Chapter 34

Welcome Home

I went outside, upset that Clyde was malfunctioning. I’m sure he’d bring himself back together. I have faith in machines like that. There couldn’t be that much wrong with him. It was just a little crash.

I wiped a tear from my eye as I headed down to the village. Somehow I wasn’t that perturbed about the village being destroyed. I wasn’t so attached to it. Maybe I should have, but the King had poisoned everything already. Well, not him, the mysterious voice in his head, the next enemy, whoever he was. Maybe it was the fact that I had seen some Felines in the forest, hiding out, just like the Dryads had done when their village got burned by the Ancients. Some were still alive at least.

My family wasn’t so close to me anymore, though I mourned and hoped they weren’t gone. I’ll have to search their home and the farms to be sure they’re still alive. They’d have to be, to have brought me into the world, they’d have to have it in them to survive.

I put my goggles on, making sure there weren’t any unseen traps in my way. The infrared lit up warm bodies, the software told me when pieces of matter had been laid in such a way that wasn’t natural, aka: traps.

I walked down the path, scouting out any future threats. It looked like there weren’t any. I still don’t know what happened though, besides a few telltale marks of guns and weapons. There wasn’t much of anyone around.

I made it to the center of the town, the great hall, or what was left of it. The roof was gone, the walls burned and broken, it must have been a day or two since it burned. I was gone for seven days, that means, a day or two after I had left that it happened. There was still smoke rising up from the ashes.

Still nobody around.

I scanned the surrounding houses and streets before I ventured inside. Nobody outside. A ghost town.

I jumped through the great hall trying to get through all the rubble without getting hurt, finally I made it to the door that lead to the back rooms. It too was burned down, so I walked through and into the hallway, looking down through all the rooms, the bed frame of the King leaning at an odd angle, pushed sideways by a fallen wall.

The old bookshelves of the Maiden of truth was a pile of ashes, no records of the Felines. No prophecies. My breath stuttered and I tried to hold back tears as I soaked it in. I recall Ares wondering about why the prophecies ended on that day, they just did. The books had all been destroyed. There’d be no use for those prophecies now.

I hope they still have it in them. To make more prophecies, I mean. How could life go on without a prophecy, without knowing where it will all lead to, the next step of the race.

Still no one around, I had more to go, down the hallway and into the underground. I didn’t know what to expect; a crowd of villagers? Or corpses starved for days, all dead and on the floor.

The large door was still intact as it was built slightly underground, the fire hadn’t touched this far down.

I opened the door, reminiscent of opening the door to the hangar in the temple, the mysterious door that shed light in my dreams, that kept me going, the mysterious light that guided my future. This was just another mystery.

I was surprised at what I saw when I opened the door. The security personnel of the Felines where active, leading them was their commander who I left in charge as the King. I wondered what they had all been doing while the village was being burned down? Nobody tried to stop it? The whole place is a ruins. After a moment of me having walked in and them noticing another presence, everyone stopped. A few had whipped out guns.

A hysterical voice called out. “Where have you been!” Familiar, I knew that voice.

The Feline came out from behind a counter and stood in front of me angrily. The Maiden of Truth.

I held my anger down at her question. Where had she been, and all these people? The village is a ruin.

“So?” She asked again, goading me to yell back. “They came from out of nowhere and shot up the whole place, sprayed oil, shot at everyone trying to save themselves and left. Where was the Huntress? Nowhere! And I tell you now, we need you more than ever. There’s hardly anyone here to cry for their families. They’re all dead too!”

“I guess you’re the one crying.” I said finally able to say something. She stood still and silent. “I’ve been busy,” I told her. “I’m as frustrated as you are to see the village burned. I cried seeing your bookshelf in ashes.”

“I knoooooow!” Now she really started crying.

I put my hand on her back. “So, what’s happening here? Are we organizing a retaliation?”

“No!” She yelled. “I mean, yes.”

I know how flustered she can get.

She sucked it up and gave me a briefing. “We’re doing what we can to get supplies brought over from other villages. They’ve found out who was behind it. And we’re relocating to build up another village. Not all hope is lost.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Though I had more news that all hope wasn’t lost. “The Ancients have been slain.”

She stood up now, a blank face. “They’re gone? They left?” She asked stupidly.

“No.” I told her. “Dead.”

“Huntress!” She jumped up in ecstasy. “I knew you’d do it. I’m so lost without my prophecies. It’s so hard to live at all without knowing what’s going to happen.”

“I can see that. And I feel the same.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I asked her to show me around, once she was done celebrating in her tears of who knows what now.

“I guess you were needed more elsewhere.” She finally concluded.

I took a look around, the Felines down here were quite busy, everything was clean, besides a few occupied desks. It was spectacular that a handful of Felines still had it in them to keep the village alive, even if it included relocating.

“Who caused this?” I asked.

“The Murids! The filthy, rotten Murids. I knew they’d try to retaliate, after all these years.”

“How do you know?” I asked, alarmed at what seemed to be jumping to conclusions, though I dislike Murids, it changed a bit after they helped with the Ancients.

“Someone happened to spot the emblem on their ships. They came here with ships! They know we only have one, which was reserved for the King, and we don’t use it to attack anyone! What a foul play. They can’t attack us out here in the village. If it’s trouble with the Felines in the city, talk to them, don’t come shooting the village!”

“I know. I hear that.” I said, wishing for her to relax and get her head together. “I’m sure we can find out why they shot at us.”

“We did. There was a phone call.” She was now pacing around, seeming to figure something out, though I really couldn’t tell what. It all seems quite organized in here.

“And? What did they say?”

“They asked for the King, we put the new King on, the chief of security and they talked for a while. The new King seemed quite disabused, then the line went dead, he looked confused and then a few hours later all this happened.”

