Beast of the Sea - WARRIOR CATS

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Can you please tell us about it again?"

Littlepaw stared up at me with wide amber eyes, her fluffy tail flicking the sides of our den to and fro in deep constranation. From the opposite side of the den, my littermate, Ripplepaw sat alone, still refusing to meet my gaze, even though I'd been sharing a den with her for almost an entire day.

"Littlepaw," I responded helplessly. "I honestly don't know what to do. Dewocean revealed nothing to me. If anything, she showed that scrappy young cats like us don't scare her in the slightest."

Except she did reveal the truth about my powers to me... I surprised a shiver. It wasn't like I could say that casually. Ripplepaw was avoiding me, which wasn't a surprise, but if Littlepaw did...

My small friend seemed at a loss for words; her tail and ears kept flicking, and her jaws opened and closed several times as though she was trying to figure out the consoling thing to say. I loved my friend, but I honestly didn't think the situation I could have thrown us into could be any worse.

Sighing resignedly, I took a moment to take in my surroundings. The midday sun glowered down over us, stronger than ever. It was the first fireleaf that I could really remember, as I was a kit last time the season came around. A year old...full grown yet with the sense of a young apprentice.

Perhaps the only thing that I could be thankful for of with my den (if you could evil call it that), was the fact that the den was almost entirely covered. Granted, it was covered in sharp white bones, a mouse length above my head when I stood up, from various sea animals, ranging from those of a juvenile fish to those of a massive whale.

Shadefang, who was in a solo cage-den several tail lengths away from the one I shared with my two friends had darkly muttered last night that Dewocean had used the Shimmersea to bring them up from the depths of the waters. In the dead of night last, I had had to surpress a shiver as I watched his hollow amber eyes, the only part of thing we had been able to see of him, as he claimed that this was only the beginning.

Trying to shake my head of my dark thoughts, I glanced over and saw Puddle and Bubble curled up together in a cage three or so tail lengths from our own. They were curled up together, Puddle snoring gently, the remains of a scrawny fish pushed to the opposite side of their bony cage.

I had wondered initially why Dewocean had kept the three of us together and the two toms also together, but then I realised that seeing the ones we loved the most suffering beside us probably wasn't great for our personal moral. She's always one step ahead, Shadefang's words rang in my mind.

"I can't believe I brought us all into this," I whispered numbly. "And yet you still want to be my friend."

Littlepaw eyed me sharply from where she had started to groom parts of her pelt at random intervals. I suddenly felt Ripplepaw's eyes on me from the other side den. I decided not to look over at her, for fear that she would turn away.

"It's not your fault."

I stared at Littlepaw in confusion. The little she-cat hadn't opened her jaws at all. Then, I realised that the words were coming from Ripplepaw. I felt a paw on my shoulder, and to my surprise, I found my littermate right beside me.

"Hey," she said strangely calm.

"I thought you were mad at me," I meowed faintly.

Ripplepaw gave me a rueful look. "We all decided to charge Dewocean," she said. "It's not your fault, Ferretpaw. If anything, it's Dewocean's fault for being so foxhearted to begin with." As I opened my jaws to protest, she added. "Okay, fine, you made a mistake. But we all did."