Lionstorm's Journey

Lionstorm: A strong tom cat with golden fur and a darker stripe running down his back.

It has been one day since the great battle between Lionclan and Bloodclan. The news that Scourge and Bone perished in the battle shocked all the remaining cats. However, Lionstorm seemed to be the only one grieving. Many of the cats looked happy, or even relived. A few cats even celebrated their new freedom. Lionstorm had to hold himself back from attacking those cats. The lack of grief shown angered him. Scourge did everything he could to help the clan, given the size of it. He couldn't keep every cat fed, it was more important for the leader to live so he could better the clan.

Scourge was a great leader, taking Lionstorm in when he had nowhere to go. His old clan deemed him to ruthless and banished him. Scourge made Lionstorm equal to Bone in power, after proving his loyalty to Scourge. Now with Scourge and Bone gone, it was up to him to lead the rest of the clan. The only problem was that he had no clue how to be a leader. He never understood how Scourge could put up with so much pressure.

As Lionstorm was lost in thought many of the surviving cats started leaving and going on their own. Lionstorm shook his head to remove his worries and to look around. Many of the cats already left, and he was standing by himself with a few cats still hovering around the camp. They were leaving, as if there was no hope in Bloodclan. Lionstorm knew he could be a great leader… with time. He would just need help, and he knew the two cats to turn to.

Lionstorm started searching; he had to find Snake and Ice. They were just as close to Scourge as Lionstorm was, they could help him control the remaining Bloodclan cats. The sun was starting to set and the two cats were nowhere to be found. I should have been in that fight, I might have saved Scourge and Bone.

He headed back to his den. The surrounding area seemed so different without being crowded by cats. Lying down, he looked up at the orange sun set. They better be back in the morning.

Lionstorm opened one of his eyes in the middle of the night. Something woke him up; however, there was nothing in sight or any abnormal sounds. He slowly stood up to investigate. Before he could take a step, he heard someone talking. They were too far away to understand what they were saying. Before he could get close enough, he heard another cat tell the other to be quiet. He thought he recognized the voice. Shortly after, two cats came out into the open and Lionstorm's suspicions were proven. It was Snake and Ice, the two missing cats.

"About time you two showed up." Lionstorm growled at the Bloodclan cats, "What took you so long. Most of the other cats in the battle made it back long before you." He made it clear to the cats that he wasn't pleased.

"Relax; we had to hide from the clan cats. They forced us to take a longer route." Ice pointed out. "It's not like we wanted to be late." However, Lionstorm didn't believe him.

"No, unless they chased you through the entire forest, you would have been back before night fall."

"We stopped to rest. The battle left us exhausted and we didn't escape the forest yet. So we waited until night to travel." Snake meowed. The lie was quickly thought of, but didn't fool Lionstorm. The two cats only had a few cuts and scratches. Lionstorm quickly realized that they weren't in the fight, or at least did very little fighting.

Lionstorm glared at Ice and Snake. "Lies!" He spat, "You barely did any fighting. Almost all the cats that returned were badly bleeding. However you two have small scratches." He took a few steps closer to them. "If you actually did something, you two could have saved Scourge and Bone. Instead you left them to die."

Ice walked up until he was a whisker length from Lionstorm. Even though Ice was smaller than Lionstorm, he didn't show any fear. "Not like you did anything, you stayed here where it was safe. You're more of a coward than Barley was."

Lionstorm unsheathed his claws and sliced Ice across his face. "Don't you dare compare me to that traitor! Scourge ordered me to stay back in case something happened! And since you failed to protect Scourge or Bone, I'm the only one left to lead Bloodclan."

Ice glared back up at Lionstorm, blood oozing out of a deep cut under his eye. He unsheathed his claws to fight back until Snake spoke up. "You think you are going to lead Bloodclan? Me and Ice have already taken that role. We will lead this clan better then Scourge ever could!"

"Do you really think that? You two will be leader over my dead body. You two would probably destroy this clan; no cat can be as great as Scourge was." Lionstorm growled, turning on Snake.

