Time Blood Chapter 7: Cats ATTACK!, a diablo fanfic

A small word: Thank you all for reading Time Blood, and all the support you've given me. Good writers need good reviewers, and every criticism and praise make me into a better writer. Cheers!

Chapter Six: Cats Attack

Moran woke up and instantly felt her body heat up. She groaned. She had felt perfectly cool during the long sleep. She shut her eyes and rolled, trying to get back to sleep. Instead, she became even more awake when she banged into Thorn's bulky foot in her stomach.

They had been traveling for a day and a night and now it was morning of the second day. She remembered being shaken awake by Nikan a few hours ago, probably at three o'clock in the morning from the tent they had been sharing and being shoved into the wagon. It was probably around six or seven.

Moran groaned again and touched her arms, slick with sweat. She opened her eyes and threw open the curtain shielding the light. Moans of protests came from the others.

"Shut the damn curtains!" Kail shouted from underneath a pillow while Thorn gave an angry hrrraaaaaagggh and sharply kicked out, nearly catching Moran in the head.

"Hey, watch it!" Moran said. A breeze moved gently inside the wagon, cooling her off. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's so damn hot," Ollan said, rubbing his eyes. "Where are we?"

Warriv suddenly came trotting up on his camel and bent down to speak to them. "We're approaching the deserts. We'll reach Lut Gholein at early light tommorow. Good thing we didn't run into any Saber Cats."

"Saber whats?" Moran rubbed her eyes again and yawned. "Any water in here?"

Kail, with his head still under the pillow, thrust an empty jug at her.

Sighing, she took it and waited until she caught the pace of the moving wagon. Then she jumped off, lost her footing, and fell on one knee.

She brushed herself off and trotted to the provisions wagon. She heaved herself up and looked into one of the water barrels. It was nearly empty. She checked a few more barrels.

"Hey…" she shouted to one of Warriv's caravan boys on a donkey. "Where'd all the water go?"

"We're out?" He said, scratching his messy hair. He shrugged. "I'll go tell Master Warriv."

Moran bent down into one of the barrels and scooped up as much water as she could into the jug. She spit the water out, finding it to be scalding.

"Shit," she gasped, sticking out her tongue.

"Something wrong? Weird facial expression you've got there," Kail grinned at her as he swung up into the wagon. He kicked open one of the barrels and bent down.

"No water," Moran said, handing him the half full jug. "I've managed to scoop the last of it in here. It's scalding."

Kail took it from her and slowly drank it. "Well, it's still water," he sat down next to her, sipping it as the sun beat down on both of them.

"Man, it's so hot," Moran wiped off a speck of sweat hanging off her eyelashes. "How did we run out of water so fast?"

Kail shrugged. "Well, last night Thorn crushed one accidentally while he was-ah-drunk."

"That couldn't be it, we have like ten barrels or so," Moran gestured.

"Leak?"

"Maybe," Moran shrugged.

Kail looked out to the distance, fingering one of his finger-less gloves. "You know-"

A panic expression suddenly came on his face. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her off the moving wagon.

"WHAT THE-" She gasped as they rolled down. He fell, panting on top of her.

"What the freak!" She yelled. "What did you do that for?"

She threw out her fist at him and caught it. "What did I do that for?" He hissed at her. "Look for yourself!"

He rolled off her and pointed at one of the barrels. There was a spear sticking out of it.

She swallowed. "Oh…thanks. Sorry."

"Damn, it's a Spear Cat's," he said. "Tell the wagon to stop."

"Why?" Moran asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "We don't want to run into a pack of half humans, with as much skill with spears as Nikan do we?"

"Ah," Moran said, jerking the spear out of the barrel and handed it to Kail. "Be careful."

"Hey, I'm a Necromancer," he grinned and left.

Moran ran back, yelling. "Warriv! STOP! TELL THE WAGONS TO STOP! SPEAR-WHATEVER ATTACK!"

Warriv skidded his camel. "What?"

"Please, Kail just went after a Spear Cat," she said. "He reckons they might be planning an attack."

"STOP!" Warriv shouted to the first wagon.

After the lead wagon stopped, wagons that followed also stopped with groaning creaks.

