Three more chapters to go before the epilogue? I don't know, I need to go check the plan. Anyway, thanks for those who have reviewed. Enjoy!
Nightstorm: Born of True Destiny doesn't own Warriors
A dark laugh emitted from behind Shadeglare and Sunmask. They whirled away from Smokestar's dead body to find that there was a cat blocking their way out from the encasement of pine trees. Narrowed eyes peered threateningly at them as the cat continued to chuckle.
"Fools," was the snarl, deep and chilling, "That pathetic, soft ShadowClan leader was an elder ages before you were even born. It was inevitable he would die tonight."
Shadeglare spat and crouched, ready to spring at the cat that stared them down.
"That's adorable, how you think you could ever defeat one like me."
The cat laughed again. Suddenly, a thud sounded as something was dropped at his paws. Another pair of eyes were shown as they fluttered open weakly, revealing dull lakes of green. Sunmask instantly knew who those eyes belonged to.
"Get away from her!" she yowled. "Unhand my daughter!"
"Who Foreverpaw?" the cat asked innocently. "We know that you are the one who can lead the Clans to victory, Sunmask, despite how weak and cowardly you really are. By killing your daughter, you'll lose strength. You'll lose the will to fight."
"I said get away from her!" she snarled, unsheathing her claws as far as they would go. "Or I will kill you!"
"Kill me?" the cat echoed. "You see, Sunmask, I may have been a medicine cat, but I have had my training around the Black Horror. Now, I am ten times the fighter that you will ever be."
"Stormwhisker, you badger-heart!" Sunmask screeched. Swift as a snake, she rushed forward towards the traitorous tom, ready to detach his head from his body if that's what it would take to save her daughter.
Suddenly, Sunmask collapsed forcefully onto the ground as a massive and powerful weight pinned her down from above. Her ribs felt as though they were shattering within her. Her spine chilled to the coldest it had ever. Her legs were crushed beneath her. With a yowl of pain, Sunmask let a sob escape her. Shadeglare was in the same position, a Black Horror cat standing on him.
Stormwhisker threw back his head to yowl triumphantly at the sky. Foreverpaw opened her eyes to watch him helplessly, and Sunmask could see as lightning flashed above that she had been maimed in the shoulder. Her muscle was exposed to the air. It was a gruesome sight. Stormwhisker looked down at Foreverpaw and raised his forepaw to the air, ready to strike her with a death blow.
Sunmask shuddered, but it wasn't from the agony of her breathing growing sharp. It was the knowledge that she would have to watch her own daughter die at the claws of a traitor she had once trusted to heal her Clanmates.
Foreverpaw gasped as Stormwhisker's claws started to descend over her neck. Sunmask waited for her blood the splatter across the ground before her.
Suddenly, another figure shot out from the trees, grasping Stormwhisker by the shoulder blades and shoving him down beside Foreverpaw. The mysterious cat leaned down to Stormwhisker's pinned body and snarled. "How dare you, Lightning?"
"So, it's me who has faulted?" spat Stormwhsiker, struggling. "You are the one who was betrayed the Black Horror!" He cried out as the mysterious tom sank his claws into his face, and then he stopped speaking, but glared up at his attacker with a deadly look his gaze.
"Maybe," the attacker growled, "But at least it was the right choice."
The Black Horror warrior that had Shadeglare pinned leaped off of him and ran at the mysterious tom. With a quick swipe of his claws through the air, the tom had cleanly sliced at the Black Horror cat's neck. It collapsed with a thud.
The cat that had Sunmask pinned backed off of her, frightened by the death of his companion. With a final glare from the mysterious tom, he turned and fled into the trees. Sunmask remained where she was, still in pain, but also in awe and deep gratitude for the tom would had just saved her daughter.
"Just because you've defeated a couple of newcomers doesn't mean you can defeat me," Stormwhisker snarled, managing to free a foreleg. "I've been a recruit for longer than you have, Shatter." His paws struck the tom in the belly.
"That isn't my name," he snarled, after being kicked away. "It's Soottail."
Sunmask gaped, recognizing the blue in the tom's eyes. The cat she had learned truly betrayed her and the Clan, now stood before her, ready to defend something that she loved. Even after what she had done to hurt him. She was dumbfounded.
Stormwhisker, now standing, lunged for Soottail, claws glinting as another thick band of lightning flashed across the black sky. Soottail leaned to one side, just barely dodging the gray tom and dove at his hind leg, sinking his teeth into Stormwhsiker's fur. He lost his balance and collapsed over Soottail. With a successful struggle, Soottail freed himself and lashed out several times for his enemy's throat, each blow being blocked by a paw. Stormwhisker knocked the fifth strike away and parried Soottail's attacks with a clean claw over the nose. Soottail shook the blood from his muzzle, giving Stormwhisker enough time to crouch low and leap for his opponent. They both flew back a fox-length before landing on the ground, Stormwhisker pinning Soottail.
