Chapter 8- Meet Kurama
Asgard Sky City in the Sky Domain
High above the Land Domain in the Narnian sky but below the Celestial Domain forming the firmament of the glass dome-like world, situated on the floating clouds, the capital of the Skylands, the mighty Asgard Sky City, was situated. Asgard Sky City was the largest and most populated city in the Skylands and resembled a metropolis built on clouds. Some of its buildings were tall, gold and silver structures while the rest were smaller constructions coloured a drabber grey or white and sometimes brown. They were made from building materials entirely exclusive to the Narnian world and their appearance made the city look more advanced than many of the other cities built in the Narnian world. But other than this and its situation on the clouds in the sky, Asgard was no different from any other city. The tall, gold and silver buildings belonged mostly to the richer inhabitants of Asgard while the smaller, simpler buildings were mostly inhabited by those of lower social classes such as the working class. In the centre of Asgard City was a castle where the Sky Monarchs, usually a Cloud-Man king and his family, dwelt and it was made from golden material to represent its royalty. Because of this, this castle was referred to as the Royal Castle in the Sky, or just Royal Castle for short. Its location was in an area of Asgard City called downtown Asgard. Skyland castles were quite different from the castles built on the Land Domain. To put it into our world's words, they resembled futuristic buildings from our science fiction works set in the far future, so the Skyland castles and other buildings including the more basic drabber houses were more advanced technologically than the Land Domain. The Narnian Moon settlement buildings were also futuristic by our world's standards but the settlements of the Narnian Sun whose sentient creatures were mostly Sunlings were more basic and resembled igloos made from the solid materials of the star-like domain (though the Narnian Sun was not a star in any way, but its own domain and biosphere). Another piece of technology that was advanced by our world's standards was the Bifrost Transporter, a magical transporter used as a method of quick transportation between Domains such as the Sky Domain and the Underworld Domain where Bism was situated, bypassing regular transportation which would otherwise take hours or even days to complete. The Bifrost Transporter was a magical rainbow wormhole-like tunnel and access to it was via magical crystalline Transporter Pads. Asgard Sky City had one Transporter Pad located in its centre near the Royal Castle and allowed visitors from other Domains to access the Skylands quickly. It was in fact, one of the central interchange routes in the Skylands.
While the Bifrost Transporter was a very useful method of transport connecting various faraway locations such as Asgard Sky City from the Land Domain for example, few species cannot use the powerful wormhole-like teleportation. One of these was humans and the Transporter's immense power was deadly to them, even if they were Narnia-born. If a human tried to use the Bifrost Transporter, they would not survive the trip and would arrive dead on the other side of the teleportation route. Thus the Narnian humans ALWAYS avoided using the Transporter and because of this, a number of Domains and Narnian places had NEVER been visited by ANY human throughout Narnia's history. Humans would have to take the long route methods to visit these Domains, a feat many were reluctant to accomplish due to how time-consuming these routes were. For example, to get to the Sky Domain by ways other than the Bifrost, aerial transport will have to be utilised either by Magic Carpet, Flying Saucer or by a creature capable of carrying humans to those altitudes like a Cherub and that would take a number of hours. Besides this, Narnian humans preferred to keep their feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically. But if any humans did plan on visiting Asgard Sky City, they were always welcome provided that they were not hostile and as long as they didn't use the Bifrost Transporter.
Asgard had always been open to the rest of the world but as Obi Wan's group had found out via their scans from a Flying Saucer, the area had closed its borders and has remained that way for a year and a half. The Bifrost Transporter had also been restricted in its use and due to the closure of Asgard's borders, entry by outsiders and exiting by the citizens had been severely limited. It was indeed out of character for a city that was normally welcoming to any outsider from any other Domain except hostile individuals. Outside the Asgard area was the Rainbowberry Orchard Garden guarded by its three deadly gates, its location indicated by a large sparkling rainbow flowing from its cloud and further into the sky. This Orchard Garden contained the Sky Domain's equivalent to the apples of the Garden of Youth on the Land and one of the Nine-Realms Potion ingredients, the rainbowberries. The Rainbowberry Orchard had not been visited for quite some time due to the incredibly dangerous gates and for good reason for the rainbowberries were a very powerful but deadly fruit. Consuming ANY of them, even one, for selfish reasons came with horrific side-effects similar to the Land Domain's Garden of Youth fruits (and the other seven Nine-Realms Potion ingredients by extension).
