There, slinking along the edge of the room, is the green cat I'd seen earlier.

"You," I murmur softly. The cat jumps, tensing and pressing his side against the wall.

"What's your name?" I ask. The cat's tail curls between his legs. He watches me through grey-green eyes. I tilt my head, waiting to see if he'll answer.

A group of maybe twenty Guard and Soldiers march into the room, bringing with them half a dozen people who appear to be workers from how they immediately get to work fixing the doors. About half of the Guard and Soldiers form a barrier to protect King Garonda XIV.

"Speed it up. We don't have all day," one Guard barks.

"If you wake My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV, there will be consequences." None of the workers respond, instead vigorously nodding their heads and making sure they never break stride- the door must be fixed in as little time as possible.

I look back to the wall where the green cat stood. I'm surprised when I still see him there, watching the workers with an expressionless gaze. He tries to open his mouth, and his shoulders slump when the leather strap stops him. His face falls, and he turns away.

"Hey," I call. The green cat looks up, meeting my gaze, and he freezes.

"I'm-I'm not gonna hurt you. It's not like I can break free anyways." I snort humorlessly.

"Hey, look there. The cat's talking to an invisible person. He's hallucinating!" I ignore the Guard and Soldiers as they start snickering.

The green cat meets my gaze but looks away a second later. He shifts on his paws.

"What's your name?" I try again. The green cat looks at me. I can see the wheels turning in his head. What's he trying to figure out? He continues staring, eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Finally, the green cat breaks his gaze away. He frowns at the ground. When he looks back up, I frown as well. What's he doing? Is he gonna tell me?

The green cat begins to tremble again. One of his hind legs starts to morph, blending in with the marble wall behind, but it's back to normal just as soon as it started. He paws at one of his ears. Then, he looks up at me with cautious, fearful expectation. He's tenser than he's ever been before. I tilt my head to the side.

"Are you telling me your name?" I ask slowly. He nods, pawing his ear again. His jaws try to part, as if to speak, but the leather strap prevents him from forming any words.

When he lifts his gaze to mine once more, he looks more uncomfortable than terrified, but the green cat still continues to tremble and his tail remains between his legs. He paws at his ear once more.

What the hell does that mean? What's he trying to tell me? It's just a green ear -like the rest of his body- with a little tuft of fur at the end. My body's too tired to do this much thinking. But I want to know. Is it worth it to spend the energy on forcing myself to think? Will I have enough energy to get through the rest of the day? Not that I'm gonna be doing a whole lot.

"And would you look at that: the cat's still talking to himself." One of the Soldiers snickers, nearly losing it.

"Shut up!" another Soldier hisses in a whisper. "My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV does not wish to be disturbed! Imagine the consequences if you're the guilty one who spoke too loud!"

"Oh, yeah. You're right! That would be the most terrible thing that could happen!"

The workers, Guard, and Soldiers are gone after another ten minutes. They leave the doors reattached and sparkling in the sunlight streaming through the windows. The green cat stands stiffly, still pressed closely to the wall. He continues to try to tell me what his name is, but I just can't quite get it. It's on the tip of my tongue, just out of reach of my grasp.

I focus my gaze on my forelegs, though they still belong to someone else, forcing my mind to dig through every possibility.

"Hey, Ice," I hear King Garonda XIV ask from behind me.

"Yeah?" He's distracting me...

"Who are you talking to?"

"I'm talking to the green cat I told you about the other day."

"Oh, really? What does this cat look like?" The red King Garonda XIV's eyes spreads a little, beginning to glow. The green cat's face falls.

"Um, uh. He's green-."

"I know that. What else?" King Garonda XIV's voice becomes harsher and sharper. The green cat is shaking more than I've ever seen. His eyes desperately search for a way to escape.

"Uh..." My voice trails off. Do I lie? The green cat doesn't seem to want me to tell King Garonda XIV.

"You'd better not be thinking about lying to me, Ice."

"I'm not," I finally murmur after a few minutes, rolling to my side with a sigh.

xxxx

I lose track of time. Seconds bleed into minutes, bleed into hours, bleed into days, bleed into months. Or at least, what feels like months.

I don't know how long it's been. Who was the green cat? Who are the two people from the group of six, Wolf and Dove? Or the three cats, Ky, Phoenix, and the last one? Whatever her name was... What about that unicorn, Brook? How did I know them. For the who-knows-how-many-time, I wish I could remember. And how to make the snake go away. For all of it to go away. Oh, how I wish things could go back to normal, however that was.

But luck seemed to be going my way. Sort of.

"We're here for Ice." Phoenix struts into the throne room, his voice sharp, leaving no room for debate.

"No," King Garonda XIV replies, cleaning up his fingernails with a purple file.

"I wasn't asking. Now make the snake move or I will. I'm gonna count to ten."

"I wouldn't try that if I were you," King Garonda XIV murmurs, but his voice isn't angry. It's more like a genuine warning.

"One." Phoenix ignores King Garonda XIV's words.

"Two."

"Three."

"Phoenix, stop it. This isn't how we're gonna free Ice." Ky moves in front of his brother to push him back, but the black cat refuses to yield any ground.

"Five."

"Six, seven, eight."

"Please," I sigh. "Don't. You're only going to make it worse."

"No. You're going to get freed today, whether you like it or not. I'm going to kill KG14, and in order to do so you have to be free. I can't hurt him without hurting you. As soon as you're gone, KG14 can finally get what he's done to me, returned in tenfold. Just what he deserves." A sick grin spreads across Phoenix's face as he bares his fangs and his flames blaze.

