ivypool_by_ivylight-d5v3hda

Lily Level Up – Level 2 to Level 3
This time, Lily was not just alone in a metaphorical sense. She was quite literally by herself, standing off from the others.
But the memories were not going to snake into her thoughts right now. No. She had a mission.
A mission to practice her powers.
She curled her tail around her paws, focusing. After a moment, a few sparks flickered at her paws.
She smiled slightly, pleased with herself, but that wasn’t the real reason she’d come out here.
Taking a deep breath, Lily focused, unsheathing her claws. Not stopping to change her mind, she flashed her claw across her outstretched leg, and felt a brief flash of pain. Then it was over.
She watched as the blood began to seep from the cut, but not as much blood as usual.
Then, as she saw the blood on her foreleg, she saw it again.
Her, desperately trying to heal the infected belly-wound, on the brink of death like she’d been so many times before. Crying for someone to help her, but no one coming. After all, Baxperians were brutal. Less cats meant less competition.
She felt herself beginning to shake as she relived the memory, felt the desperation of that day fresh in her heart. She collapsed, suddenly weak, and wondered blankly why she’d just done that. Hadn’t she known it would trigger the flashbacks?
Pain erupted in her heart as she once again thought of those bleak, desperate moons when she’d been barely alive. Time after time, her wound had bled open again, or gotten infected, or caused another cat to attack her. But she’d always managed to pull through.
Now, remembering that time, she made a solemn vow to herself. A vow she knew she could keep. Because she could heal.
She’d never let herself get hurt again.

Jinx Level Up – Level 1 to Level 2
As Jinx sat next to Aliza, the horrid liquid began to build in his mouth again. Hissing, he spat it out beside the hot stream, irritated.
Sure, the liquid might be helpful in the future. But he didn’t care.
As he turned back, he noticed a bubble of water in the hot spring had begun to rise, and he growled, shoving it back into the water. Irritation began to build beneath his pelt.
Yes, it could be helpful. Yes, he could use it in a fight.
But Jinx didn’t care. It wasn’t going to fix his broken, destroyed past, wasn’t going to help him at all. After all, he hadn’t come here for some stupid, “cool” ability; he’d come here to protect Ash, and that was it. Not to play with water, or spit out black liquid. He only had one goal, and powers weren’t part of it.
Because all the power in the world wouldn’t heal the wicked wounds inside him.

Malley Level Up – Level 3 to Level 4
Malley awoke, her head throbbing. The fire had subsided, leaving ice in its wake.
Icy cold at the cat who had done this. The cat who had destroyed her life.
She’d been happy for a while there. And they’d torn all that from her.
Yes, she knew who the murderer of her friends was.
The icy cold spread out from Malley’s heart, freezing her. Making her braver than she could be. Freezing her emotions. Her weakness. Making her unbreakable. Unbreakable because the sheer anger, the sheer betrayal she felt towards her enemy was too strong. Too strong to stay inside her heart. It had invaded her senses, and now she was strong.
Strong enough to do what she’d always planned.
She thought of what she’d do – of course she’d use the fire. The weapon that had seemed like it was inside of her for so long, in the form of agony. In the form of her grief.
She’d use her own grief against her enemy.
A gust of wind fluttered Malley’s fur, and she immediately knew why.
The apparition stood there, smirking as always, blood on its claws.
She hissed, retreating to the other side of the den. Instantly, grief, anger, and guilt all sought for her attention, slamming against her like one of those things the legends said the Twolegs used to get around. She fought to remain on her legs, nearly crumpling to the ground at the sight of the ghost’s face. Yet, it couldn’t be a ghost – her enemy was still alive.
She stiffened as the image raised a bloody claw, and sucked in a breath. This shouldn’t be anything new – she got regular visits from the haunting spirit. But it still made all her resolve, all her reason to live crumble into oblivion at the sight of it. And yet, it was her only reason to live. Murdering it was the only reason she’d stuck around.
“Weakling,” it hissed, showing its teeth. “They deserved it, you know. Or, rather, you did. You deserve what happened to them.”
Malley snarled, flinging herself at the imaginary thing, her claws slicing though air. She yowled, slashing it again and again until it disappeared.
She stood there trembling, the ice melting rapidly and giving way to the fire. The agony. The grief.
She braced herself for the searing pain when she felt something.
Looking down, she realized her anger at her visitor had caused her other power to come out. The undesirable one. There was a plant wrapped around her front paws.
She felt momentarily shocked as she saw it, numbness taking over the fire. Then fury.
Because the plant was a chain, and it symbolized all that trapped her. And she realized that this power trapped her, too. It was forcing her to relieve her past to use it. Putting her once again in the confinements she could never escape.
With a sudden rage, she lashed out at the bindings, snarling. She tore at the thing that was everything that caged her in, chained her – her anger, her past, the spirit, her weakness. Everything she was not. Everything that was wrong with her. Everything she hated.
She began to sob, clawing again and again at the stupid chains. She shredded them to pieces, flames blooming in the corners of her eyes. She shoved it into the burning fire, feeling not anger now, but emptiness.
She trembled again, feeling neither fire nor ice. This time, it was water. Water drowning her in all that she could not escape. The confines of her powers, her broken past, everything.
She turned her gaze to the plants around her.
And she watched them burn.

