Season I
Chapter 1: The FamilyAnother morning, another insult. Were the only words that came to a small she cats mind as her mother, Roulette ranted on and on about how the she cat would open her eyes, even though all the other kits had. Malice sighed as she lay beside her brother and friends.
"What's the matter, Malice?" Havoc, her brother, asked her, concern in his meow.
"Its nothing you should worry about, mother is just worried that I'm not opening my eyes. I keep telling her that I'll open them when I'm ready, but she says that makes me weak." Malice responded, her head turned in her brother's direction.
"Malice…" Skoll breathed.
"After all mother's been through, I don't blame her." The voice of Fenrir made Malice jump slightly. "Its just natural, she worried, not mad."
Malice just shook her head. "Fine, if it makes mother happily, I'll spend all day trying to open my eyes." Malice meowed softly. She could feel the pride and happiness radiation off the tomcats.
~*~
Later that evening, Malice was relaxing by the entrance of her den. Her kin had tried to help her all day to open her eyes, but they just wouldn't budge.
"It would be best if you stayed inside your den, kit." Came a deep voice in front of her, Malice let out a little squeak and jumped to her paws, her head turning in the tom's direction. The next second a familiar scent flooded her sense, and she relaxed. "Hello father." Malice responded. Malice's father was the unofficial leader of the little band of rouges she lived in. They would travel, and sometimes even take a few cats into their little band. Right now they only had 8 cats in their band. Malice has only meet Roulette, Skart, Hati, Fenrir, Skoll and Havoc. She has yet to meet the other two cats.
She felt, more than heard, her father take a paw step closer to her. "Open your eyes kit." The tom said in a commanding tone, one of coldness and pure dominance. The little kit stiffened in fear, her pelt rising in fear, and her eyes snapped open. Her first impression of the world was that it was really… red. The sun was setting in the vast sky, painting the vast open air a blood red. The sun was blocked by the shadow of a large tomcat, much bigger than Malice. He was a handsome light beige colour, with perfect darker brown spots covering his body, and evil looking yellow-green eyes. The tom, Skart (her father), smirked darkly. "That's interesting. Forest green…"
~*~
"Malice!" Roulette yowl sounded from the side of the clearing where the rouges had made their temporary home.
"Yes!" Malice jumped to her paws, from where she had been staring into space. It had been three days since she opened her eyes, and she got used to the sight of all the cats. Roulette was a beautiful as Malice had imagined her. She had pure white fur with tan ears, paws and rings on her tail. Malice's brother, Havoc had black fur with orange ears and paws. Skoll was a cream colour fur with black tail and stripes. Hati was grey with a white under belly, muzzle and tail. Finally, Fenrir had pure black fur with a white ear. The other day, Malice had her first look at herself, she had odd fur, she was mostly brown with darker spots on her back and sides, orange at the base of her tail, little black tufts at the end of her ears, and some brown stripes on her face, under belly, limbs and tail. She also had white paws and one black, and black on the end of her tail, and just like her father had said, forest green eyes.
Malice felt hot under her fur as her kin laughed at her. Now that Malice had her eyes open, Roulette decided to let her kits out a bit, now the she cat was starting to regret her decision. "Were you having a good day dream, Malice? Go back to the den and wait for us to come back." Roulette snapped impatiently at her kit. Malice put her ears back and head down in shame, before darting quickly back to the den. She didn't mind staying back for a while; Skart's voice and words were still bothering the kit. How had he done that? And why did he sound so cold? Skart was a nice father to Malice, he was disappointed that she opened her eyes late, but he was still Malice's father, and she hates seeing him disappointed.
