Chapter 15 – The 100^th Century

 

Everyone moved at quite a slow pace. A much slower pace to what Crunch was used to, but they didn’t have much choice… as he had to help with dragging all of the packs along through the mildly dense forest, to find somewhere to settle down and decide what to do next and where to go. He was very interested in seeing another anthro, or even some humans… if they were easy to talk with, that is.

They carried on their stroll, until they could finally start hearing some strange sounds ahead of them. It sounded like music, but not the sort of music they’ve all heard before. And as they got closer, they even could hear voices.

 

“Alright guys, seems we’re getting close to some people… we better be prepared for anything, good or bad!”

Coco said, as her and Crash walked ahead of the group.

Soon the bushes and plants became less dense and everyone could see a bit more ahead through the greenery. He could see some buildings, which didn’t look like normal manmade buildings of the 20^th century. They actually looked somewhat primitive, which was sort of odd for a ‘future’ this far ahead in time. But as everyone had a better look all around them, they could actually see some ruins, of much older buildings. They were covered in rock, dirt and plants though, so it wasn’t easy to tell what they once were, but as they walked on, they started to see the ruins of very large sky scrapers. They looked very old, with the glass windows all long gone, and vines grew all over and the metals rusted. Other types of plants also grew up there, to catch the light of the sun. Even birds high above were seen flying from the tops, probably using the open window ways as nesting spots. The large trees around the forest were also around the same height as the ancient buildings. Crunch looked amazed as he saw all of this, and almost lost focus on what was ahead of them…

 

Ahead of them seemed to be a village area. With several houses surrounding the place, but no inhabitants were seen out in the open, yet. Everything had gone silent now.

Crunch and his crew strolled on through the middle of the village. They looked all around them and were curious; Crunch was the first to say anything though…

 

“Why are they all hiding? It’s not like we’re here to attack or something…”

“Maybe they’re all shy of our presence?”

Tani said, as she walked besides Crunch. None of the group wanted to knock on any of the doors, as they didn’t want to startle anyone. As they got into the middle of the village, Crunch became impatient and stopped in his track. Everyone else did the same as well, and Crunch dropped his rope for a moment, and stood out from the group…

 

“Ok, if anyone is here… please come out. We are NOT here to fight or endanger anyone’s life. We just need to ask for directions, and maybe ask some questions about some things!”

He said out aloud, hoping anyone around the village could hear him. It was still reasonably silent though, and he sighed. Chayenne decided to speak after he sighed,

 

“Crunch, what if they can’t even speak normal English? Maybe we should just move on, until we find another place with other people?”

“Wait!”

Shouted an unknown voice from a house to the side of them. Everyone turned around to look towards it. Slowly, the door of the house opened… and figure of a human man stood out, and from behind him, two younger humans did too. Most likely his children. But also, another two from behind them showed themselves, they were young anthros, dingoes with a golden coloured fur coat.

 

Crunch looked over at the man, as he walked cautiously closer to himself. Crunch walked over towards him too, but slowly. He could sense he was nervous,

 

“You don’t need to show any fear towards me. My name is Crunch, and this is my family…”

“Sorry, bold looking one. We are just not used to seeing just an usual group of anthros pass through our town. However, you seem a lot more easy going than you look. My name is Ethan. And these two are my children and their canine friends…”

 

“That’s fine, and it’s good to meet you too. We’re actually somewhat, lost out here so we’re trying to find somewhere to stay, until we can find our way back home”

The human, named Ethan… looked closely at Crunch. He seemed to be intrigued with him, and he even looked over at Crash and Coco, and the other anthros around them.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just that… you seem to be familiar, for some reason”

 

“Huh, you mean… you’ve seen others of my own kind?”

