Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

I

A few moons later...

The moon was an angel lost in a haze, drifting like a dainty feather through pitch-black heavens. A quiet storm wept tonight, unleashing rainfall upon the trees but not provoking thunder to strike its claws through the woods. Through the darkness that tried to hide her away, Luna managed to glimmer through the silent storm fiercely enough to paint a silver path through the woodland, guiding any soul who decided to wander through this labyrinth of pines.

"Damn, this sucks! Wish there was a way to show people what you saw without them being there," a tomcat growled, slinking through the shadows with his pelt bristling under the spell of a secret.

"Come on! His mercs have done this kinda thing before, right?" another tom scoffed. "I'm sure Pebblestar will trust us, he'd be stupid not to."

"You say that like he wasn't stupid already," another laughed as the three continued to slink through the late shadows. 

"The walk back's gonna take a while, but we'll be eatin' good tonight," the tom chuckled to himself, feeling the warmth of BlazeClan's campsite lure him towards its location on the horizon. 

However, the shadows were the three travellers' gazes didn't travel, something was moving.

Now I know, the feline pondered. They assumed the form of a spectre, ensuring their paws didn't make any sounds that could alert their targets. The loner slipped through the undergrowth, gaze following the three cats as they crept past in silence. Good. They're moving to slow for them to escape in time.

Without a drop of knowledge that they were being pursued, the mercenaries continued to lurk through the tenebrous woodland. The forest's hiding place became even more intricate as the moon was hidden under a cloth of fog, causing the silver pathway she'd painted to sink away into a moonless darkness. Though it simply brought frustration to the crew, the loner in the undergrowth revelled in the now blacker night, their veil thicker. 

It's time to strike.

A sudden chill sailed down the tom's spine. One lone leaf drifted along the unexpected breeze, so withered it crumbled instantly once it swirled to the forest floor. 'Get away,' something deep in the shadows whispered, even though there was no apparent threat.

"Huh? What are you looking at?" his companion spat. "Come on, we gotta get back."

"Oh? Nothin', I'm just tired, I guess," he muttered, beginning to continue their trek through the woods. But just before he could let his suspicion be carried away by the wind, he suddenly caught sight of a pair of blue eyes. They captured his soul, piercing the darkness of the night. Who-

A shadow suddenly leapt from the bushes, snapping him from his perplexed trance. The nameless cat landed elegantly with their paws making no sound as they struck the ground. He spun around, withered leaves encircling those same piercing blue eyes before they were lured to a dark grave in the ground. 

"What the fuck? Who are you, what the hell do you want from us?" a mercenary spat, lashing his tail in indignance. "Fuck off, we've got a job to do."

The loner simply responded in silence, yet they let one fierce zephyr announce for them that they held fatal intentions. They uncovered their claws for the three to see, silently signalling that they were preparing the graves of the cats they'd caught.

"Come on, just tell us!" a tomcat snarled. He too let his claws slide from their sheathes with the knowledge that a fight was certain. "The hell do you want? We've killed all the bastards from NightClan, are you an angry zombie or some-"

He was suddenly interrupted, his soul impaled by the stranger's sudden gaze. Their eyes were fixed in a fatal glare, as the intense cerulean in their eyes glowed fiercely with the power to drown him in their deep blue. And yet, before the tom could realize their attack had begun, the basilisk of a feline's claws were soaked in a dim crimson, their victim laying dead upon the ground.

"Huh? What!?" another mercenary spat, unable to comprehend the sight of his murdered acquaintence. "Get the fuck over here, you bastard! Your demonic ass is gonna get what's coming to you!!"

In the span of a second, the stranger's gaze was fixed on him, and with the speed of a falcon they'd nimbly dashed towards their second target. Another span of a second, and the mercenary's lifeless body fell to the ground, his blood splashed upon the forest floor.

The final mercenary stood aquiver in beneath the lightless shade of a pine, his back curved into an arch and his tail lashing back and forth. His system shattered from having bored witness to his companions' murders, he could only stare ahead with madness in his eyes as the stranger gracefully sauntered towards him. "Who the fuck are you!?" he hissed hysterically, his claws unearthed. "Are you some assassin or something? No way you're from NightClan, we dealt with everyone there! So what do you want from us?"

Even if they still simply responding with a fierce glare, the stranger's expression when the mercenary mentioned NightClan unveiled the reason behind this assassination. "Dammit, some of those bastards are still alive? Even after Pebblestar burned down the forest and sent a hundred mercenaries to exterminate them? You gotta be fucking kiddi-"

The mercenary suddenly found himself stricken by an unknown force. It was only when his eyes trailed down when he realized that crimson was seeping from a fresh wound in his throat, a fatal blow delivered quicker than he could perceive. However, before he could consider the fact that his life was ending, the tom was laying deceased beneath the falling rain.

Good. That'll be enough, for now, the assassin concluded.

Now that the ruckus of life had been chased away from that ebony forest, the loner eluded the place of death they'd shifted it to. And soon, as the shadows cleared away to allow morning to escape the horizon, Stormray wandered along the edge of a dead highway, their slaughter over for tonight.