Felix leaned back, his body frozen stiff as he processed what he just heard. "What do you mean she helped him? No, she wouldn't do that, not KuliKuli."

  Dimyri scowled. "You asked for the truth regardless of what I said, both you and the bird."

  "Vardare." The owl corrected her with a hoot.

  "Fine, whatever. Look, it's true. My sister, your lover, she led him to us. Took him to our home, helped him capture our friends and family." She seemed hesitant, watching Felix look away and shake his head.

  "I don't believe it, not her. The same woman I've cared for in these past months, she would fight fang and cw for her friends. You want me to believe that she would just... betray her family like that? Why?"

  Dimyri shifted in her posture, squeezing her legs together with her paws buried between them in a state of discomfort. A gust of wind swept by, providing a cold breeze that dragged the grass and weeds to swing in one direction. Her light brown hair didn't have the wavy patterns that her siblings had, the length reached her shoulders and was parted in the middle, flowing down the sides of her face like a portrait that highlighted her pretty face. Her eyes matched KuliKuli's amber yellow color, but her fur pattern seemed the direct opposite with a dominant brown fur decorated with silver white marks. However, her once illuminating smile was gone now, her cheerful face hanging down as she recalled the events of how everything happened.

  "She wasn't herself." She said in a low voice, her light brown hair lightly flowing with the afternoon breeze. "There was something wrong, you could see it in her eyes. But we couldn't tell, how could we? Perdilius didn't just find us overnight, he pnned it."

  Felix ran his hand down the back of his head, stressed by the revetion as well as keeping his hair away from his eyes. "Tell me what happened that night."

  Dimyri nodded, licking her lips. Tootsie and Vardare remained silent, waiting for the Nekomata to begin her story.

  "It happened ten months ago."

  The setting changed from a desote grassy mountainous terrain into a vast jungle of dense vegetation. The bark of the trees was thick and coarse, the branches curling around and the leaves spread wide enough that only a few rays of sunlight snuck through them. It provided the ground with sufficient warmth for comfort, enough so for a plethora of wildlife to call it home. From atop a rge branch perched high above was a brown cat ying on its belly, face settled on some moss with its tail dangling down matching much of the vines that hung like curtains.

  The cat's ear flicked just as it heard the shuffling of leaves come from another branch nearby. Its yellow eyes parted open to catch a familiar cat approaching it before sitting up comfortably when it began to change form, growing into a nude humanoid body with a slender frame, short height, and lightly tanned skin. There were enough freckles spotted around her shoulders and face that often her sisters would tease her about connecting the dots to form an image on her. Her long white hair descended down her back like a flowing river, with a gentle bounce of wavy curls at the end.

  She blinked her green eyes and licked the back of her paw before rubbing it into her hair. "Mew, sis your back! Have you seen Nityri? Did she go with you?"

  The brown cat raised its butt and tail high in a stretch, baring its fangs before transforming into her humanoid shape as well. She rubbed her eyes and licked her lips, her brown ears bobbing with every turn of her head. "Syri, she's probably with her girlfriend again. You know this. How did you find me?"

  "I was looking around." Syri gnced at the ground floor below, swinging her two white-furred tails. "She's been gone for some time."

  "Her and Na'Vi may have left for some silly antics." She muttered, sticking her tongue out. "They're going to get in trouble if they sneak out to watch any traveling humans passing by."

  Her little sister kept quiet, watching Dimyri stretch her limbs before speaking softly. "You didn't say when you came back from Auntie."

  She was met with an audible sigh. "I'm tired sis, I wanted some quiet time to myself before I go see Mom."

  "I was thinking we would spend some time just you and me if we can. Maybe ter?"

  "Would be nice," Dimyri turned her head with a look of concern. "Those girls at the clutter aren't picking on you, are they?"

  "Nu." She smiled. "You and Nityri made sure they would stop. But some of the girls are out doing other things, it's boring back there. And Mom is getting worried about Nityri, she's been gone for a while now."

  "Couldn't be that long," Dimyri groaned, carefully walking down the rge branch. "A few hours? She skipped mealtime or something?"

  "She's been gone for a few nights."

  That brought Dimyri to a halt. "What?"

  Syri hung her head low. "I didn't want you worried but... Na'Vi is back home. It's just Nityri that's been missing."

  It wasn't too long when Dimyri and her sister were running from tree to tree, gasping for breath until they arrived home. Home was a small settlement of growth where the roots and weeds were dense enough to act as barriers to keep out unwanted predators from wandering in. Pnts and bushes grew in rge abundance, hardly leaving any free room for soil to be stepped on when not covered in foliage. Most of the roots were surrounded with stunted thorns and the leaves carried a sticky substance that would irritate the skin and cause annoying rashes upon contact. There was a river several meters off where they would settle to bathe, and fortunately the rge leaves at higher elevation carried this curved texture that they would wrap around the stem to collect rainwater for drinking.

