The Beginning

Chapter 5

Instead of taking them to the den, the Catwing banked and dove, landing in the center of the camp. Riley once again felt lightheaded as the blood rushed up to her head, but to her relief, her head felt normal after a shorter period of time.
The Catwing dropped them off into a different den, where Riley was surprised to find Carlos and Sam. She ran up to them and hugged them, relishing their presence. Carlos put his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asked, checking her for bruises. "Did it hurt you?"
She shook her head. "Surprisingly, it didn't. She just carried me here. I guess she didn't want to move around too much, seeing that she's expecting khits."
Sam frowned. "Kits? She's pregnant?"
"Kits with an 'h'. I know, a bit confusing, but you'll get it later on. From my experience with my mom when she was pregnant with my younger siblings, moving around a lot can affect the pregnancy," Riley said.
Carlos shook his head. "These Catwings are more complicated than they seem. They can control corpses, inflict a deadly disease with their stinger, blast fire whenever and wherever they want, and they have their own lives, language, and characteristics." He blinked. "And I thought that they were just cruel, heartless creatures."
Sam stared at him. "They ARE heartless. Did you see the way they slaughtered all of those people?"
"Actually, they're not. That blue Catwing that we saw earlier has a mate, who's expecting. I saw him being incredibly gentle to her, and I also saw how worried he was about her," Riley admitted. She guessed that Sam would say that, but she didn't think she wouldn't be observant about that type of stuff.
Riley blinked, then stared at Carlos. "What do you mean, 'blast fire?' I thought they could only sting, crush, and eat people."
Carlos nervously laughed. "Oh, they can breathe fire, alright. Before we were brought here, one of the Catwings-a huge gray one, bigger than the gray one we saw-blasted a massive fireball at a denwall. It melted, and I went over to touch it. I figured out that it was made of two materials: clay and wax. It melted like wax from a candle, but it's also malleable like regular clay."
"Huh. Interesting. So that's how they made the dens: with waxy-like clay."
Carlos jerked his head toward Raven, who was watching them with an amused expression. "I'm guessing she's your long-lost aunt?"
Riley's mouth hung open. "How-"
"She looks like you. It's not your mom, so who else?" Carlos said. "Same black hair and blue eyes."
Now that Riley thought about it, it was a bit obvious. When she looked at Raven, she saw herself as a grown woman. And if Riley could go and find any pictures of Raven when she was younger, she would assume that younger Raven would be the spitting image of Riley.
Raven came up closer. "So you found out about the den material? It was about time," she teased. "When I first got here, I thought the den was made of rock. It was really bumpy, but it didn't crumble like some rocks do, such as sandstone."
Riley nodded. "Exactly. Why are we talking about rock, anyway? What we should talk about is the Catwings."
Raven sat down next to her. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"
Sam wrinkled her nose. "What I want to talk about is the smell. Why do they smell so bad?"
Riley squinted at her. "They're animals. What do you expect?"
"Mutant animals. How did they come to be, anyway?" Carlos asked. "I mean, I know they're immortal, but they didn't just... pop out, right?"
Raven hesitated. Riley could tell that she wanted to say something. "What is it?"
Raven looked at all three of them. "I've been wanting to tell you this, and I think now is the time to say it."
The way she looked at Riley gave her a sense of foreboding. "Have you three heard about the Legend of the Tribes?"