Nona: Chapter Four: Sanctuary
Katelyne was starting to wake up. The day of Christmas was behind her and was just a memory, or a bad dream. Her vision started to come back she wasn't on the couch. She was in a king sized bed. Her mother never had a king sized bed. She gasped and crawled up the bed, her back was against the wall. She looked around at the room. It had a Japanese architecture to it. The walls were beige; the floors and the ceiling were made of ebony wood. Light shined on Katelyne's face through a open window. You could see the dust in the sunlight.
Katelyne quickly got out of the bed and onto the floor. She was in white dress shirt, black jeans and, her hair was all messy. She smacked her lips and looked out the open window. She saw the blue sky and big pink blossom tree with pedals falling down from it onto the earth. Katelyne had never seen or even heard of a blossom tree. It was rather beautiful. She saw that is wasn't winter here; it looked as if it was spring.
She walked out of the room; there were no doors to stop her. She looked around this strange place. There were paintings of Anthros doing these poses as if they were about to fight or already fighting. Katelyne had never seen paintings before, pieces of art in Nona were either just sketches or fabricated by a computer. The paintings were truly beautiful.
She saw a painting of the masked man with a background of fire. Katelyne almost gasped and she jumped back away from this painting. Her heart started to race and the memory of the fires that destroyed her home and her family started to come back. Tears fell from her eyes. The memory was starting to hurt her in the inside it made her heart ache.
She heard footsteps approaching her. The memory started to fade away like dust. Her eyes still glassy she looked around, she didn't see anyone there.
Her breathing started to become shaky. Fear entered her heart. Fresh tears fell from her face. She still looked around. She noticed a chair with a black cloak and the mask on it. Katelyne started to breath more rapidly. The footsteps started to get closer and closer. Katelyne's heart started to beat more rapidly. She felt a hand touch her shoulder. She jumped and quickly turned her head towards the person.
The person was a female fox Anthro. She was a tall 6'1, she was thin, she had snowy white fur, and icy blue eyes and she long blonde hair up in a bun. She wore a black eye patch on her right eye, a white and wrinkly dress shirt, scorched black jeans and rainbow socks. She had a friendly smile on her face.
Katelyne back away from the fox woman and looked terrified.
"Don't be scared, I mean you no harm," the fox woman said in a warm and calm voice, she had an Russian accent, which Katelyne had never heard before.
Katelyne quickly looked back at the chair with the black cloak and the mask on it, then she looked back at the woman.
"You burned my house down and killed my family!!" Katelyne shouted at her with anger in her voice. She looked angry, angrier then she ever has been before in her life.
The woman's smile dropped. "I didn't burn you house down," she said in a gloomy yet calm tone.
Katelyne could not believe the word that had came out of this woman's mouth. "You liar!" she angrily shouted.
The woman sighed. "I didn't burn down your house, it was the government," she told Katelyne.
Katelyne scoffed in disbelief of this woman, hatred started to spread through her heart.
The woman sighed. "I'm sorry of what happened, but I didn't do it. Look if I did you wouldn't be here right now, I would have killed you," the woman told Katelyne still sounding calm.
Katelyne sighed, her face relaxed. The woman did make a point. If this woman burned down Katelyne's house, she would have a reason to kill her and her family, but Katelyne was very much alive and she woke up in a bed safe.
"I guess you do make a fair point, I'm safe, I'm alive, but why were you at my house?" Katelyne asked the woman.
"I was always there, you just didn't notice me. See after you put on the ring you started to notice things. That ring is a mystical artifact" the woman explained to Katelyne. "The ring emitted a low level of mystic radiation. It's harmless to any biological entities but the government is apposed to magic of any kind"
Katelyne sighed again. "So why did you knock me out?" she asked the woman.
"You were scared and I didn't want the hassle, plus I wanted you to sleep safely," the woman explained to Katelyne.
Katelyne sighed once more. "Thanks, I guess" she said to the woman trying to sounding happy but she sounded more sad and gloomy then happy. She tilted her head a little to the right and brought her eyebrows closer together. "Might I ask your name?" she asked the woman.
The woman smiled and chuckled. "I'm Viper, and I already know who you are, Ms. Katelyne Starkey du Nord" the woman said sounding cheerful. She took a stage bow.
Katelyne gasped. She was surprised and shocked. How did this "Viper" know her? Maybe she was a friend of her mothers. Maybe she was a friend of her fathers. Maybe she met "Viper" when she was really young. Either way, it was freaking her out, but what was with "Du Nord". Her family wasn't royalty or so she's been told. Most of the Starkeys has been miners and blacksmiths, one of her ancestors was a werewolf hunter and another was a crime solver, but not royalty.
Viper chuckled. "Now why don't we have some breakfast and I can show you around the Sanctuary?" Viper asked Katelyne.
Katelyne tilted her head to the right again and had a puzzled look on her face. "What's the "Sanctuary?" she asked her.
"Well it's where we are, not the house, it's the area, where Anthros who are casted out from the humans come here, plus it's the only place where you can learn martial arts" Viper explained to Katelyne.
