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About one year ago, my father had renounced my title as heir to the throne. I wandered around Thundera for three months before I found a group of cats calling themselves 'The Rebels'. They were a group of soldiers to the crown who didn't rebel against the throne, but they didn't necessarily agree with it, either. They did detest evil, and never joined the lizard's side. There were seven of us. Four females, three males. There was an attractive, sultry female Panther, with brown hair and a thin but muscular build who went by the name of Panthilla, a lovely Clouded Leopard known as Cloudia who had striped golden and brown hair and a muscular frame, a stunning Snow Leopard by the name of Storm who was smaller than us but still an incredible fighter with black hair always in a bun and a thin/curvy muscular build, a handsome Cheetah male by the name of Chalano who was tall with a brown mane and a build thinner than the other males but yet obviously incredibly muscular, a cute Lynx by the name of Lynus who was incredibly tall, broad and well-built with black hair, and an incredibly handsome Sabre-tooth by the name of Saboar who was absolutely MASSIVE in height as well as extremely broad-shouldered/chested enough to rival the build of King Claudus, with a lean waistline and strong, thick, muscular legs and beautiful sandy-blonde hair, and last but not least, there was me.
When the Rebels found me, I was barely even alive. I had grown dangerously thin from the lack of nutrition from being out alone, and poor on the streets, but they took me in, and bulked me up. I had been training for a while with them and had become an accomplished fighter. I was no longer chubby, but lean and muscular. My hips were still broad, but I learned to love how it added to the 'hourglass' edge of my figure. My long waistline had thinned, now well-chiseled with muscle, and my breasts stayed pretty much the same. Large, but not too large to be in the way of my fighting. My legs had gotten well-toned and shapely from the muscle I gained and after I lost a bit of weight I could see just how long they were. My face had quite a bit of baby fat still, but had thinned a little and my cheekbones now a little bit more obvious, and my lips now appearing almost unbelievably pouty and my nose still sharper than I cared for, but small enough to appear charming, and my eyes still as big and innocent as ever. I now looked more mature altogether, though, and I was very proud of it. I looked... beautiful... stunning, even. It surprised me after time how much I'd changed.
I was currently in the middle of training with Saboar when Panthilla stepped into the training room.
"Tonight is the celebration, guys. Apparently that sabre-tooth Grune has returned," she stated.
"I don't like him," Sab grunted in his deep, guttural timbre. "There's just something about that broken toothed weirdo that gives me the creeps."
"Agreed," I concurred, taking a sip out of my water bottle.
"Well, are we going or not?" Pan asked.
"I don't know. Ask the others for their votes. I'm neutral," I say.
"I'll go if you all go, but if we don't I'm good, too," Sab grumbles.
"Okay, so Sab and Wyn are neutral. That leaves Lynus, Chalano and Cloudia," Pan mumbled to no one in particular. "Oh and I heard some of the guards in the city say that lizards have been spotted just a mile outside of Thundera," she added.
"I think we're okay on training, for today. You should go get cleaned up Wyn, and we'll know the decision by then, as well as head out to see about the lizards," Saboar tells me.
"Okay. See you all in a few!" I yip, skipping to the showers.
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I return to the main room a few minutes later, fully cleaned and dressed in my black leggings with leather stripes down the side of the legs and a tight black t-shirt that was tight enough it revealed the muscle along my stomach, cloth shoes that bore my toes and heels, my hair done up in a high, thick ponytail and I brought my utility belt to strap to my hips and several packs of throwing stars and daggers that I was going to strap up and down my legs. I also brought my bow and arrows and my twin sais to strap to my back, fully prepared for a possible fight against the lizards.
"I'm out," I announced to the six cats in the room.
"Good. We're heading out to see about the lizards. We're still undecided on whether or not we're going to the celebration, this evening," Chal states.
I glanced up to see Saboar over in the corner broodily sharpening his daggers, appearing to completely ignore us even though I knew he heard every word we spoke.
