Black Hole: The Book of Iratus, Episode 43

Chapter 411

Calling the building a church might not be completely correct, as it was more like a chapel in scope. Inside was a humble abode, with the stained glass windows being the most luxurious items, and some hanging paintings depicting some Providence religious scenes adding to the atmosphere. The paint on the walls was just a simple white, with some wooden beams holding up the roof as wooden pews lined the rectangle room. The alter didn't seem to fit with the simple and modern church as it was old, with the candles and bible-esc book seemingly coming from the same ancient time.

There was, of course, some fresh blood scattered on some of the pews, and up at the alter was the formally dressed priest, a lionfolk with his light build and rich gray hair and fur, hiding his older age and giving the impression of a younger adult.

Iratus took a second to get his disciplined posture back, with Victoria looking away from the man. Commercium's rabbit ears drooped a bit before he shook his head and got his mind back on track, as somehow Venatio seemed to be unaffected by the strange danger sense that washed over everyone.

 Commercium, "Uh, excuse us, but we are looking for our friend."

Iratus, "Clamor Amethyst Cold Iron, tall, rabbit, muscular, blonde hair, white fur, should have a two-hander."

Lionfolk, "I am aware of King Clamor; he is quite the legendary figure around these parts."

Victoria finally looked up.

Vicrotia, "I thought he didn't get to meet a lot of people in his years here."

Lionfolk, "Perhaps. The story of how he fought the warlord, Victorium, and his horde is quite an enjoyable one."

Iratus, "Hey, I helped."

Venatio, "And, by technicality, I was there too."

 Commercium, "I at least have an excuse to know the tales of Clamor."

Despite the pleasantness of the lion man's speech, Iratus still felt put off, and his senses continued to be on alert.

Lionfolk, "Ah, the House of Lionheart. Your fame is also well known to me."

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Chapter 412

Iratus, "Uh, creepy?"

Lionfolk, "My name is Deficio. May I ask you and the rest of you your names?"

The group gave their names, and then the lionfolk continued.

Deficio, "I don't know if your friend is here, but I have seen a group recently. You can see how they spilled some pig blood on some of the pews. Clearly, they have no respect for other religions."

Victoria, "Are their dead pigs around then?"

Venatio, "Guess its not eelkind blood then."

Iratus, "I'm still stuck on him knowing about me; through Clamor's adventure, sure, but it is still strange."

Venatio, "If it means anything, I knew all about your adventures before we met."

Iratus, "At least you have a proper reason why."

The lionfolk smiled.

Deficio, "The Virtue Lord of Family, you have fought the wills of the Sin Lords. You have fought off the conduits of Kollektivi, the doll of Buba, and the flames of Eretz. They say the will of Pride also showed up on this planet as well. I can only imagine you have met them as you have met many of the lords."

Iratus, "Who says Pride has shown up? How did you come across all this information? I...like...your breaking my brain, buddy."

Venatio, "Yeah...who have you been talking to?"

Victoria, "Who is Eretz?"

Deficio, "Eretz is the Sin Lord of Change. His drones are the born, such as the ashborn. As for who I have been talking to, there are many travelers out here. Some are groups, and some are lost souls wondering and struggling to survive. I've lived inside the Nexus Prime long enough to meet so many of them, and the tales they tell are those I keep and pass on. I've even talked to the voices of some of the summoners as well, only their voices, as I've never seen one down here."

Victoria, "How much of the Sin Lords do you know?"

Iratus, "Why the hell am I a Virtue Lord? What does that even mean? Don't I get a say in all this?"

Deficio, "I do not know those answers, Iratus. I just know your title. As for the other sinlords, I've given the names of all I know. I'm aware of a few more sinlords though: Ruin created the treeskins; Gluttony is the brain that connects to all Edax Examina; and Idleness is somehow connected to the black liquid, or metalheads. The shadow people are fragments of Falsehoods and the holograms are the technology of Pride."

Victoria, "By salvation, that's a lot of people's faces we have to cave in."

Venatio, "What are the Sin Lords?"

Deficio, "Those who have taken control of Nexus Prime from the summoners. They are beings of power, possibly not even holding a physical form."

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Chapter 413

Victoria, "Hold on; we are burning our time. We need to find Clamor. Deficio sir, who else have you seen around here?"

