Doubts of the Mind

 DOUBTS OF THE MIND

Episode Eight, Season Four, of Rise.

Enjoy <3

Doubts of the Mind
Flameshadow spends the afternoon trying to figure out the herbs that Aleric has given him. Karina is resting in his den, being prepared for the herbs. Terran and I have been camped here, occasionally dozing off.

“I don’t know,” Flameshadow says for the umpteenth time. “I really can’t figure out what these herbs are, just like how I couldn’t figure out the leaves that woke Karina from her coma.”

“Should we try it?” I glance at Terran. The last time I told Flameshadow to go ahead and try it Karina got possessed by Vicky’s leaves.

“I don’t know,” Terran is very tense. “I’m reluctant to let Karina try it because I don’t trust Aleric.” I agree with him. Aleric hasn’t really given us a direct answer, and his nonchalance about the situation is infuriating.

“That tom is a mystery,” I shake my head, “but he did help us.”

Karina shifts awake, blinking blearily. She doesn’t say anything, however, so Terran and I continue our conversation.

“He did help us,” Terran agrees, “but who knows? He might have schemed it with Presidia.”

“You saw how she glared at him,” I shake my head, “I know Presidia when I was younger. She’s not much of an actor, except hiding her High Committee position. No way she’s pretending to hate Aleric that much.”

“He’s someone to fear,” Terran narrows his eyes.

“We already knew that,” I sigh. “But the question is does he mean well with these herbs?”

Terran stares darkly at the herbs that Flameshadow is examining. “Logically, it’s an automatic no. But we have no other answer until we catch Vicky and even though I’m unsure she’ll give the cure to us. I don’t want Karina to suffer.”

I hesitate. I want to say that we should give Karina the herbs, but I’m afraid to voice my opinion. Karina is Terran’s sister after all.

Before Terran can say anything else, Karina suddenly jerks up, knocking Flameshadow into the wall and reaching for Terran with her claws. I let out a shriek of surprise, having never experienced one of these burst outs before.

Terran blocks Karina’s blow and pushes her roughly to the floor. His recent wounds seem to pop out even more on his pelt, reminding me he’s been through this before.

He takes a lot of struggle but Karina does calm down. She pants, laying there on the floor, her eyes regaining their normal color.

“Flameshadow, please give her those herbs. They’re our best hope of a cure.” Terran doesn’t even hesitate.

Flameshadow, who has recovered from being thrown against the wall, grabs the herbs. He places them in front of Karina. “Eat these.”

She obeys, bending her head over and swallowing the herbs. “What made you change your mind?” I ask Terran, watching Karina curiously as she finished the herbs.

Terran only shakes his head and I can guess why. It must be terrible for him to fight his sister off each time she got possessed by the leaves Vicky had given her. The effect is immediate. Karina’s eyes suddenly get a lot sharper and she lets out a sigh of what seems like relief.

“I feel like I’m actually in my body,” she gives herself a shake to clear her head, “earlier it felt like I was drifting in and out of a fog, not fully awake.”

“So it worked?” I press.

“I think so?” She frowns, “Hopefully it works.” She gives me an apologetic look and I look away.

Flameshadow orders Karina to stay in his den for more rest and after Terran rejoices a bit with his sister, we head back to my den.

“I should try to see if Aleric’s willing to tell me anything,” I sigh, turning my paws towards the prisons. “Do you want to come with?”

“Sure,” Terran wraps his tail around me briefly, “can’t leave you with that freak anyway. Who knows what he’ll do?”

I don’t comment that I don’t think Aleric has any intention of going anywhere anytime soon (for whatever reason…I don’t know what he’s planning). We just head silently down the prisons until we reach the one that holds Aleric. When I open the screen door, Aleric stares up at us with unemotional green eyes.

“Hello,” he greets us, “I didn’t expect you to drop by so soon.”

“Planning your escape?” I ask sarcastically.

“Nah,” Aleric grins, “I was just wondering how long it would be before I got to talk to you again. You’re by far the best company I’ve had in awhile.”

