A couple weeks later, there was new staff in the castle, and even though we knew the names of the person that lead the second assault. We couldn't find out anything about them, but there were no new attacks, so it seems they were waiting on something. By the third week I was starting to get a little suspicious, and so was everyone else on my team. currently we were eating at a table in the mess hall, and even though no other Fur was around us. The other Fur eventually stopped giving me crap while I was in the line to get food. Just recently they stopped actually giving me the crappy food and gave me what everyone else got that day.

"Ugh, this is getting so boring," Blaze groaned looking up at the ceiling and then at his brother. Only to see him looking at the wall behind him with a head bent backwards over the headrest of the couch. With his mouth open and his tongue hanging out lazily. Blaze slapped his chest and Blake shot up, smacking his lips like he had something present in mind.  Then Blake looked at his brother shocked and a little offended, but Blaze didn't care and just flicked off Blake.

The two leapt at each other and started a pointless wrestling match. Rolling around on the ground punching, smacking, growling, and swearing at each other. Lilith and Amethyst came in about three seconds after this and they looked at the two fighting brothers and then looked at me, I just shook my head putting my hands up. I had no part of that, and wasn't planning on getting involved.

"Okay then," Lilith said and then she hopped over the two. As did Amethyst and they both sat down on the opposite couch from me with a plate of chicken. I always wondered what the Fur race ate. Wasn't it cannibalism if they ate other animals, or did they just not care and think of animals as just sources of food like I did?

"I wonder if were going to get another mission anytime soon" Lilith said and Amethyst agreed, I nodded as well. Ever since we had gotten the job of protecting the King it was just guarding him from reporters, journalists, civilians, or well Furs that wanted to touch him for some reason. All of the Furs on my side always recoiled if they touched me by accident, always pulling back their claws, paws, and arms to themselves, and rubbing them on their clothing. As if that would get rid of the fact that they touched me, and that I was there. I wasn't planning on going anywhere anytime soon.

I looked at the twins once more to see that they had calmed down and were sitting against the wall breathing like they'd just run sprints. I internally chuckled and pointed at the two with my thumb, making Lilith and Amethyst look over at them as well.

"Are you two done being stupid now?" Lilith said and the two just glared at her and gave her the finger. I smiled, the door opening as the King came in, wiping the smile as quickly off my face as quickly as I could blink. What did he want?

"I can tell all of you have been bored for the past couple weeks, so I am giving you something to do. Even if you are technically my personal guard now. I am sending you all on lengthy stealth missions." He looked at us all in turn, and surprisingly didn't glare at me when his eyes met mine, but he did smile, and that was unsettling. "Sadly due to the requirements that I have set out for this mission all of you will be going to different parts of my Kingdom. Working your way in while getting to know my subjects, make friends, and get information."

"What would we be looking for?" Amethyst asked and the King looked at her for a moment. Then he lifted a finger like he just remembered something before pulling out a file from his robe. Then he handed the file to her and we all crowded around looked at the information.

Blake was going to the northern part of the kingdom, Blaze was going to the western part, Lilith was going east, and Amethyst was going south. There was no set time to be back, and the purpose of the mission was to find out any information they could about a new organization that the King had 'reason' to believe was trying to assassinate him. Really, he was just trying to get a way to get the others to leave me so that he could do whatever he wanted to me, and I didn't like it. Not. One. Bit.

"Sadly Umbra will be staying behind, he can go around the inner city to look around on his own. Though since he can't talk, he'll just be good enough for surveillance and hits," the King said loudly omitting his main reason for keeping me here.

That reason was probably torture. Locking me up and away from him, to keep me from calling upon the others for help. Or he wants to study me. As two weeks ago when he discovered how I had been punished while I was in the Imperial Army Base, 'training', and for all I knew he wanted to something. And now I was the center of his attention.

"Umbra," I didn't hear Amethyst right away, as my attention was on the King. I wants to figure out the ulterior motives for what he was doing.

"Umbra!" My attention snapped to Amethyst, and she cocked her head looking at me confused before straightening and stepping towards me.

"Are you going to be okay if were gone? I know that you're new to being in a team, so I don't want to regret not having you come with one of us." She said and I looked at her and shook my head. Motioning with a downward finger that I was going to be staying here. Amethyst seemed to understand because she breathed in what seemed like relief, and backed up before looking at the King.

"When are we set to leave?" She asked and the King smiled cunningly.

"You are to set out tomorrow morning, at dawn. Enjoy your last few hours with each other because it's going to be a while before you see each other again." He said before walking out the door he had come in from. We all looked at each other and then looked at the file made to separate us, now on the table in the middle of the couches, and sighed.

"Why do you think he's making us do this?" Blaze growled, his annoyance showing clearly in his voice. "Why not just send us out into the other Kingdom and act as spies? Or is that going to be the next mission we're going to get when we get back?"

"I don't know, but something feels wrong about this mission. We already knew who is that tried to assassinate the King. Even though they've said that they were going to attack us if we didn't give them the King's head. And there hasn't been any new attacks yet which makes me feel worse about doing this." Lilith said and I nodded in agreement. The others may have known that this was the King splitting us up to get at me, but we couldn't do anything about it! He was the damn king of this country and we would probably be killed for not filling a direct order...other than that time in the tunnels.

"Lets just enjoy the rest of tonight, and we'll see what happens when we all get back." Amethyst said, " And we all are coming back. None of you are planning on dying on me out there are you?" She looked at everyone with judging eyes, and when the three shook their heads she smiled.

