Loyalty

Chapter Two

Rowanfrost

Oh, StarClan, not Silverpaw... he couldn't stop thinking of his apprentice. Images of her beautiful body battered and bruised flashed through his mind, the life seeping out with her blood onto the grass floor. Rowanfrost sank his teeth into a hind leg that was flying at him, and slashed another cat's eye.

Another cat leapt at him, but he nimbly leapt onto its back.

Then it happened.

Rowanfrost saw the moment of weakness...

He sank his teeth into another cats throat.

He held.

He didn't let go.

The other cat coughed, choking, blood seeping into their mouth. Rowanfrost bit down once more, harder than before, and the cat fell. Its eyes were blank, and only then Rowanfrost realized what he had done.

I... I killed him. That cat... is dead. Because of me.

Rowanfrost looked at the other cats, and the area around them. There was a weak pine tree, and then he realized it. I can clear the evidence. He rushed away as the other two cats ran to their fallen clanmate. "Pebblefrost," one whispered, "Pebblefrost. Wake up. Wake up, Pebblefrost." Rowanfrost realized with a shock of guilt that the last thing Pebblefrost had seen was him, biting down, killing her for no reason. Silverpaw is a reason! Rowanfrost jumped to the pine, and climbed on it. He jumped, trying to shift it. It slightly moved, and he jumped again. As before, it slightly moved. Now, he jumped one final time and it fell. Crashing onto the other two cats. Immediately Rowanfrost ran off, his sleek fur bunching as he ran after Silverpaw.

He saw the silver she-cat laying on the empty moor, the last DarkClan warrior crouching over her. Rowanfrost hissed, and leapt at it. The DarkClan warrior thought he only had one enemy, and Rowanfrost easily pinned him. "A tree fell," he snarled. "Your Clanmates are dead. I tried to get them out, but couldn't." Shock sparked in the gray-flecked tom's gaze. "Was one of them a silvery she-cat with darker gray flecks?" He asked, urgently. Rowanfrost got off of him, knowing he wouldn't harm the only cat with information. "I believe so," he said. "Why? Who was it?" "Oh no!" Cried the other cat. "That was my sister, Pebbleshine..." sadness hardened his gaze.

Rowanfrost looked down, trying to have sorrow form in his eyes. "I am sorry for your loss," he said. I murdered this cat's loved one! I murdered them! Me! It was no tree, it was me!

The gray cat disappeared towards the site of the deaths, and Rowanfrost bent down to Silverpaw. "Are you okay?" He asked. Silverpaw looked up, her eyes half-closed. "K...kel...kelp...streak..." coughed Silverpaw. Rowanfrost understood. She needs a medicine cat!