~Inferno~

“Echo?” Thorn pressed his cobweb-soft fur against Echo’s flank. “Are you okay?”

Echo nodded absently, barely acknowledging the question.

Spire began to head towards the mouth of the cave. “We’ll wait with Echo outside the Schooling Cave,” they addressed the kittens. “Feather…Feather will probably be here soon to pick you up.”

Oh no, not her! A small squeak escaped Echo’s throat, but he got to his paws and followed Spire outside. Guards shifted aside to allow the cerriens to exit, and they began to wait beneath a large tree shedding its bright orange autumn leaves. She’ll be furious!

Thorn pressed against him again, the gentle waves of his purring trickling into Echo’s fur. Thistle was on his other side, batting at a fallen leaf. He jumped in the air, catching it in his front paws and tearing it to shreds on the ground.

“Look!” Thistle announced proudly. “I caught it!” He scooped up the leaf particles in his mouth and laid them out in front of Echo. “I caught it for you! I’m gonna be the best hunter!”

Echo gave a tiny purr. At least the kittens liked him.

“Thorn! Thistle! Get over here!” A shadow fell upon Echo as Feather stalked up to him, blocking out the slivers of sunlight shining in the gaps of the branches of the tree. She towered over him, the thick white mane around her neck gently ruffling up.

“But he likes it when I sit with him!” Thorn protested. “I’m making him feel better!”

“Do as I say!” Feather hissed.

Thorn and Thistle scampered to Feather’s side.

“Don’t be mean to him!” Thorn squeaked.

Feather shot her son a warning glance but didn’t speak. She turned her attention to Echo, her light green eyes tinted with agitation. The comfort that Thorn had given Echo had vanished like dew on a hot morning, and was replaced with anxiety.

Just leave already!

“What’s the matter with you?” Feather narrowed her eyes at him. She leaned closer, studying him with that unsettling green glare. Something flashed in her eyes. Suspicion? “You weren’t having another one of those time-travel spells, were you?”

Echo started, then hung his head. How did she guess?

“I know that look anywhere.” She gave a low growl. “Don’t think it’s easy for you to hide those things from me.” Her gaze seared his fur. “Why can’t you just live in the real world for once? Like every normal cerrien?”

“I—”

“Tell me, Echo.” Feather settled down in front of him and released a low growl that might as well have been the rumble of an earthquake. “Do you seriously think your spirit can magically be transported into the past? Don’t you ever stop to think about how ridiculous that sounds?” Hatred for him was visible in every one of her features—from her spiked out pelt to her sharp claws poking out of the masses of fluff on her paws.

Echo fought the urge to stop staring at her, but he couldn’t help but notice a twinge of desperation deep in her words.

“I—it’s not—” Echo squeaked in a small voice. Anger swelled up within him. Call that a bold defense?

“So, what was it? What was the fantasy you saw this time?”

Echo swallowed hard. “I saw my egg being brought into the Hatchery, and then—you insisted that you raise me.”

Feather kept her gaze fixed on him, though her tail had begun to twitch.

"But…you looked almost scared of something.” Just as the words were out of his mouth, Echo wanted to curl himself into the tightest ball and disappear into a void of darkness where he could be alone.

“Scared?” Feather let out an almost exaggerated snort of amusement. “Why would I be scared of a cerrien like you? Of course it’s fake—it doesn’t even make sense!” She shook her head. “You probably just fell asleep listening to that boring lesson.”

Then why do you look so frantic?

“Your powers are nothing but a lie. It’s your own fault you’re so caught up in them!” She turned around and stomped away before calling over her shoulder, “Thistle and Thorn, come with me.”

The two kittens hurried to brush their small muzzles against Echo’s shoulder before scrambling after Feather.

Spire padded towards Echo, their tall, skinny figure looking down at him with mingled anxiety and compassion in their gaze. “Do you…want to go to your den?”

Echo nodded blankly. His whole body felt as heavy as a mountain.

She hates me—for no good reason, Echo thought. And I can’t get through to her. She thinks I’m pathetic.

Then why was she so desperate—almost frightened?

Echo got to his paws and wearily followed Spire away from the Schooling Cave. The Leaders’ Mound is to the left of us. He tuned his senses into his surroundings. The moor is to the right, and beyond that is Alliance Forest, with the river separating it from us. A cool breeze gently rustled Echo’s fur, and he realized for the first time that the air was getting chillier. The trees’ leaves were steadily moving from bright green to shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown.

As they continued traveling through the forest—passing bushes, burrows, and caves—something flicked his nose. Echo leaped back with a surprised, high-pitched yelp.