"Are we going, or what? We really should check up on those lizards," Cloudia whines.
"Hold on there for a minute, sunshine. We still have other things to decide on," Lynus addresses Cloud.
"Yes, other 'things' that could easily wait until later to be decided on," Cloud bites back.
"Calm down, you two! First let's go see about the lizards, preferably BEFORE they get into trouble, and THEN we'll decide on what we want to do about the celebration this evening," Storm announces. "What do YOU think of that arrangement, Saboar?" she addressed the appointed leader of The Rebels.
"It would appear to be the most logical course of action," he responded, never taking his eyes away from the blades he was sharpening.
"Good. We should be on our way, then," Storm orders.
After that we all pretty much lumber out the back door, before finally going into more of a stealth mode, so as to get out of Thundera's limits without being seen. Saboar is one of the stealthiest of the team -despite his large size- being one of the more experienced fighters/strategists, Storm easily being the most stealthy, because of her smaller stature and lesser weight. I was incredibly good when it came to stealth, if only because I had learned to walk quietly as well as having my sais which I could manipulate the magical qualities it possessed in order to appear invisible, the only thing of my features I could show if I wanted to being that of my eyes and a cat-like maniacal grin that I had stolen from the stories of the Cheshire Cats my mother had told to me many a stormy night. A very powerful race of felines that once existed, having very strong magical abilities being able to perform such simple tasks as move an object with their minds, or the more complicated tasks being that of manipulating things such as the elements. The one thing every Cheshire was known to do, though, was turn everything about themselves invisible except for their glowing eyes and a maniacal fanged grin. They were a remarkable race of cats and it was devastating when they were obliterated by a rumoured entity by the name of Mumm-Ra. It was said that their power rivaled that of his own, and so because of that he made sure they would never be a threat to him again. There were still rumors of mixed Cheshire/ThunderCat breeds living amongst the cats of Thundera, but they were so few and far apart no one knew if they were true. I was honored to have the chance of representing such amazing felines and yet at the same time, I felt unworthy.
We were almost to the secret escape out of Thundera and only a few minutes away from where it sounded as though the guards spotted the lizards, now, and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. It was an incredible, exhilarating feeling of which I usually got before a fight.
"Almost there, everyone. Be on your ready. I'll try to confront them peacefully, but there's no telling how they'll react," Panthilla cautioned.
We lingered back in the shadows a bit, letting Panthilla continue in order to talk to the lizards whose carts we had just spotted. Some of the lizards were dressed like soldiers of some sort, but there was one who was larger than the others, with an ugly maw, long arms and a pot belly. They all looked repulsive, but I couldn't put my finger onto why. Somehow, though, I sensed an aura of malice radiating off of the ugly, scaley creatures, and would have shouted my thoughts to Panthilla would it not have meant giving out our positions to the scaled beasts. There were strange buzzing carts of some sort, as well as strange, long and menacing looking things -weapons, I assumed- in some of their hands.
Panthilla and the lizards were only several hundred yards from where we stood, and we could hear what they said rather clearly.
"Excuse me? Um, I was wondering if you were in need of assistance of some sort," Pan tried to offer kindly.
"Go away, little girl. We are in no need of assistance from some kitten," one of the lizards addressed her.
"Then why are you right outside of Thundera? Surely there's a reason you're so close," Panthilla attempted.
"I am in no mood to speak, kitty. Now go home, before I decide to kill you," the ugly beast hissed.
"I'm sorry, but as long as you pose a possible that to the land in which my home resides, I'm. Not. Leaving." Pan stood her ground.
"Very well then, fool. You shall be the first of your brethren to go," the reptile snarled, raising its weapon to aim towards Pan's heart.
