Maqua...what?

When Naomi regained consciousness, she felt like she was lying on a cold smooth surface. After she opened her eyes, she was surprised. 'Tiles? where am I'

She raised her head and found she was surrounded by those cat boys from earlier but there were more like them, each one also having furry ears and a tail and everyone one of them was staring at her.

She immediately stood up and noticed a cat lady sitting on a throne in front of her. Naomi had no time to pay attention to her features and only noticed she had scarlet hair.

"How did you cross the barrier?" the cat lady said as her gaze pierced into Naomi's soul.

Naomi gulped as her eye searched. At the corner wearing a dejected look was Sternix, he felt someone's gaze and raised his head to see Naomi staring at him like a beacon of hope.

He smiled. That small gesture made him extremely happy, he couldn't describe how he was feeling but he knew for sure he didn't care what she was. But his expression became sad again, there was nothing he could do you help her right now, if the Queen decided then it was game over.

After her eyes found Sternix, Naomi felt relief. In her situation right now, any hope was hope enough. He might or might not be able to help but where there was a will there would always be a way, well at least she hoped there would.

"I don't even know which barrier you keep referring to, how am I supposed to know how I crossed it?" she said in barely a whisper.

"Humans are full of lies and deceit, how can I believe you? take her away she'll be executed in two days"

"No!!! You can't kill me" Naomi said out of panic.

"How dare you speak to..." Ryco was about to scold her but the cat lady raised her hand and he stopped.

"And why not?" the cat lady asked in a threatening tone.

'Because I'm too young to die!!' Naomi screamed inwardly while her brain tried to come up with a reasonable excuse. 'Okay time for some bullshiting'.

"If you kill me, my group will surely know and all of them will come here"

"You are not alone? How many are you"

"Fi...five thousand and if you decide to kill every one of us the government will find out and no matter how hidden this place is they will locate it"

The white cat lady frowned and Naomi started praying. They only five in her group, her included, and even if she were to die how were they going to find her?

"Ryco watch her in the meantime. We'll continue after the barrier is fixed"

"Yes your majesty" Ryco bowed and from nowhere, Naomi felt something wrap around her like a rope, bounding her in place before being pulled in Ryco's direction as he walked away.

Naomi did not dare to make a sound. She had just escaped death's door but as her heart began to calm down her mind regained its ability to think properly and she began to analyze her situation.

"Wait for me!" she heard a voice from behind and after turning she found it was the one called Sternix he was jogging towards them.

"Where are you going?" Ryco raised a brow.

"I'm coming with you. I don't even think she's safe with you and what would get by bounding her like this?" Sternix asked with narrow eyes.

Ryco sighed and the next moment Naomi felt free again.

"Thank you" she smiled. At least there was someone standing up for her, and that gave her a small sense of relief.

"You're welcome" Sternix flashed his brightest smile and if Naomi had looked closer she would have noticed the tinge of red on his cheeks.

Too bad Naomi was currently in a state of shock as she stared at the two cat boys in front of her. She just discovered a shocking fact, they had been speaking English the whole time but they said they were not human so how was that possible?

"You're not really a human?" Naomi asked Sternix as they continued walking.

"No, I'm a Mauquat"

"I'm sorry you're a what now?" Naomi asked in confusion. She had never heard of it before not even in children's storybooks where they have the most absurd creatures.

Seeing her reaction, Sternix chuckled. "I'm a Mauquat and this is Mauquatamia. By the way, I'm sorry about how my mom treated you back there"

"Your mom?" Naomi gasped although after looking closer there was a slight resemblance but besides the face, there was nothing else. The white lady had scarlet hair while Sternix had blonde hair, their eyes were both green though but then again they had different colors of ears and tails.

"Yeah" Sternix sighed.

"So you're like..."

"Yes, I'm a prince. Does that change your thought about me?" Sternix said staring at her with sad eyes.

"Not really, I don't have any thoughts about you" Naomi then skipped to the important question. "So how come you speak English?"

"What do you mean?" Sternix asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Er..."

"You do know she's a prisoner right?" Ryco suddenly said and Naomi immediately swallowed the words she was about to say.

"She's been misunderstood, she's completely harmless. I don't even sense magic from her" Sternix argued.

"What is wrong with you anyway, you just met her" Ryco frowned.

Sternix averted his gaze, refusing to look at him. Even though he knew he was being strange to defend a girl he just met but he just knew she wasn't a bad person. He couldn't tell Ryco he was following his instinct or the latter would declare him crazy.

"I'm sorry did you say magic?" Naomi's mind was blown by that word alone, and imagining that they had magic made her feel even more excited but she tried to bottle up the feeling.