An: So, hey guys! Sorry if I'm late, but here it is! I just had to upload this today as a special! About eight pages in one of of those huge notebooks. Yeah, I've been writing this in the car while waiting for my brother. Probably will stay that way. Keep in mind the date, and read on! Happy Friday the 13th!

~Faded Dawn: The Dark Forest Rises~

~Chapter 4- Betrayal~

As I slowly regained consciousness, I had no idea what was going on. Until the pain started. Flashes of white assaulted me behind my tightly shut eyes. Along with the pain and blinding flashes, memories of the previous day flooded my mind.

After they finished, I wished, almost more than anything, that Brightpaw was by my side, with her healing powers. I knew I was being selfish, but my wounds burned like a forest fire. Trying to focus on something, anything, so I could escape my pain, I opened my eyes. What I saw distracted me completely. An icy feeling numbed my fur, and I froze. Dark, unmistakable orange eyes stared at me, and I could make out two dark figures next to the first figure, the one I thought I had known so well. I couldn't help it, I screamed. My shrill voice pierced the midnight air, and as merciless yellow eyes found my terrified orange eyes, I stood up, all fur on end. Then I bolted. I brushed past still gray fur, and spiked fur. I managed as far as into the camp center, before I heard the dreaded pounding of paws after me.

My ears flattened as my paws hit the ground, one after another. I wasn't being very careful- my whiskers brushed against two stray trees. But all I cared about at that moment was escaping my pursuers.

Reeds lashed at my fur, some causing scratches, yet my paws ran on.

As I started to slow, thinking I've lost the cats behind me, I heard the distant sound of heavy breathing, and pounding paws. The same breathless felling I always felt, accompanied me as my enhanced speed kicked in.

Finally, I think my pursuers were slowing down, because I soon heard nothing but an hoot of an lone owl. I realized with a sickening slurp from under my paws that I was running in marshy earth. I slowed to a stop, looking around, and seeing only pine trees and darkness. I gulped.

Somehow, I had managed to to pass the ShadowClan border without even realizing it, which, at the very least, the dark, musky, smell that came with it.

As the smell of ShadowClan invaded my nose, fear started to take hold of my senses, and I turned around, and burst back the way I had come.

Though I ran faster than I thought normal, at least, and further than I would have deemed necessary, none of the familiar fishy scent that I was so used to-reached my nose. Instead, the mustiness of the marsh only grew stronger and stronger in my nose as I crept forward, until I couldn't stand it. I sneezed.

It felt as if one hundred eyes turned to look at me at once. My pelt prickled uneasily, and I backed up slowly, my eyes flitting from shadow to shadow, imagining sinister red eyes looking out at me with fangs gleaming in the dim light of the stars, squinting maliciously from the inky blackness.

I suddenly spotted less red, and more amber eyes gazing at me from under one of the dark spaces under the thick brush.

As I glanced at the next stray shadow, I blinked and quietly turned around to the darkness I had looked over before. The amber eyes still stared back at me. I closed my eyes and opened them again.

What I saw wasn't my entirely overactive imagination. There really were eyes watching me.

Gulping, I frantically turned and searched the clearing for anything, or anyone, else. Fortunately, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so I turned to whatever had been staring at me before, but it was gone. I took a wary step backwards, half-expecting whatever it was to jump out from behind me, and say 'boo'. Even that would be enough to set me off right now, I realized.

Trying to calm myself down, before I had a heart attack, I scanned the clearing, using my hawk-like vision to pin-point any light in this StarClan forsaken forest.

There was nothing I could see in the brush, and I slowly raised myself from a crouch I hadn't even realized I was in.

Finally, I located a pair of dark amber eyes gazing at me from a lone hawthorn tree that made me wonder how I could have missed it. Pondering that, I nearly leaped into a tree myself when a familiar voice sprouted from its branches. "Stormpaw?"

"Who are you?" I demanded, immediately forming a defensive stance. Then the moon rose over the dark ShadowClan forest, and the cat was illuminated. Even though the normally light brown pelt was darker in the dim moonlight, I recognized the figure immediately. It was Brightpaw.

"B-B-Brightpaw?" I whispered hoarsely. "Look, I'm sorry." I started, but was cut off by the she-cat herself.

"So am I. I started it anyways, now c'mon. it isn't safe to talk here." Brightpaw glanced from side to side as if to prove her point, before jumping down to my side.

I nodded slowly, looking over the situation. If I didn't accept Brightpaw's invitation, I would almost surely get even more lost than I was now, and perhaps even wander into ShadowClan's camp itself. But if I did, Brightpaw might take me there anyway. I weighed my options, then quickly decided to go with Brightpaw. At least I wouldn't get lost.

Brightpaw darted through the wet marsh and spiny trees quickly, almost as if it was sunhigh in RiverClan. I, however, tried to match her speed, twigs snapping loudly in my wake. The ground didn't like me either, and it rushed up several times at my face, but I was quick to right myself, and race after Brightpaw. After many fox-lengths of this, Brightpaw slowed down, and apologized. "Sorry, I know this place like the back of my paw." She meowed profusely.

I nodded, panting heavily, even with my enhanced speed. "C'mon, it's just a few fox-lengths more." Brightpaw mewed brightly.

I smiled, and she almost seemed to glow, whether from relief or happiness, I wasn't sure.

After a good few more minutes, we arrived at a small opening in a cleft of rock, after which seeing, I immediately stepped back, nor caring, nor wanting to know what was in the space. "No way." I looked at Brightpaw, shaking my head firmly.

"Look inside! There's nothing that can hurt us!" Brightpaw meowed. I glanced inside but saw nothing but darkness. "Carrionplace rats." She muttered, staring at something in the dark forest. Then, as I watched, they widened in what looked like fright. I stiffened, my eyes darting to the dark place in between the treetops, waiting for something, knowing Brightpaw could see better than I. My ears flattened, and I was slowly crouching, when I was suddenly flung back into the cave.

Then everything was black.

After what was probably minutes, or even seconds, felt like hours as I laid in the achy blackness.

Then there was a dull light. I tried to claw towards me with my paw.

But nothing happened.

Slowly, the scene around me came into painful clarity. "It's quite spacey in here, don't you think?" A voice said. So I glanced up from staring at the floor, and then I screamed. There was a figure standing in the middle of the cave.

Brightpaw sat in front of me, brushing her tail lightly over my shoulder, and generally trying to calm me down. But I was freaking out, not registering anything she was doing. "C'mon Stormpaw. It's just me, Brightpaw." The she-cat soothed. But I couldn't calm down, for at that very moment, a scar seared itself into my very flesh.

I stood rigid, my eyes blank, not feeling any of the pain, and in the perfect calm one hardly ever felt, I whispered only three words. "He betrayed her."

An: Yay! Another chapter up. Glossary should be up tomorrow, since my computer is dying at the moment. The second chapter revision is coming along nicely. Lucky Friday the 13th it is! Bye, and I have a feeling you'll be seeing more of me soon! Just tell me if there is a problem, it will be fixed and appreciated by a review or PM, sorry guests. Take a hug. -Gives a hug to awesome readers-

Take Care,

Faded :3