Iratus, "So many questions..."

Venatio, "You're telling me."

Deficio, "These heathens, the eelkind, were trying to harm this church, a church that I've traveled from very far away to get back to. I managed to take out their guard, but the rest of their group seemed to have gone into the underground facility out back."

Victoria after a chuckle, "A what?"

Venatio, "What kind?"

Victoria, "Ah, I guess random underground builds are just commonplace."

Deficio, "They are. As for the place, it seems to be a storage area of some kind, empty from my brief excursions, but I dared not continue further, for the mannequins started to hunt me."

Venatio, "And you did meet the other group?"

Deficio, "I have to go out and scavenge like anyone else in here."

Iratus, "Let's roll already. Clamor is supposed to be in danger."

With that and a few nods, everyone headed outside. The first thing to notice was that many mannequins had somehow moved up the road and were in sight of the church.

Iratus, "Oh, well, that's creepy."

Deficio, "I don't really know that much about the Sin Lords, but is this normal?"

Venaito, "Aaaand there goes our expert. What, the legends don't say?"

Deficio, "Anyone who survived the doll has only mentioned a fabricated doll. The mannequins are new to me; I mean, I've seen them gather in town, but I don't know what their deal is."

Victoria examined the corpses of the eelkind and saw their broken forms with no signs of weapon damage.

Victoria, "Hm."

Iratus, "I've seen stuff like that in hand-to-hand fights."

Victoria, "Because that guy has the look of a dangerous face puncher."

Iratus, "There is more to physical strength than muscle mass."

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Chapter 414

In the back and behind some trees was a large shed, and inside was a large manhole that was slightly ajar. Two dead pigs were also nearby, off in the overgrown grass, gutted and discarded.

Deficio, "If you don't mind, I wish to stay here and safeguard my long-lost church. However, I do wish the lot of you the best of luck and will pray for your success."

Commercium, "Thanks, priest-looking guy."

Deficio slightly defeated, "Priest looking? I am a priest."

Iratus finally felt at ease around Deficio. While he still had some danger sense, it was mostly a fuzz now.

Iratus thoughts, "So strange; I don't know why I feel weird around Deficio. This whole time, he has been nice and hasn't had a drop of hostile intent. It can't be any sort of smell or sound, so I have no idea what my problem is. Although everyone else seemed to have a bit of fur-raising problems like I did."

Iratus turned to Victoria.

Iratus, "Love, I'd like for you to stay behind where it is...probably more safe."

Victoria, "Oh you." She grabbed Iratus's face. "I love how much of a manly protector you are, but I am also a combatant, and you should know that we, four of your loves, love you too much to lose you. If I die, you still have people to take care of, but if you die, that's four people who lost everything. I prefer you to live, and I hope you understand that I will be fighting by your side."

Commercium, "Pfft, yeah, right. You have a crossbow and thus will be fighting behind him, not by his side."

Victoria gave a chuckle, while Iratus smiled.

Venatio, "I think I'll also stay upside."

Iratus, "Oh, why is that?"

Venatio, "Because I'm too old for this. Besides, with me up here, I can make sure our escape route is secure."

Iratus nodded and hugged Victoria, and then the two of them, plus Commercium, started to climb down the ladder in the darkness. Iratus was waiting for his turn and heard one more conversation.

Venatio, "So, you used to be a priest in this building in life?"

Deficio, "Correct."

Venatio, "How did you find this place or know where it was?"

Deficio, "I traded it from the summoners, a favor for a favor."

Venatio, "Quite lucky for you to be on the same planet as your church."

Deficio, "From what I hear, people are often forced to face their past here. Summoners often put people in places that fit their niche, job, or something else that resonates with them. Also, I'm not from this planet."

Venatio, "And you just walked all the way over here?"

Deficio, "Somewhat, but I had to find other ways to travel here."

Iratus watched the suspicious stare of Venatio soften as she shrugged and headed back to the church.

---

Chapter 415

The ladder down would stop at a maintenance floor and then go down to an emergency floor, with each floor being a small shaft where the real first floor was deep down inside the ground. It took a few minutes, but Iratus and the others would finally reach the bottom. The group stood in a small room, with Victoria looking around before opening the door. The whole place was completely dark, with Victoria and Commercium holding onto their own flashlights. With everyone nodding, Victoria opened the door into a massive room with a tall ceiling. The room's walls, floor, and ceiling were all metal, mostly rusted metal, with puddles from leaks spreading around the room. Hundreds of cardboard boxes, along with several other various storage items, were scattered around and stacked up against walls.

