The Four Guardians

Cloud's journey(pt.2)

A little kit stood with her mother and father. "That's me," Cloud thought to herself bitterly. The memories felt fresh, like her past had happened all over again. She watched the memory of her past unfold again. The past her smiled at her parents and pranced around with happiness. "That was who I was," Cloud thought again, angry at her naivety back then. The innocent version of her walked through the crowd of cats, bidding her parents to hurry and follow. Her father stared at her and gave her a fake smile; which the past her actually believed was real. Her mother looked down and followed, laughing.

One day, the past her overheard her parents arguing in the other part of their den, which was made of a small tree's roots.

Not many days later, Little Cloud walked into their small home, and smelled blood, and the most worrying thing was that it smelled familiar. She entered the house worriedly and walked into the room.

"No," Little Cloud whispered as she slowly backed up. "NO!" several neighbors soon came and saw the dead body of Cloud's mother. Ripped apart with ferocity, the way her villagers had done to a wolf that had killed several of their villagers when they got their claws ahold of the creature.

Not long later, they held a funeral for her mother. It wasn't too long before they found out her father was the culprit. When they had asked him, he gave them a blood curdling smile and answered, simply. Yes. Her father was killed in front of the entire village. In the end, she was alone. That short-lived happiness of having someone who loved her was just a distant memory. Little Cloud held back her tears as she listened to the cats disapproving words of them. Back then she had never known her father had faked his love for her. Present Cloud looked away, not wanting to believe that little cat was who she used to be. Why did I ever believe in him? Cloud thought fiercely to herself. Why!?! Cloud hated her father, yet she couldn't stop the tears from falling.

A couple decided to care for her, but it wasn't exactly care, more like torture.

"Let's give her away already!" her father hissed quietly one night.

"But she'll be worth more when she's older," her foster mother told him firmly. "Calm down and wait."

"But the new den that was found will be taken!"

She continued to watch her past self silently cry, because little Cloud knew what her father was talking about. There was a new den recently found. A huge oak tree stood by the seaside. Although cats didn't like water, the sight was beautiful, and the smell of the ocean was luring. Plus, they didn't have to worry about the water since the den was faced away from the ocean. One of the higher ranked cats owned that, and was saying that if anything were given that they thought was worthy, they would exchange. That couple wanted a child more than anything, but for some reason his mate was unable to have any kits. Other cats wanted the den and knew this. But none would give away their own kits.

"Fine, tomorrow." Cloud could hear the excitement in her voice.

Through the roots gaps she saw them both grinning. She felt nothing. Since the day her life was shattered, her eyes were blank. The world turned to black and white. No sadness, anger, happiness, fear, no nothing. Just emptiness, which she thought nothing could fill. Cloud tore her eyes from the sight of her past. But now I have cats that care for me! She told herself, and repeated this. Watching her past replay had almost turned her back to her blank self. The family she was given to did love her, until they found out about her powers. But during that time, her heart slowly warmed up to them again, and the ice melted away. They too became greedy and decided to hand her over to the king when they heard about the powers and that the king needed those four cats. But only at a ransomed would they hand her over. From then on, she trusted no one. Many things happened since then, and from that day, she ended up alone, just her. But then I met them she thought to herself. And then it was different. I'm not alone anymore.

Cloud woke up to a huge shiver across her body and got up. She looked left and saw the fire Scorch had made and quickly moved closer, she was cold. The sun was high in the sky and she continued walking. Frost was at the tips of her fur, making the sun reflect off of all of the ice. It was impossible to look away if you saw how pretty she looked. She looked around and saw that there were no clouds for miles in all directions. She leaped off the cloud she was on and the fire followed her wherever she went. She began flying around the sky and began warming up after moving around for a while. She flew, trying to find another place with clouds. After a while, she finally saw clouds in the distance. She flew over, exhausted, and landed. The moment her paws began to go through, she pushed the air beneath upwards. But she was slowly going down because she was too tired to hold herself up from all the flying. She had overexerted herself. But she continued to wander across the patch of clouds until she found a place where she didn't have to keep the clouds up. She slowly replenished her energy by taking a rest. Not long later, three fish and more water than before came up. The fire Scorch had made died out under Scorch's will. And Scorch quickly made another fire, bigger, and hotter than the last one. Cloud warmed up, and she took a break for several minutes. Suddenly she felt a pull, and a voice entered her mind. It was a male voice. Hurry . . . You must hurry . . . Cloud immediately got up. Her energy was back and she was ready to continue. She jumped off of the cloud and glided slightly downwards to a cloud not very far away. When she reached the clouds she continued to walk and fly. All of a sudden, the pull she had felt ever since the voice came, got stronger. Hurry . . . She began running, the fire next to her had warmed her up. The ice had ended up melting and getting her wet, but she dried out her fur with her wind powers. Finally, she found where the pull was coming from. In the middle of the huge cloud there was an empty circle, and in that circle was another cloud. It was small, and in the middle, an orb levitated and glowed. It wasn't exactly clear on the inside, but it was like the wind was within it, circling around it. But why was there a circle with nothing there? Was something preventing clouds from being there? Cloud curiously reached out a paw. The moment her paw touched the empty space, something seemed to grab her and pull her away. She went flying down, tossed by something. She continued to fall as if being pushed down like gravity had suddenly defied its natural nature, and decided to push Cloud away. She looked down and saw a brown cat, who was beginning to run out of a cave. She saw a vine sprout out of the ground and come for her. It split and grabbed all four of her paws. She looked at the bottom of the vine and saw Jewel lying there, unconscious.