K, so this is going to be a short chapter but it is quite an important chapter, if it hadn't been written then nothing in the later story could have happened… I've said too much! Please read and review!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of Power Rangers SPD or Kat yadda yadda yadda…. :-(
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The first patrol was so much different than I expected. I discovered, as we ran, that the tribe used the trees a lot more that me and Felix ever had done, they used the branches as paths, instead of the forest floor. I noticed, as I'd never noticed before, that all the branches of each tree somehow intertwined with the one next to it, and all we had to do to get from one tree to the next was step down a bit, or up, onto the branch nearby. It was amazing, I felt able to just let my body go and trust it to do what it needed to, and that if I needed to make a jump, I'd make it.
Over the next few days I began to develop more friends as I grew closer and closer to the other she-cats around our home, and would sit with Summer, Breath and Heather at night and do beadwork or tool making with them Sasha was still a hateable bitch and I was still made to think that I didn't belong, but I was now a loyal, working member of the Tribe and I wasn't going to let anything change that.
One night I was laying in my hut, enjoying the summer evenings warmth – when I heard a voice yowling, "Scrouge! Scrouge! Lithes clan have crossed our border and stolen from us!" There were several gasps of outrage and I heard people stirring in the huts around me.
I leapt to my feet immediately. I knew how important our fruit and prey was, without it we'd have nothing else to eat, as little grew on our tiny planet, and we rarely made big kills like deer. If they'd stolen from our land, their tribe would pay dearly. I rushed into the clearing with my friends, and we stood side by side, eyes glowing, teeth bared in snarls and tails bristling and waving against the floor as we prepared for the battle ahead. Our species are born fighters, we are part feline after all, and as we raced through the thick jungle I marvelled at how easily we could clear whatever obstacles got in our way.
Soon we saw them, it looked like the whole clan, looking around, scared, shovelling fruit into sacks. For a few moments we stayed crouched in the bushes, arrows pointed at them, ready to shoot. Summer had told me that we wouldn't use our weapons unless really necessary, but that it was worth having them with you – just in case. Silence. Then, without warning, Scrouge made the first move, flying at an unsuspecting she-cat: thin with long brown hair, knocking her to the ground. The she-cat screeched with fury, her cries splitting the air. The rest of us threw down our bows and joined in, attacking the tribe of defenceless skinnies, and pinning them against trees or to the ground, flipping them onto their backs or knocking them out.
I launched myself at full pelt towards one ginger haired she cat, who dodged nimbly to one side. I quickly managed to turn my weight and landed squarely on her back, digging my claws in to her shoulders, drawing blood. I hissed, baring my fangs, and threatened to bite her. She tried to scratch me back but I threw her to the ground and instead turned to a black haired tom who was trying to make an escape. I snarled with fury, and rammed him up against a thick tree, his back making a horrific thud on the bark. I looked angrily into his bright yellow eyes, which were gleaming with an unimaginable fear. I stopped dead, and I realised just how skinny he was; then I noticed how every one of our enemies were being beaten by two or three of us, without trying to protest. I realised: These catumans lived in fear of us every day. How was that fair? Without thinking about it, I retracted my claws and let him go. He nodded to me and scurried off.
"No!" I heard a screech. It was the same she-cat whom Scrouge had first pounced on, and she was looking round the clearing, a clear expression of emotional trauma on her face. I couldn't blame her. The stench of blood was enough to make my stomach turn. "This has gone too far! Take your precious fruit, let us starve to death! Just don't hurt us any more than need be!"
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But it was all wasted. I was fruit picking out near the border one day, when I saw some one. The same man I'd let go. I shook my head with anger. Some people just never learn. I prepared for a confrontation.
"Hey!" I yelled. "Stop!" I pelted towards him, expecting him to run. But instead he looked at me again with those big yellow eyes. I stopped dead, and struggled to sound angry, "You… you shouldn't be here." I sighed, and used all the effort I could muster to growl angrily, "That is our fruit. Return it or we will be forced to send another patrol to attack you."
"That was just a patrol?" The male asked, scared obviously. I shrugged, and the stranger smiled triumphantly.
"You're not angry with me are you?" He asked.
"No, I'm not." I admitted. There was an awkward silence before I explained, "I saw how little you have. You need this food. Take it – Scrouge will never have to know… if you meet me here every other day, then I can bring you some of the better stuff that grows closer to our base. By the way… I'm Kat."
"Frog," the stranger muttered, evidently wondering whether he could trust me or not. "I'll meet you."
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TeeHee, a new love interest for Kat. But will it last, especially with their being in separate clans? Naughty, the pair of them! Find out in the next chapter! Short I know, but this section of text didn't fit in with the last chapter or the next.
Incase you are wondering what inspired me to write about Felle in this way, well, first it was the Jungle Book, then I saw Avatar and liked the ways they used the trees as pathways (I am not associated with any of these movies). Also, the beadwork comes from the studywork I am doing on Plains Indians.