"What happened?" Nikan said, her blonde hair askew over her face. "Why did we stop?"

"Kail thinks there might be a Spear Cat attack," Moran said. "One just threw a spear at the barrels. Oh, and we're out of water too, by the way."

"The Cats' work, no doubt," Kail came back, blood on his hands. He peeled off his leather gloves and rubbed them down on the sand. "I think they plan on leaking our water supply so we could stop and search for an oasis, then they could attack us."

"Smart," Nikan said. "So what should we do?"

"Get a move on," Kail said as he brushed the sand off, removing the blood in the process. He slipped them back on. "And go as fast as you can, Warriv. Can we make it to Lut Gholein tonight?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't want to travel a lot at night," Warriv stroke his chin. "Yes, we can make it too Lut Gholein if we don't stop at all, at about past midnight. But you know, the Cats have perfect night vision. We don't."

"You talk as if I don't possess the Inner Sight," Nikan said.

"You do, but not us," Kail said. "I have a better idea, we travel nonstop, until we could see Lut Gholein. Then we stop for the night. That way, if we have trouble, one of us can ride into Lut Gholein and call for help."

"Sounds good to me," Warriv said. "Let's go."

"Why don't some of us take the front, and some of us take the back? Extra caution," Nikan said.

"Thorn and Ollan can take the back," Kail said.

"Why the back?" Moran asked curious.

"Since they decide to wake up so late, they can trail behind us," Kail shrugged. "I don't know."

They traveled on, until the sun set low and the sky turned dark. Moran was dusty and tired from walking all day, and her knees ached. Finally, Kail shouted for the caravan to stop.

"Tired?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she rubbed her legs. "I'm sore."

"Want to see Lut Gholein?" He asked her and smiled. "So we won't have to set up camp."

She grinned back. "Why not?"

He handed her a small dirk. "Just in case we come across something."

She followed him until they were standing on the edge of a cliff and he pointed down. She nearly gasped as she saw the city. It was beautiful, like a sparkling gem. From the golden dome of one of the largest buildings to the smallest light from a home, it still stunned her. Across, the sea shone and sparkled.

"Wow," she said, breathless. "All that's Lut Gholein?"

"Wish you could see it before all this happened," Kail said. "I use to come here a lot, when I was a great deal younger. I remembered, this city was where I first met…"

His voice trailed off and he walked over to a large boulder and sat down.

"What is it?" Moran followed him and sat down next to him. She suddenly shivered. The temperature was dropping a great deal now that the sun was down. A few stars shimmered in the distant.

"Nothing, I don't want to talk about it," he sighed and leaned back on his elbows. He pointed to a group of stars. "That's the Golem constellation."

"Really? We don't have that in my…world," Moran said, following Kail's finger and ending up looking at a jumble of stars. It took her awhile until she made out a bulky form that looked like one of Kail's golem. A shooting star whizzed across the head.

"I wish we get to Lut Gholein safely," Kail mumbled.

"I wish that too," Moran said. "And I wish our butt doesn't get kick when we return to camp."

Kail laughed softly. "They won't mind if we help clean up tomorrow." He pointed to another cluster. "Hey look there, that's the Sorceress. Named after you."

Moran squinted. "Looks more like a dog holding a stick."

"No, look closer. There's the head-" He pointed. "The legs."

"Ah," Moran said.

Silence followed and she took a deep sigh. She turned to say something to Kail when she noticed a big, fat tear rolled out of his eye. He sniffed and quickly wiped it away.

"Look, it doesn't make me feel exactly comfortable to see you sit there and cry for no reason," Moran said.

"You noticed?" He sighed. "It's just that…sometimes I miss Moranah so much. But she's so close though."

Moran looked away. She suddenly felt like she was about to throw up. "Sorry," she whispered. Her hand slightly brushed his as she moved to a better position. She considered for a very long moment-

She took his large hand into hers.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear.

He gently squeezed her hand. "Don't be."

"Come on, let's get back to camp," she said. He stood up, still holding her hand as they walked back.

"Shh!" Kail suddenly said. "Come here."