She leapt just out of the way in time for a strange bolt of energy to fire out of the weapon the lizard was holding. We all took that as our queue to join the fight, Saboar quickly dashing out and punching the first three lizards he saw, knocking them clean out, Chal came next, using the bladed ends of his bow-staff to stab right through the ugly beasts, then went Storm, her jiu jie bians practically obliterating every lizard they touched, next was Lynus, using his massive obsidian bladed sword to block, ricochet the enemies attacks, and stab them all ferociously, next Cloudia went out, using her katanas to ricochet the energy blasts back to the enemies injuring them instead of her, as well as stabbing them, and I hung back.
Yes, I hung back, but it was only so that I could pull out an arrow and start firing them from a distance. I was our marksman of a sort, usually only joining the hand-to-hand combat if I were truly needed for it.
I took a deep breath and let the arrow soar, meeting it's target perfectly.
Right in the hand of a lizard that was just about to shoot at Ly.
I fired three more, one after the other and hit three more lizards. After that, though, I saw Chal frantically holding up one paw, raising two fingers, signaling me to join the hand-to-hand fight.
I quickly replaced my bow to it's holster on my back, instead taking out my sais and quickly, invisibly, straying out into the fight. There was one lizard in particular that I noticed hanging back, putting some strange cartridge looking thing into his handheld weapon. Noticing this, I quickly grabbed his weapon twisting it at just the right angle and hearing several bones in his scaly fingers snap as I snatched the thing from his grasp, quickly using the butt of the weapon to hit him on the head. He fell into the buzzing cart, groaning and running his hand to the back of his head, bringing it back tinted a deep crimson.
"Who the hell's there?!" the freak of nature demanded.
"Your worst nightmare, I'm afraid," I hummed, letting my Cheshire face slip into view.
He looked up at me appearing horrified for a second, before quickly raising to his feet smoothly slipping into a battle stance.
I lowered my invisibility spell, dropping into a fighting stance of my own.
He threw a punch at me of which I quickly dodged and countered but not before he slipped his tail under my legs, tripping me. I quickly rolled out of the way of a kick he sent my way, hopping to my feet, and blocking another punch. He managed to quickly perform a forwards flip over my head, throwing a punch to my back that I just managed to turn sideways, grab his arm and flip him, hearing the bones in his arm shatter as I did so. He wailed in absolute agony, as I quickly reverse punched him in the head, efficiently knocking him out. At that, I headed after my next unfortunate victim.
However, I was the unfortunate one as I hadn't noticed the lizard that had creeped up behind me, who managed to put his tail just in front of my foot, tripping me to the ground. I stumbled down as the ugly beast grabbed my arms and pinned me down, his knees digging into my legs to pin them down as well.
"Finally caught the little bitch," he shouted to someone in one of the massive tank-like carts, but I barely even heard him. There was only one thing going through my mind at that moment: "Survive".
I strained my neck up just enough for my mouth to reach his arm and I quickly sank my teeth in, hearing him scream in pain as I did so, him falling off of me onto his knees and I reached around my back for my sais quickly, and without even thinking, I thrust it straight through his chest hearing the squelching hot crack of ribs and the slick, disgusting noise of it penetrating his internal organs as his blood spattered everywhere, gushing out of his chest. But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was his face. Scrunched up in horrified agony, a silent scream desperately trying to break out of his wide open mouth and punctured lungs, but not being able to. It was terrifying. I watched as his eyes glazed over, his body going limp with the strong scent of iron filling the air.
Blood. His blood. Everywhere. And only at that moment did I recognize the feeling of warm, sticky liquid all over my own clothing, but I knew I wasn't bleeding anywhere, and looked down to see the blood of the very being whom I had just killed soaking my clothing.
I felt my stomach convulsing before I even knew what was happening, throwing up everywhere. His face. The blood. The pain. I hadn't meant to kill him, but I did anyway, and it scared me how berserk I'd turned just to save my own life. I looked down to see my hands stained scarlet with his very life essence, and nearly broke down in tears.
I had just made my first kill.
