“My cherished friend…” she cried, sitting on the grass with her wet hands covering her eyes. “Billi, I missed you…”
Elysha caught her breath as she stood behind the bushes. “I-I found her.”
As she took in the scene, Micah emerged from the keyhole and said, “Hey, wait a minute! Micah knows that girl!”
“You do?”
“Yep!” he nodded. “That girl you are seeing is a Nartti Zhivopian. The Narttis are one of the three civilizations in the forest, along with the Illumija and the Kajenwa villages. When the Deity—our guardian of the forest, Iröstos—is in hibernation, these three villages protect the forest and its inhabitants from any threats.”
He continued, “And this girl, she is youngest of all the children of Narmittari, the head of the Nartti village.”
Elysha watched as she wept, still sobbing under her hands, “Billiiiiii…”
Micah noticed Elysha stepping through the bushes, twigs and leaves brushing through her dress. He asked in a loud whisper, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“She’s crying, and I want to help her,” she replied, and walked up to the little girl on the grass.
As she approached, Elysha took in the Nartti girl’s features: the person appeared to be about her age and height, with light brown skin and short, messy dark brown hair. She was wearing green overall shorts, a white button-up shirt with short sleeves, red shoes, and a silver moon necklace. Colorful stickers and bandages covered her arms and legs, as well as cute barrettes on her bangs. There were two long fluffy canine ears sticking out of her head, as long as her hair itself.
Not only that, but she has a long tail that is even fluffier.
*crunch*
The girl’s ears pricked up at the sound of crushed dead leaves. She pulled her hands away from her tear-stained face, her amber eyes snapping back to reality as she looked up at Elysha in surprise.
“Who are you?” she asked, sniffing her tears.
She flinched, and she quickly replied, “I—um, I’m Elysha, and I wanted to see if you were okay or not.”
Wiping away her tears, the girl with the canine ears and tail grew guarded as she growled softly, “I’m… I’m not fine. What do you want from me?”
“Uh-oh, she doesn’t look too happy,” Micah said from her keyhole stone.
Despite the lingering pain, Elysha’s mind raced to find the right words. “Um, I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to ask what happened because I heard you crying.”
She froze at the temptation to retreat when she saw the Nartti girl’s unfriendly face and continued, “If you do not want me here, then I will leave you alone. Is that okay with you?”
The Nartti girl’s face lowered without a response. Following that reaction, Elysha turned to leave when a voice from behind shouted, “Wait!”
She paused, then turned to see the girl with fear in her eyes. She gathered her courage and spoke, “I... I need your help!”
“Help you?”
“M-My friend Billi is being chased away by a gigantic, scary—really, really scary monster!” she cried. “I wanted to head back to my village to tell everyone, but… but I want to save Billi! I don’t want to leave Billi alone by himself. I can’t get my brain to decide on what to do!”
Elysha let her words sink in thoughtfully. “A giant scary monster?”
“Yeah! A giant monster—a demon, actually! It’s like staring into a wall of nothing but black! A demon as if spawned from the Underworld has come to steal the sky and my Billi!”
She continued, “I could have run all the way back to my home village because my mama could easily destroy that demon and save Billi and Zhivopia! But my village is too far away and outside on the surface… What if we come back and Billi gets eaten by the monster?”
Then she grabbed Elysha’s shoulders tightly and pleaded desperately, “I don’t know who you are, but please! I need your help to get my Billi back! If you could help me rescue him, I’d give you whatever you want. I swear it! Just please, help me save my friend!”
“Sorcha seems to be in real trouble,” Micah interjected, then emerged himself out of the keyhole and between the Nartti girl and Elysha. “We can help you! You can count on us for anything!”
The girl wiped the tears from her eyes, her voice still shaky as she spoke, “Micah, is that you?”
“It’s me, yep!”
Her eyes widened with a gleam when she saw Micah, and she rushed toward him until she was hugging his small body, “Ah, Micah! You’re here! I’m so glad that you’re here!”
“Ahh, you’re crushing me!” he groaned.
Elysha, stunned by the turn of events, expressed her confusion. “Huh? You two knew each other? Are you two friends?”
“I told you just a moment ago that we know each other!” he let out a gasp from the embrace. “Let Micah go!”
