[the siege]

vii. chapter seven

Adderpaw opened her eyes, blinking a few times to let her eyes adjust to the new light. She rolled sideways, trying to recognize where she was when she remembered that she didn't know. The last thing that she recalled from her experience that brought her here was being dragged upside down through the trees to this unknown place.

Adderpaw sat up and looked around for signs of other cats and as soon as she started to look around, she saw the shape of three other cats in the den with her. She realized that she wasn't sitting on a nest—just the dirt floor, cold and hard underneath her.

"Frogpaw?" She mewed hopefully, waiting for an answer anxiously.

"There's no Frogpaw that I know of in here." Came a voice.

"Yeah, we've not heard of Frogpaw."

Adderpaw's heart sank but she responded anyway. Maybe if she got to know these cats, they could help her escape and find her friend and Snakepaw.

"Oh. I'm from ThunderClan. Where are you from?"

"Ah, so a Clan cat. I've heard of your kind, although I've never actually seen one before. Some of your cats journeyed through our lands many, many moons ago."

Adderpaw's ears pricked. What did this strange cat mean by that? What lands and how far away were they? What were they doing here? Were the Siege picking off specific cats or just targeting random ones that they saw in the forest? If so, then why her, Snakepaw, and Frogpaw? What had they ever done?

"I sense your confusion," the cat mewed. Adderpaw heard the cat as it sat up and looked directly at Adderpaw's bewildered expression. "It was a long time ago. Lifetimes even. I am from the Tribe of Rushing Water."

Adderpaw had heard of the Tribe of Rushing Water but none of the cats in her Clan had bothered to explain them in detail to her. If it was really that long ago that the Clans had gone on a journey, then it probably would've been the elders' elders when they were kits. Or maybe even before that. It was a long time ago. Lifetimes even. The words rang in her ears, but she didn't have time to decipher them. She had to find out how she could get out of the den.

"Are we able to escape? Were you even captured?" Adderpaw questioned.

The same cat that had explained the Tribe of Rushing Water responded. "We were travelling to the Clans to ask for help when we came across a group of cats. At the time, we figured that they may have been Clan cats since they seemed to have set up camp so we asked them what Clan they were."

"Turns out they weren't Clan cats." A cat that had been lurking in the shadows turned to face Adderpaw, too, their green gaze piercing into Adderpaw's ruffled orange fur.

"No kidding," mewed another.

Once Adderpaw's eyes had adjusted to the light, she observed a tortoiseshell she-cat, a white she-cat with the same green orbs that Adderpaw had seen peering at her through the darkness, and a pale yellow tom. So these were Tribe cats. They seemed to be leaner than Clan cats and Adderpaw could see their ribs. Then, she realized that they might have had better prey than they did here. Or maybe the cats that were guarding this prison hadn't been feeding them.

"So you're trapped here? Where are we?" Adderpaw struggled to stay calm.

"Take a look for yourself. Just be careful." The tortoiseshell mewed, pointing to the entrance of the den with her tail.

Adderpaw silently walked towards the opening and poked her head out. She couldn't see much—only a long drop that fell towards a small stream in the bottom of a ravine. She could see why the she-cat had warned her to be careful.