Post by Vanga on Jan 16, 2008 23:17:15 GMT -5
((Sorry about the length xP I always go a little wild with introductions. My standard roleplaying posts aren't quite this long usually xD.))
“End of the line, everybody off!”
“Yeah, yeah, no need to shout. I’m the only one on this damn train anyways.”
As the doors to the subway whisked open, letting entrapped air tumble out in a whoosh of released pressure, out stepped Oliver Darnell, bounty hunter extraordinaire. Hands sheathed deep in pants pockets, crisp blue sights stared out from under the broad brim of his brown leather hat, trying to figure out where the hell he had been dropped off. His trail of brown hair, tied back into a ponytail, whipped about over his shoulder in the blowing wind. Even the tan long coat that hugged his lean form was being gently pulled by the passing breeze, almost pulling him forward with its encouragement. But he remained stationary, determined to stay planted on the subway platform he had been dumped on until he gained his bearings.
He had been dropped off at some secluded terminal stationed seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush, green pine trees all around. He had no idea how far he had been riding the rails, but it had to be a good long time, maybe a few hours, because this place just had to be a long way from the city of Shibuya, Japan. Oliver didn’t recall any forests this seemingly big so close to the town that made his most recent passing through. He didn’t even know that they built stations in such rural areas as this and a terminal no less. Who was going to be taken all the way out here, to the middle of nowhere, before the train headed back in the opposite direction? Well, it was a stupid question to ask and mute to say the least, because he had just lived the answer.
“Well, good luck, I’ve got a schedule to keep.” Roared a voice from the train as it began to back out of the remote station.
“Hold it; you owe me a new cell phone!” Oliver shouted, turning suddenly as his transportation began to widen the distance between them, “What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?”
He withdrew one of his hands from the shelter of its pants pocket, taking out with it a strange device that he dangled in the air questioningly. It used to be mobile with international coverage so that he could reach, be reached, and keep in contact with clients worldwide. It had cost him a pretty penny in the emptying of his savings, but it was going to help with business, which meant help with money coming in. During the train ride, it had mysteriously transformed into… well, he didn’t know what it was. Some sort of fancy beeper?
“Sorry, not my problem!” came a reply that sounded anything but apologetic as the train backed around a bend of trees and disappeared from sight.
“The nerve of that conductor,” Oliver muttered, before letting loose a long, thin sigh of release, “the least he could have done was show his face. Nearly scared me to death the first time his voice came blaring over the intercom.”
The first time the train’s manager came over the speakers, the young bounty hunter had nearly believed it had come from the vehicle itself. It was a foolish thought as he very well knew now, but everything that happened that day was a little strange to him. At the time, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the train had started to talk, just more mess to add to the pile of mystery that had been consuming him since he got that call earlier today.
It had been while changing planes in Tokyo that it happened. He was heading back to the states after a particularly troubling job that covered the span of multiple continents; maybe drop by the family, surprise them with a visit while he took a short vacation. He had certainly earned it after the work he’d gone through and the money he had received for its completion would buy him some living expenses for a time. Even people who craved excitement needed a break every now and then to catch their breath and smell the flowers.
While waiting for his connecting flight, his phone went off. It was some kind of text message from an individual with no listed name. Right off the bat, Oliver took it to be a client calling to offer him another job. Most didn’t want to reveal their names, not interested in a leak reaching the public mass media, having it get out that the police agencies and governments of the world needed help from the outside, dealing with their problems in an unconventional manner. He didn’t mind, half the jobs he’d taken never earned him a name from his employers and the disconnection didn’t bother him in the least. He took on this career for the excitement, not to meet and greet new faces. While he had been looking forward to some time off, he accepted the message, curious about any details the other end might have sent.
What he got was confusing, to say the least. A female voice came out of the speakers, telling him something about his destiny. He was ordered to catch the next flight to Shibuya, which was leaving in less then half an hour. Only considering for a moment, he was practically tripping over his own feet a few minutes later as he reached the plane just as the doors were closing. The rush didn’t stop there, as soon as he arrived in the acquired destination, he was told to catch a subway train close by, also just short of leaving. What was with this client and rushing, wondered Oliver as he followed instructions as dictated.
