Chapter 16: Living Prophecy

tinton - 2 1/2 seconds
specton - 2 1/2 minutes
Toton - 2 1/2 hours
minton - 2 1/2 days
daycon - 2 1/2 weeks
quant - 2 1/2 years
galant - 2 1/2 centuries
Metson - 2 1/2 inches
maclon - 2 1/2 feet
heckson - 2 1/2 miles
tetson - 2 1/2 acres

Bill Axor (AKA Ambrose or Ambree) - Lion clan
King Tomco Traxor - Bill’s dead father, Lion clan
King Tobias Traxor - Bill’s dead brother, Lion clan
Queen Trianna Axor - Bill’s dead mother, Lion clan of Mandria
Queen Niaco Traxor - Tiger clan, Tobias mate, now Bill’s
Twitty Glax - Grey Tabby clan, bill’s body guard and mate
Glenna Nox - Bengal clan, Bill’s body guard and mate
Mikos Glac - Chartreux clan
Commander of star cruiser - Wire hair clan
General Roth - Leopard clan
Wrena - Leopard clan, Roth’s wife
Henna Glac - Chartreux clan, Mikos mate, Xendran Doctor
Theta Panadon - Cheetah clan
Cornelius Glax - one of Bill’s Uncles, Grey Tabby clan
Conrad Nox - Bill’s other Uncle Bengal clan
Assassin group - Jaguar clan
second assassin group - Ocicat clan
Gregor - Cougar clan
Cetana - cougar clan Gregor’s mate
Gwayne - Panther clan
Dawney - Panther clan Gwayne’s mate
Thomas - Lynx clan Mileen (AKA Milee) - Lynx clan Thomas’s mate
Typree Maxor - Sub King of Mandria, Lion clan
Adina Maxor - Sub-princess of Mandria, Lion clan

“Princess Adina,” Niaco said as her wide eyes took in the young Lion Clan female. “I had heard that you were as wild as many of the younger teens of the Realm. I just never thought to actually see you one day.”

Adina backed further beside Ambrose, the fur on the back of her neck raised as she hissed back at him, “Ambree, who are the heavily weaponed females?” Adina’s eyes darted from the knights to their mates and back to Niaco.

Sighing and then shaking his head, Ambrose took Adina by the arm as he brought her before each. “Princess, this is Paladin Wrena, mate to Knight Roth of the Leopard Clan.”

“Paladin? Cousin, I am unfamiliar with that term,” Adina asked, confusion evident on her face.

Ambrose nodded his head as he explained, “There is not, nor has there ever been, a title for a female knight. I therefore made one. All four of the knights’ mates displayed the courage and skill evident in a knight. They helped to protect the palace and Queen Niaco in the battle.”

Adina gasped as she fell at the paws of Niaco. “I beg your forgiveness, my Queen. In that armor, it was hard to see that it was you!”

Niaco’s mouth dropped open as she looked to Ambrose for a moment, then gently lifted the young female. “You are more than forgiven, Princess Adina. One can hardly blame you for the mistake, considering.”

Bowing to Niaco again, Ambrose then took Adina to the rest of the females. “This is Paladin Cetana, mate to Knight Gregor of the Cougar Clan.”

Adina bowed to Cetana and Wrena as she and Ambrose moved further down the line. “I present Paladin Dawney, mate to Knight Gwayne of the Panther Clan.” Dawney bowed to Adina as she and Ambrose moved to the last female. “This is Paladin...”

“Milee?” Adina stated with huge eyes, “Is it really you? Aunt Trianna used to bring me to the palace. I remember you trying to get me to wear dresses.” Here Adina made a distasteful face that had all of the females chuckling.

Mileen reached out, embracing Adina in a fierce hug. “It has been far too long, my dear Adina. I take it your brother is the sub-king now?” Adina only nodded about to speak when the communicator on the belt of Jankuis went off.

Eleven pairs of eyes turned toward him as he answered it. Ambrose started to nod when he held the communicator away from his ear. “I believe that he wishes to talk to you, sire,” Jankuis said as he handed the device to Ambrose.

“Cousin?” Ambrose heard. “Is she there, cousin? I went to look for her and found her gone. It was only a half toton after I last saw her. Then I remembered she’d heard me order Jankuis to help defend you with the new low atmosphere ship we have.”

Sighing, Ambrose was about to answer when he saw Adina mouth not to tell her brother, that he hadn’t seen her yet. Shaking his head no, his eyes got wide as she stuck her tongue out at him! “I’m here, cousin. As is she, up to her usual tongue-lashing.”

Ambrose heard Typree groan then chuckle. “For once, cousin, I am glad it is you and not me. Though I suppose I will get the same after I have her home. I know that you don’t really have the time for her nor the female assistance.”

