Breaking Away

I couldn't wait to get out the other side of this security checkpoint.  that my high school history class had been pushed into and squeezed on through.

The whole thing was a crowded, stuffy, blurry mess of bag checks and metal detectors. The sort that starts you wondering if the guards will end up finding something you don't actually have.

Of course, between my grubby old tablet and other school junk, the uniformed husky who had the pleasure of searching and admiring my backpack found nothing worth giving half-a-damn about.

And so, with what sounded like his millionth 'welcome' of the morning, I followed a few others from my high school history class out of the security area…

…Right into the brick wall of wonder that was seeing the inside of the Bolstrovan consulate.

Someone jumped on me from behind.

Two hands grabbed my shoulders.

I knew it was my mate Kai before he'd even cried, “Oh, man! Dirk, You seen this?"

“Lemme check my eyes and I'll get back to ya."

The white rabbit pushed off to land beside me, tall, blue-tipped ears bouncing as he smiled as wide as I'd ever seen. “When you do, lemme know if this is class, or if this is class."

I adjusted my bag strap back into my shoulder… and joined him in appreciating just how cool and amazing everything around us was. “Totally."

The whole place was surreal. We were standing in, no, standing on a reception area that was inside a reception area.

Like a mirror world, kinda.

Except everything and everyone else in that reflection was super-freakin'-massive.

None of it seemed real. Everything felt like some bizarre dream, or crazy fantasy.

Man… I hadn't been on any field trip quite like this one before, let me tell you.

We both shuffled towards the guardrail at the edge of that smaller part of the reception, tagging along with every single one of our classmates who'd cleared security before us.

It took only a few steps to see how incredibly high up we were on this separate floor: as high as the third storey of our school, easily.

Then, after a few more steps, we could see what looked like safety nets hooked up on the other side of the guardrail's glass.

A smart idea, no doubt.

Only after I'd got right up to the rail, grabbed it with both hands, and really started to take in where we'd been taken… did I realise how proper fancy this place was.

The main reception area, room, hall, looked like one of those swanky high-class hotels you'd see in a movie or something. It had shiny stone surfaces all around, pricey tiled floors beneath my feet and below those safety nets, and tall, perfectly-pruned potted plants settled in every available corner.

The sun shone over the whole of it meanwhile, pouring in through gigantic windows that stretched from the floor to a ceiling halfway to outer space.

None of it seemed to bother the well-dressed receptionists standing at the welcome desks up on this platform, or the folk I figured were visitors sitting around in the waiting area.

Being in a place this upmarket should have left me trying to pick my jaw up from those posh tiles…

Y'know, if I wasn't already after seeing everything doubled in both normal and giant-sized.

Past the guardrail, a few empty armchairs the size of Kai's damn house offered some place for these big Bolstrovans to sit. And beyond those, at the back of this massive hall, dark wood doors the size of legit towers led off to what I guessed were offices or corridors to other parts of this place.

Man, I wanted so bad to start snapping off photo after photo. And I would have, if I didn't remember the fifty or so signs saying 'Absolutely No Photography Permitted' plastered outside the consulate's entrance. Or the way our teacher, Mr. Alkema, pretty much threatened our lives if we ignored them.

“Oh, hey," Kai said, looking like he'd been struck by something other than the sight of this place. “You seen Stoffel about?"

“Not since we got in here," I replied. “Me and him got split up in the security lines."

The crowd our class had formed grew bigger by the second as more and more of us gathered.

That made it tough to see much of anything once we'd managed to turn away from that massive mind-twister of a world past the railing.

We scoped out the normal-sized area as best we could, though, peering through and pushing past classmates here and there. None of them cared all that much about us. Too busy gawking upwards, side to side, stunned silent with their mouths wider than wide open.

And that's exactly how we found Stoffel, standing barely a step from the exit of the security checkpoint.

That'd be the one and only time I'd lay off giving the squirrel shit over looking so damn stupid.

“What happened to you?" Kai asked him, half a step behind me. “Get lost in the security line or something?"

“Huh?" Stoffel rocked out of that daze, lowering his attention from way up high. The look he gave Kai wasn't any less stupefied. “Lost?"

“Whole class is in here lookin' at all this bigness and you're staggering along like seven hours after the fact."

“Oh…" Stoffel dozily rubbed his orange-furred cheek, then moved up to do the same to the cherry-dyed fur between his ears. “Bag check. Took a bit."

“Pfft, what? How!?"

“What d'you mean, how?"

“The lady checking my bag couldn't throw my gear back at me quick enough, is what I mean."

“Same," I said, trying not to sound quite so bamboozled. “My guy dug through my bag a bit, but… thinking his thoughts were more towards lunch or summin'."

Kai pointed at Stoffel's backpack, peeking out from behind the squirrel's back as it was. “The hell you got bundled in there anyway?"

“Uh…" Stoffel shrugged, attention snapping back and forth between us as he listed off, “My school stuff… A hoodie… My coat…"

“Your coat?" I blurted, bamboozlement fully activated. “Mate, you mad? it's September and summer's barely left."

Kai couldn't hold back, either. “The fuck you needing a coat for? No wonder they took so long with your bag, fully-loaded like… it's a damn pizza or somethin'."

Stoffel threw his hands up and out, big tail twitching. “Alright, chill out, Ears." He then looked my way and said, “You too, Webby… My mom wouldn't let me leave the house without it."

We didn't get the chance to pile onto Stoffel any heavier, or to try and take in any more of the madness and hugeness around us.

All thanks to the blur that was our teacher, Mr. Alkema, racing over with a typically stern frown and violent swipes of his arms.

“I told you all to gather at the welcome desks," the old ram rumbled, looking like he was fit to bust a blood vessel. Even in the moments where the sight of this massive mirror world absolutely shocked him, too. “Uh, I– Come on, move. All of you!"

There wasn't much rush from anyone to get moving, even with our teacher going full psycho mode. The sights and sounds all around saw to that and then some.

But shuffle off towards those welcome desks, the class did. Slower than slow. But not so slow that we'd risk getting the ram even pissier at us.

No matter how much Mr. Alkema cared about getting us to the receptionists in their trendy shirts and all, I wasn't ready to quit watching and studying anything and everything about this place.

A place where those most normal of armchairs could be house-sized.

Or the table they were gathered around could resemble an overpass, with magazines big enough to be billboards scattered over it.

I'd been waiting to go on this tour from the moment it was announced before summer break, and like hell was I not gonna make the most of every moment.

“This is wild," I said, so shook that I hadn't a clue how loud I was actually speaking. 

“And it's about to get wilder," Kai replied, eyes like plates, pointing off towards those bigass windows across the hall. “Check it!"

I needed a second to raise a hand to the blinding sunshine pouring in from outside.

But once that second passed… I knew I'd need way more than another to deal with what I saw beyond the glass.

A fox and raven, decked out in uniform, were debating something with each other, strolling along a path lined with a perfectly-trimmed, knee-high hedge.

Not a weird sight in the slightest on the face of it.

Until I clocked the fact they were large enough to fill mad amounts of these tree-tall windows.

“Visoka," I dribbled out, not so swept away by the sight that I forgot the proper name we'd been reminded, again and again, to use for the bigger Bolstrovans.

Sounds of shock and disbelief went up from our class as we moved, growing louder as our steps slowed.

Even as they walked half the length of a soccer pitch or rushball field away, the two of them still looked huge.

Like walking buildings, almost. Easily the size of the apartment block I lived in.

Building-sized people… chatting away… just like regular people.

“To me," Mr. Alkema cried from over at the reception desks, waving us on, acting like his head wasn't spinning out just like the rest of us. “Now, please."

As we started our way over, he went back to talking with the neatly-dressed wolf at her desk on that small, normal part of the consulate's entrance hall.

Another flash of normality amid so much mindfuckery.

Normality that vanished the instant a moving wall of black went up at the guardrail.

A dull, muted thud hit my ears as the softest shake rolled under my feet.

Our whole class jolted and froze.

And Mr. Alkema, he didn't have a damn thing to say once he'd turned to what we'd all already turned to.

A Visoka-sized lioness whooshed on past in an equally snazzy but relaxed outfit, leaving us all to peer up from hip-height as she left us in her wake.

She had an oversized folder full of paperwork in one hand, and no time for any of us as she continued off and away at speed.

The massive doors at the back of this very wide, very tall, and even longer arena of a room seemed to be her destination.

An arena now playing host to a group of equally massive consulate workers, I noticed, having the tallest of standing meetings back there.

How the hell does someone process that?

That right then… was the closest I'd ever been to a Visoka.

Not ten minutes after I'd seen my first one ever, near the Peace Tree, during our shuttle ride to the consulate building.

Right then, my brain decided to go back and extend the summer break, shutting itself down and leaving the rest of me to it.

At least Kai had managed to keep a little more about him.

“Sir, sir?" he yelled out to Mr. Alkema, grinning, “Is that this week's homework she's carrying? Bit lighter than normal, ain't it?"

I snorted.

Stoffel laughed.

The rest of our class made similar sounds.

And as for Mr. Alkema, he just sighed. “Ever the comedian, Kai."

“I have my moments, yeah."

The silver-snouted ram acted like he'd not heard that, barely waiting to point to his ear and sternly state, “Be sure that you're all wearing your Normalisers, and that they're working properly." With a scan around us, he added, “If you do not have one, or if it's not working, come here to the desk so that you can be provided a loaner."

None of the class spoke up, or stepped forward. Everyone was way too busy talking, pointing, being amazed.

If anyone was missing a Normaliser, nobody cared enough to do anything about it.

“Uh, sir?"

Nobody, except for Stoffel.

“I think I left mine at school."

A sarcastic cheer went up from a few of the other lads in our class.

I tried to be more sympathetic. Tried. “Had to be you, didn't it, Tufty."

Kai made a similar effort at understanding. “Can remember ya coat on a sunny day, but not a Normaliser for seeing some Visoka."

Stoffel batted the air at us, all but telling us to get lost.

Lucky for him, Mr. Alkema remained his typically charming, grumbling self about it. “Well? Come here and get yourself a loaner then!"

The ram threw himself back towards the desk, hand on a horn, shaking his head while the receptionist just kept on smiling.

As Stoffel stepped on past me, I had to ask, “Mate, how you dealing with all the noise the Visoka are making moving around an'all?"

He shrugged as he went. “Ain't that loud. Like a big drum beating or somethin'."

We watched him and his tufty tail go to the desk, hands in pockets and waiting around like a fool while the receptionist introduced another fashionably-dressed guy to Mr. Alkema.

Some skinny antelope that time.

The tour guide maybe?

Honestly, I didn't much care, busy as I was laughing along with Kai.

“Man's really on another planet, ain't he?" he said, front teeth on full display.

“Proper space-bound," I replied. “Not that he'd remember which way space is."

From there, me and Kai stuck with the rest of the class, near to the desk and not too far from the guardrail sitting between us and most of the consulate.

We all kept up our looking, pointing, gasping, so totally hyped and so totally in awe.

Just like we'd all been since the moment we made it onto the island…

—

Everyone on the shuttle bus we'd not long boarded was raving away, hollering and screaming, bouncing around between the windows on one side to those on the other.

Me, Kai, and Stoffel included.

If Mr. Alkema was trying to calm us down, we couldn't hear him.

And even if we could, I'd have never listened.

Spotting the huge buildings rising up from behind the trees and the slopes while back aboard our coach, barely halfway across the Consulate Bridge, had set us all off and then some.

