[part 3]

It was Whipporwill who decided to tell the tale. According to Tempest, he was a storyteller back in his Tribe, and would be able to tell the tale much more eloquently than she. Folding his skinny legs underneath him, the Aurleon took a deep breath, before beginning the tale.

"Well, this whole ordeal began because we were chased out of our homes by an enemy we have never faced before. As you know, the Southern and Northern Tribes have lived in the mountains for thousands upon thousands of years, long before any humans came to settle in the valleys below. Our terrain is treacherous, life is difficult, and food can be scarce, but its beauty is unmatched by any other landscape. It may not be what you'd call prime real-estate, but it is home.

Our leaders were approached by a strange group of Sylesti who called themselves "God's Warriors." They said that they and they alone needed these mountains in order to please their God, and go into the next stage of what they called their initiation. Of course, our leaders refused; this was our home, we had carved out a living here for generations, and we were willing to fight for it. Unfortunately, they were too, and they were much, much stronger than us.

These..."Warriors" possessed strange artifacts they called the Talismans. They gave them unearthly powers, powers so incredible even our greatest fighters could not stand up to them. There was only a single battle, and they decimated our ranks. It was the Northern leader, Perseus, who decided that we should leave. It would cost us more lives to stay than it would to leave...so we believed. The Warriors allowed us to leave, and we did, but either way, we had paid an ultimate price. We lost nearly half of our Tribes coming down from the mountains and onto the plains and valleys below."

At this, Whipporwill stopped for a moment, his eyes shimmering as he remembered the terrible exodus. Flower wrapped her tail around Lilly's, sensing her mate's emotional upset as they watched the Aurleon. The effects of the journey could still be seen on their storyteller himself, showing that his tales were in no way exaggerated.

"And then, a few nights ago, the Southern Tribe's star-seer told us that she'd had a message given to her by the ancestors, that involved the three of you. She said that you would be our saviors, and you could defeat God's Warriors."

"Tell her that she's misinformed," Yale said, narrowing his eyes. "If what you're telling us is true--that these Warriors have mythical powers or whatever--then there's no way we can do anything that you haven't. Do we look like superheroes to you?"

"There must be something," Tempest said desperately, her eyes meeting Yale's. "Ancestors do not send messages without reason, there has to be something--"

"No, there is not," Yale snapped, cutting her off as his tail lashed. "I'm not going to run around trying to play hero for a desperate group of migrants. Look, you lost your home, it sucks, but it happens all the time to regular wild Sylestis, and you'll just have to deal with it. There's nothing we can do." Turning his head from her, he stalked off quickly, leaving the other four Sylesti to sit there in silence. After a few moments, Flower looked over at the other two, padding over and putting one paw on Tempest's shoulder.

"I'm very sorry about him," she started to say. "I'm sure most of what he's feeling is simply shock. He's not really used to--"

"It's fine," Tempest murmured. With her shoulders slumped and face down turned, she looked even more hopeless than she had when they'd met earlier. "Maybe the ancestors were wrong. I just thought that...we had hope..." Her voice started to crack, but she turned her head before the others could see her cry. "We'll leave in the morning, if that's alright with you? We're sorry for bothering you."

"Wait," Lilly finally spoke, trotting over to Tempest, Whipporwill, and Flower. "Wait. This all started when I started having weird dreams, and then Perseus spoke to me. Maybe--maybe if he comes to me again, if he speaks with me, then it'll shed some light on things?" She suggested. It was a long shot, but she didn't want the two to have come all this way only to be shut down so harshly. "I--I believe I was contacted for a reason, even if I don't know what it is yet. And maybe we--maybe we are superheroes, we just haven't gotten our powers yet?"

That seemed to make Whipporwill remember something, and the gangly creature suddenly jumped to his feet, flapping his wings excitedly. "Yes--yes that's it, you must be right, Lilly! My mother used to tell me stories about magic-using Sylesti who didn't know they were magic users until it was unleashed! The magic must just be sitting dormant inside of you!"

This put all four of the Sylesti into an excited mood, with Lilly quickly wagging her tail in excitement. "Yes, yes, I believe it--Flower, you believe it too, right?"

"Oh love, you know I am a believer in the things we cannot see," Flower said, running her tail along Lilly's side. "But it's not me you have to convince, it's Yale." Lilly's ears drooped when she realized Flower was right--how on earth were they going to get Yale to believe them? Unless...

