Catra glances over and catches sight of the wide but firm eyes of the princess. She can see the obvious horror. Could've been worse, Sparkles.
Her fingers are spread apart ready to tear through something, or someone else. Her position screams she's ready for retaliation and she scans her eyes over the appalled group members. The only noises in the last few moments have stopped, but the smell of iron fills the air as the blood continues to flow out onto the ground – drops still falling from her claws.
Her adrenaline is still pumping. She's needs to do something quick before the shock fades from the other alphas. She had the element of surprise on her side for this kill, but she doubts with Glimmer as a distraction and a liability that she could take on the rest of the pack.
"I was about to capture my prize before your blockhead alphas interfered." Catra reaches down and takes Tongue Lashor's whip from his side. Cool, she thinks.
Glimmer's eyes go wide and a brow dips in confusion at the direction Catra decides to take. She looks around and tries to see how it landed on the group.
One alpha up on a nearby branch growls, "your prize my ass! You're not even –"
Catra flings the end of the whip at the vulnerable idiot in a tree and yanks them off. She hears the wail before the crunched bush beneath them.
"Anyone else care to object?" She puts as much of her built of anger from the day into her voice and her lip begins to curl into a snarl. She knows deep down that she's outnumbered, but 2 of 8 down has made her odds a little better. Plus, she can tell these idiots have no sense. They probably won't even attack all at once and just try to show dominance one by one. Losing their top alpha breaks the hierarchy and they'll have to fix it. She can see the conflict in their stupid faces. Are we really gonna let a beta take our omega, her inner voice makes them sound petulant as she mocks them.
A tall female with horns on her head runs at Catra screaming out some kind of battle cry. The alpha inches closer and Catra turns and flings her whip at her. She tangles the alpha up and throws them onto the ground. She reaches her hand down and around the alpha's throat and looks to the others.
"Okay, this is how it's going to work." They snarl, but nobody moves. "I'm going to spare the rest of you and your friend," she looks down at the one in her grasp. "And you're going to let us go. Find yourselves another tasty morsel and leave us alone." She bares her teeth on her final words and clamps her fingers tighter on the female's neck to show the severity of her threat.
Another one pipes up after a firm grunt. "Alright, enough." The amphibian creature reaches out a hand as if to physically stop Catra, but doesn't move any closer.
Catra drops the alpha from her grasp and as she rises she shakes the whip off of her body. Catra backs up towards Glimmer and keeps her eye on every single one there. She roughly grabs Glimmer's arm, enough to hear a hiss, and starts walking in the opposite direction. C'mon Sparkles, play it up a bit. She looks over to the other girl who seems to get the hint.
Glimmer tries to pull away her arm – grunting as she does so. "Let go of me!"
Catra shoves the female in their new direction of travel and finally turns her back to the pack of alphas. When she feels as though they're far enough she leans into Glimmmer's ear. "I don't suppose you even have a lick of magic left, huh?"
Glimmer shakes her head grimly.
"We need to move," Catra says. "It's only a matter of time, before they finally figure something out and come after us. How far is Brightmoon? Do we have time to make it there?" Catra's gaze is intense and fiery. She doesn't want to die today to protect some dumb princess.
"It's just a bit shorter than a day's travel without my magic." Glimmer looks down at her feet as they continue walking. Catra can sense a bit of apprehension coming off her.
"Hey, look," Catra starts. Glimmer turns her eyes towards her in surprise at the change in tone. "I'm not actually going to like mate with you, or whatever. I only said that to get them to back off." Glimmer gives her a soft smile which makes Catra extremely uncomfortable. "That would be like so gross. Let's just get moving."
Glimmer sighs and rolls her eyes. She's not surprised the snarky ass would return to no avail.
They start to pick up the pace and Catra does her best to cover their tracks as they come to a river. It's roughly 20 meters wide. She fights her instincts tooth and nail but realizes that this option is their best bet to get some space from the alphas. She grits her teeth. "C'mon, let's go this way. We need to mask your scent somehow."
