The Two Outcasts

Darkness was Hadrian's favourite time. When the world was smothered in darkness and no one could see what was lurking up behind them, this was time for Hadrian to calm down and keep himself company. He ran across the tops of the crumbly sheer cliffs, which provided a view of the rest of the desert and the landscape beyond. It was extremely cold but he didn't feel it because he still hadn't cooled down from the burning hot day. It was very hard to find shelter in the day but at night it was just as hard to keep warm. This was why the tribe was moving on once Linka and Chem returned. He didn't even know why they had left Utopian forest, the home of the Keyra, but Linka had a vision from a Cetra, one of the ancient Keyra, who told him to move the tribe. They are still not sure why they are travelling but one thing is for certain, they cannot stay here.

Hadrian moved to the grassy outcrop on the cliff, his very favourite spot at night. He looked out at the scene below him and saw the great sea. None of the others knew they were near the coast of this continent but Hadrian did. He knew everything before the others did, he just didn't tell them. He used to laugh to himself when they suddenly found an unused cave and exclaimed, "Well who would have thought this would be here?" Hadrian hadn't thought he had known. No one knew where he went at night, not as if they cared much anyway, but still, maybe he should tell them about the sea. It may be too salty to drink but it would be a great way to cool down.

He yawned and stretched out on the ledge facing the sea and watched the little waves crash onto the sandy shore. This was another advantage of Hadrian's, he could see for miles. If the others came up here they would just be able to make out the shoreline, where as he could see the fish swimming through the moonlit waters and the masses of white gulls which lined the shoreline, squabbling over a shell fish patch.

He decided to go somewhere else today, maybe increase his moonwalk. That's what he called it, 'The Moon Walk.' A silent couple of hours with only him, the moon and…His thoughts stopped dead as he heard a twig snap behind him. He turned his head fearlessly and looked into the darkness.

"Who dares interrupt my moment of peace?" he boomed. Something grunted and moved closer in the shadows.

"I could ask you the same thing," it said grunting again.

"Show yourself." Out of the shadows came a mature, male cat who looked remarkably like himself except his black hair was frayed on each end. Hadrian noticed the stranger had a pendant signifying he was a Keyra.

"You are a Keyra?" he asked walking around the cat examining the dirty, grey coat. The stranger felt a little bemused but not frightened at the way Hadrian was examining him but he didn't show it.

"I am," he said boldly watching in case the great beast looking him over was going to pounce or attack any time, "You bare no pendant though." Hadrian finished his examination and sighed at the thing that was said to him all the time.

"I know, but I am a Keyra. You see this tattoo?" he said showing the pattern of the pendant embedded in his fur, "I was branded with it instead of being given a pendant."

"Why?" the new male asked, this time showing the bemusement fully in his inquisitive face.

"What are you doing out at this time of night?" The stranger was surprised in the way Hadrian changed the subject so quickly. Understanding he shouldn't push further he retold his tale:

Khay'lar shook his frayed hair out of his eyes as he looked happily at Espero. Espero returned the smile and continued to gather sticks and stones placing them neatly in the crater, which had been dug by both of them. It was a cold and dark night and Khay'lar sighed thoughtfully as he helped gather some more sticks, placing them on the mound, which was forming inside the crater.

"That's enough," Espero said pushing Khay'lar back, "Now keep a good distance while I light these."

"Be careful this time!" he laughed, "last time you set yourself on fire."

"Only because you knocked my arm as I was casting the magic, you great rabbit!" she shot back. She held her pendant in her paw and turned to face the mound of sticks and mumbled a lot of words in Ancient Cetra language. A shot of light flew out of her paw and hit the mound of sticks. Nothing happened for a second but then the mound burst into a ball of flame as it crackled into life, spitting flames in every direction.

"Ah!" Khay'Lar said resting in front of the fire, "It's so warm."