“It’s just a leaf!” Spire purred. “You’ve been as jumpy as a mouse since we left the Schooling Cave!”

A dark brown head with amused orange eyes poked from behind a nearby rock.

“That was hilarious!” Inferno exclaimed with a purr of delight. “The little squeak you made was hysterical! I didn’t think you made such high pitched noises since you were a kitten!”

Echo’s pelt might as well have been engulfed in flames. He had already jumped back at the snap of a loose twig on the forest floor twice and hid behind a tree trunk when a bird let out a harsh cry nearby. Imagine that! A cerrien scared of birds! At least Inferno wasn’t there to see those!

“It’s not funny,” Echo muttered angrily.

“It’s hilarious!” Inferno’s smaller form jumped over the rock to stand behind Echo and Spire, his fluffy pelt bushed out in delight and his ears tufts sparking like flames. “You sounded like Spire whenever they stepped on that thorn the other day!”

“Hey!” Spire protested. “That thorn hurt!”

“The leaf is hardly even half as funny as the thorn!” Echo growled.

“It’s funnier than the thorn!” Inferno’s tail—its arrow-shaped tip a number of oranges and yellows dancing like fire with energy—curled over his back. Echo felt a twinge of surprise. This Inferno was quite different from the one he had seen at the meeting. “It’s the best thing I’ve heard in days!”

Maybe he needs this.

Echo whirled around, raking Spire with an icy-blue glare. “You were screeching about murderers killing all of Moorest just this morning! You have no right to make fun of me!”

“You’ve been spooked more times in a few moments than I have in a day!” Spire said. “It’s the funniest thing!”

“It’s not funny!” Echo snarled.

Spire winced, mumbling a tiny apology.

“We’re just teasing,” Inferno said, still a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Sorry we offended you, Ech, but you have to admit it was pretty funny.”

“The dumb leaf just tickled my noise, and then I made a little noise. How hilarious.”

“Why are you so jumpy anyway?” Inferno asked.

Spire chipped in once more. “He tried to do that cool time-travel power thing to see who killed Coal, Velvet, and Auburn, but instead he ended up seeing his egg being taken into the Hatchery after it had been found. It…well it didn’t go well. He didn’t figure anything out, and Feather yelled at him again.”

The light humor in Inferno’s eyes faded as suddenly as it had come, replaced with a flash of irritation. “That no-good hairball!” he snapped. “Did you tell her off?”

“Not exactly—” Spire began.

Spire, can’t you ever keep your mouth shut?

“Well, if I were there, Feather would never hear the end of it!” Inferno declared. “She may not believe those powers exists, but Spire and I do!” He raised up his tail. “I’m gonna march right to her and—”

“You’ll get your pelt shredded!” Echo snapped.

Inferno narrowed his eyes darkly. “As long as Feather gets what she’s asking for, I don’t care. She needs to understand how real those powers are. She could talk to you about it, and then finally she’d understand.”

Echo scoffed. “Have fun dreaming, I suppose. It’d be easier to just get rid of my powers altogether.”

“It’s not fair you have to live like this.” Inferno swept his tail over Echo’s back.

“That’s not going to become any less true the hundredth time you’ve said it.” The familiar voice in his mind scolded Echo. Why are you accepting his sympathy? You don’t need it! Echo pulled away. “I’m fine now. You don’t have to pity me.”

“You don’t seem fine. Rose told me the medics finally got the ingredients to make a potion that relieves anxiety or negative emotions in general.” Inferno told him, then added, “Don’t worry, it isn’t poisonous!” when Echo opened his mouth to protest. “Isn’t that cool?”

“Medicine can’t just fix problems like that so easily,” Spire argued.

“Okay, so maybe it isn’t perfect. It doesn’t last incredibly long and doesn’t get rid of it completely, but I’m sure it would help a little, right?”

“We were going back to Echo’s den,” Spire replied. “You can join us if you want. We can go to the Medics' Camp first to pick some of that potion, and then turn around back to his den.” They turned to Echo. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

Echo glanced at Inferno. You probably wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed. He gave a reluctant shake of his head.

“Okay!” Inferno started in a different direction, towards the Medics' Camp. "Come on!"

Before Echo could help it, he felt a small tingle of happiness. It quickly settled in his mind and, to Echo’s own surprise, didn’t seem keen on leaving at the moment. It will be nice to have Inferno’s company as well as Spire’s, even if it’s only for a little while.

