The Beginning

Chapter 19

Note: I never know what to put as my chapters' titles. Is that normal? idk. mb.

Something nudged Riley as she was sleeping. She woke up, rubbing her eyes. Clauchice's face was right in front of hers, and she screamed, scrambling away, breathing heavily. Clauchice backed away, her eyes wide with guilt. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! I thought you were still sleeping."
Riley blinked, trying to clear up her eyes. "It's fine, really. I still can't get over the fact that you're so big yet stealthy at the same time."
Normally, Clauchice would cheer up if Riley told her something like this, but she still looked troubled. She realized that something was wrong.
"What's wrong?"
Clauchice shuffled her feet, glancing at the camp entrance. "Jhaufyther went out to hunt, and he hasn't been back. I'm worried that something happened to him."
Riley scrambled out of bed and rushed to the camp entrance, only to be stopped by Clauchice's tail. She yanked her back and set her down in front of her. "What was that for?!" Riley exclaimed. "I need to go find him!"
"You need to know that he went to the forest with that blue fog," Clauchice said, sitting down.
"So?"
"That blue fog has been known to drive humans to a deep sleep. It fills them up with nightmares about the first Contaminite."
"Your point?"
"My point is, I don't want Jhaufyther to come back to find his human best friend incapacitated on the forest floor."
"Okay, that is a good point." Clauchice let her go and Riley paced in front of her, trying to think on how to get to the Blue Forest without her strength being drained out. "How can I get in there without being drained?" she mumbled.
"I can give you the ability to go in there without being drained," Clauchice offered. "That can help."
"Yes. Let's do that." Riley came up to Clauchice and closed her eyes. She immediately felt a sense of safety. When she opened her eyes, she was glowing with a blue aura similar to Jhaufyther's. "Thank you. Now let's go."
She ran out of the camp entrance, Clauchice following her.
As she neared the forest, a chill came over her. The fog was more blue than usual, and it hung even closer to the ground. Jhaufyther is definitely here, she thought.
Clauchice inhaled sharply. "He's suspicious of someone. Someone that will hurt you."
"Who would hurt me? I can't possibly think of someone who would do that."
A glimmer of blue and white fur shone out of the corner of her eye. Jhaufyther's eyes shone with something that Riley couldn't interpret. "Someone who you would least expect. Someone who is angry at you for being friends with their enemy."
"It's... it's not my friends, is it?" Riley did not want to bear the thought that one of her lifelong friends would want to hurt her.
"It's not one of them, thankfully. It's one from the other group," he said, shaking his head. He looked at her, and his eyes shone with an emotion that she hadn't seen since the vision of his khithood: unshed vengeance, something that would be powerful once it is released.
He turned and stomped away, the ground shaking where he stepped. Riley had never seen him so angry. When she turned toward Clauchice, her eyes were shining with another powerful emotion. "Get on my shoulder," she growled, swiftly lowering her tail. As she climbed up, she could FEEL the anger coming out of Clauchice. Without another word, she stomped into the camp and stopped in front of the den. "Get off. I need to follow my brother," she growled. Riley quickly got off and landed on the ground. "What are you going to do?" she asked nervously.
"We are going to find the person who wants to hurt you and your friends, and we will not stop until we find them." With that said, she flew after her brother, her tail kicking up dust. It got into Riley's nostrils, and she sneezed. She wiped her nose and clenched her hands. She had to find Carlos and Sam.
The last time she saw them, they were already out of their beds. Knowing them, they were probably at the lake. She ran harder than she had ever ran before. She ran so fast that the branches sliced her, but she didn't feel them and didn't care. When she got to the lake, she saw Carlos and Sam looking for something on the shore. When they saw her, their eyes widened, although they didn't look surprised. When Riley was about to ask, Carlos ran up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Jhaufyther sent me a telepathic message telling me everything. We need to make sure that we figure out who wants to hurt us."
"I should've known Jhaufyther would sent you a message. He looked REALLY pissed off," she said.
"When someone is trying to hurt someone he loves, of course he would be," Sam said. "Let's go back to the camp and figure out who it can be."
As soon as they got back to the camp, Riley found a stick in Jhaufyther's den with an end like a pencil. She started drawing on the earth: her, Carlos and Sam, along with the newbies: Tommy, Crystal, and Marissa. "Obviously, it can't be you two," she said, immediately crossing out both of them. Then she crossed out herself. She's had bad days, but she's not suicidal. "That leaves Marissa, Crystal, and Tommy." She stepped back and started to analyze the drawing. "It can't be Tommy. He seemed to be actually interested in the Catwings instead of being afraid of them.
Crystal... I can guess her, but even though she is a bit... outbursty, she was starting to become more calm.
Marissa is really, really timid. It can't be her, though. She seems like a nice enough girl."
She looked up and found Carlos staring blankly at her, while Sam blinked in confusion. "Sometimes, your brain makes my brain hurt," Sam said, rubbing her forehead. "But you're right. Tommy was curious about the Catwings, Crystal was just defensive, and Marissa was-IS- too timid. Unless..."
"Jhaufyther said 'Someone who you would least expect.' Doesn't Raven have a friend?" Carlos asked Riley.
"Yeah, she does. I don't know why she would want to hurt us though."
"I met June once," Sam said. "She was helping Raven find rocks for Jhaufyther's khits to play with, and she was genuinely nice."
"So, not her. It has to be someone we haven't met yet," Riley said, racking her brain.
She couldn't come up with anything. "I can't think of anyone. I'm sorry," she said, sitting down and shaking her head.
"Don't be. It's hard to think when your life is in danger," Carlos said, coming up and nudging her with his shoulder.
"Besides, what's more important right now is the tournament, which is in a week. We need to prepare," Sam said.
"You're right. We do." The excitement of the tournament filled Riley up once again. She turned towards Sam and Carlos. "Let's go win the tournament."