"I've got an idea. It might not work, but if it does it should convince him," Lilly said, partly to herself and partly to the others. "Whenever I would have the dreams, I would sleep in Little's room--the human," she added for Whipporwill and Tempest. "Maybe there's something about Little's room that makes it conducive to the dreams?"

"Yale likes to sleep outside, though," Flower pointed out. "He doesn't like sleeping inside--"

"I might be able to tempt him in, though. Yale loves the chicken the human makes, if I save some for him and tell him he can only have it if he comes inside, he will. Then Little will bring him in his room, and then, maybe Yale will have dreams like me."

"I always knew you were a genius, love," Flower giggled, leaning forward to press her muzzle against Lilly's. "Alright, let's wait for tonight. If all goes well, we should be able to leave out tomorrow."

In high spirits, the four Sylesti disbanded, unaware that they were being watched from the shadows.

oh oh thats really really good!! i really like it (and i started from the beginning so i know everything now xD)

Thank you, I hope you continue to like it as it goes on ^^

i do too :)

[part 4]

The day was beginning to wind down by this point, and most of the Sylesti were getting ready for sleep. Some of the more nocturnal species, like the Lupora and the Vulnyx, were getting into position to guard the stables and ensure that nothing could come in to hurt anyone. While they didn't have any problems with the other humans and Sylesti who lived around here, every once and a while something would try to sneak its way onto the property.

Tonight, however, even this vigilance wouldn't be enough to protect them from what was about to happen.

As Lilly and Flower were helping to get Tempest and Whipporwill settled in to rest, Lilly felt a twinge of unease run through her. Yale hadn't returned after stalking off in a bad mood, earlier, and she wondered if the older male was alright. She had no doubt that Yale could take care of himself; after all, he had been wild for most of his young and adolescent life. However, times were difficult and trying right now, and she didn't want anything to happen to her friend. That, and, she was going to have to convince him to come inside of the house somehow.

"I'm gonna go try to find Yale," Lilly told the others as she started off. She shouldn't have to search for long, she thought. Even though Yale liked to wander, the property that they lived on was wide and encompassing, and more than enough to entertain him. There were only a few places he really liked to go to, anyway, and Lilly knew all of his favorite haunts.

The Stables were set up in an interesting way. In the front of the property, there was the house, where Little lived along with some of the indoor pets. Behind it stood a wide, encompassing backyard, filled with bushes and hedges that had been sculpted and shaped meticulously. In its center was a large stone fountain, from which the Sylesti could drink from whenever they wanted. Then, beyond the backyard were the actual Stables, large barns set up similarly to horse barns where the outside Sylesti stayed. Beyond that, the property stretched for several hundred acres in every direction; Little had bought the land for relatively cheap a few years back specifically for the purpose of having a wide ranging area, of course unbeknownst to his Sylesti, so the setup for these Stables was very different from most.

About halfway into her trek from the outer Stables to the backyard, a deafening screech met Lilly's ears. It was similar to something like a lynx scream, but much more bone-chilling and familiar to her. It was Yale's distress call, a noise he never made unless it was absolutely necessary. What in the world was he using it for now?

"Yale," she whispered to herself, before taking off in the direction of the screech, her large ears swiveled forward to hear in case it happened again. The first cry had given her enough verbal information that she needed to find him, however, and her sprint slowed to a jog as she got close enough to see what was happening.

A fight was going on, that much was obvious, but things were happening so fast that it was hard to see what was going on. It looked like Yale was fighting something; he was rolling on the ground in typical Vulnyx fashion, hissing and spitting and lashing out with his claws. There seemed to be two separate balls of color latched onto him, one with wings that beat furiously. Aiming for that one, Lilly pounced, pushing it off of Yale in order to make the fight a little more fair.

She managed to knock the attacker off of its feet for a moment, but it didn't take long for it to stand back up and face her. Lilly let out a loud snarl, her hackles raising as her body tensed, looking into the eyes of her opponent. It was another Zolnixi, a female about her size, with a bright blue-and-green coat. She also had huge, feathered wings, each one about the length of her own body, which were bleeding slightly. Despite how fragile they seemed, she didn't seem to be trying to keep them tucked into her body, instead opening them in a threatening display.

