Beast of the Sea - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The next few days were all a blur.

I could only recall the moments after I conceded the relics, myself and worst of all my friends, to Dewocean vaguely.

First, I remember Aquastar finally breaking his telekenetic hold on Littlepaw. My friend had rolled down the sharp black rocks as though she was merely a stone, and collapsed as a motionless heap at the bottom. Behind me, Shadefang struggled vainly against Bubbleburst, who had suddenly decided that he would support his mother over our little loser group.

Bubble slashed furiously at Moonpoppy as her and her kit, Honeykit, had lunged onto Puddle, clearly assuming that the big tom was the larger threat of the two. Puddle kept mewling for Bubble to calm down, to not fight, to run for his life and leave Puddle. But Bubble had kept on fighting, that is, until Stormwing came on from behind and sent a sharp blow to his head.

Then I had felt a weight fall on me, I felt claws sink into my shoulder fur, and in a bitter sort of dark fury I welcomed the pain that blossomed from my shoulder blades. I vaguely recalled goading the cat on, though I don't recall who it was specifically pinning me down.

As quickly as my fury had come though, it dissipated. Strangely enough, it was because of a look on my littermate's face. Ripplepaw stared down at me with such fear and disappointment from beside Littlepaw's limp frame that all the fury left me. A heartbeat later, the cat pinning me stuck a blow to my head, and I succumbed to darkness.

After that, I had slipped in and out of consciousness, time seeming to speed up and slow down erratically. I had never opened my eyes, though. Each time I thought of pulling myself closer and closer to wakefulness, I would recall the defeat I'd sentenced my clanmates and possibly the world to.

When I truly awoke for the first time, I was pressed up against a cat's pelt. They were warm, and I felt a purr begin in the back of my throat. For one glorious moment, my fears were put to rest. Perhaps it was Littlepaw beside me, alive and well or Ripplepaw, come to tell me they'd defeated Dewocean. Whoever this cat was, I could tell they wanted me close, wanted our pelts to brush.

Then, I opened my eyes, and every sense of relief I'd had vanished. The cat I was pressed up against was none other than Dewocean.

She had curled her entire body around my much smaller frame, keeping the chill of the wind which I could hear blowing the trees in the distance, far away from me. I could feel warm sand beneath me and hear the crashing of waves against rock in the distance. Dewocean's tail brushed idly along my back. My entire body suddenly began to throb with pain in spite of the warmth around me. I tried to move away, but I found that my limbs refused to obey.

"How are things, my deputy?"

Dewocean's voice was smooth and silky, and hearing it only made me feel more like I was drowning in oozing liquid, unable to move. For one terrible heartbeat, I thought Dewocean was talking to me, but instead, her gaze rested on a cat strutting over in the distance. She hadn't even noticed I had woken, perhaps.

"Fine, master," the cat meowed curtly.

She made that cat deputy?! I couldn't believe it. Staring, facing me with a monotonous gaze was none other than the background apprentice Strikepaw, the cat who had always followed in Flowerpaw's paws, the cat who had always been nought but a shadow, eclipsed by those with far greater legacies.

So why did Dewocean make her of all cats deputy...? And hold up, Dewocean herself is deputy!

"And the cages?" Dewocean yawned, running her tail along my spine.