Warriors: What Is There To Do?

Chapter 12- Old Memories

Splitpaw was running.

The rain plastered her fur together, making her heavier and her already sore paws yowl in pain. Her claws were full of mud and other things she didn't want to think about, and the tears falling from her eyes were adding to the wet fur already hanging limply in her face.

She didn't feel any of it.

It was very silly of her, running, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't Moonpaw's accusation that she was Riverclan, it was just all of the memories from her treatment rushing back at her from the mental rocks she buried it under. She saw how a little kit that had been born a moon before her be treated by the other warriors; she was so stunned. Splitpaw hadn't known what to expect, since what she knew was all that she knew. To see this little kit be treated so kindly... she was so guilty to feel such jealously towards that little kit.

Okay, she was really tired now. The anger was seeping away and leaving her tired, still hungry, and having a long way back to walk on her sore and throbbing paws.

Splitpaw sighed and began to follow her scent trail back when a bright flash across the sky made her legs buckle, and her eyes squeezed closed.

She whimpered as another flash lit up the reeds around her. Rain dripped through the roof to the den every few heart beats and kept her from trying to disappear. Her small body, still weak from the sudden change from milk to fish, throbbed all over and her head pulsed. The reed nest she was laying in was far from comfortable; Splitkit had never liked reeds in her nest, instead preferring the moss she had found outside the Nursery where no cat went, but then it all disappeared one day and she had to lie back down on the reeds.

Yet another flash filled her vision and yanked her cruelly out of her thoughts and back to the present as small sobs racked her body. The air was sour smelling from the flashes, and she was alone. Skyheart and Strongsoul were both back in the Warriors den, leaving Splitkit alone to face the scary things that came in the night, like the bad dreams and the cramps that overcame her small frame when she fell asleep wrong.

"Splitkit? Are you in there?" the blissful sound of her mother's mew filled her ears, and she turned around to see no one. Had she imagined it? Hesitantly, she peeked her head out of the den, letting her eyes adjust to the almost complete blackness outside.

Another flash, louder than the others, made her flinch and her paws shiver. She whimpered.

"Whoa, you're right. She is afraid. What a silly cat. Obviously her face isn't the only think wrong with her!" that was her father. Splitkit felt so stupid.

"Probably; come on, let's get back to the den, it's starting to rain again."

'No! Wait! Take me with you!' Splitkit's mind yelled out to her leaving parents, unable to voice herself because of the fear locking her body in place. She couldn't move her mouth. Her paws, eyes and chest the only things moving. Her heart beat so fast she couldn't keep up with it.

Her body was locked in place.

Splitpaw's body is again stuck, frozen in fear. She is too afraid to even think. Her chest is heaving; her eyes are wide in a fear-frozen face. Her whole body seemed to flinch as another flash struck the sky with the sound of a thousand boulders falling.

"...Splitpaw? Is that you...?" Moonpaw's worry-filled mew falls upon unhearing ears. Splitpaw is stuck in her head, reliving that horrible, Starclan-cursed night as a kit, over and over. Moonpaw, who's fur is also plastered to his surprisingly smaller frame, rushes over and checks if she is hurt.

My body has no injuries, she thought, it's my mind that's hurt.

"Splitpaw, you have to follow me! We aren't safe out here..." his voice drifts in and out, and Splitpaw can only struggle to move her body that seems to be like rock. Another bolt, this time almost directly overhead, sends her running. Her body, from being pushed forward for so long, shot forwards like a squirrel escaping towards a tree. Her muscles yowl, her paws groan and whine, her whole body protests, but she doesn't stop until she is under that fallen tree and curled up in the tightest ball with silent fear-filled tears falling. She was scared to death. The lightening was too loud, too bright, too... real.

Moonpaw is a few heartbeats behind her, and makes an unintelligible noise as he sees her already in her quivering ball. He settles down and begins licking her, getting the water out of her fur, which was starting to make her shiver even more.

At first she stiffens, his tongue uncomfortable, and he pauses. She relaxes after a moment, too cold but too afraid to uncurl, and lets the silver tom lick her fur dry.

"I'm guessing that this has to do with your Riverclan kithood. Look... I'm sorry for calling you a Riverclan cat, I was just hurt that you didn't ask for help with the hunting. I didn't know you would... react the way you did. If there is anything that I can do to help you right now...?"

Splitpaw, finally at peace about her argument with her Partner, simply shakes her head, her smile unseen, and falls asleep after the next flash, too tired to be scared.