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Sorry for such the long delay.
School is EVIL at the moment

Enjoy the new chapter!

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Chapter Nine:

Scorpion took the lead, slipping into the forest's shadows to make sure the way was safe, then Skull followed, with Lynx taking the back-guard. Skull's eyes were still blurred from sleep and she stumbled slowly along. She knew she should try to clear her head, but she couldn't bring herself to face the foreboding territory she was in. The only thing it made her think of was her father's death. It was better just to let it pass by like a formless fog.

"Skull, stop!" Scorpion hissed under his breath, causing the kitten to halt abruptly in her tracks.

She flicked her eyes up to him questioningly, "What?"

"We're really close," Lynx murmured softly, slipping up to stand beside her, "And you should be careful where you tread." She pointedly gazed near Skull's paws.

The black kitten quickly checked the shadowy ground where Lynx was indicating and saw that she had nearly stepped on a large twig. If they were as close as Lynx said, the sound of it snapping definitely would have alerted any forest cat nearby. Skull ducked her head embarrassedly, "Sorry…" What kind of leader was that clumsy? She thought harshly.

She had been too wrapped up in trying to block out the forest that she hadn't scented the heavy smell of forest cats that wreathed the area like a sickly cloud; now it flooded her nose and tongue, feeling as if it were tangible. The noise of some night bird swooping overhead made Skull jump involuntarily and her paws landed with a faint, but noticeable thump. Skull gritted her teeth ineptly and against the pain in her leg, knowing Scorpion and Lynx were cursing her weak mistake.

The three cats froze immediately, waiting for the slightest indication that the sound had alerted some cat. Nothing stirred except for a breeze, which they were thankfully down wind of in relation to the forest cat camp. Are there any cats out in the forest tonight? Skull wondered, praying that there weren't.

In the long silence that followed, she was just waiting for Scorpion to lash out at her for nearly giving them away. A cloud had passed over the moon, making it nearly impossible to see his expression because his pelt blended into the blotted forest shadows like a wraith. She could just picture fury in his eye. But Scorpion just gave the kitten a light glance and flicked his ear to beckon the two she-cats to follow.

Unlike Skull or Scorpion, Lynx's golden pelt showed up more in the darkness, even without the moonlight. She almost had a hard time keeping up because if she blinked, the pair seemed to disappear, but every so often Skull would check back over her shoulder to Lynx, and she's be able to lock on to the kitten's icy eyes. The poor kitten looked tattered, and she was favoring her injured leg even more, as if it was getting worse. Lynx snarled inwardly at the twoleg who had hurt Skull, wishing that her claws could tear its innards out.

Scorpion stopped as the forest cat scent became even stronger than before; it was almost repulsive enough to make him gag. He turned to whisper to the she-cats, but Skull spoke first.

"How will we know which cat is their healer?" she mewed, sounding as if she was trembling. Upon studying the kitten closer, Scorpion realized she was quivering, yet she hadn't complained once.

He glanced through the trees and undergrowth, just barely catching a glimpse of a cat's silhouette. He paused broodingly, before replying in a whisper, "I say we kidnap the first cat we can find and force it to tell us which of its forest mates is the healer."

"That's mouse-brained," Lynx interrupted, "More than one cat goes missing, one of their mates will figure something is up. Plus how could we convince it to tell us? And, no, we cannot threaten it. Any cat with half a brain would raise an alarm before giving away anything. We have to figure out which is the healer and drag him or her as far from the camp as we can so no cat can hear it if it yowls."

"That still leaves the question of how to figure out which is the healer," Scorpion retorted. They pair faced off, eyeing the other coldly until Skull coughed to get their attention. Scorpion glanced at her then back at Lynx, smug confidence lacing his whispered sneer, "I say Skull should decide. She is the leader after all."

