~Chapter 1~

Great Vain, What did I do to deserve this? Greystripe thought to himself in frustration. He was propped up tightly against an ancient tree, adjacent the young tiger growling angrily and clutching his axe in his snow white paw. Greystripe was quietly steaming as well but kept his anger in check. With his only warm ember eye, he watched the scene fold in front of him. All the while, readying his crossbow on his left wrist.

The four rubber-stamped cats out in front of him were of the Leopard Clan. Warriors by the looks of them and were daring Greystripe’s anger by trespassing and loitering in their territory. They were drinking, smoking and eating a four-leg pig that was no doubt from their hunting grounds. They were so busy celebrating that they took no heed to the peering eyes in the forest surrounding them. They were also too busy to notice them because of the young Kangaroo hostage that was tied to tree with his very own Cobra partner. They were both battered and bruised and scars crisscrossed on their furry and scaly skins.
Greystripe and his cohort prudently held their breaths as one of the Leopards spoke to the two hostages. “Well, you two are quite the unusual and daft pair! You actually thought that you’d be able to take on the elite warriors of the mighty Leopard Clan! Ha! Only supporters of those striped pussycats would be dumb enough to take us!” Even far from behind the bush, Greystripe could smell the Sake’ coming off of his breath. The snow white-tiger growled viciously at “Striped pussycats” and looked ready to throw his ax. Greystripe nudged the tiger with his gray and black-striped tail in an effort to quiet him. Fortunately the soldiers didn’t hear Greystripe’s companion.

The same Incumbent Leopard chuckled mockingly to the long jade green viper below him. “A De Facto Chinese King-Cobra,” The snake weakly raised his head and trembled lightly. The leopard raised the Cobra’s head up higher with his tail and sneered, “Your breed’s hardly been seen for quite a while. Haven’t seen any of you once since the Great Wars years ago.” He snapped his tail back in an almost disgusted manner. “Hard to believe you’re still here.” The snake only scowled in response. “What’s the matter? Aren’t you going to hiss at me, Almighty king of snakes?” He purred in sarcastic and sugar sweet tone before breaking out into a laugh. The other leopards joined him in his mockery. The Kangaroo who had been quiet finally spoke out in a raspy voice, “Look, mate, if you buggers are done with your tedious taunts, might as well finish us an’ get it over with!” His accent caught the main Leopard’s attention. “Well, whattaya know, boys? Looks like we got us an East Islander Import in our paws; or an Aussie Kangaroo, as I recall. What’s your kind doing out here?” The kangaroo waited a moment before he spat, “My country lives here now. It was declared years ago in cause you blokes forgot.” The Leopard eyes widened before he smacked the kangaroo in both response and realization. Greystripe’s companion once again growled but this time much louder. Greystripe nudged him harder telling him to be quiet. “Now I remember! You and the rest of your filthy packrat of a breed betrayed us and chose to follow those striped pussycats!”

“If that tabby calls us “Pussycats” one more time . . .” The snow white tiger whispered to Greystripe, his grip on the axe becoming tighter. “Quiet, Icefur. Don’t blow our position.” Greystripe hissed in procrastination. “If we’re found out, it’ll be harder getting Joey and Slick out of there in one piece.” With a glance at the Leopards, their conversation was over. Icefur growled at turned back as well. The leopard had continued his onslaught on Joey Deroo and this time was taunting him by stretching Slick Python’s neck to it’s full length as he was tying both of them tighter to the tree. “You sorry sacks of dung should’ve been executed and made into carpets and coats, but, No! Instead our dear Governor turned your kind over to the Tiger Clan! Like we don’t have enough problems with those pusses as it is! You should’ve served our clan! You should’ve joined our armies! You should’ve been our servants!” At this Joey rasped in humor and demur, “Armies, Servants? Ha! What about you, mate? You were the blokes that ollied up your chances of dying when you came here. When our mates get a hold of you, consider yourselves gator food!” “Oh really, now?” The Leopard sneered. He suddenly pulled a knife from his side pocket and flipped it into a stabbing position. “Well, just see how your “mates” feel when they find their serpent and rat in the pits of h-ll!” The Leopard snarled viciously before swinging it down.

