Chapter 15: The California Den

The surrounding environment seemed remote. Laguna Mountain was an expanse of elevated areas with only a highway that traveled by it. Initially owned by the Kumeyaay people before being pushed out by the Spanish, Mexico, and ultimately the United States, the land was virtually uninhabited. Except for a small village in one section miles and miles away, nobody lived there. The area was beautiful, though. Located in the Cleveland National Forest, somewhere one of the endless amounts of mountain peaks hid something.

It was still midday, but the sun was creeping towards two to three o clock in the afternoon. The sun was still shining that lit up the entire landscape with the occasional cloud cover. The Laguna Mountains were not that far from the Mexican border with it being about 30 to 40 miles from it. The highest point was the Cuyapaipe Mountain that stretched to an elevation of over 6,000 feet. Trees, green, and partial arid areas dotted the entire environment.

Several miles from Cuyapaipe Mountain were a great mountainous area. Dotted with a few trees and far from civilization, a teleportation flash lit a small grove of flora. Five figures materialized from the flash as Vinayaki, Ryujin, Taweret, Gary, and Fumi all appeared to look around them.

“Done,” Vinayaki commented as she looked at Fumi. Her towering frame among the other two deities all looked down at Gary and Fumi as if they were waiting for the next thing to happen.

“Alright,” Fumi commented. “We appeared at the right spot. That was a first.”

“Me too,” Gary said.

“First time teleporting can be a little bit unusual for some,” Vinayaki replied.

“It is alright,” Fumi responded. “As long as my baby isn’t teleported out of me by accident or something, I am good.”

“Uh ... that poor Samantha ... that girl,” Taweret said as she lowered her head.

Gary and Fumi both gave them a terrifying look at the hippo goddess. She seemed neutral at first, and then she cracked a laugh.

“I am just playing with you two,” Taweret jokingly replied. “I would never do that. Ugh ... I couldn’t bear it.”

“Hey, both of you two,” Ryujin reacted as he put his hands to the handles of his katanas. “Let us see this place.”

“Ummm ... yes,” Fumi replied. She looked around the spot. Her head and ears went everywhere as she was looking for something.

“It’s designed to be a little bit difficult,” Gary added to the three of them. “They made sure that the den isn’t discovered too easily.”

Fumi was meticulous, where she searched. Even though they were at the base of the mountain, she went up to a couple of trees. She began to put her hands around the area.

Vinayaki extended one of her hands and began to focus her mind. She closed her eyes as she concentrated.

“You sense anything?” Ryujin asked her.

“Barely... , “ she replied to him. “I can sense something ahead of us, but the rock is burying and disguising the signal. I can sense that there is life, though.”

“I promise you that we are at the right location,” Fumi told them. Her furred hand found a tree as it skimmed the bark. She nodded as she saw the panel. “Here it is,” she said as she pulled the bark down.

The tree she was standing had a fake bark panel. When she used her fingers to grip the bark and pull on it, it opened up to reveal a switch inside it. She used her hand to pull the switch down.

“There we go,” Ryujin commented.

“No ... not yet,” Fumi said. “The tree next to it has a panel on it. We make sure that nobody can find this place if somehow someone makes it here.”

She closed up the switch panel and then walked up to the next tree. Her fingers quickly found the panel. She pulled that open to reveal a numerical touchpad. She then pressed the numbers three, six, nine, five, and then one. A green light emitted from the panel, indicating that the code worked.

“Done,” Fumi replied. “Now, we wait.”

She closed the panel on the tree. A small rumble began to emit from the base of the mountain. The dirt started to shuffle from one side of the wall of the mountain. Slowly a door opened to lift from the bottom of the mountain in an upward motion.

They could see the light coming from inside whatever was down inside the door’s entrance. The door continued to lift open more and more. Inside was spacious but almost looked like a garage door that was opening.

A figure immerged from the opening door. A rat woman with brown fur and black hair looked upon the five. She was dressed in pants, coveralls, and a bulletproof vest as she gripped onto her weapon tightly. Finally, the woman appeared to be carrying a sub-machine gun similar to an MP-5 in her hands.

She momentarily aimed her gun at the five but quickly dropped it and let the sling hang from her shoulder once she recognized one of her own.

“It’s alright, Ichika,” Fumi greeted her. “I brought members from the Coalition to come and inspect the den out.”

“Um ... alright,” Ichika, the guard replied. She waited for the five to come and enter the compartment where she was. As they entered the mountain, the door behind them began to close.

Ichika pressed a button that she stood at as another door in front of them began to open up. The door revealed to be several inches thick of heavy steel as it began to lift open.

“Welcome to the California Den,” Fumi told all of them.

The door sufficiently raised open to reveal a massive hallway. The place was well lit and appeared to be some sort of underground facility. The ground was like marble tile and had a polymer wall and ceiling.

“What a place...” Vinayaki commented as the door fully opened.