Commercium instantly ran to some boxes.

Commercium, "What the broken light? They are all empty."

He searched more as the group went further into the maze, and he did find some things, mostly clothes and some canned food from places Iratus had never seen. However, most boxes were, in fact, empty.

Eventually, the three of them would be able to smell fresh blood and hear the sounds of some sort of combat in the distance. Iratus took the lead, and everyone ran behind him, making little noise with each step but hastily towards the sounds of battle.

The sounds of metal clattering to the ground rang out just before the party rounded a corner. Five eelkind were spread around a bloodied battlefield; several torches and flares were dropped all over the floor, and in the fire light, as well as the flashlight from the group, the scene unfolded. The eelkind were all seemingly slain, bloodied, and pools of blood; their attackers were strange adult-sized puppets with no strings, whose looks were similar to those of featureless mannequins but with obvious and masterful woodworking as their body. They also had four arms, with each hand holding onto chipped and rough metal shivs, and their bodies were drenched in the red blood of the eelkind they had just slain.

Three of these things still stood, while another six were smashed and scattered to the ground. These remaining three turned their heads in unison and started to quickly run towards the party, though their movements were awkward as even simple motor functions seemed challenging to them, but their steps mirroring each other perfectly and their movements perfectly in sync displayed a terrifying threat. From one of the animated puppets, a voice came out that was that of a little girl: "Mommy, where are you?"

Iratus grimaced in confusion and a bit of terror. He flipped his sword around to use the handle as a club. Commercium held out his spear to guard Iratus as Victoria fired a bolt at one, which made an audible thunk into the body of one, which didn't seem to slow down the puppet at all.

The first puppet reached the group, and the voice of the little girl was heard again as a loud scream.

---

Chapter 416

Iratus smashed the head of one of the puppets, but as it was recovering from the stagger, Iratus found himself stabbed three times. Luckily, his armor, even if it was just padding, was designed for war, and thus the shivs failed to cause any bleeding. Commercium could only backtrack as the other two puppets were throwing themselves at him. His spear allowed him to give strikes and light jabs in relative safety, but he was quickly going from walking backwards to running away.

Iratus stuck again and managed, and the puppet almost collapsed, but it ragged its way back up, and when Iratus came in for a third strike, it stabbed Iratus seven times before he connected the strike. While the puppet collapsed, Iratus noticed blood coming down his sleeves, and unfortunately, he didn't have much time to examine himself before he heard Victoria yell out.

Victoria, "Iratus!"

Iratus turned to see one of the puppets change targets and started to run up to him from behind, a male voice coming out of it: "Is that supposed to be a puppet?" The first puppet was also starting to stand back up with another two stabs, as it did. Commercium was struggling, as he had cuts all over his arms and was trying to crawl away as his foe was squirming on the ground with several bolts in its body. The poor rabbit man didn't really have any armor on, and his wounds were deep and the blood was pooling out. Iratus shoved the first puppet back to the ground, taking another two stabs while running to the second puppet to attack it.

Iratus tried to dodge what he could, but he was forced to take several slashes to attack the puppet. A shiv nearly carved into his eye, but Iratus threw down the puppet, hearing a crack that seemed to make it write on the ground. Iratus saw Victoria aim her crossbow, and he moved out of the way as she fired at the first puppet, which made it fall to one knee.

Iratus shook his head as his blood started to drip over his eye.

Iratus, "The silver?"

Iratus only had a few seconds to see that he was wounded. Commercium was screaming as he stabbed his puppet to death with the wood cracking, and finally blood blasted out of its wounds. Its final breath was the voice of a small boy: "What's wrong, daddy?"

---

Chapter 417

Iratus backed away from the two puppets, who were closing in on him like any mindless monster, but they at least had enough brain power to attempt to dodge attacks that came to them. The battle was starting to stagnate as the puppets tried to properly defend themselves and attack, but eventually a bolt would slam into the side of one of the puppets, which cracked its wooden shell, and blood started to pour out of it, the puppet collapsing in place. The last puppet gave another line from another small boy: "Do you want a cookie?"