The Skylands had their own bizarre ecology of flora and fauna. Unlike the Land Domain's trees which were usually green, the Skylands' trees were more of exotic colours such as blue and white; very few Skyland flora had any form of greenery on them. One type of tree was the frost tree which resembled giant ice crystals on stalks with delicate needles with some taking on the appearance of giant cauliflower cloves. Another was the blue sky lily tree which was tall blue plants with large lilypad-like 'dishes' designed for catching water for their use. A small forest of it grew in the Rainbow Orchard area between two of the gates and was the concealing spot for some of the seven keys to the third and final gate and the real entrance to the Rainbowberry Orchard Garden itself, the Golden Post Lightning Gate. This gate resembled a giant plasma globe in our world and required the seven Rainbow Keys to be shut off for safe passage. Any other attempt to pass through this electrified gate other than shutting it off with the seven keys would result in a NASTY zap from the lightning bolts within the gate. Sky fauna such as massive Sky Whales, giant cetacean-like creatures with massive wings, and Stalker-Flies, massive insects resembling a chimera of a bird, a fly and a bat lived up here, alongside other bizarre and exotic flora and fauna. Thus the Sky Domain had its own ecological biomes, flora and fauna but that's another topic.
Asgard Sky City was also quiet with little activity within its streets. Normally, it was like any other city with the hustle and bustle of usual city activity with citizens going about their usual business such as going to work or shopping areas to buy supplies. Asgard and the Skylands also had their own set of vehicles such as cloud-carriages which levitated over the roads like Magic Carpets but cannot actually fly like them, but now, Asgard and its surrounding towns were like abandoned ghost towns but this was just a facade. The activities of the city and its surrounding area had been confined to within the buildings, the homes of the citizens but in one particular building, the Royal Castle, a project was under construction. In a room which was built to be a library and workroom, a Nine-Tailed Fox was at work. This Fox was a female Fox or Vixen and like Quaoar was a hybrid of a common Kitsune and the rarer Kumiho, her pelt colours in her Nine-Tailed form showing her heritage. Most of the Vixen's fur was white with metallic icy blue and silver markings smearing it in some places, like a Kumiho in its Nine-Tailed form. The Vixen had a set of metallic icy blue markings on her left side, her front right paw was metallic ice blue and her head was also white. However, her face was enclosed in an ivory gold face mask-like marking and her cheeks were dotted with metallic yellow patches like a cockatiel or Lightning Pika's cheeks sporting red patches. Her ears were tipped metallic yellow. Eight of her nine tails, unlike most of her body, were ivory yellow and they had no metallic yellow markings. Her third tail (from her left), however, was mostly white and melted to ivory towards the Vixen's rump. The Vixen's eyes were a bright yellow and she was the same age as Quaoar. The Nine-Tailed Vixen was putting together a series of written pages for a sermon in an upcoming service in Asgard Sky City Gathering House, the place where the Aslan believers of the city gathered to praise and worship the Creator of Narnia, Aslan. Similar to how humans carried out church services in our world, songs were sung and sermons were preached by a preacher. The preacher was ALWAYS a male Talking Beast or other Creature qualified to be a preacher and the sermons he preached were, or should be, always about Aslan or has the Lion in the centre of the theme. Some preachers used projectors to present the theme if they had the technology for this but preachers of other Domains that used more basic technology such as on the Land Domain, however, simply used more basic methods in their gathering places.