Crunch said, sounding quite hopeful at the curiosity of the human being. He shook his head though, and spoke

 

“Actually no, I haven’t ever seen a bandicoot of your breed for myself. But, I have heard things about someone, who looks a lot like you, and some of your followers here…”

 “I see… not sure what you mean by that. But I’d like to know what you’re talking about”

“I’d like to find out more about you and your group anyhow. You are all welcome to come inside, and bring your belongings as well. We have plenty of room around here”

“Hey, thanks for that. We appreciate it”

 

Everyone was now being helped; the human children came out now. Feeling less shy, as well as the dingo anthros. Soon some other inhabitants came out from the houses surrounding the area, humans and even more anthros. Some were kangaroos, wallabies, more dogs and some other anthros Crunch and the others had never seen before. The red kangaroos even reminded Crunch of Kris, they appeared to be the exact same species, and he smirked about it to himself.

 

***

 

After a while, everyone was settled inside one of the houses. It was very comfortable for Crunch and the family, even Crash and Coco felt a lot more at home now, as they sat there drinking some water from cups they were provided, and a bowl of fruit in front of them.

 

“This is a very nice home, reminds me of our own little home in the forest!”

Coco complimented, as Crash started to pick at some of the grapes from the fruit bowl. Polar and Pura also sat nearby, looking somewhat bored and unsure of what to do yet. The bandigers were sitting around with Collide, all eating snacks of small bits of meat, some peanuts and a few fruits as well. Tani sat with them too, watching as they finally had a meal after all this time. Chayenne and Tawna were nearby as well, talking with one another about what they should do once they find their Island home again… and Tawna even teased Chayenne about not having a mate yet, or even any young of her own. As Chayenne is the only one out of Tawna, Crunch and Crystal to not have any pups so far. Chayenne was simply bothered and tried changing the subject, but Tawna kept bringing it up, about how she’ll have a bigger chance of finding a mate here.

Crunch couldn’t help but laugh a bit to himself at their convocation. Then he turned himself around back to Ethan. He still wanted to learn more about this current future, after all…

 

“Sorry about that, my sisters sometimes amuse me a bit… heh”

“That’s no problem. Though I was meaning to ask… what kind of bandicoot are you, exactly? You are a bandicoot, right?”

“Wow, for the first time… a normal human gets close to getting my species right! Heh well yeah, I am a Bandicoot. A Burgundy Bandicoot… and so is my sister, Chayenne. But Tawna is our half sister. She’s part Eastern Barred bandicoot. We also have a brother named Steve, but he isn’t with us right now”

“How intriguing. And burgundy… ah yes, so obvious. They’re burgundy, just like you of course, hah. However I have never seen one before, until now. But I have heard stories about them”

 

Ethan said, and Crunch’s ears quickly rose… showing that he was interested in hearing what he had to say.

“Oh, what kind of stories?”

“Well, quite a few actually. They’re one of the most elusive of the bandicoots, and also known to be the most hardy, and even most dangerous. They’re rarely seen by humans, but there have been stories of humans in the past being ‘taken’ by one in particular… who seemed to be almost demon like”

“Well, that sounds very devious then… hope that one had a reason!”

“Well, some say this burgundy bandicoot simply disliked humans. But I’m not even sure if that myth is real. But there was a rumor that if anyone ever killed a burgundy for their fur, that they would soon perish, themselves”

“Heh! Well, if anyone dared to even do that with me around, I’d skin them to see how they like it!”

Ethan suddenly looked a little intimidated by Crunch, as he heard his change in tone of voice, and see how large and formidable his teeth and jaws looked, for a bandicoot.

But Crunch was quick to change it back to kinder expression,

 

 

“So basically, humans don’t like my species too much then, huh? No wonder all of you were hiding away…”

“Oh no! There was another story but… I’m just unsure if it’s even real or…”

Ethan said. He then gave another look Crunch. Looking all over him, as if he was checking him for something… Crunch noticed this easily, and knew he was wary of something.

