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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Chapter 72: The Final Battle Beginning

Thunder crackled overhead as the gates behind the animals closed with a large bang. Ash turned to look at the sealed gates as lightning illuminated the area, making the animals glow in the light. Ash looked back in front of him to see the Firebenders all growling, baring their teeth and scraping their claws against the cold stone ground.
"Firebenders, attack!" yelled Poisonfang.
"Benders, attack!" Ash howled.
Ash was then overwhelmed by howls and snarls of fury and determination. Ash ducked as a fireball zipped over his head and tried to see everything going on: Airia was dive-bombing onto Fang and biting down on her. Streak, Nzuri and Patch were all clinging onto Darkclaw and nipping on her, Crash standing nearby to watch the kits. Miguel and Slice were fighting Clouds side-by-side, and Clouds threw fire at Miguel and he managed to duck and blow some air into Clouds using Airbending, making her fly back. Ember and Moonlight were fighting Graves.
An earsplitting yelp cut the air and thunder crackled. Ash looked in their direction of the yelling; Aimee was struggling in Firetalon's grasp; he was pinning her to the ground and sinking her talons in. Leafy jumped onto Firetalon to try and defend her friend. Ash ran for them to help - Aimee was losing blood fast - but he came to a halt as someone pinned Ash down, and Ash watched helplessly as Aimee fell limp, dead.
"No!" Leafy cried, and sunk her teeth into Firetalon, who screeched and dug his beak into her.
"If it isn't Ash," sneered Ash's attacker. Looking up, Ash realized who it was.
"Flyingbird," snarled Ash.
Flyingbird sunk his claws into Ash, but Ash gasped and saw Flyingbird fall to the side, Treebranch butting into him and pinning him to the ground, growling, a look of hatred in her eyes. Ash grew wide-eyed to realize Treebranch actually looked murderous.
"Treebranch!" Flyingbird gasped. "Y-You're here!"
"Of course I am," Treebranch spat. "Ash needs my help."
"Treebranch, you need to join the Firebenders," Flyingbird said quickly, "you'll be part of the strongest--"
"Never!" Treebranch snarled. "After what the Firebenders did to terrorize us? I'd rather die!" she then bit down into Flyingbird's neck, and he screamed out before falling limp, dead in his own mate's jaws.
Treebranch jumped back in alarm. "Oh no...what have I done...?" she whispered.
"He deserved it," Ash insisted. "You deserve much better than him, Treebranch. He was a traitor."
"And the father to my pups!" Treebranch screeched, but Ash could barely hear her over the sounds of the other animals yelling, "what will my pups think, about their own mother murdering their father--"
"Treebranch, calm down!" Ash exclaimed, "you still have your pups. They need you. Flyingbird might have even killed them himself in a fit of rage."
Treebranch looked at Ash, and then seemed to start calming down. "Right...I--"
There was a yell, and Treebranch perked her ears.
"Nightfire in trouble...gotta go..." Treebranch whispered, and darted off.
Rusty then made his way over to Ash, Eclipse following close behind. "Are we going to find Ironfang or what?" he demanded, ducking as a fireball hissed over him. "The sooner we end this, the better, you know, and as soon as we kill Ironfang the Firebenders might lose their arrogance!"
As another fireball came overhead, Rusty pushed Eclipse down so she could duck, and Ash looked on in alarm to see that the fireball hit Spots, who yelled out in terror as his pelt lit up."Spots!" Ash cried. He quickly made a motion with his paws, but no water appeared.
"The Firebenders must have gotten rid of all the water sources!" Rusty exclaimed.
Ash couldn't take his eyes off his dying friend, and Spots kept wailing out until Mistletoe ran up to him. "Spots!" she cried, "What happened?"
Spots tried to reply but couldn't. "Help!...It hurts so badly!"
Mistletoe looked around, and turned to Spots. "I can only help you one way..." she then quickly bit down on Spots's neck, and Spots gave out a yelp before falling limp, dead. Mistletoe looked down at Spots's body. "Goodbye..." she murmured. Behind her, Ash noticed the black wolf - one of the gate guards - was lunging at Mistletoe. He dug into her and she, looking enraged, bit down hard on the wolf. He yelled out.
