A/N And here I am, publishing the first chapter of the second book. two weeks after I finished the first. I'm so sorry that didn't publish this earlier, December is a really hectic month at my school. hopefully I'll be able to write more during Christmas break, but plans might change. I'll try to update at least one chapter per week. I've also been wondering, should I do the point of view from just Viper or should I do Viper and Twig alternating each chapter? I'll just do the next chapter as Twig to let you guys see what his pov would be like. leave a comment on whether I should do both or just one. Enjoy the chapter!
"MOM! MOM HELP!" I scream. The minute Mom and Soot left the clearing Hawkclaw had changed, he'd immediately tried to grab me and Twig. I may not be good at fighting, but I have pretty good reflexes. I saw his paw reaching for us and dove to the side, dragging Twig with me. Now we're running around in a deadly game of tag, if he catches us… well I don't know what would happen, but I don't want to know. While I was lost in my thoughts my paws kept running, keeping me away from Hawkclaw, but since I wasn't watching where I was going… I ran into a tree, yep just completely smashed my face into the tree bark and let me say this, tree bark tastes horrid.
I actually think Hawkclaw paused for a moment, surprised by my stupidity, but I couldn't tell, he snatched me by my scruff and continued to chase after my brother as if he didn't have a kit dangling from his jaws. But then again I didn't exactly weight that much. "Run Twig!" I yell, hoping that at least he would be able to escape, luck apparently hates me. Even as Hawkclaw chased after my brother I was trying to escape, I waved my paws around, trying to find a place to sink my claws into. I could almost reach his neck with my hind paws, now that would've been awesome, if I'd managed to kill Hawkclaw from where I was. I could however reach his chin with my forepaws if I stretched upwards, I unsheathed my claws and swung at his chin. My claws sank into Hawkclaw's flesh and he let out a grunt of pain. His blood dripped from the wound onto my head, great.
While all this was happening Twig was still running from Hawkclaw, he didn't notice until too late that Hawkclaw had stopped. Leaves sprayed up as Twig tried to make a hasty retreat, keyword, tried, he didn't even get a tail length away before Hawkclaw grabbed him and now both of us were hanging from our "father's" jaws. The world started to shimmer and blur, "What's happening?" I heard Twig call, but I didn't have an answer to that, I didn't know either. Two very indistinct figures ran into the clearing, I think that it was Mom and Soot, but my vision was too blurry to see whether I was right or not. Then the world faded away and I fell into darkness.
The empty black space that we fell into made me feel quite sick, actually, very sick. Imagine getting turned upside down, spun around 1000 times and then given a major headache. That's exactly how it felt to be warped into this, black hole? I guess that's what I'll call it. So when the world finally reappeared around me I found myself in what looked like a makeshift camp. Everycat in the camp turned to stare at us when we appeared, they looked at Hawkclaw and when they saw us hanging from his jaws they burst into cheers.
"What's going on?!" Twig called to me, "I don't know!" I yelled back, "Well, I'm gonna be sick!" he yowled. A heartbeat later a terrible retching noise filled the air and the stench… Twig wasn't lying. I wrinkled up my nose and peered over at my brother, he looked completely miserable. His eyes looked glazed over and a trickle of vomit dripped from his chin. "Hey!" I yelled up at Hawkclaw, "What just happened?" Hawkclaw didn't respond for a moment, then he lowered his head and set them on the ground, "We just teleported, I could've walked back, but I didn't want your mother to follow me. Also had to see if you were actually my children. If you didn't have Gloomforest blood in you, you would've died. You'll eventually get used to teleporting and stop vomiting so much."
I stared at Hawkclaw and hissed, "We could've died?! Why would you even try that?" he just stared at me and didn't reply. "Fine." I snapped, walking over to Twig, "Come on Twig, we're going back home." thankfully he seemed to have gotten over the effects of teleporting and looked up at me hopefully, "We are?" I nodded, "We're getting out of here." I led Twig over to where the entrance of the camp seemed to be and walked out. Or at least I tried to walk out. The minute my paw crossed the line a cat appeared in front of me, "Hello young one, I'm afraid you won't be getting out."
The cat was standing right in the entrance, a normal cat wouldn't be able to get past him, but a kit could. I glanced at Twig and then darted forward, squeezing past the cat, I popped out on the other side of the barrier and scrambled to my feet, turning back to see if Twig made it. Apparently my smaller size had made my escape much easier than for Twig, he was still stuck, trying to wriggle out from his spot between the barrier and the cat's leg. I darted forward and grabbed his scruff, trying to pull him free from the camp wall. "Ow! Viper!" Twig yelped as for the fiftieth time I tried to pull him free, "Sorry! Why couldn't you have been smaller?" I grumbled as I tugged again and again. Some part of me was wondering why no one was coming to get us, to take us back into the camp, but I didn't realize that this was their plan, I didn't realize that they were keeping Twig trapped and relying on the fact that I wouldn't leave my brother behind.
