The Exiles (6 page)

‘
Thunk!
'

Sara suddenly heard the noise from behind. Turning, she realized that her trailing cloak had been pinned by an arrow against the wall that she was on. Sara spotted the same lion archer from before, her unusual jet black hair quite noticeable against her pale orange fur. Quickly undoing her cloak's bindings, Sara simply let herself drop down the other side, bracing for impact.

‘
Crash!
'

Though the city of RefugeCross had long since expanded beyond the limits of its old outer walls, the thin, tall barrier was still not easy to cross. On the outer side of the old wall there were larger compounds and scattered buildings belonging to the many wolf and lion farmers that lived and worked in the river valley. The residents of the outer areas used the old walls as a backing for smaller housing groups. It was in one of these dusty farming compounds that Sara landed.

Luckily for her, the residents were already out in the field.

Unluckily for her, the compound had only one exit, in which at this time stood a very determined and armed young lion male.

Moving forward, Trex watched the wolf slowly rolle clear of the rubble.

Standing up, Sara shook herself off, pushing back the hair that had fallen in front of her face. Trex didn't recognize her, as she was covered in dust and her hair was a mess.

One of Sara's large pointed ears turned automatically to register the approaching lion youth.

‘Now… Now just stay put,' Trex said hesitantly, ‘the guards will be here in a few minutes.'

Trex was having difficulty suppressing his unease, and for some reason, he suddenly couldn't shake the idea that the wolf seemed familiar to him. Trex knew it would take the guards a few minutes to navigate their way from the other side of the wall to the nearest way across.

Looking around quickly, Sara knew she was only meters from getting away. Her mind was now completely focused on escaping, and any recognition she might have had of Trex was pushed to the back of her mind.

Sara knew that lions were quicker then wolfs at very short distances. There was nothing for it, she would have to fight her way past. She spotted a few broken iron farming implements lying in the dirt, picking them up, she brandished her two makeshift clubs threateningly.

‘Step aside, I don't have time for this, boy,' Sara mocked.

Sera had quickly regained her fighting composure. She hadn't made it all this way to be stopped by some farmer's kid.

Trex could feel the anger building up within the wolf, it hit him like a hot wind coming from the direction of the scary young female, she looked even more terrifying then just seconds before. Though Trex had studied this in classes, it was the first time he faced it for real. His heart rate increased and his eyes went wide as fear started to creep over him.

Taking a step back, Trex took a deep breath just like he had learnt. Clearing his mind and focusing on his training, he threw off his uncertainty regarding the wolf, she obviously didn't recognize him. Trex's eyes focused in calm determination.

With clenched teeth, the wolf sprung forward, swinging her larger club in a wide arc.

Stepping back further, Trex deflected the blow away from his body, turning with the swing to bring his own staff back low at her ankle.

Kneeling down, she drove her smaller club into the ground, stopping the blow. Almost instantly, Sara kicked out, forcing the lion to roll away. Spinning his staff to deflect another blow, he was pushed further back. Rushing forward, she attempted to close-in on the lion.

Despite not being physically any larger or older then Trex, Sara, like all mature wolves, used her emotions to increase her speed and strength, easily pushing the young lion back. Even at her young age Sara was already stronger then many adult lions when using her emotions properly.

Trex was only too well aware of what he was up against. His only advantage was his skill and concentration, which was currently working overtime as he ducked, weaved and deflected in an attempt to remain out of her reach.

Though lions could not harness their emotions like wolves, they had developed their own tricks. Through long years of practice and concentration lions had learnt to manipulate the properties of some materials just through contact with them; able to change them almost instantly. Currently, Trex was using this to great effect, instinctually manipulating his light wooden staff to absorb the heavy blows of the iron bars. The staff flexed and stiffened instantly, small metal plates on the staff flowing like water across its surface to stop the light wood from snapping on impact from Sara's weapons.

Sara had pushed him back to the gate and was becoming increasingly frustrated with the fight. Showing her inexperience, Sara lunged forward, promptly being redirected into the wall as Trex skilfully sidestepped.

Sara glared daggers at the young lion male. Her ears flattening against the top of her head as she sneered at him, hostility literally flowed from her.

Trex himself was now becoming tired and increasingly fearful, causing his concentration to slip. Though he had already delivered a few good hits, wolves felt little pain when enraged, and unlike him, she only had to land one single blow to finish the fight.

Only a few more minutes, he thought to himself desperately, his mind begging for the soldiers to come.

Trex was certain he was about to lose, he had run out of room to back into.

Now closer to the Anthro wolf, and currently not fighting for his life, Trex was able to get a better look at her.

Sara began to circle him slowly, preparing for another attack.

Trex's eyes focused on the wolf's family tattoo which was now visible. It circled her upper arm like a delicate chain, the thin intricate swirls and patterns clearly identifying her family clan. This was something common for all female wolves having reached adolescence, it being an ancient Anthro wolf tradition.

Realisation suddenly hit Trex.

‘Sara?' he said in complete shock, letting his guard drop. Was this really her? He hadn't seen her in years, since they were both cubs.

The wolf took a second to emerge from her emotionally fuelled fighting frame of mind. She also dropped her guard.

‘Trex? Is that really you?'

He was about to respond, but then his eyes suddenly unfocused, Trex crumpled into an unconscious heap onto the dirt.

‘And to think the two of you always used to play so nicely together,' said a female figure who suddenly emerging behind the unconscious lion from the shadows. She held a large cast iron frying pan in one hand.