He dragged her behind a large boulder. "Something's wrong. Camp's too quiet."

Moran listened. She remembered it being so loud the last time. People playing music, laughing, Thorn's roars as he tried to out drink one of Warriv's work boys. She gripped her dirk tightly. Kail was right. It was too quiet.

"Be quiet," Kail whispered. He waved his hand upwards.

A golem rose from the dirt, near the center fire of the camp.

A volley of spears came pelting on it, crumbling it back to dirt.

"Spear Cats!" Kail angrily said. "I knew it!"

Moran wrapped her arms around her body. "What should we do?"

"One of us can't leave…" Kail looked thoughtful. "Wait here."

"Kail!" She hissed as he bolted from their hiding place and dashed off.

After a few very tense minutes, he came back leading a large, appaloosa gelding. The horse snorted and Moran felt every nerve on her body tingle with fear.

"Can you ride?" He asked.

"Yeah, I took lessons before," she whispered back.

"All right, here's the deal," Kail said. "You ride as fast as you to Lut Gholein. Don't start galloping here, it'll alert the Cats. Trot until you come to the foot of the cliff, then ride fast. Once you reach the city, ask for help."

"Will they help me?" She took the reins.

"Say you're one of the Five," Kail said.

Moran started to stick her foot in the stirrup when she turned to the Necromancer. "Kail?"

"What?"

"Ollan, Thorn, and Nikan-why didn't they fight?" Moran asked. "And how do we know if they're alive?"

"I don't know, Moran," he said. "But we won't find out if you don't go."

"Will you be alright?"

"Just go!"

She swung up and squeezed her legs. The horse moved into a walk and into a fast trot. Chewing her lip, she loosened the reins and the gelding broke into a fast canter. She urged the horse on until it shot out into a gallop.

"Please, please, let them be alive," she prayed every time the horse lengthens its neck. Before she knew it, she was approaching the stone gates of Lut Gholein.

She stopped the horse and dismounted, running to the gates. "Open up! Please!" She shouted, banging her fists on the heavy wood. "Please! I need help!"

"Damn!" She swore and kicked the door. "Help! I'm-I'm one of the Five!"

The door swung open, nearly knocking her back if she didn't jump away in time. Two guards holding large spears pointed them at her. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Please! I'm a Sorceress, one of the Five traveling here with Warriv's caravan!" She said. "A band of Cats just took over our caravan and everyone's trapped!"

"How can we trust you?" The guard closest to her asked, shoving his spear lightly against her stomach. "What are you? You don't look like a sorceress."

"JUST GET HELP WILL YOU!" She shouted, and fire burst from the ends of her fingers with her temper.

The guards backed away. "Look, we'll get Greiz, all right? Calm down!"

Panting, she watched them run into the darkened city. Moran sat back down on the sand, leaning against the wall. She gripped her forehead. Hurry up, she prayed. Hurry up…

A pair of legs wearing white trousers and a lantern swung in front of her. "Moranah!"

"What?" Moran looked up to see a red hair women looking down at her. "I'm Moran."

The woman lowered her head. "Yes…yes, I suppose. I'm Farah, the blacksmith here. I heard some commotion out here. Anything-"

"Are you helpful?" Moran bolted to her feet, yelling at the top of her lungs. "LOOK! THE CATS HAVE TAKEN ALL MY FRIENDS AND THE REST OF WARRIV'S CARAVANS! ARE YOU GOING TO HELP OR NOT!"

Fara looked stunned for a second, but before she would say anything, a large, muscular man in chain mail walked up to her along with a dozen warriors. "What's all this trouble," he looked at Moran, eyeing her up and down.

"Warriv's caravan! The Cats took them! Spear or Saber-both!" Moran shouted. "Are you going to help or not?"

"Where are they?"

"At the top of that cliff," Moran pointed.

The man looked at the guard following him. "Go wake all of them up. What kind of Cats are they?"

"Most of them are Spears," Moran said coolly. "You know, they throw little sticks with metal at the ends at you."

The guard appeared a few minutes later, about two-dozen of them, rubbing eyes and yawning.

