Edited: Apr, 26, 2020

Note: Underlined words are Kathula tail sign language. Pinti's character art by catsaredragons 

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~~Two Years Later... In the First Ring~~

On a piece of parchment, Pinti marked her second year outside of home with a claw mark and let it flutter away. There was no point keeping track of the days out in the Desert Isles where time shifted constantly. When she first came this way, Pinti was very much disoriented as were the other Kathula. It was not until they met their first Halfhuman that they found out how time worked in different parts of the First Ring.

The Halfhuman had been the half grizzly bear and half human type called Gerfai. She was much taller than even the male Kathula, but at least kind enough despite her growling bear face to show them the way to the mega Human city Bairenshire. It was there they all searched for temporary homes and some bit of comfort, but that comfort didn't last long.

"Pinti, keep walking." Kalis ordered, helping Vaiter who limped still after the ambush.

Humans were not nice like she read in books and scrolls. They sought after Kathula for their rare blue pelt. Chased, hunted, soon they were scattered and separated. Pinti ended up with Kalis and Vaiter in dark alleys and stinky sewer holes for the past six months. Fur matted, stomachs grumbling, all they could do to survive was to keep to the shadows, steal food from unaware Humans, and hope to reunite with the other Kathula. But they never did.

"Hurry!" Kalis hissed to Vaiter who had slowed down. The poison was getting to him. They needed to find the next oasis town for herbs, or he would surely die.

Every day they survived. The only difference now was they no longer walked the hard, concrete roads or metallic roofs of Bairenshire City. They were no longer captured within the walls of the one place that was supposed to provide comfort. Hot sand scorched their hardened pads. Pinti's pawpads were still raw from scraping them against the cage they spent the last month in.

Circus amusements were all they were to Humans. Whipped, starved, humiliated—Pinti endured it all out of determination to live and be free. Besides, she had a task—to search for the Scepter of Tamido as her father bid her. She could not fail him again.

At a faraway howl, her ears pricked upright. The Edglings were searching for them. Last night, Vaiter's Saboteur shot him with a poisoned arrow. Pinti desperately searched the vast desert for something that looked like a town under a glass dome. Large sand dunes obscured her vision, so she scrambled up one to get a better look.

"Pinti! Where the feigat are you going?" Kalis yowled in anger. But Pinti ignored her and climbed to the top. There, she could see two domed towns and a portal in the distance.

"I see one!" Pinti called, skittering down the sand dune letting orange dust billow behind her like a cape. At the foot of the dune stood Kalis with Vaiter who smelled of putrid sickness and bitter poison. "I saw one oasis town. Not too far."

Instead of thanking her for scouting ahead, Kalis hissed. "You just left me here to hold him up all on my own and I only have three legs, stupid child! It's all your fault, too!"

Such words that would have hurt, bounced off a hardened shell. Pinti just nodded and didn't dwell on Kalis' sharp words. She had to keep strong and keep moving and make her father proud.

"You're just not good enough." She heard Kalis hiss.

"I'll be better." Pinti stood on the other side to put Vaiter's other arm over her shoulder.

"I doubt it." Kalis growled.

The high-noon sun hot on their heads, threatening to singe their fur. They were all panting by the time they came upon a rusted metal sign which said, 'Oasis Town: Yargrelid' and underneath it said 'Population' with numbers scratched out, rewritten, and scratched out again. In small print it read, at last, 'Count 'em yerself.'

The bearded guard at the gates didn't stop them but watched them with furrowed eyebrows and a steady gaze as they passed through. Such a sight they must have been—three ragged Kathula with their blue pelts dusted in orange desert sand, one Kathula with three legs.

Any orange dust that may have touched the white stone paths of this town had been swept away—and were still being swept away. Dark-tanned Humans with orange-stained towels round their heads and wearing black aprons carried brooms of every possible size. Some were so large that one person stood on stilts while another stood on the bottom and, together, they swept side to side in wide movements. Pinti spotted two children with paint brushes meticulously sweeping the nooks and crannies of outside portions of windowsills or door hinges. Most of the houses that lined the white path were immaculate with not a speck of orange on them.

At first, the townspeople paid the three of them no mind and kept on sweeping while humming a tune. But once Pinti, Kalis, and Vaiter stepped onto the white path, every adult and child looked up from their work and their eyes widened almost in unison. Pinti bristled at the hostility in their glares. One orange-skinned female with a slender shape and a pointed chin came forward to block them from going further.

"Animals." She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "What are you doin' in here?" she said in slurred Universal language.

"Need herbs. Place, rest. He, hurt." Kalis struggled to speak Universal and signed to Pinti, How do you say, 'poison'?

But Pinti shook her head. She knew the word, but she didn't want to participate. The female hollered over her shoulder and the townspeople went back to their cleaning again, this time without song but with chatter, paying no mind to the three Kathula within their territory.

