Rise

by Iceshadow911247

With TwinMasters defeated and gone and the Hidden Kingdom in some sort of organized peaceful chaos, Rachel, otherwise known as Tai Ling, has left westward for any sort of land where she can forget and leave her past behind. But sometimes, you can't leave the past behind; it comes and follows you, bringing more trouble than one could ever expect.

2. Chapter 2

Smiles1998: :D Thank you! And I can't wait until your stories are updated!

Brightcloud0915: I'm glad you like it! ^-^

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I woke up maybe about a day later. All I knew was that it was sunny outside and I was sitting in a cell. I stood and stretched, grimacing at the feeling of my stiff muscles. The stone cell gathered the warmth of the sun and heated the air. I looked through the small, barred window and saw the road at eye level; I was underground. I watched feet pass by, mainly armored boots and sandals, and a few uniquely styled ones. I knew I couldn't wait for long before the delegates from Big Green arrived and I figured, once they did, I'd be thrown in prison forever, but I knew I had to wait for the perfect chance to escape.

Said perfect chance came an hour later, when the road had cleared. I switched to my cougar form and started scratching at the rocks around the bars to try and dislodge it. I worked at it until my paws bled and ached, but I didn't give up; the stakes were too high as the sun started to set. I was making a little progress when some help from Mother Nature came along in the form of a small earth tremor, which caused the bars to loosen. I quickly licked my paws free of the grit that had embedded in my pads and switched to my human form, taking hold of two bars and yanking them free. Quietly dropping them on the floor of the cell, I switched back to feline form and leapt out the window, scrabbling with my back paws on the wall to give myself leverage. Finally freeing my hindquarters from the cell, I took off into the lengthening shadows of the buildings. After a few moments, of waiting for a few guards to pass, they walked into the prison. I quickly turned and scaled my way up a roof, quickly distancing myself from the building. However, I had only managed to run for a moment before and earth shattering boom echoed throughout the valley; if anything, it had an after echo that sounded like a horn. With it came a massive earth tremor and I was thrown to the ground from the roof I had been on. The ground started to shaking, the tremors rippling through it like water. People started to pour out of the buildings they were in, and I darted through alleys, dodging falling pots and shingles before making my way to the forest. But the forest wasn't safe either; I dodged falling trees and panicked animals, nearly getting trampled. I managed to make my way to a nearby raised cliff that overlooked the valley and clawed my way up the sloped side of it. When I reached the top, I couldn't believe my eyes.

Now, the valley in which I had made my home was surrounded by inactive volcanoes, at least three or four. But I could see that was now a lie. Lava erupted and shot into the air from each volcano, and I counted about five plumes of ash and smoke. The lava rolled down the slopes of the volcanoes and into the valley, setting all it could reach ablaze. I tightened my claws into the rocks beneath me as another earthquake rocked the land, causing the volcanoes to spew out more lava. Animals and humans darted away from the oncoming flows as I watched helplessly. I was never a helper, but I desperately wanted to aid those, yet I couldn't tear my gaze away. Another boom shattered the air and I pinned my ears back, flinching at the horrible noise level. Before my eyes, on the northwest side of the valley rim, the earth cracked apart in a jagged hole, collapsing the forest and everything else in that area into a large crack in the ground. The earthquake pushed the jagged slash in the earth farther along the valley, before ending about a fourth into the valley. Then, to add to my current disbelief, the east side of the valley's rim shattered outward in an explosion of magma and rock. I ducked instinctively, though no rocks came near me, fortunately. But I couldn't say the same for the rest of the valley as rocks and ash rained down. I hunkered down, peering over the crest of the cliff to watch again when I was suddenly blasted with a wave heat, and the earth roared again with another quake. I screwed my eyes shut against the heat and backed away, getting another faceful of wind and ash. I quickly turned away, sneezing a few times. Opening my eyes once more, I saw the forest behind me in flames. My paws spurred into action before my mind comprehended it, and I raced through an unburned part of the forest, racing the flames to escape. I vaguely remembered a small passage to the outside of the valley to the southwest and headed there, kicking up dust and ash. The earth bucked under my paws and threw my up into the air before I landed hard, the breath knocked from my lungs. I gasped, trying to breathe and only got a lungful of ash and dust, making me sneeze once more. I felt light headed, and scrambled dizzily to my paws, dashing ungracefully away from the flames licking at my tail. Feeling an ember land on my hind leg, I only ran faster.

It took my maybe about ten minutes to get to the pass, and wailed out loud when I saw the pass covered in lava. Turning to face the fire behind me and then looking back at the lava, I felt the heat surround me. The ash and smoke in the air made it hard to breathe. I hadn't noticed it before, but my vision was blurring. Turning to look at the wall, I made out a small path, most likely made my mountain goats. I refused to die here; I took a leap of faith over a small stream of lava and dug my claws into the small ridge before pushing myself up the steep rock wall. Another tremor nearly knocked me off the cliff and into the lava, and the adrenaline rush of fear gave me the energy to force myself up the rock wall once more. After a few minutes of climbing, I reached another path, this one larger, and quickly walked along it to hopefully reach a part of the pass that wasn't submerged in lava. I repeatedly dodged falling rocks, holding in my fear. The end of the ledge I was on dropped off and I peered at the ground, noting about seven feet of lava before I saw the stone of the pass. I took a deep breath and coughed, instantly regretting the idea, before steeling my nerves and leaping from the edge of the ledge. Landing about a foot away from the river of lava I stumbled and rolled before springing to my feet and running through the pass. Rocks littered the area, and I often had to jump and climb over the piles when the pass became narrow and the rocks had walled up the space. Coming to the end of the pass, I peered out and my shoulders slumped at what I saw; the outside forest was also on fire.

I paced rapidly at the edge of the pass before leaping down a short fall onto the forest floor and darting quickly through the burning forest, the acrid burning smell of the green leaves and plants choking my lungs. My eyes started to burn with the heat, and I blinked rapidly to clear and relieve my eyes, which only provided a tiny length of comfort. I started to become light headed and short of breath, which only caused me to take in deeper breaths of the smoky air. I pushed my muscles to their extent to try and race the flames once more, my instincts screaming at me to escape. My vision continued to worsen, and I found this out when I ran into a wall of flames. I instantly lurched away in pain and raced through the darkening forest, eyes wide in fear. It was only pure luck in which I found a clearing with a pond. Without even a second thought, I leapt into it to douse the flames. Whimpering, I licked my scorched fur and grimaced and the acrid taste before lapping at the water. It was grainy with ash, but it was better than nothing. Once I'd regained my breath, I coughed rapidly and looked around. It was then that I noticed something pelting my back, and looked to see a few drops of rain. Within moments, the few drops turned into a downpour, turning the burning scent worse as it started to kill the flames. Pushing myself forward, I left the pond and ran off again into an untouched part of the forest. In a few minutes, I reached a plain and noticed a pile of rocks in the middle. I moved over and leapt onto the highest rocks and judged the distance of the flames. Most of the fires outside the valley had been stopped by the torrent of rain, and most of what I saw was smoke. However, looking beyond the valley's walls, smoke still rose, making it look like the valley was just a giant, smoking volcano. I gained my breath, drinking in the clearing air, and sat down heavily, watching the smoke rise. After a while, I inspected my fur and saw the pond had only made the ash thick and clumpy, as most of it was still stuck to my pelt, and some of the fur was singed black from when I'd caught fire. Finally noticing my exhaustion, I laid down on the rock and splayed out, too tired to even care about the rain; I hope it would wash the ash off of me.