They were all feeling it; the wind blew cold, rustling up brown leaves and that ominous unwelcome sensation in the back of their minds. The twisted forest canopy cluttered with thick leaves blocked most of the sunlight and Krause swore he saw yellow eyes peek out of the underbrush just for a second.

"We shouldn’t be here," Mera said finally, "There’s gotta be another way…"

"You’re feeling it, too? It’s about time," Krause said with a shudder. Even Ricky looked about ready to wet his pants.

"We’re turning back," Ricky said, his voice trembling, "Something definitely doesn’t want us here."

They slowly turned back around, but even as they did a tremendous crashing ruckus broke the eerie silence of the woods. They turned just in time to see a huge, growling canine figure leap out from the trees straight at them, mouth in a maniacal snarl. The three had just enough time to scream as the great animal pounced on them, Krause under one tire-sized paw and Mera under the other. Ricky staggered backwards into a gnarled oak, the beast’s breath in his face. He could now see that the monster was a sleek gray wolf, butchering knife-sized fangs in a very intimidating snarl.

"What are you humans doing here?" it said in a low voice, much to Ricky’s astonishment. Ricky focused beyond his apparent fears and was suddenly flooded with the warm energy.

"Get away!" he screamed, holding out his hand. There was a flash of white fire, but it dissipated as soon as it appeared. Ricky gasped in horror. He no longer felt the energy flowing through him.

"Cute trick, human," the Wolf said. Ricky was suddenly airborne then, and he screamed again as an invisible force spun him around like a Ferris wheel and slammed him against the tree. The Wolf was cloaked by a translucent gray glow for a split-second second; then it vanished.

"Ricky!" Krause croaked. The Wolf looked at Ricky, who was groaning and holding his back, then down at the two hapless kids being crushed under his paws.

"I’ll ask you again. What are you humans doing here?"

"We’re trying to save the world!" Ricky said, "And we need to pass through these woods to get where we need to go."

The Wolf blinked, "Kids trying to save the world? That’s a new one. Of course, you’re the last people stupid enough to come this far in three of your years. I’m left with no choice but to kill all three of you."

"Wait!" Ricky said, "I can prove it!"
The Wolf hesitated, but the cold look in his eyes hadn’t faded. Ricky reached into his pack and pulled out the smooth stone that the bee had given him. Surprisingly, one of the circles around the Earth carving in the middle was glowing and swirling with a yellow light. The Wolf blinked.

"The Sound Stone…" he said, lifting his large paws off of Ricky’s two friends. He sniffed at it and twitched his big ears, "I’ve heard of this…twenty human years ago somebody like you saved the world using something like this. This is very interesting…"

"Does that mean you won’t kill us?" Mera gasped, recovering her breath and holding her ribs. The Wolf blinked his eyes again.

"It’s time for a meeting," he said, "Come with me. And by the way, you call me Charon, Ancient Supreme Alpha Wolf. Or just the Wolf King if you must."

The Wolf turned towards the woods and Ricky helped his two friends to their feet. Krause’s face was still contorted, "Are you sure we can trust a talking wolf? He tried to freakin’ kill us!"

"I’m not sure we’ve got much of a choice," Ricky whispered back, "But don’t let your guard down. I’ve never heard of a story where the wolf was the good guy!"

"Follow me," Charon said.

They followed him at a jog, for even at his walking pace Charon was regally graceful and agile. The undergrowth of the forest parted before him and made a straight path. Now the trees seemed taller and slightly less foreboding, and the feelings of unwelcome were fading.

"Look," Mera whispered, pointing to the tress and underbrush around them. There were many animals now, native and foreign to the forests lining the little path and staring at them. Rabbits, squirrels, monkeys, tigers, cats, turtles, foxes, more wolves and many varieties of birds were just some of them. Charon was barking softly to the animals, some of which nodded and scurried, stalked or flew off into darkness. Krause was beginning to feel very uneasy, and didn’t seem to be hiding it at all. Nobody knew how long he or she had walked, except maybe Charon, but finally they came to a stop at a huge clearing littered with wide stumps.

"Wait here," Charon told them, and he took off towards the big boulder in the middle, stopped, threw his head up and gave a long, disturbing howl that sounded throughout the woods and echoed through the mountains. Ricky, Krause and Mera gasped as maybe eighty animals, all in scale to Charon, came silently out of the woods around them. They milled about making a lot of noise as they filed into seemingly ordered locations around the boulder. There was a moment of silence then the Wolf spoke in English.

"Come here, humans."

Krause bit his lip and cast his face down, muttering, "I swear, Ricky. Sticking with you is never boring!"

