Me and Hazel. Hazel and I. But how? I wondered, still in a quizzical fog with me myself and I. 

Me myself and I, Wildfire repeated inside my mind. Really? Be reasonable Sophia, there's only two of us. Though, I have to admit I rather like the sound of the idea "me myself and I". 

Of course you do, I shot back.

Mark my words Sophia, I'll be the one with the clever blood-smeared grin, the soon-to-be scarlet red claws, the aqua-teal eyes with bloodthirst filling them until they're crimson with hate.

I didn't reply. How could I? I was next to my... well, the f-word that I refuse to use. ("F"riend, get it?) And my little psychopathic Wildfire was being trivial and more graphic than usual. Great.

I clenched my jaw, keeping my eyes open except for involuntary and necessary blinks for the slight anxiety of seeing Wildfire even more vividly in my mind than I already was. Who wants to see their demons, essentially?

I certainly don't.

I continued to walk a comfortable distance behind CruelStorm, striding gingerly next to Hazel, still in denial. I must've been extremely tense because Hazel's beautiful eyes drifted over and met mine.

"Ace," Hazel said. "What's wrong?" Here's a little tip for you, if your friend knows you really well, they will ask you 'what's wrong' when something is wrong, rather than asking 'is something wrong?' because a real friend will know when you are feeling even a little bit off at anytime and go out of their way to find out what's wrong and make you smile again. They don't need to waste their time on asking something they already know. They know something is wrong and they want to know what exactly it is. Or at least that's what I think. And I do a great deal of that thing we all call "thinking." Or maybe your friend is just stellar at deduction.

I gave only a little thought to what my response was to be. "Just a little... Fogged up, is all."

Hazel nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. I think I've been under a sort of fog for the past few years I've been here."

"Six years, seven months, three days," I replied automatically.

"Let me guess... Is it the time we've been apart?"

"Yes... I kept track."

"How old are you now? Before... The fire... You told me you were twelve and a half. That was a lie, wasn't it?"

I nodded slowly, feeling as if I might sink into the ground, or just trip over my own paws. "It was a lie. When I first met you, I didn't think I was going to become involved with anyone anymore. I was weak, so I lied. I'm one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty-two, so that means I was... " I did some quick mental-math. "One-thousand-three-hundred-forty-five years old."

Hazel's face went blank, her pawpace slowing enough for it to be notable. I slowed down to her new pace.

"The foxes told me you lied about your age... But I never thought it was something like this." She looked out forwards into The Dark Forest, her expressions unreadable, even for me.

Her gaze fell upon me yet another time. Now Hazel's expression was filled with understanding. Empathy. "That wasn't weak to lie," she comforted, which was comforting, evidently. "I'd say it was more like... You were protecting me." Protecting, I thought grouchily. Yeah, protecting me myself and I.

Hazel must've read my mind because she replied with, "You were protecting yourself in a way, I suppose, but that doesn't make you weak. It makes you scared, and scared is nothing to be ashamed of. Being scared makes you stronger because it makes you... more..." She was trying to find the proper word. "Susceptible to learning from your mistakes. What's weak is when someone makes you feel weak for their own foolish joy."

Awww, Wildfire sneered. I wish she would've said "fear" instead of "scared" because you're terrified of Fear too. You don't just fear us, you fear Fear. Ha, "fear Fear."

My eyes met the ground, instead of those round hazel eyes. I couldn't bear this. Especially when I had to look her in the eyes. Those hazel eyes I saw reflected that fire she should've died in, but survived.

Wildfire was right; I was terrified. But she forgot to mention my biggest fears at the time, and it had something to do with my shame of not looking Hazel in those ever so mysterious eyes.

Why so silent, Sophia? I mean, besides the noise that is going on in this clustered mind of ours'. Are you fearful of what might happen if Hazel gets too close to the wildfire, yet again?

"I'm... So... Foolish..." I whispered, crestfallen. Every time I saw her now, my heart was breaking more and more. Shattering like a leaf that is far to frosty to be squishy with life anymore. It felt as if all of my liveliness had be sucked out of me in the whirlwinds of life. This burdensome life of mine, and mine only. This life I will never be able to share with anyone for long because everyone I touch, everyone I see or will ever see will be gone one day, for I will always outlive you and anyone who ever dare cross my fiery path of destruction. By the time you are at this sentence I have written, you will be another to make it thus far in my wretched story. Then there will be another, and another, until there is no more left. All except me. Me myself and I.

"Crazy? Yes," Hazel began. "Ignorant to emotions sometimes? Yes. But foolish? Never. You will never be foolish."

"I will always be foolish." I started to find it hard to say the words coming from my mouth because my throat went tight with guilt and pain, two deadly partners in crime. I thought I might even choke on my words. What a ludicrous idea, I thought. Choking on my own words.