Aslan had decreed that only male Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures preach from the preaching spot and NEVER females and to add, the preacher must be a seasoned believer and be knowledgeable about the Book of Narnia, Aslan's written word, to preach it correctly. Any error could have serious consequences and repercussions so it was a BIG responsibility to preach to and shepherd a group of believers. It was a level of responsibility that exceeded the level of even a male Cardinal Beast being the secondary Guardian for the Garden of Youth on the Land Domain. These rules had been abided by the congregants of Asgard Sky City Gathering House and the other Skyland town and community gathering places but for the past year and a half, these rules had been breached since another Nine-Tailed Fox had usurped the throne and taken over the place and closed its borders to the rest of the world.
The female Nine-Tailed Kitsumiho continued working on the sermon pages, a very sad look on her face. It was clear that she knew what she was doing was wrong but she had not made the decision to do this herself. As the Vixen continued to check through the pages to be used on the projector during the upcoming service, someone nearby sniggered. Immediately, the Vixen turned to the person, another Nine-Tailed Fox and a male pure-blood Kitsune based on his pelt being only ivory gold and metallic yellow and not interspersed with white, icy blue and silver like the Vixen for he was not half-Kumiho. This Fox was a very handsome Fox and was suave, smooth-talking and was like a peacock: proud and charming. His eyes were an unusual colour for a Magical Fox, a liquid azure blue like the Eastern Ocean or an Azure Dragon of the East's scales. The Fox also wore a robe around his neck and that draped his back, this robe being coloured violet, scarlet, silver and gold and pinned below the Fox's neck. This pinning button's front had Aslan's face surrounded by a fiery mane carved onto it to represent Asgard Sky City's allegiance to the Lion. This was a royal robe normally worn by a Cloud-Man king sitting on the throne of Asgard Sky City's Royal Castle in the Sky and was made from highly expensive fabrics but as stated before, the Cloud-Man king line had been usurped by this Nine-Tailed Fox.
Unlike most other Nine-Tailed Foxes who had been Aslan-loyal, this Fox was rogue and believed in a false Aslan. He had come to believe in this false image of the Lion after an event in his history, his spiritual experience where he supposedly met the Lion. Since that event, he had established a cult following around the false Lion and eventually invaded Asgard Sky City and took it and its surrounding areas over to turn it into a central area and base for his cult which he has called the Cult of the Lion. This cult had been in existence for over a year and throughout this time; the Kitsune Dog-Fox had been indoctrinating the inhabitants, often forcibly, into following the cult and had also imposed unfair and difficult rules upon them. This cult was indeed extremely oppressive on the inhabitants and any visitors that had been forced to stay due to the imposed rules about travel outside the area. Essentially, the Kitsune had turned Asgard Sky City into an isolated dictatorial area which made living in it a nightmare. NOT what the builders of Asgard Sky City had in mind when they built it hundreds of years ago. The Kitsune Dog-Fox gazed at the saddened Kitsumiho Vixen who was half-Kitsune and walked towards her with an oily smile.
"You certainly are doing a great job with your sermon notes as always, eh, Siveth?" he crooned in a silk-like voice. His voice was as crystalline as his looks. The female Kitsumiho, Siveth, gazed at him with a sad and guilty look as he continued, "I hope you're proud of your honourable position in bein' an Aslan preacher."
The Vixen, Siveth, just resumed her notes reluctantly. Her ears and nine tails were lowered, showing her mood of shame.
"Y-y-you know, Kurama, we Magical Foxes are supposed to be amongst the wisest creatures in Narnia with our longevity and immense memory, especially in our Nine-Tailed forms," she replied nervously and sadly, "B-b-but not like th-this. This whole cult thing you've come up with, especially with all its traits, is UTTERLY horrible. I've been working for you in this pile of muck for well over a year..."
