Shadows in the Night

Chapter Eight

I know, I know- this chapter is super short. I'll be adding an extra chapter to account for this short one :) The reason I made this chapter super short is because you don't know who's POV this is from, and for that reason I didn't include any cat names (which is super hard to write with!) Anyways, this chapter is supposed to add suspense and mystery. Well, bear with me when you're reading this chapter! I'm sorry that the quality's not as good as usual!

-Alliehuang

“Wake up! Come on!” A blue she-cat drowsily lifted her head. Two large amber eyes were peering at her. She groggily lifted herself up onto her paws. 

“What is it?” The cat groaned.  I just got back from the gathering, and I’m tired!  Just leave me alone! She screwed her eyes up and curled up into a tight ball.

“A cat is hurt!”

The sleepy cat rocketed out of her den, her fatigue forgotten. Don’t let it be my daughter! Skidding to a halt beside the small shape of a slumped gray fur in the middle of the clearing, she pressed her muzzle into her flank, desperately feeling for the telltale throb of life. The she-cat sighed in relief. My daughter’s alive. But then she noticed that the cat lying in the clearing’s front paw was twisted at an awkward angle. 

“What happened?” She asked a yellow tom, who had carried the gray she-cat back to camp. The tom fixed his amber eyes on the unmoving bundle of fur.

“We were in the lake, when she decided to leap into the water. She didn’t know how shallow it was, and she hit rock bottom.”

The golden she-cat who had woken me up quickly returned with bindweed, two sticks, cobwebs and some poppy seeds. The anxious mother reached out to take the supplies, but the golden she-cat shouldered her away.

“You’re too anxious to do any good,” she looked over her shoulder and meowed. The blue she-cat bowed her head and sat next to her kit, whimpering as the injured cat winced in her sleep. The golden creamy she-cat put a stick on either side of the gray cat’s forepaw, and then added layers of cobwebs before wrapping the bindweed around the sticks. She looked at the grieving blue she-cat for approval, and the mother nodded, testing the support to make sure it was secure. 

“Hey!” She called to the yellow tom. His gaze snapped back to her. “Carry her into the medicine cat’s den.” The injured cat moaned as her forepaw bounced against the tom’s body. A blue-gray she-cat was already waiting for her injured littermate, and she had made a nest. She gently laid the gray she-cat down in the bed of moss and feathers. Curling up around her, the injured cat’s mother tried to drift off into sleep, but the face of a particular tom kept on haunting her.

Her blue eyes fixed onto a spot on the wall. She remembered everything. The cat closed her eyes, and a scene unfolded before her eyes.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

“Do you think our kits will be able to swim well and run fast too?” A gray tom whispered in her ear. The she-cat jumped backwards in shock.

“How do you know?”

The gray tom pressed his muzzle against her flank. “Do your clanmates know?” She shook her head.

“I-I was going to tell them-” she stammered. The gray tom curled his tail around her. 

“It’ll be alright. I’ll come to your clan, or you can join mine!”

The blue she-cat flinched as if he had struck her. “No. What about our duties?” She didn’t wait for her mate to reply. “I can’t raise these kits on my own.”

“Oh yeah?” The tom spat. “Remember what happened last time? I had to rescue our kits from those LightningClan rabbit-brains! You know how much of an effort it was for me to sneak them all the way to StalkClan?”

The she-cat sighed. “That was wrong of me,” she admitted. “This time, i’ll raise our kits in my clan. They’ll know nothing about their parents.” The tom turned his back to her. I’m so sorry! 

Turning around, the gray tom padded towards her. “I don’t regret anything,” he meowed, twining his tail with hers.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

The call of an owl snapped the blue she-cat back to the present. Pressing her muzzle into her daughter’s ominously still flank, she recited the names of herbs until sleep engulfed her like a black wave.

Who's POV do you think it is? And who is the gray tom? PM me if you think you know who! :D

Chapter 9 should be out by next Thursday (And I promise it will be way longer than this one!)