Lilly was not one to be intimidated that easily, and she rushed her opponent, going to face her head-on. She didn't realize her mistake until she was too late; the other Zolnixi was much too fast for her, easily dodging her advance and slamming into her side. All of the wind knocked out of her, Lilly fell to the ground, letting out a bark of surprise as she was pinned. The other female instinctively went for her teeth, but Lilly managed to push up with her front two paws to keep her jaws safely away from her throat, if only for a few moments. She battered at her opponent's belly with her back paws, but despite the pain she was undoubtedly in, the other refused to back off, teeth snapping dangerously close to Lilly's throat.

This Sylesti was here for only one thing, and that was to kill.

Suddenly, almost as abruptly as it started, the fight stopped. Somewhere in the distance, a light flicked on--Little had heard the noise.

"We've been spotted," a second voice said, likely from whatever was attacking Yale. Lilly's opponent jumped off of her, and she got up just in time to see a second male Zolnixi sprinting at full-speed across the clearing. The winged female spread her wings and flew off after him, leaving Lilly dazed and slightly confused.

Before she could contemplate what exactly had just happened, a soft groan startled her out of her own thoughts. Yale! He'd taken damage from both of the attacking Sylestis, no doubt he must be worse off than she. Running over to him, Lilly's eyes grew wide as she noticed blood pooling around him from where he lied, panting on his stomach. The skin on his left back leg had been almost totally torn off, revealing blood and muscle underneath. He also had deep gouges, from bites and scratch marks, all down his sides and near his hindquarters.

"What happened?" Lilly asked, helping him get to his feet. "Why did they attack you--who were they?"

"Do I look like I know?" Yale hissed, leaning heavily on her as they limped away from the scene. Some curious onlookers had already arrived, murmurs of questions rising as they watched from the shadows. "I don't feel like playing twenty questions right now, Lilly. Let's just...get back to the human. Whoever they are, they don't want to be around him."

As they limped off towards the house, Lilly couldn't help but wonder: were those two Sylestis wild? And if so, had they been lied to about everything? Was there some kind of counter-strike coming? Was any of this actually true, or had it been a setup? Each one of these thoughts made her stomach churn, and she tried not to think about any of them. She'd find her answers soon enough.

[end of chapter 3]

Chapter 4: A Midfall Night's Dream

"Well," Lilly sighed, watching Yale sleep on the human's bed. Flower sat next to her, tail wrapped gently around hers. "At least we didn't have to bribe him to come in, huh?" Little had only taken one look at Yale and had rushed him into the back room to get patched up, ignoring the large Sylesti's protests. Now he was asleep, his face scrunched up even in sleep, paws twitching ever so often.

"We're going to have to wait longer now," Flower replied. "For Yale to heal. We can't leave until he's ready."

"If he ever is, there's still a chance he won't dream and he won't want to go, anyway," Lilly reminded Flower, who twitched her tail in response.

"Try to stay positive. We can't let Tempest and Whipporwill down."

She had a point. The two of them had traveled far to be here, and had risked a lot, but...there was also the possibility that they'd ended up leading the two Zolnixi who had attacked them here. Not allowing herself to voice these doubts, Lilly swallowed heavily, before standing up.

"You stay and watch Yale, I'm going to go talk to them," she told her. "I want to know if they know anything about what happened tonight." Giving Flower a parting lick on the cheek, Lilly left, slipping out of the flap in the back door and making her way towards the fountain at the center of the backyard. Tempest and Whipporwill sat underneath it, speaking to one another in hushed tones. They stopped as soon as Lilly approached and faced her, both of them looking uncomfortable.

Why do they look like that? Lilly asked herself as she stopped in front of them. Do they feel guilty? Or are they afraid? She decided not to ask them any of that, instead saying, "Yale was attacked."

"We heard," Tempest said first, shuffling her feet. "We were afraid something like this might happen. The ones who run God's Warriors are very powerful, one of them has a crystal ball she uses to see things from far away."

"So you think she saw what you were doing and sent assassins to kill us?" Lilly asked cautiously. There was always the chance that they were lying to cover themselves, even if she didn't necessarily believe it. "If you thought it might happen, why didn't you tell us?"

"We didn't think they'd come so close to humans," Whipporwill explained. "But it looks like we were wrong." The three of them were silent for a moment, before Whipporwill asked, "Will he be alright?"

"Probably, the human's taking good care of him," Lilly replied. "But it means that we'll have to wait longer to leave. He won't be in any condition to by tomorrow."

Although they nodded in understanding, Tempest looked down. "I fear we may not have much time left..."