"We don't have any fer you. Get out of our town," the female said with her hands on her hips. Kalis stepped up, putting all Vaiter's weight on Pinti, and began arguing with the female. Kalis' Universal, especially when she was upset, was horrible and Pinti couldn't take listening to all the jumble of misunderstandings between the two. She wanted to jump in, but she didn't want to make things worse either. That already happened too many times in the past until Kalis told her to let her do the talking.

She twitched her ears and listened instead to the chatter of the townspeople. Most of their Universal was slurred unlike the clear-spoken words of the citizens of Bairenshire City. Vaiter groaned and she adjusted his weight on her shoulder.

"Nev'r gonna have to clean this damn hole if I gots me some blue kitty fur." A deep scratchy male voice jumped in her ear and she flicked it to get rid of the sound. "If I gots me some, th-at is." He gave a hiccup.

Another voice popped in, younger. "You've heard of the all-wishing scepter?"

The older voice chuckled. "The ol'legend I hear, yah, I hear. The Scept—" He hiccupped again. "—er of Tummies?" He burped.

"Geesh! Pops, keep yer stinkin' breath away from me!" The younger voice protested. "And it's tah, like 'rah-tatah!' me, like you and me. Doh. Like 'dough'. Kneading dough. Bread dough."

The Scepter of Tamido? Pinti widened her eyes and searched for the two voices as they bantered.

"You know better than to call me stinkin', bastard boy. Rah-tatah-me-and-you-dough. Ta-mee-do."

Pinti finally found them nearby outside a shop of sorts selling vegetables in little white nets protecting them from the orange sand. The old voice belonged to an old male with a jutting jaw and such bushy eyebrows his eyes were concealed. His face and body were so round he looked like two balls stuck together with little hands and feet that had no wrists or ankles. The younger one was exactly that—the spitting image of his father, but younger.

The son was hunched over, cleaning the side of the path with a broom. "Some oddball searchin' for the scepter. Rumor has it he's got a two people livin' inside of him. Odd, but he'd be the first Human to get his hands on the all-wishing scepter left by blue kitties."

"Once in a hundred years?"

"Yah." The son nodded. "And any wish."

The father guffawed and threw down the broom with a clank. "Well, pack yer bags boy, we be goin' to Nuaka! We be gettin' rich!" The son picked up the broom and shoved it in his father's hands, shaking his head. The father grumbled and took up the broom again, dreams crushed.

"Where is Nuaka?" Pinti called over to them. They looked up and blinked at her. She licked her lips and repeated, "Where is Nuaka?"

The father and son both raised their left eyebrow. "Back that way," the son answered first before the father could say anything. He pointed the opposite direction of the entrance. "You lookin' for it?"

"How far from here?" Pinti pressed and the son eyed Vaiter who spluttered, and blood trickled out of his mouth.

"Twenty, thirty minutes with yer burden. Ten if you ditch him and run." The father gave a snide smile as she frowned.

"Pinti!" Kalis called, snapping her attention away. Kalis had grabbed the other side of Vaiter and was trying to turn him around. "They're not going to help. We're leaving. Feigat, Huamanoas!" She hissed and startled a few sweeping townspeople.

Pinti's mind was caught up in the Humans' conversation. Some strange Human in Nuaka looking for the Scepter of Tamido. All this time Pinti had no lead as it was just a tale or a legend, and not actually real. But if someone was looking for it, perhaps it was real?

"Kalis." Pinti called as they made their way back out to the desert and in the blazing sun. "Kalis," she said again when the older Kathula didn't answer. "What about Nuaka? It's back that way."

"No, too far." Kalis shifted Vaiter's weight on her shoulders. "We're going to Vinyan City. Smaller than Bairenshire, but Edglings won't look for us there." She used her tail to point back the way they came to a walled city in the distance. It didn't look so far, but Pinti knew the heatwaves coming off the sand distorted perception. Kalis just didn't want to take Pinti's suggestion because of her usual ego.

But Pinti was not going to back down. What if this was her only chance to not fail her father again?

"But they might be friendlier in Nuaka, and," She paused, "I heard the Scepter of—"

Kalis hissed. "You and your scepter! Haven't we already established that it's false hope and not real? There is no Lunar Goddess, just the moon. There is no scepter that can save us, just a child's tale. And there is no Vaiter if you don't let go of fairy tales, child!"

With that, Kalis flicked her tail signaling the talk was over. Vaiter grunted.

"Give up, Pinti," he rasped. "Just give up already."

But she didn't want to give up and knew she might never get another chance to go to Nuaka. When she insisted on going once more, finally Vaiter snapped.

"You know you're being selfish?" His fur bristled. Pinti looked away. She knew, but still it was better than going all the way to Vinyan City.

"If he dies, it's your fault because you were too childish to see the best way. Vinyan is closer. You just don't remember the map," Kalis said in a low voice, flattening her ears. Pinti fell into submission and hung her head. She couldn't add another failure to her already growing repertoire. Vaiter was right. She was being selfish. Kalis was right. She just didn't remember the map. It wasn't good enough to just memorize the map.

I should have done more. I should have while we had a map. She bit her lip in disappointment at herself for yet again failing to accomplish an easy task. What was it with her? It was like she couldn't keep her paw out of failure.