I bet my heart galloped harder than Hecarim.

…

How embarrassing.

Equius pulled back hard on the reigns, and turned Hec around to once again face the forest.

"Ride STRONGLY, hoofbeast!" Equius shouted coarsely as he hit Hecarim's sides with his heels. The hoofbeast complied and ran forth with a speed that Equius had not yet seen.

His heart raced and his face became numb as the sweat on his face cooled in the cold wind.

The only thing on his mind was Nepeta.

Equius rode through the forest furiously, as Hecarim rode as fast as he could, sensing Equius' anxiousness.

In time they came to the pile of flowery vines, and Equius leapt from the hoofbeast.

"If the flames get too close, don't stay. I'll find another way out. I command it," he said very sternly. The hoofbeast snorted and nodded his head in agreement. "I will be very angry if you disobey me," he said through clenched teeth.

He turned to the path he traveled earlier and began angrily and tearing through the trees and bushes, traveling at a running speed to Nepeta's hive. In his aggravated state, he could only imagine her being there.

If she wasn't, he didn't know what he would do.

It time he tore through the forest and arrived at Nepeta's tree, which was still a distance away from the flames, but not for long.

"Nepeta! Nepeta!" he cried as strongly as he could. A moment later he saw a dark tail fall limply along a branch, and as he approached the tree's trunk, a bit of green blood fell onto his face. His beating heart sank. "Nepeta, I'll get you out!" he shouted. He backed up, then did a running, very strong jump up at the tree, grabbing it nearly twenty feet above the ground. For the rest of the way, he climbed the trunk by breaking his fingers through the tree's bark to get a proper hold on it.

In time, he found the source of the blood.

Nidallee draped helplessly over a branch, breathing heavily as green blood dripped from the two arrow wounds in her side.

"Oh, you poor, beautiful creature..." he said sadly as he reached out to carefully stroke it's back.

There was only one blood he was aware of that dared to arch.

He examined the arrows. Sure enough, they were made from signature bluewood. Equius felt a new surge of rage swell within him.

"I'll try my absolute best to revive you, dear pawbeast. Once we find Nepeta we will leave at once."

He carefully removed the arrows, getting scratched by Nidallee in the process, and put the lusus on his back, tucking her large paws underneath the chains on the front of his shirt.

Though he assumed that she wasn't inside, he quickly leapt up into her cave and briefly inspected it, finding it vacant as he suspected. He wanted to be entirely certain.

He walked to the edge of the cave and quickly looked around the ground below.

Seeing no sign of anyone, he leapt down, going branch to branch in an attempt to be delicate for the bleeding pawbeast.

In time he reached the ground. He could no longer smell the powerful and obnoxious smell of the flowers, as it was replaced with the smell of smoke.

Suddenly, he heard many screams coming from a short distance in the forest in front of him and behind him. He pulled his bow out and readied it with an arrow, prepared for whatever would come his way.

A dozen feline greenbloods emerged from the forest, running on all fours, looking very frightened as several bluebloods emerged from the forest behind them, some of them carrying unconcious greenbloods over their shoulders.

Equius lowered his bow and stared at them silently.

"What is going on here?" Equius said as he caught a blueblood by his shoulder. This one was of Vriska's color, so he owed Equius a certain measure of respect.

"We have received orders from Darkleer the Executor to execute the majority if the greenbloods, Queen's orders," he explained. "You must have missed the letter."

Equius' heart sank, and he was consumed with mixed feelings. The greenbloods had done nothing wrong to the bluebloods, so this was very undignified.

But Darkleer was the epitome of strength and dignity; yet he authorized such a thing.

"Ow, hey, sir," the ceruleanblood whined, "you're hurting me, quite a lot..." he squirmed beneath his grasp.

Equius released him and began to sweat, staring at the ground beneath him. Nidalee stirred a bit and let out a low growl, snapping him out of his daze.

All he knew was that he had to find Nepeta.

"Halt!" he demanded of the ceruleanblood harshly. "Why are they carrying off the dead and nearly conscious?"

"Probably for Lusus food, or perhaps they'd like a temporary kissmesis. I'm not sure, sir." He smiled nervously at Equius before bowing and running after the blue and greenbloods.

Equius felt mainly rage surging within him.

Where was Nepeta?

Nepeta hid in the bushes, her heart pounding in chest as she struggled to remain quiet a large female blueblood walked near her with two smaller ones nearby. The female had Equius' blood color on her clothing, and so did one of the males, but one of them bore the color of a tealblood. It made her extra angry that someone hardly bluer than her would participate in such a thing, and it made her even angrier that she had to wait to kill the blueblood that shot her precious lusus, then had the nerve to remark that it wasn't even good enough for food as their was "something wrong with it".

She also knew that she had to leave her hiding place before the flames got too close. Her eyes were already teary from the smoke and from her own grief.

She was so angry she could hardly think straight, but she knew that after taking out one blueblood, as strong as she was she would inevitably be killed. Even attempting to harm a blueblood would get you killed.

She rested in her pouncing position, waiting and waiting, until finally, the bluebloods walked away, as the smoke was making them cough too much. Nepeta, low to the ground, was breathing fine.

She scratched at the ground and sobbed angrily, then decided that she would take her vengeance at another time. She would remember that blueblood's awful scent.