The subway he took dropped him off at a station as dictated by the vocal message on his phone and then he was led into an elevator. Since there were no instructions as to the floor he should get off on, he decided to work at this one level at a time, starting with the first basement. However, the train took him beyond that point by its own accord. In fact, it took him a lot farther as the floor didn’t even exist as a button on the control panel or as light-up icon above the door. He didn’t know what to make of this, but none of his previous jobs had carried him so deep before. Musing with a soft smile at the private play-on-words joke passing through his head, there was nothing to do but wait for the doors to open and find out where he was exactly.
The room beyond the opening doors was not what Oliver had been expecting at the time. Perhaps some shady underground facility sparsely filled with staff to meet whatever needs a structure built under public transportation could possibly need. It was a strange theory, he knew, and he couldn’t have said that he had seen stranger in its defense, but neither could he have done the same with what waited for him beyond the elevator as well. Another terminal, flooded with people of various ages, from child to young adult, all moving about and many looking at their cell phones. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had been contacted that day. What this client had in mind, especially for there to be so many children around, was quite the quagmire, but Oliver was beginning to question the mysterious woman’s sanity as he strolled out into the throng.
There was no information coming from the phone at the time, so he just picked one of the trains positioned farther away from the elevator entrance into the underground station. It didn’t have anyone getting on or off, likely to be vacant. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing here, but those trains were the only other way out of this place and he sure didn’t want to ride one crowded with potential rivals for whatever bounty was being placed, certainly not with a bunch of wild children. If he wasn’t going to get that relaxing vacation like he had planned, he was at least going to get some shuteye before the next big assignment came dumped in his lap.
The train ride was mostly uneventful, and he had indeed been lucky enough to find one all to himself, like living in luxury with three private cars. Near the end, however, was when his cell phone had… changed. One moment it was glowing with this bright white luminescence and the second he was holding the strange pager with the green and brown color scheme that he now held in his hand.
“All I know is that this job had better pay a bundle!” Oliver shouted to no one in particular, though after a moment he scratched at his brown locks from beneath the hat hugging his head and grinned with acceptance, “Hell, when have I ever cared about the money? But if all this mystery and suspense is going to turn into one big letdown then someone’s going to get hurt.”
As he came out of his thoughts, he considered what to do now. The weird device he held in his hand had been silent since getting onto the elevator that had taken him underground and he had no further instructions from the last time the female voice spoke up. Whatever the case may be, he was sure he’d get a call again from her at some point if she required his services. For the moment, he had no intention of just standing around and so he picked a path and started off, humming softly to himself as he returned his hand and the strange device back to his pocket, his brown locks whipping softly and the tail of his long coat trailing the air in his wake.
_____
“This is ridiculous!” Oliver shouted aloud, venting steam, “Where the hell did that crazy train drop me off?!”
He had been walking for around half an hour and nothing seemed to be changing. He couldn’t think of a forest so close to Shibuya that was this big. No contact had been made over the strange beeper he had pocketed, if nothing else than for evidence so he could get some money back on his disappearing phone. He was beginning to realize that he was hopelessly lost without even the foggiest idea of where he might be. It was very annoying and he kept coming back to the thought that, having just ignored the call, he could be kicking back on the porch of his family’s ranch, drinking down a tall cold one. Instead, he was in the middle of a forest, no idea where, and beginning to wonder if this was all a sick, elaborate prank of some sort.
At that moment, as he was walking along, he heard a rustling nearby, just off the beaten trail he had taken since leaving the train station. He considered what was out there, scratching at his brown locks all the while as he watched, cautiously. There was no way of telling what dangerous beasts lived in a forest when you didn’t even know the location of the forest and he didn’t particularly want to become a meal for a hungry tiger or bear. A flutter of movement caught his eye for a brief moment and then…
“Oomph!” Oliver was suddenly knocked onto his rear by something swinging out of the forest and colliding with his midsection.
Rubbing his head where he bumped it after being knocked off of his feet, he tried to figure out what had crashed into him. His eyes began to focus on something that had hit the ground close by and realized he had been struck by a… big green rock? His vision was a little blurry, but that’s what he saw. There was even a flower growing on the top of the moss. But wait, rocks didn’t have limbs, or a face, and they were probably heavier than what he had felt. Also, rocks didn’t consider you back when you studied them.
His eyes blinked into the creature’s dark green orbs, which blinked back into his sharp blue sights. They were silent for a moment, just pondering about the other, and then they both screamed.
“You’re a human!” shouted the strange creature as it stood up suddenly and pointed at him with claw-like roots extending from its claws, revealing that it was only about as tall as his waist.
