This is the tale of a Cheetah's tamer falling in the Hare's Burrow.

The sun overlooked the plain. But the looming shadow of a sand storm –coming from the Western Desert– was wildly proceeding Eastward, devouring little by little the central plateau.

As he was following the trail of a feline with his comrades, Kail had been separated from his group by the anomaly. He was now desperately running, fleeing endlessly in the opposite direction.

His mount was trampling over a brand new soil: rather accustomed to the deserts of sand or plains of rock, it's with a hint of curiosity that the hunt cheetah discovered the feeling of the grass and the mud under its paws.

"Just a little more," said Kail while stroking his mount's flank. "The tempest will wane before us."

Both of them had kept going on for now almost two hours, and sings of exhaustion were starting to appear. No matter what he said, Esparo was more of a quick runner than an endurance runner, and the distance with the low was shortening visibly. Kail could even feel the sand grains licking eagerly his neck. The jerky breathing of Esparo was more and more distressing, betraying a severe lack of water.

Suddenly, Kail felt himself thrown away. He cowered by instinct and at the floor contact, he rolled on himself to cushion the impact.

"Esparo!" he turned around frantically toward the feline, witnessing bitterly the comatose state of his mount. He reached him –and seeing the sand storm approaching dangerously– took Esparo in his arms and cuddled in the battered fur of the beast.

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Koyha gestured toward a strange package on the ceiling. The dimly lit underground corridor prevented one from seeing clearly the details, but for sure, it was a corpse. Or rather a body: a weak breathing was lifting up and down its chest.

"...Ah!" upon realizing what his sister was showing him, Opan –surprised– suddenly stopped.

"Hurry up," ordered Koyha as she pulled the human being towards her. "The Guard will soon come back. Also give him your jacket."

Opan followed the order without asking anything, but as he approached the stranger, he finally discerned the high quality of his clothes and the seemingly western vibes of their patterns, as well as this distinctive emblem of the Cheetah's Factions, proudly adorning his left shoulder. And given the medal's colours, he was certainly a member of the—

"...Apollo's Faction! Specialists in the capture of Royal Cheetah! Do you think—"

"It's not a fake?" interrupted Koyha, "I think so."

Many were the inhabitants of the underground hoping to one day go down to the surface. The first step was to wait until one's earth's attraction reset, a stupid curse of the Hare's Blesseds. The second was to escape the Burrow, and several way to do so existed: Either run fast enough to avoid the guards, either pretend to be from the surface. Was it the case of this young man?

Koyha explained:

"The clothes sold on the black market are a pale imitation of those he is wearing. And given his skin complexion it's obvious he often sees the sun, much more than us underground people."

She lifted him on her shoulder, his head resting soundly on her chest. But...

"Koyha, his legs..." said Opan.

Indeed, they were hanging suspiciously towards the 'ceiling'. Opan then took out a rope from his gear and tied the legs of the young Apollo to Koyha's waist, hiding the bind under her coat.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Ok, thanks. That will do." she said. "Let's go home. You go by the Great Hall, I'll take the rundown alleys."

"Oh! You want him to impersonate me?"

"Yes. I'll see you at the burrow."

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The taste of the sand dwelling in his mouth, Kail tried to open his eyes which he closed almost immediately as we was struck by nausea. Despite himself, he listened to a distant conversation.

"You want to steal everything from him? Trick him without him knowing? Deprive him from his freedom? And so just for me?" complained a boyish voice.

"You're overreacting, I'm sure he will be able go down anyway. His physical appearance leave not doubt as to his origins. And nothing will change this fact. Emblem or not."

"But you know how long the procedures are! Look at Gilbert, it's been six months since he's trapped in this hole!"

"It's not the same. Gilbert claims to be a solitary nomad, he has no family, and nobody from the surface who could to testify his words, he is not the blessed of any foreign God and hence does not have any powers, and for your information that suit exactly the description of the lower floor of the Hare's Burrow. Listen, you said it yourself, he belongs to the Apollo's Faction. The other members are surely looking for him. No... Even then, a tamer never goes so far without his mount. Do not underestimate the acute sense of smell of a cheetah."

As sight of desperation resounded, Kail, just coming back to his senses, was playing in his head the moments preceding his fall in the Burrow. The storm had intensified and the sand was slowly burying them. Then, in a desperate attempt to shelter Kail, Esparo had grabbed him by the collar and thrown him in a nearby hole.

"Esparo..."

When Kail's dry out voice echoed in the room, the two spectators turned their heads towards him, taken aback. A few seconds elapsed before he tried once again to open his eyes. He adjusted little by little to the dull light of the room, his eyes still blinded by the shadow of the zenithal sun. After a time of adaptation, he finally became aware of his environment. Lying on a terracotta floor, above him was a ceiling strangely furnished with an upsidedown desk, as well as a couch and two chairs, all firmly attached to their 'floor'. But the most uncanny part was the two foreigners standing on this very same 'floor'.

Immediately, Kail knew where he was. He had heard many rumours about the Burrow, and especially about the first level.

A senior of his Faction had also fallen into it in his youth, however it wasn't due to a sand storm but a group of poachers eying his mount.

"Are you awake?" asked the young woman, unsure about what else to say.

"Yes thanks."

Only silence remained. The awkward silence of two persons found out by the third while talking about them, moreover about what seemed to be their fate.

In this strange atmosphere, Opan took out a cup carved in the clay, which he firmly grasped by the handle in an upsidedown fashion. He went up with a light footsteps to what seemed to be a water pipe embedded in the 'floor'. He placed the cup above and activated a crank. Water spewed out from the mouth and went up, straight into the container. Opan handed it out nervously to the foreigner.

"Thanks. Really." simply said Kail while sitting up painfully. "You can call me Kail. And from what I heard it looks like you are fully aware of my origins. To whom have I the honor?"

"Opan" he answered without underlying the playful tone in Kail's voice. "I–"

"Koyha," cut off his sister, "and I have a request for you. Would you please listen to it?"

As Opan glared furiously at his elder, Kail nodded, appreciating Koyha's honesty.

Hare's Burrow — [1/3]