The freezing snow brushed past Blade's fur, but she felt no cold, the blood was flowing through her so fast that she felt like sweating. She stood before an old friend, now an enemy. The girl was a Sharpclaw with shining blue scales. She had a fiery red mohawk running down the back of her head, and her eyes matched her hair, a menacing bright red. She wore tribal clothing with leathery armor. The Sharpclaw glared at her for a moment, then spoke.
"Blade, what are you doing here?" Blade stood there with nothing to say, but she spoke anyway.
"Scales…I can't believe it." she couldn't say another word, Scales took out a dagger and stabbed Blade's hand. Blade yowled in pain and pulled away, now infuriated. She flicked her claws quickly and sent shrouds of fire towards Scales. She tried to dodge the hit, but was still caught in the flames. She shook her head and looked back at Blade, luckily her scaly skin was somewhat flame-resistant, although the burns still hurt. She lunged forward once more to attack Blade, but was pushed back.
"Scales, stop this now, stop all this horrible fighting." Scales only growled and backed away.
"You started it, don't you remember?" Blade thought for a moment, and scoffed.
"I didn't do anything!" she backed away onto a tree and sat down, examining her bloody hand in disgust.
"You became a thief, then you completely pushed me away and ignored me! What kind of friend does that?" Scales still gripped her dagger tightly, ready to attack at any time. Blade tried to explain.
"You don't even understand Scales, I had a reason for doing all those things." Scales however, refused to listen.
"No, I get it, first you had to visit some stupid temple, and all of a sudden you can't talk to me anymore, I've heard it all before, but none of that crap makes any sense." Blade sighed as she knew she wasn't going to get through to Scales anytime soon. Scales crossed her arms and looked away from Blade.
"Do you even know what's happening to our planet?"
"What are you talking about, what's happening to Sauria?"
"This whole planet is falling apart, there's a new Cloudrunner king who's trying to take over Sauria, 'says he wants to get revenge for what us Sharpclaw did." Blade could not believe what she was hearing, Cloudrunners were never violent.
"How could this happen?"
"I don't know, but you weren't here to try to fix this, you know you're part of the Cloudrunner Tribe!" Blade looked down at her feet, she was devastated. She remembered her past, and that she had lived with Cloudrunners ever since she was a kitten, until a terrible curse changed her forever….
She formed a plan in her mind, she wanted to find her mother again. If she were still alive, the only way she could find her would be if she traveled to Cloudrunner Palace. But then Blade also started to think of the Starfox team, would Hikari and the others be ok without her, and would they be worried at all? She sighed and put her worries aside, then she turned from Scales and walked away, in the direction of Cloudrunner Palace.
Meanwhile the StarFox team was still at the hut in the snowy village. Blade had been gone for about an hour now, so Gruen had decided to get the firewood himself, and so the hut was filled with smells of exotic spices, freshly cooked meat, and sweet milk. Everyone had been so hungry so they all quickly devoured their meals. Although they did wonder why Blade wasn't back yet, they said nothing, but when everyone was finished, Hikari wiped the milk from her muzzle and then spoke.
"Do you think Blade is ok?" Falco turned to her.
"Heh, I'm sure she's fine. Don't worry Hikari!" everyone else felt a bit uneasy, but they still said nothing. Fox folded his arms and laid back against a wall. Krystal folded out a blanket and wrapped it around her sleepy son Marcus, and everyone else just tried to get some rest. It was going to be a long night, and they all knew it.