New Fan-Fiction Preview (Please read Description.)

Our story starts off in a mysterious island known as Mango Island, a place most people have never heard of as no one has truly seen it, but it really does exist.

Mango Island houses a very large but old village that was crafted almost a thousand years ago by a large group of sailors from the British Isles. It had thousands upon thousands of strange trees, what made them more mysterious was their incredible accelerated growth, every tree bore mangos and would immediately grow new ones to ripe conditions in just below twenty-four hours, no more than twenty were on each tree, the trees itself would also re-grow in exactly forty-eight hours if they had been chopped or burnt down, no one knows how the trees came to be like this, but with so many mangos, the villagers took advantage by shipping millions of them across the world, but sadly they still get little to no money as the mangos do not sell well. What makes the island even more mysterious is the unusual cloud barrier that surrounds it, for centuries the island had been shielded by grey clouds that block out the blue sky, weather still existed however, people could still tell the time of day and they still have days of rain, snow and heat, but no one has ever seen the real sky.

Because of the lack of money, the civilians that grew up on the island often never leave, many generations of this has passed and almost everyone has never seen the sky their entire lives. Completely cut off from the rest of the world, they also have no idea of the advanced technology. Their latest technology to arrive on this island was the kind you’d see in the late thirties, wired phones, record players, old fashioned cars, televisions with no colour, etc. and because the citizens of the island had not seen the outside world for centuries, they have no idea of what it’s like, thus they often get confused and angry over things that are far too different from their lifestyles. Their biggest hatred… is of one little boy.

This little boy was named Teonado, but was called Teo for short. A six-year old boy who was sent to an orphanage as a baby in a basket, with nothing but a name tag and a white stuffed rabbit, no one knows of where he came from, but he was one of the most hated people on the entire island because of reasons he could not help. He was no ordinary human, he was very special. What made him special was that he was a hybrid of a cat, he had a tail, his finger nails were curved like claws and he had all of the agility and balance of a cat as well as the ability to communicate with them and can alter his vision to be more cat-like. Because he had been hated all his life, he feels as if he has no place in the world… but that was about to change.

-0000-

Miss Hulgary’s Mango Orphanage is where our story truly starts, an poor, old, run down orphanage run by a selfish old woman by the name of Miss Bethany Hulgary. On the top floor in the single empty room, we find a lone mattress with a small lump under the thin blanket, the lump was Teo himself, who slept somewhat peacefully.

That was until a loud banging occurred on his door. “WAKE UP! IT’S SIX O CLOCK!” shouted a dried out voice, no doubt it was Miss Hulgary.

Teo slowly removed the blanket from him revealing himself, a very small structured boy with beautiful blue eyes and had insane looking brown spiky hair, his pyjamas consisted of a simply plain yellow vest and trousers. Teo slowly rubbed the sleepy dust using his right hand, often scratching his forehead slightly with his claw-like nails, no real cuts though. He then stood up letting his black tail with a white tip swish about since he often sleeps on top of it. He lifted the blanket and placed it gently over his Baby Bunny, a cute white stuffed rabbit with blue eyes, a pink nose and a pink bowtie. He then makes his way to his drawer which had his only set of clothes, as he picked up his shirt, he slowly turned to his slightly cracked window seeing the grey clouds that circled the island.

Teo let out a sigh. “Just once I’d like to see the sky.” He murmured under his breath.

Teo was now in his casual clothing, which consisted of a red t-shirt with a few orange and yellow flowers stitched into it, a pair of blue denim trousers and slip-on shoes. He made his way to the cafeteria which only had mangos of course, the orphanage was much too poor to get imported food or even fish, even if it did, Miss Hulgary would’ve likely kept it for herself. After Teo finished his breakfast, which consisted of just two mangos, he made his way outside to wait for choir time.

We now find the boy in the garden areas of the orphanage, surrounded by large iron fences which kept the orphanage and its own mango tree forest isolated from the other buildings and forests, the only thing that keeps them connected was the one lone gate which stayed open almost twenty-four seven. Every orphan always had fun in the garden areas playing with all sorts of little kids toys such as balls and bats, Teo however kept to himself, sitting by the lone dead tree which stuck out from the rest, separated from the other trees. Teo felt as if this tree represented him a lot, for being the only tree that had no leaves or fruit, and was separated from the others like an outcast.

