"... according to the recent theory of evolution, research says that modern Animans evolved in the largest empire of the world- Aeonia, possibly from the crossbreeding of Homo Sapiens and Animalia some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, gradually they migrated and replaced..."
"UGH! Damn, this history class. Why does everything that the professor explains fly above my head? See, everyone is so sleepy, but Elie why do you seem so excited?"
Evander Pantherun[Snow Leopard Clan, Tribe-Panthers] was annoyed. He put down the pen he was rotating in his fingers on the desk loudly and looked at his best friend Elion Grimalkin[Maine Coon Clan, Tribe-Cats] who was taking the notes of the class very enthusiastically.
"Because I love our history. Do you know they say scientists have found out that our ancestors, homo sapiens are probably from a planet named Earth of our neighbourhood galaxy -Milkyway. Then there might be our ancestors living on that planet now. But sadly it takes us some light years to reach there so we can't meet them. But my question is how did they get here ages ago? Isn't it interesting?"
Elion's eyes were sparkling as he explained. His fluffy golden-silver cat ears and tail were twitching excitedly.
But Evander's lips turned into a thin line as he nonchalantly deadpanned, "NO!"
Elion hit his friend with his soft paws scrunching his nose.
Just then the bell rang. All the students who had been sluggish and tired until now were energized packing their bags and dashed out of the classroom in mere seconds.
Evander's face lit up as he picked up his bag and hurried Elion, who stuffed his books inside his bag with pouty lips, then let his friend drag him out.
Both of them walked out of their classroom but stopped as soon as they saw the big muscled bully from the Tiger clan along with his Hyena minions standing in the corridor searching for them.
Evander held Elion's hand tightly as they both stared at each other. In a second, they came to a tacit understanding.
Both of them ran back into the classroom, jumped out of the window from the first floor, and landed on their soft cushiony paws.
"What should we do now? That nasty Tiger is waiting for us with his Hyenas. If we are caught, today will be the end of us."
Elion looked anxious as his heart started beating fast.
"Calm down, Elie. You know I am from the Panther tribe we are known for our high-speed power, though I am not as fast as that Tiger because I am just a Snow Leopard I can still do a good job. I will carry you on my back and we will go to the nearby Magicarriage* stop[Magic Carriage stop] and take one to our province, okay?"
Evander suggested as he bent a little signing Elion to get on his back.
Elion nodded and jumped on the back of Evander who closed his eyes and then opened, his smokey grey irises gleamed as he sped fast.
As Evander was a snow leopard he could run at the top speed of 35-40 mph. He leapt through the students and in an instant they both were in front of the Magicarriage stop.
"Alright, we are here. Let us call our chauffeurs and tell them we will be going home on our own, okay? Even if that Tiger and Hyenas follow our carriages they will be stopped at the border of our Ice Dragon province."
Evander suggested again. Elion agreed. Both of them took out their 'Mavtos'* and informed their Chauffeurs appointed by their families.
[*Mavto* -
Full form: Magic voice transmitter Orb.
Definition: It is an orb-shaped magitech device that uses magical electromagnetic signals to make it possible for one to speak to someone in another place who has a similar device equal to mobiles on earth]
Then they took a private magicarriage instead of a shared one which could only be afforded by rich people.
But Elion Grimalkin from the rarest Mainecoon clan of the Cat's tribe and Evander Pantherun from the famous Snow Leopard clan of the Panther's tribe could manage it easily as both their families were listed among the top ten rich people in the 'Ice Dragon province'.
Evander sighed, "Thank heavens! We noticed them early and ran off, if not I don't even wanna imagine."
"Exactly. Uff, I wish I could complain about them to the principal but he is also from the Tiger clan so he won't do anything about that fucker," Elion huffed in irritation.
"Tell me about it. Those Tiger clan people are so nasty, ugh! I really wish to go to our Archduke, the great Ice dragon, and complain to him about the Tiger clan, they're such a disgrace to our Panther tribe's lineage."
Evander gritted his teeth.
"Stop dreaming. You don't even want to go complain to the Grand Duke, the leader of Lions who is also the chief of your tribe but you directly want to meet the Archduke, huh? I know why you want to meet the great Ice Dragon, you just want to swoon over him, don't you?"
Elion pinched his friend's cheek.
