As the four cats sat next to each other, watching both sides of the battle recede back to their territory, a glowing portal opened up in the center of the clearing.
"Helios?" Kosa asked, her voice shaking.
"Yes, love?"
"Am I- am I going crazy or is there a portal right there?"
"No, you're not. I can see it too," He says, unable to take his eyes off of it for even a second.
Kosa nodded, her voice quivering as she asked, "Where do you think it leads?"
"Home?" He suggested.
At that, she looked up at him. She didn't want to go home, as much as she missed Amoka. She knew that it was her duty to stay and... she wasn't actually sure what she was supposed to do. But she knew that she couldn't just abandon everyone here.
"Oh," She said quietly, "...Do you want to go back?"
Helios thought for a second, "No. Not yet, at least," He said, "I can't help but feel as though there's something more that I should do here."
She nodded at him, and looked over at Vice and Virtue. The two small cats seemed to be getting into another heated argument.
"Virtue why can't I stay?!" Vice exclaimed angrily, tail lashing the air behind him.
"Because you weren't even supposed to come here in the first place!" She shouted back at him.
"That's not my fault! I didn't know I was supposed to feel something pulling me towards the portal! I had nothing to go off of!" He yelled. At that, Kosa and Helios looked down at the silvery blue cat with intrigue. He hadn't been pulled to the portal? Then what was he doing here?
Virtue started to stalk towards him, forcing him to put distance between them. He backed up, unaware of what she was planning. He soon noticed, however, that she was pushing him towards the portal, intent on shoving him back through. He quickly dashed around her, putting her between him and the portal.
Kosa looked at Helios and nodded at him. The two lions stood up and started padding towards the cats. Kosa grabbed Virtue by her scruff, and Helios grabbed Vice. Vice didn't put up too much of a fight, he simply accepted the fact that they'd gone too far. Virtue, on the other paw, did not enjoy being picked up as though she was a kit, despite acting just like one less than an hour earlier. She clawed and scratched at Kosa's face and neck, desperate to get out of her hold. Finally getting fed up, she dropped the angry brown ball of rage onto the ground, using her paw to prevent her from immediately going to attack Vice. Kosa encased the small cats in ice prisons to avoid another attack.
Virtue started shrieking and clawing fiercely at the bars, trying to find a weak point in order to break out and kill that stupid lion and her stupid ice magic. Eventually she got tired out and just angrily curled up.
Vice, on the other paw, quite enjoyed the ice. It was similar to the place he grew up, so he curled up and fell asleep fairly quickly.
Kosa and Helios looked at each other and chuckled.
"If this is what having cubs is like, I never want to have them," Kosa said jokingly.
"But you'd be an excellent mother, dear," Helios responded, chuckling.
"Hmm, nah, I don't think so. I don't have that 'motherly instinct' like Bahari does," She said.
Helios frowned down at his mate. If she didn't think she'd be a good mother, fine. But that doesn't necessarily mean she wouldn't be a good mother if she tried. Sighing, he let it go and simply returned to staring at the now barren battlefield.
Kosa's ears perked up as she heard rustling in the bushes a little ways away. Two small lions emerged from the brush, a blue one with purple and green stripes and a flower crown, and a brown one with several small green dots scattered over its' body.
Kosa padded over to the two new lions, curious as to what they wanted.
"Hello," The blue one said, "My name is Nia. I was wondering if I could come join your pride?"
Kosa looked down at the small lioness in shock.
"I'd like to join as well," The brown one said, slightly more hesitantly than the other, "I'm Urania."
Kosa stared down at the lionesses. "Um, sure! I don't see why not," She said, leading them over to the newly formed portal.
"Kosa?"
She froze as Helios started walking over towards them, a confused look on his face. "What are you doing?"
"I'm, uh, well. You see dear," She stuttered, "These two lionesses just told me they wanted to join our pride, and since there's a portal here, I figured we might as well let them."
Helios, surprised, looked at the smaller lions thoughtfully, before nodding his head, "Alright. But we aren't the leaders, so don't be mad at us if you find out you're not actually able to join," He said as a warning.
"Helios!" Kosa exclaimed, "I'm so sorry about him, don't worry, our pride loves recruiting more lions," She told the lionesses gently.
They looked up at her with hopeful eyes, glancing between her and the portal. Kosa dipped her paw in, not enough to be sucked all the way through, but enough to let the mysterious entity controlling it where to send them. Nia dove in first, her flower crown almost flying off of her head. Urania looked at Kosa and Helios again, silently thanking them with her eyes, before calmly stepping through to the other side.
Kosa pulled her paw back out, shivering at the feeling. The portal seemed to melt away into the ground. She heard screaming coming from where she was sitting before meeting the lionesses. Virtue seemed to be having a nightmare.
"Virtue! Wake up!" She shouted, rushing back over to her ice cage. Virtue bolted up, shivering. Her red eyes were darting everywhere, not seeming to take in anything around her. Kosa quickly melted both of their ice cages, and Virtue immediately streaked over to Vice, cuddling up to him and wrapping him around herself.
Kosa and Helios looked at the pair, confused, and missing the glowing blue eyes staring at them from the bushes.
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