The Exiles (4 page)

Felx gestured with his hand to one of the large open window that faced the city below.

From above, Trex watched as the councillors turned to see that the mist was still quite heavy. Through the top of the haze they could just make out the morning sun's rays as they slid down the distant northern mountains, the snow-capped peaks shining like fiery orange beacons through the fog.

‘Fog like this happens only a few times a year,' Captain Felx stated, ‘we are dealing with very patient and bold professionals.'

The councillors turned back to face Captain Felx.

‘Even so,' Captain Felx continued, ‘a guard discovered a rope and raised the alarm. Unfortunately, the thieves were able to slip away in the fog before we could secure the area.'

‘I suppose it was good that the wolves were discovered before they could take anything of value,' said Herrol, self importantly.

Up on his perch, Trex rolled his eyes in annoyance. Councillor Herrol's continued anti-wolf attitude irritated Trex almost as much as it did the Captain. Trex couldn't understand why the lion councillor chose to live in the occupied territory if he mistrusted wolves so much.

‘Herrol,' stated Tasch calmly, not turning to look at her fellow councillor, ‘at this stage we are not sure who the thieves are, I wish you would stop calling them wolves.'

‘Who else would it be… one of us?' replied Herrol. Becoming upset, he gestured animatedly towards the others with his hands.

‘We all know the Captain is too easy on them, they don't even have a curfew within the city limits!'

Herrol threw his hands into the air in exasperation.

Felx's expression became more focused. Herrol had once again been able to bring his pet-issue onto the council floor.

‘We have called up more reservists and are sweeping the city and surrounding area,' said Captain Felx in a businesslike tone, ‘as there are no other critical issues with the rest of my report, I feel it would actually be best if I could rejoin my soldiers at this time.'

High up in the rafters, Trex suddenly became uneasy. As interesting as the information was, this was not the best time to be trespassing in the inner city, particularly with the increased patrols in the area. Normally, Trex's offence of trespass would not have resulted in a serious punishment, but he didn't want to test the council's patience at this time. Standing up, Trex started to make his way to his window exit.

Down below, the meeting continued.

‘And who is to give the weekly report?' asked Gerak calmly, ‘I am sure that Lieutenant Millan can handle the situation adequately. She is quite capable in these matters.'

Felx faltered, thinking how best to respond.

‘Captain,' interrupted Tasch. She placed her hands together in front of her as she lent forward.

‘I assume you have your report fully written up?'

‘Yes, Head Councillor,' replied Captain Felx automatically, ‘I prepared everything last night.'

‘Well then,' continued Tasch, ‘I can read them out if you like. We can take notes of any questions for you to answer next time.' The head councillor smiled. She offered one hand, leathery palm up, as a gesture.

‘I am sure given the circumstances it would not be best to detain the Captain any further,' she added.

‘Here, Here,' came the general consent from the councillors.

Councillor Gerak remained silent, his dark eyes staying steady on the Captain.

Unnoticed from those far below, Trex had made his way back to the open window. Grabbing hold of the large window frame for support, he looked back over his shoulder to see the Captain preparing to leave the gathering. The more he heard, the more worried he became, he could be in big trouble this time if he was caught, and all because he had been bored. Mumbling to himself, he cursed his stupid adventure stories, this never happened to the heroes he read about.

Behind him, he could hear the councillors continue their meeting; this, however, held no more interest for Trex as he began to seriously concern himself with his escape. This was not going to be easy.

The thick morning mist was quickly clearing and the young lion could see from the light hitting the northern mountains that the sun would soon be up. In a matter of minutes it would be impossible to move throughout the inner city unnoticed by the increased number of guards. Cursing his luck, he realized that his usual path back to his own room would now be too well watched to reach. Panicking, his mind raced, he had to get out, simple as that. Being caught trespassing while trying to escape was as bad as staying here. At least if he tried to escape, he had a small chance of getting away.

Trex checked the tall watch tower in front of him and the top of the nearby inner-city wall for guards. Quickly flipping up the hood of his orange cloak, he jumped out onto the roof, heading east towards the soon to be rising sun.

Like most members of the lion race, Trex had no problems moving silently at speed when he wanted to. Without any forethought, he navigated the angled tiled roofs and round domes of the administration wing of the council chambers swiftly.

Luckily for Trex, the administration building had many different roof levels. Unfortunately, the lower roof was still two stories above the ground and there was no easy way down to the gardens below.

Dashing through the fog from one bit of cover to the next, the lion youth slid and jumped his way forward on bare padded feet. There were indeed more guards then usual. Trex gulped involuntarily. Coming to the edge of the lower roof, he pressed his back against the upper storey's wall. The wall he was leaning on continued out beyond the end of the roof he was standing on.

Leaning over, the lion looked down into the garden below, his tail twitching nervously below his cloak. Trex's expression was focused and determined, his breathing shallow. He concentrated on moving on in an attempt to stop fear from gripping him.

Trex jumped off the roof, latching onto a nearby balcony floor that jutted out from the wall he had just been leaning on.

With his legs swinging freely, Trex grunted as he shuffled his hands across until he was satisfied with where he would land.

Letting go, the lion youth fell into a tree immediately below him. Trex emerged at the trees base on the soft grass, his eyes scanning left and right. Frantically, he dashed across the garden, running quickly between the various plants and fountains towards the base of one of the inner city's four watch towers.

