AN: Hi all! This is my 4th challenge for RadianceClan. :3
Sadly, this one's hardly as long as the others, but I guess it doesn't matter *shrug*. Hope you enjoy, and remember to review!
I was only two days into apprenticeship when I died.
I remember it clearly; everything that happened before and after the accident. I don't like to think about how I felt when it happened.
Stupid Vole, I thought savagely as I crawled through the smelly dirtplace tunnel. I'll show that dumb loner who's the better cat.
I hadn't met her yet, but I'd heard of her. She'd killed many cats from the Clan, and no one knew why.
I made my way through the forest, listening to the sounds of the night and the trees around me. A squirrel darted up a tree at the sound of my pawsteps; I didn't care. I hadn't come to hunt.
I'd come to prove myself.
Weaving through the bracken, I scented Vole before I saw her. I gave no thought to how she'd gotten so far into ThunderClan land- that didn't matter.
"Ah! An apprentice, come to fight me?"
The condescending voice of the loner rang in my ears. I shrugged, shaking my fur out.
"Of course. You can't expect to go on like this without a challenge!" I hissed in reply.
Vole shrugged back. "I wasn't expecting anyone to find me, but no good loner travels without friends. Golden! Red!"
A golden she-cat and a ginger tom appeared from the shadows, smirking.
"I enlisted Golden and Red to help me defeat you," she mewed, grinning. "But of course, I'd rather not kill you- why not take a dare?"
"What kind of dare?" I asked suspiciously, tilting my head.
"A run across the Thunderpath. Whoever goes second has to start running as soon as the first cat reaches the other side. If you survive, I will let you fight me. If not..."
She smirked.
"Sounds sketchy...but okay," I replied, nodding in agreement.
"Excellent. Let's get going. Golden and Red will make sure you don't back out on me."
I rolled my eyes. "I already told you I won't, but if you need a pair of bodyguards to keep you safe, then so be it," I mewed, smirking.
Vole's eyes narrowed.
"Anyway," she snarled after a moment, regaining her composure, "let's go. I don't want to waste moonlight."
We set off, Vole ahead of me and her two goons behind me. As we passed Snakerocks- thankfully without any snake encounters-, Vole sped up.
I wonder why she's going so fast? I thought, but decided not to pursue the topic, bumping into Vole as we reached the Thunderpath.
"Alright. You can go first," Vole hissed. I rolled my eyes.
"Are you really so scared, loner?" I retorted.
Vole snarled. "Fine, I'll go first if you're such a coward."
Stepping forward and hesitantly putting a paw on the black stone, Vole looked both ways, taking a moment to listen and smell for monsters before bounding across the Thunderpath, full-pelt.
"Come on, mouse-brain!" she called from the other side. "Remember our deal? You have to go right after me!"
I rolled my eyes. "Fine!"
Putting my paws on the Thunderpath, I began to sprint across.
But my legs were shorter than Vole's, and the deal had forced me to start at that moment. Had I not been such an idiot, I would have lived.
I heard a roar approaching me and smelled the rank scent of a monster bearing down on me. Yowling in fear, I skidded to a halt in the middle of the Thunderpath, staring with wide eyes as the massive monster appeared.
Vole, meanwhile, did nothing to help me, only watched as I screamed.
The shriek tore itself out of me as though it were alive. Pain flooded my entire being; I could hardly feel anything but it as my vision went white.
After that, I could only remember faint voices pulsing somewhere deep in my ears, and pain that hardly faded for a while. The voices sounded stressed and concerned at first, but as time passed I heard them grow grim and sad.
They thought I didn't hear them, but I did. I heard them announce my fate to my mother, and then the rest of the Clan. I heard them say that they'd found Vole, that the loner was dead, and I felt a tiny flicker of victory within me.
I heard them, clustered around me, as I let out my last breath.