Chapter 3: Demon Cats and Feathers

Yesterday's flurries turned into today's storm. Snow swirled around us as we set off right before the sun was about to rise. The snow rose up two feet, slowing our trek slightly. We started off by walking in pairs; Eva and I, Mana and Yuhi, but that soon changed when I threw a snowball straight at Mana's face. "HEY!!!" She yelled, giving me a god awful face. "JERK!!!!" She ran after me and tackled me. I chuckled. I did this on purpose; it was too boring and we needed to warm up before we got to Layaquin Hathnarai.

She drew her sword and flipped it (so that it wouldn't hurt me) and I did the same. We blocked, attacked, and did everything you could think of, when it came to fighting, for about 10 minutes. Yuhi just stared at us. After we finished, he finally spoke, "Oh my gosh, how can you move that fast?! I thought only demons had that kind of power!" I shrugged. We both sheathed our swords. Eva had sat down while we were fighting and probably calculating how much longer we should walk before we stopped for lunch.

"Hmmm… I think we probably need to continue for another seven hours before we stop for lunch. We can take a break before that, of course!" She said after the mean looks she got. She stood up and we trudged on, well, except for Mana who skipped on.

"Does she always have that much energy?"

"Oh, yes. She never sits still." For hours later, we laughed and joked and carried on. Finally, seven hours later, we stopped for lunch. "We made good time," I commented. "We should be to a stopping point soon!" I smiled, but Mana frowned.

"Don't smile. You know that the "stopping point" means." She rolled her eyes and set off to cook. She was right, I shouldn't be smiling, but I didn't want the others to get worried. "Go get some wood, Sereg." She seemed kind of jumpy now. I had an idea to why, as well. Obeying, for fear of loosing my lunch if I didn't, I went off into the forest we stopped by and searched for whatever would could be found. After a few minutes, something tackled me from above. I rolled over and pushed Eva off me, but she bounced back like a spring and tackled me to the ground. We rolled and we ended up with her laying on my arm looking up and me and I on my side looking down at her.

"Hey." I kissed her nose and she smiled and huggled me. "What?"

"I've missed you!"

"What do you mean?! We've been walking together the whole day!"

"Yes, but I haven't had you to myself!"

"Whiney baby." I stuck my tongue out at her, then she glared at me and bit me. "OW!"

"Ha! Serves you right!." She stuck her tongue out back at me. "What was Mana talking about, though? 'You know what the stopping point means'? What's that mean?"

I shifted my eyes to try to avoid the question, but she growled and glared at me until I caved in. "Alright! We're coming up on a mystical forest. But it's no bit deal, I don't know what she's so worried about. She probably just has bad memories from it because she was 14 when she went through it with me." She glared at me, not believing me. "That's it, I swear!" Oh, man, she's going to kill me when we get there and she finds out how bad it is. Oh well.

"Liar," she said and kissed me. I smiled and kissed her back. "But a liar who can kiss, so I forgive you." She stuck her tongue out at me yet again.

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We ate some rabbit that Yuhi caught for us. Poor rabbit. Eh, it was going to die eventually, anyway, and we needed the food. I just tried not to think of the poor, cute little thing when I ate it. I made Yuhi cut it up for me, so I didn't have to see it mutilated. After lunch, we decided that we didn't really want to go any farther that day, even though we needed to make good time, none of us really felt like it. Yuhi, Sereg, and Eva stayed around the fire and talked, but I wanted to be by myself for a while and I went off wandering for quite a while.

I danced around the forest, remembering Telume, my home and the times when I took dancing and sewing and many other things of the sort. I did miss my home, but I don't regret moving out. Not one bit, do I.

---Flashback---

"Don't you miss it?" Sereg asked me.

"Well, yes, of course I miss it. But I'm not going back, no matter what. I can't, Sereg. You can. You can do what you want; you're the male and you would never have rule of the realm, so they're not as strict on you as they are on me. If Laamina ever dies, then I'm next in line, thus, I have no freedom." He nodded in understanding.

"Yes, yes, I know."

---End---

I heard a deep rumbling sound behind me. It sounded almost like…! A Raka, one of the meanest cats in all the realms! And this thing's not kitty; it comes up to the average man's waist, and I'm quite short as it is! I turned around so I could find the Raka and bind it, but as I was turning around, someone yelled "MANA! WATCH OUT!!!" And I saw Yuhi jump in from of the attacking cat.