They advanced slowly, the various giant animals staring at them and making way. Finally they reached Charon.

"I’m speaking like this, because it’s only fair that these humans understand," Charon announced in his low, traveling voice, "Yes, I am aware that these humans are trespassing in the Animal Lands. But I also know that the fate of our very world rests on their little shoulders."

A giant owl near the front called out in a high-pitched voice. "Charon! I thought you were wise! Now human eyes have seen our realm!"

There was a little buzz in the crowd, but Charon gave a wolfish snort, "You’ve always been quick to talking, Deimos. I was about to say that this kid here with the brown hair has proof."

Ricky jerked as his backpack slipped off his back and floated into the air in front of him. The animals all drew a bit nearer as it zipped open and the sound stone came out.

"This is a sound stone, which will end the threat of the Pig King’s forces for good. But in order to do so, he must reach a valley beyond these woods."

There was a murmur of noises from the crowd as they looked at the sound stone that was now spinning in the air.

"You know about the Pig King?" Ricky managed to ask.

Charon blinked again, "Yes. We do. He was once great amongst us, near the top of the pile, you humans would say. He has…fallen…more than once now it seems."

"What do you mean?"

"He disappeared from our ranks several human years ago. We felt his power declining, then it became tainted," he added with a snarl on his face, "He fell from the grace of the Animal Kings and became a…destroyer. How that happened we don’t know. But we do know that he no longer lives."

"What?" Ricky and Krause said at once.

"His foul breath is gone, thank the Creator. We don’t know how he died or if he did at all, but his threat lives still. Yet now it is more real and terrifying than before. Our fate, along with the humans, rests on these kids’ shoulders."

"Well why don’t you do something about it?" Krause blurted, "Sitting here in the woods and scaring people isn’t helping at all!"

There was a mixed scoff from the crowd of big beasts, and Krause turned pale. Charon just snorted in amusement.

"We don’t concern ourselves with the affairs of humans, kid. Mankind and animals have been enemies for ages. We’re not interfering until they barge in on us or destroy our kind like they’re destroying you humans. I think we should help you for the sake of Earth and our good, not for mankind. These humans will succeed or even we won’t be able to live in peace."

There was a silence, then a gargantuan bear stood on two legs, towering above the other animals, "Are we gonna have a vote, because this doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. We bears alone could probably hand the heads to those pigs."

"What?" a Volkswagen-sized raven wearing very shiny necklaces cawed, "Don’t be a fool! I’ve got scouts reporting really nasty machines that make big fires!"

There was a roar from the massive crowd, garbled in dozens of animal noises. Charon shook his big head and let out a long, very loud howl that silenced the animals.

"We’re acting like humans," he said in a quicker tone, "Stop it!"

"I resent that!" Krause said, who quickly shut up.

"Now we’re taking a vote. All in favor of helping the humans raise your paw, claw, wing or whatever you’ve got."

Less than half of the animals raised their appendages. Charon grimaced.

"Now everybody objecting to us helping these humans, raise whatever you’ve got."

It was plain to see that the majority of these animals weren’t about to help a couple of scraggly human children. There was a buzz in the crowd, and the animals in the front; the owl, a chipmunk, a lizard of sorts, a big white bunny and a swallow, were eyeing them almost hungrily.

"I think we’re in trouble," Mera said with a gulp, her yellow eyes very wide now. Ricky’s backpack fell to the boulder, sound stone on top, and Charon gave a gruff growl and made a startling announcement.

"Those who wish to help these humans come here. Those who don’t can go back home now."

It was short but bittersweet. The crowd was silent, and after a few moments there was a shuffling as most of the animals departed into the forest. They could easily count the animals remaining. A bright red fox, the raven adorned with jewelry, an enormous white tiger, an obese panda bear, a large deer buck and Charon. The Wolf King regally leaped from the boulder to the ground with a thud.

"Sorry about that. It was the only way I could think of doing it. I hope we don’t split due to this…Do you have names, humans?"

"Of course we’ve got names," Krause said, "I’m Krause. This is my brother Ricky, and that’s Mera."

Charon nodded, "Okay, Ricky Krause and Mera. The sun is getting low, and I’ll bet my fur that you’re hungry. I’ll get you something and we can all talk…"

Ricky chewed on a piece of raw meat and made a face. How could wolves like the taste of blood? He set it down, wiped his bloody hands on the grass, and forced himself to swallow the beef.

"What was the Pig King like before he…fell?" he asked Charon, who was tearing apart a big cow carcass. Charon stopped eating and his eyes narrowed.

"He was powerful amongst us, although he was quiet about it. He mostly kept to himself…I was one of his only friends, along with Gandeymede here."’

