C.A.L.B.E.R.S prompts

Claws and Hearts pt5

   Running and Learning

"That was so cool! And I set the place on fire!" Her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Yeah Luna good job! Just uhhh... be careful with matches from now on." Clover chuckled.

"Hehe okay!" Luna giggled and started to run around laughing in the light drizzle that was at this area of the valley.

"Clover help me find a tree hollow like the one back at the woods and I'll show you how to make a nest for us three."

"Okay!" She hurried off as I looked through the bag, and realized I had to go back for the one in the hallow that had the money and valubles.

   After I made the girls a nest and made sure they wouldn't follow me I hurried to get the bag before they noticed what had happened. When I had returned with it and a few books we had forgotten they were already curled up asleep inside, and I settled around the outside of the tree. I kept watch until they woke up and got them ready to head out, deeper into the wilderness.

   Teaching them was easier now that I was able to teach them to find their own way to solve problems. They took to it well and were soon well versed enough to understand most of what the books had to offer. Since Clover was a bit older, I started to train her in combat so she could defend herself. She was already decent at brawling with an opponent twice her size, but she could do more. She was practicing with her water abilities slowly, and with no proper teacher her progress was limited unless she was in actual combat.

   Luna was still young and a bit too small to teach physically, but she still had her odd powers. She couldn't always control it, leaving me to keep an item from floating away, or to keep her from having too many sweets. On more than one occasion I would wake up to find a lot of the items floating around where we were sleeping at the time, and scrambled to grab them all before they floated too far away, or be ruined when she woke up and they would fall to the ground. Then there was another power I hadn't noticed before. Luna had the ability to spark, and sizzle out little bits of lightning from her fingertips. At first that sounds great! A wonderful way to defend yourself. But. During a thunderstorm, she was a magnet for lightning, and I had to hide her under trees to keep any from hitting her.

   Out of the two of them, I think I started to form more of a bond with Clover then with Luna. That isn't to say I didn't love her! She was very precious to me, and I still consider her like a daughter, but she wasn't meant to be my bonded. Clover seemed sweet, soft spoken when you first see her, but she has a fiery passion inside that could burn through steel all on its own. But she lacked confidence in herself, and often said bizarre things that made me finally put my paw down one day. I sat her down alone, and started to ask all the questions that had been burning in my mind.

   She told me about where she grew up, a place completely cut off from the world, where she didn't fit in. It was a tribal society, the men were hunters and fighters, the women the equivalent to housewives. Everyone there was a shade of blue or purple, even white but there weren't any other colored cats. All of them could move water, some could heal with it, some could boil it, but the men were raised to use it for combat, the women were raised to be more seen and not heard. But she was raised to be a fighter like her father, that also taught her to fly, to fight, to be a hunter. Her mother, who had been the source of her father's lax and fair teaching, was sent away. Her father couldn't leave the tribe, so they stayed. Her father died in a fire that destroyed her house and left her almost an orphan. There were other secrets she told me, about her family and the things she saw.

But I won't reveal them, she asked me to never tell anyone else what happened to her and I keep that promise. But after that I made sure to never actually use my fire in large amounts, so I didn't scare her. I also didn't tell them that I started most of the fire at the orphanage leading Luna to believe that it was all her. While I'm sure my fire killed the man, hers must've spread to the front of the building.