Hiya readers! Well here's the fourth chappy!
Lily's appearance has been changed, somewhat. I had no idea what-so-ever what a 'Mary Sue' was, but now I do; and I realized that I was making Lily exactly like that. Now, she's hopefully less of a beautiful supernatural being that everyone loves XD
New appearance: Small long furred she-cat, with a white pelt patched with ginger. Amber eyes.
Sorry, I'm not doing review replies today! If you guys want them, you could ask me; but right now, I don't feel that we are terribly attached to them, and they take a long time that I could be writing faster in :P
My writing style has changed dramatically. Hopefully, it is for the better; and that it is more entertaining, and not going on and on and on and on... When I reread the earlier chapters of this story, I realized that it was okay, but not good. After writing those two one-shots, and 'A Paw In Each World', my writing got better. Those stories have waaaay better writing than this one ^^ Well, the first couple pages of this chapter are in the bad writing because I wrote them a month ago, but it will steadily grow better. I promizess D:
Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, Erin Hunter does.
Hope you enjoy~
Lily's fur was growing steadily colder. She didn't even open her eyes; she was done with hope. But the cold was getting more intense. It was too cold. The frigid air froze every piece of fur on her pelt, and chilled her whiskers. Her eyelids twitched and Lily squeezed them together, not letting them open in curiosity. A ragged wind blew through her fur and stung her pelt, biting across her back. The smooth ground underneath her was suddenly feeling very rough, and Lily wondered how she had ever thought it was smooth. A sharp point was pressed into her belly, and she shifted her weight so that it didn't hurt her. Why was there sharp rocks in the Nothingness? The ground was rough an cold, and, now that she thought of it, wet.
Totally against her will, Lily opened her eyes. She was in the tunnels! Her fur was damp and a great tangled mess, and the rock was wet and cold beneath her paws, but it was good to be alive. The wind she felt must have swept her into the awakening world.
The darkness pressed down on her, and Lily was confused. There should have been light in this part of the tunnels now. She opened her mouth to taste the air. Water, mud, wet rock. She scanned the mess of scents deeper to find the location of things in the thick shadows. The loped tunnels were to her right, and were filled with lapping water. She had swam the tunnels.
Then Lily remembered death. How the water had closed over her head, blocking everything real from he mind. And those scary encounters with all of her loved ones dying, over and over again. She shivered.
The tunnels were still dark, and Lily wondered why. She started off in the direction of the surface, leaping through the twists and turns.
She stopped, this was were the entrance was supposed to be. But there was still no light. She padded forward cautiously, scared of what might happen; cold was radiating from somewhere in front of her. She stuck out a paw warily and felt nothing. Growling in annoyance, she leaped forward to confront whatever was blocking the light. Cold lased through her senses as she jumped into a solid wall of snow. It fluffed out around her and tugged at her whiskers as she gave a yell of surprise before falling into the pile. After it stopped moving, she clawed her way to the surface of the pile and snarled out her irritation.
She spat out a mouthful of frost before standing up, shaking the cold lumps out of her fur and jumping forward through the tunnel. Her earlier jump into the snow had dislodged it so much that it was spilled everywhere for several tail-lengths, smothering the rocky tunnel floor and leaving deep piles of cold. Lily sunk into the snow where she landed, sinking until the snow was at her neck. She lept forward again only to find that she sunk just as deep where she landed. Continuing on, she felt the snow thickening, and deepening. Now when she jumped, she landed in the snow completely submerged in the cold wet flakes. Deeper and deeper it got, until Lily found she could go on no more. Another wall of snow blocked her way. She lay down on the flattened snow behind her in exhaustion, breathing fast and heavily.
She stood up after a few moments and clawed the wall in front of her. Her claws left deep gouges in the snow, for it was soft. She clawed deeper, until she was tunneling through the mass of white cold. She found that the darkness was giving, and there was some yellow light shining through the snow. She urged her claws faster, ripping out pawfuls of snow until she tumbled out of the tunnels and into bright sunlight. It streamed from the heavens in what was supposed to be soft gentle rays, but to Lily, they felt like fire. Her eyes burned ferociously, and she yowled in pain as her face seared. Bright sunlight after darkness was not a good combination. The light burned so badly that she cowered on the ground and whimpered until the pain faded away. Then she squinted into the sky, wanting to see it after so long in the tunnels. The sun glared down at her, its breathtaking rays making Lily cry for pain and joy at the same time.
