CotS #1: The Dark Path (currently being rewritten)

Chapter One

I bent down to the prey pile, my mouth salivating at the sight of delicious, juicy prey. I smacked my lips hungrily and reached out for one plump, tasty mouse that I had been eyeing. Suddenly, I could feel eyes boring into my neck. I looked around nervously and spotted my mentor, Lovegrass. What was wrong this time? With Lovegrass, you could never tell.

"You didn't hunt today," Lovegrass scolded disdainfully, eyeing the mouse at my paws. I had to push down a sudden flare of anger. Wasn't she the one who scheduled me for battle training the whole day? And now she expected me to go hunting as well? There were only twenty-four hours in a day!

"You made me do a full day of battle training," I protested. Lovegrass stared back at me flatly. Her eyes were merciless, and my expression turned grim. No way was I worming out of this one. I could see it in her eyes.

"The you hunt after battle training," Lovegrass scolded. "That is no excuse! I'll let you take that mouse today, but tomorrow you'll hunt for the Clan! And you'd better catch more than just one mouse for yourself!" She turned and stalked away.

"Okay," I mumbled. I so wanted to roll my eyes at Lovegrass, but that would get me a moon of cleaning out the elders' den, and I didn't want to do that. The elders were nice, admittedly, but their stories were boring and they never insulted anybody. Not that I did, but I liked it to have a bit of spice.

I didn't like my mentor. Lovegrass was... alright, admittedly, but slightly mean, and she hated me. Because... well, simply because her sister, Peacewind, was my mother.

Peacewind was a nice cat at heart, I supposed. But she'd had kits with a passing rogue, Root. Lovegrass had killed him. I'd never known Root because Lovegrass killed him the moment my mother was visibly expecting. I hated Lovegrass for that, and she hated me for being the offspring of a rogue. Oddly, Lovegrass didn't hate my mother. That was weird. I'd rather she hated my mother, because she ignored me anyway. Thanks to her, I had no father. 

I grabbed the mouse and sullenly retreated to the apprentices' den. I saw Minnowpaw edge away from me. Boy was it terrible to be the only child. I was the only daughter and child of Peacewind and Root, and that was just terrible. I couldn't rely on anyone. Peacewind wanted nothing to do with me – Lovegrass had probably made some sort of deal with her to be nice – and well, with no siblings to depend on, and Root dead, I was really, truly alone.

Littlepaw and Emupaw tried to be nice, but they were edgy around me. Not like I didn't expect them to be. The only cat really nice to me was the Clan deputy, Iceflame. She was Peacewind, Lovegrass, Joyspirit and Patienceheart's mother, the father being Stonestar, and she didn't agree with what Peacewind was doing. She was kind to me, at the very least. I'd expected that from Peacewind, not Iceflame, but Iceflame was like a mother to me. That, at the very least, was nice, although Iceflame had her moods and sometimes wasn't in the mood to be a mother. She was deputy and she had other responsibilities, and technically, I wasn't hers.

Suddenly, there were yowls from outside camp. Loud, distressed yowls. I snapped my head around. I had heard the sound before anyone else, and shortly after I had heard it, my Clanmates started to notice, too. Several rushed to the entrance, eyes worried. I waited at the side. No one would find pleasure in my presence anyway.

The evening patrol returned, only comprising of Echoheart, Riversong, Streamwhisker and Browntail. Before, Eagletail had also been with them. He was missing. Had a fox gotten him? I narrowed my eyes, trying to pick him out from among the cats but saw nobody. 

"Where's Eagletail?" the worried exclamation came from Wheatpelt, Eagletail's mate. Echoheart faced the poor queen with a bleak expression. She looked as though she didn't know what to say, her mouth opening and closing hopelessly without a word spoken.