"Wait, I have an idea," I said, "I'm gonna dig underneath you and the space might be big enough for you to slip out." Twig nodded and I ducked beneath him and began to dig, before I realized that there was no point, Twig's body wasn't even touching the ground, "Hey Twig?" "Yeah?" "Did you try to jump through?" "Uh, Yeah I did." I snarled in annoyance, "Well I have no clue on how to get you out." I announced as I popped back out in front of Twig, "Well, why don't you-" Twig was cut off as the cat quickly snatched Twig and tossed him to a she-cat who was standing nearby.
"Hey!" I yelled, darting forward and sinking my claws into the cat's leg, "Give my brother back!" the cat turned his head down and looked at me, "I won't give your brother back," he rumbled, "but I can help you join him." in a blink of an eye the cat grabbed me and passed me off to the she-cat who was already holding Twig. "That's not what I meant!" I yowled. At this point I didn't even know how to escape, maybe I was trying to make them deaf or shatter their eardrums, I don't even know.
The cat carried us over to a weird structure that was at the edge of the camp, she stood in front of it, as if waiting for a signal or something. I twisted around trying to free myself and I saw literally all of the cats in this camp running towards a single cat standing in the middle of the camp. Through all of the cats I saw a small flash of back fur and the glint of a blue eye. It was my mom, she came for us. My joy quickly vanished and turned into horror as I watched my mom display a side of her that I'd never seen, it was like watching a badger in a camp full of kits. My mom mowed down every cat in her path, leaving a trail of death behind her, as she came towards us. When everycat in the camp except one was lying dead on the ground my mom seemed to come out of her trance, she looked around and blinked, looking as horrified as I felt.
The one cat left was the one who had prevented me and Twig from leaving the camp. I still didn't know what the cat's name was but it was obviously unimportant. My mom's eyes flicked over to where we were when the structure thingy began to flash multiple colors. I saw her eyes harden and she saw Shadow leap at the cat, teeth bared in a snarl. I watched, oddly intrigued by the two cats battling in front of me. As my mom darted in and slashed the cat's face I thought that the battle was over for sure, except I was wrong. The cat began to literally grow. The cat grew so big that from where I was I couldn't see the top of the cat. I worried that my mom had died, but soon the cat began to shake and shudder, maybe my mom was killing it.
As suddenly as the cat had grown huge, it became small again, collapsing on the ground. "Come on, hurry up." the cat holding me muttered to herself, glancing at the strange structure, which was now slowly filling with a sparkly/slimy substance . My mom picked herself up and launched herself at the cat holding us, her claws raked the cat's face and the cat's blood dripped down to the ground, narrowly missing my paw. I saw a flicker of movement and opened my mouth to warn my mom, but it was too late. The cat crashed into her side and knocked her away from the cat holding me and Twig. The two wrestled for a moment before my mom broke free and tried to reach us. The cat grabbed her leg and held her down, again.
I could see anger spark in my mom's eyes and she whirled around, and sank her teeth into the cat's throat. The cat let out a gurgling laugh and then lunged up, sinking his teeth into my mom's throat. "No!" I wailed, as I saw my mom collapse and the light drain from her eyes. The cat holding me stepped into the structure and the world flashed, before disappearing.
We landed in some sort of cave, I could hear Twig whimpering and someone was sniffling, oh wait, that's me. Tears dripped from my nose and I hung uselessly from the jaws of this cat. Another cats walked up to our kidnapper and ordered, "Put them in cell 2, keep them together for now, we'll start changing them in half a moon.
My brain was too numb to fully process what was being said, but when they threw me into a small hollow in the wall of the cave and placed a rock over the entrance, I began to panic. I scrambled around, scratching at the walls and trying to find an escape tunnel or something. I bumped into a corner and began to run along it, felling the wall for some kind of secret. I didn't find anything, but in the corner of the cell I tripped over something furry. "Ow." I grunted as I picked myself up, "Viper?" a voice asked, "Twig?" I questioned, the furry thing came back around and crashed into me, "Viper! I thought we were put in separate cells!" I grinned, even though I knew Twig couldn't see me in the dark, "We'll find a way out." I promised, even though I had no clue if we would actually be able to find a way out.