"Well, you cannot question my cult, Siveth," continued the Fox named Kurama in his sweet voice and with that, he extended a paw and cheekily brushed Siveth's cheek with it to her disgust as she continued her sermon notes, "After all, this is what Aslan told me to do in the vision I had in the Northern Tundra back on the Land. Aslan has commanded me to establish a cult around him and turn Asgard Sky City into a base with me as its leader. Aslan has also commanded that I and I alone am to be his mouthpiece so if you wanna talk to Aslan about what I am doing, it will have to be through me," Kurama's handsome face then morphed into a stern look and his voice tone changed to match it but still maintained its suave flavour, "You know what will happen if you disobey."
"I was supposed to have been travelling to the Narnian Moon those months ago to teach those young Moon Creatures about the REAL Aslan and Narnia's history in their schools," Siveth continued, "But you have taken me captive along with the ENTIRE city of Asgard and its surrounding towns when you usurped the throne..." she then lowered her ears again in sadness as she continued looking through her notes, "Plus you prevented me from letting them know..."
"Well, Aslan has better things for you to do, my dear Siveth," said Kurama with a smile before his stern glare returned, "And besides that, you know what he's like with potential heretics. Aslan does NOT want his cult contaminated and polluted with teachings and facts that contradict his word so he has told me to close Asgard's borders to the outside world to prevent any potential heretics from entering into it and causing dissention. It's vitally important that I keep this cult pure and free of contaminants," he then glared at Siveth slightly menacingly, "And that command does NOT just apply to outsiders, however... it applies to our followers within our cult as well, and YOU, Siveth, are an integral part of our cult. Don't forget that," he pointed a front paw at Siveth as he said this.
"Even if it means teaching things that are questionable, such as sending hunting parties to the Land Domain via the Bifrost Transporter to attack humans like dumb animals and getting a female Talking Beast to be a preacher when the role is meant for males!?" asked Siveth nervously and with disgust, "Aslan would surely NEVER command us Talking Beasts to do such stuff like THAT..."
"It's what Aslan commanded me to teach, Siveth, now get on with your sermon notes without any further backtalk or objection," commanded Kurama before he turned round to walk towards the exit to the room. "We have our important weekly gathering at the Gathering House coming up and you'd better be havin' your sermon notes ready. Can't have rushed and shoddy notes, can we?" he crooned in a smooth, deep voice. Siveth just continued her notes without looking at him. Satisfied that she will obey, Kurama continued his walk to the exit to allow Siveth to continue getting together her notes alone.
As he left the door, he was greeted by a Vermillion Bird, a Black Tortoise and a White Tiger. Much like Quaoar on the Land Domain, Kurama had an inner circle of assistants and these were three of them. Furthermore, they were from three of the four species making up the Four Cardinal Beasts, the main species of the four-part Cardinal Domain.
"Report on the setup of the Gathering House for our upcoming service, Nicholye, Jetty and Carpathi," the Nine-Tailed Fox commanded.
"Just about ready, Boss," said Nicholye replied, a wicked smile on his beak.
"Especially the golden glitter gas dispensers," said Jetty.
"It's gonna be UTTERLY epic like those previous gathering services, I can promise you," added Carpathi.
"Excellent," Kurama said in a low, sweet voice, his paws together with the fingers touching in smugness, "Siveth in there is just looking through her sermon notes and once she is ready, we'll get things goin'. You get the Gathering House's seating areas prepared for the arrival of the congregants."
Nicholye, Carpathi and Jetty smiled, turned and left for the Gathering House to see to the task. Kurama then turned round and returned to the room where Siveth was. As he entered the room once again, he boasted to the sad Vixen with a smug, gleeful smile.
"Oh, I sure am lookin' forward to SUCH an epic gathering," he crooned, "Especially the experiences those congregants seek in the form of Aslan's Breath. An' you know Aslan will promise prosperity to his followers if they continue to obey his rules like giving him their payment and attending the weekly gatherings to honour him. Failure to do so will have Tash invade their house and cause trouble."
