Cats VS Dogs.

In Love and War

So, believe it or not, this story is almost done! I hope at least someone is a little upset. But I have decided to "fix" this problem, and I'll tell you how at the end of this chapter. There's only going to be a few more, so enjoy! 

Picture of Jasper on the side

The house was silent. Only Dakarai and Chang remained with me, and Chang was out on the front porch. I felt terrible. The walk back had been made in silence. No one said anything, but I could tell by the way they avoided me that I was to blame for this. They wouldn't look at me, wouldn't come back to the house. Lisimba had smiled at me and said it would be all right, but I didn't believe him. We were doomed. 

I sat on the couch and Dak held my hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. 

"We'll be fine, Jasper will be fine," he said soothingly. 

I didn't answer. This was my fault. If I had been able to leave Jasper alone when he told me to, he wouldn't have been compromised like this. I had to fix it. 

I slammed my hands down on the couch. "We're going to free Jasper," I announced. 

"What?" Dak stood up at the same time I did. "Look Cassie, I know you're upset, but this is suicide!" 

I whirled around to face him. "Upset doesn't even begin to cover it. I'm devastated. I can hardly function without him. But personal feelings aside, we still have to do something! Jasper is our leader; without him, we're just a bunch of squabbling cats who have no idea what to do next. We need him if we want a prayer of competing fairly with the wolves." 

"But how, Cassie, how? Wherever he is, I'm sure he's heavily guarded. And if we get caught, our side loses two more cats that could be fighting," Dak argued. 

"Three, actually. I want Chang to come with us." 

"Three, even worse," Dak sighed. 

"Come on, with three of us, there's no way we can fail," I said optimistically. I don't know why I said that, but it sounded convincing. At least to me.

Dak rolled his eyes. 

"Please," I pleaded. "We need him. I need him." 

He groaned and shook his head. "Ask Chang. If you can convince him, I'm in." 

I smiled broadly and gave him an impetuous hug before running to the front porch to talk to Chang. I already knew what he was going to say. 

"Do you actually have a plan?" Dak whispered. We were hidden in a group of ferns, mostly concealed by the night. 

"Yeah. Free Jasper," I hissed. 

"Oh right, silly me," Dak said sarcastically, kicking my foot. 

"We don't have time for this," Chang admonished, grumpily adjusting his backpack. He wasn't happy about this at all, insisting that Jasper wouldn't like it. Once I threatened to run off into the woods on a mission by myself, with Cobalt lurking around, he had little choice but to accompany us. That didn't mean he was glad about it. 

We could see the light of the fire through the trees. Several guys lounged around it, watching a couple of wolves sparr with each other. Now that we were finally here, the gravity of the mission hit me. We had to be so careful. 

"Where do you think they will be keeping Jasper?" I asked Chang. 

"Not too far from the camp, I would think," Chang mused. "The only way to find out is to split up. But be careful," he cautioned. 

He quietly walked in the beginning of a wide circle around the camp. The night was dead; not even a whisper of wind. That would make it harder to be quiet, but there was much less of a chance of wolves scenting us.