'Cat'rocious Monsters
--Cat POV--

The rain fell hard on my hat even though I was deep in the forest. Strong rain in the jungle means a storm on the plains. Storm or not, I have to go on. Marek's been taken away and I won't let anything or anyone get away with hurting Marek without a hand being slashed off.

Speaking of someone, the thing, or beast that had taken Marek away is a bit familiar. Marek's footprint was a bit identical to the other, only there's a slight difference. I can't point it out, but the two footprints were a bit alike, but with a difference.

The rain began to get stronger. The dirt I was stepping on would slowly melt in to brown, gooey like, mud. The footprints ahead were beginning to fade. I have to go faster. I told myself.

As I said those words, I felt myself going faster. Wind started blowing further opposite my direction. I was making big splashes on the mud. Gross.

I don't know for how long I've been running, but I realized that the rain was getting weak. Either the rain is getting weak, or its just my position inside the forest. I didn't really have the time to think, though, so I kept running, following the footprints on a path that felt harder on my feet. It took me a few minut-- hours to stop for a while and catch my breath when I saw something... unusual.

Over the horizon, I saw a shadow. Before you say,'Cat, there are many shadows in the jungle', I would like to point out that it doesn't look like a tree, but more of a...

"Ruin?" I gasped as I tried to breathed heavily. The footprints lead towards the ruins, so even if I say no, I have to go towards the shadow.

I crept towards it carefully. The jungle might be half of my home but there are mysterious things here like any other jungles.

I looked in slowly. Nothing. Nothing but a brightly lit torch hanging from the ceiling. Torch? I asked myself. Hmm... I guess I was going the right direction.

I placed my left paw in cautiously, expecting a trap. I closed my eyes tightly for a while as I placed my foot in. It was taking so long but nothing happened. That was alkward. I felt weird. Good thing HapPy wasn't here. If he teases me of looking at an idiot, I would put him on top of a large jungle tree.

I crept in slowly. Each step makes tiny parts of the ceiling fall. I'm having that feeling This structure was poorly built. I looked at the path in front of me. A staircase, as usual in old ruins. I gulped. The place was dark. No torches. I was about to turn around when I heard voices. No, not a mob, a players."It's not Marek's, but..." I gasped. It's another player?

I got my sword and torch at the ready. I crept down the stairs to a long hallway when I heard a few words. I can't understand the sentence because my feet were shuffling across the floor cautiously, but loudly."You... Surrender... Journal... Kill... Clear?" I heard. I crept deeper through the hall when I saw a door with light illuminating through wherever it leads. I leaned in closer to listen to their conversation.

"Listen, you polar mammal! You surrender to us or you and your friends are gonna die!" I heard a gruff voice command loudly. He mentioned the word 'we'. There's more of them? I continued listening."You do your job and we'll pay you as much as you want." The voice said. I wondered what their conversation was about when I heard a familiar voice."No." The voice said.

"Marek!" I whispered loudly. I guess these people clean their eats every hour, because I swear, I did not shout. I heard the gruff voice command these other players in an angry tone."All of you! Go and look outside for the intruder." He said. I was about to say he wasa just bossy, when i heard him shout,"AND RETURN TO YOUR POSTS, IMMEDIATLY!" Wow. What a sick boss they have. The sick wasn't a compliment. It literally meant he was horrible (for the people who can't catch up.)

"Ok, now I need to find a place to hide." I told myself. As if on cue, there was a hole on the ceiling. I got to my claws and began climbing up. As I got my tail up, the door busted open. Tons of them came piling out of the hall. The other's went further through the hall. I waited a bit longer to ensure that the coast was clear.

The conversation between mystery guy and Marek was still on going, and I was sure that the coast is clear. I jumped down my hiding hole. I leaned in closer to hear the conversation.

"You'd better not mess with me, Marek.. You will do it or you'll join them." The voice said."Why do you want my journals anyways?" Marek asked." They're gone anyways!"

I could hear someone slamming both their hands on a wooden table."No! Impossible! The journal is not destroyed! It mustn't..." His voice trailed off. The room felt eerie for a while when i felt the sense off anger inside.."Why are you not listening to me?" Marek asked."You  and your little mob controlling puppet destroyed it with those creepers. That includes all the books contents!"

"LIAR!" I heard the word boom out to the hallway. I bit my lip. Um, I don't think it's a good idea to save Marek... yet at least. This conversation is going somewhere. Maybe about that... book.

"I know you're hiding the blasted thing!" The other voice began throwing a fit."You will give it to me or--"

"Or what?" I heard Marek retort.

"You tried to kill me! You destroyed my family, and now you want to kill my new friends and steal what's last of my family's greatest possession?!" I heard Marek throw a rage. I suddenly heard a sword scraping the floor."You chose to die with them, eh?" The voice said as I heard footsteps coming in louder."You leave me with no choice then." He said as the sound of scraping metal stopped. He's going to kill Marek!

I acted quick. I stood up and ran towards the wooden door. Through my panic, I kicked the door down. Whoops. Hopefully they can fix that. It's kinda simple to rebuild a door anyways. I believed it only costed-- forget it.

I saw a glimmer of metal fly over the figure. I quickly reacted and swung my sword at the shadow. As soon as I heard a slash, a howl of pain came from the..."Grizzly bear???" I shreiked. I looked at the figure on the floor. His right hand was gone. Oh no.

