*Hey guys, it's been a while since I released a new part of the new chapter. I'm sorry for taking so long on the update. It's up now. This is published on August 12, 2020. If you like this part, please don't be afraid to vote and/or comment down on the comment section. I would love to hear what you guys think. Enjoy!*

Thneedville became divided. Half of the people went with Ted, Audrey, Ms. Wiggins, and Nora to plant a new seed to regrow the Truffala Tree Forest, even though they knew deep down that it will take years before the forest could come back fully. However, the other half went back to the city of Thneedville to rebuild their homes that were destroyed in the process of the dome's collapse and put back what they once had from the 'help' of the Gatherers of the Whispers.

At Oncelor's three-story store, The Oncelor himself broke through the boards covering his bedroom window with an ax and let the sunshine pierced through the smog dark clouds. The sun had finally risen and a new day was just the beginning. A faint smile grew on the old man's face underneath the white bushy mustache that went around his head. The meaning of the seed planted in the forest would rebirth what he once destroyed. The thought of that just made his smile wider. He heard tiny footsteps entering his bedroom.

"So...you're going to stay here?" A voice peered behind him. Oncelor turned around to notice the short orange-furred guardian with a bushy yellow mustache and a concerned gaze.

Oncelor nodded his head while turning his head to look out the window. "Yes. I believe that I'm needed here."

The Lorax approached beside his tall friend and hopped up to the window sill just to sit next to him. He looked out into the destroyed forest with the bright sun revealing the brokenness of the destroyed trees. Lorax shifted his gaze up at the Oncelor. "You know, it's going to take years till the forest can regrow."

"I know...but that doesn't mean that I won't be patient." Oncelor frowned while looking down at his short friend. "You know, I promised you once that I won't cut down anymore trees...and I broke that promise. I-I want to say that I'm-I'm sorry. I don't know if you'll forgive me."

The Lorax twisted the corner of his mouth downward while gazing at the view, recollecting every memory they had together.

The Lorax could remember every moment from the good times of when he first met the Oncelor to the horrible memory of when his friend turned his heart from gold to green with envy. What he did in that forest, cutting down the trees and striping the tufts off of them, just seemed heartless. But the Lorax knew why he did it.

The Oncelor didn't come from a rich family but a family full of money hungry people. His brothers were dumber than bricks yet they did a better job of proving their worth than he did.

His aunt luckily married a rich millionaire and she couldn't be happier...well, it's mostly because of the unlimited riches, which only added by her husband treating her like a queen. His cousins, who he didn't bother getting close to, were always relying heavily on the money their father makes.

His mother, however, wasn't as greedy as the rest of his family. In fact, she was the only person who Oncelor was close to along with his father until his father passed away. His father used to be in the gardening business, wearing those green gloves to plant new seeds and dig out the pestering weeds. His father was the one who gave the Oncelor those long green gloves. He's the one who Oncelor was inspired to be. When he passed away, it's almost like his mother lost all of her control. Her money desire grew as a sweet woman the Oncelor once knew faded away into a wretched drunkened parent who sleeps on the couch at 3AM, slurring words that used to scare the Oncelor as an eight year old. She yelled at him for every moment he would tell his mother his events, telling him that he would never be anything more than a mere disappointment. He was compared often with his brothers and, if anyone had to ask, he's nothing like his brothers.

Once the Oncelor was in his early twenties, he knew he had to move out and that's when the Lorax met him. In the Truffala Tree forest, he used his axe chopped down the first tree and stripped its tuft to make something called a 'Thneed', unknowingly summoning the guardian of the forest known as the Lorax.

Of course, their relationship seemed a struggle at first until Oncelor promised to not cut down anymore trees and befriended the Lorax and the animals. But...when his Thneed became a huge hit, that's where the young boy's heart became green and his bloodline of money-hungry people was activated. Those green gloves that his father once wore and passed it down to him symbolized as a planting a new seed became a representation of wealth and riches. That's when he single-handedly destroy the Truffala Tree Forest and all of its beauty, unknowingly driving out the animals and the Lorax within.

