*Edited this in after the Chapter was uploaded* Just realized that the name of this story was identical to another warriors fan-fiction on this website, previously named Shadows, so I decided to come up with a new title so no-one would get confused. I really don't have anything more to say so let's get onto the story, shall we?
Chapter One
The sun's rays trickled through the leaves above Silverpaw, dappling the ground with it's luminescence. The warm breeze rushing through her fur as she raced through the undergrowth. She desperately tried to catch something before it reached its hide-away, safe from cat's paws in the labyrinth that was their burrow. Almost… so close… got it!
Silverpaw leapt through the air, landing on its back and delivered a killing bite. This rabbit can feed two full grown cats! She thought as she looked down at the hare, she quickly buried the fresh-kill and moved on to find anything else that might be near. She caught the scent of vole and quickly raced towards it, her mouth watering, as she drew nearer she slowed her pace and dropped into a hunter's crouch, very carefully advancing through the leaf-ridden undergrowth.
She stopped as her target came into view, pausing as the vole raised its head, whiskers twitching, and she tensed, ready to pounce, as it looked in her direction. The vole went still, staring at her for a long moment, and she pounced before it could get away. She delivered a killing blow to the rodents spine and she stared in horror as the body of the vole started shifting, shifting into the broken, bloodied body of her father.
Silverpaw jumped away from his body and slowly backed away with terrified eyes. She spotted blood start to seep through the cracks of the trees that surrounded her in ever direction, circling around the clearing faster and faster, pooling at the center. The blood just kept pouring nonstop, and she couldn't look away, couldn't close her eyes, they were glued open, on her father, who was being covered in blood. As the pool of blood closed over his head, she saw two severed heads float to the top of the blood pool, their eyes open.
By this time the trees have stopped pouring blood, and the forest has gradually gotten darker, until she could barely see anything. Silverpelt wasn't present to give off it's heavenly light, neither was the moon. She found she could move now and glanced around the place, sensing an aura of death and decay, and looked back at the heads, throwing up as she did. The heads… m- my… my parents heads! They are actually following me with their eyes!
"You are a failure... "
"Failed to protect us..."
"Didn't stop it..."
"I can't bring myself to call you my daughter anymore..."
"It's your fault... You just stood by, watching the shadow of the night kill your father, and you did nothing!"
"No!" She screamed tears forming, "I didn't do it! I couldn't help you!" She collapsed to the ground, the pool of blood surrounding her stained her pelt a crimson shade of red. Tears falling from her face, mixing with the blood below her. "Please… make… it…. stop..."
"It's your fault... you just stood by, watching the shadow of the night kill your father, and you did nothing!" The dream-world was fading, and her breathing slowed. The voices that were whispering all around her were fading into the darkness, "avenge us… kill the amber-eyed shadow..." The dream faded around her, and the coarsed voices stopped.
"... silver…" Silence. "Silverpaw? Silverpaw, wake up..." More silence. "SILVERPAW!" Silverpaw jolted awake from her nightmares, gasping.
"Silverpaw, are you OK?"
Silverpaw raised her head to see the rose spotted white pelted sister, Rosepaw, who was looking down at her, concerned. She shook her head, still breathing hard and on the verge of crying.
Rosepaw waited a little for any other response and sighed, "Come on, we have to gather for the border patrol," Rosepaw said, flicking her ears at Silverpaw's unresponsive figure.
"Maybe..." Silverpaw responded, her breathing slowly returning to normal, "maybe... I just want to go back to sleep."
"You can't sleep anymore, we're supposed to leave right now," Rosepaw was already heading out the entrance, looking over her shoulder, "you might want to get some thyme before you meet with us, you will find us at the sky oak."
Arg, do I have to? Not the thyme, I'm in favor of thyme right now. Why do I have to go on a border patrol? She looked around the den, which was empty because the clan hadn't had any kits in a long while. Because a clan without border patrols, is a clan that's too lazy to feed its own mouths, the mature side of her answered, stop sulking and get up.
Silverpaw forced herself upward and exited the den, heading for the medicine den, on the way there she stopped by the fresh-kill pile and fished out a vole. When she stopped at the medicine den she saw that a bundle of herbs was already prepared for her, Fernleaf resting beside them, in the entrance of her den.
She walked over and dropped her fresh-kill to sniff at the herbs, curious as to what Fernleaf was giving her, the entire clan knew that she was depressed after all, some thought she faked it for a while.
"Lotus root, heather, acai berry and thyme," Fernleaf said, making Silverpaw jump, Fernleaf was now sitting upright and surveying the camp, "to help with anxiety, depression and how you perform during your patrol. I also put some heather in it as well to help you swallow them."
"Thanks Fernleaf," Silverpaw said, bending her neck to lap them up, "I'm going to need these, can you prepare a couple of herbs for me tonight as well? I might have trouble sleeping." Fernleaf nodded, looking her in the eyes, "I'll give you valerian root, heather, chamomile, and poppy seed, to help with sleep and anxiety."
Silverpaw mewed her thanks and darted for the thorn tunnel, as she made her way to the sky oak, she quickly caught and killed a few small mice and a squirrel.
Silverpaw hastily buried her mice, deciding to carry her squirrel with her, and she headed towards the direction of the sky oak, sharp eyes taking in every small movement around her. When she arrived at the sky oak she took her spot next to her mentor, Redclaw, and her sister.
Every cat present gave her a stern glare. "I couldn't make it in time," Silverpaw said "so I decided to get some herbs from Fernleaf. I also forgot my fresh-kill at the camp, so I went to hunt a bit," she dropped her squirrel, "here Redclaw, I heard that you've left early so I found a squirrel, I know they are your favorite." Redclaw nodded in appreciation and the two settled down to eat, while Rosepaw and Tigerstripe marked the borders near the sky oak.