"I told you," the traitor growled into Soottail's ear. "You cannot best me."
Shadeglare suddenly leaped into the fight, grasping Stormwhisker by the scruff and yanking him off of Soottail. Out of surprise, Stormwhisker yowled and struck Shadeglare squarely between the ears. The green-eyed tom dropped Stormwhisker and backed away, blood pouring from the cut on his head.
Soottail jumped up and attacked Stormwhisker again. His claws dug into the sides of his head as he dragged him down to the blood-stained grass, hind paws locked over his spine.
"You haven't beaten me yet!" Soottail yowled. He released Stormwhisker after receiving a blow to the flank, but didn't allow the traitor to get up. He held his claws to Stormwhisker's throat, and used the other paw to hold down his chest.
"Go ahead, kill me!" Stormwhisker shrieked. "There's plenty of us to go around!"
"It's still one less traitor to worry about," Soottail said quietly. His claws began to press into Stormwhisker's neck, and the gray tom's eyes widened, as if he wasn't actually expecting Soottail to kill him. He swiped at Soottail's muzzle, slipped free and fled into the trees.
"You aren't going after him?" Shadeglare questioned.
Soottail shook his head. "Someone else will take care of him. He lowered his head to Foreverpaw and helped up the wounded silver apprentice. "Go find the RiverClan medicine cat, but whatever you do, don't stay here."
She nodded weakly, and limped off, hurt leg dragging along with her.
Sunmask finally found the will to stand, and did so shakily, her gaze fixed sternly on Soottail. His silhouette was dark, but showed the shape of his long muscular body. His blue eyes shone with blue light, as he stared off after the retreating Stormwhisker, as if making sure that he wouldn't dare come back again.
"I don't think he'd return after the scars you gave him tonight," she said, so quietly that she wasn't even sure that he had heard her, but after a moment, he flicked his ear.
"He better not. In fact, I'd doubt he'd want to mess with anyone at this point." Soottail's voice was emotionless, not even carrying the slightest hint of anger, satisfaction, or ferocity, but the emptiness in his words, made her think all the more that there was more behind what she heard.
Sunmask stared at him, watching as his tail lashed behind him, the only sign that he was feeling a little disturbed. She closed her eyes, feeling her own uneasiness from the entire night slowly melt away. "Why would you save her?" she asked.
Soottail suddenly snapped his head towards her, not expecting that she would actually ask that, but she held his gaze, feeling no regret for speaking those words. She wanted to know, and she wouldn't ever regret questioning him.
"Why?" she asked, not allowing her voice fall into a pleading tone, "After all I've done to you?"
He blinked, like he was to communicate that he was uncertain of an answer, but the strength that resided in his voice told Sunmask that he knew exactly what he was telling her. "Because no one hurts the cats that you love."
Sunmask knew she should have felt unsatisfied with that answer. She knew that she should be obligated to feel curiosity as to why he decided to protect her in the first place, but she didn't. Sunmask was happy with what he had told her. Not just on a level of understanding, but on a level of emotion. She smiled at him, though she was certain that he couldn't see it through the dark.
"Sunmask, come on, we have to find our father. He'll know what to do." Shadeglare nudged he into a sprint and they ran past Soottail and into the forest. She couldn't help but look back at him, only to find that he had vanished, and was now lost somewhere in the battle.
"Focus," Shadeglare hissed, snapping her attention back to him. Sunmask kept pace with him, and tried to fix her mind on the biggest thing that was really happening. They had to inform Pouncefoot of Smokestar's death, and they had to find Midnight and put an end to his life, and along with it, an end to the pain he has caused.
Sunmask lifted her nose into the air. She had to distinguish her father's scent from the territory of blood and death that surrounded him, or else they'd be running around all night, while the Clans fought for their lives.
Shadeglare led her past every tree and over every log as he tried to reach the place the Black Horror first attacked. Sunmask felt her heart pound faster with every step. Something in the air felt wrong, and until she heard the scream, she didn't know what it was.
Her brother gasped and stopped running as he heard the horrible shriek. His eyes went wide with horror, and he turned around, running straight in the direction of the lake. Sunmask followed him, afraid of what she might see.
Shadeglare leaped through a bramble thicket, neck fur fluffed up with fear. Sunmask jumped through with him into the clearing that awaited them.
She found herself gazing into murderous amber eyes...
And at jaws that were fastened around a mangled, torn neck...
Midnight gasped when he saw them...
Dropping the body of Ivystar onto the bloodied ground.
This battle is just full of cliffies isn't it?
;)
Review!
~Destiny