Invisible (IV)

"Elder!" A young male voice called from outside the building. "Elder!"

"Tyga?"

Elder Mako got up first to check out what the commotion was all about. The rest followed after him, curious about who was yelling.

"Elder Mako! There are soldiers at one of the side entrances into our home!" Tyga was waving down Elder Mako in worry. "The others had already left to stop them, but there are just too many!"

"What? They've already come so early?"

"You knew this was going to happen?" Zero asked. "I thought the KingKing didn't know you lived here. Even I didn't know."

"We had information these past few days that the New King had decreed extermination of all half humans and beast people from the city. It was not a known fact because they started in the slums. It won't be long before they spread to the other parts of the section of the city."

"Which way Zero. Which way is to your village?" Elder Miki asked quickly. Her tail nervously swung back and forth.

"To the south of the outer city. I'm not sure if it has gone into the Forgotten Forest yet." Zero quickly replied. He didn't doubt the NPC's words that they would bring harm to his Draconis Village at all. Unfortunately, they were in the same predicament as him. "Tell any other beast man and hybrid humans to make it to the city's south. I'll guide you from there."

"That will be done." Elder Mako replied. "Tyga. memory maker. You heard the man. We don't have much time. Burn the houses, so the new KingKing doesn't use our food and technology against us. It will give us time."

"It shall be done, Elder." M2 sprinted away. Zero could see him quickly hopping from one building to the next, shouting to his people to head towards the secret exit. Even Tyga went opposite from M2 to cover a different portion of their village.

"Zero. We must go towards the secret exit. My people were already prepared for such things to happen. A majority of them should be at the secret exit by now. Follow us, and we shall show you the way."

Quest updated.

We are bringing the Cat People to the Sacred grounds of the Dragon.

A new race of demi-human cats appeared out from hiding. They asked the Drezo Regalia to take them to the sacred grounds of the Drezo Regalia to plant the Sacred Seed. If the Seed is not planted by the end of this year, it will die.

Escape from the Kingdom's soldiers through the secret underground passage. Do not get caught or killed. Do not let Elder Mako and Miki die, or the quest will fail.

Quest Level: C

Reward: 300 blessed seeds + an unknown item

Failure: death of a Sacred Seed

Elder Mako and Miki casually walked towards the edge of the walkway and jumped downwards. They landed perfectly on another building without even getting hurt. They continued their pace running across the walkway towards the direction they were headed for.

Zero stared at the feline's grace and power to avoid getting injured. They could still land gracefully onto the next building's ledge for an old cat. He wondered how he was going to get down without hurting himself badly. This whole underground village was not made for normal people to walk through. In actuality, he felt bad for the soldiers that would have to come into the village and fight off the cat people.

Climbing and fighting were not easy due to the dexterity one needed to stay balanced and not fall. However, if the cat people were to fight, it was in their favor to win, and they could hold their ground against the invaders. The only problem was how strong they were. That was the question he asked himself when he studied the cats.

They weren't weak for sure; they had agility and dexterity. Even using guerrilla warfare would be in their favor because of their body structure. M2 seems to be quite powerful from the looks of it. When he first met, he did not feel like easy prey to overcome. However, this was no time to overthink the possibilities of these cat people and instead figure out a way down without getting hurt. Quickly, he scanned for different options and found his route.

Zero ran across the walkway and jumped towards the next building. He jumped further from his momentum and ended up on the opposite building. Without any rest, he continued running forward.

With quick judgment, Zero could hop from one building to the next without too much trouble. He was glad that he was a part dragon, or he wouldn't be able to do any of these acrobatic jumps. Zero followed closely behind as best as he could with the two elders. There were many times when they slipped out of his sight just as quickly as they appeared.

Chasing a cat was a lot more difficult than he liked. He concluded that the cat people did not need help in keeping the soldiers back. They would be tired just from chasing them through the building.

Zero stopped momentarily and glanced back over his shoulders. Off in the distance, he saw smoke rising towards the ceiling. Fire blazed like wildfire as it brightened up the area even more. The fire licked the buildings and caught quickly on fire. It helped immensely that the buildings were so close to one another that the fire spread easily. The cat people dashed away from the buildings as they made their escape.

A clash of metal against metal could be faintly heard from the distance. Even the sound of cat people hissing in anger at the intruders. Elder Miki appeared next to Zero, startling him with her unexpected appearance.

"Dear, we need to go. We can't stay here too long, or we will miss the opportunity to escape."

"I'm sorry. I just was wondering how things were going over there."

"MemoryMaker is one of our finest warriors. He would do just fine in keeping the soldiers at bay. Now, we are almost there. Let's go." Elder Miki gently pulled on Zero's hand and guided him the rest of the way.

They arrived in front of a ledge where hundreds of cat people of different colors and ages were waiting for Elder Mako and Elder Miki. Elder Mako went up to the wall and placed his hands against the wall. The stone wall shook and then opened, allowing them passage. In a single file line, they entered.

"How many of our people are missing?" Elder Miki asked as she came up next to Elder Mako.

"We're missing about twenty of our kind. They should be coming right about now. They are our quickest and most agile warriors that would get the job done."

"I know, but I'm just worried."

"Go on ahead. I'll follow behind when the rest are here."

"Be careful, dear."

