Chapter Text
The house had been finished. Well, house was a subjective term, one might call it a cave with a door and walls on the inside, but semantics. There was still some open space with sections set aside for a kitchen and common room, but aside from that the cave had been renovated as much as a hole in the ground could. Everyone had their own room, with the exception of Adora and Catra who refused to sleep apart (Catra’s room being repurposed into a storage room for junk they didn’t need).
And that’s where they should be at the moment. In their rooms. Sleeping. Unfortunately it's kinda hard to stay passed out with a clawed finger incessantly poking your face.
“Dora come on, get up!”
“Huh!? What’s wro-“ Adora startles awake, before her ears pick up on the high pitched cackling coming from her right. “Catra!”
“You should have seen your face.” The kitten chuckles. Once her laughter had simmered down her eyes lit up in excitement and she grabbed onto her friend's arm, “Come on already, I wanna show you something.”
Grumbling half heartedly Adora gets out of the bunk bed, slips on her shoes, and follows Catra out of the room. Making their way as quietly as possible out of the cave, the two of them don’t notice when another bedroom door opens and another pair of eyes watch them leave.
Once out the two pick up the pace, Adora following until they reach the edge of the woods. Catra scrambles up a tree and is about to leap to another when she realizes her friend had stopped following her.
Turning around she was met with the slightly hesitant face of her friend, “Are you sure this is a good idea Catra?”
“It’s fine Adora.” The kitten insisted, “I went there and came back fine didn’t I?”
After a few more seconds of hesitation Adora’s hesitant scowl turned into a mischievous smile as she followed her friend past the treeline, “Where are we going anyway.”
“You’ll see when we get there!”
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“You sure you know where we’re going Catra?”
“Of course I know Dora!”
They had been walking for what seemed like hours but was closer to around half of one. And okay, maybe Catra doesn’t remember it taking this long to get there, but that didn’t mean she was lost. It was probably just Adora slowing her down.
“I’m just saying, we’ve been walking for a long time, and I’m pretty sure we walked by that rock like 5 times.” The blonde stated, pointing to a rather unique looking boulder.
Ears flattening and eyes glaring, Catra started, “That doesn’t me-”
*SNAP*
The two girls froze, Adora unsheathing the dagger she always keeps with her, while Catra’s claws extend and her hackles rise, her ears shifting to try and pinpoint the intruder’s location. The pair shared a glance, Adora began slowly making her way towards the noise as Catra readied to pounce.
Catra jumped towards the sound, and there was a yelp in a voice that sounded oddly familiar. Adora ran after Catra to help when two annoyed voices rang through the woods.
“GET OFF OF ME!”
“LONNIE!”
Adora sighed, sheathing her knife she moved towards her two friends. When she reached them they were still wrestling in the dirt yelling at each other. Watching the two for a moment the girl took a deep breath.
“HEY! STOP FIGHTING!”
The two girls on the ground froze abruptly, the sudden stop causing Catra to tumble a few paces away from Lonnie. The two continued to glare at each other, until Catra threw a handful of dirt at the other.
“Catra!”
“She’s not supposed to be-”
Catra’s retort was cut off as a stick whacked her in the face. Before the kitten could once again pounce, her best friend picked her up from behind, arms encircling hers so it’d be harder to fight back. “I said STOP FIGHTING!”
The silence was near deafening, the only sound being the soft rustling of the leaves. Eventually after determining the two wouldn’t try attacking each other, for the moment at least she really didn’t understand why they seemed to hate each other, she dropped Catra and crossed her arms, “Can we please just talk now.”
The two girls glared at each other, before Catra broke the silence while walking further into the woods, “She’s not supposed to be here!”
“You guys aren’t supposed to be here either!” Lonnie exclaimed, raising her arms at the two. “Where are you even trying to get to anyway, you’ve been walking in circles for like half an hour.”
Catra quickly turned around to hiss at the girl before continuing to stomp into the forest.
“Catra!” The blonde called, following after the kitten. Lonnie scoffed, rolled her eyes, but walked after her friends. She might argue with Catra on an almost constant basis but that didn’t mean she wanted the magicat to die, and stomping angrily into the enchanted woods with no idea where she was going seemed like an amazing way to get herself and Adora killed.
