(A/N: Yo....so, yeah. This is WindClan's chapter--i.e. from that Clan's POV. Yeah, it's not my favorite chapter so far. It seems a little tense to me, but, yeah. Tell me what you think....? I hope you do. I need some more feedback, guys. I know tons of people see this Fanfic--from the number of hits and visitors I get, but no one ever seems to leave a review. Anyway, thanks to those fawesome people who left me three great reviews: Frosteh, rainbotash, Thebleachdiary! Here's your chapter. I hope you guys like it.
P.S. I do not own Warriors--Erin Hunter does, got it?)
Chapter 6: Seen (Wind2)
"AHHH!" Cloudfrost yowled loudly, her jaws parted as she returned to panting; her tongue almost lolling out and her pale blue eyes unnaturally bright with pain.
"Sssh, it's all right. You're doing well." Petalfur tried to calm the quite young, light-colored she-cat, who was just beginning to kit....
She hoped she was doing well. She really did. So far, none of the queens she had helped kit had problems, but what if Cloudfrost did? Smokespots would be devastated—no, more than devastated, broken and lost.
Petalfur looked down at Cloudfrost silently, taking the sight of her in. Her normally perfectly groomed pale gray fur was in disarray, her sides were rounded and currently lurching, and her eyes were big, in confusion, pain, and slight fear. She wished she could calm her—give her a poppy seed or two, but she knew that would do much more harm than help.
***
Smokespots paced around outside of the Nursery, his claws kneading the earth every time he stopped and his brow creased with worry.
"Petalfur? Is everything okay?" he asked hopefully, peeking in for an instant.
"Yes, everything's fine," Petalfur meowed, stepping out of the Nursery just as he was leaning in closer.
His face heated up and he shuffled his paws.
"Go see your mate and kits," she mewed gently
Smokespots dashed into the Nursery, almost skidding to a halt in front of his mate, Cloudfrost, and the two kits at her belly.
"They're so beautiful," he mewed, sounding awed. Cloudfrost grinned up weakly at him, her tail flicking.
"The tom looks a lot like you," she meowed quietly, gazing down at her two kits. One was a she-cat with a light blue-gray, slightly fluffier pelt and the other was a tom with a smoky black pelt. They were both quite small, as they had been born sooner than expected, but the tom was slightly larger than the she-cat.
Smokespots purred. "They're perfect," he told his mate, nuzzling her ears.
***
Darkpelt crept forward through the underbrush, through the dense heather and patches of gorse. Her black fur stuck out in the grayish-brown world, but she'd long since mastered how to hide.
She slunk forward; steadily creeping up on a small rabbit poised a few fox-lengths away. She was careful to keep down-wind of it, and kept low to the ground; her ears flattened against her head and tall kept barely off the ground, completely stiff.
She watched the rabbit with curiosity. It seemed unaware of her, its flecked gray fur barely sticking out against the darker brown, dead heather it was crouched in front of.
Suddenly, its ears went up and it sprung away. She was faster, though. She quickly caught up with it and killed it with a swift bite to the throat....
***
"Thank you for the life of this prey," Darkpelt meowed softly, her eyes briefly flickering to the cloudless sky above her--where she could faintly see the moon, just a pale reflection of its usual state.
She gently grabbed the rather undersized rabbit in her jaws and started heading back for camp. She'd been hunting with Speckleface and her apprentice, Sandpaw, but neither cat could be seen. She figured they went to practice battle moves a little ways away from camp, instead of hunting. She almost rolled her eyes. They needed to be hunting, it was Leaf-bare and the prey was so scarce.
Suddenly, she heard a faint rustling in a clump of half-dead, brittle heather nearby. She froze instantaneously, her heart thumping in her chest.
"Speckleface? Sandpaw?" she asked hesitantly, her mew somewhat broken. She was terrified.
Suddenly, a heavy weight slammed into her from above. She let out a cry of pain as two heavy paws slammed into her back, claws sinking into her....
***
Speckleface looked up, her amber eyes round with worry. They darkened as she looked in the direction of that the pained yowl had come from. Another caterwaul shattered the still moor and a few birds took to the sky, frightened.
"That sounded like a cat," Sandpaw meowed softly, her eyes bright with worry and her otter-like tabby-striped tail swung back and forth agitatedly.
"Yes, it did." Speckleface frowned slightly, and then she looked side to side--unable to catch sight of Darkpelt.
That was rare, as Darkpelt's pure black pelt stood out almost as bad as a two-leg kit scrambling around on the moor--unless she tried really hard to be unseen.
"Do you think that was Darkpelt?" her apprentice asked her, her eyes shining worry.
She was pretty sure that Sandpaw was upset with herself for not knowing, too--because she was to be made a Warrior anytime now.
"It sounded more like the mew of a she-cat than a tom," Sandpaw stated, her claws sinking into the slightly boggy earth.
"Well, let's go see," Speckleface meowed hurriedly, seeing how worried Sandpaw was. "Come on, let's go. We should go check it out." She quickly dashed off, towards the sound, her long legs powering her over the mostly flat moorland with Sandpaw at her paws instantly.