Looking up from the crumpled Trex, Sara recognised her sister.

‘Fera!?' Sara exclaimed, ‘what are you doing here?'

‘You were gone all night… and where else would a little delinquent go but to the big city,' the older sister calmly.

‘Once I got here all I did was follow the alarms and shouting,' she added.

Fera dropped the frying pan beside the fallen Trex.

‘Come on, we had better get out of here, the guards were just behind me.' The older sister turned and headed off quickly.

Sara walked past the fallen form of Trex, looking back for a second in concern, but at the moment she had bigger problems.

‘Misha and Sertan are just behind that building,' said Sara's older sister Fera while running. She was referring to the animals the two sisters had used to ride to RefugeCross from their home out in the country. Fera had found her sisters riding animal on the outskirts of town.

‘This day just keeps getting stranger,' Sara said to herself in bewilderment.

She and her sister turned the last corner to where Fera had left their animals.

Running into someone, the two wolf sisters suddenly found themselves ending up on their bushy tails in the dirt.

‘Arrgh!' complained both sisters simultaneously. Through the disturbed dust, both squinted up at the individual they had just run into.

‘Commander Felx!?' exclaimed Fera. This time it was the older sisters turn to be in shock, backing away on all fours across the ground.

Though Fera was now a young adult wolf, and as such was probably physically stronger then Captain Felx when using her emotions, she was simply no match for the veteran lion soldier.

Looking down at the two female wolves, the Captain did not even have his weapons out, the armament he carried remaining sheathed on his belt. Behind him, the wolf sister's two animals were still tied up.

‘Sara… Fera' said the Captain calmly, looking down at the two girls, hands resting casually on his hips.

Captain Felx's wore standard lion male uniform. On his belt were a medium sword and a dagger. A small leather strap was worn over his left shoulder, holding the quiver and two sections of staff clipped comfortably to his back.

‘The two of you haven't seen a cloaked trespasser run past here by any chance have you?' the Captain asked casually, his voice was far too jovial for either of the girls taste.

Even more unnerving for the wolf girls was his immediate recognition of the two and the use of their names; a handy trick the Captain had picked up to keep order in the larger town.

Felx towered over the two wolves, both of which were too scared to get up.

‘I… we were just-' Fera started, the quicker thinking of the two.

‘It is good to see neither of you are carrying weapons,' continued the Captain, talking over the older sister.

As the girls lived in wolf territory, they normally carried weapons of their own, unlike their fellow wolves who lived in and around the lion occupied city and lower planes.

‘As you well know it is a serious offence to carry weapons anywhere on the lower planes,' continued Felx.

He didn't add that it was only an offence for wolves.

The adult lion scanned the area casually, noting that some of his guards were approaching.

‘Almost as serious an offence as entering the greater city unregistered, or worse, trespassing in the inner city,' continued Captain Felx.

Sara cringed involuntarily as Captain Felx's focused on the younger wolf.

‘Even for someone as young as yourself, the consequences would be… unfortunate,' Felx said carefully.

‘Particularly given the current circumstances,' he added.

Feeling that she should say something, Sara opened her mouth to speak in her defence, to lie, to say anything! But nothing coherent would come out, just grunts and gibbering.

‘The two of you had better leave, there are thieves afoot,' the Captain suddenly continued. He looked back towards were Trex lay in the dirt before moving forward to offer one of his hands to each girl.

‘This is not a good time for you girls to visit the city.'

Taking his hand gratefully, both young wolf females where lifted up.

Sara could see that the two guards she had fought were now tending to Trex. The dark hared lioness archer from before was also there and was making her way over to them.

Still too stunned at the unfolding events, Sara could only nod at Captain Felx before running past him to her waiting animal nearby.

The two animals tied up to the railing looked quite similar to a smaller breed of horse here on Earth. The only real difference between their horses and ours was that theirs had shorter faces, and each one had a pair of small antlers on top of their head, like a deer. These antlers were filed down for domesticated animals and only extended a few centimetres above their scruffy mane.

Untying her horse quickly, Sara suddenly felt a massive relief; it had all turned out fine… Or at least fine enough.

‘You would be best off telling your parents,
all
, of what happened today,' called Captain Felx after them.

‘I will be visiting Mayor Petrice soon in any case, so I will drop by your home on the way through.'

Captain Felx was referring to the leader of the wolf city that bordered the lion territory of the lower planes.

Sara's heart sank. Her parents were going to find out now one way or the other.

‘It is best this gets around quickly,' said the Captain as the girls mounted up, ‘so we can begin to unravel the truth as soon as possible.'

Turning their horses around, both girls were about to head off. Sara's head was too full of thoughts of her upcoming discussion with her parents to do anything other then match her sister's actions.

‘Thank you Commander,' said Fera on her sister's behalf, ‘I hope you find the thieves quickly.'

With those final words, Fera urged her horse forward.

The two sisters rode away from the outskirts of RefugeCross at speed.

Captain Felx watched the two young wolf females go; himself not one hundred percent convinced that he had just done the right thing.

Lions were logical creatures by nature; a side effect of their strong tradition of valuing training, discipline and concentration. Captain Felx had just reacted on a gut instinct; this was more like a Anthro wolf and not like a lion at all. Shrugging off his doubts, the lion Captain smiled to himself, wondering how wolves could possibly lead a sensible life, seemingly always led by their emotions.