Venom [WARRIORS Fanfiction]

III

Cobrapaw stood over Streamstrike, panting, her eyes bloodshot. She buried her nose in the other she-cat's fur, taking in her scent. 

"Streamstrike," her voice cracked, "Streamstrike... please, don't leave me." The young she-cat looked up at the huge tom looming over her. He was the one who had killed Streamstrike in front of her, and he was going to pay. The grief-stricken apprentice leapt at the tom, her mind fixed on vengeance. She attacked blindly, claws ripping at the tom's pelt and she fought, filled with fury. He fought back, but her uncontrolled anger gave her the advantage. Finally, her jaws met his throat. He collapsed to the ground, dead, and Cobrapaw buried her face in Streamstrike's fur and wept. 

---

That battle... that kill... they were my first. The first of many. Streamstrike was the world to me, and that tom, he took her away. I hated him for it. The red that clouded my vision was a stranger to me then, but not now. Now, I am far too familiar with it. Why is that my first kill was my attempt to avenge someone else? It's so different than the rest of my kills that... that it's the one my mind goes back to when I think about this dark, bloody path I've taken. It was the one that set me on this path, but not the one that set this path in stone. That was later. 

---

Cobrapaw staggered back into camp, dusty, red-eyed and sobbing. Heads turned and cats began to murmur when they saw the blood on her claws and teeth. 

Minkstar stepped up to her. 

"Tell me, Cobrapaw, what happened?" he said firmly. 

"He- he killed her," she sobbed. Minkstar narrowed his eyes. 

"Show me." She nodded, and, staggering, led him out of camp, and along the riverbank. The site of Streamstrike's death was just around a small bend in the river. The ground was stained with blood. Streamstrike's limp body was next to the river, and the tom's was nowhere to be seen. 

"Did you kill her?" Minkstar asked, the scene in front of him devastating him.