Forest's Fate

Chapter 36 (FINAL CHAPTER)

        Several days have passed of my recovery. I've mostly been asleep for all of them. The times when I wasn't asleep, I laid there thinking about Tornado.

One day, the pain in my back and legs feels light enough so that I can finally move. I peel myself off of the ground and scan my surroundings. The sky is its usual dull gray, and one of the tunnels are nearby. An entire crowd of cats are mingling in the distance next to a tree. I squint my eyes, uncertain of what I'm seeing at first, but it's true. There are so many cats there. What are they doing?

"Forest!" a loud voice calls.

My eyes dart over to Rain, who just climbed out of the tunnel. She races straight to me and breathlessly meows, "Are you alright? I'm telling you, Forest, there's been so much going on these past couple of days!"

       I nod. "What's with all of those cats?"

        "They're cats from all over Gardinia," Rain responds, wildly gesturing towards them with her long tail. Her eyes are wide and bright. She looks like she's going to run around the field in pure joy. "The war is over! Since Ice died, the leadership of the Superiors was passed on to Mirage. I don't know what you did to her that night, Forest, but she surrendered yesterday. Mirage, out of all cats, surrendered."

        My eyes widen in surprise. So Mirage is, in fact, alive. She must have fled from North when he arrived to rescue me and Ash.

        "That's great!" I meow. "So, does that mean the rebels win?"

        "Well, of course they won, silly!" she purrs, lightly poking me in the chest with her paw. "And now everyone in Gardinia has gathered to decide what to do with the damages caused by the war . . . and what to do with the Earth cats." This time, she gives me a sympathetic look.

        "There's also some bad news," she cuts in before I can say anything. "Not anything to do with the end of the war or the meeting, but . . ."

        Rain's speech drags off, and her gaze falls to the ground. The joyful mood that she had before suddenly disappears. "I'll explain what happened. Want to walk with me to the meeting?"

        I nod, and we start walking. The air lately has been much chillier than before, icy and cool against my fur. I've heard from the others that this is the start of the cold season. I figured out that the seasons apparently don't work the same here as on Earth.

"What's wrong?" I ask, peering over at Rain. It must be really bad news if even Rain is so affected by it.

Rain stops so abruptly that I almost walk ahead of her. I take a step back and stare at her. She still refuses to look directly at me, and her ears are flattened to her head.

        "Rain?" I touch her side with my tail.

Her voice comes out as a soft whimper. "Forest . . . Ash died last night. His injuries were too much for him to handle."

        A dark, doomed silence stretches between us. The world starts to spin around me, so I sit down next to her as the realization quickly overcomes my mind.

        "Oh, Rain," I whisper. I try to think of what else to say, but that's all that comes out of my jaws. "Oh, Rain."

        With shaky paws and flattened ears, she sits down next to me. We just sit there and quietly stare at the sky as if we can see Ash's spirit up there. The cool breeze ruffles our fur. It makes my entire body shiver, but it's a brief distraction from the sadness that engulfs me.