The last thing he expected was having an arrow pierce right through the back of his paw. He howled in pain making him drop the knife and gripe his paw in agony. “Now?” Icefur questioned bluntly. “Now!” Greystripe roared before pouncing right at the Leopards. Icefur followed and pushed the two leopards that were sitting down and drinking onto the ground. Surprised at this, the Leopards didn’t even have enough time to grab their swords before Icefur coup de ta’d both their temples, knocking them unconscious. Greystripe readied four arrows onto the crossbow and fired it at the two cats’ wrists and ankle straps, trapping them into the ground. The fourth Leopard tried to get the jump on him from behind with a humungous wooden mallet in his small paws. But Icefur stopped him by throwing his axe at the handle, the blade making the handle slice in two. With nothing to support the mallet, it fell to ground with a sickening crunch. The Leopard then realized that crunch was actually his foot. He then started hopping around on his good foot, making a fool of himself. Icefur smirked at his misfortune with a laugh. Then when the Leopard had turned around, he unwittingly left the back of his neck wide open, so Icefur took the opportunity to strike him down with a pressure point blow with his claws. The leopard instantly went down. The main Leopard saw this and decided to finish the job and run for it. Ignoring the pain in his paw, he swiped his knife from the grassy ground and once raced towards Joey and Slick. “Die, pack rat!” The leopard snarled viciously. He roared in fury as he was ready to sever the Australasian. But suddenly it ceased. The leopard dropped the knife onto the ground again and fell muzzle flat. It was there that Joey and Slick saw an arrow sticking out of his back. Right in between the shoulder blades.

Greystripe had seen the Leopard jump at his two charges and had fired off an arrow before it was too late. He smirked smugly before he hopped over the cat corpse and over to them as he reset the safety on his cross-bow. He kneeled in front of them and asked, “Are you both alright?” With concern lacing his voice. “Do we bloody look alright?” Joey hissed in pain with a smile. Greystripe rolled his eyes in humor before he reached for Slick’s bottom half and began unwinding the both of them from the tree.

Icefur, in the meantime surveyed the damage around them. Three of the spotted weasels were down, the leader was undoubtedly dead, the bottles of Sake’ were somewhere between cracked and completely destroyed and the four-leg pig still cooking on the fire was burnt all around making it smell awfully delicious. Finally after a creeping silence, Icefur spoke up, “So, what do we do about all this?” As he gestured around the site. Greystripe didn’t answer right away. He had finished getting Slick untied and had gently lay him beside Joey who was more than happy to be able to breathe normally again. Finally, he stood up to his full height and said, “Well, first we need to put out that fire before it spreads to the bushes and or makes the pig no longer edible.” Icefur quickly nodded in agreement then pulled his water jug from his side. There he uncapped it and poured what was left in it on the fire. Making it sizzle and sputter until it died down completely. “Done. Now what?” “Check the tents to see if these idiots brought any bandages and medicine. Looking at Joey and Slick here, they need a little something to hold them over.” “With pleasure.” Icefur smirked as he cracked his knuckles. As he ran over to the tents Grey stripe growled, “Only grab enough to last Joey and Slick to the village!” Only to be replied with a, “Yeah, yeah, yeah! I will!” As the white tiger entered one of the tents. “The last thing we need is to be reprimanded as thieves.” Greystripe murmured to himself. He then took his water jug and handed it to Joey. He took it gratefully, uncapped it and gulped down a long sip from the spout. He then did likewise with Slick. Slick, at first, wanted no help in holding it up but after seeing that his body was too sore to left the jug, he grudgingly put it back in his friend’s tan and furry paws and opened his toothless mouth.

As Joey re-hydrated Slick, Greystripe began looking for the Leopard’s way of transportation. He knew they had to get to their territory somehow; otherwise they wouldn’t have come here at all. Wouldn’t that be a blessed day? Greystripe thought inwardly. Finally he saw the nose of a Chinese Junk poking out of the bushes next to him. “Lousy Leopards . . . can’t even conceal their own boats!” Greystripe said with “Humph!”. He reached for his side and gripped the handle of his sword. He pulled it out swiftly, making a harmonic whistle in the damp, quiet air. The sword was nearly as long as he was in full height, only it went up to his chin. The handle was colored in deep violet and ebony, perfectly curved and made to fit his grey-furred paw. The blade shone of the brightest silver in the sunlight and its edge looked as sharp as the fang of a dragon. Greystripe was internally glad he didn’t have to resort to using his blade earlier. Otherwise Joey and Slick wouldn’t be able to withstand the sight of blood. He brought up the sword in front of the shrub and quickly brought it down in a slice. A huge chunk of the leaves fell to the ground and branches fell to ground. He brought it up again and dropped it once more. Slice. Thwak! Another piece of shrub down to the ground. Up. Down. Slice. Thwak! Up. Down. Slice. Thwak! The process continued for two minutes until Greystripe could see the entire front of the Leopards ship. “Humph . . . that was shorter than I thought it would it be.” He said aloud, sheathing his sword.

Now it was time to evaluate the situation; the leopards had broken the boundaries for a short time by crossing into their territory, hunting and eating on their grounds, harming and attempting to kill two of his charges, littering of course, and attempting to fight two of his tribes warriors including himself. He’d probably receive punishment later for killing the Leopards’ leader, but still, they had to be punished. He looked onto their boat again, then back to the pathway leading to the clearing where the three unconscious leopards and the one dead leopard were along with Joey, Slick and Icefur. That’s around he caught sight of two loose vines hanging above his head. His warm ember eye went up in realization, along with his completely black eye. He then smirked deviously. He had just come up with a proper punishment for the three spotted pussycats.