Chapter 35

Bandera

I stumbled through the great hall, back out to the Main Street and headed off to my family’s house. I already knew what to expect, but I tried anyways.

The streets were barely usable. Besides everything burned down, the streets were full of pot holes probably from all of the Murid’s shots, not to mention the regular traffic of wagons trying to get through and previous misuse and lack of repair. The village was flattened, I could see straight out to the forest that bordered the village on all sides.

I walked to where my house would have been. It was there. Now it wasn’t.

Peering over the broken and burned house I found no bodies. Fortunately. Other miscellanea hardly caught my attention, just a usual house, nothing too special about it.

I’ll have to see them at their farm. Hopefully they’re there.

I had to go back to see if Clyde was getting along downloading his lost memories. He’ll have to wait. One thing at a time.

I ventured straight into the forest. The house was close enough to the forest, right on the outskirts, mainly because of their poverty, but I wouldn’t have thought it that way if the village wasn’t so suppressed. The farmers are the real working people, without them, nobody would eat, they’d all be starving, and they were. But that’s done and over with now. The village will relocate and life as Felines in the village will prosper once again.

My own prophecy.

About ten minutes into the jungle and I realized I had no idea where their farm was. Isn’t that my luck.

I stood there for a moment, contemplating heading back and asking the Maiden of Truth to help and escort me along or just keep walking. But something caught my attention. Leaves rustled. I could feel I was being watched.

“Who’s there?” I called out.

A head popped up. It was another Feline, a child, rags for clothes, and dirty. She looked like she was hungry, not starved, but hungry.

“Hello.” I said. “Are you alone?”

“Yes.” She answered timidly.

“We’ll, I guess that makes two of us. Maybe you can help me. I’m trying to find my family’s farm and only realized now that I have no idea where it is.”

“The farms are out there,” she pointed, “but I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”

“Why not?”

“They’ve been burned as well. That’s why.”

“Can you show me.”

She nodded and scrambled up out of the bushes and lead the way.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Bandera.”

“That’s a nice name.”

“I know. And you must be the Huntress.”

I laughed inside, I’ve heard that before. “I’m Dawn.” I told her.

“What are you hunting now?”

“My family.” I said.

Her eyes opened wide.

“I’m hunting for my family. I know they have to be out at their farm. I’m really making sure they’ve survived. I’ve already seen the village. But don’t worry, soon enough you’ll have a new home.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I think we can fix that.”

A moment later I spotted a bird and stealthily climbed the tree and snatched it off of its branch. Holding it for Bandera politely I let her take it. She wouldn’t.

“What do I do with that?” She said.

“Eat it.” I pulled out its feathers, and slit open its front side, pulling out the intestines.

She looked horrified.

“I know it’s not cooked,” I said, “but it’s the only food for now.” I took a bite and gave it to her.

Finally she ate it. She liked it and started eating more. “Why didn’t anyone teach me this before?”

“First you have to know how to hunt.”

“Can you teach me?”

I decided I should and while continuing to walk to the farms I let her jump up a few trees, startle a few birds and after a while, she had gotten close enough to catching one if it wasn’t for a faulty jump.

She was as good as she could get and I told her, “Try again when you’re hungry, then you won’t fail.”

She laughed and we got to the end of our road. The farms stood out in front of us, halfway in a clearing and half in the fields out of the forest.

I almost rejoiced if it wasn’t for the fact that they too were all burned and ruined by the ship’s fire.

“Was this why I shouldn’t come here?”

“Partially,” she said. “No one is there.”

“What happened to them?”

“They were all taken.” She said. “The Murids ushered them onto the ships and shot anyone who tried to run away.”

My heart dropped. If they were in the captivity of the Murids I wouldn’t know if they were dead or alive.

I looked closely at the surroundings. There were dead bodies all around, a lot were even burned to ashes or hardly recognizable.

Hurriedly I ran into the clearing, finding the first body, then the next and the next. None of them were my family.

I didn’t know whether to be happy or not. If they were dead they wouldn’t be slaves to the Murids. If they were alive and with the Murids they wouldn’t be dead, but they’d be slaves or prisoners at best.

I slowly walked back to the path I came from. “I’m going home, Bandera.” I said, apathetically.

“Okay.” She said. I realized she didn’t have anywhere to go.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Are you coming or not?” I asked.

“With you? Coming home with you?” She didn’t know how to react.

