Whoo, another chapter typed And it's long too! -claps for myself-
Hope you all like :D
Kisa sullenly made her way back to the camp. '…And I kinda wanted to go with Brambleclaw…maybe these Twolegs are Akito and Kureno and-- … oh, well that's wishful thinking. Too good to be true.' Because as much as she enjoyed talking with Whitepaw and Cloudtail, she just wanted to go home.
'Ever since I saw that orange fur in my claws, I've been frightened. And those dreams with Tigerstar, him promising to make me so powerful and all…well, they make me uneasy. I don't want power if I'm going to hurt my friends. I feel so sorry for Kyo – I can't believe that I could've done that to him! I wonder if he's okay…I should go apologize to--' "…Kyo?"
Kisa was almost at the entrance to ThunderClan's camp when she saw a bolt of orange fur dart out of the tunnel. It was soon followed by a shock of white. "Kyo? Whitepaw?"
They shot away from the camp, heading off in the direction she had seen Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight go. "Wait, where are you two going?" she called, getting no answer.
Sighing, she wondered what Kyo was up to now. She was worried. 'Maybe I should go after him…? No, that'd only make him ever madder…unless…he doesn't know that I'm following him…but that'd be like stalking him….Oh, what should I do?!' She shut her eyes in worry, and paused for a moment, listening to the sounds of the forest around her. She could hear birds chirping, prey scurrying through the leaves, and…shouts in the distance. It sounded to her like Firestar….and Brambleclaw…and Kyo.
'Go on, Tigerpaw. Go after him! He's after the Twolegs…show him what you've got! You can beat him there, you can get rid of the Twolegs before he does….and Firestar will honor you for it! GO!'
"Ugh, it's that voice again….Tigerstar's…." Kisa's ears flattened in fear. She tried shaking her head to rid her thoughts of his words. It wasn't working.
'C'mon, you know you can do it! You're the fastest apprentice in ThunderClan. You'll be able to reach the Twolegs before Sunpaw will! Show all of them what you're made of!'
"Mmm…no…" Kisa muttered, feeling the forest spin around her as if she was in a bad dream.
'You will be honored! The most advanced apprentice in ThunderClan! Go and drive those Twolegs away! It will make you feel good -- powerful and unbeatable!'
"Errgh…" The forest floor seemed to give way as she was sucked back into her nightmare. Everything swam before her eyes.
'Go, go, GO, Tigerpaw! Drive them off! I promise you, great things will happen if you do! Now, GO!'
A massive cat suddenly appeared before her, narrowing his amber eyes forcefully. He snarled, and the sound of it echoed throughout her mind. "Errghh……okay, FINE!" she yelled, to no one in particular.
The sound of it startled the birds, which instantly flew away. But everything stopped twisting and turning. The forest became normal again.
Kisa stood still for a moment, breathing heavily. She felt as if she had just awoken from a terrible nightmare. Looking around, she realized that the sun was beginning to set, casting shadows on the forest floor. 'Is it that late already?' she confusedly thought. 'Mmm, never mind. I have to find Kyo.'
With that, she headed off in the direction he had run.
"Hey, I hear something!" Kyo called excitedly. He was almost out of breath, but that didn't slow him down. 'I've got to drive these Twolegs off! Then Firestar'll see that I'm definitely above 'apprentice' level!'
Whitepaw wasn't far behind him. "Sunpaw, I seem them!" she suddenly gasped, excitement lighting up her eyes.
"What, really?" Sure enough, looking ahead, he spotted two tall figures making their way through the trees. "Whoa, I see them too! C'mon, let's hurry before Firestar beats us!"
With a massive burst of energy, Kyo sprinted ahead of Whitetail and crashed through the bushes in front of him. "I'm there, I can see them, they're right here, I've got them!" he yelled out in a rush. When he made it through the last clump of foliage, his eyes widened when he realized who he was going to "ambush". He stopped short, freezing in place. Whitepaw's shout of, "Sunpaw, don't drive them off yet! Wait for me!" seemed very far away.
The remaining leaves cleared from his view, leaving him face-to-face with none other than Akito and Kureno.
Kisa ran through the forest, following Kyo's scent. She was all alone; no intimidating Brambleclaw or Firestar, no temperamental Kyo, no friendly-but-talkative Whitepaw. It felt great, she realized. She felt free.