  The cats would find a suitable branch to sit comfortably to rest in throughout the night. The altitude kept them safe from any grounded predators, and the shade provided by the interlocked trees trapped enough cool air for them to y in comfort from the hotter days.

  Emyri was ushering a group of Nekomata children, young girls with small articles of clothing wrapped around them like bathing suits to keep their appearance modest. A Nekomata is given the option to embrace her natural appearance without clothes once they reach of age. Her mother was in the middle of teaching them how to differentiate between edible berries and poisoned ones when her nose caught the scent of her daughters approaching them. She looked up in shock and stood up from the tree stump she sat on, embracing Dimyri with open arms.

  "Oh goodness, you're back so soon!" She pstered numerous kisses on Dimyri's embarrassed face. "I thought you won't be back for the rest of the week."

  "Alma sent me back, said she had to take care of some things that came up. It looked serious." Dimyri answered truthfully, locking eyes with her mother. "Mum, what happened?"

  Emyri lightly pushed her daughter aside and turned to face her little css of students. "Okay everyone, snack time. Go out to your mommies and let them know about today's lesson okay?"

  "Yay!" The children squealed and threw their little paws in the air, shoving and pushing each other in a race to run back up their respective trees.

  Emyri sunk down in defeat, pnting her butt back on the stump. "I'm sorry dear, but your sister's been missing now."

  "And Na'Vi?"

  "She's been looking too." Syri mentioned.

  Dimyri turned her attention back when her mother held her paw. "Na'Vi doesn't know where she was?"

  "She knows, she's who told us about this."

  Felix shook his head. "So KuliKuli went missing, for how long?"

  Dimyri sighed. "I was supposed to stay with Alma for two weeks that time, she was going to teach me and her son about their trade. She lived deeper in the jungle than we did, near the center. That's where the tower stood."

  "A tower?"

  "Yes. It stood there looming above, looking like this bck rocky structure with five spiky things stemming from the top reaching upward. We never went close; she forbade us from doing so. Though we didn't need her to tell us no, that pce carries this eerie feeling around it. Just thinking of it makes my skin crawl." She fussed, rubbing her paws together. "Alma and her group protected that pce, they made sure to keep it hidden. It wasn't too hard because of the fog surrounding it. This wasn't some natural mist that clears up on daylight, this stuff was unnatural. It clung to the tower like its life depended on it. But still if you squint your eyes, you can make out its shadow, and sometimes it would feel like it was staring back."

  "Your Aunt guarded this tower and held a trade?" Felix asked.

  "Yup! It was how she got any supplies or equipment they needed. She would travel outside the jungle and set up a trade for people passing by. There was this dirt path, not a lot of people came through but some did. Enough for her to make it work. One time she got these really warm sheets with beautiful little flowers decorated onto them." Her face broke out into a fading smile. "That was so comfortable to sleep in."

  "So, what about this tower? Why is it important?"

  Dimyri collected herself from the fond memory, her smile repced with dread.

  Dimyri climbed up the tree, finding the highest branch where her friend sat in uncomfortable silence. She joined her, both of them met with a view just above the trees to spy on the faint shadow of the tower far in the distance.

  "Na'Vi, it's te. What are you doing up here, we need to go back."

  Na'Vi's bck fur made her more difficult to track by sight, even for a cat. She didn't respond, keeping her still posture as she stared out into the tower ahead. The silence was enough to make Dimyri uncomfortable.

  "We'll find her, she can't be far off from here."

  "You know how this happened? She just wanted to wash her hair by the river. We were pying around, and she fell in mud. I was teasing her, telling her she looked filthy and pying keep away. She said she was going to wash off. I should have followed but I was tired and wanted to rest. Do you think she would still be missing if I went with her?"

  "You shouldn't think that way, you're hurting yourself and those around you. It's not like we can go back for these things, and there's no way we would have known this would happen."

  "What happened with Alma?"

  "Hm?" Dimyri cocked her head. "She sent me back early, said she had to deal with some stuff. Why?"

  "Does she go inside that pce?" She asked, looking ahead.

  "The tower, no." Dimyri leaned her head in. "Why do you ask?"

  "Because I can hear noises in there. If you stay quiet, you can make out some sounds."

  Dimyri sat up and watched, following Na'Vi's instruction. The jungle night wasn't pitch bck, as one of the three moons would be settled up in the starry night sky. But the wildlife would settle down to a calmer tone, with a few insects chirping and an occasionally animal making a calling sound.

  Her ears shot up when the faintest sound came from the same direction as the tower. Sat up in the dark above the trees, both Na'Vi and Dimyri failed to break the silence they were stuck in. Neither dared to speak as they feared the implications of their finding.

