Pathos

  P atho s

Written by: Blazey

Episode 3. Here is episode two, if you want to read that first.

Enjoy!

Pathos
" Rise and shine, lovely," the squirrel said in a nasty, nasally voice. " Are you ready to be a hero?"

Now there was one important thing to acknowledge about Amanda. She had ''backbone. ''She was made of stern stuff, which is usually what happens when one is left to grow up on their own. Amanda was the one that created the illusions, she was the trickster behind it all. So nothing scared her, really... it was all the stuff of imagination and fantasy.

But she had to draw the line somewhere. And that line, as she recently had discovered, was talking squirrels.

In conclusion, Amanda was completely unashamed of the blood-curdling shriek she let out at the squirrel's words.

" Feisty!" the squirrel yelped, scurrying out of the way as her paw came thudding down where it had been moments before.

" Shut up!" Amanda screamed back, swiping at it (and missing). " Get away from me!"

The squirrel scampered around her. " Easy, easy-"

"- die, rodent!-"

"- what in StarClan is going on?" another voice demanded from behind her. Amanda whirled around and saw the white female standing up, annoyance and confusion clear in her amber eyes. Amanda opened her mouth to reply when movement behind the other she-cat caught her eye. The other bodies were coming to life, grumbling, groaning, and letting out startled hisses.

" Look at what you've done!" the squirrel cried. Amanda screamed again, realizing it was perched on her shoulders. " Oh, stop yelling."

" You- you-!" she spluttered, trying to shake it off.

The squirrel refused to be moved. " You've woken up all of them now. We were going to have such a nice heart-to-heart! You've created a completely unnecessary scene, and I don't just mean the kind in a temper tantrum!"

" What is going on?" the white female demanded, and Amanda detected a note of hysteria in her voice.

The squirrel made a strangled sound, clinging tight as Amanda bucked to dislodge it. " I'll explain, if you tell this hairy beast to stop trying to shake me off!"

The white she-cat looked like she'd been struck across the face. " It... the thing is speaking to me."

" Evidently," a deeper voice rumbled, and Amanda started. The other cats had gathered around them- a pretty silver cat with her lip curled, a brown tom with his ears flattened, and the speaker- a golden tom with his eyes narrowed.

He turned his gaze on Amanda, and she was struck by the scarlet intensity of his stare. " I don't know who any of you are, or where you come from...but we share one thing right now. We're trapped in a hole, and this squirrel seems to have answers. I never thought I'd say this but..." he sighed. " Let the squirrel talk." ~ The five cats gathered around the squirrel, whom Amanda had reluctantly set down.

While he made a great show of making sure he was alright- mainly involving frantic head movements and inspections of his tail, Amanda observed the other four.

There was a brown tom who looked skittish, constantly turning to look around him. She noted the nervous flexing of his claws, and the way his ears flattened and pricked up at alternate moments. Odd, she said. ''Be wary of him. ''

Next was the white female, but she looked more upset and annoyed than anything. Amanda had been trained to notice subtle things about others... and she had noticed a certain sense of relief about this white female.

Before she could make her next observations, the pretty she-cat spoke. Her voice was clear and sharp as she addressed the tom with the scarlet eyes. " You're the Bidder."

" And you're the bounty hunter."

Amanda gaped. " Bounty hunter? Oh, I know who you are...!" she trailed off as both cats turned their stares on her. The bounty hunter curled her lip in distaste.

Amanda coughed. " Sorry."

" Now that we're all introduced," the squirrel said, "... thank you, Helios, for saving me from that brute..."

The golden tom blinked. " How do you know my name?"

" The same way I know all of yours," the squirrel said, sounding smug. " Amanda. Ibis. Frostwing. Nolan."

The four words caused visible discomfort. It was like a sharp blow dealt to Amanda's stomach. Names were powerful, names were an identifier. If cats had tied together their string of robberies done by an Amanda, she would have lost everything. She would have been ''grounded. ''

The bounty hunter- Ibis?- noticeably flinched at her name. Amanda noted this with interest.

" And how exactly do you know these names?" Helios demanded. The squirrel tilted his head to one side.

" My master."

" You have a master?" Amanda laughed. " A squirrel has a master?"

The squirrel, despite it's small, narrow face, managed to look affronted. " I am a very intelligent squirrel."

Amanda snorted.

