Kripa Arc I

«Here we are. Told you I wouldn’t lead you astray.»

The albino has led them through the desert for a while until they reached the top of a high dune. On the other side of the dune they saw a small watering hole and both Mayurs immediately ran towards it while the Kumbas followed them, taking their time.

Despite the water tasting horribly like dirt, it was still freshwater and the outsiders were finally able to quench their thirst. A bit to the side, far enough away from the two so that they could talk in private, the bright colored couple went to drink. Makutas voice was low as he talked to Ishtar, trying not to attract attention.

«Now that we found water we can get rid of the abomination. You distract the jill and I will see the male off to the otherside. Something like that should not taint the world we live on. His bloodline must be cleansed, who knows, maybe he’ll try to have whelps sooner or later. We must prevent that.»

His partner looked at him, one eyebrow raised, judging him harshly.

«You do what you must but I won’t help you this time. I don’t get your irrational hate towards albinos. They’re so weak, they’ll die off on their own anyway, don’t worry. You really think he can sustain himself for long on his own?»

«I don’t care, I want to see the life drain from his red eyes. I will stage an ‘accident’, you just have to play along, alright? And then we can take that precious jill with us. She’s something else, I tell ya.»

As Makuta looks over to the Kumbas, he sees that they are whispering to each other as well. Is the male planning the same thing? The red Mayur walks over to the Kumbas, trying to get a glimpse of what they’re saying, but they were talking very quietly and turned silent when he got too close.

«So where are you two off now? Wanna join us a bit longer?»

«Why the sudden change of heart, demon? I thought you didn’t want us here?»

«YAAAY new friends for Shiro!»

«Shush!»

«I noticed that it’s pretty difficult for us to survive in this harsh environment, so we’d appreciate it if we could follow you, or you follow us. We don’t have a destination, so either way is fine.»

«What are you two running from? What are you scared of, monster?» Ruviks gaze was stern and mysterious. As if he’d find the answer to his questions right in Makutas eyes, but the latter just looked away to the side, trying not to let his plans show.

«Oh you know, it got a little crowded in the jungle. A few Salikos chased us off and we thought ‘why not visit the desert for a change’.»

Completely ignoring the answer he just got, Ruvik continued.

«You know, we’re not that different, you and I. Surely we’ll be able to get along well…»

«YOU are nothing like me..!» Makuta hissed through his teeth quietly, then cleared his throat and started over in a friendly manner.

«Then it’s settled. Where are we going now?»

«We, that is Shiro and I, will try to find some shelter for the evening. This area is haunted by sandstorms everyday. You can do the same if you want, I know better than to dictate you to do so.»

Makuta growled quietly, he didn’t like the superior tone in which the other male was talking to him. Then he turned to Ishtar and walked away. After a short but heated discussion they both returned and the green jill nodded in agreement.

Together they traveled south, towards a rocky formation. In the distance they could already see the sky get grey – a sandstorm was on its way.

Ruvik and Shiro quickly found two small dens amidst the stone for themselves, but the inexperienced Mayurs were not that quick in their search. The wind was already starting to rise up and sand whirled in little storms across the rocks when they finally agreed on a narrow burrow that they wanted to share. In the cramped space they had to cuddle closely, but they didn’t mind anyway. The storm outside was at full power now, its wind howling loudly from the outside into the den. After such an exhausting day the two of them fell asleep almost instantly, waiting for it to be over again.

Ishtar woke up first. The world seemed quiet and calm once more. She looked at Makuta and saw his wounds from the fight with Shiro, the dry blood clumping his pelt together but hardly visible within his fur color. Carefully she licked it off him and cleaned the cuts and bites, even though it was already too late to avoid an infection. She just hoped the salt that’s everywhere here, in the ground, the water and the air, would do its work. Since she wasn’t a healer, Ishtar would not know what to do if the wounds would get sore.

The hob did not wake up from this whole process, so Ishtar decided to let him sleep and look outside. As she stepped out of the hole, she saw that it has become night now, a way better time to travel through the desert than before during the hottest period of the day. She stretched herself and yawned loudly, then noticed that she was alone. The Kumbas probably still slept as well and she didn’t want to wake them either, so she tried to find some prey to hunt.

Despite not trying to stray too far from the dens she had to walk a bit until she found a careless gerbil sitting next to a dry bush. Luckily the wind was blowing her scent away from the animal, but Ishtar had to be very cautiously still, since her leaf colored fur did not hide her at all in the ochre landscape. With a quick pounce she managed to catch and kill the mouse, but that little piece would not be enough for her and Makuta, so she burried it next to the bush and marked the area with her scent so she’d find it and be able to dig it up again later, after she caught another prey.

But she was only lucky that time, it took quite a while longer until she found a small lizard running over the sand. The moon was already high up and she was out of breath from running so quickly to catch the swift reptile. After she was able to get it, she made her way back to the bush from before but she went astray and couldn’t find it at first. A little pissed off she finally reached it, dug out the gerbil and trotted back to the rocks in the distance that she had always kept in sight. As she arrived she saw that Makuta was awake and outside, but still stoved up and tired. They ate the prey and agreed to look in the dens for the Kumbas. It has been too long for them to still be sleeping, so what was going on? Makuta looked into the hole where Shiro had disappeared into and Ishtar did the same with Ruviks burrow, but to their surprise they had to find out that both dens were empty! And according to the faint smell of the strangers they must have been gone for a while as well.

«They betrayed us! I knew it!»

«Well can you blame them? You wanted to kill the hob, I’d run away as well if I was him.»

«You’d never run from me.»

«Because I’m different than all others.»

She rolled her eyes at him.