Ash made his way over to Mistletoe, biting down onto the little wolf and easily throwing him into the crowd. "Mistletoe! You killed Spots?"
"You saw that?" Mistletoe murmured. "I had to, Ash. I didn't want him to die a painful death!...I decided to try and end his life, because the fire would get worse before it'd get better..."
Ash sighed. "I understand...I wonder what his mate will say though..." He looked at Spots. "You were a great friend, we only just got you back...Spots, you're dearly missed."
"That's it," Rusty snarled, "I think it's about time we take our anger out on Ironfang. Spots wouldn't die if it weren't for him!"
Ash then spotted Hazen running over, kicking out at Darkclaw along the way, who was trying to bite him. "Mistletoe! What happened?" he demanded, looking at Spots.
"I...I had to kill Spots!" Mistletoe wailed, "he almost died a painful death, I decided to help..."
Hazen leaned against Mistletoe, "It's okay...we'll survive, and then it's over..."
"Hazen?" Ash said, "I...need to take care of business with Ironfang."
"Really?" Hazen looked at Ash with wide eyes. "Seriously? He'll kill you!"
"I have to," Ash murmured. "Rusty and Eclipse are coming with me."
Hazen looked at Ash. "But what if you--"
"I won't die," Ash insisted. "I will come back alive." I have to, Ash thought, if I'm supposed to kill Ironfang...
"Ash, how can you be so--" Hazen began. He then sighed. "Fine. If you're so sure..."
Ash nodded. "Thank you." With that, Ash turned around. "We may as well go..." he murmured.
The three of them weaved through the fighting animals, trying not to cause attention; however, this failed as Nyra swooped down in front of Ash.
"I know what you're doing," she glared. "You're not laying a paw on my leader!"
Ash growled. "Try me," he said, and jumped at Nyra, biting into her chest. Nyra squealed out before laying limp, dead. Ash threw her body aside and looked at Rusty and Eclipse, both watching Ash with surprise - although Eclipse was blind, Ash figured she could probably have heard and scented what had been going on.
"You're really confident about this, right, Ash?" Rusty said.
"I just want to get it over with," Ash muttered.
"At least you're a bit angry, it'll help," Eclipse shrugged.
"I just want to avenge Spots," Ash replied.
"We'll avenge him," Rusty nodded determinedly.
"Where is Ironfang's den?" Ash wondered, kicking out as a small orange cat lunged at him from behind, making her fall back into the crowd.
"From what I understand it's in the middle of the Fire Nation," Eclipse responded.
They kept running along, dodging fireballs and biting Firebenders who stood in their way or tried to stop them, but kept pushing along. Ironfang, we're coming for you, Ash thought determinedly. Fallen fire will rise to defeat the evil...
"That looks like Ironfang's den," Rusty said.
Ash snapped back to reality. They had come to the edge of the fighting crowd. Ahead was the hugest building in the Nation that had a large pillar on the roof, and at the top was a giant flame. The front of the building had steps and a large gate.
The three stopped in front of the gate.
"Ready?" Ash said.
Rusty and Eclipse nodded.
"No turning back now..." Ash whispered.
He pressed his muzzle to the gate and it slowly creaked open.

Author's Note:
R.I.P Spots, Aimee, Flyingbird and Nyra. ouo

Wonder how Ash shall deal with Ironfang~
And what's with the lack of comments people. |U

9 comments:

  1. Comment. Nyra, Spots, Aimee, and Flyingbird. RIP. *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Comment again. When this book is finished, the next book will start? That also means Character Sign-ups shall be open! Squee!

    ReplyDelete
  3. *Sob* But they were so young!
    *Le faints*


    -perry4464

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  4. For a second I thought Creature would be killed by his brother.

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  5. -wails- NUU SPOTS NUU!! D: Y U DIE AND LEAVE POOR SYLVIA FOREVER ALONE
    Don't hurt Akumu... D:

    ReplyDelete

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