"Good, because everyone is going to be coming back, and we are going to be celebrating the  first successful mission we've done together, as a team." She put her hand out and Lilith, Blake, and Blaze immediately went over and put theirs in to join the middle over hers. Everyone looked at me, and I tried showing them that I wasn't the one leaving, and that I didn't need to be in there with them. Their eyes said otherwise, all of them had the same expression—acceptance. I was now one of them, whether through a familial bond or blood I had a place among them now in their eyes.

"Nope you are getting in on this too" Lilith said reaching over with her free hand and dragging me to them as I tried to hop away. I looked at the floor thankful for such amazing friends and put my fist in with join theirs.

"Lets come back and celebrate then," Amethyst said and we all looked at each other, and then lifted our arms above our heads, 'to friendship!'

-------------------------------

It's been a week since the others left and I was starting to get anxious. The King done anything yet and it was making me anxious. What was he waiting for!? I went to my room and grabbed my gun, my cloak, a vest of armor, and a few other things. Everything from bullets to clothes they were being brought for use every week while training the newer guards.

We never ran out of bullets, vests, or clothes to wear. Sometimes there were a hole in the butt of my pants or two holes in the top of my hats but I didn't really mind. I was used to it now, after all the world was at least ninety percent Fur by now. Or at least this continent was, maybe even just this kingdom, but I learned to overlook it and just find a way to work around my wardrobe problems.

I was on my way out of the castle when a movement in the shadows caught my eye. I spun around aiming my Scar at the corner to see that there was nothing there. Instead of dismissing it as a dark spot left by a trick of the sun due to the plants' shadows. I walked up to the spot and turned on my flashlight. Looking around the dark corners with it. Then looking at the floor for evidence of something being there.

I scanned the ground for a bit looking for hair, fur, or anything else, but there was nothing there. I kept my light on the ground for a second before heading towards the King's room, where I assumed someone might've been going if they were planning on doing something stupid or annoying to deal with.

I scanned the area, looking at the walls and floors with the beam of light. It just had to be the middle of the night that something decided to catch my attention. The one night that I was actually trying to get over my anxiety and now that same reason got me looking around. I turned off my flashlight and went to leave when the wall blinked. I blinked as well, trying to determine if that was actually my imagination. Then it shifted and something hit the back of my head, hard enough to throw me into immediate unconsciousness.

----------------------

"You two are stupid, plain and simple" a male voice cut through the darkness of sleep and I opened my eyes, blinking the sleep from them and the headache that I was starting to feel.

"Sorry sir--" A female Gray Cat Fur was staring at me sitting backwards in a chair so that she could stare at me, her tail flicking wildly behind her. Then she suddenly opened her mouth, "he's awake."

"Huh?" The male voice came again and I tried to turn around and look at them, but being bound to a chair made that quite difficult. "Oh, so he is."

I really wanted to ask them what I was doing tied to a chair, where they brought me to, why I was knocked out, and a billion other things about my predicament. But I couldn't. Because surprise! I was Mute. How convenient.

The Cat Fur was still staring at me and I looked at her again, wondering why she was still there. She stretched a hand towards me and her claw-tipped fingers dragged along the right side of my face, where the four lines formed a scar across my eye, rendering it useless. I hadn't been able to find anything comfortable enough to hide it yet.

"What happened to you?" She whispered seemingly more to herself than it was to me and I just turned my face away from her touch.  She recoiled and withdrew before standing up from the chair. A male Tiger Fur came over and sat in the chair once the Cat Fur stood up, turning it around before hand to sit semi-properly. His tail was still a twitching distraction.

"You don't look like you've had a very good time with the King's Troops Human." He said and I swear if I had a voice. I would've been laughing like that was the funniest thing in the world. When I didn't answer he continued on, "Are you really planning on staying with them? There is a war coming and I am certain that you don't want to fight for that scum of a King. I mean I did marry a Scale, so I guess that me saying that doesn't really matter does it, after all the two our our kinds caused your species' extinction."

I cocked my head and I'm guessing that I looked as confused as I was because the Tiger Fur chuckled, smiling at me. His canines showing bright and clear, practically telling me that he wouldn't waste a second letting them tear me apart.

"You don't know that there were three races involved in the extermination did you?" He asked still smiling and I shook my head. Making him seem to smile even brighter, "Well then, I guess I just'll have to fill you in then."

He stood up and walked around me. There was some shuffling and when he came back into view he was carrying a large black back full of things, one of which I guessed had to be a gun. Probably something that they used to execute people in the same position as me, but he didn't grab a gun. Instead he grabbed a tablet, the thin rectangle lit up as he clicked the button on the top. Then he proceeded to push on the screen multiple times, scrolling and looking until he "ah'd" and flipped the screen over. It showed five main species under the word 'Human': Reptiles (Scales), Mammals (Furs), Aquatic (Seers), Airbornes (Flyers), and Unnaturals.

"These are the five new species that human scientists created about a century or two ago." The male Tiger Fur said and I was interested. Everything on the list made sense, but I didn't know what was so important about it that he had to show it to me. He seemed to understand that I saw it as a pointless thing to show me and he sighed before leaning over to the bag, putting the tablet inside, and then pulling out a pistol, cocking it, and pointing it at my face.

"Three of these races were responsible for putting you humans at the bottom of the food chain." He growled, "and my kind was one of them, so tell me are you ready to die?"