A large colourful butterfly flew close to Kale's face making them squawk in surprise, it was bad enough that they couldn't fly over the Whispering Woods to get to Madame Razz's little cave hut, not the mention the further and further they travelled into the woods the more overwhelming and claustrophobic it felt, the hot humid air made Kale miss the refreshing cold of Darksmoke even more.
Kale raised their head as they could hear Madame Razz's soft melodic humming and the chattering sounds of Kowl's, they quietly snuck up towards a shrub and peeped through they could see Madame Razz swapping tasks between feeding the Kowl's and sweeping. Kale tried to push his way through the bushes getting his talons caught and falling face-first into the clearing, startling some nearby birds.
"Ah! You scared away the Kowls!". Razz threw her hands up in the air. She straightened her glasses and walked over to Kale as they got up and pulled small broken twigs out of their feathers.
"I have no food for big birds today, maybe tomorrow". Razz says dismissively before turning towards her hut.
Kale chose his words carefully. "No please Madame Razz, I need your help, do you remember my sister?".
"Oh yes! The rude and scary one with red eyes". Razz said as she made her way into her hut.
Kale smiled a little as they followed her, bending so they could fit through the door only to bump their head when they stood up, "No that was probably my mother".
Razz picks up a small stool and hands it to Kale, who sits on it awkwardly and still looks very out of place in the small hut.
"Sit, I need to remember what I had to do today"
Kale raises an eyebrow hopefully, "Perhaps you can remember why I'm here?"
Razz closes her eyes and claps her hands together, "Yes! My sister sent me a guest!".
"Razz? Who are you talking to? What guest?". Razz opened her eyes at the sound of a familiar voice and looked to see Mara standing in the doorway. She looks over to where the big bird should be but the only thing there is an empty stool.
Razz gasped, "I am too early again".
"Again? No my squad and I just got here, remember? I just introduced them to you yesterday". Mara looked at Razz curiously trying to figure out once again what she was talking about.
Razz grabs Mara's hand and takes her outside. Mara's small squad of three had made themselves at home in front of Razz's hut, small crates and maps littered the ground one of them looked up and straightened their glasses, and watched as Mara was pulled along by Razz.
"Mara, where are you going? we have to finish mapping this area's ether lines before we lose more daylight!".
Mara turned around and smiled, "Sorry Dobson, Just...uh….give me a minute"
Dobson shrugged his shoulders and went back to his work.
Mara and Razz disappear into the woods, usually, Mara wouldn't question what Razz was doing but it just seemed as though she was wandering. Razz then suddenly stopped walking and pointed, Mara looked and could see a fire softly burning through the gap in the trees.
"Ah, Serenia you're here!". Razz said as she burst through the trees and into Serenia's camp area.
Serenia?!
Mara stood back behind the bushes contemplating her next move. She watched as Razz greeted Serenia by patting her on the head, she paced along the bushes scoping out the area, she noticed that Serenia didn't have much in the way of supplies, mainly consumables. No weapons that she could see anyway, as she tried to step a little closer the branches under her feet cracked.
Serenia stood straight up and looked in Mara's direction, "Who's there?!"
Razz laughed, "It's only Mara"
Serenia stared wide-eyed at Razz, "Did you say, Mara?!"
Mara wasn't happy with the idea of Razz being so open with Serenia like that, but she needed to understand why Serenia was here, so she took a deep breath and stepped out into Serenia's small camp. The friendly face she had shown Razz had disappeared as she grabbed her sword from under her blanket, Mara reacted immediately and took out her own.
Razz had an entirely different reaction, taking her broom and bopping Serenia in the face.
"Hey! What was that for?!". Serenia tried to dodge the broom as Razz tried to bop her again. Mara couldn't help but giggle a little bit, the sight of a Darksmokian Warrior being bested by a little old lady with a broom, that was until Razz turned around and bopped her as well.
Serenia pointed and laughed as Mara stood there stunned that she was now on the receiving end of Razz's wrath.
"No fighting!". Razz stood there with her hands on her hips, the broom floating above her head.
"Razz you can't be serious? You can't trust her", Serenia said pleadingly.
"I haven't done anything to Razz for her not to trust me!". Mara retorted making sure Serenia heard the anger in her voice.
Razz huffed and waved her hand, bopping the both of them again in the face with her broom.
"My sister sent you here to help Mara and that is what you will do". Razz said, pointing her finger at Serenia.
"No, Spritina sent me here to help someone named Adora".
Mara stared at Serenia, it was the first time she had heard someone other than Razz mention the name "Adora". Razz still hadn't explained who Adora was and by the sounds of it, Serenia had no idea either.
Madame Razz blinked and she was standing in the dark woods Mara and Serenia were gone and she stood alone except for the large bird beside her.
"Madame Razz?". Kale said softly.
"Ah you're back, quickly come with me, I remember what I had to do!". Razz zooms past Kale and makes her way to the hut, Kale tries breathlessly to keep up; they didn't realise something so old and short could move so quickly.
Entering the small hut once again Kale sat down, they watched as Razz frantically threw stuff around looking for something, it didn't take long before she found it. She shouted excitedly as she held up a strange triangular-shaped item, she walked over to Kale and gave it to them.
Kale looked the item over and didn't see anything of interest until he came across a sword etched on one of the faces of the object, they took one of their talons and traced the outline of the sword.
