Chapter 20
The SkyClan hollow was empty…sunlight pooled into the camp as the peaceful chirping of the evening songbird echoed around the camp. The air was warm…the breeze was cool; everything seemed to be perfect as the seconds passed. That is until…the singing stopped, clouds covered the sky, and snow fell to the ground.
Shadowpaw found himself standing on the edge of the hollow, his body being blown by the cold blizzard winds that lashed at his fur. Down below into the hollow, he saw the bloodthirsty stares of his Clanmates swarm below, their mouths foaming at the edges.
Shadowpaw turned around, only to see Mistyfern and Scar behind him. Scar's eyes shone a creepy red glow while Mistyfern's had a pale blue light emitted around them, her face looked calm…yet angry at the world.
"Mistyfern, I missed you!" Shadowpaw wailed, running into his mother. Mistyfern growled and looked up at the sky; a giant crow soared high until the shadow of its wings covered the earth in complete darkness.
Shadowpaw spun around; trying hard to see the world around him…but all was black. The only thing he was able to see where the shining eyes of his Clanmates, all eyes a different color. Fear washed over Shadowpaw as the smell of blood overcame his nostrils and its warm liquidity flooded over his paws as he stood in the pitch dark.
"Stay away from me!" Shadowpaw hissed in fear. "Go away!"
"Murderer…killer…evil" They chanted, the glowing eyes getting closer and closer.
"No, stop it!" Shadowpaw growled. "I didn't kill Scar!"
The chants got louder, the eyes got closer, and the blood had flooded up to Shadowpaw's chest. The apprenticed choked in fear and tried to wail aloud but was stopped when the eyes, chants, and blood disappeared. The only source of light was a distance away…and in the middle of that light, laid the dead body of a SkyClan warrior.
Shadowpaw flashed open his eyes and gasped for breath, rolling over and coughing…still able to smell the blood and feel it stick in his pelt. Shadowpaw had been exiled days ago…but he still had nowhere to go.
Shadowpaw sighed and shivered as the cold leaf-bare wind whipped at his short fur. His paws felt frozen on the cold ground and his body shook with lonely vibrations. A light snow had begun to fall and Shadowpaw's fur looked as if it had been kissed by StarClan as he began to pad away in the cold of the early gray morning.
Shadowpaw looked around as a smell hit his nose. The smell was so faintly familiar…he could almost remember where he last smelled it. The black cat, curious and freezing, bounded to where the scent was coming from, his long tail trailing behind him. A silhouette of a cat was barely showing in the distance as Shadowpaw came upon it, he was timid at first but when he saw that the cat wasn't moving, he hurtled to its aide.
Shadowpaw instantly remembered the cat…the white fur, the long flowing tail, and the gold collar wrapped around her neck. The she-cat from the Twoleg place! Shadowpaw thought to himself. The black tom wrapped his body around hers and licked her fur to warm her body.
The she-cat stirred and hissed in fear when she saw Shadowpaw in her face. The cat scowled and battered her claws across Shadowpaw's face. Shadowpaw, being a bit stunned, backed away in surprise.
"I thought you were dying!" Shadowpaw murmured, backing away from her claws. The she-cat's neck fur was ruffled and her amber eyes where narrowed in anger.
"No, flea-brain," She spat. "I was just sleeping!"
"In the snow…" Shadowpaw challenged.
"What does that mean?" She hissed back to him, "A house cats' not tough enough to sleep in the snow?"
"What…no!" Shadowpaw stammered. "You just looked…dead."
The she-cat snorted and looked at the white diamond on Shadowpaw's chest. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She mewed.
"Yeah…I was the kit that had to save my friend from your Twoleg's den." Shadowpaw shivered, his long legs quivering from the cold. The she-cat smiled in the corner of her mouth and flicked her silky tail.
"You are cold?" She mewed.
"Y-Yeah…" Shadowpaw shook. "I'm freezing…"
"Where are your…Clanmates?" She mewed, her amber eyes turning soft.
"They…they don't want me anymore." Shadowpaw murmured in defeat. The she-cat lowered her tail into the now-thickening snow and frowned in sympathy.
"That's…kind of rude…" She mewed softly. She looked over her shoulder at her Twoleg's den and looked back over at Shadowpaw. "You could stay with me until the storm passes." She offered.
"That would be nice." Shadowpaw mewed. The she-cat and Shadowpaw made their way into the Twoleg den through the hole in the wall and let the warm air melt the snow from their fur. Shadowpaw watched as the she-cat licked the snow from her pads…then a question popped into his mind.
"You know…I never asked you what your name was." Shadowpaw mewed. The she-cat looked up from her pads and smiled.
"My name is June."