Star Rebellion

by Alicia Howell

  “I’ll go too, you guys might need my knowledge with the Animals, they are part of the environment after all.” Sunstar. Damn I really hate that chick, but she followed Ice none the less.

  Forest glared at us all for a few more seconds before he uncrossed his arms. “Fine. I’ll go too, but only because I don’t want to walk back to HQ in this blasted rain.” We all kind of flinched at the sharpness in his voice, but Firestar nodded his head contentedly. Apparently he was glad that the new guys were following us to their potential death.

  “So, just follow the cat,” Darkstar said the question as a statement, but Vlad nodded his head anyways. We all started to go to Kuro, but just before I was out of arm's reach Vladimir grabbed my hand.

  “Two things, firstly, your pack must stay here,” Vladimir said seriously, already as if he knew I would protest.

  “What the hell do you mean? I don’t go nowhere without that.” I already had a hand on my hip, full sass mode activated.

  “I have my own reasons, but trust me, it needs to stay here with me. If you need any weapons, feel free to grab them.”

  “What? You think I can simply strap a bajillion and five weapons to my body?”

  “No, but you can keep some knives, can’t you?”

  “Whatever, I already have a few on me, so just keep the pack. Buttmunch.”

  I was about to leave with that being my final goodbye when he said, “Remember, I had two things to say. That was one.”

  Of course that made me turn around again. “What else do you want?”

  “Waterstar, please be careful.” Underneath his shaggy hair, I could see Vlad’s electric blue eyes; I couldn’t read them, but I could tell that whatever emotion they hid was foreign to Vladimir.

  “I’ll try my best,” I said hesitantly, as if I already something would happen.

  Vlad bent closer to me and whispered something in my ear. I looked back at him in surprise. “Are you sure?” He only nodded his head solemnly.

  “Come on Waterstar! We’re wasting time!” The shout had come from Firestar; there was a certain edge in his voice that made me think back to the when he had asked me to be careful also. Look at how well that had turned out. Maybe I should one day listen to them.

  I shrugged my shoulders as I jogged to catch up with the others. I could figure out my own problems after we had finished our mission. I had almost added an if to that thought. I didn’t want to think about the deadly real possibility that we could all die down here.

  “Remember! Don’t stray off of the path!” Vladimir shouted the warning from behind us. We had all grunted our understandings as we reached the doors and Kuro.

  “The fun begins.” I said in a slightly sarcastic voice. Alright fine, it was really sarcastic.

  DARKSTAR

  I was in lead of our dreary line, or well, in lead of the Rebels. Kuro was in front of me, being the guide.

  “How long is this going to take?” Forest asked from the back. He still wasn’t exactly eager to be going down to ‘the pits of hell’, as he had described this little adventure of ours.

  “Oh, I dunno, a couple of hours? The times I’ve been down here before I never really paid attention as I merrily skipped down the pwettiful paths.” I shot back at him, my voice was already pissy ‘cause this guy wouldn’t shut up.

  “You’ve been down here before?” Sunstar questioned.

  “Oh yea, loads of times.” I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see.

  “Really?”

  “No.”

  I think I just hit the “top five hated list” for her. Good, I didn’t need her making doe eyes at me.

  “Darkstar is right, only a few more hours if we don’t hit any nasty surprises.” The voice rose from around us and was obviously ignoring our arguments.

  Wait… whose voice was that?

  We all stopped in astonishment. The voice wasn’t from anyone that was in the Star Rebellion. I looked at Kuro, who had also stopped and was looking at us.

  “What? Just because I’m a cat you don’t think I can talk? You mortals really are ignorant!” Kuro flicked her tail at us and continued down the path.

  A laugh pierced the dark passage as someone brushed past me. Before I could attack, my brain registered the laugh as Water’s; the only one that was insane enough to laugh at a time like this.

  “Kuro, I officially love you.” She said as she followed the black cat. I looked back at the other guys before Fire and I followed Water. The others soon joined us; obviously the newcomers didn’t know her that well.

  “Why didn't you say anything earlier?” Sunstar questioned. From the rising tone of her voice, it sounded like she was mad about this.