Malice let out a sound of aggravation as she flopped to the soft moss bellow her. Why was this annoying her so much? The little kit lashed her tail in annoyance, before she noticed a rather large beetle scuttling is way past her back paws. Malice moved away from it, watching as it tried to get as far away from the kit as possible. As if I'd let you do that. Malice though, as she balanced on her four paws, and pushed herself low to the ground, her tail lashed slightly and then she pounced, right onto the beetle's back. With a crunch and a squish, she squashed it into the ground, its sticky substances, staining her paws. "Ugh." Malice meowed as she lifted her forepaw as a trail of slime connected it to what was left of the bug. "I'm not doing that again." The kit muttered as she tried to smear the residue off of her paws. "That wasn't half bad, kit." Came a deep voice behind her. Malice jumped, and whipped around to find Skart there once again, his eyes glittering darkly. Malice took a few steps back and flattened herself to the ground as much as she could. Skart let out a low chuckle. "No need to be scared kit. I just wanted to offer to take you out with me, instead of your mother." The rouge suggested as he took a step closer to the kit. Malice's eyes sparked. "Yes! That would be wonderful!" Malice meowed, forgetting her fear and trotting closer to the tom and drubbing against his leg.
"We wouldn't want you getting behind now, would we?" Skart responded, rasping his rough tongue over the she kit's ear. Malice let out a little giggle of happiness as she followed the large cat out of the den and back out into the bright sun light. This time Malice forgot her worries and fear, and instead concentrated on the world around her. She jumped at fallen leaves and wished she had another set of eyes so she could look at everything at once. The band had settles in a small grove of trees where a mound of overturned dirt created a mound where many animals hid. Skart stood on top of the mound, over looking the seemingly never ending fields as Malice explored. The kit meet with a mouse, dug a little hole where she berried a stone and accidentally fell into some mud. By the time the sun started to set, Malice was ready to fall asleep where she stood. Skart refused to carry her, so she had to keep up with him by herself. She stumbled along, almost getting lost once, but they finally made it back. No matter what it takes, I will never let my father down again. Malice thought evenly as she gazed at the tom with adoring eyes, not noticing her mother fawning over her ruined fur.
~*~
"Are you all right Malice? You have been awfully quiet since you opened your eyes." Hati asked his friend, later that night.
"I'm fine, I just have a lot on my mind. This world is so much bigger than I could have ever imagined." Malice responded, taking a look around the den, her eyes lingering on Roulette, making sure she was asleep so she could talk to Hati without being told to go to sleep.
"Well, don't over work yourself, alright?" Hati meowed as he laid her head on his paws and closed his eyes. Malice remained awake, pushing her moss around in boredom; the day had given her too much to think about, leaving no time for sleep. She had a good day with her father, and the look in his eyes was much different to the time she first opened her eyes. Something deep within her was nagging her about it, but she brushed it off.
Malice got to her paws, and walked as quietly as possible to the den entrance, making sure to keep to the shadows, like Skart did. The moon was full that night, and bathed the clearing in a whitish light. It outlined three cats huddled together, talking in low voices.
Malice curiously went closer to hear what they were saying.
"…lyde sent word saying he found them and is waiting for nightfall to strike, which should be right now." One cat was saying.
"That will be the third band this moon." Another replied, Malice shockingly discovered it was Skart; his voice had the same cold dominance that it held before. "They should start getting suspicious by now, and our army is increasing. We will be ready in less than a season at this rate."
The third cat nodded. "I'll get back to Clyde and tell him to return with our new recruits." With that he disappeared into the night. Malice backed away from the two cats, into a low shrub that easily covered the small kit. As the first cat disappeared into one of the makeshift dens, Skart stood in the moonlight, staring into nothing. Malice's heart thudded in her chest as she waited for her father to leave, hoping he hadn't noticed her.
Without warning, Skart turned his head to look right at where Malice was hiding, his eyes were emotionless, but held some sort of warning to the kit. Malice stiffened, her heart seemingly jumping out of her throat. Then the moment was gone, and Skart turned, and headed out into the darkness, leaving Malice petrified.
~*~
So this chapter introduces you to the main character, and a few minor characters (or major?). The point of most of the last bit was to show that Malice's instincts warned her about Skart, but since she's a kit, she already has a bond with her father she ignores it.