TW: Corpse , blood

Chapter 3:: Beast

SUNSET

Snowpaw followed Shadowhisker through the valley. He moved deftly through the bodies, and not once did he step in a puddle of blood. Snowpaw tried to do the same - he'd taught her to move quickly on her paws, light on her toes, to make every fluid moment purposeful. But she wasn't as good at it.

She did not look at the red matting on her paws.

The two of them were the farthest left of all the group - spread out more southeast than south. Darkleaf and Snakepaw were farthest west of them - far enough to Snowpaw to be the size of two black bugs she had to squint to see. But they had found something worth investigating apparently, because they had called the group next to them over, and down the line everyone went to join them.

They were all standing single file, and as Snowpaw got closer she realized that they were standing on the edge of a cliff - she hadn't been able to see it from far away. Shadowhisker picked up the pace and so did she, bouncing lithely over bodies that had over the course of the day become little more than annoying obstacles to them.

Irisfern was standing to Sharpfang's right and Shadowhisker joined them. He was about to say something, but then he looked over the cliff and he lost his breath.

Snowpaw did, too.

It was… Snowpaw couldn't even tell what she was looking at. The cliff dropped down to more land, clear land, empty of the small bodies that littered the place the patrols walked. Instead, there were the bodies of some kind of creature that were bigger than anything Snowpaw had ever seen. To her, they looked like caverns made of decayed meat and bone, sinew falling like lichen over their entrances.

"What are they?" she whispered.

No one answered. She was sure they'd all asked the same question.

She heard pawsteps and looked up. Breezetail, the patrol leader from DewClan, was approaching them.

"Sharpfang, Irisfern," he greeted. He had a thin voice for his thin body, twitchy and tightly wound. From what Snowpaw knew of him, he was an impulsive little cat - he had once started a spat with a HeatherClan patrol that sparked a three-moon conflict. She wondered why someone like that was chosen for a quest like this.

Irisfern and Sharpfang looked at him expectantly. There was a sour taste in both their mouths, Snowpaw guessed, along with the hard look in their eyes. She fell back with Jackalpaw and Shadepaw while the warriors spoke.

"Do you see that slope?" Breezetail gestured southeast. "If we walk along the cliff edge, we'll reach it. I think we could be there by nightfall - better down there than up here, I think." He swallowed, and so did everyone else.

But Irisfern's voice was as calm as it ever was. "Yes.. I think we could make it." She looked up at the sun, and so did Snowpaw. They had been walking all day; It was already starting to set. A chill went through Snowpaw. The thought of spending the night here, in complete darkness…

She looked over at Shadowhisker, and he caught her eye. She didn't see fear in those eyes for even a second - he nodded reassuringly at her, and then his attention was back on Breezetail.

Beside her, Jackalpaw dipped his head to speak close to Shadepaw's ear.

"Those things - they're rotted to the bone."

Shadepaw nodded once. "It's odd."

It was the first time Snowpaw had ever heard that small cat talk. He had a quiet voice, a voice that had an edge to it, like a thin shard of stone. Like Shadepaw himself, maybe. She decided not to speak nor give any indication she was listening.

This was skill she had learned in kithood. Her older clanmates often spoke carelessly in front of her when she was younger; airheaded and forgetful. She learned a lot, then, just by swatting dustballs near warriors who never gave her any credit. She heard Cindershadow talk about Irisfern. She heard Adderstar talk about Snowpaw's father. She heard many cats talk about FalconClan - unfavorable things that shocked Snowpaw's little kit mind at the time-

Did you hear-
In FalconClan?

Those FalconClan brothers-
It's always them, they really can't get along.

What a shame,
it really is. Really.

They'll kill each other one day-
just a heap of claws and fur.

No, no, I think they'll do it to themselves.
Both jumping over the side of the mountain,
rather than be shown up by the other.

Snowpaw would just pounce on her little dust ball and carry it away.

Jackalpaw gasped suddenly. "Shadepaw, the-" Jackalpaw paused. He shuffled his paws, and when he spoke again, it was quieter. "The Gathering last moon."

"...I remember. But-" Then he looked over the large corpses again and startled.

Snowpaw remembered, too. But not the same thing they did, apparently. Last moon, a group of apprentices had snuck down to the shore. One of them did not return.

