One of the gigantic

  creatures let out a deep, sonorous sigh that moved blades of grass on

  the ground and reminded Pastel of the sound of wind whistling through

  mountain gorges.

  About three times larger than the most massive

  wildebeest Pastel had ever encountered on the plains, the beasts were

  covered with scales as rough as the bark of a hundred-year-old tree, and

  they seemed to have beaks rather than lips.

  Manawan

  and Pastel exchanged dismayed glances, not daring to say a word or make

  a sound, and retraced their steps back into the small, dark room from

  which they had emerged from the hole.

  "What the hell are these things!" Manawan asked in a low voice.

  "I was about to ask you! Haven't you ever seen these creatures before? "

  "No! I've never left the rice fields west of the city! I don't know, maybe they're only inside the city?"

  "Do

  you think there are some in the jungle too?" asked Pastel, thinking

  back to the weeks he'd spent in the forest and all the strange creatures

  he'd perhaps mistaken for rocks.

  "No

  idea, Pastel. The lemurs didn't tell us anything about these monsters."

  Said Manawan as she looked around, searching for an alternative exit to

  the one blocked by the giant creatures.

  "I can't see any other way."

  The

  two foxes turned back and moved forward very slowly among the

  mineral-looking creatures. The smell of faeces became more intense. All

  around them, under arches, stood what appeared to be enclosures, and

  further on they finally noticed an opening of their size.

  Finally,

  in the opening beyond the inner courtyard, they could breathe. As

  Manawan took the lead, Pastel turned to take one last look at the

  creatures. He froze for a second as he met a gaze. One of the beasts,

  still lying down, had raised its head and was looking at him. After a

  few blinks of its large, dark eyes, the creature seemed to lose interest

  in the foxes, rested its huge head and closed its eyes. Pastel hurried

  after his sister. They passed a few rooms, but went straight to a heavy

  wooden door, which they opened gently and entered what appeared to be a

  narrow, silent alley, completely shrouded in shadow. Between the

  facades, in this narrow path, the moonlight never descended.

  "I can't believe Tabi didn't warn us that we'd be coming to an enclosure full of monsters!"

  Pastel

  nodded thoughtfully, looking around. He opened his bag to put his

  clothes back on and said, "They don't look too bad, though. There was

  one awake. He just stared at us without moving. Maybe they're

  domesticated."

  "Giant mounts," murmured Manawan, still impressed.

  "Tabi gave us an address..." said Pastel, pulling out a piece of parchment.

  "Join

  a large road, then left, left again.... then I don't know." Manawan

  tried to remember, bending over the paper Pastel was holding.

  The

  latter squinted as he lifted the paper. Foxes certainly had excellent

  night vision, it was almost pitch black in the alley and he couldn't see

  much on the paper.

  "Hmmm. What are those symbols next to the drawing?" asked Pastel.

  "That's

  the written language of the region. But Tabi said this is the address

  we're looking for. We'll just have to compare on the door or something."

  "I hope it's that easy," said Pastel, slipping the paper into a pocket and setting off again.

  From

  a narrow alley winding like the bowels of a gigantic rift, following

  the indications drawn on the piece of parchment, they emerged to a

  narrow dirt street, then to a slightly wider cobbled street, always

  flanked by elaborate stone and mud brick facades, always plunged into

  shadow. Just as Pastel had spent the last few weeks wading down

  ever-wider rivers, and as foul blood leaves the blood capillaries to

  travel through the body in ever-larger veins, all the way to the lungs.

  The two foxes sailed into the sleeping heart of the jungle civilization.

  Around them doors and shutters were systematically closed, and as they

  navigated wider streets, they felt less and less stealthy.

  "Maybe we should go back to the small streets, Manawan".

  "But then we'll get lost! We have to follow the path Tabi suggested!"

  "But there's no one in these streets, we should be discreet! I feel like a wildebeest without a herd in the middle of a valley!"

  "Can't you ask the stone? Hello, spirits of the plains, do we turn left or right?"

  "Stop it! That's not how it works!" Pastel interjected, growing increasingly annoyed.

  They

  suddenly stopped talking when they heard footsteps echoing on the

  cobblestones in front of them. They raised their heads and darted

  towards a facade, trying to camouflage themselves in the archway of a

  doorway.

  Three panthers appeared on the street, walking towards the foxes.