Then he broke free from the Nartti girl’s grip and shook his fur. He said, “I assumed that you haven’t learned about this yet, but in the Forest of Iröstos, everyone knows everyone, whether Elbijan or Zhivopian, that’s how it is with us, according to the Deity’s philosophy. We are all one family!”
“That’s right!” said the girl, turning her attention around. “Micah and Sorcha are both friends and family!”
“Sorcha, your name is Sorcha?”
“Sorcha is Sorcha, that’s me!” she smiled, then began to sulk again. “Wahhh! Billi is not here!”
“Aw, don’t worry Sorcha, Elysha and I can go search and find Billi for you,” Micah assured her.
Her eyes beamed, “Oh really?”
“Yeah, finding and rescuing your friend from that giant monster spawn sounds like a lot of fun!” he said with enthusiasm.
“Giant monster?” Elysha muttered to herself, trying to imagine this description but coming up with nothing, nor did she know what a “monster” was.
“Where can we find this monster?” Micah asked, looking up at the sky. “If it was that gigantic, we would have seen it by now, wouldn’t we?”
“My Billi was chased away by the monster to, um, I don’t know where!”
Tears began to flow again, and Sorcha sobbed under her hands. Elysha turned to Micah and asked, “Um, what are we going to do? I remember you saying that you know a lot about the forest you call home. Do you know where to find Billi or the monster?”
He shook his head. “Well, Micah’s never heard of this gigantic monster creature, and my senses aren’t as sharp as you might think.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. When I think of ‘monstrous,’ I can only think of the Narmittari. But this demon-like monster Sorcha is talking about can’t be her. She wouldn’t call her mother to be that scary or go after her pet.”
“He’s right!” she interjected. “My mother is not scary! My mother is great and powerful and scary!”
“You heard her,” Micah nodded.
“Then, what could that monster be?”
“No idea, but I want to find out, just hearing about it makes me interested and curious to see it for myself,” he grinned.
“If it’s scary, then is it really okay to see this monster?” Elysha asked worriedly.
Before Micah could respond, Sorcha’s ears and tail perked up and she quickly turned around, her eyes fixed in one direction as she shouted, “I can feel Billi’s presence now!”
“Oh? You can?”
Her hands clenched, and without hesitation, she sprinted away at a fast pace. “Billi! I’m coming to save you!”
Within seconds, the Nartti girl was out of their sight, leaving Elysha and Micah stunned by the sudden turn of events.
“Welp, we have to follow her,” Micah said, snapping Elysha out of her daze.
“Follow her?”
“Yep! We have to catch up to her or she will be too far away for me to trace her presence.”
Micah began to race ahead, and Elysha promptly followed, her legs trying to keep up with his swift pace. As they ran, she began to wonder.
‘Is this part of the trial? I don’t know, maybe it isn’t,’ she wondered, then shook it off and continued to follow Micah and Sorcha.
~ ❈❇❈ ~
They followed the Nartti girl’s trail through the woods, with Micah pacing ahead and Elysha struggling to keep up. More than once, he called out to her to help her catch up to him.
After several minutes, they caught up to her and saw her figure standing on the ground. Elysha hefted herself to catch her breath as Micah shouted from a branch, “Sorcha! We caught up to you!”
Just as he called her name, they noticed that she wasn’t paying attention to them. Her eyes were fixed upward at something, as if trying to take in what she saw.
“Sorcha?” he repeated, jumping off the branch and following her gaze upwards, and when Elysha did the same, their eyes widened in shock.
A colossal dark creature hovered in the sky and on the ground, emitting an uncomfortable aura that seemed to permeate the air and their very skin.
“Huh? What is that?” Elysha muttered from her mouth, the sight sending shivers down her spine.
The creature had a long, sinuous tail that curled like a hook and swung through the clouds. Its four towering legs stood taller than the surrounding trees, and its ears twitched in the shape of mountains. Its face, almost a void-like abyss, stared down at the trees as if searching for something. In its dark expression, the creature had two white eyes, like portals to different worlds.
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“Meow.”
The voice echoed, a sound that reverberated through the woods, causing masses of birds and other species to take flight in a startled frenzy. Its tail swayed from side to side, swirling the clouds together like a cauldron.
