Chapter Forty-Three: Zoo

~~~~~~~{Memory Core 12 Start}~~~~~~~

The day I met Peckolin, my life changed forever. Candar and I had been friends for a few months when, out of the blue, he asked me if I believed in magic. Even in the bustling capital city of Venzwincourt, where the air buzzed with the sounds of merchants and the scent of exotic spices, magic was a rare and whispered-about phenomenon. Those few who had witnessed it spoke in hushed, reverent tones, their eyes wide with a mix of awe and fear. There were few independent sages, alchemists, and witches outside of the royal army, and of those, fewer still displayed their magic openly for others to see.

Candar invited me to meet his older brother, Peckolin, who was returning that day with his Sagecraft degree from the Repository of Sagecraft and Doorways. Peckolin was somewhat of a legend in our circles, known for his mischievous antics during his time at the Pauper’s school. The excitement in Candar's voice was infectious.

He met us in his favorite alleyway, just off King’s Avenue. The narrow street was alive with the clamor of vendors calling out their wares, the rich aroma of freshly baked bread mingling with the musty smell of damp cobblestone. A cool breeze brushed past, carrying with it the scent of that bread. My stomach growled; I hadn’t had breakfast, and a pauper’s school lunch was never filling.

Candar led me to Jim and Butchers Ale and Meatery, an overpriced liquor and butcher shop—an odd combination if I had ever seen one. We arrived just in time. A man matching Candar’s description of Peckolin stood there: tall, with piercing red eyes that seemed to glow behind square glasses. His purple cloak, adorned with embroidered planets and stars, shimmered in the afternoon light. He wore a stupid grin on his face, and a liquor bottle dangled from his fingers as he whistled a jaunty, carefree tune. There was, oddly enough, a towel wrapped around his shoulders.

When Peckolin saw us, his eyes went wide. He snapped his fingers, and with a sharp crack, a shimmering door materialized out of thin air, the air around it humming with a strange energy. A faint scent of ozone lingered as if a lightning strike had just occurred. Without missing a beat, he walked through it and vanished.

Candar sputtered before he shouted, “Brother! You said you would meet my friend and show off! Show us some magic!” His voice grew hoarse with frustration, and I began to feel stomach pains again. This time, it wasn’t hunger; my father would be angry if I got home late.

“Candar, I appreciate you offering to…” My excuse died on my lips as a man, dressed in a completely different outfit but with the same piercing red eyes, appeared running up the alleyway behind us.

“Quiet, you want me to get in trouble?” Peckolin said as he approached, before reaching to lay a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder. “I’m not old enough to buy liquor yet, so I can't be seen with you in my official graduate gear.”

“Oh,” Candar said, deflating a bit. “So you’re still going to show us?”

Peckolin nodded. “I said I would, didn’t I? How would the two of you like a private tour of the zoo?”

Before we could respond, he snapped his fingers again, summoning another door. This time, the door shimmered with a faint, otherworldly glow.

Peckolin got a twinkle in his eye as he snapped his fingers, summoning another door. “The first rule of magic, boys, is that every spell requires a catalyst—something from which to create the magic,” Peckolin explained, his voice resonating with authority. He held up his fingers, dusted with a sparkling powder that looked almost like glowing sand.

“This door spell is great because the catalyst is very small.” As he snapped his fingers, a bright spark ignited, and a door shimmered into existence, radiating a soft, otherworldly glow. “A bit of Portal Powder™ on my fingertips, and then a snap of the fingers causes the door to appear. My portal takes me to my lair, where I keep anything and everything I need.”

To illustrate his point, Peckolin snapped his fingers again, and a doorway appeared. “Come inside, my minions!” He did an over-the-top bow as he held the door aloft for us to enter. The inside was a chaotic treasure trove cluttered with bizarre artifacts. The air was thick with the scent of aged liquor and musty books. A shelf lined with dusty bottles glinted in the dim light, and another shelf held what looked suspiciously like Red Dust, its crimson grains catching the light eerily. My eyes widened in awe and a bit of apprehension as I took in the room’s strange contents. I must have been staring at the room and its contents because Peckolin was a bit upset when he said, “Hello? I asked what do you think?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“What do I think about what?” I replied, snapping back to attention.

“My plan,” Peckolin said, his grin widening.

“Which is?” I asked, feeling both curious and apprehensive.

“I’m not saying it again if you failed to listen. If you're in, you'll get to see more magic. If you’re out, there's the door.”