Lynx grudgingly nodded and turned to listen to Skull's decision. The black kitten's eyes were blazing, "I think Scorpion's right, but so are you, Lynx. There's no way we could guess the right cat, especially in the dark, but two kidnappings would be risky. We'd have to gag the first and take it just as far as when we take the healer. I think we should try catching one of the younger looking ones. After the healer fixes me, we'll let them both go."

Lynx looked ready to claw Scorpion's ear off for the cheeky smirk he aimed at her. "You act like a know-it-all kit, you stupid tom," she haughtily swept her tail back and forth. "Fine. We should probably split up and skim around the border to find a good target. We'll meet back here as fast as we can. Skull, you can wait here for us. I don't think you should walk much more on that injury."

The kitten looked ready to spit venom, her eyes flaring, "What? You think I can't help scout out a target?"

Lynx flicked Skull's ear with her tail, holding a purr of laughter, "No, I'm sure you could, but there's only two directions to scout in to circle the camp and you have us two to do it. Why don't you start acting like a leader and make other cats do your dirty work?" Even Scorpion looked amused at the question.

Skull grunted and sank to her haunches, "Fine. Go."

The older pair of cats exchanged amused glances and split away, leaving Skull to wait by herself in the pitch blackness of the night's shadows.

Scorpion slid through the trees around ThunderClan's hollow, counting the silhouette-heads of each cat that he could see through the thick brambles that surrounded the place. There were a few cats who were just big enough to be slightly older than Skull, but Skull of course was small for her age. He guessed they were at least six or seven moons. What cats that young were doing awake at this time of the night, Scorpion had no idea; another stupid forest cat training exercise, he thought rolling his eyes, almost pitying the pathetic cats. If he wasn't helping Skull at the moment, he'd have curled up to sleep as soon as the sun had set.

Lynx spotted a small cat's silhouette lounging near a tunnel in the briars and brambles. It must be a young cat, not even keeping its eyes alert; if it had been looking around it might had seen the luster of her gold fur as the moon popped out for a moment, but it was too busy stretching and yawning. But the cloud blocked the moon again, and the reflected sheen disappeared from Lynx's pelt. With a small smirk, Lynx quickly made the decision that the young cat would be their target. She quickly made her way to the half way point around the camp so she could meet Scorpion and point out the target to him.

Skull drummed her claws on the dusty earth, irritably thinking of how she needed to reinforce them with fangs as was custom for BloodClan cats. She also needed a fang-spiked collar, but no twoleg would randomly put collars on any cat on the street. She jadedly skimmed her mind for ideas of how to get one. Once she did, she'd really be able to call herself a BloodClan cat and maybe, by then, she'd be brave enough to make the connection with Scourge. The thought made her stomach roll queasily; why did she have to skin his corpse's head?

Suddenly her ears perked up; Scourge's body still had the dog fangs on his claw and his collar. She'd really be the clan leader if she had his trophies to wear. At that moment she made up her mind to take them as soon as her leg was fixed and they got back.

Her thoughts were suddenly broken into as a muffled voice spoke out into the night, "I swear, Dustpelt! I heard voices over there in the bushes."

Skull froze as icy dread flooded her veins. There was rustling coming toward her and she could hear the sound of needle-like claw scraping the ground. The kitten flattened herself to the ground as low as she possibly could, trying to slink backwards at the same time. Suddenly her back paw slipped over a slick stone and slammed into a thin branch, which shattered with a loud crack.

"Over there!" another voice shouted and Skull could hear paws pounding the ground, and approaching fast.

Gulping down a squeak of panic, Skull spun on her haunches and launched herself into a bound. She hit the ground hard and her injured leg completely buckled sending her sprawling across the forest floor. She let out a howl of agony as the slight shock of the fall disappeared and fiery searing flared up in her shoulder.

"There's a cat trying to get away!" the first voice shouted.

"Bet it's ShadowClan!" the second snarled. "Catch it! We'll take it to Graystripe to deal with!"

