The sound of waves crashing against the sand echoed as a brown-haired boy washed along the shoreline, a curious penguin picking at the boy's blank face. The boy responded by swatting back at the penguin's endless peaking as he stood up and stared at the endless sea.
Turning to the penguin as he picked it up and examined it. "What the hell are you? Hmm…wanna follow me around?" Said the boy as the penguin shook its head vigorously. "You do? Thanks, little budd, you" holding it close to his chest as he walked to the entrance of the forest.
"Well, little buddy, our chance at adventure and glory is beyond the trees, probably," remarked the boy as his face remained blank and his voice bored. Two steps were all he took before he stopped in his tracks, an even smaller penguin blocking his path, squawking at him rather rudely.
"You wanna join, even tinier buddy?" Asked the boy while he picked up the smaller penguin, "Should probably name you two, shouldn't I? Um, Ricoo and private? Nah, sounds lame, kowalski and skipper? Nah, that's even lame, er" remarking as he kept looking at the smaller of the two, his eyes zoned in.
"You look like a..a…Coin? Yeah, a Coin and you" switching attention to the bigger of the two, "you look like a ruby… yeah, coin and ruby" smirked the boy as if he had come up with the greatest names ever.
Though despite all this talk, the boy was still,as he swore he had forgotten to say something…oh well, problems for tomorrow, walking off into the forest as he passed by trees that stood too tall, bushes that held colorful fruit in their foliage, ds and grass that was the brightest green he had ever seen.
While he walked, a loud grumble came from the stomach of Ruby as both the boy and the coin stared at the penguin as it made attempts to hide its face. "Thinking about it. I'm hungry too," mumbled the boy as he put the pair down and picked a purple berry off a bush, rubbing it on his skin as he waited for a result.
Seeing no result, the boy threw a few into his mouth as Ruby held their beak open, Coin soon following Ruby's lead. "No," Ruby let out a noise he could only take as complaining. Coin followed soon after. "I dunno how to test it for you, so no food for you unless you're willing to risk it."
Ruby stood forward and held its beak out. "Suit yourself," popping a berry into its beak as it swallowed. Both the boy and Coin waited for a reaction as the bird stood still. "Looks safe enough, dig in boys" all three started snacking on the berries, Coin outeating the both of them as they watched the little thing eat twice as much as Ruby.
Giving applause to the tiny glutton, the boy stood and walked further through the forest, the two following in suit. Passing by several more trees and by even more bushes with increasingly colorful berries, stopping before a river as the trio looked down and around, finding no choice but to cross.
"You too wouldn't happen to know if there were a giant, murderous fish in the water?" Both shaking their heads, though Coin was more than willing to find out, only to get an earful from Ruby, which reminded him, j3 should probably be more careful from now on...ehh Lucas would be fine.
Pulling up his pants to his knees as he picked up the pair of penguins, marching through the water as he swore something was nipping at his heels, though he could be wrong, wouldn't be the first…or would it? Not like he remembered.
Coming out to the other side of the river safe aside from stray fish jumping at him, so all was well as he kicked a fish flying at him, putting down the penguins as he kept on walking, though not before picking out stray rocks that had stuck to his foot.
Giving a few curses to the river, the trio kept walking. He could swear something was following them. The penguins being quiet was an even bigger red flag that something was wrong. The feeling kept getting worse as the sun started setting.
Gotta do something about this. How about running? Yeah, let's run. Picking up the pair as he started running as fast as he could, the two penguins squawked loudly as if to intimidate their pursuer, though it sounded more adorable than intimidating.
Hopping over stray logs as well as rushing through berry bushes led them to an opening among the trees as the boy slowed and stopped. "Think we lost em?" Asked as both nodded.
"Alright then, you two get some sticks, and I'll go find some rocks, and we can make a campfire" said the boy as they stared at him, "get a stick?" More staring, "Oh come on Just grab these things!" Picking up a nearby stick as an example, they immediately ran off into the forest.
Letting out a huge sigh before sitting off to gather rocks, making his way back towards the river. Along the way, he gathered more berries in his hand,"four for me, three for Coin, and three for Ruby, seems fair," said the boy before throwing them into his mouth.
As he came out of the trees and onto the river, leaning down and picking up ten rocks for the campfire,"...nine and ten, that's al-" unease shut him up as he stood still, his usual bored expression tense as seconds passed, seconds turned to minutes before the unease he felt started fading, he face turning back to boredom.
Taking a quick look around, noting that nothing was off, he immediately started running back to the clearing, greeted by a giant pile of sticks as he saw Coin throwing more on the pile as Ruby sat to the side lazily. "Coin, that's enough, and you…" shooting a glare at Ruby as he dropped the stones in a circle. "Thanks for the help"
Digging a hole that bordered the rocks, after he finished that he grabbed sticks from the pile and stacked them against each other, before grabbing some dry grass and throwing that alongside the sticks, "alright fellas, time for fireworks" grabbing one stick as well as a leaf from a tree.
Putting the stick on the leaf, he rubbed them together as hard as he could. A tiny ember started as he threw more grass on it. "Coin! Blow on it!" Yelled the boy as Coin blew on it, putting more grass till it grew into a fire, switching to adding sticks as the fire grew into a stable blaze.
"Coin, we did it!" Both cheered as Ruby came and peered at the boy. "No. Me and Coin did it, no thanks to you" He said loudly. earning an earful and a glare from the penguin as she kept pecking at him. "What? I'm not wrong, right, Coin?" As he spoke, Coin stayed weirdly silent as he also had a glare from Ruby.
"Whatever. Here I saved some berries," pulling a handful from his pockets as he laid them out. Just before Coin could be a glutton, Ruby whacked him on the beak as they both ate slowly, much to Coin's pain. "Heh, welp I'm off to bed, night you two" said the boy as he immediately fell asleep.
Ruby soon put Coin to sleep as she sat guard. Watching into the endless dark. Two bright yellow eyes glowed in the dark when a black panther came out and faced Ruby in a stare-off, and small snowflakes flickered around her as snow covered the ground.
The short battle was cut off by the chuckle of a feminine voice. "Hah. Brave for a bird, I can never with your kind. Some would happily sacrifice their kin for gold or less…then there's ones like you." A thin hand patted the panther as a cloaked woman stepped out of the dark.
"Tell you what? Give me the kid, and I'll leave you and yours alone," said the woman in a sickly sweet tone. Ruby replied by spreading her flippers out to cover the strange boy and her own. "No? How about for a treat?" said the woman as she pulled a fish out of the darkness of her cloak and wiggled it around with a smile on her face.
Ruby stood stubbornly, the woman stopped wiggling the fish, smile dropping as she gazed at the penguin with her golden eyes. "Gods You remind me of a woman I knew, the stubborn thing she was. A shame about the boy, but oh well, always next time," said the cloaked woman with a hint of annoyance in her voice as she and the rancid black cat backed off into the dark.
At their retreat, Ruby finally let her guard down as the snow started fading and flakes disappearing in the wind. Finally falling into slumber as the starry sky fought with the dead darkness of the forest.
Volume 1 start. The Dead Moon