Blade of Karkutar - Preview

Prologue:


The sounds of the alarms could still be heard even as the two figures moved deeper and deeper into the woods, leaving the smoking building far behind them. One, a female, was panting heavily, clutching a small bundle in one of her arms, the visible stripes on her body were flaring yellow, and her four ears were turned back in her anxiety. They had been running for a while now, but they knew that their pursuers would not rest; they had to keep going until they reached Zangran.
    Suddenly they heard a disturbance on the wind; like blades cutting the air apart, and it was growing closer.
    "A chopper!" The female cried, her large pupils becoming slits like cat's eyes. She looked at her companion, and thrust out the small bundle. "Quickly! You must take him!"
    "Toran'i, what about you?" Her companion, a woman in a white lab coat asked, as she reached out to take the bundle, her blond hair a mess from their escape, and her glasses half hanging off her face.
    Toran'i put a large hand on her friend's shoulder, giving her a weak smile. "You are smaller, they won't notice you." She said, "I will draw them away. Take care of him for me." She nodded to the bundle, and then she ran off in the opposite direction, vanishing into the dense jungle plants.
    Clutching tightly to the bundle with both arms, the woman ran, her eyes beginning to fill up with tears as she heard the chopper begin to grow quieter as Toran'i drew it away, and then she heard the unmistakable sound of bullets being fired.
    There was nothing left. The lab had been destroyed, her colleagues and husband were more than likely killed, and now Toran'i was too. Everything had gone terribly wrong; it wasn't supposed to happen this way. They weren't supposed to be able to find them, not yet. But despite this, the woman still ran, she still had their one last shred of hope clutched to her chest.