The sun rose above the horizon and the clouds lingered across the sky. The birds with eagle's claws, an African parrot's colorful body, and Peacock-like features on its tail were flying in the sky under the clouds into the mist rising from the mountains with a cheerful mind. Suddenly there came a flame blasted out of the canyon present between the mountains, making the birds that are flying above to become roast and fall down. From the hazy and misty mountain, came roaring sounds along with the sounds of metal clanking. All the commotion ended with a huge stream of flames coming out of the canyon and a large blast made all the clouds move away for almost a few miles away.
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Karmal completed forming the basic and essential words in his head and learned the language basics. He slowly opened his eyes.
"Senior?... Hey senior" he called out for Shank. Shank was shocked by what happened last night and is still thinking about how his junior could cure the injuries of the slave boy.
"what is it, you brat? I am already awake. I will be the first one to wake up here every day." said Shank with a bit irritable tone.
"Ah...haha! Good morning senior!" Karmal greeted Shank. Karmal looked at the cage of Marjal and noticed that he was still asleep and thought of not waking him up as he is a cat and they like to be lazy. All the other animals slowly woke up one after the other and everyone wished each other. Then suddenly the door opened with a large figure coming in with a big box in his hands and he placed it on the side of the box that contained the samples that were bought previously. He then slowly but with thunderous steps walked out but forgot to close the door properly. But, no one noticed that the door was still open slightly. As they stayed in that place for so long, they got habituated to being imprisoned and almost all of them forgot about even breaking out. But Karmal couldn't help but notice even a small chance to escape from the lab.
Karmal immediately called Shank and Marjal who were already looking at the slightly open door. But unexpectedly for them, The scientist came in almost immediately after the previous guy left. Right now there are a total of 3 boxes in the lab where one containing 8 remaining samples and 2 new boxes smaller than the previous one. The scientist went to the newly brought boxes and opened one slightly to see inside. He then went towards the empty cages present in the room and brought 2 of them near the boxes. They are metal boxes with only a few spaces for air flow in them but one opening for entering and leaving an animal with a lock outside the box. He wore a very hard gauntlet-like glove and slowly kept his hand in the box. Immediately there was a vigorous shaking causing the scientist to struggle to pull out whatever was in the box. After struggling for a while he decided to change his strategy,
"Damn, this thing is too tough. Just what level one did they catch for it to move this violently even after it has been in the glace box for so long?
There is no other choice, I have to use an anti-teotl and it seems I will also need a stronger box to hold it considering how strong it is." he said to himself.
The scientist took one of the cages he brought back inside and changed it for a very strong one which is made of stronger metals and has very small holes for air supply and a single entrance with a small hole to input an injection from.
He went towards the work desk, loaded something into a syringe, and injected it into the animal in the box. He placed the syringe which is now fully empty on the desk and loaded a new one but with a different dose just to be safe to use it if necessary. Although it struggled while injecting and after for some time, it gradually calmed down and became still. He was successful in making it calm and now he tried to change it into the newly brought-out cage.
He reached into the box carefully took the animal out and made it visible to Karmal and others for the first time since its entry into the lab.
"WHOA!! what the heck? what is that?!" Karmal exclaimed.
"That my friend is called as a Tunda. Although they are small in size and less in number, They are extremely ferocious, strong, and very agile (although they can't compare to me) making it very hard to catch one. I wonder how they managed to catch one that is still alive and from the looks of it, this one is an adult. Considering its invierno season now, they might have caught it with some trap of sort since they will be slower in the cold atmosphere." Explained Marjal with a spark in his eyes saying as if he should be praised for having this knowledge.
"A tunda? it looks like a chameleon from how it looks but has those spikes on its back like a porcupine. How fascinating! huh, I wish my friend Pruthvi Nath could see this, since he is a fanatic about mutated animals after the PHENOMENON happened, he will be exhilarated." Thought Karmal to himself after hearing Marjal's explanation.
The scientist who now has the Tunda in his hands started observing it to see its quality and its state. But to his surprise, the tunda was still awake and opened its eyes scaring the scientist causing him to throw it far away. Although it was sedated, it slowly stood up and rolled up causing its spikes to be pointed towards the scientist.
"HO TIHS!!" he shouted, while trying to reach the syringe on the desk.
SHIK SHIK SHIK SHIK.....
The spikes on the back of tunda flew toward the scientist with amazing speed.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE:-
Meaning of some weird words you might find in the chapter:
GLACE- ice in French
TEOTL- a single, dynamic force that is the underlying reality of the universe according to aztec thought.
INVIERNO - Winter according to the Nahuatl language ( Aztec language for better understanding).