The raven cocked his head upwards. "He gave me all the shiny things he found. I got this really neat thing he called a watch right before he…left."

"Are you sure you don’t know why he changed?" Krause said, "You seem to know just about everything else."

"I smelled a human that day, a stinky one at that. Something happened then and his power was weakening, then it became tainted," he growled again, "I wouldn’t hesitate in killing whoever did that. But he’s dead now, or deep in recluse."

Ricky’s stomach growled, and he realized that he could try cooking that raw piece of cow flesh. He focused and suddenly became filled with the energy and concentrated. He could suddenly see the particles rush towards the meat, then he unconsciously let out a rush of intense heat. Everybody looked up as the meat was becoming engulfed in a white flame. It was just starting to get done when suddenly he felt the power cut from him. He gasped and Charon was bathed in that gray aura, his face about as grim as a block of iron.

"Do not use Pyschokinesis like that," he said so firmly that Ricky backed away, "You hardly know what you’re doing and we could all be killed."

"Right…" Ricky answered. He picked up a piece of the half-cooked meat and began to eat it.

"I’d like to help you learn, I smell your potential and it would help you a lot. But an animal teaching a human PK is like a dog teaching a fish how to breathe air."

The animals chuckled, "Enough of that. Now when the morning comes, we’ll lead you to Blue Tower. From there, we have no choice but to let you go on by yourself. This is your quest, not ours. But we’ll help however we can. Ricky, I’ll give you this in your strange human gift-giving ritual."

Charon walked off into the brush and came back with a long gift-box wrapped in a bright red ribbon in his mouth. Ricky blinked in surprise despite the fact that he already knew he was being given something.

"Merry Christmas, Ricky!" he managed to say as he dropped the package in front of him. Ricky grinned, tore it open and found something that made his eyes widen and his jaw slack. Sitting at the bottom of the box and surrounded by bloody hide there was a bright sword about the length of his arm slightly tarnished around the edges. Then he realized that on the hilt a carving depicted a pig’s snout, and his stomach churned.

"Where’d you find this?" he asked.

"Gandeymede found it a couple dozen miles south of here just yesterday. Said it looked like something bad happened, but he saw this shiny thing and picked it up. I think you’d call it a…sword…but we’re not sure how it works."

"A couple dozen miles south? Yesterday?" Krause said, "Gandy, was it near a big city or a town?"
Gandeymede rustled his feathers and shook his big head, "No, actually it was out in a tall field of grass. There were dead humans, pigs and uh…‘machines’ layin’ all around. I guess there was a battle of some sort."

All three of the humans’ hearts sank. Pigs this far north and actively battling? He wrapped it up in the hides and stuck it into his pack. The Raven suddenly flew off in a whirlwind and came back seconds later holding a pouch in his beak. He landed in front of Krause, knocking him over with a rush of wind.

"Merry Christmas, Krause!" he said as he cheerfully dropped the pouch onto the human’s head. Krause opened it up and his eyes narrowed as he pulled out a long, shiny flashlight-like object with a strange dark lens. Gandeymede seemed to be smiling as well as a bird could.

"What’s this?" he asked.

"You don’t know?" the Raven said, "How embarrassing…neither do I. You might figure it out sooner or later, don’t worry!"

The fox then stalked off into the woods as if on cue, then returned with a little package in his mouth.

"Merry Christmas, Mera!" he said in a barking voice as he dropped the package at her feet. She felt a sharp chill down her spine as she opened it. She pulled out something that looked like an obsidian arrowhead on a long leather cord. Something about seemed to bring about a strange, unnatural aura. She bit her tongue and slipped it into one of her many coat pockets.

"Thank you…" she said a bit awkwardly. The other humans then remembered that they had forgotten to do this and followed her example. Then with a wide yawn, Ricky plopped down on the ground and closed his eyes. Krause snickered, but then yawned too.

"You all look tired," Charon said, "We’ll leave you be until morning. G’ night!"

The animals disappeared into the night, and the strange glow that was lighting up that little clearing went as well. In minutes, they were all sound asleep on the hard forest floor.

Krause was back home in Einesville. He fondly recognized the little brick main street with the insurance office, pizza parlor, barber shop, post office, hunting surplus store and that corner grocer all in a row. The blue sky above was cloudless, and the temperature was perfect, one of those days he and Ricky spent wasting time at that old creek in the woods. But something was wrong. Not a single soul, animal or even vehicle was in sight and sound was in just as much absence. He carefully walked down the patched-up street as if he expected a pig ambush. I’d feel better if I had a bazooka or something…he thought with a nervous grin. Much to his astonishment, he suddenly felt heavier. Sure enough, a big white Eagleland Anti-Armor DX bazooka was strapped to his back.

