Guestperson here with another story! I know, I know, I'm incompetent enough as it is with updating, but I wanted to make another one touching on the out-of-the-box thinking I wanted to accomplish here, anyway. So, sit back and enjoy the horrific prologue.
Part One - Lost
Perhaps if she had waited a moment longer, lingered outside the camp, turned back before they could wander any further, things would have been different.
The forest seemed so frightening to the young she-cat, a medley of confusing sights and sounds. She paused mid-step, ears angled sharply forward in her anxiety. A mouse fled from the brush, having spied the cat in its midst. However, the she-cat only shrieked in terror, back-peddling away from the unknown menace.
There was a light nudge on her shoulder, a white tail tip that ducked out of view. Spinning round, the she-cat came face to face with an almost perfect copy of herself; a tom of black and white. Only their eyes betrayed their true identities, some claimed. The tom's fierce yellow gaze sought out the she-cat's green orbs, but she ducked her head briefly, catching a glimpse of her white paws.
"I-I'm not sure this is safe," the black and white she-cat whispered. Her voice was hesitant, and unsure, and while her eyes looked longingly back to the familiarity of camp, the only place she'd ever known in her short life, her feet stayed firmly on the ground.
"Oh, you worry too much," the tom said dismissively, well used to the she-cat's skittish behavior. He circled her so their eyes met, his head held high and imposing. "Besides, didn't you want to prove you were brave?" He coaxed.
The she-cat's eyes narrowed at his words, and she broke his gaze once more, staring at the ground as she scraped it with her paw. She frowned deeply, as if contemplating the truth of the tom's words. "I . . . guess so."
The tom smirked, truimphant. He flicked the she-cat's shoulder playfully, and sprang forward. "Come on, I want to see the glen where the apprentices train!" He exclaimed exuberantly. The change in the she-cat's was obvious as he moved away, for the tom's excitement was infectious. She grinned widely, eyes bright. With a quick nod, she followed the black and white tom eagerly. Together, they ran forward through the new-leaf forest, squeaking excitedly with every spring of their paws.
Suddenly, the tom paused, ears perked and tail high. The she-cat immediately stiffened, and fell into a crouch, her eyes wide with fur. "What is it?" She mewed querulously. The tom silenced her with a flick of his tail, and sank backwards. The she-cat relaxed slightly, and peered over the tom's shoulder to see the small form of a squirrel, ignorant of the cats' presence only tail-lengths away. It scraped at the ground, apparently looking for something.
"Watch this!" The tom whispered excitedly, sinking forward into what may have been a hunter's crouch. The she-cat watched attentively as the tom clumsily crept forward, and then suddenly, he let an ear-splitting screech, and leapt forward. For a few moments, everything was a blur as the tom seemed to try to keep a hold on something, moving too fast for the she-cat to discern easily. Finally, an orange-brown blur shot out of from underneath the tom — right into the she-cat's waiting claws. She stared at in bewilderment for a moment, and then the squirrel was gone, nothing more than a memory.
"So close, Brackenkit!" The tom meowed, springing to his paws. His fur was ruffled and covered in dirt, but the tom looked like he could care less. Brackenkit sighed in disappointment, her former excitement gone as disappointment replaced it. The tom gave her a comforting lick on the shoulder, and bound away. "We got to go to the glen now, remember?"
The tom was looking at her as he ran, so it was impossible for him to see the ginger and white mass that flashed through the underbrush. However, Brackenkit could see it all too well, and look on in horror and shock as the creature lunged from the undergrowth, maw open in a silent cry of impending doom. Paws reached forward as the tom became like his escaped prey, only this time, he wasn't going to escape.
"Badgerkit!" Brackenkit shrieked, finally snapping out of her trance.
The tom spun around, his back exposed to teeth that were tail-lengths away from sinking into his flesh. "What, Brackenkit?" Normally, he would not take his sister's fears seriously, but he understood the urgency in Brackenkit's tone now.
And then the fox sank its jaws into Badgerkit's throat.
-cackles evilly- Mwahaha, I have given you all a cliffy! Now you will all writhe in agony as I take a week to write the next chapter! Guestperson bids you all a good day. :DDDDD