Breaking Barriers

The Day It Started

Koshi Doxter:

The day the Puricians came was just like any other. My younger sister Jane, and our friends Squirt and Pinto had been playing by the docks cos our guardians had work to do, and needed us out of the way, just like normal. Kwazii, who was supposed to be watching us, had gone into the hardware store to "look at tools for Tweak", but we saw him check out the lady cat at the counter. We had finished school for the day, but Squirt (the nerd) had his homework out in front of him.

"Are you REALLY doing homework now?" Pinto asked, and flopped down beside him.

"Yes, now go away, and don't mess anything up!" Squirt pretended to shoo him away with his tentacle.

"Oh we make no promises." Jane walked right behind him, and I saw the water cupped in her paw. She was going to dump it onto his paper. That wasn't happening on my watch. It was always my unspoken responsibility to keep my younger sister out of trouble when Dashi wasn't around. Jane was sneaky, so it was never easy.

"Yes," I responded, "But I do. Dump the water back into the ocean." She rolled her eyes at me, and threw the water back into the ocean.

"C'mon Koshi, when was the last time you actually broke a rule or had any sort of fun for that matter?" She grumbled, and elbowed me playfully.

"This morning when you Rickrolled Dashi at 4 AM." I shot back, still remembering what a disaster that was. Our older sister and guardian Dashi slept with headphones on every night, and this morning at 4 AM, Jane thought it'd be fun to use these headphones to Rickroll her at top volume. With my misfortune, I simultaneously ended up being the middle child and caught in the middle of one of Jane's pranks. Wonderful.

"Now what about your Spanish homework? When are either of you going to do it?"

"Before the next century." Jane replied cheekily. For a moment, we were just normal children with no cares or worries in the world. But then, Kwazii burst out of the hardware store, looking worried.

"Right lil mateys, we need to go back to the Octopod now!"

"But-" Squirt seemed as confused as we all felt.

"No buts, lil matey, we have to get back now!" And with that, he dragged us all back to the Octopod. I was utterly bewildered. Why would we have to get back to the Octopod so quickly? But things only got stranger from there. When we got back, Kwazii made a direct beeline towards Dashi, Peso, Pinto's brother, and Professor Inkling, Squirt's uncle. I could hear them speaking in hushed whispers, but couldn't make out what they were saying. They seemed to be more and more worried with each word Kwazii spoke. Their whispers grew more and more tense until the Captain came down, went over to them, and I caught his saying.

"I know the idea of it is troubling, but let's just wait and see what happens, plus..." He nodded in our direction, "We'll discuss it another time." And he wrapped his arms around Peso and Kwazii in a hug and left.
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After Dashi put Jane and me to bed, she went downstairs to talk to Tweak. She didn't come back for a while.

"What do you think's keeping her?" Jane peered down at me from her top bunk. I just shrugged, but really, I was just as curious as she was.

"Should we go down there?" She asked.

"No." I sat bolt upright in bed, even though my voice inside was screaming 'YES'. Long story short, after debating with her about if for some while, I gave in, and crept downstairs with her. We crouched behind a barrel where we could hear every word Tweak and Dashi said.

"...never thought the Puricians would really do it..." So that was what worried them; The Puricians. They had entered the political world with an agenda of "species purity," meaning "eliminating" every breed of every species they saw as "unfit" or "impure".