The Kougra Klan: Part Four

     "We have come for Oka," he boomed.

     "Oka?" she whimpered in reply, though her feeble voice barely escaped her throat.

     "Oka belongs to us," said another familiar voice behind her. It was a deep, rasping voice, and it sounded is if he were sneering at her. Yes, it could have been no one else but one--the Kougra who confronted her all those years ago in the village, the Kougra from earlier that morning. She spun around to see his scarred, leering face ogling at her once again. He winked at her as he caught sight of the intense fear in her eyes. She knew he recognised her too.

     "My name is Guanya," Guanya said in the bravest voice he could manage, "and that is the only name I go by."

     The old Kougra chuckled at Guanya's supposed bravery. He stepped right up to the younger Kougra, and was surprised to see he didn't flinch. Then again, he wouldn't expect any less from a member of the Kougra Klan. A grin spread across the old Kougra's face.

     "But that's not your real name, is it?" he sneered, lowering his face to Guanya's level.

     "It is. It's the name Riyita gave to me," Guanya spat back, receding slightly.

     "You don't belong to Riyita," said another dim-sounding Kougra from behind him. Riyita's lip quivered as she looked between Guanya and the two fearsome Kougras. She had always dreaded that this would happen, that her past would catch up on her; now it had.

     "Yes, I do!" shouted Guanya, clenching his paws into fists in anger.

     The old, scarred Kougra, who seemed to be the ringleader, came even closer to Guanya, curling his paw around the pole and pushing it down. He was so close Guanya could feel hot, rancid breath on his face and neck. The young Kougra gulped, though he was trying his best to look composed.

     "Look here," the Kougra growled, now in a very low voice. "You have Kougra Klan blood in you. You belong to US!"

     Guanya staggered back, almost knocking Riyita over.

     "The Kougra Klan?" he gasped. "I've heard about you..."

     "Who?" said a confused Riyita, regaining her balance. Guanya did not reply; he did not do anything for a minute, only gazed at the Kougras around him in amazement. Eventually he spoke.

     "They say you have powers unimaginable to any Neopet..." he said, his voice filled with awe at seeing these Kougras with his own eyes. "They say you can travel as the speed rays travel from the sun!"

     The brawny Kougra just folded his arms and looked very proud of himself. Riyita's eyes darted from him to Guanya, and her heart sank as she saw how amazed Guanya looked as he stared at the powerful group of Kougras, all clad in black bandannas. He looked completely amazed. Was the thought of joining the bullies who had destroyed her childhood village and kidnapped her brother really becoming tempting to him? Having people close to her taken away against their will was bad enough, but someone leaving her willingly... that was another thing.

     "Come with us, and we can give you power, too..." said the huge Kougra, a gleam in his sinister-looking green eyes. He beckoned to Guanya, but Riyita was relieved to see Guanya's expression of astonishment morph into a glower.

     "But you use your power for bad things. You raid villages, and you kidnap other Kougras," he spat, his eyes burning with passionate anger. "I could never be one of you, because I'd never do such evil and heartless things."

     Guanya raised his pole again, stepping as far away as he could from the old Kougra, who rolled his eyes.

     "Do you see this?" The Kougra lowered his head and gestured to his left ear, where a small triangle shaped piece was missing from the top. The rest of the Kougras lowered their heads too, and Guanya saw they all had the same sized piece missing from exactly the same spot on their ears. "We all have it, and we do it to all new Kougras who join us."

     "So... what about it?" Guanya hissed. The old Kougra snorted, and chuckled a little, as if it were obvious.

     "Feel your own ear, Oka."

     Guanya slowly reached his paw up to his own left ear, begging that it wouldn't be there, that he was normal. He parted the fur a little, and then ran the paw over the top of his ear. Then he felt it. A small triangle shaped piece, missing. He slowly dropped his hand back to his side, staring straight ahead of him blankly as the realisation set in. He was one of them.

     "Guanya...?" Riyita said, placing a paw on his shoulder. Guanya could not look at her.

     Suddenly, the vicious old Kougra whipped out his own huge wooden pole, swinging it around in his paw skilfully. It was very long and thick, which strips of leather wound around each and the 'KK' symbol scratched into it. Compared to it, Guanya's puny broom handle looked like a twig. The Kougra tossed it up into the air, watched it calmly as it spiralled back down towards him, and caught it perfectly. Stamping one foot down in front of the other, he pointed his weapon straight towards the two Neopets, and they knew he meant business.

     "Now, Oka, are you going to come with me?" he said, a malicious grin spreading across his face, "Or are you going to make it difficult?"

     Stunned silence swept through the small clearing; the two smaller Neopets stared in horror at the colossal Kougra who towered above them, while he just grinned toothily from ear to ear, brandishing the huge pole in his paw. Images and thoughts were flashing through Riyita's--and Guanya's--heads so fast they felt dizzy. However, while Riyita was simply panicking, Guanya was desperately trying to conjure up a plan in his head. What he had just found out had become the second thing on his mind. Escape was his priority. When the Kougra began to advance, pole twirling above his head, he knew he had to think of something fast.

     "I won't have to make it difficult..." he blurted out suddenly, raising his eye line to the treetops above him and nodding his head in some kind of gesture. "He'll do it for me."

