Run || Beastars

Prologue

The road was awfully uneven, filled with potholes and lumps made of dirt. The car bounced and wobbled as it went along. It was weird that the road wasn't taken care of, what was the reason for that?

A high tech camera was turned on and was focused on the massive wildebeest next to it. He had a gorgeous smile as he faced the camera.

"Welcome, friends! Today I'm with my lovely partner behind the camera," the camera panned over to a beautiful Philippines eagle behind it and she smiled and waved to the camera before turning it back to the wildebeest, "We're currently on our way to the uncharted depths of the wilderness--" he said so dramatically that the woman behind the camera rolled her eyes at this but the wildebeest ignored her, "we are being escorted there at this very moment."

The driver upfront shifted their sunglasses as they noticed that the two explorers were filming. They adjusted Their rear-view mirror before speaking up, "I'm going to have to ask you to turn of that camera. Filming is strictly prohibited en route,"

The eagle glances at the driver and back at her partner who gave both her and the camera an apologetic look before turning his attention to the driver, "Sorry about that, I wasn't informed about that," he motioned her to turn of the camera with his hand which she obliged and started putting it away. The driver didn't respond and went back to focusing on driving.

Soon they pulled up to a wired fence that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was very tall and it had signs aligning the walls with a voltage symbol on them. An electric fence. Huh. There was a small building at the side of the road with a post-guard in it.  The driver rolled down the wildebeest's window so he could hand the guard his and his partners' papers. The guard sifted through the papers and when everything checked out, he gave it back to them and they were on their way.

The two explorers became more and more excited as they got closer to their destination despite their exhaustion. It had already been a week since they left home. They had to take a couple hour drive to a police station where they could get a ride in a helicopter only to have a couple hour flight to a wildlife center. When they had arrived there, they were informed that they would be escorted via jeep the rest of the way. 

It was a couple days journey by car.

To say that they had been pissed was an understatement. They were not informed of this at all. The two explorers had the indication that they would be going by helicopter the whole entire way which would have been a much shorter trip.

But they decided to take it like champs and not mention it. They had gone through so much trouble with contracts and paperwork that they refused to back down now. We're talking about months of preparations to get the go-to to be able to explore and film. Not to mention how hyped that their fans were for them to go on this trip. Their fans have been so supportive and helpful it was absolutely unbelievable. The two truly believed that they were blessed to have such amazing fans in their fan-base, unlike some. 

The road that they were on continued to get more isolated and dense with lush vegetation as they went on. Eventually they approached a little log cabin and the car stopped in park right in front of it. Everyone was quiet for a moment as the driver took a moment to lean back in their chair and pull their stuff together. As they did so, the two explorers looked out the window and at the scenery before them. It was basically untouched. The old small cabin looked like it had been taken over by vines and other plants on the outside. Butterflies and other bugs swarmed the place. 

It was absolutely stunning to them. 

The driver had then turned to face the two explorers in the back seat, "This is as far as I'm allowed to take you," which probably meant that's how far he was allowed to go, "the cabin is where your headquarters will be. You will have reserves sent to you if you need it," 

"Do you even know us?" The wildebeest asked, "We won't be needing any reserves," He said optimistically. The two started to get their gear together and got out of the vehicle. 

"I wish you good luck," The driver says, "The rest of your stuff is in the trunk." 

"Thanks," the wildebeest replies and he and his partner walked over to the back and she walked behind the car and opened the trunk to get out a few duffel bags out from it. She closed the trunk tight and gave the driver a thumbs up. He made a quick u-turn before leaving the two explorers alone. They both took big breaths of fresh air. 

"Well, let's get to it then!" Says the wildebeest as he starts walking up to the cabin, the eagle not to far behind. The first thing he noticed was that there was a key inside the key hole with a little lanyard attached. He grabbed the key and turned it to unlock the cabin. He proudly took the first steps into their new home for the time being, "Welcome to our temporary home!" 

The eagle sneezed a bit, "It's kind of dusty..."

"Nothing a little spring cleaning can't fix!" He said as he went ahead and set his luggage on the kitchen table. The eagle followed his lead, "First things first! Let's start filming our logs!" He proceeded to take the high tech camera from earlier from it's protective case and turned it on. The eagle sat down at one of the two chairs at the table and the wildebeest did so as well. He set the camera in selfie mode and started recording...

-Recording 🔴- 

The wildebeest starts by pushing up his tiny round glasses up his nose. 

"Hello everyone! We have finally arrived at our destination and we are so relieved!" 

The camera panned over the the eagle.

"We made it guys! And we couldn't have done it without all of your love and support to get us through this awful, awful process," she says while laughing albeit exhausted. 

The camera went back to focus on the wildebeest. 

"If you're wondering 'why in the world is the process so difficult?' well there's a logical explanation for this." 

As he talks the recording shook a little bit as he fixed the camera onto it's stand on the table.

"You see, the area we are about to explore is very uncharted and allegedly dangerous. Before the government put heavy restrictions on this place many people would want to explore this amazing place but often times they were not experienced or in the best physical shape," He zoomed out so that the audience could now see the both of them. 

The eagle started to talk.

"Many people have gotten extremely hurt, lost their lives or just full on disappeared. The authorities took note of this and decided that something had to do something about this. Once they got enough support--"

"Which wasn't that hard looking at the facts--"

"Now only the most experienced and licensed people can dare explore these depths." 

"There is a popular theory that savage birds rule this land and honestly that could be true. Earlier when we were walking up to this cabin we did here bird calls! Bird calls!  We won't show you right this moment but perhaps there will be a chance when we venture out into the wilderness."

He pushes up his small glasses once more. 

"I think our plan of attack for now is to just get settled in, cook a good dinner and get plenty of sleep. We'll be up and at 'em bright and early! Goodbye everyone!" 

The wildebeest reaches towards the camera to stop the recording and shut off the camera. The camera screens fades to black. 

....

-Recording ended-

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Photograph taken by Yvonne Roberts

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