Brand New Day

Ralph looked up, a little startled. "Hi..." he said, cautiously. "Who are you? And how do you know my name?" he asked. Someone talking to him? He wasn't particularly comfortable, but not that out of the ordinary... relatively. Someone walking up to him casually and calling him by name? That was different.

Captain Carbonbuckle looked over him, "Well, you are Ralph correct? There hasn't been many humans here so I know all about you and the other two humans. Vi and her father."

"You shouldn't be so surprised that I know your name. Practically every cow on the island knows your name," Captain Carbonbuckle cast his gaze around and then back to Ralph, "This all must be very strange to you."

Ralph's eyelids lowered. "Ya think?" he asked sarcastically. "Where I'm from, this doesn't happen. People don't wander onto islands, get stranded, become the guests of a teenage dragon, who has talking cows and talking birds, die, and then turn into one of the talking cows. It's like I walked into some weird fantasy novel."

He paused for a minute. "Every cow knows my name?" he asked, curious about that point.

What a horrid person but Captain Carbonbuckle couldn't blame him. It was a lot though he never considered any one tolerable for being rude to others. Just as Pernas had no reason to act rude to the cows and eating them.

At least that was his point of view, "Yes most cows do. It's too bad that no one can leave the island. Though there is plenty of books that Pernas has. With magic and such that could probably turn you back in to a human. Might as well try more magic in a strange fantasy novel eh?"

Ralph looked at him. He was leading onto something. "Good idea. The dragon doesn't seem smart enough to figure it out himself, and his father sure is taking his sweet time getting here." he said. "You know, I never believed in magic, but I thought it would be cool if it were real." he laughed grimly. "Not so."

"I can read," Captain Carbonbuckle told him, "And I used to be a Dweller so I know my way through his place. I can find you a way to change back if you do me a favor."

He waited and took a careless lick of the water. This was too easy.

Then it hit Ralph. The catch. In these stories, there was always a catch.

"A favor?" he asked cautiously. "What kind of a favor?"

Something was rotten about this whole thing. This calf walked up to him, and him specifically, with a certain special thing in mind.

The Captain seemed to be considering his offer over now as he gazed at the cow, "I'm not sure you could do it any way. Maybe I was just waisting my time." He shook his broad head and made as if to move away, "I just thought you wanted to be turned back in to a human. No other cow here would want such a thing as they can't be turned back to humans. They were always cows."

He clicked his hoofs against a stone and sent it in to the water with a splash that splattered them both in a very light spray.

"Wait!" Ralph said. A chance to turn back into a human? He couldn't just let that go away, without even hearing what he wanted. "I want to be human. I don't want to stay like this... please... just tell me what I have to do?"

Couldn't be that much... what on earth could a cow possibly want?

Captain Carbonbuckle looked around them before drawing close to Ralph and lowering his voice as he whispered in to his ear, "I want you to look as if you are trying to kill Pernas. I want you to fail though."

He drew away and looked at him in the eyes waiting for him to answer.

Ralph blinked. It was very surprising and confusing.

He expected he might've been shocked if the cow had asked him to outright assassinate the dragon... but make it look like he was trying and fail? On purpose?

"You know, I'm not going to ask." Ralph said. "I'll do it. Just promise me you can make me human again."

"I promise you will be human once again," Captain Carbonbuckle told him solumly, "You will need to do it when he is singing on the mountain. I will send a cow to retrieve you and lead you to where he is. That or if you get an invitation."

Cows almost never got an invitation but to The Captian Ralph was not a true cow. He flicked his ears, "Do you have any questions?"

"...no..." Ralph said. "I think I understand." he said, taking another drink. "Well, I don't know why you're doing this, but I'll do it. I mean... if I'm just, well... you know, it shouldn't be a problem." he then walked off, pondering this strange request.

Captain Carbonbuckle snorted, "And you have a good day too," he muttered as he plodded off through the cows and back to his own. Though first thing first. He endulged in making him self as colorful as possible.

He returned with a large purple streak down his back and his sides covered with orange, yellow, and green splotches all over his body. Feeling proudly like him self again he returned to the cows that meandered around.

"So, how'd it go?" Xon asked.

"Can't have been a problem." The red calf said. "That human seems a fool."

"Well, we'll see what he does when he gets all grown up." Xon said, meandering off. Business was finished. The red calf looked at him as he left.

"Well, now that he's gone I'd like to have a little discussion with you." the red calf said, walking off. "In private."

Captain Carbonbuckle didn't even listen to there words but when the red calf said, "In Private." he assumed it was to him and shook his big colorful head before following after him.

The red calf led Captain Carbonbuckle away from the herd, towards the side of the mountain, where there was yet another entrance to the caves.

"You know, it's funny that you mentioned using the magic of this island to kill Lord Dragon." The red calf said. "I've a similar idea - I trust you are familiar with the Guardians?"

