Chapter 13
"WAKEY, WAKEY!" A loud voice broke the silence, waking Katelin in a very unpleasant way.
"SHUT UP YOU STUPID CAT!" Cai's voice replied in an angry yell.
Katelin opened in green eyes, rolling over to see Cai and Kira yelling at each other, while surprisingly, William was sleeping through all the racket.
"What time is it…?" She mumbled sleepily.
Kira looked up, pausing before returning an insult "Hmmm… I'm not entirely sure but… let's just say the sun isn't out quite yet. STUPID RODENT!" She finished, yelling at Cai.
Katelin groaned, curling up in a tight ball, not wanting to get up.
The small tiger glanced back at Katelin and saw that she was asleep. Her small face formed into a frown as she prodded the girl's back with her nose.
"Wake up…" She mumbled.
"I don't wanna…"
"Chase will be very angry if you don't." Kira told her softly.
"Don't try threatening us!" Cai snapped, waking William.
"What? What did I miss!" William cried jerking his head.
"Oh nothing…" Cai said sarcastically "Just this brat threatening to get Chase if Katelin doesn't get up."
William shot up and flew to Katelin "Wake up! Wake up!"
Katelin opened one eye to see William staring at her, a few inches away from her face.
"Wake up!" He repeated.
Katelin frowned and sat, rubbing her eyes.
Kira smiled, showing small pearly white cat teeth. "Now that you're awake you'd best hurry and get ready for training." She let out a small sigh, but William and Cai didn't seem to notice it. Katelin frowned, wondering for a small moment why she had sighed. Kira shook her head and left the room.
"Why do you look so nervous?" Katelin blinked, looking at the person who had spoken. "Why are you nervous?" Cai repeated, gazing at William.
William clamped his beak shut, confirming his nervousness.
"Are you scared of Chase…?" Katelin asked softly.
"No! Of course I'm not! You just tend to hear some bad things about him, that's all." William said defensively.
Cai rolled his eyes "Whatever…"
Katelin shook her head and decided to leave that topic.
A few minutes later Katelin cautiously pushed open a door, peeking inside. She sighed as she saw Chase taking a sip from what looked like soup. Katelin entered the room and took a seat as far away from Chase, who had yet to acknowledge her presence. She stared down at the table, noticing a plate filled with food for her. She clutched her hands tightly between her knees, not daring to touch her food.
"It's not poisonous if that's what you were thinking." A voice said.
Katelin looked up, realizing that the voice belonged to Chase. He stirred his soup calmly. It seemed as if he hadn't looked up once, not even when he had spoken, giving the impression of being uninterested in everyone.
"Is that soup?" Cai's voice broke through the silence as he hopped onto the table. He pushed the plate of food to the side, giving it a suspicious look.
"Well even if it is soup it's not that abnormal!" William said, landing on the opposite side of the plate, pushing it back in front of Katelin with one foot. "Didn't you tell me that one of your friends eats left over pizza for breakfast?" William glanced at Katelin.
"Yeah," Cai agreed "but that's just gross." He added as he pushed the plate back to William.
"Of course I prefer a traditional breakfast of some bread that ignorant humans throw at those ducks, who I might add have plenty to eat already, and a worm. Maybe some seeds at the side. But how can you argue with someone's appetite!" The plate was pushed to Katelin.
"What kind of nasty breakfast is that?" Cai asked, pushing the plate away.
"Naturally you'd prefer a nice carrot and some pumpkin seeds?" A new voice added in smugly. Katelin looked down at the floor to see Kira, her tail brushing against the leg of the chair.
Katelin looked up past Cai and William, still pushing the plate back and forth, at Chase. He was rolling his golden eyes at the idiotic conversation.
"Yeah and I'm sure you like to eat innocent rodents." Cai snapped. "Or will you settle for Fancy Feast?"
"I'm not some common domesticated animal like you, if you haven't noticed!"
"Shut. Up." Chase said slowly in a cold way.
Immediately the three of them quieted. Cai was pouting stubbornly, William looked frightened, and Kira was smiling smugly. The five, or rather four of them sat in an awkward silence, while Chase finished his soup, undisturbed.
He turned his gaze to them after a few minutes and said, "Seeing as you aren't giving any signs of eating breakfast we'll just start with training."
He stood up and walked past them, heading outside. Katelin followed him, staying a few feet behind him, barely noticing where they were going. So naturally she didn't notice when he stopped and bumped into him. She hurriedly backed up a few paces, mumbling her apologies quickly.
He shook his head exasperated "You're such an airhead! Try paying attention to where you're going from now on!"
She jerked her head up to him. Her shoulders lifted angrily and she had a sudden urge to stomp on his foot. But instead she growled, "I am not an airhead!"
"Yes you are." He replied quickly, but clearly unfazed by her anger.
Katelin not exactly knowing how to react to his not-caringness (A/N: If that's even a word… ;), simply growled, putting on a similar face to Cai's stubborn pout, crossing her arms.