Teo often sat by this tree by himself watching the others play or often daydreams about going on adventures, he wished he could play with the other orphans but they don’t let him for being a freak, Teo would probably decline playing with them if they asked anyway since he is far too shy and timid to be near others, feeling as if he cannot do anything right and would just get in the way. He noticed a football rolling slowly towards him, stopping about five feet from him, a boy two years older than him made his way to the ball desperately trying to keep a distance from Teo as well, once he grabbed the ball he ran to his friends as quickly as possible. Teo let out a quiet sigh, this wasn’t uncommon at all for people to fear or hate him.

“Hey there freak!” called another boy who made his way to Teo. It was his biggest bully and his supposed rival, Mike Diego. An eight-year old fat boy with orange hair with a big quiff at the top, some freckles between his green eyes and large buckteeth, he wore a black shirt with three yellow triangles making the shape of some mountains, blue trousers and black shoes. Mike was known as the rooster of the orphanage, which basically meant he was the leader of the kids just under Miss Hulgary. Mike often takes a big advantage of his supposed authority to get what he wants, even if it’s through force.

He was soon accompanied by his best friend Jack Davis. A seven-year old black kid with glasses over his dark blue eyes, a long pointed nose, a small grey afro and wore a white shirt with a black tie, blue trousers with red shoes. Much like Teo, both Mike and Jack were orphans who grew up here, both don’t know their parents like Teo either, Jack however knows that his parents died in a car accident but was too young to remember their faces or their names. While Jack was quite smart, he has been corrupted by Mike’s authority, often taking advantage of it himself.

“Um… h-hello Mike… and Jack.” Said Teo feeling very nervous, he knew he wasn’t going to like this at all. “Um… w-what do you two want?”

“Nothing much, just felt like messing with you.” Chuckled Mike as he prepared his fists, but was surprised when Teo suddenly climbed up the dead tree and hung onto the top branch as a response to what he said. While Teo was very shy and timid, he was never afraid to use his cat-like abilities when needed. “Cheater!” he shouted.

“To be fair you did give him a warning.” Said Jack as he fixed his glasses. Mike responded by picking up a nearby rock and throwing it at Teo, but he ducked in time letting the rock fly over the fence. “Here, let me try.” Jack picked up a rock near him and thrown it at Teo, but he wasn’t strong enough and it flew right under the bottom branch, not even close to Teo.

“You know Teo, if you hadn’t have been a freak then maybe we wouldn’t have to mess with you!” said Mike as he crossed his arms looking annoyed.

“I… I didn’t choose to be part cat, I was born that way.” He muttered under his breath, it was so quiet the two didn’t hear it. He noticed another rock heading towards him so he ducked again letting it fly over his head, he then saw Mike and Jack were walking away. He sighed feeling relieved, but decided to stay up the tree anyway just in case they come back.

It was choir time, all of the orphans stood in a line in the hallways, as usual Teo got a lot of arm room since no one likes to be near him. The orphans all saw Miss Hulgary walk up to them, she was a late sixties woman who had a long nose and wore a typical nun outfit, she slowly walked along the line of students with her mean and selfish demeanour. She then took out a bowler hat with several names in it, what choir time was basically was that all the orphans would clean up the entire orphanage from top to bottom, but four of the ‘lucky’ ones would get to pick mangos and sell them at the markets, the closest they had to freedom.

“Right let’s see.” Miss Hulgary muttered as she took out four names and read them. “The four who will be picking and selling the mangos are Jack, Mike, Samantha and Teo.”

Teo felt somewhat glad to be one of the ones to sell mangos, but he didn’t like the fact that he had to do it with people he didn’t like. He leaned forward slightly to look over to Mike and Jack who were muttering to one another, most likely hating the idea of Teo selling with them.