Skull had curled up in anguish, oblivious to how close the pursuers had gotten until too late. The sharp tear of claws hit her back full on as one of the pursuing cats leap on her. She shrieked, trying to retaliate, but the pair had her pinned.

Above the blood pounding in her ears, Skull heard one of the cats murmur, "Great StarClan, he can't be back from the dead!"

"Scourge…" the other breathed; Skull wailed as his claws dug into her spine.

"Wait, no! It's just a she-kit," the first said, "Sheathe you claws, Dustpelt, before you tear the poor thing's pelt off!"

"She's an intruder, Brackenfur, incase you haven't noticed," the first, Dustpelt, snarled back. "We are bringing her back to camp where the deputy can deal with her."

Skull let out a snarl and tried to kick the pair of toms away by heaving upwards with her back legs, but they were too heavy. After she stopped scrambling the weight of the pair lifted off her shoulders and she tried to make a dash for it, only to feel a pair of fangs sink into her scruff. "Release me!" She spat unable to twist and strike.

A pale brown tom stalked in front of her, glaring down at the kitten coldly, "Shut up or I'll claw your ear off. Move it, Brackenfur."

Skull was roughly dragged backwards, with the pale brown tom following behind and keeping a cold glare on her the whole time. It wasn't until she was being pulled through a tunnel of brambling that anxiety let her shake off the tom's threat and shriek, "Lynx! Scorpion! HELP!"

Immediately more forest cats came racing towards the entrance at her yowl as Dustpelt and Brackenfur towed a writhing and spitting Skull into the camp.

"Who is that?" one cat bristled, watching Skull be pulled towards the leader's den, but another call broke through the buzzing of the gathered cats.

"There's rogues at entrance!"

Dustpelt whirled around leaving Brackenfur with the captive, yowling, "Attack them!"

Scorpion and Lynx had met at the halfway mark around the camp, only to hear Skull's plea for help. They both raced back to where they had left her, only to find a few drops of blood and a small clump of black fur a little ways away. Lynx let out a snarl and bounded forward, following the scent trail that Skull had left. Scorpion shot past the she-cat; faster, he was a good tail length ahead within a blink of an eye. Suddenly they reached the mouth of the camp entrance and heard the cry that announced them.

Lynx quickly checked the scent around them, confirming that Skull had been taken through the tunnel. She relayed it to Scorpion in a snarl, "They took her into their camp!"

His tail lashed against the ground and he launched himself forward only to be met head on by Dustpelt as he charged into the tunnel. The pair locked together as a screeching ball of fur, nearly blocking the entire entrance, but another cat slipped by them and jumped at Lynx.

The gold she-cat rolled on her back, watching the other cat overshoot and fly past overhead. Another cat had joined Dustpelt in trying to take down Scorpion, and the trio filled the night air with yowling. Lynx leapt onto her opponent's back, making him crash to the ground in a heap. With him pinned, she glanced at her companion helplessly, "Scorpion, we have to get out of here! There's no way we can fight them all!"

The massive tom struck with his serrated claws, catching Dustpelt's back leg. As the forest warrior cringed for a spilt second, Scorpion kicked with all he could and send the tom flying into the brambles. Scorpion saw other warriors flooding into the tunnel, knowing Lynx was right. He cuffed his second rival, dazing the young cat, and before any more cats could attack, Scorpion launched himself backwards, shoving Lynx out with his shoulder, "Move it!"

With forest cats pounding hard on their paws the pair fled into the shadows. Once the sounds of the other cats disappeared, Lynx whirled on Scorpion, "We have to go back for her. They'll kill Skull if they find out who she is! I know you probably would rather leave her there and not worry what happens to her, but you swore you'd help her! You owe it to her! She's like a sister to me. I can't let her get hurt!"

"Lynx!" Scorpion snarled before she could keep going. "I'm not going to just walk away!" Lynx's mouth shut in surprise. "I don't think Skull will be in any immediate danger. First of all, you need to calm down so we can think of a way to help her escape."

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End Chapter Nine

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