Mana was taken aback by the immediate, straight-forward question; but should she have expected anything less?
The light above was bright, but it didn't take away from the interrogation like feel the room carried.
"Yes, but-"
"Who?" The fox asked, interrupting Mana.
"His name was Camden." The two guards jotted down more notes, so she took advantage of the silence. "He was trying to kill me first, and he had-"
"How did it make you feel?" Henry asked this time.
Mana turned to him, trying to remember the moment she killed Camden. "I can't remember," she answered quietly as she tried to wrack her brain for the moment. Why couldn't she remember it?
"Perhaps angry?" she finally answered, remembering Viktor getting stabbed, then an immense about of rage overcoming her.
"Elaborate," the fox demanded of Mana, setting her pen down to concentrate on the pink haired woman across from her.
"I remember him stabbing Viktor, here," she began, pointing to her abdomen, "impaling him."
"Viktor?" She asked for clarification, then Henry explained. "Where is your guard now?"
"He was sent back to Koro, he had to be hospitalized for more intensive care," Mana responded.
"Continue, I apologize for my interruption," the fox said, leaning back in her seat. She was the obvious leader in this interview.
"After Camden had stabbed me, he then tried to kill my cat," she pointed to her back, "I felt this intense rage overcome me, then I killed him." Mana was trying to avoid reliving that moment, and having to think as hard as she was to remember the details, was making it worse. She felt the rage returning.
"Is he the only one?"
"No, I also killed..." she turned to Henry, becoming nervous, "...a guard from Korokin Village."
"Oh?" both of them replied in unison as they quickly began writing once more. "And just who was this guard?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure. I never got his name," she replied, a sickening feeling starting in the pit of her stomach, "and I honestly don't care that I didn't."
The fox guard paused, looking up at Mana, "what do you mean you don't care that you killed him?"
"He had hurt so many people," she began to get choked up thinking about what happened to her and the others inside the village because of them. "They were part of a faction called, The Mire; which Camden was a part of as well, who was sent by the guards."
"Alright," she simply said, writing down her answer. "How did you feel?"
She sighed at the question, "Aside from fear, it was an overwhelming feeling of anger...." she then remembered calling out to Gairma before her memory blacked out.
"Understandable," she simply said, while Henry continued writing.
The questions had gone on for hours, ranging from innocent ones like her age, to more intrusive ones like if she were pregnant in case she was to give birth in Karkello. -It would have to be registered as a resident.
Mana held her stomach, "that would be the unluckiest thing to happen to me," she joked- she's only kissed anyone recently.
She blushed when she remembered.
When the fox was satisfied with Mana's answers, she simply nodded at Henry, before he excused himself from the room leaving the 2 women alone.
"You seem like a risk, but at the same time your mission seems quite honorable. I shall grant you access to our country, but if you cause any type of trouble, we will not hesitate to enact punishments for your actions."
Mana nodded, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment that she had gone from a goody-goody to an at-risk individual in a matter of days.
The fox stood up, paper in hand, and asked that Mana follow her through the door that was behind her own person; a door that opened to the bridge that carried travelers into Karkello.
"I do want to warn you," she began, hesitating as she went to open it. "You may see things in our country that you have never seen before. So be prepared. Most are harmless, but we do have quite a few dangerous ones; sea monsters absolutely love us for some reason." Mana nodded in understandment before the guard finally opened her red door, revealing a long, metal bridge that stretched miles across the sea.
Hundreds of guards from both countries were patrolling the bridge, looking both below and above for any rotted monsters that may wish to attack from the sea or air.
"Has the bridge ever been attacked since creating such a secure area?" Mana questioned her guard as they started their trek across the bridge.
"Maybe a few times a year actually," she responded nonchalantly. Typically, it's monsters coming up from the sea that get distracted by someone hanging over the edge too long; they get hungry and try to grab people."
"Do they ever.....succeed?" She couldn't help but be curious and scared.
"Only rarely; it's typically someone who doesn't listen at all that ends up in a monster's stomach," she giggled darkly. "And I've only heard a couple times of someone being carried off by a flying one."
Fluffy stuffed himself as far as he could go into her backpack. He refused to be monster bird food.
They continued down the bridge, hearing it squeak as it swayed, with Mana doing everything in her power to avoid the sides. She could see through small holes in the bridge floor the sea that homed towering waves below them.
She squinted as she walked, trying to find any shadows that were creeping below the surface.
When the fox guard realized what Mana was doing, she tried to reassure her, but the guard was obviously not used to hospitality. "You will know when there's a monster coming for us. You see a giant shadow coming straight for you."
Mana looked at her in disgust, the fox unable to comprehend what she did wrong; only shrugging at Mana's disapproval.
"The last time anything attacked us was a few months ago. They're learning not to mess with us anymore."
Mana looked up from the water and towards the direction they were heading. In the far distance she could see yet another red door, only this time, it was going to place her in a new country.
Karkello.