DoK- I have waited for 10years

  Cecil shifted.
  As he regained some form of consciousness, the two instinctive questions made themselves known in his mind. Where was he, and the lesser known but nevertheless an important one for hunters- was something going to eat him?
  Slowly, each of his senses returned. Pain flooded his limbs, his mouth tasted like week-old popo dung, there was a strange, animal smell in the air, and he could hear distant yet somewhat familiar chatter in the background. He prayed the latter didn’t involve a big metal pot of boiling water, and his body parts. Naïve he wasn’t, but he had heard things, and having never travelled far from the mountains, there had been nothing to dispel those rumours. He always felt it was better to at least be sceptical.
  Something poked him in the ribs. He groaned loudly, curling away from the source of the annoyance.
  “.. Think he’s awake nya?” a voice said.
  “Well he did make a sound nya..” a higher voice responded. This was followed by another bout of nudging.
  “Mm..” Cecil groaned again, and flopped over onto his back.
  The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a familiar face. Its furry ears twitched as its eyes studied him carefully.
  “This one’s finally awake nya!” the melynx said, moving away.
  Another cat hove into view, another black melynx with white ear-tips. “Glad you’re finally awake, nya! We found two of you out in the swamp passed out, after..” it paused, and an unreadable expression flickered across its face. “Well, you’re up, and that’s all that matter nya,” it smiled.
  Cecil tried to sit up, struggling on shaking arms. He felt small paws on his back, and a soft cushion thrust under him. He relaxed again. “Thank you, for saving our lives,” he said quietly. Terra had probably survived too, since there hadn’t been anyone else in their vicinity that he knew of when that thing had attacked them.
  No, that was wrong. It didn’t attack them. It had landed, and roared at them. The fact that he was still alive was proof that it hadn’t even tried to do anything beyond roaring at them. Unless.. unless he was dead, and this was the afterlife his village elder always talked about. He somehow doubted it- death couldn’t be this sore.
  Cecil took the chance to look around.
  He was lying on a pallet, or rather four of them pushed together to accommodate his larger body. A collection of blankets had been laid over his body, brown and made of some coarse material he didn’t recognise which fell away from his chest as he propped himself up a little more. There was a small fireplace with a chimney in one corner, small table with chairs, and an equally small bench top near the fireplace which looked like it was used for food preparation.
  Around him were clustered half a dozen melynxes, and one felyne., all of them were black, with white ear tips, while the felyne was- to his surprise- pure cream.
  He turned, and through the doorway streamed a dozen felines. They crowded around him, and meowed to each other, a few of them prodding him like he was a sack full of suspicious materials.
  The cream coloured felyne meowed, and all the other ones fell silent. She moved through the press of fur, which parted reverentially to let her pass. Cecil watched this one with interest and more than a little apprehension.
  “Sorry for my children’s lack of manners, but we try to be hospitable nya,” she said, smiling gently. “We don’t get many humans, so I apologise for the lack of comfort, this was the best we could do. We have your armour and packs stored away securely.”
  Cecil tried to smile, and managed a weak one. “You’ve done more than enough, saving my life..” he looked around. “Where’s Terra?”
  The felyne’s expression softened. “Your.. friend is up and about,” she placed a small, furry paw on Cecil’s hand. “She didn’t want to leave before you woke up.”
  Cecil’s cheeks heated up a little at that one. The felyne had the wrong idea.. but denying it would only prove otherwise. He merely smiled awkwardly, and kept quiet, while silently praying that he could be up and about soon.