Iratus came in to slam its head, suffering another three stabs from the creature, but he just shrugged them off to hit the puppet one more time, cracking the head, which bled as well. The puppet collapsed and twitched on the ground before finally stopping. Iratus examined the strange blood that was liquid and thin, but then looked around to see the state of everyone else. He and Victoria came up to Commercium to see how he was fairing. He was cut up, mostly on the arms, but he seemed alive.

Commercium, "Nope, nope. I didn't sign up for this." He started to head to the entrance. "You guys, go ahead; I need bandages. I need to stop the bleeding!"

Iratus tried to think of anything to get him to stay, but then sighed and turned to head back in. He did his best to stem any bleeding he had, ripping a few clothes nearby to use as makeshift bandages.

The pair didn't walk too far before hearing the tension in the metal room as it started to moan. Using the flashlight to look around, the pair found the room slightly warped; mostly the rusted bits began to crack and cave in.

Victoria, "What's happening?"

Iratus, "I have no idea. Let's just find Clamor and get out."

The two of them jogged around the maze of boxes before Iratus smashed some cardboard boxes aside and tore down a wall of boxes, which led to an area with light. The light was a torch on the ground with Clamor and some tigerfolk woman with gray fur, black hair, and quite an athletic body. She also wore a heavily damaged mail suit with large gaps in the ringed armor. The woman nearly fell over in tears as Clamor stood next to her, as in front of them was another tigerfolk with similar qualities to the first one.

Tigerfolk, "No! It's not true." She wiped some tears away.

Clamor, "You can't be serious. Lady, this isn't even your mother; you know that; I know that; everyone knows this. Stand up!"

Tigerfolk 2, "How could I not be your mother? How else could I know that you are the reason your sister, my favorite daughter, died?"

Clamor, "And you, shut up!"

Clamor paused for a second before looking back to see the party.

Clamor, "I thought I smelled others. About time you came by."

Tigerfolk 2, "Oh, the annoying mouse-cat is back already."

Iratus, "Well, I heard you needed some help, so I thought, why not? Got to get some exercise in, you know?"

Tigerfolk 2, "Excuse me, but I am a bit busy here. Can you wait outside until my scene is over?"

Clamor, "So these puppet things are Buba, if you remember Fractura's encounter with this thing in the hospital."

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Chapter 418

Buba, "I guess this play is well and over now."

The tigerfolk stood back up to look at Iratus and Victoria.

Clamor, "And this is Vacillent"

At the same time:
Iratus, "Who names their kid that?"
Vacillent, "Who names their child Vacillent?"

Vacillent, "Funny. Regardless, mind helping us out?"

Buba, "I'll just stand here as you all talk. Don't mind me."

Iratus, "Sure, what is going on?"

The entire room seemed to shake as a massive rusted part of the ceiling caved in, and a large portion of the room collapsed with dirt and rock pilling in.

Clamor, "By God."

Vacillent, "She's trying to destroy the room."

Buba, "And clearly failed."

Iratus and Victoria joined the formation and prepared themselves for a fight.

Buba, "I can't believe I'm having to deal with the same group more than once."

The puppet cracked apart as dozens of wired whips lashed out of the doll.

Clamor, "Look behind her; there is a small metal box."

Victoria flashed the light in the corner to see a small red metal box.

Clamor, "The whole reason any of this is happening is because of it. Grab it and get out of here!"

Iratus, "On it."

---

Chapter 419

The doll lashed her whips at the group, who all dived out of the way. Victoria fired a bolt and bounced off the whips Buba used to guard. Clamor still wore the segmented armor and still wielded his seven-foot-long two-hander, but the whips easily grabbed the poor rabbit man. Iratus tried to run past the doll, which would not let him pass by cracking whips in his direction.

Vacillent used a warhammer for her weapon and engaged close up with Buba's doll. Another bolt slammed inside the opened head of the doll, which staggered the doll and made several whips inert and temporary.

Iratus joined Vacillent in close combat, but the doll was resilient in combat and heard the sound of a snap with one of the thin whips snapping off, bouncing out, and slamming into the tigerfolk's face. It was so thin that only its shadow could be seen. Vacillent grabbed her face and tried to retreat.

