Chapter 25: Fake-Liberty

Shock rippled through Liberty’s pelt; she looked exactly like her. The same scar on her muzzle, same eyes, same white fur and orange-and-blue markings by her nose. In fact, they both even studied each other the same way; they were so similar it made Liberty realize why animals believed it actually was Liberty who had made death threats and destroyed the herbs.

Fake-Liberty smirked. “Well, I know which one of us is the prettier one.”

Liberty growled. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, right. You know about opposites,” chuckled Fake-Liberty. She smiled. “I’m here on orders from my leader, of course.”

“And you’re gonna tell me what those orders are now or--”

“Or you’ll what?” Fake-Liberty laughed. “Rip my throat out? Tear my tail off? You can’t do that.”

“What makes you think I can’t?” Liberty snarled.

“Because,” smirked Fake-Liberty. Already Liberty hated that smirk on her opposite. “Whatever happens to me, also happens to you.”

This took Liberty aback and she hesitated. Was her opposite just bluffing?

She decided to test it out and slashed her claws on Fake-Liberty’s shoulder.

Her opposite screeched in pain and Liberty found herself doing the same as pain shot across her shoulder. Just as she saw blood trickle down her opposite’s shoulder, she felt blood coming down her own as well.

“You idiot!” Fake-Liberty snarled. “I told you that’d happen! I’d shred your ears if it wouldn’t hurt me too for that!”

“You could’ve been bluffing,” Liberty hissed.

“Well congratulations, now you got yourself a bloody shoulder,” Fake-Liberty snapped. “If you weren’t so stupid you could’ve just noticed that we both had scars on our muzzles. Who even did that?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Liberty growled. “What’re you doing here? What are these ‘orders’?”

“You can’t make me tell you,” Fake-Liberty smirked again. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Anger coursed through Liberty; she could feel herself getting madder every heartbeat. Not only was she powerless in this situation, her opposite also made her become the least popular animal in the Tower, made her friends hate her, and was the reason Liberty had to serve punishment for supposedly destroying the herbs in the Healers’ den. She so badly wanted to take the anger out on her opposite, but she couldn’t. And seeing as how her opposite was smirking, Fake-Liberty knew this too.

“At least tell me all you had done,” Liberty growled. “What made everyone hate me.”

“Oh, that,” Fake-Liberty smiled. “Well, I had gone into the Healers’ den. Those animals in there are pretty dorky,” she added with a chuckle. “I knew about the situation with your friend, how a Shadow Tracker bit her. Unfortunate,” she said in a voice dripping with false sympathy, effectively making Liberty even madder. “So I destroyed the herbs and since, y’know, they’re Healers, they couldn’t do much to stop me. That orange wolf - Comet, was it? - asked me what I was doing, so I told him I did this in hopes that Starlight would die, just to top it off,” Fake-Liberty grinned.

The anger was becoming unbearable, but Liberty gritted her teeth. “Continue.”

“So then I ran out of the Tower and into your territory and I ran into that wolf - Sirius - and her friend Ryker. I know you’ve been becoming close to them. Right? Anyways, so I figured it’d be good for me if I could get some of your friends to hate you. So I tried to kill her.”

“What good for you would come out of my friends hating me?” Liberty retorted.

“Well, what if that was my orders?” suggested Fake-Liberty with a smile, but before Liberty could ask what that meant the opposite continued. “So as you probably already know, Sirius believed it was you trying to kill her. I ran away before she could fight back. I thought by then I wouldn’t run into anyone else you knew, but that’s when your friend Ekaj came along.”

Dread filled Liberty at the mention of his name. “What did you do to him?” she growled.

Fake-Liberty gave a slight smile. “Defensive, are we?  Oh, it was nothing really. He tried to talk to me, but I think I did you a favor,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “That boy is ugly, and it’s quite obvious he likes you. I told him to get away from me.”

Liberty had never been more furious in her life. She howled her anger out, and slashed her claws onto the nearest tree, pretending it was her opposite’s throat.

“Wow, you are really angry!” exclaimed Fake-Liberty, as if fascinated. “I wonder what else I can do?”

It took Liberty a while to process what her opposite was saying. “What?”

“I guess I’ll go find out!” Fake-Liberty grinned. She then took off and dread filled Liberty.

Her opposite was running for The Bending Tower.

Author’s Note:

I wrote this in school while I was supposed to be taking a test. Probably shouldn't have; it's making this post have weird spacing. =n=

So sorry this is kinda short. D:
Also, if you're still curious about what Fake-Liberty's personality is like, think about those mean-girl cheerleaders who gossip and care deeply about their appearance and are very girly.

That's basically Fake-Liberty in a nutshell.