«So what now?»

«Our original plan it seems. We just go. See where it gets us.»

«Last time we tried that we almost died.»

«This won’t happen again. I won’t let it.»

He shortly groomed her mane, then started walking south, trying to orient himself by the stars, though he had no clue about which direction that was.

«There you are. Shiro didn’t feel too well so we went for a walk to calm her down. You didn’t believe we just left you here, did you?»

The Kumbas had reappeared, following their scents and catching up to the slow Mayurs easily.

«Shiro had a real sweet fruit but it had spikes all around! That was not fun but delicious still!»

Because the males both ignored the Kumba jill, Shiros big smile left her face and she looked sadly to the ground. Ishtar felt so bad about this that she walked over to the cream colored Saliko, carefully patted her on the back and said: «Nice to hear that! Tell me about it, what color did it have?»

The big smile returned and Shiro told her in every detail how the fruit was like and how happy it made her. In the meantime Makuta and Ruvik stopped their staring contest and began discussing which paths to take next.

«Did a bird defecate into your brain? You cannot enter, let alone cross the bone desert just like that. I know you believe you are strong and wise and whatnot, but you are out of place here, Mayur. Not even Kumbas survive there, let alone you.»

«You might be familiar with the area, but we stumbled around here without a guide for a while and always managed one way or another so I want to choose where to go. And I want to go farther south.»

«The only way to get more south is by taking a long detour around the bone desert and that is going to take us moons! I will not lead you there, you can go alone if it’s so important to you!»

«Well then just take me somewhere! I don’t even care anymore, just– »

«What are you even looking for here? Where are you trying to go if you say there’s no goal or direction and still you are dissatisfied with whatever I say!»

«BECAUSE I DON’T TRUST YOU, YOU MUTANT!»

Silence.

«Ah, now we’re getting to the core of it. Why didn’t you say so? I freak you out, huh? Or is it perhaps that you believe I should not exist? Trust me, you’re not the first one that tried to eliminate me and you won’t be the last. Either suck it up or GO but do not bother me with your small-minded problems!»

«I should’ve just killed you when we first met, before you even said a word. Slice your throat and let your corpse out to rot in the sun. Maybe your friend would then have another decapitated head to carry around.»

«If you think your empty threats scare me, then I will have to disappoint you. Listen, I want to see how your story ends naturally, so I won’t interfere in your lifespan, but if I would have wanted, then you would not have awoken after the sandstorm anymore.»

Ishtar heard every word the two hobs threw at each other in their rage, but she stayed out of it and just let them get some steam off, so that the rest of their journey would be easier on all of them. While they were screaming and almost lashing out at each other, she was talking to Shiro and just kept an eye on them to make sure Makuta didn’t get hurt even more. The other jill was, in the meantime, talking about her favourite animals and told her new friend that she had never left the desert, but was very interested in seeing ‘mountains’ and ‘ponds’. After she badgered the leaf colored female for a couple minutes, Ishtar complied and promised her to take her to the jungle someday and the simple minded jill jumped around her in glee, shouting and chanting so loudly that all the prey in vicinity must have heard her and fled. But despite that, Ishtar was starting to like the weird female. She was always so joyful, no matter the circumstances and the green one envied her for that.

The rest of the night they traveled together, but even though Makuta and Ruvik have cooled off a bit, they still kept a great distance between each other.

At the break of dawn they wanted to look for another place to sleep though, so they could avoid the heat of the midday sun and discovered some abandoned fox burrows that were a bit apart from each other. Ishtar was torn between trying to get a den for herself to finally get some peace and be well rested, to spend the time with Shiro to figure out more about her and Ruvik or to stay with Makuta, to protect and watch him so nothing happened to him and also so he couldn’t do anything stupid.

She decided the loyalty to her friend was more important than anything else and followed the caramel colored one into the den he had picked out. Sleeping on the ground, amidst the rocks was nothing new for Ishtar, but still pretty uncomfortable for Makuta, so he twisted and turned a lot before he finally managed to fall asleep. But nonetheless the female was up even longer, her thoughts racing and listening to every little sound from outside if anyone would try to attack them out of nowhere.

What was she expecting to find here? In the middle of the desert…and what did he? This was no place for a Mayur, let alone two, and no matter how many scenarios she tried to think through, there were only a few where they would get out together and alive.

At dusk all four awoke at the same time from a loud thunderstorm that had gathered above them and Shiro stuck her head into the den of the foreigners.

«Shiro and Ruvik are leaving, are you coming?»

«You’re leaving NOW? Isn’t it dangerous to travel during the storm?»

The jill with the bright fur shook her head eagerly.

«It’s the safest time to travel, trust Shiro.»

Both Mayurs looked at each other in confusion but got up and followed her enthusiastically swishing tail out of the burrow.

«Come on, come on! Move your lazy bums!»

Shiro was laughing and shouting, excited about what was about to come.

Ruvik was standing at the bottom of the rocks, looking sick and thin like all albino Salikos, but the glint in his red eyes showed his determination and some mysterious motive that was behind all this scheming. They all collected around him and he began to speak.

«I was checking the area and found this small tribe camp. Excuse my honesty but you two are too slow to have any fun around here with racing and hunting, so I immediately thought of how nice it would be if you could wreck it. Like the good old times, right?»

«What do you get from that?» Makuta was suspicious, but intrigued.

«Nothing really, take it as a peace offering. I just want to watch you both in action and see if what everyone was talking about is true. Since, right now the two of you are not as frightening as I expected…»

The other male accepted the challenge with an angry snarl, then looked at his partner who was uneasy about the whole thing, but nodded as well.