Quest of Loyalty

Quest of Loyalty is the third book in The Mating Quest.

Prologue
“You’re looking no different than the last time I saw you!” the ginger cat turned her head up to see a familiar pelt she though had left the world forever.

“Glad to know that I was appreciated,” she mumbled.

The two cats waited in silence for a while, as scratched the dry mud with her claws. Finally she pulled herself up and looked at him curiously, “Aren't you supposed to be dead?” she asked him at last.

“Aren't you?”

“No,” she responded sharply. “And I am most certainly not dead, no matter what your ugly pelt might ever hope. But you,” her eyes glittered with curiosity, “I know that you are dead.” “I am dead,” he responded honestly. "But that doesn't mean I can’t appear to you.”

“It means you shouldn't,” she sharply retorted before looking around curiously. “Where is the other one. I have heard that he has been killed too.”

“You have heard lies, I thought you should know. Starclan does make miracles, as I am sure you are perfectly aware.”

“You mean they could bring him back from death but they couldn't bother to come and find me? When I did absolutely nothing at all?”

“I wouldn't say you did nothing. You tore them apart and you only further loosened the thin and feeble threads that connected them.”

She snarled, “There never even were threads between them.”

“Anyways,” the tom sounded a little bored. “I thought you should know that they are coming. Soon, you might end up seeing them.”

“Am I allowed to rip their pelts into shreds?”

“Starclan doesn't tell you what you can’t do,” he claimed, “but I wouldn't advise taking down a pack of strong and resistant cats.”

“What do you know?" she sneered. “You are dead.”

“I am wiser than you,” he claimed with a little glitter in his eyes. “But beware of the fact that you can affect these cats. You can ruin them, if you try.”

She narrowed her eyes, “Then they must prepare to become ruined.”

With a sad sigh, the starry cat slowly began to fade back, away from the world of existence.

Chapter 1
“Nice seeing you around here.” Roboflight pulled her head up to see a dark pelted tom, wearing his usual grin of confidence.

“You are still here?” she asked him in bewilderment. "Why?”

“That’s no way to great a tom who came all this way to see you.” He tilted his head slightly to the side, a cautious smile plastered onto his face, “I should have expected a better greeting.”

Roboflight felt her ginger face growing redder, “I didn't mean that,” she managed to meow. “I just thought that your pack would be off the island by now, because you are moving so fast. Or at least, you were moving fast when we were swimming.”

He shrugged. “We've only been on here for a few sunrises now, Roboflight. We may be cats of the ocean, but we are still cats, and we need solid ground beneath our feet. We have been spending large chunks of our day, trying to regain energy.”

“Still.” She frowned, “Even then, you should be nearly off this island, not close enough for you to come see me. Even if you had to travel a little bit to find me.”

His gaze traveled away from her, “There have been a couple… hazards we have been forced to overcome in order to continue.”

Roboflight now, looking down at his paw, noticed a missing scrap of fur on his paw, and dried up blood on top of it. She took a quick step back. “What did that?” she asked him. “Did you get attacked by badgers or foxes?”

“Erm… I’ll leave your pack to figure that out,” he slowly trailed off, hiding his paw behind his other foreleg. "But it’s not really that big of a deal. Just things that you will realize you have to deal with and will end up consuming some of your time.”

She frowned, “The only thing here which I could imagine hurting a cat is a fox or a badger and those are a big deal,” she paused for a moment. "Wait… are you talking about rouges?”

“Well… them too. It’s no big deal.” He sighed. “I didn't come here to talk to you about how this place isn't nearly as pleasant as it seems.”

“Well,” Roboflight began. “What are you here for then?” she grinned. “You can’t teach me how to fish anymore, because we are no longer in the sea. That excuse won’t work this time. Unless, of course, you have come here for me to teach you a little bit of hunting…”

He snorted. "Are you suggesting that you are a better hunter than me?” he asked, bewildered.

“I’m not suggesting it,” she claimed, “I’m clearly stating that it is a true fact. You might know how to swim, but on land I am a much better hunter than you.”

He laughed, “Who are you trying to fool, Roboflight? A snail could become a better hunter than you. You don’t have the reflexes.”

Roboflight cuffed him around his ear, with a roll of her eyes. “What does that make you?” she asked him.“A fallen leaf on the floor?”

He let out a soft growl.

“What are you doing here anyways?” she asked him. “I would have thought you have better things to do than meet me…”

He shrugged, “Not really.”

Roboflight let out a laugh, “If that’s how this part of the quest is going to go, I think I will enjoy it very much. I thought it was supposed to get harder and harder.”

“If you asked me I would say it has.”

She gave him a friendly push. “That’s because you are like fish. That part of the quest was probably easier to you than the forest we had to cross was.”

He shrugged. “No, not really,” he claimed. “We had some issues with sharks, and we wore out a lot faster on water than we would on land. We are cats, not fish.”

“You swim like fish,” she claimed. “And you have brains as simple and dumb as that of a fish.”

He pounced on her for that comment. "I’ll show you the fish-brain!” he claimed, as they began to roll over, laughing as Roboflight tried to throw him off her.

“You are so fat!” she protested. “I can’t get you off me.”

He just laughed as he kept her pinned down, while she tried to break free from his grasp. A sudden snap of a twig, from behind them, made Tidalpelt suddenly turn around, scanning the area for a moment, before pulling himself off Roboflight.

“Well,” he purred. "We are out of time. I will have to teach you how to hunt on land next time, though, Roboflight. And maybe I will teach you a bit of fighting too. You would really need that.”

“Hey!” she protested as he slowly paddled away.

Waiting until she could no longer see him, Roboflight turned around when Tidalpelt was out of sight and began to walk back towards her camp, where the rest of her pack would be waiting for her to return.