Warriors: The Lurking Darkness (Book Two)

Chapter Fourteen: They Can't Hear Me

CHAPTER 14

"Mousefang!" I cried through the tears and blood blurring my vision. Where was he? "Mousefang!" I screeched as I felt claws slice through my pelt. Unbearable pain washed over me as I blinked through the mess and saw Mousefang watching me from the moorland, his eyes wide in fear. He was bleeding profusely but just as I was going to call out for him again, he ran away from me.

The dark cats all around me were laughing with glee as they dragged me through ShadowClan territory. I couldn't make out any of them, they were all dark-pelted and I could see the dark pine forest through their pelts. It scared me almost as much as their claws.

"You got her?" a deep voice bellowed and I closed my eyes tightly. The pain from my wounds was stinging now and I was shoved forward.

A yelp escaped from my throat and I looked up at a massive dark brown tabby tom, his amber eyes glowing at me happily. I whimpered softly and went to back up but ran into another dark brown tabby tom, only this one had ragged fur with patches missing. They seemed to like my fear.

The tom in front of me laughed loudly and the others joined in. He seemed to be the leader of The Dark Forest cats. "Icepaw, welcome!"

"W-Who are you? What d-do you want with me?" I asked, trying to keep on a brave face. But the look on the tom in front of me showed he didn't care either way.

"Now with one of the Three, we can lead in the other two and kill them all!" he yowled and the other cats cheered loudly. "We will rule!"

"Wait, you know about the prophecy?" I asked in disbelief, sitting up a little. Would Soulflame and Jaypaw come for me? I prayed to StarClan they wouldn't.

The tom looked down at me with glaring amber eyes. "StarClan can't hear you here, kit!" He looked over my shoulder. "Slash, throw her in the herb den!" he ordered and a tom, who I assumed was Slash, stepped forward and grabbed me by the scruff.

He carried me to a den and threw me inside. It smelled like herbs in here. The ShadowClan medicine den.

Slash, a brown tabby tom with a very mangy-pelt, bared his teeth at me and then padded away.

I quickly raced to the herbs on the shelves, grabbing what I remembered as Cobwebs. I began to coat my pelt with them in hopes it would stop the bleeding. If it didn't stop soon, I'd be dead.

StarClan couldn't hear me here.

The bleeding definitely wasn't stopping and I began to groom my wounds. I didn't know any herbs to help stop the bleeding. I knew of Cobwebs, and only because Mothflower had used them on me before.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I jumped in fear, my pelt bristling as I squinted to try and see who was there.

A scrawny, mottled pale ginger tom with a knotted pelt with lots of fur missing stepped into the cave. He had a singular yellow eye that terrified me. It showed no emotion.

"If they catch you doing that they'll make it hurt worse," he warned, but just his presence was hurting me. He wasn't soft on the eyes by any means and he was far more terrifying than any of the other cats. A smile appeared on his face. "My claws hurt the worst..." I could see his broken claws slide out and I instantly flinched.

"Leave her alone, One Eye," another tom commanded, padding into the den. He was a pure black tom with a long tail. He looked less terrifying than any of the cat I'd seen so far.

One Eye glared at him. "Leave us be, Houndleap! We're allowed to torture our guests!" he snapped back and turned back to me with a smile on his face.