Jay brightened when the nurse announced the arrival of the rest of the team, and sat up straighter in his bed when Wu, Lloyd, and Zane walked in. All smiled in apparent relief at the sight of their friend awake and no longer looking white as a ghost. Lloyd visibly relaxed and smiled. "Hi, Jay."
"Hi, guys," Jay grinned and chuckled. "Wow. I don't think I've ever been the center of attention like this before!"
"None of us have ever been sick like this before," Zane responded seriously. "Jay, you were very close to dy—"
"A-hem." Nya shot Zane a look. She sat beside Jay on the bed.
Zane looked at Nya uneasily. "Oh. Um. I'm sorry— I mean—"
Thankfully, Matilda chose that moment to make her appearance, provoking an introduction between Jay and the witch. Matilda was gruff and to-the-point as always, and Jay seemed interested by this queer character. "So you're the witch," he said.
"So you're the Lightning Ninja," she retorted.
"Got any magic spell to make me heal super-fast?" he quipped.
She snorted, "Some things are better off healing by themselves."
Jay might have responded if he had not realized some members of his group of friends were missing. His gaze drifted curiously to the door. "Where're Cole and Kai?"
His answer was a long, awkward silence. Zane and Lloyd shared an uneasy glance, and Matilda tightened her lips. Wu sighed. "Kai, along with Skylor, are still missing. From what we've heard from a friend, they could be trapped in different realms. We have no idea where they are."
Beside him, Nya laid a hand on Jay's shoulder. "But they were released from the Dark Sleep, too—at least, we think so. They're probably all right, just really confused and trying to find a way to get back home."
"Oh..." Jay took several moments to process this bit of news. At length he asked, "Where's Cole?"
Lloyd, Nya, and Zane glanced down at the floor. Matilda's gaze was unidentifiable, but she looked away. Wu gave Jay a sad smile, but said nothing. The silence wore on for a few seconds more, and Jay felt his stomach sinking.
Something's wrong. Where's Cole?
"Where's Cole?" he repeated. He turned to Nya, wordlessly demanding her to look at him in the eyes. "What happened to him?"
As if she had heard his unspoken plea, she raised her head and gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile, though the reassuring bit failed rather pathetically. "He's OK. He's out in the hall. I'll get him." She stood up and brushed past Lloyd and Zane to get to the door. At the threshold, though, she paused and glanced back at Jay. "Just—be gentle with him." With that, she left.
Be gentle with him? Jay frowned. What in all of Ninjago was going on? If Cole was alive, not captured by the Moon Tribe or trapped in the Dark Sleep, then why was everyone acting all weird? Lloyd was staring down at the floor, suddenly finding his shoes quite fascinating. Zane looked at Jay uneasily.
Wu seemed to sympathize with Jay's bewilderment. "It will be clear soon, Jay," he said. "Don't worry."
Nya opened the door, looking behind her—with Cole close behind.
Jay's head reeled at the sight of his best friend. He couldn't suppress a low gasp, the only noise he made that expressed his shock. He stared at the linen bandages wrapped around Cole's head and over his eyes, and the bloody stains that were brown with age. Cole was supporting himself on some sort of cane, walking carefully. Nya stepped away to give him room. The support cane wasn't the only thing he supported himself on, although Jay barely took note of the girl his age helping Cole. Between the stranger and Nya, he looked strangely pale and small—not like the Cole he knew at all.
Jay finally found his voice to rasp faintly, "Cole?"
A weak smile played out on the mouth below the bandages. "Hi-ya, motor-mouth. It's good to hear your voice again."
"It— I—" Jay stammered. "What happened to you?"
The smile stayed on Cole's face, but it was shrinking. "I rubbed a cat's fur the wrong way. He didn't take it too well."
"You're..." Jay tried to say it.
"I'm blind." It came out as a sigh. "Yeah."
Jay was silent for a moment. Then he asked, "What does your face look like without the bandages?"
"Jay!" Nya delivered a reproachful glare.
"What? I'm just curious!"
Cole sighed. He hated Jay's reaction to all this. Everyone's reaction, really. They keep walking around him tentatively and talking carefully whenever he was around—like they had to be polite around the fact that he was now blind. It had only been a day or two, but already he was downright sick of it. Perhaps if he took off the bandages and let Jay see the wounds...
He wasn't sure what he was expecting. Some little, bitter part of him spoke up and made him say, "Just take it off. About time we changed the bandages, anyway."
Silence. He could just imagine everyone looking at one another, and at him. He could feel Liana's grasp on his arm. He barely took note of her presence. Someone stepped up to him, and he felt their hands reaching for his face.