I really, really missed you Sun. Almost as much as I miss the moon... Lily thought blearily. She flopped down on her side and soaked up the light, enjoying the warmth. The rock and snow underneath her fur felt like ice as the light on her pelt felt like fire. Such a strange combination, but it felt slightly comforting. She closed her eyes lazily and flopped her head back, forgetting about the white tom, Bark, Star, Bluestar, everything.
The light of the sun warmed her body, and the sharp mountain air was making her spinning head clearer and clearer every second. After awhile, it was impossible not to think. She remembered the white tom's death, Star's death, Bark's, and she remembered the strange meeting over her own corpse. Who was Bluestar? What did she mean Lily had the Tribe's fate in her paws? How could this be possible? How had she brought Lily back to life? Everything started to swirl around in her head again, and it began to ache.
She sighed and stood up, shaking her pelt before leaning down to groom it thoroughly. She glanced at the gorse bush that covered the tunnels. Water and snow filled the only way to her den. She wouldn't be going back in there for awhile.
….
After laying down in the sun a bit more she got up and headed to her little mountain stream. She looked down on it and stared in surprise. It was completely solid, a few brown leaves frozen in place under the icy surface.
She dabbed a paw down and felt the ice, testing a bit of her weight on it. It held surprisingly, and she dropped her other paw to the ice. Soon she was standing on the solid stream, marveling at how she didn't fall through. She looked down the stream, staring as she trailed her eyes down its winding path, and finally where it disappeared behind a wall of stone in the far off distance. She looked the other way, and saw it disappear at the horizon.
She padded up the frozen water, in the direction of the wildcat's camp. The sun was sinking lower, ducking behind the stream almost. She continued walking, feeling the ice under her pads; it was cold and hard, leaving her pads numb. She stopped and lifted up her foreleg, surprised at the water that dripped down it in icy droplets. The warmth of her pads must have melted the ice the slightest bit when she set her paws down with the weight of her body.
After the small discovery, she would lean down and lick her wet pads whenever she was thirsty. After doing this for awhile, she sheepishly realized that she could simply lick the ice under her paws. The water was cooler and fresher this way, without the dirt on her pads getting mixed in. Her paws drew steadily colder, the ice almost burning now. She lifted one up and hissed, annoyed. But she stopped.
To think I would be irritated by the small thing of cold. I've died already, and watched several others meet their demise as well. How can I still feel so annoyed at these insignificant things? She sighed quietly, lashing her tail at the cold. She would just have to live with it.
Lily didn't know quite what she was looking for. All she knew was that she wanted to go to wherever she was going undetected. One way to not be as traceable was to smear mud in her pelt; but, as all the water was frozen, the next best thing was to walk on the solid stream. Her paws were tingling with cold now, and she decided that she should give them a break and walk on the stone beside the stream. She hopped onto the white-frosted dirt of the bank, trembling with cold. She lifted up her right forepaw and licked the pad softly, trying to bring the feeling back. But her paws were as numb as could be, so she started trotting through the thin snow back on her way. The sun had almost disappeared behind the snowy stone. The frosted rocky mountain ahead looked pink, as the rosy glow of the sun's last gentle rays dappled the ground before her. The sun sparkled dazzlingly. She stopped and looked at the sky, seeing the stars appearing around the orange light. The moon shone down on her, almost brighter than the fading sun. She sighed; dusk had fallen and she still wasn't sure where she was headed. The sun finally disappeared, relenting to the glowing white moon.
Lily started walking faster, wary of the quickly cooling air and the dark shadows. The wolves could be anywhere. They could kill her just like they had brutally killed the white tom. She shuddered at the thought, and winced as the night air bit her skin through her thick fur. She ruffled it, trying to fluff up her pelt against the freezing cold, but it didn't help much. Leaf-bare was harsh at night in the mountains.
She trudged through the snow on the side of the stream, the sky darkening until she could barely see anything in front of her. The snow didn't sparkle any longer, and she walked on, almost going head-first through snow drifts that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
She had started to go faster when a strange scent reached her nose. She opened her mouth to taste the air, and gagged at the stench that hit the roof of her mouth. Salt and snow, mixed together, with a sweet rusty tang.
Blood.
