Warrior Cats: In the Shadows

Chapter 6

     Shadepaw shivered uncontrollably in his next. His jaws were clamped together, but occasionally fell apart for breaths. Each breath let an icy gust of air flow away from Shadepaw's mouth. Leafbare was taking its toll.

     Shadepaw took more of his father's genes in his breed with Burmese-lengthed fur, but had his mother's Norwegian Forest tabby stripes. His fur didn't keep him as warm as the other apprentices, proving as unfair to him.

     Leafbare has left it snowing for the past few days, confining the weak and young inside camp, and dens. Shadepaw grimaced as he seemed to be bitten by the frost.

     A paw prodded him in the side, he looked up to see Stormfur weakly standing above him.

     "Follow me."

     The old tom struggled to breathe in the frosty air, his breaths coming in short rasps. Why he was still deputy at such an old age, Shadepaw did not know. Stormfur had been 108 moons when he was selected as deputy by Crowstar. Crowstar has since then lost 2 lives over the course of 36 moons. Leaving Stormfur at 144 moons old today. Stormfur had leaked the stories of his wounds to Shadepaw and Mosspaw when they were kits. Shadepaw remembered them as if Stormfur had told them just a minute ago.

     "I had developed cataracts at 84 moons old, I paid no attention to the sudden blurriness. This eventually turned to a major blindness I still carry today."

     "How about your tail, Stormfur? What happened to it?" Mosskit had asked.

     "Oh, my tail, lost it at 36 moons in a dog attack. That dog tore it off as easily as I could tear off a piece of rabbit," Stormfur's voice had trailed off into murmuring to himself.

     The loss of Stormfur's leg was the question Shadekit had been waiting to ask,"Stormfur, your leg is missing. What happened to that?"

     Stormfur looked up from his murmuring and continued his tale,"My leg had been severely injured in an encounter with a Twoleg. I believe the Twoleg had no intention on harming me, but I saw him as a threat. He picked me up, and I gave him a nasty bite, but when he set me down somewhere else, I lost consciousness from blood loss.

     "I had woken up on a smooth marbled surface, surrounded by walls that held tools to help animals. And a Twoleg stood over me, it's mouth was covered by some sort of device, and it's hands were white up to the wrist. It's pelt was white, and it's lower pelt was as blue as the sky is today.

     "I had tried to get up and run, but I was stopped by a sharp pain in my 'right hind leg'. I looked down to see only a stump where my leg had been, covered in a really long, rectangular, white thing. I was kept at this strange place for about a quarter-moon. And they released me where I came from, and, boy, was my Clan worried." Stormfur had finished with a tone of humor, and smiled at the kits.

     "I'd better get back to my duties than, I hope ya'll enjoyed the stories," And with those words, the tom had "bounced" off into camp.

     Shadepaw hadn't realized how far they were going after his trance of the past. A voice seemed to come from afar, but it seemed to get closer, and soon it was easier for Shadepaw to understand.

     "Are you deaf!!!! Surely you can't be deaf before me! Shadepaw, are you listening!?" Stormfur was half a tail-length away from Shadepaw's face, his tone was hard.

     Shadepaw shook his head,"I am now, sir."

     "Good, because we're here."

     Both cats stood incredibly close to what seemed a huge crack in the land. Shadepaw carefully peered over to see what lay at the bottom. He saw a faint blue, thrashing river, and rocks lay beside it. Cracks among the gorges walls were filled with old moss. Shadepaw recognized this place from Yang's territory tour...

     Green Death Gorge...

     Shadepaw gaped and stepped back, and stared at Stormfur.

     "W-why did you take me here?" The apprentice cowered behind the old tom.

     Stormfur sighed, his sigh was full of honesty and depression,"I need to teach you something, come, sit beside me."

     Shadepaw cautiously stepped next to Stormfur and sat down.

     "Oh, Shadepaw, how I wished you didn't need to learn the truth. You'll be the first, and maybe the only one to know."

     "You don't need to tell me, Stormfur, if it'll bring such chaos to my life, or yours," Shadepaw murmured.

     "Nay, you must learn this." Stormfur twitched his stub of a tail, and a sleek black tom creeped from behind a tree.

     Shadepaw contracted his eyes at the cat in horror, he was scared.

     "Don't be scared, Shadepaw, it's only the truth." Stormfur stood up as the tom neared closer. Now that the strange cat was closer, Shadepaw noticed it was carrying a long metal item with attachments. Stormfur sat down again, his hindquarters raised lightly. The black tom put the metal item onto Stormfur's tail stub, and he pressed down on a button on each side. A click satisfied him.

     Stormfur stood once more, and was able to wave his "tail" around. "Ah, yes, it feels nice to have a tail again. Leg?"

     The black tom ran back to the tree, and came back with a metal item in the shape of a leg. They went over the same process as they did with the tail.

     The tom once again ran to the tree, and came back with a bottle written with Twoleg language. The cat squeezed the bottle above Stormfur's eyes, 5 drops in each eye.

     Stormfur looked back at Shadepaw as the black tom ran away for good. The old tom had pupils for once, and looked somewhat better than he did before.

     "Stormfur.. I'm confused, what's going on?" Shadepaw asked.

     "Oh, nothing. Only, I needed some permanent enforcements for a game of Moss Ball, except, we don't have moss, or another cat to play with so..." Stormfur narrowed his eyes, and brought his paw hard against Shadepaw. 

     The apprentice stumbled, and as he lost his balance again, felt himself falling. His screams cut through the air.

     "So you're the moss!! Oops, forgot there was no ground there," Stormfur laughed and walked away from the gorge.

     Away from the stream.

    Away from the rocks..

    Away from his old life...

     Away from the falling, tumbling, screaming, Shadepaw....