"That can be arranged. We'll turn you into crowfood before you know what happened." Ice took that as his cue and jumped on Lionstorm's back. Ice bit down hard on Lionstorm's ear. Lionstorm yelled out in pain and tried to fall onto his back to crush Ice. He was stopped as Snake dragged his claws down Lionstorm's face. Blood ran into his eyes and temporarily blinding him. Lionstorm lashed out in front of him, aiming for the blur of a cat. His paw struck flesh causing him to hit Snake again. Lionstorm could feel the blood running onto his paws from Snake, telling him he greatly injured Snake. Ice continued to claw at Lionstorm's head, reminding Lionstorm of the cat. He fell back, but Ice jumped off, making Lionstorm fall onto his back. Snake took this chance and jumped onto Lionstorm. He bent down to deliver a killing bite to Lionstorm's neck, but Lionstorm manage to rake his hind claws down Snake's stomach. Snake immediately jumped off. As Lionstorm struggled to get up, Ice raked his claws down Lionstorm's front leg. Lionstorm swiped at ice in response and jumped back.

Lionstorm knew he couldn't fight two of them at once. He glared at them through his blood stained eyes. He noticed that one of the cats was lying down. He suspected that it was Snake and he felt pleased that he fatally injured one of them. He noticed Ice turn to Snake for a second, Lionstorm turned around and ran away. They may have won now, but next time I'll have the advantage.

He could hear Ice call out something but Lionstorm wasn't focused on them. He just focused on getting out before they caught up to him.

Lionstorm came to a fence. Looking back, he made sure he wasn't still being followed. He quickly ran down the length of the fence until he came to a hole in the bottom. He squeezed through, pain shooting through his leg as it brushed against the fence. After he made it through he limped over to where he knew a reasonable place was to rest. He lay down beneath some bushes.

Daylight was seeping through the leaves by the time Lionstorm cleaned his fur and wiped most of the blood out of his eyes. The cuts on his face stopped bleeding; however, the gash on his front leg was still bleeding. He knew he need to get something to stop the bleeding, but Scourge didn't believe in having a cat who know how to tend sick cats. Lionstorm silently cursed Scourge for his strange ways. Maybe those two could do a better job than Scourge. He quickly shook the thought out of his head. Those too couldn't lead a kittypet let alone an entire clan. Lionstorm smiled to himself as he lay down.

He woke up at twilight from a restless sleep. He was still bleeding, though it was more of a trickle. He slowly stood up, making sure to keep his weight on his three good legs. He stepped out from the shelter of the bush. Going back to Bloodclan was no longer a choice. There had to be someplace he could go. The only place he could go was through the forest. Lionstorm had to risk being caught by the clans. It would be an easier task if he could remove his collar. That way he could get help from the clans. He shivered at the thought of getting help from the cats who killed his leader.

Lionstorm sulked with his head lowered, following the river towards the clans. If he could just make it through without being seen, it wouldn't be so bad.

Half way through the night, the golden cat was close enough to scent the border of Thunderclan. He scowled as he got closer; Thunderclan was the cause of the fight and the loss of Scourge and Bone. Their leader would never let him escape alive. He stopped, the border starting in front of him. He looked across for any patrols. There was no sign of a patrol and the scent seemed fresh, but whoever it was is long gone. Lionstorm took a step into Thunderclan territory, keeping a sharp eye out. His leg gave him too much trouble for a fight, and the pain was too much to outrun a patrol. The unknown terrain didn't make it any easier on him. Walking through the forest, guided by the light of the half moon, Lionstorm had trouble being quite.

He decided he needed to rest soon, however, if he stayed in the territory, he would be caught. His leg started bleeding again since he started using it to steady himself on the uneven terrain. A twig cracked and broke the silence of the night. Lionstorm looked around, he didn't make the noise, so what did? The wind was blowing towards the source of the noise. He quickly jumped under some nearby bracken, hoping his scent wouldn't give him away. A bush a couple of foxlengths away started shaking as a grey cat pushed her way through.

"I can't believe I'm going to be late." She said to herself. She seemed to be limping, which brought Lionstorm's attention to her leg. It seemed to be broken, as she was barely using it to walk. He didn't want to, but if she found him, she wouldn't be too hard to take down. The she-cat slowed down as she was sniffing the air. Her confused look told Lionstorm that she found his scent. She slowly followed it over to the bush he was in. He picked up her fear scent as she approached. Lionstorm bunched up, ready to spring if she found him. The grey cat was less than a foxlength away when she looked Lionstorm in the eyes before attempting to turn around to run. Lionstorm immediate jumped out and pinned her to the ground, aiming a killing bite for her throat before she had time to scream.