“Thanks,” I say dryly, “I’m so delighted.”

Aleric continues to smile, but it never fully reaches his eyes. His green eyes remain unemotional, so cold and hard to look into that I find myself looking away. How does he keep his eyes so devoid of emotion and feeling?

Terran nudges me and I remember the point of me coming down here. “We’re here for some standard question.”

“The Coalition doesn’t have standard questioning,” Aleric points out, “you just want to talk to me.”

“I want to know what you’re doing here,” I correct him.

Aleric’s paws are already rubbed red from the brambles tied around his paws. Beads of blood touch the ground and he shakes them away. “I came because I changed my mind about the Blood Army. I also intended on trying to give Karina those herbs.”

“Why?” Terran cuts in.

The brown tom blinks at the bigger white tom. “Because she intrigued me,” he admits, “and I thought if I wanted to convince you that I want to be your ally, I should show it first.”

“You’re the Blood Army’s greatest asset,” I frown at him, “you can probably trick anyone and I know for sure that you probably haven’t ever lost a fight. What makes you think that I don’t know that this could be part of some great plan?”

Aleric doesn’t say anything for a long time. He seems to be trying to gather his thoughts. “I can’t change your thoughts,” he finally says, “and you’re right about me. I have a lot of enemies and granted, you guys were my enemy too. But I have braved this chance because I believe it is right. I don’t know how many of my enemies will chase me down, but I know the Twolegplace won’t be the safest place for me anymore.”

“As if enemies will scare you,” I narrow my eyes, “you can best anyone.”

Aleric smiles slightly. “Indeed.”

I shake my head. “You’re not giving me anything plausible. You’re just defending your first statement but how can you prove that I can trust you?”

“I can’t,” Aleric shrugs, “that’s the plain truth, isn’t it? It’s okay, I’ll wait until you finally see the truth.”

Terran hasn’t really said anything this entire time and he finally speaks up. “At least tell us this one truth: those herbs meant for Karina, are they really going to cure her? It’s not another trick like Vicky’s leaves, right?”

“I swear it,” Aleric says softly, his eyes suddenly serene and sincere. It’s as if he let these emotions show to tell us the truth. “I swear I’m not trying to harm Karina.”

~

We meet back up with Nightshadow and Feathershine and decide on our next option. Applepaw joins in as well, piping up when she feels necessary.

Right now, we’re debating on whether or not we should chase after Vicky or investigate Aleric and Presidia’s plans.

“There’s no point in going after Vicky,” Nightshadow argues, “Karina already has the cure, right?”

“How do we know we can trust Aleric?” Terran counters.

“That’s why we need to go to the Twolegplace,” Feathershine points out, “to figure out what Aleric could be plotting.”

I ponder over this. “I think Vicky is more important,” I insist, “she’s a threat to Terran and Karina and she’s already been targeting them. We can’t risk waiting for her to make her next move.”

“And Aleric is threatening us all!” Nightshadow throws up his paws in frustration, “Aleric probably plans on murdering us all and all you’re worried about is your tom.”

My tom? I self-consciously glance at Terran but he has a furrowed look on his face and is avoiding making eye contact with me. “I’m not just looking out for Terran,” I snap, “but for now we have Aleric in our paws. We can investigate Vicky without worrying about him.”

“We all know Aleric’s playing with us,” Nightshadow growls, “he can escape whenever he wants and we can’t stop him.”

“Nice faith you have in yourself,” I snort.

Before the argument can get any worse, Applepaw pipes up. “We should just check both borders but stay within our territory. That way we can stick together and investigate both issues together.”

“That’s a good idea,” Feathershine nods.

We decide to set out, scouring the territory. It’s strangely empty today. As we spend the time outside, Applepaw plods along beside us, her eyes still slightly vacant with grief for her brother.

“Do you think a Blood Army cat did it?” She asks me softly while we’re drawing near the Twolegplace border.

“Hm?” I glance down at her, “Did what?”

