(Warrior Cats)SmokeTrail's fire

Chapter 23- Happy?

In all this time I've seen and experienced a lot of things. Great things, but then there were...other things. A lot of which I would like to forget about, no matter the cost."But it just seems like the more I try to forget about it, I just remember it more vividly, it really is a scary thing...I've never really cared much about the pasts of my denmates, but he....there was something about him that I found myself so curious about." Applepaw mewed.

"I don't know what it is....he just seemed so...mysterious. and quiet. I thought that for being the son of the deputy, and at one point; the leader, he would be more arrogant than he was. But he was shy, submissive, and quite a loner." Treepaw mumbled, his green eyes casting down to his paws.

"His whole personality changed, but we couldn't really tell....he was living a nice life of solitude for a while....it made us realize how much power we really had over him...." Leafpaw added on, her small ears pressed to her head guilty.

"We started telling him things...some were true, some were lies..,some were a little bit if both...he believed every word we said with little to no convincing. We tormented him...we made him do things that no cat should do...especially as a tom....it was one thing we did that pushed him over...." Rabbitpaw sighed, refusing to meet my eyes.

"We knew his mind wasn't stable...his dad wasn't either....we made him provoke his father....Iceglare...he practically beat him into hell...he was so messed up, he couldn't train for weeks....but we didn't stop there..." Treepaw continued.

My ears perked up when I noticed Applepaw bite her lip. I looked at her expectantly. "They told him "Hurt her. Beat her. Kill her, do whatever you want to her. The only goal is to mess up her mind beyond repair. ".....and that's what he did...."

I gasped softly in shock.

"I can't go back on that...,nothing can allow me to recover from what he did to my body....nothing." Applepaw hissed. Now everyone was quiet. I was too afraid to say anything to her, worried that whatever I could or did say might backfire.

"He felt so bad about it....that was when he first started threatening to kill himself...eventually he tried to kill me.....he hoped thst if he eliminated me, that the regret would dissapear..." Applepaw kept getting quieter.

"We caught him only because he was hesitating to kill her after getting her weak. We beat him so bad, that his dad beat him up twice as bad for not fighting back. Another moon or so of missed training...then it was our turn.."

" We were given permission to hunt with each other without our mentors. We didn't know the prey was rotting, or that it was poisoned. We just thought it was making our jobs easier..." treepaw mumbled.

"So we brought it back and almost killed our clanmates, not only that..." Leafpaw continued.

"Berrykit and Shiningkit don't have a mom because we were just being lazy...."Rabbitpaw added.

Softstar was just as soft as his name suggests. The thought of his motherless kits and dead mate was bringing tears to his eyes. "Alright, I think that's enough. Let us speak with softstar alone door a bit. You are in no way let off the hook." I hissed.

Beside me, The elderly medicine cat agreed with a nod.  The apprentices scattered.  "So..." I turned to softstar "how are you holding up...?" I asked. He sighed "slightly better.." he replied.

"Poor thing...what a shame those little apprentices stole from you what was important to You.." Dreamheart attempted to console the tom. He dismissed her words with a flick of his ear "I still have too little daughters to love and watch them grow...I will spend every life with them....I can't lose them...."

For such a strong leader,  he was a sweet father. Juniperleaf had told me that he was always investigating the deaths of clanmates. That included helping diagnose cause of death with Dreamheart, and the more...bloody deaths. However what I was about to hear was something I never saw coming.

"Smoketrail, we want your help with some new issues we've been made aware of." I pricked my ears at how serious Dreamheart now sounded. "What is it...?" I asked cautiously.

"Three warriors. Two Tom's and a she-cat. Dead. There's definitely a lot of blood. The she-cat is alive but seems traumatized and refuses to speak to us. The Tom's are from our clan, but the female is unidentified. She refuses to tell us her name. We've only been questioning her for a while. When I left the scene and arrived here was when the apprentices approached me looking like wilting flowers." Dreamheart meowed.

I listened intently. "Were there any other cat's around?"I asked. "More she-cats. All well fed and clean, as well as a few more Tom's, once again in perfect shape. What do you think it is?" Softstar meowed.

"I want to see this place."

It was partially underground. It was dimly lit by sun that shone in as it set. It was surprisingly quiet. As they saie, two young Tom's the age of a partially mature male warrior lay dead. In another area, more well lit, some windclan warriors were trying to question a terrified she-cat.

I shushed the cats behind me and snuck around. In another larger area, I knew what was going on. She cats were wandering the place, tails in the air; provoking their male counterparts. I cringed. I didn't know this place existed, but I could tell it was disgusting. I shook my head and turned to see softstar now standing there.

"We want you to try talking to her first before we ask these rats. " and he lead me back t the den with the shaking she-cat. I took a deep breath before crouching down to meet her blue eyes, close enough to feel her trembling. "My name is Smoketrail, what's yours..?"