Previous chapter here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38215104/

First Chapter:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/35536506/

A Leap Into Destiny: Ch. 3

The wheels of the cart stopped; the two kangaroos froze at the threatening demand to halt.

Jenny stood stiff as a board, but some shuffling of footsteps behind them piqued Jelani’s ears enough that he started to turn around.

“Don’t move!” The voice quickly threatened again. “I’ve got archers!”

Jelani eased back into position alongside Jenny, who was still scared stiff. Anger simmered in Jelani’s eyes. That moment before, he managed to sneak a quick glance at the man behind them. It was a dark silhouette, and there was movement around him; noises came from the forest’s edge as well. Jelani could still hear it. He wasn’t sure who they were, but he had some guesses. All he knew for sure was that he and Jenny were outnumbered.

The voice commanded again. “Check the cart.”

With that, some more commotion was heard; several footsteps, the creaking of the cart, and a few whispers floated back and forth between the mystery men. Without turning his head, Jelani looked down to Jenny. Her hands wrung at her sides, but she stood firmly.

“It’s just a dumb-looking statue or somethin’.” Yelled a different voice.

“Search them!”

Footsteps drew nearer; a few of them quickened, and with swift force, sets of arms locked around both of the kangaroos. Two men latched onto Jelani, locking his arms behind him, and another man did the same to Jenny, prompting a gasp to escape her.

Jelani lunged while being wrangled. “Keep your dirty hands off her!”

“Calm down, Jack,” Jenny’s scoundrel captor replied in a very jaded-sounding voice. He was a rough-looking coyote, and was Jelani’s first good look at one of the gang members as he and Jenny were forcibly turned around, back towards the cart.

Jelani continued to throw his weight, attempting to free himself. “So help me if you- umph!” His pupils shrunk; the poke of a knife in his back stilled him. Straightaway, he felt touching all over his midsection and waist. “Hey!” Just below, a smaller, sable-looking bandit frisked him. “I don’t have anything on me, you-“

“AH!”

A yelp broke the tussle for a moment; it was Jenny. “Watch where you’re grabbing!”

A capybara bandit rose up. “She’s got a knife on her leg, I felt it!”

“Quit touching me, you-“

“Jenny!” Jelani called, which prompted the knife to push closer into his lower back. “Hnn!”

Gold ingets spilled all over the ground in front of Jelani and the gaggle of bandits; the sable had loosened the sack of money on Jelani’s side.

“It’s mine!!” A bandit roared, and several dove into the pile, including one of Jelani’s captors. Jelani didn’t hesitate to swing around and bust his other captor straight in his mouth, dropping him. The kangaroo traversed the chaos deftly, and followed up with a roundhouse kick to the head of Jenny’s captor.

“Stop him, you idiots!”

It was that gruff voice again, and before Jelani could throw another punch, several bandits piled on, and he was secured again.

The voice could be heard, grumbling about having to do something yourself if you want it done right. A bandana-clad, stout Tasmanian Devil with a knife dangling from his necklace stepped out from amongst the others, and they cleared a path.

Lowlife trash, Jelani thought to himself with a snarl, eyeing them all with disdain, and then the Tasmanian Devil caught his eye.

The thug held up his hand, and the surrounding henchmen did the same. Four fingers arched over the top of his thumb, coming together in a pattern that appeared to resemble a paw pad.

The Red Paw Bandits, Jelani thought.

The Tasmanian Devil laughed. “I would say that the leader of the Red Paw Bandits sends his regards,” The Tasmanian Devil voiced with a fang-laden smile as he walked closer, “But you’re looking at him.” He then spread his arms in presentation. “I am Myron: the new leader of the...” The Tasmanian Devil stopped in the middle of his words.

Jelani just blinked slowly under his furled brow. His smirk didn’t leave his face.

Myron quickly craned his neck back towards the cart, and then back to Jelani.
“You...” His eyes studied the dark stripe that was on each side of the kangaroo’s face. “I know that facial marking anywhere. You’re that two-bit politician.”

Jenny’s eyes widened in surprise, that the bandit was able to recognize Jelani’s identity so quickly.

