The Hovering Ingress: The Hidden World

Chapter 26

Living Graves

The Next Sune Cycle

Marsh slowly opened his eyes with a groan. Well... yestersune was interesting. Xengu fell into a deep sleep once everyone returned with medicine and porridge. Takeo wanted to stay with her, but Lisa outright refused and stuck with her instead. The four recounted everything they could to the remaining group, including the battles and their trials and tribulations. Luckily Lisa didn't hear any of it, for if she did, she would have gone mad and demanded they stayed in the lowlands.

Their siblings then explained why the iven dergou were there. Apparently, the dog gang had been taken by Sinisters suddenly invading at night. Word quickly spread to the iven dergou somehow and they quickly arrived to protect the village from any other invasions. There had been another, but it didn't last long after the Sinisters found out about the iven dergou and the snow. They didn't make an attempt after that. However, since the iven dergou knew that flabirs had an advantage against them, they had to escort the villagers safely to the wharg dergou to keep everyone safe.

The four were excited for their family members, for they had never been around or seen a wharg derg. After that, everyone enjoyed reliving memories before the four had gone up to the island. Xengu eventually left her room with Lisa. She had woken up and recounted everything she could to the calico in a peaceful manor, surprisingly. After Lisa got another batch of food for the panther, she ushered her off to bed and told Takeo she would be staying. Jasar had originally protested before hesitantly agreeing. Whatever happened for him to take care of Gess overnight surely was up to him to tell.

Going home was simple enough, Marsh leading Latif back to his apartment. Belle had taken Latif into her care at her place, so of course after a ston cycle of getting used to her place, he was confused on where to go once they reached home. Marsh mostly lead him around throughout the place so that he wouldn't hurt himself bumping into walls. Once Latif was tucked in bed, the older male had peace to himself to sleep on his bed. The one thing he worried about doing.

As he had suspected, he didn't get much sleep the previous night at all. The bed was too comfortable for his liking. Er- at least to what he was used to. He kept tossing and turning, getting too warm and too cold in certain instances. Eventually he tried sleeping on a pile of clothes on the floor for the same effect as sleeping on the leaf piles in the ophoris caves. It didn't work at all. So, Marsh ended up suffering in bed with a blanket (which was unusual because he was used to having warm air at night).

Waking up now he could already feel the effects of not getting enough sleep. He sluggishly fell to the floor as he tried to stand, a yowl and hiss escaping him as he hit the ground. Not fun. A growl escaped him as he pushed himself up and stumbled to a wall. Maybe some cold water would shock him into waking up his muscles. At least that's what the guards did to him every time he slept on duty.

With a grumble, Marsh slumped his way through the bedroom and into the hallway. Spotting Latif's door, he pressed one of his long ears against the wood. He couldn't hear anything move, so he removed himself from the door and walked into the bathroom. Turning on the light, he turned and looked in the mirror, then widened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows.

His fur was dirty and a mess, not something he would typically like to see. He frowned angrily and he took a hold of one of his ears and went through the fur. Yeah... too much dirt from fighting. He should have tried to take a bath in a river before heading down in the lowlands. The clouds were close to it, but all it did was make it to mud on his pelt. With a deep sigh, Marsh walked up to the shower and started it up.

Once it was ready, he stepped in and flinched at the water. A growl escaped him as he shook himself on instinct before scratching at his fur. Staring at the muddy water as it went down the drain made him scrunch his nose in disgust. Yeah, dirt was probably one of the reasons why he didn't get much sleep at all. After letting himself rinse in the shower, he stepped out and grabbed one of the towels and dried himself.