--

  It was another day before he could make himself stand up again, and one more before he was strong enough to wander about.
  The village, to his surprise, wasn’t as tiny as he thought it was. It was huge, more than twice the size of his home back up in the mountains. Wandering through it, however, he discovered that most of the buildings had fallen into much disuse. The scraggly forest that he had come to associate with the swamp had invaded, their moist, skeletal fingers clutching the ruined shells of what must have once been a thriving township. What little area the cats occupied was well-maintained- structures repaired, fires burned in hearths, and they seemed to lead a generally happy and peaceful existence if a little subdued.
  The cream-coloured felyne was in charge of everything, from the foraging parties that were sent out to retrieve supplies, to the everyday running of the village itself. Her name was Reina, and every cat that lived in the village were her offspring, in total spanning four generations from Reina herself, to the tiniest of kittens. They all obeyed her without question, and was held in far more reverence than he had seen any village elder.
  Cecil met Terra wandering through the ruins on the second day after he began his wanderings. He found her sitting on the tumbled-down remains of a dry wall, staring aimlessly off towards the swamp-encroached part of the village. She was dressed in a thick jacket and pants made of material he hadn’t seen before, and was a lot finer than his own popo skin fur coat. Why hadn’t she left yet? Wasn’t her home around here somewhere..?
  He snuck up behind her, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. The contact made the girl flinch and stumble off the wall. She spun clumsily, taking up a defensive stance, relaxing only a little when she saw it was him.
  Cecil grinned weakly. “You look like a frightened rabbit.”
  “This place gives me the creeps,” Terra complained, though there wasn’t much heart in it. She hopped back onto the wall, and resumed staring out at the swamp. “I wonder what happened here, no one’s around but the cats..” she chuckled awkwardly. “But I guess you’ve already found that out. Reina told me you’ve been up and about for a few days.”
  Cecil leaned against the wall, placing his elbows on the cold stone and staring back towards the warm glow of cooking fires as the cats began preparing their evening meal. It was hard to tell when the sun set in this place, as the sky stubbornly remained a dull, iron grey, only becoming a slightly darker shade of grey when the sun set which slowly turned to a more complete darkness when he wasn’t paying attention.
  “Why haven’t you left for home yet? I thought you had a village around here..?” he looked around. “This can’t be it, right..?”
  She shook her head. “Of course not, but I have no idea where this is..” Terra spun around on the wall and stared towards the fires, the glow highlight her face in a warm shade of orange. “My village wasn’t so deep in the swamp. Heck, I’ve never been this deep in the swamp before but there had always been stories of villages lost to some force of nature and swallowed up by the land. I guess this is one of them..”
  Cecil stared at her for a second, then looked away once more, into the outer darkness. “Have you explored the outer edges of the town? If we can find out from the cats where we are, then I’m sure we can go home, well your home anyway,” he added hurriedly.
  “They don’t know.. you don’t think I’ve asked them?”
  “Then how did they find us..?”
  “The appearance of.. whatever that thing was..” she lapsed off into silence, staring off blankly into space as her mind wandered.
  “I’m sure the cats will have at least some information on whatever it was.. right? They said something about it earlier when I woke up..” Cecil said as he saw a small melynx hop towards them.
  It was one of the tiny ones, no more than a few months old by the looks of it. Of course Cecil couldn’t tell which one it was, since they all looked the same to him at first glance. It paused in front of them, and stood up on two legs.
  “Dinner’s ready nya! Reina told me to come find the two of you, she had something to tell you nya,” it said in a tiny voice, before hopping off back towards the fires.
  “We might get our answers after all,” Cecil said quietly, heaving himself off the wall. “Coming?” he offered a hand to Terra.
  “Yeah..” she said quietly, hopping off the wall and walking off towards the fire.
  Cecil shrugged, and followed her.

