~Moonwing
Warning: Some parts of this story will probably leave a horrible image in your head. You have been warned.
Chapter 6:
When Smokey had finally reached the cat, he gasped in horror as he recognized her. "Mom!"
There was blood coming out of her mouth, her flanks barely rising as she struggled to breathe.
She had a big wound and some what looked like teeth marks on her side, blood flowing from it and onto the grass.
When Smokey's mother saw Smokey, she started to cry in relief and joy that her son was still alive.
"I'm here, mom," Smokey said reassuringly. "Where are Flower and Petal?"
Smokey's mother drew in a raspy and shaky breath before replying hoarsely, "They're both dead." Smokey blinked in horror and tried to fight back the tears that were threatening to show when he heard the word 'dead.'
Smokey's mother continued in her raspy voice. "I tried to fight off the Twolegs, but I was too late. Before I knew it, I had felt a searing pain in my side. I ran away, droplets of crimson trailing behind me. I kept running when finally, I collapsed from exhaustion and I have lied here ever since, hoping that you, Smokey, and your father, were still alive. Now I have seen that that is true."
The news had hit Smokey very hard and he lowered his head close to his mother's face. He heard his mom ask, "Where is your father?"
"He's still alive like me, mother," Smokey replied softly as his mother exhaled a sigh of relief as she heard that her mate was still alive.
"The news will really hit him hard, though," Smokey said softly, responded by a weak nod from his mother.
"Smokey, you must be strong in order to survive," Smokey's mother said firmly. "Alright, Mom, I will." Then her body relaxed and Smokey couldn't see her flanks rise and fall anymore.
Smokey couldn't hold back the tears anymore, so they fell down his face and cheeks and onto his mother's dead body, her eyes closed peacefully as if she was only sleeping, not dead.
Then, Smokey got up from where he was, beside his mother, and went to find a good spot to bury his mother. When he returned, he grabbed his dead mother by the scruff and returned back to the place where he had decided to bury her.
A hole was already dug when he finally reached the place. He climbed down the hole, placing his mother gently at the bottom before climbing back out. He filled the hole back in with the dirt that he had dug out in the first place.
When he had finished, he sat by the grave, pondering on the words that his mother had told him with her last breath.
He was in deep thought when a voice called his name. He jumped up to his paws, expecting someone to come up behind him.
Father padded out from a cluster of trees and Smokey relaxed when he saw who it was. Father was about to say something when Smokey cut him off with asking, "Did you find Flower and Petal?" Smokey didn't look at his father when he asked, instead, his eyes were trained on the ground.
"No, but did you find your mom?" Father replied. It was then that Smokey looked up, tears streaming from his eyes once more.
It didn't take too long for Father to figure it out. He let out a yowl of pure grief that reverberated in Smokey's head. When Smokey's father had stopped, Smokey placed his tail tip on his father's shoulder, hoping to comfort him.
When Father had regained his courage and senses, he asked, "How did she die?" "She died of a wound obviously made from a loudstick, but I also noticed some teeth marks," Smokey replied.
"Hmm, it must have been a dog that caused those marks on your mother's body. That must explain the faint scent of dog that was around the cave when we inspected it," realized Father.
"What do we do now?" Smokey asked, removing his tail tip from his father's large shoulder. "Let's go find your sisters and see if they're still alive," Father responded, standing up and walking across the hard-covered dirt mound.
Smokey sighed softly, but sadly and then called out to his father, "They're both dead, Mother told me before she died." Father hadn't made it really far when he froze in his tracks. He turned around, shock was clearly written on his face. His mouth also dropped open in horror as he tried to understand what he just heard.
Smokey could tell that his father was struggling to grasp everything. Smokey then stood up and padded over to where his father was standing. "Let's go find them and put them into a proper paradise, " Smokey said simply.
His father sighed and we walked towards our home together. We walked in silence until we finally reached our little cave home. Then Father decided that splitting up, we would have a much better chance of finding Smokey's two sisters.
Smokey began to walk his separate way when Father said something, "Smokey, if you run into trouble, yowl really hard and loud so that I can come and find you. Be careful, Smokey."
Smokey nodded in understanding and turned around and started searching for his sister, hoping that she was still alive.
As Smokey was walking along, he couldn't bear the thought of losing his father to something. He then snapped out of his thoughts when he caught the smell of something dead.
The smell was that awful that Smokey was almost to the point of letting my last meal come up, whatever that was.
The scent was as bad as mice rotting in the sun and the stench was coming from a group of ferns a little ways from where Smokey was standing.
A thought crossed his mind of what could possibly be dead. Smokey took a deep breath and started to walk towards the ferns. As he got closer, he scrunched up his nose to block out the foul smell. He prepared himself for what he could face once he got in. With that, he padded into the ferns to find whatever was in there.
Once through the ferns, Smokey gasped in horror at the sight before his eyes. Before him, he saw Flower's dead body.
She had wounds all over her body that were dried with blood. Her fur was caked with blood everywhere. There were also puncture marks on her body and paws. Puncture marks on her neck that looked like they were from a dog. It looked as if the dog had shook her until her neck had broke. There was also a pool of blood that had spilled all around her dead body. It also looked as if she didn't have a single wound from a loudstick which was good.
Just looking at her dead body was a horrific sight. Smokey sat down as he stared at her body and started feeling a bunch of different emotionscome flooding at me. Sadness, anger, hate, pain, and loss.