"That's the idea!" Espero said rubbing Khay'lar's hair with her paw and rolling her eyes. They both enjoyed the blaze with empty stomachs but they had each other, which was all they needed. Espero slowly fell asleep but Khay'lar faithfully stayed awake, keeping guard and watching over his friend. She was only a friend, not his mate, as she had told him before that she wasn't interested. But to be honest, neither was he.

He stayed up for four hours without faltering once but after that his eyes began to droop as the blaze died down. He was just about to nod off, when he heard laughter. Some to the left of him and some to the right. He got up and walked to the left but kept his eyes to the right. 'Great,' he thought, 'an ambush.'

Suddenly something swiped at his back and he called out to Espero to help ward off his attacker. He called out again and yelped as the attacker pounced on him in the dark.

"Help! Espero! We're being attacked!" he yelled, but still she didn't come. Suddenly the pressure was released off him as his attacker ran off into the night laughing. Running back to the fire he looked around desperately trying to see where the other had gone but by the sound of things, it looked as if they had both disappeared.

"Espero? Why didn't you come?" he turned around and searched around the camp for his friend but he couldn't spot her anywhere. "Espero!" he yelled desperately his eyes darting everywhere for any sign of his friend.

Suddenly the laughter returned and a figure detached itself from the darkness. In the light of the dying fire Khay'lar could see the figure was a strong, male cat with a ruff like mane around his neck and then another figure, a female striped cat, came out of the darkness and sat beside the male. Both had bloody coats and they began to laugh at him. Their voices rang in his ears and he looked down and saw one of Espero's feathers, which she used to wear in her hair, floating in a pool of bright red blood.

"I didn't know what to do," Khay'lar said his eyes shining with tears as he ended his story.

"We have been attacked too. I'm Hadrian," he said and they both rubbed heads in friendship. Hadrian told him about his tribe and the numerous attacks they had been having with the strange, black striped cats over the weeks.

"Yes," Khay'lar nodded knowingly, "now I'm on the move too." He turned his head so that Hadrian wouldn't see the tears run down his face but all the same his new friend sensed his sadness. Sniffing he wandered off into the darkness and told Khay'lar to follow him.

Antok rolled about in the dirt and started moving his legs, he had to get away from Balmor, but it was too late! The evil cat's jaws were around his neck and he stared glumly into his eyes as he watched Balmor drink his own blood and then clamp down hard with his…

He woke up with a start, sweat pouring down his shiny, black hair. Realising it was only a dream he pummelled the floor in anger and flicked his tail hitting his sleeping mate, Ali'b, in the face.

"Ow," she said drowsily waking from her sleep, "Antok love, what is the matter?"

"I had a dream that…" he looked around suddenly and gasped, "Oh Lyall! Did I fall asleep?"

"That's what you generally do when you have a dream…unless you're daydreaming. But I wouldn't know a thing about that, you're the master of it," she said unimpressed and turned to go back to sleep.

"What about Chem? Is she okay? Where is Linka? Did they find water? What happened?"

"Chem is back and she brought a rather handsome friend too, Dracon or something. He's one of…you know 'them' but he is different," she said thoughtfully, "He's not like the others Antok, I'm a little amused at it really. Anyway he protected my daughter on the way back so I said he could stay here tonight, since his tribe is miles away."

"I don't want one of them here!" he roared at her.

"If he was going to harm us he would have already finished Chem off on the way back."

"It's an ambush!" he roared getting up. "Why would Chem lead one of those killers back here?"

"She got lost," Ali'b said sadly rubbing her head against Antok's. He didn't resist but he still had many questions he wanted to ask.

"What happened?"

"They were attacked," she stopped while her mate growled and carried on when he'd finished, "Dracon is the father of Balmor, the one who attacked them."

"And you let him stay!" Antok roared and pushed Ali'b away from him as he ran off to find Chem.

"Wait!" she yelled after him, "Hear me out, there's more!" He carried on searching through the bodies of sleeping cats for his daughter.

"This is going to be a hard one to get around," said Yekaf the oldest, but by no means weakest, member of the tribe.