"You know, Phoenix, Ice is right. A bit of logic, and trying to rip the snake from the back of Ice's neck will only result in the snake holding on tighter and sending more venom through his veins."

"Dove's right, you know, Phoenix." King Garonda XIV looks up from his fingernails.

"Does no one see what a twisted p-."

"Choose your next words very carefully, Phoenix."

"Oh, so you think I'm afraid of you? Some little coward? No, I'm the opposite. I'm the only one who has never feared you. And you're gonna die by my fangs and flames. Mark my words, KG14, the last thing you'll see will be me as I tear the life from your miserable body. Mark my words."

"Guard? Soldiers? F, U?"

"I'm sorry, what did you just say to me." Phoenix tilts his head to the side, eyes wide as his lip twitches. Anger simmers off of him in rolls he puts no effort into hiding.

I close my eyes, trying unsuccessfully to block out the conversation. You know, I'd love some peace and quiet just about now. "Huh? I was simply calling some-."

"That's really odd, 'cuz I thought I just heard you telling me 'f u' a moment ago. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that's an awfully offensive thing to say. Not the most intelligent or creative insult, but considering it's you... Well, I'll leave it at that. Now, you'd better have one hell of a good reason as to why you just told me 'f u' or else we're gonna have quite the problem."

King Garonda XIV starts laughing. Not just a simple chuckle or two but a full-on laugh. Doubled over, clutching his stomach, tears in his eyes. He looks like he's losing it.

"No, no. I wasn't telling you 'f u'. I was calling in my rats. F and U are the only two left, as the other twenty-four died."

As if on cue, the remaining two rats, who seem to have been fed nothing other than pure protein and steroids for their entire lives, skitter into the room, chittering to each other the whole way.

"Quite the creative names you've got."

"Well, I had twenty-six, so I named them A through Z. Then all but F and U died."

"So sad. I'm absolutely heartbroken for your loss. I will now spend the next month in mourning," Phoenix mutters. "So is this supposed to change my mind about anything, or what? And are those Guard and Soldiers supposed to surprise me?"

What appears to be about thirty Guard and Soldiers burst through the doors, surprising everyone in the group except Phoenix, who puts up a fiery barrier to startle the Guard and Soldiers in turn. Ky and Dove only take a small step back, but the cat who I can't remember the name of jumps about a mile in the air. I don't have the energy to react.

Who is the third cat? Who is she! I know I should know this, but why can't I remember? Stupid snake, stupid venom, stupid Amethyst Throne, stupid King Garonda XIV! I want my memories back! I want them back, I want them back, I want them back! And I'll get them back, starting with the third cat. So, who is she?

The battle is over within a few minutes. Wolf and Dove shift into their animal forms, Brook skewers Guard and Soldiers on her horn, and Phoenix wrestles the nearest people to him to the ground before burning them alive or letting them bleed out after a swift bite to the jugular. Ky hangs back next to the third cat, who's trembling like a leaf. Her blue eyes flit over everything, searching for some way out. Why is something telling me I know her? Who is she?

That little voice in the back of my mind begins to speak, and I strain to hear what it's saying. When I do, I immediately forget it.

Come on, Ice. You need to remember something, anything. You're going to remember something; King Garonda XIV and the Amethyst Throne can't've taken everything from you. They had to have left something behind. You just gotta remember where it was left. Just one little memory. It's just a little game of hide-and-go-seek in your mind.

I push closer to what the voice in the back of my mind is saying, fully zoning out from the world, not that I was really paying much attention anyways.

The third cat, the third cat, the third cat. Come on, mind. Tell me who she is. I know I should know this! Why does she seem like someone I knew? If that's true, how'd I know her? Why can't I remember! Every time I get close to figuring something out, it slips from my mind like an eel, and I lose my train of thought, forgetting everything I was thinking of. I groan in frustration.

Venom courses through my bloodstream yet again. I silently curse the snake, wishing Phoenix's wrath on it. My thoughts become muddled just a few short moments later, and I begin to lose everything I'd been thinking about. No! I can't lose this! I have to remember! My invisible fingers in my mind scramble to grasp my thoughts even though they're crumbling.

Flickers of memories shoot by, too fast to make sense of. The only thing I get is one word: clap. 

"Clap?" I repeat.

"Huh?" The third cat turns around. Venom swirls in my mind, making the memory foggy. No, I'm not forgetting this!

"Clap," I repeat. Who is she? I'm going to figure this out. I delve deeper and deeper into my mind again. The snake pours more and more venom into my veins, and it burns. Exhaustion turns my thoughts into a muddled mess, making my ability to focus deteriorate what feels like tenfold for every few drops of venom.

Who is she, who is she, who is she? I'm not losing this to the venom. My lips pull up into a look that's half grimace and half snarl. My sides tremble with every breath. Blood slowly bubbles from the wounds where the snake's fangs have punctured my skin. Saliva foams at the corners of my mouth as the venom makes up a larger and larger percentage of everything flowing through my bloodstream.

I catch hold of one of the memories:

I'm standing in a forest, forelegs splayed wide to keep myself from toppling over. Blood pours down my mouth and neck. The same group of six in front of me stand a few yards away. My head snaps up when the third cat here murmurs something to Brook in the memory. I lock eyes with the third cat. "Clap," I whisper before collapsing to the ground as venom boils in my veins. Saliva froths in my mouth, and I choke on it. 

Thank you for reading this chapter, as well as The King's Remorse as a whole! I really appreciate it! Please vote and comment!

What is the green cat's name? Can you figure it out?

Will Ice be freed?

Will Phoenix get to kill King Garonda XIV, or will he have to wait for another day?

-Werewolf14-