The Marks of the Engkanto

⋆༒⋆*༺༽ 𝟙𝟘 ༼༻*⋆༒⋆

The sun's light faded at the top of the acacia tree as Akali swept the last ball of fur from the floor. She wiped the sweat off her forehead using the back of her arm and sighed a tired but relieved breath. She was done for the day and glad to finally take a break.

Makka had already left her to tend to something else, and Akali was alone.

She stowed away all the tools in the closet built into the wood of the wall of the tree trunk. She padded to the door, parting the vines that curtained it for privacy, and left the room.

As soon as she stepped out, she found creatures in the hall, whispering and looking down from the railings, eyes directed to the lowest level.

"What's going on?" Akali asked no one in particular as she came to the handrail and leaned over to look, curious about what had captured the others' focus.

More creatures gathered at the ground level in chaos, running around as if to catch things on the floor.

"There it is!" one small dwende shouted, pointing.

"Don't let it get away!" said a rough voice, but Akali couldn't tell from whom it came.

"I've got it!" When another dwende shouted, raising her hands, Akali saw she was holding a house lizard.

"There's another one!" someone else cried out.

Akali wondered if there was a sudden lizard infestation she didn't know about. She had to help them and ran toward the stairs to the ground level, eyes searching the floor for the crawling small reptiles.

She saw one pass by a garuda sitting on a round river rock, its tail swinging about as it rushed through.

"There's one!" Akali shouted and ran after it, nearly toppling the garuda in its seat as she dashed through the lounge.

"Hey! Watch it!" the garuda warned, but she ignored her.

Akali followed the lizard, zipping between seats. Shouts of "Hey!" and "Hoy!" were thrown at her, but she ignored them too.

When the small house lizard stopped to catch a breath, Akali took her catch and dove to the floor, smashing on her belly but catching the critter under her hands. "I got it!" she shouted, pushing herself up, holding it in her cupped palms.

"Akali!" someone shouted her name, and she flinched at the voice of Ma'am Nyan. Her hands opened, and the lizard found its opening, jumping from her grasp and running to the floor.

"Wait! No!" Akali said, thinking of the wasted energy for the chase and the traded scratch on her knee for the dive, but she didn't run after it again.

She turned to see Ma'am Nyan standing by an entrance to a root that led to her dormitories. The nuno wore a furious gaze that could skewer Akali with anger.

"Come with me," Ma'am Nyan said through gritted teeth, and Akali didn't dare ask why, following the nuno into the root path.

The santilmo floating about were shivering, their light flickering as they whispered as if they were talking about Akali. She had the urge to ask them what was happening, but she kept her mouth shut as she tailed Ma'am Nyan until they reached her room in the dormitory.

Several dwende and a few dalaketnon gathered outside and inside of her room. A higante crouched by the doorway, head hitting the ceiling as he towered over the crowd.

When Akali and Ma'am Niyan entered the room, the nuno turned to her. "You!" She pointed. "You stole from a client!"

"What?" Akali reared back at the accusation.