Injured

Cats:

Michael- Dark brown tabby and white tom with sharp copper eyes.

Ace- Black tom with copper eyes.

Fawkes- Ginger tabby tom with hard amber eyes.

Loren- Gray tabby tom with white patches and blue eyes

Lotus- Black color-point Siamese molly with icy blue eyes.

Badger- Black and white tom with amber eyes. (Marked)

Mushroom- Pale brown molly with pale green eyes. (Marked)

Snake- Black tom with amber eyes.

? - Tall gray tabby tom with a pale muzzle, paws, and underbelly, and pale blue eyes.

"Hurry everyone! This way… And stay in the shadows if you can!"

"Yes sir, Michael sir!"

Michael hissed as he felt the blood dripping down his face as the rest of patrol dashed out in front of him. He noticed that Snake was limping as his mentor, the gray tabby and white Loren, helped him.

"Michael!" called the ginger form of Fawkes as he ran up. "We can't let those stupid rogues get away with this! We have to attack them!"

"Now is not the time to attack, Sir Fawkes," replied Michael, upset by the younger tom's disrespect with his title. "Everyone here has wounds and need to be treated… And we need to report this to Lord Arthur! Otherwise… Sir Stonewall's death would have been vain."

"Well… At least it was the worthless cat that stayed behind!" Fawkes stated with a snort. "Seriously! We have enough useless cats in the Knights!"

"Enough Fawkes!" roared Michael stepping towards the other tom. "Stonewall was twice as brave as you were today. She gave up her life so that the rest of us could live! That is an action of a molly who gave her heart and spirit… Who gave everything that she could to the Knights!"

"But she could give us the one thing that could keep the Knights going," snapped back Fawkes. "She could not ever give us kits! She could not strengthen the bloodline of Lancelot!"

"That is just insane!" Michael shouted, stomping his paw onto the ground. "The mollies within our group are not required to produce kittens if they don't want to! They have a right to find love on their terms, just like any of the toms! If someone wants kits but do not want to or cannot carry them, then adoption is an option. Besides… It is not Stonewall's fault that she could not have kittens."

"Sir Michael," called out a molly, her icy blue eyes gleaming from the shadows. "Sir Fawkes… We need to get out of here… That group is almost here!"

"Understood Sir Lotus!" Michael answered, his dark tabby and white fur smoothing down. "Sir Fawkes… We will be having a talk about your behavior! You do not disrespect your elders nor those that have given up their lives for the rest of us!"

"Whatever, you old fart," hissed Fawkes. "You can't tell me what to do!"

"Someone is going to hit that tom right across the face one day!" he thought bitterly. "You cannot act like that and expect everyone to support and like you. One of these days, Fawkes is going to do something serious and get kicked from the Knights… His father was a great and bold Knight… So how did Fawkes turn out like this?"

Michael's thoughts then turned towards Stonewall as he ran after the rest of his patrol. She was a smaller gray tabby molly with lighter paws with a v-shaped cut from one of her ears. He still remembered the day that she came in, a frightened rogue crying about how her family threw her out after being returned by the Upwalkers. However, once accepted into the Knights, she threw her heart into becoming a great fighter.

"It is saddening that some groups base a molly's worth on their ability to have kittens," Michael mentally growled. "That isn't right… There are so many unwanted kittens… While every life is important, you can't force someone to love something that they will hate… Also, it is the mollies that end up paying the price for the tom's hateful lifestyle… Stonewall didn't need that type of talk… She did want kits but the humans took that choice from her. It is sad because they just saw her an just another feral…"

He thought about his head-strong yet loving mate, Petal, and their two sweet, precious kittens, Nutmeg and Rose. A hint of a smile crossed his before a furious snarl ripped out his throat. If any tom even tried to touch his little sweethearts, he would tear out their hearts. No one was going to hurt his daughters while he was alive!

"Sir Michael! Over here!"

"Great…" he groaned. "I'm getting old. I need to pay attention to my surroundings…"

Checking over the patrol as he joined them under the bush, he was happy to see that everyone had met up. On the other paw, he was alarmed to see that Snake was laying on his side, heavily breathing. Taking a quick glance at everyone else, he saw that everyone but Fawkes had some sort of wounds. However, Mushroom seemed to have her tail curled around something despite her bloody nose.