Malley Level Up – Level 4 to Level 5
It was drizzling for the upteenth time that moon – of course, with Haninga’s heat, rain was really only warm mist that evaporated with a sizzle once it hit the ground.
Laying in the midst of the drizzle was a small, not-yet-grown kit, their soft, fluffy fur tangled in countless knots. They walked slowly, every rib visible through their bony pelt. Their ears twitched as they surveyed the area, belly growling with deafening hunger. How long had it been since they’d eaten? Three days? Four? It seemed like an eternity.
The cat stopped as they scented a rabbit, ears twitching. They dropped into a crouch, stalking it. As they came up on it, ready to pounce, mouth watering, almost shaking with excitement, something moved.
The cat growled, their teeth flashing in the light, and the rabbit scampered away.
The cat unsheathed their claws, snarling with fury. They whipped around to see a cat, not much older than they were, with fur the color of powdery rock. Without a second thought, the two leapt at each other, snarling. Chances were both of them were orphaned, starved, and desperate.
When the fight ended, the golden tabby stood up, the gray cat’s blood on their fur and claws. The gray cat’s limp body gushed blood, their oddly-twisted neck an indicator of their quick demise.
A smoky-colored cat emerged from the brush, fur bristling. They looked at the golden tabby, eyes narrowed, and stretched their paw out.
“I’m Grizzle. We’re both hungry and alone – let’s team up.” Grizzle stared at the golden tabby with an even expression.
The golden tabby, knowing their odds were better with this strange tom were better than almost certain death alone in Haninga, stretched out their paw, touching Grizzle’s paw. “Deal. I’m Malley.”

