sage | a warrior cats fanfiction

chapter thirty one

Where is he?

The tom's gaze swept the clearing, trying to peek up and over the snow. He quickly navigated his way through the snow to ensure that he wasn't in the view of his new mate, which he was still trying to understand. How could have things gone so wrong? Don't you need permission from both sides in order for them to confirm it?

I can't believe this. This is all my fault. I should've never done anything with Pantherleap, I can't like him and I can't even like Willowdapple. His ears flickered harshly, eyes skimping around the clearing. He quickly headed through a couple of tunnels created by the snow, trying to move faster and faster. Maybe then he could distract himself from his mind.

There weren't tops to the tunnels, but the snow atop them had edged outward, making a small overhang. It was strange, because it had already stopped snowing, and the sun had emerged, leaving it to try and melt all the snow that had been dumped on the world. However, this wasn't an easy feat, obviously. It would take a while.

Adderheart's tail lashed as he surveyed the clearing, of what he could see anyways. There weren't that many cats around, though a few were attempting to clear the tunnels of the snow that had slowly piled back up on the bottom. A couple of cats, particularly Runningfoot and Briargaze, was attempting to try and get rid of the walls although. Though, Antwhisper, who was nearby, was advising against it.

He shivered anxiously, ears twitching back and forth.

"You're getting nowhere, Runningfoot!" Antwhisper called to the warrior, shaking his head as he lifted his paws and licked them rapidly as if to warm them up. Carefully, Adderheart looked to the walls near him, panic quickly climbing within him.

I don't want to clear these walls. If he sees me, he's roping me in. I want to talk to Pantherleap.

"It'll be fine," Briargaze called to the tom.

But what if cats know? We keep on leaving camp alone. We can't keep on doing something that's obviously showing our relationship. But I'm sure he knows that. If he knows it's fine...?

"You two are wasting time," came Antwhisper's tone once more. "You're better off hunting."

"Fine," muttered Runningfoot, and a shuffling of pawsteps could be heard before the sound speeding up and appearing to multiply.

If I leave alone, then cats will think I'm going hunting. But they also already know I've been hunting today and I didn't want to go earlier. What if Bearpatch and—

And at that moment, he recalled why Pantherleap wasn't in the clearing. He recalled why the cats were somewhat subdued, more willing to listen to instructions, at least in the case of Runningfoot and Briargaze. His ears flickered sharply and he swallowed somewhat nervously, letting his tail drift upon the ground, where it flicked back and forth.

There's a high rank meeting.

With his tail flickering back and forth behind him in a rather sharp fashion, the pale-furred warrior glanced to the snow beside him, as if he was considering launching himself through the snowy wall to get to the camp wall.

He wasn't going to crash the meeting. Evidently, that would probably be a bad move, though he did want to speak to Pantherleap, and rather soon. So how could he stick around the camp for long enough that wasn't suspicious to onlookers? That wouldn't get warriors calling for him to help? He could always just sit in the snow, but then he'd catch a chill.

Then I'll just go to the healers.

No, that wouldn't work either. The healers were in the meeting, too, and whenever it ended, he'd just make up a new plan. So his plan just consisted of sitting at the edge of the clearing until the meeting was over? That seemed too easy. It seemed as though something had to go wrong. It was too simple of a plan, too easy to be executed, too easy to happen that something had to go wrong.