Where the hell am I?
What the hell am I doing?
Who the hell am I?
***
Chapter 45
I opened my eyes. I didn’t know when I had fallen unconscious. There was soil beneath my face. I pushed myself up. I could feel a load on my head. It was the helmet. I looked around. Everybody was still. The dogmen were all down on the ground, including the ones that were alive. Junaki, Riya and Rupasur were also slumped on the floor of the chamber.
A message appeared in my vision.
You regain 100% of your memory.
The effects of the mother’s gas are over.
I stood up. I had never realised when the hour had passed. The mother, along with the other insects were huddled just near the opening of the tunnel that eventually led upwards and out of the place. They looked confused. I could feel their thoughts well.
New master. New master. New master.
I was their new master, I knew. And I had to lead them from now, at least for as long as I wore the helmet. I felt a sudden responsibility for them within me. The others also began to stir. I saw the dogmen brutally killed by Rupasur. He couldn’t be blamed exactly for what he had done, for I knew now that the mother had also made him smell her gas. But it was pitiful all the same.
A message popped up in my vision.
It has been fifteen minutes since the Helmet was retrieve from its chest. In three more minutes’ time, the empty chest will explode and the castle of the insects will collapse.
Wow, I thought. There was no way for me to take out the others through the vertical tunnel in two minutes. Heck, it will take me three hours at the very least to move out myself. But was there another way?
Suddenly the ground shuddered, as if asking me to hurry. From up above the ceiling of the chamber, soil and rocks began to loosen and fall down. My heart rate increased. What if everyone got buried? I reckoned most of the others were unconscious, perhaps because the mother’s gas was wearing off them.
I was thinking fast, weighing my options.
New master. New master. New master.
A plan began to form at the back of my head even as the hill began to shudder even more violently.
“Get every one out,” I commanded the insects. “First my friends, then the dogmen, and finally me.”
The insects were obedient and they set to work at once. I could feel what they were thinking and I was overwhelmed by how they made my order their top priority. They were ready to die completing my order. Even the mother set to work. One by one the insects began to carry out every one. They were fast for they had wings. The insects that had together carried Riya and Junaki returned within seconds.
But it was Rupasur who couldn’t be taken out through the tunnel. He was way too big to fit into any of the tunnels. Then I realised it was a waste of time trying to take him out. How stupid I was! He was already stirring and once he was completely awake, I could just ask him to return to his world. I ordered the insects to leave him, and instead carry out the dogmen. I ran to Rupasur meanwhile, the insects had dropped him just beside the entrance to the tunnel.
He was stirring and now his eyes opened. Rupasur sat up, massaging his head. He looked at me with a dazed expression.
“Master, I had a dream about you taking out a helmet from a chest,” he murmured. I pointed at the helmet on my head.
“It was not a dream,” I told him.
Rupasur’s eyes suddenly widened as he realised that the entire chamber was shaking violently.
“This thing is going to come down!” he said.
“I know,” I told him calmly, “that’s why I want you to return to your world now.”
“What!” Rupasur exclaimed. “I can’t abandon you in a situation like this!”
“Do not worry,” I said, I gestured at the insects carrying out the dogmen, even the mother was carrying dogmen and since she was of a large size she could carry many dogmen at once. “The insects have become my friends, and I trust that they will not let me die here. But they cannot carry you out, so you must return to your world and save yourself, for I would require you in the future. Do you understand me?”
Rupasur nodded, though there was a reluctance in him and he appeared like he thought I was crazy.
“As you say, Master,” he said. And Rupasur disappeared.
There were only a few dogmen left now.
Get out!
One minute remains for the castle to be destroyed!
I took a deep breath in. There were still a few dogmen left and although the insects were working fast, they could only carry out so many. If I die here today, I thought, all cats would eternally suffer under the dogmen. Why the heck was I even helping the dogmen?
But I wouldn’t allow myself to ask the insects to stop taking the remaining dogmen out. I felt like I was making it up for all the dogmen that I had brutally killed when the dogmen villages had attacked the cat village of Duarga. I took in a deep breath, even as my hope sank. Better calm than anxious, I told myself. Huge chunks of the chamber fell below. In a few seconds the entire chamber will fall.
A shudder took hold of me. I wondered if it was myself or the hill.
Just then the last dogmen had been carried out.
Get out!
Ten second remains for the castle to be destroyed!
“Take me out!” I told the insects. It was the mother that grabbed me, all the other insects following in her wake. One thing I knew was that she was fast. I didn’t even realise when she had crossed the horizontal tunnel, even as everything seemed to wiz past me. She took me up the near vertical tunnel in a heartbeat.
Get out!
Five seconds remain for the castle to be destroyed!
The hill was rocking hard now. I swallowed even as the mother took me down the tunnel that winded often. I closed my eyes accepting the worst. I would die here with the insects, I knew that.
Get out!
One second remains for the castle to be destroyed!
We reached the part that was like a hollow sphere. I saw a tiny ray of hope, maybe we will get out?