  Felix wiped his cmmy hands against his pants, squirming in his seat. "Okay, did you guys go in the tower next?"

  She shook her head. "We told mother when we saw her, but we're not a clutter of fighters. We're a small group of cat-girls, some are mothers, some are children."

  "How did you defend yourselves?"

  She huffed. "We slept high up on trees, Felix. We rarely had need to defend ourselves. No one can attack us when they can't even reach us. That's why we were ill-prepared for what happened next."

  "What do you mean, when you found KuliKuli?"

  Dimyri came back to him with a sudden gre. "She found us the night after."

  "Sis! Sis!" Syri shook Dimyri awake.

  "Meow?"

  "She's here!"

  Dimryi grew back into her humanoid form, mouth wide open. "What? Where?"

  "Down there, Mom's with her but-" She didn't get a chance to finish as her sister wasted no time climbing down the tree.

  Dimyri jumped down from a safe distance, nding on her feet. She gasped as most of their clutter were beginning to wake up and climb down from beds, spreading the news of her sisters return.

  Emyri was the first to meet her, reaching in to hug her daughter with a tight squeeze. Nityri didn't move a muscle, staring bnkly forward with her arms down and her tails refusing to sway. "Where have you been, do you know how scared we were? Almost eight days looking for you, I began to fear the worst!"

  She held her tight with tears running down her face. "But you're here now, you're safe. I love you so much, don't you ever scare me like that again."

  By then, everyone had climbed down to approach them with tired smiles and greetings. Few of the kids cheered when they weren't clinging to their mother's leg drowsy with sleep, and the Nekomata's that once teased Nityri now met her with grateful smiles and hugs.

  But she never hugged back.

  Dimyri narrowed her eyes, detecting movement behind her sister. Syri jumped down but was held back by Dimyri, while Na'Vi pushed through the clutter to meet Nityri upfront. She panted and wiped the sweat off her head, eyes scanning her up and down and even pinching herself just to be sure this was real. "You're here, you're really here."

  "Mom, Na'Vi!" Dimyri called out.

  Emyri's eyes blinked as her smile disappeared. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

  Cp! Cp! Cp!

  From the darkness behind them emerged an old man with a bald head, wearing white robes and forming a wide grin with a few wrinkles on his forehead. He was accompanied by dozens of armored men carrying weapons and wired nets in hand, their faces obscured by their helmets. Only their eyes were revealed by the absence of visors on their headgear.

  "How is it that the reunion of mother and daughter can be instinctively passed down to not just other races but through monsters such as these?" He asked, approaching them one step at a time. His blue eyes settled on Dimyri and Syri as well. "You two must be the sisters she's told me about. Yes, the resembnce is there."

  Emyri stepped forward with her arm held out, signaling for her clutter to stay back. "What do you want, how did you find us?"

  "I had a bit of help from your group, I mean you no harm." He held his chest and bowed lightly. "My name is Perdilius and I come here to ask for thy help. I've come across a building of rge importance to me, but I am in need of assistance clearing out the centuries of rubble inside."

  "The tower." Dimyri mentioned, catching his grin.

  "You catch on quick, child. You see, I am an old man and but a humble servant, sent on a mission to appease our gods above. My men, they mean well but they are needed for other purposes, they are no skilled diggers. Furthermore, this jungle is foreign to me and whom better to request aid from then but the locals who call this pce their home?"

  Na'Vi moved in to help Nityri walk away, but shrieked when she pulled her paw away covered in red. "She's bleeding!"

  Perdilius rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Yes, we couldn't manage to stitch the wound too well. Your daughter was of great value to us, we were hoping you could find it in your hearts to help an old man on his mission."

  Emyri turned around, inspecting Nityri's body. The bleeding came from the back of her head. She turned around with fred eyes and a deep hiss, her cws out and ready. "What did you do to my daughter!?"

  "Your daughter is who led me here to you, she was of great importance. Taught us how you creatures think in that stubborn cranium of yours." He ran a hand down his face and gred back. "You're not going to help us willingly, are you? Why did I even bother asking for kindness from these things. Take them, take them all."

  That was all his men needed to hear. The calmness of the night erupted in loud shrieks, birds flying in a panic away from the scene in the middle of the night. Numerous cat-girls attempted to climb up high, only for them to be tethered with rope and forced down before they could make it. The mothers held their children to protect them, unable to run the nets that fell over them. Some of the girls fought back, but Dimyri couldn't tell what happened to them. She only recalled dragging her little sister away with some of her friends.

