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Episode Seven, Season Two, of Rise.

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It takes me several days to figure out that I’m going to need to ask my friends for help. I’m not going to find any new information moping about, avoiding my friends because I don’t want to tell them about the blood flowers.

Obviously nobody in the Coalition would recognize the Blood Army, or else they would understand that the Twolegplace holds its own menace. I can’t just approach the Vipers or somehow find that mysterious she-cat who had given me the information about Terran’s father.

Terran and Karina are still angry at me for not telling them, though the anger is more visible in Terran’s eyes. Karina is just mad because Terran is mad.

I told Feathershine and Nightshadow the news and both seem concerned about the two rogues and are constantly talking to them about it, though with no results, they tell me.

Applepaw keeps my sisters busy, so I don’t have to worry much about them.

Despite my needs to talk to them, it still takes me the entire afternoon just to convince them all to gather in the den that I share with Terran and Karina.

“What’s wrong?” Feathershine is the first to speak.

“I…” I don’t know how to begin.

Terran turns his head so his eyes bear into mine. “You’re still keeping secrets,” he says softly, his blue eyes narrowed. I flash back to the day he asked if I had anything else to tell him and I had promised I didn’t.

“This is different,” I defend, “this is personal.”

Terran snorts and looks away. Karina glares at me from where she is seated next to her brother, her golden eyes fierce and protective. “How personal?” The dark gray she-cat curls her lips. “You’ve withheld personal information before.”

“This one is personal to me,” I flatten my ears, “it involves my family.”

“If this is the part where you confess that you’re part of some evil organization designed to kill us, I’d save it,” Terran says coldly. I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not.

“No,” I flush, “why would I say that?”

“I don’t know,” he peers at me, “I don’t know what you would say anymore.”

I frown at him but decide to ignore it. “Anyways, so when we went to the Twolegplace awhile back--”

“When we went to the Twolegplace?” Terran echoes, “This was more than awhile back. That was weeks ago, Bryce, what did you get, amnesia?”

“It was personal!” I bush out my fur, “Do you want to hear what it is or not?”

Terran’s blue eyes are spiked with fury. I feel irrationally annoyed with him, even though I knew he was furious because I had lied to him once again. “You’re the one withholding the information,” Terran shakes his head, “you could have mentioned it when we exchanged stories on what happened in the Twolegplace.”

“It wasn’t the full story, I get it, but I found out exactly how my parents were killed and just perhaps what danger the Twolegplace has always been.”

Silence drags on. I’m grateful that Applepaw took my sisters to go play so they wouldn’t have to hear this conversation. I promised the apprentice that someone would inform her later what had happened.

“I’m sorry about your parents,” Feathershine says softly.

I shake my head. “They were poisoned before murdered. My father was killed before my eyes and it must have been because he betrayed the Blood Army.”

“What is the Blood Army?” Karina interrupts.

“The group that operates in the Twolegplace. They control everything that happens in the Twolegplace, though not many cats seem to know about it, or if they do, they feign innocence. They practically control most of the prey too, and to get prey from them, you have to exchange ‘stocks’. Stocks are pretty much rare plants or anything; the rarer the plant, the more prey you get.”

“Did you know about them when you were in the Twolegplace?” Nightshadow inquires.

“Nope,” I shrug, “but I guess my parents did. They exchanged stocks when I was little because I couldn’t get enough prey. I don’t know what happened after that, because my father came home bloody and bled out, and awhile later my mother was sick for weeks before she too was murdered.”

For once in this conversation, Terran has the decency to look pained. He doesn’t offer his condolences but that’s not what I want from him anyways.

When nobody speaks up, I continue. “My mother was poisoned with plants I believe. Someone told me a few weeks ago that the Blood Army had found a way to mix plants and then I also saw a she-cat who had died just like Hawkstar had, poisoned.”

“You knew how Hawkstar died and you didn’t say so?” Terran interrupts, “I was worrying about which Viper cat was trying to get back at us for defecting and perhaps if he would target you soon. I get that it was personal to you, but this is more important than family.”

“Nothing is more important than family!” I can feel tears sting in my eyes.

Terran falls silent. He’s so close to me that I can see the white flecks in his blue eyes. Imperfections on the surface, but perfect from afar.

“I know,” he finally murmurs, “I’m sorry.”

“You’re right though,” I exhale, “I should have said something, but it was too real, to realize that my family’s death has more to do to this than I wish. I have to go back and figure out who killed my parents and figure out what’s this whole deal with the mixtures and plants.”

Karina’s face is pale and she’s glancing at her brother, who closes his eyes briefly. “So you’re saying this Blood Army has possession of all the prey in the Twolegplace as well as plants that can kill or do anything to anyone.”

“I don’t know about anything,” I say cautiously, “but they definitely have a lot of supplies.” I don’t mention their father.

Terran abruptly stands and makes his way outside. I watch him, dismayed. Karina stands also. “You need to understand that poison has ruined Terran’s life in every way possible,” the dark gray she-cat explains, “but of course, you don’t understand.”

She leaves without another word. Feathershine presses her flank against mine reassuringly. “We’ll talk to Applepaw about this. Go try to make up with Terran.”

Does he even want to talk to me?

But nevertheless, my paws force their way outside until I find where Terran is outside of camp. “Terran,” I stop a few tail-lengths away.

“Bryce,” he sighs, “I don’t want to talk right now.”

“You never want to talk,” I blink away any stray tears, “now is the only time we’re going to get.”

Terran turns slowly, his blue eyes glowing in the soft light. “Bryce…”

Just my name. The way he says it unhinges me momentarily.

