Silence.
Silence was key. Slipping over the dusty ground smoothly and not making a sound, not a noise to alert the prey. Silent. Like a snake. Whatever a snake was. It was just an expression used by cats in BloodClan to mean silent and quickly. Almost there. And…pounce!
A light brown shape hurtled across the grass, snatching the mouse a heartbeat before the black cat's claws pierced it. The mud-colored cat sprinted away, leaving a taunting scent in Scourge's face. The young cat yowled a challenge and raced after the thief, his dark fur standing on end. How dare Leech always steal my prey? he wondered angrily, dodging a Twoleg monster while running across the street. The fiend wasn't much older than him, eight moons, but was larger. All of the cats were, even Storm and Shadow, his brother and sister. Scourge was smaller than any cat, a runt, Leech called him. Because of this he was the main target for taunts and fights.
Scourge sprinted through at least a dozen Twoleg yards and into a park. How like Leech to come here! He would climb the tallest tree and eat the fresh-kill while Scourge tried to climb the huge plant. By the time Scourge could heave himself onto a branch Leech would have devoured the entire mouse. It was a wonder that Scourge didn't starve; he couldn't remember the last time he ate good fresh-kill, without Leech or some other cat taking it, but he must have sometime, or he would have died. And he would never eat Twoleg junk. Scourge wrinkled his nose. Twolegs were repulsive.
Up ahead a Scourge caught sight of a sleek brown shape darting up a tree. The small black cat snarled and raced to the tall plant, then leaped up. His claws scrabbled for a hold on the rough pelt of the tree, but he slid down the bark like had happened every time before. Curse being a runt! he hissed in his mind.
Leech sat calmly in the top branches of the tree, licking his pelt. "Having a bit of trouble there, Scourge?" meowed the cat tauntingly.
"You'll pay for this, Leech!" spat Scourge angrily.
Leech pretended to look surprised. "Are you sure? You say that every time I catch your fresh-kill, but you've never done anything." The cat watched Scourge's attempts to climb the tall plant, green eyes shining smugly.
Scourge felt his dark fur bristle with anger. If only he was a big and powerful as Storm and Shadow! Then this cat hiding in the tree would respect him! "Coward!" he growled. "You're too afraid too fight me."
The brown cat ignored him and breathed in the scent of the mouse. "Wonderful. Shame you couldn't catch it." His tail flicked in the air in mock pleasure, though the real joy came in annoying Scourge. And it was working. Scourge felt his muscles tense, and he crouched in a fighting stance.
Leech centered the mouse on a branch. "Hmmm, Runt. At least your fur makes you look bigger when it sticks out like that. Makes you look like an oversized hedgehog."
Scourge yowled and launched himself at Leech, claws unsheathed. He missed his opponent by far, but he landed on a low hanging tree limb. The brown thief, taken by surprise, gripped his branch as the tree shook slightly, but the mouse fell off the limb it was on. Scourge hissed triumphantly and leapt after it, watched by surrounding Twolegs and a pair of smoldering green eyes. The black cat grabbed the mouse and raced off, sure that Leech was right behind him.
I've got to remember that! he thought. Surprise your enemy. The warm taste of the mouse flooded his mouth, and the flavor of victory was mixed into it. But where could he go to escape the fury of Leech and his equally taunting friends? Home. Of course! Hopefully Leech wouldn't know about the hole under the fence that provided an entrance to the Twoleg trash area.
Quickly Scourge veered off to the left, cutting across a street, or as some cats called them, a Thunderpath. His adversary screeched in surprise at the black cat's tactic, and had to skid to a halt and get in the correct direction. At the next street Scourge turned to the right, feeling welcome pleasure in Leech's yowls. The brown fiend wasn't exceptionally agile.
The young cat took advantage of the extra time to take a short cut to the Twoleg trash area through a dark, narrow street. With luck Leech wouldn't take the time to scent him out and would keep going forward. The brown feline wasn't very smart, just strong. Both a strange and weakness, Scourge realized as he sprinted along the shadows.
Suddenly there was light, and the sun warmed Scourge's dark fur as he panted. The fence to the Twoleg trash area was looming up ahead. Cinder was by the lone tree, sharing tongues with Shadow. The two she-cats looked up as Scourge ran by, gripping the mouse in his teeth. Shadow rose to her paws as her brother raced around the edge of the trash area, which was about twenty tail lengths away from the tree. Scourge wriggled through the hole under the fence and pushed a large piece of Twoleg trash in front of the opening before setting the mouse down. He gasped for air as his sister padded over.
"What are you-?"
She didn't finish her question. A furious yowl sounded from outside the fence. All three cats turned to see Leech leap at the fence, trying to climb its slippery surface.
"Oh," meowed Shadow, blinking sympathetically at Scourge. A purr rose suddenly from her throat. "You did it," she congratulated him. "You finally escaped Leech." The dark-furred she-cat licked his ear.
