Warriors: Ｗ Ａ Ｓ Ｔ Ｅ Ｌ Ａ Ｎ Ｄ (Book 4)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭(𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐)

Horned'tip and Emerald'gaze stayed in a cave until the rain passed. They both continue to walk, but Emerald'gaze start to lose hope quickly. FireClan territory is indeed a wasteland, but he never knew how depressing it is. "I've never seen one of the emptiest territories in my life." Emerald'gaze said, Horned'tip nodded. "They call this the 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙣'𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡. Really no cat has ever passed their territory, because once you go in, you never come back. Luckily, I found a way, and just keep coming back and forth. It's really not that scary at all." Emerald'gaze looked at Horned'tip, blinking.

"I've seen worse..." He spoke. "Not as worse a going into 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩." He spoke. "We might be getting close pretty soon." They stopped and looked at a huge group of dead trees, fog start rolling in. "This doesn't look that bad...right?" Emerald'gaze said, Horned'tip replied. "Nope, it has monsters, living dead cats, you name it." He said, he was used to all of this stuff besides Emerald'gaze. "Just remember, if you see any deer looking creature, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙧. Just ignore it and you'll be fine, it only feasts on fear, and don't even try to run."

"I-" Emerald'gaze was surprised. "If I did run away, what would it do to me?" He asked, Horned'tip glared. "You'll probably know how the old FireClan deputy died." He said, Emerald'gaze blinked, he starts to get an uneasy, since he himself has been through adventures like this. "Alright then...." Emerald'gaze and Horned'tip begin walking down, the fog slowly starts to take over. Horned'tip, again wasn't fazed by this, there was a screeching noise, it sounded like a squeal with a mixture of a bird noise.

Emerald'gaze looked at Horned'tip, he starts to walk faster, the noises start to get louder. "I know you're scared, just calm down, it won't hurt you if you ignore it." He said, Emerald'gaze breathed heavily. "Could you atleast walk faster?" He said, Horned'tip rolled his eyes. "Just calm down." He spoke. "Look, we'll talk about other things that gets off your mind, so where did you go all those days?" Horned'tip asked, Emerald'gaze explained. "It's a long story, but that spirit that everyone has been talking about, ever since Mono was still alive, and Bronze'star. Eclipse's soul stayed in the moon cave."

"Ohhhh Eclipse? The one that burned down FireClan?" Horned'tip replied, Emerald'gaze nodded. "Yeah them, well I'm guessing their brother was trying to put them out of their misery, but they just killed him. And they tried to target me, luckily the heirs saved me, but left with this curse. I have this weird looking scar on my arm, it looked familiar with those soul shards." Emerald'gaze looked at the mark. "Interesting life you have, with a unique power." Horned'tip said. "Not so perfect, I snap easily and almost kill someone."

"Will this 'curse' you're talking about will go away?" Horned'tip asked. "If we destroy all those soul shards." He replied, Horned'tip start to think for a second. He had a memory of going to see his sister before the disaster, he had a vision of seeing a glowing looking shard floating around, but then it disappeared. "Maybe....I probably have found what you're looking for." Horned'tip said, Emerald'gaze stopped as he turned towards Horned'tip. "Wait really?" Horned'tip nodded. "I think I found it where there was trash all around, unfortunately it was a long time ago, so maybe it moved."

"WE CAN GO AND FIND IT!" Emerald'gaze ran off quickly, Horned'tip yelled in the back. "WAIT!" He said, he ran after Emerald'gaze. Emerald'gaze stopped as he heard a similar screech, he kept running since he didn't want to show fear as a result of being a target. Not until he slowed down and looked at the deer figure. He seen the red eyes glowing in the dark, he also seen a rhombus shape on the deer's forehead. "The soul shard...." Emerald'gaze gasped, he then run towards it, he heard Horned'tip screaming in the background.

"𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙍𝘼𝙇𝘿'𝙂𝘼𝙕𝙀 𝙉𝙊! 𝙂𝙀𝙏 𝘼𝙒𝘼𝙔 𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙈 𝙄𝙏!"

(𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙤𝙡)

Emerald'gaze desperately ran towards the figure, but he stopped soon as the 'deer' widely opened its jaw, its skin was sharp while releasing the blood from its mouth. It also had huge skull like eyes and sharp antlers. The rhombus shape glowed red; it had a soul shard in its forehead. It led a squealing roar as it charged at Emerald'gaze, Horned'tip came from his right and launched at the deer on its antlers. Emerald'gaze screamed at him. "MOVE OUT THE WAY!" He said, he formed green ice as a shape of an ice shard.

The deer thrown Horned'tip away, Emerald'gaze ran off quickly, Horned'tip ran after him. Emerald'gaze looked at the creature chasing him, he slid through the dirt and went under it, he made the ice shard flew towards the deer's head. The deer turned around, the ice shard ended up puncturing its head, breaking the soul shard inside. It led out not blood, but shadows, Emerald'gaze and Horned'tip looked at White'Star's head screaming as it fades to the sky. The deer turned a bit normal but with skin and mold all around.

"Nice kill..." Horned'tip said, surprised on how much power Emerald'gaze have. Emerald'gaze blinked, hearing the screams from the shadows. "So, what did you say it had?" Horned'tip asked, Emerald'gaze replied. "A soul shard, those things keep White'Star alive." He explained. "In which we didn't get it all before the territory fell off." He then stopped as he heard the winds, the forest grew a little colder. Emerald'gaze seeing snowflakes falling.

"Run." Emerald'gaze turned to Horned'tip with a serious look. "What do you mean run? Is there someone after you? If so-" The winds start raging for no reason, they both saw the white spiritual looking cats, and 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚'𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧. The first time he had met them in person. "RUN." Emerald'gaze took off, Horned'tip followed him, confused. White'Star echoed through the forest. "𝘿𝙊𝙉'𝙏 𝙇𝙀𝙏 𝙃𝙄𝙈 𝙀𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙋𝙀!" They demanded, the spiritual cats begin to fly through the forest, making a blizzard. Emerald'gaze start to jump up, the ice made him walk up the cliff, Horned'tip followed him, careful not to fall.

Soon after the dark forest appeared trying to break the ice. Emerald'gaze and Horned'tip ran and ran until they made it to the cliff. As Emerald'gaze got up, he grabbed Horned'tip by the paw and dragged him up. He formed a shield of green ice to block the dark forests and the koris. Emerald'gaze spot a hawk with a firey aura in the sky, it then produced fire and made Emerald'gaze and Horned'tip disappear, fighting off the dark forest.

(8 soul shards left)