“Yeah,” Myron continued cleverly, “I know you. I hear you don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for our kind.”

“I hold my sympathy for the civil and just.” Jelani spoke lowly.

Myron laughed snidely. “Huh. I know your type, haven’t pulled an ounce of weight in your worthless lives. What are you doing out here without your hoity toity security detail? And on OUR turf!”

“This isn’t your turf.” Jelani responded.

Myron leaned in, keeping his eyes firmly locked onto Jelani’s. “Well,” he growled, “It sure as hell ain’t yours.”

Jelani glared back at him, but Myron’s eyes lowered, and drifted over toward the other kangaroo’s feet. They trailed up, all the way to Jenny’s eyes. Myron then looked back to Jelani with a crooked, taunting smile. “But this girl. She yours?”

“I’m taking her to Ki’Miya Mara. We’re delivering a parcel.”

A fake laugh escaped Myron. “Awe, well that doesn’t sound very fun, does it?” He sauntered closer to Jenny, and after a brief look over her, he sniffed the air around her. She turned away in disgust, as far as her captor would allow.

“Step away, Myron,” Jelani spoke through his clenched teeth.

The Tasmanian Devil’s eyes remained laid on Jenny’s, that were focused somewhere distant. “You know,” he added, “I really like dangerous women.” He drew a slight bit closer, in hopes to lure her eyes to his. “I hear tell that you have a knife hidden under there somewhere. Maybe, back at camp, you can show it to me.”

Jelani felt a fire burning inside him. “The only way you’ll be taking her anywhere is over my dead body.”

Myron’s head swiveled. His expression hardened, and he stepped towards towards Jelani, leering at him from one side. His jet black fur seemed to raise and ruffle a bit. “That can be arranged.” Ever so casually, and a bit close for Jelani’s comfort, Myron rubbed his thumb over the silver blade of his dagger. “But, have some patience. Surely there’s a little more fun to be had here, right?”

Jelani’s jaw clenched in contempt, barely giving the mongrel any undeserved eye contact, and a low whimper escaped from Jenny.

A conniving, toothy grin had spread across Myron’s face. “You know,” he chortled, “I hear that kangaroos are real good at jumping.”

Jelani’’s evasive eyes narrowed.

“Why don’t you give us a little example?” Myron’s mouth looked as if he was holding back a laugh, and a few of his goons began to chuckle. “Just for kicks.”

Jelani held firm in his cold expression, and kept his eyes averted, ignoring the laughs and jabs.

Myron held open his arms in encouragement. “Come on now, don’t be shy!” After some more laughs and remarks from his backup, he eased a bit closer. “Come on,” he egged, somehow managing an even more snidely grimace. “Jump.”

The demand was loudly echoed in Jelani’s ears by the two thugs who restrained him. Their grips seemed to become tighter and more hostile, and Jelani’s patience was growing thin.

The Tasmanian Devil aggressively pushed the side of Jelani’s face. “Jump for me!” He threatened, prompting some gasps and “oohs” from his gang.

“STOP!” Jenny yelled with a hopeless lunge forward, bit her captor pulled her back further.

Myron’s paw powered forward and dug his claws into the front of Jelani’s dreadlocks, jerking him down to his eye level. “JUMP FOR ME!!”

In a blur, Jelani rared back using his tail for leverage, and BAM! The dreadlocked kangaroo’s two feet plunged into the bandit leader’s gut.

Myron soared backwards, nailing a couple of his goons along the way, and smashed to the dirt. Jelani’s captors were caught off guard, and a single swift elbow from the furious roo knocked them likewise off their feet.

The other bandits clamored towards Jelani, as well as to their fallen comrades in something of an aimless effort to regain control.

“Jelani!” Jenny called out as best as she could muster; an armed lowlife continued his tight hold on his squirming hostage.

Jelani’s teeth clenched together, and he dodged a few incoming swings. “I’m coming, Jenny!” He bellowed, continuing to block and slip away from several attacks. One stout bandit jumped from the back of the cart, and grabbed onto the resisting roo. His arms gripped onto his upper body tightly, and on top of Jelani’s efforts hopped two more bandits. “Get off of me!” He growled angrily.

