Chapter Three
Ominous Challenges
The ruthless leader's dreams were haunted by visions of a strange brown she-cat with a look of the wildest nights on her face. Fatedstar woke up startled, she looked around, but did not get up. She blinked her tired eyes and laid back. The pine needles felt scratchy instead of soft and warm the way they were supposed to. It was just a dream, she decided. But her nightmares were more then just some fantasy that her mind had created.
She somehow managed to fall asleep again, despite the persisting nightmares and the fact that her bedding wasn't what it was supposed to be. The sun rose in the sky, casting an orange-yellow glow inside the cave-den that was carved into the mountain. She awoke, blinking several times to clear the sleep from her eyes. Deep in her mind the brown she-cat still haunted her, but not only in her sleep. Her deputy, Veil, a brown and tan tabby tom, was over near the fresh-kill pile.
Fatedstar pushed herself up from her den and crawled out of the small cave. Sunlight hit her with terrible force, making her amber fur glint in a sinister way. She made her way over to the fresh-kill pile and took a plump mountain hare from it. She gazed at Veil, her green eyes glowing darkly. She brushed up against his side, and she felt him shiver with perhaps terror.
Everyone was afraid of Fatedstar, Veil, Twostorm, Halfstep, and all the rest of the clan cats. She was a ruthless she-cat who would stop at nothing to achieve her ambition: to rule the entire territory as her kingdom. The medicine cat, Dreamspeaker, said that she had a prophecy from birth that she would rule all the clans. But sometimes she wondered if the old tom had just said that to gain favor with her. She turned to Veil and smiled wickedly.
"Good morning, Veil," she said with a grin that would freeze fire. "What have you been doing?"
He heistated just a tad, "Nothing, Fatedstar."
Her eyes widened just a tad, almost as if in amusement. He had hesitated--why? Was the tabby deputy hiding something for her? There was a terrible penalty for traitors to MountainClan. She would consult Dreamspeaker, the elderly tom always knew when a cat was plotting something against her. She took huge chunks off the rabbit and chewed thoughtfully.
After she had finished her meal she padded over to Dreamspeaker's den. The black and white tom was sleeping on the moss bed in the corner. The den was made of pine branches woven together. She walked over to his side and pressed down hard on his twitching tail. The old tom woke with a start, his eyes fogged with sleep. Groggily, he looked up to her and hissed, "What do you want?"
Fatedstar glared at him and he shrunk down a tad. "Dreamspeaker, I want to know if Veil is disloyal to MountainClan. He has shown signs of treachory, and I want to be sure. Is he disloyal or not?" Her eyes showed that she wanted the answer to be yes, just because she enjoyed killing.
He didn't dare tell her no, even though he knew that Veil was perfectly loyal. Dreamspeaker took a deep breath, he hated to be responsable for the death of a loyal clan-mate, but he didn't want to loose his own life. "Yes, Fatedstar, he is a most disloyal cat and a threat to your powerful reign that has been prophecied from the times before you were born."
Fatedstar's green eyes were the very picture of delight. Without so much as a thank you, she strutted out of the den, itching to give death sentence to her un-loyal deputy. Halfstep was quite loyal, and he would be perfect as the deputy of MountainClan. Veil was still eating when she came over to him. She motioned for him to come with her, so he followed.
She climbed upon the Greatstone and adressed her clan, "All cats of MountainClan, there is a treacherous cat in our midst," she hissed.
Cats began to gather beneath the enormous rock, muttering and whispering suspicions and comments amoungst themselves. In a flash, Fatedstar pushed Veil to his belly. She set her paws hard on his back and dug in her stone reinforced claws into his flesh. He yowled in pain and terror, not knowing what was going on.
"Dreamspeaker has told me that Veil is disloyal to MountainClan. For this crime, he is hereby sentenced to death." Fatedstar yowled, almost triumphantly.
She dragged Veil off the Greatstone and towards the edge of the lake-basin, on the ledge above the first waterfall. Haze and fog rose to the gathered cats as Veil was pushed quite near to the edge. He turned around, and looked at Fatedstar with his blue eyes wide. He was breathing so hard that all the silent felines could hear it. "I didn't do anything..." he rasped.
But it was too late to defend himself. Fatedstar walked up to him and laid a single paw on his side. With a smirk, she pushed hard on him and he tumbled off the cliff edge. But somehow he managed to catch himself on the ledge, and was hanging with just his clawhold. Fatedstar growled and sunk her claws into his paws, forcing him to let go. He fell backwards into the enormous waterfall.
Fatedstar was on her way to rulership...