  The armed soldiers didn't come on foot; they came on horseback. Some of the Nekomata changed back into their cat forms to sneak away, most were scooped up by their hind legs or ensnared by hidden rope traps. Dimyri pnted her paws down, barely catching a glimpse of the cliff before they ran off the edge. This is where the river pooled down into raging waters to join the waterfall further down.

  "Mom!" Syri cried out, forcing Dimyri to look to where her sister was pointing. She found her mother there with an unconcious Na'Vi in her arms, tears staining her face. She froze when she noticed the strange man confronting her mother, hidden by his cloak and hood.

  "Mum?" Syri reached out to her, hugging her tight. Emyri hugged back but her eyes refused to look away from this man.

  "Stay back!" Emyri shouted, not to her daughters but toward this man. Her voice was raspy and filled with hate, her teary eyes turning red. "I don't care what or why, but you made your choice! I don't ever want to see your face again, you hear me. Never!"

  "Mother?" Syri looked up to her, both of them backing away from him.

  "Mom!" Dimyri joined them, only she wasn't alone.

  "Over here, I found them!" One of the soldiers hollered. In a moment, more of them surrounding them, pinning the girls with their backs against the raging waters. behind.

  Perdilius had arrived, patting the cloaked man in the back. "You've my gratitude for tracking these lot. Where's the other child?"

  Emyri's eyes gnced back at the coursing waters behind them, the implications were enough for Perdilius to frown.

  "Find her and make sure she is well, we can't afford any further injuries, or all of this will be for naught!" He stepped forward, offering a rge open hand. "Don't be foolish now, you'll die if you jump. Even monsters want to live, yes? If you come with us, you'll have my word that no further harm will be done to you."

  Emyri hesitated, feeling the spsh of cold water tickling her back as she and her daughters took another step backwards.

  "For god's sake, don't!" He shouted.

  "We'll be dead either way." Emyri gred one st time at the shrouded man, closing her eyes and feeling the icy waters envelope her as she fell backwards. Her daughters joined her, all of them swept away, barely missing the sharp rocks before falling down the waterfall. Perdilius stood there in silence, watching the river carry the girls away from his grasp. The st they heard was him screaming at the top of his lungs in anger.

  Dimyri emerged from the surface, gasping loudly for air. Emyri's head popped up from the other side of the current, holding Na'Vi with her.

  "Syri?" Dimyri gnced around, spotting her sister spping her paws against the water.

  "C-Can't!" She coughed out, failing to keep above the water. She sunk down when her sister dove in, wrapping her arms around her waist and pulling her back up. Both of them swam back into the shore and id there on the soiled ground, coughing and tired. Emyri swam towards them, gently pcing Na'Vi's dazed body next to them. She was breathing lightly, unfazed from the fall. Her body carried several nasty cuts along her chest and thigh, and it was then that Dimyri noticed her mother had a few cuts of her own.

  "Mom, where's Nityri?" She asked with a shaky voice. "What happened to her?"

  Emyri shook her head and wept in silence, holding her daughters in each arm.

  "We went searching for her, but her scent was gone. The river might have swept her further down, I don't know. Mom said she fell into the waters first before we did. We lost everything, everyone. All we had left was each other."

  Dimyri finished her story, looking up to see how Felix was handling it. He didn't know what to say, standing up and leaning on his arm against the small house.

  "He did something to her head then?"

  "Yes, we don't know what. I didn't see her move or talk, it's like she was gone and her body was moving on its own."

  "And that man your mother was screaming to?"

  "I think..." She paused, rubbing her legs together. "She won't say, but I think he's the hunter who's been after us."

  Felix turned around, grabbing a hoe and busying himself with removing some of the weeds. Dimyri gnced back at Tootsie and Vardare but neither of them knew what to do or say. She stood up and approached him with a paw on his arm. "You're not worried or anything?"

  "We need to finish up here first." He answered coldly, keeping his head down.

  "Okay?" She slowly pulled away when he turned and looked at her.

  "Thank you for telling me this, but it's just another piece to what happened."

  "I know, I've been searching for answers too-"

  "Your mother."

  "Huh?" She blinked when he faced her.

  "When we get back, we need to talk to your mother for answers."

  "Are you... going to tell Kuli?"

  He hesitated and looked up at the sky, breathing in and exhaling. "I don't know. Never told her a lie or kept a secret from her before. Your mother told me that sometimes you need to make choices that not everyone agrees with, but you do it if it means protecting those that you love. I think she meant keeping secrets if the truth hurts people close to you."

  "What are you going to do?"

  He sighed. "It's going to hurt, but KuliKuli deserves to know. Right now, we have a lot to cover here."

  She understood. In a way, it felt good to have that secret off her chest, knowing that these three shared the same knowledge she has. What comforted her more was him believing her, not needing to ask the owl to be sure she was telling the truth. He trusts her, and now she was certain she could trust him as well.