FIrst: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1282545404/ Previous: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1282695871 Next: None yet Chapter Two “So, I never did get your name.” Ataya said to Vaya. “Aren’t you Tiago and Elora’s daughter?” Ataya looked at Vaya with her one good eye before running into a tree that was out of her line of sight. Startled, Vaya quickly helped Ataya up. “Are you okay?” she asked, “What even happened to your eye?” Ataya looked at Vaya and muttered, “It was a mountain lion. Anyway, your name?” Vaya answered, “Oh, it’s Vaya, and my brother who got taken away by the Clawless is named Lino and yeah, we are the kits of Tiago and Elora.” Vaya looked at Ataya before quickly adding, “You said you think that you know where they're taking my brother?” Ataya nodded and said, “Yeah they’re probably taking him to what some call the ‘The Healing Hollow’ while others call it ’The Life-Stealer’” Vaya paused her eyes wide. “What happens there?” She asked. Ataya snorted, a sharp, dry sound. “The Clawless call it 'help,' but I call it The Echo-Box. It’s where they take cats who aren't fast enough to stay out of trouble. They put you in a room where your own meow bounces back at you off cold walls, feed you meat that doesn't pulse, and poke you until you forget what the wind feels like.” She looked at Vaya’s soft fur. “If your brother is in The Echo-Box, he’s currently being turned into a very bored rug.” She paused, her ear tufts twitching. “But some say it is not a place of death, but a place of change. They touch you with strange, hairless paws and make you sleep with a single sting. When you wake, you might have a new ‘skin.’ A heavy band around your neck that hums with the voice of the Clawless.” Vaya looked at Ataya and spoke, “So, there’s a chance that we can save him?” Ataya nodded and crouched down into a hunter's crouch. “Likley. Hey I smell another Lynx nearby!” “Oh great, it’s my mom’s smell, Elora.” Vaya groaned, her voice low and annoyed. “Mom, I’m over here!” Vaya yelled. Elora burst through the bushes at the sound of her daughter's voice. “Vaya! Where is Lino?” She yelped and then her eyes shot towards Ataya. “Who is this?” Ataya whacked herself on her face with her paw, “It’s me, Elora, Ataya.” Ataya sighed. Elora’s eyes widened and she stuttered, “Ataya? What… What happened to you?” Ataya sighed again, digging her paws into the ground, “It was a Mountain Lion.” Elora looked at Ataya again speechless. But it was Vaya who spoke next, “Hold on one moment, you two know each other?” she asked, eyes wide. “How come you never tell me and Lino anything? I thought we were supposed to be a family!” Vaya cried, and with that she ran into the forest into a small abandoned den. In that den she cried, and she cried until she fell asleep with a sense of warning, unease, and panic.