They start crossing the river with Glimmer going first and Catra following. There's no way in hell Catra was going to go first and realize there's some deep pit in the middle of the river that swallows her whole. She'd rather send in the idiot first to do it for her. The water isn't too high to be overwhelming, but it is unfathomably uncomfortable. Catra winces as she takes each step. The main reason she makes Glimmer go first is so that she can't see the pained looks Catra is clearly sporting right now as she treks across her nemesis.
They're about halfway across the river when Catra inches closer to the other woman. Glimmer is still carrying the sword on her back and she's clearly distracted – she hadn't said a word really since they got away. Catra reaches for her whip and grasps it firmly as an idea comes to her head. She releases the end of it towards Glimmer's ankle. What follows happens all so quickly in succession in the matter of a few moments.
Glimmer screams at the attack and lunges forward as she trips. She falls into the water and she reaches out her hands to catch herself. She rotates and falls to her back trying to turn and grab the sword to protect herself.
But Catra lunges over top of her body and she reaches for her wrists. They struggle as Glimmer tries her best to keep her head above the water.
"Argh! What... are… you doing?" The water splashes and spills over her face. She sees the ferocity in Catra's eyes. She can hear the metal of the blade scraping the floor of the river beneath her and her fear starts to amplify with the water washing over her face.
Suddenly, the world turns pink and sparkly as the two are 'poofed' and reappear on the opposite side of the river. Catra looks around confused and nauseous after what had just happened. "What the f –"
Glimmer shoves a knee into Catra's stomach, and the other female falls to the side from the hit. She gasps for air as Glimmer recovers from whatever in the hell just happened. She gets to her feet quickly to prepare for another attack.
Catra lifts a hand as she continues to cough the air back into her diaphragm. "Chill out!" She says in between coughs. "I thought you said you had no magic left." Her voice is colored in confusion and pain.
"Why would I tell you anything honest? I knew I couldn't trust you, Horde scum!" Glimmer's breathless as she recovers as well from her own recuperation with oxygen.
The brunette grunts in frustration before she moves to stand. As she gets to her feet she yells at the other, "we need you to not smell of sex all the way to Brightmoon. What'd you expect? I had to wash the stench off of you somehow." She's panting with frustration as she stares at the drenched woman across from her. Glimmer's hair is sticking to her face and she has her arms out to the side as to avoid the cold touch of her wet clothes.
"You, what!?" Glimmer's voice gets shrill with her outburst. "You though tripping me and attempting to drown me in water was the best way to relay your idea? You didn't think for a damn second that I'd probably agree and get in the water willingly?"
A realization clearly dawns on Catra's face. "You would've? Hm, I'll keep that in mind next time." She crosses her arms indignantly.
"Ugh!" Glimmer yells. How has nobody killed this woman before now, Glimmer wonders. "You're insufferable, you know that?" She gestures wildly with her hands and splashes water on the other woman from how wet her clothes are.
Catra flinches from the water, snarling with disgust from it. She looks at Glimmer heaving with anger. Then, a smirk comes to the brunette's lips. She loves getting a rise out of this princess. There's just something about the thrill of it. She wants to antagonize it and feed these flames. She shakes her head and realizes what she was considering.
Before she has time to recover from her maddening brain Glimmer shakes off more water. Her scent is still strong and filling Catra's sinuses. She snarls, "let's just get moving. We need to make it to Brightmoon. Hopefully, Arrow boy made it by now." She walks towards Glimmer and clips her shoulder as she walks by her. It causes a growl to be released from the other female and a smirk falls back onto Catra's face.
As they walk in relative silence the brunette can feel a pair of eyes on her. She turns her head an looks back at Glimmer, who immediately looks down at her feet. They continue walking when Catra feels it again. "Got something on your mind, Sparkles?"
The other woman stays silent as though she's combing through her thoughts carefully. "Why did you do that?"
