Guild Wars

~ Guild Wars: Chapter 19 ~

Ioclaw slashed at the throat of the cat she was fighting. She hissed in pain and pulled away, trying to get at the smaller cat but the other Guild cats stopped her.

Ioclaw sheathed her claws and dropped to the ground, landing on her paws. She whirled around to face the bigger cat. She was about to attack again from below, but a cry stopped her.

"Killon! Killon's here!"

"If Isila's a traitor, how do we know he isn't?"

"Isila's here?" Ioclaw meowed, looking around for the friendly sabertooth. "Wait, Killon?! Rust!"

The russet tomcat stopped his fight, leaving the other cats he was fighting with to hurry over to her. "What is it?"

"Killon!" she told him. "He's here, and so is Isila."

"Isila? How did she get here? I thought she left the territory for good." Rust stared at her in confusion.

"That doesn't matter!" Ioclaw protested. "Come on, we have to go find Peril. Chances are she's with Isila."

Ioclaw ran around battling cats, Rust hard on her paws. She nearly slammed into the wall that marked the territory. She looked around frantically. "Peril! Where are you? You're in danger!"

Rust nudged her side with his nose. "Over there!" he mewed, jerking his head forward. Ioclaw followed his gaze and saw Peril. Isila was by her side, and Ioclaw's heart dropped when she realized who else she was with.

"Oh no," she breathed. "Killon found them."

Ioclaw started to run to Peril's side when Rust stopped her. He rushed to get in front of her and stop her.

"Stop," he ordered. "There are cats who trained to fight him, leave this to them."

"Peril's over there!" Ioclaw protested.

"She has Isila."

Ioclaw narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a growl. "Let. Me. Go."

Rust stared at her for a moment, then stepped out of the way. "You better know what you're doing."

"I'm ten months old and fighting in a war when I was only properly trained to find crystals," Ioclaw hissed. "I think I'll manage without you babysitting me."

Rust nodded and Ioclaw rushed toward her friend. "Peril!"

Killon's head snapped toward Ioclaw's direction, an eerie toothy grin crossing his face. "So you've got two little friends to help you?" he mused. "How adorable!"

"Killon," Isila said, her voice slightly shaky, "what exactly do you plan on doing?"

Killon's smile faded. "You disobeyed me, Isila, so now you must pay."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't play dumb with me! It's obvious! I told you to kill this little worm, but you didn't. You helped her and her friends escape, then never returned to your proper home. You vanished. Do you understand how worried we were?"

"Worried?" Isila said, shocked, then anger overtook her. "Worried?! Indarkeria Sabertooths aren't capable of being worried, or sad, or anxious, or nervous. They aren't even capable of pitying someone!"

"Well clearly you are," Killon murmured.

"Because I'm not an Indarkeria Sabertooth. I'm a Subira Sabertooth. You can't change that."

"If you hadn't left, you'd be able to act like one of us, understand our ways better, realize you are an Indarkeria Sabertooth," Killon told her.