  Kuro looked at the girl for a minute, the only communication was blinking. “It wasn't necessary.”

  “How long would you have waited before speaking if this hadn't come up? What if we had a question, but didn't know you could speak, and therefore didn't ask it?” Sunstar was looking a bit like Water with how her hand rested on her hip, and man was she getting worked up.

  Before Kuro could reply, Icestar stepped up to his friend and placed a hand on her shoulder. He made sure to obstruct her view of the cat. “Sunstar, chill. It's fine, we're fine. Nothing bad has happened.”

  Sun pushed her way past Ice and looked at him incredulously, like she was betrayed. “Fine, take their side!”

  “I'm not taking sides.”

  “Then don't tell me to chill. Don't pull you zen attitude here. I know I'm right that it is important that the cat can speak and that it didn't tell us.”

  “The cat has a name.” Waterstar pushed her way past Sunstar and that ended the conversation. Well, Ice's restraining hand to keep Sunstar from going after Water helped end the conversation too. It seemed like the guy had a bit of a calming effect on his temperamental comrade, though it seemed that she digressed from him too. An ego like that must not be good at making friends, one would think she would cherish her relationship with Icestar.

  FIRESTAR

  Ya know, when we first started this journey, I had thought it’d be a lot more fighting off demons and being brave heroes legends are written about, and a lot less trudging through muck. Really, was knee-deep mud necessarily while we were trying to cross this one area called the Shadowlands? It was a place between the civilized worlds and Hell, according to Kuro. The cat seemed to like Waterstar best, but didn't really have opinions on the rest of us. More so just watched as we talked among ourselves, and would answer any question we posed. Sunstar was warming up to the cat a bit more after the earlier drama, but she still seemed a bit moody towards Ice. He was just trying to look after her, and she blew him off. Nice girl, wasn't she?

  Kuro also laid out how exactly this place was mapped out, which was very exciting to me. I liked maps and knowing where I am, it helped calm me down during battle. While we were in the tunnels walking out here, she said that the Shadowlands would basically be a vast plain, with mountains toward outright. Eventually, the path would lead into those mountains which would then lead to the Hall of the Gates. Some guardian dog was there that we'd have to take out, then vola. We were in demon-central, perfectly on our way to where the Mystic Animals were awaiting their heroes.

  When we finally exited the tunnels, we were outside just as Kuro had said; the sun was an unmoving dim orb off to one horizon and fog hung five-ish feet off the ground. Everything was dead, including the few people we had seen. They were rotting skeletons, often missing bones or still had pieces of flesh attached. Various weapons would occasionally be featured in one of their decaying hands. Not a vacation I would suggest.

  After a merry obstacle course of avoiding dead people, we got to a gulch where Kuro demanded to be picked up. Water happily did so and walked into the gulch as Kuro had instructed, and then she disappeared. We all started panicking until she reappeared right in front of us. “Get in the gulch!” Was all she said until she once again disappeared. We all followed her and sunk about a foot into
the mud before hitting somewhat firm ground.

  And that is how we all ended up in knee-deep mud. Well, all of us except Sunstar, who was still on the banks arguing with Kuro.

  “Sunstar, just deal with it.” Icestar finally cut in as he got out of the mud. Dark was nodding his head behind him, even though Sun couldn’t see that.

  “Just let her walk on the banks, if she gets screwed she gets screwed; we’re invisible down here anyway, right Kuro?” I said impatiently.

  The cat nodded. “The mud has magic that Vladimir had stored within it. Nothing can detect us down here except Vladimir, myself, and Lucifer.”

  “Well, let’s just hope that we don’t encounter Lucifer, ‘cause then we’re all screwed.” Forest’s comment actually got a smile out of everyone, well except Sun, who was currently glaring at Kuro.

  “Fine, I’m staying up here as you all take dirty mud baths.” Kuro nodded her head. She took a pawful of mud up and splashed it on Sun. “What the hell?!” Sun’s shriek pierced the area.

