Buzzing. Always buzzing, the bees are. For some reason, every entrance to Agartha was like some kind of cross between a fantasy forest and a beehive. At least the bees never flew to defend their hive whenever Kaito got near. When Kaito first entered Agartha from Seoul, he was alarmed by the swarm of bees that greeted him, but now, the buzzing was strangely comforting, at least until it got annoying. Speaking of which, it's about time he got on with his mission.
When he peered out of the cave, he ascertained to be in the middle of a forest. To any normal person, the forest would be deemed creepy, ominous, and foreboding, like something out of a supernatural thriller, with gnarled trees, a light fog, unusual shrubbery, and other stuff. But Kaito has gotten pretty used to creepy, ominous, foreboding, and several hells of a lot worse, so to him, the forest seemed mundane. Quaint, even. Well, if anything tries to take a swipe at him, he can cut it down with his katana or shoot it down with his assault rifle.
Without further ado, he took a few steps out of the cave when BOOF! It felt like he was hit by a gale of wind. No, it wasn't a gale of wind, for it didn't ruffle his clothes or even his blue-dyed hair. He knew too well what he felt:
Anima. The very stuff of magic and miracles. Ever since that fateful night with the ominous dream, he has become a vessel of Anima. He could feel it flow around him, and he learned to bend that flow to his will to perform what you could call magic. He even learned to channel Anima into his sword and gun for powerful attacks, which is how, no, WHY he has become a soldier of the Dragon. But enough about that...
As previously stated, Kaito felt a gush of Anima flow past him. Then, he felt something more startling. The air around him was thick with Anima; it was as if he could swim in it! What was the cause of it? The reason? Regardless, it's definitely worth reporting to the head. But, when he whipped out his smart phone, there was no signal. Great. He'll just have to type up the report and save it for later. However, after he hit "save", he noticed something weird. Unless his eyes were fooling him, his smart phone and the hand that held it were cell shaded! So was his other hand! His entire body! Hell, even the forest around him!!! Like he stepped into some anime-style virtual world. But while his eyes saw anime, his ears, nose, and skin sensed reality. After all, anime was something strictly visual, confined within a television set or a computer screen, but Kaito was staring at neither. Did the thicker presence of Anima cause this? Or something else...? Regardless, he typed a note of that as well, then put the phone back in his jean pocket.
Kaito began to walk. Nowhere in particular, because he didn't have any bearings to location save for the hole in the ground he climbed out of. Therefore, he carved arrows into the tree with his sword pointing the way back, just in case. In this manner, nothing of significance happened for a while. Suddenly, Kaito heard growling. He was surrounded by growling! It was a good thing he's already wielding his katana, so he took up a defensive posture. It proved fruitless as Kaito felt fangs sink into his left shoulder from behind, but he didn't even yelp in pain; he just grunted as he elbowed the thing off his back, then spun around to face it. He saw a pack of wolves that looked like they were made of... sticks. What? Before Kaito even had the chance to analyze his situation, the wolf that bit him lunged for another attack. Kaito didn't feel like playing around, so he just stabbed the thing in the head. It yelped, then it... fell apart. The other wolves took one look at it, then they turned heel and ran away yiping. Kaito was disappointed; he was honestly hoping that his first fight in this unknown place would give some challenge. Sufficient to say, the wolf he stabbed was most likely dead, so he picked it's head up and took it with him (but not without stabbing it a few times to be on the safe side) to ask the locals about it if he got the chance. If he didn't, he could always send it back to HQ for analysis. The experts there knew how to handle supernatural things.
After another uneventful walk through the woods, Kaito happened upon something else noteworthy. Apparently, someone, or someTHING, decided to fashion one of the particularly rotund trees into a kind of hut. What's more, the exterior was decorated with clay pots and masks that looked like they belonged to some African tribe. Perhaps someone still lives here, but it's totally worth investigating, so there's only one way to go about this:
He walked right up to the door, knocked on it, and shouted, "Sumimasen?" (Japanese for 'Excuse me?')
"Just a moment, please." replied a woman from within in perfect English, albeit with a thick accent.
After a moment, the door was opened by none other than... a zebra.
Kaito gawked stupidly at it, and it gawked back. Of all the situations Kaito has been in his short, semi-wretched life, this was the most bizzarre so far. It was most indeed a zebra, but it had a huge head, huge eyes, and a short muzzle, like a baby. It wore all manners of gold jewelry: a big, gold loop earring, golden bracelets above its hoof, and even those golden bands around the neck Kaito once saw in a magazine.
“Ah…”
“Now this is most peculiar.” The zebra finally spoke. “What creature would knock on my door and call out to me?”
“Ah… I am a human… My name is Kaito Masaki…”
“Well then, Kaito Masaki, you act as if you’ve never seen a zebra before.”
“I have, but not a talking zebra.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Where I come from, zebras normally don’t talk. Sometimes, they make these sounds that are hard to describe, like a cross between a horse and a donkey, but normally, they stay quiet. They also don’t usually wear jewelry or live in trees.”
