Pinepaw woke with a start, but he wasn't in the apprentices den and he wasn't in the bramble prison cell the rogues kept him in, he was in a forest, but it was darker than night. The trees around him didn't wave in the wind that whistled through their dark trunks and they seemed lifeless, the shadows that surrounded him were sinister and the menacing whispers that rang in his ears made him even more terrified than he already was.
"Hello Pinepaw." Came a she-cat's deep voice from behind him. He whipped around, he didn't see anything at first but when there was movement in the bushes he saw a sleek, dark tabby she-cat, slinking around in the shadows.
"Who are you?! Where am I?!" He meowed, struggling to keep his voice steady.
"Hmm... you're not a very brave one are you?" She ignored him and commented to no one in particular.
"I am brave! Who are you?!" Pinepaw stood tall, despite his limbs being weak with fear.
"I am the stories you were told as kits that scared you. I am the shadow that follows you when you think you're being watched. I am..." Pinepaw interrupted her with a sudden impatience and fear.
"Show yourself!" He yowled, surprising himself when he sounded confident and fearless, when he felt the complete opposite. She leaped forward pinning him to the forest floor, with her long, curved talons digging into his shoulders.
"Never interrupt!" She hissed right in his face. Rage burned in her eyes and Pinepaw felt Terror engulf him, remembering his brief battle session, Pinepaw bunched his muscles and pushed up as hard as he could, feeling his paws plung into her stomach. She stumbled but recovered quickly, and without loosening her grip, she clawed his stomach with her hind paws, Pinepaw cried out in pain, a burning sensation making him writh. Hot sticky blood oozed out of his wound and triumph glistened in the She-cat's eyes,
"Brokenlight. Enough." Came a rumbling deep voice. The dark tabby she-cat he assumed was Brokenlight, sheathed her claws and reluctantly got off him. A huge black Tom padded over to him, placing a massive paw on his shoulder, "Pinepaw." He meowed
"Where am I, who are you and what do you want?!" He tried to ask, the pain from the gash in his stomach making him wince.
"All in good time." Said the stranger, pressing harder on his shoulder, Pinepaw opened his mouth to cry out but his lungs were pushed too flat by the huge paw.
"Brokenlight, apologise." The Tom commanded, Brokenlight looked shocked, but gave in when she received an infuriated star from him.
"I'm sorry." She meowed, almost hissed, through gritted teeth.
"There. Now..." he got off Pinepaw, who gasped, panting heavily to regain his breath and, despite the pain in his stomach, he leaped up onto four paws his lips drawn back in a snarl.
"We should discuss this prophecy."
"What prophecy?!" Hissed Pinepaw, but suddenly, Brokenlight and the stranger disappeared, along with the shadowy forest, and he woke on the hard ground of his bramble prison. He looked down and saw the bloody claw marks given to him by Brokenlight.
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Fear and worry coursed through Firepaw as he paced back in camp, he needed to think about something else. Anything else.
He recalled the story Featherpelt had told him when he went to give her prey earlier that day, it was something about... Brokensun? Or maybe it was Shatteredlight... No, Brokenlight, yes that was it.
He remembered what the elder had said clearly in his mind...
"Say young'n, have you heard the story of Brokenlight?" She had said
"No, what is it about?" He'd asked.
"Well, once when I was a warrior there was an apprentice by the name Dovepaw."
"Dovepaw? I thought this was a story about Brokenlight?" He had asked
"Hold your horses there young'n, I'm just getting started." Featherpelt continued, she always spoke strangely.
"What are horses?"
"Huge Hooved creatured. Anyway, Dovepaw, she went missing one day, the clan searched and searched for a whole 3 moons but there was no trace of her. There were then all of these strange attacks, no one knew who was attacking or why or even where they went."
"Not even by their scent?"
"No, they disguised it with a berry, called shiverberry. Anyway, cats started disappearing, then showing up dead days later, then whole patrols. In the end the clan leader captured one of them, if was Dovepaw, except she had changed her name to Brokenlight. She had tried to kill the clan, they had to keep their own safe, they couldn't banish her because they knew she would just come back, so they killed her, and her followers retreated. After that, the clan was safe."
"They killed a clan member?"
"Well, she was a rogue by that point, a rogue that killed multiple other clan members." She explained.
"Yeah, I guess that was the best thing to do." He had been called out to help with the poultices then but now he reflected on this story. Why did Brokenlight kill her clan members? He wondered. And who were her followers?
But his thoughts were interrupted by a voice,
"Firepaw! Hey, over here!" Waterclaw was calling, from the middle of the clearing.
"Yes?" He asked, racing over to his deputy.
"Can you help me with these brambles?" The black and white Tom gestured to a large pile of brambles that sat at the base of a tree the clan usually used for a lookout.
"I want to make the camp barrier stronger." He explained, Firepaw nodded.
"I'm on it." He replied, shaking out his fluffy flame ginger pelt and dashing over to pull out a long tendril, dragging it over to the barrier and pushing it into place. He made sure it was firmly fixed into position before restarting with another tendril, he was joined by Birdpaw, and together, along with the help of Waterclaw, they built a firm barrier until the pile of brambles was no more. The sun had moved higher in the sky when they had finished, all of them had kept there ears open and alert for the sound of battle, or the sign of an intruder but the saw and heard no such thing. Ambercloud and Silverwater went hunting close to camp and Branchfall moved from the entrance of the nursery to the lookout tree, they wandered and waited, restless and impatient, until the two senior warriors returned with the catch of three mice a vole and a sparrow which they dropped of the fresh-kill pile. No one ate. They were all too anxious and they also knew that there would be injured cats who would need strength and prey to heal. And that was when they heard the agonised shriek.
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Hi, hope this isn't too boring, thought I would launch into the prophecy.... I won't be able to publish for about 2 weeks so if u are following the story hope it's not to big of a cliff hanger! Thx so much for reading!
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Warriors: The Darkness Within
Fanfiction"One will join the black stars, young but powerful, Trees will fall and rivers will burn as the sun sleeps. There will be two, as young who will quench the fire and there will be peace as the sun wakes." The prophecy is thrown into three young lives...
