(Warrior Cats)SmokeTrail's fire

Chapter 24- Petals

She said nothing, but kept her eyes locked on mine. She was covered in dried blood. I thought to see something worse, but they probably meant her mind when they said severely injured. She was clearly hurt, but looked good enough to talk to. "Look, we aren't going to hurt you...." I whispered. "You will live. You can return to your free wild life or join us after it's over...just trust me....I don't want to force you."

Her trembling subsided slightly. "I....my name is Rose....." I nodded. "Tell me, what happened?" I asked quickly. She shook her head. "I...I can't..." She whispered, casting her eyes at the ground.

I narrowed my eyes to green and blue slits. "Force it out of her." I shivered, hearing Dreamheart voice in my left ear. "Calm her down, she'll talk when she's comfortable, I bet..." software whispered to me. I couldn't choose so I went for the first thing that came to me.

"What were you doing here, Rose?" The she-cat flinched at the harshness in my voice. "Why were you here in a place like this? I can already tell what goes down here, so why were you participating in It?" I hissed.

Finally she gave in after a moment of cowering under my cold glare. "M- my kits!" She shrieked, catching me by surprise. "The gray one- he found me trying to help one of my sick kits. He told me that if I came here, he would help me. I believed him..."

I glanced over at the dead gray tom. His neck was slit messily, claw marks showing that they'd definitely fought for a while, and that both had struggled quite a bit before he wss killed. I looked back at her. "And what about the other?" I flicked my tail st the other tom who was white, now covered in blood, so much so that I couldn't even tell what killed him.

"When I arrived, I had no idea what I was in for....he took my kits away somewhere so that they didn't see....When he came back I realized what thwy were going to do...,I let him...they nursed my kits back to health and fed them, but....It continued....By this point I just felt like their toy....I realized that they had betrayed me...traded my freedom for a sick game....so I..." She paused.

I crouched down a bit, softening my gaze so that she would feel less pressured. "I attacked the gray tom first...I jumped on his back and tried to cut his neck from behind....he slammed me against the wall, but I managed...The other begged for mercy before I'd even gone near him....It took me until he was lifeless to realize...he was probably a slave just like me..."

I couldn't believe my ears. "We'll find your kits. Just hold tight okay-?" A voice cut me off. "Don't worry, we heard them crying." I turned to look at Goldeneyes. Beside him was a tom, well-fed but bruised and beaten. In his jaws were a female kit, mewing for her mother. She was at least a few moons younger than a time, most likely born back to back.

Rose's eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh!" She fell back to the ground when she tried to stand, but goldeneyes let the kits run to her. She held them close like any mother would. Both kits were as hurt and badly bruised as the mother was. I couldn't even bear to think of what they were doing to the small things.

"What do we do with her?" Goldeneyes asked. "There's no way we can leave her.."
Dreamheart sighed. "Oh well, guess We'll have to take her with us..."her eyes drifted up to softstar with a smug look. He smiled. "Rose, do your kits have names?" He asked.
The queen glanced up, clearly surprised at the question. "Well, yes, of course. The oldest one is Rain...The little one is Petal...their father didn't want a daughter....so he left us all..."

"Don't worry, we'll get you safe, fed, and shelter. One more thing....have you ever met a young tabby named Orchid, by chance?"

"Its...warm..." Rain was almost fascinated by the comfort of the nursery. He wandered around, recovering easily from the events.

Petal on the other hand, got along better with orchid's kits. On the other hand, Rose got along with pretty much nobody. Orchidpetal often brought the younger queen to tears, even though she knew she was perfectly old enough to have kits in the wild, but way too young for a clan. She would go on and on, telling her she was irresponsible, that she should have killed them before they were born because she wasn't ready.

Worst of all, she told her she should have gotten rid of petal in order to keep her mate. Orchidpetal had no morals. The even worse part was that I was the cat the kits came to when they doubted their mother's love. But finally..

"That's enough. You shouldn't ever speak to Rose that way. She's been through a type of he'll you've seen, plus far more than you know. You escaped in free will. She was there until we discovered the smell of the dead bodies."

Both queens expressed it differently, but we're surprised to see that Softstar looked pissed. His glare narrowed in on orchidpetal who curled her tail around her kits, shrinking back protectively and surpressing a fearful hiss.

The leader said nothing to her. He just simply sat by Rose's side. He was about to say something to her, yet I interrupted him. "Softstar, let her rest. She's had a long day." I refrained from hissing the words.

He sighed with agreement, clearly dissapointed at how much of a fact my words were. He slowly got to his paws yet hurriedly left the den. I sighed and watched him go.

I perked up my ears to a terrifying yowl, rushing out the den, almost running into Softstar. My eyes widened with shock. "Oh my starclan.."