Niaco walked up at that moment, “Am I supposed to take that as an insult or compliment?” She softly growled.

“Really, Ty, this overaggressiveness, I still believe, will lead you to more trouble than you can handle!” Mileen said over Niaco’s shoulder, drawing a silent giggle from Niaco.

“Queen Niaco! I meant no disrespect! I thought you and the king would be far too busy. Was ... was that Mileen?” Typree asked in shock. “I had heard that you’d gone.”

Mileen turned toward her mate, drawing her sword, “you didn’t tell him!”

“As you remember, I was engaged with King Tomco when you were at the palace. For once, you can’t blame me!” Then he saw the half-murderous look in his mate’s eyes. Sighing, Thomas nodded, “apparently, you are going to find a way to blame me, though.” Standing his ground as his mate approached, he lowered his head as she started to swing at him. Suddenly, he was on the ground as she fell on top of him, kissing his face and purring rather loudly.

Adina was rolling her eyes as she looked away toward Ambrose. Suddenly her eyes were large as she saw a lone bowman pointing at Ambrose. Grabbing half a shield, she jumped behind Ambrose as the shaft left the crossbow-like bow. Roaring out, she stood her ground as a moment later the shaft hit the half shield, penetrating it with ease. Then it traveled on through into her upper shoulder almost all the way through that.

Niaco roared as several bowmen loosed shafts, hitting the lone bowman about twenty times. Adina gasped as she turned and smiled at Ambrose. Then, looking at his mates and the other females, she tried to nod then fell forward into Ambrose’s arms. “Finally,” she said weakly, “I did something worthwhile.” Then her eyes closed as the pain increased more than she could stand.

“I’ll call you back, cousin, Adina has been shot with an arrow.” Ambrose heard Typree start to yell as he shut the comm off. Ambrose looked at his cousin; the bleeding was bad, real bad. He had to do something or she’d bleed to death. Motioning to all the others, he told them to hold her still. Rapidly pulling the shaft from her, it was worse than he thought.

Sighing, he looked at all those present except for two of his mates. No one knew he could do what he was about to do. Growling fiercely, he looked at all of them. “Not a word of what you are about to see!”

Stretching his paws over her, Ambrose growled as both his paws then his arms started to glow. Both Twitty and Glenna gasped as they both whispered, “the ancient healing! By the great feline! You are the Prophesied one!”

The rest of those present could only look at the two females with questioning looks. Then they looked back at Adina; she was still bleeding but it was finally starting to slow. Suddenly, Ambrose roared louder as the glow started to move across the rest of his body. Damn it! Why was it taking so long? It had only been about thirty years since he’d last used it. Then again, he had failed then also. He had kept his mother alive long enough for his father to reach her. Then she had died happy in his arms.

Tears were starting to fall from his eyes. Mother! I am so sorry that I failed you; I should have died that day, not you! Why didn’t you let me help you? Why did you push me away?

Suddenly, memories flooded back into his mind. Stop, Ambrose. You cannot save me. I am sorry, son, that I won’t be there to help you with this. You are far too young to be doing this. Take the pain for me, there you go. I am proud of you, my little cub, so very proud of you. Always know that I love you, my dear son, always. Stop, your father approaches. With that, she passed a hand over little Ambrose’s head, and trembling, Ambrose had tried to heal her again, greatly weakened by what he’d done. Even as she pushed him away, he’d tried. Smiling, she shook her head no, then he was unconscious.

Growling harder, Ambrose felt as if something broke free in him as he started to pour power into Adina. A few moments later, they all watched in amazement as her wounds rapidly healed. All of them were wide-eyed as Adina started to cough, then her eyes flickered open, looking around then up at Ambrose. She tried to weakly push Ambrose away.

“No, Ambree! Stop, please! Aunt Trianna told me you had it, she also said you were too weak to do a full healing. Stop, Ambree!” As she tried again to push Ambrose away, he smacked her paws away. Looking at the others, she started to cry, “Please stop him; it will kill him! He’s only done it once; it will kill him; he has to stop!”

“Shut up, Adina! I am a hell of a lot stronger than I was back then! You stop this or we both might die!” Ambrose whispered back to her through taunt lips. It was hard, he had to admit, though as he had said, he was by far stronger than she thought. Besides, if she was awake, then she was almost healed.

Finally, a specton and a half later, Ambrose sighed as the glow started to fade. Adina jumped up, grabbing Ambrose as he started to fall back. Crap, he thought, he forgot it took so much energy to do this! “Ambree, why? I was glad to do that to protect you. It’s all I have wanted to do all my life.” Here her head dropped as she started to cry. “I can’t even die right! Just once in my life, I wanted to feel as if I did something worthwhile. Now I’ve caused you to expose who you are.” Adina started to cry harder into Ambrose’s shoulder.