They had done it. Catra Scorpia and their new compatriot Princess Entrapta had succeeded in escaping the Fright Zone and were on route towards the Whispering Woods. While Catra was still riding the high of kicking Shadow Weaver's ass the reality of what she had done started to settle in. "We turned against the Horde!" Catra exclaimed then the implications of that smacked her in the face. "We turned against the Horde.." she repeated. "Where are we going to go?!"
Scorpia winced at the outburst. "Hey now it's okay Wildcat, as long as we are together we will be fine.. and Entrapta! Entrapta you must know of some place we could stay until we figure out what to do right?" The Scorpioni grinned.
"Hmm?" Entrapta muttered being pulled from her thoughts. "Oh yes you would require a temporary dwelling as you adjust to lime outside of the Fright Zone..hmmmm well there is always Brightmoon"
"No" Catra cut the scientist off. " I am not going to bow down to Adora and the loser brigade! We are staying away from the alliance besides they would probably try to charge us for war crimes."
Entrapta thought about Catra's explanation for a moment. " I suppose the is a high probability especially since you are both in Horde uniforms and have those badges. Even after factoring in myself vouching for you there is an 85.93% chance of you both being incarcerated." Entrapta stated matter of factly.
"Yeah I'd rather not be thrown in a dungeon." Scorpia responded as she tossed her Force Captain badge into the wind with Catra following suit. "Can you think of any other places that would take a couple of ex-horde soldiers?"
Entrapta gasped "Oh why don't you come stay with me in Dryl! The castle as a few traps set up but we have tiny foods and fizzy beverages!"
" are TINY foods!?" Scorpia's eyes sparkled. "that sounds so cute!" The two princesses gushed over tiny foods as catra continued to drive the skiff. Honestly she didn't really care for food sizes but food is good she supposed.
"Won't the other princesses get mad that you are harboring us?" Catra questioned Entrapta as she dodged trees with the skiff.
"Like you said they left me behind, by my data analysis that would indicate they do not see me as a friend, you brought me with you which indicates you DO see me as a friend. Following my data this means that I should be helping you. That is the logical conclusion!"
"You want to be my friend?" Scorpia beamed and lifted the petite purplenete princess into one of her trademark hugs. "Oh I would just love to be your friend Entrapta!"
Entrapta pulled it her recorded with a locke of her hair as other tendeles of the hair reciprocated the hug. "Whispering Woods log 1; It appears that making friends with former Horde soldiers is easier than previously indicated, side note The one called Scorpia has exceptionally strong hugging capabilities."
Catra noticed the sun starting to set and landed the skiff in a small clearing. Her night vision was exceptional to say the least but even she wouldn't risk flying the shoddy horde machine in the dark of the night. "We will make camp here for the night and continue on in the morning. Scorpia use your claws to snap up some branches for firewood." Scorpia nodded and began chopping away. "I will get the fire pit ready." Catra continued and looked at the large leafed trees surrounding them. "I made sure to bring 3 sleeping bags with the supplies as for lodging… Entrapta do you think you could make a shelter out of those large leaves?"
Entrapta clapped her hands giddie " Oh what fun this will be just like a camping sleepover!. And yes with Emily's assistance I can make a big enough lean-to for the four of us." And with that the geek princess and the bot got to work on construction, leaving Catra to her own thoughts as she began to lay down the stones for the fire pit.
Sleepover huh, Catra thought to herself her mind beginning to race with memories of her sleepovers with Adora. She remembered how they used to pick on Kyle and stay up late talking about…. stuff. Catra shook her head clear before she could spyral too far down into those memories. Adora betrayed me, left me! she reminded herself as if needing to try to keep that rage alive. The Magicat was snapped out of her inner thoughts by the loud sound of large objects being tossed on the ground in front of her causing the girl to yelp.
"Oh sorry Wildcat didn't mean to startle you." Scorpia apologized, putting a claw behind her head. "Was just putting the kindling in the fire pit like you asked." She pointed down with her free claw.
"It's fine Scorpia." Catra sighed as she came back to reality. "Was just lost in thought."
"What were you thinking about?" Scorpia asked as she locked down a tree for the three of them to use as a seat for the fire.
"N-nothing important!." The former soldier stammered. "now get out of the way I need to make the fire." Catra ushered the scorpioni girl out of the way and began to work at the kindling with some flint.
Catra felt a strong yet gentle claw rest on the back. "It's okay to miss her." Scorpia replied with a soft smile easily cutting through Catra's defenses and addressing the root of the issue. "She was your best friend for all of your childhood, it's only normal to want her back. You can miss someone without needing to forgive them for what they have done."
"The shelter is done!" Entrapta shouted as the popped up between the two girls. "Ooo what were you talking about?"
Catra jumped back letting out a small yelp in surprise at Entrapta's sudden appearance but she was a little bit thankful for the distraction from. Scorpia's words. She was not ready to deal with THOSE emotions yet. And sadly she got the feeling she couldn't punch them away like normal anymore. "Fire is set up as well now is as good a time as any to eat." She stated hoping that the bitter taste of ration bars would keep her mind off her current thoughts.
The three retrieved ration bars from the supplies they had time to grab as they made thier escape from the Fright Zone, sadly for Catra all they had at the time were the brown ones. Catra groaned a bit but choked down the nutrient bar. Scorpia didn't seem to mind the bar and just ate it with no outward signs of disgust,and Entrapta was more so studying the matriea rather than eating it.
"Fascinating!" The scientist awed. "These bars appear to be so vitamin and mineral dense that they can replace an entire days worth of food. How brilliant." She then took a bite after having snapped the bar given to her into smaller pieces for tiny foods reasons. "Side note said bar has a strong aftertaste of black licorice and tar. Will need to experiment to remedy that."
Night soon fell upon the defectors and they all retired to the lean-to for some sleep. Or they would if Catra actually COULD sleep. All the events of the day and her emotions regarding them hit Catra full force as she laid on the leafy floor. She was a defectors now, she could never go back home not that the Fright Zone was every really a home for her. She then thought of Scorpia and Entrapta and how they saw her as a friend. That word… it just meant so much to her.
For as long as she could remember Adora was here everything, all of the other cadets saw her as a freak. be it because of her cat like features, Shadow Weaver's hatred of her seeping into the behavior of the other kids, or just her overly sarcastic blunt and standoffish personality Catra never had anyone who saw her as a friend. No one except Adora, and she betrayed her and left her alone to deal with the fallout of Adora's defection. Catra thought of her two allies as she drifted off into the void of slumber making a mental plea that this time would be different, that this time her friend would not leave her behind.
