Chapter 1

A Chapter by prettyink

I wasn’t supposed to be here, but I couldn’t help it. This is where my father had died, he had been a lowly bobcat until my mother married him and now he was dead. This place I had to come to. In this place my father died, in this place his blood still stains the ground, in this place where the trees die because so much blood has been spilt. I have come to this place every day since his death and I suspected that I would until this war ended or until I died.

I never would have heard the cry if I hadn’t have been in my demi (half) form. In my demi form I had a cat tail as black as my other form, I had the ears of a black panther towards the top of my head, and I had retractable claws in my fingers that I could use if I ever had the need. Most of us wouldn’t go out of the city in our human forms; it would be too dangerous for us to with wolves lurking in almost every shadow hoping to gain the advantage by killing some of our soldiers.

The noise I had heard had to be by someone that was hurt, I decided and got up to go to them to see if there was anything I could do to ease their passing or perhaps if they where able to be saved I could bring them to the palace to be healed.

As I was headed toward where the sound had come from I was grabbed from behind. “Well, well if it isn’t the Princess of cat’s,” he spit cats out like he hated us so I guessed that he was a wolf and not a well intentioned soldier going to take me back to the castle, “it must be my lucky day.”

I growled at him and grabbed my knife from my belt, but before I could use my weapon on him he was dead, once again my guard had saved me even though I didn’t need saving. I decided I would head over to where I had heard the noise and check it out before my guard could stop me, but as I was walking I turned back one last time to see my attacker. Poor guy, I thought, he didn’t realize my guards would be watching. I can never get away from them for long.

“Princess you shouldn’t be here.” The head of my guard Misu said, “It’s too dangerous. I need to get you home; you have a funeral to attend this day. Your brother was just brought back to the castle. I’m sorry to say that he was already dead.”

“No, I’m not going home until I see who is hurt and what can be done for them.”

“Faye don’t go over there he’s not one of us. His people will come and get his body before the day is out.”

I paid him no mind after that and kept walking. I knew he wouldn’t try to stop me again and I knew he wouldn’t just grab me and carry me back to the castle even though he had threatened to do so before.

What I saw after I got around the next tree, which had been dead for quite some time, horrified me. I saw what must have been a recent battlefield; in the very middle of the field was a young man, a wolf by the looks of it. He had dark skin but was a little pale from loss of blood. He would have been very tall if he had been standing. I’d have to say he was around 18 just a couple years younger than me. The wound was very deep; it was in the lower region of his stomach and I could tell there was nothing I could do to help him.

All around him where other soldiers, my soldiers, and there was a spot where another body had lane. I could guess who had lane there, my brother. It must have been this young man who had killed my brother. At the same time my brother must have given this young man the wound that was now slowly killing him.

When he saw us he tried to move enough to where we could not get to him, but when he did move he howled because of how much pain that the wound most have given him when jostled. I told my guard to give us some room, and knelt next to him.

“What’s your name?” I asked using a voice I would use with a young frightened child.

“I’m Ezra Second Prince to the throne of Avital. Will you please kill me; the pain is so much that I don’t think I can handle it anymore.”

I was quick to grab my knife, but just as I was about to end his life I couldn’t do it. I dropped my knife and said, “I’m sorry I just can’t kill a helpless person.”

“I’m not helpless. I killed all of these people around me, your people, and I killed your brother. Doesn’t that make you want to kill me? Doesn’t that make you want to strike back at me?”

“Yes actually it does make me want to strike back at and kill you. But to kill over blood that has been spilt is not the way. It won’t bring Darshan back from the dead. All it does - is doing, is tearing apart someone else’s life, someone else’s family. But so you won’t die alone I will sit with you until you pass.”

“Thank you,” he said with a small bow of his head. “You are being overly gracious to me even though I would have killed you if I had made it to the castle.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I was mad, you see my oldest brother just died about two days ago. I was so mad I had to do something and I thought that by killing even one of the ruling house’s two children it would help ease the pain.” When he said that he looked at his stomach and said, “But it only brought more pain. Luckily there is still another to take the throne. ”

After that we never brought up anything about killing again. We talked about our family, he told me of his older brother who was my age (20) and how he was almost ready to take the throne. As he grew nearer to death he asked me if we had any songs here or if it was always boring and silent. Of course we had songs so I offered to sing some for him. He very willingly agreed to listen to them. I had sung only one song, a lullaby I had learned when I was but a babe, when I felt the life go out of him.

It was then that I cried. I cried for his family who would probably never see him again, I cried for my family who had lost just as much, a brother, a father, and two sisters, I cried for all of the families who had lost someone no matter if they where wolf or panther. And it was then that I vowed that from now on I would sit with anyone who was dieing wolf or panther.

After I had been crying for several minutes Misu put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You have a funeral to attend Princess.”

I smiled weakly and said, “Alright.”

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