Sooner or later, the Wither Team had returned to the beach with the boxes and crates that they salvaged from the wreckage...and were now beginning to look through them to see if they could find more useful items like the things that Eden already found. There just so happened to be plenty of that stuff, as the gang had found things like an unused first aid kit, a tool box containing a hammer and a saw, some clean blankets and pillows, a pocket knife, some duct tape, and many more items that they could use for survival. Other boxes like the ones that looked like they were being mailed to someone contained less useful items like toothpaste and a volleyball, but there might be a possibility that the Wither Team could put them to use somehow. "Okay...this is a lot more stuff than I expected!" Ham said, eyeing the mentioned tube of toothpaste. "This isn't even good toothpaste, its cinnamon flavor!"
"We don't even have any toothbrushes to use it, so that's the least of our current nonexistent problems right now." Witherstorm said. "Yeah, the important thing is that we can definitely use these items while we're still stuck here...but I'm mainly trying to figure out how." Petra added. Eden looked at every crate and box that her and her team had emptied, and instantly came up with an idea that could once again definitely benefit the team...causing the tigress to crack a small smirk. "These crates..." she began, picking up the hatchet that she found earlier, "if we chop 'em up, and maybe also use the scrap metal from the plane...we could make a pretty decent shelter."   Everyone looked around at the crates and boxes, before all exchanging expressions of agreement. "Yeah...and by the time we finish it, the ferret tribe would be beyond jealous of us at that point!" Ham said. Eden growled in annoyance, hating the fact that all Ham could think about was making the ferret tribe jealous. He obviously held a grudge, but causing needless trouble is the last thing that Eden wants her team to do. "Please, Ham...making the ferret tribe jealous is not one of our goals." She said. "Well, it should be!" Ham demanded, crossing his arms. "In fact, I say that we go ahead and get some revenge."
"Revenge? Ham, are you crazy?" Witherstorm asked. "What? You saw what they did to Eden! Don't you think that we should get them back for it?" Ham asked, cracking his knuckles at the thought of getting his paws on one of the ferrets. "No." Eden quickly replied. "My notched ear and missing tooth does irritate me...but I really don't think that randomly picking a fight with the ferret tribe is a good idea. I'm hoping that if we stay out of their fur, they'll stay out of ours for the time being." The look of hostility in Ham's one good eye lessened a bit, and Eden hoped that he agreed with her theory...a little bit, at least. "Well, if we could put that aside for a moment..." Petra said, "we're gonna need more than what we have here in order to make a shelter. So I suggest that we head over to the plane now, and maybe we can can get this thing done by sundown." Eden nodded in agreement. "Good call, Petra. Willing to do some heavy lifting, Cloud?" Said wolf pup looked up from the mango that he was eating. "Depends on how heavy everything is...but I can't stay here alone." He said. "Then you have no choice." Eden chuckled. "C'mon, guys...let's get a move on." Then with Eden leading the way with her hatchet in paw, the gang were off into the jungle once again with a new goal to achieve.

Some time later...

