THE LAST OFFENSIVE
"Spring is coming! Do you know what that means?" Sam asked his friend who was doing head-down push-ups from the branch of the tree on which they had climbed.
"No ... enlighten me!" She replied determined to do something more than asking for help, in the last clash that loomed on the horizon.
"It's the time ... for the animals ... you understand right?" The boy asked embarrassed "Yes, I know. But do you really believe that my father ... that is Derek, went around an unknown world to catch rare animals if it was enough to have them reproduced?" Rose asked, tired of having to talk again about that part of her life that she would rather have thrown into oblivion.
Only Derek, let's be clear! Animals, no!
"As well as being rare, they must have been different, right?" Sam asked that he never gave up if he could be right.
"But, haven't puppies been born over the years? I remember that ..." "Yes, it happened. But Shen said he found out that they and other adults who had fallen ill and then died, or seriously injured by poachers, were lying embalmed in a room hidden in the dungeons!" She replied, cutting off her friend's doubt in the bud.
The peacock's description of some of them had left no question unanswered. She knew them all little, but the missing children of Kang and Lu-Chu, or of Tai and Huan ... had had the honor of holding them in his arms, when she was just a child curious to find out that the peacock chicks did not have long rump feathers from birth.
She believed that for them it was different, instead some characteristics were marked to those of the animals of the human world.
"The puppies ... were all ... killed?" Sam asked shocked.
"Yes ... he had told me that they had not managed to survive ... and now I discover that he didn't want to give animals a valid reason to think about escape!" Rose screamed the last part of the sentence.
Sorrowful that she couldn't do anything to save those innocent lives ... she could have had many brothers now ... she should have ... but at that moment she was just a little girl!
Fortunately, despite these losses, many would have lived free lives.
The ringing of the phone lifted her spirits. It was always and only Bea who called her.
"Will you come back in time for my birthday?" "Glad to hear from you too! Your birthday is in three months! I really think ... no wait, I'm not sure!" Rose replied, correcting herself.
"Are you kidding me? Look, I really care about your presence! There will also be members of the volleyball team! The top player is mine, but the others aren't bad either…" protested Beatrice with extreme carelessness of the words. "I made it now! The boats are almost finished, but there is the problem of food supplies that must be solved! And anyway it's not fair that you take the best ... even if I point to a particular boy! " Rose said smiling under her mustache.
"Thing? And who would it be? You have to tell me everything! NOW!" Bea protested.
"Guard ... not ... Bea ..." call ended. If there was one thing Rose could do well, it was to keep her secrets.
With her gullible friend, it was enough to pretend that the line fell and interrupted any conversation that went beyond the confidentiality line drawn by her.
It was also a defense technique since the last love confessed by Rose had been destroyed by Bea who had dragged her in front of the poor unfortunate and asked him without concern "Do you know that she loves you?". And a year later Rose was still careful not to avoid that former flame!
"There is a problem!" Sam was the bearer of bad news lately! Sighting hostile guards, problem with food supplies, or simply he was the one who made a mess!
"What's up?" The girl asked, heading towards the depths of those caves, where, for the moment, they had taken refuge with all the others.
"They are fighting!" The friend replied "What news!" She pointed out.
Not everyone, but some, since they had become more experienced with martial arts, resolved anything by fighting. Like ... of the animals ... believed them to be more evolved in this too, but apparently she was wrong.
Even though Shen had told her that everyone had humble origins!
Perhaps only among the peasants had they remained in the stone age? Who knows how the nobles interacted with each other ?!
But in retrospect Rose realized that she had seen the peacock in question, fight with others exactly like the "peasants"! So he came back point and head!
"Bad!" Sam pointed out, bringing her down to earth. Rose sighed nervously. He always spoke by hyperbole, magnifying even the smallest of problems! But apparently this time he was right!
The sounds of metallic shots reached her even before she reached her destination, in addition to the various snarls and verses that she didn't know how to define.
Apparently Pei had lost his temper and was furious at Deshi. The two pachyderms were giving her for good reason, with kicks, punches and blows with sharp, heavy and blunt objects that happened under hand, no, paw!
Mei, Guo, Xian and others tried in vain to stand between the two quarrels in an attempt to quell the fight, but with poor results.
A strong paupular made everyone turn towards the stern of the recently completed ship and the girl saw Shen perched on a tree. With a mighty jump and a fascinating turn around, the peacock landed between the two in a fighting position.
