Wildfire~The Dark Forest (Book One)

Chapter Sixteen~Crazy Is A Bit Crazy:

"Thunder," Shadow meowed to Scales, Tungsten, and Ink. They let go of us, and slithered to the middle of the triangle that the three trees were making. me, Pixels, and Ash fell belly-first onto the soft dark grass with a soft thud! we then stood up, beginning to collect ourselves. However, Ash was a bit slower to collect himself because of whatever it was that was scaring them. 

"We will wait until you come back ssssssso we get what your Alpha promissssssed ussss." She nodded. 

"Let's go!" Pixels exclaimed and I had a feeling that part of her was a bit happy to finally not be trapped in this place, and the other part of her had a giddy fear of the unknown to me and her that would soon be known. 

I had that strange feeling of giddy fear. Fear, something I rarely experienced, or so I thought. Or perhaps it wasn't fear spefically, maybe anxiety was more accurate at this moment. 

"If you insist..." Shadow quickly added, "But we could just hide instead." 

That seemed out of her character. I thought, she must be so scared. They must all be. But what are they so scared of? What could a pack of wild cats that seek such a deep revenge on me-past me-be afraid of...? 

"We'll be fine I'm sure," I began, "I'll protect you. But I kind of want to know what we are going to be dealing with here." 

Shadow shuddered, "You will wish you never met her." 

"Yes, that whole thing, save me the speech. Who is this 'she' you are talking about?" 

I thought I saw her breathing quicken, "She calls herself 'Thunderblood'. She is the leader of a pack. She's so evil. She's almost as bad as Wildfire was." 

I thought about what she had said, Shadow is referring to Wildfire as someone else, because she sees that I have changed. And the main part is her name. Not how evil she is, that's hardly important right now. Her name is 'Thunderblood', and there are very few species that have names with two words as one. Who is this 'Thunderblood', and why would she keep visiting this pack? 

I blinked swiftly, "Like Pixels said, 'Let's go'." There was this familiar voice in my head yelling, Come on! Don't you want to know who this creature is?! Just go! You need to know! And that voice wasn't Wildfire, it was something we all have. 

Curiosity. 

And my curiosity is a bit crazy. 

Me and Pixels lead the way, while Shadow and Ash trailed a comfortable distance behind us. "Okay guys," I said, "we have to be as sneaky as possible so we can get an idea of the situation we're going to face. Nonetheless, we still have to be swift. Swifter than a shot from a Swiftclaw. Which-Checkers-is very fast." 

We quietly and quickly walked towards the back of the camp, as Ash told me and Pixels where the back of camp actually was. 

*** 

I kept a stealthy stance as we walked next to Alpha's den, pressing our pelts that had a few bits of bramble on them from not having to clean ourselves in a bit. 

We swiftly and silently ran to the inside of Alpha's den for it had the perfect amount of darkness that would conceal us perfectly-if there were such a thing as perfection here. 

The only thing I could smell was fear that weaved through the air, then according to my senses there was something-someone else, but I couldn't pinpoint their species. Whoever this Thunderblood was, she wasn't a cat. I knew that much for sure. 

I couldn't see them properly since we were engulfed in almost complete darkness. 

The den was somewhat darker than it had been since the last time I was here. Perhaps it may be night?  I wondered, placing my front paws in a comfortable position, just sitting there happy to find that their conversations could reach my ears. It seemed like the others could hear them at well, based on the way they were twitching their ears and whiskers.