"I will." They both rubbed their faces against one another and purred. Elder Miki went in first through the passageway with the others. Elder Mako stood to the side, letting his people go through.

Zero did not know if he should follow after or wait with Elder Mako. Even though the strongest warriors of the cat people would be coming any moment now, he did not know if something might happen to Elder Mako before they got there. The quest specified that if either Elder Mako or Elder Miki died, the quest would end up in failure. Protecting the elder was not easy, especially when they needed to escape without being caught. He decided to wait a bit longer and see if Elder Mako wanted him to go through.

Off in the distance, humanoid cats were running in their direction. Then, finally, a group of fifteen came bounding forward and stopped in front of Elder Mako.

"Elder. It's good to see you are well."

"I'm glad to see that all of you are fine. What happened with the rest?"

"M2 is keeping the soldiers at bay. He gave us a chance to escape. But, instead, he said he would be coming right behind us."

Elder Mako furrows his bushy eyes. "Hurry, enter the secret passage, and protect the rest of our people. I shall stay out here a bit longer."

"Yes, elder, but you need protection. We can't just leave you out here by yourself."

"It's alright; I have a Drezo Regalia to protect me."

All the cat warriors snapped their attention to Zero. But, at first, they didn't pay much attention to Zero till now.

"Are you sure this is the Dragon that you speak of? He's not much older than a boy."

"Do not be fooled by one's appearance. He is much older and stronger than he looks."

The cat warriors seized him to see if Elder Mako's words were true. Even still, they did not completely believe in Elder Mako's words and were just about to say something more when Elder Mako raised his hand. He shook his head to stop them from saying anything further.

"I understand." The cat warrior bowed. "Move out. We must protect our people!"

The cat warriors roared in unison and went into the secret passageway.

"Do not mind them. This is the first time seeing a Drezo Regalia. They are not gifted with the foresight to see your true form. What they see is just an outer shell of who you are."

"You knew what I look like?"

"I had foreseen it."

"How? I thought you had to visit the sacred grounds to gain such ability."

"Only a rare few are born with the ability of foresight. The rest must take the pilgrimage to obtain it."

"So that's how you guys were able to stay hidden for so long."

"That is correct. However, my gift is not as strong as our ancestors. We are known to be able to go in and out of trance with our will freely, but now we are not able to. I cannot help but feel ashamed of how useless I am when it comes to using my abilities."

Zero was silent. He understood the feeling of helplessness when he needed to help people.

Five cat warriors were running frantically towards the Elder. Right behind them was M2.

"Elder, get in the passageway now!" M2 shouted. Zero noticed a large lizard monster chasing closely behind them.

Elder Mako's eyes widened from the sudden outburst. He listened to M2's words and headed into the secret passage. The five cat warriors ran past Zero. Zero followed behind him, and the last one to come through was M2. He barely slipped through the crack as the passageway closed. Before the entrance was completely closed off, M2 threw a poisoned dagger at the Lizard. It squarely hit the Lizard in the eye and the door completely closed.

The walls were brightly lit with torches. A couple of the cat warriors took the torches in hand and walked with them.

"That was a close call." M2 was leaning against the entrance wall. He pushed up and began to pat himself off. "I thought I would be lizard food any minute now."

"How did it go?"

"Elder, don't worry. All the important documents were brought with me, and the buildings and extra food we could not take were burning brilliantly. They won't be able to take what we left behind."

Elder Mako sighed. "I'm glad to hear that."

The group had begun to walk towards the first group that entered.

"I did not expect them to bring the Fire Lizards, though. I didn't see how serious they would be about the hunt. I was so wrong."

"What does a Fire Lizard even do?" Zero asked.

"Their well knew for their tracking ability. They need a bite of your blood to find you."

"Did you get bitten?" Elder Mako worriedly asked.

"No. Luckily none of us did."

"We were too fast for that lizard, Elder." The warriors chuckled. "We were playing tag to see who could agitate the fat lizard anyways."

"I got the most hits in."

"No, I did. Didn't you see it roll over when I slammed into it?"

"What are you talking about? I got the first hit and made it roll onto its back."

"You guys all fail. M2 did the last hit. We all know M2 threw that poison dagger."

All the cats smirked and nodded in unison. Zero couldn't help but think these cat people were very playful. They played with their foe as if they were a toy instead of killing them in one hit.

"That lizard's going to have a hard time getting that out, but you won't believe what I have." A warrior cat whistled. He was hiding something from behind his back, smirking.

"What?"

A lizard's tail came from behind the cat warrior's back. It was still squirming in his hands as he showed it to the rest of his group.

"You didn't"

"I did."

"He did."

"You're awesome!"

"Hands down, you win this round."

"Bwhahahahahahah. A tailless lizard. You're the best. I was wondering what had happened to its tail. It was running so oddly after us." M2 couldn't contain his laughter and instead held himself up against the wall. "I swear you should've seen the way it ran. It reminded me of someone who got their butt on fire."

The others bawled in laughter at the sight of the Lizard's tail squirming in the warrior's hand. It was even passed around from one cat to another. They cracked jokes as they continued down the long winding pathways. Time flew by quickly as the joyous laughter rang through the passageway.

At every turn, the boisterous laughter and jokes they crack would continually ring throughout the inner walls. It wasn't long till they reached the main group, who stopped in a large room where everyone could fit in.