And the fact they were only more gigantic now that we'd made it ashore only made us louder.

We were shouting and hollering but saying nothing, taking picture after picture with our phones. It was like some pop-star had driven on by. Or an alien spaceship had crashed down into the bay.

I got a few snaps of the beach facing off into the ocean as the shuttle turned back inland, wheels grinding over a field of gravel. Then I grabbed some of the shrubs and the trees that could barely hide the massive, looming walls of steel and concrete, too.

I'd wanted to take some shots of our parked up coach as well. Plus the entrance gates and guard posts. The only normal-sized stuff in sight.

Too bad Stoffel saw fit to swing his arm and smack my phone clean out of my hand.

“Visoka!" he cried, jabbing his finger at the window. “I saw one!"
“Ahh, you absolute blunder," I groaned, diving down to rescue my phone from the floor between the seats. “Where?"

“Where what?"

“Where'd you see the Visoka!"

“Over there."

“Helpful, mate. Thanks." Phone recovered and still in one piece, I jumped back up to get another look out of the window. “Where ex–ack!"

Well, I would have, if Kai hadn't jumped in from the aisle and bundled me right back down again. “Visoka!? I don't see one?"

“He was walking along a path, I think," Stoffel replied. “A wolf, I reckon."
“Then where's he now?"

“I dunno… I think he went between a couple of those big warehouse-looking things."

“So… those warehouses, yeah?"

“Yeah."

“Lads," I barked, squashed against the wall beneath the window. “Can I get up now or what?"

A roar went up from the front of the shuttle. Loud and angry enough to cut through all the excitement.

That roaring might actually have been some words. What Mr. Alkema then followed up with definitely were. “Settle down and take your seats!"

Everyone did. At speed.

Kai and Stoffel included.

Right there in the seats I'd fallen into the footwell of.

I stayed put, squeezed up between shins and backrests, hidden out of sight. If there was anyone who'd throw out punishment for getting bundled over, gods knew it'd be that grouchy old ram.

“Listen to me," he demanded, killing what remained of the excitement dead. “You'll want to hear this."

I peered up past Stoffel's knees to share his look of confusion, then swivelled to do the same with Kai before our teacher continued.

“This shuttle bus we're on is a temporary measure while work on this facility is completed. Eventually, it'll be a Visoka-sized shuttle that carries people to the consulate, with us normal-sized travellers riding in the so-called 'Maleni sections'."

“How?" someone asked from up front. She sounded just as puzzled as me by that. “Where will it go? There's no roads big enough."

“Hmph." I could hear Mr. Alkema's smirk through that. “We're on the road."

Gasps and other baffled mutterings drifted around the shuttle.

They got even louder after sir said, “Or at least, what will be the road."

I both heard and felt the stampede of our class rushing back to the windows.

Not to be left out, I hauled myself up out of my compressed hiding space to regain my own view outside.

And only then did I realise that the gravel field we were driving across… was a gigantic gravel road.

“Oh my days, lads…" I turned to Stoffel and Kai, mouth open just as wide as theirs. Then, something clicked. I grabbed them by a shoulder each, shook, and really screamed, “Oh my days, lads!"

“Dirk!" Mr. Alkema yelled, now visible plain as day. Somehow, I'd forgotten about him. “What are you doing?"

“...I fell, sir."

“You fell?"

Some of the class started snickering. My mates included.

Somehow, I kept a straight face as I replied, “Kinda?"

“Go back to your seat!"

“But Kai's in it–"

“Now!"

“For the sake of fuck," I grumbled to into my shirt collar, forcing myself and tugging my backpack out into aisle.

“My bad," Kai said as I passed, grinning.

“Yeah, your bad."

Standing in the middle of the shuttle, there were more grins, more smirks, and plenty of laughs all around me.

Not to mention our teacher looking more and more likely to explode.

I kept my head down and ignored them all, throwing myself into the empty seat Kai had left in the row behind.

Getting myself onto Mr. Alkema's shitlist wasn't on my day's to-do list… No matter how much I wanted to cut loose and take in everything the island had to offer.

The shuttle bus carried on along that mega-sized gravel road, carrying us towards, then past those gigantic warehouses. Each of them stretched high up into the sky, almost like they were making fun of the big, regular-sized trees standing barely half as tall.

Beyond the windows on the other side of the shuttle, the sparkly Sovereign Ocean stretched off towards the sunny horizon. A pretty picture, no doubt. And one I was glad to get a photo of.

But pretty or not, it wasn't anywhere near as interesting as what I soon spotted down the coast we were riding along.

A dock. Insanely large. Dominating the shore.

It resembled a huge, sprawling port. Possibly as big as anything you'd find in Meerland.

But the sprawl wasn't down to the number of piers or ships or anything like that. In fact, there weren't any ships docked at all that morning.

No, it was the fact that its single pier rose far out of the water, and stretched way off towards the sky, only to then cut ninety-degrees left as if trying to slice off a sea for itself.

Onshore, the dock's giant buildings, towering cranes, big, bright machines, and all other kinds of stuff stood way above everything else.

Even from what must've been a mile away, the craziness of the scale was obvious. And mind-twisting enough that I needed one, two, three takes and more to try and process it properly.

The whole place grew and loomed higher the further down the shore we rode, setting off the amazed gasps and manic rushing for the windows from before Mr. Alkema's announcement.

But it wasn't the dock alone contributing.

As the shuttle rolled on, it soon became clear just how much there was to see between the shorefront and the surrounding hills inland.

Ahead, a water tower, several times taller than the tallest building in Zoutestrand, cast a shadow so wide and so dark that a whole chunk of the road ahead seemed to disappear.

To the right, meanwhile, beyond a fence with chain links the size of steel beams, a vast lake stretched far and wide towards the tree-covered slopes.

Both went as quickly and impressively as they came, left behind as the shuttle hung left at a fork in the road and raced towards a load of skyscraper-sized, office-like two-storey buildings. Ones that weren't visible from the mainland, or even from back on the bridge… Unless I'd missed them somehow.

What I couldn't miss lay ahead, rising from between the buildings further in the distance.

A bunch of cylinder-shaped fuel tanks stood up high, but not high enough to block the massive radar dishes at the foot of another set of rolling hills.

It all must've been something to do with the island's weather research station, I figured.

Or maybe something else, if all the wacky ideas about secret projects and stuff being spread around town were to be believed.

Being real, though, I didn't get much chance to properly think about all that, stun-locked as I was by all this gigantic… everything, all around us.

The consulate itself included once we turned a corner and started heading directly towards it.

We bumped and bounced onto the first paved road we'd seen since climbing onto the shuttle. Something that fast helped me realise how rough the ride had been until that point.

Not that I cared. Too busy peering out of the windows, me, searching all around for some Visoka to go along with all those Visoka-sized buildings.

But it'd all end up being for nothing. There wasn't a single sign of a single Visoka anywhere out in the open. Not behind the huge blackened glass windows of yet more giant offices, or on the paths leading to lobbies as big as office buildings back on the mainland themselves.

The same held true of the consulate we were hurtling our way to. A fact even more confusing, given the size of the building and its grounds compared to these relatively 'smaller' ones.

I started to think the Visoka must all use a different part of the consulate… and that maybe these flashy gardens and the paths running through them were all for show.

Too bad…

“Oh shit," Stoffel yelped, sitting up taller in his seat in the row ahead. “Look at the size of that!"

Oohs, ahhs, and wows floated all round the shuttle as the class all saw when he'd seen a split second after I had.

The gardens of the consulate were impressive enough, with bush-sized flowers in large pathside beds that surrounded a giant fountain carved from stone.

But, it wasn't any of that that that me, Stoffel, or likely anyone else aboard the bus had found deserving of a shout or gasp.

Not with an actual, legit, Visoka-sized tree rising up from close to that fountain.

The thing was massive. Not quite as big as the fountain, sure, but that just made it even more impressive, considering it wasn't much more than a sapling.

It still needed a support as thick as a Maleni tree running up one side of it, with what 'little' branches it'd sprouted waving strongly through the breezy air.

This tree was young. Real young. Barely even a tree… but still big enough to stand taller than a house.

Mr. Alkema's deliberate throat clearing slashed at this newest round of excitement, allowing him to cut in and reel off what sounded like a reading off a script.

“That which you see outside is the Peace Tree. A Bolstrovan beech tree planted as a sapling when the weather station commenced operations here four years ago." He took a heavy breath, and after a bump in the road, he continued. “According to the facility's mission statement, this tree is intended to be a symbol of the relationship between Meerland and Bolstrovo. Both of which it's hoped will continue to grow and become ever stronger…"

Once Mr. Alkema finished explaining, he quickly and quietly sat himself back down again.

Free rein then for the class to go back to gushing over that tree.

Conversations sparked up, the clicking of phone camera photos rolled on.

And Stoffel in the seat ahead piped up to speak his mind. “Anyone else got the wicked urge to go climbing that thing?"

Kai scoffed and laughed in loud disbelief. “Nah, just you, Tufty."

Our shuttle carried on past that Peace Tree and those field-sized gardens, carrying on up a steepening slope in the road that led alongside the consulate.

Everything outside dimmed as we lost the sun to the building's clean, taller than tall brickwork. Another reminder, as if we really needed it, of just how large Visoka were…

And how small we were compared.

Deep beneath the still darkening shade, it came as a welcome sight to see something normal-sized just up ahead. Some signs in the road, unreadable from where I was sitting, standing not too far from a regular-looking, open-fronted entrance to this side of the building.

The bus began to slow, slaloming into and eventually stopping in a small parking zone.

From there, we could see into the consulate through the entrance, though mostly our view was blocked by a whole squad of uniformed guards, manning the sort of security checkpoint you'd expect to find in an airport.

Seeing that proved even more unnerving than all the giant-sized buildings we'd passed to get there. Not that it'd dampen or derail my anticipation for finally getting myself off this shuttle.

“Man!" I grabbed the backrests of Kai's and Stoffel's seats, leaning forwards to share that excitement with them. “There's all this cool, intense, big stuff outside, but just think what's inside. This tour's gonna be proper good, no doubt…"

—

After getting signed in, or whatever it was we'd supposedly done at the reception desks, we found ourselves following the skinny antelope Mr. Alkema had been introduced to.

It turned out that guy was a tour guide. Pretty overdressed for one, for sure, looking like someone off for a job interview as he did.

He had a name. He'd told us it, even. Too bad I wasn't paying much attention, what with how eager I was to get our tour underway.

Eagerness that died fast once we'd been taken into a regular-sized corridor leading from the lobby…

We went from a giant hall filled with giant folks and furniture, all the way down to a bunch of normal-sized rooms connected by normal-sized doorways and openings.

An area separated away, seemingly created specifically for this tour, filled full of photos and articles about political meetings and the construction of this place.

There were some cool things around, too. Like a model of the famous Zwanenvleugel Bridge up in Viervelden, crafted from gold-plated Meerlander steel and gifted to the consulate by our Prime Minister, according to the placard on its base.

Room after room, we listened to our guide talk in his accent about how this facility as a whole came to be.

It was all honestly kinda interesting to see and hear…

But at the same time, oh my days, was it dry as fuck.

We had Visoka out there in the consulate! And no doubt loads more on the rest of the island!

I hadn't come here to see all that regular-sized stuff, no matter how much the subject interested me.

Hell, I could read about the history and the story of this place at home in my bedroom.

Plus, if I were at home in my bedroom, I wouldn't have to be dealing with Mr. Alkema acting his super-strict self.

