Chapter Twelve: learning the Story of Bedlam's cove.

"bedlam means chaos."

-the dictionary.

while they sat on the bus headed to the beach for their field trip, Radin, Bailey, Ciril, Felicia, Virlan and Malcom were able to ask a load of questions of the new student, who they recognised from the flood.
"you're the guy," radin gasped at the canine sitting in his palm, then whispered "the one who reversed the flood..."
Zenef nodded "yep. that's me." he smiled up at the snow leopard "i'm the weird guy... and you're the ones who didn't Pause along with time, right?"
ciril adjusted his glasses "i guess we are... what was that light thing?"
"a ghost." he answered simply
felicia had a different thought "anything weird about you?"
"sometimes i get somnambulism."
"somna-wha-ha?"
"som-namb-ulism, somnabulism, AKA: sleepwalking."
malcom whistled "heh, big word."
zenef chuckled "i have a question for you guys; how did you stay acive during my 'trirteenth hour' ability? that's suposed to be impossible."
"thitreenth hour?" bailey asked "what's that mean?"
"i can freeze time for up to a full hour, but only once per day. it's called 'thirteenth hour'."
"so, if you freeze it for thirty seconds?"
"then i'll still have fifty nine minutes and a half saved up."
"cool."
zenef looked over the flourescent orange foxcat sitting across from Radin "hmm... you look interesting... some sorta fox/cat hybrid, yeah?"
ciril nodded.
"well, that's interesting, and i notice your twin brother's small, so you must have a big and a small parent," the little canine analysed him "and, i'll bet that you're a Bisizer." he whispered.
ciril's eyes went wide "how... how did you know?"
zenef smirked "easy, i was told..." as he said this, he looked beside himself, as if there was someone there "Alpha told me."
"Alpha? who's this 'Alpha' person?" Malcom inquired.
zenef rubbed his own muzzle, seeming to think of a way of explaining it.
"hrmmmmmm..... how do i...? he's... oh! he's the ghost i mentioned."
"okay," virlan sighed "ghost of what exactly?"
"a wolf."
"okay then...." radin said, convinced that the canine wasn't going to explain any further.
the bus went over a bump in the road, launching zenef into the air a few metres
zenef bit back a scream "catch me!" he said in a hushed voice
radin quickly snatched him out of the air "sorry..."
zenef rolled his sapphire blue eyes and sighed "no trouble."

soon, they arrived at the beach, the students all looking out over the barricading protecting the beach, seeing a myriad of various creatures, all wearing the white armband at the very least, and there were even a few morphics gathering on the other side of the fence as if to greet the students, smiling and waving to them.
some of these particular morphics looked just like bukis, although the clear indication against this was obvious, they had a distinct scent difference to them, a scent that could never have come from this world.
"awesome..." radin commented "there are so many people from earth here!"
zenef sat upon radin's shoulder "yeah, crudloads of 'em... it's amazing that so many earth-people are okay with Xlenari!"
"not nessisarily..." bailey interjected "look closer, the only ones coming closer to us are young, all the older ones are giving us the stinkeye..."

each group was assigned a part of the fence to them, and were tasked with learning about earth from the morphics who were okay with talking to Xlenians.
Radin's group were assigned with an area near the protected snack bar.
"so, a whole half of the population of this world are you giant guys?" asked a half-human, half-bat morphic.
"around about." bailey replied.
"cool. no giants back home, and morphication only came out a few years back. your world's definitely cooler."
"yeah," Malcom chuckled "but you guys brought a ton of new stuff here! pets, new foods, more humans, crazy technology--"
"what about it's so crazy to you?"
"the whole thing, you guys... it's just... different to Gentikan tech... so... low."
"just 'cause we aren't as advanced, doesn't make it weird."

