☆～Wings of Dreams～☆

Chapter 6: Fire, Water, and Thunder

      "Hey! That's a Sky Kingdom cat!" said the ginger cat, who was probably saying that just to make sure the others could see me too.

      And they did.

      "I don't recognize her though. Besides, she wouldn't have ran away if she knew who we were, and she would know who we were if she was a Sky Kingdom cat," was the gray tom's reply.

      Since I was inexperienced in flying, I had a crash landing, narrowly missing the white she-cat. They then stood in a line in front of me, and I stood back up, awkwardly trying to fold my wings, failing, and letting them droop so I wouldn't waste energy holding them up.

      "I'm Swan," the white she-cat purred. She then mewed, "These are Ember," pointed to the hyper ginger she-cat with her tail, "and Thunder," pointed to the gray tom, and finally asked, "Who are you?"

      "I'm Aurora," I prriped in reply. I then studied each of the cats in front of me.

      Thunder had long, fluffy, wispy gray fur that reminded me of those giant rain clouds you see in the sky when there's going to be a rain, snow, sleet, or hail storm. His paws, tail tip, and ears were a lighter shade of gray than the rest of him. His eyes were a stormy blue, but seemed to be getting brighter blue every second, and then stopped abruptly at a sky blue.

      Swan had short, pure white fur that seemed to glow. Her eyes were a ruby red, which wasn't just unusual in color, but also seemed to be transparent, which, for a few seconds, made me believe they were actual rubies. But rubies aren't normally blurred like that, I reminded myself.

      Ember had long, wispy fur like Thunder, but it was more pointed than his, and was bright orange, resembling flames. Her paws, tail tip, and point of her ears were a redder orange than the rest of her. Her left eye was emerald green, which reminded me of the emerald amulet I found in the lake. Her right eye was an orange-ish amber, with, ironically, a flame shaped spot around her eye, with the top wielding the flames, and the bottom rounding under her eye, which was the reddest orange on her.

      I then explained it from the beginning; Waking up in the forest, finding Lichen, and Aster's plan. It took less time than I thought it would.

      "Hey! Since you told us interesting stuff about yourself, we'll each tell you our talents and something interesting about us!" Ember stated. She then continued without waiting for Swan or Thunder to object or agree. "My talent is fire," she said as she demonstrated, then continued, "and my best friend was originally an Earth Kingdom cat."

      Why does that sound familiar? ...Oh well. I'll remember it later.

      "My talent is water, and I'm the only one in the Sky Kingdom with red eyes," mewed Swan, who probably noticed me looking at her eyes earlier.

      "My talent is weather, meaning I can change the weather. However, I can only make clouds appear so far," Nikko meowed with a guarded look on his face, implying that he did not trust me too much. He then continued, "What's your talent? And why should we believe that you're not an Earth Kingdom spy?"

      "I honestly don't know what my talent is. The reasons you should believe I'm not a spy are that I have wings, and if I was a spy I probably wouldn't have told you my name or give away names of real cats in the Earth Kingdom," I answered, knowing he probably wouldn't believe me anyway. I then continued, "So... From what Aster told me, the only way we can get into the Sky Tree is the Sky Oak, which has red leaves... Oh! I just remembered something! Do any of you know a cat named Birch? Aster wanted me to tell him something."

     "We know him! He's my best friend! Come on, I'll introduce you to him!" Ember prriped, and bounded away with Swan, Thunder, and me following close behind.

•☆•【<◊>】•☆•

      By the time we got to the Sky Oak I was dragging my paws across the ground in exhaustion. Thunder and Swan were still trotting along, but I could hear their heavy breathing, indicating they were a bit winded, too. Ember, however, was bouncing all over the place, overflowing with energy, making me wonder how often the cats run that fast. However, when I looked at the tree, I knew the long, tiring run was worth every pawstep.

      The tree was a large oak that seemed to touch the clouds, its leaves an unusually bright red display fluttering in the gentle breeze, a ripple flowing across the leaves with the wind.

      "Here it is! The Sky Oak!" Ember announced as she bounded up to the base of the tree. We all came up next to her, and started climbing the tree. I had to flap my wings every now and then because of their added weight and my inexperience in climbing. I realized that ever since I became a cat, I had been able to do so many things that I was unable to do as a human. Mostly because Erica's been overprotective ever since... I banished the thoughts from my head, focusing on gripping the trunk with my claws.

      When we finally reached the top, we scrambled onto the nearest branch and took a break to catch our breath. I decided to inspect the leaves, because I was staring in their direction anyway. Oak leaves have... uh... 10 points? Lets see... 1, 2, 3, 4,... Wait, that was a bug... "So... How do you know this is an oak?"

      "That's what we've been told," Nikko replied.

      "Huh... Cool... Y'know, I used to look for squirrel nests when I went on walks with my dad. He taught me the difference between squirrel nests and bird nests, and how to tell which was which."

      "Cool! Our dad never taught us that!" Keegan replied.

      "Wait. You guys are siblings?" I asked.

       "Littermates, to be exact," Amaya purred.

      "Cool! I've always wanted a sister or brother, but I'm an only child."

      "An only what?"

      "I don't have any siblings," I explained, then decided to change the subject. "We should keep going. I want to see the Sky Kingdom camp as soon as possible! After all, the Earth Kingdom camp was amazing, and that means the Sky Kingdom camp is going to be even better!" I said, then turned to climb some more, but Thunder stopped me.

      "Actually, we don't need to do any more climbing," he said, and pulled the vines aside to reveal a tunnel.

      We then walked through the tunnel, ending at another curtain of vines. Thunder pushed those aside, too, and it revealed a ledge jutting out of the wall. I walked forward, and as I looked over the edge I was awestruck.

      "Welcome to the Sky Tree."