Well, of course. The Guardians were a splinter faction from the Dwellers, made up of members who weren't completely insane. They lurked in the deepest recesses of the caves. Generally on better relations with Pernas than the Dwellers, but they had a reputation for being secretive.

"Well, you might want to see this." he said, leading him down the winding path. "you may find it of great interest."

Captain Carbonbuckle thought he sounded absolutely full of him self. Like he had some magical secret. Maybe it was good but him talking like that was making it much less exciting.

Although he kinda liked the cow. He talked a bit insane. Perhaps it was a touch of jealousy that made him not particularly like the red calf.

He nodded to show that he was actually listening as the calf lead him deeper in to the dwellers realms.

After a long while walking -

"And turn a corner..." the red calf said, turning. "Here it is."

They were in a huge cavern with smooth stone floors. Then again, they're in a cave, of course there are stone floors. But nobody cares about the stone floors, because in there was a giant, bright glowing orb, like some kind of miniature sun.

"Don't get too close," The red calf said, "get too close and it'll kill you. What we have here seems to be the island's core. This is our best chance to kill the dragon. We don't know exactly what it controls, though. Could be any number of things - the death and rebirth cycles, the weather... might even be the very source of the dragon's power. We just need to find a way use it."

***

Xon wasn't in this conversation because he was stupid and they didn't trust him with that sort of thing. As it was, he was currently grazing out with the herd.

"Didn't you join another herd?" Asked a voice. It was Ned.

"Yeah. So?" Xon asked, looking up at the bull who had not died the day before.

“What’s the deal behind this one?” Ned asked.

“What are you talking about.”

“Oh, please,” Ned said. “All these herds have an agenda. Especially the new ones. What is it? Special territory? Privileges from Lord Dragon? Some bizarre social experiment?”

“Go away.” Xon said.

“Hey, you’re in our herd, buddy.” Ned sat down, being more or less at Xon’s eye level. “It’s headed by that Captain Carbonbuckle, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“You know, Xon, you’re not like this.” Ned said, eyeing him curiously. “It’s almost as though you’re trying to be abrasive.” There was a pause. “You know, I think I can guess at what your agenda was. Word gets around. This morning Captain Carbonbuckle gave a big speech to the Dragon, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I think I have an idea, and I’m going to venture a word of advice.” Ned said, standing up. “It’s a dumb idea, whatever you’re trying to do.”
“How would you know? You don’t even know what we’re doing.” Xon said, walking away. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving.”

“Fine by me.” Ned said, standing up. “But I wouldn’t go about putting my trust in Captain Carbonbuckle or any of his hair-brained ideas.”

“At least he doesn’t eat me.”

"Experimentation! My favorite," Despite the warning he took a few steps forward to better inspect it. Finally he had to look away and he looked at the calf, "Ever tried talking to it? Maybe it's a living part of the island."

He took a few steps back before he began to pace. His hooves hitting the stone floor with clipped tones but they seemed to be muffled by the huge sun like thing.

"Have you seen if it kills plants? There is many thing you can test it with. Perhaps I will get some of the herd of Dwellers that staid in the caves to see if they can find anything on that might link this with the island or the dragon him self."

He paused and looked at the calf, "What have you tried so far?"

The red calf laughed. "I don't this thing is sentient. Just a big glowing ball of magic." He eyed CC closely as he approached it. Don't get too far.

"Well, we haven't tried much so far. I don't quite have your... imagination. We've found that if a cow gets close enough, the energy this thing radiates can affect it. Most of the time it will kill them, but sometimes, other things happen..." he said. "That monster that attacked the island? That was an unexpected result. Some bull got close at got hit. Rather than kill him, the energy mutated him into that... thing. Since then, the cows who are aware of this thing haven't gotten too close, and they haven't said anything." his voice dropped off.

Captain Carbonbuckle seemed upset by this, "So you've only experimented on brethren?" He shifted his weight from one side to the other, "Though I guess it was a good cause instead of for a good meal. Do you know if the mutated cow turned back in to a cow after he died?"

"Most likely, yes." The red calf said, sighing. "He's most likely hiding right now. He may turn up again, or he may simply pretend to be a Newborn." (a newborn being a cow or a bird being born for the first time) "I have subjected myself to it, along with the other volunteers. But I'm personally not very good at ideas. That's where you come in." he said, looking at him.

"You want me to come up with ideas on testing it's power. We will eventually have to figure out how to control it's power if we have a chance to defeat the dragon," Captain Carbonbuckle was already running away with ideas about the new power.

"Exactly." The red calf said.

***

"Sometimes I just like to come someplace high up like this and look out." Pernas said, sitting at the edge of the cliff, looking over the terrain. He and Vi were on a mountaintop, the sun hovering in the noon sky. "It's a peaceful feeling."