Jenny struggled towards Jelani to no avail, but her efforts paused. A soft glow of light emanated from the dogpile of fighters. It illuminated Jenny’s eyes, as well as the other’s, and for a moment, they were mystified.

“YAAAAHH!” Jelani roared, seemingly blasting the three bandits away from him with his voice and mysterious light.

Is that... the aura he was talking about? Jenny thought, her eyes full with Jelani’s heroics.

The determined kangaroo bounded towards her; he parried and returned punches, swept his tail under an enemy to drop them, and dodged left and right.

“Jelani!” Jenny shouted hopefully as she tried to free herself from her captor.

Jelani’s boots lifted from the ground in a valiant leap. “Jenny!” He called back, with a tinge of emotion and an outstretched hand.

SST!

An arrow shot like lightning from the bushes, pelting Jelani in his gut.

Everything seemed to slow down, and Jelani’s eyes grew wide. A feeling became apparent to him; a sensation in the lower left part of his abdomen. A sting, a hot sort of sting that felt like it was slowly boring into him, burning into him, even.

A petrified sound came from Jenny’s throat, an indescribable, painful gasp.

Jelani fell to his knees, expelling a sudden huff. He stared at the ground, shaking, and subconsciously touched the spire of pain on his belly. Warm, wet. He winced at the blood that seeped through his shirt and dribbled down the arrow’s length.

“NOOOO!!” Jenny bursted in realization. “Jelani, NOOO!!”

Jelani’s eyes pinched shut, and his teeth clasped together. His hand clenched the base of the arrow, and in one gruesome pull, he jerked the arrow from his gut with a barbaric wail.

From afar, a ragtag, wolverine-looking thief hobbled out from the brush, and peered past some others ahead. “H-hey!” He called, almost doubting himself. “I... I got him! I think I got him! Boss, look!”

A rumble of thunder echoed across the sky that was beginning to lose its color.

The arrow slipped through Jelani’s fingers, and he caught himself just as he collapsed forward with a grunt.

“Boss, look!” The wolverine giggled with joy as he hurried towards Myron, who was still in a fetal position on the ground trying to get his breath back. “Boss, I got him! I really did! Look!”

A few wheezing coughs squeaked from Myron. “W-what?” He could barely respond audibly.

Thunder rolled again, and raindrops began stippling the path.

Further away, on the path where Jelani lie, Jenny looked on helplessly, with tears rolling down her face. It killed her to see Jelani struggle to stay on his hands and knees. His movements became more sudden and unsteady, and even with Jenny’s encouragement, he fell to his side, limp in a puddle of deep red.

Jenny broke through the embrace of the bandit who was holding her prisoner. With the rabid roo down, the bandit shrugged off the need to give chase.

“Oh my goodness,” Jenny cried as she hurried up to him in her flowing white clothes. She knelt by him, paying no mind to her skirt that skimmed the bloodied earth. “Jelani,” she whimpered as she pushed to turn him over.

The exhausted roo grunted when he settled onto his back, his leg sprawled haphazardly. “Jen... Jenny?” He struggled to breathe the words.

The wolverine jumped up and down in excitement. “Hurry, Boss, look over there! I got him!”

Myron finally pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Wha-... you got him?” He asked still breathlessly, and with a hand on his stomach. “What do you mean you got him?”

“I GOT him!” The wolverine repeated. The still-confused Myron was able to toddle to his feet from some unsolicited help from his exuberant cohort. “I shot him with an arrow! Right in the stomach! Perfect shot! Come look!”

Myron drew back from his partner’s arm-pulling. “An arrow?!” He questioned in surprise. “What do you mean an ARROW?! What kind of arrow?”

The wolverine’s expression changed into a slightly more mellow one. “W-well you know, an arrow! The ones we’ve been using...” He tapped a couple of his long claws together. “You know, the good ones.”

Myron bit his lip in thought, and glanced over at Jelani across the road, who had the girl by his side. His eyes then moved back to his partner. “The good ones, huh?” He smiled, shaking his head. “You...”