“Was the call recorded?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I haven’t listened to it though.”

“Well then, let me listen to it.”

She took me to the King’s office and we asked him to listen to his phone call records.

“Oh, that?” He said. “You wouldn’t be able to get anything out of it. It’s nonsense. I didn’t even know what to say half the time, really the whole time. It seems the late King had some dealings with them, I’m guessing the deal fell through and now this is their payment.”

“Let me listen to it.”

He handed me the phone, pressed a few buttons and it started to play.

The King’s voice started, “Hello?”

Then a muffled scratchy voice came through,“Feline representative, I’m calling to inform you about your deadline. You’re overdue. What are you going to do about it.”

“Could I ask—.”

“You can’t. Just tell me when it’s coming.”

“I don’t know—.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit. I know your puppet of a King is dead, if he cared about his village and their well-being then he would have at least let somebody know.”

“I mean he hasn’t, but I’m sure we can work something out. Is there some way—.”

“Listen. I’m not calling to make a deal, the deal was already made. If you don’t want to die just answer the question.”

“Let me ask around.”

“Make it quick.”

A minute later, and the King answered up, “Whoever this is. The King was a traitor, he’s ruined the whole village and hardly anyone knew what he was doing in the city.”

“Very well. I guess the answer is a no. Suffer the consequences.”

“Hey! Can’t we—.”

The recording ended.

I was a bit stunned. “Do you recognize the voice?” I asked.

“No, we hardly have any names to recognize in our data banks. Much less anyone to recognize the voice. The only thing is that it’s unmistakably a Murid despite the muffling.”

“Very true. I don’t think this leads us anywhere. I know the King had his dealings with someone in the city. It was hard to tell with whom. Even he, the King, had a hard time knowing what was going on. Per his diary at least.”

“You have that thing?” The new King asked, and I nodded. “I won’t believe it. Seems like a false lead to me. Just a shit story to cover up what he was actually doing. I’m sure he knew full well what he was up to, and planned it all from the start. Then, once we kicked him out he killed himself and set up a raid to ruin the village and bury himself with all of his crimes. Nobody dies while writing a diary and ends it with an ellipsis.”

“I have good reason to believe that diary.” I said. “There’s more than what just happens in the village. Let’s just say I have a few ears outside and, though I didn’t see this coming, I wasn’t surprised.”

He stood up and seethed at me. “So you knew we were in trouble and this would happen?”

“No, I didn’t.”

He cut me of angrily, “Look at what happened to us all. We have no home. I sleep on the floor in this very office. The air is rotten with all the bodies and there hasn’t been any fresh air or food for days!”

“I know it’s tough! I would have been here to help. Have you heard the good news?”

“Of course I heard. The Ancients who you let out, who haven’t been a real menace for thousands of years, suddenly show up and you have to go and run off to battle them. You could have stayed and helped. I don’t believe it was coincidence that you happened to go right when we got bombarded. You even have a ship. I know, I’m chief of security and have scouts all around.”

“I think you’re taking it a bit too far. I’m here to help. I’m part of this village as much as you are.”

“You barely step foot in this village. We don’t need your help we’ve got it all under control and we’ll continue living our happy lives without you!”

The Maiden of Truth tried to step in. “That’s not necessary.” She said with force that surprised even me. “She can come as go as she needs. She is royalty you know.”

“That’s fine,” I said, brushing them both off. “I do have more to do and save the rest of Xenobia. Since you’ve got it under control, I’ll be on my way and carry on getting to the bottom of all this pandemonium. I can hardly breathe in here anyways.”

The new King seemed smugly happy and the Maiden of Truth stood there dumbfounded.

As I got to the door I could here her yelling, “Huntress, Huntress!”

I kept walking and she caught up with me, stopping me near her old burned down library. “Huntress, please don’t leave. We need your help, look at all of this, everything that happened.”

I did, it was all burnt just a memory now.

She continued, “If there’s one place you’re needed right now, it’s here. Really, don’t leave us again.”

“I know,” I said calmly, feeling more at ease just talking with her. “But I really do have more things on my plate than just this. What you are doing here is as much as anyone could do, the best really. And you don’t need me.”

“No, we do.” She pleaded some more.

“But it’s not over, as you can see, this wasn’t the work of the Ancients and things are even worse now that the late King has died. You could say he really left a mess, but it wasn’t him.”

“What are you saying Dawn?”

“There’s more trouble and I’m on a lead to find out who it is, as far as I know he’s the one who’s sent the Murids here. They have to be on his orders just like the King was.”

“So you’re going to find this mysterious person?” She asked.

“Yes. I think so, it may be a long time before I do. He’s been in the city much longer than anyone would think. Now it’s just a matter of finding him and killing him, or stopping all the madness somehow.”

She had a hard time letting me go again, especially in this state. I know she’s taken her beatings. “Please Dawn, just make it back again. I’m getting old and I don’t hunk I can stand up to much more day like these. I don’t have another prophecy for another Huntress, nor another Maiden of Truth, nor another King.” She started crying again, now for something I might understand. “This may be the last time I see you.”

She came close and hugged me.

It took a second but I hugged her back. She was the one who took me to be the Huntress, she helped guide me through some hard times and really, was the one behind me the whole time, despite all of her crying and pleas for help. There was so much I hadn’t told her, a lot she doesn’t know, but she knew I was doing the right thing.

We stepped back and we looked at each other for a moment. “I’m sure I’ll see you again. I’ll have to come back home, even if home is relocated a few miles to the north.”

She thought for a second and then brightened up, “That’s a great idea, there’s plenty of farm land and forests to build on, even if it includes taking out a few trees.”

I started walking back, trying to think of something to say, but I said it already.

Next stop, my family.