182 Running and Choices

The earth shook as creatures and monsters of all types stampeded through the thick foliage. The weak and slow creatures were trampled over by other larger and faster creatures as they fled from the disaster happening behind them. Fires roared and the wood cracked as forest raged with flames, fueled by the dry grass and trees during the hot summer months.

A fiendish red dragon rolled around in a raging patch of flames in the middle of the scorched forest, enjoying the waves of heat emitted by the surrounding forest fires. It breathed in the scorching hot air, feeling the burning hot air in its lungs and it gave out a sigh of contentment. "I love the smell of flames in the morning!" It roared happily while rolling about, scattering ashes and embers into the hot air.

Creatures fled with their eye whites showing in terror and made their escape from the burning forest, screaming in fear and some even choked to death from the smoke of the flames, while others burnt to death or suffered from heat stroke.

-----

Northern Forest

A great silverback wolf with a scar across its face growled as it turned to face its brood. There were barely three females left, and the young pups were clinging tightly on their backs, whimpering in fear. A couple of younger males panted and flopped on the warm grass, as they escaped from the burning inferno behind them.

The alpha wolf snapped at the youngsters, forcing them on their feet and to continue towards South where there was a great water source. The mothers grimly licked the young pups on their backs and followed the alpha with patched throats and dry tongues dangling out from their jaws.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, we are picking up a large heat source North of our position," A sensor operator reported before she switched the view on the main display with her station's display. "On screen now!"

Blake turned his attention to the screen as he put aside his daily reports to look at the sensor readings. A colorful infra image could be seen, with large patches of white, reds and yellows shown over a stretch of forest.

"Sir, our patroling UVA spotted this, on its routine patrol route," The operator said, "Switching to visual."

The display changed again, this time showing a swath of blue-green trees and in the distance, large plumes of grey smoke could be seen covering the horizon. "Looks like a massive forest fire, Sir!"

"Where is that?" Blake asked as he observed the imagery. "Is it near any of our installations?"

"It's roughly 200 over kilometers North of us," The operator replied, "Nearest installation is the Hydro Dam station, at the waterfall. Estimated 100 km away."

"Keep observing it," Blake ordered, "Warn the Hydro Dam crew of the fire and get them to take precautions. Also get a team to start working out some forest fire protection and fire fighting procedures just in case the fire spreads over here."

"Yes, Sir!" The operator replied and started making phone calls.

"Damn," Blake whispered under his breath, "This better not come to us!" He scrolled through his contacts list on his communicator and selected <The Princess>.

After a short while, the call connected, "Hello dear?"

A choking sound was heard on the other line, "Are you alright?" Blake panicked, thinking something had happened.

"No, I mean yes! I am alright! Just... don't call me dear in public!" Sherene whispered, "I am in a meeting now!"

"Haha ok, but I'm calling for some serious issues," Blake grinned. "We have reports of a massive forest fire up north."

"Forest fire?" Sherene's worried voice sounded over the comms. "Will it affect us? It's going to be the summer festival this week! Do I need to evacuate anyone?"

"No, but I like you to notify the fire department to be on standby just in case," Blake said, "And also come up with some fire safety procedure in case we need to implement should the fire comes within 50km of our territory."

"I understand!" Sherene replied, "I will get my people on it!"

"Thanks for the hard work!" Blake grinned, "Love Ya!"

"PFFFFt!!!!" Sherene's face turned red, "You...!"

"hahaha! Bye bye~" Blake winked and closed connection, smiling contently to himself, while the crew on the bridge whispered and giggled.

-----

Northern Forest

Snarls and roars broke out among the trees, and a dark figure flew out and slammed against an ancient tree. The snap of the thoracic spine of the wind wolf was barely heard over the roars and cries of the wolves circling around a five-headed Hydra.

The Hydra was large, almost on par with the Alpha wolf. Its scaly body bore bloody wounds and ripped scales. It was surrounded by four wind wolves, and two of its serpentine heads glared daggers at the alpha while the rest of the heads each tracked a wolf.

The wind wolves growled, their hackles raised and feet spread out, ready to pounce onto the Hydra which suddenly attacked them as they ran away from the fire. The Hydra hissed and its tail suddenly lashed out, striking with a force strong enough to bend a 5 mm thick steel plate.

The nearest wind wolf leaped up, dodging the tail sweep and landed on all fours before it charged at the Hydra. The tail continued to sweep with a massive force, forcing the rest of the wolves to scatter or rest having broken bones. The Alpha roared and leaped in, dodging the tail attack nimbly and the Hydra's heads dart in to cramp their jaws on the Alpha.

