Chapter Ten
Whitepool would be so proud.
She padded into the night; she felt the blackish light, eerie and dark, full of doom and no prosperity, glow on her shorter fur. Well, perhaps not glow, but it did not shine either; shining was meant for light that was bright, light that made your fur tips tingle with warmth…
Now she was sounding like Dovefrost; always scathing every inch of the forest for details.
She's the best warrior in the entire forest – Mother says that she even fought off two full grown MarshClan warriors at the mere age of eleven moons!
The warm, newleaf breeze whispered gently through the forest, brushing across her shoulders and ruffling the thick, green leaves. She glanced over at them, watching as the dark light dappled over it through the thick tree canopy, making it look like the pelt of a gray cat with darker spots.
She closed her eyes for a brief second, allowing her ears to take in almost every detail they could possibly find about the forest. The way the long grass stalks waved as the breeze from before carried over to it, the way the tree branches trembled from the leaves, the way the bracken and bramble bushes – the undergrowth, basically – tickled the ground with their long fronds…this was all processed in her mind.
Whitepool is an amazing cat – she's a good fighter, good hunter, good tracker, good leader, a good everything! Ravenpaw said he dreams of becoming a warrior, that he'll be the best. But never as good as Whitepool – that's for sure!
She opened her eyes once again, revealing a withdrawn icy fire. Her lip curled up, revealing rows of sharp, white teeth, faintly glowing with pale ribbons of light as the moon crept upon them. A small chuckle grew in her chest, rising into her throat, and sounding out through a closed, but grinning mouth.
She flattened her ears as she saw a small, palely colored cat, creeping through the undergrowth. She raised her muzzle, inhaling the sharp scent of it – if it was an intruder, oh, Whitepool would be even prouder of her for chasing it off!
Oh, it's just Mousestar. But what is the BrambleClan leader doing out in the territory this late at night, hmm? This is certainly not like her – from my experience, I've noticed that she relishes in staying in the camp, under the guard of Foxclaw and the other warriors.
She allowed herself to grip the forest floor, claws grabbing the thick dirt and bringing up above the level of its norm. She felt it crumble beneath her soft paw pads, a small root ripping beneath the force of the motion.
If my memory serves me well, than I believe I remember a certain BrambleClan leader separating me from Whitepool – the best cat in the entire forest! Now, why would she do that? That's certainly not the move of a good leader, is it?
It's the move of a cat that's standing in my way!
She did not allow herself to growl, snarl, spit, or even hiss in displeasure. If she even made one hostile sound, then her whole plan would swirl down in failure.
And this plan just had to work.
It had to.
Now, come on Mousestar, surely you know that hunting late at night by yourself is strictly unadvised? Dear Foxclaw would not enjoy you doing so, would he? Why, I reckon that he'd be very upset with you. Very so. The poor tom gets so caught up with the fact that MarshClan may look for any reason to hunt us down and possibly find a weakness.
And a leader who may go missing could be a big one, now couldn't it?
But you didn't think that through very well, did you?
Her tongue snaked out of her mouth, rasping itself across her whiskers as she saw a tail flick up from the ferns, the owner of it in the well-known position of the hunters crouch. She felt a small stab of anger course through her veins as she saw the leader poke her head up from the ferns, glancing around as if she had heard something.
Mousestar jolted as her yellow eyes landed on her, the small, light brown leader breathing heavily as she processed who was standing only four fox lengths from her.
"Oh, it's just you," she whispered, breathless. The leader shook her head, eyes shut. "I thought it was some rouge for a moment – you smell a bit different, don't you?" she asked, head tilting to the side in confusion.
She nodded, mutely, unable to speak in fear of it coming out as a growl or a hiss – she had a hard time controlling how angry, happy, or depressed her meows sounded from time to time.
Mousestar titled her head to the other side, her ear flicking as she stared at her, uncertainty glowing in her yellow eyes. She blinked, not saying anything at first; the silence that hung in the dark forest was almost too overwhelming.
"Well…I'm going to continue to hunt now, okay?" The leader told her slowly, gently. She could feel the awkwardness coming off of Mousestar's pelt, vibrating with uneasiness as the small she-cat glanced at her.
"Yes, Mousestar," she murmured.
And that's when two cats, one the same size as her and the other larger, more full grown, launched out of the bracken bush, causing her to leap back in surprise – right into the clutches of an overgrown bracken bush.
The fronds – slightly thorny – wrapped itself around her paws, causing her to grasp, attempting to wiggle out of its sharp and painful grasp. She let out a grunt of displeasure, trying to kick at the entanglement and free her paws.
"W-what are you two doing? I am your leader – you cannot do this to me!"
She peeked over her own toes, trying to see exactly what was going on.
All she saw was a familiar patched shape holding Mousestar's neck down, while the other one threw a blow to the side of the leader's head.
"You and I are going to have a little chat about who should be the leader of this Clan, dearie."
It can't be…no…they can't do this! Not to Mousestar!
The largest of the pair grabbed Mousestar's scruff in his mouth, hoisting her up. He then began to drag her away, the other cat following him with a pleased glimmer in his dark green eyes.
She had just watched as her leader was taken.
Whitepool wouldn't be proud of me now.
Authors Note: This was probably a bit confusing.
But I really don't know whether or not you were expecting THAT...