“STAND STRAIGHT!” Hulgary shouted to Teo who immediately stood straight hoping to not get hit. She then faced the other kids. “Right then, get the cleaning stuff and get to cleaning, you four, get to picking and selling now.”

-0000-

Much like every other building, it owned a large mango tree forest. All of the orphans have gotten lost in their at least once, except for Teo who often leapt up to the treetops to find his way. We find Teo in the treetops right now picking and dropping mangos into the many barrels below while Mike, Jack and Samantha watched.

Samantha was an eight-year old fat girl with blonde hair in the style of two long ponytails which reached down to the back of her legs, she had rosy cheeks which went nicely with her brown eyes. She wore a bright blue vest with three purple stripes, two going vertical while one went horizontal, she had a blue skirt and red shoes. She was very big and not very bright and had a giant appetite, this was proven when she quickly ate one of the mangos Teo threw down in one bite. Samantha was the most unique of the orphans, she still has parents but they had to put her in this orphanage due to her eating habits putting her parents up to their necks in debt and this orphanage could sustain her constant hunger, this was five years ago, but her family had shown they hadn’t given up hope as they send her a box of sweets every month. While she was very nice, she was also very annoying for her eating habits and lack of intellect. So Teo was neutral to her.

Once Teo had finished filling every barrel in the small wagon, he slowly climbed down to greet the others. Jack examined his pocket watch. “About five minutes that took.”

“See. This is what happens when we all work together. With your awesome leader of course.” Gloated Mike.

“I-I did all the work.” Teo muttered under his breath, he was once again unheard.

“Can we get some lunch later?” asked Samantha turning to Mike.

“No, now grab a handle.” Then at that point, Mike lifted up one of the handles to the wagon, Samantha picked up the other one and the two began to walk away. Teo and Jack picked up some of the baskets with mangos as well as the stop sign and chairs.

-0000-

About an hour passed and the four were still at the stand, their wagon stood behind them and most of the mango baskets were on the table just under their sign saying ‘Miss Hulgary’s mangoes which are the best mangos of all time.’ That is what Jack said it was anyway since Teo and Mike cannot read much like the rest of the orphans, Jack and Samantha are exceptions since Jack taught himself and Samantha learned during her time with her parents.

As Teo sat on the hard concrete floor, he looked around to see there were still no potential customers. He looked at the others who sat on wooden chairs, a chair for Teo did exist but was occupied by a basket of mangos, Mike deliberately put it there just for the sake of giving Teo a hard time. Soon he noticed something and he began to look around. “W-Where’s Samantha?”

Mike and Jack looked around realising Samantha was indeed gone. “For a big girl she sure is silent.” Said Jack feeling somewhat impressed by her stealth.

“Here I am.” Said the jolly Samantha who walked back to their stand with a half-eaten mango in her hand. “I was a bit hungry so I bought a mango from that other stall over there.”

All three of them looked at Samantha in shock. “We have mangos RIGHT HERE!” exclaimed Mike.

“And they’re free for us!” exclaimed Teo as he stood up.

“Why did you bother going to buy a mango when we have plenty here for free!?” asked Jack.

“Because that stall has a much catchier name.” said the cheery Samantha. “Mama Mamba’s Mambo Mangos.” She said doing a slight jig.

"Try saying that five times fast." chuckled Jack.

“You’re an idiot.” Said the very annoyed Mike. “Our stand has the cheapest mangos and the best name! Ours is not only catchier but states true facts!”

“Is one of those facts that you’re an idiot?” the four turned to the right and saw two seven year old girls. Bowla Mervaradi and Sabrina Solomon.

Bowla has intimidating red eyes which went well perfectly with her long flowing red hair which stopped at her hips, she wore a green shirt with an orange rim at the bottom with a yellow triangle in the middle and a black collar the top sporting a small diamond which went well with her black wristbands, she also wore green trousers with black rims and orange shoes. Bowla was the daughter of Antonio Mervaradi, the leader of not only Mango Island but of a dangerous mafia that have claimed several towns in America and Europe, so naturally Bowla is spoiled rotten and very mean.

