Two days until the blood moon.

Rosa was beginning to get impatient. She hasn't seen or heard from Fosc since he left. Surely he wasn't dead...he's stronger and smarter than that.

It was getting harder and harder to manage the gang. She wasn't used to being in charge on her own. Usually she had Fosc to help her, and vice versa. But she was too independant to ask for help. She didn't dare show any signs of being nervous, unsure, or frightened.

She knew she'd have to talk to Dessa soon.  That thought never left her mind.  Honestly, she was nervous to talk to Dessa alone.  She wished Fosc was there with her.

Fosc and Rosa had always been there for each other — ever since they were young.

Rosa was there to comfort Fosc after a certain...accident.

Fosc was there to help Rosa when things got out of hand.

But now, Fosc wasn't there.  He was away.  Far away, probably.  She wasn't sure about that either.

She couldn't help but let her mind drift back...

Fosc and Rosa were playing together, as usual.

It was getting late, and they both knew it was one of the nights with no moon and no stars that night, so it would be best to get to shelter, but they were too far away.

Finally, night came.  The wailing and shrieking of the stokliers filled the air as the two nekos raced to hide.

Sure enough, there it was — the stoklier clan.  They were out to hunt.

About five or six raced straight past the hiding spot of Fosc and Rosa.

"What do we do...?" Rosa whispered nervously.  "I'm scared, Abiola."

"I'm scared too, but we gotta stay strong." Fosc — no, Abiola — whispered back.  "We can't let them find us."

The two of them found a much better shelter, hidden far away from their village.  They snuggled together and watched the night pass by as they drifted to sleep.

The next morning, the two of them woke up and immediately started heading home, only to find a dreadful sight.

Both of their houses had been completely trashed, and their families were nothing but crumbles of stone statues.

Abiola shrieked in fear and raced over.  "Mama?  Papa?  Brother?"

Nothing.  No response.

Low growling came from the bushes nearby.  Rosa gasped and looked over.

"You look..."

"No, you look!"

"But you're braver!"

"Okay, okay, we'll both look."

"Okay..."

"On the count of three.  One...two...three!"

The two of them pounced over and peeked inside to see a lone stoklier left behind.  It hissed and spat at them as it pounced on Abiola, tearing his face to shreds.  Abiola shrieked in pain and Rosa froze, quickly tackling the creature.

The two of them tusseled for a moment, but Rosa accidentally stared into its eyes, freezing in place.  It quickly threw her off and ran away.

"Rosa!" Abiola wailed, going over and licking her in his lion cub form.  After the time was up, she snapped out of it and leaped to her feet.

"Are you okay?"

"No...my face hurts..."

"C'mon, we should go find someone to treat that."

"Mhm..."

The two of them searched from house to house for someone to take care of them, but no one was willing.

Finally, they gave up and left.

"What do we do?" Rosa pouted, curling up on the ground.

"I don't know, Rosa..." Abiola sighed.  "I guess we're on our own."

"Guess so..."

Ever since then, the two of them stuck closer than ever before, turning against the people of Hadari.  Whenever they met another rogue, they'd let said rogue join them, and soon enough, they built their small group into a gang.

And it's been that way ever since.

Rosa growled as she felt her bitterness for the people coming back.  None of them offered any help.  None of them even tried.

She forced herself to think of other things.

There was no time to worry now.