But it wasn't just blood. It was the smell of . . . Lily thought hard, racking her mind for the right smell. It was blood, mixed with . . . frost. Like cold, frozen blood. Her eyes widened with horror and her breath started too quicken, until it was coming out with short gasps. She pressed her belly into the snow, and crept forward softly. The frost crackled under her paws, and she winced at the sound; wishing that she could be more silent. The scent of frozen blood grew stronger, and her heartbeat went faster an faster until she felt as if it would burst from her chest.
Even though the scent of the blood was almost overwhelming now, there were no sounds at all. There was nothing, nothing but the stench of death. It was sweet and dark, curling through the air like thick smoke that would smother you in a second. Lily trembled, not feeling the cold anymore as her heart pounded in anticipation. Her breath quickened further, and she saw a strange clump of grass in front of her. It was covered in a thick layer of frost, but that was not what scared Lily. Splattered across it, was a liquid so dark of a red, she could barely see. But she knew what it was; the terrible, sweet scent told her as much.
She stopped at the huge clump of grass, swaying slightly as she saw the blood on the plants. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
What's behind there can't be as bad as the worst. I've seen the worst. But there was a voice in the back of Lily's mind that asked if she really had.
She edged her way around the grass, her eyes narrowed in fear. The sight that met her was so terrible, that she caught her breath and suddenly found herself on the ground. She pressed her eyes closed and willed her breathing to slow. How could this happen? She willed herself not to vomit, and steeled herself. She slowly got back up to her paws without opening her eyes. She continued to breathe deeply before opening her eyes once more.
The tabby she-cat was stretched out on the ground as if she was sleeping, with each of her legs extended to their full length. Her eyes were wide and staring, and there was a look of mild surprise on her face. There was a single dark wound, stretching from her throat to her tail. She had been ripped almost in half, the gash too big to be made by the claws of a cat. The blood had long since poured around her to stain the frozen grass red. Her fur was frozen solid as well, explaining the frost-and-blood scent. Lily gasped a broken, cracked breath of the dark, frosty air. The tabby she-cat had been dead for awhile, by the looks of it, and she had been frozen stiff. The snow dusted the corpse's pelt, looking as if the sky themselves had sprinkled starlight on her. Lily gasped again, and started to cry; heartbroken, desperate sobs of terror and trauma. The finding of the tabby she-cat's body had shocked her deeply.
She collapsed on he ground, and cried herself to sleep; the frozen dead she-cat merely tail-lengths away.
She didn't see the two, huge, glowing eyes in the darkness. A feral growl came from the grasses, low and guttural, before the eyes vanished.
….
Lily felt strange. The grass tickled her ear tips, and she felt the sun on her pelt warm the frigid air. She took a shaky breath, wondering why she felt so broken, so desperate. She opened her eyes.
There was a pair of eyes staring back at her. Glazed, sightless, deep-brown eyes that were staring at her with shock. The cat's mouth was facing her, the jaws open. A trickle of red had dripped out of it, staining the grass a mouse-length in front of her face.
She scrambled backwards with a gasp, her eyes widening. The dead tabby she-cat was laying in front of her, and she remembered the shock of the night before. Lily stood for a moment, shocked, before shaking herself. She looked down at the she-cat in sorrow. Whatever creature that had committed this atrocity was a monster. She shuddered at the thought and looked at the ground around the body. The frozen grass had been disturbed, pushed up in every direction. The tabby she-cat's fur was littering the ground with some other fur. Dark, course, long, black fur.
A wolf's fur.
She backed away in terror, looking around again. There was nothing. The sun was shining down on her, and everything seemed peaceful besides the fact that there was a corpse in front of her. Her lip trembled, and she let a few tears go, as she watched the she-cat's frozen fur bend in the wind. She stepped forward slowly and closed the she-cat's eyes with the soft bottom of her paw. Then, she saw a yellow flower growing in a patch of frosty grass a couple of tail-lengths away. She grasped it in her teeth, and pulled, letting out a gasp as it gave way and fell softly into her jaws. Lily then lay it across the she-cat's side. She no longer felt scared, only the deep sorrow penetrating her heart. She swept her tail across the she-cat's flank in farewell before turning around.
She didn't look back as she walked away from the scene.
The grass crackled under her paws as she padded, her head down and her tail trailing across the sandy rock. The terrain was rough, clumps of grass and snow dotted her path, but mostly there was just cold, sandy, rock.