She had to admit it: Shen had style in his entrances on the scene!
Maybe it was in his being a peacock! Always charming, he surprised everyone despite his plumage did not have very bright colors. Or it was only he who was an exhibitionist!
"Explain yourself!" Shen said softly. He hadn't screamed. But it was as if he had done it! In fact, it would have been better! Much less chilling! "This idiot made us discover!" Pei yelled out of his mind.
"It's not true!" The bear defended himself "If you hadn't followed me and attacked that man, they would never have noticed us!" Deshi accused him.
"You went out?" Shen asked, feeling a shiver run through his entire spine.
"Yes, but I was next to the entrance! If someone had arrived I would have returned immediately ... as I did then! The humans saw us and ran away terrified, but only because Pei jumped on me by surprise and I reacted too much noise! " Explained the bear.
"They heard you, not me!" Pei yelled "But only because of you!" Deshi replied offended only by being silenced by a powerful kick from the muzzle of the peacock. A tense silence took over.
"Idiot! Now they know where we are! They can plan an attack! " Shouted the furious peacock.
"The great Shen who retires from a battle! Nowadays you never cease to be surprised ..." Deshi said with arrogant tone only to receive a punch in the stomach by Pei
"Idiot! Didn't you think about our lives in that buggy head of yours? They want to kill those monsters! " The buffalo screamed.
Shen got on a table and saw that many had come to that large cave, attracted by the confusion. He could speak "Now humans have an advantage! Rest assured that they will arrive ... but they will not find us unprepared! In the past six months we have been working continuously and five of my weapons are finished! We will use them to annihilate ..." "Hatred destroys everything it touches!"
Jingjing said appearing next to Shen.
"If we don't stop them they will follow us! They'll catch us again! " Qi yelled "Derek is dead!" Li said "We have to stop her!" Manchu pointed out.
"We will stop them! Everyone in position! " Shen said before running to warn Kang.
"We have been sailing for days, but I don't know where we are at the moment. It was a coincidence that the storm brought us here ..." said Zhan pointing to a point on a map.
"The Master says that the case does not exist! You came to help us ..." "Just say bullshit!" Mei said pushing her friend, even if the words of the Master had made her think a lot.
It was strange that they had managed to get there and that they had managed to find them!
And just before their escape! But the biggest surprise had been Shu's pack!
Zhan was with only twenty members of his pack which apparently was even bigger than Shu's ... but all the others ?!
They could have been few like the black wolves ... instead they moved together, as if they expected the imminent battle!
Zhan growled, but decided not to answer when he saw Lang Min pray him with his eyes, not to start fighting. It had been a shock to discover that the Prince was alive after all those years, besides the fact that he had created an army ... and finding a girlfriend was what had given him the coup de grace!
He did not believe it possible that such a thing could have happened, even if he hoped for it, for the sake of his lord.
In addition to this he had to confront highly prepared warriors who, united by fear for human beings, were unpredictable and could have decided to rebel and attack the Prince.
He clearly perceived the resentment felt by everyone towards him. Even towards the white wolves if he had to be sincere.
Apparently the animals in the reserve didn't trust anyone other than themselves!
It was not surprising.
Shen had told him that many of them had never lived a life beyond the walls and that what might have seemed normal was a novelty, something different from what they had known until then.
And the different ... is scary!
But the worst thing, indeed, the most stubborn and unbearable person he had to deal with was the albino leopard.
That feline was Shen's shadow and it annoyed him a lot. He had always been the peacock's bodyguard and since he didn't know Mei at all, he was wary of him.
The hatred, widely reciprocated, had not allowed either of them to make an attempt to approach even in those months.
They only put up with each other because Shen seemed to be very close to both. And since Zhan blindly trusted his lord, he had decided to refrain from attacking the cat as soon as their paths crossed to avoid doing him wrong.
On the other hand, Lang Min was always happy and kind.
She was able to behave as if it were completely normal to live in a wet cave, hidden from the rest of the world. She treated all wolves as his peers and sometimes involved them in the jokes he played with the youngest peacocks in the group and others who got involved.
"A good laugh heals many wounds!" It was what Lang Min always said. Or "Don't wait to be happy to smile. But smile to be happy! " she said continuously.
