Rise of Shadows

 RISE OF SHADOWS

Episode One, Season Five, of Rise.

Enjoy <3

Rise of Shadows
It’s been a few days since Vicky’s death. We did end up burying her because Terran insisted on it. I felt a bit jealous that he still wanted to give her a proper funeral after all Vicky’s done to us, but I realized that the reason I cared so much about Terran was because he had such a big heart.

I’m in front of the leader’s den right now, trying to decide whether or not I want to go in. Terran encouraged me earlier to go, since I’ve been trying to think of a way to advocate to the leaders that we should focus all our forces on the Blood Army.

Finally I work up the courage to walk in, successfully walking in on a conversation. Definitely should have asked for permission to come in first.

“Bryce!” Amberstar sits up, looking pleased, “We were just talking about you.”

Oh? “Really?” I blink, “What about?”

“War strategies,” Whitestar explains, “fighting a two war front is certainly exhausting. For you and us both.”

“That’s what I came to talk about,” I admit, “I wanted to ask if we could focus more on the Blood Army first. The Vipers will be in shock with our encounter with Vicky, but she also hasn’t really been following Korin’s orders so I’m sure we’re safe from them for awhile. Meanwhile we have Presidia and Aleric who can help us with the Blood Army.”

Amberstar ponders over this. “Aleric…can we trust that tom?”

“He’s saved my life more than once,” I say truthfully, “and he has been sincerely trying to prove that he’s not here to sabotage or ruin anything. I really have no choice but to say we should trust him, because he’s our best option right now.”

Amberstar gives a nod of approval and a moment later, so does Whitestar. I pray in my head that I’m not making a mistake.

“Do what you have to,” Whitestar advises, “you’re fit enough to make your own decisions when it comes to this.”

“Thanks,” I say hurriedly, backing away from the leaders, dipping my head.

I quickly gather up my friends, trying to think of a proper plan to tackle the Blood Army. The faster we wiped them out, the faster we could focus on the Vipers and just get done with this whole war thing.

Shadeflower, who has been talking to Nightshadow when I got up to the tom, decides to come along too. She’s feeling better now, especially with Vicky gone. She’ll always feel the side effects of the plants, but the wolves have been less of a problem now anyway. Terran mentions that he thinks Korin has discarded the wolves (something about being too hard to contain).

Presidia, Calypso, and Aleric have joined us for this as well. They sit awkwardly on the side. Presidia and Calypso are openly showing their affection, making Aleric the lone wolf.

Applepaw looks extremely glum today. Aleric eyes her for a moment before scooting to my side. “Hey, that’s your apprentice friend, right?”

“Yeah,” I glance at him, “why?”

“She’s the only one here that looks depressed. I mean even Nightshadow and Feathershine look happy for Terran and Karina. Shadeflower looks happy for her own reasons.” Aleric’s eyes are impassive.

I hesitate for a moment, then decide it’s worth telling him anyway. “Firepaw—her brother—died a week ago. Poisoned and killed. We couldn’t save him. She’s moping because he was really almost all she had, excluding her sister.”

Aleric’s eyes flash with sudden shock. I tilt my head curiously but he turns away slightly. “I’m sorry for her loss.”

I don’t know how to reply to that but Aleric just shuffles over a bit so he’s sitting next to Karina. Terran raises his eyes and meets mine. I give him a nod, indicating he should tell the others the plan he said he would think of when I went to go ask the leaders for permission.

“I have an idea: some of us should go into the Twolegplace and get captured while the others follow so they can lead us to where the High Committee will be.”

Aleric shakes his head immediately. “There’s no way the High Committee will fall for that. They’ll see right through your scheme and just end up sending someone to poison you or kill you.”

Like Aleric. The thought flashes through my mind. If Aleric wasn’t with us, would he be the assassin they would send to kill us?

The brown tom leans forward, his eyes still as impassive as usual. “But if a former High Committee returns, they will be interested. I bet you they’re dying to get their paws on us now.”

Presidia exchanges a glance with Calypso. “I’ll go,” she volunteers.

“Why you?” Aleric frowns, “I’ll do better on the field.”

“You’ll do better anywhere,” Presidia counters, “this mission will have some risks and if one of us is going to die, I’d rather it be me, not you.”

Calypso mutters something under her breath but Presidia ignores her. I can already guess Calypso would rather Aleric die than Presidia.

“Aleric wouldn’t die so easily,” Karina points out, “he could probably kill them all for us.”

“I’m flattered,” Aleric shoots a rare but small smile at her, “but taking on so many of them at once—mind you they’re all pretty good at combat, just not as good as me—would be suicidal.”

“I don’t believe you when you say you can’t take them all on,” Nightshadow arches an eyebrow at Aleric.

“Me neither,” I admit, “I saw you take down so many cats during that battle when you were fighting all the Coalition cats.”

“No offense,” Aleric raises his tail in submission, “but that was nothing. Obviously I need to teach you folks how to fight if that’s the best you can do.”

Feathershine turns a little red while Nightshadow glowers at him. Applepaw pipes up. “He should teach us some moves. It’ll help us in the long run.”

I eye the brown tom coolly. “No killing moves though,” I decide, “but yeah, we need you to teach us.”

“Sure thing,” Aleric sweeps his tail around him. “We can start now if you want.”

Terran meets my gaze and he gives a nod. For some reason, I always look for Terran’s final agreement to settle things. We all clamber to our paws and head for a training clearing.

I’m feeling slightly ecstatic. My first real training session—I mean I never actually got anything done when I was with Nightshadow.

