A/N: Happy June! 22 days left until I get out of school! Then I get more time to update, and more time to play softball. Thank God! Read and review!
Panther awoke in an abandoned building, the dust particles floating around making her nose tickle. She sneezed twice, blowing more dust into the air. Around her were a cream she-cat, and two identical cream kits. Close by was another queen, this one was dark ginger with her bright ginger kit, and a gray tabby queen with her gray kit. Panther remembered how she got here, and her mother's death, and began to wail quietly.
Take awoke, and looked carefully at the young she-cat. She glanced at her own mother, and then back to Panther, as if acknowledging her motherlessness. "Cream will take good care of you. She, Mahogany, and Dawn act like mothers to us, and they like you. We're supposed to go out and learn to fight today. You're coming, I heard Dawn say."
Fully awake, Panther shook off the long-haired tail, and walked over to the dusty chair in which Rust and Mahogany were sleeping. She was quite surprised, and squeaked when Rust's head popped out. "Hi, Panther," he mewed, jumping down, and shaking his misshapen pelt out. "Coming fighting with us? Mahogany says there are a few stray rogues looking for a place to stay…"
With the thought of fighting rogues, Panther became excited, although she didn't fully understand why. All she did know was that she wanted revenge, revenge for her mother's death and her abandonment. What was lost to her, however, was the love of fighting all BloodClan members had, that ran in her blood.
"Ready to go?" Cream asked, making the kit jump, for the she-cat had awoken and was standing right behind Panther. She laughed quietly, sounding like the wind chimes some humans had on their doors. Mahogany jumped down, and Dawn padded over from under the armoire. "We're going to teach the kits how to fight, Panther, and you're coming with us."
"Really?" the she-cat asked her amber eyes wide. Cream smiled, and nodded. The she-cat taken as the leader nodded to each of the other queens, and all three left the building smoothly, their kits trailing behind.
Not so much later after leaving the cave, Panther met up with the stench of crow-food that had been surrounding an old box near a dumpster. Dawn, and the other queens stopped in front of it, a quick sniff letting them know that what they wanted was still here.
"Oi, Cactus!" A rough voice growled. "Which one of your she-cats is visiting today?" The black tom emerged from the box, and looked over the she-cats waiting. "Pretty ones are here today, huh?" he crooned to them, not paying attention to the kits hiding behind their legs.
Panther felt her hackles rise when the tom said the leader's name. "Cactus," she hissed, remembering the scene within her mother's den. Another tom, this one a tortoiseshell followed out. He smiled heartily at Dawn, and then turned to the black tom.
"Cactus gets one, and he chooses. Whatever's left, Frost gets to choose, and then me, you, and Midnight get to fight over the last." The tom paused. "Do you think that I, you or Midnight will get her?"
Cream hissed quietly, letting the toms know of her presence again. "There will be no fighting over us, for our kits need to know how to fight."
The tortoiseshell tom's eyes widened in fright, and called out to the other toms, who immediately appeared from within the box.
Cream leapt at the black tom named Midnight, and dispatched him quickly with a bite to the throat. Cactus' eyes widened as Cream motioned to the body, and explained how to kill to the kits. Then, with the help from their mothers, the kits took each of the toms.
Panther, left alone, took on Cactus, who was least expecting. The tom hissed, as he took in Panther's demeanor. "It's you!" he yowled. "I already killed your mother, now it's time to kill you!" Panther was thrown to the floor, and watched in horror as Cactus came down upon her.
She squeaked, and raked her claws down his face, opening a cut big enough to take out one of his eyes, and blind the other one through profuse bleeding. Cactus got off of her, and she saw that Frost was pinned to the ground, and Take and Keep were battering his legs with Cream watching.
Panther stalked the cursing Cactus, and leapt upon his injured self. He screeched in pain, and tried to look at his attacker. For the first time, the kit saw the devastating job she did to the tom. Half his face was ripped off, and hung limply off the frame. His one good eye was full of blood, while the other was punctured and the fluid mixed with the blood. The mixture ran off his body in torrents, and went into his light brown and white fur and his black collar.
Panther studied her prey, and was entranced by the leather collar. It seemed as if it was new, and humans had just put it on. Bored with watching her mother's killer tremble, she padded up to him, and placed her strong jaws on his vulnerable throat. Cactus hissed at this contact, and tried to pull away, only helping Panther with ripping his throat out.
As the blood now purred down herself, she looked at the gurgling tom with pride. She had just gotten revenge for her mother. Now, if only she could kill Silence, she would be complete. Finally, the tom went still, and all was quiet, as if the fighting had never happened.
"Well done," Cream purred, rasping her tongue up Panther's blood covered face. She had been watching from a distance, to see if the kit had her father's fighting skills and ready to step in if needed. Fortunately, she didn't need any help, and her own kits were having trouble. Cream glanced around, to see Mahogany praising Rust for killing the tortoiseshell, known as Patch. Dawn was cleaning Claw, and purring in her daughter's win.
"You get to take it," Cream mewed, motioning to the dead body of Cactus. When the kit looked at her with confusion, Cream sighed. "The collar. It is now yours."
Panther walked over to the tom, and yanked until the collar came off. She then slipped it over her own head, and rejoiced that it fit. Cream opened the mouth of the corpse, and pointed with her tail to the teeth inside. The dark brown she-cat moved forward with pride, and with the eyes of all her new family watching her, Panther ripped out one of the fangs. Then, she jabbed it into the leather collar, seeing how well that fit, and making her purr when it made her look fierce.
Claw looked at her with jealousy, than looked at Dusk, and his gray collar. "How come Claw doesn't get a collar and a tooth?" Panther asked Cream, still showing off her stolen fang.
"Because she didn't kill Dusk by herself. Only a cat that kills one by themselves gets a collar, if they have one, of course. It is an honor like none other, and for a kit to have one… why it shows who your true parents were," Cream explained. The she-cat looked once again at the bloody mess that was left, then ushered her family back to their building.
"Two good things came from that," Mahogany mewed, still purring. "The kits now know one way to kill a cat, and are better at fighting. Also, the threat that was posed before is now gone."
Cream nodded, padding towards the building with the intention to clean her two kits and Panther, and to eat. Rust bounced up to the kit, and looked at her with new feelings. "Good job," he mewed. "I want a collar."
Panther laughed at him, and batted his nose with her claws sheathed, afraid that she would tear open his face like she did unintentionally to Cactus. "You'll be an Elite, don't worry," she told him, enjoying the conversation they were having.
The ginger tom snorted. "You'll be one first! You're the daughter of a leader and an Elite, and it'll take me a million summers before I'm an Elite."
"No, silly," Panther mewed as she slipped into the building that was now her home. "A cat doesn't live a million years, let alone take to be an Elite. Five mice you wind up being an Elite before me!"
Mahogany hushed her kits response, and held him tightly between her paws, removing any traces of blood and dirt. Panther scuffled with Take while Dawn was cleaning Claw and Cream was cleaning Keep. Her life now was better than her life with her mother before, Panther observed.
Would her mother have taken her to fight? Of course, Panther told herself. Her mother was the best, even better than Cream! But, if she didn't have her new family, would she have her collar now, and a fang to boot? Probably not, since her mother would have helped like the queens did to their kits.
She had earned her collar, fair and square, and it was a new source of pride, apart from her lineage. Mahogany grabbed her, and cleaned off the grime, as Rust was done. Her tongue rasped itself all over her body, but stopped at the collar. The queen purred her pleasure, making Panther purr too. One stupid rogue dead and all this praise? She should do it more often.
A/N: Review to ensure the safety of the next chapter coming out soon!