The wolverine’s face brightened up again. “Yeah!” He laughed, “I did good didn’t I?”

Myron’s toothy grin grew wider. “You...” He repeated. “You... idiot!” He blurted, slapping the wolverine across the muzzle.

A crack of thunder echoed his anger.

The most demented scowl wrinkled Myron’s face, and he screamed out. “If I were ready to kill him then I would have told you, you jackass!” His black claws grabbed onto the idiot’s neck and shook him. “You shot him with a drugged arrow when I wasn’t done with him! I ought to take that arrow and shove it into one of your ears and out the other for that, you ninny!”

The arguing was just background noise to Jenny, who was ripping off pieces of her skirt for Jelani’s wound.

“Aagh!” Jelani yelped when he felt a stinging pressure.

“It’s all right, Jelani,” Jenny kept reassuring with the most fragile hope, her words shaky and her face wet with rain. “Everything is going to be all right.”

Myron released his grip on the screw-up, who in turn fell to the ground choking on his coughs. “Well.” Myron heaved a heavy sigh. “At least we got the girl. We better haul ass out of here before someone sees this mess.” He called to one of his right-hand men. “Luther! Go get the girl for me. We’re outta here.”

A thin, grayish-brown rabbit parted from the rest with a hop. “Okay, Boss.” Luther jaunted up to the kangaroos, and paused. “Uh... oh yeah, hey Boss? What should I do with the fella?”

Myron yelled back. “Leave the body. He’ll make half-decent vulture food.”

Amidst the fog of fear and urgency, Jenny didn’t even hear what was said. “Jelani” she coaxed heartfully, “Jelani, please open your eyes!” She studied his breathing, and then gave him a light shaking. “Jelani, please!” She cried, “You have to wake up!”

A shadow appeared over the two. “I’m sorry ma’am,” the slim rabbit Luther spoke, “but I don’t think he’s got too much breaths left in ‘em. We got to get movin’ along now.”

“NO!” Jenny snapped, jerking her upper arm away from the rabbit’s grasp. “I’m not leaving him.”

The rabbit stepped back. “Uhh, Boss? She don’t wanna go.” He hollered.

“This man needs medical attention now!” Jenny added in as firm a voice as she could muster from her trembling voice. “I’m not leaving until he gets it!”

Myron threw his bandana onto the ground and made a move towards Luther and the kangaroos. “Dammit, I’ve got enough stupid animals to keep in line, and the last thing I need is a half-dead one!” In a quick swipe, he removed his brown belt. “Let go of his carcass and get a move on, woman!”

The leather belt snapped as a threat. Jenny leapt up from her downed traveling partner, and hurried to the cart, with her frayed and bloodstained skirt trailing behind her.

“Get back here!” Myron barked as he grabbed at Jenny’s elusive arm.

In one leap she topped the cart, balancing with her tail, and she drew her dagger. She breathed exhaustedly. Her eyes were tired from emotion, her hair and clothes were wet with rain, and her arms shook as she pointed the tip of the blade directly towards the scowling Tasmanian Devil.

“Don’t test my patience, girly!” Myron growled, and he slung the loose end of the belt towards her. It snapped loudly, and Jenny ducked her blade out of the way.

She gripped the blade even tighter, and widened her stance. The belt made another swing at her and missed, but she wobbled; the cart rocked as Myron’s comrades began to climb onto the other side of it. Jenny gasped, and looked back towards Myron.

“Ha!” Myron laughed, placing one foot upon the back of the cart. “You’re not so smart now, are y-AAAAAHHH!!”

The Tasmanian Devil howled in pain, causing the others to freeze. His other foot was caught, caught in the grueling grasp of a bloody paw that gripped from just below the cart. Myron writhed, and from within the gripping fist, a crackle was heard.

“AAAAUUGHH!!” Myron bellowed, and he fell forward onto the bed of the cart, at Jenny’s feet. She leapt out of the way in surprise, but nothing could have prepared anyone there for what she saw next.

From behind the cart rose Jelani; rain streamed down his face, and his eyes were lit with a fire of anger and pain as he gripped the thief’s ankle.