“You won’t believe what I saw the other day!” Inferno mewed as the cerriens passed by the Meet, Greet, and Eat Clearing.

“What?” Echo lifted his tail.

“A cerrien was climbing this massive tree. There was a beehive hanging from one of the branches! He reached over to grab a bite of honeycomb, but he caught a bee instead! You should’ve seen him—he almost fell out of the tree! Now his cheek is all swollen! It’s so funny!”

Spire gasped. “I’m glad that wasn’t me!”

“What idiot tries to take a bite out of a beehive?” Echo asked.

“That cerrien, apparently!” Inferno’s eyes glowed.

A fourth cerrien scent brushed against Echo’s nose. He paused, lifting his tail for his friends to stop. He released a breath of relief when he realized the scent was familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it…

A dark purple cerrien, her pelt lightly dusted with white speckles, was trotting in their path. She halted before them, standing almost taller than even Spire so that it was almost daunting to meet her pale pink gaze.

Commander Starlight. The cerrien who found my egg.

“Greetings, Commander,” Inferno said politely, quickly bowing and lifting his tail upright in a respectful gesture. Echo did the same, though Inferno was standing upright almost immediately and gazing up at the taller cerrien with hopeful eyes. “Any news? Did you catch the murderer?”

“Spire, you’re wanted on a patrol of the moorland,” Starlight reported, not even sparing Inferno a glance.

“Patrol?” Spire echoed.

“Because of the murder case, we are stepping up patrols, and we need more cerriens to chip in.” Starlight beckoned them forward with her tail. “We’d better go. They’re waiting by the stream at the edge of the trees.”

“Yes, Mother—uh, Commander—” Spire stammered and began to leave before looking over their shoulder, saying goodbye, and dashing after their mother.

“I thought we’ve been over this before!” Starlight called wryly after them as she followed.

At the Medics' Camp—a wide, earthy clearing sheltered by trees and dotted with fallen leaves—Echo was greeted by a plethora of scents: nectar, honey, berries, and a variety of other plants and mixtures. Underneath the pungent array of flora were the scents of many cerriens and the faintest whiff of blood and anxiety that made Echo’s ears twitch uncomfortably.

Inferno found his sister Rose in one of the caves at the edge where the medics must’ve been keeping their stocks of supplies. She was tending to a stack of large, labeled clay bottles, sorting them so that they could be placed on the shelves in the correct order.

“Hi, Inferno!” The orange striped cerrien purred cheerfully, her yellow eyes lighting up when she spotted her brother. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you have any bottles left of the anxiety medicine?”

“I think so.” Rose turned to the array of bottles already stacked in the crevices of the cave behind her. “Why?”

“It’s for Echo,” Inferno replied. “He’s been anxious lately. I think it would be good for him to calm down, but he needs some help.”

Rose turned her head back around. “Okay! That sounds like a great idea.” She blinked at Echo as though she’d just realized he was even there. “Hi, Echo.”

“Hi,” Echo mumbled.

“You aren’t taking any medicine right now, are you?”

Echo shook his head.

“Let me talk to one of the full medics. Since I’m just a trainee, it’s always best if I consult somebody fully-trained before I prescribe a cerrien medicine.” Rose abandoned the wall of crevices and slipped into a tunnel across the cave.

Inferno turned to Echo, his eyes glittering happily. “Rose seems in a good mood! It’s nice to see that her medic duties seem to take her mind off what’s happened.”

Echo nodded in silent agreement.

After a few moments of waiting, she reappeared again, carrying in her mouth a small, clear bottle filled with light green liquid. She gingerly laid it at Echo’s paws.

“My teacher told me of this anxiety-relieving potion that can be taken pretty much by anyone. It sometimes has a side effect of drowsiness, but it shouldn’t be too noticeable at all if you don’t take too much,” she mewed. “Take it anytime you start feeling anxious or anything. Just a few drops each time will do.”

Echo nodded.

“Of course! I hope you feel better soon!” Rose dismissed them cheerfully. “I should be getting back to work now. See you later!”

“Bye!” Inferno waved his tail in farewell and the two cerriens padded out of the cave, Echo carrying the potion bottle in his jaws.

“Wanna try it now?” Inferno asked.

Echo nodded, setting the bottle down and grabbing hold of the cork with his teeth. Inside, pale green liquid flashed from the sun’s rays.

“I’ll get a leaf to put the droplets on!” Inferno swiveled around and padded just a cerrien’s length away to collect one of the stray autumn leaves scattered across the clearing floor. He dropped it, letting it flutter down at Echo’s paws.

