The Heroes of Aeseganora: Part 1 - The Oca-Tree

The Fairies' Whistle

The Patupaiakuri Pastures was a village built upon a tangle of twisting tree roots, which were decorated with little flowers. It wasn't too unlike Ocalihalla; locals were doing their jobs, travellers and tourists exploring with their cameras, conversations with businesspeople and friends, babies and toddlers screaming and crying, couples dating, children and teenagers going to school.

However, all of the citizens were dogs and puppies with fairy wings - and they were all part of a species known as the Patupaiakuri.

None of them seemed to bat an eyelid when they saw a wingless dachshund wearing two hair clips standing up and brushing herself off before beginning to walk through the Patupaiakuri Pastures.

A tourist, thought the general public.

A customer, thought the salespeople.

Something peculiar about visiting a new place is that one immediately tries to liken it to an old, familiar place, or even a picture on the wall of a stranger's house, somewhere you've seen in a film or a television show, or somewhere you've read about in a book, to try and make the new place feel friendlier.

Memory is such a strange thing in that it doesn't work in straight lines.

Therefore, looking around the Patupaiakuri Pastures reminded Dashi of a place she'd read about in one of favourite Donna Doxy mystery novels when she was growing up. Although the Pastures were contemporary, like the places in the novels, there wasn't any modern technology to be seen. Rather, the Pastures looked like something that a little girl would've crafted herself, with the way that the houses were designed (they were constructed out of several plants including flowers, mushrooms, twigs and leaves, and each one had its own unique shape and design).

Lost in the fascination of everything in her sight, she suddenly felt her skirt move, and she looked down to see a brown paw retreating out of her pocket.

"Hey!" she turned around and grabbed the paw, which belonged to a young sea otter wearing a black-dark grey hooded cloak. "Were you stealing something?"

"Well, your camera was just sat behind your back, wasn't it?" the sea otter said in a Scottish accent. "Fair game."

"Fair game?" Dashi's eyes narrowed in fury.

"I have a license," the otter extracted a small card from the cloak with a free paw. "See?"

Dashi took it and read it:

Patricia Pinecrestach

Licensed Slave (Trainee)

By command of the Slaves Association, the Patupaiakuri Pastures and Enclosing Residencies

"Are you an out-of-towner?" the otter asked the dachshund.

"Well, you could say that." Dashi replied as she let go of the paw.

"Well, keep your guard up. The slaves are currently on an assignment to protect others' belongings from the new threat, so there's a lot of us about." the otter rubbed her paw and glanced about.

"May I ask," Dashi begun, after a brief silence. "if this new threat is the threat that's leaking the magic energy out of Aeseganora?"

"How did you know?" Patricia asked.

"Because I've been sent on a mission to find a treasure for the Oca-Tree, so that it can begin producing the energy again," Dashi responded, and Patricia's eyes widened as Dashi told her who she was, and how she and the rest of the Octonauts were sent on the mission to find the treasures.

"Wow," Patricia begun. "A team of adventurers on a mission for the treasures, eh? That sounds exciting."

"It is," Dashi replied, her face beaming.