The Fire Within

Chapter 17

 First off, I'd like to thank Katie for making this cover. After looking at mine, I think I'll keep it for the moment. Great job Katie!!

A gust of wind blow Hailstorm and WolfClaw away from each other. The trees disappeared in black mist. Every cat around WolfClaw vanished too. Except for HailStorm. He smiled at her again.

"I forgot about a tiny, small detail." He stalked around her, circling like a buzzard. His claws clicked and echoed in the darkness. She stayed alert, not letting him leave her sight. He chucked and smirked.

"You're quite a cat aren't you. You have your own prophecy and everything." He jumped a step close to her, making her hiss. He hoped back like a rabbit.

The shadows steered, and yellow eyes stared at the two. WolfClaw felt small and tried her hardest to stay alert. But she was having trouble. She jumped when a shadowy cat whizzed past her. The shadows laughed.

"I see you've meet my dear friends." Hailstorm gave her another smirk. One Shadow cat stood next to Hailstorm, looking over his shoulder. "That's WolfClaw?" A voice cracked, "I thought she would be bigger." The shadow rapped around Hailstorm to WolfClaw. It's cat eyes stared at her. She realized now were she was. In the DarkForest.

Hailstorm really was working with them. He smiled again and approached her.

"I have a proposal." A giggle escaped his mouth, "You and me, working together." He rapped his tail around her and stood beside her. "It could be purr-fect!" He grinned at her.

This was treason! She would never side against her clan! The Mouse-Brain was evil, and she would protect her clan. She let her claws fall out imaging Patchkit, angry enough to rip Hailstorm to shreds.

"I will never side with you!" She swung her claws, shredding it at his face. He yowled and jumped back, but not fast enough. Blood dripped from his eye, and an ugly claw mark was visible. He had to close his left eye to keep the dripping blood in.

The shadows faded and rippled. HailStorm was no longer glaring or standing. Instead, he lay dead, under Adderstep's paws. She backed away from them, but Adderstep's face was calm.

"You disappeared, and I... brought you back with his death." He stared at her with blank eyes, "He was going to kill you no matter what you said." Adderstep took a step back. Cats watching stood silent as SilverStar came close.

"Thank you, Adderstep. I never HailStorm was capable of this... chaos."

She looked at his body, then turned away. "He is responsible for LeopardFur's death. He is no cat of Mistclan." she spoke, and cats who stared at him turned away too.

Instead, they looked at AshStar's. Nightingale sat next to her. The cats of both Mistclan and Fireclan dragged her to camp. No one spoke.

~~~

Foresttail and Nightingale helped MorningWing bury Ashstar. Then Nightingale left with WhiteRose to become leader. WolfClaw found that no one was ready to work. Many needed cared for, so she helped Leafpaw with cuts and blood. By sun-set, all cats were well rested. NightingStar had chosen DuskStorm as the new Deputy.

WolfClaw felt calm with her clan now. They no longer feared one of them would die. The threat was delt with and they were done.

Beware the Shadow in The Mist.

The prophecy was now easy to unravel. The Shadows were the Dark forest cats. And the lead Shadow in the mist was Hailstorm. One prophecy down!

One more to go...

~~~

That's again for all the support!

I'm glad we finally made it to 40 members!!

Super happy!!

High five for anyone who guessed Hailstorm!

And as always:

~peace kitty peps~