"Fine," Matilda murmured. "I should have changed these things the other day, anyway."
She sat him down in a chair by Jay's bedside, where Cole felt him grip his hand. Slowly, gently, Matilda began unwrapping the bandages. He could fairly hear everyone holding their breath.
Cool air finally kissed the flesh and skin that had been hidden beneath the embrace of linen for so long, and he breathed a little sigh of relief. It felt good to have the upper part of his face free again. Instinct wanted him to try to open his eyes, to blink or at least move his eyeballs around beneath the lids—but he abstained. He knew there was nothing there to move.
Finally, the last of the wraps came off. Matilda stepped away—perhaps she was averting her gaze from the ravaged wounds on his face. His back was toward the audience in the room. Blindly he was facing Jay.
He expected Jay to say or do something—scream, gasp, curse, say something stupidly obvious, anything—
—But there was only silence. The dark and silence.
Somehow, silence was worse than the everlasting darkness.
Then Jay said, "Umm... what I am supposed to be looking at?"
Matilda huffed crossly. "Corpus bones, what do you mean, 'What am I supposed to be looking at'? What, you mean beside the—?" Cole heard her shift over to him to look at him.
Then she shrieked.
"AAUUUGHH! Ancestors and Merlin and bones and—!"
"What?!" Nya and Liana darted over to Cole at the same time. Cole felt Nya's hand on his shoulder. "What's the matter?! What— Aaugh!"
"Gah!" Over Nya's shriek, Cole heard Jay clap his hands over his ears. "That's so loud!" he hollered.
"You're being loud, too!" Lloyd shouted.
"So are you!" Jay retorted, still shouting at the top of his lungs.
"What? What?" Cole raised his voice above the ruckus. "What's going on?!"
"You're being louder!" Lloyd accused Jay.
"Nu-uh!"
"Corpus bones, shut your traps!" Matilda snarled.
"I can't believe it!" Nya gasped. "Cole—!"
"What? What about Cole?!" Liana demanded.
"Yeah, what about me?!" Cole echoed.
"You're still shouting!" Lloyd shouted.
"So are you!" Jay shouted back.
"You are all shouting! And for no discernible reason!" Zane joined in.
"Quiet!" Wu suddenly boomed.
Finally everyone stopped shouting. Except Cole.
"What the heck is going on?!" He swiveled his head around blindly.
"Open your eyes, dum-dum," Matilda snapped.
Cole scowled. "Open my eyes? What the heck are you talking about, I can't open my eyes, they're—"
He blinked.
He blinked again.
He saw Matilda's face staring down at him. Nya was standing beside her, gaping at him like she was seeing a ghost. The light in the little apartment was so bright it hurt, making his eyes water. He blinked away the tears and looked around him. Liana stood stock-still behind him. Jay was in a bed. Wu, Lloyd, and Zane stood across from him at the foot of the bed, looking utterly dumbfounded—even Wu's mouth was hanging open.
Cole opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He blinked.
He rubbed his eyes. He felt his face. He felt the flesh around his eyes.
Smooth. Soft. Like a baby. No wounds. No scabs. No hollowed-out sockets. Not even scars.
He could see.
"I can see," he whispered.
Liana's mouth fell open. "Wh— what?"
"I can see." Cole stood up shakily from the chair, staring all around him. Colors. He never thought he'd ever be so happy to see Lloyd's blond hair, or Wu's pale straw hat, or Nya's ocean-blue eyes, or Zane's white-and-gray mixed gi, or everyone's faces in general. He glanced at the window at the other side of the room, where his reflection stared back at him. His face was perfect, as if Raven Frost had never raked his claws over Cole's eyes. The coal-black locks hanging down in front of his face, the bright green scar etched down one side, his thick eyebrows, and his bright eyes—those beautiful, beautiful eyes, eyes that could see again and put all these images in his brain and show him the world and the faces of his best friends!
A broad smile grew upon his face, and he laughed out loud. "I can see! Ha hah! I'm not blind anymore! I can see!"
Nya looked dazed. Lloyd, on the other hand, returned the wild smile. He met Cole and clasped his arm, laughing. "Good to have you back, buddy!"
"I can't believe it!" Cole felt dizzy. "I can see you, Nya, Master Wu, Zane, Matilda, Liana, and Jay— ha ha, Jay!" He finally swung around to Jay, fairly dancing on his feet. "I can see! I can see, I can—! Wow, you look awful."
Jay's hair was unkempt and fell listlessly around his face, and his complexion was like that of wax, matching the dark circles under his eyes. Still, he looked rather better than he had when he had been trapped in the Dark Sleep. In response to Cole's last comment, he rolled his eyes and smirked. "Still better-looking than you, though."