'This is awesome! I feel so great, just like Tigerstar promised. Maybe listening to him isn't that bad after all…'
Just then, she heard a shout. 'Sounds like Whitepaw…'
Whitepaw's call of "Wait for me!" reached Kisa's pricked ears. 'Kyo probably spotted the Twolegs already. I've got to hurry so he doesn't get himself into trouble again…but where is he? I lost his scent trail!'
Kisa spun around in circles hurriedly, trying to pinpoint where Whitepaw's shout came from. Birds soared into flight all around her; prey scurried away in fright. All the movement was distracting her.
Suddenly, she saw something – a flash of white fur, straight across of her through a bramble thicket. 'Whitepaw?' Taking a deep breath, she forgot about "not letting Kyo or Whitepaw know that she was following them", and shot through the thicket, ignoring the pain spreading through her flank.
It was then that she, too, was faced directly with two people that looked very familiar – Akito and Kureno.
A shock of excitement spread through her body. They hadn't seen her yet; they were too busy staring in disbelief at an orange cat at their feet – Kyo.
Kyo stared, dumbstruck, at the two saviors in front of him. 'I don't believe this…Akito and Kureno?! Here, in this forest of hell?! No way! This is too good to be true! I can go home now – finally!'
Forgetting that Whitepaw was coming up behind him, he immediately ran up to the "Twolegs", not thinking about what Whitepaw would think when she saw him acting friendly with them.
"Akito! Kureno! You've come! Save me, please!" he shouted….in vain. He realized too late that they were human – they couldn't understand what he was saying. So how were they going to communicate?!
'Shit….'
Akito looked down in joy at the orange cat meowing at her feet. She couldn't understand what it was saying, but she was sure that it was Kyo. The cat was too orange to be anyone else.
"Kyo, I've finally found you! You've got to come with me, because I heard that you're in danger…assuming it is you Father was talking about…"
The cat at her feet cocked its head in understanding. It opened its mouth as if to say something, but only a faint 'meow' came out. Its ears flattened in frustration.
"Kureno! Help me find the other one! Kisa has to be around here somewhere, too!"
The orange cat perked its head up and let out a 'meow', gesturing with its tail for Kureno to follow it.
Akito picked up what it was trying to tell them. "Kureno, follow Kyo! I think he knows where Kisa is."
Kureno nodded and set off after Kyo, who had crashed through the bushes again.
"I'll stay here in case more of the Jjuunishi decide to show themselves."
Kisa's heart leapt in joy when Akito mentioned her name. 'He's (A/N: Kisa and Kyo and the rest of the younger Jjuunishi don't know Akito's a girl, right?) going to bring me home! I'll get to see Mom, and Dad, and Tohru…and Hiro again! I've got to catch up to Kyo and Kureno…either that or I could show myself right now…'
Quickly making up her mind, Kisa took a deep breath and moved a paw forward, preparing to step out of the bushes to Akito.
Suddenly, a loud voice called out to her, making Akito's and Kisa's heads whip around to see where it was coming from.
"Tigerpaw! Tigerpaw! Get away! There's a Twoleg there; why don't you carefully come back here, to us, so it doesn't spot you. We'll take care of it."
Kisa silently cursed herself under her breath for not moving away faster. Turning around, she had no choice but to head towards to two figures crashing through the foliage: Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw.
Kyo ran through the bushes, hastily trying to avoid Whitepaw while leading Kureno to ThunderClan's camp.
"Sunpaw, what in StarClan's name are you doing?! Do you know what will happen when someone sees you willingly leading a Twoleg to our camp?!" Whitepaw furiously yelled, sprinting after Kyo.
"Shut it, Whitepaw! I know what I'm doing!"
"Oh? You know what you're doing?! You're going to put the whole of ThunderClan in danger!"
"I said, shut it!" Kyo yelled back, losing his temper again. He flicked his tail to Kureno, who was running at his side, as a signal to keep following him.
'Oh, we're almost there! I'm finding Kisa as quickly as I can and getting the hell outta here!'
Speeding up his pace, he let the whole forest pass by as a blur as he bolted straight to the clearing that marked the beginning of ThunderClan's camp, hearing Kureno's loud steps right behind him.