“Keep up," the old ram snapped at someone out of sight, turning to order someone else at the front of the group to, “Pay attention!"

It all sounded real hollow, considering how he didn't seem to care for anything on display, or how he clearly wasn't listening to a damn word our guide had to say. Real 'I'd rather be anywhere else but here' vibes.

Bah, his loss. Especially considering how much cool stuff there was to see.

Though admittedly, by that point, I'd decided the coolest stuff sat outside this closed-off, normal-sized place. A place you might easily confuse for some regular museum back on the mainland.

I stopped my already slow walk, hanging back next to a display detailing the dredging process that'd expanded and shaped the island into its current state.

Our guide, Mr. Alkema, and the rest of the class all continued on, rounding a corner while I started to shuffle away out of sight.

I was glad to see Kai notice from the back of the group, who real quickly made his own moves to split off.

But not before giving Stoffel a tug on the tail to stop him from carrying on with the tour.

Half-hidden behind a display cabinet, I held my breath and waited, fearing the sound of Mr. Alkema calling out for us, or the sight of him marching back around the corner.

Neither of those came.

The sound of distant footsteps faded.

We'd done it. We'd slipped away.

“Dirk," Kai called at not much more than a whisper, creeping towards me at speed. “What you doing?"

Stoffel followed with him, equally quiet but looking way more confused.

“I've had enough of that," I said, keeping myself in cover. “I don't wanna walk around here all day."
“What d'ya mean?" Kai replied. “We've been talking on and on about this trip all summer."

“Mate, I know we have. That's why I wanna go see more than just this tour."

He frowned. “You what?"

“Tell me you don't wanna go see all that cool shit we saw from the shuttle ride? Have ourselves a proper look 'round this place."

Kai needed a second to think.

But the smile I got in response from him said everything.

The sign I needed to really press home my point. “The others are waiting to hear about what's on this island next time we're hanging on the shorefront, right? And I'm planning to tell a story way more interesting than just seeing a museum."

“Nah, man, I'm with ya." He adjusted the strap of his backpack and widened his grin. “My bro for one's gonna wanna hear about something much more class than anything in here, no doubt."

I stepped out from cover behind the cabinet and towards him. “Imagine if we get another news reporter coming along, aiming to talk to us. Hah, a cool story 'bout this place'll make us famous or somethin'."

Stoffel meanwhile had finally shaken away his bemusement. “Man, if one does come, I hope I'm there for it this time…"

Kai nudged an elbow into his side. “Make sure to bring your coat if you do make it. Don't worry about remembering a Normaliser, though."

Stoffel groaned. “Suck your mom, Ears."

“I'll suck your mom."

“Lads," I said, gesturing for them to keep it down. “We doing this? We going?"

They looked at each other, then turned back to me. I took Kai's strong nod and Stoffel's lack of a headshake as their approval.

We were getting on out of there.

With all of us onboard, we retraced our steps back to the consulate's lobby, passing through all the rooms and exhibits we'd seen a second time.

There wasn't anyone else in sight as we went. All except for a couple of tourists admiring the display about the island's old lighthouse, still lying in ruins from the war.

We passed by them without any fuss, and after a few more rooms and a couple more turns, the three of us were strolling back out from those relatively tiny passageways.

Man, that impressively huge, swankily designed reception area proved just as incredible to walk into a second time around.

There'd not be time to admire it all too much, though.

We walked as casually as possible past a closing set of elevator doors, briefly spotting some nervous-looking stoat standing rigid inside. Ahead of us, the rows of chairs forming the waiting area sat all but empty. The perfect place to blend in while we worked out our next move.

We threw ourselves into some boxy armchairs, backpacks down between our legs, staying low-key, just in case anyone who might recognise us as part of the tour group was still around.

Like the wolf at reception, for instance.

Lucky for us, a whole bunch of paperwork had her far too tied up to notice much else.

“Hey," Stoffel muttered from the chair between mine and Kai's, tail flicking against the backrest he was sitting forward from. “The tour's one thing, but… do you guys really think it's okay for us to leave the consulate?"

“Probably," Kai replied, one leg crossed over the other, fully relaxed. “The security check was to get in here, right? So being outside's gotta be way less of an issue."

“I guess." The squirrel rubbed his chin, face blank. It stayed that way until he asked, “But what about that guard booth we stopped at on the coach?"

“Probably to check the coach! And, like… we passed that checkpoint to get onto the island, and outside is still on the island, so… I don't see an issue?"

“Uh…" Stoffel went blanker than blank that time. “You really think that?"

“Is Webby's headfur green this week?"

“Hey," I started to complain.

A complaint cut short by another moving wall to be witnessed beyond this reception area's guardrail.

Two of them, in fact.

Another neck-achingly tall pair of Visoka, one bull, one bear, went thudding on by, deep in a cheerful-sounding conversation in what I figured was Velikan.

Both were wearing some military-ish uniform; all pale green, with an official-looking circular patch on the arm and the Bolstrovan flag just below.

Us three hadn't done a thing except sit there and watch them pass in the distance, but still, that encounter tested our ability not to get too excited too openly.

A test we mostly succeeded at.

“Unreal," I cheered beneath my breath, turning to Stoffel in the chair next to mine. “Tell me you don't wanna go see more cool sights and such like that?"

From the seat on his other side, Kai added, “We ain't gonna get class of this sort back on the tour, lemme tell ya that much."

“Exactly." I had no chance of fighting off a grin as I stood on up. “Let's go."

Kai wasted no time in following my lead.

As for Stoffel, he looked way less keen and certain about this all.

But not enough to stop himself from getting up to join us.

We arrowed towards the exit, staying as quiet and as casual as we could on our way past the reception desks and the handful of people gathered around them.

The security area had calmed right down since processing the thirty-plus of us in our history class. All the more reason to stay on the downlow as we waltzed on by the guards there.

Quickly, easily, and with no real threat of being stopped and returned to the tour, we'd made it out into the wide open at the side of the consulate.

The shuttle that'd brought us there had left, and the two guards stationed outside the entrance didn't appear all that fussed about our presence.

Perfect.

“Where d'we wanna go from here?" Kai asked, louder than he could have.

“Anywhere that's not near a bunch of security," I muttered, flicking my snout away from the entrance. “C'mon."

The super-wide, sloped road our shuttle had driven us up felt way steeper on foot, though not enough to be too distracting as we made our way down it.

We all peered up and around to admire all those giant buildings and pathways we'd already seen once, but this time, we could experience them without a sheet of glass at our noses.

More and more of the area revealed itself as we went, emerging into view from behind the corner of the consulate.

There were more office and storage buildings we hadn't yet seen, and more of the sprawling garden that we had done.

I couldn't find words to express how it all had me feeling. Kai and Stoffel, too, judging by the way their mouths had dropped like mine.

It all seemed so much more real compared to when we'd been bumping along on that bus. Like we were actually experiencing it in person that time.

For sure, the smell of the flowers, the trees, and the ocean helped that no end. As did the clanking, clattering, rolling sounds of living and working rising and floating from all around.

I'd have taken even more time to be surrounded and taken by it all, if it weren't for Stoffel deciding to speak up.

“How come you were so worried about getting away from those guards?" he asked from a step behind me and Kai, still hanging on to all his uncertainty. “You're sure we're not doing anything wrong… right?"

“No, we're not," I insisted, more than a little bugged over how his doubts were creeping into me. “Not in terms of being someplace we're not supposed to be, anyway."

“...Huh?"

Kai grinned back at him. “Mr. Alkema ain't gonna be too happy if he finds out we've gone."

“If," I stressed. “And standing about like a bunch of goons, acting suspicious, that's what's gonna get those guards thinking we've done wrong… And I don't want them marching us back to that tour. Not yet."

Stoffel grumbled. “How are we gonna get back into the consulate, anyway? Without our class."

…I hadn't thought about that. “We'll work that out later."
“But–"
“Just look at all this, mate! This is what you should be focusing on…"

We made it to the front of the consulate and back into bright, fur-warming sunshine.

The slope of the road flattened as a picture-perfect lawn began, stretching all the way to the consulate's grand front entrance, and between the building's front wall to where that huge, pretty flower garden started.

The most notable thing of all, however, is that this lawn was where the towering Peace Tree stretched up from.

We hopped off the road and onto the short grass, cutting across to where a huge concrete pathway led directly towards the sapling as tall as our school was.

On reflection, stomping across that lawn, no matter how quiet the area appeared to be, probably wasn't the best way of staying under the radar.

On the other hand, it did cue Kai to speak my mind for me. “Tsk… Sure hope they ain't getting guys our size to mow this. Thing's like a damn field."

That pathway seemed to go on forever once we'd stepped onto it from the grass, leading off to where it broke into a large circle rounding the base of that tree.

Giant park benches sat facing the sapling from a distance on all sides. They'd be nice places to sit, no doubt. Especially once the tree got big enough to offer shade with its branches.

To make it all the way over from where we'd started, I'd bet it'd be no sort of journey at all for someone the size of a Visoka.

For us? Man, I spent those couple of minutes walking thinking that Maleni really needed a faster way to get around.

It was once we'd made it to the tree that we noticed there weren't only those Visoka-sized benches set up. Normal ones were there, too, on the concrete, right beside those much bigger versions.

The only difference between them, the size apart, obviously, was that each regular version had been tucked beneath shelters made from wood and metal.

Every one of those benches, however, in both sizes, sat empty. Almost as if abandoned.

The perfect setting for us, with space to take in the sight before us without anyone watching.

“This is so cool," Kai said, voice like a gasp. “The whole thing. This whole area."

“Right there with ya," I replied. “And it's… nice, too. Reassuringly."

“Hmm?" He frowned at me. “How d'ya mean?"

“I mean bringing it all this way over, planting it, y'know? Like, they didn't haveta do it. Go to this sorta trouble…" I shrugged. “Iunno. It feels good. I like it."

Kai slowly nodded. It got faster before he said, “Yeah, it does. And me, too."

I snorted a laugh, leaving him to frown again. “How big you reckon this'll be when it's full grown? It ain't far away from as big as a normal-sized tree already."

“Mate, you think I've got a clue?" He took a few steps forward, stopping where the path-sized edging of the Visoka-sized paving met the earthy soil. “But think about it. Shit in Bolstrovo and all, bigger-sized peeps and stuff… it's s'posed to be, what, eight, nine, ten times bigger than here?"

“That kinda range, yeah." I smirked. “Hoping that comes up on our biology exam."

“A'ight, so, think of the trees near school. The hench sort that're like twice as big as the building. Multiply that by Visoka numbers."

Kai had me interested. Enough that I did a spot of quick maths to try and work out the answer. One that when I got it, had me blurting out a big, “Fuck me."

“Ain't it."

“It'll be taller than any building, any thing in the whole damn country." I put a hand to my head. “Jeez, man… Hah, if they've got any sense, this'll be a smaller type of tree than the sort near school."

“If not," Kai said with a growing, tooth-flashing smirk. “It's gonna be like somethin' from a monster movie… Except, like, it's a tree, y'know."

“Maybe it's a tree that comes to life. Grows proper huge and takes over the world or summin'"

“Pfft, fuck that noise, hah!" He laughed so hard, his blue ear tips swung into a blur. “That's some damn horror movie shit right there."

I let myself launch into some laughter of my own. Louder than I probably should've, given how I wanted us to stay off the radar.

