Back at the oasis, a large number of catkins had come out of their woolen tents to see their fellow tribesmen walking with tired bodies and broken weapons.
Quickly, they began to tend to the wounded and helped carry those who were dead while checking the other warriors for signs of being wounded.
Inside one of the tents, a cat kin who had the hair on her head coloured gray tended to a warrior who had the center of his leg as burned flesh and hair.
"We'll have to remove the flesh to avoid infection," She said before looking at the set of tools arranged on the leather floor.
After a while, she found a bone scissor and checked if it was working before turning to the female cat woman behind her.
"Send him to sleep," She instructed.
The female nodded and quickly fed the warrior some herbs which knocked him out the moment he had finished the bowl.
"Tsk tsk, I'll have to sew it later. Thank the moon that it's not much to sew. The black mages of Alizit might as well be exterminated once and for all and we don't have to deal with injuries like this," She sighed before dipping the scissors in a pale yellowish liquid and wiping it away with wool.
She then got to work on the warrior who now lay flat on a mat made from palm leaves.
After cutting away the burnt flesh and cleaning the skin close to the revealed tissue, she took a bone needle, tied it with a thread and started sewing the remaining flesh.
Behind her was a young catkin who watched his grandmother perform the treating process.
"It was a mistake for us to come here." His grandmother said. "Many clans, tribes or rogue groups keep trying to kill us!" She then sighed.
"Grandmother!" he called.
"Come here Masi!"
He obliged and came to her, who was now sitting on another mat.
"Sit down!" She ordered before adding "You may go Xina!'"
The female cat bowed and left the tent not long after.
" Masi, you are the son of your father and the next leader of our tribe. It's about time you knew!"
"Knew what grandmother?" Masi questioned.
"About the reason why our tribe has conflict with other tribes and the banditry,"
Masi perked his long feline ears up and listened intently to the story his grandmother was about to tell.
The grandmother cleared her throat before sliding through her whiskers and began to retell the tale.
This story has been told for ages, from a time far far long ago. When we awoke, our eyes were exposed to the light of the moon." She stood up and walked with Masi to the outside of the tent to gaze at the moon. "Our first sighting was the beautiful light that descended on our eyes.
Soon enough we discovered that we were given more power and had more abilities during the time of the night than the day."
"Ahh, I see now. I remember telling the system to spawn them at a time of night and give them night abilities like improved agility and put some in the spawn others in safe havens of the desert," Shawn rubbed his chin before sighing.
"No wonder some of them made that as a reference, they weren't wrong though but it seems my decision caused quite a rift,"
The grandmother continued bringing Masi back into the tent "From that alone we deduced that all Cat Kin are children of the moon born under her light. That is the reason behind our worship of it as we were blessed with the strength to survive in this harsh environment we were created into when the sun left for her arrival.
For centuries we lived close to the waters, enjoying the riches it brought as well as the relief. Out of adventure we left the coasts and slowly began to divulge deeper into the desert only to discover more of our kin tribes here.
As we interacted with them we discovered that some tribes decided to turn their backs against the moon goddess Tijiketiri and turned to other creatures like Alizit the divine snake, Rolzit the gigantic cactus and many others. But we didn't raise our weapons against them, allowing them to continue their beliefs even though they were not in the right until.". It was here that she paused as her eyes became watery.
"It seems the day of that grand massacre happened when she was a child, that's pretty long for me since their lifespan is around one hundred and twenty and above but less than one hundred and fifty." said Shawn.
"The day of the grand massacre when the tribes worshiping the moon were wiped out and on that day when we cried to Tijiketiri for help and she answered us with the moon children.
At a time like now, creatures descended from the sky, they were like us without fur but skin as bright as the moon,"
"What about our ears?" Masi twitched his ears.
"No they didn't have," She corrected him while laughing.
"They all wielded spears that shone except from their leader moonlard who had silver claws and silver coloured eyes while the others had blue. Together they cleared the lands and wiped out tribes that had attacked or dared to attack Tijekitiri's children.
However, time was running out for them as neither the divine nor the spiritual can remain or exist in the physical world for long but extraordinary powers can be wielded as long as the users were born in the physical."
"The rules of divinity work well!" Shawn gasped at this information.
The cat's kin grandmother cleared her throat before continuing "There were still many tribes that opposed our existence and so Moonlard and his comrades decided to turn to us to continue their mission of eradicating all those who wanted to wipe us out.
So they created a practice, having their moonlight spears that shone even though they had basked in the blood of many, to shine under the moonlight as their bodies converged into Moonlard's own before be combined his into a common vassal which we come to know as the moon warrior who has the spirit of moonlard and does the practice to put his comrades into the bodies of seventy warriors.
Currently your father who is fighting this battle is the third moon warrior to exist and you will be the fourth.
Seventy warriors, each with spears will accompany you and gain the powers of those who were made to protect us until we eradicate all those who want us gone,"
And it was here that she completed the story until Masi asked, "But in the case of many moon warriors dying. How will they be replaced?"
The grandmother replied "Unless the vassal of moonlard dies or performs the passing on ritual, the moon warrior position will remain and the number of moon warriors will be constant. If a moon warrior dies, he will wait until the next one comes,"
It was at that moment that a bright light flashed from the view outside the tent.
"Grandmother, if the moon warriors were able to massacre then who stands a chance against them?"
His grandmother fell silent and quickly drank a bowl of water to quench her thirst.
"In the process of transferring their bodies to physical bodies which are bound with limits. The moon warriors powers are weaker and thus many other sects like the black mages of Alizit are able to stand against them,"
Back at the battlefield, Kayurnn and Akane clashed with their claws both growling at each other before separating.
"Feel the power of Alizit, the flaming snake!" Akane stretched her claw and the flames extended to a large sized paw.
"It seems we've both been holding back!" Kayurnn smiled, allowing the flames to engulf him for a while before a bright light burst open and tore through it.
Kayurnn sped towards her and she did the same, their claws clashed and kayurnn swiped at her but she dodged before following up with an upper kick.
Kayurnn on the other hand deflected it with his elbow. Her body was shrouded by flames and his emanated silvery light.
After knocking her leg, he attacked with a punch which she dodged before responding with her claw intending to cut his arm.
He hastily blocked the attack by stopping her claw with his before twisting it away and moving at her.
She bent her head as the claw passed by her but cut off strands of her ear's hair.
She quickly bent over and swiped her leg at him but he leaped up and she slammed her palms into the ground causing flaming hands to rise up from the sands to grab at his feet.
The flaming hands managed to grab his feet and pulled him down to the sand.
Not wasting the opportunity, Akane thrust her claw towards him with a smile when all of a sudden she felt something pierce her chest.