Now there were right outside of the entrance tunnel to the camp. Forgetting that Kureno couldn't understand him, Kyo said, "We're finally here! I'll go look for Kisa. You wait here and--"
"Sunpaw, what do you think you're doing?!" a furious snarl interrupted him.
Kyo whipped around to see a crouching dark orange cat, its fur bristling and its eyes narrowed. 'Shit!'
It was Firestar.
Kisa sullenly ran back to where Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were waiting.
"What do you think you were doing there? Going towards a Twoleg like that…how dangerous! You stay back here and let the two of us take care of this!" Brambleclaw hissed.
"Yes, Brambleclaw…" Kisa mumbled, her eyes downcast, not wanting to anger her mentor even more than she already had.
Brambleclaw nodded, satisfied at her agreement, and then shot through the bushes towards the Twoleg, Squirrelflight by his side.
Kisa could do nothing but watch as Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight fiercely attacked a shocked Akito, scratching and clawing at him, leaving long red claw marks down his legs.
"Get off me, you stupid cats!" Akito yelled, trying unsuccessfully to shoo them away.
"Go on, Squirrelflight, finish it off. Chase it out of here!" Kisa heard Brambleclaw say.
She followed Squirrelflight's quick and precise movements, faintly impressed, and felt sadness spread throughout her body as Akito was given one more scratch mark and walked away into the forest, cursing under his breath. She briefly considered going after him, leaving Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight, but figured she was in enough trouble as it was. Besides, she knew that this wasn't the last ThunderClan's warriors had heard from Akito. Knowing him, he would be back.
"F-Firestar, what're you doing here?!" Kyo stuttered, shocked. 'I thought he had gone with the others deeper into the forest!'
"I was searching around our territory for the Twolegs, but decided to come back here to defend the camp in case the Twolegs got this far….and I can see that I made the right choice! But my question is, what are youdoing leading it here?!" Firestar spat, narrowing his eyes at Kyo.
Kyo, despite his attempts to hide it, was terrified. "…Uh, I was…" 'Dammit, it's no use trying to make an excuse! He SAW me leading Kureno here! And I can't tell him that I actually KNOW Kureno…' "…I, uh…I was--"
"Sunpaw, I've found you! You thought you could outrun me, well--" Whitepaw suddenly appeared, instantly rounding on Kyo. Then she noticed who else was with him. "Oh, Firestar, you're here already….and so is the Twoleg!" she shouted, instantly going into a defensive crouch, her fur starting to bristle.
"Yes, I just stopped Sunpaw from leading it into our camp. Would you care to explain to me why he was about to do that?" Firestar asked Whitepaw.
"I don't know! I was just following him to see why, too!" she said, not mentioning that they were both having a race to see who would reach the Twolegs first. She averted her gaze from Firestar, not wanting to tell him anything more.
"Well, Sunpaw? Explain yourself," Firestar hissed, obviously angry. He turned his attention from Kyo for a moment to hit Kureno with a well-aimed blow.
"Wait, don't hurt him!" Kyo found himself yelling. 'What did I just say?! He's going to kill me now….'
Firestar froze, about to scratch Kureno again. "Why, Sunpaw? Give me a reason why I can't. I'm only protecting ThunderClan, after all. It's my duty as a leader."
Kyo shifted his paws, leaving deep imprints in the ground. "Umm….well, I can't tell you."
Firestar cocked his head. "Oh? And why not?"
"Well…I can't tell you here, at least." 'What am I saying?'
"Go on…"
'What should I say?!' "I can…tell you later! I'll tell you later! Just don't hurt him!" Kyo said in a rush, pleading with Firestar. 'I can't believe I'm doing this…'
Firestar glared at Kyo suspiciously. "….Okay, Sunpaw. But I can't just 'not hurt him'. I have to give him enough warning so he won't come back. Leave this to me."
Kyo watched as Firestar hissed and spat at Kureno, giving him a few warning scratches on his legs and arms. Kureno didn't try to push Firestar away, like Akito had done to Brambleclaw. Instead, he accepted the pain and turned away from the camp, almost as if he could understand what Firestar was telling him.
As he walked away with a slight limp from the three cats, he glanced back at Kyo, smiling softly, almost as if to say, "It's okay, Kyo. I'll be back."
