No Safety Guaranteed

 NO SAFETY GUARANTEED

Episode Three, Season Five, of Rise.

Enjoy <3

No Safety Guaranteed
The clouds cover the sun as we hold a funeral for Calypso. Presidia is still weeping softly, and the rest of us stand there silently. Emerald and Jewel nestle into me and they stare at Calypso’s body with unblinking eyes. I want to shield them from the view but I know they’re stronger.

Aleric watches the whole procession with unfeeling eyes. Karina keeps glancing at him but the brown tom doesn’t break his stare.

Terran presses against me. “You okay?” He whispers quietly, “You’re awfully quiet.”

“It’s just…I don’t know. I knew her from my childhood. She’s a piece of the Twolegplace I thought I could carry around for a bit. It’s just weird, knowing someone killed her just like that.”

“I’m okay though,” I add.

“Better off than Presidia,” Terran agrees, “she’s terribly distraught over Calypso’s death.”

When the funeral is over, Presidia plods over to us and sits with us. Shadeflower comes to join us, as she wants to get back into her old life a little more. With all of us gathered, we sit there in silence before Presidia snaps her head up.

“It was you.” She stares accusingly at Aleric, who arches an eyebrow at her.

“Me?” He replies, “What did I do this time?”

“You killed Calypso!” She declares, “I’m positive.”

I blink. Aleric gazes back at Presidia, nothing showing in his green eyes. It’s Karina who jumps to his rescue. “No way,” she argues, “Aleric’s been trying to help us ever since and I spent most of yesterday with him anyway! No way he killed Calypso.”

“She was killed right next to the Twolegplace border,” I add, “that’s a bit farfetched for a cat who’s being watched constantly.”

Presidia is shaking. “I’m telling you; that cat is a murderer! He’s going to betray you all and kill all your loved ones. He will be your downfall!”

“You’re mad,” Aleric says quietly. “I haven’t done anything to Calypso.”

Nightshadow steps in. “Let’s not accuse one another,” he chastises, “we have to work together if we want to figure out who killed Calypso. It’s someone from the Blood Army for sure, but who?”

“We should also figure out if it’s important to find this killer,” Feathershine adds, “What is our main goal: finding Calypso’s murderer or defeating the entire Blood Army?”

“Defeating the entire Blood Army,” Aleric says swiftly, “the longer we wait, the stronger they get.”

“Of course you would know,” Presidia mutters.

The brown tom doesn’t flinch. “If I know, then you should too. You forget we’re on the same level here. Do I need to remind you that you tried to kill Bryce when you first came here?”

I wince a bit while Presidia snarls. “Ginger told me to not trust any of the High Committee members and I knew she meant you. I shouldn’t have trusted your plan! You did it so you could kill Calypso.”

Aleric shakes his head. “If I wanted to kill Calypso, I would have done it far before I made that plan.”

Presidia wordlessly stalks out of the camp. I jump up to stop her but Aleric waves me back down. “She’s not going to be much help for us now. We need to make up a new plan.”

“Another plan?” Applepaw perks up, “Can I come on this one too?”

“Sure,” Nightshadow ruffles her fur, “Shadeflower, do you want to come too?”

His sister shakes her head. “Not really. This isn’t my fight. I think my main focus should be adjusting to Clan life still.” She touches her nose to Nightshadow before backing out of my den.

Terran leans forward. “So the last plan didn’t work, obviously. Ginger seems to think that we’ll all die if we get captured. Perhaps there’s another way?”

“I think to think about it for awhile,” Aleric swishes his tail, “but I think perhaps I should get into the action this time. It might be a bit safer.”

“For now, I need to train Emerald,” Feathershine glances at my sister (I didn’t even realize Emerald and Jewel are still here). “Nightshadow, do you want to take Applepaw and come along?”

“Why not?” Nightshadow shrugs, “Come on, Applepaw.”

“I’m going hunting,” I stand. Terran wordlessly joins me. Karina shifts on her paws.

“I’m going to stay here,” she shrugs, “I’ll um, guard Aleric or something.”

“Do I need guarding?” Aleric asks innocently.

“Depends on if you plan on being good,” I say, walking towards the entrance. “Jewel, go to Flameshadow, okay? I’m sure he has things he wants to show you today.” My little sister scampers out ahead towards the medicine cat den.

Terran and I end up taking a walk, not really into hunting. I mean I still try to catch something while we’re out there but I really just wanted to talk to Terran. “How come every time we’ve taken a walk we’ve been ambushed?” I ask him.

“Good point,” his whiskers twitch, “but none of the times have been fatal.”

“Thank the stars,” I murmur.

I lean against him and we sit under the sky, trying to let out worries go.

~

Aleric and Karina took a walk just outside of the camp. She led him around, not really sure where she was headed. For some reason, they ended up right at Ruby’s grave and Karina’s throat closed up.

Aleric looked down and inhaled sharply.

Karina blinked away tears. Aleric sat next to her and used his tail to sweep away any unnecessary leaves. “How do you do it?” Karina hiccupped.

“Do what?” Aleric kept his eyes on the grave. He didn’t want to look at Karina and fall into the depths of her golden eyes. They were so much like Elena’s.

He shook away those thoughts. She was long gone now.

“Kill without feelings.”