“And you’re some sort of weed monster!” replied Oliver, shock and confusion evident in his voice.
Suddenly his face was in searing pain and three throbbing whip marks trailed red across his features. The little creature was withdrawing its vines even before the sting began to set in. By the way it scrunched up its face, it looked rather peeved at his words.
“Who you calling a weed?!” shouted the plant-like animal, seeming ready to go again in defense of her honor. It was definitely a she he realized after calming down enough to recognize it from her voice. “The name’s Palmon, get it right!”
“Okay, okay, geeze!” Oliver answered, biting back tears from his watering eyes as he rubbed the irritated skin of his face, “Barreling out here and crashing into me like that, then slapping me across the face, what were you running from anyways --- ?”
“That!” replied the Palmon with a cry of surprise as she pointed with one of her vine-claws back the way she came through the trees.
As the young bounty hunter glanced off in the direction she indicated, he knew he wouldn’t have believed what he saw if hadn’t already had time for absorbing the fact that he had just been bulldozed by a talking, walking plant. Rushing through the forest, knocking down all the trees in its way as it flapped its wings and let out a bellowing cluck, was a giant chicken. It didn’t take much encouragement at all, none in fact, to get him running in the opposite direction, Palmon fast on his heels.
“What the hell is that thing and what happened to ruffle up its feathers so bad?!” Oliver asked the plant running alongside him.
“His name is Kokatorimon and I have no idea!” replied Palmon, shrugging broadly, “Maybe it woke up on the wrong side of the nest!”
“Speaking of feathers…” Oliver muttered to himself, noticing something in one of his running partner’s hands, something white and fluffy, “What’s that in your hand?”
“What?” Palmon noticed it too and quickly hid it behind her back as they ran, looking sheepish, “I have no idea ---”
“Those are his tail feathers, aren’t they? We’re running for our lives from that giant chicken because you decided to pluck him alive?!”
“Look, I didn’t have a choice, it was a bet!” Palmon answered, quickly getting defensive.
“I can’t believe this,” Oliver suddenly broke off in his own direction and because the giant Kokatorimon was after Palmon, it ignored him and continued its onward chase.
“H-hey! Where are you going?!”
_____
Palmon was alone, running for her life. This time it seemed she had bit off a little more than she could chew. She always had to prove herself when others challenged her and now it might turn out to be the end of her. The human that had gotten in her way was gone, she couldn’t believe it but he had just left her to her fate. Not that she wanted help, or needed it. She could get out of this, she was tough, she’d squeeze out of danger, she was sure of it… well, almost. Still, it was just a shock that he’d leave her high and dry like that so easily.
The Kokatorimon was closing in, just short of nipping at her heels by now. It was a lot bigger than her, with longer strides and the strength to stampede through this forest without slowing down. She didn’t know how long she could keep running and even if she could do so forever it was only delaying the slowly approaching inevitable conclusion. She was going to get caught, but that didn’t mean she’d go out with a whimper as she gritted her teeth and pressed onward.
That’s when she noticed the rope, out here in the middle of the forest of all places. It was tied around a tree trunk and pulled tout around another close by, disappearing into the forest from there. The space between was along her running path and she had to duck low to avoid running into it and impacting her windpipe. It was certainly bizarre to find such a thing in the forest, set up as if prepared for someone in waiting.
Suddenly, as the Kokatorimon continued its chase, a lasso came flying out from among the trees and caught it around the neck perfectly. Tripping up on the rope stretched out tight across the path, it was revealed that the two ropes were one and the same as the loop around the giant chicken’s neck tightened immediately, choking off his air intake as he fell stumbling to the ground. The force of his weight so suddenly jerking on the string set the tree the rope was tied to and the other forest giant that it had looped around falling down on top of the feathered monster, burying him from sight.
“That’s what I call a rodeo,” came a familiar voice as Palmon tried to figure out what was going on, “Kentucky Fried Chicken’s going to be wanting its mascot back, I’m thinking.”
Out came Oliver from among the cover of trees where he had watched supposedly his snare unleash itself upon the enraged chicken, scratching at the bottom of his nose with the knuckle of one finger as he considered his handiwork. He hadn’t abandoned Palmon after all; he had just run ahead while the giant Kokatorimon was distracted with chasing her to set up a trap. Palmon hated to admit it as she watched him chuckle over the unconscious form of the giant chicken, likely at his own bad and confusing joke, but without his help she’d probably be a goner.
