Blooming Sage

Chapter One: The Town
The town of Moss was perhaps one of the most mysterious, yet most popular villages in the whole of known Jamaa. There were three types of things that attracted hundreds upon thousands of tourists to it every year on the fifteenth of November. Those three specific things were its history, (Of which you will learn about later) its oddly spectacular spices and chocolates. The chocolates in the town of Moss are so delectable that when consumed, can easily get one addicted. Also, the village is known for the thick layers of moss that seem to surround nearly all of the village's meadows, which explains the name "Moss".

The town of Moss borders the south-eastern region of The Lost Temple of Zios, lying on the coast of Crystal Reef. The town could ironically be compared to a forest more than a town lying on a beach's coast.

But, that is not its entire history.

The main reason animals, ranging from the largest elephant to the smallest rabbit, are attracted to the town is not only because of its amazing food, but because something mysterious happens every fifteenth of November. Nearly no animal has been able to describe their experiences, but some of the few wolves or cheetahs or foxes who have however, have claimed that it is a celebration of the Alphas for unknown reasons. This is false.

The cornstalks from the nearby farms that are harvested in the fall are rich and delicious when made into proper meals, despite the fact that moss grows everywhere across the plains of the town. The crops and houses appear to avoid the thought-to-be unavoidable weeds and moss. You could perhaps describe it as either magical or work done by Cosmo, the koala Alpha. You would be partially right if you chose to say it was magic. You see, the town's plants had been covered in moss for at least three decades. The day that event occurred was the sunrise of the fifteenth of November. The animals woke up that fateful day shocked to see that their grass had been replaced by moss, ivy and other plant pests that tend to usually appear on houses, but they were nearly everywhere except for the buildings. The town's gardeners were the animals that suffered the most panics for a few hours, only to come back to their gardens the next day realizing that their plants had not been consumed by the floral pests.

It was quite a mysterious day indeed, somehow crops and houses had survived the moss' attack, but only one child was born on that specific day. It was very peculiar since the town was very populous at the time, which held about four hundred thousand Jammers.

The child was a small male red panda who was called "Sage".

Sage was a light brown, with darker brown ear tips, muzzle, and white eye spots and a white chest. Two dark magenta stripes (one of the stripes being slightly more brown than the other) covered the lower corners of his face. He had a phenomenal difference among the natives of Jamaa.

The difference was that his eye color was a gradient between magenta and violet. The animals saw this and gasped at the sight of Sage whenever he went outside, fearing that he was some kind of other being disguised as a red panda, especially since he was the only child born on that day. The day the town appeared to be non-reparable. Even Sage's own mother, Spinel, seemed to ignore him and give him strange glances. Spinel, however, was not abusive to him. She made sure Sage got three meals per day and she made sure he kept clean.

Spinel's most important promise from her to her son is what no Jammer would have ever believed.

"As unusual as my son may be sometimes, I would never do anything to harm him."

The promise was passed on throughout the village, gossiped about, and eventually spread to other lands such as Jamaa Township. In no time at all, several journalists published articles about Spinel. The majority of these publications were written just hours after the speech. The majority of the articles also stated that she was lying, and journalists were attempting to find every single little sign of a suspicious detail to prove it. A quote from one of these journals stated that "This young red panda really does have features that only his mother could love. But does his mother really love him at all?".

Sage was still feared and ridiculed by his own town.

(WIP!)