I didn't go on for long, mind. Only until I really started to put thought into how a tree this size might grow. “You think… I wonder if the island's big enough. How far you reckon this thing's roots'll go when it is full-grown?"

“Maybe this is how they're making those secret tunnels to the mainland." Kai finished that suggestion with a sharp hack of a scoff. “If the headcases in town are to be believed."

“They ain't gonna get Visoka fitting into tunnels that size… Unless they're planning on sending normal-sized Bolstrovans over to invade us."

“Pfft, mate, have a word with yourself! It's an idea that makes as much damn sense as the whole tunnel-making thing to start with." He threw an arm somewhere in the direction of the mainland. “Anyway, I'm pretty sure a Visoka could just wade right on through the bay if they really wanted."

We laughed some more, louder and together. I'd got so carried away with the fun of our chat, all thoughts of radars and keeping ourselves off them had slipped my mind.

As it turned out, Stoffel would be the one to help my mind find its balance on that matter, stepping forward from behind us and peering up high towards the tree's top.

“Mate?" I called out to him as he strode onwards. “You good? You've been proper quiet."

“Damn near forgot you was here, Tufty," Kai added, then frowned his hardest yet. “Hey, what you doing?"

Stoffel barely reacted except to step onto the huge soil patch the Peace Tree had been planted in, then say, “I wanna climb it."

“The fuck?" Kai looked at me, halfway to horrified. “Why?"

He glanced back at us both with a slow shrug of a shoulder. “Ain't never climbed a Visoka tree before."

I put fingers to my forehead, thumb to my brow, and pinched. “But there's trees as big as this back home. Bigger, even. Full-grown ones."

“Yeah," Kai snapped. “Ones that ain't right outside a giant fuckin' consulate with giant fuckin' windows."

Stoffel wasn't listening. Hell, I'm not even sure he was even thinking.

Either way, he set down his backpack, then, happy as could be, jogged his way onto and over the soil.

“Oh, shit," Kai muttered, grimacing as we watched.

Holding my breath, I checked around us for danger.

Luckily, we still didn't have anyone in sight, either back on that access road, or in that enormous flower garden with the skyscraping water fountain.

Stoffel meanwhile, well, he was sure having a lovely time trying to wrap his arms around the damn Peace Tree.

“Are you fuckin' mad?" Kai shouted after him. “Squirrels, man! You're all nuts."

Seeing this play out in front of us legit left me speechless.

In fact, never mind speaking, I could barely even move.

I watched Stoffel like someone might watch a car crash unfolding: desperate to look away, but completely unable to.

He managed to shake and shimmy himself a short way up the trunk of this real huge, real important tree, acting like it was one of the basic, boring oak trees in the park near his house.

At his peak, he almost climbed his height away from the ground…

Which is when he started to struggle…

And started sliding right back down again.

“Almost had it," Stoffel complained. “Got my arms 'round its sides, but… bit too wide."

“Then stop," Kai shouted in an even harsher complaint. “You absolute weapon."

Rather than stop, he decided on taking a second shot at climbing.

Kai, godsdamn, he looked ready to tear his own ears off, leaning towards the soil patch but hesitating from taking a step.

I had another look around, firmly reminded, again, of that radar we needed to stay off.

The area outside the consulate remained quiet…

But we weren't the only ones around any longer.

I watched a group of people, normal-size, emerging from around the building's front entrance.

They were a fair ways away, and hadn't noticed us yelling and screwing around near this tree.

Yet.

“Stoffel," I growled through gritted teeth. “There's people!"

“There's no good notches," he moaned, as if I hadn't said anything. “Can't get a foothold."

Kai puffed out his cheeks with eyes like he was ready to kill. “Probably 'cos it's a fuckin' sapling, genius. Mr. Alkema said as much!"

The rabbit then turned to me, ready to go off some more.

Until he grabbed me by the shoulder and had me asking, “What?"

Kai pointed past me, horrified. Like he'd seen a ghost.

If only.

I followed his pointing, peering off back towards the road.

Three figures had appeared from behind the corner we'd come from.

All were wearing black.

Security guards.

Looking directly our way.

Beep beep went the radar.

“Oh, gods." I nudged Kai's hand off my shoulder. “Damn–uh, go get him."

“You go get 'im!"

“Seriously?" Onto the soil I leapt, zeroing in on the tree. And the squirrel. “Get his damn bag at least."

“A'ight."

“Stoffel!" I called again, dodging divots in the ground, then his tail, to grab hold of him by his chest-high waist. “Stop messing about."

“Hey!"

“Hey, nothing." With a heave, I yanked him away from the trunk and right back down to earth. “Security's watching. Right now!"

We whipped our heads back to see where the consulate met the road.

Those three guards remained standing there, their focus still laser-like.

If there was any doubt at all that we'd caught their attention, it was dispelled the moment that one of them, a canine of some kind, a collie maybe, pointed directly at us.

A point quickly interrupted by a slap on the wrist from one of the other guards.

“Guys," Kai grumbled as he reached us. “The hell you waitin' for?" He shoved Stoffel's backpack right into the squirrel's chest, barely breaking stride in his power-walk past the Peace Tree. “Move!"

My heart was thumping. My legs barely wanted to budge.

But, somehow, I got myself going, straddling the base of that big tree to start pacing at speed after Kai.

Stoffel had the same idea, thankfully.

Except he soon turned a walk into a run past us.

“Don't," both me and Kai barked together.

“What?"

“Just walk," Kai said. “But fast."

“Why?" 

“Because," I replied. “If we run, we'll definitely look suspicious."

Kai huffed. “Probably too late anyway."

Stoffel did listen, finally, slowing right down into a quick walk. “Betting they were already looking for us anyhow. Why would they be there if not?"

“Really?" The rabbit scoffed. “Well, if they were, well done for giving 'em even more reason to come after us, nature boy. Bouncing about with an addiction to trees like… mate, you don't deserve nothin' funny–"

“Listen," I snapped as we rushed our way off the soil and onto the other side of the concrete circle. “Let's just find somewhere they're not. Quick."

“Works for me," Kai shot in reply.

“And stop looking back at 'em, yeah?"

We kept up the pace, fast but not too fast, carrying on along the pathway and away from that damn tree.

The consulate's main path couldn't have been more than a minute away from us at that speed. Not that I could really tell while my heart got busy trying to thump its way out my chest.

A few more regular-sized people were on that front path by that point, beneath some sort of covering, heading both to and from an entrance that got bigger and grander the closer we moved.

In fact, those people were moving pretty fast themselves.

Faster than their legs should've been taking them, actually.

Another group then appeared from the front doors. Or rather, from some smaller front doors that weren't too far from the… normal Visoka ones?

I mean, if not normal, then… the doors that fit the scale of most everything else around them.

Bah, however they should be called, this group of people carried on towards the front path, walking, and walking.

Until they stopped.

But kept on moving down the path anyway.

It was mad to see. Mad enough that for a second, I almost forgot about the security guards we were trying to lose, and the return to Mr. Alkema we definitely didn't want.

Our leg-burning power-walk along the Peace Tree path brought us within spitting distance of this even wider walkway.

And from there, the way people could stand but keep moving along it began to make sense.

The edge of the main path had some special moving sections dedicated to people our size. Like a metal conveyor belt, two of them, running in both directions beneath some sturdy-looking, open-sided sheltering.

Not only that, but that moving section even dipped beneath ground on one side of the Visoka-sized pathway we were nearing the end of, reappearing on the other to carry on away from the consulate.

I guess they had figured out how to let us Maleni get around quickly after all…

And what a proper cool way of doing it!

As much I wanted to, we didn't exactly have time to stick around and really admire those paths and stuff.

Instead, we marched over to where that cool moving walkway came up out of the ground, hopped on with only some staggering, and did our best to blend in with the crowd strolling away from the consulate.
There on the metal belt, moving even faster than when we were powering away from the Peace Tree, I got brave enough to look back for the first time since we'd bolted.

Those guards were still back at that giant tree, poking around and studying the area around its base.

I hoped real hard that I hadn't dropped anything: valuable or incriminating.

A check of my pockets confirmed I still had my phone and my wallet. My backpack strap was still over my shoulder, too.

Good…

“Lads," I said in a whisper. “You got all your stuff?"

They both made similar searches of themselves. Their nods suggested similar results, too.

“Why?" Stoffel asked. Because of course he did.

“Just 'cos," I replied, well aware of the ten or so people in earshot of us. “Don't worry about it."

I could breathe a little easier as we walked slow on that fast-moving walkway. And after Kai got done with a glance of his own back at the Peace Tree, we could share a quiet sigh of relief.

Somehow, we'd got away.

And again, we could focus on having ourselves a proper tour of the place.

Though maybe one without any more climbing of trees or monuments or monument trees.

“Where we heading anyway?" I asked the lads, still trying to keep our words between us alone. “What we tryin' to see first?"

Neither of them answered right away. Too busy doing what I soon started doing myself: gawking in all directions.

There was so much to see and take in all around. So many offices, storehouses and factory-looking places that we'd not seen, all rising and looming over us from all sides.

Directly ahead, in the distance towards the ocean and before even more warehouses, sat a bunch of larger than large storage crates, stacked and organised in an open air yard.

A few workers could be seen there, milling and moving about in their red overalls and yellow jackets.

They helped those massive crates appear just that little less massive… and helped me feel even smaller in comparison.

I wondered if riding over to that yard might make for a cool next stop on our tour. If nothing else, it'd be a proper good way to do some Visoka-watching–

“The radars," Kai blurted, finally answering my question. “We should check out those big radar dishes we saw from the shuttle."

“Uh…?" I understood his suggestion, but with how deep I'd got into the idea of seeing that storage yard, I needed a second to climb back out again. “Yeah… Yeah, I wanna go try and find 'em again, too."

“Shouldn't be hard," he said. “They're a bit on the really fuckin' huge side."

“So's most everything else around here."

“Pfft. Fair."

“They should be off somewhere that way," I said, pointing out and away from that walkway, the docks, off along the coast. “They were past those big fuel tank things we saw."

“Hmm," Stoffel murmured, almost out of nowhere. “What do you think they're for?"

Kai snorted. “Fuel, probably. Being fuel tanks, tanks for fuel and all."

“Hah, funny," the squirrel sneered. “I meant the radar dishes."

I smiled, not wanting to be quite as sarcastic about it as Kai would've been. “More than likely the weather station."

“Why, though? Pretty sure we don't need dishes like that to tell the weather in Meerland."

“It's for more than telling weather," I said, holding in the start of a laugh. “The station, I mean. They do research here. Into the atmosphere, storm formation, stuff like that."

“How'd you know that?"

“Yeah, Webby," Kai added. “How did you know that?"

“Internet," I answered. “Y'know, it's for more than just games and…" Right at that moment, I remembered the crowd around us. A few of which seemed to have their ears perked our way. “...And other stuff."

Our conversation stalled. I couldn't help notice those ears swivelled our way remained so, even after we'd stopped talking.

Kai noticed as much, as well, regaining a shade of the concern he was showing back at the Peace Tree.

As for Stoffel… Well, he was having a lovely time looking at all those sprawling flower gardens we were rolling past.

I tried to keep as normal and relaxed as I could on this belt-boosted walk, forcing myself to only take the briefest of looks at the people around us.

When we'd first stumbled onto the walkway, I'd just assumed that everyone else was a regular visitor to the consulate. Like us.

But the more I peeked around, the more I saw smart clothes and well-kept appearances…

And the more I realised we'd surrounded ourselves with a bunch of the workers.