“Poisoned Firepaw.”

“I don’t know,” I admit. It makes sense though. The Blood Army seemed to use poison more often than the Vipers did. But why Firepaw?

Of course, Firepaw could have been just a distraction, or he could have been chosen at random. I don’t voice any of these thoughts to Applepaw, but I’m sure she’s already thought this through herself.

She’s quiet after that. We spend a few minutes scouring the border before I decide we should go back and just interrogate Presidia instead. “Maybe we’ll actually get answers this way.”

The others agree and Applepaw casts one last look over her shoulder at the Twolegplace before we depart.

~

Presidia is pretty calm about seeing us, though not as calm as Aleric had been. I’m not surprised to see Calypso down here as well.

“Hey,” I say, not really sure what else to say.

“Hello,” Presidia says curtly.

“What was the whole deal?” I finally blurt out, “We were friends before I left the Twolegplace and now you decide to come and ambush me?”

“You’re big in the Twolegplace,” Presidia shakes her head ruefully. “My mission was simple: to get you back there so that the High Committee could silence the revolution that is about to spark within the Twolegplace.”

“There’s a revolution about to start there?” I perk my ears in surprise. “And I’m at the head of it?”

“Figuratively you are,” Presidia nods, “but rumor says a she-cat called Analese is heading it.”

I can tell she knows who Analese is. There’s a bit of sorrow in her voice as she says this. I don’t want to pry, but I decide to ask anyway. “Do you know Analese from somewhere? Is she a close friend?”

“We agreed on some things,” Presidia shrugs, “I only met her because of my first encounter with Aleric. He was killing my neighbor or something and Analese had found me trying to bury his body. She told me she knew of Aleric and she had met him before. Said he was quite a charming and innocent cat upfront, but deep down, he was rotten.”

“She met him?” Terran frowns, “When?”

“He killed her best friend,” Presidia explains, “Analese says they fell in love.”

I feel a bit sick to the stomach. What kind of cat was Aleric? How could he fall in love with a cat and then kill them?

Terran presses against me briefly and I dip my head to Presidia. “Thank you for telling us,” I say graciously, “I really hope you reconsider your choices of being apart of the Blood Army.”

Presidia doesn’t say anything.

~

Karina didn’t know why she was coming down here. The last time she had been here, she and Terran had first rescued Bryce and her two sisters. It was when they had first decided that the Vipers weren’t their home.

She found his den rather easily and slid the bramble screen open. She was thankful there were no guards down here.

Sharp, unemotional green eyes stared back at her.

He sat up and tipped his head. “What a pleasant surprise,” he purred, “out of all the cats I expected to come down here, I didn’t expect you.”

Karina sat down in front of him. “I’m not so sure why I’m here either,” she admitted.

Aleric flicked an ear. “Maybe because I’m just so handsome and you couldn’t resist?”

Karina gave a small purr of laughter. She didn’t know how to word what she wanted to say next. Aleric sensed something important coming and he hardened his gaze. “Why did you come down here, Karina?”

She wasn’t too surprised he knew her name. “Why did you give me the cure?” She blurted out, “Why did you care enough to get them?”

Aleric’s eyes narrowed and he looked almost thoughtful. “Some things…” he hesitated, “never mind.”

“Tell me,” Karina insisted.

“No,” Aleric shook his head, “It’s better that you don’t know.”

He curled himself up, indicating that he wasn’t going to give in. Karina let out a soft sigh and backed out of the den. She pulled the screen shut, unable to shake the question out of her mind.

~

Aleric didn’t want to tell her. When she had come down, Aleric had been too surprised to stop himself. But moons of training had saved him plenty.

What Karina didn’t know was how destructive his feelings could be. When Aleric thought back to the last time he had felt like this, all he could remember was the feeling of her blood running over his paws, her beautiful blue eyes fading.

The look of betrayal so clear on her face even when it had once been full of love.

Aleric dug his claws into the dirt. No, he wouldn’t tell Karina.

Not until he could erase himself of these feelings.

The End.