Chase smiled smugly, trying not to laugh at her reaction. With that he went into a forward bow stance (A/N: Umm a forward bow stance, cough evil cough, is where you put one foot a few feet behind the first. You're front knee is parallel to the ground while the back leg is straight. So if you're doing it right, it'll fell like your legs are about to fall off. Please continue.), and put his hands behind his back. Katelin stared. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if to tell her to do the same thing. She did.
"Lower." He stated simply, not even bothering to look at the stance.
She glared "You aren't even looking!"
"Just go lower in the stance!" He snapped.
She glowered, pushing her back foot farther behind her.
"Good enough." Chase said dryly, receiving another glare from Katelin.
He ignored the look and pulled his back leg in towards the front and slid it forward so he was in another bow stance. (A/N: Ok, last authors note but… I'm really bad at describing stuff like in kung-fu and other martial arts since I'm a visual learner so please no flames!)
Katelin copied his movement.
"Deeper stance." Chase criticized in a bored tone.
Katelin felt her face flush in anger, moving her back leg back farther.
Once again Chase ignored this.
"Kira will be going with you to-"
"WHAT!" Kira and Cai shouted in unison.
"make sure your stances are deep enough," Chase smirked as he said this "make sure you don't stray off the path, or stop for any kind of break."
Kira was about to argue with this until she realized that one part was actually reasonable if not somewhat thoughtful.
"I'll expect you to be back before nightfall." Chase ended, finally walking back up.
Kira was about to argue with this too, when she realized this too, also had a good reason. "Let's get this over with…" She grumbled.
Katelin sighed, seeing no point in not starting. Who knew how long this would take? And plus, how bad could it get? After all, she did have William and Cai with her, even Kira was also there.
Sadly that was the bad part.
"STUPID CAT!"
"STUPID RABBIT!"
"STUPID CAT!"
"STUPID RABBIT!"
"STUPID CAT!"
"IDIOTIC RODENT WHO SUFFERS FROM PARANOIA!"
"STALKER LACKEY CAT!"
"WOULD BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP?" Katelin shouted furiously.
"My ears hurt!" William whined "Wait! I don't have ears! Why don't I have ears!"
"Well apparently you have ears, or else you wouldn't be able to hear, dumdum." Kira sneered.
"You're mean." William told her.
"Oh like we haven't figured that one out yet! Thanks for stating the obvious!" Cai snapped.
Katelin stomped her foot angrily, stopping the exercise. "Just shut up! All of you! We've been out here for barely ten minutes and I'm already getting a migraine!"
"It's that stupid cat's fault!" Cai accused.
"You were arguing too!" William snapped.
"Oh? And what makes it my fault?" Kira asked coldly.
"Oh I see how it is. You're joining her side because you're so scared of Chase."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are."
"Why's it my fault!"
"Because you're the bad guy here." Cai said simply.
Kira quieted. After a moment she said "Whatever. I don't care about any of you." She said angrily but sounding a little hurt at the same time. She walked off in the opposite direction.
As soon as she turned around the bend, the awkward silence was broken.
"I didn't expect her to walk away like that…" Katelin said softly.
"Who cares?" Cai grumbled, though a little uncertainly.
"Do you think we'll get in trouble…?" William said fearfully.
"Chase Young wasn't always evil you know…" A quiet voice joined in.
Standing a few yards away from them was the young girl. Up until now, only Cai had ever seen her before, so it was more of a shock to see her for William and Katelin.
Katelin blinked at the young girl standing before her "Who are you?" she asked vaguely.
She smiled "I'm someone who can help you."
William frowned "How do we know we can trust her?"
"Don't worry." Cai reassured him "She tried to help me."
Katelin gazed at her pet rabbit for a few moments before nodding, as if to say that she believed him.
"What did you mean by Chase being good once?" She asked.
The girl bit her lip "I'm not sure what exactly happened… but I do know that Chase once fought on the side of good."
"I've never heard that before…" Katelin murmured to herself.
"Neither have I." William gave her a suspicious look.
"I wouldn't lie about this." The young girl said seriously, sitting down on the ground.
Katelin also sat down "No offense or anything… but how is this supposed help us?" She bit her lip.
The young girl gave a small smile "I'm not sure."
Katelin exchanged looks with the rabbit and the crow.
"But," She continued "I have faith that if we could find out more about it, it could help. Trust me." She gave an encouraging smile.
Katelin paused a moment before nodding.
"Do you have any shen-gong-wu?" The girl asked quickly.
Katelin smiled "One. I thought it might help a little."
She smiled; looking relieved "Which one?"
"The Voler Egg."
"This could work…"
A/N: Ok... It is 11:26 on Sunday right now so it is still 'this week'. I didn't get to write nearly as much as I had hoped but the next chapter will have more backround on 'the young girl'. BWAHAHAHAHA! Teehee I can't wait! I'm sorry if updates will take a while, but if you haven't noticed I'm working on 3 different fics right now. It may not be much for some people but I must admit (me: blushes) I've been a little lazy about writing and a little hyper about reading ccs fanfics... mostly sakuraxsyaoran fics! XD They're so kawaii! So sorry about all the wait and I have no clue when I'll update since I also have to work on fn and sc. Thanks for your much appreciated patience and please read and review! ttfn!