Workers that must've known we were out of place.

The rook and the fellow otter in some of those pale green uniforms we saw at the consulate, especially.

Damn it.

I tried not to be nervous. Those uniforms might've looked it at first glance, but I was almost certain they weren't military…

Almost.

They both had the Bolstrovan flag sewn onto their arm, along with that same formal seal we'd seen before.

A seal with a sea level view of the island at its centre, and both the Meerlander flag and Bolstrovan flag shown together above.

I saw the words circling the seal's border.

But the taller otter sent me jolting before I could properly read them.

“Did you three have business at the consulate?" he asked, a light accent to his otherwise perfect Polcian.

“Uh, yeah," I replied. Well, as much of a reply as I could scramble together. “Actually, no–"

“We're on a tour," Kai cut in to say.

As persuading as he sounded before going quiet, he didn't manage to leave that otter actually looking persuaded.

Lucky for us, I managed to toss out more of an apparent explanation. “We're on our way to meet up with them. It. Meet up with it."

At least, I felt lucky, until I heard that mess coming out of my mouth.

“Ahh… I see." The otter glanced at that equally unconvinced rook, then looked back at us sideways and then some. “I didn't realise the tour started outside the consulate."

“It doesn't," Kai blurted.

Great. Back on me it fell to try and smooth over our obvious lie. “...We started inside… But we fell behind… Uhm, I messaged a friend of ours. They said they're… not far from here."

“That makes sense," the otter said with a slow nod.

That worked? I couldn't believe that worked.

At least. It was enough to stop him asking questions–

“You be Meerlanders, yes?" he said, switching it up to Meerlander.

Yes. He spoke Meerlander.

Out of absolutely fucking nowhere.

It was heavily accented, awkward, but more than clear enough to send a shudder down my spine.

Who the hell speaks Meerlander outside of Meerland, I asked myself. Never mind outside of Polcia!

Thank the gods for Kai not being dumbstruck enough to be lost for words in our other native tongue. “Yes. We're from the mainland."

“Zoutestrand," I managed to add, hoping the fact we were from the town across the bay might help clear things up. 

The otter made a sound almost like approval. But his face, and the look he gave his coworker, said something very different.

Everyone went quiet. Only the sound of the whirring walkway and the distant docks could be heard.

Until Stoffel finally decided to join in the fun.

“These gardens are all real pretty," he said, in Polcian. “Real big, too."

“Seriously?" Kai grumbled. “The gardens?"

“You don't think?" The squirrel finally decided to face us. And finally, he realised we had company from that tall otter and rook… who he saw fit to offer a wave and a happy, “Hey."

Good gods…

We needed to move again. That much had rapidly become clear.

The ends of those gardens filled with shrub-sized flowers were fast approaching, stopping right before a crossroads between the consulate's front path and another.

This walkway would dip underground again to follow the former and cross beneath the latter.

But another section of walkway seemed to branch off and curve below ground like some sort of interchange. One that'd get us passing under the consulate path to join up with the other.

The perfect way to escape the probing from these Bolstrovans in uniform.

“Ah, it's this way," I announced. Loud enough to get the lads' attention, but not everyone else's on the walkway. “Our tour group took this path."

Kai needed a moment, but he was soon up to speed. “Uh– Yeah, yeah, sounds right."

A moment, of course, wasn't nearly enough for a baffled Stoffel. “...What tour–?"

“Anyway, we best go catch 'em," I said, as much for him as the rook and otter I then looked over at. “Have a good one."

I hopped off the walkway, landing on a section of metal fixed between it and the moving belt of the interchange.

Kai followed right on after.

Stoffel did, too. Though I've no clue if he actually knew why.

Without so much as a peek back at the main path, or at those two in uniform, we hurried onto the interchange to start curving and descending our way towards an underpass tunnel.

Under the Visoka-sized main path it'd take us, and the other tunnel carrying its walkway, too.

We could start to forget about that nosey otter and his feathered friend.

Something helped along by what raced into view beyond the see-through covering, high above ground level.

The biggest tan-furred, brown-striped cat came stomping along that crossways path.

Each step he took sent out thump after thud. All deep and heavy, even with my Normaliser working away.

He was easily the largest Visoka we'd seen so far.

And easily the one we'd got ourselves closest to.

It took more than a moment to fully process the way his steps rattled the walkway and its railings. After which is when I could finally notice… him.

The person that this Visoka was.

A tall, slim cat, standing out even more than he might've in paint-smeared overalls.

Pretty fitting really, considering the cart loaded with a bunch of painting stuff he was towing along the path, towards the gardens.

The sights, the sounds, the sensations: this whole experience left me stunned.

This handycat was just going about his day, his work, like the most normal of normals.

But I wondered if he realised just how incredible he looked to us as we headed down towards that underpass.

Man… All that grief with those two in uniform nearly had me forgetting all about the Visoka there, walking about on their giant paths, looming over us all.

And it was brilliant.

Something Stoffel totally agreed with, throwing up a hand to wave, then throwing out a casual, “Hey!"

I couldn't believe it. Neither could Kai, judging by his wide open mouth.

He'd called up to this cat like he was a friend on the street, as if completely unaware the guy was as massive as he was.

To be fair, knowing Stoffel, I wouldn't have put that past him.

As for that extra-tall tan cat, he and his cart stopped in their tracks, right above the tunnel we were moments from.

Anything but unaware of us.

Godsdamn. Was this gonna go down like that otter and his questions?

Something more? 

Not right away, at least.

Because, shockingly, that cat seemed shocked himself, face slapped with a confusion to rival even the sort Stoffel was famous for.

Did we look that out of place?

…Were us Maleni not supposed to talk to Visoka or something?

“Fuck sake, Stoffel," I grumbled.

“What?"

I planned on telling him exactly 'what' I meant.

Until that larger than life cat rumbled out a purr, put on a smile, and gave us a small-for-a-Visoka wave.

Kai squealed out a punchy, “Oh, shit!", but didn't hesitate from waving back at the tail-lashing cat gazing down.

Not to miss out, I hurried along to do exactly the same, loving the full-blown, uplifting warmth that rushed through me as we disappeared into the interchange…

“Holy…" I muttered as the open air became a softly-lit tunnel. “Lads, I think we just met a Visoka…"

That neat little tunnel went on for a decent distance, bringing with it a real welcome feeling of privacy as we rolled along.

Not to mention a brief, head-dipping sense of alarm from the thud of what must've been a Visoka walking directly overhead.

Even so, that hideaway of sorts gave me the space to mentally review an action-packed last twenty minutes or so.

Everyone we'd bumped into, that laid back cat aside, seemed to want to grill us or chase us down. And all those giant buildings, as cool as they were to see and size up, did leave you feeling… watched from all around.

In fairness, we had snuck away from Mr. Alkema and our class, so feelings of that sort weren't unwarranted.

But still, I hadn't expected to feel quite so wary about looking around the place…

A place with guards, with people dressed up kinda like military, all on an island with its own security checkpoint.

Thinking on it with clarity, after the fact… Man, I might've screwed up suggesting we bolt from the tour.

On the other hand, as much as we were having to keep our heads down outside the consulate, if we hadn't split off, then there's no way we'd have seen that proper cool, proper big cat.

And on the balance of things, to me, that made any potential aggro we were heading for more than worth it.

As for the others. Well, going by Kai's wide, closed-mouth grin, and Stoffel's… chilled indifference, I reckoned they saw things exactly the same way.

We began to rise a short time after, soon emerging above ground on the other side of the consulate's front path from where we'd started.

In the reverse of what came before, we stepped off the interchange and onto some static metal panels, right before hopping onto the sheltered, moving walkway of this new, empty path we'd decided to take.

Man, it felt like we were riding on a highway system, but one made specially for Maleni to walk along.

And I started to wonder, was that kinda setup the norm over in Bolstrovo?

Back out in the bright daylight, we got ourselves back to walking, moving even faster away from the consulate and its grounds.

A few more shiny, tidy buildings came. More places resembling offices, apartments, with gardens and other pretty spaces for workers big and small to move around.

There was so much more to this place than I'd ever expected. Way more than I'd have ever imagined on the little island off near the nature reserve.

Even if this island wasn't so little anymore after all the time and work they put into expanding it.

“How many people you reckon are around here?" I wondered out loud. “How many Bolstrovans? Visoka?"

“Pfft, y'got me," Kai replied, playing with one of his long ears. “Real question I reckon is how many will there be? The consulate's only just opened, and a lot of these places ain't looking like they're being used yet."

I took a moment to wonder from that angle instead. Kai had a point: a lot of the buildings we'd seen were too neat. Not the sorts of places filled with people day to day. “Makes sense, I guess. Still early days. Kinda."

“Yeah." He scoffed. “And in later days, I'm thinking there'll be plenty of bigger folk about especially to get the anti-Visoka sorts crying, if they ever find out about it."

“Pfft, just what we'll need. More dickheads wanting cannons set up on the beach or whatever other nonsense."

“And fat lotta good those'll do if the tunnels being built under the bay are real."

We ended up having a good laugh over a few of the freaky, paranoid ideas that the spacier natives of Zoutestrand liked to bounce around. The sorts that you just rolled your eyes at and otherwise ignored whenever you heard them out in the wild.

For me, for Kai, and for Stoffel, I'd go so far as to say the ideas we liked to talk and think about involved very different thoughts. Thoughts like 'how busy was this island gonna get?', and 'how open would it become for locals to come visit?'.

For myself especially, one idea I really loved to think about was 'would the Visoka ever be allowed to come to the mainland?'

As all our chatting about the island and those working on it began to die down, the world around us seemed to shift.

The walkway we were still strolling along had taken us to what I could only think of as a more 'serious' area. Serious in that we'd left behind the offices, the housing, the green spaces, and all that other nice stuff.

Instead, we'd reached a place way rougher around the edges, filled with all sorts of techy-looking places and complicated equipment. The sort that looked like it ran and controlled stuff around the island.

A place resembling a small power station came first… Small for a Visoka-sized place, anyway.

It stood out from everything else, what with its metal chimney, its pipes and tanks, and what looked like a 'little' office area at its edge.

Next in line were a bunch of plain brick buildings that… damn, they could've been anything.

Like the power station, these also had a load of piping, connected to the walls to pump water or whatever else might've needed to be pumped around.

If there were weird, secret plans and projects going on around the island, then these dirtier, shadowy buildings, locked away behind massive fences with big warning signs, would've been the perfect place for them to happen.

Gods… Was I really thinking that? As if.

I'd listened to the likes of Mad Mike one trip to the neighbourhood store too many.

I glanced around at Kai and Stoffel as we slowed our stroll on this ever-rolling walkway.

Neither of them seemed particularly comfortable with the shift in vibe around us, the rabbit in particular keeping his head on a swivel.

“Starting to think this ain't somewhere we should be poking about in," he said. “Ain't the kinda place peeps on a tour would be taken to, that's for damn sure."

“Can't say I wanted to bring us here," I replied. “More concerned about getting away from that otter and his fifty questions."

“We was handling him."

“I was more worried 'bout him handling us."

“You what?"

“Fucker might've been military or summin'."

“Ahh, don't talk bollocks, Webby. He weren't no-one. Just some guy from the weather station here."

“How d'you know?"

“'Cos I read the patch on his arm, mate." Kai smirked. Quite the change from a second or so before. “Bolstrovan-Meerlander Meteorological Administration. Man's a weatherman, ain't it."