Catra turns back to look at her in confusion, "I told you –"
"Not that…" she wrings her hands over her clothes to relieve them of some dampness. "You came back. Why?" Glimmer's tone is soft and contemplative.
Catra continues drudging forward through the thicker part of the woods they've come across yet. She slashes her claws through particularly rough spots clearing a path. "You really think I'd just let those pieces of garbage do that to you?" She looks back questioningly and Glimmer shrugs. Catra turns forward again to continue moving. "Yeah, I wouldn't have much faith in me either" she says.
They continue forward in relative silence when they make it to a clearing in the woods. Catra shoves out her arm stopping Glimmer's movement. She looks left and right. "What, are you trying to get captured?"
They look around and see in the distance a little home tucked in a cove of a tree root. They both look at each other and then back at the home. Glimmer shrugs her shoulders and walks in the direction of the house. Catra rolls her eyes at the stupidity of the other woman just barreling through the clearing like they aren't trying to hide from anyone.
"Maybe there's food." Glimmer yells over her shoulder and Catra hears her stomach grumble. She growls at her body's betrayal.
The brunette jumps out from the brush and stalks towards the house in a very defensive manner. She keeps her eyes scanning on all sides of the clearing. I hate this stupid magic forest… She makes it to the house and stands just behind Glimmer's shoulder.
Glimmer reaches for the doorknob and winces in pain. When she does, it makes Catra jump like a frightened cat. "What is it!?" Catra screams from the startling gesture.
Glimmer flinches at the volume of her voice and continues to hold herself. "Ugh," Glimmer says. "It's nothing. It's just my heat. I'm cramping really badly. Being dehydrated doesn't help, either. Let's just get inside. It doesn't seem like anyone's home and I haven't heard any noises."
Catra simmers down and smooths out the fur along her tail – a habit she's being doing since she was little. Her ears are pinned back to her head as they enter the home. She hears a noise from upstairs and her ears perk straight up. "I don't think this is a good idea. What if some crazy woods people are in here or something?" She looks around in different directions.
Glimmer moves across the room and doesn't notice a set of stairs leading to the upstairs. "There's no way up there. It must be an animal or something." She hisses in pain again and a low groan comes from her throat. "Let's just eat something quick and decide on what to do."
Catra nods reluctantly and looks around the cottage for any signs of food. There's a wooden cabinet standing off to the side of the room. It's surrounded by knick-knacks and random trinkets. There are hats hanging on hooks accompanied by a few pans. She reaches for the doors and opens them both simultaneously and dust puffs out from the sudden movement. She shakes her head free from the floating particles and lets out a sneeze, then another. She hears a snort come from the other side of the room. "What the hell are you laughing about?" She says through gritted teeth.
"That's your sneeze?" She says it trying to contain her laughter. "It's like the tiniest squeaky sneeze I've ever heard."
She growls and hunches her shoulders upwards in defense. "Shut the hell up, Sparkles." She looks through the damn cabinet for something edible. She finds some morsels of cookies and pastries. Thankfully, they've been covered from all this damn dust, she thinks. The delicious looking pastries sit on a white decorative stand that are encased with a glass dome. She debates on eating all of it for herself after the teasing she just endured but thinks otherwise as she hears another groan coming from the other woman. She sighs, "hey, I found something." She hears shuffling approach her and she moves out of the way.
Glimmer gasps at the sight and she reaches quickly for the food. She shoves one fully into her mouth and keeps her eyes closed as she savors the flavor. She doesn't dare open them to see the smug, judgmental look on the other's face. She eats two and suddenly her stomach pain starts to wane away. "Oh, thank goodness. I was almost literally dying of hunger."
