The Badlands were kind to no one, water was scarce, the heat of the day able to burn the skin of the toughest men, and the cold of the night enough to push hard liquor close to its freezing point. But people ventured into it all the time, despite the risks, for there was a lot to discover out in the Badlands. Tales of lost riches from mad emperors and empresses, mythical creatures capable of giving whoever found them anything they desired, even entire secret civilizations hidden away from the chaos caused by the selfishness and greed of the rest of the world. In fact, if you compiled the ramblings of every wise old merchant in every kingdom across the world, you’d come to the conclusion that the Badlands had it all, and it could all be yours if you were brave enough to take the risk.

“So, what you’re saying is, you ‘found’ my motorcycle where I parked it and thought it was just ‘up for grabs’….” The tigress furrowed her brow and made air quotes with her fingers as she circled the small rat she had tied up to a chair in the middle of what appeared to be a dark and empty room. The room had just one tiny window that was quite high up, and looking out the window, one could see cobblestone and occasionally the feet of passersby. They were in a basement of an unknown location, to the rat at least; the last thing he remembered was he was riding the motorcycle he had swiped down the road, then something hit him and he woke up here at the mercy of the dagger-wielding tigress in her skin-tight suit. She had a mask on that was supposed to cover her facial features somewhat, but the rat knew exactly who she was.

“Please, you have to believe me. I didn’t know it was yours! I would never have taken it if I knew it was yours…” the ratman, who had a rather tough-looking demeanor was reduced to tears, pleading with the tigress for mercy.

As tears rolled down his cheeks, the sheep shed its wolf clothing, “Please, Xela, I beg of you. It will never happen again…”

The tigress’ ears flickered when she heard him call her by her name for the first time since he had woken up in the compromising situation that he was in. She grinned, stopped right in front of him, and put a foot up on the chair. Her paw landed right in between the rat’s legs as he spread them apart just in time to avoid being stomped on. Her claws extended from her toes and dug into the wood with a loud screech.

The rodent let out a scream far exaggerated, closed his eyes, and turned his head away. “Aaaaahhhhhhh!” When he didn’t feel anything, he slowly opened his eyes back up and breathed a sigh of relief that he was still intact. He started to chuckle out of the pure joy that came from the realization that she hadn’t hurt him, “Haaahhaaa... Hoooo… Thank the gods…” but when his eyes saw her face and how close it was to his own, he realized she hadn’t hurt him, yet. When he made eye contact with her, the tigress snarled and showed off her sharp pearly whites. She tightened the grip of her dagger in her hand and brought it up to his neck. He could feel the sharp blade glide over his neck fur, even shaving some of it off. The rat’s cheerful celebration quickly turned into a gulp as the fear returned to his eyes. She brushed the blade up and down his neck for a few seconds before she pulled it away and sheathed it back at her hip. Upon seeing the rogue put the dagger away, the rat thanked her profusely. “Thank you, thank you… It won’t happen again… You have my word…” Xela looked amused and tilted her head to the side slightly. She raised her brow and just stared at him in silence for a few seconds. After a bit of staring, with her foot still up on the chair, she kicked it and caused the rodent to squirm as the chair tipped backward and onto the floor. “Aaah!”

‘Thud!’

Xela looked down at the rat with a smirk as he wiggled and struggled to try and set himself free from the chair. It seemed even harder to do once he was tipped over. “Ugh! Xela! Cut me free! You can’t leave me like this!”

“You’re saying that like I’m leaving you in a burning building, relax, scream loud enough and maybe the kind old lady next door will hear you. Her name’s Miss Goggins, a real sweet lady.” Xela walked away from the rat and picked up his bag that was tossed to the side earlier when she dragged him into the room and tied him up. She went through the bag, tossing out papers, and other things she didn’t quite find useful. When she came across a small coin bag, she picked it up and shook it before grinning and putting it into her own larger coin pouch. The rat protested, but that was all he could do.

“Oh c’mon!”

Xela then dumped the entirety of his bag’s contents onto the floor, with a few small trinkets, some sand, and a tiny switchblade falling out. When the switchblade bounced against the floor, both Xela’s and the rat’s eyes locked to it, then to each other’s. Xela placed her paw on it and kicked it a tiny bit closer to the rat before she turned on her heels and walked away. “Don’t steal from me again! I really think shouting for Miss Goggins would be your best bet, plus she’d probably also serve you something nice to eat after, too!” The tigress climbed up the stairs of the basement and vanished through a door, closing it behind her. She exited the building and walked up to her motorbike that was parked outside. She hopped onto it, stuck the keys into the ignition, started it, and drove away. She rode out of the city just enough to be sure she wasn’t followed, gone were the cobblestone pathways and roads, she was now encroaching on the desert that surrounded the city. She came to a stop at an abandoned petrol station, parked under some shade, and pulled out a map to study it on her motorcycle. The map showed the city she had just left down south, with the rest of the map being empty except for the word “Badlands” written with very bad handwriting as if whoever was drawing the map was in a massive rush. Despite the section of the map that covered the desert being mostly empty, there was a very faded mark on the map that Xela had noticed when she first stole the map. It was a small x, nothing else. She ran her finger over the map to line up the mark with the coordinates along the edges so she could figure out which direction to drive off to next. Once she had the coordinates, she jotted them down above the x, kick-started her bike, revved the engine just a few times for good measure, and zipped off and away, leaving a trail of dust and sand following her as she drove into the badlands. By the time the dust settled at the abandoned gas station, the tigress had gone over the horizon and ventured her way deep into the badlands. Her motorcycle zipped through the rugged terrain that was covered in sand and sediment that was illuminated a bright yellow-orange by the searing sun.

‘Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm.’

The only sound Xela could hear was the rumbling of her vehicle and the occasional sound of vultures and crows that roamed the skies, signifying someone who had met their unfortunate demise in the badlands. She had been driving for a couple of hours now, and still, she saw nothing even as she got closer and closer to the coordinates on her map. With her gasoline dangerously low, the tigress came to a stop, kicked her bike’s stand out, and hopped off. She shook her hands to shake away the numbness from holding the handlebars and twisting the throttle before she walked over to the bags she had slung over the sides of her ride. Opening up one of the bags, Xela pulled out a big red gas canister and refueled her bike. It was at this point when Xela saw something in the distance. It was very hard to make out what it was, but it was nothing like anything she had seen throughout her entire drive through the badlands. She had seen corpses, abandoned buildings, the wreckage of cars, motorbikes, and even planes. What she saw in the distance there was something mammoth. Intrigued, she stood and stared, even after emptying her gas can into her bike, she stood there holding it up as if there was any more to pour. Eventually, she put the empty canister away and pulled out her map and compass.

“That’s got to be something.” The tiger said to herself as she tapped her finger on the x on the map. It had to be it. There were no mountains or anything marked on the map, this was the only thing for miles, and it just so happened to line up in the general area where that mysterious x on the map was, too. “It must be.” She tucked her map and compass away, kicked the kickstand of her bike up, and started her bike. Once it roared to life and the gas gauge was far away from the E, she smirked and rode off toward the vague tall structure in the distance.

In the cloud of sand and dust that she left behind, stood a tall figure who knelt down at the tire tracks her bike left behind before they stood back up on their strong hooves and followed her on foot.