Micah was the first to react, his mouth shouting, “Wait, is that a cat?”
“K-Kitty?!”
He turned to Elysha, whose face was a wash of disbelief and shock.
“Kitty?” he tilted his head, confused.
Sorcha, who was standing nearby, stepped up to them with her finger pointing at the creature and shouted, “That’s the giant monster I was talking about! The demon from the Underworld that tried to chase my Billi!”
Micah looked back at the massive, dark cat. “I never thought such a phenomenal creature would appear in Zhivopia of all places.”
“Well, we can’t just stand around and do nothing to save Billi! We have to and find him right—!”
Before Sorcha could finish her thought, the cat raised his left paw and struck the ground with tremendous force, repeatedly pounding the earth.
“Ah—!” the three of them shouted as violent shockwaves rippled through the area, shaking tree trunks and raining branches and leaves down upon them.
“Elysha! Watch out!”
Her eyes turned upward to see a large branch falling toward her as a pair of arms pushed her aside to avoid the impact. Micah ran up to them to see Elysha frozen at the sight of Sorcha’s relieved face. She asked, “Are you all right?”
“Y-Yes, I’m all right.”
The tremors did not stop, however, and the three continued to evade the shaking earth and falling objects. They backed away from the moving creature’s paws as they collided with the ground.
“Meow… Meow… Meow…”
The ominous sounds continued to reverberate through the air, unsettling the trio. Micah deftly dodged another fallen branch that was about to strike him, his ears on high alert.
“What is that giant cat doing?” he shouted in frustration, “I almost got hit just now!”
Sorcha found a stable position and looked up again to observe his behavior. “That monster is trying to find and find Billi and hurt him!” she shouted, her fists clenched in determination. “That means he must be hiding nearby! I have to find him fast!”
Elysha, dizzy but trying to make sense of the situation, turned to Sorcha and asked, “How will you find him?”
The Nartti child remained silent, her hands pressed to her soft, pointed ears as she strained to hear a particular voice. Her expression became focused, her eyes closed and her lips tightened in concentration as she scanned her surroundings, searching for the source of the sound.
While they waited for response, Elysha and Micah noticed various fleeing groups running from the giant creature. They ranged from individuals to families who had left their homes to escape the wrath of the quake.
“Looks like Zhivopia is panicking,” Micah said, his tone unusually serious. “The tremors have everyone running scared.”
Elysha clutched a trunk of a tree. “Um, maybe we should do the same? If it’s that bad—”
“No!” Sorcha interrupted, her eyes still closed. “I’m not leaving Billi behind! He’s out there somewhere, and I’m not going without him.”
Micah sighed and brushed leaves from his fur. “I get it, you’re determined, but we’re not exactly equipped to fight that thing.” He gestured with a paw at the colossal creature that was now coming closer, his massive paws crushing the undergrowth with each step. “If Billi’s nearby, we need to find him fast, before the monster does.”
“Yeah! As long as I have my Billi, then we can run away together!”
Elysha continued to watch as the fleeing groups ran off, and she began to grow nervous as she held the trunk closer to her, overwhelmed by the sounds coming into her ears.
*squeak*
Sorcha’s ears pricked up, straining as she tilted her head to one side. “I heard him!” she exclaimed, pointing her finger in a certain direction. “I heard him crying from that way!”
Without hesitation, she darted towards the source of the voice. “Billi! I am coming to save you!”
The two left behind exchanged a quick glance as Sorcha dashed ahead. Then they followed her as they hurried through the trembling forest.
Elysha panted heavily, clutching her chest as she tried to keep up with Sorcha and Micah. The creature’s deafening meows reverberated behind them, and she nearly stumbled as she tried to keep up.
Micah noticed her movement speed and slowed his pace to match hers. “Are you all right Elysha? Need my help?”
She shook her head, “No, I’m fine.”
Then, she paused to catch her breath, and in that moment she couldn’t help but wonder. “Micah, I want to ask you something.”
Micah stopped and tilted his head, his tail swaying as he replied, “What is it?”
“This… all of this,” Elysha gestured at the chaos around them: the colossal cat-like creature, the fleeing people of Zhivopia, and Sorcha darting through the woods. “Is this… part of my trial? The Trial of Iröstos?”