  "...but

  that's exactly what I'm trying to explain to you! Just because you say

  you're part of the guild doesn't mean they'll let you in, practice the

  profession and all, you know?"

  "But, I mean, how do the others do it? Patros told me his master did that and now he's making a fortune selling felt hats."

  "But it's not what it used to be, lad, that was before the hatters' guild came to Ternoulie! You must have a permit..."

  "No, no! Listen... listen, lad. Hats are my passion, isn't that enough?"

  "You think I'm a dinosaur? I've never seen you with a hat on in my life!"

  Caught

  up in their animated conversation, the panthers failed to notice the

  Manawan and Pastel, camouflaged in the shadows. When the strangers were

  far enough away, the foxes set off again. After a few minutes,

  alternating between the path suggested by Tabi and small parallel lanes,

  and hiding from time to time for fear of being noticed by a few rare

  night-walkers, they reached the end of the marked path to find that none

  of the facades bore the symbols of the parchment. Beyond the city wall,

  from which they were still close, they could hear crickets and howler

  monkeys dressing up the silence.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "I

  wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to sleep with the big beasts and

  wait for daylight," Pastel murmured. The street, like most they'd

  passed, was empty and the buildings, for the most part, didn't seem

  inhabited.

  "Looks

  like we're in a neighborhood where people work more than they live"

  Pastel thought, finding the idea strange. "How about we look for signs

  of life? Light or noise." Pastel suggested.

  Walking

  slowly and silently, the foxes remained on the lookout, watching for

  closed wooden doors and shutters. Suddenly Pastel thought he saw

  something. He looked up at a window a few yards away, on the second

  floor of a narrow red building. Pastel pointed at it to get his sister's

  attention. A wisp of light suddenly appeared through the shutter, as if

  a curtain had been manipulated.

  They

  stepped forward and looked at the blank fa?ade. Pastel was looking for

  indications on the brickwork when his sister patted him on the shoulder

  and pointed to the bottom of the door where inscriptions were discreetly

  engraved. They were the same as on the paper.

  They

  stepped forward, grasped the handle and the door opened. They entered a

  small room lit by a half-burnt candle. The air was heavy with soot and

  the smell of burnt wax. There was another door and, discovering it

  locked, Manawan gave the thick wood a few knocks.

  A

  few seconds of silence. To their breath and the subtle sizzle of the

  candle were added footsteps and the sound of a heavy bolt before the

  door suddenly swung open.

  "Good

  evening." Said a lemur whose head emerged from the doorway. He looked

  at them without opening the door, giving them a inquiring look.

  "Eh...

  we're friends of Tabi's." Pastel said, taking the piece of parchment

  out of his pocket. The lemur snatched the paper from his hands and

  opened the door, beckoning them in.

  "New

  foxes, eh? Although you could pass for a dog, with a little work on

  posture and tone. Come on, follow me." Said the lemur as he walked

  between piles of sacks and barrels to a narrow staircase at the bottom

  of the first floor of the building, which seemed to serve as a

  warehouse. After climbing the creaky steps, he emerged into a warm but

  cluttered room containing several beds, a table and a makeshift kitchen.

  The

  lemur placed Tobi's parchment over a candle and, watching it consume

  the paper, said: "You can call me Lemmy. You don't have to tell me your

  name." He looked up with a smile. "You can spend the rest of the night

  here, but you should be out of here by noon tomorrow. Tabi should join

  you before then. Go on, see you later and don't open the door for

  anyone."

  The lemur

  was about to leave when Manawan said: "Thank you very much Lemmy, but,

  if you don't mind me asking, why are you helping us? Why wait for us

  here in the night?"

  Halfway

  downstairs, only the middle-aged lemur's head was visible. He winked at

  them and replied, "It's always good to make new friends, isn't it? And

  friends are meant to help each other." He went downstairs without saying

  anything more. They heard the distinctive sound of his long-toed feet

  on the floor, then a door opening and closing.

  Manawan

  and Pastel found themselves alone again. "What did he mean by 'friends

  are for helping friends'?" asked Manawan slowly, already suspecting his

  brother's answer.

  "That

  one day we'll have to do him a favor in return." voiced Pastel, who

  understood better why Tabi had been so quick to consider him a friend.

  "I know the resistance had promised to help them with their smuggling."

  "Smuggling?" exclaimed Pastel.

  "'That's

  what Tabi meant by bypassing the administrative stuff and getting stuff

  in and out of the city,' didn't you understand?"