And this was absolutely necessary, given that Shen was always very gloomy and serious on the other side. With the turbulent and patience-free character he had, his fiancée was like a breath of fresh air, or a ray of sunshine that illuminates a freezing winter morning ... do we understand each other?
It was also to be said that being so different led them to quarrel very often, even though most of the time Zhan could say with certainty that they did it only for the fun they felt in contradicting each other.
A howl put them on alert: the showdown was imminent!
Finally!
For months his men had been looking for animals and once the long-awaited news had come, they had moved.
Her mastery had guaranteed her to be the champion of justice in which everyone believed blindly and this had brought her even more power and wealth than she could have imagined!
Armed with nets, rifles, machine guns and many other things they went towards the steep rocky shores of the shore, with one goal: to eliminate the problem by not completely losing any gain.
Sure, Derek had done a good job, but stuffed animals would have required less risk, work and money, both to oversee and feed them.
The investigating judge took a deep hole causing the entire vehicle to wobble. Already felling trees took time, so she hadn't bothered to have the road taken care of.
If he wanted to take them by surprise he had to move fast!
Thanks to the numerous aids provided by his supporters, he knew the territory perfectly, therefore also the labyrinth of caves where the animals had hidden.
She had to admit that they had shown great intelligence in escaping, less when they decided to stay on the island. But these were anthropomorphic animals.
Although not very advanced, compared to humans, they certainly were compared to animals like them that lived in the human world. And also, during the escape they had demonstrated their ability to fight and cope with human weapons in a shrewd and lethal way!
She absolutely shouldn't underestimate them! Derek had done it and all the people had stopped supporting him, changing his opinion on his collection from incredible, rare and unique to dangerous, unmanageable and destructive.
A little distraction was enough to start the decline of the empire he built and from which he had not been able to recover.
Since the first escape of the animals, people's relationships and trust had been irreparably flawed. Incredible how easily trust can be lost, if you think about how hard work you have to do to earn it!
As far as he knew, perhaps, at that precise moment, the animals were building boats to be able to return to their world! Or they might have been intent on designing an attack plan against him!
They didn't seem to be upset with other humans.
Attacks on numerous farms and the plundering of large crops had been recorded and only one human, whose identity was unknown, was the only one believed to be responsible as he had been seen on every crime scene, but she was sure they were involved the animals!
No human being had been injured and this had led her to draw the conclusion that they, only she considered dangerous! Big mistake!
With such a problem, she had come forward to destroy the animals deemed dangerous, but anyone, armed with a rifle, could have killed them.
Maybe not everyone, maybe it would have taken longer, but humans have an innate gift in destroying nature! So in any case their fate was sealed!
And if people hated them, considering them dangerous, it only benefited her. Looking out the window, Carmela could see their goal getting closer.
She pulled an old photo, yellowed by time, from his wallet, which portrayed two five-year-old and nine-year-old girls smiling, embracing each other affectionately.
"Dear little sister! Always sad and fragile ... life has not punished you enough since I find myself having to fix the mess that your progeny has created! But soon you will embrace your daughter again and my revenge will finally be accomplished!".
"Fireworks in place!" Bao said before stuffing three apples into his mouth. Mao, an albino dog grabbed the crate next to the panda to go and save the supplies, both from his friend's bottomless stomach and from the imminent clash.
Three days had passed since Deshi had revealed their position and Hua had finally sighted the humans and their metal wagons.
"Kang is with Tai and a few others guarding the boat, Mei and Xun control the main entrance with most of us, Ning is on the south side, Bao and Kun are at the east entrance, Shu and most of the his wolves are hidden on the surface while Zhan remains glued to your tail!" Xian said pointing to the wolf behind Shen. They had divided into groups, led by two or a single leader who received Shen's directions and spread the word.
"We are at war, because every living being is at war with himself!" Jingjing said, drawing attention to himself "It seems to be our fault if humans want to kill us!" Guo whispered in Fa's ear.
"What do you think the way you want! We will make it clear to humans that they made a bad decision by putting us in a cage!" Said Zhu, the albino cobra, waving the tail at the end of which a long and sharp blade had been attached.
"Why didn't we put the cannons near the entrances? We could have brought them down on their heads!" Asked Zhi, a harlequin peacock, who had hinted that he had a blue fifa even though he would never admit it, even under torture!