"Sir Loren," Michael began, facing the gray tabby and white tom. "How is Snake?"

"He was more seriously wounded than we first thought," Loren answered. "If we don't get him back to the Healers… We might lose him. He hid the wound on his stomach… Adding the wound on his hind leg…"

"No… Why Snake?" cried out Badger. "He was the normal one out of us!"

Lotus said nothing but put her tail over her Page's shoulder. Ace, meanwhile, was beside Mushroom, appearing a mixture of worried and upset.

"Okay… Sir Loren, teleport Snake and see if you can find Sir Matthew or Sir Salome," Michael ordered. "Sir Lotus, Sir Ace, you go ahead and take your own Pages with you. Sir Fawkes and I will follow you."

"Sir Michael," the black tom beside Mushroom mewed. "I think that you need to see this."

"Understood, Sire Ace," answered Michael. "Everyone else, go back and get some help… If someone can report to Lord Arthur what happened!"

"Oh course, Sir!" replied Lotus, saluting him with her tail. "And… Please be careful, Michael, Ace, and Mushroom. We may have outrun those rogues for now, but we don't know if they are still looking for us…"

Michael watched as the rest of the patrol used the power embedded within the metals they wore around onto the cloth necklaces to teleport away. Soon enough, it was just him, Mushroom, and Ace.

"Now… Mushroom, what is the matter?" Michael questioned. "And… What do you have your tail wrapped around?"

"He was so cold!" Mushroom mewed, looking nervous. "I thought that he was dead at first then…"

"Wait… He?" Michael exclaimed, now alarmed. "Show me, please?"

Mushroom, anxious and looking at Ace for support, slowly show the tiny gray tabby figure. Michael gasped as sniffed the kitten.

"What in the world… Why is such a young kitten out here alone?" Michael thought as he licked the poor, cold kitten, trying to warm him up. "Was he abandoned? Who would abandon just a sweet little one? These kittypets…"

Michael froze when he tasted a hint of blood. He stopped his licking, noticing that the young kitten seemed to be wiggling around, and easily found the problem. One of the kitten's eyes had been slashed through by four clear lines. Quickly glancing around for thorns, Michael found none.

"I looked around for thorns too," Mushroom added, noting what Michael did. "But there are none here. And… This is very revolting to think about but…"

Unsheathing her claws, Mushroom placed them right above the four wounds on the little one's face. Observing that the claws match the wounds, horror filled Michael's heart. Glancing at both Ace and Mushroom, he saw that horror blossoming in their eyes as Mushroom put away her claws.

"How could anyone do this to a young kitten?" Ace growled, upset. "Poor little one… It is likely that he would never be able to see out of that eye again!"

"Was there anyone here when you found this little one?" Michael questioned. "Or at least, was there any scent?"

"There was one," responded Mushroom. "A tom… But I couldn't just leave the little guy here alone! If he stayed cold for too long, he could have…. He could have…"

"Mushroom… You did the right thing," Michael stated with a hint of pride in his voice. "We cannot ignore this… You are growing up to be a good Knight… Now let's take this kitten back with us…"

As both Ace and Mushroom nodded with agreement, a soft mew entered Michael's ears. Glancing down, he saw that the kitten, with uninjured eye wide open, curled on top of his paw. Love filled his heart as the kitten purred as he rolled over. That was when he saw a strange marking on the little tom's chest. There was a silver circular shape that reminded Michael of a spider's web with two lines that ran down to connect to two bright feathers marked right into his fur. Fury erupted in Michael's body.

"This kitten is Marked!" Michael mentally snarled. "So… He was stuck down because he has a power! Damn kittypets and their hateful culture! Whatever, this injured tom is now mine! I will raise him along with Nutmeg and Rose as my son! The spirits must have been with us today… Otherwise… This kitten would have died…"

"Hey… Does that Mark look like?" Mushroom questioned, seeing it. "I seem to recall one of the ship cats saying something about a web that the humans use… From across the sea? What was it called again?"

"A dreamweaver?" Michael answered, not completely sure. "At least… I think. So… Until we can find a better name, let's call him Dreamweaver…"

"Dreamweaver… My son… I will make sure that you will never be injured like this ever again!"