The gray morning sky looms over us as I'm the first cat to crawl out of the East Tunnel. The effects of the transformation to my human state and back are still there; I'm drowsy, and the ground still feels like it's moving underneath me. However, I wasn't able to endure one more moment of being in the tunnel and being squished by multiple cats.

        Shortly after I sit down and take in the fresh air, other cats follow, most of them with some sort of injury. I realize that I'm not in the best shape either as I glance at some of my scratches. The deep ones look infected.

           No time to think of that, though. From the corner of my eye, Rain emerges out of the tunnel and pads straight to me. My heart sinks. I have to explain what she and North witnessed last night.

        "After the battle, I saw you as a human-" Rain starts.

        I interject, "Hang on, I'll explain."

        Trying to blink away the dizziness in my vision, I brush past her to the entrance of the tunnel. "North," I call out loudly into the tunnel, "can you come out?"

        I walk back toward Rain. A few moments later, the frazzled light gray tom arrives. His fur sticks out in every single direction possible, and he looks just as exhausted as me. "What'd you want?" he groans.

I reply, "I'm going to explain how I have a power."

North swishes his tail. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, as if there's a story to it. You were born in Gardinia with the ability to transform to a human, and you were adventurous enough to go hang out in one of the camps, where you somehow ended up here. I've heard similar cases."

"No," I say, "that's not it. A few nights ago, I went outside to get fresh air, and I ran into Ash and Ice. They were fighting. I accidentally got into the middle of it. Ash gave me the power after Ice tried to kill me."

        North gives a disbelieving snort. However, before he could say a sarcastic remark about it, Rain jumps up from her seated position.

"What?" she hisses. "But I told him not to do that anymore . . . Ash!"

She turns around as she calls his name. We see Ash sitting alone in the distance. After he sees Rain, he stands and walks toward us with slow, careful strides. North mutters something unintelligible and starts to wash his face with his paw.

When Ash finally comes to us, Rain asks, "Did you give Forest the ability to turn to a human?"

"Yes," Ash replies. His expressionless gaze wanders between me, Rain, and North.

My head leans over to North's ear. "Told you," I growl.

"When did I ever say I didn't believe you?" North snaps in a low voice, pausing from his spontaneous face wash to give me a fierce glare.

Rain says to Ash, "I thought I told you not to do it anymore."

Ash stares at Rain. "I made no promises. Besides, the situation with Tornado happened a long time ago. I believe that it is necessary to leave it behind us."

"But without consulting me for permission? You just went ahead and did it to Forest?"

         Ash tilts his head, considering Rain's words. "Alright, perhaps that was a rather impulsive thing to do. I apologize."

        "No," I say. Everyone turns to look at me. "It's my fault. I let Ash do this to me. He asked me permission, and I agreed because I wanted to be like a Superior. I'm sorry."

        My gaze falls to the ground as I feel my ears flatten to my head. The shame is weighing down on me. I shouldn't have agreed; who knows if I'll be able to control the power? I don't even know how I transformed to my human form last night.

         "It's okay," Rain says quietly, breaking the silence, "maybe Ash is right. Maybe we've been holding back Ash's ability for too long."

        North yawns. "Alright, cool story, Forest. Can I leave now?"

        "Not quite," Rain answers. The usual sparkle in her blue eyes are back. "North, since you have the same power as Forest, you're in charge of teaching him how to use it."

         North leaps backwards, widening his eyes. "What? Are you kidding? I can hardly stand next to him, let alone teach him something."

        "Nope, not kidding. Have fun!" Rain purrs. Her whiskers fluff out as she turns and strides away. Ash follows Rain and walks by her side, speaking to her.

North mutters, "Hmph, Earth Cat is a wannabe Superior. How interesting."

    Inhaling deeply, I give him a warning look. "Don't worry, I have enough of you, too. I'm going to treat my wounds."