" Anyway," the squirrel continued. " It's time for business. My master is a manipulator. He pulls strings, he influences, yet rarely does he attempt something of this large a scale. You, throughout the course of your feline lives, have come to be of interest to him."

All five cats exchanged odd glances. " Interest?" Ibis said cautiously.

" Yes, interest. He has been watching, and he has been utterly fascinated by you. Seriously, he won't shut up about it. You've come to interest him because you five are the most vile, corrupted, and utterly unheroic creatures he has ever encountered."

There was a strange silence at his words- Amanda didn't know whether to feel flattered or offended. " That's a matter of opinion," Helios growled.

The squirrel nodded. " Quite true. And he has a particular opinion in mind."

" Care to elaborate?" Ibis pressed.

" Not really," the squirrel said, " but all will be revealed... very soon. All my master wants to do is sort of, well, get to know you. I'd say please, but you don't really have a choice."

Amanda noted with growing dread that the was slowly backing away.

Frostwing cried out. " I won't do this! I won't be some sort of experiment, you idiot!"

But with a last, laughing call, the squirrel turned and began to turn the other way. " You don't have a choice, lovely!"

Suddenly, the sky darkened, and Amanda's world was plunged into darkness. Before she could cry out, thundered sounded, lightning flashed, and the squirrel was gone. ~ The five cats were on alert. Their ears were pricked, tails stretched tight, and eyes roaming. Nolan whimpered once, and stopped when Helios's eyes fixed on him.

Amanda was observing, little details flitting through her brain. The sky was cleared, so this must have been some trick of the light, perhaps some illusion done by the squirrel's (still unbelievable) master. Who was he, or she, or maybe 'it'? Another squirrel? Maybe it was a-

Lightning flashed, and the bright light seared into Amanda's vision, blinding her. She fell to one side and cried out. Light was flashing, darkness teasing at her vision, and she could see snatches of things- Ibis throwing her head back, Frostwing's snarl, and the grass stems she lay amongst. Amanda thrashed her limbs. ''What on earth is happening? ''

Abruptly, the flashing lights stopped.

And Amanda was... standing?

She looked up. There was the bright blue sky, unchanged, and there were the other four cats, heads whipping around in bewilderment.

Then what was- oh.

The dirt walls that had marked their prison had moved in, sandwiching the five cats between them. There were two options- forwards, or backwards. Amanda was looking up for a way to scale the wall, when a voice boomed through them.

You are trapped, the voice echoed, and Amanda pressed her ears to her head. It was painfully loud. ''You will not get out if you do not escape from here. You will starve and die of dehydration. Your body will shrivel up and fold in on itself until you become part of the earth. ''

Some cat in the group whimpered.

But this cat, the voice boomed. ''This cat will get you out. She knows what to do. ''

As if she had been there all along, a tortoiseshell she-cat sat ahead of them, tail curled demurely around her paws.

" Tell us what you know," Frostwing demanded. Amanda felt herself shoved to the side as Frosting pushed past her. " Come on, tell us!"

The tortoiseshell shook her head. " No."

Amanda could see the frustration evident in the white she-cat stance. " Tell us how to get out! We'll die!"

" No."

She's a Clan cat, Amanda observed. ''How far will she go? ''

" We don't have time for this!" Helios snarled. " Torture her."

Frostwing nodded. She slammed into the tortoiseshell and sent the cat tumbling to the floor. Frostwing stood atop her, pressing her face into the dirt. " Tell. Us. Now."

" No."

Frostwing shrieked with anger, bringing her claws down across the she-cat's face. The tortoiseshell flinched. " I will do it again," she growled. " In the same spot and harder each time. Now ''tell me the way out!" ''

" No."

And Frostwing did indeed bring her claws down again, the exact wound she'd opened seconds before. This time, she let her claws sink in, dragging them with agonizing slowness through the tortoiseshell's tender flesh. The tortoiseshell howled in pain, and Frostwing's paw came free drenched in scarlet. " You want to open up now?"

The tortoiseshell was sobbing. " Straight ahead," she cried. " You'll find your next test there."

Effective, Amanda noted, as Frostwing shoved the body aside.

The cats raced ahead, leaving the body behind. ~ They raced along the dirt walls for a while encountering no interruptions until all of a sudden, they stopped.

Amanda nearly crashed into Helios's behind. " What's going on?" she demanded. Helios shifted to the side, and Amanda was able to see.

They were at a dead end. A dirt wall rose behind them, tall an unmovable. There were no exits. They were trapped, except...