Micah blinked. “Your trial? You think this is part of it?”
“I don’t know,” Elysha said, her voice growing more uncertain. “You said that my mind’s intuition is a hint. So… is saving Sorcha’s Billi part of it? Or does the trial have to do with stopping the big Kitty?”
Micah scratched his head with a paw, his usual smug demeanor softening. “Uhh… yeah, so… funny thing about that.”
“Huh?”
“This isn’t part of your trial,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“What?” Elysha spoke out in shock. “But—what do you mean?”
“Look, I didn’t plan for a giant shadow-cat-monster to show up, okay?” Micah sighed defensively. “This whole thing? Not scripted. How was I supposed to know that a massive cat demon was roaming the sub-layer domains of Zhivopia?”
Elysha stared at him, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to process his words. “So… this isn’t part of my trial, and I’m just… stuck in the middle of this mess?”
“Pretty much, yep,” Micah replied with a shrug, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “But hey, you’re handling it like a champ! If I were you, I’d probably just run and let Sorcha deal with it.”
“That’s not helpful, Micah!” Elysha said, stomping her foot in frustration. “If this isn’t part of my trial, why are we even here? Is the trial even real?”
“You were the one who stumbled upon Sorcha before all this happened!”
Hearing his words, Elysha looked back at the giant creature, whose shadowy figure seemed to have swallowed part of the ceiling of the sky. She asked, “You said you had never seen anything like this before, right?”
“Nope, I have never seen that cat in my life, or any phenomena of this magnitude.”
“Phenomena…?”
“That’s right, that giant cat could very well likely be a phenomenon from the Underworld,” Micah said, nodding his head.
Elysha furrowed her brow. ‘Phenomenon? Underworld?’
Her mind reeled with complications, overwhelmed with many terms and things she could not understand with her current knowledge. She had just read a description of a cat from her study book, but to compare it to the one she saw now was beyond the scope of what her brain had absorbed.
“I’m very confused,” she said, shaking her head.
“I’m also confused as well,” Micah admitted. “Like I said, this is the first time I’ve seen a likely Underworld phenomenon roaming our lands. It’s a very rare occurrence. This ‘cat’ anomaly doesn’t belong here, and we may have to kill it or something, because if left unchecked, that giant monster could disrupt the Order of Balance between Elbijans and Zhivopians.”
Elysha tilted her head. “‘Kill?’ What is a kill? I don’t understand anything.”
“Uhh, I promise to explain everything later,” Micah assured her. “But for now, let’s stop wasting our time and focus on catching up to—”
Elysha’s attention snapped forward as she saw a massive paw hit the ground just a few meters in front of them. The impact sent tremors through the earth, causing the ground to quiver violently and dirt and rocks to be hurled into the air.
“WAAHHH!!! Talk about bad timing!” Micah shouted in midair.
At the same moment, Elysha stumbled, clutching a tree trunk as the shaking nearly knocked her off balance. Micah quickly jumped onto a nearby branch to regain his balance as he heard a triumphant shout, “Billi! I’m here to save you! Hold on for me!”
Then a low, squeaky cry came from nearby. Sorcha sprang forward, her small frame darting through the chaos like a bolt of lightning. The cry grew louder as she approached a cluster of massive roots tangled together at the base of an enormous tree.
“Billi! It’s me!” she called out, her voice breaking as she dropped to her knees and began frantically clawing at the dirt and roots. A tiny pink nose peeked out from the tangle, followed by wide, trembling eyes.
“Billi!” Sorcha gasped, tears streaming down her face. She reached out and gently pulled the large, pale rodent free, cradling him against her chest. “I’ve got you now. You’re finally safe with me.”
The ground shook violently again as the massive paw of the shadowy cat monster crashed down nearby, tearing into the earth and sending chunks of rock and wood flying. Sorcha shielded Billi with her body, her lips tightening as debris rained down around them.
“Sorcha!” Micah yelled, leaping from branch to branch and to the ground before sprinting toward her. “We’ve have to move! Or else that thing’s going to flatten us!”