I looked next to him. A sword was lying to his left and a chunk was dispersing on his right."Oh my g-good n-ness." I stammered. I cut off a bears hand! A while ago, when I mentioned no one can hurt Marek without a hand being chopped off, I think I took it a little seriously. I looked at Marek. He looked at the bear that was howling in pain. He smirked grimly."Poor you." He glowered at the figure."Can't you take that little pain? You've costed me more anyways, and I think that's too little for payback." He said smiling. I gulped. Man, Marek must've really had a dark history with this... bear.

I quickly ignored that scary thought and swung my sword at Marek, cutting the ropes that binded him to a fence post. Marek pulled off a part of the rope tied to his wrist.

I expected him to stretch for a moment when he quickly grabbed the grizzly bear's sword that lied on the floor and prepared to lunge for the floor.

"That pain..." Marek began. The sword made a very dull sounding scraping sound that could have made HapPy screech in pain.

"That pain... is NOTHING, compared to what you had brought to me." Marek raised the sword, about to land a devastating blow on the bear.

Now I know, that bear sounds like a criminal, well at least in Marek's case, but, he doesn't deserve to die! I just, I just have this feeling I'm me that this isn't just. It isn't right.

I quickly reacted and held Marek's hand and lowered the sword.

"Marek, this isn't right." I glanced at him as I shook my head."This isn't right." I told him.

"But he had done bad! He doesn't deserve to live!"

"Let him live." I ordered seriously."Let him bear the pain. That's something he won't forget for a very long time." I held his hand tightly and  pulled him out out of the room.

"We need to go now." I told him."The others will be here soon. We need to hurry." I said.

As soon as we reached the outside, a bunch of figures came out of nowhere, holding swords and spears that are pointed at us.

"Halt, Cat woman!" One of them said as the moved in closer.

I backed off a bit."Do you want to go the violent manner or the merciful one?" I asked one of them as I swayed to the left, dodging the blow. I quickly reacted and smacked him on the head with the handle of the sword.

"Oh well." I said as the man fell down, unconscious on the floor."Violent with a pinch of mercy."

Around me, soldiers had began turning unconscious around me while on the other hand... Marek was... killing them.

His face was shrouded by shadows and the only thing I could see in him were his gigantic, grim smile, and his sword, which was slashing through bodies. Loot fell off the clouds that showed death. A brutal death from a polar bear.

I ran up to them and soon enough, my inventory began to suck up the  items on the floor. I can't let these items go to waste! Might as well fall to the handshake eill use them for better purposes. I looked at Marek, who was punching a guard in the face."Monster!" He said as he jabbed the guard in the stomach."Killer!" He said as he kicked the guard on the chin. At last he stabbed the guy in the stomach."Demon." He said as the guard dissapeared in a puff of smoke. Wow. He must've had, not a bad history, but a really bad history with these people. He wants them dead!

I shrugged off the scary thought and swung my sword around, flinging the guards away as I moved out closer. Just as I though we were finished, a few more guards came out of the trees and charged at us. This is gonna take a while.

Soon enough, all the guards outside were gone."We did it!"Marek said victoriously. I looked at the ruins."Not really..." I replied to him. Hundreds of footsteps came rushing from the stairs. As I was about to charge towards the stairs, and arrow popped out of the ruins. Another one came following the other arrow. And another." We can't fight them in this rate. They are too many." I told Marek."Run!"

The chase was on. Marek and I were running back to the house. Arrows started flying past us. Good thing these guards had a bad aim. We kept running. Even though we needed to stop, we can't. I mean, there are like, twenty of them chasing a cat girl and a polar bear in a humid jungle! Speaking of humid, the rain finally stopped and most of the path turned to mud. Great.

The guards were hot on our trail now. We were slowing down and the guards started using potions of swiftness. I looked at Marek, who was just behind me. A few blocks away were our pursuers. I looked at them. Is this the end?

Just as I lost hope, I saw two specks of gray hit two guards at the front."Wha--?" I exclaimed when an arrow that came from up a tree hit another guard. The guards suddenly stopped running. They all looked terrified. Soon, all of them trampled each other, shouting 'haunted jungle' as they ran off. Thank goodness! Marek and i could finally stop!

"Did you see that?" I asked Marek as I breathed heavily."Yeah." He said as he sat down. A few minutes later, when we got to breath properly again, we stood up and headed home when we saw two white figures running towards us. The two figures came from the direction we just came from. Great.

"More guards." I warned Marek as I stood up, holding my sword."No, they aren't!" Marek told me."Look!"

The two figures looked like they were dogs. Dogs in the jungle? That's something you don't see every day. The two dogs had a collar. One had orange the other had red. Wait, what?

"Happy, Harpy?" I exclaimed."How?" As I said those words, a figure was headed towards us on the other side. He was holding a flower and he held a bow.

The figure placed down the flower on our path and smiled."Don't mind me." He said."I was just 'guard'ening."

I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. HapPy is so dead to me.

***

"Hurry!" Xaron ordered in the king's bedroom."Give me the healing potions! The metallic arm!" He growled as a figure laid on the bed.

"Master is in deep pain! QUICKLY!" He kept shouting.

"Tell Rhelms and the two other defects to prepare!" He shouted at the other soldiers who were idle.

"They want to redeem themselves? This is their opportunity! SEND THEM OFF NOW!"