Episode 72 – Entering the Hidden Village of Echoville
Some students are on their way to the hidden village of Echoville at last. One who is closest is Shirley Cao. She arrived in Sector One which was empty. At this rate, she could easily take her time to find the correct path to reach the center of the jungle.
Aside from her, Winny is found from Sudharma and now they are ready to battle. At first, they explained to each other about the history of El Monte alongside with Gay’s Lion Farm that related to Echoville.
Matt and the last mentioned Halfling, Shuttle, begin to have a rivaled battle with each other. For some unknown reason, Shuttle constantly mentions that humans are bad people. He mentions this more than any other Halfling but Matt would not know this since he had not met all of the Halflings.
Dangerously enough, Jaime wanders at a clear area and he could feel a presence. Sirius returns but Jaime caused a limbo-like black hole that sent Sirius away. This was not the presence that Jaime felt however. It was revealed that Vialaro, with glaring eyes, was hidden behind the tall grass…
~~~
Shirley walked along the sides of Sector One and as she reached the edge, she could hear a slight snicker. A small puppy appeared from out of the blue. Shirley clearly saw it appear as well. “You’re that same cat I’ve seen earlier!”
“I’M NO CAT!!” yelled Pippy.
“Where did you come from anyway? That was a little weird.”
“It is a forbidden place that you’re not supposed to go to. It does not even concern you. I am stronger now.” The little puppy started clenching its teeth. “I won’t run away this time!”
Shirley scratched her head in confusion. “But, where did you come from? I am serious.” The puppy did not want to respond to her. Shirley summoned a block of ice, “Or else, I will freeze up this whole area so that it is harder for you to disappear and appear. I have heard stories about a ‘hidden’ village. Am I right?”
Pippy was astonished from Shirley’s knowledge about Echoville’s context. “How do you know about the hidden village?!”
Shirley pointed at Pippy, “I came to realize it the more I’ve stayed in this damn jungle. You and all the other Halflings have been playing with us for so long. Echoville, the jungle, the hidden village, I know all about it. And that hidden village… is located right on this very spot!!”
Pippy squealed in fear, “Eek! How could you guess that?!”
“It was so easy figuring it out after watching you appear from midair. Where else could you have gone? If I freeze up this village even if I can’t see it, then the whole purpose of Echoville will be doomed for, isn’t it?!”
Pippy yelped, “Gah!! You dare not do that! You don’t know what might happen.”
“Send me to your leader. I have to save a friend from being possessed.”
Instead, Pippy jumped up and sprung towards Shirley in order to bite her. Shirley threw the ice from her hand right against Pippy’s face. Pippy fell to the ground and crawled around like a dying spider. “Argh, how dare you do this to me! It is animal cruelty!”
“Your face is animal cruelty! Show me your village!”
“Why should I?!”
“Because I said so. It is important of me to go. Can’t you see?!”
“See what?”
Shirley paused for a moment. She was shivering. She summoned ice again and she made sure Pippy stared at it thoroughly. “I am…”
Pippy suddenly gasped and its eyes opened wider in surprise. “W-W-W-What is this? You are…!”
Shirley stomped her foot, “Yes, I am. I am the ice princess that the context is talking about. I don’t even know how or why, but I need to get things straight and fixed once I head to the hidden village.”
“B-B-But you’re supposed to be dead…!”
Shirley scratched her head, “What are you talking about?” She turned away as she said to herself, “If that’s true, then El Monte serves as a parallel universe for Echoville meaning that each generation of humans who happen to come here are chosen as the new ice princess as replacement… This must mean the Halflings’ pasts are always repeated and even they don’t know. All of this is just confusing!”
Pippy got up and it did a strange movement that caused the hidden village to completely appear. Shirley was alert of Pippy’s actions. Pippy tried to jump into the hidden village before Shirley could. Shirley screamed at it, “You’re not running away from me!” Shirley grabbed Pippy by its leg and she threw it at the opposite direction of the village.
