"Now I give you 3 seconds. Flee or I will be the one to make you." Karo threatened as the mice thought the better of it. They ran away. One of them gave me a glare before hissing, "beware."
I stared at Karo in disbelief. What is she doing in here? "Moth?"
"Mmm yeah?" I spun around and met Karo's soft blue gaze. Her eyes were always the most beautiful thing on earth. I smiled, "er.... Yes?"
"What are you doing in here, and who are they?" Karo said, staring at me with a confused look.
"Oh erm er... This is Lut," I pointed at Lut, who had a tie over his neck, a bright orange wig, and brown pelt. He smiled at Karo as she nodded knowingly. "And this is Em." I said, pointing at her, who was wearing a bright rainbow dyed hair, with a carrot at her mouth. A newly ironed tie was on her neck. "Emilycvcv." That was what she said as she gave a soft smile to Karo.
"Karoliana." Karo said at last. "Or Karo in short."
"Carrot." Lut said jokingly as we all burst into laughter.
"And who's this?" I said, nodding to the mouse who had been saved by Karo a moment ago.
"U-uh... I'm Scabbles." Scabbles said shyly. Her voice was soft, probably the softest I've heard.
"Speak up." Lut said softly, before smiling. "Er... Well, what should we call you?" He said with his half-hilarious half-serious tone. I had to resist the crave to laugh.
"Scab." She replied softly.
"Thank you for saving my butt earlier." I said, laughing at my new nickname. "Motherfletcher. Huh. I like it." I heard laughter coming out from Karo and Lut. "What? Don't laugh at my name, please." I said, staring at them.
"Pfft. Okay." Karo said, her grin had grew bigger. "Yes ma'am." That made me laugh so hard.
"Since when did I become your ma'am?"
"A heartbeat ago." She said, grinning at me.
I shook my head and chuckled. "Alright, shall we..." Scab's voice trailed off. "I mean, do you want to go somewhere?"
"Uhh... Sure!" Em said, getting on her paws. I quickly gulped down my drink before moving on with the group.
"I'm so sorry for what happened earlier." I apologized whole-heartedly, seeking for their forgiveness.
"Oh, it's okay." Em said to me, and gave me a smile. I nodded before padding backwards, joining Karo and Scab.
Lut and Em were leading the group, they were padding close to each other, their tails were touching each others'. "I wonder if there are some special relationships between them." Karo said, smiling mischievously.
"Probably friends?" Scab said, staring at me with astonishment as I remarked.
"Probably more than friends." I said, rubbing my paws together and gave them an evil grin.
"Dating?" Scab mouthed the word, as I stared at Lut, who was reaching for Em's paws.
"Exactly." I whispered, "see how Lut wanted to hold Em's paws?"
"Stable relationship." Scab whispered ad Karo and I gave the same comment at the exact time. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." And there, I saw Lut instinctively withdrew his hand. I laughed, but quickly covered it with a cough.
"What?" Lut said, and both of them turned around. Karo gave him a sheepish look. "Someone is in love."
"Can't help fallin' in love with you..." I sang and Scab laughed.
"No, Moth. It's 'cause I don't wanna lose you now." Scab said, winking at me.
"Oh no, it's Take my hand, take my whole life too." I joked, as the three of us burst out laughing, leaving Em and Lut blushing with pure embarrassment.
"Ohhhh I ship." Karo said as Lut flashed her a glare.
"What did ya say, huh?" Lut said, as Karo gave him another mischievous grin.
"Ship. A big ship. A boat, a ship, a transport system that runs through the sea. Ship. I-ship." Karo said, giving me a dirty look when she turned around. This is how we do. I smiled back, "this is how we do."
"Yea, like..." Scab's voice trailed off, staring at us with a confused emotion. Who's that who sang the song?
"Katy Perry." I replied at last, as if the name had come clearer to me now. Scab smiled, before giving me a short compliment. "You know a lot."
I smiled in pure embarrassment before saying, "thanks, I would take that as a compliment." I could hear Lut and Em snickering. "Ey, what are you guys laughin' at, huh?"
"Oh, it was nothing, trust me. It was... Just nothing." Em turned around and faced me.
"Yea, nothing, as if like... Nothing." I muttered, then I saw Lut giving me a dirty look. "What? Did I say something wrong?"
"I believed that you just had." Lut said before chuckling to himself. "Nevermind that."
"Guys?" Scab said, I could sense that her confidence was building by our small chat that we've had a moment ago.
"Eh?" Lut replied, imitating Wayme when he had been called by his tribemate or just by some random mice. I laughed so hard at that Wayme impression, since it was, too incredibly alike.
"Why don't we head over there?" Scab continued, I could tell that she was trying her best not to laugh.
"Naw." Em said, still copying the tone Lut had used when he was imitating Wayme, "let's go to another one. I don't like mice from the South."
"Ey." Scab said, staring at Em with disbelief. "Really? I thought that you like them!"
