Cursed Division - Kindred Whispers book 2)

Prologue

Bright sunshine dappled through the canopy, turning the forest floor golden. The late afternoon wind whisked the leaves and the breeze stirred the trees. Colorful leaves danced down from the trees and their leaves glistened red and orange in the sunlight.

Pelts wove among the forest, their fur brushing nearby bushes and brambles. A young brown tabby tomcat hissed as his paw twisted in a curled bramble.
The other tomcat who walked beside him purred.
"Watch out Oak, don't want to twist your paw."
Oak whipped his head around.
"Shut up, Crow!"
"What? I was just looking out for your well-being." Crow confessed.
Oak grumbled in response. "Let's keep moving so the Guardian won't have my tail. We have to catch enough prey to take back for the kittens to eat."

"Kittens are needy." Crow snorted.
Oak sighed. "We were kittens once."
"But we weren't needy."
"You were, Crow."
"I was not!" he spat.
Oak lashed his tail. "Oh really? You'd whimper every time your belly growled and you'd always complain that you'd die of starvation if you didn't satisfy your hunger immediately."
Crow flattened his ears.
"That's a lie!"
"I know what I saw and heard, brother. I was there."

The two littermates continued to bicker until a snapping twig made them glance around. Oak lifted his tail for silence and crouched down. Crow copied, keeping low and still.
A squirrel nibbled on a nut near the roots of a huge tree.
Oak stalked forward cautiously until he was close enough to pounce. But just as he was around to lunge, his paw snapped a small branch. The squirrel sat up and darted up the tree.

Hissing with irritation, Oak scrambled up the tree after his prey. He dug his claws into the bark and climbed higher and higher, keeping his gaze steadily on the squirrel. There weren't many branches jutting from the tree but once reaching the highest one, the squirrel dashed along its dying bark and then scrambled to a halt at the edge, realizing its doom.

Oak scrambled onto the branch the squirrel stood on. Once his paw set down on the branch, it creaked below the weight. It seemed risky and a fall could be fatal but determination is what kept the young cat going.
"I wouldn't go onto the branch, brother. It looks dead!"
Oak flashed a glare down at his brother.
"Shut up Crow! You worry too much! I got this!"
"Oak, no! Come down now!" Crow ordered.
"Shut up, I got this!"
Oak made his way onto the branch ignoring its creaking and gazed into the squirrel's fearful eyes.

"I got you now," Oak growled.
He bunched his muscles and lunged but as he leaped in mid-air the squirrel darted off the branch and leaped to the next tree which it clung to and scrambled out of sight. Widening his eyes, Oak realized he was about to fall to the forest floor but just in time his claws hooked into the edge of the branch and he dangled down from the tree, his brother almost as small as an insect from up here.

"Crow, help!" Oak wailed.
"Oak! Hold on! I'll get Althea!"
"No time, please come up and help!"
He wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. His claws were scraping against the bark.
Crow was about to scramble up the tree but was too late as the branch cracked and his body gave way and he felt himself plunging towards the earth. He screeched in terror as the ground became closer and closer then he hit a branch then spun before, SLAM! His body thumped against hard stone before rolling over and hitting the earth. The breath knocked out of him and his body ached, he whimpered as his vision blurred. He could make out his brother's dark gray pelt as he screeched in horror.
"Oak! Hold on, I'm going to get help! Please stay with me, I can't lose you brother!"
Oak grunted in response. His brother's figure split and his voice became an echo before Oak's eyes closed and his world went black...

The sky was patched with gray and the air was cold with rain. All the PeaceLeaf cats sheltered in their dens, some dozing, others chatting. Meanwhile, in the healer's den, Althea, PeaceLeaf's healer tended to the battered Oak who'd fallen out of a tree two days ago.
Althea was sorting herbs when she heard the young cat stir.
Turning her head, she saw the young cat open his eyes, confused.
"Crow?" Oak whispered.
"Hello, little one."
Oak flinched.
"Althea? Wh-where am I?"
Althea sat down and wrapped her tail around her paws.
"You are in my den. You had quite the injury there. You fell out of that tree, thudded against a branch than before you hit the ground, slammed into a hard stone."
The memories flashed back in Oak's mind.
"How am I alive?" he whispered.
"Blessed by the heavens, I suppose."
Oak snorted.
"I doubt that."
Althea frowned. "Every PeaceLeaf cat is blessed by the heavens. They are the reason our life is so good and peaceful."
"The reason we are peaceful is that we choose to be. The heavens don't choose our decisions. Everything we do is of our own choices." Oak corrected.
Althea blinked sympathetically at the young cat.

Irritated, Oak wanted to lash his tail but for some reason, he couldn't. His tail felt numb and he couldn't move it.
"Why can't I move my tail?" Oak asked, glancing at its weird form.
Althea touched his tail with a paw.
"Can you feel that?"
What did this have to do with his tail?
"No."
Althea sighed.
"I examined your body after your fall. You are a little bruised, nothing that won't heal over time. The only severe injury is in your tail as you can see."
His tail looked like a zig-zag almost like someone had stretched it out into a weird permanent form.
"What's wrong with it?" Oak asked, worried.
"It's..broken Oak. Too broken to be fixed. I've tried everything but the bones in your tail are beyond repair."
Oak rose to his paws, pelt bristling.
"What does that mean? How am I supposed to hunt, supposed to fight!?"
"That is all still possible." the healer encouraged.
Oak hissed and dashed out of the den ignoring the healer as she called his name to come back.
Oak felt the rain whip against his fur and the wind blowing his fur in the breeze. He raced to a large den looming ahead of him then shadows swallowed him whole. A figure in the middle of the den let out a startled gasp as she saw the young cat barge in.
"Oak!" the PeaceLeaf Guardian exclaimed.
Oak was trembling.
"My tail, look at it!" he cried.
The Guardian's eyes softened.
"Oh Oak, I'm so sorry."
"Don't give me pity! I won't ever be able to hunt or fight again! Do you know how important a cat's tail is?"
"Nonsense little one, you will be able to hunt and fight just fine with the proper training."
"How?!" Oak challenged. "My tail is crooked. It looks like a zigzag! Althea says she can't repair it! Maybe you can!"
The PeaceLeaf leader shook her head.
"I'm sorry young one, there is nothing I can do."
Oak hissed, his fur spiked up making him look twice his size.
The Guardian padded closer to the young cat and rested her tail on his shoulder.
"It'll be okay, Oak".
Oak nudged her away.
"Don't call me that! That name doesn't suit me anymore! I have a broken tail that looks like a zigzag! Call me the name I forevermore deserve that suits my new appearance. Call me CrookedTail."

The Guardian's eyes widened.
"Why would you want such a name?"
"Because I like it better! Make sure everyone knows my new name now."
Without waiting for a response, CrookedTail raced out of the den only to be stopped by his brother, Crow who stood in the middle of the clearing, his damp fur plastering to his pelt as rain poured from the gray sky.
"Oak, your tail! Are you okay?"
"My name is CrookedTail," he growled.
"What?" Crow gasped, bewildered.
"CrookedTail. That's my name now. That's what I will go by, brother."
"But-" Crow began to protest.
"CrookedTail! Call me CrookedTail!"
Crow took a few steps back.
"Okay, CrookedTail."