“Look, I’m sorry I held secrets from you,” I blurt out, “I just didn’t want to get you hurt. I wanted to pretend none of this was going to affect us and when it did, I was afraid that if I got the rest of you involved, you would be fighting a battle you shouldn’t be fighting.”

“No,” Terran shakes his head, “you don’t understand. This is a battle I have to fight.”

“You’ve never explained why.”

Terran stares at me incredulously. “I don’t explain?” He mutters, “Well, you’re not the only one who seems to have encountered the Blood Army.”

I flick one of my ears and watch him expectantly. It takes Terran a long time to finally explain. “My mother died when I was young and she had been poisoned; she was expecting. My best friend died the same way.”

“I’m so sorry,” my eyes widen. I hadn’t realized that Terran had gone through so much loss in his life already. It isn’t much different from me.

“Don’t be,” Terran shakes his head, “you wouldn’t had known about them if we weren’t having this conversation, and we’re only having this conversation because--”

“Because I lied, I know,” I interrupt him.

Terran stands up and steps closer to me and I have to resist the urge to step away. “Bryce,” he says softly, his eyes darkening, “you should have told me earlier.”

“I know,” I bite my lip, “but at that moment, figuring out why my parents were involved was more important to me.”

“Did you ever find out?”

“No,” I sigh, “I never did.”

Terran draws a little closer, so close that his eyes become the sky for me, the white specks the clouds. “I’ll help you.”

“Why?” I blurt out, “I’ve done nothing to help you.”

The white tom looks down at me, his expression unfathomable. “You don’t know how much you’ve done for me,” he murmurs, before he turns and walks away, back towards camp.

~

I have all my friends gather in the same area, this time with Applepaw also. Jewel and Emerald are playing with some of the other kids so I don’t have to worry so much about them.

It looks like we’re all in slightly better terms, although Karina is still standing very protectively next to her brother. (If I didn’t know they were siblings, Karina would look like a very protective girlfriend.)

“Okay, I’ve come up with a plan I thought I’d share with you guys. I need your opinion on this.”

“Finally,” Karina mutters.

I ignore her and continue on. “After you guys approve of this and improve it, we’ll bring it up to the leaders. The Blood Army are obviously going to be a formidable enemy if we don’t deal with them first, so here’s what I think we should do: we should appeal to them by saying we want to team up with them as allies and lure them in before ambushing and defeating them.”

“That’s a terrible plan,” Karina snaps, not even hesitating, “you don’t know how many Blood Army cats there are and if they’ll even buy it. They are cunning cats, and they have a whole network of spies in the Twolegplace, like that creep, Aleric.”

Terran winces at the mention of the creepy black tom they had encountered before I finally found them.

“We should still try,” I insist, “what if the Blood Army strikes first?”

“They already have,” Nightshadow points out, “I have to agree with Karina; this is too risky.”

“We have to gamble a bit if we’re going to win.”

“No,” Terran frowns, “I don’t think we should risk it. What do they have to lose in meeting us in this ‘ally meeting’? We have everything to lose because we can easily underestimate them. We’ll come up with something else.” He exchanges a meaningful glance with Karina.

“There’s a chance your father might be there too,” I continue, “the she-cat told me he was being held prisoner by the Blood Army.”

“Just a random fact you forgot to mention again?” Terran catches my eye.

“I was busy defending myself last time,” I narrow my eyes, but Terran just looks away and whispers something in his sister’s ear, who nods.

“We’re not doing your plan,” Terran stands, “it’s not going to work and it’ll end up to be the Coalition’s downfall instead.”

He begins to make his way outside and I can’t help but call after him. “Where are you going?”

“Out,” Terran dismisses, “I just need to take a walk. Karina?”

His sister wordlessly pads after him and I watch them quietly. Nightshadow nudges me. “Don’t worry, they just need to process the idea. The two of them must have gone through a lot, and they’re still transitioning into the idea that they’re on our side.”

“No they’re not,” I shake off the kind tom’s gesture, “they’re trying to deal with the fact that I lied to them.” Especially Terran. Fighting with the white tom makes my heart hurt, but I decide that there’s nothing I can do right now.

“You’ll figure out another plan,” Feathershine brushes past me, “but that one won’t work.”

The two leave and it’s just Applepaw. The apprentice shrugs. “Don’t ask me, I’m just an apprentice.”

She scampers outside and I sigh. “So much for that.”

I decide to curl up in my nest and take a nap after that.

~

“Bryce,” Applepaw shakes me, frantically waking me up, “Terran and Karina are gone.”

“Gone?” I jerk awake, “What do you mean they’re gone?” I spot their empty nests immediately.

“We have to tell Whitestar and Amberstar,” I shake the moss out of my pelt and bolt out of the den, racing past my sleeping sisters, who must have come into the den after I had fallen asleep.

Applepaw says something about watching over them but I ignore her. I barrel towards the leaders’ den and decide to barge right in. The two are still awake, discussing battle plans.

“Bryce!” Amberstar exclaims, “Is everything all right?”

“Terran and Karina didn’t come back tonight,” I pant.

Whitestar’s eyes darken. “Did they betray us?”

I feel a stab of anger but shake my head furiously, “No! The opposite I think. They’re heading for the Twolegplace, where an enemy just as great as the Vipers is waiting: the Blood Army.”

I explain what I know about them. “Terran and Karina’s father is being held by the Blood Army, and I believe they’re heading to see if they can rescue him.”

“In other words…” Amberstar begins.

“Yes,” I nod to confirm it, “we have to head for the Twolegplace: my home turf.”

The End.