“My name’s Tanjung… So how’d you get to this terrible place?” He inquired, although he could have guessed the answer. He was probably just making small talk.
“Oh, my um. My mother died.”
That was a fine lie.
When she arrived at the little group, everyone looked and felt a little familiar, like home. Asril was used to being on her own, but at least felt a bit safer within this group. Looking around the fire, she saw friendly faces. Stocky mothers with babies in tow, young boys, a few men, and five other young girls. Altogether there were fourteen of them including Asril. After trading stories, in her case fake stories, Asril felt comfortable enough to curl up upon the bare ground. The dirt and grass felt cold on her back, but at least she was safe now.
That morning she awoke to a clang of armor and the sound of men running and yelling.
“What’s going on?” Asril stirred from her spot and looked over to one of the cats.
“I don’t know,” a girl about Asril’s age replied. “They’re running off, the guards are.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, either. Nobody knows.”
Asril watched nervously over the next half hour as the line of soldiers guarding the perimeter thinned quickly. One of the wardens threw berries, nuts and even live chickens into the prison confines as ‘inmates’ scuffled over the limited food.
The housecats from Miamar got little more than nuts and berries, but Asril’s eyes were fixed on the soldiers who were being called to something more urgent.
She walked over to the barbed walls. Soldiers talked of distant fighting, of needing as many men as possible, of a crisis. Their talk became whispers that rippled through the camp, and within minutes the refugees all knew what was going on.
Would Miao just leave these fleeing furres behind boards, helpless to do all but wait for the lusty monsters? That wasn’t fair! They didn’t deserve this! A quiet sense of urgency descended onto the crowd.
“Let us out!” One of the bolder prisoners, a slightly larger type of feline, called out at the guards. He got no response.
By the afternoon only a small handful of soldiers were still guarding that hastily-made camp. Every now and then she’d see one of the more daring scale the fence and scurry off, the guards unwilling to chase them and leave their post unmanned. But soon, large groups were climbing over and escaping, en masse, into the city, and even still the few soldiers left guarding the pen were being called elsewhere.
“Hey, follow me, Clara wants to talk to everyone.”
Asril joined the other dozen or so cats in a corner of the encampment. In the huddle was Clara, one of the two mothers and apparent leader of the group.
“We’re going to go. And we’ve decided to escape and try to board a westward caravan. Those who want to may join us, those who want to stay here can do so.”
Tanjung raised his hand and interrupted. “Wait. Isn’t the land west of here nothing but jungle?”
He had a point. The jungles were no place for their short-clawed race.
“We won’t go there. Much further west, and north, there’s a kingdom behind high mountains. It’s the only place I know that might still be safe… Asril—”
“You and Martaka will climb the fence first, and when you’re over, find an alley and then signal over the rest of us.”
Asril shifted in place. Well, this job wouldn’t really be too tough. It only took a few moments for the few guards remaining to be distracted by a rather large group of escapees elsewhere.
“Come on, now!” Asril pulled Martaka by the arm and lead him up the fence. She avoided the barbs atop the barrier and hopped down to wait for him.
The two crossed a narrow canal and hid behind one of the tile-topped adobes. Even still no guard even paid attention to them. Asril peeked out from the corner and gave the signal. One-by-one others scaled the fence, some taking much longer than others. Tanjung was the last to arrive, as he helped the children and mothers scale the formidable walls.
Chaos had not yet set into Miao as it had in Aolom. In fact, most outside were just going about daily business, and so the cats from Miamar had a few moments to talk everything over. All of them had been on the run for the last two weeks. All of them were hungry, but understood the need to get out, so there really was no time to stop.
Caravans periodically took off from downtown. Asking around, the group soon found a convoy to the border of this mountain kingdom to the far west. Asril heard the convoy’s final destination, ‘Preena Pass.’
“Is that the one?” Asril asked Clara.
“Yes, dear. That’s the one we’re going to take.”
After a quick discussion the group made the choice to take the Preena Pass caravan.
Asril had more than enough money to pay for her fare, but some didn’t have enough. She had a choice: Pool her money or leave the group. There was only one good choice in this situation. Being with a group would still take some getting used to, but it was the only way to go. The thief had traveled alone since well before anyone had even heard of the ravenous green beasts. Still, without second thought, Asril opted to join the others. Tanjung came along, too.
“All aboard! Clear!”
The caravan was a number of large carts, each pulled by multiple horses and guarded by strong, striped cats which had to be mercenaries of some kind. The fourteen of them hearded into the back of one of the crowded cars with an occasional mewling. Tanjung found a spot lined with hay along the back wall, and sat down, dropping his bags with a sigh of relief. Asril dropped her stuff and sat down next to him.
Green Tide
“Look! Up there!”
Kasha felt a paw tap on his shoulder. His friend Reince pointed to the sky. A hawk was sweeping down into the white-golden stalks of waist-high grass, looking for its prey. Kasha and the other wolves of the Goldgrass tribe were out in the late summer heat to throw a new enemy out of their land. The invading ‘Grimeskins’ had already taken pockets of human towns and villages to the east, and had cut off the wolves’ path to the Cottonwine Lands, which was unfortunate. Kasha and Reince had wanted to make a pilgrimage to that place. A pilgrimage, of sorts. But instead they were out here, part of a train of gray fur wading through the sea of golden wheat all around them. Out here all was silent except the endless hum of cicadas.
“Break off! Packs of five, one-by-one,” their alpha ahead yelled out. “The Sircassian Humans are just ahead. We’ll show those Grimeskins they don’t get to lord over humans. That’s our job.”
A few laughs arose from the crowd. Kasha and Reince’s pack separated from the group and went south to help surround the human village.
“Hey, what are those?” Reince pointed to the sky once again, directing Kasha’s attention to what looked like several rocks hurtling toward the ground a good distance away from them.
“Is that… Could that be from the Grimeskins?”
That was when Kasha’s long misadventure began. It was too late to stop or even react. The five of them looked up and a huge boulder came hurtling right in their direction as well. They scattered and Kasha dove out of the rock’s way. The rock landed with a thud and hissed at them through the high grass.
“Something’s stra…”
It exploded like a giant clap of thunder. Kasha felt his feet leave the ground and was then thrown clear in the air. He landed on his side and skidded in the grass. The young wolf searched around for his spear and opened his eyes. A thick white dust permeated the air. People were yelling and shouting in the distance.
“Reince?”
Nobody answered his call. And it was too late. Another rock came flying toward them. He got up and sprinted in the other direction. The dust blinded his eyes. Kasha ran through a cloud of smoke, following his ears while his eyes searched for his pack. Any pack.