“Well… shit, if you knew that, why were you freaking out so much?"

“I wasn't," he insisted. “I was just trying to keep the story straight."

I grumbled. “Mission failed in that case."

“Eh?"

“Mate, everything you said had me changing up what I was trying to spin."

Kai frowned, nose creasing. “We got away from 'im without issue, no?"
“Only 'cos I got us onto that interchange!"

“And onto this path taking us to some dodgy, top fuckin' secret thing!"

“You're welcome."

“How 'bout next time, you ask Stoffel to back you up chatting a bollocks story."

“Huh?" the squirrel muttered from behind us.

“Nothing." Kai waved him off. “Go back to daydreaming about… what it was you was daydreaming about."

“I wasn't daydreaming, Ears." Stoffel reached an arm between us both, pointing off into the distance. “I was looking at those."

I'd got so into debating Kai, and him with me, that I don't think either of us realised exactly where we'd ended up.

The fuel tanks we'd seen from back on the shuttle bus were in full view before us, dominating everything that stood around them. Even the path and the walkway we were on seemed to be sucked towards them, only escaping in time to curve and corner away, disappearing behind a 'small' shed-like building.

As proper massive and imposing as these three cylinder tanks were, they weren't so massive enough to hide everything from us.

Again, just like on the shuttle, the tops of a pair of gigantic radar dishes pushed above the rims of the fuel stores, slowly sinking towards hiding the closer we got to them.

With the pathway bending as it did, and the tanks taking up what resembled a whole damn district of their own on the island, it became clear that to get to those weather dishes, we'd need to take a detour.

One that'd require us to be extra careful, and extra sneaky, no doubt.

With that in mind, I moved to get a better view of the area up ahead, hoping to find another alternate path, just like back on the consulate's front path.

But as it turned out, Kai had us covered that time.

“There's a trail," he said, pointing off to where the path and walkway started to curve. “In all that grass."

The dirt track he'd found wasn't too tough to spot, even a decent distance away, and even with it half-hidden in a bunch of long grass.
Clearly, it was a trail well-walked by the Visoka on the island, but that wasn't all there was to it. At its edge, I could see a section definitely intended for smaller walkers to use. Uncovered, exposed, but very much in place on the other side of a steep, tall bank of dirt.

To use a trail like that, in the middle of a relative nowhere… the normal-size people on the island must've had a lot of trust and faith in the Visoka…

Still all alone in this depressingly dreary area we'd wandered into, we could take our time finding the position, and the confidence, to hop out from under the cover of the walkway.

The hard, unmoving dirt greeted us, and soon after, we were creeping our way along the mound-lined edge of a Visoka-trodden trail.

Beneath the shadow of those towering fuel tanks, the thick, long grass never got shorter than knee-height, keeping us pinched up to the point where we could only walk in single file.

Man, we really were a long way from the pretty picture book views around the consulate, that's for sure.

“Godsdamn," Kai mumbled over my shoulder. “Guessing ain't nobody give half a damn 'bout this place, eh? All this overgrown shit."

“Ain't like this is a place to keep tidy," I replied.

“What d'ya mean?"

“I mean between all these machines and techy stuff, I don't think it's a place most anybody cares how it looks."

“Still think it'd be class of 'em to get techy with a lawnmower or some shi–ack!"

“Mate, you good?"

Kai sucked air between his teeth. I glanced over my shoulder to find him holding one hand with the other before he said, “Damn near lost a finger to some fuckin' weed, man."

“Behave, did ya."

“Straight up!"

“Pfft." I turned to focus back ahead. We'd made it about halfway past the outermost fuel tank by that point. “It's just grass, Ears."

“It's just a fuckin' jungle, Webby." The rabbit groaned out loud. “Maybe us Meerlanders can teach the Bolstrovans about grass cutting while they're here."

Stoffel, bringing up the rear, rumbled out a thoughtful, “Hmm…"

Kai, his typically mellow and not at all mouthy self, responded, “If it's a chunk o' finger you're looking at back there, chances are it's mine, mate."

“No," he replied calmly. “Just thinking this grass probably is short.

“To who!?"

“To a Visoka."

Kai finally went quiet.

I glanced around again to see him staring forward, wide-eyed.

Behind him, Stoffel was, of course, busy chilling out in his own little piece of reality.

“Damn," Kai blurted, going on to say the exact same thing I was thinking. “Let's hope we don't go meeting one of 'em stomping along through it, eh?"

Lucky for us, we made it the rest of the way along that trail without meeting any grass-flattening Visoka, or picking up any more life-threatening injuries to fingers.

We reached where the path opened into a clearing of sorts. A wide stretch of patchy, bumpy land, sitting between the fuel tank fencing and a bunch of scientific-looking equipment assembled behind fencing of its own.

As curious as all those super-complicated devices and machines had me, they didn't have a hope of comparing with the most notable sight of all, rising high beyond them.

From that clearing, we had the clearest view yet of the enormous pair of radar dishes, tilted and pointing up at the sky, leaving so much around them in shadow.

Hell, these radars were so big, even the Visoka needed metal stairs, slopes, ladders, and all sorts to get to the tops of their bases.

In contrast, that made for Maleni-sized versions near them that spiralled up like ten, fifteen storeys high. If not higher.

Holy shit…

We all hesitated, stopped, not daring to go much further than the fencing of the tanks behind us.

That fence caught me as I stumbled backwards, even, my balance thrown off by a dizziness in my head and a weakness in my knees.

I needed a bit to pull myself back together again.

So much on that island stretched so high and so wide, overtaking and overwhelming everything that didn't dare to be Visoka, or to their scale.

It was impressive and exciting…

Intimidating and exhausting, too.

The patchy tufts of yellowing grass were a relief of sorts. Something to look down at. Something that felt… normal.

I'd started out almost vibrating with anticipation when we left school for our tour that morning. We'd be seeing Visoka. Real life Visoka, here, just off the coast, a couple of miles from home.

That feeling hadn't left. In fact, it'd only grown stronger and stronger. Even after we'd made it to the consulate and seen the first of them from that reception area.

I'd wanted to see it all. See them all.

Even if it meant sneaking off.

And winding up somewhere we really shouldn't have been.

Somewhere where even the paths and the grass weren't meant for us.

Somewhere… scary.

“Dirk?" Kai called out to me. “You good?"

I sucked in some air. It helped the fizzy, dizzy weirdness stop. “...Yeah."

“Ain't looking it."

My legs stayed under me as I pushed away from the thick wiring of the fence. I looked up from the ground, then over to Kai, standing beside a waiting Stoffel. My normal-sized friends.

“Mate?" the rabbit called again. “You sure you're good?"

“Yeah, I'm good," I said, believing it a little more. “Just got a bit… lightheaded. Everything's so damn big."

“Only just noticed that?"

I snorted hard. Kai's snark pulled me most of the way back to normal, but it couldn't help me shake the uncertainty. “Starting to think we shouldn't have come here, lads."

In a flash, the rabbit's whole vibe shifted, looking at me like I'd insulted his whole family.

It damn near knocked me back into that fence again, let me tell you. “What?"

“I'll tell you 'what'," he answered. “I ain't snuck away from the class, come all this way, just to turn around at the last second."

“Didn't say we should, but–"

“Don't gotta go gettin' scared."

“I ain't scared," I lied.

“No, straight up," Kai gestured over to the radars and all the high-tech equipment around them. “It's all good. They're just shit to measure weather. Weather… machines. Relax."

“I know what they're for…" I trailed off mid-flow, thoughts rapidly switching to how awkward it felt to be acting all afraid around my mates. “They're just… proper big ones."

“Well they ain't gonna hurt ya, are they?"

Kai didn't allow me more than a second to think about that.

Before I could so much as breathe, he started jogging off across the bumpy dirt of the clearing.

“And like I said," he called back over his shoulder. “I ain't come all this way to turn around now."

Ah, hell… “Where you goin!?"

“To get a better look!"

I then saw Stoffel shift, following after Kai without a word or even so much as a look of concern.

If only I could be that calm… and totally unthinking.

“C'mon, Webby," Kai shouted from halfway to the closest of those two proper massive radars. “There ain't a soul in sight."

“Yeah, for now!"

“It'll be class, mate." Even at a distance, the flash of his grin was easy to see. “Trust me."

Those radars… I couldn't get past how they seemed to cover the whole entire damn world.

But as much as their size and all the machinery around them freaked me out, there was no way in hell I was gonna stand around alone in the wide, Visoka-sized open. 

Plus… Well, I didn't want Kai and Stoffel to be the only ones seeing more of the radar, or the view from all that way up.

“Hey!" I called, breaking into a run after them across the bobbly clearing. “Wait up for me…"

That run of mine wasn't a long one, but still, I couldn't shake the thought that to a Visoka, it'd probably be classed as a shorter than short walk.

A walk so short, that Visoka might not have the chance to even notice us down below.

I pushed that idea as far away as I could, focusing instead on the cool things about them and their size compared to us. Like the fact that up ahead, at the base of the radar, a full flight of regular-sized stairs was needed just to keep up with the start of a rising Visoka-sized walkway.

Gods… even little things like that were humbling. How big would people in Meerland and in the rest of Polcia have to build stuff just to accommodate Visoka?

Could we even build that big?

Maybe…

But when even our metal fences looked like trip hazards compared to the Visoka-sized sections they were connected to, like the one we were heading towards, you couldn't help but have doubts.

Kai and Stoffel didn't seem to be having the same thoughts as I was. Not with how easily they were tempted past that fence, through a gate hardly even open ajar.

A gate with a bright yellow sign fixed to it, with a black-texted warning written out in Polcian, Meerlander, and what I assumed was Velikan, too.

A sign, and a warning, that I figure they didn't see…

'Authorised Personnel Only - Strictly No Public Access'

Reading that didn't help me feel any better.

I mean, it spelled out, plain as day, the fact we definitely weren't supposed to be there, Maleni or not.

But seeing the others bolting on ahead, like they were running to ride a new rollercoaster up at Lakeland Gardens or something, I knew I didn't have much choice but to follow.

Because no chance was I gonna stick around and wait outside on my own.

I held my breath and slipped through the gate, tensing up the second I crossed beyond the fence.

Still, I kept running, chasing Kai and Stoffel to the first flight of stairs that they'd already rushed to the top of.

My first step onto them took me past more metal, this time in the form of support frames surrounding the spiralling Maleni-sized stairs and walkways. The things that allowed workers our size to climb and walk further and further up the giant radar to my right.

As I rushed up step after clanking step, it was impossible to miss the Visoka-sized ones outside this protective framing. Steps so big, I had to climb eight or nine regular ones for every single Visoka version.

Man… If I worked there, no way would I be putting legwork like that in. Not when I could ask an extra-large coworker to chuck me a helping hand and carry me up their stairs and slopes.

“Aww, mate…"

My ears flicked and lifted to Kai's complaints somewhere out of sight.

“Dunno what we do now."

He was somewhere around a steel-walled corner at the end of the platform I'd just stepped up onto. Three or four Visoka steps, or a whole lot more Maleni ones high off the ground.

“What's up," I called, way too aware of how loud my steps clanked across the red metal grating of that unfriendly walkway. “What did ya do?"

“Ain't done nothing," Kai replied. “But we got a problem."

Suddenly, the noise I was creating didn't matter a damn. I rushed towards the end of that walkway platform, proper worried about what I might find.

Something broken? Something Stoffel was trying to climb?

Gods, it could've been anything.

