𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

-Chapter Sixteen-

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Are you satisfied yet?

Will it ever be enough for you?

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Lion paw ran through a place that smelt like death everything around her was morphing into different yet equally strange things making it hard to focus. She heard distant wails from behind her. She paused Wait what am I running from? she thought. When she was not able to find an answer for her question, she turned around and went towards the wailing. She walked through the slimy forest wondering if whoever was wailing was in trouble. She turned her walk into a run just in case the voice was wounded. 

As she grew closer the wailing voices turned into violent hissing  " You don't belong.... Leave.... Leave. Leave!" the bearers of the voices suddenly came into view. One was a rotting, once pretty brown tabby she-cat and the other was mangled, dark grey tabby tom with crazed blue eyes. She stopped as their heads snapped towards her. 

"D-dark fur? Lush Leaf???" Lion paw stopped running, she winced when her gaze met the bloody holes where Lush Leaf's eyes once were.

"YOU!!!" They yowled. Their voices sounded like claws scratching against smooth bark, unnatural and screechy. 

Their faces were so angry and yet so ... scared. What were they afraid of? She tried moving closer to the fearful corpses but a twig snapped under her paws. The corpses lunged at her out of fear. Lion paw screamed. She tried to escape them but her paws were stuck in place by vile sticky sludge. She soon realised there was no escape and braced herself for the pain. But when Dark fur's bloody claws pierced into her shoulder she was not prepared for the horrible agony. Pain shot through her and then suddenly there was confusion.

Lion paw woke up cold sweat dripping down the back of her neck. Her body was numb and she felt as though she couldn't move. It took her a moment to realise she was awake and not stuck in the nightmare anymore. As her numbness faded the pain remained. She felt even more confused so she turned over to look at her shoulder. She had to stop herself from gagging once she saw the state it was in. A horrible thorn as jagged as a claw was wedged deeply into her shoulder blood was pooling up around it and every time she moved her front leg pain shot through it. She winced in agony and tried ripping it out with her teeth. Her frustrations grew as she only bit her self and pushed it in deeper. She bit back a scream and staggered out of her nest. 

She stumbled out of the hollow stump that housed the apprentice den and jumped back in shock, the entire camp was laced with a thin sheet of icy frost. It reflected the weak leafbare sun and the dazzling light almost blinded her and if she wasn't in so much pain she would have stopped to marvel in the amazing view. 

She limped quickly across the unshaded camp area to two large briar bushes that formed a dome shaped den near the camp entrance. In newleaf the briars would bloom but for now the bushes were thorny and covered in strange red berries. Next to the den were rows of dirt with herbs such as catmint and burdock plants each row was bordered by two tiny cat-made ditches containing clear water that helped the plants grow. Most of the plants that were planted in the small herb garden were ready for harvesting and would be later that season. In front of the den was a small tunnel made of brambles and heather that led into the den.

When she stepped inside the medicine den a fresh aroma of recently picked herbs almost knocked her senseless. 

"How can I help you?" Fallen Lark asked pleasantly from the back of her den where she was preparing some poultices. Lion paw jumped back slightly startled by the fact that Fallen Lark was awake this early. She'd always pictured the life of a medicine  cat as sleeping till late morning and just healing their clanmates until an early goodnight. "Is something wrong Lion paw?" the medicine cat inquired slightly put off by Lion paw's strange behaviour.