Gaining Height - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"What were you thinking!"

The moment Hawk had returned home, her mother was upon her. Adder's dark grey pelt was fluffed up, and she loomed above Hawk, teeth bared into a horrendous snarl. Hawk wanted to look away, but her mother's furious glare and locked eyes meant that Hawk was unable to shift her expression away.

"Adder? Can I have a word?" A voice sounded somewhere in the distance.

Hawk's mother turned away, and for a brief moment, Hawk allowed her rigid muscles to relax. She had quickly returned home, realising that all her colony had watched Blaze's desperate attack on the stouts, not moving to help him.

She had always thought that she could rely on her mother, but as she'd soon realised, it was kill or be killed. As leader, Adder had ordered the cats to not step in. She'd believed that if Blaze couldn't fight the stouts, then he was useless as a fighter.

"Hawk!"

Hawk turned back to face her mother. Adder's eyes were locked on her once more, but this time, there was another cat beside her. Bolt. Mother's second in command.

Bolt rarely ever said anything, only reacting in snarls or hisses. She was like a shadow, always there, and yet, rarely acknowledged. Bolt wasn't particularly strong, but she did have an alarming agility that had always set Hawk on edge. Bolt was the sort of cat that had kept her up at night as a young kit, wondering if Bolt would attack her so quickly that she couldn't react.

"Well?" Adder turned to Hawk, narrowing her eyes viciously. She even slid out her claws. "What were you thinking, you carrion?! Leave fighting to the grown cats. If they can't handle themselves, then it's their problem."

Hawk stared at her mother in shock. She didn't know what to say to her mother. Adder had abandoned her son! Blaze had nearly died, and he might already be dead at this rate...

"What do you mean!" Hawk was taken aback by her own fury. "I saw you." Her breath came out in ragged gasps. "You, Wolf, Talon, and Swipe all just watched as Blaze was attacked by the stouts! Aren't we supposed to be a family?"

Adder's eyes narrowed to slits, but it was Bolt who spoke up. "I grew up alongside Blaze," she rasped. "He's turned you soft. Weak cats die, just like him. You need to learn how to be fierce in order to survive."

"He's not dead!"

"Enough!"

Hawk's legs quivered as Adder padded up to her. She found herself shrinking against the sharp rock that was beside her. The stony cold pressed up against her, until Hawk couldn't retreat any further.

Adder eyed her coldly. "You've lived too soft a life," her mother snarled. "I suppose I was soft once too, though." The dark grey she-cat slid out her claws. "Life's been too easy for you, Hawk. We've been all coddling you, especially Blaze." She spat at the dirt. "Some family he was, forcing you to become soft, and then dying. Cats like me and Bolt make much better companions. We know how to survive, at the very least."

"You're being mean!" Hawk shivered as she remembered Blaze's panicked yelping as the stoats dug into him.

Adder's eyes were slits of bright blue ice. Suddenly, she sprang onto Hawk, claws unsheathed. Hawk hit the ground with a hard jolt, and she saw Bolt grooming her fur calmly from a few tail lengths away.

Adder's sharp claw was a mouse length from Hawk's throat. She shivered, as she wondered what this cat could do to her. She had nursed from Adder, curled up with her mother against the cold when her thick pelt had yet to grow in. Now her mother loomed above her.

"I'll make you fierce," she snarled, lifting her paw right above Hawk.

Hawk clenched her eyes shut, and suddenly she felt something sharp slash through her face. She let out a cry, and thrashed, but Adder held her down.

Sudden pain blossomed into Hawk's face, hot and overwhelming. She felt as though she would pass out. Part of her wanted to pass out, just to get away from the situation, but gradually, she opened her right eye, for her left eye felt too painful to ever be openable again, and looked at her mother.

Adder's eyes were glistening slightly as she watched Hawk. Hawk suddenly realised that her mother was shivering. Adder ran a gentle paw down the side of Hawk's face, brushing some sort of liquid.

When Hawk met Adder's eyes, Adder spoke to her softly. "I'm sorry, my love." Then her body rightened, her eyes narrowed, and she stopped quivering. "You'll learn to survive one day," she said. Then her voice lowered into a growl. "And what I've just done will make sure of that."

Unsteadily, Hawk began to get to her paws. Her legs quivered, and around her the world spun. Everything hurt, and she turned to see some cat leaning against her. It was Swipe, an ancient she-cat who was very knowledgeable in the snowy terrain. Hawk remembered hearing stories of how her mother, her father and another cat named Wolf had nearly died in an avalanche, but this cat had shown them safety, and had joined her group.

Not much of a talker, but maybe she'll make this horrendous pain go away.

Hawk leaned on Swipe as the old cat led her towards the shallow cave where the colony had been for the past moon. As soon as they made their way onto snowless rock, Hawk collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily.

Swipe turned away and began rummaging at the back of the den. Then, she came back and began dripping something onto Hawk's face. Hawk trembled while she did it.

"Swipe?"

"Mhm?" The old cat grunted as Hawk spoke. "What is it?"

Her voice cracked with age, and Hawk wondered when the last time Swipe had spoken was. While Bolt wasn't a vocal cat, at least she did speak, and often growled and hissed, but Swipe rarely ever said anything at all.

Hawk slitted her right eye open slightly as she watched Swipe applying some sort of cobweb to the left side of her face. The old she-cat also nosed some seeds in the direction of Hawk, indicating Hawk should eat them.

"Why is the world so mean?" Hawk began softly. She paused, lapping up the seeds."I mean, why did mother just send Blaze away."

Swipe curled around Hawk, giving her some level of warmth. Hawk found it oddly comforting to have another cat pressed up against her. She felt waves of unconsciousness begin to sweep into her, but she still pricked her ears as Swipe responded to her question.

"It wasn't always like this," the she-cat spoke in a scratchy voice. "But gradually, cats grew apart. They lost the understanding of what it means to have clanmates and be unified."

"What's a clanmate?" Hawk interjected. To her, her voice seemed to come from millions of miles away.

"A clanmate," Swipe meowed. "Is meant to be a cat who cares and supports those she lives with no matter what. They're extinct."

"What's extinct?"

"It means that cats that care and love one another are gone forever. Now, everyone is savage, all because they have been tempted away from true living by things like power and control. Basically, my little one, we have lost the spark of life that makes us truly deserving of the title of cats."