"Hehe, Lions are handsome but cannot be compared to the majestic Dragons. Among those Ice dragons are worth swooning over. I once saw the Archduke and you know he still looked like a high school student, so hot and handsome."
Evander started imagining the scene he witnessed back in the day with a dreamy look on his face and continued,
"If the Archduke looks like that then just imagine what his son will look like. The articles in the news say that he is the most handsome man in the whole Aeonia empire."
Elion shook his head smiling at his friend's silliness.
"Even if he is the most handsome Animan in the whole empire, we can't even get a glimpse of him, so stop being delusional and work on the thesis. We have to submit them next week."
"Ugh, you always pour cold water over my hopes. Alright, you have been nagging me all these days about that thesis. Let's work on it today, I will come to your home, we will do research and then play games, deal?"
"Deal, my snowy soulmate," Elion pinched his friend's nose with a smile on his face.
"Ow, that hurts. My little kitten soulmate."
Evander scrunched his nose and whined.
...
In the Ice Dragon Palace...
It was a normal quiet, winding-down 'Day of the Darkness'* evening in winter, filled with chilled breezes.
Anteros Azurdraycen[Ice Dragon] was getting ready to drop by the Snowfrost resort as it was where he and his friends Drystan Dracentes[Sea Dragon also his cousin], Hadeon Jaguaraven[Black Jaguar also legal advisor of his company], and his senior Syrax Dragablaze[Fire Dragon] hung out mostly to breathe fresh air from their busy schedules frequently.
It was like their hideout when there was no official business. But today there was another reason to visit that place.
A party was being held in celebration of his younger cousin who won the Magitech Olympiad competition.
His uncle and aunt asked Anteros to attend the party to please his little cousin who would throw a huge tantrum if he didn't go to congratulate him. He couldn't refuse, imagining his bratty cousin making an uproar.
So, he decided to go there with his friends. In that way, he could avoid being uncomfortable around all the avaricious people who would surround him tirelessly to form connections which would ruin his perfectly planned last weekend night.
Anteros as a young successful businessman was a social person who could communicate with anyone at ease but since he was a cynical person has a trusted close-knit friends circle of three. Only with them did he drop his great walls of heart and was comfortable enough to speak his mind.
Even though it was just a party he wanted to at least enjoy the evening as from tomorrow he has to work like hell as always under his strict father's close watch.
Although he was a workaholic by nature, he never liked to mix up his personal and professional life.
When he got off from work he hung out at nightclubs to maintain his reputation as a 'Playboy'.
Today too, he planned to spend the last day of the weekend in the pub but the plans were watered-down because of his cousin's celebration so they decided to attend the party for some time just for appearance's sake and then ditch it to go to the nightclub and get fully drunk.
There was another main reason too. Syrax Dragablaze was leaving the Kingdom the next day early in the morning for some business trip and wouldn't be back to 'Ravenire' for some time so they wanted to hang out together before that.
Anteros was going to take a bath to freshen up when the 'Mavto' in his room made a beeping sound and sparkled blinding his eyes.
>>>Ah, that sly secretary of mine must have changed the settings again and increased the brightness of my Mavto since I don't pick up any of hers or other calls.
Shaking his head Anteros strode towards the the table. He took a glance at the name displayed on it. His irises expanded seeing the name and without any delay, he quickly clicked on the Mavto to answer it.
It was Drystan Dracentes[Sea dragon], his maternal cousin.
"Oy! Where the hell are you? We're waiting for you here. You told us to come and now you're nowhere to be seen. Why are you taking so long, are you dolling up yourself or something like that?"
He heard Drystan's annoyed voice through the Mavto as if he had been waiting for ages at the party. But, the truth was, a minute hadn't passed since he entered the resort. He called Anetros to hurry him to avoid awkward meetings with the people.
Drystan was an introvert who loved to spend all his time alone in his own space and it was tiresome for him to be in between people.
So, he wanted Anteros to come over fast so that they could get out of that party and enjoy the rest of the night.
"Wait a little more, brother Drystan. I'm on my way, just give me fifteen minutes I'll be there... did the other two arrive?" Anteros queried.
"Hadeon is with me but Syrax didn't," he replied.
