At the top of Xamak, the Ape King Kuijar was resting on a small lake. Two Ghost Apes of brown color were seen walking into the bathroom hurriedly before they were launched back through the entrance "Bastards! How could you let it happen!"
Kuijar angrily shouted upon hearing the reports brought by the apes. The Ape king left the bathroom in a hurry and headed. In his fury, he punched the walls leaving a fist-sized hole in the Silverblue Stone Walls.
Seeing the furious Ape King, all the Ghost Apes in the hall were silent. None of them dared to make a sound given their King's present state.
"Twenty-three Apes have been lost in less than two days, with half being part of our elite forces. If this is prolonged, forget about the hairless beast, our tribe will be immediately kicked out of the mountain by our enemies!" Managed to speak after after releasing a few ragged breaths. Two days have passed and Kuijar was still in a critical condition, he had asked his ally to sent a healer to his mountain by it would take a least one week for the healer to arrive.
Even now, he was barely able to move with his muscles hurting at the mere movement of his mouth. All of this suffering only made Kuijar's hatred for Thomas burn more as he couldn't wait to tear apart that beast with his teeth and claws.
After drying his fur, Kuijar went to a chamber hidden behind his throne. Inside the dark chamber. nothing else could be seen with the exception of an old mirror, once he was sure no one was seeing him he inquired. "Is everything okay with our cooperation?"
The mirror shone as a voice was transmitted from it. "Perfect, the convoy of the Lion Tribe escaped yet our plans are going on as planned. The Krias Tribe own the biggest land second only to the free cities, so you must remember to keep close to them."
The ape nodded yet he couldn't shake the strange feeling in his heart, no matter how much he feared the figure before him, he felt he needed to report it. "Y-yes, I will. I-it's j-just that I have something else worrying me. It's the one that rescued the earthly core lions, I don't recognize his species, he had the senses of a sensitive beast and other strange abilities. I fear this beast may pose quite a problem."
As soon he finished, a dense pressured descended upon the ape who could even move a muscle. His pain intensified as he struggled to keep conscious. He knew it would be the end if he dare faint before his lord.
After a couple minutes, an answer came from the mirror. "We will send somebody to assist you. For now remember to gather the other mountain kings to help search for the seed. This is everything."
The entire meeting lasted thirty minutes, as soon Kuijar stepped outside it, he noticed something wrong.
I told the others to gather in the throne room for a meeting, so why it was so quiet? He had a weird feeling.
Speeding up, the Ape king soon arrived at the throne and there was no one to be seen. "Strange... This?!"
For a moment, Kuijar noticed a particularly familiar smell coming from the underground settlement bellow him. A smell he was very used to, since it was something he had seen, smelled and touched almost every single day.
"Blood! Somebody is attracting our fortress! Rushing through the King's chamber, the ape king was able to saw a huge crowd gather around the tunnel belonging to one of his three commanders.
"Your Majesty." All the apes bowed when seeing their king, then turned to the inside of the cave when three dead apes lied as well a female White-bellied Monkey weeping on the corner.
As soon he saw the scene, Kuijar recognized the three dead bodies as his three commanders. He certainly wouldn't expert for all three of them to be find dead at the same time and he shot an inquiring gaze.
"We don't know exactly what happened. It seems Lady Rosi of the Lavitan Peak had come to visit her fiancé, the Third Commander. We told her he was gone at the moment and then decided to stay in the Second Commander's room. But who would have thought the Third Commander Kuyar who was away at Arkaran would have this night."
"The guard at the entrance was an friend to the Third Commander and he told him about Lady Rosi with the Second Commander. A fight broke out, and the first commander came in to stop them, when we came to see what happened we found the three of them like this."
The ape king gave a closer look at the bodies and noticed the way they died was very strange, there was no deep impacts on cuts in their body. Their eyes were full of shock and terror, not like he would expect if they had truly battled to the death for a woman.
'I wouldn't be able to get answers from her no matter how much I tried, especially with her backing. I better let her go for now and then others to check it for me.'
He gave a last look at Lady Rosi who was hurriedly walking away with tears in her eyes. The Ape King didn't stop her and just let her go, but was shocked to have a glance at her eyes.
Her smooth, charming purple eyes were especially touching to look at, but most of all, those eyes carried quite a bit of mystery.
For a second it was like Kuijar had lost his soul and it took a few moments for reason to return to his mind.
Sweeping his eye across the room, he spotted a small note hidden between stones in the wall. Picking it up, he had some struggle since he didn't know how to read very well but as soon he touched it, the words written on it were transmitted into his mind.
[I know what is your plan and I won't let you go away with him. If you dare touch the mistress of the Earthly Core Lions or her family, this is how you end.]
He was staring at the exit then at the note, in a instant flashed of the past few moments as the ape's eyes slowly widened. 'Wait, doesn't Lady Rosi have blue eyes?!'
A chill flowed down his spine in that same moment, his face turned green as he came to a guess which he didn't want to be true. At the same time a intense fear was planted in his heart.
Outside the mountain, A large tent was set up in the forest under the moonlight along with a couple of pale yellow flames, appearing very prominent in the darkness of the night.
The elegant lady Rosi was standing on top of a tree, her simple yet charming purple eyes were specially all the sadness and tears were gone from her face and replacing by a strange glee.
"Deactivate Shadow Projection." A wave of darkness rose from his feet then spreading to her whole body, as soon the mist dispersed, a devious looking youth with purple eyes, long ears and purple hair stood before the shadows. "It's good that guy I refined had seen Lady Rosi before or I would be able to replicate it to this level. My plans have changed, the ape king will need to survive now, at least until I get more information about his backer. That voice coming from the mirror, it reminds me of someone..."
Leaping from the tree, Thomas dove into the shadows beneath him as he swiftly escaped the territory of the Xamak Mountain.