𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝑨 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒕 𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒄

Chapter 1

I fear not the dark itself, but what may lurk in it...

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The wind screamed through the camp, tearing out branches, leaves, twigs with its fury. It rose up and howled in rage, as if calling down a storm. The sky responded, clouds darkening, thunder growling. The sky released its tears, raindrops as large as pebbles, splashing incessantly onto the land below.

"Waspsting! Get the kits! A flood's approaching! They'll drown!" a faint voice frantically screamed outside.

Maplekit's eyes opened, everything seemed blurry, the edges of shapes seemed soft.

A wave crashed into the clearing, announcing its presence as cats scrambled around.

"Father! Father!" she mewed, her siblings chanting the same mantra, hoping to escape. They were all frozen with shock, not knowing what to do.

The dark golden tom gracefully leaped into the den. His golden eyes scanned the Nursery for a mere second, after locating his target, picked up her brother and Maplekit stumbled on the now-damp floor of the den. She reached out a paw to him, but his father bounded outside without tossing a glance at her. Maplekit watched the other kits running outside, although they were stumbling every few steps, they were making their way to dry land. Maplekit tried to follow them to safety, but realised her paw was stuck in the damp ground. She writhed around, hoping to free herself, yet the more she struggled, the more she seemed to unable to move. Her pelt was becoming brown from the watery mud that seeped inside the Nursery.

A dark shadow loomed over her followed by a deafening roar and she looked up, a murky wave of water rushing down towards her. She felt her paws lifting off the ground finally, the cold water seeping into her fur, biting at her paw pads. She opened her mouth to yowl for someone, for anyone to help her, but water flooded into her mouth and  felt something lodged into her throat, scratching its walls and within seconds, she could taste a metallic tang within her mouth. Small wisps of pinkish-red floated out of her mouth as she watched them entwine with the delicate stream of bubbles darting upwards. She couldn't breathe and dark patches began to hover in her sight. She felt her lungs beginning to burn, claws crushing them from the inside as  the darkness swarmed around her before she vanished into its dark grip.

"MAPLEKIT! WAKE UP! MAPLEKIT!" a frightened mew called into her ear.

Maplekit's spring-green eyes snapped open as she let out a shuddery exhale, fur raised on her spine as she flattened her ears, still hearing the roar of the flood echoing within them.

Maplekit looked at her sister who was worriedly checking over her, a trait that she must've gained from her foster mother, Dappledlight, the sister of Ghostwhisper, one of the two medicine cats of MistClan. When Dappledlight had learned of what had happened to Scorchflame, she volunteered to become her sister's foster mother in less than a heartbeat. Dappledlight had looked up to Scorchflame, yet it wasn't surprising, for everyone in the clans looked up to her mother. 

Scorchflame spoke in a manner that could make you feel like you were someone entirely different, that you were someone special, that you were the one she worshipped instead of the other way round. And yet, she could make you feel that you were nothing more than rotting prey, she could make you flee back to your parents, mewling and bawling like a newborn kit. 

Well that's what she had been told by Heatherstalk. Silentkit and her foster mothers' personalities were so different. Heatherstalk was the sister of Scorchflame but lacked the fragility and delicateness that Scorchflame possessed. Heatherstalk was more...diaphanous. Everyone could see through her, everyone knew her secrets but not that Heatherstalk minded; she believed that secrets would only lead to the corruption and ruin of an individual.