Chapter 25: Traumatized

Liberty and Ekaj stopped by Ice River. "No humans," Ekaj commented. "That's good."
"I s'pose," Liberty muttered, sitting down. She looked at the river before her, flowing quickly through the territory. She looked off in the distance, wondering where it lead to. Her father Dust had told her stories; about a Dalmatian named Spots. Spots had washed downstream and fallen off via a waterfall at the ending of Ice River. Everyone had thought he was dead. But he returned, with Sylvia as his mate. But then, Spots had died fighting the Firebenders. Dust said he wasn't quite sure how Spots died, but merely saw Spots among the bodies of the other killed animals when the battle was through. It all made Liberty wonder: what was battling the Firebenders like? She wished she could go back in time, see the Firebender fight. That'd be cool.
"Liberty?" Ekaj's voice snapped Liberty back to reality. "Shouldn't we be getting back?"
"I guess," Liberty grumbled, getting to her paws.
"Wait," Ekaj froze in place.
"What?" Liberty whispered, looking around.
"Thought I heard something," Ekaj hissed back.
They stood in silence, looking around, ears perked. Liberty sniffed the air. She couldn't smell anything. "Nothing. Must've been imagining things," Liberty told Ekaj.
Suddenly, Liberty heard pawsteps. She looked in the direction of it. She smelled the air again. Strangely, she couldn't detect a thing. "What--"
Next thing Liberty knew, she was on the ground - as soon as she gathered her thoughts that she was facing a fast opponent, she gasped in alarm to see it was a young bobcat. She recognized the face.
"Bracken?" Liberty said.
The bobcat hissed in a strange way. "Enemy!" she snarled, and aimed for a killing bite.
"Off of her!" howled Ekaj, ramming into Bracken. But this didn't affect him much. However, he did back off of Liberty and flatten his ears, glaring at Ekaj.
"Protective of enemy," he said. "Very."
Liberty quickly got up. "What is wrong with you?!" she snarled, storming up so she was face-to-face with Bracken.
"Enemy hot-headed!" he exclaimed.
"'Enemy'? But she's not...your enemy..." Ekaj said, confused.
"Silence!" Bracken hissed in a snake-like way. "Am here for job."
"Crazy from fear," Liberty suggested. "He's been kidnapped. Must be traumatized."
"That makes sense," Ekaj agreed. "Bracken, please listen. We're your friends. We--"
"Do not know of this word," Bracken growled. "'Friends'."
"I didn't know being traumatized could affect someone this much," Liberty commented.
"Bracken, follow us. Back to The Bending Tower," Ekaj urged.
"Bending Tower. Let's go," Bracken said.
"Alright...just follow," Ekaj said. "C'mon."
Ekaj began walking, and Bracken followed. To make sure Bracken didn't try to pull anything, Liberty guided him from behind. She studied the bobcat. He seemed rather paranoid; he was constantly darting left to right, growling and occasionally wincing. A few times Bracken flattened his ears and shut his eyes tight, as if trying to block out a sharp noise. Every now and then Liberty heard Bracken muttering, but couldn't catch what he was saying. She decided he was definitely traumatized, and needed help from Nightgale, desperately.
Liberty and Ekaj approached the gates, where Twig and her apprentice, Ryker were standing guard. Kirin and Malroy were also standing there. "Whadda you--" Twig began, but was cut off by Kirin's gasp.
"Bracken!" Kirin exclaimed. "How did you find him?"
"He came to us," Ekaj said.
"And tried to kill me," Liberty growled.
Twig gave Liberty an unconvinced look. "Yeah, sure. Sweet, kind Bracken tried to murder you."
"GOOD ONE!" Bracken howled, baring his teeth at Twig.
Twig jumped in alarm. "What did he just call me?"
Ryker trotted up to Bracken. "Bracken?"
"Do not talk!" Bracken snarled. "Must see Bending Tower!"
"Uh...can I talk to the real Bracken, please?" Ryker asked with a slight chuckle.
"Am real!" Bracken snapped.
"What's wrong with him?" Kirin whispered, studying Bracken.
"Traumatized," Liberty offered.
"Huh. We should bring him in," Twig suggested.
"I wanna see this," Malroy chuckled, and the guards followed Liberty and Ekaj in.