Echo very carefully tipped the bottle over. A few green drops quickly cascaded from the bottle and collected in a puddle on the leaf.

“Well? Drink it!” Inferno flicked Echo’s ear with his beaming tail-tip.

“You’d be doing this too if you were asked to lick strange liquid that claims to dispel sadness.” He lapped them up, recoiling at the bitter taste that exploded into his mouth.

“Taste good?” Inferno teased.

“Not at all.” He sat for a few heartbeats. “What now?”

“Should we wait for it to work?”

“I’m sure has to take time.” But to his surprise, his tail no longer twitched and the ache in his belly quickly was fading. The soreness in his limbs was dying away too. Time-travel and Feather were far out of his mind now, but maybe that was just because he had something else to occupy his mind with, and that he was with Inferno. Can a few drops really do so much?

“Do you feel better now?”

Echo nodded. “Actually, yeah.”

“See, Ech? I told you it wasn’t poisonous!” Inferno purred. “Do you want to go back to your den now?”

“I don’t know,” Echo reapplied the cork onto the bottle and carefully picked up the serum in his mouth. Will I become dependent on this? It seemed almost like cheating, like he couldn’t dispel his worries on his own!

“Want to go to my den instead?” Inferno asked.

“Sure.” Suddenly the need to go home didn’t seem nearly as urgent.

“Let’s have a race there!” Inferno suggested.

“Okay.” Echo dropped into a crouch, preparing to launch himself forward as soon as Inferno made the call almost unfairly quickly. He clenched his jaw to hold the potion even tighter in his mouth.

“Three—two—one—go!”

Echo sprang forward, racing after Inferno for the gap in the dying bushes. The stray twigs hardly poked at his skin as he sped right past them. Inferno raced just up ahead, his streaming tail nearly brushing against Echo’s nose. Echo shifted to the side and, with a burst of speed, was now racing side-by-side with his friend. Leaves of red, orange, yellow, and brown flitted in a blur. Inferno slipped underneath a tall, overarching tree root, while Echo just swerved around it, at last able to speed ahead of his friend.

“Don’t think you’ll win that easily!” Inferno puffed.

Then go around tree roots instead of trying to show off by going underneath them! Now the morning’s endeavors really were out of Echo’s mind. The heaviness in his paws had gone, and now they were fizzing with surging waves of energy. It’s like a sunny day after a thunderous storm—finally some warmth following the freeze.

“Look!”

Inferno nearly crashed in a flurry of furry legs and tail as he skidded to a halt, sliding on the fallen leaves. Echo stumbled, merely avoiding running face-first into a tree trunk. The medicine bottle clinked as it fell to the ground, but it appeared unscathed. He righted himself with a lashing tail, his fur now hot with embarrassment.

Whatever you found must’ve been really good to interrupt that race!

A squirrel was nibbling on a seed in a patch of grass, unaware of the two cerriens nearby.

“You’re just disappointed that you were about to lose!” Echo teased, though keeping his voice low to not alert the small creature.

“Nope! I just haven’t hunted a good squirrel in moons!” Inferno crouched down, preparing to leap. Trilling softly with amusement, Echo crouched low and tucked his paws beneath him.

A few moments passed, then Inferno swiftly thrust himself into the air and landed squarely on top of the squirrel, sinking his teeth into its neck.

“Great catch,” Echo commented.

“It wasn’t that great,” Inferno’s ear tufts flickered a little brighter for just a heartbeat. He turned around with the dead animal in his mouth, trotted towards Echo, and dropped it at his paws. “Want to share it? I took something to the Winter Food Cave earlier, so my conscience is clear.”

“Should we be staying here out in the open with—”

“You worry too much!” Inferno asserted. “If whoever the murderer is dares to show their face, I’ll rip their pelt off and use it to line my nest!” He nudged the squirrel with a paw. “Now come on, let’s eat.”

Echo at once felt a twinge of irritation at himself. Of course! Stop worrying! In the slim chance that the murderer actually did show up, they’d be able to chase it off, right?

He inched forward, sinking his teeth into the succulent flesh and ripping a morsel from the gray animal’s flank. Inferno took a portion on the creature’s hind leg, closer to its long, bushy tail.

“Honestly,” Echo swallowed his bite, “you’ve already done something to help my problems, yet I haven’t even asked you how you’re doing!” He felt blood dribbling from the fur at either side of his mouth, and wiped the back of his paw across his jaw like a feasting kitten.

Inferno’s ear tufts and tail-tip dimmed, and Echo fixed his eyes down at the squirrel carcass.