Sabrina Solomon has cyan blue hair that reaches down to her shoulders which matched her mysterious, emotionless yellow eyes. She wore a strange outfit, it was blue with very long metallic grey sleeves that covered most of her hands, it had a black triangle going down from the collar, and has four black rings on each sleeve as well as a black ring around the waist area, the outfit also had a black skirt with large blue triangles going down, she wore long grey, black and blue boots which matched the outfit perfectly. Sabrina is the daughter of two amazing scientists and is incredibly smart herself in many factors, however she is very mischievous and loves to cause trouble.

Teo immediately smiled at the two girls. Bowla was his girlfriend and Sabrina was his best friend, he always enjoyed their company and feels like these two are what makes his days here worth it. “H-Hi Bow-”

Mike suddenly pushed him to the floor trying to look suave. “Why hello there Bowla, you’re looking beautiful as always.” He then began to flex his fat arm. “So did you come by to see little ol me?”

“Nah, I already watched enough horror movies as it is this week.” Said Bowla calmly as she walked up to Teo who was slowly getting back up. Mike looked over to Bowla in shock whereas Sabrina smirked as she walked up to Teo too.

“Um… Hello Bowla… and hello Sabrina.” Said Teo feeling a bit more confident now.

“Hiya you little wimp.” Chuckled Bowla as she began to tweak at Teo’s nose surprising him.

“It is good to see you’re faring well Teo.” Said Sabrina with a faint smirk, she then turned to Mike, Jack and Samantha. “It must be relatively troublesome to be paired up with these three idiots.”

“Idiot!?” exclaimed Jack. “I’ll have you know I’m much smarter than you!” Sabrina scoffed slightly, feeling almost amused by his statement. Jack seriously hates Sabrina because of how much smarter she was compared to him, Jack has always believed that he’s the smartest kid on Mango Island until he first met her.

Mike scoffed himself. “How can you possibly love this loser more than me Bowla! I’m perfect man material and he’s nothing more than a freak.”

Bowla chose to ignore Mike as she began stroking the back of Teo’s head making him purr like a cat with his tail swishing. Sabrina responded by rolling her eyes slightly, but then she took a mango from the stand and took a bite out of it.

“Hey, you’re gonna have to pay for that!” said Mike pointing at her. “That’s 2p you own me!”

“On the contrary. I bequeathed Teo a two-pence coin the previous week as a payment in advance.”

Mike turned to the confused Teo. “Well where is it? You know all money we earn goes to me.”

“I uh… gave it b-back to Sabrina.” Mike then turned back to Sabrina who smirked.

“He craved a bite out of a chocolate bar I was able to… relinquish from the shops.” Sabrina finished the mango she ate. “So I don’t have to pay for anything.”

“Do you still have it?” asked Samantha as she leaned forward looking hungry.

“Of course not, this was a while ago. Besides you acquire sweets from your parents every month, so why should you desire to have others’?”

Bowla stopped stroking Teo and looked up at the sign. “Miss Hulgary’s mangoes which are the best mangos of all time? That has to be the stupidest name I’ve ever heard.”

Sabrina draws her attention to the sign. She then faced Jack. “Please enlighten me you were not the one who decided this stand's name.” Jack growled at her slightly.

Mike crossed his arms. “Hey, I’ll have you know that it shows cold hard facts about our mangos, so it’s perfect advertising.”

“For an idiot.” Said Sabrina, having no qualms with insulting others. “So I am to assume you thought of the sign name then, I should assume it’s to be the most likely conclusion.”

Bowla shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, I bet Teo could come up with a better sign and he can’t even read or write.”

“Hey! Neither can I!” said Mike crossing his arms, but he was ignored by the girls again.

“What would you have named the stand if you had the option to?” asked Sabrina as she turned to Teo.

“Huh? I…”

Bowla shrugged her shoulders. “C’mon Teo, any name will do so long as it’s better than that stupid one.”

Teo crossed his arms trying his best to think. “As if he can think up a better name.” mumbled Mike looking very annoyed at how much Teo is getting Bowla’s attention more.

