Chapter 17
Katelin stomped through the mud and the rain, angrily wiping the water off of her face, while still clutching Cai tightly to her.
'I shouldn't have left home! If I hadn't, none of this stupid mess would have happened!' She thought to herself furiously, 'I hate this! It's raining! I don't know how to get out of this stupid forest, and…' she sobbed, 'I have no idea what to do.'
She stopped in her tracks, her shoulders shaking while the rain pounded the earth harder each passing second.
Cai looked up at her, "It's ok…" He sighed, having no idea what to say, "We can get out of here, can't we? You got through here the first time, so you can do it again."
"Kira and William brought me!" she cried.
Cai frowned slightly at the mention of the tiger's name, 'No time for this now!' He scolded himself, "Well," He searched looked around warily, as if trying to find a way out of the forest, "if we keep going straight then we'll get out eventually."
Katelin nodded obediently, it's not like she could think of anything else to do.
The pair made there way through the forest, not uttering a word, for a little while until they reached a steady river. Katelin gazed down at the churning waters flowing rapidly down stream, her heart beating a bit faster in fear.
"I think your idea may be a little bit easier said than done…" She mumbled.
Cai nodded wordlessly.
"So what do we do now?" She asked him.
"Umm why don't we head back a little ways and take another way?" He suggested uneasily.
"Ok."
The girl and the rabbit had barely taken five steps when they heard a low growling, followed by a howl.
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Kira stood near the exit of the cave in horror as she heard the howl echo outside through the heavy falling rain. She swiftly turned to her brother, her stripped tail twitching nervously.
"Katelin and Cai are out there all alone! We have to go after them!" She told him.
"You're in no position to be saying anything, kitty." Wuya said to her.
Kira ignored her, gazing at Chase, "Well?"
"That's her problem and I'm not about to go out of my way just to save her." Chase replied calmly.
Kira stared at him, her mouth opened in shock showing pearly white pointed teeth. Wuya smirked giving her an I-told-you-so look.
"What?" Kira asked weakly.
"You heard me."
"Why can't you be your old self again?" She whispered.
"Regardless of what you think, there's a fine line between how it is and how it should be." Chase said calmly.
Kira gazed at him stolidly and changed into her human form, "There's also a fine line between who you are and who you should be, but it was too late for you to figure that out." She told him, her voice wavering in the end, though her crystal blue eyes stayed on him stubbornly.
When there was no reply from him or rude comment from Wuya she continued, "If you won't help her, then I will."
And with that the young girl turned on her heel and marched out of the cave.
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Katelin froze. It was as if her mind had just gone completely blank. Three wolves were approaching; their teeth were bared and they were snarling menacingly.
"RUN!" Cai shouted.
Katelin automatically obeyed, not paying attention to where she was going, just trying to get away the wolves. She could hear two of the wolves chasing after her. Realizing that Cai wasn't with her, she imagined that the last one was after him.
'Cai… Please don't get hurt!' She prayed.
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Cai leaned against a tree trunk, breathing heavily. He quickly jumped into a nearby shrub as he heard the telltale splashes of the wolf approaching. He crouched down lower, his gaze still on the predator.
The wolf stalked the area, sniffing around for the rabbit. A minute or two later, after not finding him, he turned back in the direction he had come.
When Cai was sure that the wolf would not come back, he breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the ground.
"I say, Cai is that you?" A voice came up from the tree.
"William!"
"Yup that's me." The crow answered cheerfully, fluttering down to the ground. He looked around for a moment as if it were just a normal day and it wasn't pouring rain, "Where's Katelin?"
"KATELIN!" Cai shouted, "WE HAVE TO GO AFTER HER!"
"Whoa, whoa! What happened?" William asked, confused.
"The wolves! They got her! We have to go after her!" Cai replied frantically.
"They got her!?" A new voice asked horrified.
The rabbit and the crow turned to the owner of the voice to see Kira, back in tiger form and sopping wet.
"We have to go after her!" She repeated Cai's statement.
She started forward, but she slipped on some mud, and fell on top of Cai, who fell face down in the mud. Unfortunately, they were on top of a hill, and down came rabbit, tiger and all.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Cai screamed as they fell sledded through the mud with Kira using him as a toboggan.
"Well at least we know it's all downhill from here!" William said in his usual cheerful self.
"THAT'S A BAD THING!" Cai roared, "NOW GET OFF OF ME YOU STUPID CAT!"
"I can't!" Kira replied looking around worriedly, "But this is kinda fun…!" she grinned, grabbing poor Cai's ears and using them to steer around a tree.
"OWW! THOSE ARE ATTACHED YOU KNOW! AND HOW FUN DO YOU THINK IT IS FOR THE SLED!?"
"Giant rock!" Kira yelled.
William swooped down and grabbed Kira by the shoulders and pulled the two up in the air and over the rock.
"WILLIAM!" Cai roared when the had landed and continued sliding, "WHY ARE YOU ON ME NOW ALSO!?"
"Cause it's fun!" William laughed, spreading his wings as if we were flying, "I'm flying Cai!"
"YOU CAN ALREADY FLY!"
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Katelin was starting to slow down, her breath becoming steadily heavier and heavier. As she felt as if she would drop, she slid to a stop in front of a small cliff with the deeper part of the river roaring beneath. She heard the wolves growls behind her and felt the earth slip under her feet.
She plunged into the freezing water, fighting against the force of the river pushing her down into the darkness.
As the cold engulfed her almost completely she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist, pulling up towards the surface; and the world went black.
A/N: Yes! I have finally posted this chapter! This one was really hard for me to write because it's so much more serious than my others. Of course I managed to add a little bit of comedy with Cai, Kira, and William! I loved writing that part! As you may have noticed I added a pun from 'Titanic', which I don't own. And when Kira is talking to Chase there are two lines from the song 'Dare You To Move', by Switchfoot, which I also don't own. But that's where I got the inspiration to write this chappie. FYI this one was so hard to write because I have good ideas for the following chapters and EEEEEEE! THE FLUFF BEGINS!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY! Yes. I just realized that. Kinda sad since I'm the author... so please review! It took ages to put the words onto paper so I think it's the least I deserve. So thanks for reading my chapter and I'll update much sooner then I did this time. Thankies!