--

  Meals were a communal affair, with every cat, small or big, gathered around the large bonfire in the middle of the circle of buildings. Food was always pre-prepared in giant steaming pots, platters of roasted game, fish and vegetables followed by berries and some fruit either salvaged from the swamp or grown by the cats themselves amongst the ruins.
  Cecil sat down near the fire after collecting a small platter of fish and roasted peppers. A few cats wandered up, but soon settled down in their own little family groups and cliques. If there was one thing these cats knew how to do was cook. The food was always delicious, and this was no exception. The fish was small, and its bones soft, the whole thing melted in his mouth- bones and all. He sucked the juices from his greasy fingers, and looked around for Terra. She met his eyes from her own little corner near the fire, but looked away when she noticed his gaze.
  He felt a small tap on his arm, and he looked down. It was a pale melynx, his storm cloud-grey fur was marred by one, pale white spot on his forehead. He was one of the older generation of cats, a direct offspring of Reina herself. Cecil remembered seeing him on the first day as one of the cats that had been taking care of him.
  “What is it, Arish?” he said quietly.
  “Reina will see you now, follow me nya..” the elder melynx whispered, gesturing for Cecil to follow.
  He nodded, and went to put his used plate near the fire, before following the little cat off into the shadows into Reina’s hut.
  It was tiny compared to all the other buildings, and as snug as snug could be. Furs lined the walls, and a cheery fire blazed in one corner. Reina herself was curled up in front of the fire, but stood up when she heard the two of them enter.
  “Ah, the young man has arrived,” she said, smiling gently. Gesturing for him to sit, she wandered off into one of the dark corners of her hut, and Cecil heard faint rummaging sounds.
  More footsteps approached the doorway, and the door opened with a soft creak. Cecil turned to see Terra walk in, following another small, old melynx he didn’t recognise.
  “Ah, our princess arrives too,” Reina meowed gently, returning into the pool of light with something folded up under her arm. “You may go my sons, your mother appreciates your help.”
  The two melynxes bowed and meowed softly, then stepped out, closing the door behind them. The heat slowly spread through the room, closing out the bone-piercing chill outside.
  Reina waved for Terra to sit down. She settled down on her knees near him, placing her hands on her thighs as she waited for Reina to speak. She treated the old felyne as reverentially as the other cats did.
  “No need to be so formal, Terra,” Reina smiled, settling herself down in front of the two of them, and laying what looked like a piece of folded-up piece of cured leather aside. “How do you two like it here? Be honest now, I won’t bite,” she finished with a warm smile, washing her paw as she watched the two of them with her wise eyes.
  “It’s nice here.. we can’t thank you enough for your hospitality,” Terra spoke up first. “But.. I’m sure you can understand.. we have a few questions.”
  Reina stopped washing herself, and finished with a slow nod of her head. “I know nya.. didn’t really expect any less.” She sighed softly, and looked between the two of them slowly.
  “Not all of this used to be swamp. I was from the village of Hakkoa, too long ago for me to remember, though by your human standards, it probably wasn’t that long ago.” She paused, and chuckled softly to herself, “so many memories.. but I digress.
  “This once used to be a lush forest, and this was a big town. I belonged to the top hunter of the village, a woman called Nara. She, and a dozen other hunters protected the village from everything that threatened it- they put their lives gladly on the line for the sake of the survival of this township.
  “Some years ago, a taint was discovered in the forest. Patches of land where the trees withered, and died, to be replaced by fetid ponds of stagnant water, and..” she waved a paw. “The swamp you see today.. at first it was just isolated spots deep in the forest, but they spread like a plague. Eventually, it began to invade the town. Crops died, orchards withered, and no one could do anything about it. The forest around them was dying, and the humans were helpless to stop it. Help was sought, runners and messengers were sent to seek out other villages, but they either failed to return, or brought back news of other villages, abandoned and claimed by the same taint that was taking the forest. People began to abandon the village, moral plummeted, and people became depressed. It was all we could do to support the humans in those last days..”
  Reina paused at this point, and looked down at her paws. “The hunters couldn’t do a thing. They specialised in killing large creatures, how could they fight a foe they couldn’t even see let alone attack? Man of the hunters volunteered to seek out help, none of them returned. Eventually, no more than a few were left.. my Nara was one of the last of the hunters. They decided to form a group, a last ditch attempt to seek out the outside world for help. For something.. anything to save their home.
  “It was when they were about to leave when the thing came. The same thing that you two saw.. I’d recognise that roar anywhere,” she looked up directly into Cecil’s eyes, which made him swallow. The look in her eyes, there was so much.. pain.
  “It didn’t attack, it didn’t threaten us, but it brought with it the force of nature. The village was pounded by torrential rain for weeks. And it did nothing but perch on the edge of town, looking down at us like a god, knowing we couldn’t do a thing against something that size. I’ve been around.. before I settled down in this village, and I’ve been with a few hunters in my lifetime, even accompanied them on hunts now and then. I have seen the legendary Elder Dragons and I have seen monsters larger than buildings, but nothing compared to this thing. A force so powerful it had the power of nature itself behind it.
  “When it finally left, the village was left a wreck. Almost nothing had survived the non-stop downpour, and the appearance of the thing was the last straw.. the humans all packed, and left their homes. Some of us decided to stay back, in case we could salvage something from it all, and perhaps the humans would return. Nara herself.. organised a hunting party with the last of the surviving hunters, and set out to find the beast that seemed to be behind all this. She promised me she would return when the beast was vanquished..
  “.. I have waited more than ten of your human years. No one ever came back. So we started building our own little township out of what the humans left behind, and the result is what you see here today.”
  She sighed deeply, and rubbed her eyes with her paws. The tale had obviously tired her quite a bit, and she was an old felyne. “My sons and daughters do their best, and we live fairly happily here, save for the occasional wyvern attack. We’ve built underground shelters for such events, and only a few of us had ever been claimed by the monsters.”
  Cecil was silent, slowly coming to grips with it all. He looked over at Terra, and saw that the girl was equally as troubled.
  The three of them were quiet for a while, distant meows and the merry crackling of the fire the only things breaking the silence.
  “I-” Cecil began.
  “I’m going to kill it,” Terra whispered.
  Cecil looked at the girl incredulously. “You’re joking. You saw the size of that thing, what can the two of us possibly do against something of that size? It knocked us out with its roar alone, imagine if that thing attacked us! What do-”
  “Shut up!” Terra snapped, glaring defiantly at him and standing up. Cecil sat there staring up at her, his lips partially open. “How can you even consider letting something like that live?! It obviously caused all this.. all this.. all this!” She placed her hands firmly on her hips, and glared down at him. “If you’re not going to do anything about it, I will.”
  “Princess..” Reina said quietly. Terra’s angry expression dissipated instantly. Taking a seep breath, she sat down quietly, head bowed in embarrassment.
  “Sorry Reina..” she mumbled. “I didn’t mean to-”
  “It’s okay, princess. I understand your passion, it’s only right for someone like yourself to feel that way.. my Nara was just as bad as you are,” she smiled fondly. “But Cecil is also right.. there is no way you two will be able to even hurt the beast.”
  “Something that big can’t possibly have any weakness,” Cecil ventured.
  Reina leaned down, and retrieved the folded-up leather. “This should help at least a little nya..” Putting it down in front of them, she gently unfolded it.
  “What’s this..?” Cecil breathed, wide-eyed.

A/N: Began slow, but eventually started picking up speed. Too much procrastination involved with this one, as I had no idea how I was going to introduce all the info in this chapter, but I somehow managed it >.> haha hope you enjoyed it nya x3