“What is it? Please, tell me…”

“It’s just this prophecy about a warrior beast, who released his god allies into the world to punish man kind for it’s wrong doings, many centuries ago… and they say this warrior was going to show up again in many years time, to seal up the gods again, if man had learned their lesson… some say he was a burgundy bandicoot”

Crunch had now understood why he was wary. It was quite clear that he was known for releasing the elementals, but how did they know? Crunch wasn’t sure if he should tell about his trip to the future and that he is the one who arrived here. Except he didn’t ‘quite’ release the elementals to ‘punish’ anyone, he did it to try and avoid a bad future… but it seemed the humans got the wrong idea of it. He decided to not tell him too much more, but he replied…

“…really? Did these ‘gods’ kill people for no reason and such though, and what did they do? I must know!”

Ethan looked startled. Crunch was determined to know more, but he wasn’t quite aggressive. Just surprised with hearing this from a random human, in this future.

“Well uhh, I do not know the whole story but I hear many things happened thousands of years ago. Long before anthros existed… these gods were causing major natural disasters, tsunamis, large earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes… many things. They even started an Ice Age, in a part of the Northern Hemisphere, which is still there today. Many, many lives were lost all over the world. Mostly human beings, of course. Because our population was believed to be over 7 billion! 7 billion? That is almost impossible to believe!”

 

“It’s pretty easy for me to believe…”

Crunch said, remembering Brio mentioning there was around 6 billion, back in his time. Ethan looked confused.

“Huh? Well, anyhow. It wasn’t just the weather that hit the human race hard, many diseases and plagues started to happen… because they didn’t have time to recover from the disasters, and making vaccines was almost useless, as the viruses kept changing. So some of the survivors of the human race moved inland, where it was a lot safer from the disasters and away from most of the disease. While most animals seemed to be doing fine…”

Ethan said, as he tried to explain more to Crunch. He started to feel slightly guilty though, because to him, it felt almost as if it were his fault. But was all this really for the better? He decided to ask

“But what happened, after that? How many humans are there now and what about the world, how ‘pure’ is it? And do big disasters happen these days?”

 

“Wow, you sure seem very interested in learning about history. To be honest, I have no idea how many human beings live today. It is impossible to know. But certainly nowhere near 7 billion! And the world… it is very different in different places, so I couldn’t possibly answer that too. And natural disasters don’t happen as often anymore, they started to slow down about 1000 years ago… around the time man started to notice some species of mammal were ‘evolving’ into anthro creatures. And that is about all I know… I do not know if this ‘warrior’ is real though but… yeah…”

 

Ethan said, as he ended his sentence and carried on looking right at him. Crunch now had a clearer mind on what this future was like, and it appeared the elementals did do what they wanted… and he is glad they didn’t wipe out the humans intentionally, as he sort of expected them to. But he also knew this human was wary of him, and it appeared him and others in the future knew of Crunch’s arrival here… but he still didn’t know how they even knew ‘he’ released the elementals. He kept quiet about it for now, and nodded to Ethan.

 

“Thank you for that, that was very interesting. And I know you’re wary of something about me, and some of my family… and all I can say is that you all don’t need to fear anything. We are heroes, and we’re here to fight for the good side, and to find our home again. Also, thank you for the hospitality and a place to stay for the meantime“

 

“You are welcome, Crunch. You have my respect… meanwhile, excuse me for a moment”

He looked up, as he saw Ethan leave the room. Crunch decided to stand up as well and stretch out his limbs and yawn, with his mouth open wide. He walked over to where Tani and his young were, to sit down comfortably with them. The bandigers all came over to snuggle up with him and their mother.

 

Meanwhile…

 

Ethan was in another hut, not far from the one Crunch and his group was in.

“I think he is the one, he has to be!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, how can you be so sure? It’s just a Myth! Time Travel isn’t real, and if he could… he could get control of the gods right away and seal them up! And we all know anthros did not exist that long ago!”

 

“Almost anything is possible dear! I personally believe he is the one the gods speak of highly, since when have we ever seen an English-human speaking Burgundy bandicoot? Never, let alone… one with a robotic paw!”