After Elder Paw's announcement Scott was feeling a bit nervous. What if I'd brought danger without realizing it?! What if I was the danger and got possessed somehow?? What if- His thoughts were interrupted by Annette.
"Stop thinking 'what ifs' bro. We're not going to be the danger, there must've been something else.." She trailed off to think about the matter more. Scott wandered over to a warm rock in the clearing of camp and curled up on it as a bobcat. This Prophecy disturbed him, but before he could Mitzi walked over to him. He turned his head toward her,
"Hey Scott, I was wondering if you, Annette, and Adrien wanted to help me look for some herbs. Amara is resting after her whole glowing prophecy show." She giggled.
"Sure!" Scott said and jumped off the rock, shifting as he landed. Annette and Adrien were already at the camp entrance, waiting. The group followed Mitzi, who knew what they were looking for. Soon they were close to the Scale border, this is why she needed all three of us. Scott thought. Mitzi showed them the herbs they were looking for and they began to gather. After an hour they had gathered as much as they could carry and began their walk back to camp. A hiss from the bushes stopped them in their tracks.
"What was that?" Adrien whispered. Just he said that two snakes and two lizards slithered out of the bushes.
"Scale Tribe!" Mitzi squeaked, and Scott positioned himself protectively in front of her. The Scaleans shifted revealing Loki with two other boys and a girl. The first boy was dressed in all black and his long black hair determined him as dark and mysterious. His silver gem was on a piercing on his lip, which he fiddled with. A blank stare was on his face. The other boy hunched over a bit, fully embracing his half-chameleon side. He had yellow eyes that darted everywhere and light brown hair. His silver gem was on a chock necklace and his long tail flicked. The final Scalean was the girl. She wore her black gem on her finger, and she eyed Loki as if waiting for his command. Ok three High Class and one Lower Class. And it seems that Loki is the highest High Class. Scott thought. Adrien hissed at them.
"What are you doing here you filthy bâtards!"
"Adrien!" Mitzi said, astonished. Adrien just continued to glare to the Scaleans and so was Annette. Loki leisurely walked toward them,
"Just on a job Elder Scale sent us on." He said, then crouched down ready to attack, Scott copied him.
"To kill the two of Prophecy." He hissed and on that he attacked along with his tribemates. Loki charged at Annette but Adrien intercepted him leaving them fighting together. The girl attacked Mitzi with speed even Scott couldn't match, as they tumbled away Scott was matched with the emo boy with the lip ring. Leaving Annette with the twitchy chameleon boy. Scott couldn't focus on what was going on with the other's flights because soon the boy he was fighting had him pinned to the ground. Scott punched him in the jaw and grabbed him from behind. The boy shifted into a horned lizard and was free of Scott's grip. Scott shifted and chased him around before biting down on the lizard's tail, then immediately regretted it. Ouch, spiky horns! Scott lost the lizard but ran over to help Mitzi with the girl. They'd both shifted and Mitzi was using her fast reflexes to dodge a basilisk's attacks. When the girl got distracted by Scott's approach Mitzi took the moment to bite the snake hard. It yelped and shifted back to the girl, and Scott charged. He barreled into her and pinned her. Something ran into him and he was looking into Loki's face. He hadn't yet shifted and Scott growled trying to snap at him. The battle area was splattered with some blood and it was loud with battle cries. Loki smacked Scott in the face forcing him to focus on Loki's face again.
"You and your sister are dead." He hissed.
"I don't think so." Scott said while shifting. Before Loki could adjust his grip on Scott he jammed his knee up and caught Loki in the stomach. Scott was free while Loki caught his breath. The scuffling lasted like this for a few minutes before Scott could sense a different presence with them. He sniffed the air and smelled… humans! A gunshot rang out making everyone freeze. Now with the fighting stopped Scott could see that none of his friends or his sister were dead. Phew! Injuries maybe, but no death. The humans were police officers, and they looked at the tribe members with surprise and fear. The officer who'd fired had his gun aimed at the sky. Loki hissed,
"Get out of our business. This is our fight not yours!" The Scale Tribe members attacked the officers, who shot blindly at them. Gunshots rang through the air, it hurt Scott's sensitive bobcat ears. He didn't charge at the officers, instead he ran to see if his friends were ok. Mitzi was ok so he went over to Annette and helped her off the ground. Gunshots kept firing and after one of them went off a scream rang through the area louder than the gunshot itself. It must've been the last bullet because the gunshots ended and the Scaleans chased the officers away. Scott looked to the source of the scream. It was Mitzi! She lay on the ground, her leg bleeding everywhere around her. NO!! Scott ran over to her,
"Mitzi! Mitzi can you hear me?!" Scott said once he was kneeling by her head. Annette and Adrien realized what was happening and joined him.
"Awe truquer Mitzi don't die!" Adrien said. Scott cradled Mitzi's head in his hands.
"Mitzi please!" Scott cried. She groaned and opened her eyes a little bit. She smiled up at Scott.
"I'm okay. I think?" She whispered. Mitzi tried to look at her leg but Annette blocked her view. The blood coming from Mitzi's bulletwound had made a puddle around her leg. Mitzi's face went pale, and she grimaced.
"Mmm everything's spinning...Scott?" She breathed and Scott nodded.
"Yes?" He was trying to fight back tears. Amara will help her, she's not going to die! He kept telling himself.
"If I don't make it..I want you to know, I-I love you." Mitzi said quietly, she stretched her neck up so her lips met Scott's. Scott kissed her back and then Mitzi went limp.
"Mitzi!" He cried. Adrien placed his cat ear against Mitzi's chest.
"She's still alive but we need to get her to camp, fast!" Scott and Adrien carried Mitzi between them back to camp with Annette limping behind. They were all covered in scratches and bites, but thankfully no snake bites this time. Once they entered camp walls other tribemates could see the the dire situation and made room for them to walk toward Amara's den. Amara seemed to have smelled the blood the moment they got within smelling range and prepared the makeshift root bed for Mitzi. The tribe healer ripped off the leg on Mitzi's jeans and started to do whatever she could to stop the bleeding. Now Scott could see where the bullet hit her. Her knee. That's not going to be good later....
"Wait! You have to get the bullet out." Scott told her, when Amara looked confused Scott looked for tweezers. Amara had to have at least those. Once he grabbed those he gave them to Amara.
"There's a metal ball in her wound, you have to get it out before you wrap up her leg." He explained so she'd understand. Amara nodded, determined and went to get the bullet out. She didn't say anything or show any emotion, but she was good with her job and soon got the bullet out. Annette and Adrien left to report back to Elder Paw what had happened, no doubt Annette was explaining most of it while Adrien cursed in french. While Amara fumbled around showing the first signs of her shock and fear, Scott grabbed the medical tape and gauze. Right where it was last time. He handed it to Amara who nodded in thanks and wrapped up Mitzi's leg after cleaning it. Her hands trembled as she taped the gauze in place and then put the supplies away. Amara took a few deep breaths before turning around to face Scott.
"You should clean all that blood off your hands." She muttered and left the den. Scott did as he was told and as he was walking back to Amara's den he saw her talking with Elder Paw. He picked up a few words before he disappeared under the Great Tree.
"Lost a lot of blood…..take a while to heal....limp." He didn't want to hear any more as he sat down on the floor next to Mitzi's unconscious body. Scott leaned his head against the root and sighed. It should've been him who'd gotten hurt, not Mitzi. As night was falling Scott drifted off to sleep sitting next to Mitzi.