"Don't you realise what HORRORS you have inflicted on many of Asgard and the surrounding area's citizens with these rotten rules," Siveth complained as she finished gathering her sermon notes together, "Especially those in the towns around the city's periphery? They're barely getting by with enough food and other basic life essentials and some not at all... and you would ONLY give them food if they obey these horrible rules you have heaped upon them..."
"Well, that's because they wouldn't obey Aslan's commands, Siveth," Kurama nonchalantly replied, "Remember what I told you countless times before, you know what will happen if you disobey in any way. Come; let me show you one consequence of disobedience..."
Siveth then reluctantly gathered her sermon notes and followed Kurama out of the room and down a hallway. The two Nine-Tailed Foxes then began to walk by a row of figures. These figures were made of pure gold, their metallic yellow surfaces glistening in the non-star Narnian Sun's light shining through the windows of the castle. These golden figures were in the shapes of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures but they weren't merely gold statue sculptures fashioned after the creatures as decorations. Siveth glared nervously at the golden figures, their body postures in poses of fright and begging as Kurama continued. His robe and nine tails swept out behind him.
"You see, these heretics were disobedient and absolutely refused to follow Aslan's rules despite countless disciplinary actions," the Dog-Fox said sternly, "And as a result, they paid the price..."
Siveth flinched as she continued to gaze at the golden statues of the figures in their frightful poses. It was though they were begging for mercy and among them was a Kitsune in its Five-Tailed form. Siveth felt her stomach lurch upon gazing at this golden Magical Fox statue. Then after showing Siveth his collection of golden figures, Kurama lead the Vixen back to the room. As the pair entered the room, Kurama continued glaring at Siveth sternly.
"But that consequence is NOT the only consequences you will be facing for disobedience, Siveth," he continued, "There are other consequence methods and believe me, not all of them are very nice..."
Siveth just glared at the Dog-Fox as he then commanded her to check her sermon notes one final time. As she did that, Kurama continued. "Then as soon as we are done with the service for the week, I will be checking on Shenron and his money-producing progress down on the Land Domain, Voldemort the Komainu on the next Games for Cumulonimbi event series, Chroma Nerada the Fenghen (female Fenghuang), Kaecilius the Kirin and their team with the project at teaching the young 'uns about Aslan, and also Budzo the Dragon Lizard (which was a Talking Komodo Dragon; they were called Dragon Lizards in Narnia), and Imhotep the Sphinx and their monitoring on the human hunting parties sent to the Land Domain," Kurama then smirked wickedly, "I would love it if you joined Chroma Nerada and Kaecilius' team and helped them in the education of the kiddies..."
Siveth continued to glare at the rogue Nine-Tailed Fox and usurper and then finally snapped.
"All THIS is STRAIGHT out of TASH'S PIT!" she screeched and with that, she tossed the sermon notes at the wall, sending the collection of pages splashing against it and scattering everywhere on the floor. Then she lurched at a desk, seized a book and threw it at Kurama who ducked, sending the book slamming into the wall behind him and falling to the floor, its cover opened and the object facing pages down. Then Siveth seized more books, all of them Kurama's writings about the Cult of the Lion, and angrily threw them everywhere before finally seizing an open bottle of ink and tossing it at Kurama as well in an attempt at splattering him and his false royal robe and ivory and metallic yellow fur with the blue-black stuff to humiliate him. However, the wicked Kitsune seized the incoming projectile, some of its staining content having already flown out of the bottle's mouth and splattered everywhere during its flight towards him, in a telekinetic grasp with neon blue flaring in his eyes and an aura around the bottle and some of the ink blobs. Nearby, a male Sphinx had just appeared in the doorway but had been splattered in the face by some of the ink from the flying bottle thrown by Siveth. Then Kurama telekinetically returned some of the ink into the bottle and placed it onto a nearby stool. The male Sphinx splattered by the ink then shot Siveth a FURIOUS look.