“Um… how about… Mike’s Marvellous Mangos?” both Bowla and Sabrina looked at Teo with widened eyes. It wasn’t often Sabrina would be taking out of her emotionless expression. Even the others looked quite surprised at Teo’s response.

“Why Mike?” asked Bowla as she glared at Teo.

“Well… uh… M-Mike is the leader so… it um… should be named after him, the name is much shorter and… uses um…” Teo turned to Sabrina. “W-What’s that word for a bunch of words with the same first letter?”

“Alliteration.” Sabrina then turns to Bowla. “I hate to declare it, but Teo’s name is thoroughly superior, even if it has that fool’s name in it.”

Bowla nodded and then rubbed Teo on the head making him smile a bit. “See, even a wimpy little cry-baby such as yourself can make better names.”

Sabrina chuckled. “Well it will always be effortless when challenging Mike, except however, it is a competition on who can be the ugliest. I mean… with an adorable diminutive gentleman like Teo, how could he possibly win ugly contests.”

“Um… t-thank you.” Said Teo blushing.

Mike slammed his hands on the desk getting furious, the slam made Teo jump. “Look ladies! Unless you’re here to buy something. Scram!”

“You’ll never win a girl’s heart with that manner of comportment.”  Sabrina turns to Teo. “In any case we came to pay a visit to Teo.”

Bowla then lifted up a small lunchbox she had been carrying the entire time. “And to give my favourite little wimp a gift.” She opened it revealing a large fresh fish. Teo’s eyes immediately widened with excitement as he stared lovingly at it, he absolutely loved fish. Bowla picked up the fish from its tail and waved it at him. “Enjoy.” She then threw the fish up into the air in which Teo immediately jumped up at about three feet and caught it with his teeth. As he landed, he then sat down and began to feed on the fish with the look of pleasure on his face.

Mike growled with jealousy as he watched Bowla rub his head. Naturally he could’ve taken the fish off of him as punishment for getting Bowla’s attention more, but the last time he tried to take a fish off of him he almost lost an arm.

There was a strong silence as everyone watched Teo enjoy his fish, soon there was nothing left but bones. “Fish…” Teo mumbled with contentment. He then turned to Bowla. “Thank you Bowla.”

Sabrina soon smirked. "There is... one other reason why we have paid you a visit." She then turned to Bowla. "According to the Headmaster of our school. He will be performing a grouped fieldtrip with Miss Hulgary's Orphanage."

The other four looked surprised. "So... we're going on a fieldtrip with your school?" asked Mike.

"Affirmative." replied Sabrina. "We arrived to notify Teo of this as I am quite positive he would take pleasure in spending time with Bowla and I."

"What kinda stinks though is that these three idiots would be with us too." said Bowla looking back to Sabrina.

Mike crossed his arms. "What are you talking about? I do a lot of hard work being the awesome rooster of the orphanage. I deserve a trip too?"

"Yeah, no one works harder and more effective than Mike Diego!" said Jack cheerfully.

"And I'm certain that injuring our diminutive friend Teo must be excessively demanding effort to perform every day of the week." said Sabrina with a stern look.

"That reminds me." Bowla suddenly grabbed Mike by the collar and pulled him over the table. "If you lay even one finger on my Teo... I'LL BURN YOU ALIVE!"

"Yes ma'am." Mike squeaked.

"Good." Bowla said smiling sweetly. After letting go of Mike, she walked over to Teo and fiddled with a bit of his hair with her index finger. "The trip is tomorrow Teo, don't be late."

"Y-Yes Bowla." Teo muttered as he blushed a bit.

"Good, we'll see you then." Bowla then began to walk away with Sabrina following. But she soon turned to Mike and Jack, did the 'I'm watching you' gesture and then left with Bowla.

As they left, Jack turned to Mike. "Wow, a fieldtrip. Remember that last one we went to?"

"Yeah, that tiddlywinks accident left me limping for weeks." Mike chuckled.

"I wonder if there will be any sweets at this fieldtrip we're going?" Samantha asked.

Teo felt quite excited for this fieldtrip, but also felt concerned, if everyone in the orphanage hated him for his appearance, then he knew that Bowla and Sabrina's school would act the same.