Clamor broke out of his bind and, with a mighty thrust, stabbed right into the doll, which made it buckle, but at the same time, more of the room collapsed, with dirt filling the area.

Iratus coughed and wheezed as he tried to make his way back to the corner to try to find the box. He managed to only need to dig for a second before grabbing it and freeing it from the dirt. He ran back to the others but saw the grim scene unfold as Buba's doll threw the lifeless body of Vacillent, her neck bloodied and deeply cut. Clamor crawled out of a pile of dirt, but the doll jumped and landed right on him, though the body cracked in half at the hole left by Clamor's last attack.

Iratus tried to think of a way to rescue Clamor.

Iratus, "Shoot, if only I didn't go for the box!"

He tried to reach Clamor, but the rabbit man merely yelled at him.

Clamor, "Go!"

Iratus paused, but not for a whole second, and he left for the entrance with Victoria running with him. Clamor did manage to stand, but his old body had already taken a lot of strain, and he couldn't continue to run. Iratus gave a look back to see Clamor slowly fade in the dust as the rest of the room started to fully collapse and bury everything inside, with Iratus and Victoria barely managing to reach the ladder and being able to climb out.

Once the two climbed out, they saw a large sinkhole where the church once was. Iratus could see it buried in the dirt, but his other allies were off to the side, mostly unharmed. The mannequins finally came in numbers, but when Iratus looked for them, he saw that they had all become inert. Venatio, Commercium, and Deficio came up to see their friends.

Venatio, "Where is Clamor?"

Commercium also used the clothes as bandages.

Commercium, "What happened?"

Victoria, "Fricken Buba caved in the place. What was it even?"

Deficio, "All I know is that there was stuff stored down there, and I didn't get much more than a glance."

Iratus, "Clamor didn't make it. The whole place crashed on top of him."

---

Chapter 420

Iratus held out the box.

Iratus, "Apparently, all of this conflict was over this box. I just hope it wasn't a wasted trade."

The box was locked, and Iratus just had to stash it away.

Commercium, "What now?"

Iratus, "Let's just head home. What will you do, Deficio?"

Deficio, "I spent so long trying to get back to this place, aaaand now it's gone." He gave a sigh. "I'll pray here for your friend, and you can come by later and I can give something like a funeral. If you don't find me if you come back, then I moved elsewhere."

Iratus, "I see. Yeah, I'll pray for his soul too."

After some talking, the party headed back to their respective homes, with Iratus having to tell everyone what happened. It was a sad day with various levels of tears, but life couldn't stop, and everyone had to continue their work. Resonantia wanted to make time to visit the place where Clamor was buried, and the group made plans to travel there later.

Resonantia, "So he told you to go for this box?"

Iratus, "Yeah, I kind of wish that I didn't, because then he might have been able to get out alive with my help."

Resonantia, "I assume that the objective was worth it. Do not drag your mind down, for we can only move forward."

Victoria had two pieces of thin metal that she was using as an improvised lockpick. Venatio and Studium were in the tower as well, curious about the box.

Victoria, "Give me some time, and I'll have this beauty open."

The young girl, Fuligo, sat on a chair, slightly confused.

Fuligo, "But wasn't he kidnapped? What is going on?"

Iratus, "I didn't get a chance to ask. If I had a guess, it would be something like the eelkind or the tigerfolk woman forced him to work with them and grab this box."

Venatio, "It would be strange that eelkind could and would work with other species. I'd say this tigerfolk lady and Clamor were both captured, and the box was important enough to continue working towards it. Then again, maybe they weren't exactly forced to do this work."

There was a click as Victoria unlocked the box.

Victoria, "Time to see what all this fuss is about."

