Sweet! My third fanfic! Okay. This is about Hunter's past. If I tell you any more it would ruin the whole thing. I do not own Hunter or Prowlus, but I just made up Birchleaf, so I do own him... theoretically speaking.

Ten years before the great Dawn of the Dragon, in the Valley of Avalar...

Hunter stood among his men, waiting for the mission to commence. When he saw the signal—an arrow shot into the sky—Hunter gave the famous Avalar war cry and charged forward with his men at his heels. They were met with Volleys of arrows, electric orb spiders, and many other weapons that they had seen before.

The cheetahs from Avalar carried many clubs, arrows, and spears with which to destroy the wall and take the city of the apes. They dodged arrows and killed whoever got in their way. Deep down inside, all Hunter was thinking about was how much he hated the apes for all of the destruction that they had caused his people. That is why it was a moment before he noticed the enormous troll that had just crawled out of the ground in front of him.

"Hunter, look out!" Hunter heard the cry and looked up. "Oh, it's a troll. Don't worry Birch, I can take him easily," Hunter boasted. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Birchleaf, or Birch for short, was staring at him with an incredulous look on his face.

"Have you gone completely insane, Hunter? Look at that thing; it's twice your size. How do you plan on managing something like that?" Birchleaf asked. Hunter grinned mischievously and replied, "Like this." He then threw himself at the troll, ready for a good fight.

"No! Hunter, stop! I have seen that type of troll before. It's an elite!" Birch cried to him over the other yells of the battle going on around them. Hunter's eyes widened as the troll easily caught him out of mid air and held him by one arm. He was then shaken as a rat is shaken by a dog.

All of a sudden, Hunter was falling down toward the forest floor. He landed in some grass, but still heard a sickening snap as a few of his ribs broke and the breath was knocked out of his lungs. When he looked up to see what had caused the troll to drop him, a horrible scene lay in front of him.

The troll was holding Birch by his tail. Then it flung him a few meters away into the side of a cliff before lumbering away. Birch fell to the ground and did not get up. The troll did not get very far because of Birchleaf having knocked off its helmet with one of his elemental arrows and then hitting its neck immediately after.

Hunter crawled in pain on his arm that was not broken and his knees over to where Birch lay as still as stone. The pain of Hunter's broken ribs was making him see spots, and he could just barely make out the figure of the cheetah that had been his best friend since they were cubs together lying spread-eagle in the grass.

Somehow, the ground seemed to rush up to meet Hunter's head and his world faded away as he whispered, "I am sorry, Birchleaf..."

Hunter woke up to a blinding white light. "Am I dead?" he groaned, not speaking to anyone in particular.

"No, I don't think you're dead. That doesn't happen 'til after I chew ya out like the Elder Council ordered!" A joking voice gave a reply from somewhere in the room.

Hunter tried to sit up to see who had spoken. He immediately regretted this decision as an excruciating pain lanced through his chest and his rib cage.

Someone raced over to Hunter's side and gently pushed him back down until he was once again on his back. "You'll be dead if you keep on pulling such reckless crap, Hunter!"

Now that Hunter saw who it was, he felt embarrassed for showing such childish weakness. It was a cheetah, probably four years older than Hunter. The two were almost like twins, except for the fact that the other cheetah had more red in his pelt than Hunter.

"Yes, sir, Captain Prowlus, sir!" Hunter tried to salute his commanding officer, but the pain in his right arm told him that it was severely broken.

His injuries and Prowlus's words brought back Hunter's memories of the previous night. "Birchleaf! What happened to Birchleaf!?" he asked, looking into the Captain's eyes.

The joking expression on Prowlus's face immediately vanished at Hunter's question and he turned from Hunter to the open window. For a moment, he was silent.

"The healers did everything that they could, but... Hunter, Birchleaf is dead." Prowlus turned and looked Hunter straight in the eye as he said the last part, wanting Hunter to know that he wasn't lying.

Hunter didn't say a word as he lay in the infirmary bed, speechless with shock and horror. Deep in the back of his mind, Hunter knew that all of this was his fault. If he hadn't been so careless, his friend and fellow warrior would still be alive.

The words of Captain Prowlus broke into his sorrowful thoughts as he said, trying to lighten the mood even if it were just by a bit, "Now comes the part where I'm supposed to give ya some huge lecture... But I think that you need to rest and have some time to take this all in... We'll talk later." Then he got up and left the room.

Hunter closed his eyes. And as he succumbed to the promise of relief sleep would bring, he whispered under his breath, "Thanks, I'm glad that you were the one who told me about this... big brother..."

DUH DUH DUH! If I don't get to update this much, it is either because I have to go back to school in about a week, or I have writers block! Constructive criticism welcome! Please Read and Review.