They all looked inside the wonder of this place. The walls were a white and blue color. They could see various over sealing doors, almost like it was some futuristic ship. They watched as one of these doors slid open to reveal another rat woman that looked around and saw the five coming in. She quickly walked inside her room and closed the door. The hallways were color-coded with the floors as they began to step inside. This hallway was blue colored, and the tiles had a dark blue color. They could see the other passageways that had green and red-colored floors. It was quite spacious inside the place.

“Interesting design,” Taweret said. “It’s like walking inside a whole new world.”

“Thank you,” Fumi replied as they continued walking down the blue hallway. “I wish my home was like this in sheer beauty.”

“Nah ... I like our home,” Gary countered. “It could always be expanded.”

“Yet, you didn’t have the magic to build these?...” Ryujin asked. “How were you able to create all this?”

“We have the resources,” Fumi answered.

As they reached the edge of the blue hallway, Fumi pointed to the wall. On the wall was a massive map that appeared to be square in shape.

“Wow,” Vinayaki commented. “You have a map of this place.”

“Yes,” Fumi answered. “This place is enough to fit three hundred of my kin and could be easily expanded further. We have half the rooms used to ensure demand can be made.”

“Demand of what?” Ryujin asked.

“To ensure we have enough room for more pups,” Fumi replied.

“Hmmm... , “ the dragon nodded.

“What’s wrong, Ryu?” Taweret asked him. “Afraid of seeing the rats making more rats?”

The dragon shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I can see on this map the blue hallway where we are at,” the elephant goddess said as she looked at the map. “It looks like most of the inhabited places are near the exit or entrance where we came in.”

“Yes,” Fumi explained. “The den is split into multiple sections. We have the residential quarters, a fiscal quarter, the research labs, food courts, school, gyms, nursery, admin department, utility section, library, the simulators, hydroponics...”

“The simulator?” Ryujin asked.

Fumi smiled as she heard him say that. “Don’t worry; I will go into further detail on that.”

“You have an entire city in this mountain!” Taweret said, clapping her hands. “What a place! Do you have your own currency?”

“Here everything is free, but you still have to do some things to help the cluster of the family as a whole. Here we have every job available. Sometimes being a simple mother is enough, but sometimes the more work you put outside, the more prestige you gain.”

“Almost sounds like a merit like system,” the elephant goddess commented.

“I guess you can word it like that,” Fumi continued. “With our family so large, prestige is everything. The more you put out, the more you gain.”

“How does that exactly work?” Vinayaki asked.

“Simple. This is the blue residential quarter. Here you have small rooms for beginning rat children and adults. The rooms are small but enough for a husband and wife to live. As she begins to produce a rat, they are given a bigger room. The rooms get bigger, the more pups you make.”

“So, you gain prestige just by making babies?” Ryujin asked.

“Far more than that, but that does consist of some of it. The problem is that there are so many of us that it is impossible for someone to become the head rat of the den. By doing multiple good actions, the higher the chain you are in. Competition does exist well but only to a point. We try to enjoy life as much as possible and enjoy living here.”

There was a group of children that came running through the halls. The children also looked like miniature versions of Fumi. They appeared to be two young girls that ran by the touring group of deities. It happened so fast that all they could see was the swinging pink tails and hearing the sound of children playing tag.

“Awww...” Taweret remarked, seeing them. “They look so cute.”

“Hehe...” Fumi giggled. “I always agree. Our pups look so cute.”

“Pups?” Vinayaki remarked.

“Ah ... sorry. That is what we often refer to children of the Yuki family at least until they reach adulthood.”

The elephant goddess nodded her head.

“Where should we visit first?” Fumi thought.

“I think the gods here need to see the headmaster of this den first. Take care of Administration here.”

“I agree ... at least I think we should,” Vinayaki remarked.

“Heh,” Taweret put her hand to the elephant goddess’s shoulder. “Not used to the leadership role?”

“Yes ... I don’t normally get put into this role.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know you will make the right decision.”

The elephant goddess shook her head, seemingly at a choice. “Yes ... we should go see the headmaster.”

Ryujin nodded his head as if in silent approval.

“There we go,” Taweret commented. “Let’s go and see the headmaster.”

After spending ten minutes seemingly walking through the massive series of rooms in this underground structure, the five reached near the center of the den.

“So much here,” Taweret said. “In just one of these dens, you have an entire city. There were so many kids here.”

“It’s because we have been busy making pups ... err ... umm offspring,” Fumi commented. She quickly changed the subject. “We have reached the Admin Quarter.”

The five were standing at a large glass door that led to the inside of a big room. The carpet that lined the pathway was black, signifying that they were in the area where the delegation was made. Inside they could see a brown and black-furred rat woman that was dealing with paperwork. She was so busy that she didn’t take notice of the fact that there were three towering gods by her door.

Fumi walked up to the door panel as she pressed the button. The glass door made a light swoosh sound as it opened up to a startled woman inside. She immediately stopped what she was doing to see the five by the door.

“Ah! I was not expecting visitors ... wait ... Fumi?” the rat woman responded in a Japanese accent. “Oh, you must be from the Coalition of Deities. Welcome! Welcome to my den. My name is Hiroko. I am the representative and headmaster of this den.”