Jay voiced a startled oomph when he suddenly found himself being half-strangled in a warm bearhug by Cole. "Boy, is it good to see you again, Jay! We nearly lost you! Dang," For a second his voice shook. He repeated, "We nearly lost you."
He hesitated, startled by his own emotion, and he almost choked on it. He gripped Jay harder and growled into his shoulder, slightly muffled. "We aren't ever letting go of you again. Never."
"As much as I appreciate that thought, Cole," Jay wheezed in his arms. "If you don't mind, could you let go of me for one second? I— can't— breathe!" The last sentence ended with a wheezy cough.
"Oh! Right. Sorry, Jay." Cole dropped Jay, who fell on the floor with another wheeze.
"Cole can see." Lloyd mumbled. He stared at Cole's face as if seeing a ghost. "B— but your eyes... they were..."
"This can't be!" Zane exclaimed, looking equally shocked.
As Nya helped Jay back to his feet, he said, "What's so crazy about all this? So Cole got some boo-boos on his eyes. They probably just healed, like all wounds do!"
"You do not understand," Wu said seriously. "Cole's eyes were not 'hurt'; they were gone. A Moon Tribe sorcerer had ripped his claws out his eyes and cast a spell on them to make sure that Matilda could not heal him."
"Well, maybe it didn't work," Nya offered. "Maybe Raven Frost's spells aren't as good as he thinks. You could have just been underestimating your powers, Matilda—maybe they just needed time to heal his eyes."
"'Raven Frost'?" Jay interjected. "Pfft, ha, ha! What kind of name is that?"
Matilda scowled in response to Nya. "No. It's not like that at all. Cole, come here."
Cole hesitated, then stepped over to Matilda. She cupped his face in her hands and leaned forward, scrutinizing and running her fingers around his eyes. Cole squirmed in discomfort. Matilda was so close to him that the brim of her peaked hat was brushing against his forehead.
After a few moments, she asked, "Have your eyes been hurting at all? Since the other night, when we tried to heal them by ourselves?"
"Well— no. I mean—" Cole paused, thinking back to the last couple days. He screwed his mouth in thought, then replied slowly, "Actually, yes. They were hurting the night we got back from the castle, even after you tried to heal them."
"Have they stopped hurting? Did you notice when?" the witch pressed.
Cole bit his lip. "Y— yeah, I think so... I think they stopped hurting when..." His voice trailed off, thinking hard.
When did my eyes stop hurting? Was it just now—? No, they've been all right all day yesterday... Ever since—
He caught his breath.
"What? Tell us," she demanded quietly.
"It was..." He felt his face burn. He glanced over at Liana, who stood silently nearby in her new uniform.
"It was yesterday morning, when Liana... touched my eyes."
Matilda cocked an eyebrow skeptically. "She... 'touched' your eyes?"
"We— we were in the kitchen together. It was early, before anyone was up," he mumbled. "They— they felt nice and cool on the bandages, and my face was hurting—she just put her hands there for a minute or something. That's when my eyes stopped hurting."
Matilda's expression changed. Something strange flickered in her eyes... like a mingling compound of realization, wonder, and fear. She stared challengingly at him. The force of her glare was enough to make him shift uncomfortably. "That's all?"
"That's all." He swallowed. "But what does Liana have to do with my eyes suddenly being back to normal?"
"What, indeed?" She swung around and faced Liana. The girl gulped when she sensed the witch's attention was turned on her.
"What did you do to him?" Matilda demanded.
"I— what?" Liana stammered, feeling her heart pound in her chest. What in the world is she talking about?
"There's not a single trace of my magic on his face. Some other power healed his eyes." Matilda grabbed her roughly by the shoulders. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Liana squirmed and tried to break free of the woman's grip. "Why do you think I have anything to do with this? I'm not even a ninja!"
"So you think," Matilda retorted. "Liana, has anything like this ever happened before?"
"No, I can't say I've ever touched the face of someone whose eyes were cursed by an evil werecat wizard before," the younger girl responded sarcastically.
"That's not what I mean!" Matilda took a deep breath, then asked in a gentler voice, "What I mean to say is, has anything mysterious like this ever happened? Little things, things that couldn't be explained?"
Liana was silent, frowning in confusion. Matilda pressed, "Like when you're angry or scared... Could you ever heal someone else or yourself like this? Could you hurt them? Could you ever make things break or move without touching them?"
"What kind of crazy questions are these?" Cole demanded, his gaze flickering back and forth between Matilda and Liana. "What the heck does any of this have to do with—?"
"You may just find out if you shut your trap for half a breath!" Matilda snapped.