  “Shush, and it’ll let you see everyone in the mud, and hear them. It won’t work if a random monster did that, but I infused it with my magic so it will.” Kuro jumped back into Water’s arms, clearly looking annoyed. Sunstar looked at the patch of mud that was on her flower printed dress before walking next to us on the banks.

  Our feet made a weird squelching sound every time we moved them out of the mud. “They wouldn’t even need to see us; they could just fire arrows at the sound.” I muttered after a particularly loud squelch.

  I heard Waterstar giggle in front of me, and I felt a smile spread across my face. Even in the worst situations, she wasn’t afraid to laugh or act as she normally does.

  A few squelches later, Forest broke the somewhat silence. “When do you think we could eat? I’m starving.” His voice was a little hesitant cause of how many times Dark had told him to shut up.

  “I think we’re all a bit hungry, it has to be hours since any of us last ate,” I said with a reassuring smile. An important quality of any leader is to make the others feel okay about doing or asking stuff.

  “I see some fruit trees over there,” this time it was Sunstar. “I’ll be right back.” She left before anyone could stop her.

  Kuro’s voice was the loudest out of all of us. “Don’t wander too far off the path!” Sunstar looked back and there was a spark in her eye as she remembered Vladimir’s warning. She started to come back, but by then it was already too late.

  Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

  By now everyone was shouting for her to run back, even Waterstar. I twisted my head up to look at something that was darting in my line of vision; a spiked tail was shooting across the sky towards Sunstar. I felt my voice crack as I shouted her name. The tail swung around and pierced her in the back, going through her entire body, and the spike emerged from her chest. Blood splattered her dress and coffee-colored skin. My eyes widened as her shriek echoed in my head, then gurgled off. I knew I'd remember the sound for years.

  Sunstar was lifted off the ground as the tail was pulled back to its master. Her blood trickled down on us as she was dragged between our ranks. I heard someone gasp as arms wrapped around my waist. With the little strength powered by fear, Sunstar held onto me. From this close I could see the blood sliding from the side of her mouth; the tail had punctured a lung.

  I felt my legs being dragged out of the mud and panic flooded my mind. Sun was going to take me with her to her death.

  A screamed pierced the fuzz in my brain as I saw someone clawing at Sunstar. “No way are you killing him, you messed up prissy bumblebee!” It was Waterstar, her blond hair was swirling around her and the blue streaks looking like the sky to my fear-filled eyes, and oh angels, was she pissed.

  Fresh blood dripped from Sun's mouth as she finally let go of me. As her arms released me, I saw blood sprouting from the cuts Water had left on her skin. I fell backwards into the mud and I felt Water beneath me. We all watched as Sun was dragged into the shadows of a mountain, limp the entire way. Not long after she disappeared from sight, I put my head in my hands, still trying to grasp what had happened.

  “There wasn’t much that could’ve been done.” It took me a few seconds to realize that Icestar had spoken. We all looked over at him in surprise. He was staring off to the mountains where his friend had disappeared, his expression as unreadable as ever. No one could form the words to reply to this.

  After the silence endured a few moments, Kuro’s voice was like thunder. “We better get going, at the end of this gulch there’s another tunnel we must go through to reach the Gates.”

  We all nodded our heads, subdued and afraid. I pulled Waterstar close to me and whispered, “That was terrifying.” I felt her nod her head against my chest and realized that she was crying.

  “I-I thought I had lost you.” I pressed my cheek against her head. She didn’t resist the hug. After a few seconds, I pulled away from Waterstar, messing her hair up like usual.

  “Come on, we’ve got some animals to rescue!” I said with a grim smile and helped Water out of the mud. Somehow, Darkstar had ended up with Kuro while Sunstar had been… captured. The cat was still amazingly mud-free.

  “I’m sorry for dropping you, Kuro. Can you please forgive me? I promise it won’t happen again.” Waterstar held out her arms and Kuro immediately leapt into them. A wide smile spread across both of their faces, or well, Kuro’s was as smiley as a cat can be.