Just as she was saying that, a voice exclaimed from behind them, "Lilly!" The female turned, blinking in surprise as Flower ran up to her, panting slightly. "Come quick, I think he's dreaming!"

[part 2]

Flower and Lilly raced back to the house, flying through the door flap and skidding to a halt in front of the owner's bedroom. The door was still open, giving them a clear view of Yale, who seemed to be having quite the experience.

His face was twisting and scrunching in his sleep, as if he were trying to speak, but nothing was coming out. His claws were flicking in and out of his paws, digging into the bed momentarily, then springing back. The muscles in his legs seemed to be working tirelessly, though he was getting nowhere, churning the sheets on the bed with fervor. It was good that Little wasn't in the bed at the moment, or else Yale would certainly get shoved off, breaking his trance for sure.

Still, Lilly was a bit worried, and she looked to Flower. "Flower...what if he's having a terrible nightmare? What if it's got nothing to do with what we want it to?" Her mate flicked an ear to acknowledge her, before replying carefully;

"It's possible, but do we really want to wake him up and risk breaking his connection? If he's dreaming about the tribes, we need to let him work it out himself." The two fell silent again, watching as Yale's struggles became more violent, as if he were trying to escape from something.

Lilly couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She'd had some terrible dreams, herself when she was first learning of the tribe; horrible dreams, where she was chased by the echoing screams of dying Sylesti through deep, black forests. She wondered if Yale was having a similar experience as he thrashed about on the bed, tangling himself in the sheets.

Almost as soon as it had started, it stopped. The Vulnyx gave one last, great shudder and fell still, his chest heaving like it did after he'd finished a long sprint. Lilly and Flower leaned over, Lilly putting one tentative paw over the door's threshold. Just as she did, Yale's bright green eyes snapped open, focusing on her almost immediately.

"Well, kid," he huffed, looking thoroughly terrified. "It looks like you were right. We head out in the morning."

Chapter 5: Great(est) Expectations

"Yale!" Lilly protested as Yale hobbled out of bed, pushing his way through both she and Flower before going towards the kitchen. As he leaned down to take a drink of water from the water bowl, Lilly leaned down next to him so that they would stay eye-to-eye. "Listen, I'm glad you've had a change of heart, but you're in no condition to be going anywhere tomorrow! Your wounds have to heal!"

"My wounds'll be fine," Yale muttered, taking a sharp breath after he'd finished gulping down water. "I've gotten worse as a kitten, the human just over-reacts. I said we leave tomorrow, and we leave tomorrow." He spoke in the tone which usually signaled "we are done with this conversation," but before he could leave, Flower stepped in front of him.

"What made you change your mind?" She asked curiously. Yale hesitated, seemingly upset at her question, his ears flicking back and flattening against his skull.

His reply was simple and gruff. "Well, I--I saw my mother." That made Flower gasp audibly, and Lilly's eyes widen. Yale's mother? Yale had never talked about her much, but from what she knew, his mother named Nyx was a proud, independent female. She was certainly where Yale got his attitude and hotheadedness from. "She was--skinny, and her fur was falling out. She looked...really sick." That made sense. It seemed like all of the Sylesti from the mountains were starving, or sick, or both, if what she'd heard and seen had been true. "And she looked--old. She's never looked old."

"Did she speak to you?" Flower prompted again, once Yale had started staring off into space. He shook his head rapidly as if to clear it of cobwebs.

"Yeah...she did. She said that she missed me, and she hoped she'd see me soon. I think she thought--" he swallowed heavily again. "I think she thinks she's going to die soon."

Stepping forward, Lilly pressed her muzzle against Yale's, rubbing gently as she did. "I'm so sorry. That's why you wanna leave so quick, huh?"

"Yeah, kind of. I haven't seen her in such a long time...and when the dream ended, I kept hearing these awful screams."

"I heard them too, the first few nights," Lilly assured him, resting a paw on his shoulder. "Look...if you really wanna leave that bad we can try to go tomorrow. If things get too bad, I guess me and Flower can just carry you!" She said cheerfully, finally eliciting a laugh from Yale.

"Yeah...I'd really like to see you try that, Lilly. You're strong, but not that strong."

As the three Sylesti laughed amongst each other, Tempest and Whipporwill, who had been hanging around beside the open window, turned to smile at each other. The first part of their mission was now complete.

Now, they just had to get them there.

another nice chapter! keep up the good work!

you know who Nyx is? as in greek goddess Nyx?