After about fifteen minutes, the gang had reached the far side of the island...and were only minutes away from where they needed to be. Except this time around, they couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched...and the trip would've taken longer if Wither Sickness hadn't convinced everyone to stop looking over their shoulders. So they simply just continued on while being extremely paranoid. "Man, you guys need to relax...big time." Wither Sickness said, noticing everyone's tension. "We've already been down here once before, I don't understand your uneasiness."
"Yeah, once before. Therefore, we don't fully know what's out here." Petra said, once again looking over her shoulder. "Well, we're almost there now." Witherstorm said. "I don't think that there's a chance of us running into anything—"
"Wait." Eden raised a paw for her team to stop. "I caught a whiff of something." Wither Sickness let out a groan of annoyance. "Your 'amazing' sense of smell isn't always right, y'know. I bet you five bucks that Ham just farted."
"HEY! How do we know it wasn't you, and your flatulence that smells like death?" Ham piped up, raising his voice as Wither Sickness rolled his eye. "The both of you, hush!" Eden demanded. "Look." She pointed to something in the dirt, in which appeared to be tiny paw prints that lead from one side of the path to the other...and Eden knew exactly who they belonged to. "They were here." Witherstorm said, stepping forward to get a closer look. They then heard a rustling in the undergrowth, followed by the sound of something scurrying...and slightly heavier steps. "More like they are here." Eden said, twitching her ears before standing up straight...and making sure that she was firmly grasping her hatchet. "Kane! I know that you and your cronies are out here, so just get your fuzzy badger ass out of the bushes and come get what's coming to ya!" For a moment, an eerie silence filled the air...until Eden's request was granted when Kane and his tribe slowly emerged from the undergrowth. "I must commend you, Eden. You have a very keen sense of smell and hearing." Kane said, grinning mischievously." Eden couldn't help but to smirk, looking somewhat flattered by the large badger's compliment. "It's just another one of my many abilities." She said. "And it seems to have gotten you caught crossing our territory, unfortunately."
"Your territory?! We've been on this island for years prior to your arrival! So that makes every last inch of it our turf!" Kane objected. "Really? 'Cause I don't ever recall smelling your scent on the beach, or in this area when we first came here." Eden retorted, narrowing her eyes as hostility filled her voice. Kane let out a irritated snarl, and the gang noticed that he was trying his hardest not to pounce. "Face it, Kane." Eden continued. "Me and my team are stuck here until someone comes to rescue us, and there's no telling when that will happen. So in order to avoid needless hostility like this, I think that it'll only be safe to propose a truce." The Wither Team looked at Eden in confusion, most likely wondering what makes her think that Kane would be willing to accept such a thing. "A truce?" Ham whispered loudly to his leader. "Eden, are you—" The tigress flicked her tail for him to stay silent, and she failed to notice Kane signal his tribe to get ready. "There will be no truce, little tigress. Your pathetic Wither Team is weak, and you should know that for a fact. We are not afraid to engage in battle with you again." A ferocious snarl of anger escaped Eden's mouth, and she tossed her hatchet to Petra before unsheathing her tremendously long claws. "I should've known." The tigress spat. "Here I am trying to make peace with you, when we never even did anything to you in the first place! All we wanted was a little food, and we didn't want to resort to stealing...but your ridiculous reason for refusing to give us your rations is what pushed us into doing so. So now I hope you're ready...'cause I said that I wanted to avoid a fight, and I said that I didn't want revenge, but now...I'm taking it all back. Wither Team, attack!" With those final words, the Wither Team surged forward...instantly clashing with the many ferrets that stood in their way. Kane had briefly leaped out of the action...though Eden just wasn't having that. She dashed straight for him at breakneck speed, ready to lock her jaw on Kane's neck...until she was tackled by a familiar sable ferret and his group of friends. "Better luck next time, little tigress! Hahaha!" He sneered, pointing a tiny spear at Eden's nose. "I'll have your pelt as a scarf for that, Archie!" She snarled back. Without giving Archie and his gang time to think, Eden dropped down on the ground and rolled over...crushing the ferrets underneath her weight, causing them to let go of her. Archie pulled himself off the ground, before giving an angry snarl and darting after Eden again...only to be swatted away by Ham. "I got him, Eden! You go after Kane!" Eden gave the tabby cat a quick nod of gratitude, before quickly looking around for Kane while avoiding the many angry ferrets. It seemed that the large badger had slipped away from the chaos, how cowardly...what tribe leader leaves his comrades to fend for themselves? But then Eden spotted him still scrambling away from the fight, and she snarled ferociously as her crimson red eyes began to glow. "Get back here, you damn coward!" The tigress roughly pushed past everyone in her haste to get to the tribe leader, also checking on her teammates as she did. Ham was clawing, biting, and kicking every ferret that was upon him...causing a few to run away in fear, much to Eden's surprise. Witherstorm was shooting tons of flaming wither skulls from his mouth, in which exploded in a cloud of smoke each time it made contact with the ground or any unlucky ferret that was nearby. One would be surprised that they're coming back for more. Petra was using the hatchet to her advantage, almost treating the ferrets like golf balls...as she was effortlessly whacking them around like there was no tomorrow. Cloud even pitched in as well, head butting ferret away from Petra to keep them from jumping her. And finally, Wither Sickness was choking and flinging ferrets about with his many tentacles, as well as slamming a few of the lanky rodents into the ground. Eden suddenly felt a spark of pride, it was good to see her teammates strong and powerful once again. She soon realized that Kane was too far ahead for her to reach, so she skidded to a stop and slammed her paw onto the ground...in which was glowing a deep yellow color along with her eyes and stripes. And with a very disorienting shockwave, a rock wall shot up from the ground in front of Kane...stopping him in his tracks. He turned to Eden with a horrified expression. "What...what is this sorcery?!"
"It's the Earth Element!" Eden shouted. The two symbols appeared at her sides. "One of many Elements that I will use to take you down." The Earth symbols then disappeared, being replaced by Magic as Eden tossed down some purplish-magenta glowing dust...in which teleported Kane right in front of his opponent. Before the badger could run away again, Eden lunged forward and fastened her teeth into his neck...and he began to thrashed about trying to get free. "Not so tough now, are ya?" Eden growled through a mouthful of Kane's fur. Kane soon rolled from her grasp, and leaped on her side before clawing and biting as hard as he could...though it didn't look very effective. "It appears that I underestimated you, little tigress!" Kane said, still gripping Eden's fur. Her response was a growl mixed with a Wither sound, as her eyes and stripes began to glow a dark purple. "God have mercy on your soul if you call me 'little tigress' again!" With a massive roar of fury, Eden unleashed a withered explosion that sent Kane and his tribe flying in all directions...before they drew their attention to Eden and their leader. She roared again, and launched herself at Kane...then the two instantly became a whirlwind of teeth and claws. In an attempt to weaken his stronger attacker, Kane tried to go after Eden's uninjured ear...only for her to thrust a paw into his chest, knocking him away. The large badger landed dazed, but still ready to get back into action. He dashed back in and sunk his teeth into Eden's arm, causing her to grunt in pain. After stumbling backwards for a bit, Eden chomped on the back of Kane's neck...and reached over with her free hand and roughly gripped his back before scoring her claws through fur and skin. Kane let out a screech of pain, causing him to let go of Eden's arm and slowly stagger backwards...struggling to catch his breath. "Yeah! Go Eden!" Shouted Ham from nearby. "FINISH HIM!!!" Wither Sickness added, very loudly. A devious smile formed on Eden's face as she cracked her neck, and her eyes and stripes began to glow a deep yellow once again. And then, before Kane could look up, he heard Eden yelling at the top of her lungs.
"BOULDER FIST!"