“End of the line, everybody off!”
“Yeah, yeah, no need to shout. I’m the only one on this damn train anyways.”
As the doors to the subway whisked open, letting entrapped air tumble out in a whoosh of released pressure, out stepped Oliver Darnell, bounty hunter extraordinaire. Hands sheathed deep in pants pockets, crisp blue sights stared out from under the broad brim of his brown leather hat, trying to figure out where the hell he had been dropped off. His trail of brown hair, tied back into a ponytail, whipped about over his shoulder in the blowing wind. Even the tan long coat that hugged his lean form was being gently pulled by the passing breeze, almost pulling him forward with its encouragement. But he remained stationary, determined to stay planted on the subway platform he had been dumped on until he gained his bearings.
He had been dropped off at some secluded terminal stationed seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush, green pine trees all around. He had no idea how far he had been riding the rails, but it had to be a good long time, maybe a few hours, because this place just had to be a long way from the city of Shibuya, Japan. Oliver didn’t recall any forests this seemingly big so close to the town that made his most recent passing through. He didn’t even know that they built stations in such rural areas as this and a terminal no less. Who was going to be taken all the way out here, to the middle of nowhere, before the train headed back in the opposite direction? Well, it was a stupid question to ask and mute to say the least, because he had just lived the answer.
“Well, good luck, I’ve got a schedule to keep.” Roared a voice from the train as it began to back out of the remote station.
“Hold it; you owe me a new cell phone!” Oliver shouted, turning suddenly as his transportation began to widen the distance between them, “What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?”
He withdrew one of his hands from the shelter of its pants pocket, taking out with it a strange device that he dangled in the air questioningly. It used to be mobile with international coverage so that he could reach, be reached, and keep in contact with clients worldwide. It had cost him a pretty penny in the emptying of his savings, but it was going to help with business, which meant help with money coming in. During the train ride, it had mysteriously transformed into… well, he didn’t know what it was. Some sort of fancy beeper?
“Sorry, not my problem!” came a reply that sounded anything but apologetic as the train backed around a bend of trees and disappeared from sight.
“The nerve of that conductor,” Oliver muttered, before letting loose a long, thin sigh of release, “the least he could have done was show his face. Nearly scared me to death the first time his voice came blaring over the intercom.”
The first time the train’s manager came over the speakers, the young bounty hunter had nearly believed it had come from the vehicle itself. It was a foolish thought as he very well knew now, but everything that happened that day was a little strange to him. At the time, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the train had started to talk, just more mess to add to the pile of mystery that had been consuming him since he got that call earlier today.
It had been while changing planes in Tokyo that it happened. He was heading back to the states after a particularly troubling job that covered the span of multiple continents; maybe drop by the family, surprise them with a visit while he took a short vacation. He had certainly earned it after the work he’d gone through and the money he had received for its completion would buy him some living expenses for a time. Even people who craved excitement needed a break every now and then to catch their breath and smell the flowers.
While waiting for his connecting flight, his phone went off. It was some kind of text message from an individual with no listed name. Right off the bat, Oliver took it to be a client calling to offer him another job. Most didn’t want to reveal their names, not interested in a leak reaching the public mass media, having it get out that the police agencies and governments of the world needed help from the outside, dealing with their problems in an unconventional manner. He didn’t mind, half the jobs he’d taken never earned him a name from his employers and the disconnection didn’t bother him in the least. He took on this career for the excitement, not to meet and greet new faces. While he had been looking forward to some time off, he accepted the message, curious about any details the other end might have sent.
What he got was confusing, to say the least. A female voice came out of the speakers, telling him something about his destiny. He was ordered to catch the next flight to Shibuya, which was leaving in less then half an hour. Only considering for a moment, he was practically tripping over his own feet a few minutes later as he reached the plane just as the doors were closing. The rush didn’t stop there, as soon as he arrived in the acquired destination, he was told to catch a subway train close by, also just short of leaving. What was with this client and rushing, wondered Oliver as he followed instructions as dictated.
The subway he took dropped him off at a station as dictated by the vocal message on his phone and then he was led into an elevator. Since there were no instructions as to the floor he should get off on, he decided to work at this one level at a time, starting with the first basement. However, the train took him beyond that point by its own accord. In fact, it took him a lot farther as the floor didn’t even exist as a button on the control panel or as light-up icon above the door. He didn’t know what to make of this, but none of his previous jobs had carried him so deep before. Musing with a soft smile at the private play-on-words joke passing through his head, there was nothing to do but wait for the doors to open and find out where he was exactly.