Lorax softened his gaze at his tall old friend and put his hand on his friend's arm. "Look, beanpole, I know that you had a terrible life and a family who you were trying to impress. I guess that didn't matter to you anymore."

"No, it doesn't anymore. As far as I know...my family died years after the forest was gone."

"Oh...I see." There's a brief pause as The Lorax sighed heavily. "I, um...got to go."

The Oncelor turned to his short guardian friend with his tears gushing out of his eyes a bit. "Will you come back?"

The Lorax cornered a soft smile at him. "You bet I will."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Oncelor smiled softly and pulled the Lorax into his embrace. "You know, it's been a while since you called me that."

"What?"

"Beanpole."

The Lorax chuckled. "Oh...yeah. Look, I forgive you for what happened back then. You're not the same person as you are before. Please don't live in isolation like that again."

"It's going to be hard to get used to having people around me."

Both of the Lorax and the Oncelor pulled away from each, exchanging gentle smiles in understanding. They heard running feet entering the Oncelor's room, shifting their gaze at someone entering the room. It was the Grinch, bending over with his hands on his knees and panting from running up the stairs.

"Whew! That's a lot of stairs," Grinch pointed behind him with a heavy exhale.

"What's up?" Lorax inquired with an arched brow.

Grinch stood up straight with a tired smile. "Uh, do you happen to know where the Jungle of Nool is?"

The Lorax's face changed from a soft gaze to a determined one.

~.~

Gabriella had the book of the Gatherers of the Whispers opened with both Guy and Sam looking over her shoulders while Cat paced back and forth behind her with Karlos, Max, Dave, and Jeffrey watching. She held out a strange passage that was given to Guy by the priest in Thneedville, analyzing the meaning behind it.

"Do you know what it means?" Guy asked Gabriella, hoping that she could figure it out.

She murmured words underneath her breath, reading the passage. Then, she shifted her gaze back at Knox. "The priest told you that the answer is in Nool and he gave this passage in the process. The Jungle of Nool is a huge place...so, there must be a specific place where we could look for the answer. See? 'Darkness swallows one hole'. 'The Light scares the living things within walls'. It must be inferring to a cave somewhere in Nool."

"There are multiple of caves in Nool," Jeffrey joined in on the conversation. "The question is...which one?"

Cat continued to pace back and forth anxiously, raising some concern for the goldfish in the fishbowl.

Karlos hopped onto the rim of his fishbowl with a raised brow. "Uh...Cat, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Marlin," Cat answered dismissively, still deep in thought.

Karlos groaned irritably. "You know, it's getting to the point where I can't correct you anymore."

"What are you thinking about?" Sam asked Cat, who just turned and focused on him.

"Oh...well, I'm trying to think up a mysterious caves full of booby traps and holding important that Guy might need. For some reason, I keep thinking of a cave called, um, Griesal Cave. I don't know why it's called that but...that's the name of it," Cat answered, puzzling and puzzling.

"Where is it?" Dave questioned the Cat in the Hat.

"Underneath the Great Falls," Cat replied immediately.

"I know where that is," The Lorax responded, entering the room with the Grinch and the Oncelor trailing behind him. "I hid it there years ago, afraid that if it gets into the wrong hands...well...it might be our doom. Unless...you have it."

The Lorax moved his eyes to focus on Guy.

"What do you mean?" Guy asked the Lorax.

"The answer you're looking for might be something that I hid a long time ago," The Lorax explained to Guy.

"What did you hide?" Sam questioned with a brow raised.

The Lorax darted his glance between Cat and Sam. "Do you guys remember what you've attempted to steal five years ago?"

"Oh yeah, it's that box stuff with the magical---chemical--" Cat's sentence ended when he realized what the Lorax was talking about. "Wait a minute! You're the one who took the box!"