"Oi, I've spent HOURS trying to make myself look smart for the upcoming meeting!" the feathered winged Humanoid with a Lion's mane (which was larger in male Sphinxes than the females) bellowed, "Look at what you did to MY HAIR AND MANE!"
Kurama immediately shot the male Sphinx a stern look.
"Peace, Imhotep," he commanded before turning to Siveth as she continued to vent, her volcanic glare on him.
"SERIOUSLY, Kurama," the Nine-Tailed Kitsumiho yelled, "This is HONESTLY getting OUT OF PAW! Since you took me captive while I was staying here to depart for the Narnian Moon, YOU have been forcin' ME into obeying these STUPID rules you have invented, rules that go against the TRUE Aslan's commands, for the past YEAR AND A HALF and I'M JUST ABOUT on the end of my TAILS with this DEMONIC project you have concocted from some unholy VISION TRIP IN THE NORTHERN TUNDRA on the LAND DOMAIN! You can do WHATEVER you WANT WITH ME... make me into a golden statue for your COLLECTION for ALL I CARE but I will not, repeat: NOT... continue with this EVIL ANY LONGER!"
Kurama just gazed at her sternly but calmly, maintaining his suave looks and exhaled in a controlled manner. The male Sphinx, Imhotep, looked on angrily, his face, hair and mane splattered with black ink dots, clearly wanting to give the Kitsune Vixen a piece of his mind for messing up his appearance but Kurama kept him restrained.
"Very well, Siveth," Kurama spoke calmly and suavely, "If that's your decision, then so be it," however, his calm face slowly morphed into one of stern threat, "However, if you won't obey my cult rules, then someone else will surely get the punishment..." a wicked smirk formed on his muzzle, "Maybe your lil' twin brother wouldn't mind becomin' a golden statue for my collection, or even participatin' in the next event series of Voldemort's Games for Cumulonimbi with you watchin' on, depending on my decision and what Aslan tells me..."
Horror flared within Siveth as she recognised who Kurama was talking about.
"Quaoar!?" she blurted out. Kurama then sauntered towards Siveth's large satchel of possessions which she had kept with her all this time, inserted a paw into it and pulled out one of the Vixen's most treasured possessions, a framed wedding picture of her, her husband and twin brother Quaoar when Siveth got married when she was FAR younger. This picture was centuries old and it was amazing that the picture had survived all this time. As Siveth looked on angrily, Kurama continued, his sweet smiling gaze on her.
"Yes, yes," he said in a voice as sweet as honey, "I have always wondered where your twin brother has gone and would love to meet him one day..."
"NEVER in a MILLION Narnian YEARS," Siveth snapped, "And PLEASE give me back my WEDDING PICTURE!" and with that, she tried to seize it with her telekinesis to snatch it out of Kurama's paw but Imhotep, his face, hair and mane dotted with the blue-black ink making him look somewhat like a leopard or a spotted amphibious mammalian creature called a Leopard Water Dog, stepped in front of her and gave her a hefty jab in the chest with his paw.
"I owe you a SERIOUS lesson for messin' up my appearance with that ink, Vixen," the Sphinx snarled. Siveth glared bitterly at him as Kurama then took her wedding picture to him.
"Here, Imhotep, you deal with this picture," said he, "It looks UTTERLY soppy, anyway."
Then to Siveth's anger and tears, Imhotep seized the framed picture from Siveth's wedding to her husband in his telekinesis (Sphinxes possessed this ability too and like in Magical Foxes and other telekinesis-using Creatures, their eyes glowed neon blue and any targets they seized in their mental grasps glowed with a neon blue aura), levitated it from Kurama's paw and before Siveth could lash her own paw at it to snatch it back, the wicked Sphinx shattered its glass, broke up its frame and shredded the picture into confetti.
