December Moon <pt3>.......AerisVampire

Evander found himself, oddly enough, home in his own bed. He smelled a foreign odor, probably a younger kitten from his parents' second litter. The scent was there, but still were his pillows and stuffed animals. His teddy bear was still a decapitated amputee. Just as he left him. Evander stirred on hid bed, rolled over. Sitting in a newly placed rocking chair was his mother, nursing their youngest kitten with Tantalus' smile painted on her lips.

"Good morning, dear Eve," she said softly. "Aren't you glad to be home again?"

Eve sat up in bed, and was greeted by the blinding rays of the dawning sun. He shielded his face with his arm and looked at his mother desperately.

"I couldn't control myself," he said, amazed she hadn't scolded him, but more grateful than not that his father hadn't slaughtered him in his sleep.

Eve's mother appeared white in the morning light, her charcoal grey fur reflecting the dawn in such a way. She looked old, he thought. "I hope you don't mind," she said, as if he'd simply answered yes to her inquiry. "I let your little brother have this room."

"I could smell it . . .but I can't see it, Ma," Eve played along - as if he'd simply answered yes to her inquiry.

"That's because he hasn't changed it at all. He respects you, after all he's heard."

"He's never met me. He doesn't know what I've really done . . ."

The nursing kitten wriggled and squealed, and Eve's mother stood, beckoning her grown son with her head. "Come," she said gently. "Come and see your little sister, Georgia. We found her - near dead - in a box last week."

Evander crawled from the bed and stepped lightly to them. He looked over his mother's arm at her, wrapped in Piper's old blanket. She seemed to be a part of the fabric, her peach-orange fur blending in with the yellow of the terry-cloth surrounding her. As she fell asleep, Evander gazed upon her, his thoughts falling back to his sister: silent, peaceful, with her lids closed lightly over her large green eyes.

"Georgia," he repeated softly. "And she's well now?"

His mother nodded. "Couldn't be a healthier kitten. It was hard, but I managed to nurse her back to health."

"And Piper?" he asked as he held them both close. She didn't say anything. It came to him immediately that something had gone wrong.

"Piper," she bagan, sniffling as diamond tears rose in her ducts, but did not grace her cheeks with their presence. "Piper is okay."

Evander heaved a sigh of relief, and pressed his mother and sister closer to him, but allowed the tiny Georgia room to breathe. He beheld her in the cavern created between his mother and he, and felt a new knowledge bloom inside him, opening like a rose, or a door letting in a lingering summer breeze. A revelation deep down: the reality of life. There she was, a new life between two veterans, innocence and purity not yet marred asleep before their eyes. She had not yet lived, and Evander was determined to allow her that chance to make the most of the only thing her careless mother had given her. Lost in his own philosophy, he snapped out of it when his mother spoke again:

"Your Aunt Jag healed her up early last night."

He sniffled, recalling last night when he forgot why he had returned. He'd forgotten everything but rage and primal instincts, and when he had killed Clove. It was at that moment that he realized how misfortune followed him everywhere: curses, deaths, impoundment. But now . . . Piper was okay.

"Let's go see how she's doing, okay, Eve?"

He nodded and took his mother's arm as she cradled Georgia in the other, and together they left to visit Piper.

When they entered the room, she was lying on her bed, hardly awake, bundled in a new yellow blanket. Corinth and Mikhail were there, Corinth holding her frail hand.

"So she's alright?" Eve asked with a trembling voice, his brow furrowed with concern. This was the only reason he was back home: to make sure Piper was alright. He bit his bottom lip hopefully as Mik delivered his answer. Mik had been pacing the room solemnly, but paused to turn and face Eve and his mother, his eyes glowing with determination.

"Leave, Evander," he said firmly, simply. His words were crisp, and affirmed by the expression in his eyes, eyes that stared upon the tabby across the room hatefully.

"Mikhail, no!" Corinth snapped, only glancing at his pacing cousin. "Eve, stay here. Piper is okay--"

"Piper!" Mik shouted, forgetting the sleeping Queen. He growled beneath his breath and stomped across the room to Eve. Looking him square in the firey eye, Mik lowered his voice. "She may be alright, and that's one life saved, but your brother Clove is dead by your hand. A thousand good deeds in this tribe cannot amount to one murder, Evander. That is why, as the leader of the Tribe, I demand that you leave."

"As your aunt and elder, Mikhail, I will not let you dismiss him so quickly!" Eve's mother shot at Mik. "You haven't even given him time to explain! No time to say goodbye!"

Eve could not beleive a word he was hearing as he looked back and forth from speaker to speaker as an argument brewed before him.

"Alright," Mik said darkly. "Explain yourself."

"Well, I . . ." Eve stammered, trying to find a valid excuse, but he returned with none. The truth would be told. "I went crazy for a moment, I suppose. I, I don't quite remember last night. Not at all."

"You claim insanity then?"

"Yes. All I remember of the incident was before, when Clove was alive. He was insulting Jackie . . . and I couldn't hold back."

Their discussion was cut short by a small, highly articulate voice heard from the corner of the room: "Mikhail," it said, each syllable clear and pronounced. "He is my brother. Let him remain."

All eyes fell on Piper, sitting up in bed.

"In his mind, there was no wrong. He could not help himself, Mikhail. Did you punish me for my inability to speak?"

"I was not leader of the Tribe back then," he said bitterly, the words rolling off his tongue like lead balls.

"But would you have?"

"Of course not," Mik admitted. "You were born that way."

"Evander was also born with a flaw."

Mik glared at Piper; he had been bested in this debate. "That's no excuse. He killed one of us. He killed his own brother, Piper! Your brother!"

She didn't speak, but clenched Corinth's paw. Corinth grimaced slightly at Mik, for Piper had spoken to him mentally, most likely something harse. Piper never spoke out loud such thoughts. Only Tantalus and Corinth were ever exposed to her unkind side, and everyone else was under the illusion that she was as sweet and as innocent as she appeared from birth. And for the most part, she was. It was only times such as these when Piper's demons came out to play.

"As the leader of the Tribe," Mik repeated with a quiver in his voice. "I demand that you leave."

Eve breathed hard, angrily, through his nose and glanced to his mother. She looked as though she was about ready to explode on her nephew if not for baby Georgia. However, she did stalk across the room to him, and spit in his face:

"You don't know what you're doing to the Tribe, you little git."

"You would do well to mind your tongue, Vivitevka," Mik replied, wiping spittle from his furry cheek.

"Thats Aunt Vivitevka to you," she growled deeply, and with that, whisked herself and her standing children from the room.

"Mik, I don't think you realize how right she is," Corinth said softly.

"My mother has a great deal of influence of all of the Cats," Piper said calmly. "You are breaking up the Tribe, because if he goes, she will go, Father will run after her, and he will take me with him. Corinth will follow me. Eury will panic and rush to notify Milo. He will break out of the pound, and Maxie will leave you too. Not to mention Jackie, for whose sake Clove is dead." Her voice, they just realized was gravelly, hard. Piper sneered at the look on Mikhail's face. It was offended, amazed. She sounded so much like Tantalus.

"Yes, Mikhail, I know." - He stiffened, terrified. - "When he granted me the gift of voice, he poured everything into me. Not just his voice, but his heart, soul, and his mind. I am as much Tantalus as I am Piper, but I am one Cat . . . with all the capabilities and capacity of two."

Mikhail and Corinth were silent as they stared dumbfounded at the seemingly suddenly-changed Piper. Even Corinth, a psychic, could not see that inside her.

"This information," she snarled, "is not to go beyond this room."



Thanks so much guys!! AerisVampire

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