Shattered Ivy

Chapter 13

   Ivy awoke feeling hungry. She looked around and remembered the night a few days ago. She had spent her time at the Bloodbone camp so far sulking in her cave. The Bloodbones gave her food and water but in scarce amount. Ivy decided if she were to live in the camp, she might as well take care of herself and make the best of it.
   She took a deep breath and padded out.
   "Morning my precious nightmare." Jaw meowed sitting atop his bone pile.
   "Why do you keep talking about 'nightmare'? Isn't he a story?" Ivy asked confused hoping this time he answers her questions.
   "Only to some cats." Jaw replied tiredly.
   Ivy sighed and looked around. Bloodbones were almost finished rebuilding their torn dens and shoving the rotting dead cats outside the camp.
   Ivy wrinkled her nose at the sour stench of blood still in the air.
   A large tom nudged her rudely, almost knocking Ivy off her paws.
   She noticed there was no prey pile so she decided to go hunting. Before leaving she asked Jaw if it was ok. She didn't want to get in trouble until she knew when the Rebellion would rescue her.
   Jaw ordered two Bloodbone servants to hunt for her and Ivy grumbled.
This sucks...I can get my own food. Why do they even care if I starve?
   Ivy waited a little impatiently as at last, the two cats came back with two squirrels, a vole, three mice and a quail.
   She blinked impressed that the skinny, weak servant cats could hunt so well. Maybe because they have to do it all the time.
   The golden and white tabby padded over to the tan she-cat with white specks, who was putting down the squirrels and vole.
   "Nice job." Ivy meowed.
   The she-cat blinked at her.
   "May I take the vole?" Ivy asked nicely.
   "S-sure. No one has ever told that to me." The brown and white specked she-cat turned away with the squirrels in her jaws. "T-thanks."
   Ivy watched her pad off to the bone pile where Jaw was waiting, as she chewed her vole hungrily.
   She gasped and nearly chocked on her food as Jaw sliced his claws across the brown and white cat's face.
   Ivy suddenly had a guilty feeling as the she-cat padded over to her.
   "I wasn't supposed to give you food until I have fed The Great Jaw." She sulked.
   "Oh. I'm sorry. I don't know the rules here yet. Here. Have some." She nudged some of the vole towards her.
   The she-cat shook her head. " I can't. But since Tanzy is dividing the other prey I guess..."
   She took a bite eagerly.
Ivy watched her feeling her own stomach clench with hunger. "What's your name?"
"Ryn." She meowed hesitantly.
"Hi. I'm Ivy." Ivy looked around at the cats glares and shrunk in her pelt a little.
"Do you hate it here?" She asked.
Ryn looked at Jaw as if checking if he could hear, then spoke in low whisper. "No. I want to get out of here. Most prisoners or servants want to join the Rebellion."
"The Rebellion are going to come back for me soon." Ivy suddenly wondered if she could trust this new cat. "You won't tell any cat right?"
Ryn shook her head. "Of course not. As long as me and Tanzy get to come too."
Ivy nodded and looked around once more. "Umm.... who should I be careful around? I don't want to get in trouble in case I'm put in even more security."
Ryn smiled slightly, happy to use her knowledge. "Ok. So you know that white cat with the blood stained paws? That's Skull. He is seriously loyal to Jaw as well as Spinter. He is that dark and light brown tom over there." She pointed to the cat that has just finished repairing the den and was observing it.
Ivy nodded. "Alright. Thanks."
   "And then there's Conrad....he doesn't like me at all and orders me around a lot. He's the greenish black tom with one ear."
After learning about the Bloodbone ways and who to watch out for, the sun began to set. Ivy wished she could sleep next to Ryn; nights were getting colder. Plus she didn't want to be alone and it would be nice to have company.
Ivy slumped in her tunnel saddened. She fluffed out her fur against the cold and struggled to fall asleep.