The sun starts to set in the distance as Catra glances out the window. She fights the idea of staying in for the night for safety or venturing out to get to Brightmoon faster. Then again, I could swipe the sword and run back to get it to Adora. The mention of Adora's name makes her heart sink. She thought of Adora still out there in the Fright Zone trying to come up with some asinine plan to rescue her. That Hordak of all people was trying to come up with some team. There's no way. Why would they give a shit about me? –
"Watcha thinkin' about?" Glimmer's soft voice invades her mind. Catra turns and glares at the other woman who flinches and responds with her own angry look. "Geeze, I was just asking…"
Catra sighs and looks back out the window. "Maybe we should stay for the night." She turns back to Glimmer. "But not for long. We have to keep up the lead we have on those alphas and make sure they aren't still following us. What with you and your sex beacon still going off." She raises her hand gesturing to Glimmer's entire being.
"It's called a heat, ya jerk. Not that you know anything about that." She grumbles the last part to herself, but with Catra's sensitive hearing of course she picked it up.
"You're right. I don't. Good for you." She turns her head back towards the window.
Glimmer's ebbing anger and desire bubbling towards the surface is making her edge towards the confrontation on the topic. She wants to poke at Catra. She wants this tension to stop. She wants it to peak and release! "What are you anyways? You say you're a beta, but that hunter lady said you're like an omega."
Catra growls. She hates how needlessly intrusive the other woman is being. "It's none of your damn business."
"Yeah, well you're the one out here giving me a hard time for something I can't control. How can you speak on anything that you don't understand?" Her temper is beginning to flare as the heat inside her grows. She doesn't find her enticing sexually, but Catra's stubborn, angry self just stirs something in Gimmer that she can't explain.
Catra thrusts her body around nearly throwing herself upright towards Glimmer. "I don't know! You happy? I don't what the fuck I am. I don't know why it's so fucking confusing, why no one can tell what I am, not even myself!" Her chest is heaving from the anger bubbling up and out. She grits the rest out through her teeth. "What's it to you anyways?"
"Ugh! You're so infuriating. You pretend to be so pretentious like you know everything, but you don't even know yourself? You can't talk about any of this, because you have no experience. So just back off with your backhanded remarks."
"I have experience! I know what it's like to not be in control of your own body! Especially because of magic and that disgusting shit is like," she gestures wildly with her hands, "thick suffocating bullshit! You don't know what it's like to be controlled with it, or abused with it, or threatened with it! You're a prissy princess who gets whatever she wants and uses her magic to hurt other people!"
The two women are facing each other. The anger coming out in waves from both of their bodies.
"How can you say that!? You don't know anything about me! I don't use my magic to control or hurt anyone! I only use it to protect myself and the ones I love from you! Horde soldiers like you. You pillage and you destroy, and you hurt others without a care. I don't know who hurt you to make you think that those things are true, but they're wrong! The Horde causes pain, not my magic."
"Ugh! What do you know!?" Catra's had enough. Her emotions are overflowing with rage, pain and loss. She sees a flash of Shadow Weaver halting her movements with magic as she takes Adora away from her. She lunges at the princess and converts their verbal conflict into a physical one. She unsheathes her claws to tear apart the magical torment in front of her.
Glimmer expects her move and reaches out to grab at Catra's wrists. They hold positions like their sheer will, will subdue their opponent. Then Glimmer pushes her weight over onto Catra. She pushes her back up against the table she was just perched on a moment ago. Their bodies are close and pressing against each other as the anger and frustration pours out of them. Catra, feeling extremely uncomfortable, flips their positions as she leans to the side, then she pulls Glimmer to the ground and collapse on top of her, straddling her waist. They continue fighting for dominance. When Catra gets a hand free, she reaches to claw at Glimmer's face, but she rolls her head away to the left to dodge it.
While Catra is momentarily off balance, Glimmer juts her hips forward and tosses the brunette over her shoulder. Glimmer flips over and sees that Catra caught herself on her hands and knees. She reaches for her right leg trying to pull the brunette backwards to punch her, but Catra quickly rolls onto her back and kicks out her left leg. It makes direct contact with Glimmer's shoulder and she winces in pain.
