The next three days crept by as slow as a tortoise. Sparklepaw was sent to Grayflowers den to heal in both body and mind, her scuffle with Flightpaw had shaken her up quiet a bit. Flightpaw learned the basics of fighting with her new mentor, Rainheart, and I went on hunting and border patrols with Frostpelt and others.

Flightpaw, I had to admit, was much like her name, strong and swift. She had the grace of an eagle soaring, and the power of one too when she set her mind to it, but she tended to be secluded and kept to herself more then ever. Every once in a while when we hunted together, she would wince in pain and mutter some curse or hiss and twitch her shoulder in pain.

Ever night, I noticed, the Black Mark on her shoulder grew larger and larger; soon it stretched down from her shoulder to her paw and over her back to the top of the other shoulder. Her eye which had turned crystal blue had darkened back to their strange dark blue shade, unreadable.

On the forth night I was awakened by Flightpaw mewing in her sleep, flipping over and over on her side of the den. It was a surprisingly cold night, and the wind whistled through the thorns around us. Flightpaws eyes were twitching, and her ears were as well, swirling around and catching the sounds of her dreams. She unsheathed her claws and dug then into the ground before letting out a low yowl.

Finally I could hold back no longer, I lunged forward and shook Flightpaw roughly, shaking her from her nightmare, where she woke panting and crying. She crumpled to the ground right in front of me and buried her face in my shoulder, crying uncontrollably and trembling. Wind whistled softly around us and I hesitated for a moment before gently licking her ear.

"I'm sorry, Sinewpaw." She whispered, I didn't know what she was talking about but I listened anyway, she seemed to distraught now, so different and so helpless. Something was taking over Flightpaw, and if it wasn't stopped she would be gone forever, "I'm so sorry."

The Black Cat

"I've sent a dream to Shark." growled a voice behind me as I stared into the black pool that showed my Chosen crying. All around me the hallow was bathed in silver light, holly bushes lining the top of it, where dark cats stalked around and through. The picture in the black pool shifted to three cats, on was sleeping, while two were murmuring to each other quietly.

Without turning I knew who it was, Shadow. She was a strong she-cat, and hopelessly weak. I didn't know how she survived so long to find bog and have two kits with her sister, Shade, but she did, and became extremely protective of Flightpaw. Shark was on of her sons, a strong, healthy cat who would hade made a good Chosen, but instead, Flightpaw could infiltrate the clan ways and get more training and power from her. Already I was influencing her, making her quiet, withdrawn, snappy.

But this act of pain I had seen in the pool after the newest dream I had given her was almost as pathetic as Shadow was. And the black she-cat behind me lifted her head smugly, smiling.

"I told him to kidnap Flightpaw and take her as far away from the Clans as he could." She meowed proudly. A shiver ran up my spine, if Flightpaw was farther from the source where I was controlling the Black Mark, the weaker it would become, and I could no longer take over her body. Shadow had thought it out carefully, and no I had to counter that.

"I'll send him a dream later on." I meowed quietly, staring into the pool, not acknowledging that Shadow was there, "Flightpaw is showing weakness, and only pain can harder her heart enough for me to catch it and slip inside. I have twenty-five days left, Shadow. Twenty-four tomorrow, that's more then enough time to prepare her for me."

Shadow flustered behind me, "you can't take Flightpaw, you can't! I'll never let you near her or let the Black Mark control her. She will not be your reincarnation!"

Rage pulsed through me and I felt it ripple through the connection to Flightpaw, making her wince in pain. I spun around to Shadow, blue eyes flaming like comets. She shrank back under may gaze and I bared my teeth in a snarl, "It's been twenty generations, Shadow, since I last saw his face. I remember the triumph in his eyes as he bit into my neck and took my life were all cats' life bubbles closest. I remember the cry of pain her yowled as I took his first life, and how he howled as I nearly killed his nephew. I remember the damned she-cat he called his mate, and that scrawny brown tom he called a friend. His big white tom who my deputy killed with his own claws, and the yowl of pride he gave when I closed my eyes forever.

"I lived for ten generations here, waiting for the tenth where I could return and kill his only descendant. But I was stopped by Heronwing and his damned mate Lakefrost before I could kill Whitestream. Now, the time's right, this year I had grown ever more powerful thanks to the lunar eclipse. And Firestars' descendant is still around. Shallowpelt if I'm not mistaken. My revenge is definite!"

"And what about Sinewpaw?" meowed Shadow unexpectedly, I felt hate boil in me, which ripped over to Flightpaw and reacted in pain, "Sinewpaw can save her, just like how Lakefrost did."

I smiled coldly, "That's what Shark is for."

Sinewpaw

It was midnight when Flightpaw finally cried her to sleep, and I slipped out of the den. The clearing was cold and windy, ruffling my wind-blown fur and sending a shiver down my spine. I padded quietly out of camp, just to the edge of the moor where I sat and licked myself clean of Flightpaws' salty tears.

I still didn't know what was going on between me and her, and her and the Black Mark, and how she woke crying and apologizing to me and her nightmares. She seemed like she was in pain, ever move she word she spoke was influenced by someone else, someone far away. In the dark blue sky, the stars shown down on me, along with the quarter moon, turning everything, including my fur, silver.

All of the sudden, as I sat there, admiring the night and it's beauty, the light reflecting off the lake to a pool of silver, a paw hit me on my ear, claws unsheathed. The claws didn't do much damage, but I was hit with such force that I saw lights for a moment as my ear bled sluggishly. Before the ambusher could attack again, I ducked and rolled down the moor.

The other cat cursed and leapt after me, and before I knew it, a second cat got his teeth into my scruff and was hauling me away from the camp. The first cat, a very dark gray tom, growl a little to the second cat, a lighter tom, but said nothing. He paused, and released me from his mouth, and I knew better then to run from these two rouges.

The first tom with so large I had trouble believing he was a cat. He was easily twice the size of one of the ThunderClan elders who I met at the gathering – Freightstep. His shoulders were broad and pure flexing, taunt muscle. His claws were extremely long and reinforced with fox teeth, and his head was broad, with sharp amber eyes.

The second tom was remarkably smaller then the first, he was skinny but sleek and lean, long legs with short claws wore down from many leagues of running in his short lifetime. His teeth were unusually long, stretching down about a pawlength from his lips.

"If you are intelligent," Growled the larger of the two, "I wouldn't make a noise. We were sent here to fetch you."

"But who are you?" I hissed back, gray fur fluffed up in anger.

"I am Shark, and that is Flash." Growled the big tom, Shark, "We are Flightpaws brother and cousin."