Legacy: Timeless (Book 2)

Chapter 14: In The Shadows

Chapter 14: In The Shadows

Willowwater yawned and rolled over from where she lay on the cold, almost muddy, ground. It was something she was not sure she could get used to. The smell of ShadowClan had never been pleasant either, and the mixed scent of ShadowClan and rogues, had tainted the lovely smell of RiverClan.

I should be used to it by now, though. She thought, looking up at the pine-covering that blocked out the sky. She shivered, unable to relax when the sky was blocked from view. I hate this all!

Frustration and helplessness mixed with misery was forever on her tongue, tainting everything she said. It had also slowly made its way to her mind and now everything she thought was bitter and sharp, also pessimistic. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the way she used to, back in RiverClan, fishing with her friends. Happy and at ease. It brought up another memory.

Rainstone... A cat that had been a little too important in her life. The dark gray she-cat with the darker blue eyes flitted like a hazy shadow in her mind. It came with a sting of hurt and a sensation of wonder. She sighed and opened her eyes, staring between her paws at the pine needle ground.

She'd never really been able to push away the feeling that Rainstone had abandoned her, abandoned the Clans. She shook her head, she knew why Rainstone had left, understood how she'd felt; but that didn't make it any easier.

What did you expect?! She berated herself harshly, Rainstone was a rogue! She had no attachment to the Clans, and she was expecting kits! She'd given us plenty of warning, its not like she could think up some genius idea to save us from this mess anyways.

Regret pooled in her belly, cold and sickening. If only we'd listened back then... of only Sunstar hadn't wanted to not fight, this wouldn't have happened. But now Sunstar was dead, along with most of the Clan, her closest friends were dead too. And she was stuck living in this swampy, stinky forest.

At least the ShadowClan cats didn't have to leave their home. Not that she envied the ShadowClan cats, most of their cats had been slaughtered in battle, at least a few RiverClan cats had escaped, probably turned rogue. But she hadn't even been lucky enough to do that.

"Willowwater! Are you out here moping again?" She looked up from her brooding to see Creekshade, a former RiverClan warrior like herself. She looked at Creekshade with sympathy, the black she-cat had been saved by her black fur, but none of her three kits had been so lucky. Creekshade's dark green eyes looked permanently haunted by her young kit's screams as Nightwing murdered them in front of her eyes.

Willowwater supposed she should count herself lucky that she was one of the few captured non-black Clan cats that Nightwing had chosen to let live. Not that this life was really worth living anyways.

"Flickertail wanted to see you," Creekshade mewed, her voice sparking her back to reality.

She gave a growled mutter. Flickertail had been RiverClan's medicine-cat, and for whatever reason, Nightwing had allowed him to live and teach Nightshade, a black rouge who would be the one and only medicine-cat when her training was done. Willowwater couldn't help wondering what would happened to Flickertail when he was no longer needed.

Willowwater padded through the forest to the ShadowClan camp. Oh, sorry, the NightClan camp, she knew she'd never really accept the name though, like most cats. She paused outside the camp entrance. She hated going in, she actually wasn't allowed to sleep or eat inside the camp, she lived a little ways from this camp with the rest of her former RiverClan colleagues who didn't have black fur.

The camp was for black-furred members only. She still couldn't understand why Nightwing was so engrossed with black fur. Talk about a major ego...