This is different from She-ra's sword
"What is this?".
Razz smiles, "Ah this is a gift from Serenia, she gave it to me so I could bake pies", she frowned and scratched her forehead, "Or was it something else?"
Kale sighed, "So it's nothing but a timer...a timer", they repeated themselves until they realised the timer was still going, holding it up to their ear they could hear the ticking but there was nothing to indicate how much time was left and considering this was the best lead they had to go on so there was no other choice but to wait.
* * *Several of the original Darksmoke guards resumed their positions patrolling the gate, with a couple of new additions who, despite holding their swords upside down, were trying their best to familiarise themselves with their new home. Everyone was still on edge, jumping at every noise waiting for Belthor to retaliate, it had already been a few hours and some thought the likelihood of that was slowly dwindling.
Adora took one last look through the gate, as it started to succumb to the frosty air with small tendrils of ice reforming on the surface, everyone else may have been on edge but she secretly wanted Belthor to come back, she wasn't entirely sure if it was because of the fighting or because she just wanted to see Shadow Wing come back, which was still something she hadn't had a chance to talk to Madelene about.
As she made her way across the courtyard, Brendor and Thad were helping the other guards collect the armour and weapons that were left behind it was obvious they had already been arguing by the way they were angrily throwing the items into a cart, Adora couldn't help but think this was a common occurrence she started to wonder what had caused their rift in the first place.
Madelene was seated on the stairs leaning on her sword while Kittrina knelt beside her cleaning a small scratch likely caused by a wayward arrow. Adora frowned as she realised that maybe this was caused by her and her friends coming here.
"I'm sorry, did we cause this?"
Madelene looked up at Adora, "Of course not"
"Things have been building for some time, I don't think it's anyone's fault really", Kittrina said as she scooped out a damp cloth with her tail and then rang it out.
Madelene smiled, "Well if anyone is to blame here, it's this furball"
Kittrina smirks and pushes the damp cloth hard against Madelene's cheek causing her to winch a little, "I find your accusation rude, even though it is kinda true..Oh, speaking of furballs".
Kittrina takes out the communicator from her pocket and hands it to Adora, who stares at it blankly.
"I wasn't aware that old General Tao was gentle enough to have children let alone a feisty furball who seemed very worried about you", Kittrina said in a partially mocking tone.
Adora couldn't hide her excitement as she opened the communicator, it took several moments for the fuzzy image to sharpen and Catra appeared on the screen. "Catra!"
"Adora! Where have you been?! What is going on?!". Catra's face looked relieved, but her body language suggested Adora might be in trouble.
Adora giggled, "Oh you have no idea", her voice trails off as she makes her way back into the courtyard talking excitedly.
Kittrina finished mending Madelene's cheek and sat down next to her, "You want to know what I find interesting, well a couple of things".
"Not really but I have a feeling you're going to tell me". Madelene said as she watched Adora, but the way she was holding the communicator away from her face it sounded like this Catra person was more than a little upset with her.
"Adora being here is almost a case of history repeating itself".
Madelene turned her head towards Kittrina curiously, "How do you mean?".
"I distinctly remember saving someone after her strange white ship fell out of the sky".
Madelene rolled her eyes, "A coincidence, nothing more, nothing less"
"Right, nothing to do with Granamyr at all", Kittrina replied sarcastically.
"Don't start, I have already had to contend with Brendor's attitude about pushing Adora too quickly, I would like to get to know my daughter before everyone decides what they want her to do!".
Kittrina gave a nonchalant shrug. Madelene sighed, "What was the second thing?"
Kittrina stood up and brushed herself off, "Seems you have shared interest in feisty furballs", she flashed Madelene her best smile, tapped her on the shoulder, and made her way back into the castle.
"Unbelievable", Madelene muttered under her breath, trying not to smile.
Adora made her way back to Madelene and handed back the communicator. Madelene waves it away, "You keep it, I'm sure...Catra is it, will want to speak to you again".
"Oh it's fine she is coming here". Adora said with the biggest grin on her face.
* * *Catra stared at the static screen for a moment, even though she was annoyed at Adora she was more annoyed at those other two!... She stopped herself before her thoughts went off on a tangent and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I'm allowed to be angry", Catra whispered to herself as she took a deep breath, this was just another test of her mantra that she had already broken a couple of times since being here.
"Uh oh, Angry at this hour of the morning?".
Catra spun around in surprise to see Kywa leaning against the doorframe, "How long have you been standing there?"
Kywa smirked, "Long enough to know your girlfriend is ok"
Catra folded her arms, "Shut up, I was worried and not a single one of them thought to tell me!".
Kywa came in and sat down across from Catra, "I know, she's ok that's the main thing, you can deal with Glimmer and Bow once you get there". She takes off her bracelet and hands it to Catra.
"I was going to take a ship", Catra said as she fidgeted with the bracelet.
"Right because that went well the first time, besides you and I both know this way is much quicker", Kywa stands and taps Catra on the shoulder motioning her to follow.
"You want to come with me?". Catra asked as they walked outside.
Kywa shakes her head, "Someone has to stay behind and help dad repair the mess we made, besides magic isn't my thing".
Catra smiled as she put on Kywa's bracelet and created the runes in the air just as her mother had taught her and a portal started to swirl and distort the air. Magic never was her thing either but she wasn't going to let anyone know she liked it a little too much now.