“Shadeflower, you coming along?” Nightshadow glances at his sister. She’s never been close to us, and I can’t imagine her tagging along for our missions.

“No,” she shakes her head, “I don’t think I will. I just want to assimilate back into Clan life. Saving the world isn’t a job for me.”

Applepaw brushes past her sympathetically and is the first to head out. I can tell she’s itching to learn some of Aleric’s kicktail moves.

We all kind of are. Aleric walks with purpose, not wasting a single moment when we get to the clearing. Presidia and Calypso tag along.

“We’ll pair up,” Aleric instructs.

I automatically choose Terran to be my pair. Aleric sees the pairing and shakes his head vigorously. “This isn’t going to work.” He pulls me towards Karina and then gestures towards Terran to join him. The white tom scowls at the switch while I feel my stomach plunge with nerves.

Karina looks equally distraught. She glances around before Applepaw pipes up. “I need a partner!”

“Train with your mentor,” Aleric doesn’t spare a glance for her, “I’ll check out that later.”

The pairing seems odd. I’m the one that needs the most help, since my fighting skills royally suck. But instead of teaching me, Aleric is teaching Terran first. I glance over at Karina and slowly, I get why.

I let out a gusty sigh. “Karina…”

“I’m really sorry,” she blurts out, as if she’s been holding it in since the incident, “I really didn’t mean it, you know. I really don’t know what overcame me but I regret it a lot. Every day of my life I think about what I could have done to avoid it.”

“It’s okay,” I cut her off gently, “I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re not?” Karina is genuinely surprised, “You should be.”

“Should I?” I cock my head, “You’re still one of my best friends. I don’t see why I have to care so much.”

“She was your sister. If anyone killed Terran, I’d flay them,” Karina shakes her head, “it could be any one of you and I’d still kill you for it.”

My heart wrenches a little for little Ruby. “I’m not saying I don’t miss her,” I bat away tears. “But I don’t want to shun you for something that wasn’t your fault. It was mine for believing Vicky wouldn’t try to trick me. And it’s Vicky’s fault for being so freaking cunning.”

“Only you could praise the enemy while cursing her out,” Karina allows a rare smile to light up her face.

“If this helps: you’re forgiven.”

Karina’s shoulders loosen up a bit. “Yeah, it helps a lot actually. I spent a lot of time wondering how I’d get you to accept me again.”

“What are best friends for?”

~

Terran really didn’t get why he was sparring with Aleric when he could be helping Bryce with her fighting skills. She and Karina weren’t getting anything done. They were literally standing there and talking.

Aleric smacked Terran in the head. “Pay attention,” he says emotionlessly. “In a battle, you’d be dead by now.”

“I know,” Terran pushed the smaller tom away, “but Bryce needs help and my sister isn’t giving her that.”

“I’ll work on that later,” Aleric dismissed, “right now, those two need to settle some things.”

Terran arched an eyebrow at Aleric. This tom was a lot more perspective than Terran first thought him to be. “You’re letting them settle…Ruby’s death?”

“Forgiveness is key,” Aleric said softly, his green eyes filled with a faraway look.

Terran never got over how Aleric acted as if he was a thousand moons old, when the white tom was certain Aleric was only a few moons older than him, if any.

“Is that what you seek? Forgiveness?”

“No,” Aleric eyed Terran, “There’s nothing for you to forgive of me. I haven’t done anything morally wrong.” He winced slightly, as if remembering something that Terran didn’t know about.

“Do you seek forgiveness from others?” Terran pressed.

“From one,” Aleric shook his head, “but that’s not important. I’ll never get it anyway.”

“Who says?” Terran countered, “If Bryce can forgive Karina, then why can’t a cat forgive you?”

Aleric gave a sudden, sharp laugh. It was cold and dismissive. “Bryce has the biggest heart in the entire world. She’ll trust anyone. And Karina’s sin is much smaller than all of mine. Nobody in the world will forgive me now. I’ve come too far.” He glanced at Terran, his eyes cold and hard. “And plus, the cat is dead.”

Terran expected as much. What he didn’t expect was the way Aleric’s legs buckled slightly underneath him, as if the spoken truth affected him more than he wanted to show. Terran reached forward to catch him but Aleric pushed him away.

“They’re done. I’ll train your girlfriend now if you can train your sister.”

Terran didn’t have the time to argue about his wording.

~

Aleric pulls me away just as quickly as he grouped us. “Switching partners. Terran is good enough.”

Terran is rubbing his cheek and he checks on his sister while I head off with Aleric. Aleric glances at me. “Did you and Karina talk?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good. That she-cat is hard to talk to as it is when she’s not depressed. I prefer her fiery side over her gloomy one.”

I peer at him. “You have a preference?”

Aleric looks a bit flustered. “I just like her better that way. Depressed cats don’t rub well with me.”

“I’m sure,” I snort, “because they don’t die happy?”

“Nobody dies happy,” Aleric tilts his head at me.

For some reason, I see a glimmer of Aleric’s past in his eyes. “You’ve gone through a lot, haven’t you,” I gaze into his eyes.

“What makes you think that?”

“Any cat who murders without a second thought must have had a rough kithood. That or he’s super messed up.”

“Maybe I’m both.”

I eye the tom. He seems completely normal on the outside, minus his freaky eyes. But inside…that was something else. How broken does Aleric have to be to be so unfeeling? It’s as if he could care less who died.

“Did you ever love someone?”

Aleric’s eyes harden. His eyes close off even more (if that’s even possible).

“Once,” he replies, crouching down, indicating that we need to start practicing instead of chatting, “but that was a long time ago.”

I don’t have time to ask anymore questions because Aleric starts out training session.

The End.