I felt something awaken inside me that wanted revenge for everything that had happened. Everything that was taken away from him. Along with everything that was taken from him and destroyed. I snapped out of all of the emotions that were putting an effect on him.
Smokey left the fears and went to go dig a hole for Flower's body. Once he was satisfied with a sunny spot where Flower could lay there in peace. He then started to dig a grave and kept on digging until he was satisfied that the hole was deep enough.
He padded back to where Flower was and grabbed her by the scruff. He then half-dragged half-carried Flower back to the spot where she could rest in peace. Once he had put her in the hole, Smokey pushed the dirt mound over Flower's body which was arranged so it looked like she was sleeping.
Having to do this procedure all over again, it didn't do him any good as he remembered having to bury his mom. Once Smokey was done, the tears just fell onto Flower's grave as he remembered the past of both Flower and his mother come back to him.
After Smokey had finished crying, he got up to his paws and walked towards the cave. After a bit of a walk, he finally reached the cave mouth. He was about to enter when he heard noises coming from the ferns next to him. It was moonhigh already, so it was hard to see. Smokey tensed up, preparing to fight if he had to, even though he didn't know how. He then let his claws slide out as he prepared for a fight.
"No need to worry, Smokey," Father said tiredly. Smokey relaxed at hearing his father's voice. "Did you find Petal?" Smokey asked. His father nodded, tears starting to form in his eyes. "Flower?" he questioned. Smokey nodded to his question. "Let's get some sleep," suggested Smokey.
Smokey yawned and walked into the cave mouth with Father not that far behind him. The cave was pitch black besides some moonlight that shone down from a hole in the ceiling. After Smokey had entered the cave, he could feel the cool air seep into his fur. He then found a good spot where he and his father could rest. He gestured to his father with a flick of his tail at the spot and padded over himself, lying down as he did so. He closed his eyes, ready for some sleep, aware that Father was doing the same.
'If only I could just fall asleep and have to never wake up so that I could escape this sadness,' Smokey thought as he lied there, blinking and staring up at the moon and the stars. But he knew that he couldn't be able to escape it. After that thought, he finally fell into a fitful sleep.
The next morning, Smokey woke up to see sunlight spilling through the entrance of the cave. He got up, stretching and yawning, and padded towards the cave mouth and into the warm newleaf sun.
He breathed in the sweet smells of newleaf. It had felt good to see all of the beautiful things that newleaf had to offer. The last couple days had seem to be dark to me and possibly dark to Father as well, but that is probably just me. Father was still asleep so Smokey thought that he would go and get some breakfast for the both of them to share.
He walked off into the somewhat foresty part of our home. He just walked around, opening my mouth to taste all of the scents. He caught the scent of a mouse and followed it until I could see the little creature, nibbling on a berry. It seemed to be too interested in its little meal to even check for any danger. Smokey got really low to the ground, just like how Father had shown him. His body was covered by long shoots of tall grass as he got into the hunter's crouch and crept up silentl to the mouse.
When he was in pouncing distance, he rocked on his haunches and jumped. The mouse looked up at Smokey in horror and a scared squeak came out of its mouth. Frozen to the ground, Smokey landed on top of it and killed it by snapping its neck. he gave the mouse and the forest my gratitude before picking up the mouse and went to find a place to bury it.
A couple minutes later, he came across a squirrel and climbed up the tree silently, his claws gripping the bark tightly so as not to fall to the ground. Soon, he could see it eating a nut and it too was engaged to the meal like the mouse he had caught earlier. Smokey moved along the branches as silently as he could, but some leaves still rustled whenever Smokey placed his paws down the wrong way. Soon, he was right behind it. Unsheathing his claws, Smokey killed the squirrel with only one blow.
Giving his gratitude once again, he picked up his catch and headed back down the tree slowly and carefully. Soon, he found his mouse that he had caught first and picked it up in his jaws along with the squirrel that he had set down to dig up the mouse, then when, he had the two catches, he headed for home.
When he arrived, Father wasn't there. 'He probably just went to bury his dirt,' Smokey thought to himself, dropping the prey and grabbing the squirrel, leaving the mouse for when his father came back from the dirtplace. Smokey found a nice, sunny spot to eat his breakfast. 'Usually, it doesn't take this long to go take care of dirt..' Smokey thought once again after he had finished eating.
He got up and sat,cleaning his lips and soon, his paws. He then stood up to his paws to go to the dirtplace to see if Father was there.
He hadn't moved very far when he froze in his tracks. Right in front of Smokey's green eyes was a note clawed into the dirt ground. "We have your father. Come and find us, if you want your father to live. We will be waiting, Smokey. Sincerely, ClawClan."
Smokey gasped in horror. "They have my father!" he said aloud. 'How do they know my name, though?' he wondered. Smokey quickly shook his head and looked into the woods that he had called home, but now, it just looked menacing and forbidden.
'I am coming for you, Father, and I wll liberate you.' After that last thought, he padded off, hoping that this ClawClan would keep his father alive, and also searching for his captured Father and where the ClawClan camp was located.
A/N: Long chapter this time! It took me forever to type it. As said in the beginning, my friend will be taking a small break from Scar, seeing that she is writing another story, but she will write Chapter 7 at times, so review and hope you like it so far!
~Moonwing