"I..." Liana's eyes were wide, and she was breathing quickly. Her lips quivered, as if trying to form words to release from her lips, and she wrung her hands together. After a few attempts to speak, she finally whispered, "I broke the chains. In the dungeon. Raven Frost chained me down to a table and left me there, but I broke them. And the door. I made the lock come loose." Her voice trembled. "Both of them. The door to my cell and Cole and Eagle Talon's."
She hesitated, then added, "I don't know how. I felt my arms get all hot, and there was this loud boom. Like they exploded. I was angry. I hated Raven Frost. I was in so much pain."
Matilda stared intensely into Liana's eyes. "Did he really give you the Dark Sleep, Liana?"
Liana bit her lip and nodded. She felt dazed. Where were all these questions leading to? Was there a reason all these things had happened? Could Matilda give them an explanation? Though she couldn't see it, Liana could feel the witch's stare, and she squirmed under the heated scrutiny.
"I fought back," she whispered, quivering. Everyone in the room had to strain their ears to hear her. "He was tormenting me in my dreams. I could feel him in my head, laughing at me. So I fought back. I saw my arms glowing. I could see. It got brighter, and I could feel him slipping away. Then I woke up."
Matilda finally let go of Liana. She stepped back. The room was utterly silent—everyone was stricken wordless by the terse and strange exchange. Liana felt Cole's presence nearby.
"You're a master, Wu," Matilda finally said. "What do you make of all this, eh?"
"I believe my thoughts match those of yours," was his simple reply.
"What?" Jay piped up, sounding quite sick of the constant mystery. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Yeah, Matilda," Cole joined. "What does all this mean?"
"It seems..." Matilda hesitated, then took a deep breath and announced:
"...that Liana could be an Elemental Master."
* * *
"Enough!" Birch Tail signaling for them to halt with his tails. "All right, students, that's good enough for one day. Well done."
The young werecats—the class numbering to almost a dozen—shifted from their human forms to their bakeneko bodies. The students purred with pleasure at their performances while immediately heading for the exit of the training cave. Many clustered in whispering or chattering groups as friends joined together to talk about the latest moves their mentors had just taught them or to share juicy gossip. The older cats—the mentors—lingered in the cave as they made a group and began discussing their latest class.
Little Leaf was one of the young cats in the class. As she padded through the adjoining tunnel alongside her peers, she felt her pads and head ache. The mentors had insisted on training for as long as they did, pressuring their students to get the moves right as soon as they could. In that class, they were practicing reverting from their feline forms to their human forms within seconds and immediately switching their style of fighting as they chose new bodies. In battle against a human army, Birch Tail and the other mentors had explained to them, one must master the skill of shifting bodies as swift and smooth as a shadow, and switching their battle techniques alongside them.
All the while during these classes the mentors would encourage their students by snarling over and over again about how evil the humans were; how they had slaughtered innocent cats in the Red Battle all those seasons ago, and how it was because of them the tribe nearly starved every winter and why their clan was always hunted and taken down by the humans' boom-sticks that could kill an animal from far away. They fed dreams and lusts of revenge, hate, and hurt to the young cats, building a fire of war in their hearts. One only had to look in the eyes of one of the werecats and see the terrible rage dancing within, and the thirst for the rest of the tribe to feel the same way.
As the classes went on and they trained longer and harder, that same light in the eyes of the older warriors sparked to life in the students—it was like a hot, burning virus, licking flames that swept through the hearts of the cats as a forest fire would. All were consumed by the toxic hate for wounds left open to burn.
All... except Little Leaf.
She hadn't been in the Tribe for very long upon her return with Eagle Talon, but already she felt thoroughly sick and tired of all the battle practices they were doing each day. Apparently, Black Blood had insisted that the mentors double the time of battle-training, and that the students were to learn the more advanced moves sooner than usual. All day Little Leaf found herself surrounded by elders, senior warriors, her peers, or even tiny kittens spitting hate about the humans, about the Sons of Daughter of the Elements, and how the Moon Tribe would completely annihilate them all.
The war was all any cat would talk about; they talked about in the sleeping dens, they talked about it when they ate, they talked about it when they trained, they talked about it when they walked through the tunnels, and they talked about it when they basked in the sun. Once Little Leaf had even passed by a litter of kittens playing together, taking turns pretending to be warriors of their own clan and the humans.
"I'm gonna be Black Blood!" squeaked a little tortoiseshell with big ears. She fluffed up her fur, making herself look rather like a walking puffball. She hopped over to a tiny white tom and mewed, "Snow Flake, you be the Son of the First! Me and Rabbit Hop are gonna get you!"
