Forest's Fate

Chapter 30

        Luckily, North's prediction is wrong. When we're back to where we were before, I take the opportunity to glance behind me and see the horde of cats trailing us.

        "Success!" Rain cheers to us in a hushed voice. "Everyone followed except for a few of them."

Ash nods, his ears tilting back. He asks, "Where do we go next?"

Rain gazes up at the darkening sky and then looks back at Ash. "I promised everyone else we'd be back before dark, so we don't have much time left. But I guess I can still go to the Army and hopefully bring more cats back. There's one problem, though . . ."

North finishes Rain's speech for her. "Ash and I can't come with you because the Army rejects all Superiors. There you go."

"Right. Good job on remembering that, North. It's also the reason why it can be harder to make them our allies, since they know we have a fair amount of Superiors in Team Gardinia." Rain swishes her tail and closes her eyes in deep thought.

"Interesting," North mutters, "I thought you said earlier that you had it all planned out."

After a moment, Rain opens her eyes and snorts, "Nah, I don't plan stuff. I just wing it. Anyway, Ash and North will stay behind with those cats over there. I'm not sure about Forest. I know he has a power, but he doesn't look like a Superior. He still doesn't have the Superior mark in his eye."

Ash says, "That is true. However, just in case, perhaps it would still be smart to leave him behind."

"Right," I cut in. "I'm not sure how much control I have over my power."

Rain nods to Ash and me. "Alright, so Forest will stay behind with Ash and North, then. Squirrel, Grass, Water, you guys can come with me," she meows, directing her last sentence towards the three regular cats from Team Gardinia who came along with us.

         With that, Rain pads to the group of Shadows that is standing around at a distance from us and tells the cats what is going on. Then, she leaves in the other direction with the three other normal cats.

Ash, North, and I silently sit alone until I hear light, quick paw-steps from behind me. I turn around and see a fluffy, little white kitten who looks much younger than me.

"Hi!" she squeaks, gazing up at me curiously with large, blue eyes.

I purr in amusement at the random kit who seems to have appeared out of thin air. "Hello!"

The kit sniffs my leg before jumping backwards, almost falling over in the process. She meows, "You smell weird. Is it true you came from a different planet?"

North snorts at the kit's comment.

"Well, yeah," I say to her. "I came from Earth, a planet that's pretty different from Gardinia."

North sits next to me and says to the kit in a serious tone, "Yeah, it's the planet where everyone smells bad and where every cat gets kidnapped by Ice to come here. Do you want to go there or something?"

The kitten shivers and stares at North with widened eyes. "No! I don't wanna stink or get kidnapped by Ice," she squeals, saying Ice's name as if he is the universe's worst nightmare.