The rain was pounding on the window. I’d had this dream before. The rain starts and I just sit there staring at the drops on the window. The power goes out and I sit there in darkness. Slowly the stars and moon fade away to nothing and it’s pure black. I see two crazy eyes looking at me, getting closer and closer. Just as they reached me I wake up.

It’s not a nightmare. It’s more confusing than scary.

I went outside to check the mail. I was expecting a reply from Fang in regards to my invitation on joining me to find this trap setting son of a bitch. The little blue flag was up, indicating I did indeed have mail. I grabbed the envelope and casually lifted and ripped one corner of the sealed flap then continued to rip off the end. I slid the letter out and saw that it was what I had been waiting for.

It was strange. Not quite the response I was looking for. In fact it had nothing to do with the trap setting bastard or joining me in catching him. I read the letter again. And then again. Finally it hit me. There was a hidden message. If I counted to a certain letter, then replaced it with the half square root of it’s predecessor, then moved across a certain number of spaces I would have the message decoded. It read:

“Hole in front of your home. Send me what is in it. Write back with code. Make sure it’s really hard.”

Hot damn! Fang you sly boy. I turned around and right in front of my house was a soft patch of dirt. Just like what the traps had been set in. I dug into it and revealed a fossil.

I couldn’t write fang back straight away as I needed to get to my office and work on the town development. I walked into town hall and shot a glance over to my assistant, trying to think of her name. It was too late to admit that I didn’t know it. I’d been in town for a week now. I’d look like an idiot. I think it was Bella. She welcomed me with a smile. I gave a half smile back and said something along the lines of “Hey, you.” I hope I didn’t come across creepy. The last thing I need is a sexual harassment lawsuit. She replied back cheerfully so I guess any creepiness was imagined.

I sat at my desk and Bella came over to discuss what I should do. First thing was setting some ordinances. Ahahaha, yes! Time for the rule of Jiggly! Turns out there was a twist with this though. Meowland is not controlled by a dictatorship. Ordinances are suggestions from townsfolk, that I as mayor can choose to invoke. Well, better than nothing I guess. I asked for the list of suggestions. Bella hesitated a bit and then said to invoke an ordinance I would have to pay $20000. Seriously? Out of my own pocket! What about the Meowland budget? Surely the town has money for this kind of thing.

Fine. Whatever. It was time to look at the public works program. There were several requests for new facilities in town, one being a new bridge. I liked that idea. I was fed up with walking all the way around the river to get anywhere. Bella like the idea too. We went out in search of the perfect spot for the bridge. I chose the location and Bella mocked up a quick artist’s impression.

Nice! I liked it. Lock it in! Bella placed down one of those fire-hydrant looking things and said it was the site foreman and that it would handle the building of the bridge. She then said that the bridge would need to be funded by donations from the public – mostly from me! Well okay. Fine. Whatever. I asked how much funding was required. Turns out a bridge costs $128000. Damn it to hell. This town is starting to screw me more than Nook.

I walked to the other side of the train tracks, towards the shops. As I approached I saw a strange looking dog standing in front of the, now open, back gates. I approached him and asked what this was all about. He started to blabber on about fancy looking houses and other towns and stuff. From the gist of it, basically he said I could see some display homes for ideas and purchase items from them. I went in to take a look.

It was a pretty big area with heaps of room for quite a lot of display houses. The only problem… It was empty! No houses at all. I walked around the whole area and found nothing, save for a few birds.

I walked out and grabbed the dog by his collar. I was shouting about what a waste of time this had been and frankly if he ever showed his face in my town again with nothing in the back lot, then there would be trouble. I ducked into the museum to calm down. I went to Blathers, who was sleeping. I tapped him on the shoulder to wake him up. I scared the shit out of him.

Satisfied with that, I figured I should don some kind of disguise in case that dog had gone to the cops for threatening him. I made my way to the accessories shop to look for my new undercover look. They had the perfect beard! I had a few shells and apples I had collected so I used my earnings from them to buy the $8000 fake beard. I put it on and made my way home.

On the way back the Elephant saw me and ran towards me at full speed. Luckily he’s rather pudgy and full speed is pretty slow. He asked me if he could visit my house and look at my stuff. I told him to come over at 3:10pm.

I needed to make money faster. I thought it would be a good idea to start a fruit orchard. I had an orange and a perfect apple. I planted them next to my house so no one would steal my fruit. Assuming it takes a few days for the tree to grow and spawn three fruit, within about 3 weeks I should have a nice steady income.

It approached 3:10 and the Elephant showed up. We walked inside and he looked me dead in the eyes. He told me Fang had clued him in on this whole ‘secret organisation’ to find the trap setter. I was surprised Fang would do such a thing without consulting me first. The Elephant begged to join us. I figured he may as well. After our shovel fight on the bridge I knew he could come in handy. I told him he was in.

I wrote my response to Fang’s letter from this morning, naturally in code. Nothing as in depth as his, but still inobvious to anyone else who reads it. I had to let him know that including the Elephant the way he did was not cool. I posted the letter and called it a day.

Make sure you read Animal Crossing Diary – Day 8