Beast of the Sea - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

I narrowed my eyes, flexing my claws in and out, as I stared between the bone walls of my cage out into ShoreClan camp.

The warriors had all congregated together near the base of several dark black rocks. Dewstar, naturally, sat at the top of the heap of stones. Narrowing my eyes further, I could see the Shimmernight at the base of her cream tabby paws, emanating a sinister dark hue, brighter than I had ever seen it before.

"I still can't believe she let me off alive that day."

I turned to see Littlepaw padding up to me. The pale dawn light which shone sparsely through the bones above us highlighted her wide amber eyes, and quivering whiskers. She sat down next to me with a resigned sigh.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, turning back to Dewstar.

Now the warriors were bowing to her. Most prominently, I noted Honeypaw, now an apprentice, bowing so low it looked as though her muzzle was buried in the sand. Beside her, Bushpaw sat uneasily, fiddling with a sprig of some sort of herb.

"I'm talking about the night we returned home," Littlepaw began. "When Dewocean had me at claws' length, up on rocks like those. I still don't understand why she didn't kill me..."

"If we can call this cage a home," I muttered darkly, "then I truly am a whale."

"Ferretpaw," Littlepaw's tone was gentle but bracing as she continued. "We all established that Dewocean has some sort of power where she exploits the weaknesses of cats to make them rely on her." She paused. "Don't these cats bring you some but of happiness?"

I shrugged helplessly.

"Puddle and Bubble liked the concept of ShoreClan when I told them how it was before," Littlepaw continued gently. "I mean, if we defeat Dewocean...We'd have a new leader and deputy..."

"She's 'Dewstar' now, though," I grunted at length.

Perhaps I would have still had the confidence to call Dewstar by her former name, if not for all the time I'd been spending with her as of late. We had a sort of ritual at this point; Dewstar did her clan summons, then she would take me and sometimes Ripplepaw or Shadefang (as they were also disgraced kin of Night), trying to goad us into fury, which seemed to be the sole way the stone revived from whatever shadowy place it had originally existed.

"Have you figured anything out about Dewoc-star and how to eliminate her," Littlepaw asked cautiously.

"Well," I said with a sigh. "The Shimmerocean basically makes her able to control water, the Shimmermoor gives her extreme speed and agility, the Shimmersalt gives her telekenetic and earth power, and the Shimmernight..."

"So she's basically ridiculously overpowered."

I glanced up to see Bubble watching me keenly, paws pressed up against the bone bars of his own cage. I noted that Puddle was still sleeping. There was a limp sparrow beside him, but I knew from watching the two toms that Bubble and Puddle only ate together, as though they found solstice in that.

"Yep," I grunted. Then I let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. You really only came to help Washer, right, and now you're stuck with us-"

"It's Whisper," Bubble eyed me keenly. "And honestly, she's either fine or...er..." he paused. "And there are far worse cats to be stuck with."

I nodded somewhat reluctantly. I could see, though, the way that Bubble's whiskers drooped as he turned to look at Puddle. My head spun with the half-baked ideas of how to defeat Dewocean that had been swarming in my head for the past quarter moon.