Warriors Short Stories

Two ~ Deceived

Screeching could be heard echoing around the valley, bouncing off the hills and returning.

Claws upon fur, fangs upon throats, cat against cat they fought.

My fangs connected with the rogue she-cat's neck.

The she-cat screamed and writhed about in my grip, but I would not let go.

Gradually, her cries faded, her thrashing ceased, and I stepped back, my white chest stained red with the blood of the she-cat.

"Frost!" My ear twitched as I heard a tiny voice. I listened closer, and heard the heavy breathing of a tiny kit.

This battlefield was no place for a kit.

I had been set on guard duty when the war began.

It began with cries in the distance, but as the cats drew closer, the heavy stench of blood rolled through the air like a wave.

Bumblestar had sent out almost every cat to fight, while one pregnant queen, the elders, and the kits stayed back, along with me and Stormgaze who were guarding the camp.

Stormgaze hadn't made it this far.

I now stood alone.

The ground was littered with corpses, blood had been splattered against the trees, and the ground was coated with the thick, sticky substance.

In the middle of it all was a kit.

"Frost! Frost!" The kit wailed in despair. "Frost? Where are you!"

The tiny white kit looked up. She saw me. She saw the rogue at my paws. She froze.

"Froosssttt! You killed her!" Nothing could make me forget the look of horror in her eyes.

"If I didn't kill her, she would've killed me, and then gone into our camp and killed the kits in there!" I explained.

"My name's Fallowheart, what's yours?"

The kit hesitated, before replying, a wary look in her eye.

"Flurry... But... w- would my mother really do that? Kill kits?"

Flurry suddenly looked much smaller, much more scared.

"If she didn't kill them, she would've taken them. Their mothers would be sad," I told her softly.

"But... why? Why are our cats doing this?"

I paused.

I had no answer to that question.

"My mother's dead... I'm lost... I snuck away from our den to find Frost. I left Coffee back there. He'll be scared, and worried." Her voice held a resigned bitterness.

"Come live with us? Redfern won't mind having another kit." Assuming she's still alive, that is. "Birchkit, Cedarkit, Lilykit, Acornkit and Mudkit would love a new denmate. You could be Flurrykit if you joined us."

"I like my name. Could I just stay Flurry?"

Is this poor kit actually considering joining?

"Well, we'll have to ask Bumblestar, but he's fair. I'm sure he'll let you. If you joined, that is."

"I'll join."

Yowls.

Squealing kits.

Screaming elders.

I watched as Yellowfur fled the camp, a rogue in hot pursuit.

I turned back to Flurry, my eyes wide, my heart thumping.

She was gone.

I felt numb with betrayal as the claws sank into my pelt.

I felt numb with betrayal as the fangs dug into my neck.

I felt numb with betrayal as the blood flowed from my throat.

I wanted to scream as my life ebbed away.

I wanted to scream out my betrayal.

I couldn't. 

I couldn't see.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't breathe. 

"For Frost," a soft whisper sounded.

I've been deceived.

The child rocked back and forth in her bed, trying to block out the sounds of the fighting cats.

She whispered her song, over and over, until she had memorized it.

A flash of white she saw,
A flash of white, and more-
A cruel claw, a glittering eye,
A black shape looming in the sky.
Like an arrow, down it sped
To the treetops fast they fled.
Now the blood flows down,
Kits from the nest are thrown,
They are gone, oh, they are gone,
And she is weeping all alone.