"What are martial arts?" Katelyne asked Viper. There was no history on karate or any type of martial in the Dwelf education system, in fact the subject of history wasn't mandatory and you would learn basically nothing from the class. The government had the idea of trying not to teach the children history since it might give them the idea of the government's corruption in the past and people might be superstitious on the government. Plus they outlawed home schooling so they would have control over what the children were taught, and they also outlawed martial art schools all over Dwelf so they would have no defence without weapons.
Viper chuckled. She walked over to her kitchen ignoring her question.
Katelyne sighed, she walked over to a oak chair and she sat down on the chair. She looked up at the beige ceiling; it had swirls and stars of gold as if it was painted. Katelyne smiled, she started to find this house pretty cool.
Viper soon had in her hands two wooden plates with omelets, forks and knives made out of bone on each of the plates in her arms. She walked over to Katelyne and handed her the plate in her right hand.
Katelyne smiled and took the plate with both her hands. She placed the plate on her lap and picked up the knife in her left hand and the fork in her right. She held the knife and fork quiet formally, not like a caveman, just how formal people would hold it to eat. She started to cut into the omelet with her knife.
Viper moved her mask and her cloak onto the ground. She moved the chair closer to her "guest". She sat down on her chair with her legs crossed. She had her plate of food on her lap. She began to dig into her omelet. She looked up at Katelyne to see if she was enjoying the omelet
Katelyne started cut her omelet and she started to eat her omelet. Her eyes widened in amazement. This was the most delicious omelet she had ever eaten. A beautiful tasted filled her mouth, it was like she was eating heaven in omelet form. She quickly devoured the omelet like she hasn't eaten in days. She finished it in less then a minute.
Viper chuckled at the sight of the ravenous girl. Viper quickly ate her omelet so she wouldn't keep Katelyne waiting.
Katelyne smiled widely. "That was the greatest omelet I have ever ate in my life" she told Viper, complementing her omelet.
Viper smiled and chuckled. "Thanks" she said to the happy cat. She got up and walked back down to a room.
Katelyne waited for Viper to come back. She wanted to see the "Sanctuary". She stretched down to her feet and she looked up at the ceiling.
Viper came back wearing a brown leather jacket and black military boots. She had the long red trench over her right shoulder. She walked over to Katelyne and threw her coat over to her.
Katelyne looked at the coat flying towards her just at the nick of time, but she didn't catch it in time. It just hit her face. Katelyne sighed and started to chuckle. She took the coat off of her face. She got up from her seat and starts to put her coat on, she had a happy smile on her face and excitement gleamed in her eyes.
Viper chuckled at the sight of this happy cat girl. She walked over to Katelyne and ruffled her already messy hair. She walked over to the door and held the door open.
Katelyne purred like the cat she was when Viper. Most of the time Katelyne loved it when people ruffled her hair. She walked over and out the door. Viper followed after her.
Outside was a small village with colorful trees around it. There were no cars, no tall buildings, no sketchiness, and not technology. Just a small village with anthros walking around in colorful kimonos or traditional orange karate gis. The buildings had a Japanese architect. Some people were in pairs as a couple, different anthros, and different or same genders. In Nona marriages of different species of anthros were very rare. Some people didn't like different species of anthros getting married or dating.
Katelyne didn't see much of it, but seeing a whole small village different species of anthros together blew her mind. This place made her feel happy, it made her feel calm. It was like she was underwater.
Viper took a deep breath, exhaled then she smiled. "So where would you like to go?" she asked Katelyne calmly and happily.
Katelyne looked up at Viper and smiled. She was about to say something, then they heard punching, kicking and shouting.
Viper moaned in frustration and placed her right hand on her face. She started to quickly walk to one of the buildings with a big white sign over the door marked "Tavern".
Katelyne followed Viper, since she was the only person she knew and Viper was her tour guide.
Viper was about to walk into the tavern, and then a male wolf anthro who was rather tall and pretty muscular flew out of the tavern. He landed in the streets with a loud thud.
Katelyne was rather shocked. She quickly walked over to the entrance of the tavern.
She saw about five men beaten down on the ground, they were all big, muscular and either wolves, foxes or cats. At the middle of the tavern where the action was still happening, a female tiger anthro had a big muscular wolf anthro in an arm lock. She applied pressure to the arm lock and his arm snapped. The wolf anthro cried in pain and the tiger anthro threw him onto the ground. The tiger anthro was 5'10, she had orange fur with black stripes, she looked as if she was in her early twenties, she had green tiger like eyes, she was thin yet she had a muscular tone, mainly in her legs. She wore a red gi with a design of a dragon on the back of it and a ying-yang symbol on the upper right side of her chest and a black belt with seven little lines on both sides of the belt indicating her rank. The tiger woman stood their tall and proud with her victory against the men.
This woman amazed Katelyne. The men were much bigger then her, and they of course out numbered her, but the tiger woman was like fire.
Viper walked up beside Katelyne and sighed. "That's Petra, granddaughter of the grand master who teaches everyone the art of karate," Viper explained to Katelyne.
Katelyne smiled. She admired this Petra and her skill of the art of karate.