The two are scrambling to dominate the other to show who is right. They need to prove to the other who is better – which side is better. After a few moments of pulling hair and scratching skin they're breathing heavily. Glimmer has Catra's arm twisted in a weird angle and Catra is digging her claws into Glimmer's calf muscle. The two refuse to relent until they hear a loud grumbling sound. They stop moving their bodies and the only sounds they can hear are their own heavy breaths.
They both turn their heads towards the front window. The sound came from outside.
Catra shoves Glimmer and attempts to rotate her body from underneath her to get up, but Glimmer just sits atop her, frozen.
"You heard that right?" Glimmer seems to be more than startled by the noise, but Catra just huffs and gives her a hard push to get up.
"It's probably nothing," she says as her heart races in her chest. I hate magic, why is everything in this forest so creepy? She crouches lower as she moves to the window, so that she won't be spotted easily. She looks out to her right then her left, but nothing is amiss. Her eyes squint as she tries her best to look past the glaring sun setting just beyond the treetops and she sees something move. Her eyes widen and she puts her hand to her brow to block some of the light.
"What is it?" Glimmer whisper yells across the room to Catra who nearly jumps out of her skin from the disruption.
Catra glares back at her and through gritted teeth says, "I don't know. Do you mind? A little busy here." She turns back to see a large creature coming their way. Her eyes shoot open and she tracks it's body with her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something, but at first she can't get anything out. What the fuck is – "Shit!"She leaps away from the window and a huge body bulldozes into the wall.
"AAaaaAAHhhHh!" Glimmer's scream is alarmingly and annoyingly loud as they both dive out of the way. "What the heck is that thing!?" Her eyes are blown comically wide in horror.
"I don't fucking know, now move!" Catra shoves Glimmer's shoulder awfully hard with both her hands. The jolt causes her to come back to Etheria.
They start making their way to a side window that was taking advantage of a separation in the root structure of the tree. Catra flings it open and as they climb out the big bug thing keeps smashing into the poor little house.
They make it outside and the monstrosity realizes they've left and redirects it's trajectory. It rolls backwards as it's whole body encases itself into a ball.
The young women take off on a sprint to avoid it, but there's no escaping it. Catra decides there's no outrunning this thing and turns to face it. She stands there bracing her body with her arms out, claws extended, and her breathing heavy.
As it comes closer, she leaps to the side and dodges out of the way as it rams straight into another tree. She takes the opportunity to launch herself onto it and starts clawing its' metal exterior. She slices her way through, but nothing is enough to be fatal. She grabs ahold of the surface as she leaps down the side of it – dragging her claws through the metal creating a loud shrieking noise. The giant bug is hardly affected as Catra makes it back over to Glimmer.
"What do we do!?" Glimmer looks at the bug recover and move away from the tree. It begins to barrel it's way towards the pair. As Glimmer looks on with horrified eyes, Catra shoves the woman out of the way of it's huge body. "Oof." The sword dislodges from its place on Glimmer's back and slides about 3 meters away. She looks up and reaches for it, but Catra tumbles in front of her grabbing the sword simultaneously as the bug inches closer. She raises it and the creature pauses. Catra's eyes are shut, since she's assuming she would be squished.
Instead, a bright flashing light appears in front of Catra and she falls to the ground. She looks up between her fingers at the blinding light. The golden form of Adora stands in front of her holding the sword aloft to the bug. The cape and the hair is much different than her usual form. The brunette inhales sharply at the surprising form and watches her as the form of the woman turns her head back to Catra. It was like she could feel her concern and feel the warmth radiating off her – all for Catra.
The bug shuts down and plops its body to the ground. The light disappears and the sword clatters when it hits the ground.
Catra sits there looking at the sword and feeling like a piece of her was ripped from her chest. The loss of the presence puts Catra at a loss for words.
"What. The. Ever-loving-shit was that!?" Glimmer's eyes are trained on the sword as well, her mouth slack as she gapes at it.
Catra looks over realizing that the other woman is there. She feels as though her emotions are written all over her face and spewed out in the open for Glimmer and everyone to see. Disgusted with herself, she clenches her jaw and composes her grief. Her eyes turn back towards the sword.