-0000-

Next day. After a two hour bus trip, we find Teo, Mike, Jack, Samantha and the rest of the orphans at the location of their fieldtrip known as Fog-Faced Park. The campsite was in the middle of an eerie forest with an large eerie lake with an eerie sky, the entire place was eerie, even the random man holding a sign saying ‘Eerie isn’t it?’ looked eerie himself.

Teo's assumption was correct, all of the students from the school gave Teo stern looks as they passed by or took notice, but not a single one of them made an attempt to bully or make fun of him. Mostly because that both Bowla and Sabrina stood beside him, being the daughter of a mafia boss had its advantages, and Sabrina was terrifyingly cunning and deceptive to the point where no one wants to mess with her.

Teo couldn't help but smirk a bit, he may be hated, but he had two of the toughest and scariest girls for her protection.

All the kids saw a very geeky looking scoutmaster with large bottle like glasses, buck-teeth and a few blackheads around his face. “Welcome to Fog-Faced Park! I hope you enjoy yourself for the next two weeks. I’ll be your Scoutmaster, Mr Joe Schmitt! Shall we escort you to your cabins?”

Later, we find the kids outside a bunch of broken-in cabins that look close to breaking down, the insides had broken floorboards, flimsy bed legs, cracked windows and one or two cockroaches, each cabin had about ten bunk-beds, meaning twenty kids for each cabin, more than enough room, although the structure of the beds and walls could collapse at any second.

“I trust you’ll find these luxurious rooms and beds to be to your liking.”

"Luxurious my boot." grumbled Bowla as she lifted the blanket off one of them.

She noticed Teo getting comfortable on one of the beds however. "Um... t-this is actually quite soft... c-compared to my one at home."

"Hiya you buck-toothed weirdo!" Teo, Bowla and Sabrina turned to see one of the school bullies making fun of the annoyed Mike as Jack kept behind him. This bully was a foot taller and was wider than him.

"Is that Dennis?" asked Bowla.

"Correct." said Sabrina. "Toughest bully in the school."

Bowla chuckled. "Mike's in for a bruising."

"So? Ever opened any bottles with those freaky teeth?" asked Dennis in a mocking tone. "I'm surprised you were able to get through the door with that super fat butt of yours!" He then began to poke Mike's forehead hard. "So do those buttons on your head do anything? Besides make you look stupider!"

Mike smacked his hand away and growled. "Keep away from me you freak!"

Dennis suddenly grew very angry. "NO ONE SMACKS MY HAND AWAY AND GETS AWAY WITH-"

Mike suddenly threw a mean uppercut into his jaw forcing his head up and swung back down, Dennis stood there with a dumbstruck expression for a few seconds before falling to the floor unconscious. Both Bowla and Sabrina looked quite surprised.

Mike faced the other school kids who looked back at him shocked. "Anyone else?" asked Mike as he began to crack his knuckles. The school kids quickly ran into the corners.

"I didn't think Mike was that tough." said Bowla looking quite impressed.

"And Dennis is unquestionably no pushover either, he charged headfirst into a wooden fence tearing it down." replied Sabrina.

Teo turned to the girls. "Um... Mike um... h-has to be tough, he's the leader of our orphanage after all."

For the next hour, the kids were shown around a campsite filled with broken tree branches, bugs, rubbish and broken glass, the logs around the campfire were full of splinters and termites, looking like the logs would break under one child’s weight. The lake for swimming in was loaded with seaweed and bits of rubbish, the trees had beehives and the grounds had piles of dog leavings. It was possibly the worst campsite ever, the kids were beginning to regret coming here.

Throughout the remainder of the day, they were stuck doing nothing but tying nearly ripped ropes so they can actually do a Tug-o-war game without the rope ripping, listening to their scoutmaster playing a guitar terribly while singing camp songs awfully and picking up trash and dog leavings using nearly broken grabbers.

“Well… It could be worse.” Said Samantha shrugging her shoulders. Just then it started to rain, thus resulting in the others chasing after her in an attempt to punish her.

