Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

XXIII

The sky was strange, tonight. The heavens were painted in a gradient from deep blue to russet, and the moon hung hazy amid the strange colours. Silentdawn noted that it was something she'd never seen before.

Her mind wandered, and yet it was only a brief track off what she'd been thinking about for the past hour. She stared down at her paws, feeling a bizarre urge to grip each rock and stone on the ground. That would've been the first time, she thought. The first time I would've killed someone I really knew. 

She turned her head, staring in the direction of the place where she'd nearly done it. Strangely, any twinge of remorse within her felt weak. She wasn't even conscious! It didn't affect her mentally. And besides, I didn't actually kill her. I shouldn't worry about anything, right?

Right?

A sudden crashing sound stopped her thoughts. Silentdawn stopped in her tracks as a group of cats entered the camp, panting with exhaustion. Their eyes were wide with shock.

At the sight of their appearance, Vogel stepped forward in apprehension. "What happened!?"

The cat leading the patrol stepped forward, lowering his head as if he had news he didn't wish to deliver. "It's Feuer. We were attacked by a rogue, he was way too fierce for us. Most of us managed to escape but Feuer...she didn't make it."

Silentdawn gasped, feeling winded from shock. Vogel stared at him blankly, mouth agape and paws trembling. A she-cat stepped forward from the crowd, shivering. "But how could some random rogues take on a patrol from us and outmatch them?"

The tom stood still for a moment to think. "They might not have been normal rogues. They could've been from another group like us."

At the suggestion, Silentdawn felt a million memories flood her mind.

"But why would they want to attack us? We didn't do anything to them, we don't even know them," the she-cat challenged. 

The tomcat huffed in anger. "Why aren't you taking this seriously? We could all be murdered." 

Within a second, Silentdawn felt as if her heart had been run through. She dug her claws into the earth to keep herself in the ground, but she was overwhelmed by floating feeling, as if the world around her was fading into a blurry haze.

"Ha! 'Wouldn't take you seriously'? When did I do that? Stop making things up!" she hissed.

"Enough," Duilleog spoke out, prompting the crowd to turn their attention toward her. "Arguing will not solve the situation. We've lost one of our members, it's our duty to take action before someone else dies." 

She quickly sprinted up a stone tower at the edge of camp, leaping from rock to rock until she overlooked every other cat. "Due to the risk we should keep patrols to a minimum. Our strongest fighters will guard the camp from any malicious outsiders. Your behavior has been disruptive, and while a massacre is the absolute worst-case scenario, it is still a risk we should look out for."

Duilleog continuously gave out commands, and yet they all faded into static for her. She stared at her paws, feeling a countless fears scream to her. It was like an agonizing pain surging through her mind.

Not that. Anything but that. She felt tears began to roll down her face.

//

A/N

R.I.P Feuer. She existed for a bit and then she didn't.

Also weird short chapter.