Chapter 4

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They rode for hours. The three newer recruits were hungry, but they didn't say anything. Their fear of the Jewelclaws temporarily paralyzed their hunger, and they didn't think they could eat anything if they tried. Just as soon as they'd get used to the Jewelcaws, or think they did, they remembered everything they'd been taught about them, and they'd begin to wonder why they agreed to ride them in the first place.

The Jewelclaws meowed to each other often, making idle chat amongst themselves. Kyle looked around at the trees, marveled in new sights. For the first three hours, Jackson was somewhat focused on trying to steer Dexter closer to Hazel, only to admit defeat, realizing that the Jewelclaws couldn't be controlled.

Karina grasped Willow tightly, and the tolerant cat was getting annoyed, because Karina, not knowing where to grab her (having completely ignored Madelyn), was holding her ears. Whenever Willow gave a little hiss to tell Karina to stop, Karina would let out a squeal of terror and nearly fall off.

Willow eventually gave up and endured Karina's petrified hold with a look of such pathetic discomfort, Madelyn almost wanted to try to make Karina listen to her again, though she knew it would never work. Kyle, taking in everything around him, didn't notice he was up next to Madelyn until she started talking.

"Just wondering, but why in the world did you all think Jewelclaws were evil?" she asked.

He looked to his left, where she rode. Wow. She was really pretty. Kyle felt a little nervous for a second, and had a hard time thinking. It was really easy to get lost, one would know what he meant if they met her in his circumstances.

"Well I uh..." He stared at her. Her hair fell in those long pretty waves down her back, and she had big deep, yet bright eyes that sought endless adventure, high cheekbones that made her look like she would smile at him like that forever, a straight white smile that...

"Why did you think they were evil?" she asked again meekly, not realizing why Kyle lost concentration.

"Oh!" Kyle said. "Yeah, sorry." He looked away from her so he wouldn't get distracted again. "Well, ten years ago, President Wolfe's daughter was taken by a Jewelclaw, I mean, there are even eyewitnesses who talked about her being carried off in its jaws, but he was really shaken up over it. He had just gotten over his wife dying at childbirth a few years before. The country started falling apart within the first week, and then..."

"Is President Wolfe still in power?" Madelyn asked.

"Yeah. He was supposed to be out eight years ago, but it kind of became a dictatorship. I'm surprised they still call him 'President.' He's like a monarchy."

"Well, that much hasn't changed," Madelyn chuckled. "I do remember that."

"Yeah," Kyle said, chuckling along with her. How long had she been out here? "But after the country started falling apart, a man named Tyler Koil stepped up. He voiced the evils of the Jewelclaws, and said only he knew how to hunt and contain them.

"He said they usually ate whatever humans came near them, as they prey on large animals, that if they're clever enough to reach the capital building unnoticed, they're clever enough to reach the city full of people,and that they had an inability to show mercy..."

Loki turned and gave him an amused look, and even a snort of feline laughter. Loki even glanced beside him and saw Hazel thinking the same thing. "...and people hired him to take care of the Jewelclaws. We all trusted him, but they seem pretty docile to me, and so far we haven't been eaten yet..."

"Huh," Madelyn said. They were silent for a bit. They must've gone dozens of miles by now, riding on trotting Jewelclaws. Judging by how the trees flew by so fast, Kyle supposed they were going a solid thirty or thirty-five miles and hour. For riding on a trotting cat, that was fast. Though Kyle really wanted to ask Madelyn where she came from, he just couldn't muster up the question. So instead, after a good amount of solid thinking, he asked, "How long have you been out here, like, in the woods, living on your own?"

Madelyn sighed. "Ten years." There was a pause, in which she didn't say anything else. She didn't want to talk about much more.

"Well, back there..." Kyle started, changing the subject after a moment of awkward silence, seeing very clearly she wished to drop the subject. "Sorry I hit you. I mean, you dropped out of nowhere, and I didn't know you, but then when I got a good look at you, you were like, never before, like drop dead go..." He stopped himself.

He dropped his words then and there, before he revealed what he was really thinking. He immediately felt extremely embarrassed for almost saying that, and looked nearly as red as Jackson's shirt.

"What?" she asked, suddenly impatient and annoyed. "Go on. If you think there's something weird about me, spit it out, because I'm sick of whenever I see another person, they always stare at me like I just grew horns and a big fluffy tail and then they'll—"

"No!" Kyle exclaimed. "You're just really pretty! I wasn't about to say..." He realized what he'd just said, and blushed again. "By that, I mean, uh..."

Madelyn took a deep breath. "Oh," she whispered. Then she smiled and shrugged, relieved. There was another awkward pause. She even laughed a little, realizing what the problem with her had been al this time. "Whenever someone sees me, they always stop and mutter something to themselves. At least that's why. I always thought maybe I was weird looking, mean, I haven't seen a mirror since I was six except in my ax blades and puddles. But, I mean, I still keep hygiene. I wash, I brush my hair and my teeth. Basic stuff. I've even carved wooden eating utensils in my spare time." She shook her head. "Spare time. Cause if there's something I've got too much of, it's that," she huffed.The woods could get boring sometimes.

"Yeah." Kyle was glad she had diverted the subject, but it still felt awkward to be riding next to her now. He looked around. He wished Loki would drop back, but he didn't, and he didn't want to have to verbally ask him.


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