BASH!

Kane went flying.

Everyone was silent.

And the battle had come to a close.

The Wither Team were now by Eden's side, before they all noticed a glint of white in the sunlight. Kane shakily stood up on two legs, blood dripping from the many wounds that Eden left behind. But then he noticed something that was a bit off, and stuck a clawed finger in his mouth and felt around...before realized the purpose of Eden punching him. It was made very clear, she had knocked out his tooth. And there it was, sitting right in between him and the Wither Team. He reached forward to grab it, but Eden stepped in and did so right before the badger could. "Ever heard of the phrase, 'an eye for an eye'?" Kane did not respond. "Yeah, that's what just happened. Not to mention that this is mine too." Eden snatched a necklace that Kane was wearing from his neck...and this particular necklace had Eden's tooth connected to it. "You know what else is ours?" Petra asked, stepping into the conversation. "This side of the island." Wither Sickness added. "So you can get your furry little butts out of our faces for the final time."
"And if we ever catch you here, we'll make sure you'll never see the light of day ever again." Ham said, smiling evilly. "As a matter of fact, you have five seconds to leave right now...or else we'll lay a beat down on you again." Witherstorm said. Kane still said nothing, but bared his teeth and gave a snarl...attempting to look intimidating. Eden stepped forward, obviously not phased by the badger's hostility. "So what'll it be, Kane? Are you gonna leave now..." her eyes suddenly started to glow a dark purple. "...or suffer the wrath of the Witherstorm's spirit?" Kane held her gaze for a minute longer, before looking to every ferret that stood nearby. "Tribe of Thundering Claws..." they all stood up straight, looking ready to battle again. "...retreat." After a few confused and surprised looks from the tribe, they all scurried off with Kane leading the way...none of them looking back. Once the tribe was completely out of earshot, the Wither Team took the opportunity to celebrate like they've never celebrated in their lives. "Oh yeah! That's right, we own this side of the island!" Ham shouted. "Not Kane, not his ferrets...not anybody!!!"
"And it definitely wouldn't be that way if this one right here hadn't suddenly decided to go with Ham's plan of getting revenge." Wither Sickness added, gesturing to Eden. All eyes fell on the tigress as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah...I guess I kinda lost it when Kane refused the truce." She said. "Though at the same time...I couldn't have done it without you guys."
"Aw, Eden, you're such a sap!" Petra said, playfully punching the tigress in her shoulder. "Of course you think that." Eden chuckled. "C'mon guys, hands in the middle." Everyone got into a circle and put their hands on top of one another's, before raising them in the air and shouting their victory cry to the heavens.

"IN THE SPIRIT OF THE WITHERSTORM!!!!!"

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Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter posted in 2017!