Snow Flake fluffed up his own fur and waved his tails, growling in what apparently was his imitation of a human voice. "Grrr! I'm the Son of the First! And I'm going to eat you all!"
"Oh, yeah? I'm the sorcerer Rip Claw!" Rabbit Hop, a young gray tom with white paws joined the tortoiseshell. "And we're gonna get you for stealing our moonstones and hurting our tribe!"
"Moon Tribe, charge!" The she-kitten "Black Blood" jumped atop Snow Flake and bowled him over, soon followed by Rabbit Hop. "We'll defeat you, Son of the First! And all the other Sons and Daughters! Yah!"
Snow Flake rolled his eyes around and flopped to the ground dramatically, making gargling and wheezing noises. "Oh, no... the Moon Tribe is too strong for me... I'm done for... bleugh." He lay still on the ground, imitating death, although his whiskers twitched in a barely stifled giggle.
The kittens had been purring and batting each other playfully, but Little Leaf shuddered when "Lloyd" fell at the paws of "Black Blood". With a sick feeling in her belly, she had quickly turned away from the kits and padded off.
Now she was walking aimlessly down one of the main tunnels, barely aware of her peers walking past her and dispersing here and there. Exhaustion seemed to drag at every muscle in her body. All she wanted to do at that moment was to find a nice rock warming up in the sun outside and talk with Lightning Streak.
In her wandering thoughts that drifted as slowly as her paws did, she wasn't aware of a cat catching up and walking beside her until she jumped at a voice in her ear. "Had a good session?"
"Black Blood!" Little Leaf bristled and whirled to her left. The older she-cat was padding beside her casually, her glossy black pelt glinting in the cool shadow of the tunnel. Her emerald eyes stared back at Little Leaf—the look made her stomach worm about uncomfortably.
"Uh— hi," Leaf squeaked, and felt her pelt burn at the sound of her own voice sounding so meek. When Black Blood didn't respond immediately, she stammered, "What's up?"
Black Blood glanced overhead casually. "The ceiling, presently—"
Mouse-brain! Little Leaf berated herself for using a human term, and prayed to her ancestors that Black Blood wouldn't notice.
"—but I was thinking you and I could take a little walk outside." Black Blood looked back at Leaf. "It's been a while since I've shared a friendly conversation with my little sister."
Leaf blinked. Black Blood wants to talk to me? She swallowed and tried to push back waves of uneasiness that made her heart beat quickly. "Oh! Um— sure?"
Black Blood gestured with one tail and led the way to the entrance cave. Little Leaf followed meekly, head down, and tried to act casual. Be cool, be cool, she told herself. Don't act like you're nervous, that'll just make her suspicious. She knows I was there at the bandit palace. No, she doesn't, don't be stupid! How could she know? Eagle Talon was there, too. What does she want to talk about? I've never had a full conversation with her, never...
Back and forth she argued and debated and came rather close to panicking with herself. Through the entrance cave Black Blood and Little Leaf went, brushing past cats clustered in groups as they chatted and hung out with one another.
One of these cats was Lightning Streak. When Black Blood and Little Leaf passed within the length of a fox's tail length of her, she turned and watched the two females duck into the tunnel leading outside. Streak stood there for a while, eyes on the entrance and her tail tips twitching.
Meanwhile Black Blood led Little Leaf out of the tunnel and into bright, afternoon sunlight. Leaf felt a shiver of pleasure when she stepped into the warmth of the sun. She stepped onto an outcrop of rocks and looked out over the steep valley. It was a quiet scene of boulders and scrubby plants. Beyond that the surrounding hills and mountains made the bleak, treacherous, yet beautiful home of the Moon Tribe.
A cold wind whistled in her ears, chilling her and making her whiskers twitch. She inhaled a deep breath of cool mountain air, which was sharp and crisp to the taste. It filled her lungs with the breath of the mountain.
To Leaf's surprise, Black Blood shifted into her human body. Pale skin grew and morphed into a feminine body covered by black, green, violet, and dark blue clothing. The glossy black fur shrunk to frame her head and face. The tall young woman lifted her head to the wind and allowed the breeze to tug playfully on her hair. The dark robes and kirtle she wore danced softly while her bare feet peeked out from the folds of the skirt. She took a deep breath of the wind, closing her eyes for a second—then opened them with a little smile.
"You may change into your human body if you like."
Little Leaf looked at her, hesitated, then obliged, trading her small calico pelt for the animal skins and pink flesh that went with her ginger hair. She stood several inches shorter than Black Blood, her head hardly reaching her sister's breast.
"So... what did you want to talk about?" Little Leaf asked warily, brushing a strand of hair out her face.