The Alpha suddenly roared out, firing a ball of condensed air, which slammed right into the opened mouth of one of the heads. The ball of super condensed air erupted deep inside the head and the head popped, the eyeballs of the startled Hydra burst out with bits of flesh and blood. The other heads cried out in pain as one of its heads died and the shock was transmitted to the other brains.

As the heads reared back in pain, this gave the wolves an opportunity to strike at the Hyrda. They clamped their powerful jaws on the fleshy portions of the Hydra, tearing out flesh and scales. One unlucky wolf yelped in pain and fear when suddenly the heads recovered and three of them bit down on the wolf.

The wolf screaming wolf struggled and tried to get free but the sword long teeth held on latched on tightly, causing a large amount of blood to flow out. The rest of the brood tried to save the wolf, one of them even leaped on to the back of the Hydra, gnawing away at the base of one of the necks.

The heads suddenly bit harder and with a ripping sound, the screaming wolf was ripped into two, its guts and blood flung two ways and tossed to the side. The Alpha wolf roared madly when he saw his brood killed and fired another ball of air at the Hydra's heads which weaved away from the attack.

The Hydra slashed out with its claws catching another wolf who was latched on to its body, its fur barely able to block the slash, three bloody claw marks appeared on the flank of the wolf, making it cry out in pain and it disengaged from the Hydra, limping to the side to lick its wounds.

Its remaining four heads turned and glared at the wolf on its back and darted down, tearing the wolf too slow to run into bloody chunks. The silverback Alpha Wind Wolf seeing that they could no longer win this fight, turned and roared out at the hidden females, telling them to run and it turned back and faced the Hydra head-on, buying time for the females with the pups to escape.

-----

The Colony, Residental District 3

Kaga suddenly jolted awake and sat up straight in her bed. She looked around her surroundings in confusion before slowly remembering that this was her own private room!

She flopped back on the soft and comfy bed, hugging an equally soft and fluffy pillow, and started rolling around the bed, enjoying the simple luxury of clean, soft bedsheets. She procrastinated for over 15 minutes on the bed before she was willing to get off the bed.

As she left her room, she saw a note stuck to her door from Billy, telling her there is food on the table and if she wants to cook, there were some ingredients in the refrigerator.

Kaga peeked under the covered plate and found a couple slices of bread with a slice of cold ham and a fried egg, She took the whole plate and walked to the balcony, pulling aside the curtains and instantly a view of the city was before her.

Kaga dragged a chair over and sat down eating her breakfast as she watched the scenery of the city. She remembered that she has to go down to the Academy for the start of her classes and today was a day off for her, so she decided to read the brochures given to her by the lady at the City Hall.

The first brochure with vibrant and realistic images spoke about general laws and crimes in the city. Things like stealing, robbery, fights, murders were all dealt harshly. Other laws talk about traffic in the streets, like how to cross the roads properly, with a green man light and stop if it is a red man.

Complaints or grievances are to be reported to the nearest police station while starting a new business requires a license to be granted from the City Hall. Bribes and corruption will also be dealt harshly and even littering is a crime!

The more Kaga read, the more she felt there was no freedom here! Even crossing the road if the traffic lights are red, is called jaywalking is also considered a crime, and may be fined up to a few hundred credits!

Who was the lord of this city? Kaga thought to herself, how can the Lord expect the people to follow every single law listed and not rebel?

She continued reading and found more unbelievable laws written down. If caught without their identity card can also be resulted in being arrested and thrown into jail till their identity can be verified! Losing the card will also result in a fine, but if the owner loses the identity card more than three times, the person can be jailed for up to 3 months!

She quickly returned to her room and search through her stuff, making sure her identity card is still safe. This place is so strict with their laws, maybe that is why it looks so neat and tidy?

She put down the brochure about laws and picked up the next, which was about living in the city and how to adapt to a new city life. The colorful images printed on the parchment was amazing, making Kaga wonder how much gold must be spent just to make all these pictures on the high-quality parchments.

This talked about how to travel around the city on public buses, which timetables and bus routes, numbers, and even the cost to ride them. Another section talked about where to find markets to purchase daily necessities. There was even a section on the exchange rates of silver and gold to the local chits and credits.

The final brochure talked about education and jobs. A long list of educational courses was listed out, including the timings of the classes, cost, and locations. There were several basic courses that were free and that was what Kaga will be going tomorrow. She looked at the names of the courses and were confused as they were mostly in Eng-ish, which she barely understands. She sighed and could only wait till her Eng-ish improves before she can check up what courses shes can take.

Under Jobs, they were split into different sectors, from service, manufacturing, farming, to military. There were a few more others which she couldn't understand what they were.

"What job should I choose?"