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“No!”
“Come on Catra.”
“NO! Cause she’s just gonna go behind our backs and tell Weaver and then I’ll get in trouble, cause Lonnies’s a dirty backstabbing snitch!”
“I’m standing right here.”
“Yeah, but…” Adora started, “We could just tell Weaver that we saw Lonnie sneaking out.”
The other two both stopped and turned towards her.
“What?”
“If Lonnie tries to snitch we’ll tell Weaver that we heard Lonnie sneaking out. It’d be two against one, she’d have to believe us. So if we let Lonnie come with us she’d have double reasons not to snitch on us.” Adora said proudly.
The others kept staring at her in silence for a moment, before Catra finally opened her mouth. “When did you grow a brain?”
“HEY!”
“I could just leave now if I wanted too.” Lonnie said.
“HA! You don’t even know the way back!” Catra laughed.
“Oh yeah, watch me!” Lonnie bit back. Adora and Catra watched as she stomped off, back the way they came from…
…
…
…
Only to end up appearing in front of them again from a completely different direction.
“Ugh, why is this place so weird!” Lonnie screamed. “Fine, whatever. Where are we even going anyway.”
Catra glared at Lonnie for a little longer, before huffing and leading the group deeper into the woods.
“The Big House.”
“What’s that?” Adora asked, excited.
“I was out exploring, trying to find more of those berries Rogelio found a few days ago, y’know? But instead I found this huuuuuuge house! It was taller than the trees it was so big! And I took a peek through the windows and there was a bunch of treasure in there!”
Lonnie rolled her eyes. “Come on it can’t that-”
Lonnie’s voice petered off as they breached the treeline. In front of them was a pink shaded mansion, with foliage climbing up its walls, that towered above them.
“...Okay that is a pretty big house…” Lonnie relented, “How’re we going to get inside anyway?”
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He carefully soldered two wires together, taking extra care to not damage any of the surrounding electronics. Once done, he booted up the pad and watched as its screen displayed a map of the Whispering Woods.
Sweet. Now if only he could find a way to-
*CRASH*
Bow startled, dropping his pad as he fell to the floor.
“What was that?”
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“Careful with the glass.” Adora warned as she helped lower Lonnie down onto the floor. Once the other girl had moved out of the way she hopped down and looked around the room.
Catra had already run off to ogle at some of the displayed items, her eyes having led her toward the weapons being shown off.
“Told you guys this place was cool!”
“Yeah, yeah…” Lonnie said as she began to explore.
Adora followed shortly after, though her eyes didn’t really latch on to anything. There were all kinds of different artifacts behind glass displays, tapestries on the walls, and bookshelves that reached the ceiling.
As she passed one of the tables though something finally caught her eye. Laying next to a bunch of other papers and notes was a decorated book, its cover practically shining in the dark, titled “Legends of Etheria.”
“Huh…”
She opened it and began flipping through the pages. There was a story about a Weeping Princess haunting the Whispering Woods, one about a floating island of mages being terrorized by a sorcerer consumed by power, and one with a…
With a…
Adora’s eyes stayed fixated on the image on the page. A woman with flowing blonde hair, lifting a sword to the sky, the title on the page reading “She Ra, The Princess of Power.”
She just couldn’t… look…
“-ra? Adora!”
“Wha- huh?” Adora’s hand froze in place, from where it was slowly making its way to touch the page, as she startled. She looked around until her eyes landed on Lonnie, who looked back with a worried look on her face. “Oh uh… hi Lonnie.”
“You okay Adora? You were staring at that book for like three minutes straight.” Lonnie said, “Thought your brain fried or something.”
“What, noooo I was just y’know… reading…” Lonnie just stared at her, unimpressed. “I think I found what I wanna take back.”
“Sure, whatever. Not like anything you could find could beat this.” Lonnie said before, hefting up an energy rifle.
“Whoooa, where’d you find that!”
“Found it in a closet behind a bunch of other stuff. I figured if they were gonna show off all this stuff they’d hide even cooler stuff somewhere secret!”
“Cool!” Adora said, “You think I can try-“
Before Adora could finish, a bright light shines at them causing them both to freeze. The two both slowly turn towards the source to find a boy around their age holding up a tablet that continued to shine at them.
