It was mid-afternoon as they approached the village. They scanned the view before them. There were a few kittens, or Lizard Men, patrolling around the village, but most of the creatures were curled up in little balls. They lay here or there or on the old lady's lap. The few who were awake, however, seemed on the verge of falling asleep. There was much purring going on. Very few, at that point, were playing with the giant balls of yarn.

They made their way slowly down the hill, keeping to bushes or behind trees as much as possible. As they approached one of the large boxes around the edge of the village, they could hear a deep, fast rumble coming from inside the box. From what they could hear, there may have been five or six Lizard Men in there, purring away.

They rounded the corner and saw another three kittens sound asleep. Even though everyone else seemed happy to call them Lizard Men, they were clearly giant kittens. Liam decided he was going to call them kittens, at least in his own mind.

They tiptoed toward the three sleeping kittens, moving in the general direction of Jrasta's cage. The kittens before them were absolutely adorable. Liam didn't really like kittens, he was more of a dog person, but up close these kittens were so cute. He wanted so badly to pet one or give one a big hug. Apparently, DOHNK was thinking the same thing as she started moving toward a large gray kitten to her left, stretching her arms out for the embrace.

He grabbed her and was about to whisper to her not to fall for their feline charms when he realized that he didn't know how to say her name in whisper form. If he didn't yell the name, she would be very offended, and he was afraid she might actually hurt him. But if he yelled her name right now, he would wake up every kitten, and they would be surrounded within moments.

He wondered if he could pull it off by saying her name in a whisper, but with anger in his voice. "DOHNK, don't fall for their charms," he whispered. "If you wake this Lizard Man, he might wake the rest of the village."

He met DOHNK's eyes and the expression on her face told him he'd made another mistake, but that one wasn't making her angry. "Wow, Liam. That was the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." A single tear formed in her left eye as she looked at Liam like she'd never looked at him before.

Liam had no idea what he'd said, nor did he wish to repeat it. The way DOHNK was looking at him was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. He turned to Ezra to find his friend staring at him as well. "Smooooooth, Liam. I didn't know you had a thing for DOHNK, but I don't think this is the time. Say her name like that again another time when we're not in danger. Let's get back to our mission."

"No, I didn't mean..."

"Shhh... focus, Liam," Ezra scolded, while DOHNK continued to look shyly at Liam. She even batted her eyelashes a little bit.

Liam decided to move on quickly from that one. It wasn't worth engaging on any of these points. These oddities were far too confusing for him.

They made their way around the sleeping kittens and crouched behind a small bush. Looking up ahead, they saw two more kitten-Lizard Men sitting on the grass, cleaning their paws. The creatures had a clear view of Jrasta's cage, and there was no way to get past them without being seen.

Liam scanned the area, looking for something he could use. Up ahead, there was a giant ball of yarn, not being played with by any of the kittens. But as he was considering how he could make use of it, DOHNK stood up and stepped out from behind the bush. Instantly the two kittens saw her and Liam knew they were about to alert the others. Before they could, however, DOHNK ran forward as fast as she was able and kicked the ball of yarn hard. Both kittens instantly forgot about any intruders and launched themselves after the yarn. DOHNK had kicked the ball so hard and so high they could see other kittens from other parts of the village moving after it as well.

That was their chance! Liam moved toward Jrasta's cage. Up close, Jrasta looked terrible. He was covered in tiny little scratches, and he smelled like kitty litter. Despite the scratches and the smell, he had a huge grin on his face.

He whispered to Liam, Ezra and DOHNK, "Do you see what Harv did to me? What a kidder! I mean, I didn't expect this kind of thing. He has such a great sense of humor! The next time we visit him, I think I'm going to make him an apple pie to say, 'Thanks for being such a good friend.' What a guy!" His toes wiggled very enthusiastically as he spoke.

"Jrasta, do you think maybe Harv doesn't feel the same way about you as you do about him?" Liam whispered to Jrasta through the bars. Jrasta responded with nothing more than a confused look.

Liam decided to ignore yet another strange part of Arestana and turned his attention to getting the whole group out of there. Sadly, he realized he had not considered one important matter. How were they to unlock the cage? Liam felt despair wash over him and felt foolish for not thinking things through. Had they come so far only to be held back by a simple lock on a cage? They wouldn't be able to break the lock without a lot of noise which would wake the kittens. But then again, even if he had thought of the lock, what would he have done? Their only hope was to take something solid and try to break open the cage.

Liam walked up to the cage and whispered quietly to Jrasta, "Jrasta, we've come to get you out of here. What we need to do is..."

Jrasta cut Liam off by reaching out, grabbing a handle on the outside of the cage, turning it and opening the cage door.

Liam looked on in shock. "Do you mean to tell me that you could have opened the cage at any moment? Why didn't you escape on your own?"