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I didn't remember the rest of the fight. I just sort of sat back after that completely zoned out, moving on instinct alone. I remembered hearing the screech of the long armed, pot-bellied lizard, "Retreat!" and the sound of their strange wagons pulling away that were carrying the bodies of their fallen comrades. I knew I was overreacting. The others of the team had killed before, some even made kills today, but I couldn't help the gnawing feeling of guilt and remorse. I had killed a living, breathing creature just to save my own life. I felt dirty. Disgusted with myself. I barely even registered when my teammates walked up to me with confused looks on their faces, before they looked down at my paws and clothes. Then, it finally seemed to register with them. Chal had a look of pity, Pan looked mildly disturbed, Storm just glanced then looked away, her face unreadable, Lynus shared Chal's look of pity, Cloudia mumbled a faint "Oh. Sorry.", and Saboar had a look of hard steel. Indifferent, and uncaring. His message was clear; "We've all done it, now get over it."
I had to resist the urge to glare at him. I didn't want anyone's pity, but I also didn't want someone to be so callous. At the same time, though, I was glad he stayed strong. It made him annoying, but it also made him all the more... appealing...
Wait! Where did that come from?! Uh, never mind, but the whole thing was still sickening. We walked back to Thundera and our home, silent the entire way.
When we got back to the house we all unpacked, cleaned our weapons and clothes, and showered off. I was the last to shower and when I came back and sat down in the corner, I found myself studying Saboar.
He really was handsome, a strong chin and jaw, a strong nose that had obviously been broken a few times during some fights, a thinner upper lip and thicker bottom lip that was obviously scarred from his massive sabre-teeth, strong, high cheekbones, tousled medium length brownish-blonde hair, heavy brow-bones with well-arched brows, massive shoulders and chest that went down in a triangle type shape towards his waist, strong squared masculine hips, incredibly muscular thighs and well-shaped calves, a long, dark-golden tail, dark brownish-gold fur with vague brownish stripes, and one of his most surprising features were his absolutely beautiful, deep, forest-green eyes.
He WAS handsome in a dangerous way, there was no doubt about it. Handsome, even WITH the large scar running down his left cheekbone, over the edge of his lip, and down, just barely visible, by his jaw. It just served to add to his "bad boy" attractiveness.
I glanced down at his mouth, and for a moment, I wondered what it'd be like to kiss him... would he be gentle, or rough? Would his fangs complicate the process? ...Would his tongue taste good?
I quickly brushed away the thoughts, though. I should really stop thinking such things.
I had just realized I'd probably been staring too long when the very person I'd been ogling spoke up. Thank the ancestors no one else noticed.
"Do you need something, Wynter? Some popping corn, perhaps?" he asked sarcastically. "You've been looking for quite some time, now," he grumbled in his deep, gravely timbre.
"No, thank you. I'm just trying to figure you out. One day you act one way and I finally think I understand you, the next you're someone completely different. I don't understand," the half-lie was out of my mouth before I could comprehend what I was saying.
"Oh, don't even try to figure him out, Wyn. You never will. Believe me, I've tried. I gave up after so long, though," Cloudia stated, walking out of the kitchen.
"Oh, joy," I grumbled, acting to go along with the lie.
I glanced at Saboar out of the corner of my eye to see him eye me suspiciously, before going back to sharpening his throwing stars.
Good. Maybe he bought it.
After that, I headed towards my room to get ready for the celebration tonight.
I was in the hallway when I sensed a presence behind me. I paused, turning around I ran right into the torso of Saboar and would've nearly toppled over onto my butt had he not caught me.
"Oh! Sorry!" I state apologetically.
He only grunts out a very deep, barely audible "It's fine." before he walked around me, straight to his room. I watched him leave, trying not to notice his absolutely perfect butt, but failing miserably. When he reached his room however, I quickly turned around and practically leapt into my room -hoping he didn't notice me- as my cheeks blazed bright red.
What was this all about?! Why am I having these thoughts?! He's not even interested in me! ...at least, I think...
I walked into my room to get ready for the celebration in an hour, and to ponder over just what the hell I was feeling.
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~Medusa~