"Why should I like them? They are like, Monsieur, madame et mademoiselle know it all!" Em hissed as Scab cocked her head. Scab flashed her a confused look, as Em added. "Mr, Mrs and Miss Know It All."
"Oh I see..." Scab said, smiling softly, "I don't understand..."
"French." I added, knowing that was definitely French. I smiled, "so anyways, there's an empty room in there, are you guys into Vanilla?"
"Mhm." Karo nodded, flashing me a sheepish look. "Lutfiygcvcv."
"Emilybaru." I gave her a wink as she laughed. She knew exactly what I meant: ship names.
"Hmm. Emilybaru sounds better than Lutfigycvcv." Scab commented, flashing us a grin.
Lut stared at me, "oh no, you don't have that special someone, which is bad, Moth."
"No ship name for ya Moth." Em said simply, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment. I stared at Lut with a smirk, I win.
"Oh speaking of someone special, when will you propose to Em?" I teased, before Karo prodded my side. I gave her a tiny, evil grin. Lut turned away as he blushed, for the fifth time of the day.
"Ehh... Soon... Soon." He muttered before leading us through a portal. I smiled, a portal could erase my memory. I made a mental note to myself. Beware.
I nodded to my friends before fixing my scarf into place. Karo's long blonde hair was flowing when she ran. Scab's pink, curly hair was under her white colored, yellow star-patterned hat, matched perfectly with her light brown pelt. I put on my headphones, "anyone hear me?"
"Yes." I heard Karo's voice on the line, "is this public chat group?"
"Think so?" I said before Lut's voice came into the chat. "EHH."
"What!" Scab said as she heard Lut's irritating voice. "Gosh, your voice."
"Heh, nevermind that. His voice is always annoying." Em said. I could hear her sighing softly through my headphones.
"Em, what did you just say?" Lut said, pretending to be mad at her comment. I snickered as Lut, who was standing next to me, rolled his eyes.
"We should start collecting cheese." Karo said, before placing her portable cheese-collection album and cheddar-colored collected cheese bag near the entrance of the mouse hole. She nodded to all of us, before disappearing into the enormous map.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Lut said, before rushing out with Em at his heels. I nodded to Scab before dashing to the cheese pile and collected it with ultimate speed. I smiled as I got to the cheese hole, and threw it accurately in my bag of cheese. "Hmm... Parmesan." I said, before taking out my cheese-collection album and quickly took out my pencil. I flipped to the page which starts with P, and searched for Parmesan. I quickly drew a line over it and muttered. "Collected 30 Parmesan."
"You've collected 423 cheese in total." My gadget beeped, and I took it out. You have 3 messages. You have 1 missed call - from Dream Create Future. "Oh crud." I muttered as I realized that I've missed a call from my tribe.
"Don't you worry, Moth." Karo's voice rang in my headphones, "Wayme is probably bored."
"He has Atlantisluvu to spend time with!" I said, before slapping my jaws. Every mice seems to find their special one... So who's mine? I heard Karo sighed as she spoke softly, softer than a whisper. "It's not every day that Luvu will come back to the tribe house and spend time with Wayme."
"Why so?" Lut asked, his eyes widened with interest as he ran outside and chased after the cheese, which was on Em's back now.
"Luvu has a very active life," Scab began, staring at all of us as she snatched a piece of cheese from Em's back. "She has friends to meet, and she has to go all day long to meet some of her friends, as they live in other tribes, and their tribes' territory is far from ours, so it takes Luvu almost a day to travel between tribes. And since she is very well-liked," Scab said, entering the hole as we followed her. "She often gets invitation asking her to stay at their tribe house for a night, and that's why she is not staying at the tribe house most of the time. She is really mysterious to all of us, only a few from Dream Create Future has seen her."
"But that day..." I said, staring at her. "When Wayme made the announcement, she was there."
"What have I told you?" Scab snapped, "she is there at that time. Because Wayme has forbidden her to go and visit her friends at that day."
"That's cruel!" Em snorted, squeezing her eyes in disgust.
"You should've known better. He is always that cruel." Karo said, rolling her eyes. "You have to think thrice before you speak. Or otherwise.... You're dead."
"Except.." Scab began, "you are one of the important members of Wayme, or if you are a close friend of him." She said, I shivered at the thought of a cruel mice running the tribe. "He kick mice out from the tribe as he please?"
"True." Karo said, before pushing us away. "We still have a lot to learn, come along!" She said, leading us to the portal.
As we passed it, a newly polished house appeared in front of our eyes. "Our destination is not here, Moth." Karo said as she led us along. "We are looking for what turned Wayme from a nice and friendly guy into what he is today." She said, and I knew what she meant.
We are here to learn, not to chase after fortune and fame. X's reminder popped up in my head as I instantly remembered the discrimination between the North and the South. This has to be stopped, I made a mental note to myself. Or else, we have to face the danger of separatism between citizens.
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This chapter had gone through minor editing by Kebaya Thank you Keb!
Reason: Typo.