“Um, hi my name’s Bow…” Neither of the girls said anything as they kept their eyes on Bow, while slowly backing away. “Wait! I’m not sure exactly what you guys are doing here, but-“ Behind Bow, two heterochromic eyes begin creeping towards him, “if you guys are looking for a place to stay or something, I’m sure my dads would-“
Catra pounces, knocking Bow over with a yelp and causing his pad tumbling and sliding across the floor. Catra lands above it, causing the light to illuminate her face from below as she turns to hiss at the boy.
Bow screams, before running off further into the house.
“Hahaha, scaredy cat!”
“We should… probably leave…” Adora says, before bolting towards the broken window with Lonnie.
“What!? But I haven’t even found anything to take home yet!”
“Then hurry up!” Lonnie yells, as Adora and her chuck their treasures out the window before starting to help each other through.
Catra’s eyes dart around before she finds it. Behind a glass display sat a spiky mask, and Catra wanted it. Reaching down she grabs the pad Bow left behind, before chucking it into the display. Glass flies as the display shatters, and Catra quickly swipes the mask before climbing out the window just as Bow’s dads enter the room.
“What in the-“
Before they can even make sense of the scene before them, the trio are already racing through the woods back home.
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Laughter echos throughout the woods as the three finally come to a stop.
“Did you see his face? He was like ‘AAAAAAAHHHhhhhehehehehe!’” Catra cackled as she imitated Bow’s face.
“Hehehe, you're lucky the light was under you.” Lonnie teased.
“Yeah hehehe he would have just thought you were cute if it wasn’t.” Adora added.
“Hey!” Catra replied as she playfully shoved her friend.
Their chattering eventually quieted down once they reached the clearing outside their home.
“What are we gonna tell Miss Weaver?” Adora asked, “She’s gonna notice the stuff we brought back isn’t she?”
“Pfft like she’ll care.” Catra waved off, “Besides, even if she does we’ll just say we found it in the woods.”
“Found what in the woods?”
All the girls startled, Catra practically leaping into the air. They turned, shoving their loot behind their backs to try and hide them, to see Weaver looming above them, her eyes narrowed.
“Nothing!”
Unfortunately for the three, Lonnie wasn’t able to fit the 6 foot energy rifle she lugged back home behind her back.
“I can see the gun.” Weaver said as she crossed her arms and continued to look down at her charges.
“Lonnie!”
“What, it's not my fault!”
“If you hadn’t picked something so big-“
The girls froze as darkness began creeping in and Weaver’s eyes narrowed even further. After a moment of silence and a bit more grumbling, the girls bring their hands out from behind their backs.
Weaver’s gaze runs across the items, her gaze pausing for a moment on Catra’s mask, before addressing them all.
“Are any of you hurt?”
They all shook their heads.
“Did anybody see you?”
Lonnie and Catra shook their heads, while Adora…
“Well-“
“Adora!”
Adora’s mouth snapped shut. After a moment of being stared down by Weaver however, she piped up again.
“There was this… one kid…”
“But we left before anyone else saw us!”
“And nobody followed us through the woods! Promise!”
Weaver stared at them in silence, causing the girls to squirm a bit, before finally shaking her head. She’d set some of her shadows for surveillance just in case.
“Fine, just go to your rooms.”
“We can… we can keep the stuff we found?” Catra asked.
“I don’t care.” Weaver said as she walked away, “But so much as point that thing at someone Lonnie and I will make sure you personally destroy it, do you understand.”
“Got it!” The girls said before racing into the house.
Weaver simply rolled her eyes as she summoned her shadows to keep watch.
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It was quiet in their room. Well, except for Catra’s snoring, but that at least told her Catra was asleep. Still just to be sure…
Adora slowly pushed the covers off herself.
“…catra…?”
Catra’s ear flicked and she buried her head further into the sheets, but she didn’t wake up. That’s good, she didn’t want to ruin Catra’s sleep…
Adora carefully reached over to the side drawer, where she left the book. Hefting it onto the bed she opened it and slipped through till she found the page she was looking for…
“She Ra, The Princess of Power.”