Aleric jerked his head around to look at her sharply. Thankfully her eyes were cast down so Aleric didn’t lose his train of thoughts by staring into her beautiful eyes. I swear one day eyes will be the death of me.

Karina continued, “I mean I don’t want to be heartless but every time I see Bryce, I remember Ruby. Every time I see Bryce’s sisters or even Applepaw, I think about Ruby. I just don’t want it to hurt anymore. I don’t want to feel guilty anymore.”

“I’d rather be guilty than empty,” Aleric said softly. “I don’t think it is right that I don’t think about the cats I kill.”

“Have you though?” Karina glanced at him, tears shining in her eyes, “Have you felt guilty when you killed someone?”

Elena. The name flashed through Aleric’s head and he felt hot pain through his heart. He fought to breathe. “Yeah,” he looked away, “once.”

Karina didn’t press and Aleric was grateful. He didn’t think he could tell Karina about Elena.

“Why did you help Bryce?” Karina changed the subject, “Why did you give up your ties with the Blood Army for this?”

Aleric let his mind drift back to why he did change his mind, when he hadn’t wanted to for almost a moon.

“Because there was something I wanted,” he replied, “something that I couldn’t let go, no matter how hard I tried.”

“Something you wanted?” Karina arched an eyebrow, “That doesn’t sound very reassuring.”

Aleric smiled at her expression. “No, it doesn’t. But I think you’ll find that it isn’t threatening either.”

She stared back at him while Aleric swished his tail. “I came for you,” he told her, “I wanted to be closer with you.”

“Me?” Karina’s voice dropped into a low whisper. “Why?”

He drew closer to Karina. The tug in his heart was more than unbearable. “Do you know,” he started quietly, so quietly he almost thought she didn’t hear him, “do you know that this yearning I have for you will one day destroy me?”

Karina glanced up at him and those eyes. Aleric felt like he was drowning in them, like he had with another pair of eyes so many moons ago. “It will destroy me,” Aleric repeated. I will die loving you.

But the dark gray she-cat didn’t know all the details, how Aleric had spent every waking moment since meeting her finding out who she was, trying to find a way to her heart.

Small steps first.

Karina stepped forward so she was inches away from brushing her nose against his. “I won’t let it,” she murmured.

Aleric smiled in a sad sort of way.

They stood like that for a long moment, not really wanting to step away from each other, but not ready to close the last gap between them.

Then, with an exhale, Aleric stepped forward first.

~

The borders are quiet tonight. I wander around the territory with Terran, our steps small and short. We’re in no hurry to get to anywhere, and we make a wide circle around the territory, talking.

It feels good to just be strolling around with Terran, trying to forget our worries.

“Have you noticed Aleric’s penchant for Karina?” Terran suddenly brings up the brown tom.

“A little bit,” I admit, “he tends to focus on her a lot more than the rest of us. I wonder if he has any intent.”

“No more than eyeing her from a distance,” Terran twitches his whiskers, “for an overly confident flirt, Aleric is shy around Karina. But I’ve been noticing his needs to be around her since he got here. He did come with herbs for her. I suspect my sister has something to do with why Aleric bothered helping us in the first place.”

“It’s nice to know that even the worst cats have feelings,” I laugh.

Terran nods. “Aleric tries to be nice. I can see in his eyes he truly believes in caring for others—he just had to find someone to care about first.”

“I know better than anyone else that the Twolegplace doesn’t offer much love. You either have family or you don’t. If you don’t, you stick to your wits. I guess for Aleric that was the Blood Army.”

“Survival costs guts.”

I can tell by Terran’s sudden dark look that he’s remembering his times in the Vipers. “You’ve never really told me about the Vipers before,” I draw closer to him, “the closest I got was encountering Vicky.”

Terran winced. “Stars, Vicky. It’s hard to forget that she’s dead.”

“How did you end up with her?” I’m moderately curious about this. It makes me wonder what she found in Terran that he might find in me (maybe I’m secretly a villain too—who knows?).

“She was very gorgeous,” Terran admits, “but it didn’t take me long to figure out she had a rotten personality. But back down I was a bit more immature and carefree, so I didn’t care. I let her do what she wanted.”

When I don’t offer a response, Terran shakes out his white fur. “She’s not important. What’s important is you.” He smiles down at me.

I lean against him as we continue our trek through the territory. “I never thought I’d meet someone like you.”

“Like what?”

“Smart, funny. I don’t know, you’re just everything I could possibly want in a tom.” I give a nervous giggle, “I think the trait I like the most is your caring personality. You care about everything that happens, and you care for everyone, even if that cat hurt you in some way.”

The white tom is silent for a moment. “You know what I love? Your tiny size. It makes me feel like I have to protect you, and I love it even more that you’re strong enough that I don’t need to protect you.”

He loves it. I grin stupidly.

But our moment is short-lived. The stench of blood hits me and I gag. Terran pushes his way forward and I hear him inhale sharply. I reach his side and find what shocks him.

“Not again,” I look around and realize we’re near the Blood Army border again.

Terran just shakes his head.

Presidia lays on the ground this time, like Calypso had been laid out. In my mind, I wonder if Ginger had been too late in warning Presidia to be careful, if the cream colored she-cat had already been doomed from the start of this entire thing.

The End.