  "Yes yes, but... I guess I was naive in imagining some kind of solidarity, I don't know."

  "Solidarity,

  no doubt, Pastel. But in the end, it's all about the exchange of

  services. Nothing is free. Trust me, we learned that quickly when we got

  here."

  "hmmm, of

  course," Pastel murmured, looking at the parchment ash that now

  surrounded the candle on the three-legged wooden table. He thought back

  to what Yeen had said to him, a few days earlier, as they were parting.

  "Where

  could that gnoll be right now? Is he still in Ternoulie?" Pastel asked

  himself, without sharing his thoughts with his sister. As tiredness

  caught up with them, they ate the banana they had brought with them and

  went to bed for the night.

  ***

  His

  chest trembles. He understands that he is screaming. Someone caresses

  him but behind someone pushes him roughly. He holds out his hands to

  break his fall, but he can't see or hear anything. Only his body exists.

  His heart vibrates like a drum, his skin burns, people brush against

  him, the ground is wet. He feels an unbearable impatience, a powerful

  desire. He remains helpless, tossed about. He speaks words he can't

  hear. His hands touch something soft. It's not fur. It's feathers.

  Abundant feathers. He relaxes but is suddenly seized by fear and reaches

  out, opening his mouth to scream yet again.

  ***

  "MANAWAN"

  "What,

  what is it? I'm here, Pastel! I'm here." Pastel discovered himself

  sitting in his bunk of hay and wood. His sister sat beside him. Morning

  light streamed in through the dry wooden shutters and Tabi was eating a

  rice ball, seated at the table.

  Just

  as Pastel came to and realized he'd had a bad dream, Tabi said: "I was

  going to ask you if you'd slept well, but I have a feeling you haven't

  really. That's rarely the case in this kind of bed. I really don't

  understand why Ternoulians insist on sleeping on these things when

  hammocks exist." She had spoken in a breath, her mouth full of rice, her

  yellow eyes sparkling.

  "You've got rice in your fur, here" Pastel replied after a second of silence and confusion.

  "Oh!" Replied the lemur, grasping the grains of rice with his long fingers.

  "Tabi

  was telling me we had a bit of walking to do before finding Tamo and

  the others. Oh, and she also knows someone who could help you with..."

  Manawan stopped talking as she looked at Pastel's sore, red skin, now

  visible on his left hand.

  "Yes,

  that's naughty! I didn't bother to look the last time we saw each other

  - because it's not very polite, is it? - but this is the kind of

  infection you have to deal with quickly before you lose all your fur.

  But don't worry! I've had it before when I was little! All it takes is a

  little medicinal leaf balm."

  "And we can trust this person to help me heal?"

  "Oh yes, oh yes! Not everyone in Ternoulie is a dog! You have more friend than you seem to think."

  "Friend, yes..." replied Pastel with a skeptical look.

  "Shall we go? Manawan asked, standing up."

  "'Hop, hop! Pirouette!" said Tabi, leaping backwards and pirouetting to land at the bottom of the stairs.

  With

  their hoods pulled over their heads, they walked through the now

  remarkably busy streets. In one particularly wide street, they even came

  across a creature similar to those they had seen sleeping earlier in

  the night. On its back, a warthog sat on a comfortable saddle, while the

  creature pulled behind it a heavy caravan filled with barrels.

  "What

  are these beasts, Tabi? You didn't warn us we'd end up in an enclosure

  full of monsters!" murmured Pastel in the lemur's ear.

  Tabi

  burst out laughing: "Monsters? They're the most harmless creatures in

  this city, my friends! They're dinosaurs, or doudou for those in the

  know. They mostly come from the southern part of the continent, but

  we're seeing more and more of them because they come in handy when we

  need to transport stuff on dry land."

  A

  little over an hour later, they entered an inner courtyard through an

  archway. Pastel was amazed at the size of the city. Without the

  Lemurian's help, they'd never have found their way in this endless

  tangle of streets and cul-de-sacs. As they entered the shadow of a

  building, Pastel tried to imagine the size of the city by comparing it

  to the size of a herd of wildebeest, but he was quickly interrupted in

  his thinking as he met another gaze.

  "Pastel"

  he heard whispered. Before he could say a word, Tamo lunged at him and

  hugged him with all his might. Pastel closed his eyes. He slid his

  muzzle against the familiar neck.

  " Finally." sighed Pastel.