Black Blood nodded vaguely to a worn, narrow path that winded its way to the left of them; it crawled and twisted its way up the mountainside between boulders and dead bushes. "Walk with me."
The two girls padded silently up the mountainside. Overhead in the cloudless blue sky, two eagles dipped and spun in the air. Little Leaf saw them flying and thought of flying with Lloyd on his dragon. As soon as the memory crossed her mind, though, she shook it off guiltily and glanced anxiously at Black Blood. She didn't know if the sorcerer could read her mind at the moment, but no way was she taking any chances.
"How goes your training?" Black Blood finally broke the stiff silence. Her gaze was stuck straight ahead. Leaf looked at her.
"It— it's fine." She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Birch Tail's a good teacher."
"And a good warrior," Black Blood responded. "Are you glad to be back in the Tribe?"
"Oh, yes!" Leaf replied a little too quickly. "Yeah. It— it's good. Um," She mumbled, "Yeah. Glad to be back."
"Do you think you will be ready to fight for your tribe when the time comes?" Black Blood murmured.
Little Leaf swallowed. "Y— yes. I'm always ready."
The two werecats turned a corner and came across a small brook that gurgled down a pebbly hill. It was a few feet wide and deep enough to wade in, but only small enough to give room to a few minnows, if there happened to be any. It was at this stream Black Blood paused, looked thoughtfully at it, then ventured toward it.
Little Leaf watched her half-sister walk idly to the little sandy bank, peering down into the water. Then she crouched down and, holding one human hand like a paw, dabbed at the glistening water. Without looking at Little Leaf, she said, "Look into the water, Little Leaf."
Little Leaf, perplexed, ventured to the bank beside Black Blood obediently and looked down into the stream, crouching beside her. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking at. All she could see was the muddy bottom of the brook and the shiny pebbles buried in the wet earth.
"Look at the reflection of the water."
Again Leaf obeyed, concentrating not on the brook's bottom but on the image that glittered atop the running movement of the current. Her own humanoid face stared back at her, messy bangs of hair framing her face. Her reflection stared back at her with an expression of anxiety and confusion.
"Tell me," Black Blood murmured beside her. "What do you see?"
"I see my face," Little Leaf replied. "Just me."
"Really? That's not what I see."
Leaf's face was shoved into the brook. She gasped and swallowed water—it poured into her lungs and paralyzed her. The current roared in her ears. She tried to get up, but something was keeping her down, smashing her face into the muddy bottom of the stream and scratching her skin on the pebbles.
She screwed her eyes shut, blocking out the oozy mud. She tried to breathe but choked on water and earth. Her lungs burned, and her heart pounded in her chest and her ears, matching the scream of terror that Leaf wanted to voice. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't see—all she could do was wait for the force shoving her head underwater to let her free.
Something dug into her hair. Nails—or claws?—pierced her scalp. Little Leaf's head was yanked out of the brook. She coughed up water and mud and blinked rapidly, gasping and trembling.
Black Blood snatched at Leaf's neck, her iron-like fingers groping for a certain muscle pattern around the nape. Little Leaf shrieked when Black Blood mashed her fingers into the sensitive muscles, and felt her body shifting and shuddering from the force.
Little Leaf's body convulsed. She fell on her hands and knees as her body changed shape—still humanoid, but now the muscles were thickening around her limbs and torso, her breast changing into masculine pectorals. Her face ached and tingled. Her ponytail shorted and changed shade. A few locks of her hair fell across her face, allowing her to catch sight of the hair color.
With a horrified gasp, Little Leaf raised her head and stared into the reflection of the brook once again.
Lloyd's wet and terrified face stared back at her.
Her head was yanked backwards. Black Blood's cold, merciless eyes gazed down at her icily. "I see the face of a liar."
"Black Blood, please—" Lloyd's voice stammered out of Leaf's lips. "—I can explain!"
Black Blood grabbed Lloyd-Leaf by the neck and forced her to her feet. Her hand shaped into a paw and she slashed her claws across Lloyd-Leaf's cheek. Leaf cried out.
"You lying traitor!" she hissed, unmindful of the girl's whimpering. "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I'm blind? Do you think my sense of smell is as bad as a human's?"
Little Leaf's body morphed back into its original feminine shape. She trembled from head to toe, feeling her heart pound in her throat. She barely felt the hot sting of pain on her cheek. "No, I—!"
Black Blood snatched her by the hair and shoulders and shoved her down into the brook again. Again Leaf swallowed water and mud. Her heart was hammering so hard she thought she would vomit it up. When Black Blood yanked the girl back up, she grabbed one of her arms and forced it backwards, eliciting a pained scream.
