Frostpaw

Chapter 2 - Memories

"You have to stop them from killing him," was the first thing that Zèon said, once Sophia's figure disappeared through the balcony's door, followed by Camus.

"What...?" asked Ike, still confused.

"You have some authority here; if you don't do anything, they'll slaughter him," Zèon insisted, with a slight tone of urgency.

Numerous voices had risen in the hall; some whispered with curiosity, but what Zèon could mostly hear were scornful comments and even unpleasant threats. Zèon wished Koi would not hear any of them. In silence, he looked around and found what he had already supposed he would find: a generalized hatred against the new resident. Some were already leaving their seats, willing to advance towards that intruder, with no good intentions.

They had to do something immediately.

Zèon turned to Ike in order to ask him to act again, but it seemed he had reacted at last and finally stood up. Maybe he could not calm everyone down, but he could contain the fehlar and maybe even make the kane think twice about attacking the human. Zèon exchanged another nervous look with Luca and next he searched for Koi. He found him in his table, chattering with his friends. He hoped that his conversation had nothing to do with the rest of comments that could be heard all over the room.

Ike went directly towards the bewildered human, which had been left in the middle of the room, as all the new residents. At that moment, the fehlar newcomers seemed to wake up from their lethargy.

"Your Majesty!" exclaimed the ocelot. "You're... here!"

"Yes," the lion answered, placing a paw in one of the human's shoulders, in a protective attitude. That was a way to show to his own people that he was not going to tolerate the human receiving harm of any kind, and it made some of the fehlar stare at him in disbelief. In the kane's gazes, however, there was only hostility.

In any case, the lion gesture did not have the desired effect.

As soon as the human felt that heavy paw on his shoulder, he got rid of it and stepped back, his eyes wide open and a genuine expression of horror in his face.

"What... what the hell?" he asked, getting away from that crowd of anthropomorphic animals. He tripped over his own feet and fell backwards, but it only took him a few seconds to stand up again. "What's happening? Where am I? What are you...!?"

Zèon frowned when he saw that new difficulty, but when Ike looked at him dispiritedly, as if asking him what to do, he just shrugged. He did not know what to do about that either.

"Why do you want to save him?" Luca asked, interested.

"I just think he could be useful," Zèon argued, watching with worry the commotion that was taking place in the hall. "He's just been made a prisoner by his own race, so I imagine there's a good reason for it. Besides, he could have information. Data about the outside world and his race. Finishing him off would mean losing a possible way out for us, and I don't think we can't afford that."

Luca nodded in understanding.

"I don't think Ike can handle all of them," he commented, after a while. "I'm going to give him a paw."

A circle of kane and fehlar had reunited around Ike and the trembling human, who had huddled against the wall with fearful eyes. Ike remained between the human and the rest of them, but just as Luca had foreseen, he alone would not be able to stop that wave of rejection and hatred.

"What is he supposed to be doing here?" asked a leopard in the first rows of the circle. "Is this a joke?"

"Look how he squirms in fear now that he's not behind one of those guard uniforms... humans are all cowards!" exclaimed a male hyena who was dangerously close to the new resident.