The rustling of foliage made Blossomleaf look up from the sparrow she was eating. The birch trees shadowing the camp entrance shook as Cedarbranch came into the camp, his head hung low.
The tribe's camp was now a gray hollow in the middle of the forest. Their old camp in the ravine was a place the tribe now called Snakerocks. After the fire, when a group of warriors had been sent to check the camp and make sure it was safe for the tribe to return, they found it was swarming with adders. Thus, the tribe was forced to find a new location for their camp, and chose to shelter in the hollow, where the tribe had initially been gathering certain medicine herbs from.
Upon seeing the red-haired tom, Blossomleaf pushed aside her sparrow and sat up.
"Cedarbranch, what happened? Where's Dovepool, and is she okay?"
Cedarbranch shook his head. He held up the necklace he'd found.
"Dovepool is gone. Her place is with Startribe now."
Blossomleaf hung her head in grief.
"I knew she stood no chance at surviving on her own, out there. She probably knew that just as well as I did. Just why did she have to leave and face death, when she could've stayed here in the forest, where she could actually live her life?"
"Pikekit would've been better off here in the forest too. It was his dream to become a warrior like his father. To think he'll probably never get to know what that's like."
Blossomleaf abruptly looked up at the mentioning of Pikekit.
"Speaking of which, where is Pikekit? Is he still alive?"
The tom shrugged.
"I don't know. I never did find any signs of Pikekit. But chances are, he's dead too. A kit his age wouldn't last very long on his own, at this time of year."
"Someone may have found him, and is caring for him somewhere," Blossomleaf prompted, trying her best to sound optimistic.
"I highly doubt that. No one in their right mind is going to be out in a prairie like that in the middle of leaf-bare."
Blossomleaf looked down sorrowfully and gave a slight nod. She knew just as well as Cedarbranch the chances that Pikekit was alive were so slim, almost not even possible.
As Cedarbranch walked away to tell Sunstar about what he discovered, Adderkit, who'd been listening, came up beside the light-haired queen, and lightly tugged on her arm to get her attention.
"My brother could still be alive, couldn't he?"
Blossomleaf averted her gaze to the red-haired kit.
"Maybe. I don't know, Adderkit. I just don't know."
There was a sweet smell in the air. Pikekit yawned, and slowly opened his eyes.
He was laying in a nest made of a soft material of some kind. A patch of sunlight shone down on him, at an angle.
Confused by this, he sat up and looked around. He was in a circular room that was made of white and gold stone, decorated with intricate designs, colored a darker shade of gold. It appeared to be part of a temple. Pikekit glanced about, utterly bewildered, and with no idea where he was.
Suddenly remembering what had happened, he looked down at himself with a start.
The frostbite scars that were on his arms and his face was gone. His rib cage no longer showed through. His hair was groomed, and was now all soft and thick, like it used to be in the tribe. Even the cut in his ear was healed up, like it was never there.
Pikekit resumed looking around as his mind wandered to finding out where he was. After a few moments of looking, he discovered that the patch of sunlight shining down was coming from a large entrance-like opening that appeared to lead outside. Curious, he went over to it. The moment he stepped outside, the sheer sunlight almost blinded him.
Pikekit rapidly blinked for a moment at the intense glare. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light, his surroundings gradually came into view.
Towering behind him was a massive temple, made of the same white and gold stone as the room he'd been laying in. The sunlight gave the white stone a golden hue.
Looking up, Pikekit had never seen the sky as clearly as he did now. The blue sky stretched out as far as he could see, in every direction. It looked like it went on forever, with no start or end.
In the opposite direction of the temple, Pikekit saw dozens of islands floating in the sky. All of them had temple-like structures on them, again made of white and gold stone. Down below them was an ocean of clouds.
Pikekit had never seen a place like this before. He glanced around, curious and fascinated by it.
The sound of flapping wings distracted him. He looked up to see a small warrior flying above him. A pair of wings sprouted from the back of its head, from a golden helmet it was wearing, and it was wielding a bow and arrows.
Pikekit watched, intrigued, as the winged warrior flew away. That's when he realized that throughout the islands there were dozens of them, some flying, some standing on the islands. Some were larger than others, and wielding different weapons.
Suddenly, something floated down in front of Pikekit's face. He blinked for a second, confused, then he looked down. There on the ground in front of him was a white feather.
Pikekit curiously batted at the feather, and it floated up, then fluttered back down. Pikekit watched it, then quickly got into a playful mood, trying to get the feather before it hit the ground. At one point, he reared up, and caught it between his hands.
"You're such an easily-entertained little kid, aren't you?"
Pikekit turned to see the young goddess standing nearby. She'd been watching him play.
Pikekit sat up and looked at her, his eyes big with curiosity. There was a slight hint of fear in his gaze, but he wasn't entirely scared. It was the fact that the young goddess was a complete stranger to him, and that he was alone with her in an unknown place that slightly frightened him.
As if reading the little kit's mind, the young goddess reached forward and picked him up. She gently stroked his head.
"It's ok, little one. There's no need to be afraid of me. I am Palutena, the goddess of light. This region of the sky is my domain, known as Skyworld."
Palutena put the kit down. Another warrior flew by. Pikekit watched its every move, his eyes wide with fascination.
"Those warriors are members of my army," Palutena explained, noticing Pikekit's fascination over the winged warrior. "They're called Centurions."
Pikekit looked back at the young goddess, then watched as another centurion flew by. His gaze was fixed on the warrior's wings. He'd never seen a warrior with the ability to fly before.
I wish I could fly, he thought. To know what it's like.
Suddenly, Pikekit felt the young goddess run her hand down the middle of his back. A burning sensation ran along his spine, gathering at his shoulder blades. Pikekit clenched his teeth as the feeling of something growing on his back shot through him. As the feeling faded away, Pikekit looked behind him, trying to see his back.
Sprouting from his shoulder blades was a pair of feathered wings. They were radiantly white, like the centurions', and exceeded the length of his arms.
Pikekit spread them out and lightly flapped them. He folded them across his back, then looked back at Palutena and smiled, knowing that he'd just found a new place to call home.
Palutena watched as the little kit resumed chasing after the feather, now with newly-grown wings on his back. But in the back of her mind she knew, while she may have given him these wings, she hadn't entirely fulfilled the kit's curiosity of wanting to know what it felt like to fly.
It might seem like I'm helping to fulfill your curiosity, but that is not true. You may have wings, but I'm not going to teach you to use them. When I return you to your family, I'll remove those wings, and I don't want you to get accustomed to being able to do something you wouldn't normally be able to do.