Warning:
Blood
Death
Extinct Creatures

Amani stared at Brooj in disbelief
"What do you mean they left without me?" She said, shocked.
"They needed to start the battle soon, and you are in no condition to fight," he replied gently.
"Bu-but" she stammered, feeling numb.
"Based on your injuries, you will never be able to fight again" Brooj said. Amari fainted out of disbelief and shock, she didn't want to leave her friends on the battlefield alone, she was the one who was always watching their backs. Who would make sure her friends didn't die fighting.
~
Aaira led her forces through the woods behind the castle, getting many burrs tangled in her coat. It was hard getting through the woods unseen with so many creatures following her. But the castle seemed empty, she didn't see many guards around so she assumed they were inside or fighting with more of the Rebellion. Aaira signaled with her tail for the rest of them to stop. She could see the wall but it looked stronger than she remembered, but that wouldn't stop her. She turned around very quietly and saw the elephants, the Deinotherium, and the Irish elks.

"Elephants, deinotherium, irish elks, could you charge at the wall to break it, I believe that with all your strength put together that you will be able to break it. This castle has been standing for years, so it is weak, so use this to our advantage." Aaira whispered quickly, the elephants, the deinotherium, and the irish elks raced towards the wall, and sure enough it broke with a huge boom.

All the creatures that went on the mission entered the castle quickly and silently, the halls were dark, and the building smelled musty,
"Alright, now that we are in, we have to kill the rest of the guards, the second group hopefully got most of them already. I will allow one other animal to come with me to get the king, and a ladybug for communication." Aaira whispered, everyone stared at Aaira in confusion,
"Why only one?" a black panther questioned, at last a creature broke the silence,
"The king is very powerful, I don't want many creatures getting hurt." Aaira replied, "I will bring my father, I know he is strong and experienced as well as trustworthy.

As Aaira and Waylen explored further, they felt as though they were being watched. Aaira stopped to taste the air, she could tell that Rocco had been close by. His scent smelled unhealthy, sickness poured from the air. Aaira signaled with her tail-tip for her father to follow her, she didn't want to speak for fear of being heard.

Soon enough, Aaira and her father got to the room that smelled most sickly, they carefully padded in, unsure of what lay ahead of them. Once again she felt eyes looking at her, she looked up and sure enough, she saw a pretty little songbird above her. It quickly darted away, frightened that someone had spotted her, but she flew further into the sickly smelling room. Aaira bounded towards it with her father right behind her. All of a sudden she heard a yowl of pain. She looked behind her to see her father and a river of blood flowing from his body, a huge tear ran deep into his side.

Aaira was mortified, all she could do was watch as her dad bled to death, as Rocco stood over him, grinning like a maniac. Everything was going wrong.
"Little ladybug, send a message to the others saying, my father, Waylen is dead, he was killed by Rocco. Everyone should evacuate the castle, I don't want anymore deaths, and don't worry about me..." she sobbed to the ladybug. She looked closely at Rocco, his fur around his eyes was wet, like he'd been crying. He looked skinny, she could see every one of his ribs, his pelt stretched tight across his bony frame. With her tears filling up her eyes she started to back away slowly, still hoping the brutal scene in front of her was just a nightmare.

He lunged at Aaira, but she was able to dodge quickly, she was too shocked to attempt to fight him, all she could do was dodge. "How could you!" Aaira screeched, she couldn't take it anymore, everyone she loved was gone, everyone but her mother. Her emotions were too thick, she couldn't process anything going on, everything was all jumbled up, she was angry, sad, confused, and scared. How could her best, first friend betray her like this? First Virex, now her father, it seemed Rocco was determined to kill everyone she loved. In a way it seemed like he had died too.

