Author's Note: Finally the first chapter of Tainted Blood, Tainted Love!
Disclaimer: PHOZ DOES NOT CLAIM TO OWN IN ANY WAY THE WARRIORS SERIES WHICH IS COPYRIGHT TO ERIN HUNTER. CHARACTERS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS. PHOZ DOES, HOWEVER, CLAIM ALL RIGHTS TO PHOZ'S CHARACTERS AND THEIR STORY.
Chapter One
Blue eyes flew opened as a black and white bobtailed warrior found himself suddenly awake in the warriors' den. Fear almost chocked the tom as he glanced back and forth to see if an enemy would come flying at him, but he only saw his denmates peacefully sleeping around him. The fear did not completely leave the tom until he turned his head around to look at his shoulder, only to find a small scar there instead of the gaping wound from his dreams.
"It was only a dream," the bobtailed tom murmured to himself. Even awake the memories that had created the dream came to him as if it had happen mere moments ago instead of seasons.
That night the WindClan warrior had gone to meet Hawkfeather, the ShadowClan warrior, at the island as they normally did. This time was special, he was going to inform the other tom that he had just received his warrior name, Ospreytail. Instead of the joyous and kind friend waiting him like usual, he found a stranger within his friend; he had thought the tom would be congratulating him that night only to have the tabby speak of ending what they had and in the end the ShadowClan warrior attacked Ospreytail.
The wounds have healed since then, yet his heart still aches for friendship he once had with Hawkfeather.
The bobtailed tom moved to stand up, but found himself being watched by fellow warrior Swiftwing. "Had a bad dream, Ospreytail?" the black she-cat asked in a low voice as to not to wake the other warriors who were still sleeping.
Ospreytail nodded his head, but did not share what his dream was about to her. "It is nearly dawn, you should prepare for that patrol of yours," he informed her, changing the subject before she tried to ask about his dream.
The she-cat's dark green eyes narrowed, but nodded as to give acknowledgment to his suggestion. The two cats rose to their paws and as Ospreytail padded out of the warriors den, he saw Swiftwing nudging awake Bluestorm, Harewhisker, and Featherbreeze, the other members of the patrol.
The ground was soft under the black and white tom's paws from the rain the night before and the camp was empty for every WindClan cat went to sleep in the dens for last night. Picking up a rain soaked sparrow from the fresh-kill, the tom settled down to eat. Out of the corner of his blue eyes, he saw an elder padding out of the dens and towards him.
Raising his head, Ospreytail nodded his head in respect to the light gray tabby elder as the old tom came to sit by him. "Morning, Ospreytail," the elder, Smokefur, meowed in greeting.
"Morning, Smokefur; you're up early today," the bobtailed warrior said in return before taking a last bite out of his sparrow before pawing the rest over to the elder.
"Thank you," the gray tabby tom meowed as he bent to finish the piece of fresh-kill. "The rain made my bones ache, which kept me up most of the night," he meowed to the other, explaining the reason behind waking up early.
"You should see the medicine cat about that, Smokefur. She'll give you something for pain and something else to help you sleep," Ospreytail told the elder, concern clear in his blue eyes.
"I will, no need to worry about that," Smokefur told the warrior. "You always worry too much about the Clan, you need to worry more about yourself. Ever since you became deputy you have put yourself aside to care for the Clan more then ever, why not pick a she-cat as mate and settle down a bit?"
The elder spoke correctly, Ospreytail had been named deputy more then a season ago and worked himself harder for his Clan, caring little for his personal life. The young warrior also remembered when he started caring more for his Clan than himself, it was after he healed from the wounds Hawkfeather had given him that night.
The deputy stared at the elder with his blue eyes and meowed, "I can't, Smokefur, I have my Clan to think about." He had lied to elder, Ospreytail had thought about it, but found that he could not like any she-cat more than a friend.
The warrior stood up and saw the patrol of four warriors leaving camp to start the dawn patrol. "Think about it some more then," the gray elder told him.
"Goodbye, Smokefur. I'm going out to hunt," Ospreytail said, ending the conversation as he walked out of camp. He had lied again to the elder; he wasn't going to hunt right away, he was going to the lake to see if he could spot Hawkfeather on ShadowClan's dawn patrol. The bobtailed tom could not help but want to see the tabby as much as he could. He had figured it was because of how badly their friendship ended.
When the lake was insight, the black and white tom noticed there was a cat on ShadowClan's lake territory. Ospreytail's heart felt like it went right into his throat, but instead of seeing a tabby, he saw a dark ginger and black bobtailed loner. Blue eyes blinked in confusion as the deputy stared at the loner who appeared very familiar to him, but he could not place where until a breeze blew towards him from the other side of the lake.
A memory awoken within bobtailed warrior from his past, a memory long buried from early kit-hood.
He was out of camp, far from the nursery where he should have been, he was sitting with a kit who he guessed to be his brother. His mother, Sparrow-wing was alongside the two kits with this strange ginger and black bobtailed tom. The WindClan kit could not remember all of what occurred that night, only that the other kit was taken away by the strange tom and two words that had been spoked by Sparrow-wing, "father" and "Solon."
Now seeing the black and ginger tom again, the deputy was curious as to whom this cat was and if he could be his father. Springing to his paws, Ospreytail began running with speed that only WindClan cat could have around the lake to meet this strange tom. Even in the warrior's hast he made sure to be within two fox-lengths of the lake as to not to break the rule of the lake territories.
Ospreytail had lost sight of the loner and by the time the deputy made it around the lake the loner had disappeared. Disappointed, he sat down by the lake, looking around as he tried to pick up the freshest scent of the strange loner, but strangely could not. Frustrated, the deputy pawed the damp soil with white fluffy paws as the lake water teasingly lapped at them.
The deputy of WindClan did not have time to compose himself and head back to WindClan's territory when a body landed on his back from behind. Ospreytail was able to see the coat of his attacker, ginger and brown, before a scent hid him hard; the scent of ShadowClan! ShadowClan's dawn patrol had spotted him and were attacking!