“Of course. You have anywhere else to go?”

She shrugged and followed me back.

I could feel her enthusiasm rising. Her curiosity about me, the Huntress and what it would be like to live like me. I stopped any questioning until we were home.

“First,” I said, “you have to earn all of this.” Pointing to my suit and goggles, even flashing Ungu from my claws. “Just as I did.”

“So what do I have to do?” She was much to energetic and was getting on my nerves. I still have Clyde I’m worrying about, and I’m just about to find out.

We made it to the Temple and I hesitated letting her in. “See if you can get some dinner.” I wondered what else to tell her before I ran down and into the hangar. It wasn’t something I wanted to show her yet.

“Do you have anything in storage?” She asked.

“Probably not, I’ve been out for the last week and took everything with me. Go out and hunt something. It’s all we have.”

I left her in the kitchen and walked down the hallway, locking all the doors that should be locked and going into the hangar and locking that one too.

I sighed. Near relief. I’m almost depending entirely on Clyde recovering his memory. I know there’s too much that he knows that I wouldn’t be able to do without him. There’s still secrets in the hangar I wouldn’t know about, I haven’t even been through all the hallways.

I sighed again as I walked over to where I left Clyde charging. He should definitely be done charging by now.

“Clyde?”

“Hello, you must be Dawn. I though you’d be back.”

“I am. Have you gone through all of your databanks yet?”

“Yes, that task is completed. I have to say, I seem to be on another planet. Could you tell me where I am?”

I sighed, nearly crying. No hope for those lost memories of the last ten thousand years serving the Felines. “We’re on Xenobia. I am a Feline, one of the Xenobians.” I gave up trying to tell him everything and gave him a simple order. “There’s a bookshelf, read through those, and once you’re done start reconnecting yourself to the hangar. Apparently everything in here you had fully automated to your command.”

“You mean I have been here before?”

“Of course. You’ve been here for thousands of years!”

“I’ll have to keep that in mind. Sorry for the loss of data.”

“Oh Clyde, I’m glad you’re functioning, but it’s going to be a drag getting you back to normal.”

“I’m afraid that’s another thing we’ll have to tackle. I can’t move any exterior functions.”

“Oh no. That’s why you’re so still.”

“It was a trick trying to stop the charging from killing my batteries. I can tell you all the parts I’ll need. Hopefully you have them in stock on this planet, Xenobia, wasn’t it?”

My mind raced with disparity. There’s hardly anything I can do. He’s basically a talking computer with no memory.

“Do you mind handing me a book so I can read?”

I’d probably have to flip the pages for him as well. “No,” I said resentfully. “Just start connecting up to things again.”

His eye-lights went dim and I heard machines beeping and whirring.

I need to get some sleep.

There’s also Bandera outside hopefully getting some food.

I stepped outside and decided to get my mind off things walking up to the top of the hill. It was already late at night. The moon was up and shining bright.

It was a nice night, very dark besides the moon. The damp smell of ashes was still in the air. It was really hard getting my mind off of things out here. Really hard at all when you’re stuck on a planet and you have to save all of it. Everywhere I look it’s the same planet.

I heard a thud on the ground and a slight groan. Bandera.

I walked off the path and into the bushes. “I guess you haven’t gotten anything yet.”

“Nearly,” she said. “It’s much harder than you make it look.”

“Sorry,” I said, really unapologetically. “Keep trying. If you want you can stay in my old room inside, I’ll go in and sleep. Just don’t go off too far and stay safe.”

“Okay.” She said, looking like she might take the opportunity togo in and sleep as well.

I walked down again, giving up on trying to get my mind off of things.

Inside I checked my old room, there was still a bed, there were all my relics, and the relic on the shelf. I hid those and locked them up. I wouldn’t want her running off with anything, just in case. I don’t trust her yet.

I went back down to the hangar, through all the beeps and sounds of machines going, as Clyde got connected up to them again. I found my room, made something to drink and curled up in my bed.

“Dawn,” Ares said. “I’m glad you’ve made it back in your own bed.”

“Thanks. So am I.” I breathed. The happiness I was wishing for days before wasn’t there. “There’s more to be done.” I told her.

“That there is,” she replied. Though I’m sure she sure didn’t feel the same as I did.

“Have you found out who this guy is?” I asked.

