The Beats Go On

Chapter 24: An Abandoned Town

🏡Chapter 24: An Abandoned Town

(Note: Kiwi dropped out due to personal issues)

The group had fallen asleep on Elis, but were awoken by a shout of joy. Upon waking up, all of them saw that they were approaching land, and Cho and Pepe confirmed it as home. The group cheered as they neared the place, jumping up and down for joy. In no time flat, they had made it to the island's beaches. All of them looked out was Elis approached a dock and halted.

There, in front of them, was a seaside town. But...it seemed like a ghost town now. Something felt wrong, and everybody knew it. Heck, they couldn't see any shapes walking around from where they were at the moment.

"What is...what is this?" Cho asked, shocked at what they saw.

"It looks nothing like when we last saw it..." Pepe mumbled.

"Well, let's have a look around."

The group got off of Elis and began walking around. They saw a few citizens still lingering around, and they were surprisingly uncorrupted. The only issue was that they seemed...upset. They looked disappointed, worried, all things similar almost. They were seemingly in good health, at least.

"Well. I'm going back to my house to get something, so I'll find you guys when I'm done" Pepe said.

And before anyone could say anything, he was off. The group sighed, and began walking around. It felt like some giant monster had their eyes on this place, and that it could attack at any moment. They looked around and saw all the shops and signs. Those seemed to be lit up and running as usual, but it felt off with few shapes here.

The group didn't want to ask someone quite yet what happened though, just in case. After a few more minutes of walking, they found a fountain at the center of the place. It was still running, but...it looked like the streams of water were less active than they could have been. Nobody was around it except for a single cyan shape. Maybe this was the chance to ask about the place?

El excused herself quickly, saying she saw a store she thought looked interesting, and dashed off. The group shrugged, and walked up to the shape.

"Hey, uh...do you know what happened here?" Coco asked.

The cyan shape, an oval, turned around to look at them in surprise. He was about Coco's height, and he seemed like a teenager.

"Yeah, actually. A giant lizard-dragon thing flew over here and began sprinkling this pink stuff all over the place. Everyone said it was corruption, but I was under it and I haven't felt weird at all. It's been about...two days since, I think?" he replied.

"Interesting...what is your name?" Cho asked him.

"My name is Rey!"

Rey - Oval - Cyan

A very friendly shape with the habit of procrastinating. He is often seen staring into the woods, as if something was there. Usually nobody asks about it though, since he always tells them he's fine. He does love sunsets.

"Ah, it's nice to meet you! I'm Digo, and-"

Ami cut him off.

"How do you know we can trust him?!" he hissed at Digo.

"Oh. Oops."

"Well, its fine, just don't bring the rest of us into it. Nobody introduce yourselves" Ami whispered to the group.

"Oh no, it's okay! I'm sure I'll be fine, anyway!" Rey said, laughing lightly a little.

"Well, thank you for your help! We're trying to stop the corruption, so..." Ina said.

"Wait. Me no get it. What big lizard draggy thingy?" Ari asked.

"That was the beast that sprinkled corruption onto the island and volcano you were on!" Cas said.

"Oh...that no good" Ari mumbled.

"Well, that's what we're here for. Thank you, Rey" Cho said.

"No problem! If you need my help, just let me know!"

The group waved goodbye as they walked away. They pondered on what to do next though, since Rey said nothing about the treeangle. Then again, maybe they shouldn't tell him in case he was a spy for the lizard and was lying? Perhaps there was another source of information here that held the location of the treeangle. Maybe a library or something?

"Hey Cho, do you remember any sort of riddle or something to find the treeangle piece?" Cas asked.

"Hm...well...there was one, but I don't remember exactly what it said..." Cho replied.

"Well small words help too!" Ari said.

"True, true...ahem, it said something along the lines of "I am where the high tears fall, I am the prettiest thing people saw, look for me far and wide, but I am right where home resides"...I don't know, it had a rhyme scheme better than that" Cho responded.

"High tears...high as in royalty, or literal height?" Ami asked.

"Prettiest thing...a waterfall maybe? Those can be high up and those are pretty..." Ina said.

"Where home resides...would that mean the location is here or something?" Cas asked.

"It could also be an actual house, though..." Digo mumbled.

"So far, waterfall seems to be our best bet, but...I don't think we have one of those on this island the last time I checked" Cho said.

"Well, maybe it was hidden in a cave or something? Maybe we need to activate a machine here to make it or something?" Coco asked.

"That make sense..." Ari replied, being basically stuck on what it could be.

The group kept walking aimlessly through the place. Occasionally other shapes would wave at them, or run away hurriedly. Were they scared or something? Had someone given the group a bad reputation before they'd gotten here? Nonetheless, they kind of felt awkward for not having a set destination.

"Any ideas yet?" Ami asked.

"Nope..." Cas groaned.

"Hmm. Let's go to my house. We can figure out a plan from there" Cho said.

Everyone else, who didn't have any better ideas, nodded as Cho lead the way. Hopefully they could all get out of this mess and solve this mystery.