3
Flightstorm yawned as he settled down in a pile of hay as the sun started to rise. "G'night, Ravenwind." He murmured wearily.
"G'night, Shorty." Came a soft reply.
High up in the barn's rafters, a brown cat crouched in the shadows. His half-tail shifted to the left. His eyes narrowed as he watched the tiny calico within a see of black. He recited the commands in his head. Remember Warret: Snatch that kitten and bring him back to camp. Then we can finish him off and be rid of the bright future foretold by that pest Tweela. None of those Raven Rats can know that he is snatched. Got it? "Got it." He murmured. The half blind cat perked her ears for a moment. Warret froze and stopped breathing. As soon as her head settled back down again, his muscles relaxed.
Warret slyly slunk down the piles of hay that were stacked up the walls. He was extremely careful to not make any alarming noises. He silently landed on the floorboards and crept toward the bundle of fur.
Flightstorm's side rose and fell gently as he raced through a pleasant dream. He was chasing not one, but hundreds of mice through the wheat fields. He could somehow kill them all with one sweep of his paw and taste them all at once. "Mmmm..." he murmured contentedly.
Warret snickered as he reached the kit's side. He ever so carefully lifted him by the scruff, ever so slowly and carefully lifting him up. Flightstorm's forepaw twitched and Warret froze, making sure he was still asleep. When that was confirmed, and Flightstorm was high enough to be carried, he bolted out of the barn.
Flightstorm woke up with a jolt. At first he was utterly confused, because he saw the inside of the barn racing by. Then he realized he was being carried away! "Help! Help!" He squeaked, thrashing about.
Warret growled fiercely. "Shut up, twerp!" He put on a burst of speed, sprinting out of the barn and toward the Thunderpath in the near distance.
Ravenwind jumped up. "Shorty!" He called. "Wake up, Flightstorm's been kidnapped!" When several of his clan mates jerked up from their sleep he sped off after the kidnapper. "Get back here with that apprentice!" He shrieked. To the warrior's surprise, Ravenpaw himself came up on his side. "A friend of Tweela's is a friend of mine. Let's go get him!"
Flightstorm tried to thrash out of Warret's jaws. "Let me go!"
Warret growled and spoke through the apprentice's fur. "Why? You need to go. We don't want any prophecy coming true, do we?"
Flightstorm became still and attentive then. "What prophecy?"
Warret scolded himself mentally. Idiot! You've revealed too much. Now he knows that he is in a prophecy! He abruptly turned and made a wide circle to confuse the Clan of Ravens. He then did this a second time except in the opposite direction. That should keep them off my tail. He then reached the Thunderpath after an exhausting run through the fields and the rugged moors. He looked both ways and listened carefully for any approaching monsters. A glinting blue one rushed past with light pouring from it's eyes and formed eddies of wind that threatened to tug Warret from his feet. He grumbled as he was forced to breath the acrid air so that he didn't suffocate from holding Flightstorm in his jaws.
He dashed across the Thunderpath and immediately turned to a circle of knarled and closely grown pine trees. He pushed through an almost impenetrable wall of pine needles and dropped the bewildered apprentice down in the middle.
"Good, you nabbed him." Sounded a knarled voice. It was the leader of the Trio of Tears, face to face with Flightstorm – who was all alone this time. "Keep him closely guarded. We don't want him escaping." As he ordered this, he pressed his paws down on some of the pine needles that thickly blanketed the ground. They fell away and laid bare a gaping hole. "Push him in and keep him from getting out!" Bruntus shouted, and Comet immediately shoved the apprentice down into the hole.
He tumbled down a brief decline and then fell to a stop. There was a dead mouse already down there, and a trickle of water dropped to his face. Flightstorm mournfully stood up – finding that there wasn't much room to do so – and looked to the hole at the top of the incline.
Comet stepped up to it and looked down. "Betta 'ave a good time down 'ere, 'kay?" She drawled. A sneer crept along her face. "Make sure you don't die afore we kill ya t'morra!" Then she laughed, turned, and sat down. She blocked most of the light and made it frightfully dark in the hole.
Flightstorm sat down and started to cry, trying his hardest to do it silently. He didn't want to be in the miserable hole. He didn't want to be surrounded by the dreaded trio. He didn't want to be away from the Clan of Ravens. And most of all, he didn't want to be killed!