---

EPISDOE 43: END

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Episode 43 End Character Sheet
Name: Iratus Lionheart
Species: Mousefolk
Age: 15
Coverings: blonde fur, white gambeson (many repairs, some leather patchwork), leather gloves, tactical vest, tailorcraft backpack, leather plate helmet, delicate gold chain with a small pendant shaped like a lion's glare, flashlight
Weapons: Long Sword, 3x Knifes, Short Sword
Equipment: belt, belt bag, water skin, leathercraft backpack, 2 bags, 29 oval copper coins, 6 small silver bricks, 20 fine silver coins,15 fine gold coins, metal keycard

Wounds: numerous cuts on limbs (fresh), cut on face (fresh)

Relevant Community Stash: a fire starter, whetstone, several leather items, 2 glass jar, 12 empty bottles, 1 fish net, primitive sewing kit, a bunch of small wooden figures, wooden dice, metal scrap, lots of rusted metal, several small fish nets, sextant, some bedrolls, a tent, a large barrel, writing material, 73 cloaks and other clothing materials, some fabrics, 5 carts, 8 tattered tents, skin drum, beautiful arts of tropical scenery, floatation devices, wildlife figures, lots of tropical clothing, ancient era hyenafolk clothes

Armory: 10 wooden spears, 47 short swords, 48 knifes, 23 daggers, 33 metal spears, 21 rusted weapons, many armor pieces, ruined metal armor, semi-automatic rifle (no ammo), 3 hunting traps, 3 snares, 4 backpacks
Aestus: leather vest, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword
Victoria: scrap metal breastplate, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword, crossbow, flashlight
Resonanita: breastplate, metal helmet, metal spear, short sword, compound bow, flashlight
Ignis: leather helmet, metal spear, crowbar

Treasure: 52 oval copper coins, 19 oval silver coins 44 ancient metal coins, 8 fine silver coins, a tarnished silver brooch, a small ornamental figurine, a handful of sparkling glass beads, a few antfolk tapestries, some antfolk art, 46 copper lion coins, 5 silver lion coins, 2 gold lion coins, 57 wolfen metal coins, bronze lantern, bronze idol, some jewled trinkets

Home Base, Tower: Large Storage Area (many crates, clay pots, and wooden chests), Basic Workshop Area (lots of tools, woodcarving tools, glue, sandpaper), Kitchen Area (many tools, many cutlery items, pots&pans, makeshift grill), Library, Armory, Infirmary Room (surgery tools, first aid kit, plenty of medicine and equipment), Guest Quarters, Master Bedroom (proper bedding, sensual antfolk sculpture), Six Bedrooms (proper bedding)

Outside Base: Butchering Hut (modern butchery kit, smoking rack), Tannery Hut, Underground Storage Area, Garden Area (fenced in), Tool Shed (fishing gear and supplies, trowel, woodcutting axe, woodworking tools, lots of rope, rope ladder, plows, hoes, sickles, rakes, shovels, scythes, chisels, anvils), Partially Built Wall, Small Cabin

Books: 3x woodworking books, weathered leather-bound journal, war game booklet, sketch book (from warband), Bathhouse Reviewers (entire 80 book series), cards, Fractura's Notes, Tempestas's Notes

Year 1, Day 20

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Iratus of House Lionheart
mouse, male, blonde fur, blonde hair, gold eyes, 6'4 (193cm), age: 15
-
Victoria
raccoon, female, gray fur, black hair, brown eyes, 6'2 (188cm), age: 15
-
Aestus of clan Riversinger
otter, female, red fur, red hair, blue eyes, 5'11 (180cm), age: 14
-
Ignis Yang
red panda, female, reddish-brown/white fur, black hair, golden eye, 6'3 (190cm), age: 15
-
Resonantia Diamond Heart Steel
shark, female, blue-gray hue skin, white hair, blue eyes, 6'3 (191cm), age: 15
---

Negligere
shark, male, steel gray skin, white hair, gold eyes, age: 0
-
Ruina
otter, female, orange fur, vibrant orange hair, blue eyes, age: 0
-
Gula
red panda, male, brown fur, dark brown hair, gold eyes, age: 0
-
Tenacitas
raccoon, female, silver fur, dark blonde hair, amber eyes, age: 0

---

Venatio of Wise Storms, Mother of House Black Jewel
fox, female, red fur, red hair, brown eyes, 6'6 (198cm), age: 71

Studium of Winter Winds
fox, male, gray fur, black hair, blue eyes, 5'6, age 12

---

Commercium Jade Blue Cobalt
rabbit, male, white fur, black hair, gray eyes, 6'8(203cm), age: 24
-
Abrasione
hyena, female, tan fur, blonde hair, gold eyes, 6'5(196cm), age: 20
-
Kuxatura
hyena, male, tan fur, black hair, gold eyes, age: 0

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