        Without waiting for a response, I push past him and walk away.

~~~~~~~~

        The sky is gradually darkening to indigo. After helping find herbs to treat everyone's wounds- surprisingly, Gardinia is not as scarce as I thought when it comes to plants- I spent the day patrolling the East Tunnel. Since there were many deaths, and also since we lost the battle last night, we have to be tougher than usual on the defenses so we don't get surprised by an invasion. As I pace next to the entrance of the tunnel, Rain pads to me with a cat that I don't recognize.

"Hey, Forest, come with me to the South Tunnel! This is my friend, Cloud. She'll replace you," Rain meows, flicking her tail towards the white cat standing next to her. Cloud nods to me in greeting, and I nod back to her.

        "Okay," I reply. Cloud stays behind as Rain and I depart from the East Tunnel.

        As we walk, Rain briskly explains why she pulled me out of the patrol. "I want you to see something. We decided to strengthen our forces by using Ash's abilities, so he's going to give powers to some rebel cats. We're going to experiment how it turns out before we announce it to everyone else."

        "Oh, I guess that'll be interesting," I say, glancing at the long grass rubbing around our legs as we walk. The sky has turned to a dark blue.

        When we arrive next to the South Tunnel, I see Ash and three other rebel cats with their eyes glowing golden in the increasing darkness. Ash steps over to touch noses with Rain and me. Although I'm slightly startled by this sudden act of friendliness, I try to act normal.

"Should I start?" Ash asks Rain.

Rain replies, "Sure, go ahead!" She sits down while I stay standing.

"Alright," Ash murmurs. I notice that although his gaze is steady, his voice is shaky, and his tail is nervously twitching side to side.

"Good luck," I meow, tilting my head up towards him.

Ash blinks at me. "Thank you. I hope it goes well."

The tom returns to where he previously was, standing at least ten tails away from us with the three cats. He takes one of them away from the others and talks to him or her in a low voice. The cat nods to whatever he says.

        After saying his speech to the younger-looking feline, Ash does the same thing he did to me; he places his nose on the cat's forehead and his paw on his or her chest. Then, time passes by as I see him murmur the same strange words under his breath.

        "Wow," Rain meows into my ear, "this is more formal than I thought it would be."

        I snort in amusement. "Did you ever see him do this before?"

        "Nope, this is my first time."

        Suddenly, a screech rings through the air. Both of us jump as the young cat falls over unresponsive. Ash doesn't even ruffle his fur at the cat's reaction; he nudges the feline with his paw until he or she wakes up a moment later. Rain exhales in relief as the cat gets up, and I exhale too, realizing that I've been holding my breath for the entire time.

        Ash steps back. I hear him ask, "Are you okay?"

        "Yeah," the cat answers in a high-pitched voice. After Ash gives her directions and points his tail toward us, he walks past her to the next cat. The feline trots over to us.

        "Hi," she breathes. Rain and I murmur greetings to her, although we're both still distracted by Ash.

         As Ash prepares the next cat for the ritual, the newcomer squeaks, "Look!"

         Rain and I turn to look at her. We notice the large, silver wings that sprouted out of her back.

         "Woah, that's cool!" Rain exclaims, fluffing out her whiskers with excitement.

        The same thing happens to the next cat. Soon enough, the cat joins us. Although he doesn't show off his power like the first one did, I see by his wide, glazed eyes that he's still shocked by what happened. As I tilt my head towards the indigo sky, relief comes to me that Ash's power is working.

        However, as my gaze comes across Ash, the pleasant feeling that I experienced before washes away. Something is wrong. As Ash goes toward the final cat, his legs are wobbly and moving at a much slower speed than usual. Halfway to the cat, he pauses, heaves forward, and coughs as if he's about to throw up.

        "Ash," I call out, "are you alright?"

        Ash doesn't even tilt his ears in response to my question. As if he didn't hear me, he straightens up and continues to limp. Rain's head snaps toward him as she notices what's happening.

        "Ash, maybe you should take a break!" Rain says loudly.

        This time, Ash hears and turns his head to us. He croaks, "No, I will be fine. It's only one more cat. I'll be fine . . ."

        Neither Rain nor I look convinced, since even his speech sounds garbled. However, instead of stopping him, Rain quietly meows, "I'll let him finish. Maybe he's just tired. It's getting late."

        All of us fall silent as we watch Ash use his power on the last cat. He has trouble lifting his paw to put it on his or her chest, but otherwise, it seems to go well.

        As the final feline joins us, Rain says, "We should probably get going before the other rebels start looking for us. Hey, Ash, are you okay?"

        My heart slams against my chest in despair as Ash's body suddenly starts shaking out of control. He heaves and vomits before collapsing onto the ground.

        "Ash!" I yowl as I immediately bolt towards him.

       I have a dark feeling that this not going to end well.