Warriors: Back to the Wild Book#3

Chapter 16

The caves were quiet. Mousepelt listened to the stream flowing gently through the tunnels as she tried to rest. Her ears, however, kept twitching, making her anticipate a sound. She hissed in agitation finally and stormed to wherever the noise was coming from.

The noises soon turned to voices and she recognized Silversol's voice. Mousepelt stayed out of earshot and downwind, so no one would scent her. Deathmask was sitting proudly next to Silversol along with a black and silver tom Mousepelt had never seen before. Clawface and Snowtuft were sitting in a wide ranged group of other cats Mousepelt didn't recognize.

"The time is drawing closer!" Silversol announced to the cats. "We have broken Mousepelt and Amberheart is as useless as ever to this prophecy! Now, there is nothing to stop us from taking revenge on those ungrateful cats!"

Cheers broke out through the cave amongst the gathered cats. Mousepelt growled irritated.

Not while I'm still alive! Mousepelt hissed in her head as she bolted to a tunnel. She scratched at the sides until it began to crumble down around her. She quickly ran away from the collapsing rubble before heading to the next tunnel. She continued to close up the tunnels until she was sure she had plugged up all of them.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mousepelt spun and saw Snowtuft glaring at her with deep displeasure, his scar making Mousepelt want to purge.

"I'm glad you're here Snowtuft." Mousepelt snarled, unsheathing her claws.

"You won't kill me." Snowtuft flicked his white tail. He seemed unscathed by her threat but he didn't hide anything from her. He was terrified of everything!

"Oh, no?" Mousepelt tilted her head. "I made a promise to kill every last one of you! I won't let you hurt anyone up there! All I wanted was to make Amberheart know what it was like to not have the world kneeling at your feet, you all want to do is kill for the sake of killing and revenge!"

"What are you going to do?" Snowtuft spat back. "You just trapped yourself in here too!"

"Good!" Mousepelt hissed, baring her teeth. "Now, no one can hurt me and I can't hurt anyone! Neither can you!" she pounced on the white tom and they rolled around on the ground clawing at one another and tried biting at each other. Mousepelt struck the white tom's face and she felt blood splatter on her face. Snowtuft then bit her shoulder, making the she-cat flinch. She kicked at his stomach until he let go of her and she bit down on his forepaw.

An angry yowl split the air and Snowtuft was ripped away from Mousepelt. Another cat grabbed Mousepelt's scruff and pulled her away. Silversol flung Snowtuft to the side and stood between him and the brown speckled she-cat.

"Enough!" The white she-cat spat. "What is going on here?"

"She plans to kill us all!" Snowtuft snarled.
Silversol looked at him and blinked before letting out a soft mrrow of amusement. "She won't be able to kill us! She'll get weaker and weaker as time goes by."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mousepelt hissed.

Silversol turned to her and her yellow green eyes gleamed. "Pretty soon, you'll need more cats around you, so that you can survive. You made this mistake yourself. You're stuck here and you won't be able to leave this place. Others will have to hunt for you. You don't want anyone to get hurt, you're just going to have to live with us then."

Mousepelt shivered. She hadn't been showing up for training with these cats and she could already feel herself get more lethargic by the day.

Her stomach rumbled and she realized she needed something to eat.