In The Dark | warrior cats

six | towards the sun

six. towards the sun 

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

The journey through ShadowClan's woodland was more delightful than Swiftshadow had ever imagined. For all of his youth, he had feared ShadowClan. He grew up hearing legends about how heartless and vicious those cats were; cats whose souls were covered in shadows. That's why they lived in such dark woods, in order to hide their dark intentions. But the stories had haunted Swiftshadow the most, the ones that chased him like spirits in his nightmares, were stories of the monsters in wars. Brothers turned against brothers, fathers turned against sons. So much blood had been spilled that the woods separating ThunderClan and ShadowClan were stained red for moons. Bones became the roots for trees and life grew upon the deaths of friends and enemies alike.

Swiftshadow was born seeing other Clans as though they were his enemies. He was taught that they were in different worlds, universes away, divided by strings of constellations and millions of specks of stardust. They would only be united in StarClan; until then, until death swooped down to strike like a talon's piercing claws, the Clans would never understand each other.

But maybe the other Clans weren't so far-off after all. In the short time of getting to know Sunstorm, Swiftshadow had come to realize that he wasn't all so different from the cats he had known in his life. His eyes had the same warmth as Pearfeather, he had the polite same manners, and the same curious twitch of his whiskers when he spoke. Sunstorm's eyes crinkled when he laughed, which in turn, made Swiftshadow laugh too, and Sunstorm had an ever so graceful way of moving through ShadowClan's sludge. What been the monsters he once feared now transformed into a childish scare of his imagination: how could anyone say Sunstorm was a monster?

"You know," The glorious golden tom began, cutting off Swiftshadow's turmoiling thoughts, "I've never met a ThunderClan cat who wasn't keen to die for his Clan."

Swiftshadow grinned and cocked his head to the side, "Then you haven't met the right ones."

"Clearly not." Sunstorm shot back, mirroring his friend's smile, the skin beside his eyes crinkling again. The two cats continued forth on their journey, casually strolling through the darkened territory, and relaxed alongside each other. The moment faded comfortably and the smiles fell to lines. A hot breeze whisked past the trees and stroked the cat's fur like a hand would. Sunstorm spoke again, though this time was not as amusing, "Tell it to me again," His face scrunched in confusion, "Mottlestar is exiling you because you've failed to work?

The panging ache returned to Swiftshadow. He could feel it rising, clawing, gnawing deep in his soul: the painful reminder that he was not good enough. The ginger tomcat lowered his head, focusing is eyes on the blurring ground, watching as the swamp rushed past underneath his quickened step. Now that he was free of ThunderClan, he no longer wanted to recall his time there. He would forget as quickly as he left; pretend it was never a part of his life. He mewed softly in response to Sunstorm, not wanting to make much of a comment on it, "Something along those lines."

"Well," Sunstorm's curiosity piqued his eyes. They exotically flashed through Swiftshadow's plain ones, "Why don't you work? You are a warrior, aren't you?"

Despite regarding how troubled Swiftshadow was, he couldn't seem to drop the conversation. It may not have been Sunstorm's first meeting with a ThunderClan cat, though it was his first time meeting one like Swiftshadow. He was hungry to know more.

The ginger feline sighed and kept his head hung low, "Yes, but I was never trained-"

"You were never an apprentice?"