The Children of Destiny

Chapter 15 - There's Another!?

"Okay, so here's the deal," Kenai began when we had taken off. "After you left, Falcon somehow found out that our mother was your guardian and found our nest. She demanded that she'd tell her where you had gone, even when she told her she had no idea."

"That's horrible," I muttered.

"I know, but that's not all," Kenai continued. "When Mother told Falcon she didn't know where you were, she decided she'd take matters into her own paws. She fought off Mother and turned on us. Victor shoved me out of the way and asked the twins to get behind him. But Calliope was too scared to move and Umbris refused to leave her where Falcon could get to her. Falcon saw this as an opportunity to attack and launched herself at Umbris. "She pinned the poor guy down with one paw and tried to catch Calliope with the other, but Umbris bit down hard on Falcon's paw and gave Calliope enough time to run to Victor. We tried to help Mother up, but it wasn't enough. Falcon got angry and killed Umbris right in front of all of us. And just to add insult to injury, she flew away with Umbris' body and gave both Calliope and Victor nasty scars when they tried to stop her."

"What about you?" I asked. "Didn't you try to help?"

Kenai hesitated, and I knew exactly what he'd say.

"I was petrified by fear and hid behind Mother instead," he hissed. "I'm a coward. I should be the one dead, not Umbris."

"That's not true!" I retorted. "You did what the others should've done and stayed where it was safe. You were only a cub then, and the youngest cub, too. You couldn't have done anything to stop what happened. Plus, you'd been blinded in one eye by a different lion prior to that. You were just using your trauma as knowledge."

"Whatever," Kenai muttered. "Anyway, that's not all. I left the nest a few days after the incident on account of Mother taking out her grief on me for not even trying to do anything and Thorn took me under his wing. When the remaining cubs grew old enough to leave the nest, Calliope flew off to be the healer of a pride, and Victor came to join me in training with Thorn."

"So, it seems mother was right," I said. "Calliope really wasn't meant to be a warrior."

"She only became a healer to prevent other lions from meeting the same terrible fate as Umbris," Kenai replied. "Anyways, after all her cubs had gone, Mother decided that she still wanted to care for children and flew off to see Thorn. But, before she reached his den, she heard cries that sounded far too familiar and turned to follow them. Turns out, the cries came from a young dodger that lost her mother and was attacked by wild foxenas. The poor thing barely escaped with her life, and Mother took pity on her. She nursed the dodger back to health and ended up raising her. "From that day on, she began finding young creatures in need and took them in. I honestly think it was generous of her to do such a thing, even if it was only because she was clearly losing her mind. One day, she was searching the savanna for a new child when she found something... interesting..."

"What was it?" I asked.

"A human girl," Kenai said. "Or at least what she thought was a human girl. Upon closer inspection, the girl looked... different from other humans."

"What does she look like?" I asked, completely invested in the story by now.

"It's best if you see her for yourself," Kenai said. "Anywho, after finding the girl and noticing how peculiar she looked, Mother notified Thorn about the girl and asked him to take a look at her. After meeting the girl, Thorn decided that she's one of the children of the prophecy."

"What!?" I yelled, almost falling off of Kenai's back in pure shock. "But I've found the other kid already! He's right here!"

"I know, and me, Victor, and Mother all tried to tell him that there were only two children of the prophecy, and that you'd find the other in Starling tribe territory. But, he insisted that he was right and that there was a third child, and that child was the girl. So, he made us promise that the next time one of us saw you, we'd bring you to Mother immediately to see the girl."