Scourge was still panting too hard too tell them the whole story. "Got… mouse," he gasped prodding the fresh-kill.
Cinder's amber eyes shone happily; she knew that he had been taunted by Leech and the other cats.
"Yes," snarled a voice. The brown cat, Leech, was sitting at the edge of the fence. Scourge was surprised that Leech had come so quickly. Maybe he wasn't as dumb as he seemed. "Yes, you got the mouse! But that was just luck. I will steal all of your prey from now on, I swear! You will starve! And I will kill you!" Leech's green eyes met Scourge's dark ones, and they raged with a cold fire. Then he looked into Shadow's amber eyes and hissed, "Don't help him fight me, or I'll rip you to shreds! And that goes for your gray brother too." His gaze slid back over to Scourge. "We are far from finished, Runt!" he spat, then ran back into the shadows and raced away.
Shadow didn't even try to conceal a snort of contempt. "Rip me to shreds, hardly! He hasn't even got a collar, he's probably too scared to even try!"
Scourge looked up at his sister. "You got yours?" Indeed, there was a pale red band around her black neck.
"Just today!" purred Cinder. "Now she can be a warrior of BloodClan!" Shadow looked modestly at the ground. "It wasn't all that hard." She looked warmly at Scourge. "You'll probably get yours soon, and Storm too."
Warrior of BloodClan! Scourge thought. He liked the sound of it. Looking up at his sister's collar, he felt a strong urge to get one. Not a kittypet collar, no. No true cat would ever get one, no true cat would ever be a kittypet. How cruel it must be to sit in a Twoleg cave, be fed soft mush and never go outside. True, warrior collars and kittypet collars were both given by Twolegs, but warrior collars had teeth from defeated enemies on them. Not that most cats like killing, but being part of BloodClan was the only way to survive in Twolegplace, and becoming a warrior was exhilarating, exciting enough to get most cats to kill their enemies. The hard part was escaping the Twolegs who gave you the collar. Countless cats hadn't left the Twolegs and were now captive kittypets. "How did you do it?"
Shadow looked at her paws. "I went up to a Twoleg, one of the kits. It took me inside its cave where two grown Twolegs were. They said something to each other, and then they put me on the floor. After a few minutes the kit came in and put the collar on me. As soon as it did that I leaped through an open window and ran back here."
"That's amazing!" meowed Scourge, his tail lashing the air happily. Shadow's eyes sparkled warmly and Scourge found himself wishing that he had amber eyes instead of blue ones. He was the only cat in his family that had ice-blue eyes, and hadn't seen any others. There probably was another blue-eyed cat somewhere in BloodClan. He hadn't seen all the warriors of the Clan – well, no cat had. But Scourge had seen even less cats than most because his family lived a little ways away from the main part of the Clan, where the leader lived. Cinder had told him it was dangerous to live near the other cats because if you did something they didn't like, they would drive you away or kill you. The leader of BloodClan, Hawkfeather, was impulsive and would sometimes lash out at random cats for no reason. Yes, thought Scourge. It is better to live farther away. But part of him longed to meet other cats, and to build a friendship with them. Scourge doubted that he would ever have a true friend though, and he knew he would have plenty of enemies like Leech.
Scourge flinched suddenly. When he thought about Leech a strange coldness came over him, blocking out any happiness in his mind. Leech will pay, he thought angrily.
"Aren't you going to eat your mouse?"
"What?" Scourge batted the thought of Leech away as he would a leaf. Shadow was looking strangely at him. "Oh, the mouse, yes." He crouched down and started to eat. Shadow padded over. "Are you okay?" she asked, glancing at Cinder, who sat down a few tail lengths away.
Scourge blinked at her, narrowing his eyes. "Of course."
His sister stared down at him. "Your eyes got cold and icy looking, Scourge."
"My eyes are icy, Shadow. They're ice-blue."
The she-cat glanced around. "But not like this. You looked…" she leaned her head down. "Like you wanted to rip out some cat's throat."
Scourge sprang to his paws. "What?" he screeched. "I would never want to do that!" He glared at his sister as Cinder turned to them, looking concerned. "What are you talking about?" he hissed in a quieter voice.
Shadow blinked. "I think that you were thinking about Leech. What makes you so angry about him?"
"Angry?" snapped Scourge. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because he taunts me and steals my prey and now has sworn to kill me. Do you think that's why?"
Shadow reeled back as if stung. "Never mind!" she spat, stalking away. "I was just asking!"
Scourge watched her walk over to Cinder, feeling a hint of guilt at hurting his sister. But what right did she have to say that he was going to murder another cat, even one like Leech? The tom hissed and finished eating the mouse. What if Shadow's right, though? he wondered. There was a cold feeling inside him every time he thought about the cruel and taunting Leech. She's wrong, Scourge decided. He curled into a ball and went to sleep.