The September issue of Animalia Magazine was called the Fall Future Edition because it covered some of the big events of both September and October.
---
What was undeniably the closest, and most anticipated, event was Spookyville 2024. In fact, it was so popular, that other colonies had begun doing their own spin on it. The article also promised that there was going to be a multicultural surprise as part of the celebrations at Renardville.
The article focusing on Spookyville also included a few maps of both the main Spookyville event in Lyre/Animalia and of the colonies hosting it.
---
Another article focused on the newest Animalia Colonies, including one or two that was still in the planning stage. The newest one (that was still in the planning stage) was actually a direct result of Martin Mamsy's actions. When he led the authorities to where he had been getting the gold nuggets, they did a geological survey and discovered that the place was a previously undiscovered gold field. Fortunately, the Australian Authorities had learned from the brief hullabaloo that came from gold being discovered in what is now Gondwana Land and also decided to export it (again, slowly, so as not to disrupt the gold standard). Also, the gold field was a comfortable distance between the Australian colonies of Uluru and Northland to begin a Dinotopian Colony that focused on dinosaur species from Australia and/or Antartica, such as Minmi, Australotitan, Fostoria, and Ozraptor. Because of the size of some of those species, the Colony was still in the planning stage.
---
Another article talked about Ao Guang Island and the group of four islands that it was part of. While Ishinoha Island was now finished (and the Turtle Chief's Palace being set to open soon), there were still two others that were still works-in-progress. The one that was closer to being finished than the other was the Island in the Indian Ocean, representing the White Tiger of the West. It was a decent distance between the Indian Subcontinent and Heiya Prefecture to travel to via ferry (start in the morning, arrive in the evening).
While the Tiger Lord's Palace was still in the planning stages, the Indian Government already had their candidate for the titular character. He was a feral white tiger that had defied all expectations and was thirty years old (though most of that was due to living in captivity)!
Once he was uplifted (and double-dosed), he ended up larger than most of the big cat Animalians. In fact, he ended up being only one or two inches smaller than Heracles. Like all Animalians, he was rather naive about human society after his conversion, but he was already getting addicted to bodybuilding, which the BARA House (which had just opened a branch in the Land of Kings alongside ROSE House, though I don't know where homosexuality fits in Hindu Mythology, if at all) was more than happy to help him out with.
---
A final article (though the digital copy had it more like a graphic novel/comic book) was more like the first of a series of Sneak Peeks into next year's IAC. In it, Hide was doing one of his patrols when he found a very unusual artifact. Picking it up, however, seemed to activate it, sending him tumbling through the Star Fissure (from the Myst series) into the Lands Between. Not long after his arrival, he set out on the quest to rebuild the Elden Ring, even though his shiftling nature seemed to keep landing him into trouble.
One example of this was during his battle with Goderick the Grafted. During the battle, after Goderick replaced his hand with a dragon's head, Hide discovered he could still access his shiftling powers and used it to shift into his Yokai Feral form, much to Goderick's surprise. After temporarily blinding him with a ninja trick, Hide tricked him again, this time by perching on his head, thereby making him kill himself by planting his own axe into his own skull, no doubt leaving him feeling pretty silly as he died.
The best example of this was during his attempt to secure the Great Rune of the Unborn: during his fight with Queen Rennala, her "sweetings" were singing a song that was really rubbing Hide's yokai blood the wrong way, eventually causing him to lose control and shift into his Yokai Brute form, much to Rennala's surprise, but also, somehow, restoring her to her old self. After defeating her, and regaining control of himself, Hide shared Genbu, the Black Turtle nigitama, with her as "trade" for her Great Rune.
Hide also gets Tina, an academy mage who was also Tarnished, as an adventuring companion (much to his discomfort in the idea), but Tina was more interested in the fact that he was an "other-worlder", and the only reason why she was willing to help him in his quest was that she wanted "out of this dump", much to Hide's confusion. He ultimately decided that, since he couldn't dissuade her, he'd teach her about the onmyo magic of his homeland.
And that was where the sneak peek ended but promised to continue in the next issue of Animalia Magazine.