Hey, it's FuturisticVampire back with another story, but this one's a bit different.
The original story is by a wonderful author named Falachen, who's unable to continue it. She's given it to me, and I hope to work on it about the same rate I work on The Demon's Cry, which is constantly (when I'm not comprimised).
So the story so far if you don't know is about a cat named Hawkstripe and his sister, Lightwish, who have been harassed by RiverClan as long as they've been alive. After finally having enough of it, Hawkstripe gets himself and Lightwish out far away from there and they have their own wonderful corner of the world, along with some other loners.
But also, there is Jasmine and her group of savage rouges. Jasmine has recently had Hawkstripe's kits, and is looking for him to be her mate. He's escaped and is not looking to come back, but Lightwish is sick and his medicinally trained friends are nowhere to be found.
Boulder is Jasmine's second-in-command.
If anything comes up in later chapters that needs some background knowledge to understand, then I'll explain it as an author's note, but this is going to be the longest probably.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, Chapter 9 of A Hawk's Revenge.
A Hawk's Revenge
Chapter 9
(Boulder's Perspective)
Boulder watched the battle with wind blowing in his fur, bringing with it the scent of blood. His pupils dilated when he caught the crimson sight, and he couldn't wait to tell Jasmine about this. Her kits, too. His whiskers twitched as he held back a slow laugh; they were such cute, little things.
"Fuck!" There's a cat shouting behind him, and he turns, bemused.
There's blood in this cat's eyes; his white fur is stained with it. He runs towards Boulder at full speed, screaming unintelligible curses. Can he even see what he's doing, Boulder wonders. The sight of his ripped open skin would be disturbing to one inexperienced in the ways of battle, real battle, but Boulder has seen it all. When the cat launched himself at Boulder, he merely leaned slightly to the side. Needless to say, the cat missed him entirely. Boulder took his time turning to see the cat sprawled on the ground, a bloody fucking beautiful mess. He got up with difficulty, and Boulder wondered how much it would take to make his guts spill.
The cat finally stood in a battle stance and hissed aggressively. Boulder hissed back, but it was mocking and filled with laughter. The cat, enraged, ran at him again, but he'd seemed to have gotten smarter. He didn't leap at Boulder, instead swiping his claws in his general direction.
Boulder dodged the first hit and batted away the second with little force, but enough to throw this weakened cat to the ground. He fell on his side, and Boulder pounced on him before he could recover. He placed on paw on his throat and used the others to hold him in place as he slowly unsheathed his claws. He looked into the reddened blue eyes, and saw the fear, the glazed-over delusion, the absolute helplessness, and how could he not love it?
He punctured the vulnerable skin underneath the cat's jaw, and chuckled slightly. The cat gasped and whimpered quietly. Boulder leaned down and flicked an ear towards his mouth.
"What was that?" he hissed with snark in his voice.
The cat only produced a choking noise as Boulder leaned deeper into the wounds he'd created.
Today was a day of death, Jasmine had declared. And he was all too happy to obey.
(Hawkstripe's Perspective)
Hawkstripe crouched next to his sister and gently prodded her awake. Her eyes opened and she moved to face him, slowly. Her eyes were darkened with tire, but she managed a small smile. An image flashed into Hawkstripe's mind of her when they were younger, only apprentices. It was when she "fallen" down a rather steep hill while on patrol, and the medicine cat had thrown her a poppy seed for pain and sent her on her way. Hawkstripe heard about it as soon as he'd gone into the camp from his own patrol, and had rushed to the apprentices' den. She looked like she did now, except with battered muscles and a swollen eye.
"I brought you some prey," Hawkstripe said softly, and gestured to the squirrel at his paws that Owl had granted him. What an interesting cat, that tom. "Do you want me to take the fur off for you?"
Lightwish shook her head and moved to shift her position again, but stopped when she broke out in a coughing fit. Hawkstripe took a worried step forward, but there was nothing he could do.
"No, you probably should," Lightwish told him, nodding her head to the fresh-kill.
Hawkstripe nodded quickly and set to work. "I met another cat today," he said after a moment of silence.
"Oh? Who were they?" Lightwish stifled another cough.
"He said his name was Owl. He and I were both after this squirrel and he got to it first. Anyone else would have fought me for it. He said I could find him near the Twoleg camp if I ever needed anything..." He trailed off as he became lost in thought.
"That's good," Lightwish said. Hawkstripe nodded and presented her the skinned squirrel. She thanked him and bent her head to take a bite. "You're going to have some, too, right?"
Hawkstripe shook his head. "I'm not hungry." That wasn't true; in fact he almost dug into the squirrel on the way to Lightwish, but he couldn't risk not being able to find something else. And he didn't want to leave Lightwish alone longer than he had to.
Hawkstripe could see that she wanted to argue, but it was a while since either one of them had eaten and it could wait a few bites.
Hawkstripe laid down next to her, but kept some distance between them only because if both of them became sick, then there was definitely no chance of survival.
"Tomorrow I'm going to go to the Twoleg Camp," he told Lightwish.
"To find the cat you met?" Lightwish asked between bites. At least she still had an appetite. Until she began to feel disgusted at the prospect of food, the illness wasn't terribly serious.
"Yeah, Owl," Hawkstripe answered. "We still haven't been able to find Rose or Lake, and I get the feeling he's the kind of cat who knows his way around."
Lightwish nodded. "Seems fair."
Hawkstripe nodded, and looked up at the red first of the stars were beginning to appear, the sun nearly set.
He'd been protecting Lightwish all of their goddamn lives. There was no way he was going to lose her now to disease, so soon after gaining freedom from RiverClan.
None.