She rose from her spot and began to saunter away, but someone unexpectedly grabbed her by her arm, and pulled her close, hard. She felt an arrowhead press into her neck.

A large blueblood hovered over her, smiling.

"What do we have here?" he asked, breathing heavily. He had green blood on his hand; Nepeta could smell it.

"A lost little oliveblood. I can show you where you're supposed to be, if you'd just-" he froze. "Is that... Indigo blood...?" he asked, looking astonished.

"What...?" Nepeta asked softly. He pulled her paw closer to his face and looked at it.

It was from when she saved Equius from falling.

How ironic that it would mean her death.

"How dare you raise a hand at a highblood! You'll pay for your insolen-!"

Nepeta shut her eyes tight, expecting the crossbow to go off.

Instead, though, she felt it pull away from her harshly, scratching her neck, and the grasp on her arm released. She opened her eyes to see the blueblood on the ground, with Equius angrily standing over him. He picked up his crossbow and smashed it in his right hand, threw it to the ground, then lifted the blueblood by the front of his shirt.

"This greenblood is mine," he snarled at him, then threw him to the ground. "If you come after us I will crush you with my bare hands!" he turned to Nepeta. "Nepeta, we must leave. Hecarim is at our meeting place. We must make haste, I do not know how much longer your lusus will be alive."

Nepeta nodded. She noticed that she was shaking and slightly dazed, having been through so much, but she nodded her head and refocused.

"It's okay, Nidallee," she said softly as she scratched her on the head. "We'll get out of here, Equius is a really good person…" Equius stared at Nepeta and noticed the green blood running down her neck, thick like paint. He felt mixed feelings.

"Let's go. Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yes, I can." She suddenly got down on all fours. "I can run!" Her tail swished furiously.

"Excellent," he replied.

The two of them ran through the forest as quickly as they couold without being too rough on Nidallee. They several times had to diverge off of the main paths to duck into the bushes at Nepeta's direction to avoid the various bluebloods, and at one time ran into hiding greenbloods who displayed fear at the sight of Equius. Nepeta quickly explained that she was not a hostage, but a friend, which made Equius blush a bit as he felt rather uncomfortable with the notion himself still. He smiled nervously in an effort to keep them from screaming, and it seemed to have a calming effect, if not a slightly creepy one.

Despite his intenions, Equius found himself accidentally traveling with a pack of at first three other greenbloods, then five, then seven, then nine as they raced out of there. In time he arrived at his lusus, where a couple ceruleanbloods were waiting, discussing the strange hoofbeast and which one of them would take it for food or whatever they wished should it's owner not arrive in time. Several of the greenbloods scattered into the bushes, while others were not quick enough and simply froze in their sight. Equius, towering over them, glared.

"This is my hoofbeast, and these are my olivebloods." He said very seriously. They half-heartedly saluted him and exchanged a confused look with one another.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, why so many? I mean, that's an awful lot of food for one person…"

"It is not your place to know," he said fiercely. He was starting to sweat again, but quickly wiped his face with his cape. "Move on. This forest will be gone soon." The two of them nodded and ran away at a rather relaxed pace.

Equius mounted Nepeta and commanded Nepeta to do the same; she complied and gently removed Nidallee's paws from the chains and laid her on her lap, stroking her head.

"Equius, sir, may we accompany you out of the forest?" an older, female greenblood asked. Equius blushed. More unexpected behavior from lowerbloods. He thought about it for a moment. He assumed that, should any other bluebloods witness it, they would assume that he was simply an excellent gatherer, which he already knew that he was.

"Yes. But you must leave my presence once we exit the forest."

Two of them bowed before him. "Thank you, sir highblood."

Equius smiled a bit and looked away, then composed himself enough to grasp Hecarim's reigns. He whipped them down and commanded Hecarim to run. Nepeta held onto Equius' right shoulder as she supported Nidallee with her left arm.

In a matter of moments, they were finally out of the forest. The sun was now up, and the light was exceptionally unpleasant. Equius raised his glassed to cover his eyes, though it was still harsh through the tinted blue shades.

Several hundred greenbloods surrounded the forest, many of them running sporadically around.

"Where are we supposed to go, Equius?" Nepeta asked. Her voice was shaking.

He paused and looked at the group of roughly twenty olivebloods that had followed them out.

"I suggest you look for a place to stay amongst the lowerbloods, as disgusting as that sounds. There is no place for you here. They will have no choice but to take you in. Before that, however, you should go to the jadebloods. They will take you in until the sun sets once again, then you should take your leave."

They nodded and looked at eachother.

"Nepeta you will come with me. I can provide care for your lusus at my home. She would not survive the journey to the jadebloods."

"Okay…" she agreed softly. At that, they made the trip once again up the mountains.

As the air became colder as they ascended, Nepeta covered Nidallee with Equius' cape, leaving herself to shiver.

Upon turning the corner around the peak that hid his home, he halted Hecarim.

A massive airship hovered above his home, with a long anchor made of heavy chains resting beside it.

That must have been a surprise.

2 MONTHS, NINE DAYS, THREE HOURS AND TWENTY-EIGHT SECONDS BEFORE SOME CRITICAL MOMENT