Stone Forests || Choose Your Own Path

Chapter One

Cicadasong woke with a start, his eyes flying open. There was a loud sound, filling his entire head with rumbling and growling. The world was dark, and he could see nothing but his paws in front of him. Barely.

    Panic set in. Cicadasong sucked in short, shallow breaths as he tried to gauge his situation. He couldn't keep his footing for very long at any point of time. Gravity seemed to be shifting every few heartbeats, the growling becoming harsher and louder with every change. He looked around but could find nothing but the occasional flash of light, and that did nothing to tell him where he was.

    Time passed, and Cicadasong managed to calm himself enough to keep himself from panicking too badly. He didn't remember much from before. He had woken up to go hunting with his apprentice, Adderpaw, and then after that he...

    He didn't remember what happened after that, which scared him. As he was trying to jog his memory for something, the rumbling stopped. His ears perked and he slowly looked around, confused. He hadn't realized he'd stopped moving. He stood properly for the first time since awakening, but it was immediately upturned when there was a loud BANG! and then he was being lifted. He hissed as he fell back on his haunches, pain lacing up his back paw.

    The memories hit him suddenly. He and Adderpaw had been hunting near the edges of HowlClan territory when his paw had gotten caught in a twoleg trap. After attempting unsuccessfully to free himself, he'd sent Adderpaw back to camp to get help. Then the twolegs had shown up. He'd fought - or rather, tried to, but it was difficult when his paw was not only caught but in enormous pain - but then they had poked him with something and he'd grown extremely tired to the point of passing out.

    StarClan cursed twolegs! he thought angrily, sitting down to relieve the pressure on his injured leg. He could hear them talking, a series of squeaks and growls only a psychopath could make sense of. He was being moved again, but now the change in gravity was more consistent, more of a strange swaying sensation than what he felt in that unpredictable monster.

    It only lasted a few moments. Suddenly, he was lifted and then placed onto something stable with a short clack. There were a few moments of unintelligible grumbles and squeaks from the twolegs, and then he had to screw his eyes shut as sudden light broke through. His eyes adjusted quickly, and he realized he was in an odd mesh box - and all around him were cream walls and flooring, with silver platforms that other similar mesh boxes were placed onto. After a moment, Cicadasong realized that some of them had animals in them - a few other cats, some dogs, and even some prey-items like rabbits and some rather delicious smelling creatures that resembled very fat and large mice.

    Then, at the opposite end of the mesh enclosure, a large twoleg paw appeared outside of the silver bars. His eyes instantly locked onto it as the paw made some concoction of swift, sure movements, and then there was suddenly a door, visible as an outline against the rest of the mesh. The twoleg made some sort of cooing noise that Cicadasong assumed might have been in an attempt to calm or placate him, but he refused to fall for it. He was the exact opposite of calm and friendly; his muscles had tightened in unease and fear, which was only made worse by his proximity to the large, heavy, unforgiving twoleg paw.

    There was a small, high pitched screeching noise that made his ears fall back tighter against his skull, and then the door swung open and he was left with a choice to make. The twoleg began to reach into the enclosure, and Cicadasong knew he had to act fast.

~

Welcome to the end of the first chapter! Here, you get to decide what Cicadasong does next!

Does he:
A) Bolt out of the opening and hope for the best
B) Cower at the back of the cage and hiss at anything that comes close
C) Attack the twoleg that opened the cage

Check the comments to cast your vote!