Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

XXVIII

Content Warning: More gore in this one, but worse. Like straight up mutilation and more than once.

There are over thirty of those mercenaries, there's no way she could kill all of them! Pebblestar swished his tail from side to side, feeling maddened by the feeling that he wasn't as strong as he thought he was. He dug his claws into the ground. He couldn't think that. Not once in all of eternity.

Selenostar struggled with the decision of whether to throw the torch down or not. On one paw, he felt he had to get rid of those mercenaries, it was simply what was right and had to be done. Yet now, his daughter was among them, trying to tear them apart.

A sudden realization struck him. He'd thought his daughter was dead, all these moons. If he killed her now, it wouldn't be a loss. He'd simply return to the grief he'd known and gotten used to. 

"All of you!" he announced. "I assure you, if that she-cat looks like she's about to lose, I'll burn all those fighters. She'll die, and all of you may die too, but it'll be a good sacrifice to get rid of evil, right?"

A wave of shock, anger and commotion fell over the crowd. Yet throughout it all, what he noticed most was the violet eyes staring up at him, filled with rage and a sense of betrayal.

I'm sorry, Shimmerpaw.

-

That's my father? Shimmerspark couldn't comprehend this. She was sure he'd died. Sunpaw...she'd said so...

Another pang of pain struck her as she remembered Sunpaw. 

She struggled to process his words, did her father really say he was willing to kill her? 

Suddenly, she was pushed back to the ground. Shimmerspark screamed as claws suddenly raked across her stomach, her pain pouring out in the form of a warm pulse of blood.

"Sorry, but Pebblestar would give some of us a fate way worse than death if we failed to kill you," a tomcat told her casually.

Claws raked across her stomach again, and she wailed in pain once more. Yet despite the paralyzing feeling brought upon her by the pain, she forced herself to keep fighting. Unsheathing her claws, she slashed the throat of the cat tearing open her stomach. He gasped, stunned as he let go of her in shock. She promptly stood up again and slashed his throat a second time, causing him to drop to the ground shuddering until he finally ceased to move.

"Damn it, how in the world is she still alive?" one of the mercenaries hissed. The pain was agonizing, but she'd keep going. She began tearing through the crowd of fighters again, panting with growing fatigue and the overwhelming agony.

How many are left?

The attack seemed endless, there were so many of them. When she killed a few, another wave came. As she continued slaying any cat who jumped at her, a thought occurred to her. Had she simply died? Was this her Hell, to be fighting and killing all these cats forever, but to never really reach a resolution? 

She continued on, desperately running, fighting for an end to this pain. As she slowed from fatigue, she was suddenly stopped by teeth sinking into her foreleg. Shimmerspark tried to run away, yet her attacker only sunk their teeth in further. She gasped, falling as another cat took advantage of it and dug their teeth and claws in too.

Shimmerspark gasped as she heard a cracking sound and utter numbness filled her body. Then, she heard a deafening sound of splattering.

Her eyes opened again. There was her own foreleg, separated from her body. She felt like every muscle in her body had lost all feeling.

Even my body is shattered.

"Come on!" a she-cat laughed. "We've got her now, let's tear her apart, limb by limb!"

Shimmerspark felt ready to submit to death as the group stepped toward her. Yet, she still couldn't die just yet, she realized. There were still things she had to do.

Despite her numbness, she used her other remaining legs to prop herself up and quickly bit the she-cat's throat, before tearing away. She wailed in pain, before falling to the ground in her own blood.

Now on her paws, she saw one other mercenary staring at her, stunned. He quickly shook his head, crouching in preparation to leap onto her, before she ducked beneath him and bit into his throat too. 

"N...No way..."

He gasped, and stayed where she was, not letting go until all movement left him.

Shimmerspark stood still, waiting for another cat to come attack her, yet nobody came. It took her a moment to process it before she turned to look around her. There was nothing left of the horde. Simply dead bodies, bodies that were once cats. She stood in the middle, covered in blood. Blood that was partly from others, blood that was partly her own.

Is this it?

She turned, seeing him again on the branch, staring in fury. Despite there being blood pouring from every wound upon her, Shimmerspark began to approach the tree. 

It's time for the last strike.

//

A/N

When I finish all these chapters, I'm going to watch Star Wars.