"NOOOOO!" cried Siveth in distress as she watched her precious picture get destroyed and she slammed a paw on the floor, tears welling up in her eyes. After this, Imhotep spitefully and telekinetically flung the confetti and piece s of the glass front and frame at the Vixen to rub in the spiteful deed. Kurama watched on calmly and meanly. After this and as Siveth gathered some of the fragtments of her destroyed wedding picture, tears spilling down her cheeks from her eyes and sniffles escaping her nose, Kurama stepped in.
"GATHER YA SERMON NOTES AN' BE READY FOR THE UPCLOMIN' SERVICE or FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES, SIVETH!" he barked. Siveth flinched and tearfully obeyed, dropped the fragments of her destroyed wedding picture, went over to her scattered sermon note pages and began to gather them up. Imhotep watched on as Kurama nodded to him, commanded him to make sure that Siveth had ALL her notes prepared and in order and left via the door.
Once he was back in the hall, the Nine-Tailed Dog-Fox happily trotted along until he met some more of his assistants, two of which were a male Wampus Cat named Nero and a female Leopard Water Dog named Daffodil. Wampus Cats resembled Panthers and often had dark grey or black fur and few had vivid red, orange and yellow line markings slashing through their pelage which flared when these particular individual Wampus Cats got angry or scared. One notable Wampus Cat named Obsidian who lived during the Age of Winter, had this trait. Unlike most of the other Felines which had four legs, or two arms and two legs if they were bipedal like the Bakeneko, Nekomata and their partial relatives (for example, half-Nekomata, half-Regular Talking Cat), Wampus Cats had six legs. Wampus Cats were often very fierce creatures and were protective of their families and friends and were normally Aslan loyal. However, the Wampus Cats following Kurama (as well as those that had followed the White Witch centuries ago) were rogue, violent and dangerous. Nero was one such Wampus Cat and he sported dark grey fur with orange-red markings crisscrossing it. He was a descendant of the aforementioned Obsidian but unlike his ancestor who had been Aslan-loyal, Nero was VERY anti-Aslan and instead followed the false Aslan invented by Kurama which was the centre of the Cult of the Lion he had built around the false Lion. Leopard Water Dogs were aquatic creatures resembling a chimera of various animals. They had yellow fur spotted with black dots like a leopard and had long prehensile tails. Male Water Dogs had brighter yellow fur and longer tails than the females, who were a paler ivory with shorter tails. They had long dog or rabbit-like ears and their paws and feet resembled the hands and feet of a Primate and like Platypuses and Echidnas, they laid eggs so they were technically Monotremes, mammals that laid eggs. Quite unlike most Mammalian Talking Beasts, Leopard Water Dogs had the ability to breathe underwater which made them not only land dwellers but undersea dwellers as well so they were largely Eastern Sea dwellers though there were some populations of Leopard Water Dogs on the Land Domain as well provided there were bodies of water like lakes and rivers nearby. They were also like most Parrots and Lyrebirds and had the ability to imitate any sounds.
Accompanying Daffodil (who had ivory fur due to her belong a female Water Dog) and Nero was a group of several creatures, blue-skinned Blue Elves which resembled the Magical blue-Skinned Elf-like creatures from another world (like them, they wore white hats but they also wore white coats and trousers) and had a penchant for magic; colourful aquatic creatures with tube-like appendage on their head called Snorkies (which resembled aquatic creatures that lived in the oceans of yet another world; the singular form is 'Snorky') and another species of brightly coloured aquatic creatures called Nestri Primi (singular Nestri Primus). These creatures were very colourful and had large wedge-shaped ears, large curly trunks like tapirs and were often bipedal like the Snorkies. They had flat tails like Beavers which they used for propulsion through water, and clawed hands and feet. Their ear tips and trunks were often a different colour to the rest of their fur and they also had paler, often white, torso fronts. They resembled the aquatic creatures from, yet, another world. Nestri Primi had cousins in the Abyssal Domain in which they had very dark fur with bioluminescent markings. Nestri Primi and Snorkies, like the Leopard Water Dogs, originate from the Sea Domain and had underwater breath, making Nestri Primi aquatic amphibian-mammals like the Leopard Water Dog, while the Blue Elves came mostly from the Land Domain. Like the Wampus Cat, Snorkies, Nestri Primi, Blue Elves and the Leopard Water Dogs were normally Aslan loyal but many of the individuals in Kurama's cult had gone rogue and had turned to follow the false Aslan created by Kurama. They were migrants and visitors from the Sea and Land Domains but had become trapped by Kurama when he closed down Asgard Sky City's borders to the rest of the world. Some of the Snorkies, Nestri Primi, Blue Elves and Leopard Water Dogs trapped here, like pretty much everyone else in the closed-off Skylands area, were suffering and were against Kurama's cult but that's another chapter.
