Silence
(A/N: I don't own Warriors, Erin Hunter does. I only own Willowwind and all of the cats in this story. Yes, I know I should work on my other stories, but I've become addicted to Warriors again. Anyway, Enjoy!)
Prologue
Willowwind was lying in her own blood, staring blankly at the darkness before her. The crimson liquid stained her long, bluish-grey coat. Her eyes, green as leaves in the summer, were stinging with tears. But she didn't cry. She was silent. Crying would do nothing for her. It had lasted a few heartbeats, but it felt like an eternity. She could still hear the laughter in her ears…the cruel, pitiless laughter. Willowwind pushed herself up slightly, but paused as the searing pain of her wounds shot through her body. The worst wound was a gash on the back of her head, when they rammed her head into a sharp rock. It stung like mad. But Willowwind wouldn't go to Sheepcoat. No, then there'd be questions…He'd want to know what happened. Willowwind couldn't say what happened, she just couldn't. Maybe she could heal herself. She watched Sheepcoat heal cats many times, and she was smart enough to learn the herbs he used. It was better than going to camp.
Finally managing to gather her strength, Willowwind got to her paws. Her tongue lightly touched a cut on her lip, and she winced. She wished she had been somewhere else 15 minutes ago. She walked into the forest undergrowth, her fluffy tail dragging lazily in the dirt. She needed water to clean her wounds before they got infected. Maybe the search would distract her from what had happened. But deep within her, she had her doubts.
She came across the river that cut through TreeClan territory, and slowly stepped into it. She slowly draped water over her bloody wounds, and they stung. She kept quiet though. She tried to forget what happened, and put her focus on cleaning her wounds. But their voices kept popping up in her head.
"Tell anyone, and we'll gut you like a pitiful little mouse," they had threatened her.
The fur on Willowwind's spine stood up, and her eyes widened, and her breathing quickened. No, no, she told herself, calm down, you'll be ok. Part of her didn't believe this, though. She wouldn't go to camp to sleep tonight. She'd find a little area outside to sleep. Maybe under a bush where no one could see her? That could work.
After lightly shaking off the excess water (moving so she could handle as much of the pain she could stand), Willowwind went to find some goldenrod, daisy leaves, cobwebs, and marigolds. This took her a little while, and it was really getting late. Willowwind yawned. As soon as she fixed herself up, she was finding a bush to sleep under. Soon, she did find what she was looking for, and, keeping to the promise she made to herself, she was under a bush and dead to the world in seconds.