Katrina

Chapter 13- Oniblah

Muuqe and Aerdnah moved closer to the group and sat next to them as they greeted and embraced some of the creatures with joy. Among them, included the family of the little fox, with his wife and daughter who were also foxes but they were one size smaller.

"Are you hungry?" Xoféh asked.

"No thanks." Katrina said as the horse slowly approached the pile of mangos and other fruits.

"Careful, Muuqe! Don't cut yourself." Said Xoféh when he saw him sitting next to the food. And without thinking twice, the horse stuck his head inside, taking one of the fruits that were in the pile.

"What's wrong? I love watomis." He said when he realized that everyone was watching him as he eagerly devoured the fruit.

"Watomis?" Katrina asked in surprise. She'd never heard or seen that kind of fruit.

"This is a watomi." Muuqe replied, pointing at one of them close to him. "They're mainly good for the heart and they're very delicious."

Katrina was caught by surprise. They were blue and heart shaped. She took a bite without thinking and her face changed. "Good God, this is great!" She said, eating the fruit almost in one bite.

"Yes," Said the horse, laughing, "and they also leave your mouth blue!"

Katrina looked at her hands, which were indeed stained by a bluish-hued liquid from the fruit and observed that Muuqe's snout and teeth had the same hue.

"Well," said Aerdnah, "now that we're all here... Let's get down to business, because we don't have time to waste."

"Gather round!" Xoféh said aloud, but many of the creatures that were there didn't hear him because of his little tone.

"Gather!" He shouted.

Everyone was amazed at how such a small being could raise their voice that way, and the creatures came closer.

"Dear creatures of Cor," he began, "we've here two members of the Council and as I said before, Katrina, the chosen one. We're hiding here, fleeing from the clutches of Xer, but this isn't right. Our land is above these ruins. Our true island is not this, as this is only temporary. We have to take into account that we can't let Xer have his way. We can't allow more creatures that don't yet know of this refuge to be in danger above. We must defeat him as he is and recover what is ours. If Xer wants war, he will have war. I was betrayed by Xer some time ago, at the beginning of this dispute when I still didn't know he'd rebelled. He cheated me and used me for my engineering knowledge. Without knowing his true intentions, I built weapons. Weapons that, my friends, are unfortunately the greatest things I have ever built. They're acid weapons. These weapons are very dangerous because the acid they shoot not only damages the part where they shoot you, but this acid spreads..."

"How does it spread?" Asked Scrit, adapting the shape of a hyena species but with much larger and pointier ears.

"When firing the weapon, it releases bullets of acid. When they come into contact with the body, this acid spreads, burning completely."

Nobody said anything. They were scared, looking at each other, waiting for someone to say something, but nobody would say a single word.

"I'm sorry." Xoféh continued with sadness. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know anything. I just thought we did it for fun. I thought he also enjoyed engineering like me, but he lied to me... I felt like the dirtiest creature in the world. I felt that I'd betrayed my people... When I heard the rumors that he'd rebelled and wanted to dominate the dimensions, I wanted to flee. However, he locked me up like a slave under the castle, creating more weapons and he threatened to also capture my family and torture them to death if I didn't obey or try to escape and logically I couldn't allow that..." He said tenderly, looking at his family.