Everyone stared at Kiko.
Not just a little.
But as if they had never seen him before.
“Why… are you still colorful?” the chameleon asked cautiously.
Kiko blinked.
“I have always been like this.”
The others looked down at themselves.
Their colors had disappeared.
The neon squirrel was now simply… a squirrel.
The jellyfish were still floating, but without glowing.
And the robot penguin?
“My blinking feet don’t work anymore!” he chirped panic-stricken.
“This is a disaster!” someone shouted.
“The colors are gone!” another shouted.
Confusion.
Panic.
Kiko stood in the middle.
And didn’t understand anything.
“Maybe… it’s just a mistake,” he said quietly.
“A mistake?!” shouted the chameleon. “My colors are my whole life!”
“Without colors I am… nobody,” whispered the squirrel.
Kiko looked at them.
“You are still yourselves.”
But no one listened to him.
At that moment, a voice sounded from the city’s loudspeakers.
“Attention, Coloropolis!”
It was the mayor. An old owl with huge, golden eyes.
“We have a total color failure.”
“All citizens please remain calm.”
“Our technicians are already working on a solution.”
The robot penguin raised his flipper. “I am a technician!”
“And?” asked Leo… uh, no – here it was a raccoon.
The penguin chirped sadly. “I have no idea.”
The owl continued:
“Until we have solved the problem, a new rule applies.”
Silence.
“All animals without functioning colors please stay in the city center.”
“For safety.”
A murmur went through the crowd.
Then someone said: “And what about him?”
Everyone looked back at Kiko.
“He is… different,” said the chameleon.
“He hasn’t lost any colors.”
The owl looked at Kiko for a long time.
Very long.
Then she said:
“You are coming with me.”
Kiko swallowed.
“Why me?”
The owl answered calmly:
“Because you might be the only one… who has never lost anything.”
And suddenly Kiko had the feeling…
…that his completely normal spots were not so normal after all.