“I try not to think too much about what happened.” Inferno’s tone seemed almost forcefully optimistic. “I mean, sitting around worrying forever won’t do anything except make you sad, right? Rose and I have been trying to keep busy with our hobbies and such as a distraction.”

Echo nodded. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Not really. Just you being here is enough for me.”

Echo could feel a purr gathering in his throat.

The cerriens at last arrived Inferno’s den, a cave on top of a small hill just near the edge of forest and moor. The back of the den angled downward into the hill to cover up the passage that had classified the cave as a tunnel before.

“This walk has been too long!” Inferno complained. “Our dens are across the forest from each other. I’m this close to moving closer to you.”

Was that a joke? A stab of surprise jolted Echo’s body so that he nearly dropped the potion. He dipped his head and rested the bottle gently in the green-brown grass. “Don’t be ridiculous! You like it here.”

Inferno lowered his gaze. “But I don’t like being so far away while Feather’s right there.”

Feather? “She’s still a distance away.”

“She’s a distance too close. I still can’t believe she had to approve the location of your den, as if you weren’t old enough to make your own decisions!”

She did that? It sure sounded like her. But when he thought back to that time, it all felt like one big blur. “I—uh—I guess it would be nice for our dens to be closer.”

“You guess?” Inferno’s whiskers twitched in amusement.

“But are you sure? You don’t have to pretend you wouldn’t care at all if you left the moor and your cave that has all your drawings on it. And do you know how many times you say you want to do something and then forget about it days later?” Echo felt warmth buzz in his chest. He’d really leave the den he’s been staying in for years just because of me?

“This isn’t one of those times.” Inferno swished his tail confidently. “Someday I’ll move. Someday soon, I bet.” He turned to the entrance. “Let’s go inside!”

The far wall on the other side of the opening was covered in little drawings of cerriens. There were also organized piles of stone tablets stacked against the wall of more art, and many sticks used for drawing propped up beside them. Echo took an interest in the wall-drawings. There were significantly more there since he had last visited.

“I see you’ve been busy drawing,” he purred, setting down his potion.

“It helps me feel better,” Inferno meowed. “Calms my nerves, especially now.”

Echo peered closer at the little drawings. One showed two armies of cerriens, possibly the recent war with Scorpoterria. Another displayed a group of cerriens with some dragons. Another showed two cerriens, one hanging off a cliff, with the other holding on to them at the edge. Below them, the stone was scratched to look like water, with a mysterious creature lurking underneath.

“That’s an interesting drawing,” Echo observed, almost nervously, pointing with his tail at the white scratches on the stone wall.

“Yeah!” Inferno was clearly passionate about his art. “Lately I’ve been getting inspiration from dreams as well as scenarios I’ve made up, but I don’t know if I’ll have the time to draw tomorrow morning unless it’s small. We are having Coal’s funeral tomorrow at dawn. My dad said it was okay if you wanted to come.”

“Really? That’s okay?” Echo hesitated, realizing how rude he must sound. “I mean—of course I’ll come. I just meant…he’s fine with inviting me? I don’t—”

“He said he wanted you to come,” Inferno said. “You don’t have to. I—”

“No, I’ll come.” Echo nodded.

A droplet of comfort entered Inferno’s gaze. “I’ll come to your den before dawn.”

Later that night, Echo was fidgeting in his nest under the bramble thicket where he had made his den. While his worries had been chased off earlier in the day, they had come creeping back with the departing effect of the potion.

What was that cerrien-like figure I saw while time-traveling? he wondered. Cerrien bodies are made of fur and flesh, but it looked more like pitch-black mist with no definite shape. Echo trembled as he remembered its glowing white eyes. And why had it been acting so odd? Echo sighed. Spire should have never suggested that I try to use my power! All it ever gives me is fear. I have to get some sleep, or I’ll be too tired for tomorrow.

Reluctantly, he stopped fidgeting and closed his eyes. But anxiety remained to tug at his fur, like a bothersome itch demanding it be scratched. But the more it would be itched, the worse it’d get. Echo sat up.

This is ridiculous! Why can’t I sleep if I’m so tired? I feel like a frightened kitten again, terrified of a bad nightmare!

His gaze caught sight of the bottle of green liquid sitting at the edge of his den. I might as well. I’ll never fall asleep otherwise.

At last, Echo pulled himself onto his paws, stumbling to where he had sat his potion before bed, and took a few more drops as he had done earlier.

Back in his nest, he curled himself up in a ball again, relaxing his body and closing his eyes.