"In this way we would have been trapped! If we went out with the boat they could easily spot us! Better to force them to split up and attack them separately" Shen replied as he finished fixing the last fireworks.
The peacock gave his brother Xian a knowing look knowing full well the truth that few knew!
Poor Sam and Rose had been stunned and tied up only to be thrown inside a ship's cabin, locked so they wouldn't take any risks, all done under Kang's orders.
If he hadn't grown up locked within four walls, Shen was sure he could have become a very influential and powerful person thanks to the charisma he possessed.
The peacock smiled when he saw Lang Min approach him.
"Do you promise me you will pay attention?" Asked the peacock. Shen sighed, rolling his eyes. The anxiety of females.
At times like these they always had to think of the worst and make males make false promises!
Not all of them, but most of the peacocks had done it! The other females appeared to have multiple backbones.
"Sure!" He replied without tone, but as soon as he saw her turn to take a position with others he felt a grip on his stomach "Wait!" Shen said only to stop immediately afterwards.
No, he was not a frightened damsel, but he preferred to have the situation under control.
He saw that she was looking at him even more worried than before and decided to calm her down "I would prefer if you stayed with me during the fight, so I will be sure that nothing will happen to you!" He said trying not to be too sweet ... even if it was too late!
"Nobody will touch her!" Zhan said waving the big hammer he held in one paw. Lang Min and Shen smiled, both grateful to the wolf.
Silence. An unnatural silence enveloped those caves.
They might have thought they were wrong, but Carmela knew it was not so!
They were waiting for them!
Unfortunately, the terrain inside the mountain was too steep to allow the investigating magistrates to enter, so his men were forced to move on foot.
Equipped with bulletproof vests, rifles and flashlights, they really looked like a special police unit as they probed the surrounding area at the entrance.
Their targets possessed only spears, blunt objects and arrows, but the natural weapons possessed by some made the vests necessary.
After ascertaining that the animals were all inside, they entered. At the beginning they had to face a not very steep descent but with the ground full of pointed boulders. Immediately after the tunnel it became wider and flat.
She was dressed like them, with her face covered and the weapon in her hand.
She wouldn't have stayed on the sidelines like Derek had done, losing hundreds of men against her, but she wouldn't have risked too much.
The animals wanted her dead, this was clear and therefore she had chosen a way of approach with which she would have laughed at them before she could kill them.
The initial tunnel was very wide, but soon it split into many other narrower ones.
Not too much not to pass, but she was sure that the bigger animals had certainly encountered some difficulties in passing through.
Or maybe they had used another entrance.
Time passed and despite the searches they had not yet found any trace of their presence!
It was impossible that the spies had made fun of her, they knew well that the safety of the inhabitants of the cities surrounding the mountain was at stake. Yet that branching of caves was wide and it would take hours to fully explore it.
"So these animals are extremely advanced? What do you mean?" One of the guards asked one of his peers "I heard that they know how to fight and forged their weapons themselves!" The other replied.
"Yes, but despite these" amazing "abilities, we have the guns! So we have the knife on the handle side!" Someone who had heard the conversation despite being away from the two intruded, only thanks to the incredible echo of those caves.
"Go and tell those who stood to protect the walls!" He observed the first.
"You shouldn't underestimate them! They are extra large animals with such large swords! " Another said, unable to stop controlling the surroundings obsessively.
"The sword is slower than the bullet!" He boasted "Repeat it when all this is over!" Replied the one who was the most nervous of those present.
"Okay, as you wish madame ... I would not be surprised if your scream resembled that of a ..." the man disappeared from the view of his companions to fall back among them in a pool of blood and with a throat torn.
After that, chaos broke out.
The soldiers fired at random and those who did not stay with the group disappeared into the darkness of the caves being thrown, now dead, on those still alive.
The burning torches created an even more disturbing atmosphere, jerking the tunnels until they were broken, but allowing other humans to glimpse the silhouettes of their attackers just before they disappeared again into the dark.
In that confusion, one of them managed to fire with a rocket launcher and the explosion illuminated a corridor showing a group of animals, of different species, on the run and others on the ground injured.
When the darkness returned, the verses led them to the opposite side from the tunnel where they had seen them disappear and before they could attack again they collided with another group in advance.
"We heard an explosion! You look fine?" One asked "We do, but the dead don't!" A soldier replied visibly shaken by what he had just seen.