Barely had the mother taken me out through the opening of the hill that the hill collapsed entirely. It was a sight to behold. The entire hill was falling on itself. Some of the giant flowers atop the hill rolled down. The mother took me to a safe distance away so that I won’t be hurt by any flying debris. The mother placed me on the ground, and she and the other insects watched the destruction of their home. I could feel a great sadness well in each of the insects. Their home… destroyed. I could feel another sadness in them: the destruction of the flowers. Through their minds I knew that the flowers only grew once in fifty years. The flowers contained an intoxicant that the insects loved. Both the insects and the dogmen wanted the flowers. Tonight the dogmen had attacked the insects because they wanted the flowers and the intoxicants for themselves.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Junaki.
She embraced me in a hug.
“I had been searching for you so much,” she said, “I was getting scared when I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
Riya walked to me as well, supporting herself with the shapeless staff, the orb of which was now inside the chest of Rupasur.
“Thank you,” I said to her with a smile.
“What for?” she asked, genuinely confused.
“For hitting me on the head,” I said with a grin. Riya blushed.
“I am sorry for that,” she said.
“Sorry? If you had not done that I might have harmed Junaki thinking she intended to harm me.”
Damn, the Mother’s gas had totally made me think weird things. I recalled all that I had though in my 0% memory retaining state and couldn’t help but chuckle, looking at the sky. It was twilight now. The dogmen were also getting up to their feet. They looked with a confused expressions at the destroyed hill of the insects.
A group of them came towards the insects and us, the three cats.
�
��The insects saved you,” I told them.
The person who led the small group seemed to be a chieftain of sorts, for he was wearing what looked like an expensive garment but which had been covered with the dust now. His eyes moved up to my head.
“Because you ordered them,” he said. I couldn’t put the tone of his voice. He seemed somewhere between grateful and confused and also concerned. “A cat helping a group of dogmen,” he said, “I don’t know how to react.”
The dogman’s gaze shifted towards the insects, who were also observing the dogmen intently. I could feel their thoughts and I knew that they were thinking what decision I was going to take next.
“The insects sometimes destroy our crops,” the chieftain said. “I admit though we were guilty for wanting their flowers. They were too intoxicating. I should have been patient and told my villagers to be patient as well. The insects come out of the ground only once in fifty years. My father had told me not to interfere with anything they do, but I had disregarded my late father’s advice.”
Right then I noticed something about the dogman’s appearance, and also that of the other dogmen. None of them had red heads or tails. They were multicoloured: Black, White, black and white, brown and so on.
“I thought multi-coloured dogmen lived in the south,” I said.
“Yes,” the chieftain said, “but we originated here. And our village is the last multi-coloured dogman village standing in a land of red dogmen.”
“The red dogmen don’t bother you?” I asked. The red dogmen were not known for their love for dogmen that were differently coloured.
“There are disputes occasionally,” the chieftain said, some remorse in his voice, “it’s become a part of our life. But it doesn’t turn into battle.”
I nodded. I turned at the insects and then turned back at the chieftain.
“Do you promise that you would never try to harm the insects?” I asked, “Your villagers have died today, and the insects have little to blame.”
The chieftain however didn’t know if he should make the vow. He glanced at his villagers who were looking at him vacantly.
“Come on,” I said, “ultimately the insects saved you and your villagers. All of you would have perished if not for them. About the flowers, I wouldn’t recommend drinking the intoxicants to either you or the insects, but if you must consume them, why don’t you share between yourselves. No need for war will be there then. Not all the flowers are destroyed,” I added, pointing at the pile of and soil that had recently been the hill. Most of the flowers were crushed, but a few still stood, “the ones that are still standing will bear seeds.”
The dogman sighed. He nodded.
“I promise then that from now on no dogman of our village will harm the insects,” he shot an uncomfortable look at the insects, “and I hope the insects will not try to harm my villagers either. As for the hill, which was the castle of the insects, my villagers and I will help rebuild it.”
The dogman was not making an empty promise; I could know it from his voice.
I patted his shoulder. It was the first time I was touching a dogman with thought other than to kill him.
And that was how I put an end to the dispute between the dogmen and the insects. I looked up at the Deer constellation and thought of what Meow had told me ‘if you follow the Deer constellation you should find the Lair with relative ease’. I could feel a fear brimming within me, the kind that you feel when you think you are going to be late for something very important. I needed to get to the Lair of Nahom Htan fast…
***
Chapter 46
“Now I remember,” said Riya, her face lighting up, even though in the distance the sun was setting. The great sea had come to view. The island that I believed to be the location of the Lair was but a tiny spot near the horizon. The three of us were atop the mother, and we were high up in the sky. I had asked the other insects to work with the dogman and rebuild the castle while the mother could transport us to the Lair.
“What?” I said, though looking at the great sea I felt like I already knew what Riya had forgotten.
“The sea of Blashin,” Riya said, “I had heard about it, but this is the first time I have come this way. I had had a feeling that the Lair could be on one of the islands in the sea.”