"Oh, brother Syrax must be busy sorting out everything and packing his luggage. I will stop by his mansion first and bring him along with me."
"Alright, make haste," Drsytan hung up.
He quickly took a steaming bath and changed into a black and white striped shirt that had a low v-neck almost showing his chest muscles.
He paired it with a shining maroon jacket, black tight jeans, and a small strass gold earring to one ear and a pearly white and crystal long earring to the other one.
He lightly touched up his lips and styled his very long dark azure blue mullet hair after drying it with a blow-dryer and then rubbed some gel on his horns to make them shiny and sparkling.
He applied his favorite agar wood-scented cologne that has a combined fragrance of oriental-woody and very soft fruity-floral, it was complex but very pleasing to nose perfume.
He opened his closet and took out a pair of black shoes by wearing them he completed his look to go for the party.
Anteros closed his eyes for a second and concentrated. His strong wings appeared out of his back.
He could go through his private Magicarriage fueled by magic stones but the traffic would be terrific at this time of evening.
So he chose to fly through the sky and decided to take the magic portal between Ice Dragon province and Fire Dragon province.
Not anyone could fly across the sky. Only those who got their gliding license after passing the glider examination on their eighteenth birthday could fly.
Anteros passed the test with flying colors on his eighteenth birthday. He even broke the records of the speed test making him the fastest glider in the whole of Ravenire.
He flew straight through the portal, the guards didn't stop him as they knew he was the famous, only heir of the Ice Dragon clan, Anteros Azurdraycen.
He landed before the big mansion which looked rather like a palace cause Syrax Dragablaze was one of the richest men in the fire dragon clan as he was a very famous actor in the Ravenire Kingdom.
He was Anteros's senior in college and was a person with a very friendly personality.
So, they got along very well even though Anteros has a cold personality, Syrax won his trust and from then onwards he became his favorite senior brother.
Anteros entered the mansion and called the elder in a loud voice.
"Brother Syrax! Where are you? We're getting late."
"Just a minute, Eros," The older shouted from upstairs, getting ready.
"If we go late, brother Drystan will kill me. He has been calling, again and again, to ask where we are," Anteros informed, plopping on the couch.
Syrax climbed down the stairs.
"That brat always goes to the parties on time and then hurries us. Leave him, he should learn to socialize with people more, anyway, Hadeon is there with him, right? He will handle him."
"Yeah. Ah, did you pack everything? It will be late for you to do all those when you come back," Anteros queried.
"Hm, I did. I am not taking much for now, it's a six-month trip, and no matter how much you pack it will be less also I don't want to carry the baggage. If I need something I will just buy it there."
Syrax answered patting the younger's hair.
"Okay, come back soon. I will get bored here without you," Anteros showed his doe-eyed smile.
"Alright, now come on let's go, or else Drystan will flip in the party."
They both got out of the mansion, spread their wings, and took off to the resort.
After a while of their non-stop flying they landed in front of the resort and went inside to find their friends first.
"There they are!"
Syrax exclaimed, pointing to a corner of the hall where Drystan and Hadeon were being held hostage by Anteros's uncle who was praising songs of his son non-stop.
Anteros and Syrax hesitated to walk there as it would be their turn to listen to all that crap.
But before they could plan their escape and reach their private suite, Anteros's aunt stopped them.
"Hey, Anteros and Syrax. You both are here. Let's go we are cutting the cake," she grabbed their hands and dragged them with her.
"..."
Anteros and Syrax stared at each other in silence opening their telepathic link and followed her.
All the Animans could communicate through telepathy at a maximum distance of 1 meter. Especially, Dragons have the special ability to use their telepathic powers at a maximum distance of 100 meters.
Which was also one of the powers that made them the rulers of provinces and kingdoms in the Aeonia empire. Since other clans couldn't communicate at longer distances with the help of magitech they developed the communication device 'Mavto - Magic voice transmitter orb'.
Syrax mind-linked with Anteros noticing that their aunt wasn't paying attention to them except for dragging them.
Syrax:<<
Anteros: <<
Both of them shook their heads and facepalmed mentally that they were booked badly and envied their friends Drystan and Hadeon who just had to listen to the nonsense non-stop of just one person unlike them who had to greet every guest on their way and listen to all of their nonsensical talk with a fake smile covering up their irritation.
****