Warriors: Shadowstrike's Sacrifice - Book 2

Chapter 8

I'm not sure if this look means anything. Cause normally she looks pissed, even when she's purring.

I am so very sorry that I haven't been updating a lot, last year was putting so much pressure on me and I'm trying to do better this year.

________________________________________________________________________________

A quarter moon had passed since Darkspirit was exiled, and he hadn't been seen since. Nor had any dead warriors shown up on their borders, so everyone had begun to calm down.

Some were still jumpy and nervous, including Shadowpaw, who could barely go anywhere without looking over her shoulder as if her father would pop out of nowhere and attack her.

Her constant discomfort was plainly visible. Shadowpaw's pelt was always ruffled, and her eyes were now always wide and darting around, along with her ears, which were always perked.

Shadowpaw had spent most of her days trying to focus on training, and her alert senses had both affected her hunting in negative and positive ways. Sometimes when she was stalking prey she would panic at the slightest sound, but most of the time her sharp senses would help her find prey and predict its moves.

'I wonder if Darkspirit is watching me now?' Shadowpaw thoughts, casting an uncertain, worried look over her shoulder as she scanned her surroundings.

"Hey! Wake up!" Her new mentor, Dawnstar himself snapped, waking her from her thoughts. Shadowpaw jerked her head back to stare into the eyes of her mentor.

Shadowpaw glanced behind Dawnstar to realize that the clan was pulling ahead on their way to the gathering, so Dawnstar must have come back for her. "Keep up." Dawnstar growled, his icy blue eyes glittering with annoyance.

Shadowpaw dipped her head and watched her old leader stomp away. With a heavy sigh, she followed, making sure to keep up to avoid getting yelled at again.

It wasn't long before they arrived. Shadowpaw lifted her head and sniffed, the putrid scent of Windclan and Riverclan overwhelming her as she started to cross over the slippery log.

As she entered the clearing, she was almost immediately blown away about how many cats were there. There were already double the amount of cats she sees everyday within camp.

As she stood there, still shocked, Rockfang slowly approached her, "Come on, we don't want to block Thunderclan and Skyclan." He said, purring slightly with amusement as he nudged her out of the way."

"Wow are so many cats suppose to fit here?" Shadowpaw asked, looking up at Rockfang. The Shadowclan warrior chuckled slightly, leading her over to a cleared area in the corner.

As Shadowpaw sat down next to Rockfang, he gestured up towards the biggest tree where Dawnstar and two other leaders sat, "That's Deerstar." He said, pointing to a pale brown she-cat. "Windclan's leader," then he turned to the other leader but instead, his brows furrowed with concern.

"What is it?" Shadowpaw asked, glancing from Deerstar, back to Rockfang. He shook his head and frowned, "Bluestar of Riverclan must have lost her last life, that's her deputy, Lynxcry."

Shadowpaw turned her gaze away from the older cat and to a well-built pale grey tabby tom. He stood up on the branch below Dawnstar, staring out over the lake. Shadowpaw followed the new Riverclan leader's gaze to where she could see cats starting to cross the log.

"Skyclan's here." Rockfang whispered. "That's their leader, Blizzardstar," He pointed to a broad-shouldered mottled white tom, "Their deputy, Amberflight," he looked over at a ginger she-cat, "And their medicine cat, Pinetail." He nodded towards a red-brown she-cat.