To Rocco's surprise Aaira leaped on him, she clawed his back, she ripped one of his ears. But soon enough he recovered from his shock and was able to get a few hits on Aaira, unfortunately, he reopened her wound that his father Sato gave her. Both of them stood panting, Aaira was also sobbing, her emotions were overflowing, it was weakening her, her vision was getting dark, but before everything went black, she saw the ghostly figure of a lion, not Rocco, but similar, it was standing over her, protecting her. Then everything was black, a rock hard cold surface suddenly appeared on her left side, and the floor disappeared under her feet.
~
Slowly, Aaira's vision was coming back, everything was bright, too bright to be the castle. Her eyes fluttered open, she glanced around and realized she was in the medical center of her base. She lifted her head up, next to her was Bronwyn, she felt a stabbing pain in her left shoulder, she knew her wound was opened again but this was different, along with the searing pain from a cut, was an aching, bone splitting pain. "What happened?" Aaira groaned.

"You were in a battle with the king," Bronwyn said. "You were injured, some of your old wounds opened up again, and you might have also gotten a minor fracture in your left scapula."
"Where is that?" Aaira asked, tense.
"Your shoulder," Bronwyn said patiently.
"Will I be able to fight again?" Aaira questioned.
"Yes, but you need a month of rest and then a few weeks of recovery." Bronwyn stated. "Now take it easy, you were just in a battle." She ordered the bloody leader.
"How many died?" Aaira wanted to know.
"Ten mammals, four birds, and five ladybugs. Your father..." she trailed off.
"I know" Aaira was holding back a wave of sadness.
"Although... we got a captive..." Bronwyn whispered excitedly,
"Really?! Who?"
"She said her name was Cybil, quite a pretty bird really," Bronwyn commented, "She is also quite nice."
"That's good, any other news?" Aaira asked,
"The only one as injured as you in here is Amari." Bronwyn said, looking for a bright side. "Most just had minor scratches."
"How is Amari?"
"She is better. She should wake up soon."
"Good, when she wakes up, tell her I want to speak with her please." She requested.
"Of course," Bronwyn replied. Aaira layed her head back down and closed her eyes. What was that figure? It reminded her of someone, she just couldn't figure it out. Maybe she just imagined it. Whatever it was, Rocco must have seen it too, as far as she knew, there were no more attacks drawing rivers, and waterfalls of blood from her body, then she had blacked out. What was going on?
~
"Hey, Amari is awake," said Bronwyn while prodding Aaira with her hoof.
"Wha- oh, I'm awake. Where is she? Aaira murmured, her voice ladled with sleep.
"In the bed right across from you." Amari joked. Aaira tried to get up, but was in too much pain and had to sit back down.

"We'll leave you two alone, but make sure you rest and stay still." Brooj said as Bronwyn's tail tip exited the room, he quickly followed. There was a towel tied to a door knob and he used it to pull the door closed.

"I have a plan" Aaira's voice was determined. "We should not attack again for a while, instead..." As Aaira told Amari she started to see what a great idea it was. When Aaira was finished telling Amari her plan, Amari called out the door:
"Can you please send Cybil in?" A few minutes later the bird fluttered in.
"Hello, how are you?" Cybil asked politely.

"We are feeling better, thank you." Aaria responded.
"I am very sorry about this situation with the king, he is acting more and more like a mess. In fact I would like to help you out. I have been planning on defecting for a while, but I couldn't find a time to defect. He kept a close watch on me, I could always see guards around, following me. I knew I had precious information and wanted to make sure it got to you. I wish I could've left sooner." Cybil explained,
"Wow, ok. So what would you like to tell us?" Aaira replied,
"The king is getting weaker, he has often been wandering away, possibly to think about what he has done, I'm not sure. Whatever he is doing it's making him agitated, and angry. He has been lashing out at his subjects more often, some wanted to join the rebellion like me, but they can't, they are too scared. I want to help them, but I don't know how, do you have any ideas?" Cybil said,
"Well with our new plan, we could get more recruits, it would be in secret and it should be safe." Amari told Cybil,
"Thank you so much!" Cybil cried. Amari, Aaira and Cybil looked at each other, they were confident and no longer scared of what laid ahead of them.

1640 Words