"is weird really so bad?"

radin turned to see a dalmatian leaning casually on the fencing, as if he wasn't bothered by the prescence of the giants at all.
"nothing is normal, so everything is weird," the dalmatian commented "including you, me, them, everything and everyone ever. all weird. weird is good."
felicia giggled "so... weird is normal?"
"exactly, kid."
zenef strode up close to the fence "why do you look like a buki?"
"easy enough, i bought a Morphpack as a human, and i've always been into dogs, so i got my Morph to be one, too, never regretted it." he smiled "i love being a Morphic!"
while the group chatted with the two Morphics, Radin looked out through the fencing, seeing all the little creatures enjoying themselves, sunbathing, playing ball, swimming, all the typical beach stuff.
he could even see some of them flying about in the air.
Virlan sat on his brother's shoulder, and was asking about earth itself, and Ciril was even taking notes for him.
however, during this, radin noticed zenef sneaking off into a nearby cave, and discreetly got up to follow him.

---

zenef was following Alpha, who was excitedly leading him toward the cave
'quick! hurry up!'
"it's not like it's going anywhere, it's a cave, Alpha..."
'No! not the cave, what's INSIDE the cave!' the specter huffed, but still remained excited.
zenef sighed, he had no idea what could possibly be making his past self so excited.
but it wasn't too hard to work out once he was inside the thing, scaled to beyond gigantic proportions.
there were pictographs filling every wall, mostly, they showed a rather mean looking red canine abusing smaller ones, and some even smaller than them!
"Alpha... what is all this?"
'this is where the cove gets it's name... in ancient times, there was a giant who dwarfed his own kind, the first Megalith, he called himself Bedlam, Sillias, and nagrat jenlid.'
"long name"
'not all of it is his name; Bedlam was a title of sorts, silias was a taken name, and his given name was nagrat jenlid.'

"that so?"

zenef turned to see Radin standing at the entrance.
"um... what do you mean?" zenef asked confusedly.
Alpha sighed 'Zenef, i can be seen by other people in places like this one, it's because... oh, nevermind, it's a long story.'
"magic?" zenef grinned
'okay, maybe not so long.'

---

Beta sat in the shade of a tree on the beach, far out of sight of the students.
there was a laptop in his paws.
"what?!" lightningblazer laughed "the beach has WIFI?!"
"yep."
suddenly, a speeding black and white soccer ball bulletted into the bark beside Beta's head, just narrowly missing him, but making him jump nonetheless.
he saw a grey wolf waving and calling out apologies and for him to toss it back, so Beta picked up the ball and tossed it back with a rather horrible throw.
and then he had an odd feeling, he looked back to where the wolf had been, but he'd gone elsewhere.
a grey wolf playing soccer... it sounded familiar, and he could've sworn he'd seen him before...
"that... was that...?"
lightningblazer looked back to his friend "what?"
Beta shook his head "it's... i thought i saw... nevermind."
he pictured the wolf he'd seen in his head; grey body-fur, black tipped ears, yellow head-fur...
(i know that guy...) he thought to himself
Beta smirked "so... he's here, eh? interesting..." he muttered under his breath.
then he handed the laptop to lightningblazer and went off to get something to drink.
"hey, Beta?"
"yeah?"
Lightningblazer smirked "get me a drink, can you?"
the wolf rolled his eyes and walked off toward the beverage stand
he purchased two lemonades and a 2.5ml can of beer.
"you sure don't look old enough..." the stag tending the stall inquired
Beta chuckled briefly "s'not for me..." he looked over to where a large group were engaged in a soccer match "it's for a friend."
the stag nodded and let the wolf walk off.

Beta found a beach towel that had remnants of energy from the other wolf he'd seen earlier on it, and left the can beside the bag there, then scribbled on a piece of paper in his pocket, and left the note with it.
he walked off, leaving the scrawled message baring the legible text "just a little gift from a friend of yours :)"

Beta returned to Lightningblazer and tossed him one of the cans of lemonade.
"you were gona a while." he queried the wolf.
Beta just shrugged, the ghost of a smile forming on his muzzle "oh, just doing something you wouldn't be interested in hearing about."

---

Alpha described the story told by the cave paintings, starting at the beginning.