After awhile, she found the stream. She hadn't even noticed she had left it's side in her search for the frozen blood scent. She sighed at the thought, an shook it from her mind. She decided that she had given herself a break for long enough, and she lowered herself off the bank and onto the stream. The ice pricked her pads with cold, and she grimaced lifting up her paws slowly before setting them down in front of her. She grimaced; it would be a long time until she got used to walking on ice. But it covered up her scent, and that was what was important.
Something was in the distance. It was a loud thunder of noise, it sounded like . . . water. Rushing water. Her head shot up. Rushing Water!
She hurried forward, unfeeling to the ice underneath her paws anymore. She would know the sound of rushing water anywhere. After a few minutes of quickening her pace, she was flat out running; stretching her muscles as far as they would go, hearing her paws pounding on the ice. There was a small cracking sound, but she didn't register it at her frenzied pace. Suddenly, she was plunged into icy water, and she yelled in surprise as her head went under. Lily broke the surface, gasping and spluttering. In her running, she had hit the ice hard enough with her paws that it had broke. She shivered in the frigid water, and floundered to the side, where she pulled herself onto the cracked and splintered ice.
She trembled with cold for a few minutes, dragging herself onto the snowy bank and laying down. She closed her eyes as her sides heaved for breath and shivered violently, wave after wave of cold rushing back and forth through her senses. She gasped the now arm-feeling air and tried to sit up. Her whole body hurt from the tumble into the stream, and she was cold as ice.
I shouldn't have run, she thought with a sigh, hunching her shoulders and fluffing out her wet fur. Her pelt had soaked up the water like a sponge, the long fur dripping with icy liquid. The breeze blustered over her, and she crouched; the breeze felt like huge biting winds now that she was wet. Lily tried to stop shivering, but it was no use as the cold wracked her body. She stood up and started walking, hoping that the movement of her muscles would warm her up. The shock of being plunged into the stream was slowly wearing off, and it felt like her heart was slowly finding its way back down into her chest. She shivered more and more as she walked on, and she felt the beginnings of a cold well up in her chests. She coughed, grimacing at the pain it gave her throat.
"You're on Tribe territory!"
Lily pressed her belly to the ground in shock, whipping her head around to gaze at six healthy cats. She didn't have the energy to run. The cat who had spoke was in front of the patrol. It was a large wiry black tom with bright, icy blue eyes; he was tall and had scars all down one side of his face. There was a hissing gray she-cat next to him, and a ginger tom on his other side. There were more cats behind him; all sounding either wary, or hostile. She crouched there, looking terrified.
The ginger tom pushed his way forward to stand in front of the black tom. The black tom hissed at him openly, but her just twitched his ears; and his gaze didn't move from Lily. "Why are you here?" His voice was tough and gravelly; he was obviously the eldest of the group.
Lily crouched in the same spot, her ears slowly flattening. The she-cat hissed at her again. "Rogue!" She spat.
Lily just crouched on the frozen, snowy, ground.
"Are you stealing prey?" The black tom had once more taken his place at the front of the patrol, "If you have, we'll rip your fur off!"
Lily didn't answer.
After yelling more insults, the tribe cats informed Lily that she would be taken back to see 'Stoneteller'. She just trembled in shock, unable to realize the facts: She had been caught. After all her parent's careful planning, she had let herself be seen. After everything she herself had worked for, it was all for nothing. It had all been in vain.
Lily's ears flattened.
The patrol surrounded her and told her to stand up. She obeyed, having no other option. The sound that she had heard had indeed been the waterfall, and she found that the frozen stream she had been following flowed right into the pool below it. The Tribe cats wordlessly led her down the path behind it, and into the cave. She knew it existed, in fact, she had snuck inside it before. The sound of rushing water echoed through the stone walls, and all the tribe cats that were inside turned to stare as the patrol returned. Lily wanted to melt into the rock and hide, but something caught her eyes.
In a shallow scoop of rock a few fox-lengths away, there was a tom. He was lying in the nest, his pelt plastered with herbs and staring at her like the rest of tribe. His bright blue eyes held surprise, and something else in their depths. Shock, recognition. Even underneath the herbs, his pelt was a blazing snow-white; and there was no mistaking his blue eyes. This just wasn't a white tom.
It was the white tom. The one she couldn't save.
The one that she had left for dead.
Whaaaaaaaaa? ^^
If you don't review, I'll throw Rebecca Black at you.
Kapeesh? :D
Meow for Now, and R&R!
~Shadowmist
