Reedstar's Selfishness (Zombie Warrior Cats)

Chapter 3

Sunkit's mewling in the night kept me awake. Heatherleg wasn't a mother and I wondered how she was going to feed her. Surely Sunkit was old enough to eat prey anyway? But that didn't exactly matter. No one had prey at all. Not since the day it begun.

As if on cue, Whitetooth climbed down to my branch. He only sat there. Suddenly, Whitetooth's stomach - and mine too - growled loudly.

"We should hunt while it's quiet," Whitetooth whispered. I snorted, looking over at him.

"Hunt what? Leaves? Flesh-eaters? We can't hunt at night, there aren't any prey." I retorted, sitting up. Whitetooth sighed and gave me a Are you that mouse-brained? look. "DarkClan has night patrols to catch the frogs that don't sleep at night, plus there are plenty of nocturnal creatures in our territory, too. We can hunt them," Whitetooth suggested.

I forgot about that. But what if they were infected? I shook my head and then my pelt. "Lets go." I whispered and he nodded, searching for flesh-eaters before hopping down.

I followed him, coming in beside him, as he sniffed around.

"It's hard to smell prey when all there is to smell is blood!" Whitetooth sneered to himself. I heard paws fight to catch up and Whitetooth and I whipped around, fur spiked up. I forced my fur to lie flat when I realized it was only Venomsoul and Leopardstar.

"Might as well join you," Venomsoul growled, his eyes narrowed as he padded by. Leopardstar went one way and Venomsoul went another. Whitetooth followed Venomsoul and I went forward.

"Don't cause trouble." I hissed to Whitetooth but he didn't acknowledge me.

I parted my jaws to search for any scent and got the smell of a mole not far away. I narrowed my eyes and searched the forest for the tiny creature. I caught sight of it as it scurried to a tree, chewing on something. Stalking carefully toward it, my paws trembled and my stomach threatened to growl. I clenched my jaw and focused on the mole. Taking careful steps, I came so close to it I could almost just grab it with a paw.

Instead, I leaped silently at it and landed squarely onto it, biting down onto its neck. It won't come back alive, right? I wondered. I drove a claw into it's head just to be sure.

Looking around, I made sure no one was around. I dug into the mole and finished it in no time. No one will know. I purred to myself, digging a hole and burying the left overs.

I scurried away, sniffing around for more prey. I passed tree after tree, bush after bush, and finally I came across the smell of a crow. I stalked toward the smell and found myself at a clearing full of a whole bunch of crows.

I stalked silently closer, being quick. Crows don't tend to stick around. What a lucky night, I thought, leaping towards the murder of crows. I landed onto one of them just as someone else came for another one. Leopardstar killed one with a final bite and I did so too.

The other two crows fluttered off, calling to others in warning.

"Good job," I commented but she only padded away, tail high.

She grabbed a dead vole from a hole in the ground and I followed her. "We should go to the marsh in DarkClan. I've heard there are plenty of frogs there," I suggested through a mouthful of feathers.

"Our territory is full of the infected. Do you think we can actually get through there without getting eaten or even a simply scratch? No," she replied. Her voice was hoarse and muffled from the tail of the vole and the crow's tail.

I narrowed my eyes. "We can drop off the prey at our trees and hide our scents by going in a mud puddle or in a puddle of their blood?" I mewed, twitching my ear. Leopardstar whipped around, fury raging in her gaze. "Just because there's a deadly infection spreading, doesn't give you any reason to go to our marsh and steal our prey." She spat, dropping her fresh-kill.