Chapter 4

-UNEDITED-

Ember felt her tears welling up in her eyes for what felt like the tenth time that day. Ember's nails scratched the floor and her tail instead moving comfortably was frozen up. Ember gritted her teeth and she heard all of the other girls, the lucky girls, leave. Ember and the other girls stood up, the other two who were suspected for being the one in the prophecy looked quiet a bit younger then herself. The first one looked to be about nine, maybe ten. The second looked to be 11. She felt bad for these girls. Ember knew she was one this is karma like power, but it was more like a curse that never asked for.

It wasn't even a helpful power, it was just kind of there. 'Powers are something you could control' Ember grimly thought to herself 'I can't control mine, they just do what they want.' She looked around the room, it seemed smaller then when she first entered.

"Now that the other's have left, I want to evaluate you all. Go with those female doctors over there, you'll be back here in a hour or two, if you don't fight." The queen said with a glare, warning them as to not to act out against her or her lackeys. Ember walked over to the one closet to her, she kept quiet and still. Refusing to look up from fear and a slight rebellion against what these people want.

They want to look into her eyes, thinking they see her future with her brown orbs. She would refuse to make eye contact with any one here. She would not let them mold her future, she was her own person. She would not be pushed around by some selfish rasis humans. She followed her doctor out. She held her puppy held close to her chest, refusing to let him go.

"You're name is Ember, yes?" The doctor asked. Ember stiffly nodded, her eyes glaring holes into the floor. "I don't hear head nodding." The doctor snapped and stopped in her tracks.

"Yes. My name is Ember." Ember said, her body becoming more stiff when she stopped.

"Alright Ember, it says here you're 15, how lucky for you. I suppose you're lucky, any longer and you might have been sold for money for your dead-beat parents." The doctor smirked.

Ember's hands curlled into fists as her nails threatened to draw blood from her palms, but that wasn't the thing she wanted to bleed. She forced herself to keep her head down.

"Awe, whats wrong little kitty? Do you need to use the litterbox?" The doctor mocked and began to walk once more.

'Talk again, I dare. There will be no restraint if you continue to make those comments.' Ember thought, she refused to say them out loud, espically in front of all these garuds that could snap her like a twig.

They took a sharp right and they came upon the room she would be evaluated in. When the door opened Ember was practiaclly assulated by smell of cleaning supplies.

"Get in, lets get this over with as fast as possible." The doctor said, "My name is Doctor Amber, so don't called me doc." Amber snapped.

"Then don't call me kitty." Ember muttered to herself and was thankful that humans couldn't hear well.

For the next hour, Ember's time was spent with Doctor Amber poking at her body, intruding her personal space, once and while pulling on her tail, saying it was test and basic degration. By the time everything was said and done, her tail was more sore then when she walked in and she felt like murdering this doctor more then when she first had met her.

The doctor led her back to the throne room where the two other Nekos stood waiting for her to get back. She felt her cheeks go red and she quietly walked up next to them, keeping her head down as the queen spoke.

"I hope you all don't feel too violated from what the doctors had to do." The queen said, Ember felt the urge to make sure her tail was there, even though she knew it was there. "Please go to the maids closet to you and they will lead you to your bedroom."

Ember walked over to the maid, hoping that they wouldn't be too rasis, for the sake of her sanity.

"Follow me Miss Ember." The maid stiffly spoke. Ember wordlessly followed the shorter woman. She was glad the maid wasn't make comments about her species and kept those things to herself.

As they walked through the halls, she noticed a theme. Quartz was used a lot, in nearly everything. She wouldn't be surprised if the vases were quartz. If the quartz wasn't white, then it was a light pink. Suddenly she stopped and opened a door and what Ember say made her surprised.

She was expecting a storage room for a bedroom but it surprised her when she saw an extravgent room. She turned to maid as she began to speak. "Here is where you'll sleep, a bathroom is attached and there is a litter box down the hall." The maid said and slammed the door shut once Ember had stepped in.

'Can't win them all.' Ember thought to herself. She didn't even bother to change into pajamas and just took off her corset and wore her dress to bed, only untying the ribbons to make it easier to breath in it. She flopped onto the bed with a content sigh. "Finally, time to sleep." She snuggled against the pillow and attempted to fall asleep.

Turns out, sleeping under the roof of your enemy isn't easy. Ember looked up at the white ceiling, she thought silently to herself. How was she going to avoid this prophecy? Did she even want to avoid to it? Those girls, they didn't deserve this stress on themselves, they wouldn't even be able to trust each other. Each of them would be suspecting each other. Ember curlled up on her side, she felt her tears welling up and for the first time that day, she let them fall freely.

How could this day turn so wrong? Ember held her dog close to her chest as she laid there, tears falling freely down her cheeks. He laid next to her with a soft whimper, sensing her sadness and cuddling closer to his human. She continued to let tears run down her cheeks and she held Rosco close to her chest. She cried the night away, falling asleep sometime close to midnight.

She woke up to violent knocking on the door and she got up to find the maid back, "Miss Ember, hurry up and put these," The maid said and handed her an outfit and shut the door once more. She quickly changed and put on the set of clothing that was given to her. She opened the door to see the maid still there, "Follow me Miss." She stiffly said.

Ember followed her after grabbing Rosco. "Miss, you do know you don't have to bring that mutt with you everywhere." The maid commented.

"I don't exactly trust the humans that treat me and my people like crap anytime they even get a glimpse of us." Ember snapped

"Fair enough, but your dog is not a Neko, we'll take of him." The maid said, not looking back at Ember. Ember held Rosco tighter, she didn't want these people to touch him. He was everything to her, all she had was her coin, necklace and Rosco. She didn't care about her dignity, that had left a long time ago, but she needed to keep these things. They were the only thing left of her home she had besides her old clothing.

The maid showed her to the banquet hall and she saw the other Neko's already eating like they hadn't eaten in days. In which that might be true, not a lot of Neko's got to live her life of luxury. She sat down a few chairs away from the youngest as to not to disturb her in her eating. She looked down at her empty plate and grabbed a sasuage to start off with and a cup of degfion. She happily sipped at her beverage and snacked on her sasuage.

She looked at the two girls, "Whats your names? I mean, which one of you is Hestia." She asked.

The one she was closet to perked up, "I'm Hestia." She said, "You must be Ember." She commented as she munched on a chicken wing. At least the cooks understood that Neko's couldn't eat thing but meat without getting really sick.

"Yes, I am Ember and you must be Pele, thats a really pretty name." Ember complimented.

Pele looked over at her, "Yeah, it bascially translates to volcanco." She grumbled. Okay, so definately not a morning person.

Ember awkwardly looked away and took another bite of her sasuage. She coughed lightly to herself. Her ears twitched and heard something coming and she looked over to the doors to see them opening to reveal the Queen.