Warriors: Cobwebs

29. The Problem's Wicked Answer

     The forest floor was slicked with blood that gleamed in the evening light. It was as if the sun mocked the forest with its cheerful shine.

     A stream of blood trickled through the grass and soaked into the fur of Webpaw's front right paw, and it warmed his skin underneath. His heart swelled with fear, his ears pinning back as he crouched low to the ground and crawled towards the brush. He followed the stream and found himself hiding in a lush green bush, peering out at the spectacle before him.

     "You're a fool," a female voice chimed. Standing proudly was a cat of ginger and black, her eyes a shining shade of green in the light, changed by the glare of the sun. Her paw was against the chest of a black tom, claws digging through his long fur and into his flesh, coaxing blood out of the wound. Shadowy black cats surrounded her, snarling at the familiar cats of DarkClan. Webpaw peered at the clancats and found himself staring at Redkit and Ashkit, both grown and battle-torn, and they and every other DarkClan warrior looked on with fear.

     "You're a coward," hissed the pinned tomcat, lashing his tail. "A coward and a kit."

     The she-cat bore her teeth, opened her jaws, and snapped at his neck. Webpaw watched in horror as she tore out the throat of the tom, forcing him to choke on his own blood. He writhed, and within moments he was dead. DarkClan was beaten down, defeated. The Tiger had sunk its fangs into the Shadow.

     Chest tight and throat closing, the apprentice watched the kit play. He was in anguish as she bounced about, plunging into and out of the snow. His ears laid back, his single green eye boring into the fur of the kitten, and all he could do was loath her. His dreams were too horrific. Too realistic. And they all revolved around her, the Tiger.

     Of course, a sister prophecy had said that there were two: one to set it in motion, and another to end it all. If the first could be stopped, then the second would not matter; the first could never begin the end. Tigerkit could never cause harm. But how would Webpaw be rid of her? How would he permanently stop her? What plan would be absolutely perfect?

     To take her away from the woods would do almost nothing. She would find her way back into the lives of the cats of the forest, whether she was a kittypet or a loner. He most certainly couldn't give her to another Clan. She would begin her path of destruction there. There was no other way. She had to be gotten rid of.

     She has to be killed.

     As Webpaw observed the jubilant kitten, his mind whirled. He was meant to help his Clan, and Tigerkit was his clanmate, but how could he stand aside and watch her become a monster?

     He sat and pondered with emotions tangled in a messy web of confusion, anger, and fear. The big picture was a puzzle, and every piece was a riddle. It was wrong, but he saw no other way. It seemed clear, like a vibrant painting.

     But how would it be done? How could a life be taken without pain? Without the killer watching the hurt in the victim's eyes? This was unknown to him.

     Webpaw got to his paws and trudged away, pawsteps heavy. Aimlessly, he walked through the tunnel and out of the camp, tail low and dragging in the snow, his path marked by the fine line left behind. He continued onward, and without direction, and he listened to the silence. He had never been so troubled in his life. Clearwhisker had told him that at times, extreme measures had to be taken, and risk was unavoidable. He remembered Fallenstar's explanation that a massive price would sometimes have to be paid to protect those of the Clan, but what if the price was the life of a clanmate, or of a defenseless cat?

     He rounded the corner of a bush and kept onward, stopping by a small mound of snow. It was there that Shadesight's body was preserved, frozen until the snow cleared and the body could be buried somewhere away from the camp. He stared at the twig that stood up in the snow, marking the dead cat's head, and imagined Sandfoot and Tigerstripe digging him back out and dragging him away, his still icy fur choking them and soaking their tears.

     Webpaw took a seat beside the stick marker, and he examined the mass of snow. He spotted a pawprint, an extra toe on one side, and knew that Fallenstar had visited that morning. "At least," he murmured to himself, "it was a painless death in the end." He closed his eye and dropped his head with the intention to send a prayer to StarClan, hoping to ask for guidance and wish Shadesight luck, but as he rolled his own words through his mind, a wicked thought made an entrance.

     Holly berries..