They walked into The Bending Tower and headed through the rather large main room, which was empty at the moment. It was around lunchtime, so Liberty figured everyone was eating outside or training in the yard. Liberty's mother had explained that when it got cold, animals would eat inside. And white-earth was well on its way.
The group walked out into the yard, and heads turned their way.
"Bracken!" exclaimed a voice. Firefly shot out of the crowd, running up to his apprentice. "You're alive!"
"Am very much alive!" Bracken snapped.
Firefly frowned. "What's wrong with him?"
"Traumatized," Kirin responded.
Eventually animals began crowding around.
"Bracken!"
"He's alive!"
"Look at the way he's twitching though! Must be scared."
Liberty, who had never been much of a fan of crowds, shrunk back from the gathering animals, trying to regain her space. Bracken, however, was dealing with the animals terribly. "GO AWAY!" he howled. "Too much animals!"
At this, animals began to back up, mostly in surprise.
"What's going on?" Ash shouldered his way through the crowd, followed by Raoul. "Bracken...?"
"Aha! Bending Tower leader!" Bracken exclaimed. "One who orders! Master of Stones!"
"Something's wrong with Bracken," Raoul commented.
"Thanks for the info!" snorted Nzuri. Leafy giggled.
"What's up with Bracken?" Ash asked. "Usually he's very nice..."
"Am not good!" Bracken said with a slight laugh. "I'm the--" he then froze and fell forward, collapsing onto the ground.
Nightgale ran forward, accompanied by Comet, the other Healer. "Well, he's fine, but he blacked out," she reported. "But he's obviously traumatized...he must have gone through bad things, for it to change his personality and speech as well."
"Huh. I've never seen anything like this," Comet said.
"Well, looks like I'll be dragging him up the stairs," Nightgale grumbled. "Any strong volunteers?"
Miguel made his way over. "I'll help."
"Oh, please, Miguel. You're not strong," Rusty rolled his eyes.
Miguel growled at him. "Stronger than you are, Rusty."
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Sirius called, laughing.
"Be quiet, Sirius," Akumu scolded her daughter.
With one last glare at Rusty, Miguel helped Nightgale move Bracken into The Bending Tower, Comet following.
"Bracken must have woken up on the wrong side of the nest!" Tiggerkat said from nearby. "He needs a reese cup! That'll make it all better." She then popped one of her treats into her mouth. "See? I feel better already!"
"Tiggerkat, you weren't feeling bad when you ate that," Snakeseye pointed out.
"I was feeling good!" Tiggerkat exclaimed. "And now I feel even better!"
"Well, alright then..." Snakeseye responded with a shrug.
The crowd began to break up, everyone going their separate ways and now discussing the Bracken incident. Liberty was about to move away when the door came open, and Eclipse came out. "What happened?" she asked, looking around. "I passed Nightgale in the hall, and..."
"It's okay, Eclipse," Firefly came over. "You should be in the mothers' den, anyway."
"No, no, I'm not being confined to a den," Eclipse insisted. "I'm not that far into carrying pups around, anyway!"
Liberty had heard Eclipse was blind. But by the way the she-wolf acted, she didn't seem very blind.
"Whoa. You're expecting pups?" Ekaj said.
"Uh, yeah," Eclipse replied. "Firefly's."
"Oh boy," Liberty hissed under her breath. Not only was this more of the "mate" stuff that got on Liberty's nerves, this also meant annoying pups running around The Bending Tower. And Liberty didn't want to deal with little pups stealing her prey as a prank or pestering her with questions.
"Hey, Twig," said Streak's voice. Liberty turned around to see Streak grinning. "Would you ever want to have kits?"
Twig growled and pushed Streak. "Never! Don't even bring that up."
Streak laughed, apparently satisfied for getting on his mate's nerves.
"Hm. Do you think you'd ever get a mate?" Ekaj asked, looking at Liberty.
Liberty turned away from his gaze. "No. It's just weird."
"Ah...okay," Ekaj said blankly, trotting away.

Author's Note:
Lots of that "mate" stuff in this chapter
I sincerely apologize. :/
And...what do you think about Bracken? How did he make it back to The Bending Tower...? 
I know so many things that you guys don't. >:D