Jackalpaw spoke quickly, "Do you think-"

The four warriors broke from their conversation, and Jackalpaw immediately fell silent. Snowpaw's ear ticked in frustration.

She could only assume that those two were among the apprenticed that snuck to the shore. Had they seen one of these creatures there? She waited, shuffling her paws, for Shadowhisker to stop talking to Irisfern.

She looked at the setting sun in the west, then behind her, to the slope. It would take them east. She wondered how long they could continue to travel south down there before the possibility of being walled off by another cliff edge. There was none that she could see, but the wall was jagged, uneven. She could only hope that there would be a path as easy to travel as this one.

It was looking out, pondering this, that she was the first one of them to see the cat walking towards them.

"Shadowhisker!" Her urgent voice startled everyone there. She jerked her head in the direction of the cat.

Shadowhisker came to her side quickly. "That's…" He laughed. "We didn't have to look far, I guess. Thank you, Snowpaw."

Snowpaw nodded.

"We shouldn't assume they're a friend," said Sharpfang from behind them.

Shadowhisker waved his tail. "Mister Sharp "cynical" fang - I know, I know."

Sharpfang had a disapproving look on his face, but Snowpaw knew it wasn't genuine. Sharpfang was the first cat from another clan that Shadowhisker had introduced her to. She remembered that Shadowhisker had tried to boast that he had given Sharpfang the two parallel scars on his muzzle - Sharpfang had twitched his whiskers and called him a lying little fuck.

"Jackalpaw-"

"Tooth."

"-Would you run and get Darkleaf, please?"

"What, why? Tell Shadepaw."

Snowpaw didn't think she had seen someone - warrior or apprentice - blatantly question a patrol leader before. Not even Cindershadow questioned Adderstar publicly. Sharpfang looked like he was used to it.

"I'm asking you," he sighed.

Jackalpaw's jaw clenched. He tail flicked when he turned, but he ran to go get Darkleaf.

.o0O0o.

Three days before Snowpaw's apprentice ceremony, she met Shadowhisker. She was too old to be chasing dustballs now, so she was occupying herself - and her nervousness - by watching a beetle lumber through the camp. It was as big as her paws, not hard to spot, so she was barely invested in keeping track of it.

She was thinking about finally pouncing on it when Shadowhisker came up beside her. He was looking down at her with his usual look of quiet amusement, so that Snowpaw eyed him warily as he approached.

"Hello," she said, quietly. Though his always-present smile was annoying, Shadowhisker was one of the nice warriors, the ones who made way for her games and gave her friendly nods. She still kept herself to one-word sentences, as with everyone else. It was easier to stay listening if you pretended to have nothing to say.

"Hello," Shadowhisker answered. He settled next to her, and watched her beetle. "That'll be a good catch, won't it."

Snowpaw shrugged. "It might."

It started to go towards a crack in the ground, where Snowpaw wouldn't be able to follow.

"Well, will you catch it?" Shadowhisker asked.

Snowpaw watched it scuttle closer and closer to the crack. "...No."

They both watched it get away with its unhurried pace, as if it knew that she wasn't going to hunt it. What stupid prey, that it made its escape so leisurely.

And then Shadowhisker laughed, a light little chuckle that offended Snowpaw for some reason. She looked up at him, silently.

"You got more words in you than you say, don't you?" he asked, giving her that amused look.

And it caught Snowpaw by surprise enough that she didn't even think to lie - it was the first time anyone noticed her.

Three days later, Shadowhisker became her mentor.

.o0O0o.

The stranger had white fur, marked by black spots that covered his paws and imbalanced the coloration of his face. He was lithe, and smaller than Shadowhisker, though about his age as far as Snowpaw could tell. He walked with his head low, seemingly nervous of the twelve cats before him, measured by the twenty-four eyes of each of them. He stopped a few paces in front of Darkleaf and Irisfern, who had ventured out some paces to meet him. To Snowpaw's understanding, they were the patrol leaders most suited to this - Sharpfang preferred not to speak, and Breezetail lacked the charisma.

"Good evening," the stranger said to them. He dipped his head.

"Good evening," Darkleaf said. Her voice carried more than his, authority ringing clear.

