100 Tales 87

Losing control

Shadepelt was out hunting, when two of her Clanmates came up to her.

"Hi, guys!" she greeted them.

"Hi," grunted Darkpool. "Mind if we hunt with you?" Redclaw nodded. "Yeah. Mind if we hunt with you?"

"No, not at all!" Shadepelt exclaimed. "In fact, I'd actually be quite glad for the company! Feel free!"

They followed behind her for a while, once in a while catching a mouse or two so that she wouldn't suspect anything. Then, once she was really engrossed in catching something, they nodded at each other, and pounced.

Darkpool pounced on Shadepelt's neck, and gave it a bite. Then, he flipped her over, so that she was belly-side-up.

"Cats of The Dark Forest, it is I, Darkstripe, and Redtooth, cats of The Dark Forest. We give to you this body to take over.

She was dying; dying, so that a mysterious spiritual cat from The Dark Forest could come and reincarnate in her body.

It wasn't a rare occurrence in the Clans, now-a-days. The cats from The Dark Forest had figured out a way to take control of cat's bodies, and all they had to do was kill the host. That wasn't hard—all they needed was a dying cat. Usually, they only had to get somebody of theirs to kill a cat, and then, when they started dying, the spirit just had to take over their mind.

It had happened a couple of times before—and StarClan was ever-powerless to stop it.

She was weak; yet, she was clawing at the ground and screeching.

"Ahh! No! My head! My head; it hurts!" she yowled desperately. "NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE ME OVER! YOU JUST CAN'T!!!!"

Darkpool dodged her flailing claws. "Says who….?" he said cheerfully.

"Me, I do, you arrogant pieces of fox-du—" She never got to finish her sentence, for, just then, the spirit of the cat of The Dark Forest (it was a she-cat called Golden Heat, by the way) that was taking her over, took over, and she died. Yes, she died; the host of the body died and went up to StarClan.

The body was instantly healed the moment that Golden Heat took over. "So, guys…." she began seriously. "Are you ready to start planning and plotting?"

"Sure." The two toms grinned, and they slowly walked back to camp.