Chapter 39

Ok my beauties, my best friend/co-writer/overall awesome girly wrote this chapter! THANK YOU WOVE! Enjoy this chapter, and comment if you're liking the story! It's also ending soon so BYE BYE!

A figure lunging towards him, teeth bared and snarling.

Blue eyes cracked open. The sun seemed a thousand times brighter. He scrunched up his eyes. Where was he?

Fangs digging into his throat.

Oh, wait- He was alive. Wow. That was never expected. Bit of a pity, really. Death had seemed so welcoming...

Unmeasurable pain shooting through his body.

But if he was alive, then he needed to get back to Terror. Slowly, he began to drag himself in a random direction, hoping that Sanguis was that way.

Crying out in pain.

It hurt, and every time he moved more pain shot through his limbs, biting, cold, pain. But he kept on, because if he didn't keep going then Terror would yell at him and say that he was weak.

Wondering if he was going to die.

Dragging himself through the dirt, flickering in and out of consciousness, the only thought in his head being to get to Terror again.

Thinking that if he died, he'd never see Terror again.

A scent of cats hitting him; being too tired to realize that it was the smell of MemoryClan, and pressing on. Stumbling into the camp, bloodied and beaten.

Wondering what Terror would think of his death.

Passing out from exhaustion, hearing shocked voices in his vision that he was too tired to make out.

Laughing.

There were voices above him. One asking what they were going to do with him. A pause, and then a response, saying that he had information, and they were going to use any means to get that information.

Or, trying to laugh.

Frowning. That didn't sound like something Terror would order. Or did it? Maybe Terror thought that he knew something. But he had thought that Terror had at least had some attachment to him... Would he really do this.

Would he even care?

Being amused at his own naiveness. Of course Terror wouldn't care. He was just another cat, another notch in the branch, a tool to be used.

Why did he love someone who would never love him back?

Something smacked the side of his face. "Wake up, you worthless piece of fox-dung." A voice growled in his ear. His eyes fluttered open. and he was met with the leering face of Zeldastar.

Wait, what?

His mind kicked into action instantly. He desperately tried to recall any memory of the last few days, but the last memory he had were claws ripping through his throat and the screech of pain he had let out being suddenly cut off.

Which meant that somehow, he had gotten here. Since his memory was gone, he needed answers, and the only cat around to give them to him was standing right in front of him. He tried to growl, demand she tell him how he got there.

Key Word: tried.

No sound came out. Thinking that he must be hoarse, he tried again. And when that didn't work, he tried speaking, meaningless words, and nothing came out.

The realization hit him like the cold of a stream in winter. He couldn't speak.

A laugh brought him back to reality. Zeldastar had been circling him, green eyes glaring into him. "Well well well," she began. "you're here, for whatever reason. And since you're here, tell me- Where is Terror getting these 'creatures' that attacked us?"

He chuckled, inwardly of course. Truth be told, he didn't know. Terror didn't share that with him. So he met Zeldastar's gaze evenly, showing no distress, and said nothing.

The leader growled, and suddenly lunged forward, claws raking the side of his face. Instinctively, he tried to rear up to crash down on her, but was suddenly yanked down. For the first time, he looked down and noticed the vines holding him down, threaded through roots. Oh, that was clever. He wondered who had thought of it.

Zeldastar grinned mirthlessly at him. "There's more where that came from," she hissed threateningly.

A cold stone of dread settled in his stomach. He didn't like where this was going, not at all.

Zeldastar swaggered into the clearing. "We figured out where Terror's camp was," she drawled. "no thanks to you." She indicated with her tail the multiple wounds he bore from interrogations.

Canine's head snapped up instantly, his eyes narrowed. His tail swept across the ground. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" He wanted to scream, but of course no sound came out.

The tortoiseshell smirked. "Yeah. We launched an attack on them, too. Ruined their fresh-kill pile, took out a couple of cats as well."

The smirk dropped into a frown. "It was odd. One of them screamed, 'Not again!'"

She turned to him. "You wouldn't know anything about that, now would you?"

Being trapped and tortured for information often left one with nothing to do, he noted. So he spent his time pondering over some of the questions of life. His muteness was one. He'd pretty much come to terms with it, and it didn't bother him as much as it had in the beginning. In fact, it was quite funny to see Zeldastar rage because he wouldn't say anything. In a twisted kind of way, seeing as this usually ended in her claws digging into his flesh.

He had become quite used to pain in the time he had been there, which had blurred together. His pelt was dirty and matted, and littered with scars. The white patches of his fur had been stained red with blood, and his blue eyes hardly opened anymore, instead opting to say half-lidded or closed.

He didn't hold a grudge against Zeldastar, as odd as it might seem. Kid had promise, and it was evident from her appearance and actions that she was going through some personal issues.

Canine could relate to that. Sometimes, when the pain of unrequited love became too much, he snapped and became increasingly violent. He guessed something similar was happening to Zeldastar, although it might not have the same cause.

She had started ranting to him in the midst of interrogations.

Small things, like how they were low on fresh-kill because the hunting patrols were too afraid to go far, that grew into bigger ones, like how her life was slowly falling apart at the seams. Sometimes it was just unrelated things, like how she sometimes wished she'd remained a loner.

He suspected she just needed someone to listen, even if he couldn't acknowledge that he was.

Terror lunged into the camp, teeth bared, and let out an earspliting yowl. The full force of Sanguis was at his back, and they followed him, seeking out a cat to attack.

But Terror only sought one.

His blood-red eyes scammed the battlefield, until he laid eyes on the tortoiseshell tabby she-cat with the green eyes that had taken his Canine away from him.

She had let it slip when she and a patrol had ambushed him while he was scouting his new territory: "Weren't good enough to protect your little henchman, now were you? He's more loyal to you, you monster than he should be. Hasn't said a word, no matter how much we torture him... But he'll break eventually."

Instantly he had known who she was talking about, and had charged her with a fearsome roar. She had dodged away, though, running off into the trees, and he hadn't been able to catch her. Now, he let out a cry of rage, and sped across the clearing, tackling her tithe ground. "YOU!" he spat. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM."

Zeldastar smirked and wriggled out of his grasp. "Oh, nothing," she drawled, before raking her claws down his side. "no more than what you did, letting him be captured."

Terror whirled around, responding with a counterattack of his own. He was fully immersed in it, paying no mind to anything else. The only thing he cared about at the moment was that this arrogant, stupid, cocky she-cat had hurt his Canine, and he was going to make her P A Y.

He didn't notice Duststorm leading Canine away from the fighting. What he did notice was that Zeldastar was getting weaker by the moment. With a last cry of rage, he pinned her to the ground. Zeldastar laughed suddenly. "I see now," she snickered. "why he wouldn't say a word. He's mute. Your little servant is mute, you piece of foxdung. You couldn't save him, no matter how much you love him."

Red overtook Terror's vision. "I HATE YOU!" He screamed, before biting down of her neck. It snapped with a satisfying crack, and the life slowly began to fade from Zeldastar's eyes, until they rolled back in her head, lifeless, and she went limp.

Terror stood up and stalked away. "We're done here." He announced. The rest of the clan cats watched, horrified, as the leader of Sanguis left, their leader's body lying cold on the ground a few paces away.