Head still bowed, the stranger looked between the two of them. His gaze lingered on each of them, and then on each of the rest of them. He was stalling, Snowpaw could tell. Deciding.

Then, he straightened. "My name is Fisher," he said. "Please forgive my intrusion on you - I was very interested to see any living cat besides myself."

Snowpaw looked up at Shadowhisker. She knew that they were all hoping they'd find a group like themselves. What if he was the only one?

Darkleaf's head tilted in acknowledgement. "I am Darkleaf of MistClan, and this is Irisfern of HeatherClan." Snowpaw wondered if she'd reveal that Irisfern was not clanborn. "We were sent by our clan leaders to find signs of life after the water suddenly dried."

Fisher nodded. "That's why I left my home, too." He offered up a relieved smile. "It's good fortune that we crossed each other, then!"

"So it is." Darkleaf's whiskers twitched. "And where is your home?"

Fisher looked east, past the cliff and the large corpses. "There are meadows to the east, about a three days' walk from here."

Meadows! Vast expanses of blue-green grass and lazy rivers. Snowpaw could only imagine it.

She glanced at Irisfern, looking selfishly for any sort of recognition in her. But she was perfectly still, just like Darkleaf, sitting with her usual tranquility but for the intensity of her gaze.

Fisher continued, "I…" He suddenly swallowed, looking first to the ground and then to Darkleaf again, and Snowpaw sensed that he was making another decision. "We - my brothers and I - set out… about a week past."

At this, Darkleaf tilted her head almost fully sideways. "Your brothers…?" she asked coaxingly, if not gently.

"Yes, that's why I came here. To-to warn you." Fisher gathered his breath in the space between his voice and Darkleaf's. The sunset ran red now, bathing the visitor in its light as his voice darkened. "Darkleaf, Irisfern and others, please listen. Beasts run wild here. They take the form of wolves, but they are unlike any wolves I have ever seen. They come out only at night - all black, eyes all red. They possess a hunger which no living beast should. They…" He shuddered suddenly, and seemed to think better of his sentence. "I beg you to leave," he said instead, and his voice really was like a plea. Snowpaw found herself shuddering, too, her legs weak. She pressed herself into Shadowhisker's flank. His stillness was a comfort, even if it was abnormal.

Darkleaf's polite expression, at this news, had melted into a frown, limp features giving way to a snarl. She whipped around and leveled Sunfleck in particular with this glare, who returned it just as much. Irisfern didn't take her eyes of Fisher.

"Where," Irisfern began, the first time she had spoken to him, "do you suggest we go?"

Fisher didn't answer.

"The sun is dying," she continued. Her voice was different from Darkleaf's, a robin's trill against an eagle's call. "and our home is a day's walk from here. You alone of your brothers have managed to survive a week in this place. Have you come only to warn us, or give us advice?" She bowed her head to him, then, an apology to Snowpaw's eyes.

Fisher faltered again, having flinched at the mention of his brothers. "I have survived by luck alone, I'm afraid," he said quietly. It was as good of an apology as Irisfern had given, and given to each of the twelve cats before him.

Darkleaf actually did snarl then, as much at newcomer Fisher as the situation itself. She said something, then, but Snowpaw did not hear it, or perhaps she forgot it, as the other cats clamored to be heard.

Shadepaw's quiet voice cut clear through the rest.

"They sent us here to kill us."

Snowpaw hadn't noticed before then that he was beside her. Still pressed into Shadowhisker's side, she met Shadepaw's eyes from the comfort of her mentor's fur. He was looking straight at her, little blue eyes glinting in Sharpfang's shadow.

Snowpaw had nothing to say, although she might've thought of something if she didn't believe him. As it was, a chill went through her as she realized the truth of her - of their - situation. Chosen without mercy, sent out with scant even a farewell, and abandoned. She had been wondering what the criteria for the choosing was - because they had to be chosen for a reason, right?

They sent us here to kill us.

Still not having found her voice, Snowpaw nodded once to Shadepaw. And then, strength leaving her once again, she closed her eyes and leaned back into Shadowhisker. He acknowledged her this time.

"Hey, hey." He reached down and laid his muzzle on her forehead, twisting in a protective way around her. "We'll be fine, little one, I promise."

She said nothing.