She had thought for a moment the beast had plowed into her causing another vision to occur, but this is all happening in real life. Glimmer's presence is a testament to that. She gets up and moves to grab the sword again. "I don't know… but this is why I'm still here." In an attempt to change the subject she says, "I've never seen anything like that in the Fright Zone. Don't you like know everything that lives in this forest?"
"What!? Why the hell would I? Who was that golden woman!?" Her impatience and concern is loud and disconcerting as Catra worries it might draw unwanted attention.
Catra drops the sword and moves forward to throw her hands in the other's face. "Will you keep it down a little? Damn." Glimmer shakes her head and leans backwards to avoid Catra's unwarranted touches.
"Ugh! Will you stop trying to control me? You are my prisoner here and if you –"
"You're prisoner?" Catra's brow furrows in annoyance. "I'm pretty sure that's twice that I've saved your life. So, you should show a little more respect." She folds her arms over her chest indignantly.
"Ugh!" Glimmer clenches her teeth and her fists as her hormones begin to rage inside of her. She shakes her head and breathes her frustration out with a groan. "Yano what? You're right."
"Damn right I – what?" Catra looks like she's being pranked – eyeing Glimmer with suspicion.
"You're right, you have saved me." She opens her eyes after having calmed down. "Twice actually, and as hard as it is to say… Thank you, Horde sc… I mean – what is your name anyways?"
Catra eyes her with reservation. With one brow raised she shifts her weight onto her other leg as the silence between them drags on. "Oh, now you care?"
Glimmer throws her hands up in exasperation. "Why do I even try?" She turns around and starts to walk away.
The brunette can hardly understand why Glimmer lost all her frustration in just a matter of moments. She's never met anyone that's ever been able to own up to their own shit before – besides Adora.
"Catra," she says as she looks at the ground in front of her. "It's Catra."
Glimmer pauses in her movements and turns her head as if to direct her words towards the other person. Her voice is lower, "thank you, Catra." She continues walking further into the woods deciding not to snicker at the woman's punny name.
The brunette picks up the sword and debates with herself on what she should do now. She has the sword and Glimmer isn't much of a crack security officer. She can escape if she wants to. She looks into the blade hoping to see a sliver of Adora, but she only sees herself looking back.
She hears something shuffling in the brush nearby and lurches forward to grab Glimmer's arm. "What is that?" Glimmer asks in a hushed tone.
Abruptly, Catra hears a whirring sound before she's encased in a net. She falls to the ground writhing in her new, yet familiar, prison. She writhes and struggles against the constraints. Catra opens her eyes to see Glimmer looking down at her with wide eyes and Arrow boy falls from a branch to her side. She turns to him. "Bow! How did you –"
"Glimmer, thank goodness your safe!" Bow grips her shoulders and pulls her into a tight embrace. He pulls back to talk, but still maintains his grasp on her arms. "We tried to find you where I left you guys from before, but I couldn't locate you, even with my tracker pad. Then, I smelled some alphas scents lingering and I really started to worry." As Bow begins to ramble his escapades to her she looks around and sees droves of the Brightmoon guard filtering in around her. A few had reached down to pick up Catra off the ground. "Glim, you started your heat." That regains her attention. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry I wasn't there. Are you okay?" He sniffs the air absentmindedly and Glimmer can feel the security of Bow's presence. She knows he would protect her if she ever needed it.
Catra begins writhing in her trap. "Arrghh! Let me out of here!"
The brunette's voice carries and Glimmer turns to pay her attention. "No wait –"
"Princess, this Horde soldier is a prisoner of Brightmoon. We'll be taking her to the palace with us and we'll be escorting you home."
Before she could hear Glimmer's further protests Catra loses consciousness as another –familiar even – sensation overtakes her body… Fucking magic, is her last thought before going unconscious.
A/N
Alright guys enjoy! This will continue. Don't fret ;)