“Without the mother we would have never been able to come so far in just a single day, or ever thought of crossing the sea,” Junaki said, “and you, Kitty, would not have got the helmet if you had not accepted the quest and decided to help the fly. And you would have never accepted the quest if—”
“If you had not told me to accept it, yes,” I said. “So thank you. From next time on I will never disagree with you when you tell me to accept a quest,” I turned at her to see her blushing, “Kitty is nothing without Junaki,” I said.
***
Reaching the air space of the island, it was easy to sight the Lair that was located at the very centre of the island. It was higher than any tree that surrounded it, and the tower seemed to throw a very ominous aura about the place, as though only bad things could happen around it.
“Mother, please land us on the shore of the island,” I spoke to the great insect. I reckoned she must be tired after the flight of the great distance though her wings still flapped as fast as when she had first taken to air.
The mother obediently took us down to the shore and landed on the sand. We jumped down from her back. An entire day of flying. My stomach grumbled, but this was not the time to eat, there were other important matters at hand now.
I patted the mother’s head.
“Stay in the shore, all right?” I said to her, “Maybe eat fish from the sea if you can find. We’ll return, but if we take more than a day or two go back to your hill, all right? Don’t stay here. And flee at the first sight of dogmen.”
Leaving the mother at the shore, Junaki, Riya and I made our way into the woods that covered the island. We now had to make our way to the Lair. I could have asked the mother to land near the Lair instead of at the shore, but I had feared dogmen might sight her, and the consequences wouldn’t be great.
We moved quietly and quickly through the flora. It was perhaps the task at hand but we didn’t complain about the lack of rest at all.
And then we reached a spot from which we could clearly see the Lair. It was shaped like a very lean pyramid. Around the pyramid there was a wall, and red dogmen armed with swords stood at all places at the wall. There was a gate, where there stood an unarmed dogmen. He carried a pouch which seemed to be filled with coins judging from the shapes of the small circles on the cloth of the pouch. The Lair was at a somewhat lower ground than where we were and I could see that inside the wall, more dogmen soldiers stood in a circle around the Lair. At the very base of the Lair there was a door, and just beside the door there was some kind of a lever and a dogman stood next to it.
“So what’s the plan?” Junaki asked me.
“Forget the plan,” Riya said, and she pointed skywards, “look over there.”
I looked up. I was taken for a split-second for there was what looked like a rectangle hovering overhead in the sky. I frowned. The rectangle was actually a flying carpet and atop it was a dogman, in flamboyant attire. He seemed to be a wizard and he had a turban on his head. My memory went backwards and I recalled the last day of my previous life. This very wizard had been involved with killing me. I hoped he had not seen the mother at the beach.
Slowly the carpet lowered towards the ground and landed just in front of the gate, beside the dogman with the pouch. The wizard bowed deeply and the dogman took out a coin from the pouch. The wizard accepted the coin. He then folded up his carpet. The gate was opened and he went inside. The guards inside let him pass. Once at the door, the dogman standing near it pulled the lever. The door opened and the wizard stepped into the darkness of the inside of the Lair.
“What could be the purpose of the coin?” Junaki asked.
“I feel it is required if we want to meet the
lord,” Riya said.
I didn’t feel so. Why would the lord make the dogman give a coin to his visitors only to take it from them again? It didn’t make any sense.
“I am not sure of that,” I said, I put forward why I thought so, and Riya mused.
I focussed at the guard dogmen standing all around the Lair. I had been feeling that they were taller than the other dogmen that I had encountered in the capital. It wasn’t surprising when I saw that all of the guards were of higher levels. Dealing with them wouldn’t be easy at all.
“More arrive,” Riya said, her gaze in the distance. I followed her eyes and saw three figures approaching the Lair, emerging from a different side of the woods. The more they came into view the more my heart fluttered. These were cats, not dogmen. And they were coming on their own, not being dragged by dogmen. What was even more disconcerting was that…
I turned with a horrified expression at Junaki, who had a paw over her mouth in her shock.
The cats were three in total. King Rajasher, queen Makrini and prince Indrat.
Junaki almost fell back in shock and I had to hold and support her for a moment.
“Have they come here to join hands with the Lord?” Junaki said, her voice one of the terrified.
“Seems like that,” Riya commented, who didn’t know that they were of relation to Junaki, “filthy traitors.”
Riya was more or less right. King Rajasher, queen Makrini and prince Indrat did look nervous to a certain extent. Like one is nervous before meeting someone important. But they also seemed like they were looking forward to their meeting with the Lord. The Lord however probably didn’t trust them any more than he would trust some other cat, and he had perhaps asked them to come without guards and without weapons. The trio looked rather bare. Even queen Makrini wasn’t wearing much jewellery. They looked like peasants. Finally they reached the gate. The guard at it checked them, then he gave them each a gold coin. The three of them looked extremely grateful to receive the coins. I reckoned they were the only cats beside Meow who had ever had that privilege.
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