The Beginning

Chapter 33

Despite everything that was going on, everyone was excited for the swimming race. Riley watched as all the Catwings lined up on the lake bank, their tails twitching with excitement.

"If everyone is ready, we'll start now," Slaughlitte called from his branch. The leaders were crouched in a tree, right above the splash range. Littefhur hung a little too close to the splash range, and Riley got the feeling that he was planning on getting wet.

All the Catwings nodded. "Ready," Lepardhice announced.

"Okay, then. GO!"

They immediately plunged into the water, their bodies becoming blurs of color as the Catwings dove into the water.

Naturally, Lepardhice was ahead of everyone, shooting through the water at startling speeds. But not far behind her was Jhaufyther, who was catching up quickly. Sensing Jhaufyther behind her, Riley saw Lepardhice spin her tail like a propeller, which shot her forward and spun water around Jhaufyther. He thrashed around in the water, then he went to the surface and gasped; great, heaving gulps of air. "We got one out," Lepardhirk announced.

Jhaufyther looked defeated, but he turned to look at Riley. He shrugged and walked out onto the lake bank, shaking himself and scattering water droplets everywhere.

The rest of the Catwings were around the bend, but Riley was too short to see what was going on.

"Let me help you." Jhaufyther let her climb on, and she climbed to the top of his head, grabbing onto one of his horns. Thank goodness Jhaufyther is seventy feet tall, or I would have really been doomed, Riley thought gratefully.

Riley saw the other Catwings swimming gracefully through the water. No matter what Tribe they're from, all the Catwings alike were remarkably good swimmers.

Riley saw a few Catwings walk onto the lake bank, leaving Hazefhur and Lepardhice. The two friends raced around, becoming two blurs of color in the water. After some racing around, Lepardhice surfaced onto the bank and shook herself, scattering water everywhere.

Hazefhur rose out of the water, triumphant. He held himself with pride and strutted off toward his siblings, who started congratulating him. Slaughlitte nodded with satisfaction. "That concludes the swimming race. The final part will be the fighting. Take a big break, everyone."

Jhaufyther jumped and flew into the air, moving through the sky so fast that Riley had to crouch down to avoid the wind whipping her off. Once he landed, he lowered his tail. Riley slid down it and jumped to the ground. Jhaufyther stormed off before she could say anything to him. Clauchice and Lhrioun came, dropped off Carlos and Sam, then stormed off to find their brother.

"Okay. Now that the swimming part is over, we should spend the rest of our time planning out what we're going to do," Sam said.

"Agreed. The problem is, what are we going to do? According to Jhaufyther, we don't have too much time."

Sam frowned. "He told you?"

"Didn't need to," Carlos said. "I could just see that he had a 'you-three-don't-have-a-lot-of-time-left' attitude."

"What else can we do?" Riley asked helplessly. "Unless we hunt down Crystal, we just concentrate on how to survive first."

"Crystal seems like the type of girl to know how to handle a weapon," Carlos said. "We should watch out for any signs of weapon use."

Sam nodded. "That sounds good. Meanwhile, we just lay low and wait."

"She's going to do what?"

Lhrioun shifted his front paws nervously as Slaughlitte glared at him. His burning orange gaze flicked between his siblings, then rested on him again.

"Going to harm Riley and her friends," Clauchice repeated.