll keep a lookout next time for little glowing roos. Catch ya later.” With that, he hopped off, even hopping over the small town.
Karo just stood there for a bit, talking to himself just to rationalize what was going on. “Okay so lets recap here. About five of my years ago I was taken from earth to be a slave for a dragon princess who was obsessed with me playing, smelling, rubbing and so on, her smelly dirty scaly feet. With the odd occasion of sticking me in unmentionable areas and even swallowing me occasionally, I still have nightmares about where I came out. Her family was so venom and prideful that they tried to kill me for the sake of seeming to want to keep their daughter in a state of confused emotions and try and get her to become the angry dragon that they all were. I finally get tiered of their abuse and mistreatment of slaves, myself, and their daughter whom I came to love over time. I get that belt, grow big and kill more than half of her clan and their constituants, nearly lose my own life in the process. I shrink back down with blood loss, she sends me off world to save me. I go through a wormhole and end up in a future version of the world I left, which is a parallel to the world I originally came from that I can never return to. The people that pull me from the wreckage are a blue female wolf that’s about 8ft tall, and three kangaroo women that are of equal and much greater height and just as odd in coloration except for Claire whose DNA was used to make me into a roo while I was out. But due to Celestial Radiation, Potions and elements in my bloodstream, and the Dragon DNA, I bear different colors than her in a startling black and neon green fur coordination with grey as an in between. And now I find myself Re-Exploring the world I consequently became a Lord and huge historical figure to in the past of hundreds of years that I surpassed by only a couple weeks thanks to the wormhole.
I’ve gotten a different name, various titles, and cybernetic parts all in the course of five years and two weeks while all of them spanned hundreds of years. The years back on Draconithia when it was run by dragons and much bigger then after I destroyed the magical engines that kept it that way called the dragons, were short and quick, but now they are long like mine. So I went through several of their years while maintaining my own mentally.
Yeah that sounds about right, a long spew of confusing gibberish.”
[READERS: you may have to read that one a few times, and the limited punctuation is intended here as that’s about how fast I’d be thinking in this sort of situation, yeah active imagination + low attention span = utter chaos.]
Karo finally made into town. From the start, he was getting strange looks, but he disregarded them and made his way into a small tavern next to the café. After what he’d just seen, he needed booze.
The barkeep was a young lizard girl of minty green scales and purple belly. “can’t be” Karo mumbled quietly.
“HI! I’m Geckina! Can I help you? *giggle*” Another lizard girl, Brown this time, with bright blue stripes and a tan belly, as well as hands and feet. She was wearing a tight white t-shirt and Tight orange shorts with a pair of white sneakers and puffy socks just past her ankles, so Karo had a good look at her whole color scheme. Her right arm was cybernetic like his, only gold in color as opposed to his Silver bits.
He was taken a bit by her directness and giggly loud manner. “Um, yes! Ah…Rum and soda” Karo had this drink or a vodka and cranberry juice where ever he went, he remembered drinking it a lot back in the employ of Torchie.
“Hee hee, Captain and coke for the Pie-Rat roo. I love the look, it’s so hot and sexy, seriously!” She began mixing the drink and humming a pirate jingle about drinking up and bad eggs. Karo turned his attention to the green one, who had caught his gaze and walked over.
“Can I do something for you as well sir?” she asked gruffly.
Karo now had a good look at her, her scales were worn and scuffed in areas, she’d deffinitly been around a while. But nobody lives for hundreds of years. He even had trouble believing that Torchie was still around. “Well yes but, I’m hesitant to ask as I know what it may mean. Um you wouldn’t happen to know, or have someone back in your bloodline by the name of Calypso would you?”
The Green female’s eyes went wide. She spastically brought her arms up and put them in her pink frizzy hair, then dropped them back down and onto the bar counter. “Th-that’s me, but how in the world would you know that? Or even suspect that? Who are you, strange roo?”
