Chapter Three

The First Attack

Ciel crouched in the long, tall grass outside of the enemy camp. Sebastian crouched beside him, body still and alert, not making a single move. He didn't even appear to be breathing—which was fine, because, him being a demon he didn't need to breathe.

"Are we ready?" Ciel whispered, looking over at Sebastian. The half-blood nodded, looking over at him, his bright red eyes meeting Ciel's solitary blue eye.

"Yes. May I have the honor for sounding the alarm?" He asked, lifting his head up a bit. Ciel nodded, and Sebastian parted his jaws and let out a surprisingly deep yowl for such a small-looking cat. The rest of the half-bloods surged forward, Ciel and Sebastian waiting to go in last.

"You know what to do," Ciel told him, eye narrowing. "Get him."

"Yes, my Lord," Sebastian replied, zipping past the rest of the half-bloods to get to his target. The camp erupted into loud howls, yowls, hisses, and other unfriendly fighting noises. The rocks and ground was alive with squirming, writhing bodies. Sebastian searched the crowd, but was unable to find his target. Snarling, he raced through the mass of half-bloods, when two cool voices stopped him.

"My, my, my," they said, completely in sync, as if they were one. "We weren't expecting you today." One of the figures showed himself, a blonde leopard with blue eyes. "You should have called ahead of time so we could make the reservations."

Snarling, Sebastian whipped his tail around. "Where is he?" he growled lowly, thick black claws scraping the ground. "Tell me where he is, before I kill you too."

"Looking for me?" Claude emerged from the same bushes that the leopard before him had, pausing in front of Sebastian. "I should have known you'd come back for me."

"Enough with the small talk," Sebastian hissed, ears flat against his skull. "My bocchan ordered me to kill you, and I intend to get this over with quickly."

"Isn't that what I said not an hour ago?" Claude asked, circling around Sebastian. "You should really try to come up with your own phrases, Sebastian. Well, it looks like we're both out to kill each other, so. . . " A sneer crossed Claude's face. "Let's let the games begin." Claude roared and lashed out at Sebastian's face, and the quick, nimble cat quickly dodged it and grabbed Claude's outstretched paw, flipping him over and slamming him onto his back. Claude hissed in pain as Sebastian's sharp teeth tug deep into his paw, causing scarlet red blood to flow from his torn paw and down his foreleg. Using his free paw, he sent a hard smack to the side of Sebastian's head, causing him to let go and skid in the dirt, stopping next to a large tree. Claude ran at him again, trying to slam him into the tree, but Sebastian kicked off the back of it, using it like a springboard to jump over Claude and land behind him. Turning, he ran at Claude, head butting him in the ribs, causing him to go flying into a rock and lay under it, hissing in pain. Trotting over to Claude, he rested a paw on Claude's stomach and leaned down to deliver the killing blow, when he felt terrible pain at the base of his spine. Standing behind him was the blonde leopard, Alois, teeth in Sebastian's back, biting down hard.

"Back off," Sebastian snarled, kicking Alois in the face. This caused the leopard to let go, snarling, blood dripping from his face from where Sebastian's sharp, black claws met him. Still ready to attack, the leopard jumped on Sebastian's back.

Mewling in surprise, this caused Sebastian to back up long enough for Claude to jump up, raking his claws down Sebastian's side. The cat yowled in pain, quickly shaking Alois off. Alois jumped to Claude's side, still bristling from his attack.

Not willing to give up, Sebastian ran at Claude again, teeth bared and head lowered, managing to get a few blows in before Claude raked his claws across Sebastian's shoulder. The wounds stung and burned like fire, but Sebastian continued nonetheless. He attempted to separate Alois and Claude, but to no effect. Claude gave Sebastian a hard blow to the forehead, and the black and red cat stumbled back, blood clouding his vision. Closing his eyes, he shook the blood away, and in that split second Claude and Alois were gone.

Spitting a curse, Sebastian noticed that most of Claude's warriors were also fleeing. Probably in pursuit of their no-good leader, Sebastian thought. Still remembering his order, Sebastian strained forward to follow, but his wounds would not allow him to go far. In severe pain, Sebastian collapsed in the dirt. The Black Lands army had won, but Sebastian had lost his target. He felt like a wolf after loosing a 12 point buck.

"Sebastian!" Ciel ran over to his downed butler, carefully lapping at his wounds. "Sebastian, what happened? You're hurt. Are you okay?"

Sebastian's ears twitched at the sound of Ciel's voice. The sound was unnatural—it was as if Ciel was actually worried about him. "He got away." Sebastian hissed in pain as his wounds throbbed. "I am sorry, bocchan. I tried to—"

"Never mind about that."

"Bocchan, your order—"

"Forget about my order. You're hurt, and if you go after Claude you'll surely be killed." Ciel nudged Sebastian. "Can you walk?"

Sebastian mulled over Ciel's words for a moment, before nodding. "Yes." He paused for a second, before heaving himself onto his paws, breathing heavily. Wincing, he started to fall back onto his side, but Ciel supported him.

"Come on, let's go." Sebastian moved slowly, wincing with every paw step. It hurt to move. Ciel stayed beside him, keeping the larger cat's balance so he didn't fall over. "Are you sure you can walk?"

Sebastian nodded, but his normally solid form was shaking. Red . . . there was so much red on his fur. The red clotted on his sides and legs, red in places where his tabby stripes weren't. Unnatural red. Now, unable to support himself, he slid down and fell on his side, eyes half-slits. A sheet of black fell over the demon half-blood's eyes, and he blacked out.

Red. There was red everywhere. Spread out on the cold, stone walls of the den and on the moss beds where his parents…his parents…

The cub shrieked in fear and sadness as he saw what was before him. His father lay still, the brilliant bobcat's head and shoulders lay slack, a deeper russet coloring his fur—not the beautiful, bold red of his normal fur. This was different.

"Father!" The cub ran to his still father's side and shook his shoulder. "Father, wake up!" No response. The bobcat's eyes were still open, even in death, pupils' small within the wide pools of violet.

Looking around, the cub noticed the unmoving lump of black in the corner. Running over to it, he recognized the cheetah immediately. Red still flowed from her slit throat and the cub yowled in disbelief as she too was unresponsive. "Mother!" He couldn't be there any longer. The cub turned and ran out of the den. His small legs were carrying him as fast as he could go, and salty tears flowed down the cub's face. It was all red. Red. Red. Everything was bathed in that color he so despised.

Red . . . red . . . red . . .