The room beyond the opening doors was not what Oliver had been expecting at the time. Perhaps some shady underground facility sparsely filled with staff to meet whatever needs a structure built under public transportation could possibly need. It was a strange theory, he knew, and he couldn’t have said that he had seen stranger in its defense, but neither could he have done the same with what waited for him beyond the elevator as well. Another terminal, flooded with people of various ages, from child to young adult, all moving about and many looking at their cell phones. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had been contacted that day. What this client had in mind, especially for there to be so many children around, was quite the quagmire, but Oliver was beginning to question the mysterious woman’s sanity as he strolled out into the throng.
There was no information coming from the phone at the time, so he just picked one of the trains positioned farther away from the elevator entrance into the underground station. It didn’t have anyone getting on or off, likely to be vacant. He didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing here, but those trains were the only other way out of this place and he sure didn’t want to ride one crowded with potential rivals for whatever bounty was being placed, certainly not with a bunch of wild children. If he wasn’t going to get that relaxing vacation like he had planned, he was at least going to get some shuteye before the next big assignment came dumped in his lap.
The train ride was mostly uneventful, and he had indeed been lucky enough to find one all to himself, like living in luxury with three private cars. Near the end, however, was when his cell phone had… changed. One moment it was glowing with this bright white luminescence and the second he was holding the strange pager with the green and brown color scheme that he now held in his hand.
“All I know is that this job had better pay a bundle!” Oliver shouted to no one in particular, though after a moment he scratched at his brown locks from beneath the hat hugging his head and grinned with acceptance, “Hell, when have I ever cared about the money? But if all this mystery and suspense is going to turn into one big letdown then someone’s going to get hurt.”
As he came out of his thoughts, he considered what to do now. The weird device he held in his hand had been silent since getting onto the elevator that had taken him underground and he had no further instructions from the last time the female voice spoke up. Whatever the case may be, he was sure he’d get a call again from her at some point if she required his services. For the moment, he had no intention of just standing around and so he picked a path and started off, humming softly to himself as he returned his hand and the strange device back to his pocket, his brown locks whipping softly and the tail of his long coat trailing the air in his wake.
_____
“This is ridiculous!” Oliver shouted aloud, venting steam, “Where the hell did that crazy train drop me off?!”
He had been walking for around half an hour and nothing seemed to be changing. He couldn’t think of a forest so close to Shibuya that was this big. No contact had been made over the strange beeper he had pocketed, if nothing else than for evidence so he could get some money back on his disappearing phone. He was beginning to realize that he was hopelessly lost without even the foggiest idea of where he might be. It was very annoying and he kept coming back to the thought that, having just ignored the call, he could be kicking back on the porch of his family’s ranch, drinking down a tall cold one. Instead, he was in the middle of a forest, no idea where, and beginning to wonder if this was all a sick, elaborate prank of some sort.
At that moment, as he was walking along, he heard a rustling nearby, just off the beaten trail he had taken since leaving the train station. He considered what was out there, scratching at his brown locks all the while as he watched, cautiously. There was no way of telling what dangerous beasts lived in a forest when you didn’t even know the location of the forest and he didn’t particularly want to become a meal for a hungry tiger or bear. A flutter of movement caught his eye for a brief moment and then…
“Oomph!” Oliver was suddenly knocked onto his rear by something swinging out of the forest and colliding with his midsection.
Rubbing his head where he bumped it after being knocked off of his feet, he tried to figure out what had crashed into him. His eyes began to focus on something that had hit the ground close by and realized he had been struck by a… big green rock? His vision was a little blurry, but that’s what he saw. There was even a flower growing on the top of the moss. But wait, rocks didn’t have limbs, or a face, and they were probably heavier than what he had felt. Also, rocks didn’t consider you back when you studied them.
His eyes blinked into the creature’s dark green orbs, which blinked back into his sharp blue sights. They were silent for a moment, just pondering about the other, and then they both screamed.
“You’re a human!” shouted the strange creature as it stood up suddenly and pointed at him with claw-like roots extending from its claws, revealing that it was only about as tall as his waist.
“And you’re some sort of weed monster!” replied Oliver, shock and confusion evident in his voice.