Jrasta looked horrified. "Open the cage door without their permission or without being rescued? That would be unheard of! I never! Liam, sometimes I think I'm beginning to understand how odd and strange you are, but then you come out with something like this! You need to consider people other than yourself!"

"There's no time for Liam's quirks! Let's get moving!" Ezra whispered to the group. "Jep has the horses ready to go, just the other side of that rise."

As they turned to leave, Ezra's foot kicked a small stone. Each of the four looked on in horror as the tiny rock bounced off to the side, directly toward one of the kittens. As it came close to the sleeping, human-sized feline, it hit another rock on the ground which launched it up into the air and right into the kitten's ear.

The kitten jumped up and made a sound kind of like a record scratch and hollered, "I'm being attacked by tiny rocks!"

All the other kittens jumped up, and the hair on their backs stood up. They hissed and puffed out their tails, but none of them were quite awake just yet.

They had precious few seconds to react. Liam grabbed both Ezra and DOHNK by the arm and made for the edge of the village. Jrasta followed behind, keeping up with the three of them. As they ran, the kittens were waking up more, and it wouldn't be long before they figured out what was going on.

Finally, one of the kittens announced, "Hey, isn't that our new litter box scooper? He's not in his cage!"

With that, all the kittens turned their attention to the group fleeing their village. "After them!" yelled a particularly cute little kitten in a soft, gentle voice.

By that point, the team had made it to the bottom of the hill and began to climb as fast as they could. Liam realized that sword fighting and riding a horse didn't help much when it came to running up the side of a hill. He started gasping for air before they reached the top. The horses were still a long ways off. Ezra was running just a little ahead of Liam, but he was struggling too.

They were nearing the horses, but the giant kittens were gaining on them. The felines were fast, and the distance didn't seem to be a problem for them. Liam risked a glance back and saw that there were about five kittens on their tail. "Keep running, they're just behind us!" he yelled. Jep was sitting on the back of Jrasta's horse, and all four horses were no longer tied up. Jep had gotten them ready to leave in a hurry.

Liam could see they would make it to the horses just in time, but that wouldn't leave them enough time to climb into the saddle and get the horses moving. They needed a distraction.

All the others were just ahead of him. He knew what he needed to do.

Bringing himself to a stop, he turned around and drew his sword. He didn't think he could take on all five of the kittens—Lizard Men—by himself, but he had to try. The kittens saw him stop and turned their attention to him. All five came straight at him, and he could see from the feral looks on their faces, he was not likely to make it out of there alive.

He felt a wave of calm come over him. He wasn't worried. He would take this stand for his team, and he would give himself up for them. They had been through so much together, and he knew they were worth the sacrifice to him. He would do what he could to earn their freedom. As the kitten/Lizard Men came close and were just about upon him, he drew his knife in his left hand, ready to fight to the death for those he loved.

Liam saw a flash of movement in the corner of his eye and Jep ran in front of him. He stood between Liam and the charging beasts. Jep opened his mouth, and for a second, Liam thought he was preparing to bite their noses, but then Jep let out the loudest, meanest sounding bark he had ever heard. He then let out another, and another. He sounded like a vicious guard dog. If it hadn't been for the danger of the Lizard Men, it would have been quite funny watching a chicken bark like a Doberman.

The Lizard Men, however, did not think it was funny. The charging horde of kitten-like Lizard Men ground to a halt only a short distance from Jep. Their fur stood up, their tails puffed out and their backs arched. They hissed at Jep. They seemed unsure whether they should be afraid of Jep or eat him. The barking continued, and Jep added the odd growl into the mix. That was clearly too much for the Lizard Men. One by one, they turned and ran, until only a single Lizard Man stood before Jep. He hacked and coughed up a fur ball before he too turned and ran.

Jep moved over and started kicking at the present left by the last Lizard Man while the rest of the group left the horses and came back. "Wow! That took some real courage, Jep," Jrasta said.

"It sure did, Jep! You were amazing!" Ezra exclaimed.

"The rest of us were just running away like cowards, especially Liam, but you ran right at the danger. I can't believe you were willing to risk yourself for us, Jep!" DOHNK said to the chicken.

"Hey, I stopped to fight them off..." Liam started, but Jep gave him a look. He knew Jep would not take kindly to Liam stealing the spotlight. "But I guess in the end, you were the one who saved the day, Jep."

Jep held his head high and walked proudly back to the horses. He hopped up onto the back of Jrasta's horse and sat down, ready to ride.

"This is why we need Jep along. We wouldn't last two minutes out here without him," Jrasta declared. "No one else would even think of putting themselves in danger to save the rest of the group."

Liam shook his head as he climbed into the saddle.

I hope you are enjoying Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

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