sage | a warrior cats fanfiction

chapter twenty three

His pelt felt like plaster when he woke up.

He jolted awake, eyes immediately flickering open as he swept his dark gray eyes around. His gaze caught on Pantherleap and Adderheart quickly inched away from the tawny tom. He, asleep, shifted momentarily, his muzzle dropping as if he were to say something, though only a soft murmur came out, and no words were recognizable.

Adderheart licked his paw and anxiously drew it over his ear. Everything was going crazy. Pantherleap was... he... The tom shook his head fiercely, flattening his ears as he looked around the den. He stood and it felt as though his very bones were creaking. He shook out his pale creamy fur and carefully picked his way to the exit of the den.

He slipped past a small darkened patch of dirt upon the ground and he shivered. It had to have been Brindlebreeze. The senior warrior continued along until he exited and came upon a dark and starry night.

Generally, he'd not expected it to be nighttime. He had thought it was going to be dawn, but he supposed that sometimes injuries messed up his sleeping times. It wasn't the dead of night, but it wasn't nearly dawn, either. He gazed around the camp, noting that the shadows jumped around as he padded forward. The tom swerved and headed for the fresh-kill pile.

However, he pulled himself to a sharp stop.

There were only two pieces of prey in the pile and both were mice. One had tawny-ish fur and a strong figure, and the other had a pale creamish-brown pelt on its slim and sleek figure. The creamy one was facing away from the tawny one, but its little paws were twisted as if it wanted to go back. The tawny mouse was unnaturally elongated, but it was clearly split between being alone or being with the cream one.

As he approached, the cream one's eyes seemed to spark at him. There seemed to be fury within the mouse's black, beady depths, and he leveled its stare. His lip curled absently but he turned back to the tawny one, noting that it had twisted further away from the pale one now that he had arrived. He glanced to his paws and found them to be a different color — tawny. They were broad and tawny... and there was blood spattered on it.

He blinked fiercely and everything faded away. As he looked around, the stars seemed to gleam brighter than ever. The senior warrior hurriedly plucked both pieces of prey and quickly padded back into the healer's den. The moon within the dark and mystical sky of the night stared down at him as he slipped away into the shadows once more, and the stars twinkled politely as they studied his actions.

Adderheart didn't want to think about it. There had been meaning behind that. There had to have been, right? Cats just don't have random patches of where their fur turns color. He looked down to his paw. It was normal once more, taking its usual pale creamy-brown tone, and it wasn't as broad or as hefty as it had once been. And, obviously, it was no longer bloodied.

Suppressing a shiver, the pale-furred tom wove carefully through the healer's den. He wasn't about to wake up anyone else sleeping within the den because he'd been startled about some weird prey issue. After managing to locate his and Pantherleap's location, the tom quietly padded in. He ensured his pawsteps were soft and gentle against the ground.

However, the tawny warrior woke anyway. His head perked up, ears twitching and head tipping as he looked to Adderheart. His eyes sparked momentarily at the prey that dangled from his jaws and then the senior warrior shifted, seeming to press a paw down onto the ground. He swallowed noticeably and then waved his tail in a hello.

"Hi," Adderheart whispered, laying one of the mice down in front of the tawny-furred tom. "Nice to see you awake."

"...right. Thanks."