Pippy was frightened. It tried to struggle away from her while saying, “Agh, get away! The village can’t become hidden if I don’t jump in!”
Shirley laughed, “Ahah! That’s too bad.” She suddenly gasped and said to herself, “But other Halflings might go in which will make the village disappear…”
Pippy smiled, “Exactly! So it won’t last long!” Pippy tried biting Shirley but Shirley threw an ice at it again.
“If you seriously want to fight, then I guess we will, you annoying little piece of-…”
~~~
Sudharma spun in a circle like a dancer flowing through the slow wind. Winny rolled her eyes, “Give me a break.” She became giddy and said, “You’re sooo~ gonna lose, just watch!” Winny ran towards Sudharma slowly like an angel.
Sudharma stopped dancing, “Are you being serious? It looks like it is not necessary of me to fight with might.”
Once Winny got really close to Sudharma, Winny became her serious character and she sent a very strong punch to Sudharma’s stomach. Blood came gushing out of Sudharma’s mouth as she fell on her back. She slowly got up to regain sanity. Winny stood with pride, “Hm, it looks like even I don’t have to fight seriously. Would you like me to do that again?”
Sudharma stood up slowly. “Oh, you’re not as weak as I thought you were. I guess I really will fight with you.” Sudharma spun in a circle and she caused a whirlwind. Around her. She could control such demonic winds to fly towards Winny. Winny already had a plan. She punched the ground strong enough so that the floor would raise itself off the ground. The giant pieces of rubble that Winny had made helped block the wind from coming any closer. Sudharma clenched her teeth. “Tch, have it your way.”
Winny decided to punch the rubble so that it would shatter towards Sudharma. With this unexpected movement, Sudharma was inflicted by the rubble. She was bleeding even more. Winny crossed her arms, “I am glad you still want to fight. You seem tired though. Would you like me to stop?”
“Do you think of me that way?” Sudharma asked. “I am not done yet.” Sudharma did another dance that would cause the ground to shatter and float.
Winny giggled, “Goodness, I have seen that before. It looks like something I did just moments ago.” Winny waited until Sudharma used the stones. Sudharma made a whirlwind so that the rocks could be blasted towards Winny. Winny tried her best to make her own arms as strong as stone. It was defensive, but not enough to completely withstand the rocks. Luckily, she was not badly injured.
Winny caught one of the giant rocks on her right fist. Sudharma raised up an eyebrow, “What do you plan to do now?”
Winny became giddy, “Shot put, shot put!” She became serious and she closed her eyes to focus, “This will only take two seconds to think about, please excuse me.” Sudharma wanted to attack within those two seconds but her moves were not fast enough to reach Winny after that amount of time. Winny opened her eyes and she focused on throwing the rock just as fast and strong like she would do so in the track meets. Sudharma tried to use her whirlwind but she was not fast enough. The rock strongly inflicted against her stomach and she fell on her back again.
“Augh…! I… can’t go on anymore…” Sudharma said slowly. She seemed to fade away in her words until she fainted.
Winny walked up to her. “Be glad that I didn’t end up killing you. It looks like I knocked you out a bit too far. Oh well. You are pretty nice, I’ll give you points for that. But, see ya. After reading the context, I sort of get the picture of where the hidden village is.” She decided to leave, heading towards the hidden village of Echoville.
~~~
At one point between Matt and Shuttle’s battle against each other, they both tie from inflicting damage on each other. They both fall back and are cut short on breath. “You human! I dislike you!” Shuttle wanted to attack again but he could not move at this point. He was tired as much as Matt was.
Matt said in exhaust, “Why… why do you hate humans so much?”
Shuttle closed his eyes and he began to tremble. “It was all because of everything that happened. Everyone would always call me weird-looking for so many years while growing up. These came from only humans. The Halflings accepted me for who I was. There was so much going on too…”
~~~
“Mommy… why can’t I go to the park with some friends that I know?” Fifteen years ago, Shuttle was a young boy who was only six years old.
