Legacy Rising: Dark Secrets

10

Rewritten ✔
Edited ✘

Pebblepaw had gotten the rest of the day off, no training, no patrolling... nothing. She was feeling restless and nervous, and just couldn't sit still.

Finally deciding to ask a warrior to walk around the territory with her, she peeked her head out of the apprentices' den to a surprising sight.

Troutfrost was standing next to Sootsky, a calming look on his face. The latter looked more tense, glaring at the ground and flicking her tail to-and-fro, but she was sitting there, nonetheless.

Beesting showed up just a few moments later, and the three got up, starting to head towards camp entrance.

Weren't Sootsky and Troutfrost having a giant fight two days ago? Pebblepaw thought. Weird... what if Troutfrost is up to something?

The fear that her deputy might do something and she wouldn't be there to see it is what sent Pebblepaw after the patrol.

She hoped the three warriors wouldn't hear her footsteps. Pebblepaw hadn't quite learned how to tred softly, and her paws weren't very small.

Everything sounded like the other cats. A small creature scrambling across the ground behind her. A bird cawing in a tree above. Her own paws crunching on dead leaves. The branches of the leaf-less trees shaking in the wind.

A lizard running right across the path in front of Pebblepaw made her jump.

Beesting broke away from the other two early on, so Pebblepaw guessed they were out hunting. Troutfrost and Sootsky were continuing on the path that-- suspiciously-- led towards the Beech Copse.

Something was up, that was for sure. The Beech Copse wasn't the best place to hunt with it's little leafcover and tall Beech trees. The only solid prey were squirrels, and most would be up in their holes at this time of year.

Plus, Goldenglow died in the Beech Copse. And Troutfrost killed Goldenglow; at least according to what Pebblepaw saw.

The wind wistled in Pebblepaw's ears as she watched the two warriors say a few words to each other and then look pointedly into a bush.

She was too far off to hear them and too scared to crawl any further than where she stood, so she just crouched down and watched.

Sootsky went left and Troutfrost went right, but he soon came back the way he came to follow Sootsky.

Pebblepaw's stomach sank. She knew in the back of her mind that she had indeed seen the deputy murder the medicine cat, but it seemed so far fetched that she had almost convinced herself it didn't happen.

It couldn't have happened.

She got up, a few dead leaves kicking up in her wake.

The sun was going down, casting terrifying shadows over the trail Pebblepaw was following. She replayed what she could do over and over in her mind if Troutfrost actually tried to hurt Sootsky, but she was just an apprentice. He was the deputy.

The best thing she came up with was going to find Beesting or try telling Shadeheart again.

What would Shadeheart do? she thought, pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. He was a fierce cat, but would he even be bold enough to attack Troutfrost?

Maybe he'd do the same thing. Yeah, he'd do the same thing. No one except Otterstar or Ashleaf would really be able to beat Troutfrost in battle, and hopefully Shadeheart knew that.

Snap.

Pebblepaw jumped backward, fearing the worst. Had she stepped on a branch in her overthinking?

The shrieking of a mouse had Pebblepaw stifling a gasp, but also made her sigh in relief. The broken branch hadn't come from her, it must've been Sootsky or Troutfrost.

She peeked out of the circle of bushes she had found herself in, making sure it was hard to spot her but she could still see semi-clearly.

Sootsky was holding a mouse, most likely the source of the screech, and Troutfrost was standing across from her. He looked angry, though not as angry as the last time they fought. Maybe Sootsky had scared off some prey when she caught that mouse?

Sootsky dropped her mouse, seemingly apalled by what Troutfrost was saying. She took a step back, her ears flat to the top of her head. Her back arched and she hissed.

Pebblepaw was surprised by how genuinley terrified Sootsky looked. The dark warrior starting circling Troutfrost, though she didn't make it far before the deputy started doing the same.

Troutfrost's eyes held a fire within. It scared Pebblepaw how his mood could change so quickly. Both cats were hissing now, yelling at each other for things Pebblepaw couldn't quite make out. She was tempted to creep just a little more to try and see why they were angry, but the reasonable side of her won out.

Her heart dropped when Troutfrost's eyes locked with her's.

He couldn't have seen me, Pebblepaw reasoned with herself as she slowly backed away. She could hear her heart beating erratically in her chest. There's no way.

Too scared to do anything else, Pebblepaw ran away.

--

Sootsky was dead.

"That cursed fox came back again," Troutfrost had told the Clan.

Beesting had a distant look in his eyes, and he was trembling the entire time he stood next to Troutfrost. Pebblepaw knew Beesting was a young warrior, but he had to have experienced death before, even if it wasn't right in front of his eyes.

No one would react like that unless someone they had looked up to their whole lives, someone they thought they could trust, had killed somebody in front of their eyes.

A/N :

Word Count: 900 words
A shorter chapter, but an important one nonetheless!
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