"I recognized your scent, Little Leaf," she hissed into her ear. "That wasn't Lloyd the Son of the First in the green pelt the other night at the castle, was it? That was you. He was the blue-pelted female."
"Please," Little Leaf sobbed, struggling in the woman's grip. "You're hurting me—!"
Black Blood shoved her to the ground, smashing her face against the dirt and getting pebbles in her mouth. Leaf's tears mixed with the water that she coughed up and that dripped down her face.
"Traitor!" Black Blood cried out again. "You haven't been a prisoner of the Sons and Daughters—you've been an ally! Eagle Talon had to get you back because you were working with them! My sister—a friend to humans!"
"No, please—" Leaf choked. "You don't understand—!"
"Oh, I think I understand all too well." Black Blood yanked Little Leaf back up, turning her on her knees to look at her in the face. Her eyes flashed like hateful green fire. "What did the humans offer you that the Moon Tribe can't? Unlimited food? To be able to live peacefully, should they find a way to defeat us a second time? A pampered life like a house cat?" Her eyes narrowed. "How did the Son of the First seduce you?"
"No, no!" Leaf protested, trying to swallow back her terrified sobs. "It's not like that at all—!"
"You betrayed your tribe," Black Blood hissed, shaking Little Leaf with each word. "You betrayed our cause. You betrayed your friends and family. You betrayed my trust. You betrayed everything that matters. I hope Lloyd and the others gave you what you wanted, because now you're going to pay."
Black Blood shoved Little Leaf away. The girl stumbled backwards, toward the edge of the mountainside, where the slope fell away sharply into a rugged valley of rocks and rubble, much of it hidden away by shadows. In this direction Little Leaf was shoved away, tumbling and skinning herself on the pebbly ground. She felt herself rolling—then the ground beneath her disappeared.
With a terrified shriek, Little Leaf fell over the side of the cliff—she grabbed onto a small outcrop in the very nick of time. Gravity yanked on her as she slipped over the side before she was left dangling, her feet hanging over the shadowy chasm beneath her. She clung to the outcrop with both hands and prayed to her ancestors that she could hold on.
Just above her head, Black Blood stepped to the edge of the cliff and looked down coldly. "This is what happens to members of the tribe who don't do what's best for it. This is what happens to weaklings, cheaters, and traitors. Your love for humans must be destroyed, so that it cannot spread in the tribe like a disease. Thus..." She smiled with complacency. "You must be destroyed."
"No, Black Blood," Leaf squeaked. "You don't understand. The humans— they're not evil. They're—!"
"I had to get rid of a cat like this once," Black Blood said, cocking her head. "A weak, foolish old tom who wasn't fit to be leader. I, for the sake of our clan, got rid of Broken Stone in this very fashion, by pushing him off a cliff. Funny how history has a way of repeating itself."
Little Leaf's mind reeled. Broken Stone...! She remembered the name of the cat who had been the leader of the Moon Tribe for so long before Black Blood, his second-in-command, took over after his death. The tribe had been told it was an accident—that an eagle had chased him over a cliff...
"You murdered Broken Stone?!"
"He was a stupid, weak old cat!" Black Blood spat. "The tribe would have starved with him in charge! I did what was best for all of us. Just as I'm doing now." She gave a vicious kick at Little Leaf's hands.
With a yelp Leaf released one hand, stinging from the blow. She swung in midair, dangling over the chasm. Still she clung to the cliffside.
I can't die. I can't die. Leaf's breath came out in ragged gasps. She swallowed back her sobs and tried to breathe, focusing on holding onto the rock and not looking down. Water dripped into her eyes. She saw Black Blood preparing for another kick, eyes gleaming with malice.
Little Leaf shut her eyes. Come on, Leaf. You can do it. You did it in Lloyd's body. How hard can it be?
"Say hello to the ancestors for me," Black Blood sneered. "Tell them I'll see them shortly for my nine lives."
Little Leaf took a long, deep breath. Do it.
Black Blood kicked Leaf's other hand. Leaf cried out and let go. Her body began to plummet. Black Blood cackled.
"Ninjaaaaa—go!" Little Leaf summoned a burst of bright green energy. She felt the hot power rise and swirl around her, flowing from her body to the air around her, mixing with the natural current of energy from the earth. A whirring Spinjitzu vortex caught her, making her hair and clothes fly. The surge propelled her up, up, and she spun onto the ground before an astonished Black Blood.
"Mouse tails and fox dung—!" Black Blood gasped.