Sunlight lit the camp as Ivy stirred. She had just fallen asleep and moved her black paw to block the sun.
   Soon Ryn was hopping into the den like an idiot. "Ivy! Come eat! Its past dawn already!"
   Ivy growned but was amused by Ryn's hyper state.
   Stretching, Ivy shook away her worries and walked confidently out of the den, daring any cat to glare at her.
I'm not in the mood for crap.
She thought to herself as she was about to pick up a thrush a servant had freshly caught.Ivy blinked startled as a orange and red cat stood behind the thrush.
   Ivy growled only to realize the cat was smiling. She gave a confused look to Ryn who was a few pawsteps behind her.
   "Want to share?" The tom asked, his expression unreadable.
   "Sure. What did you do to it?" Ivy hardly believed the words coming out of her mouth.
   "Nothing. I'll take first bite if you like." The tom looked obliviously offended.
   The golden and white tabby nodded as the three cats settled down to share the plump thrush.
   "This is Saber." Ryn introduced to Ivy and opened her mouth again, then closed it.
   Ivy knew her friend wanted to say something to her. She glanced at Saber as her took a bite of the thrush.
  Saber smiled and swallowed. "And you're Ivy I assume?"
   Ivy nodded wondering how he knew but guessed the news of her capture traveled fast.
Wasn't really a capture...but whatever you would call it.
   "Do you and Ryn know each other?" She asked trying to start up a conversation.
   "Sort of. Let's put the past behind us Ryn. Maybe we can start anew?" Saber meowed.
   Ivy looked at each of them a few times. "Did something happen?"
   Ryn looked at the ground and muttered. "Your right."
   The threee cat split the thrush and were now grooming themselves.
   Ivy looked up at Saber to find him staring at her. "Want to go to the lake?"
  "There's a lake around here?" Ivy asked astounded.
   "Sure. I'll show you." Saber stood up and padded towards the entrance. Ivy beckoned to Ryn for her to follow.
   As Ivy reached the entrance, Skull and a dark tom stood guard.
   Saber spoke. "I'm taking the prisoner out to stretch her legs."
  Skull nodded giving them permission to leave.
The guards seem to trust Saber a lot. Maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't.
   Ivy dwelled on this as they walked to the lake with Saber leading the way. Ryn looked just as uncertain as Ivy did.
A silence hung in the air as the lake came into view. A river ran from it on the far bank.
Finally, the silence was broken by Saber. " I want to escape too you know."
Ivy looked at him confused. "Why?"
"I have no friends or family here...not anymore. If you like I could help y'all escape. It'll be easy because I know when and where the guards would be at night." Saber replied, growing more and more enthusiastic.
"Um....thanks...?" Ivy murmured and looked at Ryn to get her opinion.
Ryn's eyes were wide, looking straight at Saber, her gaze never wavering. "S-sure. I want to leave."
Saber smiled. "Great." He splashed Ivy with a quick flick of his paw and jumped away before she could react.
"Heyyyy!!!" Ivy hissed, her golden fur clinging to her. Ryn gasped, then settled down as if realizing they were playing.
Saber purred." Been a while since I came here. I think you'd like it."
"Why do you think that?" Ivy asked slicing her paw in the water causing droplets to fly up.
Saber smirked. "Because it's pretty. You can see the sun set perfectly from this view."
"Why would you think I'd like sunsets?" Ivy smiled mischievously and for the first time feeling happy.
"I don't know. You're a she-cat." He replied.
Ryn jumped in the water splashing both of them. They hissed playfully and played in the shallow water until the sunset.
"Look." Saber meowed, padding out of the water to dry off. "Isn't it preeeeetyyy."
Ivy smirked at his sarcastic tone. "Sure is. Just like you."
He faked a gasp. "How. Dare. You."
Ryn laughed at that and soon Ivy was too.
The friends groomed themselves and lay at the waters edge, the ripples lapping at their paw tips.
Ivy felt Saber's tail across her back and forced herself not to flinch from the touch. She decided to enjoy his company after so long being in her cave alone, trapped as a prisoner. Not that she wasn't one now, but she felt freer.
Ryn nuzzled up against her other side and Ivy purred. Saber smiled at her. "I hope we can be friends Ryn and Ivy." He meowed happily. Ryn smiled a bit and nodded, looking somewhat unsure.
Ivy looked at Saber. "When do we leave?"
   "Leave here? Whenever you want too"
   The golden she-cat sighed slightly. "I mean leave the Bloodbones."
   Saber shrugged. "What's wrong with the Bloodbones anyway?"
   "I miss my friends and family. Their with the Rebellion." Ivy meowed quietly.
   Saber looked at her. "If you want, we can leave in a quarter moon. That'll give us time to prepare and the full moon will be up. We will need light to travel."
  Ivy nodded, understanding his plan completely. "Should we rescue the other slaves? Maybe Tansy?" She asked, remembering one of Ryn's slave friends.
   Ryn stood up and stretched but didn't say a word.
   "No. If we are to leave, we can't risk them betraying us or any cat overhearing. I'm sorry. Word gets around fast and Bloodbones could be spying on us right now." Saber meowed darkly.
   Ivy nodded. "Ok. And thank you. This means a lot that you would risk your life to help us."
   They stood up and headed back to camp with Ryn next to Ivy and Saber in the lead.
   "The Rebellion will come back for the other slaves and defeat the Bloodbones soon. And if they don't I'll make sure they do. I promise. You'll be safe with the Rebellion." Ivy meowed gently, hoping the reason Ryn wasn't speaking was that she was just nervous.
   Ryn nodded slowly. "I-Ivy. I still don't think we should trust Saber...." she whispered as Saber got farther ahead.
   " why not? He's willing to help us. You don't think he'll go back on his word do you?" Ivy asked.
  Ryn shrugged. "But-"
   Saber turned back towards them. "I'll tell the guards we decided to check the borders. We have a large territory so they'll believe us."
  Ivy nodded and looked back at Ryn, but her head was low.
   Ivy and Ryn padded into camp as Saber spoke with the guards. The two she-cats got a small thrush to share and went to sleep in Ivy's den.
   It was good not to be lonely anymore, and hopefully, in a quarter moon's time, she will be home with her sister and friends once more.
   Or so she thought.....

( Finally done with another chapter. 😅 this took longer than I expected. Hope y'all are enjoying the story so far. 😅❤️)