'around 500 years ago, on Xlen, a giant canine family gave birth to their child, a son with vibrant red fur, and although he was born at normal height, he quickly grew to dwarf them in size, much as their kind dwarfed others. they named him Nagrat Jenlid, and for a while, he was a good child...'

"for a while?" zenef asked

'yes... shortly after his tenth birthday, he accidentally destroyed his village, killing everyone in it... and at that moment, he realised he LIKED it... he began destroying other villages, and killing hundreds, humans, bukis, gikis, there was no discrimination... if he was bigger, they were naught but playthings.
he came to be known as sillias, disliking his given name 'Nagrat' because it meant "gentle one"... where as his new name had a far more sinister meaning...'

Radin looked up at the pictograph showing the red canine tossing little figures into his mouth "what'd it mean?"

'Devourer'... and up until he reached puberty, he simply destroyed and killed... but then he met... her.'

"her?" zenef inquired

'the name is not listed, but apparently he found a beautiful young lady while he was rampaging, and she begged him to stop. utterly infatuated with her, he promised only to stop if she became his mate.'
they looked up to the image showing the red canine cradling a grey figure in his paws.
'of course, he kept to his word, she became his mate, and for a few years, everyone was happy... until...' a nervous look came to Alpha's spectral face 'the world was at war, and in a crossfire at her village... she was killed... sad and depressed, he cried out in pain, anguishing over his lost love, and in his trauma, he was attacked by the old civilisation... turning away from eachother and focusing on him; they fought him, trying to kill him with catapaults and archaic weaponary, and fighting with magic, too... but he was enraged, he knew it was their fault his love had died, and massacred them, proceeding to flatten and devour entire villages whole...'

the image the wolf-spectre pointed to depicted as such.
'but, he would not destroy all, a powerful being, one whoose power was so mighty that it equalled that of the gods themselves, appeared, and challenged sillias, refferring to him as Bedlam incarnate. their battle didn't last long, the godly being miraculously overpowering sillias, and just before he readied the finishing blow, it is said that he increased in size to match sillias' own, and then, their bodies exploded, their souls destroyed, leaving only a crystalised gemstone of their essence, which the people promptly sealed away deep underground... the resting place is believed to be this cove, hence the name Bedlam's Cove.'

a pictograph showed a tiny purple figure fighting the massive red canine.

the whole group were told the legend inside the cave, and as he heard it, bailey couldn't help but recall his nightmare... had the monster in it been this 'Bedlam Sillias' creature?

Zenef looked at one wall and found writing in a dead language.
"Alpha, what's this?"
the golden spectre floated over and inspected it.
'hrmm... it's a message. from Sillias' family.'
Radin squinted at the scribbly text "what's it say?"
'let me see... to you who have entered this unholy place, i urge you to leave now. Sillias may have lost his body, but his spirit may still linger, and he never liked anyone disturbing his rest. if you have spiritual powers, get out NOW, because...' Alpha looked shocked 'I, his brother, gave him the gift of spiritual awareness... he will know you are here.'
now, the gold wolf was trembling, a horrified look plastered on his face.
'get away... before you are too late.-- oh god...' he whimpered.
"What?" Bailey asked, worry causing his ears to fold.
'the signature... it says Jeraqi!'
"Jeraqi?" Malcom interjected "who the heck's that?"
'... you don't want to know. trust me.'

and then an ominous voice rang out, and the entrance sealed up.
"who dares disturb my tomb?"
a firey red mist rose from the ground, forming into the vague shape of a canine.
Alpha's sparkling gold spectral ears folded 'well... (BLEEP)... its Sillias'
'Sillias' seemed to grin "you have come to grant me freedom?"
"NO WAY!" zenef shouted
the red specter frowned "i must have a host!"
he saw Bailey "A hybrid, perfect!" he reached for the wolfdog, but a white flash stopped him.

"don't you even touch a single Fur on him!!" came an enraged bark from the newcomer, a little white wolf clad in black ninja armour and a gold eyemask.
bailey's eyes widened, he knew that voice.
"COL?!"

(next chapter: Lies.)