Jenny’s blue eyes brightened, but doubted what they were seeing. “Je-... Jelani?” Her mouth had fallen agape, much like the bandits behind her, who were likewise astonished beyond words.

The unyielding, dreadlocked roo’s teeth grit, and in a single swing, he threw Myron out of the cart and into the dirt.

“H-he’s undead!” Called one bandit fearfully.

“He’s... h-he’s p-possessed! B-by a demon!” Yelled another, who stumbled over his words as much as he stumbled to make an awkward escape from the cart.

Jenny’s hand grasped Jelani’s, helping lift him onto the cart.

“Jenny”, he breathed, as the two held each other in support.

She could tell from the wince on his face that it was all that he could do to stand, or to have even said her name. Before Jenny could even respond, he fell forward onto her.

“Jelani!” She exclaimed. Her arms tucked underneath his, instantly struggling to uphold his deadweight, and she fell back.

Nearby in a mud puddle, Myron rocked back and forth in pain, holding his ankle. “GET THEM!” He screamed.

The bandits began to regain their wits after the wild kangaroo man’s fall, and after their Boss’ command, they moved to surround the cart. Jenny looked back in alarm. “Jelani!” She voiced emotionally to the warrior who had fallen into her lap. “Jelani, please, hold on!”

The front of the cart creaked as a bandit carefully made his mount.

“Ah!” Jenny gasped, looking back to the approaching bandits. Almost immediately, her attention returned to her lap.

Jelani moved, his unyielding commitment manifesting itself once again. He lifted his upper body from the solace of Jenny’s embrace, and her eyes followed him in awe as he rose like a phoenix. Jelani’s dark silhouette against the misty rain sent a chill through the gang of bandits.

“Okay, I’m out!” Yelped one of the scruffy, damp bandits as he turned tail.

Jelani held his wound, stalling his demise as long as he could; he looked aside, to Myron who still writhed in pain, and back to the rotten thief’s faint-hearted gang, some of whom were already making off.

“Jelani!” Jenny called out over the pouring rain, unsure of what to do.

Jelani winced; he couldn’t respond. It hurt to breathe, and he held his aching stomach tighter with his hand. The hurt made him feel hot and sick, and the forest almost seemed the be spinning around him. He knew he was knocking at a door that he wasn’t ready to enter, but he had to do something first.

Jelani exhaled, snubbing the pain, and he shakily lifted a foot onto the railing of the cart.

“Jelani, what are you doing?!” Jenny called out again. “Jelani!”

With a dying light in his eye, Jelani closed his eyes, breathing again. It was calm, dark, yet his mind’s eye was active. His ears twitched, picking up the bandits, their voices, the trampling feet of the few escapees, the rustling of leaves, Myron. Jelani could almost see them, smell them. He felt their vibrations from the ground, even standing atop the cart.

Jenny almost spoke, but a familiar sight halted her.

The pale yellow aura.

He wasn’t lying, Jenny thought, it really just manifested like that!

It waved from Jelani’s core, rippling up his arms and upper body. Jenny had only ever heard of such things, and she was at a loss for words. Before she could even try to speak, Jelani leapt from the cart suddenly, high into the air.

“Ah!” Jenny gasped in astonishment.

Like a bolt, Jelani leapt into the air, spinning, and propelled towards the ground, which he broke with his tail in a mighty smash.

Rock pillars spiked up from the surrounding earth’s dark and wet surface, each one bursting out from underneath a single bandit to send them flying. One, two, and a third one further down the path. Four, five, and one even erupted underneath Myron. The jagged pillars continued to shoot up, dispelling the evil left and right, and careened them out of sight.

Jenny’s lip quivered; she couldn’t believe her eyes, and was merely frozen in wonderment.

Only rain could be heard now. Pain had morphed into a dull ache for the hunched-over and depleted kangaroo, at the expense of his senses. His consciousness hung on by a thread, and a single image in his mind. “J-... Jenny...” He tried to move to face her, but quickly fell to his side. Every pillar crumbled when he became still.

Jenny launched herself from the cart, calling out to him in panic.

-

Next chapter: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/39942900/