Cindershadow's hatred for Irisfern chose her. Adderstar's hatred for Snowpaw's father chose her. But Shadowhisker? Easy-going, competent Shadowhisker, mentored by the well-respected Darkpool?

Snowpaw shut her eyes tighter, trying not to think that he was chosen only because she was.

And then she wondered about Shadepaw, Sharpfang and Jackalpaw, and then the rest of the cats here. She could think of nothing - besides Sunfleck's status as an ex-medicine cat. But even that was… cruel.

She took a single, deep breath and opened her eyes. Looking up at Shadowhisker briefly, she nodded, and he gave her an approving look. There was no sense hiding in her mentor's fur. It was not him alone that would save her - this she had learned early. She had to rely on her own cleverness, too.

"The wolves come every two nights," came Fisher's shuddering voice. He was suddenly backed against the edge of the cliff in the middle of a semicircle of fear. "And tonight is the third."

His words, like an omen, hung in the air as the last of the sun disappeared.

Although Snowpaw's first instinct was to panic, they were not yet in complete darkness. Twilight's grey light gave them some mercy still.

Sharpfang's voice was quick through the sudden silence. "When do they come?" he asked, standing in front of Fisher.

"When the night is truly dark; we've some time yet." But Fisher's voice was short and uncertain. Snowpaw wondered if he was regretting spending the time to warn them.

"How many?" Sharpfang asked.

"Three, but… when they howl, more answer from the distance."

"Can we fight them?"

Fisher's throat jumped, and he shook his head. "My brothers tried…" He suddenly looked behind him, and then back at Sharpfang, then to Darkleaf.

"Down there," he said. There was urgency in his voice now, companion to fear. "Down there, there's… not as much for them to might follow, but-" He jumped on the tips of his paws, suddenly leading them along the edge of the path at a quick walk. Sharpfang and Darkleaf exchanged a glance, then followed.

"We have to hurry, though," Fisher said.

"We can run," Darkleaf said.

Immediately, Fisher set off at a run along the cliff's edge, aiming for the southeastern slope, and the clan cats followed.

Snowpaw kept pace with some difficulty, having to pay more and more attention to where her paws landed as it got darker and darker. She ran behind Irisfern, and tried to match her steps, but Irisfern had a longer stride than her.

The first howl threw her off with such intensity that Shadowhisker grasped her by the scruff to keep her from falling.

To call it a howl felt ridiculous. Snowpaw had heard wolves howl before, and she had seen wolves before, albeit vaguely and from a distance. But this… It was am impossible noise, both deep enough to feel in her paws and shrill enough to hurt her ears. She risked tripping again to look up the rise, where the noise came from.

Her stomach lurched. As Fisher had said - Snowpaw hadn't realized until then that she was hoping he was a liar - there were three wolves. They were not colored black, so much as fluid pools of darkness - darker than the night itself, that Snowpaw could see them clearly against the starless sky. She felt more than saw the gleam of their eyes. Predator eyes.

Snowpaw felt bad for her prey when she killed it, and so she always tried to kill it before it even knew it was being hunted. Right then, she was not being shown the same courtesy.

The wolves ran after them.

"Shit!" This close to Darkleaf, Snowpaw heard her breathless curse. "We can't outrun them!"

Sharpfang growled from behind Snowpaw, next to Shadowhisker. "We-we have to fight!"

"No!" Fisher shouted. His voice was high with desperation and breathlessness. "We- You can't!"

Darkleaf growled. "You run on if you want." She skittered to a stop. Quick reaction times were the only thing keeping everyone else from running into each other as they did the same. Fisher looked back, faltered once, and then ran ahead.

Another howl tore through the air, and Snowpaw suddenly felt the weight of exactly how stranded they were.

"Listen-" Darkleaf gasped for air, cutting herself off. "The edge- we could- they might fall off."

"We might, too," said Shadowhisker.

"Then don't," Darkleaf yelled.

Irisfern spoke up, her robin trill wavering. "Split into three. Quick-"

They all did, each group a mismatch of clans. Snowpaw spared a single glance to see that the three around her were Irisfern, Jackalpaw and Wolfpaw of DewClan. Shadowhisker was with Sharpfang, Darkleaf and Shadepaw,

That was all the time they had. The wolves were before them.