Little Leaf swung the vortex toward Black Blood. The force caught the woman and flung her into the stream, flinging water everywhere. As Black Blood tumbled butt-first into the brook, the Spinjitzu vortex evaporated, leaving Little Leaf staggering and panting for breath.
"Would you look at that," Black Blood sneered, leaping smoothly to her feet. "The handsome Son of the First taught his werecat sweetheart how to do Spinjitzu." Her eyes flashed. "Now you must be destroyed."
Leaf took a deep breath and summoned a burst of Lloyd's energy. She imagined she could hear his voice as he grunted, see the bright ball shooting out of his hands and toward their target. Come on, you can do it!
Both Little Leaf and Black Blood were thrown off their feet when a burst of green energy exploded from Leaf's hands and shot toward her half-sister. Black Blood was flung against the little waterfall that fell into the brook, looking dazed.
Little Leaf was shaking from head to foot. She staggered to her feet and stared at Black Blood. The older girl lay listless in the stream, sitting upright.
Dread sent a cold chill down Leaf's spine. Did I just...?
A compound of relief and terror swept over her when Black Blood stirred. She growled from deep within her throat and cast her eyes on Little Leaf.
Leaf saw the curse coming before it came. A roar of silver light flashed from Black Blood's palms. Instinctively, Leaf warded the blow with an energy ball. She felt the opposing powers bounce off each other. The force of the collision sent her reeling.
The energy ball evaporated as she stumbled backwards and to the side of the cliff. With a panicked cry, she fell over the edge.
Black Blood leapt to her feet. She darted to the cliffside and peered down, blinking water out of her eyes.
In mid-fall, Little Leaf summoned another Spinjitzu vortex. Whirring, the bright green tornado carried Little Leaf in its embrace, and she drifted unsteadily down into the cavern.
The vortex sputtered, then she bumped against a boulder standing upright in the narrow passage. The vortex evaporated and she tumbled down, hitting rocks and skinning herself.
Black Blood prepared to summon a curse but stopped, realizing that Little Leaf was much too far away. From where Black Blood stood overlooking the rocky and narrow passage, her sister looked as small as an ant. The werecat queen watched coldly as the girl's body tumbled over rocks and boulders, hitting and scraping her fragile figure. Little Leaf's cries reverberated throughout the canyon, but no kind heart heard it—only Black Blood, who made no move to help her little sister.
Little Leaf hit her head several times. The rugged slope was ruthless to her body. She fell limp. Her figure finally slid onto a patch of sand at the very bottom of the canyon, beaten and weary. Her body lay listless on the ground.
For several moments, Black Blood stood there at the clifftop and gazed down coolly at the unmoving figure. Finally she murmured, "May our ancestors have mercy on your soul."
Black Blood turned from the cliffside and walked away, not even casting a second glance into the canyon.
Silence settled over the valley. A little, tentative breeze whistled through the jumbled pattern of rocks that dotted the sharp slope. The setting afternoon sun cast a malignant red light over the mountainsides, but the small crushed body lay in the shadow of the cavern, hidden away from sight. The breeze ventured through the cool shadows and gently embraced the body, tugging on her hair. The figure lay still and silent, a picture of life gone.
Then Little Leaf stirred. She blinked, then raised her head. She flinched when her head ached in protest and felt her many scrapes here and there on her bare body sting. Tentatively, she pushed herself up, despite the pain she caused herself. She hurt all over. Her head felt heavy and fuzzy beneath the sharp sting of pain. Her vision swam and blurred with tears.
She heaved herself to her feet, feeling her limbs ache. One foot hurt when she put weight on it. She felt her many scrapes and cuts sting when she moved, and tried to ignore it. At least the pain she felt couldn't match the terror and grief in her heart.
Her lips quivered, and she allowed herself a few shuddering sobs. She leaned against one of the boulders and let the tears slide down her face, making pale streaks in the dirt and blood dirtying her cheeks.
What now?
Black Blood had tried to murder her. She'd go back to the tribe and probably tell some tragic story of Little Leaf being carried off by an eagle. There was no way Leaf could go back to the tribe. Even if they believed her if she told them Black Blood tried to kill her, her half-sister still held all the power of the Moon Tribe and its sorcerers. She could do whatever she wanted, and she'd have at least half the clan to back her up. Not even Eagle Talon, however hard he may try, could help her.
No. She was alone. Leaf would have to get as far away from the Tribe as possible—but where could she go? What place in the world beyond Tribe territory was there for a young werecat banished from her clan?
Little Leaf knew the answer even before she asked herself the question. After allowing herself to cry and to gather up what little strength she had, she stood up and began to clamber out of the rocky valley, away from the Tribe of the Moon.
"Looks like I'm going to be a ninja now."