The Hovering Ingress: The Hidden World

Chapter 1

Earthquake

One Searing Later

Xengu muttered and growled in her sleep, her hands and paws twitching. She felt restless just laying there. She had felt this way for ages. Nothing was letting up though. Finally with any irritated snarl, the panther jumped up from her bed. She had to do something about these memories bothering her sleep. The hunger was bad enough. Now that the sun was up and shining brightly, the panther could run around and actually do something. Quietly, the dark feline looked around at her room. Normally the place was nice and clean, though as of recent times, the place was a mess. The blankets typically on the panther's bed were on the floor and in a bundled mess. Some of the clothes she had to wear around humans were strewn out on the ground as well. Other than that, the room had an empty floor aside from the small table that held Xengu's metalize. She rarely used it other than for communication with the others. With a big groan, Xengu moved to stretch her aching back before hissing in shock and pain. Immediately she retracted into her usual hunched-over position, which was the only position she could be in without her shoulder blades hurting her.

"God," she groaned as she put a hand to one of her shoulder blades. Right.

For the past ninth sune she had been dealing with intense pain underneath her jutting shoulder blades. Because of the intense pain, the panther hardly wanted to do anything. Her usual eating pattern turned from three meals to one meal a day. Not like the meals were good or nourishing either. Feeling around her boney shoulder, Xengu widened her eyes. There felt to be growths on her shoulder blades. Now the pain was reasonable, but it was also concerning. Why the heck would there be strange, hard lumps growing out of her back? Nervously the young panther thought about her options. Now let's get to the description of Xengu. Xengu Ferz is a panther bifer Lailian native. She was constantly in training with her brother despite their poor, partially apocalyptic situation. She has a small build on her skinny, long limbed body, something she had gained over the past eight searings. The panther is the loner type, quiet, mysterious, and her yellow eyes seemed to be always narrowed. From fighting on the streets in her past life, she had a scar over her right eyebrow and a patch of fur missing from her left arm.

In general, she was just a menacing feline stalking the streets of Laili Village. Only she and her brother are the remaining natives. The panther wasn't exactly the most trusting of the government (neither was her brother), especially from the previous events that took place four searings ago. That being said, Xengu wasn't so sure about heading to the hospital. She had bad experiences with hospital staff in the past, so that made her even more about asking her brother to escort her there. However... something very bad was growing on her back. It could be... It wasn't long before the feline's thoughts were cut off short. A violent shake made the floor slip away from Xengu's paws. With a yowl of surprise, the panther toppled to the ground, her hands catching her. It took a while for her body to recoop after such a violent jolt. Wobbling to her paws she groaned, massaging her sore palm pads. Alarm made her ears prick with horror. With no hesitation, Xengu swung her bedroom door open and made a mad dash through her short hallway and through the living room. Just halfway to her brother's room, she collided with another ramming force and stumbled back, falling on her bottom.

Great, like I needed to fall on the ground again, she thought scornfully as she rubbed her temple in pain.

"There you are! That's what I ran into!" A familiar voice exclaimed, a strong hand pulling Xengu to her paws. "Watch where you're going next time, will you?"

The panther looked into the eyes of Takeo Ferz, his face contorted with annoyance but his green irises betraying his concern. This muscular panther bifer was Xengu's older brother, the last of her family. Unlike her, his body was full of scars, including some around his mouth, and a torn-in-half right ear. He had a much larger build, muscles rippling under his pelt. His normal gaze was enough to silence anyone, but not Xengu. Rolling her eyes she gave a narrowed gaze to her brother.