SHADECLOUD

            It was two days after Flowerburst’s death. Shadecloud had just finished taking fresh-kill to the nursery and was settling down in her nest with a small shrew for herself.  “Hey!” Jayfeather called from the entrance to the den. “We’re running low on juniper berries and Berrynose has a stomach ache. Could you go and get some?”

            “Can I finish eating my shrew first?” she asked.

            “Yes, Shadecloud, of course you can,” he meowed.

            Shadecloud gulped down the rest of her shrew and trotted into the forest. She padded along the trail she knew by heart, listening to the birdsong and rustling of the leaves.

            Shadecloud thought she heard soft pawsteps following her. She continued walking as she cast a glance behind her, and she crashed into the hard bark of an oak tree. “Ouch,” she mumbled as she rose to her feet.

            Shadecloud continued onwards, ears pricked for the slightest hint of movement, but she heard nothing else. She halted as she saw the juniper bush. She sniffed the air to make sure she wasn’t making another error. She smelled the sharp tang of juniper berries and something else. It was the pungent odor of mushrooms, but something was beneath. It was a cat scent, not a Clan scent though.

            She paused and tasted the air again. She smelled a faint trace of a ThunderClan cat on its pelt.

            It was the smell of Seedfur, the traitor, who Shadecloud had killed in a vicious battle. In stopping Seedfur from attacking Bramblestar, she had possibly saved one of her leader’s nine lives.

            There was only one non-Clan cat that could have known Seedfur. She whirled around, looking for a dark gray pelt to be hiding in the shadows, searching for the glint of sunlight on icy blue eyes. Thorn was the cat that had been following her and an image of Flowerburst’s body lying in the center of the hollow as Woodpelt and Groundsquirrel sat vigil for her flashed through Shadecloud’s mind.

            She turned tail and fled, running at top speed. Shadecloud didn’t care where she was going, she just needed to get away from Thorn before he killed her. She dashed swiftly through the forest and she heard loud pawsteps following her. Thorn kept getting closer and closer. Shadecloud was getting tired and didn’t have the stamina to keep running for much longer. There was only one thing she could do. Fight.

            She whirled around with her claws unsheathed and leaped at Thorn. Surprised, Thorn fell to the ground. Shadecloud raked her claws across his face and he pushed her off of him with his hind legs. She went flying and slammed into a nearby tree.

            Her vision blurred and her head spun. She felt Thorn’s hot breath on her neck and heard him hiss, “It is time for you to die Shadecloud.”

            The world went black and Shadecloud sank into unconsciousness.