The Warrior Games

Chapter 5

Lionblaze felt himself floating in in the darkness. No, he thought to himself. That's the problem. I can't feel myself. This non-feeling of weightlessness was a new emotion but definitely not a welcome one. If anything, it was just plain creepy.

Whispers was all he heard, and those were off in the distance. As he tried to somehow find his way towards the faded voices without any sense of feeling, he started to see a distant light. Either it's coming to me, or I'm coming to it. Lionblaze pondered. But it doesn't really matter does it? Whatever way this is happening we are going to meet.

As the light came closer and closer, the more his surroundings became clearer. He was not touching any solid matter whatsoever, and no matter which way he looked and turned his head, he couldn't find his pelt in which his soul was supposed to resided in. Where am I? His spirit called out silently. What do you want? He called out to the light that was coming closer and ever closer every second. Then his spirit squinted in confusion. The seemingly white light had begun to turn crimson. He tried his best to back away, but it seemed to only result in the light coming closer and faster.

Get away from me! He yelled inside his curiously floating spirit. But the light kept coming until he was completely surrounded by it.

Then the whispers that were once isn't he distance suddenly became more clear. And now he could see something, too. Three cats crouching on the forest floor with their heads bowed towards the darkest shadow at the edge of the clearing.

"Forgive us for being late," said the largest cat, a dark tabby.

"There is nothing meant to be forgiven," said a soothing voice from the shadows. All three cats in the clearing immediately relaxed, their once tense shoulders now free from worry. "But," the voice continued to float from the shadows. But it also began to turn hard. "You didn't bring one of the cats with you. Hawk-something was his name, wasn't it?" As the voice said this, a twoleg stepped out if the shadow that the cats were cowering to.

It was a female twoleg, but it was the strangest one that Lionblaze had ever seen. Why? Because this one had the tail of a cat along with the ears of one, and she also had a spear along with a pair of eyes that were just like a cats. Then she suddenly turned those and seemed to look straight at Lionblaze as she seemingly purred out these words,"But I still manage to sense another presence among us."

Lionblaze looked down in horror, and when he saw that his body was with him again, he fainted.

~*~

Jayfeather padded out his den. How in the world are we to keep ourselves alive, and catch enough prey to put on the island? How?

He sighed in resignation. "Briarl-," he quickly stopped himself. "Briar, help me out over here. I'm going to need you to sort this yarrow here. I'm going out to get some catmint."

"Okay," Briarlight said cheerily. Is she always this happy? I bet if the world ended she would still be all cheerful. Wait, he scoffed in his mind. The end of the world has already come. He quickly walked out before he snapped at her cheeriness. She was really quite infuriating.

As Jayfeather, now known as Jay, walked out of his den and towards the tunnel entrance, he noticed with a sniff that the once bright morning had become a stormy afternoon. Certainly describes my mood, he thought to himself as he flicked his tail grumpily. As Jayfeather walked further and stepped into the tunnel, his nose nearly crashed into someone.

"Hey-," he began to cry out indignantly. Then some cat's tail slapped his mouth. The scent of Brambleclaw filled his jaws and he sighed in relief.

"Be quiet," Brambleclaw hissed. If Jayfeather could've seen him at the moment, then he would see Brambleclaw's eyes stretched wide with fear. "There seems to be someone else in the tunnel. An intruder, I think." Just as he said this, more laughter flew down towards them.

"Wh-who are you?" Asked Jayfeather, trying to be brave. He cringed when he heard himself stutter.

When someone stepped out of the pitch black darkness and into the faint light filtering through the tunnel ceiling, Jayfeather couldn't see them. But when he heard Brambleclaw gasp, he knew the result wasn't good.

Brambleclaw's eyes were wider than ever and they were this way for a reason, too. A white cat had stepped out of the darkness, along with a mottled tortoiseshell and a gray tabby, with scars aplenty.

"We," said the tortoiseshell with a sweep of her long tail, "are the new recruits. I'm Mapleshade. This is Snowtuft," she meowed as she gestured to the white tom. "And this is Shredtail."

"N-n-nice to m-meet you," said Brambleclaw hesitantly. "I'm the deputy of the Thunderclan."

"Puny," said Snowtuft with a sniff as Shredtail nodded in agreement.

"A-allow me to take you to our camp," Brambleclaw meowed, dipping his head.

Mapleshade cocked her head at this. "Aren't you going to introduce you and your blind friend here?"

"His name is J-"

"My name is Jay, thank you very much," said Jayfeather irritably. The nerve of the cat!

"Great to meet you," Mapleshade purred with narrowed eyes.

All the cats but Jayfeather walked into camp. He said that he needed to get some catmint or something. "Hawkstar," called Brambleclaw. He looked towards the new cats. "Our recruits are here."

All the remaining cats that weren't on patrol or hunting stared at the new cats with wide eyes, unsure of what to think.

"Good, good," said Hawkstar with obvious pleasure. "Now, cats of Thunderclan. These cats here will introduce themselves to each of you individually later, but for now, you must know that they are to be called by their full names and are to be treated with the utmost respect, just as a senior warrior would be treated." Hawkstar smirked. "Because that's exactly what they are. You're dismissed," he said with a wave of his tabby tail.

The 'new recruits' mingled with the cats, and every time they introduced themselves, the warrior, elder, or kit, shrunk back.

"What are we going to do?" Brambleclaw whispered in horror. "Because we are losing the battle for our freedom."

Sorry for the long wait everyone. I've been working on another book that I might publish soon. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
~Shadow