     Perplexed expressions on their faces, all the Kougras raised their heads to look up at the trees above them to see who was there. Suddenly, Guanya whipped out his broom handle and swept it under the feet of the Kougra in front of him so he went tumbling to the ground with a gruff cry of 'oof'. Wasting no time, he seized Riyita by her arm, jumped over the collapsed Kougra and hurtled through the trees.

     "What are you doing?" Riyita cried as she was dragged along faster than her feet could keep up with. She could hear a stampede of heavy footsteps charging after them.

     "I'm making it difficult!" Guanya shouted with a grin, his feet pounding underneath him as he wound through the trees and ducked under branches, leaves and twigs brushing past his fur. The surroundings seemed to just rush past Riyita's face in a blur of green as she stumbled along blindly.

     Guanya's grin soon faded as a Kougra swung down from a branch ahead of them and landed on the path with a thud, which sent dust billowing from the ground around him. Guanya began to pull Riyita in another direction, but the footsteps came up behind him and they were trapped again.

     "Nice try," said the Kougra in front of them in a mocking voice, readjusting his bandanna which was slipping over his eyes.

     Guanya, however, wasn't giving up that easily. In one swift, sudden move, he swung Riyita onto his back and grabbed the tree branch in front of him, swinging himself up onto it and commencing to scrabble higher up the tree.

     "Get him!" a voice screamed, and the Kougras below shot into action.

     Guanya was so busy concentrating determinedly on the climb ahead of him he did not notice the paw reach up through the leaves underneath and attempt to grasp his leg. Riyita, however, did, and anger flashed in front of her eyes. She wasn't letting them ruin her life again.

     "Oh no, you don't!" she yelled, bringing one of her flailing feet down to stamp on the paw. Its bearer yelled, letting go with his other paw to comfort it. A stunned Guanya looked down to see the Kougra fall and land in a heap on top of several others, who lay groaning.

     "Nice one!" he remarked, raising his eyebrows. Riyita only responded by kicking him gently in the side as another Kougra began to climb up after them, his eyes burning with intense anger. It was the ringleader, and he looked as if he were about to explode with fury. Guanya's eyes widened and he began to try and clamber up the trunk again.

     "There's no point trying to run, kid!" a voice boomed from behind him, resonant in the quiet forest. Guanya looked all around him, frantically scanning the tree trunk for a foothold. There were none. He was stuck and the distance between him and his pursuer was growing shorter and shorter.

     Without warning, he flexed his hind legs and made a huge leap over to the next tree, an almost impossible jump for a young Kougra. Riyita screamed and squeezed her eyes shut as they flew across the gaping gap; the only thing below them was the hard, hard ground. She opened her eyes a few seconds later to find herself dangling a couple of metres above the ground. Guanya was clinging onto a hanging vine, which looked close to tearing. Kicking his legs out, he propelled himself into the air and caught onto another branch.

     "Ha, you'll never get me!" he mocked, looking back at the old Kougra, before commencing to swing nimbly from branch to branch like a Mynci.

     "We'll see about that!" was the angry reply; but Guanya had already taken off into the treetops with Riyita clinging tightly to his back, and was out of sight.

     "This is amazing, Guanya!" gasped Riyita, enjoying the sensation of the wind rushing past her face and they swung from branch to branch. "Where did you learn to do this?"

     "I didn't spend all that time in the woods for nothing, Riy," he chuckled.

     "Or perhaps it's that Kougra Klan blood you have in you," the Aisha remarked.

     A solemn look fell over Guanya's face and she instantly wished she hadn't said what she had. The next few minutes were spent in awkward silence, the rustling of the trees and the cracking of twigs producing the only noise.

     "I think we're safe," Guanya muttered eventually, before slowing his pace and dropping to the ground. Though she still felt unsafe, Riyita hopped off his back and began to brush herself down. Guanya bent down onto one knee and panted, trying to catch his breath.

     "Look, Guanya, I'm sorry about what I said, I shouldn't have..." Riyita began. Guanya stood up and turned to face her, smiling.

     "It's okay. Just because I have their blood in me doesn't mean I have to be one of them. It just means I have an advantage over others..."

     "Uh, Guanya," Riyita stammered, looking into the bushes behind him. A dark figure was emerging from the undergrowth, holding something above his head.

     "What is it, Riy?" the oblivious young Kougra replied happily.

     "Guanya!"

     Riyita screamed and lunged forward, but it was too late. The huge net fell over his head and pulled him backwards so he fell onto his back. He writhed and yelled at the top of his voice, but he became more entangled and Riyita was powerless to help him.

     The Kougras emerged from the bush behind him and stood over him as he struggled, laughing.

     "Run, Riy!" he bellowed. But Riyita wasn't letting him go. Not this time.

     "You heard him," snarled one of the Kougras, who was holding Guanya's kicking legs down with his strong arms. "Run!"

     "I'll get you back, Guanya," Riyita said in a hoarse voice. She and Guanya exchanged their last, meaningful glances, his eyes full of fear, before she turned and ran off in the opposite direction. She heard a chorus of scornful sniggers from behind her as she melted into the shadows, and disappeared out of view.

To be continued...