"Don't say things like that, Ace."

"I have tried... And I have tried..."

"Tried to what?" Hazel asked with the slight tilt of her head.

"I've tried to be... Better. Better than this... But I will always be the raging Wildfire. That's the only thing I've ever been certain of."

She didn't know how to reply, but once she looked as if she had a thought in mind, CruelStorm interrupted once again.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

"We're here." He turned to face us, sitting down. He was taller than I realized at first, and quite slender too. They don't eat a lot just like Alpha's pack, I noted.

I tried to read his face, but it was harder than I first expected. Once our eyes met, all I saw was a mix of mystery and coginzancation. I peered at him for a little longer, his orange eyes piercing into mine. CruelStorm's ears twitched with curiosity. His curiosity danced across his furry face, giving me a feeling of idiosyncrasy. I saw the curiosity start to spark in his eyes. Or maybe they had spread to those eyes like a wildfire.

After what felt like an eternity or two, both of our eyes broke away from each other's gaze awkwardly.

"Queen Thunderblood wants to meet you in her own den, all you have to do is brush pass some trees. We can only have the best for our Queen," CruelStorm said, deadpan, breaking what could've been an awkward silence if it lasted a few seconds more.

I nodded. "Of course. Lead the way, Hazel." She did so.

Outside Thunderblood's den was a bunch of stocky trees that seemed to leaning towards you eerily. It felt like they were getting closer and closer and closer and closer... Even closer with each strained second. They were covered in their dark stripes, some of the stripes were from the bark, and some were even from the darkness of The Dark Forest itself, perhaps even some ribbons of light danced through the branches.

Once I stepped in, a good three paw-steps away from Hazel from behind, I could see only some more dreary, yet eerie trees, except these ones were as thin as a matchstick.

I stepped further into the cave, then Hazel jumped forward suddenly. My heart lurched, my mind racing back to the time she missed that jump and... Well, you know the rest.

But she was safe, now. She had only merely jumped across for some unknown reason-

My paws suddenly felt wet, as if I had stepped into a puddle. I lifted one now mud-caked paw up. So much for "unknown reason," I remarked inside my mind.

I then tried to jump, but it was mediocre, ending with me slipping carelessly into the muddied water, my body completely submerged, not counting my shoulders and up.

I was more mildly surprised than annoyed. Though, I always have a hint of annoyance in me anyways.

Hazel did what I can only call a giggle at me. "You're not foolish, Ace, you're silly." She was right, just as she always used to be, as much as I hate to admit it.

I smiled sheepishly.

"Slip around here often?" She quipped.

"Obviously," I replied, my tone uneasy until I gingerly stepped to her side once more.

"You are even more of a klutz than I thought, Sophia," said a malicious, poisonous voice about fifteen paw steps in front of us. A voice I immediately recognized and placed as none other than Thunderblood.

"If you think this is clumsy, you're mistaken, your highness." I spat the last two words out as if they were a sour raspberry covered in mold, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. And yes, that metaphor was too specific to be made up by me.

"Whatever, Mud-Cake," she sneered. I could see those ever so fiery and feisty eyes full of bloodthirsty determination. Then my gaze darted across the rest of her character. Her fur reminded me of dry blood, or perhaps a rustic design in a Human's home. Either way, I was just about equally disgusted.

"How are you enjoying my gun for you?" Thunderblood asked.

"Oh, you mean Hazel? Your cat in the burrow, rather than the gun in the room. You know that quote 'Never put a gun in a room unless you're gonna use it' comes from a Russian writer by the name of Anton Chekhov. I once read a story of his about a lottery two characters won. I rewrote the end, making the two characters roll in mud over the lottery ticket. It's quite the tale." It is, and I still have the original copy of his story, plus my version.

"Quit with your gibberish. I can't stand much more of your bantering."

"Oi, nobody else has complained about my meaningless bantering. Well... That's not true, but my point is.. Wait, I think I had a point to it, but now it is lost in the wind by now..." That was yet another fine example of my meaningless bantering.

"I think you just proved my point." Ah yes, that's it. I accidentally proved her point of my bantering. Whoopsies.

"Well-erm... As I was saying, you have finished with your little Anton Chekhov plot twist. But for some strange reason, I have this aching feeling your not done quite yet."

"We can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of your statement," she growled innocently with that classic villainous grin and that ever fiery spark in those glowering eyes.

"Very funny Queen Thunderblood," I spat once again.

She sneered at me. "You are an insolent kitten. Just remember, Hazel is under my control. Meaning if you decide to do something I don't like, what was meant to happen to Hazel will become a reality again. Understood?"

I forced a grin. "Understood."

Her sneer twisted into a mischievous smile, and she now spoke to Hazel. "Now, I'd like to speak to The Great Wildfire on my own, if that's okay with you, Hazel."

