(After 100 years I finally made part five, sorry for the wait. The reason it took so long is because everytime I got out of the app it deleted all of my progress 🙃)

Two days had passed since the group had passed the lake, now, they were all standing near the edge of a nearby cliff, casting their gazes over the horizon where the kingdom of Epirisana lay. Cherry’s paws felt weak from the journey they had trekked, but she was pleased with herself for getting there, especially since this was her first time.

Raiden hit the soft ground with a thud, a tired sigh rising from his exhausted state, “I’ve done this five times, and yet I’m still not used to this dreadful trip…” he’d grumble. Dude nudged him with a paw, “we’re almost there, you can make it.” He’d say, looking back at the distant kingdom. Whisper Rose shook her long fur coat, “if we don’t stop, we’ll most definitely make it to Diamond. I can sense her waiting for us…” she’d meow quietly.

“Wait a moment,” Snowdrop suddenly meowed, “did we ever tell Cherry about code names?” She asked, blinking her eyes with question. Storm rose to her paws, “I completely forgot about those!” She began, “Cherry, we use code names when we go places, the creatures of the kingdom don’t know our real names, Diamond asked us to keep it a secret, only she knows who we really are.”

Cherry tilted her head, “why doesn’t she want anyone to know who we are?” She’d ask, her tone mixed with suspicion. Storm shook her head, “no clue.” She admitted, flicking her tail. QuailSong twirled in the air, “are we going or not?” She’d meow, blinking her eyes with boredom. Gabby laughed, “okay everyone, get your paws moving! We’ll be there soon!” She cheered.

/-^^-\

Blade looked up at the gates with confusion, “weren’t these smaller last time?” He’d ask, flicking his ears. Cherry looked up at the tall gates that loomed over her like a hawk, she was slightly confused on how cats could make something like that, but who knew, she was most likely no longer connected to the real world… Storm nodded, “I think they were littler last time as well.” She shrugged and pounded one of her forepaws against the gates, “Hey! Let us in!”

After a few moments, the gates slit open, allowing the nine to pass into the kingdom. Cherry took a deap breath as she entered, looking around as the kingdom’s citizens deserted their homes and looked at them with their eyes filled with curiosity. They gazed over at each of them in turn. Eventually, one of them bounded up to them. They were a shorter cat, with a Russian blue coat that reflected the ocean’s color.

The newcomer tilted their head, “are you the ones whom Queen Diamond’s been awaiting?” They ask, an inquisitive smile forming on their face. Whisper Rose nodded, “I believe that would be us,” she’d reply. The cat dipped their head, “you may want to hurry on then, the palace is quite a long walk to reach. But, I can come with you there! Only if you want me to I mean!” They’d add quickly.

Cherry noticed the gleam in their eyes, this cat seemed to want to go with them desperately. Before anyone could reject, she approved, “sure! It’d be lovely for you to tag along.” The others didn’t say anything as the cat began to lead them through the dispersing croud, “my name is Blue by the way!”

Gabby purred, “then thank you for leading us, Blue!” The group trudged on, with a few overly questioning cats following them from behind.

After a long, long, walk through the kingdom, Blue had finally led them to the stairs that led up to the massive palace that made Cherry’s pelt bristle. It appeared to be made of stone and strong marble. The windows were tinted with a “blue-ish” color, towers and walls stretched on throughout the land beyond.

Blue turned around to stare at them, “once you get up the, exhausting, stairway, you should be greeted by numerous guards, but Diamond most likely told them what you look like, so they _should_ let you in, as far as I know at least.” The group thanked the cat, and they seemed to pleased with themself, but a hint in their eyes told Cherry they were sad to already let them go.

She gave Blue a warm, caring look, “maybe you can come with us?” Cherry felt the others shoot her uneasy glances.

_I shouldn’t have said that_

__

“Well, we’ll see how the guards react. For now, you can tag along.” Snowdrop murmured, looking away with a twitch of her whiskers. Blue’s expression changed with joy, “thank you!”

/-^^-\

Diamond was beautiful. She had sky blue scales and fin like gills along her face. Her wings were giant, with a dark color that looked like paint splatters, she was very, very tall and seemed to be eight feet taller than Cherry. The guards had immediately let the ten of them in when seeing them, they hadn’t seemed to notice Blue who was so excited they looked like they were having a mini-seizure. Cherry felt exhausted from what seemed to be at least an hour of twisting and turning through the palace until they had gotten to the Queen of Epirisana. _How do the guards remember all of this?_

Diamond smiled, “welcome! It feels like so much time has passed since I’ve seen all of you.” She seemed to notice Cherry and Blue, “they’re new.” She said, her eyes flickering with gratitude. Blade nodded, “well, Cherry, the tortoiseshell colored feline, is the-“ he immediately stopped himself, realizing he’d said Cherry’s name.