"What?" Sam uttered.

"Truffala Tree Forest, five years ago--the box randomly disappeared from the back of your motorcycle," Cat informed Sam.

"Wait, is that what it is?!" Sam gasped while glancing back at the Lorax.

"Yes," The Lorax answered plainly.

"Then, if this is the answer we're going for...we should head forth to the Jungle of Nool," The Grinch urged his group.

Guy sighed deeply, pondering deeply. His hand felt a burn again as he lifted his palm and stared at the symbol burning on his palm. The symbol no longer scares him...it just made him question more about what's going on. 

~.~

Jean, the mouse, scurried through the camp in search for his fox brethren. Hiding in the shadows, he spotted Michael isolated in his cage and separated from Jane and Horton with their own individual cages. The mouse quickly rushed towards the cage and squeezed through the bars. As he squeezed through the bars, he noticed Michael laying on his side on the cold floor of the cage, shivering and breathing heavily as if he's almost out of air in his lungs.

"Michael, are you--?" The question Jean was going to ask was already answered when Michael perked his ears up and lifted his upper body slightly to gaze at his little friend. There were scars on the fox's back, almost like he's been whipped by some rope with metal teeth. Before Michael could utter a word, Jean's eyes went round in horror. "What have they done to you, brother?!"

Michael turned over to hide his back of scars but his front didn't hide anymore scars. There were bruises around his ribcage and a black eye on his left eye. His left eye was half closed with a few cuts on his arms that he must had used to defend himself from the attackers. His body shifted slightly while he sat up against the cage wall but it didn't ease his pain at all.

Jean climbed up carefully onto the fox's shoulder, dodging all the cuts and scars left on the fox while noticing a bruise around Michael's neck.

Jane, the kangaroo with her kit in her pouch, gazed softly at Michael and Jean while the mouse looked up at her desperately for an answer to what happened to his friend. "They were beating him up really badly."

Jean shot a piercing glare at the cultists who were carrying around a thick rope with metal tips that would penetrate any scar on anyone's back. His brows were drawn together while he gritted his teeth into a growl.

"Those sons of yips!" Jean cursed as he turned his attention to his fox friend. "Atticus will be upset seeing you like this. We have to get you out of here."

Jean began sniffing out anything that would help him lockpick the cage while Michael unknowingly had his paw covering the safety pin. The mouse found a trail underneath the fox's paw. "Uh, Michael, could you move your paw please?"

Michael lifted his paw slightly, revealing a safety pin underneath. Jean smiled brightly in relief as he snatched the safety pin out from underneath.

"There we go," Jean whispered to himself while holding up a pin to see if it's the right size to lockpick the lock on Michael's cage.

The kangaroo kit lifted his head and gazed up at his mother. "What are they gonna do to us, Momma?"

Jean and Michael turned their attention to Jane, her kid, and Horton.

Jane couldn't find the answer that would reassure her son that everything will be okay, so she gave an unsured smile and caressed the top of his head. "I-I don't know, Rudy."

"We're probably going to die," Horton murmured underneath his breath, however he didn't realize that Jane and her son could hear him.

Jane shot a withering glare at the elephant with her fists on her hips while Rudy, her son, ducked his head with his ears bent down quickly with a soft gasp in fear. She flicked her ears in utter irritation while noticing a pink furred puffed up flower that had a tiny speck on top in Horton's grasp with his trunk.

"I wouldn't tell that to your 'new world' that you so claim exist," Jane growled lowly while pointing at the tiny speck on top of the flower.

Horton took offense to that statement with his brows furrowed. "I thought that you can't hear the people in the speck."

"It's more like the speck doesn't speak. However, if you can hear it, then you must be crazy enough to believe that it existed." Jane had her arms crossed while stating this with a direct stern glare at Horton.

"I'm not crazy. There are people living in this speck," Horton uttered defensively while extending his trunk so that she could take a closer look at the flower.