I hesitated, but then the thought of seeing more magic overcame any doubts. “Sure,” I said.

Peckolin grinned and snapped his fingers. The door opened on its own, and we were no longer in the alley. We were whisked away to a zoo, of all places. The air was filled with the earthy scent of damp soil and the distant roar of animals. The rustle of leaves and the chirping of night insects created a surreal backdrop. I could see the dark outlines of enclosures and the glint of watchful eyes peering through the foliage.

The three of us left the portal room—if that’s what it was—and huddled in the dark brush underneath a gnarled tree by the Walrus-Bear exhibit. The ground was damp and cold, the smell of wet leaves and animal musk filling the air. My heart pounded in my chest as we crouched there, the low growl of the Walrus-Bear resonating in the stillness of the late afternoon.

“What are we even here for?” I whispered, my voice trembling with a mix of fear and curiosity, my mind racing to make sense of our sudden relocation.

“Remember how I said all magic needs a catalyst? Well, I need one for a spell, and it just so happens that the catalyst is the egg of a Dragon-Mane,” Peckolin said, inspecting his fingernails for dirt.

I stared at him in shock for a long moment before his brother beat me to a response. “That’s what you want? Are you insane? Those things are so poisonous our dead parents will feel it!” Candar exclaimed.

Peckolin glanced at his younger brother and then at me. “What about you? Are you going to complain, too?” he asked, his gaze intense.

I shrank back under his glare, still uncertain about the man. “No, but I assume you have a plan to get the egg.”

“Yes, and it requires three people,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Here’s the plan…”

I half expected the memory to end, but instead, I blinked, and it was a couple of hours later. I was extremely grateful I didn’t have to wait through the two hours it took for everything to get dark.

We left the Walrus-Bear enclosure, which had finally woken up and was now prowling its territory, looking at us with uncertain eyes. The zoo had already closed half an hour before, the night guard not even bothering to look at the bushes we had hidden behind. Why we hadn’t just waited out in Peckolin’s storage room or somewhere else, I didn’t know, other than his excitement at playing “Professional hide and seek,” as he called it.

Now that everything was ready, Peck put his plan into motion. Using magic, he turned two rocks into keys and handed them to each of us. “It’s important that this goes off without a hitch. You take this key, Candar, and you unlock the lion exhibits—all of them. And you, um, what's your name again? Roderick? Roadster? Roddy?”

I gave him a confused look, trying to hide my discomfort at the name Roddy. I hated that name.

“And you, you go to the west side to the tiger displays. Make sure you release the Ant-Tiger. If it sees the Dragon-Mane, they might fight. I’m counting on it.”

I gulped. An Ant-Tiger was a terrifying beast with orange and green fur, deadly pincers, and a highly territorial nature. Even getting close, it might decide to chase me instead of the Dragon-Mane, and then where would I be?

It took me a few minutes to jog to the west enclosure, stopping to glance at the Liger exhibit. I tripped in excitement upon finally reaching the first of the Tigers. As I climbed to my feet, I ripped my school uniform on a sharp rock that jutted out from the Liger enclosure. The tug of the rock almost sent me sprawling again, but I managed to steady myself. I looked down at the tear, certain my father would be ripping me a new one later.

The poor beast looked lonely and despondent. It was old, maybe over 20 years of age, and had been the first creature Baron Jonelle had created for his “Monstrique” Zoo. I wasn’t sure what Peckolin’s game was here, but I had a feeling it wasn’t just about a catalyst.

I unlocked the cage for the Liger, but the creature didn’t even bother to leave the area. I sighed, feeling a pang of sympathy for the old animal.

It took about 20 minutes to unlock every animal's cage in the menagerie's west wing. I hadn’t heard or seen the signal that Peckolin said was the key to his plan. In fact, I was starting to get fidgety, and I doubted that he would even do anything at all to help us leave. But he wouldn’t leave his younger brother, right?

Just as my anxiety peaked, chaos erupted. A deafening blast like a gong from the depths exploded above the zoo, a brilliant flash of light searing my vision. The shockwave hit me with such force that I was thrown off my feet, the heat scorching my skin. My ears rang, and my head spun as I lay on the ground, struggling to process what had just happened.

My vision blurred and darkened at the edges as the world spun around me. I felt my consciousness slipping away; the last thing I heard was the distant, panicked cries of animals before everything went black.

~~~~~~~{Memory Core 12 End}~~~~~~~