"OH MY GOSH, YUHI!!!" I tried to run up to help, but he just yelled at me to get out of the way. I did what he said, but if it looked like he was going to get hurt, I was getting involved. The cat didn't harm him, but he hadn't killed it yet and it was still attacking. After a few minutes of dodging each other, the Raka slashed Yuhi's chest, but then he killed it. "Yuhi!!!" I ran up to him and touched his shoulder. "Yuhi! You shouldn't have done that! I could have taken care of it with a simple binding spell!" Tears brimmed my eyes. "You moron! You're hurt now!"

"It was about to pounce you!!! You wouldn't have had TIME to bind it!!"

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" I glared at him.

"It would have killed you!"

"I could have taken care of it mys--" I heard a mewing sound and looked up to the tree behind me. There was a baby Raka up in the tree, at the very top. "Oh no! I think we just killed its mother! That's why she was attacking me! The poor thing, he's going to die if we don't get it down!" I started scaling the tree to climb to get it, but Yuhi pulled me down. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! IT'S GOING TO DIE! STOP IT!!!"

"Sh.. Shhh. SHUT UP!!!" He glared at me, but I glared daggers back. "You'll hurt yourself if you climb up there! It's too high, you could die."

"I don't care."

"Well I do. I can get it down. Just, don't freak out, okay."

"Wha-?"

"Just, promise me you won't freak out."

"Bu-!"

"PROMISE!"

"OKAY! Okay! I promise! But what are you going to-" He took his shirt off, and his chest was dripping blood. "What the!"

"Just hold it, okay?" What he was about to do freaked me out, but amazed me at the same time. He started glowing purple and his back started to spasm, and two, gorgeous purple wings sprouted out of his back. Bug-eyed, I watched as he flew up to the top of the tree and carefully grabbed the kitten and floated back down. He handed me the kitten and looked aside, but I was still looking at him. "Are you afraid of me now?"

Hugging the frightened kitten, I walked around him to look at the wings. The feathers were a deep, deep purple. I ran my hands over the feathers. They were so soft. I put my cheek on them and hugged a wing. He turned and looked at me. "It's amazing," I said.

"You mean… you're not… sickened or anything?

"No, oh my, how could I be? Can you fly okay with them? Like a bird, or something?"

"Yeah, here," he quickly grabbed me and cradled me in his arms and took off. I screamed and held on the even more frightened kitten. He took me above the canopy of the trees. I could see for miles around. It was twilight and the stars were beginning to come out. "So amazing." I looked all around me and took everything in.

"You like it?" He was smiling at me.

"Oh, I love it! How can you resist not being up here all the time?!"

"Eh, well…" He trailed off. We started to float down and he landed gently on the ground and set me down.

"We need to take care of your cuts before they get infected."

"Okay, let's head back," He grabbed his shirt and pulled his wings in. "Hey, could you not tell Eva or Sereg for me, please?"

I smiled. "Don't worry about it. Though, I'm sure they wouldn't freak about it, either."

"Don't want to take a chance." That I could understand. I cradled the kitten. She was starting to settle down and was starting to fall asleep. "What are you going to name it?"

"I think I'm going to name her Chiyo." He smiled. We got back to the camp and I wrapped his wounds and we told the curious Eva and Sereg about what happened. Eva loved Chiyo and was playing with her while talking to Sereg and I. Yuhi was really reserved and stayed off to the side.

It was getting late and we all were dozing off. I was asleep, but then I woke up and I saw Yuhi walking away from me, and my lips were warm and wet, when they should be dry from the cold air. I put two and two together and figured out that he had kissed me. "Oh my gosh," I whispered to myself. He was falling in love with me. I smiled and wriggled my arms from around Chiyo and followed him. I found him on a cliff, over looking a beautiful lake reflecting the full moon and stars. I walked right behind him and touched his arm. He turned around and looked down, surprised and confused. I looked up to him, "Did you mean it?"

He flushed. "Mean what?"

"The kiss?"

He breathed and looked to the side. "Of course."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. Surprised at first, he then wrapped his arms around me and held me tight and laid his head on mine. "You're not mad?"

"Mm… no." It had only been a few days or so, but he had no evil intention. I heard him muttering in his sleep when was injured and his body was weak, but he had a pure heart. I trusted him. Completely.

He started to glow again, and soon he was carrying me into the night sky. We flew between the mountains and over the water. I reached my hand down and skimmed the water, causing wakes, along with his beating wings. It was amazing! I loved every minute of it. He stopped in the center of the lake and we floated above it. I wrapped my arms around his neck to make sure I wouldn't fall. After a moment of silence, I spoke up. "Why me, though?"

"You're the only one who's ever accepted me, or even cared." He kissed me.

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Eva- T-T That's so cute!!! -sniffle- -huggles Sereg-

Mana- Sorry that It was my POV for most of the Chapter

Sereg- :p Story hog

Mana- HEY!!!! -glare-