Suddenly his face was in searing pain and three throbbing whip marks trailed red across his features. The little creature was withdrawing its vines even before the sting began to set in. By the way it scrunched up its face, it looked rather peeved at his words.
“Who you calling a weed?!” shouted the plant-like animal, seeming ready to go again in defense of her honor. It was definitely a she he realized after calming down enough to recognize it from her voice. “The name’s Palmon, get it right!”
“Okay, okay, geeze!” Oliver answered, biting back tears from his watering eyes as he rubbed the irritated skin of his face, “Barreling out here and crashing into me like that, then slapping me across the face, what were you running from anyways --- ?”
“That!” replied the Palmon with a cry of surprise as she pointed with one of her vine-claws back the way she came through the trees.
As the young bounty hunter glanced off in the direction she indicated, he knew he wouldn’t have believed what he saw if hadn’t already had time for absorbing the fact that he had just been bulldozed by a talking, walking plant. Rushing through the forest, knocking down all the trees in its way as it flapped its wings and let out a bellowing cluck, was a giant chicken. It didn’t take much encouragement at all, none in fact, to get him running in the opposite direction, Palmon fast on his heels.
“What the hell is that thing and what happened to ruffle up its feathers so bad?!” Oliver asked the plant running alongside him.
“His name is Kokatorimon and I have no idea!” replied Palmon, shrugging broadly, “Maybe it woke up on the wrong side of the nest!”
“Speaking of feathers…” Oliver muttered to himself, noticing something in one of his running partner’s hands, something white and fluffy, “What’s that in your hand?”
“What?” Palmon noticed it too and quickly hid it behind her back as they ran, looking sheepish, “I have no idea ---”
“Those are his tail feathers, aren’t they? We’re running for our lives from that giant chicken because you decided to pluck him alive?!”
“Look, I didn’t have a choice, it was a bet!” Palmon answered, quickly getting defensive.
“I can’t believe this,” Oliver suddenly broke off in his own direction and because the giant Kokatorimon was after Palmon, it ignored him and continued its onward chase.
“H-hey! Where are you going?!”
_____
Palmon was alone, running for her life. This time it seemed she had bit off a little more than she could chew. She always had to prove herself when others challenged her and now it might turn out to be the end of her. The human that had gotten in her way was gone, she couldn’t believe it but he had just left her to her fate. Not that she wanted help, or needed it. She could get out of this, she was tough, she’d squeeze out of danger, she was sure of it… well, almost. Still, it was just a shock that he’d leave her high and dry like that so easily.
The Kokatorimon was closing in, just short of nipping at her heels by now. It was a lot bigger than her, with longer strides and the strength to stampede through this forest without slowing down. She didn’t know how long she could keep running and even if she could do so forever it was only delaying the slowly approaching inevitable conclusion. She was going to get caught, but that didn’t mean she’d go out with a whimper as she gritted her teeth and pressed onward.
That’s when she noticed the rope, out here in the middle of the forest of all places. It was tied around a tree trunk and pulled tout around another close by, disappearing into the forest from there. The space between was along her running path and she had to duck low to avoid running into it and impacting her windpipe. It was certainly bizarre to find such a thing in the forest, set up as if prepared for someone in waiting.
Suddenly, as the Kokatorimon continued its chase, a lasso came flying out from among the trees and caught it around the neck perfectly. Tripping up on the rope stretched out tight across the path, it was revealed that the two ropes were one and the same as the loop around the giant chicken’s neck tightened immediately, choking off his air intake as he fell stumbling to the ground. The force of his weight so suddenly jerking on the string set the tree the rope was tied to and the other forest giant that it had looped around falling down on top of the feathered monster, burying him from sight.
“That’s what I call a rodeo,” came a familiar voice as Palmon tried to figure out what was going on, “Kentucky Fried Chicken’s going to be wanting its mascot back, I’m thinking.”
Out came Oliver from among the cover of trees where he had watched supposedly his snare unleash itself upon the enraged chicken, scratching at the bottom of his nose with the knuckle of one finger as he considered his handiwork. He hadn’t abandoned Palmon after all; he had just run ahead while the giant Kokatorimon was distracted with chasing her to set up a trap. Palmon hated to admit it as she watched him chuckle over the unconscious form of the giant chicken, likely at his own bad and confusing joke, but without his help she’d probably be a goner.