Jane rolled her eyes and leaned her head away from the flower. "Really? How big do our ears have to get to hear them? It's obvious that your ears are bigger than your skull."

"It doesn't matter how big or small your ears are. A person is a person--"

"No matter how small," Jane interrupted with a small irritable groan and her hands placed back on her hips. "I've heard it enough times before. But, Horton, I'm telling you that there are no people living in that speck."

Michael raised his paw slightly to join the conversation. "If there are people living in that speck and only Horton can hear them, do you think that maybe it has something to do with some kind of sound frequencies. Like the reason why Horton could hear them because he was close to the speck--"

"He put that flower close to my face and I still couldn't hear them," Jane pointed out with an obvious tone.

Michael pondered for a moment. "Well...do you think that they have a microphone down there or something?"

"What makes you think it's going to work? And why are we not focusing on planning our escape?" Jean probed as he looked around the cage to find some discreet way to lockpick.

Horton enlarged his eyes as if he just realized something. "You know what, I've never thought of that. Hold on." The elephant lifted the flower close to his eyes while narrowed his focus at the speck. "Do you guys have a microphone?"

Tilting his head, Horton extended his ear to hear the speck. He nodded his head as if he's understanding their language. "Okie dokie." He glanced back up at Jane, Michael, Jean, and Rudy. "Yep, they have a microphone."

With an arched brow, Jane fiddled her fingers on her hips while Rudy leaned out of the pouch eagerly to hear the speck. Suddenly, an eerie sound rang in their ears, causing Michael to whimper a bit in pain from his ears.

"Hello?! Is anyone here?!" A high-pitched voice that sounded like a chipmunk shouted from the speck.

Horton smiled brightly, even though he knew he had to be discreet since there were cultists patrolling the camp. "Yeah, I'm here...but, um, you might want to keep your voice down."

"Why?" The high-pitched voice questioned.

"Well...it's very hard to explain. Let's say that we're capture by some cult and we'll probably going to die," Horton explained briefly and quickly.

Jane had her brows furrowed, hearing the high-pitched voice perfectly clear. "Are you kidding me? We could've just done that the entire time--"

"Shh," Horton shushed her before her tone progressed any louder than a whisper.

"Guys, as much as I would love to chit-chat with the speck, we have to get out of here. We can't let them kill us," Jean urged while climbing up to the lock quickly and quietly.

"Get out of what?" The voice from the speck asked nervously.

Horton took a deep sigh. "Well, Mr. Mayor--"

"Mr. Mayor?" The group responded simultaneously in shock.

"Shh," Horton shushed the group while continuing on with his explanation. "We're in the camp where the cult captured us and well...as I said, will kill us if we don't escape."

"A cult? Do you mean like an occult?" The mayor, owning the high-pitched voice, probed further.

"Uh...no, I don't think so. I mean, they listen to the 'whispers' and glorified them as if they're gods. They also tortured people."

"Oh...so...they are an occult. What are they call?" The mayor inquired.

"The Gatherers of the Whispers," Jean answered while lockpicking the lock in Michael's cage. "That's what they are called."

"Oh yeah...that's definitely an occult," the mayor replied with a heavy sigh. "Well, they just have to make it more obvious."

Jean soon realized that the safety pin was too small to lockpick him and Michael out of this cage. "Gosh darn it! I thought I had it! Ugh...alright, I'll have to find some other way."

Jean searched for another way out quietly until he noticed the army of purple monkeys standing idle while patrolling the camp. The mouse turned to Jane quickly. "Wait, the monkeys rebel against you...because they're listening to the whispers. Can you convince them to stop listening to the whispers?"

"I-I don't know...they overthrow me for a reason," Jane stuttered while having her brow raised. "Why?"

Jean paused for a moment while glancing back at the monkeys. "I think there's a way that we could convince them."

To Be Continued...