Forest's Fate

Chapter 35

The shock slowly spreads through my body. It attempts to penetrate my heart, but my past theories about Tornado's death are still so strong for a moment that it takes a moment for it to finally sink in.

Back on Earth, he wasn't just my brother. He was my best friend, my companion, the one who I trusted and told all of my secrets to. No matter what humans I became entrusted to, no matter what happened to me, he was always at my side willing to help. And I gave him the same support. When he suddenly disappeared one day in the forest, I had assumed that he was captured by another human.

It was never the same without him.

I made a mistake. I can't defend Ash or myself anymore. The revelation of Tornado is too large for me too handle all at once. My legs shake and almost give way underneath me. My jaws open and close, unable to even make a sound. This was his fate?

I quickly realize that my physical state is just as bad; the terrible back wound I received from Mirage as a human has transmitted on my cat form. The blood trickles down my sides and plops onto the dirt next to Ash, who is lying on the ground and barely breathing. The pain radiates through my entire body, and I shiver in response to it. I'm gradually getting colder than I was before.

Mirage seems to notice the state that I'm in, because she sighs deeply and lowers her gaze to her paws. She stands there, and to my relief, she doesn't continue to advance on me any longer.

"I should have noticed the resemblance. He came to us many seasons ago when Ice took him away from Earth and brought him into the same camp you were in. Tornado was always rebellious; he hated Gardinia at first. He gained his three strikes quickly in the camp and got his memory erased. And after his memory was gone, he . . . he loved this planet. He was taught to admire the Superiors, and Ash even turned him into one as an experiment."

I slowly turn my head to look at the fallen tom behind me. In response, he opens his eyes, staring back at me. I thought I might have heard him mention something about Tornado, but at the time, I assumed he was talking about a different cat with the same name. There are lots of different Tornadoes on Earth. Never would I have ever thought that it was my Tornado.

I turn back to Mirage. I really don't want to know the answer to the question I am about to ask, but I force it out of my jaws anyway. "Did Tornado fight for the Superiors, then?"

Mirage pauses before replying. "Yes. At first, he was a rebel for a brief time, but he switched to the Superior side . . . And . . ."

"And what?" I'm impatient now, begging for her to spill everything she knows about my brother and his life in Gardinia.

She bows her head, still staring at her paws. And then she finally trails her gaze up at me with her eyes filled with fire and contempt.

"And we fell in love. We loved each other, Forest. And then we were in a battle one day. Rainfall murdered him. That idiot who you consider as your ally. She killed him!" Her voice gradually raises to a screech, and the fur on her back raises up.

        Suddenly, everything makes sense. The way Mirage always seemed to hate Rain more than anyone else, the way Mirage targeted Rain in every single battle. It wasn't just regular hatred. It was purely revenge.

        An ache spreads through me, partially from my back injury and partially from what I just found out. My emotions conflict against one another. I want to say sorry and scream at all of them at the same time, ask why Tornado had to be taken away from me and destroyed in this way. My throat remains clamped up, though. I can't speak.

        A part of me still thinks that this is all a dream. The Tornado I knew would have never fought against the Superiors. But again, the Tornado I knew was most likely gone the moment his memories were taken away.

        My thoughts are interrupted by Mirage, who stands up and glares at me. "You only brought this up as a distraction, didn't you? You think this is going to stop me from killing you? Answer me!"

         I don't answer. Instead, I focus on Ice's dead body behind Mirage as everything around me starts to get fuzzy. The blood I lost must be starting to take a toll on me.

        "Well, then. You were wrong. Say hello to Tornado in the afterlife." In one giant leap, Mirage advances on me and pins me down. After chomping down on my forepaw in rage, she grasps her claws at my throat, cutting off my air supply. The black sky swirls around in my vision.

        In the distance, someone yowls. It echoes in my head. A moment later, a great force shoves the weight off of my throat. My head collapses to the side, and my eyes close as two voices screech at each other, seemingly almost in perfect unison.

        More screeching and claws scraping. Pawsteps running away into the distance. Silence.

        A male voice growls into my ear, "Hang in there, Forest. I'll get help."

        The darkness finally overcomes me.

~~~~~~~~

        When I open my eyes again, all I see is the long grass. My mouth feels like I just ate dust, and my entire body aches. I attempt to lift my head to see where I am, but I can't; my head is like a rock, and my muscles protest and refuse to move.

        A cat I don't recognize comes to apply a strange-smelling herb on all of my wounds. When she notices that I'm awake, she murmurs, "Gee, she injured you really badly . . ."

        I hear her chew up one of the herbs. It takes a moment for me to get my voice to work, but I eventually manage to rasp a couple of words. "What . . . happened?"

        I wince as she begins to work the herb through my back wound. A groan slips from my jaws as it begins to sting, as if hundreds of aggressive bees just arrived to inflict even more pain.

        She replies, "You and Ash were attacked by Mirage. Luckily, North somehow heard all of the commotion out there and saved you. Apparently, Ice is dead. Some other cat's body was found, too. Looks like that battle didn't go too well. Cats are wondering what you and Mirage were doing there."

I close my eyes. I don't care about my reputation right now. There's only one thing that is bothering me, one thing that I need to know.

"Is . . . Ash okay?" I rasp.

At first, she is so silent that I start to wonder if she didn't hear me. But then, in a quiet, concerned voice, she replies, "Well, he's alive. He's currently in a worse condition than you, but he's holding on for now."

Satisfied with the answer, I let myself fade away again.

~~~~~~~~

Hey guys, here is a new chapter of Forest's Fate!

And guess what? The next chapter will actually be the final chapter of this story! I'm both excited and a little bit sad to be ending Forest's Fate, but I will definitely be making major edits in the future, mainly in the first half of the book. (And don't worry, there will also be an epilogue!)

Thanks for reading! 😀❤️

~Midnight