“Not exactly. But I have found a lot that would surprise you.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, I’ve been doing some research, mainly asking the other Ancestors and I’ve found that they have also, one time or another, lost a member of their tribe’s to this beast. He’s seemed to be here for much longer than we think. Almost as early as when the humans came, like Dacoit. Maybe later, maybe earlier, who knows. There’s almost always someone leaving for some reason or other. But this pattern…we’ve started to trace it…” she hesitated.

“So there’s a pattern?” I asked.

“Yes, it goes more or less like what happened to the King. They start off well, get into the adventures of life and somehow disconnect from us and get into all sorts of trouble after that. Usually we think it’s just lost faith. But that’s not always it, as we’ve come to find.”

“So it’s him.”

“Yes, but finding out who he is we can only guess. We’re starting to look into the city, as what you might have concluded from his message to you.”

Underground, in the streams of fate, I suddenly remembered, there was a clue. “You heard that as well?”

“We did. And, if you remember, he said, ‘I’m even right in the middle of it all, yet no body can find me, not even your Ancestors.’ But we’ve got a clue now. By that, we know he’s in the city, the middle. Backstage, he also said, but it’s hard to put a finger on that.”

“So you want me to go into the city?”

“I’m afraid so, there’s Feline there, and plenty of others that we can organize. That’s not a problem. There’s many Xenos there that still believe in us. But the faster we get you there and another small army built up, the faster we can track him down. Nobody knows this guy, and fighting without an army would be foolish, as I’ve told you before. There’s no way to know what we’re up against until you’re there face to face.”

“I know,” I said. “But I’m glad you have connections. I had already thought about going to the city. Most of the Xenos who’ve survived the battle are with me. Not to mention the Dryads, who have eyes and ears anywhere there’s a tree.”

“Very good. Now be off, I’ll make sure someone finds you, just head off and we’ll speak later.

I woke up very late, mid afternoon. I could still feel the stiffness and bruises of the last battle, though negligible. Walking into the hangar I forgot I left a handful of Xenos and the Dryads there as we came back with Clyde. They welcomed me awake with a loud applause and cheering that rang through the temple.

“The savior of Xenobia!”

“The real live Ancient slayer!”

Many more compliments came my way. These were all the Xenos I have left with me after having come back from the trip. We really were a team.

After many minutes I finally got to say, “I couldn’t have done it without your help. You guys are awesome. Thanks to all of you, I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone, even if I wanted to.”

They quieted down after a while and I waited until I wasn’t the center of attention again. I’m sure Bandera would hear it and wonder what all that yelling was.

Soon after, escaping many hugs and pats on the back, I ran upstairs to grab Bandera and have her come into the hangar and look around. She was mesmerized. Hers eyes wide open looking at all the un-village-like machinery and setting, not to mention the over exhilarated Xenos applauding again as I came back.

I had to announce her to the other Xenos, “My friends, this is Bandera, she is an orphaned Feline I found in the forest, she helped me but also opened my eyes to the continued crisis this planet is in.”

They had stopped, they weren’t sad, but happy to listen to this new story. What else is going on after having killed the Ancients? Only a handful really knew what I was about to say, and even then, only a part of it.

“As you may or may not have seen,” I continued, “the Feline village has been burned to ashes. There is a very small number hiding out in the forest, and another in an underground bunker organizing a relocation of our village. They’ll be fine to carry on with their project.”

There were looks of sympathy and some even said that the Felines can stay with them in their villages, but I disregarded it and carried on.

“What this brings to light is that there is still a hidden menace, one that is still operating and instilling fear into the lives of others.”

A few shouted out their guesses.

“No, it’s not the Murids nor the Canines, they are merely puppets of this villain.”

“Who is it?” They cried.

“That is exactly what we are going to find out,” I told them. “And I will still need an army if we are ever going to stop this one.”

They had questions, but I didn’t answer them yet.

“We will go into the city and start the investigation there. Maybe even grow our army from and within the city populace. All we can do is stop the violence and look for answers.”

None of them looked so happy now, maybe adventurous. Again, these were the crew who’ve battled the Ancients, stayed alive and came back to my home instead of leaving to their own villages. Warriors from the past who will be known into the future of the whole race of Xenos.

I had a plan and I have to figure out getting everyone to the city and into our new quarters. I’ll need to plan for large enough quarters, that Feline house was already packed and I have an Ursine and a Bovine to accommodate.

I let them continue on bustling around until I got it all straight. I have a few things to do first.