Geckina popped up again “HERES your drink, I made it a big one, no extra charge.” she smiled and giggled
“Geckina, go in the back and fix up some food for this roo, something that takes some time, a big steak, medium rare.”
“but he’s a plant eater?’ Geckina looked confused.
“Hon look at those teeth when he talks, those ain’t roo teeth, now get back there!”
Geckina sniffled, then broke out crying and ran into the back.
“Now for you mister roo, those teeth are dragon teeth. You want to tell me who you are? And how you know me? Something about those purple eyes seems a bit untrusting to me.” Calypso said and Karo saw that she was holding a flintlock pistol.
“I’m quite surprised you are still around after hundreds of years and still look so young, time ravaged just slightly but still young. You aren’t going to believe me, and I just hope you don’t decide to use that pistol on me; it would be a sad error in judgement. I’m Karo Hardskale, Lord Karo Hardskale. After the fire and the battle, no during, I was wounded badly and Torchie sent me off. I went through a wormhole and ended up back here and in Australia of all places.” Karo said, then watched as Calypso got a dumb look in here eye, a disbelieving dumb look. She didn’t believe him, but there was something that spoke truth in there and she was rationalizing it all.
“But then how did you…where did you get the…um…fur and funky tail and upside down goodies? And cybernetics!” She was asking more questions than that, but that’s all Karo could understand through her mumbling.
He explained to her the whole story, then shortly after finishing, Geckina came back in, sniffling still. “Here’s your steak mister roo.”
“Geckina I didn’t mean to yell, I was just distracted. This roo and I go way back. He wasn’t always a kangaroo. Though having said that, I am the boss and you need to do what I say when I say it. I gave you this job because Kalena is a friend and you’ve been through hell in your young life.” Calypso said, shocking Karo that she knows Kalena, and consoling Geckina who suddenly was happy and hyper again and danced around the bar to sit next to Karo. It was only now that he really noticed how empty the place was.
“Kalena? You Know her too? She and the roo’s were the ones that fixed me up…and out of some sadistic joke, gave me a cybernetic pouch. I’m a boomer; I’m not supposed to have one at all.” Karo said as he took a bite of steak, and nearly melted from the taste. He’d not had anything to eat in a while and didn’t realize his hunger.
“Yeah Geckina lives out there with them. Oh it all makes sense now, they just got back from aussie land then. They said they were going to be waiting out there for something that they’d been charged with some time ago from Torchie. Yeah she is still around, you’d better go see her, might get her out of that old castle. It needs renovated badly. You should have destroyed the whole thing.”
“Well at the time I wasn’t real concerned with destroying the castle itself. I was jus trying to get rid of the problem or die trying. I am on my way to the castle anyway, Kalena gave me my currency card on the guise I was just going to investigate the town here.” Karo said, taking another bite of steak and still savoring it.
“Really? Well Geckina’s shift is over so if you want you can take her with you, she’ll protect you if anything goes awry. I know she seems very girlish and immature, but she’s got it where it counts. You might ask Kalena the details on her.” Calypso said as she ruffled Geckina’s fluffy blue hair.
“I am right here yaknow.” Geckina Piped in and stuck out her long and studded tongue. “But really calypso is right, I have a unique history, ask Kalena about it. And I will protect you in case of anything bad happening. And wow you wolfed that steak down. What all manner of creature are you.?”
“I’m complicated…” Karo said flatly, since he was aware of the dragon in him, but Kalena had mentioned there was more than just that. She even gave him a ring that works in conjunction with his cybernetic arm to allow him to change species if he wishes. Thus far he is just hesitant to test it, unsure of where that might lead, how it may feel, etc. At the same time she was cautioning him against different anomalies in his blood that could cause strange side effects, but like a typical inattentive male, he didn’t catch most of what she said and just nodded like he heard everything while looking at her paws and other “attributes”.
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Another great chapter, Karo...you sure are putting them out fast...I like!