The Hunger Games - Warriors Edition

CHAPTER FIVE - something important

Webpaw's p.o.v

I stood outside the den, anxiously awaiting for my Clanmates to be ready. Tonight the DeathClan rogues were taking all the Clans, she-cats and toms, hunting. I didn't know where though, as I don't think any prey would be hiding around this deadly place. I shifted my paws and glanced around in the eerie morning gloom.

Suddenly I heard loud pawsteps behind me, and spun around, hissing. "It's just me!" my older Clanmate Briarstalk yowled quietly, smiling. Forcing myself to relax and pushing my fur down, I nuzzled up to him, his soft white chest-fur brushing my nose. I love Briarstalk. And I always have. He's been like a father figure to me and my brother Whitepaw for so long, even though the whole Clan doesn't know who my father is, and never will.

My mother is Darkwing, a muscular black she-cat who is angry with us all the time. She never has the time to just say she loves us even once. And every time me or Whitepaw ask about our biological father, she just shakes her head sadly, meowing that he died a long, long time ago...

A loud, ear-piercing call jerked me out of my deep thoughts. It was Flora, a DeathClan she-cat that was in charge of all of us toms. She stood directly in front of me and Briarstalk now, forcing us to make eye-contact. "Toms! Line up, now!" she yowled orderly, looking up and down the line with her fierce green eyes.

When a little black tom who I didn't recognize stayed where he was, whimpering and ears flat, Flora just knocked him backwards, glaring hard. "Go on, get! If you wanna see another day here at The Hollow."

Then got back to her place in front of the line. "Alright. SunClan, LeafClan. Follow Blackberry into the tunnel, please. ShadeClan, RainClan. Stay with me--we'll wait."

A thin and wiry black she-cat led the toms into the dark, muddy tunnel. Where was she leading us? Only StarClan knew! I was frightened up to my whiskers now, and my own legs wobbled with uncertainty. What if I didn't make it? What if any of my Clanmates didn't make it? What would I do then?

I forced myself to swallow. I wasn't gonna die. If they did, they'd probably have done it by now. Like, that cage in the center means something!

And when I first arrived here, I had been ambushed on a patrol with my mentor Silverfrost. Yewtail, another one of my Clanmates, was with us as well when we were kidnapped. Now all of us are here together.

Yesterday, Silverfrost told me to meet her by Merca's Death Stone at the very back of The Hollow that night. And so I did.

She had told me a lot of things...

~~~

Silverfrost stood beside a small clump of thin birch trees, nervously waiting for her apprentice to arrive. She had a lot of things--very important things--to tell him. The moonlight shimmered on her pale pelt, reflecting it onto the frosty puddle beside her.

Suddenly she heard pawsteps crackling through the dry leaves on the ground, and spun around, wide-eyed. "Oh, Webpaw! It's just you!" She exclaimed softly, gasping with relief.

"Yes, it's just me. Now what did you want to tell me?" the little tom's voice was unusually deep, and he had the most serious look on his face.

"Uhh...Webpaw..." the silver tabby she-cat laid down, pressing her warm muzzle close to his. "Are you alright, dear? You seem...different."

Webpaw backed away, narrowing his darkened yellow eyes. "Different? What do you mean, different? I'm the same as I always have been, Silverfrost."

"Well...I-I don't know..I just-"

"Silverfrost, what? Flora will know I've gone, you newt-head. Just tell me what you brought me here for!" His short black claws were digging into the soil now, and Silverfrost could tell he was frustrated.

"Oh-k-alright.." she sighed. "Me and Cherrynose--that ginger-and-white she-cat from LeafClan, I think--have overheard Robin and Har talking."

When Webpaw tipped his head at the names she'd given, she just gritted her teeth and glanced around. "Our guards, you silly!" she meowed swiftly. "A-anyways...so like a day ago I heard Robin talking about this branchy cage in the middle here. He calls it...Death Cage. And Cherrynose told me that Keyz--um...I think he is one of the cats that hunts the extra prey--mentioned something called 'the Games'. Doesn't that sound frightening to you? Especially with all this going on? It's StarCraft, I tell you!"

Silverfrost watched as her apprentice jerked his head around, eyes wide. Someone was coming! She angled her ears toward the sound of pawsteps.

"Alright, Webpaw, I'm trusting you," she murmured hurriedly.

"On what?" he whispered back, shaking his head in disbelief at her previous words about the DeathClan matter, already beginning to break away toward his own side of The Hollow.

"On telling your denmates, Webpaw! And the other toms too!"

As she turned to head away, along with Webpaw the other direction, she stopped dead. He looked back longingly.

"I-I love you, Webpaw!" she called, and then disappeared into her den.

~~~

I stared at the rock wall on the other side of the place, hoping to just see...just the very tips of her white ears, the moonlit glow on her silver pelt, the frosty shimmer in her blue eyes. But only darkness lingered, and shadows threatened to creep over the border.

She...she...loves me?

It was hard to think that anyone could love me. I was such a frog-brain!--my body is small, my pelt is plain, my eyes are dull, and I'm just plain clumsy! I can't hunt or fight, so I know I'd just fail my warrior assessment. Whitepaw is way better at doing anything I try, and he's a more handsome tom!

Why does she love me?

My own mother barely loves me, yet my mentor has her heart set?

"Hey, quit day-dreaming. Get a move on!" Flora was back at it again, pushing and snapping, forcing us into the tightly squeezed, disgusting mud tunnel.

"Where does this lead?" I risked, glancing back to see her sharp muzzle nearly at my tail. Blackberry's group of SunClan and LeafClan had already made it through, but no one said a word.

The purplish black she-cat just glared at me as I pushed through and out, pressing my paws into fresh grass and leaves on the other side. Still not the swamp I love so much, though! I thought sadly. Why did they have to take us away from everything I loved?

"Ugh! Webpaw, move your tail-hole!" it was Flora, nudging my haunches through with a paw.

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there!" I yowled as I tumbled out, knocking into my Clanmate Mudpuddle--whose been here since almost the beginning--on my way. "Where are we anyway?"