Antok pounded through the sands calling Chem's name and all the time he received shaken heads from the rest of his tribe who said they hadn't seen her. Kar wandered over to help him look but the leader was hardly in the mood for the friendly male,

"What do you think of this?" he boomed.

"Hmm?" Kar said trying to stand on his head.

"Dracon?"

"He's nice!" Kar said grinning but then seeing that Antok was mad added, "but you never know what happens when one of those cats are near you."

"Daddy!" Antok turned around to see Chem who was running towards him with a big smile on her face. He sat on his haunches and embraced the cub as she fell into his outstretched arms.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Antok sobbed into his daughter's fur.

"It's okay, I had Dracon with me!"

"Chem, he has to go."

"What?"

"Show him to me." Chem led her father to the body of a striped cat who was laid out far away from the rest of the tribe. When they approached he turned his head and stood up tail between his legs and he cowered back. Antok's face turned to stone, as he looked the so-called Dracon over. 'He looks just like the rest of them!' he thought, 'Course fur and horrible black stripes, how am I meant to see the good in him?'

Dracon also looked Antok over and realised the likeness between daughter and father. Both had bright, blue fur, black hair and brown eyes. They were almost splitting images.

"Daddy," Chem said wanting to break the silence as she noticed the fearful glances the two were giving each other, "have I got a story for you."

She retold the tale of her and Balmor and Raga coming to help and then Dracon finding her. Dracon had helped her find her way back to the tribe and Kar and Cib had gone to help Raga bring Linka back.

"He's over there," Chem pointed out. He looked to see the body of Linka resting in the shade of a boulder. It looked as if he was now fully conscious and nearby Antok could see Raga who was enjoying a long conversation with his brother, Adrick.

She then told Dracon's story for him and said that he wasn't horrible and mean like the others. Antok believed his daughters every word and nodded throughout her account not interrupting once. He then turned his attention back to Dracon who was almost shaking in fright.

"You protected my daughter and possibly saved Linka's life by guiding my daughter back here to deliver her message, how can I thank you friend?" the word friend was almost spat at Dracon and the new male noticed it too.

"N-n-nothing!" the young male stammered, "Just getting your daughter back to s-s-safety is the best reward I could have." Chem shook her head and grasped her father's paw and felt it lovingly.

"Daddy, I want him to stay here."

"What!" Antok roared waking up the others and almost sent Linka unconscious again. He walked up to Dracon snarling, his breath coming out in white puff while his eyes darted to Chem.

"He saved me daddy," she said not liking her father when he was angry, "and he has no where else to go. He left the others and now he is just a wanderer. He could be hurt by himself and if he comes along with us…well in a way…we would be saving his life."

"Is that what you want?" Antok asked calming down a bit and turned to face Dracon.

"You don't trust me," his daughter's friend replied sadly. Antok swore he saw tears in the eyes of Dracon, something he thought he would never live to see. A striped cat! Crying? He began to walk away and said,

"My own family didn't trust me either, I do have a bad heart after all. I'll go, I don't want you to worry about me."

Antok was pleased the cat was leaving but then looking round the rest of the tribe and he saw pure sadness in their eyes and a few of the older, female cats were glaring at him. Kar motioned for him to say something but he shook his head. Chem walked away and sat next to Kar and began crying.

"Wait!" Antok yelled running reluctantly up to Dracon, "You can stay. Any friend of my daughter's is a friend of-"

"Oh daddy! You're the greatest!" she ran over and rubbed heads with her dad before rubbing heads with Dracon. He was about to walk of when the striped cat came up and held out his paw gratefully,

"Thank you, sir!" he said and rolling his eyes Antok shook the paw, "I'll carry on to look after your daughter, yes?"

"Make sure you do that, nothing else." He watched them run off together and then sighed.

"You did the right thing," Kar said. Antok yawned and nodded,

"Maybe."

Copyright of Meghan Fisher