14 Chapter 14

"Are you kidding me!? Jay, you're acting insane!" Lu spat. I didn't know that he wanted to keep me away from my brother. I thought he was tired of living the clan-like life, or maybe he was just mad at Ace for hurting me, and he wanted to attack him. Then Jay said, "Me? Insane? You want him to go back to his power crazy brother! What will happen then? He surely won't welcome him back!"

Lu said, "He won't. And that's fine! Birch would just be out here!" Jay said, "No! Ace will have the right to kill him! And that's what he will choose!" Then there was silence. An eerie, tense silence. I broke the silence by saying, "Then let's just stay out here if you don't want me to die. There was no point in arguing about that."

Lu sighed and said, "I'm just worried about you. I guess we could stay out here. But we better move to a safer spot. I also think Jay shouldn't take charge. It's not like we promoted you as the leader or anything." Jay flicked his ear in annoyance, but he didn't say anything. Then he said, "First of all, we have to move somewhere. We move today."

Lu smiled and said, "That's where you're wrong. The groups think that we're going to move, so we stay for now." Jay just walked away. I wanted to go after him, but he needed some time alone.

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That was a crazy argument. Anyway, we walked back to our hangout spot, and Echo said, "I knew it! I knew that we were out here because dad didn't want mom to get hurt, but still!" Yuna said, "I think it's a good thing that dad cares about mom so much." Bell said, "Yeah, but we could've just moved to another place like grandma Rudy did."

Smoke said, "Well it's too late now. We just have to stay out here." I sighed and said, "It's getting kind of boring out here. We should go explore!" Shadow looked me in the eye and said, "Are you insane? The cats could be looking for us right now!" Then Echo said, "I agree. It is getting quite tiresome staying in the same place."

Bell said, "I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, we can fight!" Smoke said, "Fine. But only so I can keep an eye on Bandit." So then the five of us, without permission, went into the forest to find something new. As we were walking through the forest, I smelled a water source nearby. Then a voice said, "Hey! You shouldn't be way out here!"

We looked around, and before we spotted him, Quinn jumped down from a tall tree. He then said, "We should get back. Your parents will be worried, and we don't want Jay to stress out even more." Smoke said, "They don't think of Bandit and I as their kits." Quinn laughed and then he said, "They still care about you! Well, Birch cares about you two more than Jay does, that's for sure."

I was glad to hear that. Smoke was too, but he said, "Well we're still going to explore." Quinn thought for a moment, and then he said, "Ah! I remembered something. If you're looking for something new, there's a lake nearby. It's more beautiful at night." Yuna's eyes sparkled with curiosity. I guess she likes the moon and stuff like that.

We all followed Quinn to a lake. It was large, and the base was surrounded by trees, and the other side of the lake had a large stone that slanted upwards. We were all amazed by this sight, and Quinn said, "Just so you know, everyone knows that I'm watching over you lot, so you can stay here for as long as you like. And Lu said, "try not to get wet, or you'll get sick". You should listen to her advice, because she's always right, yup."

We raced around the lake, and Smoke won. Echo hung out in the trees, looking for bugs, and Yuna was sunbathing on the rock. She always had such glossy fur, and now the sun's just showing it off. Then the fact that she likes Smoke came up in my mind. Surely Yuna will be in heat soon because it's not even close to fall or winter.

I wanted them to be together because Smoke needs something to keep his mind off of risking his life for me. I purred at the thought, and Smoke asked me, "Why are you purring?" I shook my head and said, "Just a thought."