Kurama gazed at the group lead by Daffodil and Nero.
"How are the traps being built by the Dwarf and Ape team coming, you lot?" he asked.
"Just fine, Boss Kurama," Daffodil replied, her voice sounding babyish and squeaky for female Leopard Water Dogs had dainty, high-pitched voices while the males' voices were deeper (except in juveniles).
"However," said one of the Nestri Primi, a male neon blue and dark green one, "They have only made two of the seven traps we need to catch our targets," and with that, he nodded to one of the Blue Elves, a female, and she stepped forward toward Kurama, produced a sheet of paper and showed the wicked Kitsune cult leader the pictures on it. The picture was of seven creatures. All of them resembled cephalopod creatures and had large round near-spherical heads. On these spheres' fronts were two large eyes with colourful irises, obviously the faces of the creatures and atop their sphere heads was a pair of slender tendrils ending in smaller spherical knobs. From under the spheres descended three appendages. Each of the creatures had one thick 'vine' which then trifurcated into three long branches extending back from under their spherical heads. This was the creatures' bodies and tails. At the front of the think 'torso' of each creature were two large tentacles that widened towards the tips rather like a spatula. These were the arms of the creatures. The seven creatures were each brightly coloured like the Nestri Primi. They each had a base colour and their antenna knobs, tail tips and eye irises sported a second colour. One of the creatures was red and orange, the second was orange and yellow, the third was yellow and lime green, the fourth was lime green and darker green, the fifth was bright blue, like the colour of the sky, and had darker blue as its second colour; the sixth was darker blue and violet and the seventh was violet and pink. Kurama gazed wickedly at the seven creatures in the picture as the female Blue Elf continued to speak.
"However, it will NOT be easy in catching those Arcobalenopods for your cult and its eventual advancements," said she, "They are VERY powerful creatures and if they feel threatened, the consequences can be VERY nasty."
"It would be like trying to cross the third gate into the Rainbowberry Orchard without the seven Rainbow Keys," added Nero, before he nodded to a male cyan-coloured Snorky, "Cyano's brother here tried to get through the Golden Post Lightning Gate without all seven of those keys and was struck dead by the lightning from the gate months ago."
"Despite him surviving the Fenghuang Rainbow Gate and the Riddle Gate," said Cyano the blue-green Snorky, "He was aiming to bring back some rainbowberries for Siveth to make a special potion concoction to sell..."
"I know, I know," Kurama slightly snapped as he handed the picture of the seven Arcobalenopods back to the female Blue Elf, "and since then, we have abandoned the idea of getting some of those rainbowberries for use as an ingredient in the rainbowberry potions but that is not important right now. What's more important is getting those traps made so that we can catch those Arcobalenopods as Aslan has instructed me. Now you lot run along and get the trap-building Dwarf and Primate team to stop their work and come to the Gathering House. The service's start is nigh."
Daffodil, Nero and their group of Blue Elves, Snorkies and Nestri Primi obediently turned and left to carry out the command while Kurama left for the Gathering House.