"Okay, men," the man wearing the chain mail said. "Spear Cats. Lots of them. Got it?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

Moran stared unbelievably at the man. "What? That's it? No strategy, no-"

"Look, I've been doing this job before your mother reached puberty you hear?" The man pointed a finger at her. "I can do this."

Moran hissed angrily at him. She mounted on her horse. "I'll show you where they are."

She trotted, the guards walking after her. She noticed that the Fara woman had caught up with her, riding on a mare, holding a jagged kris that glowed with a dull green.

"Why does it have that weird glow?" She asked as they approached the cliff.

"Poisonous," Fara said. "One pierce, and if you don't die right away, the poison will eventually kill you."

"Stop!" Moran said. "The Cats are up there. Wait here, I'll go get Kail-"

She trotted up the cliff, panting along with her horse. Coming down was a lot easier. She slid off when she got to the top and ran as fast as she could to where she and Kail were hiding earlier.

"Kail?" She whispered. There was no sign of him. Bending down, she cautiously crept up to the camp. She noticed a couple of silhouettes that probably belonged to Cats. She could almost feel her heart tearing its way out of her chest as she sneaked behind two Spear Cats standing guard, holding spears that were almost twice as tall as their own body.

She didn't see Kail anywhere.

A hand swept over her mouth and her waist, pulling her back behind into shadows created by cacti. The figure let go of her and pulled off the hood of it's cloak.

"Kail!" She gasped after she collected her senses after the pure terror that pulled at her heart. "Damn it! Why did you creep up on me like that?"

"Well, what if I tapped you on the shoulder and you screamed?" He raised a pale eyebrow. "Or jumped in front of you and alerted the Cats?"

"Sorry," she said.

"Are they here?"

"Yeah, down at the cliff," she said. "Got something planned?"

"Yes; come on," he said, taking her hand and leading her very fast down the cliff. She noticed how his eyes light up when he saw Fara.

"Fara," he said, shaking the woman's hand.

"Good to see you again, Kail," Fara said.

He nodded. "All right, people, here's the deal," He said, and Moran was actually impressed by the way his tone of voice took authority. The men crowded around him. "First we have to pull every single Cat out," he said. "What can be trememdously dangerous is to have Spear Cats or another one of those weapon-throwing ones well hidden, where they can attack us without being seen. Moran, can you summon a Meteor?"

"A what?" Moran said. "I don't know how."

"Fine then, a Blizzard?"

"Yeah, I can do that," she said.

"When the Cats come out, attack them," Kail said. "If you see anyone tied up, especially an Amazon, Paladin, or a Barbarian, release them. We need all the help we can get. Attack when I say so. Greiz?"

The man wearing the chain mail looked up. "What, Necromancer?"

"Don't do anything until I say so," Kail said, his voice cool.

They crept up the hill and Moran wished that if they got out of this alive, she could soak her feet into a tub of hot water. A guard helped her up the last couple of feet and she thanked him.

"Moran, over there," Kail pointed to a bare space next to the camp. "Shoot."

She felt her hands automatically flung up to the heavens. A burst of chill rang through her body. A sound erupted across the sky that sounded like a thousand whales sprouting water.

Sharp, razor spikes of ice and fumes of chilling vapor came cascading down. Almost right after the first spike hit the sand, Cats came appearing everywhere. Some held spears, most of them had whips, and a few had on belts filled with potions, most of them probably Oil and Poison.

"Good work, Moran," Kail said.

"Damn, that's a lot of them," Moran whispered as the Cats pointed and jabbered excitedly at the ice.

"Take the ones with potions and spears down first," Kail said. "You all ready? All right, Moran. You'll do fine with that dirk?"

"Hey, I'm a sorceress," she grinned.

"All right-NOW!"

The all leapt from their hiding places, except for some of the guards that had spears. Moran cast another Blizzard that slowed down several with the throwing weapons. The guards took them down quickly.

Running, Moran sliced two Cats open in the stomach, without thinking. She was looking for the others, for any sign of them. She started running towards the heart of the camp when she noticed the large wagon Warriv where Warriv kept animal skins and cloth for trade had a large padlock on it, which she was sure it wasn't there before. She ran away from the battle and the disgusting sounds of Kail's Corspe Explosion spells towards the wagon.

