The Hovering Ingress: The Hidden World

Chapter 14

First Battle

Four Sune Cycles Later

Jasar paced through the wounded ophoree, occasionally climbing over the piles of leaves to check on a few. His tail lashed back and forth as his blue eyes scanned the room as he stopped. He could spot a familiar ophoris off to the side, talking to a mender. Masoom! The tom cat wanted to walk up to the creature and greet him, however he had to keep a close eye on a few ophoree. Hearing a groan, the light gray male whipped around and ran toward the sound. Finally stopping to the moaning ophoris, he carefully climbed his way onto the leaf pile. After having to clean these types of piles every once in a while, Jasar figured out how to balance himself on the leaves and not to stumble. Carefully he rubbed the creature as he walked around it, stopping at its chest and listening quietly. He was told to listen to the beating of the heart to see how bad the wound is, according to the ophoris, at the very least. After giving a few seconds to listen, he looked to the face of the creature with glowing eyes.

"Where is the pain?" He asked.

The ophoris' eyes opened, revealing deep brown irises.

"It would be on my side," it replied.

The male frowned a little and looked toward its exposed side. Indeed, something was poking out of the creature's skin, however it was small. That must have been the reason it was looked over. With a small huff, the cat started his way up, climbing carefully and making sure his weight wasn't pushing into the ophoris. It wasn't long before he reached the beast's side, sitting himself on his knees. The sharp object looked like red stained glass and he wondered if it was because the ophoris was bleeding. Taking the blood into thought, he wiped a hand across a safe side of the object, then smeared it around his blue palm pad. Jasar found traces of purple in the blood, exactly the same as the ophoris' markings. So it was true that over time, a blue color would be in his blood.

"Would you... take it out?"

Snapping himself out of his trance, the feline nodded and wiped his hand on his side. Carefully he grabbed the glass-like object, and once he had it firm in his grasp, he pulled.

It was stubbornly lodged into the ophoris' skin, and because he wasn't to his full strength yet, the cat lost his grip and fell back with a yowl. Quickly he steadied himself on the creature's flank, letting out a small heave. His outburst caused a mender ophoris to come over and investigate.

"What seems to be the issue?"

The light gray tom flicked his gaze upward with shock in his eyes before relaxing a little.

"This shard of... glass? Is bothering this ophoris here and I was trying to pull it out so I could heal the wound as well," he quickly explained.

The mender lowered its head to the creature's side, inspecting the glass before grabbing it with its teeth. With a sharp movement, the glass was out, and the wound was letting blood flow out freely. No matter if it wasn't much, Jasar quickly rushed over and allowed energy to flow from his hands, nodding his head for the ophoris to head off. It wasn't long before the wound was sealed enough to be left alone, leaving the male staring at it with furrowed eyebrows. Quietly he looked around the room, his face contorted with a frown.

What caused so many ophoree to be wounded? He hadn't heard much about a battle happening, so what caused this? Determined to get an answer, he climbed down and walked up to the ophoris' face.

"Do you remember what happened out there?" He asked.

The creature gave a tired gaze before nodding.