But, with some form of relief, what I did find was the pair of them standing at the far end of another, upward sloping stretch of walkway, looking at something off to one side with clear frustration.

“What's the problem?" I called, taking my first step up that slope.

By the second step, I began to see the answer for myself.

At the end of that section of walkway, near where the lads were standing, I'd expected to see another corner and another upward slope, or the next flight of stairs.

Instead, there was… nothing.

Just a sudden stop...

And a set of elevator doors.

“Looking like this is the only way to get further up," Kai explained. “And I think it's needing some kinda security card to make it work."

A few steps further let me see what he and Stoffel were seeing for myself; a control panel with a few unmarked buttons, plus a slot that did indeed look ready to accept some flavour of security card.

Not a chance were we making it any further up those spiralling walkways, or the radar they rose up beside.

And I couldn't say I was disappointed…

“Probably best we stop here anyway," I said, stepping back from them and the elevator. “I really ain't looking to get into any trouble, going someplace we shouldn't."

“Ship's sailed on that one, mate," Kai fired back. “A few times over, actually."

“Alright," I snapped. “I don't want to get into even more trouble, then."

Silent, Stoffel stepped forward, between us, looking at the elevator's control panel with intent.

For a second, I thought he might have figured something out.

Then, he reached out…

And started pushing those unmarked buttons one by one.

“Huh," the squirrel mumbled. “…Didn't work."

“No shit," Kai grumbled. “Did ya really expect it to?"

“Worth a go."

“Pfft." He batted a hand through the air at him, then turned on me. “A'ight, Webby. What now?"

I wanted to say we should make our way back to the consulate building. To see about trying to sneak our way back onto our school trip tour.

After all, as much as I'd wanted to slip away from Mr. Alkema and have some proper fun seeing proper stuff worth seeing, I hadn't intended on getting into trouble over it.

Too bad trouble had intentions of its own…

A shadow rushed over us from behind, flooding across the walkway, darkening the elevator doors.

My ears flicked to a solid thud.

A trembling moved unmissable under my feet.

I started to freeze.

“Hey!"

And froze up completely at the roar of that voice…

“Who are you!?"

There was no missing the growl in that question.

Just like there was no missing the guy that'd asked it… once I'd forced myself to peek back over my shoulder.

We were knee height to them at most, even while we stood a storey high at least.

A guy wearing that pale green uniform, their legs larger than trees, rose out of sight past the next walkway up.

A Visoka. Right there. Speaking to us.

And pissed off beyond belief.

They crouched down fast.

Like a building sent tumbling.

The shock and speed of it all sent me flying back against the elevator doors.

And kept me pinned there as a blast of air then hit.

A dark green jacket stretched from that walkway up to the next, leaving us in even darker shade.

Nothing else around me mattered at that moment. Just that jacket.

And the name tag the size of a TV sewn into it reading 'Juro'.

“What in the world are you doing!?"

Their snapping left me shuddering.

I tried to grab something.

Found absolutely nothing.

The snarling, scrunching, brown-marked grey muzzle of a wolf hung high above.

“Well?" he boomed, locking on to us with huge green eyes. “Say something."

Good gods, this wolf had the same energy as Mr. Alkema.

Except he was like ten times bigger.

Ten million times more intense.

I'd been so desperate to get up close with a Visoka. Thought about it all summer long…

But no damn way did I imagine it ever going like this.

This massive wolf got lower, nearer, bringing the whole of his head into a view that, being real, had me close to tearing up.

His muzzle alone must've been as long as I was tall, and it refused to stop darting between me and an equally stunned, silent Kai and Stoffel, blowing hot air over us with every outward breath.

This meeting should have been something fun. Something cool.

Not something filled with enough terror to leave me unable to resist squealing, “Oh, gods!"

A growing part of me wished for the elevator doors to open up behind me, whether there was a car waiting inside or not.

Maybe I was wishing so hard that this Juro guy could hear it.

Or maybe he could just hear my backpack crumpling between me and the metal.

Whatever the case, I was sure I saw the angry crease of his muzzle start to smooth.

Right up until Stoffel, out of absolutely nowhere, cheerfully piped up to suggest, “It's cool."

“Cool?" Kai snapped. “You ain't notice the really big fuckin' wolf? Right here!?"

“Yeah," the squirrel replied, annoyingly casual. “Pretend we're… engineers. Or somethin'."

Juro, that really big fuckin' wolf, instantly changed.

He stopped looking angry and started looking baffled.

Frowning at Stoffel directly, calmly, he said, “You do know we're speaking the same language, right?"

“Gods damn, Tufty," Kai complained, far from calm. “Speak Meerlander like me!"

“Oh dang," Stoffel replied… still speaking Polcian. “I thought I was."

“You spanner…"

As for me, still planted against the elevator doors, I wasn't bothered about trying any language trickery. “Let's just go. Get outta here."

The wolf swept his giant muzzle my way, sending my heart skipping and then some. “I think it's a little too late for that…" My heart less skipped, more jumped as he leaned further forward, nose almost touching the walkway as he stated, “You'll need to wait for security."

That didn't sound ideal. “Just… Run!"

“Please," he called out with authority; something, as it turned out, Visoka had by the truckload. “Don't."

My twitching legs settled.

The urge to bolt faded.

I struggled to believe it, but something in his voice just said… safe.

Kai and Stoffel beside me seemed to share that feeling, joining me in peering up at this wall of wolf. One standing relaxed… if not still hanging onto some of the anger he'd met us with.

We waited in his shadow, wondering what he'd say next.

As it turned out, we should've been wondering and waiting for what he'd do next.

A huge brown-dusted grey hand rose from below the walkway, forcing me into a jolt that banged the doors behind me.

Slowly, purposefully, it passed over the guardrail…

Moved towards the corner we'd walked around to discover the elevator.

Fingers pressed down to the metalwork.

The palm followed.

Underfoot, the walkway reacted with a soft shake.

While our route back down to the ground was left totally blocked.

That Juro smiled. At least, I saw the corner of his mouth lift before he spoke again. “I think you know as well as I do that you won't outrun me. And I'd prefer it if you didn't try."

Holy hell…

How were we supposed to react to that?

This wolf… I still felt safe near him, and he still remained calm…

But the way he spoke… the words and the assertiveness of them…

Humbling: the only word to describe it.

“Who are you? Really?" he asked, politely forceful. “And just what are you doing here?"

Stoffel cleared his throat, gathering what looked like confidence.

He stepped closer to the guardrail. The only one of us to do so.

The large wolf above and beyond that rail watched him the whole way, waiting like us for what'd come next…

Then Stoffel went and fucked it all up by saying something. “We're engineers. And we're here to fix… this radar… thing."

This Juro did nothing but glare at him with a face that screamed, 'Are you serious?'

He pushed his massive muzzle closer still, leaving it looming over us, totally dominating our world as he gently demanded, “Tell me the truth."

Both he and that question hovered, unavoidable no matter what we did or where we looked.

Is this what it was like to be a normal-sized Bolstrovan living in Bolstrovo? Permanently left feeling… so completely outmatched?

As massive and as overwhelming as he was, somehow, that wolf still didn't seem a danger.

Being real, if he'd wanted to, he could've grabbed us up or done whatever else he wanted with us, and there wouldn't have been a damn thing we could've done about it.

But he hadn't. We were still standing.

Still safe.

So, with that thinnest of reassuring threads to cling to, I dared myself to take one step forward and speak up to him.

Once I got over his big, glaring green eyes, anyway.

“We're from a tour group," I said, my focus fast falling to the grating under my feet. “With our school."

“Don't," Kai snapped through gritted teeth. “Don't tell him, man…"

I shook my head, still staring at the metalwork.

Was he serious? What other choice did we have but to tell this guy?

So I did exactly that. “We… split up from it. Went on our own way… So we could see more than just that museum place you got over there in the consulate."

Juro snorted. Hard. “I knew it."

His blast of air hit as I bobbed back towards the elevator.

But the toothless grin he gave us helped stop me freaking out too bad. 

A snort? He knew?

Man, I didn't know what to think.

My head was proper twisting up and no mistake.

So thank the gods for him deciding to explain.

“I heard about you on the radio not five minutes ago. The consulate staff, security, everyone's on the lookout for you."

I glared at Kai who did the same back at me.

Stoffel however was too busy watching the real big wolf watching us.

“How'd they know?" Kai asked and I considered. “They didn't see us. No-one did."

Juro huffed, kicking up one hell of a breeze. “You were in a secure area. Controlled… Plus, I'm sure your teacher can count."

I started thinking about Mr. Alkema, and imagined how he must've reacted after finding us three missing.

He'd gone and hit the highest roof back there in the consulate, no damn question.

“Godsdamn," Kai rumbled under his breath. “We're gonna be in real trouble when we get back there."

“Actually," Juro cut in to say, moving to take over even more of the walkway with his grey and brown muzzle. “You should be more worried about the trouble you're in with me…"

That sent us all perfectly silent.

Even Stoffel…

Who was clearly resisting an urge to pet the wolf.

I had to fight urges of my own to not freeze up in the spotlight of two great big green eyes.

Something their owner actually helped out with by explaining some more.

“At least, the trouble you would be in if you'd made it any further up this here walkway." He bit back a growl. One still large enough to get my legs trembling. “Stars above, do you not know what 'No Public Access' means? The signs down there are in three languages and clearly you understand at least two of them…"

Upside down, back to front, my head, and my thoughts along with it, had scattered all over the place.

What the hell was I to say to that? To this tower-sized wolf all up in our face with just his face alone.

Plus, I was still shook by the fact the guy seemed and sounded annoyed, but at the same time… wasn't really?

I'd have run away inside myself and looked anywhere but at him if I could've, filling up the whole damn everything as he was.

But at least I could count on Stoffel's goofy ass catching me a break from the wolf's staring…

…Giving in to that urge to pet his massive muzzle as he did.

Those big green eyes darted to look right at our mate…

But otherwise, Juro didn't react.

Watching this all play out, Kai's mouth dropped and stayed right open.

As for me, well, I swallowed down a lump and croaked, “'kin hell…"

The wolf, though… he just kinda… took it.

One rub.

Two rubs.

Then a third.

All firm. Direct. Ruffling up big clumps of grey and brown fur around whiskers as thick as wires.

Stoffel grinned.

I sure as hell didn't.

This Juro guy wasn't having it for long.

But at least when he did ease and shift his snout an arm's length away at most, it came without any shouting, roaring, or any other suitably sizeable drama.

Instead, the massive wolf acted like that rubbing hadn't happened at all.

Time for sure to move things on. But with a question I was way less sure I wanted the answer to…

“What now?" I eased my shoulders away from the elevator. Everything else below that stayed pressed hard against it. “You gonna… take us somewhere?"

Juro snapped and hauled his head back from the walkway, throwing up the hand that wasn't blocking our exit route. “No."

His shock shocked me. “...No?"

“That's not my job, and I'm not trained to handle locals." He pointed at me, then Kai, then Stoffel. “What I am going to do is radio in to say I've found you."

For the first time in way too long, I started to breathe easier. Okay, we were probably in some shit with our teacher, I figured, but he'd get over it.

Then this guy went and carried on talking…

“You'll wait here with me. Then when security arrives, you'll go with them back to the consulate… and potentially for an interview."

“You what?" Kai sputtered, shifting on his feet as if I thought about running for a second. “Like… a police sorta interview?"

Juro nodded.

My heart sank to the ground I wished I was standing on. At least there we'd have a chance at getting away.