"You know," Redclaw started, burying the remains of his squirrel, "you don't have to be embarrassed about being late, every cat in the clan knows you need you herbs, you're also not as late as Snowstorm and Fangstrike," they both looked to the direction of the mossy clearing, "she is currently training with him on ShadowClan fighting techniques."
"I'm not embarrassed, it was one mistake, we make them all the time."
"I would recommend that you stop talking about us and get on with the patrol," Fangstrike mewed, making them jump, "Rosepaw and Tigerstripe are also waiting." Redclaw was already standing by the time he was finished. "I noticed," he looked upwards to the tree branches, "if your that impatient, then lets go, instead of being at each other's throat."
"I'm going to need some of you to renew the borders in the trees, preferable Rosepaw and Tigerstripe. Me, Fangstrike and my apprentice will continue the ground patrol. Snowstorm, I'm going to need you to organize a hunting patrol, you and Shatteredsky, make sure you tell Duskfur that he is on vigil until we get back."
"You taking over again?" Tigerstripe asked, genuinely curious, "I thought you stepped down as deputy." Redclaw looked over at him and gave him a warning glare, "I stepped down because I didn't have an apprentice, the only reason I did accept the position was because Greymist didn't want it, being the pacifist that she is."
"Let's just agree to disagree..." Snowstorm said, an amused look on her face, "seriously though, why do you both have to always get into an argument," she turned to the direction that the camp was, "we all have a mission right now, so lets carry them out."
Every cat nodded, faces grim.
Silverpaw quickly finished marking the last border as Redclaw told them that they needed to get back to camp, "Redclaw," Snowstorm called, jumping from branch to branch coming from the direction of camp, "you and your misfit group are needed in camp immediately, we've caught an outsider in our territory."
Fangstrike jumped, teeth bared, and Redclaw put his tail on his shoulder. "Fangstrike, just because he's an intruder doesn't mean you have to become hostile, who knows why he's here." Redclaw turned towards Snowstorm, "I need some information on this outsider, don't leave anything out."
He knows… my mentor knows the features of my parents killers, that or he's just being cautious.
"Small and wiry, fighter's stance, sleek black coat and wam amber eyes," Snowstorm said. The description made Silverpaws blood run cold, but when she heard the last part, she relaxed. So what if this cat's described as having a fighter's stance, he was probably trained since kithood to fight for his life, he's probably a rogue. The cat who killed my parents had cold eyes, not warm.
When they arrived at camp they saw that the area surrounding the highledge was very crowded. Silverpaw wove her way through until she locked eyes with the outsider, and she noticed that his eyes were warm amber eyes, as well as being a different shade than her parents killer. Or a group of killers, if there's something bigger than we think going on. Silverpaw shook her head, not wanting to jump to conclusions, she could be wrong.
"Rogue. What are you doing in our territory?" Asked Duskfur, shouldering his way through the crowd. "What is your intent?"
"First of all, if you must know, i'm here to join your clan," when he said this multiple cats let out a hiss, probably because the clan didn't want rogues in the midst of the camp, "second, i'm not from around here, and third, my home was destroyed and I heard that there was a group of cats by the lake."
"Where was this 'home' of yours?" Foxstar said, resting on highledge. "If you don't mind me asking."
The rogue nodded at the mountains, "my home was there, in the mountains, if you don't believe me, take a look at my pads," he laid down so he could stretch his pads outward, "to walk on all those rocks for so long you would have to have developed tough pads. I was a rogue there as well, hiding from a group known as the Tribe of Rushing Water."
"I'm sure you also noticed how wiry I am and how my coat is black, as well as my stance, this is because food was scarce and my coat helped absorb light, so I was warmer than most cats. I lived there my entire life, training myself to fight in case I was discovered on day, until they finally did find out where I was camping, and was driven out by sheer numbers."
While he was telling his life story, everyone went from suspicious to concern to anger, anger at the tribe, not him. When he was done Foxstar rose from his position on the highledge and beckoned the rogue to join him in his den, along with Greymist and Fernleaf.
Silverpaw walked away from the crowd, knowing that lingering wasn't going to help, they were going to see him later, depending on if he was permitted to stay. Instead Silverpaw padded out of the thorn tunnel to dig up her fresh-kill she buried earlier, and possibly hunt some more.
Silverpaw dropped into a hunter's crouch, eager to hunt for her clan. As she advanced into her clans territory, she caught the scent of thrush. I must be ready to leap when it tries to fly away, if it tries to fly away. I won't go back empty pawed.
"Hey Silverpaw!" said a certain rogue, running toward her, not even caring about any prey, "The leader decided I can stay, my new name is Shadowpaw."
Silverpaw cursed under her breath, the thrush already flapping its wings to fly away. "Shadowpaw, you caused my prey to get away" Shadowpaw nodded, "yeah, I know. You don't need it anyway, have you seen the amount of prey in the fresh-kill pile..."
Silverpaw was silent. Right. He came from the mountains, prey is rare there. "Our clan isn't used to the way mountain cats eat, we have many mouths to feed, you only had to feed yourself."
"Good thing I don't have to worry about that..." said a slow, raspy voice.
Silverpaw turned around to see a blue and white blur barrel into her, effectively knocking her down. And almost immediately Silverpaw felt claws dig into her shoulders, drawing blood. "You don't know what it feels like to be hurt, especially on the inside, so i'll help you with that. I'm going to enjoy this..."
Silverpaw braced herself, ready for the pain to start, and start it did; the intruders claws embedded in her stomach. Silverpaw screamed out in pain, it was excruciating, but she felt the weight leave her soon before the white she-cat could do any serious damage.