“Deary, you’ll only get hurt like what happened a month ago. Everyone threw rocks at you and said they wanted to see you fight back and bite those rocks with your teeth.”
“What’s wrong with my teeth?” Shuttle asked innocently. Indeed, they were sharp like a shark’s pair of teeth. His mother did not want to confess that Shuttle was born differently and that his father was a monster which caused Shuttle to be born as a Halfling – half human and half other.
“That is something you do not need to know.”
~~~
Months later, Shuttle was in a children’s shelter and he saw a bunch of soldiers who infiltrated from outside of the school gates. Shuttle realized that maybe he really was different. All of those soldiers seemed to eye him anyway. So, Shuttle ran away and all of the soldiers followed. Shuttle went through many obstacles in order to leave the area. He accidentally pushed against Miss Siren who was walking down the street with her hair covering her ears. She had a hat on as well.
Shuttle fell to the ground and he said angrily, “W-Watch where you’re going, miss!”
Miss Siren turned around with eyes of an angel. She knelt down and smiled, “Boy, your ears are showing.”
“Is that bad?”
“Here, have this.” She gave Shuttle a hat and now it would be difficult for Shuttle to be seen. This is because the soldiers are not able to see his ears.
“Why? What is this for?”
“Goodbye, good child.” Miss Siren giggled and walked away without any further explanation.
Shuttle decided to keep running to his home. He wanted his mother to protect him from these soldiers that acted as villains to Shuttle. Once Shuttle almost got home, he could hear his mother screaming for help. He ran towards her and he saw her crying. She was struggling away from soldiers! “Mommy!”
“Shuttle, run, run away, please!”
“But mommy!” Soldiers grabbed onto Shuttle but Shuttle used his teeth to bite their arms. His teeth were as sharp as knives, so the soldiers were forced to let go because of the pain. Shuttle quickly ran for his life and for sixteen years he had been able to escape. No one could simply shoot him down as the goal was to capture Shuttle, not kill him. Many people needed answers about how Halflings were forming and such…
~~~
Shuttle said with a frown, “And that is why… I hate you humans so much. You guys took everything away from me just because I was different! It was not fair!!” Shuttle was angry now. He glided faster and Matt tried his best to guard. He was gaining a few scratch marks on his face and arms.
“S-Stop it! I would not have treated you differently!”
“I wouldn’t know that. You humans are never to be trusted! Because of you guys, I never ever saw my mom again. I don’t even know what happened to her! I could not even give a formal goodbye. Miss Siren, the lady who gave me the hat, is the same lady as my leader. I must defeat you all in return for having her save my life. So, get ready, punk!”
~~~
Jaime was going to continue walking but a gunshot passed through him. His hair moved and his hat fell to the ground. Jaime could see a strand of hair fall to the ground. Jaime froze and he watched it carefully. “What… the hell?”
“Perfect. Right on target.” A tall man in blue appeared.
Jaime turned to the side to see the man come out of the tall grass. “Who might you be?”
“My apologies for aiming you. The strand of hair sticking out of your head was bothering me so I shot it down. You look better now.”
“That did not answer my question.”
“I am Vialaro, the sniper. You look half beat. Did you not fight a Halfling? After all, you do seem to possess tremendous power, do you not?” Vialaro had an evil grin on his face.
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: Next week on episode 73... We're back with Mariel! She's back up and running but the pain coming from Vialaro's bullet kicks in. Alongside with her is Levi. Look! They're talking about something interesting.
Danny: Is this the village?
ShirleyC: It's time I finally put you to a stop, Pippy! You're in my way!
Jaime: This calls for some desperate measures... Am I still able to continue? I'm seriously tired of all this Echoville stuff.
Matt: Someone enters the hidden village at last? Will anybody else make it? Next time on episode 73, Beware, Vialaro the Sniper!!
Vialaro, the Sniper: Heh.
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