The Chameleon Chronicles

Chapter 2 - Start The Adventure

The party was almost over, and for that Zoin was grateful. It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed it, he hadn't even bothered trying, but for the fact he felt Krona had been let off too easily. It was very well for Krona to be messing around stalls and markets, and get told off. But it was something else for him to be able to gatecrash a party and then be allowed to stay. That was what had been irking him.
And so he sat on the chair, awaiting the end of the party. When it came, he walked straight up to Krona and dragged him away. Oreah joined them shortly after, running up to them with an embarrassed smile on her face.
"Why did you two show up?" she asked. "It was so embarrassing how you entered."
"Well don't blame me," Zoin said darkly. "Blame your brother here."
He indicated Krona, who looked taken aback, and retorted "I would've had a clean access if you hadn't butted in."
"Don't argue," Oreah whined, but Zoin still talked to Oreah while still throwing accusations at his brother.
"All I was doing was stopping your brother from causing trouble," he replied, leading the three of them out of the main town square and into unoccupied space so they wouldn't disturb anyone.
"Well as far as today goes, you caused more trouble than I did," Krona retorted. "I would have attracted less attention if you hadn't have jumped out and stopped me in my tracks."
Zoin grabbed Krona's arm and swung him around the nearest tree. Then, with a look of concern on his face, growled "You might think that being a troublemaker is a good idea, but you will end up in serious trouble one of these days. And don't expect me to help you if it does come to that."
"But you can't blame me," Krona said, and it was clear he was still a bit shaken at the forcefulness of Zoin's movement. "All I want is a bit of adventure."
"Well if-" Zoin started to say before a scream rent the air.
Both of them looked around the tree they were behind. A metallic claw had extended from above the tree tops and down into the forest and had grabbed Oreah in a not-at-all-friendly grip.
Zoin ran around the tree, shocked at what was happening, and lunged out at Oreah. The machine to which the extendable claw belonged had risen though, and continued to rise, so that instead of grabbing Oreah or the claw that held her, he missed her foot by inches.
Krona had walked around the tree now, and was looking at up at the machine. Zoin looked up too, and received another shock. He had heard many stories, had known of one man, who tried to rule the world. The town hadn't paid those stories much attention. The war was hardly ever going to come to this small community, they said.
But some small part of it had indeed come, and as Zoin looked helplessly on as the machine continued to rise, a maniacal laugh reached their ears.
Frustration at not being able to help gripped Zoin, and as the machine zoomed off, he yelled "EGGMAN!" as loud as he could, but it was swallowed by the darkening night.

Krona was running as fast as he could after Zoin, who was leading the way back to the house. He had a feeling Zoin was worrying like mad, and so was he.
Slow on the uptake, he hadn't realised at first what was happening, but when he had walked out from behind the tree's trunk to see Zoin flailing and trying to regain his balance with no Oreah in sight, he had looked up to see Oreah trapped in a claw extended from a hoverpod. When Zoin shouted Eggman after hearing the laugh, Krona had gasped. But he had no idea what Eggman would even want with their sister, and even less idea about why he would be in this area anyway.
Even so, he now rushed behind Zoin, where they ran to their house, the loss of his sister only starting to outweigh his worry of what would happen to her.
Zoin burst into the house first, much to their parent's surprise, and immediately boomed "Oreah's been taken by Eggman! She was with us as we were walking home and was captured after I-"
"Be quiet," their father scolded. "Now. Is what the mayor told us true?"
"Told... What?" Zoin blankly said as Krona came to a halt beside him.
"The mayor told us that you two had gatecrashed the party," their mother informed them. "I'm pretty sure what he said is true."
"Well it is, but I only tried to stop Krona from gatecrashing, and he bumped into me," Zoin said, real fast. "But Oreah's been taken by Eggman! She was with-"
"Stop evading. If you gatecrashed, that's a bad offense to have committed."
"I gatecrashed," Krona admitted. "Zoin was trying to stop me." He then blurted out "But Oreah really has been -"
"Stop with this insistence that Oreah has been captured!" their mother exclaimed. "Oreah was stopping at a friend's house after the party, and will be there until the middle of tomorrow. You probably saw another chameleon who looked like Oreah," she then said in a calmer voice. "We'll ask around tomorrow. I'm sure their parents will be worried."
Zoin opened his mouth to say something, but their father stopped him from saying anything. "You heard your mother," he said. "No more insisting that your sister has been kidnapped. You'll have some supper and then get off to bed."
With soup in front of them, and sat at the kitchen table, Zoin and Krona didn't speak. Both of them were thinking of their sister, and where she might be now. Krona knew he was, and expected his brother to be doing the same. He felt a loss, a loss he knew wouldn't be healed unless his sister returned. He was split, though, on what to do. His sense of adventure was calling. He wanted to, felt he had to, be out there looking for his sister. But he was feeling halted, as though he couldn't even go anywhere. He sometimes felt as though not doing anything was the best course of action, as though his sister would somehow free herself. In these moments, he felt as though even if he did do something, he wouldn't get far, would probably end up lost, and have no idea of what to do for food and die hungry.
As he lay in his bed, feeling the soup still warm in his stomach, he convinced himself that things would sort themselves out. That his sister would reappear in a few day's time as though nothing had happened.
The worry about his sister was still with him though, and he felt guilty at convincing himself of not going to find her. His worry and loss gave him another uncomfortable thought. If he hadn't have gatecrashed the party, none of this would probably have happened.