She nodded. "Of course. Just don't be too hard on her," she joked.

I spoke up again. "You can't just expect me to let Hazel just walk off."

"If you're worrying about us harming her, your frivolous worries should immediately be put to rest. We have never harmed her, and don't plan to. Unless, of course, you continue to be a stickler about her leaving your side for a flick of the tail," Thunderblood warned.

My own tail flicked back and forth with irritation. But before I could express my irritation, Hazel turned to me. "Ace," she said gently with that gentle smile. "I'll be fine. I promise."

I reluctantly gave in with a simple nod, then my long lost friend walked out of the den of stalky trees.

"Come closer," the fiery fox said.

I padded forwards until I was a cat length away from her.

"A little closer," she said, her voice becoming strangely softer.

I did as I was told, stepping closer to the point where I had to step up onto the two small steps that were about two paws in length in front of her. She scooted back a smidge, enough room for me to stand in front of her so we would be almost touching noses. Though, my back paws were barley on the edge, making my muscles and nerves taut.

I could feel the coolness of her breathing against my nose.

All I could see was the darkness around us in the corners of my eyes, and in the center of my field of vision was Thunderblood and those fiery eyes. Then the ever growing thin grin appearing on her muzzle.

"Do you know what it feels like to be ripped to shreds?" Thunderblood whispered eerily.

"It depends on if you mean literally or metaphorically," I whispered back, not as eerily as she.

"So you do know," she whispered, still not clarifying what she meant. This was probably because she knew I knew what she meant. She meant both.

"I suppose so."

"What you don't know is how it feels in the future," her voice was smoky in a mysterious way, yet at the same time honeyed as if I should trust her, which was a ludicrous thought.

"That's only sensible. Nobody knows how something will precisely feel in the future."

The quietness of her voice made me strain my ears to hear her words that gave me ghostly chills because of her tone. "You're correct, Sophia. You are never going to unravel this mystery we've set out."

"Who is 'we'?" I asked quietly.

She chuckled softly, just as silent as her voice was. "My connections."

"Who are your connections?" I questioned.

"You'll never know unless you solve the mystery."

"What is this so-called mystery you continue to blabber on about?"

"That's apart of the mystery, you see. Finding out the mystery in the first place."

"Yeah, because that makes sense," I replied sarcastically.

"In our twisted minds, yes, yes it does."

"Does this mystery have something to do with Hazel?"

"It has something to do with someone important to you." Which could've been a yes or a no to my question.

"Nobody is important to me."

Queen Thunderblood gave a shrill bark of laughter, making me pin my ears back at the sudden noise that busted the silence. Her spit from the laugh making a minuscule puddle on the tip of my already wet nose. I grimaced.

Once she finished, her voice was creepily quiet again. "That's such a lie. You're a liar."

"I know," I said back with what looked to be a shrug.

"Liars always win."

"Yeah, right." I said with false agreement.

"So you're saying honesty always wins?" She asked.

"No, I'm saying lairs lose, but honesty doesn't necessarily win."

She gave me a quizzical expression for a split second, then went straight back to insanity. "You should be a poet."

"Thanks," I said.

"Be warned, Sophia. If you step wrong, or you flick your tail in a way I don't like, you will have bigger things to worry about besides that ego."

"Will I have to worry about Hazel, because let me give you the burden of my own little warning. Now that she's back, I'm back. Meaning, I will do anything to protect her."

An ear of hers' twitched as if she was the dominant one in the conversation. "Do you mean she's under your protection?"

"Yes, I suppose you could say that. Hazel is under my protection."

"You know so little," she growled lightly.

"I'm aware," I whispered back with my "I'm-So-Clever" grin.

"I'm eager to see how this plays out," she whispered threateningly.

"Me too," I shot back with a tone that matched hers'. And that was when I knew I now had control of the conversation. For now.

"You don't seem to be scared."

"That's exactly what I want you to think. Now, am I done with this absurd investigation?"

Thunderblood paused for a moment before answering, as if she was deep in thought. "Yes you are."

"Glorious," I said, awkwardly stepping backwards down the two steps, then I spun around melodramatically to face the entrance/exit of this den.

Just as I started to walk away, I heard claws skid behind me for a split second where Thunderblood was sitting just a few seconds ago.

I could've sworn I heard a swoosh, then I stopped focusing on what I was hearing, and focused on what I was feeling.

Thunderblood landed on my hindquarters with a thud that I felt instead of heard, forcing my back paws to give out, which made my front paw slip, losing balance before I collapsed to the ground beneath me.

Before I could react to her weight on my back, I heard a small sound of flesh ripping.

I realized it was my own flesh once I felt Thunderblood's slick fangs digging down into my hind leg. Nothing holding her back.

And all I could do was howl in pain.