She knew her older apprentice was scared that Darkpelt was being attacked, maybe by the murderer (or murderers). Speckleface herself was a little frightened, too. A senior warrior from ThunderClan, named Weedstem, had been killed....a warrior that was probably just as experienced as Darkpelt.
***
Kestrelfeather's head shot up as a yowl split the air. He had been guarding camp, alert and watchful. His ears went forward, slight fear prickling in his veins as the panicked yowl was followed by a defiant, yet pain-filled caterwaul. He quickly got to his paws, fur bristling slightly.
His own apprentice, Willowpaw, padded up to him, abandoning her half-eaten rabbit that she had been sharing with Harepaw--who was also watching him with slight worry, his tail lashing along the ground with slight anxiety.
She cocked her head, listening. No other caterwauls or yowls were heard. "That was odd," Willowpaw commented, her big, blue eyes slightly curious but not too fearful.
She didn't seem to understand fear very well, which scared him to no end. She didn't know when to stop in a battle....and she had rushed right into a border skirmish before, only leaving when he ordered her to.
"Yes, it was," he mewed softly, shaking his head a little. "Maybe I should tell Silverstar...."
He looked sideways at Longstep, a ragged-looking ginger tom with a dirty-white belly, an elder. Cloudfrost, a pale gray queen, had just had her kits as well--a lighter blue-gray she-cat and a smoky black tom. To think that a murderer was stalking the Clans....maybe trying to get into camp....and possibly succeeding, killing defenseless and innocent cats like Longstep or Cloudfrost, Bluekit, and Nightkit, made him shudder.
But, what if the murderer had attacked another cat already--one that was out hunting? That's when it hit him and he froze in fear. Darkpelt, Sandpaw, and Speckleface--HIS mate--had gone out hunting. Not HIS mate….
"Go tell Silverstar about this," he told Willowpaw, his mew calm and steady; even though he was already calculating how fast it would take for him to find his mate by scent and scared to death something would happen to her.
The instant Willowpaw was out of sight, he told Rainpool to guard the entrance and exit to camp, and he bolted--already searching for Speckleface.
***
Sandpaw sighted Darkpelt, finally, her black pelt stark against the heather moor. The senior warrior was locked in battle with a GIANT tom.
Her eyes widened slightly, shocked at the fact Darkpelt was managing to hold her own. She froze, terrified as the tom looked up at her--his eyes a sickly-looking yellow that made her blood run cold.
He released Darkpelt, who flopped to the ground in exhaustion.
Maybe she hadn't been holding her own as well as she supposed….
Darkpelt blinked wearily, blood running down her face as her eyes closed. Oh, please great StarClan don't let her be dead....
The large, darker colored tom advanced slowly, almost silently stalking towards her--she was still frozen in place, petrified.
Then, she finally snapped out of it as Darkpelt let out a small whimper. She hissed, baring her teeth at the much larger tom, and arching her back--fur standing on end. She leapt at him before he could make the first move and sunk her claws into his shoulder, enraged that he would attack Darkpelt--without reason, while she was alone and unprotected. A coward's act!
The bigger tom snarled, eyes widening slightly in pain then flashing with anger, his yellowed teeth bared in a fierce grimace.
He brought his right paw down, claws unsheathed, on her head, forcing her to release her grasp on him and sending her falling to the ground. He tried to attack again, as she was in a pretty bad position, but Speckleface was suddenly there--slamming into his side, attacking him viciously with her claws and teeth.
Sandpaw managed to get back up to her paws and stumble over to Darkpelt, before standing over the now defenseless she-cat. She hissed and spat at the tom, wondering what she should do--join the fight again, or get help to make sure Darkpelt would be okay?
As she hesitated, Kestrelfeather came out of nowhere, pure rage in his eyes, and leapt at the tom that had just, in one brutal movement, slashed his claws down one side of Speckleface's face and neck.
Sandpaw gasped in shock, never having seen a cat try to kill another. She'd seen them fight, but never had they purposely tried to kill one another.
"YOU PIECE OF FOXDUNG! I'LL KILL YOU!" Kestrelfeather's brutal caterwaul rang through the air as he landed heavily on the tom's back, biting and clawing as the tom shrieked with pain.
It seemed like Kestrelfeather intended to follow through with his comment, as he had the tom by the scruff, his teeth so close to slicing into his throat it was plainly terrifying.
Sandpaw watched stuck in place once again and standing over the motionless Darkpelt, as Silverstar, Whitefrost, and Smokespots raced into view. As Kestrelfeather looked up, catching sight of them, the tom under him managed to slip away and bolted for it. Sandpaw managed to get unstuck again and raced after him, but along with Kestrelfeather she was too slow. The tom had gotten too much of a head start, even though they were faster, and his brownish-gray, mud-coated pelt had already blended in perfectly with the moorland....
(A/N: Should Darkpelt die? Should Speckleface be blind? Should Sandpaw be shell-shocked? I have no idea, drop me some ideas, eh? LOL. I'm fine with any imput--whether it be an email (I made up an fawesome fake name for my Fanfiction email, it's German), a PM, or a review--I love hearing from you guys. Oh, and Thebleachdiary, I will be thinking about your suggestions....as you can see, though, Moonwing isn't the killer. Or is she....? Hm. LOL. Maybe there's more than one....? *chuckles darkly* I have waaay too much fun....)