All of them shot quick glances to Blue to see if they’d heard what Blade had accidentally said. But the Russian blue cat seemed so shocked by seeing Diamond that everything had been turned off in their head. Diamond shot Blade a dissatisfied look, “I’m going to assume that one wasn’t once human then?” She asked, her voice so low Cherry had to strain her ears to hear her.

Whisper Rose nodded, “I’m aware that you’ve been waiting for us to bring you, _her.” _She nodded to Cherry. Diamond’s eyes suddenly flooded like she’d remembered something very important. “I have. But I need the cat you’ve broughten with you to NOT see this.” All of the group looked at Cherry, _I know I wasn’t supposed to bring them! _

Raiden trotted up to Blue, “hey, sorry Blue, could you wait outside the doors for us? We need to do something.” Blue nodded their head, “sorry, I forgot this wasn’t meant for me. I’ll leave you alone, if you need me, I’ll be- uh, somewhere, as long as I don’t get lost…” she breathed. They turned to the large doors and left.

Everyone was looking at Cherry now, including Diamond. “We’ll then.” The Queen said, “let’s begin this, shall we?” She turned away and pulled something behind a heavy curtain. The sound of rumbling made Cherry shiver, the wall in the back suddenly parted, and a long, dark passage way lay ahead.

Cherry looked at her friends with worry.

“You can do it Cherry!”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be alright!”

“You’ll do great!”

Cherry was about to ask them what they meant, but Diamond was signaling with a claw to follow her. Without another word, Cherry followed the queen down the passage way.

/-^^-\

Everything was pitch black, only the lantern Diamond had gave off light. Cherry’s heart was beating fast and felt like it’d only take a few seconds for her to start hyperventilating. “T-the others said I-I’d get some power?” She asked, her voice shaking. Diamond nodded, “yes. You’ll do just fine, I’m sure of it.”

After a few moments, they emerged into a large magical cavern that glowed bright blue, green, red, yellow, every color possible. Cherry breathed in awe, watching as Diamond walked to the center. She flapped her wings, and with a murmur Cherry couldn’t hear her say, an aggresive rumble shook the ground. Cherry dug her claws into the ground for support, and she closed her eyes with fear. Then everything was still.

Opening her eyes, Cherry gasped, so surprised she hardly breathed. Element like things had formed a circle around her. Water that floated in the air, fire next to it, a misty like shape that seemed to represent air, clouds, wings, rocks, all sorts of things. Cherry didn’t know what to do. “I know tons of thoughts are twirling in your head right now, but I promise, this will be easy. Reach your paw out to all of these. And see what happens.”

With a shaky breath, Cherry reached her paw out towards the floating water, as soon as she touched it, it splattered onto the ground, startling Cherry. She turned to the rocks, which also fell. The mist flew away and the fire looked like it’d burn her. After a few trys, she realized that the powers the others had must not be any use to her. She focused on the other ones.

Light.

Cherry reached her paw out to the glowing orb, expecting there to be some magical feeling. But the orb went black as she put her paws on it, and she dropped it with surprise. Turning around, only one thing remained.

A flower.

Knowing this was what she was destined to, Cherry grabbed the flower. She gasped in surprise as it wrapped itself around her foreleg, growing and growing with it’s petals beaming with bright colors. She yelped in pain as thorns stabbed her. Desperate to escape, she screamed for Diamond to help. But the Queen only gave her a look of “it’s going to be okay.” Cherry screamed in a mix of alarm and pain as a thorn approached her neck, “help me! Help me please!” She cried to Diamond.

She shut her eyes, preparing for death, but the pain suddenly stopped. The thorns started to retreat back into the flower. The plant grew littler and littler until it began to glow brightly, the wounds spilling with blood disappeared, and the plant grew smaller until it had secured itself to one of Cherry’s legs. She tried to pull it off, but nothing worked. “Get this thing off of me!”

Diamond came up to her, “Cherry. From now on you will be binded together with the power of healing. You will heal your friends when trouble comes, and you will aim your thorns when anyone strikes against you. While this flower will always be connected to you, it will bring you safety and peace.”

Cherry looked at the innocent looking flower, and nodded, “I’ll do as I must.” She breathed.

(WOAH! This part was long! I loved writing this and I hoped you enjoyed reading it!)