-0000-

It was day three of their camping now, so far they had been doing the exact same things with a few slight unnoticeable twists in them, But today, they were doing something different…

“Now then kids.” said the Scoutmaster. “Today we will be taking the boats and travel around the lake for a good few hours.”

Teo looked down at the boats they were going to use, there was enough for all of the students, but each boat had another one stuck next to them using wooden beams. So how it was going to work was that the students would have to use two boats at the same time, they could hold at least six.

“This looks like fun doesn’t it?” asked Samantha with a gleeful smile.

“Incorrect.” said Sabrina bluntly.

“Oh of course it will!” said the scoutmaster looking excited as he walked up to Sabrina towering her “Everyone loves boats!”

“With the exception of myself of course.”

“Oh you little joker” chuckled the scoutmaster as he walked off, not believing what Sabrina said “Right class, let’s get you into groups of six and each take a boat. To help boost your cooperation, I’ll decide who goes with who.”

“Oh poop.” muttered both Bowla and Sabrina looking annoyed, knowing this won’t end well.

Teo, Bowla and Sabrina were unsurprisingly teamed up with Mike, Jack and Samantha. Teo, Bowla and Samantha took the left boat and Mike, Jack and Sabrina took the right. Teo let out a sigh for having to be teamed up with Mike and Jack, but it was the scoutmaster's decision and he was at least grateful that he got to be teamed with Bowla and Sabrina.

“Um... I wonder why the boats are stuck together like this anyway?” asked Teo as he looked around.

“I believe it relates to the limitation on the oars.” said Sabrina as she looked at the wooden beams. “I'm certain the scoutmaster said something about not being enough of them, to put it in straightforward terms obviously.”

“Given how much of a dump this is, it makes sense.” said Bowla as she looked around.

“Alright students!” said the scoutmaster through a megaphone. “Your task is to simply follow my boat across the river, try to keep up and don’t take any other paths… there are several smaller rivers that break up into multiple pathways, only take the one I go through as the rest are dangerous. Alright kids, let’s begin.”

With that, the kids began to row their boats following the scoutmaster who sat on the middle as two other scouts rowed his boat. Mike and Samantha began to row as well, somewhat uncoordinated but they still managed to row forward in the back of the group. Sabrina simply sat with one elbow on her knee keeping her head up feeling bored, she hated boat rides, and if that wasn’t enough, the foul smell of the water kept going up her nose,

Teo was worse off compared to the others due to his senses being much greater than the others. But he tried not to mention it as he was told off numerous times for complaining.

Ten minutes had passed and nothing out of the ordinary happened, Samantha looked around feeling excited, Sabrina leaned back feeling bored, Jack kept staring at the water wondering how much mess could've gotten into it, Bowla kept her arms and legs to herself not wanting to touch any more of the rotting wood or splashing water than she already has, Mike tried to make his rowing look more appealing, trying to show how strong he was, to no avail work and Teo looked around taking in the new scenery, he hardly strayed too far from the orphanage or the local town, so seeing this was while it was rather grim looking, also rather interesting.

A few more minutes passed and they all looked ahead to see a bunch of branching rivers like the scoutmaster mentioned earlier, they saw the one river the scoutmaster and the other students went through, Bowla soon thought of something, the other rivers were more dangerous according to the scoutmaster, but there was one river with clear blue water, completely clean. Whether or not it was dangerous, it would be more interesting or at least more enjoyable if they went into that river. “Let’s go down that one.” said Bowla as she pointed to the cleaner river on the right.

Teo looked towards Bowla “B-But, um… the scoutmaster said-”

“Forget what he said.” Bowla interrupted. “Would you rather follow that idiot through more disgusting water, or would you rather go through a cleaner and possibly more interesting river?”

The others looked towards the cleaner part of the river, but what interested them the most was that the river was indeed attached to the main polluted river, but none of the mess went through that branching part at all. It didn’t make sense.

“Alright kids!” said the scoutmaster through a megaphone again. “To kill time I’m gonna be singing some folk songs! Y’all like my singing right? course you do!”