Billi let out another squeaky cry, trembling with fear as Sorcha held him close. Elysha staggered as she caught up with them, her breathing labored from the effort. “Um... this Billi you’re looking for... is a rat?” she asked heavily, remembering a picture of a rodent from her book.
Sorcha nodded her head with a smile. “Yes! This is Billi, my cherished friend who has been with me since I was a baby!”
She watched as Sorcha nuzzled the rat’s head. Still catching her breath, Elysha turned and looked up to see two huge white eyes staring down at her, surrounded by an even larger black void, covering the sky.
“Billi is shaking so terribly,” Sorcha murmured sympathetically, stroking the rat’s fur gently. “I feel so bad that he had to endure so much fear and pain. The giant monster who hurt him is going to feel my WRATH!”
“Meowww.....”
A deep, guttural growl resonated through the forest, sending shivers down their spines. Micah and Sorcha looked up to see a colossal creature lowering his head ominously toward them. His growl turned into a long, throaty purr that felt more like a vibration in the earth than a sound.
Then, the creature’s long, curly tail flailed through the air.
*crash*
It hit the ground with such force that trees toppled over. More of the surrounding inhabitants scattered in a frenzy of fear, their cries of alarm piercing through the chaos.
“G-Great… What are we going to do? This is starting to get real bad…” Micah’s voice trembled as he spoke, his eyes still fixed on the giant monster staring down at them.
Sorcha, cradling Billi in her arms, replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t care now that I have Billi with me! I say we should make a run for it!”
“You don’t care if Zhivopia becomes this cat monster’s playground?” Micah asked eyebrow-raisingly. “Don’t you visit here often for funsies with your friends?”
She hesitated and bit her lip. The gray-furred Zhivopian replied, “Haha, did I caught you in your throat?”
“I do care!” she muttered out. “I loved everyone in Zhivopia as much as I loved my Billi! I don’t want this stupid cat monster to take this home away from me!”
With a panting breath she continued, “But… But! I don’t want to get hurt too, so now we should go back to the Nartti village and find my mama so that she and other strong people can stop this monster!”
“I’m not leaving.”
They turned to Elysha, who stood beside them with an intent look on her face.
“Are you that dumb?” Sorcha asked. “Do you want yourself to be crushed by that giant monster?”
“No, I don’t want to,” she shook her head. “But I don’t want to leave yet.”
“You don’t understand. If you stay, we could all be crushed like pancakes!” she frowned, her eyebrows knitted together. “That monster is so evil, it stirs my heart like ice cubes!”
“And poor Billi…” she went on, looking down at the rat. “The giant monster has tried to eat him many times. I don’t want to keep staying here any longer. We should—”
“Then you go home,” Elysha interrupted. “Micah and I will try to stop this cat.”
“Why is Micah getting dragged into this?” he protested.
“Says you who fell asleep and left me alone in my trial,” she frowned.
“Ugh, you don’t have to keep mentioning it, and for what reason do you want to stay behind here of all times?”
“Because…” she turned her eyes up at the colossal, shadowy cat creature, still staring at them with his tail swaying in the sky, ready to strike down on the earth again at any unpredictable moment. “That cat is Kitty.”
“Kitty?” Sorcha repeated the name, tilting her head and ears.
“Yes, he went missing earlier,” she then turned he gaze back to them. “I want to talk to him.”
“Do you think you could talk to that gigantic thing?” Micah asked in disbelief.
“Kitty is not a thing, Kitty is my friend,” she corrected. “I was looking for him, and now he is right there, but bigger.”
“Now you are starting to sound like Sorcha,” he sighed, groaning. “Grrr fine, Micah will help you, but only for a little bit of time! And if things get really bad, then we’re leaving!”
She turned her attention to Sorcha, who hesitated, clutching Billi tightly. Her lips trembled, and her pointed ears drooped slightly. “I-I don’t want to leave you two behind… but I don’t want Billi to be in danger anymore.”
“Then go. Make sure you and Billi go home safely,” Elysha said with a light smile.
“You promise you’ll be okay, right?” she begged. “If you two are not okay, then Sorcha will get upset and cry. I’ll come back and scold you both!”
“We promise!” they both said together.
Sorcha nodded, and with Billi cradled securely in her arms, she quickly disappeared into the trees, fleeing from the imminent danger.