A Shimmer of Hope

Chapter 6

      It had been a couple days since she had escaped, and all she had managed to catch was a couple of thin mice that had unknowingly wandered past her. She had, over a few days, moved her kits further and further away from clan territory. With no idea where she was, Ivycreek picked a direction and slowly started heading that way.

      Slowly, the woods started thinning out, and a strange scent wafted towards her. She hid her kits in a shallow gap under a thick oak, and hesitantly followed the musty scent through a bramble bush. Squeezing under the large bush, Ivycreek popped out into a shaded clearing. Blood was splattered everywhere, and she noticed tufts of white fur clinging to the sides of a gap in the barrier. "Most likely where some cat was trying to escape." She shuddered, but moved forward into the clearing.

      A cloud of some cat's fear-scent hung thick in the air, mixing with another, but mustier, scent. Ivycreek glanced around, and her eyes widened. "There must have been a battle here!" Her mind was buzzing with concerning thoughts, but she pressed on. She scraped through the gap, leaving behind tufts of her own golden tabby fur on top of the white fur.

      A trail of fresh blood trailed through the undergrowth, staining the forest floor red. Her eyes followed the trail around trees and bushes, until straightening out. Ivycreek carefully followed the quickly drying path of blood.

~~~~~~~~~~ ???'s POV ~~~~~~~~~~

      "Just give up, badger dung!" A young white tom shot out of the undergrowth, a trail of blood behind him marking his path. Behind him, a large fox darted out of the brush, jaws snapping shut on just where his tail had just been a heartbeat before. Not looking where he was going, the tom stumbled over a tree root, and a sharp pain shot up his hind leg.

      The fox easily caught up with him, grabbing his scruff and shaking it. Dizzy, he weakly kicked out with his hind legs, but it did nothing more than tear out a few clumps of fur. It's jaws tightened, and blood started spilling from the tom's neck, and cutting off his airway. He squirmed, trying to break free from the foxes grasp, but the tom was running out of ideas

      As his vision blurred, a dark grey shape moved nearby. "Not something else trying to kill me!" He moaned, awaiting death. Surprisingly, the shape attacked the fox, not him. It dropped him and yelped, whirling around to claw the shape. The blood-covered tom thudded onto the ground. Hesitantly rising to his paws, he padded forward a few steps.

      The fox threw off the grey shape, who he realized was a cat, and turned upon the hobbling tom. It pounced on the slow cat, knocking him to his paws, and clawing his side. The tom landed on a tree root, grunting, as the cat attacked the fox again. He lay there for a heartbeat, dizzy. A movement under a different root caught his eye. "W- what?" Struggling to his paws, he cautiously limped over to the large root.

      The fox's yelps and growls were very audible, but the battered tom ignored the cries. Blood flowed from various cuts and bite wounds, but he bent over to peer under the root. Two tiny kits were curled together, shivering, and the ginger kit let out a feeble "mew". He took a wobbly step forward, then collapsed, laying in his own blood. His vision darkened, but he reached a paw forward, as if the tom was trying to protect the two helpless kits.

A/N

I'M SORRY FOR NOT POSTING!! Wattpad has been deleting the chapter every time I go to post, but I finally got a chapter out! This is kind of a short chapter, but it ended up being a filler for what's to come!