Well, yays! ^^; Here is the long-awaited CHAPTER 4!!!! :D I hope you enjoy it and I think you'll find it very suspenseful! ^^;

(The ending is a bit cheesey-ish, but oh well. XD) :P :3 :) :D

Chapter 4

Not knowing what to say, I just stammered, "Y-Yes…. Spots."

"Ah, you don't need to act like I'm your master!" he laughed. He started rubbing his paws along my scars, licking them to close the wounds. It felt really nice, and by the end, I could barely feel my scars anymore.

"There…. that's better," he said. "What do you think? I meant by 'feeling you' that I would help heal you; sorry, I know that it sounded really weird."

"Yeah," I agreed. Soon, we were both laughing. He took his paws off me and helped me up into a sitting position.
"So…. what do you think of this place so far?" Spots asked.

I frowned. "I think it's horrible. I have to stay in a cage—and Scarlett was mean!"

Spots sighed. "Yes, he is like that…. I hope I can get you tomorrow. If Scarlett gets you…." He trailed off and didn't finish his sentence, so I supplied something in for him.

"I'll be heartbroken," I said.

Spots laughed. "Yeah. I guess I will be, too. I'll come back tomorrow before the auction; I'll be hunting until then."

"I hope you win me," I whispered.

Spots looked down at me determinedly. "That's a strange thing to say. But I agree; I hope I win you, too."

He put me back in my cage and Jack came ambling over and closed the door. Spots waved as he left and pretty soon he was gone. I curled in a corner of my cage and went to sleep.

I had a strange dream. I was sitting in a forest, and a gray cat came up to me.

"Skyfur; it's you!" I exclaimed, surprised. He had been one of the first cats killed in the battle, before I went to guard the kits in the nursery.

"Yes, it's me, little one." Skyfur smiled. "It's good to see you again." I tried to scramble up to greet him, but my head hit the cage's top bars. I glanced up, but the cage was nonexistent.

"What?! Why am I trapped in this little place?!" I gasped.

Skyfur smiled ruefully. "Not all dreams are free, Breezepaw; if you fell asleep in your nest, you might be confined to your nest in your dream, even though you can't see it. And now, I have to tell you something." His eyes went dark and golden as he recited something with perfect clarity:

"The one in the red will fight with the spotted one,

The one with the wind will be handed over to the winner;

Blood will be shed; and the survivors worshiping the stars will take over and rejoice."

"Thanks; that was very helpful," I muttered angrily. I had absolutely no idea what it meant!

Skyfur smiled. "It may come in handy someday…. if you try to decode it, you may get it. And now the sky is light; you must wake up soon, little one. Oh, and Scarlett will not come to visit you this morning. The first time you'll see him will be at the auction. Good bye…."

He faded away, and I woke up in the cage. I banged my head on the cage top again as I jumped upright.

"Foxdung!" I swore. I rubbed my head. I'd gotten a scrape on it; nothing major. It would heal within time.

Patch looked over at me worriedly. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," I muttered. "It's just a cut on my head; I'm fine."

"Okay." Patch settled down more comfortably in her cage. "It's just dawn now…. the auction is at sunhigh."

"There's plenty of time until the auction!" Storm added cheerfully.

"Great. Just…. great," I muttered. Now, I would be bored! I realized that I was still sleepy; I had a headache. I curled back up and closed my eyes….

I was woken up by Patch's shaking me. "Wake up; hurry!" she said desperately. "The toms are coming! You don't want to be asleep when they come; you'll get a really bad clawing and then you won't be bought. Experience," she informed me, when my gaze showed that I had no clue what she meant. "I've been clawed by the auctioneers before; nobody bid for me and I was stuck in the cage for another moon!"

"That sounds bad," I said sympathetically.

"It was," Patch said; then she stiffened. "Here come the toms!"

A group of large toms came up and opened the cage bars. There were many other she-cats here, too; but I just noticed now. A tom opened my cage door and roughly pulled me out.

"Ow!" I cried, as I was roughly handled. I squealed in pain as he shoved the collar over my head and, in doing so, raked his claws down it as well.

"Shut up, filth!" he screeched. I was quickly dragged over to the auctioning place, barely using my paws. Once we were there a small, skinny brown tabby tom came rushing up to us.

"Stay in the back, here!" he cried. He went out through a small opening in what looked like a huge leaf, and started to announce something.

"The auction is starting! The auction is starting! The doors will close in a minute, so hurry up and get in here!" he boomed. The toms that weren't already there streamed in through the entrance and they each took places. We couldn't get out of the place we were in…. we were trapped.

A few heartbeats later, the auctioneer yelled, "Right! The auction begins! Everyone get ready to bid, please!" Some of the she-cats were trembling. I noticed that there was also another she-cat from the Clans there! She was from ShadowClan, and her name was Leafeyes. Her eyes were a pretty amber colour. The auctioneer came back into the backstage room and grabbed Leafeyes's leash. I watched as she was shoved up onto the platform. The auctioneer shouted, "Now here's a pretty she-cat! Look at her eyes! Her eyes are nice! Let the bidding begin!"

She was soon auctioned off to a rather fat brown tom. He had two other she-cats sitting right beside him. They looked perfectly happy! The one was rubbing her head up against his shoulder. He went and got the leash and Leafeyes looked terrified as she sat down. One of the other she-cats leaned over and whispered something to her, and she seemed all right.

Then it was my turn.

I was shoved up to the platform. "Here's another very pretty she-cat! Who will be the lucky tom to get her? Let the bidding begin!"

Almost immediately, a small black tom shouted, "Three mice!"

Spots looked panicked. "Seven mice!"

Scarlett looked rather pleased with himself. "Ten mice!"

Spots hissed, "Thirteen!"

The small black tom hissed, "Fourteen!"

Then Scarlett smiled. "Twenty mice!"

Spots and the black tom's faces took on a look of defeat. They knew they had lost, and inside my heart ached.

Spots…. I thought sadly. I don't want to go to Scarlett!

"Ooh, twenty mice! Going once, going twice, GONE! Sold to Scarlett!" shouted the auctioneer.

I was numb inside with pain, shock, and fear as Scarlett roughly shoved me up to where his other she-cats were sitting.

One she-cat looked at me with a sympathetic glance. I was bawling inside.

I've lost him! I've really lost him! I had really like Spots…. but it was too late now, I guessed.

I watched as Scarlett even made a try on Storm, but he didn't get her. Instead, Spots got her. And they both looked up at me sadly when the auction ended.

When the auction ended and we were going home, I was in the back of Scarlett's she-cat group. They both came up behind me and whispered; "Don't worry; we'll get you somehow!" and then they were gone.