Warriors: Shadows Incoming ~Series 2 Book 5~

Chapter 8

Silvershy's POV:

"Breathe, Silvershy. Breathe." Stormstar whispered from beside her. "Concentrate. You don't want to fry Nutwhisker, do you?"

Nutwhisker let out a loud growl from where he lay beneath Silvershy's paws. "Why me?"

"Because you're replaceable, you suggested I teach Silvershy in the first place and you seem to hate existing without your precious Watersplash." Stormstar replied bluntly.

Silvershy tried to ignore the argument between medicine cat and leader. It had been a whole moon of training and Stormstar finally deemed her ready to test her powers on Nutwhisker instead of prey. She had to get it right, otherwise it was another moon of exhausting, never-ending training. She barely had enough time to go on patrol anymore.

Silvershy knew how to summon her powers now. She could do it in a heartbeat without needing to concentrate. But she was still trying not to kill everything she touched. So far she'd only saved one rabbit after zapping Stormstar's head. All the others had had their hearts stopped.

With ease, Silvershy awoke her powers. She felt it erupt within her, bursting from it's cocoon. It began shooting down her foreleg with amazing strength but Silvershy bared her teeth and forced it to die down. She had practised playing with her powers, testing its strength and what it took to calm it down. She knew what to do to lower the energy that went into her victims, but her powers never listened. It was as if it had a mind of its own.

There was a yowl from below her and she saw Nutwhisker's ear tips fizzing with electricity. Silvershy leapt away, a mixture of fear and adrenaline rushing through her. She had done it.

Nutwhisker jolted upwards once she stepped away and he hissed. "I think you just burned my ear tips." Small trails of smoke rose from his singed ear tips and Silvershy couldn't help but smile at her accomplishment.

"At least you're not dead." Silvershy pointed out, glancing at Stormstar. The black tom was grinning at her.

"Good job Silvershy." Stormstar meowed, his paws working on the ground. "Looks like all of that training paid off."

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Flamefur's POV:

"Mumma, look at me! I'm flying!"

Flamefur kept her eyes closed and she murmured. "That's nice, Emberkit." She had left her kits to play with Flowerstream's litter while she rested. She hoped Emberkit would leave her in peace but the little she kit nudged her shoulder.

"Look Mumma!" Emberkit squeaked, her voice sounding above her. That's odd, she isn't that tall yet.

Reluctantly, Flamefur opened her eyes and raised her head slowly. She blinked slowly up at her kit's shining eyes. "Emberkit..." She mumbled, stopping when she realised that Emberkit was indeed flying, with blue mist surrounding her. Flamefur's whole body seized up and she sat up abruptly. "What-"

"Hush." A voice hissed and a white tom materialised before her, his blue eyes gleaming in the darkness of the nursery cave.

Flamefur immediately recognised him as the Dark Forest cat who had been there when her kits came. "You!" She snarled, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing here?"

Emberkit let out a joyful squeak as she floated closer to the tom. Flamefur bared her teeth and advanced on him. "Let Emberkit go!"

"But I think she's quite enjoying this." The tom murmured, an amused grin playing on his lips. "Aren't you Emberkit?"

Emberkit nodded, laughing as she pretended to swim in the air. "I love flying!"

"All kits do." He meowed before letting Emberkit drop, his paw now holding the kit down. "Now, Flamefur. Let's talk."

Flamefur's gaze was stuck on Emberkit. "Let her go and I'll talk." She turned to glare at him, claws unsheathed. What does he want?

With a sigh, he lifted his paw from Emberkit and sat back calmly. Emberkit trotted out of the cave, her tail held high, completely oblivious. "I hear you were once a Dark Forest ally."

"How do you know?" Flamefur growled even though she knew exactly how he knew.

A slow smile spread on his lips. "I'm not a mouse-brain."

"Why are you here?" Flamefur demanded, stepping within striking range of the white tom.

"I came to question you."

"Question me?" Flamefur bit back a bitter hiss. "Is that a code word for killing me?"

"You think I was sent here to kill you." He barked a loud laugh, eyes rolling. "If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it when your kits were coming. But instead I got you help."

Flamefur edged her paw off the ground so that she could claw his ears if he came any closer, but he saw her tiny movement and a strong force kept her paw on the ground. "Don't." Was all he muttered before the force lifted.

"Fine, if you want to question me then go ahead." Flamefur flattened her ears and slowly sat down.

He slowly brought a paw up to give it a slow lick before he meowed. "Answer truthfully, or your kits will pay the price." He didn't wait for her to reply and he went straight to his first question. "Are you on their side?"

"I was never on their side." Flamefur hissed.

"Do you know what NoName's plans are?"

Flamefur stared at him. "Don't you?"

"I'm getting there. It's hard to pry information from her. Especially because she hates me."

"All I know for sure is that she is going to attack us at some point. That's what we all know. My guess is that she'll use her nightmares and trap us in our dreams." Flamefur shrugged, glancing down at her paws.

There was a long pause between them before he meowed. "Flamefur, I would like you to return to the Dark Forest." She snapped her head up to look at him in shock as he continued. "I'm a spy for Starclan. With you there as well, we can find out so much more. You're mates with Metalclaw, that means you can pry information from him easily."

Flamefur shook her head. "I have kits. I will not endanger their lives for this."

"Then you are killing your clan." He replied simply. "Can't you understand that this is the only way to help prevent the attack?"

"Find someone else." Flamefur hissed, standing up again. "I will not go back there."

"Fine, I'll have to find another way to convince you." And he was gone.

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