The Shadows - A Cat Story ✔

Chapter 14

[Author's note: If you notice any errors in my writing, find something confusing, or have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know! Thanks for reading!]

Stream followed Ash into camp. After last night, it was hard to believe Rain was still alive. Flame, Spider, Dawn, and Fern were carrying Rain into the healer's den. Stone followed close behind them, constantly telling them to be careful. They were lucky to have a young cat like Moon in the Shadows, otherwise Rain would be dead.

"Eek! Her tail is tickling me!" Dawn squeaked. Stream watched as Dawn jumped, and Rain fell off of the shoulders of the other cats, and slumped on the ground. Rain shrieked in pain. Flame stared in horror. Stream saw her body jerk, and then she didn't move.

"Rain! No!" Flame wailed helplessly. He threw himself at Dawn. "You! You killed my kittens! You killed Rain!" Flame had pinned Dawn down, and he dug his claws into her shoulders.

"Flame! Stop!" Spider tried to pull him off of Dawn. Fern came to help him.

"You don't understand! Rain was expecting my kittens! And Dawn killed them!" Flame growled at the cats trying to yank him off her.

"Flame- I'm sorry!" Dawn cried in pain. "I didn't mean to!"

Spider and Fern finally yanked Flame off the she-cat. "You cannot blame her!" Spider snarled.

"She hurt Rain! She killed Rain! She deserves to die!" Flame caterwauled. Soon he calmed down, and Fern let go of him while Spider pressed against his side.

"It's not her fault," Stone told Flame. "I wouldn't have been able to save her. She'd lost too much blood."

"Blade needs to die. Blade needs to die." The depressed orange tabby muttered.

"I'm sorry about all this," Spider whispered to Flame.

Stream saw that they all cared for each other in different ways. Flame and Spider were as close as any siblings, Rain and Flame had been in love. Fern cared about Dawn as if they were sisters. Who did Stream care about? Ash. But was that all? She cared for all of the bright colored cats, but she wasn't very close with any of them. Just Ash. She didn't have a family connected by blood here, but she did have Ash.

Poor Flame, his mate and his kittens were dead. Stream hadn't experienced anything like that. Perhaps she should talk to Ash, and ask him what it was like. Fern, Flame, and Spider had went to dig a hole to bury Rain in. She turned to Ash. He was heading for his den, and he looked stressed.

She followed him down the tunnels and into the cavern. "Ash, lets talk."

"What's to talk about?" The tom retorted.

"You are obviously stressed, and you need to vent. Vent to me, I am good at listening." Stream sat down beside him.

"Well," He sighed. "Okay." He adjusted himself into a comfortable position. "I feel so bad for Flame. I don't know if I'll be able to stop Blade, and I don't know who the one is that can. I don't feel like a leader. I don't want to be a leader. Seeing the look on Flame's face when Rain died was like remember my parents death. I remember being about six moons old, and I had just got back from a training session. I wanted to tell my parents all about it, but they weren't in the camp. Without permission, I left the camp, alone, looking for them. I had traveled to the cliff, and I decided to go passed it. I climbed down the slope and went around. My parent's bodies had lay at the bottom of the cliff, all battered, clawed, and bloody. It was if some cat deliberately shaved their fur with his claws and tossed them down. Their legs were in funny positions, and their necks were shaped weird. I wailed in agony for a long time," Ash had tears pouring out of his face.

Stream didn't say anything. She waited for him to continue his story. "I sat there for a day and a half, until Night and Mud came and got me. It was hard. So hard." The black tom cried out, and then he tried to breath slower to relax himself.

"I am so sorry, Ash. I didn't know all of this, and I'm glad you told me," Stream licked his ear.

"Am I a bad leader?" He looked at the white she-cat.

"No. You are setting things right. Your cats adore and respect you as their leader," The she-cat soothed. It was the truth.

"What will they think, when I cannot stop Blade?" He blinked.

"If they cannot stop him, they shouldn't expect you to. They will understand, Ash." Stream knew that what she spoke was true.

"Thanks, Stream. That really helped. I'm glad I have some cat that understands me." Ash nuzzled the she-cat.

Stream never felt alone when Ash was with her, but it felt like they were being watched, and it made her feel vulnerable.

Ash must have felt it too, because he scooted closer to her. Together, they sat there. It took a few moments before they no longer felt like they were being watched. "Perhaps we should go hunt. It has been a while since I'd eaten, and we haven't hunted together in forever, and the prey pile is low now that the cold season has arrived." He got up, and started down the tunnel, Stream at his side.

They padded out of camp, and into the snowy world of the forest. Prey would be easier to find, since it would be gathering as much food as it could before the next snow.

"Stream?" Ash glanced into her eyes.

"Yes, Ash?" She wondered what was on his mind.

"Never mind." The tom walked on, silently.

Stream had followed him to a patch of undergrowth. Something wiggled beneath it. She halted. It smelled like mouse. There were more than one in the undergrowth, so she circled to the other side. Then she crept up on the mice, and started growling so they could hear her. They instantly ran out the other side, three of them, into Ash's paws. He trapped them and killed them one by one.

Stream caught Ash's eyes. Something inside them created a moment. "Ash, I... I really like you." She saw Ash's fur stand on end.

"Oh, uh.. Me too..." Ash muttered, shaking. Stream felt slightly hurt, but she walked up to him and nuzzled his ear.

"Let's take our catches back to camp," She whispered.

Ash picked a mouse up in his jaws, and hooked the another in his claws, throwing it on his back in between his shoulder blades. Stream grabbed the other, and side by side they headed for camp.