Paws of Destiny - Book One

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In the darkness of the night, a flame-ridden cat descended from the sky. Fire wreathed around the fur around his neck, fluffy enough to be a blazing mane. As the cat landed, the fire died down, and the flaming wings at his sides vanished.

A gray cat ran up to him, eyes wide. "Your Majesty! Welcome back!" He shuffled his paws and looked away. "I believe that you have a...visitor."

The cat blinked and then shook himself, nodding and walking passed the gray cat. He was huge, the gray cat barely reaching his shoulder. Muscles rippled under the cat's ginger pelt, his neck fur bouncing slightly as he walked. His amber eyes shone with confusion as he neared the throne room, and stepped into the doorway. He stiffened and narrowed his eyes.

"Oh?" Upon the throne, a lithe, short-furred silver tabby tom sat, narrowing his eyes at the ginger cat. "Look who's decided to show up?"

"Look at you, sitting on my throne like you own it." The ginger tom spat. "What do you want, Cassius?"

"Wow!" The gray cat rolled his eyes. "I really am hurt. The great KING CANDLE can't even bother to tell his own brother 'hello'."

"Save it." The ginger spat. "What do you want?"

"Always straight to the point, as usual." Cassius chuckled. "Very well, I suppose I'll have to deal with you later."

"What..." The ginger tom lowered his head slightly, and a bit of fire swirled in his eyes, making the air heat around him, "Is that supposed to mean?"

"Hmm." Cassius flicked his tail as he looked down at Candle. He then grinned. "Goodbye."

"Wh-"

CRASH! Somewhere in the corridor, something either crashed or exploded. Candle turned, eyes wide, and then turned back to Cassius, bristling. The gray tom had leapt from the throne and Candle surrounded the two in fire, snarling. "What are you doing?"

"Taking what's mine!" Cassius cackled and leapt at Candle, slitting his throat in one quick, swift motion. Candle's mouth opened in shock before he slumped to the ground. The fire died as soon as he did, and the King lay motionless on the floor, eyes wide with death.

Cassius flicked his tail to where a gray-blue mollie sat behind him. "Dispose of the body."

The mollie nodded and Cassius walked through the corridor, walking past a broken part of the wall, where a few of his rebels dipped his head. One of them rose his chin. "Did we do it?"

"The King is dead." Cassius nodded. "It is time for me to visit my heirs."

The cat grinned. "We'll get rid of any guards along the way."

++++

In a quiet room tucked at the end of the corridor, a ginger mollie spoke gently to her kittens, her orange eyes gentle as she scanned the two of them. "Dehhra was so furious that-"

She froze as she heard pawsteps and familiar humming. The ginger kitten mewled. "Mum?"

"Pyra," The she-cat turned back to the two kittens. "Hide."

The kitten's eyes widened and she dashed off. The second kitten stared at her mother with wide eyes. The mollie glanced over at one of the guards in the corner. He lowered his head slightly and she padded over to him. They spoke in low voices and the mollie took a deep breath and turned to the second kitten. "Lunis..." Her voice trembled. "Please forgive me for what I'm about to do."

++++

Cassius purred as a ginger she-cat slunk out of the room. Her eyes were narrowed with annoyance. "Cassius," She spat, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Aww," Cassius laughed. "Feisty, eh? No wonder why my brother liked you...hello, Torrent."

Torrent peeled her lips back in a snarl. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, I just came to visit my nieces." Cassius licked a paw absently. "What were their names? Pyra and Lunis?"

"Get their names out of your filthy mouth, you whoreson." Torrent spat. She unsheathed her claws.

"Kindly move out of the way." Cassius meowed, "I have a job to do."

"No!" Torrent spat and leapt at Cassius, who nimbly dodged and made a break for the room. Torrent spun, however, and leapt at Cassius, biting into his tail and flinging him away. She clawed his cheek at he spat, blood trailing down his nose.

"Get out of the way!" Cassius spat, leaping again. Torrent's eyes narrowed. "Over my dead body!"

She fully extended her claws, slashing Cassius' face and sending him flying to the side. Cassius landed on his side and scrambled into a standing position. His vision was blurred and Torrent could see that his eye was badly wounded; he probably wouldn't see out of it again.

Cassius spotted something light-colored out of the corner of his eye; one of the bricks had come loose. The tom unsheathed his claws and looked up at Torrent. "As you wish."

His voice was cold and in one swift movement, he grabbed the brick and lunged at Torrent.

Pyra heard Torrent's horrified scream cut off abruptly, followed by the repeated, bloody sound of Torrent bashing her mother's head in with a brick.

++++

Cassius padded into the room, splattered with blood. Behind him, Torrent lay, her face mauled beyond recognition. Cassius licked a splat of blood off of his upper lip and glanced around the room, pausing.

In the center of the room, a small cat lay in a heap. Red leaked out beneath her gray pelt and Cassius narrowed his eyes. Cautiously, he dipped a paw in the blood and studied it.

On his pad, however, the blood faded and became clear. Water.

"A clever illusion, I admit." Cassius spoke aloud, aware that the princesses could hear him. "Now where could you two be...?"

He studied the room before he finally peaked around a corner to see a small gray ball of fluff, tears streaming down her face as he desperately tried to muffle any sound coming out of her mouth.

"Why, hello, Lunis."

++++

Pyra heard her sister's screams far into the night as she pinned her ears and raced out into the open air.

++++

Cassius watched the kit's body fall still at his paws. Glancing over his shoulder, the fake body had seemingly transformed. Instead, sat a lone guard, bleeding out from a tear in his stomach.

"It's sad, really, that you could die for such a useless cause." Cassius spat.

"I would do anything...for Her Majesty..." The guard wheezed. "Pyra....is alive.....that's all...I could ever...ask for..."

"You're not quite dead yet." Cassius spat, annoyed at the guard's ranting. "Let's fix that."

He bit down on the guard's scruff and dragged him onto the balcony, tossing him over the edge. The guard tried to twist and catch the balcony, but he couldn't in time and he fell with a crash. Cassius watched as the rock he'd crashed into on the way down fell and crushed the body.

The new King chuckled softly and turned away.