Two small bundles of fur sat at the foot of the wall. Kittens, Amanda noted, and felt a slight queasy stirring in her stomach. She already knew where this was going to lead.

And so did they. There was no booming voice, no orders, because it was clear.

" We have to kill them," Amanda said thickly.

" That bothers you?" Helios inquired, and she thought she heard traces of mockery in his voice. The other three cats were beginning to stir, wondering who would commit the deed.

" They are innocent," Amanda replied."

" Because they have lived less? That merely means their lives have less weight, and the deed should, too."

Amanda held his gaze for as long as she could before dropping it. It still was not... ''right. ''

" I've had enough of this," Ibis snarled, and marched her way forwards. She grabbed one of the kits, and it mewled lightly in protest as she held her claws to its throat. " We have to do this, we've been ordered. Now, are you all cowards, or shall I do the other one?"

Have to, Amanda noted. ''We've been ordered. ''

Amanda stared at the kittens. I've killed many, she pointed out to herself. ''I stole their food, I drove their mothers out of their homes. So I suppose this isn't any different. ''

As Amanda was about to step forwards, someone else pushed forwards. Amanda and Helios both stared in astonishment. It was the quiet, skittish tom from earlier- Nolan. He grabbed the second kit and roughly shoved his claws against its throat, ignoring its frantic wriggling.

Amanda stared openly at him. She prided herself on her ability to read others, but she hadn't anticipated this. Perhaps he was braver than he appeared, possessed more courage... but that wasn't quite it. There was some sort of eagerness to his actions that suggested he had some other motive.

" Ready? Ibis said, and her voice was grim and emotionless. " Three, two, one."

She slit her kit's throat silently, with all the grace of a practiced killer. The young body dropped, curled in a fetal position.

Nolan's kill was messy and noisy. His kit had time to cry out before falling dead, and Amanda's stomach turned.

As the second body hit the ground, the wall ahead of them vanished. Amanda blinked, trying to clear her vision- but the wall was gone. Or it was never there, Amanda thought appreciatively. Master illusionist work, this was.

Ibis was the first to move, turning heel and marching away. Helios followed, then Frostwing, and Nolan- though it seemed he had a hard time tearing his gaze away from the kit's body. As Amanda passed, she spared the body a second glance... and there, perched on the kit's flank, was the squirrel.

" You again," she growled.

The squirrel ignored her tone. " You're different," he told her, tiny head jerking side to side. " My master thinks so. They believe what they see, but you have a second vision, a second sight. You look past what is real, you see the illusion."

" What are you trying to say?" Amanda said, casting a glance in the direction the other four had gone. None of them had noticed her disappearance, or if they had, they hadn't bothered to go check for her.

" They're mislead by what they see," the squirrel said. " They only go where they are pointed... regardless of if it's wrong or right."

Amanda frowned. " So they're going the wrong way?"

" Most certainly."

" And I can go the right way?"

" Yes," the squirrel said, tipping his head towards the wall behind her. " Will you tell them?"

" No." Amanda turned around. ''I see the illusion. ''

Eyes closed, she stretched her paw out, out, and out until it would brush the cold dirt of the wall. Instead, she felt it pass free and land on rough grass instead.

Her eyes flew open. There was no wall.

The squirrel was gone when she looked behind her, so Amanda raced forwards, she raced free.

She turned around for a second look, and started in shock. There was no maze behind her, no wall... she was standing in the same, unchanged hole she'd woken in.

And there, around her, were the other four... Nolan, Frostwing, pretty Ibis, and Helios with the scarlet eyesf, looking as confused and bewildered as she felt.

Mind spinning and spinning, Amanda fell down her side, welcoming the warm sleep that came to her. ''All an illusion... all in my head...'' ~ Above the hole, an unlikely duo peered down at the five figures below.

The first of the pair was a squirrel, and he sat on the shoulder of a cat. Neither of them appeared to be trying to kill each other, and both seemed oddly comfortable in each other's presence.

" You were right, Master," the squirrel spoke, but in a cat's meow. " They are an awful bunch, worse than any of the squirrels I've known. And that's saying something."

The cat shifted, silhouetted against the setting sun. " They're perfect, Riu. All I ever wanted."

" I know. But they fall prey to your illusions."

The cat shifted slightly, tilting his head back to the sky. " It only means their minds are moldable."

" And that's good?"

" Very." End