———

As the excruciatingly hot moons stretched on, Malley and Grizzle came to be allies of sorts. Malley told the tom how her parents were killed, and he told her how that cat she’d killed was his brother. Smokes.
Of course, it was ill luck, but living the life she did, you didn’t look out much for others – only yourself. You couldn’t, really.
One of the days they were lucky enough to have enough food not to starve, Grizzle came into the small, camplike area that they lived in, bringing two scrawny, underfed cats behind him. They looked at Malley with huge, frightened eyes, and it took everything she had in her not to glare at them, bare her teeth, and demand to know where they got the nerve to trespass on her territory. But she restrained herself as Grizzle calmly explained that he’d found them, half-dead, weeping over their kit that had fallen into one of the rivers of lava. He’d offered to take them in.
Malley didn’t like it, but she didn’t want to get booted from the camp, so she was civil to them.
The she-cat approached her, eyes wide with fright. “Please don’t hate us … I’m sorry. I won’t steal your prey, or bother you. It’s just … that was our kit. Mine and Sky’s. Her name was Saph. She fell in that river. We just need time.” Tears filled her eyes, and she looked at Malley pleadingly.
What Malley would’ve liked to do was hiss at this she-cat and snap at her it was lucky she’d only lost a kit, but she stopped herself. Instead, she responded, “Fine,” lashed her tail, and left.
Eventually, Malley began to tolerate them, mainly because they didn’t take her prey. She learned that they’d fought in the army, and all their family was dead.
Moons passed, and Grizzle kept bringing new cats to their camp. Oddly enough, Malley started to actually like some of them. She tried not to, but they were all so nice, unlike anyone she’d ever met.
Soon, there were eleven cats in camp, and she’d attached herself to them all, to her great dismay.
“See?” Grizzle meowed to her a few moons after the eleventh cat, Swan, had been brought to camp. “Don’t you think this was better than me leaving you for dead?”
Malley, despite her best efforts, felt her mouth twitching into a smile. Because she did like it here. It was better than anything she could’ve hoped for.
But it would not last.

———

It was raining again. Malley trudged through the misty downpour, the meager, skinny squirrel in her jaws. As of late, prey was thin. Everyone’s bones jutted out of their starved frames. This was the only thing they’d eat all day.
She sighed, reaching the entrance to camp. It was better than nothing.
Immediately upon entering, she could tell that something was off. No one milled around, making polite conversation. No one smiled at her, waving her over. No one was there. No one.
She began to run to the small, run-down shed in the corner of the camp, panic making her breathing accelerate. Her heart began to pound in her chest.
And then she saw it.
All of them.
Dead.
They laid on the floor of the shed, blood everywhere, choking her. So much blood.
Wait. Only ten.
Only ten lifeless cats.
Malley slowly turned her head to the other side of the shack, holding her breath.
Blood coated his claws, his teeth, his fur. His honey-colored eyes narrowed. His mouth drawn in a smirk.
Malley opened her mouth, but nothing came out except a garbled squeak. She didn’t understand. Her head spun. Everything moved. Distorted. Warped. Black spots danced in front of her vision.
“Remember when you killed him? My brother?” His voice was a victorious, bone-chilling hiss. “Well, I didn’t forget. All this time I’ve been deceiving you – how stupid you were. Bringing you friends … so I could make you suffer. See, you killed him. And I can’t forget that. And now, you’re going to live with what you did forever. How your choices made these innocent cats die. How they’re dead. Because of you.”
That was the last thing she saw before the flames of agony started devouring her flesh.

———

Pain. So much pain. Pain had been Malley’s whole word for months, invading every thought until she’d collapse suddenly, not moving, not breathing. Just feeling the hot flames tearing her apart inside.
She didn’t like to think about that.
She looked at the remaining plants around her, imagining they were Grizzle. The cat who had destroyed her life. She’d long since stopped caring about killing his brother – in no way did that call for what he’d done.
She watched the flames burn everything around her, ashes drifting around her as if mocking her. As if showing her what broken parts of her were left. How she was barely anything, still alive because of one measly reason. One meek cause. Grizzle’s death.
Of course, there were others she hated, and she’d like them to die as well, but her need for her enemy’s murder had taken over everything inside of her. Turned her blood to fire, her bones to diamonds. Deadly. Unbreakable.
She knew how to use her power now. She could control it. One image of her former life, and she summoned a roaring flame. A reminder of what she’d lost, and she could move it wherever she liked.
And when the Tests were over, she’d use that fire one last time. She’d use it on Grizzle. She’d watch the light die from his eyes, just as the light had died from her friends’.
She would burn the forest of her awful life. The flames would burn everything to the ground, and destroy all that she hated.
And eventually, on the ashes of death, of loss, of anger, of grief, flowers would grow.