"Thorn? Nikan? Ollan?" She said, and knocked on the door.

Soft moans came from inside.

"Oh damn," she raised her hands up to perform her Inferno. "Lie low or duck! I'm going to bust the door open!"

"Not so fast!"

Moran cried out in pain as something swished through the dark, and sliced open the front of her jerkin. For a moment, she feared that it was sword, but instead of feeling raw-opened, all she felt was burning pain.

A Cat stepped from the shadows, holding a large, cruel looking whip. She hissed and Moran saw her fangs glitter in the moonlight. Dark, maroon colored hair swung down in large waves, contrasting with the tanned yellow of her fur-covered skin. All she wore was a breastplate and a pair of short, leather pants.

Moran wasted to time and blew out a jet of Inferno. The Cat laughed and stepped into the jet of flames.

This can't be! Moran gritted her teeth.

"Ever heard of Auras, Sorceress?" The Cat said. "Paladins aren't the only one who have them."

She raised her whip and Moran dodged, but the tip of it grazed her shoulder and she winced as she felt more fresh blood join in with the blood down her front. She went up, and this time, shot out an ice bolt.

The Cat slowed down from the cold, but recovered quickly, just in time for Moran too pick up a discarded Poison potion and dodge another swish of the whip. She came up again, holding the dirk in one hand and the potion in another. The Cat laughed.

"Fool," she hissed. "Surrender now, and maybe I'll let you go alive."

Surrender? For what? Moran prayed and threw the potion as hard as she could against a boulder. Poison vapors rose in the air.

"What are you doing?" The Cat asked.

Before the Cat could do anything else, Moran dodged and swept up the broken glass along with some sand that were wet from the poison. She threw it at the Cat's face.

"Ah!" She screamed, clawing at her eyes.

Moran shoved the dirk as hard as she could through the throat the moment the Cat dropped her whip to rub at her damaged eyes. Blood squirted out and splash across her shirt as the lifeless body of the beast thumped against the sand.

Panting, Moran ran up to the door and set a bolt of ice against the padlock. After it was frozen, she picked up a rock and smashed it to pieces. She flung the door open and gasped as a large body came tumbling down.

"Thorn!" She gasped and a moan came from her mouth as she looked at him. There were numerous whip slashes all over his arms, neck, chest, and one across his nose. But they were so much deeper than hers-so deep that she could almost see some of the red sinewy muscle protruding from the weeping wounds. She gasped and shook him.

"Thorn! Oh, please don't die!" She cried, slapping him on the face. "Come on!"

"Shut up, I'm fine!" Thorn moaned. "Oh damn the damned!"

"Thorn!" Moran gasped. "Do you need anything?"

"WHEN I get to Lut Gholein!" Thorn said. "I AM going to have four HUMONGOUS mugs of STRONG ale and drink and drink-"

"Thorn! Snap out of it!" Moran slapped his face and he opened his eyes.

"Wha?" He asked. "What happened?"

She groaned. "Get back in the wagon."

After helping him in and checking on Ollan and Nikan (minor injuries), she headed back to heart of the camp where the battle was done.

"Moran!" Kail gasped as he saw her. "What the-all that blood?"

"A Cat," Moran said. "I found the others. They're okay but Thorn-he looks really bad. His whip cuts are really deep and he's bleeding loads."

"All right," A look of anxiety crossed his face. "I'll go tell the others to get a move on."

"What about Warriv and his boys?" Moran asked.

"Warriv broke his wrist, no big deal," Kail said. "One of the boys are dead-broke his neck trying to escape the cats. He fell off the cliff on a pile of rocks."

Moran winced. "Terrible creatures, aren't they?"

The rest of the hour passed by a blur as Moran rode in the wagon with the others who were injured. She dozed off until she felt someone shaking her, and after failing to get her to wake up, she felt herself being carried and dumped into some sort of soft surface. She felt her clothes being removed and panicking, she jerked open her eyes.

"It's all right, it's just me," Fara said. "Sleep on. I'm going to clean your cuts."

Gratefully, she shut her tired eyes.