  I surveyed the condition that my team was in. Water was the worst; she was completely caked in mud, even her hair, which had always been in tip-top condition. Darkstar looked a bit gloomy, then again he always did unless he was fighting. Icestar had seemed to have taken Sun’s death the worst. His normally expressionless face was pulled down into a frown and his eyes were focused on the mud. Foreststar, well he refused to look at any of us, and his eyes kept darting back toward the mountain. So basically, we didn’t look so hot.

  “Come on guys, even though we can’t be seen, we shouldn’t stay here much longer, we’ve got some business to attend to.” I took leader status since no one else was going to.

  We all started trudging through the muck again, and I slowed down until I was even with Icestar. “Hey, you okay? I know you and Sunstar were close.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

  Ice nodded his head. “I guess you could say that we were close. She had always come down to the garage with snacks, and I had started to think of her as a little sister. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not mad at Waterstar for making her let go of you. Better one gone than two.” Ice looked at me with his grey eyes and I knew he spoke the truth.

  I was silent for a moment. “We all try our best. Here, at the base, in the Barrens. Despite how hard we try, there are many things we still can't accomplish. Today has shown that in a cruel way.” I looked ahead to see the cavern in front of us, it's foreboding entrance seemed to amplify my words.

  WATERSTAR

  “This is the last stretch,” Kuro said from my arms.

  “Whoop-pi-doo,” Darkstar was glaring at the cavern as if it had stolen his favorite piece of candy, which was rather hilarious.

  Before I could say anything about that, Foreststar also spoke up, “No use just standing out here; let’s go in.” I think it was Don’t-Let-Water-Speak day. I mean, seriously! I settled for rolling my eyes before climbing up the side of the gulch, but I don’t advise holding a cat while trying to climb. Just don’t do it.

  Once we had gotten to the top, I set Kuro down. “Come on people, let’s follow the leader.” I was a little surprise that my voice was as perky as it usually is. I mean, seriously, I had to pry some little idiot’s fingers off of Firestar and now we were about to merrily skip into some dark cave that could easily kill us within seconds. It isn’t like saving Calsh is a walk in the park, you know.

  Before we entered the cave, Kuro turned around to face us. “This cave will be extremely dark and the pressure of the air muffles voices, do
you have another way to communicate with each other?”

  We all looked at each other in a “oh crap” moment. Well, everyone except Ice.

  “I have some prototype headphones; there are still a few bugs, but they should be good. Firestar and Foreststar touched their ears as if they had just remembered the near-invisible headphones. I rolled my eyes at their ignorance; guys could be such idiots at times.

  Icestar fished two more earpieces out of his pockets and handed them to Dark and I. “Thanks,” I muttered and Ice simply nodded his head.

  “Testing, testing.” I whispered into the mic, “Can you guys hear me?” A chorus of yeses blasted my ear. “DON’T TALK AT THE SAME TIME!” I watched in pleasure as they shared the same pain that I had had earlier. There’s power within volume.

  “What about you, Kuro?” Fire asked, sorely rubbing his ear from my vengeance.

  “Don’t worry about me. Vladimir has gifted me with telepathic abilities.” We all started at the cat like she was magical. Oh wait, she kind of is.

  “Okay! Let’s go.” I had another smile on my face as I entered the cavern. I felt someone grab my hand and I jerked reflexively, stilling the instinct to punch them.

  “We’ve got to stay together, you idiot.” It was Firestar. Of course it was Firestar; he was the only one stupid enough to call me an idiot.

  “Whatever.” Even though I was annoyed with him, I didn’t pull my hand away. I felt Kuro brush against my leg as she took the lead. A small dot of light signaled where she was; apparently the bell on her collar glowed in the dark. Well, at least we wouldn’t get lost that way.

  To entertain myself in the otherwise boring cave, I watched the bell swing. I counted every swing that it made: 856, 857, 858, 859, 860, 861… at 1,365, the bell stopped and I almost stepped on Kuro’s tail.

  “Oh angels,” I heard someone say behind me. I heard people running into each other and eventually the domino effect reached me as Firestar stumbled forward. I nimbly stepped to the side and let him fall to the floor, barely getting his hands under himself before hitting the ground.