"Cool!" he exclaimed. He looked down and thought for a moment and he was wearing a blue trenchcoat and a gun belt just like Uncle Flint. He laughed amusedly and changed back to his normal attire. It must be another one of those weird dreams. He took off down the street and jumped, then laughed joyously as he spread his arms and soared into the air. He looped around the church steeple and spiraled higher into the air until he saw all the streets and buildings of the little town, as well as the surrounding farms and woodlands, then his eye met his own little country house in the hills bordering the village. He laughed even louder as he dove down towards it, his stomach not quite catching up with him.

"Hey! You up there! Shut your mouth! You’re gonna awaken more than the dead with that kind of noise!" a voice boomed from nowhere. Krause gave a jolt of surprise and stopped in midair. Looking down, he saw a person ascending quickly towards him. As he got closer, Krause saw that it was man wearing a bright red pointed wizard’s hat and a matching robe. In seconds, they were level with each other, and Krause saw that he was talking with none other than a middle-aged man with coke-bottle glasses, a conspicuous beer gut and a curly red beard.

"Wait a minute…I think I know you…" Krause said, "Oh yeah! You’re Mike the hobby/comic shop guy! I saw you once when I had to get some wood glue for a school project."

"I prefer Conjo Morkoth, arch-wizard of Zanzobar!" he said, pointing his nose up, "Borrowed the name from the arch-villain that first appeared in the Supertoad Saga, Volume 11 Issue 23, where a rift in the time-space continuum-"

"That’s great," Krause said with obvious sarcasm, "Now can you tell me where exactly this is?"

"This place is called the Realm of Lucid Dreams. At least that’s what I call it. From what I’ve seen, it’s almost exactly like the real world, but empty. Sort of like the parallel universe that appeared in the ninth issue of Splatterman-"

"Exactly like it! So I guess we’re dreaming now?"

Mike nodded, "I suppose, but it’s different from a real dream. You can control exactly what happens and do pretty much whatever you want. I haven’t met anybody else here yet, and it’s nice to see somebody else to rule over."

Krause rolled his eyes, "Well I’m on a quest to save the world from the Pig threat. I don’t think I should be afraid of you."

"Pig threat?" he said, raising his eyebrows, "Yes, we’re having problems too. Some army of pigs is just beyond those hills over there. We’re going to defend with whatever we’ve got."

"What?"

"Go see for yourself if you don’t believe me."

Krause slowly flew over the familiar hills and farmland around the town, spotting his own house far below. He stopped for a moment and looked down. His yard needed cutting and vines were beginning to creep up the walls, but it appeared to be fine otherwise. He sighed and continued on. No point in going there without seeing Flint or Boney…Krause reached the wooded hills and flew on faster even if it seemed he had all the time in the universe. He gasped in horror at what he saw on the other side. The green forests all around the town were dotted with dozens of tents in circles, and from each one a pole a flag bore the horrible Pink Snout, flapping in the breeze. His town was being besieged and the Eagleland military wasn’t there! Thinking of what Mike had said, he quickly came up with a plan. He swooped down towards the closest camp and thrust out his hand.

"Meteor attack!" he shouted. Krause recoiled from a sudden blast of intense heat. He watched the huge balls of flaming rock hurtle towards the camp.

"What?" was all Krause could say when the meteors suddenly dissipated on the tents and ground. He heard a sudden laugh from behind him and spun around to meet Mike in his garish wizard attire. That obnoxious guffaw was enough to make Krause want to punch his ugly teeth out.

"I tried something like that once," he said, "It seems inanimate objects cannot be effected in any way, but the same can’t be said for humans…"

"What do you mean?"

Mike blinked, then rolled up one of his bright red sleeves to reveal a deep white scar, "I cut myself a while ago while in this world…never mind that though."

Krause was about to ask another question, but he suddenly felt a jerk. The world around him was growing dimmer and seemed to swirl for a second before blacking out totally. He awoke with the sunlight shining on his eyes and a horrible back pain.

"It’s about time! That was like trying to make up a rock or something!" Ricky’s voice said. Krause groaned and realized that he had been sleeping on the forest floor, which was not a comfortable bed at all. He slowly crawled to his feet and began rubbing his sore back and brushing the leaves out of his hair.

"Hurry up!" Charon’s voice called, "If it weren’t for you lazy humans, we might be there already!"

Krause mumbled something that sounded like getting a rifle. He decided that he shouldn’t tell Ricky about his weird dream, because it wasn’t like he’d believe him anyway. So he just followed him on to their next adventure.