Shattered Ivy

Chapter 14

   A quarter moon came slowly, according to Ivy. She was excited yet scared. Tonight they would leave. Ryn slept next to her in the cave.
   Saber was keeping guard, so it would be easy to leave.
    She waited until everyone was asleep. Ivy looked at the full moon in the sky, thinking how close they were to the Rebellion.
   Saber tiptoed over to the cave entrance and whispered quietly. "Hurry. Let's go."
   Ivy slowly exited with Ryn right behind her. They padded to the camp entrance without any trouble.
   Ivy felt her fur stand up.
Its so quiet, and this feels too easy. Yet no cats are awake.
   She stopped dead, halfway to the entrance.
Don't the Bloodbones have two guards on watch? Maybe they trust Saber enough that he could guard by himself....
   She continued with Ryn by her side. They were in the forest now. Saber was up ahead as usual.
"What's you and Saber's story? Why don't you like each other?" Ivy whispered to Ryn.
Ryn shuddered a bit. "He scarred Tanzy. She was handing out fresh-kill and gave Saber a scrawny vole, but it was all she could find during Leaf-bare. He got angry and scratched her eye. She can still see but have you seen her scar?"
Ivy nodded, but she couldn't recall ever meeting the she-cat. Maybe she didn't know who she was then.
"Saber got mad at me also and-"
"Stop right there slaves!"
Ivy gasped. "What..."
Three Bloodbone cats leaped out of the bushes with Jaw in the lead. Saber stood a fox-length away from them.
Ryn looked horrified and stood frozen in utter shock.
Ivy whirled around and hissed at Saber. "What do we do?"
Saber stood still. "They caught us. We must go back."
Ivy noticed Jaw give Saber a sly smile.
She looked around, seeing the world in slow motion.
Saber betrayed us!
"Saber..." Ryn whimpered quietly.
Jaw looked amused and didn't seem in any hurry to let them leave peacefully. "Oh dear. You know what happens to servants who disobey." He lashed out at Ryn, his claws taking her back.
Ivy screeched in unison to Ryn's cries as Jaw scratched her ear to shreds. ""Now you won't forget the Bloodbones." Ryn lay on the ground panting, not putting up a fight.
Ivy unsheathed her claws in fury. She leaped at Saber, her blood boiling with rage and grief. "Traitor!"
She tackled Saber to the ground. He looked at her in surprise. "Ivy...please stay."
"You caused Ryn to get hurt! I thought we were friends!"
She looked at the Bloodbones but they didn't intervene. Ivy stood petrified while all except Jaw and Saber stayed while the other Bloodbones carried Ryn back to camp. Ivy hisssed. "No! What are you going to do to her..?"
Jaw curled his lips into an evil grin. "She'll be well taken care of..."
He flicked his tail. "Get her."
Ivy took off at full speed into the forest. She glanced behind her to see Saber bearing down on her.
She leaped over a log and pushed her legs to go faster and faster. Her lungs felt as though they would burst as she ran across the Rebellion's border.
"Ivy no!" Saber tripped her hind legs with his forepaw.
   She stumbled but picked herself up.
I have to get away..
   Tears formed at her eyes, blurring her vision. A sharp pain in her paw as she fell. Ivy realized she had stubbed her paw on a tree root. Hissing, she stood with her injured paw held up as Saber caught up to her in little more then a second.
   "Ivy, please don't make this hard...you're important to the Bloodbones." Saber looked at her paw and Ivy held it closer to her. "They can heal you to."
   "I don't need your stinking herbs." Ivy hissed through clenched teeth. "I need freedom."
   "Once the Bloodbones trust you, you'll be able to roam freely."
   Ivy wondered why he wouldn't attack her and force her to come back. Why go through all the trouble to reason with her?
   "You let Ryn get hurt. And whatever happened between you two? Ryn seems afraid of you.." Ivy meowed. "Tell me the truth."
   The orange tabby looked torn. "It's not my fault. I was forced to do it by Jaw."
   "And what did you do?!" Ivy almost screeched.
   Saber looked defeated. "Ok. I'll tell you everything. Just...please promise me you'll think about coming back."
   "Alright." But Ivy knew she would nevertheless herself  be held captive.
   Saber took a breath and spoke. "Ryn's brother turned out to be a spy for the Rebellion. I respected them back then, before I knew he was a traitor. Carter was discovered eavesdropping on Jaw and his superior Bloodbones. Jaw made me kill him, in front of Ryn." Ivy gasped slightly in disbelief and Saber must have noticed because he meowed, " it wasn't my fault, Jaw might have killed me along with him."
Ivy felt sudden sorrow for Ryn. No wonder she was afraid of Saber. She also figured Saber bullied her, but of course he wouldn't admit that.
   Who knows? Maybe he's changed. Not to much, anyway..
   Ivy had to get to the Rebellion. "Come with me." She blurted with no thought at all.
   It looked as if Saber was slightly convinced, then he growled. "No. Jaw is my leader. Stormspeaker is weak and power is all that matters."
   "Well I can't go back there to be a prisoner!" Ivy hissed unsheathing her claws. "Especially for no apparent reason besides proving Jaw is ruthless and can capture innocent cats!"
   Saber looked taken aback, then with sadness in his voice he spoke. "I'm sorry my friend."
   Now it was Ivy's turn to be taken aback.
   Friend...?
   She barely had time to think for Saber had leaped and bit her shoulder, to not hard enough to cause fatal injury.
   He's not trying to hurt me. Much
   Ivy fell backwards from the impact, hitting the cold ground with Saber on top of her.The golden and white tabby hissed in pain as a thin line of blood trickled down her shoulder.
    A loud rumble shook the forest as drops of rain fell to the earth. The cats' fur cling to their sides.
   She slashed the side of his face with her claws and kicked up her legs to slice his underbelly; a dirty trick she had learned from Scarletrose.
   Saber howled in pain and jumped back. Ivy focused and darted around to his side to deliver a few blows. He hissed and whirled around.
   Ivy ran to spring on his other side but nearly slipped in the mud that was forming.
   She took a few breaths and leaped, clinging to his back while biting down hard on his shoulder. Blood spattered her face and it shocked her so much she almost fell. Saber tried to fling her off but she sunk in her claws and gave a few blows.
   Saber rolled and Ivy was squashed for a moment but stood up quickly only to get a scratch on the face from Saber.
   The fight went on as the rain came down harder on their pelts. Ivy was gasping for breath while Saber slumped to the ground, looking utterly defeated.
   "I-..I'm so sorry I attacked you. I let my anger and loyalty to Jaw control me." Saber muttered weakly.
   There was a dramatic silence but was cut short by a clash of thunder. Saber looked at her as if pleading to help and take him back to the Bloodbones and decide to join him.
   All of the words were left unspoken, but Ivy knew that was what he wanted.  Looking into his eyes, his sorrowful, pleading eyes, she almost wanted to take care of him.
   But she remembered what he had done to Carter, to Ryn. To her! She had trusted him to help them escape, only to be betrayed. It felt like a claw to the chest, this feeling of being betrayed and lied to.
   She couldn't forgive him.
   In the pouring rain, her wounds bleeding down her flank and tears dripping down her face, she spoke.
   "You're dead to me."

  
(So dramatic and sad but it's done 😅 ehhh I can post pictures on here XD yeet)