Black Shadow's Soul / WARRIOR CATS /

Chapter 1

The forest was light, and specks of dust caught rays of sun as they floated through the slanted beams, which spearing through the thick canopy of leaves and gave the undergrowth a golden sheen. Leaves with light shining through them cast pale green patches like stained glass onto the trunks of the trees, whose rough brown bark was cracked through with ivy stems that curled their delicate tendrils deep inside of the wood. 
Outstretched ferns, small, cupped mushrooms, weak saplings, and dead leaves coated the floor, blanketing the surface in brown and green.  On the branches of the oak trees, cardinals and small wrens twittered gaily to welcome the new day; a stray rabbit nervously loping through the verdant shrubbery brushed its chestnut-colored fur against a blackberry bush, its beady eyes as shiny and round as the heavying berries. 

Beneath a fallen pine tree, tabby fur camouflaged with the shadowed brown needles, was a cat with eyes yellow as lemons and claws unsheathed. At the curve of her belly were her three kittens, their fur downy as owl chicks', and eyes still tightly shut to the living and breathing world around them. 

Suddenly, the she-cat flattened her ears against her head as the forest came alive with the heavy pattering of paw-steps.  Crashing through a thick clump of brambles were three larger cats, their muscles bulging beneath their sleek, well-worn pelts. 

The biggest, a gray-and-white tom with a mangled ear, stepped forward and showed his gnarled, sharpened teeth.  His eyes flickered to the kittens as he snarled to the she-cat, "You're under arrest."

"Don't try to resist," a scarred brown tabby added at the mangled cat's side, hungrily gazing at the queen.

"They're not going anywhere with you, you flea-ridden, beetle-blooded, lice-licking excuses for cats," she retorted, standing over her litter.  Her tabby fur was spiked up with alarm, and her claws glinted bone-white among the leaf litter. 

Pumping through her veins as thick as tree sap was the raw, unrestrained instinct to protect the young that were now cowering at her feet. She fought every urge in her body not to savage upon the cats, fear spiking adrenaline down her spine and keeping her rooted to the spot.  She knew they had come to harm her kittens, and she was terrified of it.

"Oh, we don't want them," the mange-eared cat growled, taking a step closer to her.  "We have no use for kittens.  At least, kittens who aren't our own."

The queen lifted her forelimb and, as quickly as a stroke of lightning, swiped her claws punishingly across the speaker's face, her teeth bared and flashing.  The big tom screamed with pain, and after a few moments of initial shock, blood began to pool from the wound, drying into dark red spikes on the fur covering his face.

"You'll think better of doing that again," the arrogant brown tabby meowed wryly.  "Next time, Shredded-Ear won't be quite as merciful, Hummingbird."

"Shut up, Long-Thorn," Hummingbird snarled, shaking flecks of blood off of her paw.  "Unless you want one, too."

"That's enough!" Shredded-Ear hissed, arching his back.  "We don't need your useless kittens, Hummingbird.  It just so happens that our group is running out of she-cats."  He flicked his tail at Long-Thorn, his amber eyes glittering with cool amusement.  "And I already told Long-Thorn that you're his."

The last cat, a black tom with a scabbing slash across his shoulder, meowed roughly, "Maybe we take the kittens, too."

Shredded-Ear turned on him, his muscles bunching as he raked his claws across the speaker's muzzle.  "Speak one more time and you're crow food, Black-Shadow!" 

However, during the moment of distraction, Hummingbird shot down, snatched one of her kittens by its scruff, and bolted into the undergrowth.  The two remaining of her litter let out tiny noises as they searched for her warmth, and from somewhere up above in the tree canopy a squirrel skittered onto a new branch.

Shredded-Ear screamed with rage as she disappeared.

"Shall I go after him, sir?" Long-Thorn meowed as the she-cat's striped tail disappeared between the trees.

"No."  The mange-ridden tom spat blood from his mouth, clotting a group of leaves.  "She can't run forever. We'll find her then.  Besides," he said, grinning wickedly, "We've got kittens to take care of."

Black-Shadow, who had backed up until his rear end was pressed up against the trunk of an oak, flinched at the pure agony coursing through him from his wound, and from each desperate cry of the kit as it was ended with a sharp nip from Shredded-Ear's teeth. 

When the two carcasses were pooling blood, Shredded-Ear turned and gave Black-Shadow a scathing glance.

"You'll be lucky if you ever see the sun again, after you let her escape."

"What about me, sir?" Long-Thorn insisted indignantly, gazing longingly at the place where Hummingbird has disappeared.  "I still need a mate."

"Don't worry about that." Shredded-Ear began to trot into the woods, leaving a sickly trail of blood in his path.  "I'm sure something can be arranged."

The forest became eerily quiet once again while Long-Thorn turned and padded dejectedly after his leader.  After a few moments of pause, dread coursing through him as never before in his life, Black-Shadow glanced after them, his eyes round with grief. 

Then, making sure that he would remain beneath Shredded-Ear's notice, he took a quick step forward and pressed his nose into each of the lifeless kits' bodies in turn, his heart seeming to shrivel with sadness.  Maybe I could have saved them. 

"It wasn't fair," he murmured concededly, casting one last glance at Hummingbird's young before disappearing into the brambles.   But I didn't stay with Shredded-Ear because I knew life would always be fair.