Warriors: Falling Petals [Discontinued]

Chapter Seven - A Place With Strangers

Chapter Seven
A Place With Strangers

Flowerkit felt like he had been walking for days when finally he couldn't detect any ThunderClan scents anymore. All along there had always been vague smells of his clanmates, scents that he couldn't recognize or follow with his young nose, but now all those smells of home were gone. He was truly in unfamiliar territory, and ThunderClan was far behind him.

The tiny tomkit was distracted by a painful gurgle from his stomach. He hadn't eaten since. . . When was it that he had last eaten? He couldn't remember. His tummy hurt, his shoulder hurt, all his muscles ached, and he just wanted to fall over right now and sleep. Which, ultimately, was what he did. All his pain came over him in a rush. Flowerkit's legs gave out from under him and he collapsed onto his side, slipping into an uneasy state of unconsciousness.

He drifted through a jumble of fevered dreams. His exhausted mind flipped through all he recent events Flowerkit had gone through, warping them and offering them again to Flowerkit in deranged states. First he was with his mother, and Ashenbird smiled kindly down at him while saying, "these are your brothers, Flowerkit." Flowerkit turned to see Spikekit and Acornkit sprawled out on the ground in front of him, their blank faces to the sky, with horrible bleeding gashes in their shoulders and bellies. Flowerkit stumbled backward, right into Mosskit, who hissed into his ear, "You will pay for this," before shoving Flowerkit to the ground, her claws digging into his shoulder. Flowerkit peered up to see Ashenbird walking away from him. He opened his mouth to choke out her name, to beg her to stay and help him, but he made no sound, and the gray queen just kept walking until Flowerkit couldn't see her anymore. Then he was staring into Thicketstar's burning amber eyes, first from close up and then they got smaller and smaller as Flowerkit moved away, and he realized that he was falling, faster and faster, while all the cats he knew stared down at him from the top of the hollow. He landed with a thud that left him screaming in pain.

His eyes blinked open drearily, and once more he had no idea how much time had elapsed while he was asleep, but the sky was black now. Just black. The cloud cover from that morning remained, and Flowerkit couldn't see a single star.

He shifted slowly, wincing as his muscles painfully reminded him of his injuries. More insistent than that, though, were the contortions his empty stomach was doing. He needed to get food, and fast. The kit got to his feet.

"Well, well, well. Lookit who's awake."

Flowerkit jumped at the unfamiliar gruff voice and spun, his orange eyes wide as he searched for the source. A large cat dropped down in front of him from the branches above.

For a panicked moment Flowerkit thought it was Thicketstar. The large tom had a similar build, but while Thicketstar's white underfur and light brown overcoat just gave his pelt a dirty appearance, this cat's pale fur was actually covered in a layer of grime. The tom leered down at the kit, and Flowerkit recoiled when he saw that one of the strange cat's eyes was sealed shut with what looked like dried blood and some other infected gunk. The tom laughed at his expression.

"What's the matter, you never seen a cat like me?" he meowed with a weird grin. Flowerkit noticed that another scar ran down his jawline, twisting his expressions. He shivered slightly.

"Who... Who are you?" Flowerkit asked meekly.

The cat flicked his tail and blinked his one big yellow eye. "The name's Jake."

"Jake?" Flowerkit repeated, making a face. What kind of a name was that? "Are you a kittypet?"

"Kittypet!" Jake snorted in disgust. "You wouldn't catch me taking anything from Twolegs. Nah, I'm on my own."