The wolf's smirk suggested he was loving this. Loving how we were starting to squirm. Stoffel included.

But it got less pointy soon enough. Then twisted up into a look of thought.

He closed his eyes, shook his head, then grumbled.

A sigh followed. Along with him reopening his eyes with way less of a glare. “There's another option."

“There is?" I replied.

“What is it?" Kai asked before I had the chance to.

“You let me escort you out of here," Juro said. “Away from the radars, away from this restricted area that you absolutely shouldn't be in, and to somewhere less problematic for security to find you."

Me and Kai looked at each other with wide eyes.

I figured this had to be a trick.

But then… How much more trouble could we realistically get ourselves into?

I didn't waste any more time before answering, “You'd do that?"

The wolf grumbled again. “Against my better judgement, yes."

“Why?"

“Because I have a million things to do before lunchtime alone, and I don't need to be babysitting some dumb kids from the mainland who clearly don't mean any harm." He started to smirk again. Softer that time. “And in fairness, from what I know of it, that new consulate museum does sound awfully dry."

The three of us put together what amounted to a chuckle.

This wolf, this real big wolf, face filling the whole space between the walkway and the one above… didn't have it in for us after all.

Or at least, he was too busy to deal with us as he might've.

Whatever the case, at last, I could peel myself away from those elevator doors completely. For good. Even if this Juro guy still had a talent for making me feel smaller than small.

“So answer me this," he said with purpose. “If I move my hand away from the walkway, do you promise not to try and make a run for it?"

Stoffel nodded at him even more purposefully while I made some noises like confirmation myself.

Kai managed to go one better, and actually spoke up. “I just wanna avoid getting into as much shit as possible right now, so I'm promising. Hundred percent."

“Good." The wolf lifted his huge hand off the metalwork. “Maybe you three have some sense, after all."

We all stood there watching, waiting. Even after he'd cleared a path for us to take back down to the ground again.

I couldn't speak for the others, but personally, no matter how calm and forgiving the guy seemed and sounded, there wasn't a chance I was moving until I got the okay.

“Off you go then," Juro said, gesturing towards the downward part of the walkway with the hand he'd taken from it. “Make your way down and go back through the gate you went through."

I started to move. As did Kai.

Stoffel went to follow us, too. Until he decided to stop again.

“Problem?" the wolf asked, glaring once again.

“Uh…" Stoffel hung his head to gawk at his feet, rubbing one hand with the other. “Can I… Any chance you can maybe… carry me down?"

“What the fuck?" Kai barked out loud. “You actually being serious–?"

“It'd be cool," he explained. Sort of. “Getting carried by a Visoka."

I have to admit, deep down, I agreed. But good gods, this wasn't the time, place, or Visoka!

Juro huffed hard, slamming the walkway with growled, shaking air. “Did I not say that I'm not trained?"

“Tsk." Kai batted a hand towards Stoffel. “You'll need to tell 'im ten times at least before he understands."

“Fuck off, Ears."

“Oooh, fuck off, Ears…"

Juro's muzzle approached the walkway, cutting the pair of them off before they could proper get into it with each other. His big eyes remained fixed on the squirrel, but not quite so fierce. “More to the point. You've not been trained in how to be handled, either."

“Trained?" Stoffel questioned. For once, I shared his confusion.

“Besides. It'll look better if you walk your way back. As if you got yourselves lost and I found you."

His head dropped and his shoulders sagged. Still, he saw some sense at last. “...That's fair."

Juro reached for the radio strapped to his jacket; one even bigger than I was with its aerial accounted for. “Just promise me I'll not see you three here again. Okay?"

Kai snorted. “Another promise?"

The big wolf found his fierceness again, channelling it all into one hell of a glare.

One that sent Kai into a jolting flinch back and a throwing up of his hands. “A'ight, a'ight, promise, damn…"

With everyone in agreement, Juro did as he promised, calling in that he'd found us not at the radars, but wandering the walkways close to the fuel tanks. 

The voice on the other end of the radio told him to wait with us until a patrol arrived, to which the wolf rolled his eyes, shook his head, and agreed with only a hint of annoyance.

Right after that, me and the lads followed Juro's instructions and made our way back down to the ground, then through the security gate we'd slipped past.

And I gotta say, from down on ground level, oh my days, did that wolf look even more huge, even more intimidating.

But he was good about everything, really. As much as someone who'd found us trespassing could be, anyway.

He asked us to keep walking, back along that makeshift dirt path we'd taken past those enormous fuel tanks. All the while, Juro shuffled slowly along beside us, taking the main path on the other side of that protective banking.

As agreeable as he was, helping us to avoid getting in the most serious of trouble, it was impossible not to be at least a little anxious each time his step sent the ground shuddering.

We were barely taller than his ankles, after all, and… Damn, I realised, again, the guy had the size and power to do whatever he wished, and we'd have been able to do nothing to stop him.

“Just keep on walking," Juro rumbled from way up high. Only then did I realise how I'd almost thrown myself into the overgrowth beside the path. “Honestly, you don't have to worry about me… Save that for when you're back at the consulate."

We made it back to the moving walkways a short while after. Just in time in fact to see the trio of security guards coming to collect us.

Maleni-sized guards, much to my relief.

But that's as far as any sense of relief stretched.

See, those guards looked pissed and then some, marching along the walkway at extra-quick speed thanks to the rolling belt rolling below them.

Without a word, without even as much as an acknowledgement, the three guards stepped off the walkway and literally grabbed each of us.

The guard I had the pleasure of being manhandled by was a collie.

The same collie I thought I saw pointing our way back at the Peace Tree.

Gods… had these guys been searching for us the whole time?

They whisked us off in such a rush I damn near got whiplash, bundling us onto the walkway heading back towards the massive dock and the consulate close by to it.

In fact, they dragged us away so fast, and so rough, that I didn't even get a chance to look back at the wolf who'd escorted us from the radar.

I kinda wanted to thank him, really. I mean, if all that grabbing and shoving we were on the sharp end of came with being in less trouble, then holy hell, I was glad to have missed out on the full-fat version.

After about a half-minute of clamped hands on shoulders along the walkway, we saw the security car they had sat waiting for us.

I say car, but really, it was more like a fancy golf cart with doors on it.

It looked stupid. A fact I kept firmly to myself.

They practically threw the three of us into a backseat I doubt would've fit two people comfortably.

That in turn meant the three of them also had a squeeze getting into the seat up front.

Probably why they were all so godsdamn pissed, that.

Whatever the case, they drove us back to the consulate in absolute silence. A silence we didn't dare break, even with as little as a deeper than normal breath.

Of course, that meant questions about how much trouble we'd got ourselves into, and whether we'd be tossed into that interview Juro had suggested might happen, all went unasked and unanswered.

Gods, that short drive had me even more nervous than the steps of a Visoka-sized wolf thumping down next to me…

As it turned out, we'd find ourselves having a real lucky escape from the joys of a security interrogation.

Instead, those guards would order us out of their security cart to treat us to our second escort of the day. One with far less stomping of the ground, but somehow, even more intimidation.

With a hand pressed hard right between my shoulder blades, I was less walked, more shoved through the security area at the consulate's side entrance.

The same entrance we'd taken with the rest of the class that morning.

Kai and Stoffel got similar treatment from the guards handling them, and as much as they looked weapons-grade fucked off by it, Kai in particular, they kept themselves as quiet as I did.

Our quick, sudden march through the big open doors drew looks aplenty from all the other security staff, consulate workers, and the visitors that were milling about there. Looks that turned even more interested, and nosey, once they realised we'd 'done wrong'.

I kept inside my own head, doing my damnedest to ignore everyone and remind myself that this shit was temporary, and eventually, we'd all be able to leave and head back to school, then off back home.

That collie and his bony hand digging into my spine wouldn't let me get away with that, though. No, see he took more than just a little pleasure in announcing, loudly, in the middle of the swanky reception area, exactly what was going to happen to us.

The fluffy prick.

He told us, the fifty people in earshot, and even a couple of bonus Visoka striding past, that we'd be getting off with a warning. We should count ourselves mighty fortunate, he stressed, considering the incredible seriousness of sneaking off as we'd done and winding up where we had.

I could live with that, I thought.

Until he jabbed a finger at each of us in turn, stating that if we were ever found doing something like that again, then we'd be charged with trespass and banned from the island. Oh, and we'd also have our names given to the local police.

…Something that freaked me out and then some.

…But not nearly as much as noticing Mr. Alkema waiting for us with the rest of the class.

I went cold.

So damn cold.

From the look on the old ram's face, I'd say he was about ready to start tearing into us at the hint of the drop of a hat.

All of a sudden, the idea of sticking around with that collie and the rest of consulate security didn't seem so bad…

“It had to be you three," Mr. Alkema rumbled, snout twitching. “I don't even have the words for what I want to say to you right now."

Good, I was certain Kai would say.

Thank every single one of the gods, he stayed silent, looking even more uneasy than I felt.

As for Stoffel…

Man, I'd had enough of trying to work that squirrel out for one day.

“We'll be talking about this when we're back at school," Mr. Alkema confirmed. Tense. Like he could've let loose and took out half the world in the process. “But my word, if I have my way, you can expect detention right the way through until you graduate…"

After all that drama, all those cross crossed words, things finally went quiet.

Security left us alone to deal with the coming fallout that was our teacher plotting to ruin our whole year.

The consulate staff and the visitors drifted away, too. As did those two Visoka whose attention we'd won.

So there we were: me, Kai, Stoffel, Mr. Alkema, and the classmates we'd slipped away from.

It was a stand-off, kinda. No-one seemed to know what to do or what to say.

Well, except for Mr. Alkema, of course. Gods knew he could've proper exploded at us until the end of time if he wanted.

In the end, it'd take somebody else completely speaking up to stop the pause.

Yet another wolf, in fact.

The receptionist who'd checked us all in that morning.

“Rather than sneaking off," she said from her desk, only half-sounding like a lecture was about to follow. “If you really want to see more of the island, the weather station and the rest of the facility, then you might consider booking a place on that tour instead sometime."

“Wait…" I tried not to gawk too long at her, as surprised and puzzled as I definitely was. Had I heard that right? “What?"

“There's a tour?" Kai sounded just as disbelieving. “You mean like… outside?"

Stoffel had himself a slack-jawed look of shock, too. “So we didn't have to sneak off at all–?"

“Move!" Mr. Alkema cut our questioning short with a shout so booming it damn near shook me outta my shoes. “With how much hot water you're in, tours should be the last thing on your mind."

The three of us glanced at each other as we were taken on another march, towards the exit, that time.

Kai couldn't stop smirking, even with our teacher close enough that he might well have taken the rabbit's head off if he'd seen it.

Stoffel managed a flash of a smile, too, even as his big tail twitched.

As for me, I kept my positive vibes hidden inside as we walked back out into the open air.

Hot water with the school or not… whatever. The tour we'd all taken, even as cut short and possibly unnecessary as it was, I still considered worth it.

We had a proper good story to tell the rest of our mates the next time we were down at the shorefront. A story about the island we'd seen so much of. And all the Visoka we'd seen up close.

…Some more up close than others.

And given the choice of running this day over again, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that I'd have run it the exact same way.

Plus, if we hadn't snuck off, got ourselves caught, and heard from that receptionist wolf, we might've never heard about that other tour that I'd definitely be going on sometime.

…Well, maybe after we'd escaped some record-breaking amounts of detention with Mr. Alkema.