Hiding in some larger bushes at the garden's edge, Trex pulled back his hood slightly, allowing the round fury ears on top of his head to move freely. He tried to calm his panting so that he could hear more. The two large circular lobes twisted independently, trying to pick up any movement in the immediate area. Hearing someone approaching, he ducked back down. Tensing up, Trex watched as two female lion guards emerged from the tower's base. Both appeared to be armed with bow and arrow. Luckily, neither stopped to check the gardens.

Puffing out his held-in breath, the young lion quickly checked the area again. He would just have to hope the fog was still thick enough to conceal him.

Trex's heart was already racing. He had never done anything like this before.

‘Come on, you can do this,' he encouraged himself quietly. He took another deep breath to calm himself down a little, ‘think of your training… focus.'

Running at full speed, Trex jumped up, pushing off the rough inner city wall with his large bare padded hands and feet, he leapt the one meter gap between the city wall and a stone doorframe of the tower. Using his strong muscles he rebounded back off of the doorframe - to the wall - and then back once again, quickly gaining height. With one more jump he was just able reach a pole that extended out above the high doorway.

Using his momentum, he swung himself quickly up until he perched himself, squatting, on the pole. The nearby walkway's edge on top of the battlement was now in pouncing reach, this edge was, however, six meters above a courtyard below.

Not allowing himself any time to think about what would happen if he missed, the lion youth sprang from the pole. Barely catching the walkways edge he scampered up quickly. He took a second to look around, he had not been seen, and no one was on this section of the wall for now.

‘We best get out there quickly,' came an adult male's voice through the doorway near Trex, ‘we don't want the officers to see a stretch of wall unmanned at the moment,' the voice continued.

Pressing his back to the tower's wall, Trex froze. The doorway was between him and the outer side of the wall.

‘Wait a second, I can't get this damn staff to transform,' said a frustrated female voice.

‘Me'thinks you have been letting your training go my dear,' said the first voice, mockingly.

‘I wasn't expecting to be called-up, now was I,' she replied in annoyance.

It was obvious from their interaction that the two knew each other. They may actually have been married.

‘Can you give me a hand?'

‘Yeah, sure,' said the adult male.

Risking a peek, Trex stuck his head around the corner. The male guard had turned his back to help the lioness. The lioness had her eyes closed, concentrating in an attempt to transform the long wooden staff she had in her hands into a bow.

Dashing across the open doorway, Trex threw himself over the northern battlement. This section of the inner city wall was well worn from the strong desert winds coming in from the east. The worn edges of the large blocks provided barely enough handholds for the young lion to make his way down.

Though Trex would now normally have been seen by almost the entire city from his perch on the outside of the inner city wall, it was unlikely given the poor visibility at the moment due to the fog, plus most Anthros in the city were still getting up.

RefugeCross was an old city, perched on a small hill, wedged between a large river and the endless sea. This meant that the city had become ever more cramped as its population had continued to grow. Now only a small alleyway separated the inner city's wall from the first line of buildings. As these buildings were two to three stories high in this part of the city, there was only about six meters of inner city wall that could be seen above the main city's roofline.

The first light of the morning sun had finally made it to RefugeCross itself, the powerful rays cutting through the morning-mist with disturbing ease. Trex could literally see the sun's rays moving down the high towers towards him. Progressing with increased haste, he lost his grip and began to slide down the wall.

Clenching his teeth, Trex dug his strong claws into the stonework, slowing his fall amongst dust and loosened stone. Down below, a few larger sections of freed rock hit audibly onto the stone paving. Having stopped his slide, Trex knew that he only had seconds to escape. Looking around frantically, his eyes focused onto the building opposite. He was now level with the flat roofline of the small stairway shaft, separated from it by only the narrow alleyway.

‘What the heck was that?' said the male lion guard in the tower.

‘Let's check it out,' said his female companion.

Rushing out of the tower onto the battlement, the two looked over the northern wall's edge. Scanning the area, they could only make out a few loose rocks on the pathway below. Both had to suddenly squint and shield their eyes with their hands in the newly arrived direct sunlight.

‘Hmmmm, check the rooftops from over there,' stated the adult lioness.

‘I'm on it,' said the older male guard, running down the length of the wall.

Looking out at the city, the lioness scanned for anything suspicious. RefugeCross had a multitude of building designs. Mostly the residents stuck with classical desert construction, consisting mostly of flat roofs that occasionally doubled as patios, verandas, gardens, or just extra living space. Given the cramped nature of RefugeCross, it was said that one could cross the upper city with never having touched the ground, assuming one of the residents didn't catch you trespassing of course.

Leaning against a roof stairwell shaft of one of these buildings, just out of view of the guards, was Trex. He was panting heavily with his back against the wall. He had made it. It wouldn't take much to slip away now.

Suddenly very pleased with himself, Trex took the time to look at the sunrise. It was actually quite pretty, now that the morning light no longer meant him getting into trouble.

Grinning at having seemingly gotten away with his little trespass, his brown eyes looked back down the lengths of the northern inner city wall. As he had suspected, the arrival of the sun had meant the end of the mist's cover. Trex could now see along the entire length of the wall that appeared above the surrounding building with little difficulty; including, he noted, another cloaked figure which stood quite noticeable on the battlements on the far side of the council chambers.

‘What on…?' said Trex out aloud, twisting to get a better look.