That made all of them motivated to go down the other river, so Mike and Samantha finally done some real cooperation and turned the boat towards the cleaner river. But once the boat touched the cleaner river, the boat was suddenly moving by itself going through the river without the oars to guide it.

“Woah! We’re not doing that.” exclaimed Mike as he tried to stop the boat by rowing backwards, Samantha did the same but there was a sudden shake and the oars were somehow thrown out of their hands and went into the river going backwards.

Bowla raised an eyebrow as she looked at the oars slowly going back to the polluted part. She then simply leaned back again. “Meh, might as well go where the river wants us to go.” The others felt a bit nervous save for Sabrina and Samantha, Sabrina was typically emotionless and Samantha just didn't get it.

-0000-

Twenty minutes had passed now and everyone seemed at peace, the breeze was gentle, everywhere was nice and quiet, the plants looked full of life compared to the ones back at camp, the river was crystal clear, everything was perfect. All everyone did was simply lean back, eyes closed and let the boat do the moving for them, Sabrina was even starting to enjoy the peace and quiet as a faint smirk appeared on her face.

But soon the peace and quiet was broken when everyone heard the sound of folding paper, they all looked to see Jack was reading a map which he took out of his backpack.

“Had to ruin it didn’t you?” said Bowla as she glared at Jack.

“S-Sorry” said Jack nervously, but he soon turned the map around to show everyone what was on it. “But I’ve been looking up on the map of the entire bit of land we’re in, this river isn’t on any of the maps.”

“Meh. Who cares?” asked Bowla.

“That map is pretty old, maybe they never found it." said Mike

Jack looked back at the map and then put's it back in his bag. “It still doesn't feel right.”

“Well! I say we should celebrate!” said Bowla as he took off his backpack and placed it in between him, Teo and Samantha, he opened it to reveal several cans of fizzy drinks.

“Smooth move.” said Sabrina. Bowla then handed everyone a can of fizzy in which they all opened it at the same time.

“I hereby say we should name this river something and claim it for ourselves” said Jack.

“Like what?” asked Sabrina.

“How about Freedom River?” asked Samantha. “We were free from the shackles of camp rules in this place.”

"That was a moderately intellectual reason coming from you Samantha." said Sabrina with a smirk. "Nevertheless… Freedom River it is."

“To Freedom River.” said everyone, they all tapped their cans together.

Teo was about to take a sip but something didn’t feel right, he felt something disturbing in the air, so he moved his can away from him and began to look around. Sabrina looked over to Teo noticing the hairs on his tail raising, the pupils in his eyes were thinning, becoming much more alert.

“Teo looks like he's anxious. Something must be irregular.” Sabrina spoke up, the others looked at Teo, and then all around.

She was right, everything seems different, the grass around the river was much longer, the trees got larger and thicker and there was an unusual faint fog inside the forests, but what was also strange was that there was no life at all, no little rabbits or insects like earlier, Sabrina looked down to see the water was still crystal clear, but there were no fishes, nor any form of plant-life underneath. Almost as if all life has either fled or disappeared.

“There is a probability that this particular river is cursed.” said Sabrina.

“C-Cursed?!” asked Mike feeling panicked.

"D-Don't be stupid Sabrina." exclaimed Jack feeling just as worried. "There's no such thing as curses."

The fog was starting to get thicker, but the river and forests were still visible. “W-What do we do?” asked Teo.

“For the time being, there is nothing we can do.” said Sabrina. “This boat is moving by itself and we have no method to redirect it. I very much recommend we remain calm, panicking could only lead us into greater difficulties."

"Calm you say." said Jack feeling both scared and untrusting of Sabrina's words.

Sabrina turned to Teo. "There is something else you may possibly carry out Teo."

"H-Huh?"

"You're senses are much superior than ours', am I correct? Can we rely on you to remain vigilant on anything apprehensive?"

"Um, o-ok Sabrina. I'll do my best."

As they all tried to remain calm while Teo tried his best to listen out for anything, the boat slowly drifted deeper into the mysterious fogs, with only the unknown to wait for them.

To be continued