"They will pay you! Stay united and leave the lamps!" Screamed the one with the highest rank.
Large neon lamps were scattered along the way, so that the animals could no longer hide.
It had been fun to attack those fools unaware of the impending danger!
Mei and those who were with her had retreated as soon as humans had shown that they were serious. Also because poor Xu had been seriously injured while trying to protect her!
The feline felt a great sense of guilt weighing on her conscience at the thought of not having taken the fight seriously. She jumped from one wall to another avoiding the blows, stunning the humans that you grabbed with the whip so that Xun and the others could complete the work, without thinking that humans could have weapons far worse than what they called "rifles".
When the lethal blow was launched she had turned around just in time to see him in passing before being violently pushed against a wall.
The explosion caused part of the ceiling to collapse and debris hit her on the shoulder, but Xu had been injured by the fireball and had lost consciousness immediately.
The distant rumble of explosions preceded by high-pitched whistles made it clear that Ning and those who were with him had been discovered!
She turned after a tight curve and barely had time to squash himself on the ground to avoid the fatal blows of other humans.
Her eye fell on the nets fixed to the ceiling placed there at the request of Wen and most of the mustelids.
/
"Are you serious when you ask for things like this?" Asked a skeptical Cheung.
"Of course yes!" Wen replied "What could they be for?" Xian asked curiously. "To capture humans ... come on! A knife stroke or two and they're free! " Xue said mocking the primate.
"Knife?" Fu, the albino fox asked "Yes, from what Piao told us, every soldier will be well armed!" The albino skunk answered.
"The gods listened to some of my prayers! I don't like bragging about easy wins! " Qiao said as he swung his steel Dao with one leg.
"If we hang nets on the ceiling we could move over the heads of the bipeds, thus deriding them, deceiving them and annihilating them in one fell swoop!" Cong explained that he was one of the few to support the poor monkey.
"A great strategy! I like it! If you can get a permit from Kang then, the closest port is two days' journey from this village! " Rose said indicating a small gathering of houses by the sea not far from where they were currently.
/
In the end the nets had been placed in almost all the tunnels and caves present, unfortunately they were not enough to cover the entire area, but now, Mei could say she was happy with the idea to which at the beginning, she had not given the slightest importance.
With a mighty jump he managed to frighten the few soldiers gathered in front of them, who backed away frightened, aiming all their weapons at her. The cat clung to the ropes and stood motionless staring at the ceiling.
A slight movement of the tail gave way to the few who were with her who attacked the humans with extreme ferocity, with the Nintendo to divert their attention from Mei.
Zhi opened his large tail paupulating as hard as possible and closed it immediately after lowering himself, thus allowing others to jump over it and surprise humans by making them fall to the ground under their weight.
The weapons fired unnecessarily as the impact had turned them towards harmless stones.
Li and Lim managed to throw two bipeds each and they wasted no time, stunning them even before they could even protest.
Mei's whip occasionally hit humans allowing his friends to easily lay them out. It almost seemed that the cat wanted to remind them of her presence.
Qi threw that cursed device that emitted light in an attempt to gain an advantage, but to no avail, remained intact. He avoided and deflected numerous blows, knocked down many enemies and killed two, even if he did not care much about deciding to kill them all or not, as others had done.
"In here it seems like day!" Li said, with an unconscious Xu on his shoulders as he headed for a dark corridor.
"We've already done enough confusion!" Mei said, dropping onto a human who had just arrived unaware that she was still hanging from the ceiling.
It struck him with such violence, with his metal whip, that he removed all questions about the doubt whether he was still alive.
The cat pulled one end of the fuse causing it to rub and light.
A new invention by Shen: fireworks that can be ignited independently without the need for fire!
Brilliant since the fire could have attracted too much attention!
After launching the firecracker towards a new group of bipeds, who arrived there thanks to the sound of the shots, he ran after Li with the others.
The last thing he heard was an explosion followed by cries of pain.
I classified my story T. So I tried not to accurately describe scenes of violence!
But if for someone it is the same too violent, let me know, so change it to M, forbidden to children under 16 instead of 13 years!
The battle is not over yet! There will be more twists and revelations!
I hope you like the story because I had never described a war scene! In fact, this is the first story I wrote, so I hope I haven't been too boring!
I thank all those who left comments because they encouraged me to continue writing and not to erase the story!
See you soon,
X-98