“Interesting… Why don’t you come in? Better not stay out here where the dangerous creatures can attack us. Besides, I see you've been wounded. Not too badly, but it still needs to be treated, so I can whip you up a little something to heal it.”
"O-kay?"
The inside of Zecora's tree-hut was... interesting. Shelves have been carved into the wooden walls, and the place was decorated with even more masks and pots of various colors and patterns. In several of the pots were exotic plants, many of which Kaito never seen. But, the most striking feature was the iron cauldron sitting on a fireplace smack in the middle of the room. Oh, and there was another door which probably led to her bedroom or something.
"Luckily for you, I was just brewing up a spare batch just in case, so this shouldn't take too long," she chirped, and without skipping a beat, Zecora nipped some leaves from some plants with her mouth, tossed them in the cauldron and began muttering something in another language. Suspicious, indeed. If she was getting funny ideas or something, there really was no point in sticking around to find out, so Kaito asked straight up:
"Zecora, are you a witch?"
Clearly, that question irked her. "Hmph. Despite what some ponies may tell you, not exactly."
"Some 'ponies'?"
"Why, just a year or so ago, the ponies at the nearby town outright shunned me just because of how I looked! Whenever I came to town, they would lock their doors and bar their windows, so I couldn't even enter any stores! I had to rely on whatever I could literally scratch up from the grounds for my potions."
"Uh, sounds pretty bad."
"Well, at least little Applebloom and her friends managed to clear up the misunderstanding, because now I am a welcome guest of theirs."
"Cool. So anyway... what are you?"
"I am, what you would call, a witch doctor. Instead of casting curses on anyone I dislike, I brew potions for those in need."
"But at a price, right?"
Zecora chuckled. "Well, how else would I pay for groceries? Sustenance is in no short supply here, but the shrubs, roots and berries of this forest simply don't compare to the fruits and vegetables they sell at the marketplace."
"Sounds legit. What was that thing you were muttering?"
"Oh, just a little nursery rhyme in my native tongue to pass the time."
"Okay. About what you said about 'some ponies'..."
"Hm?"
"Like you, they can talk and stuff, yes?"
Zecora gazed at Kaito with a serious expression. "Mr. Kaito Masaki, just what are the zebras and ponies of where you're from like?"
"Well, like I said, they don't talk. They also don't build houses, brew potions, or stuff. As far as I can tell, they're pretty content to just trot around, eat grass and poop on the spot."
Zecora's face scrunched up at the last part. "That's... uh..."
"Yeah. From what I can tell, I think I might have stepped into another world entirely."
"That... brings up many more questions than I can put into words, but I can at least tell you that you'll find the ponies of this world to me remarkably more... civilized."
"As in, like, using toi-"
"YES!"
"Nice."
"Well, your potion's finished. Sit down for a moment, so I can tend to your wound." Zecora pointed to a stool, and Kaito oblidged. Zecora grabbed a ladle and scooped out some of the potion. "I'm only going to warn you once: this is going to sting." Kaito didn't make a comment, so she poured the stuff on the bite. Kaito winced, because the sensation was like she poured saltwater on the wound, but fortunately, it lasted only for a brief moment. He lifted up his sleeve, and much to his wonder, the wound was fully healed.
"Wow. That really was a healing potion."
"Indeed. If I may ask, what happened to your shoulder in the first place?"
To that, Kaito gave his story from when he stepped out into the woods from the portal to when he came to her hut.
"...so you're telling me you unwittingly provoked the timberwolves."
"So that's what they're called?"
"Yes. Vicious guardian spirits of the forest, they are. They are actually normally passive creatures, but they show no mercy to anything that brings undue harm to the foliage."
"Meaning carving arrows on the trees was a bad idea."
"Not really. It's easy to get lost in these woods without some guidance, but you might want to carve your arrows on the ground from now on."
"Yeah."
"So... what do you plan to do now?"
"I still have yet to get a good lay of this world. You said there was a village nearby?"
"Yes. It's just down the nearby hoofpath... do you plan to go there?"
"Of course!"
"...and I suppose there's no talking you out of it. I suggest you first see Fluttershy, who lives in the first house you'll come across. She's terribly shy, but she's very open-minded, and she gets along well with other animals. She'd be the most likely to warm up to a strange creature from another world."
"Oh yeah... that's right..."
"One moment." Zecora scooped out another ladle of healing potion and poured it into a bottle. "Take this."
"Free of charge?"
"Just this once. Given what you've been through, I'm afraid you might need it soon."
"Thank you. Dewa, sayounara."
As Kaito headed out the door for the village, Zecora called out, "Oh, and beware of flower patches of blue, lest they play a nasty prank on you!"
"Wakarimasu!"
And thus, Kaito's adventure begins! (Let's just hope his further contacts are just as friendly...)
