The Rise of Venomstar

Chapter 5: Reunion

His only opportunity to try his luck at hunting, the daytime, had quickly turned to night again. And Venom, he was still beneath the willow. If he let this cycle of day and night keep going without him, he'd eventually just lose it. He'd die. Every time he moved, hints and clues of hunger would wrack his body with pain. He knew he was hungry. He knew he had to eat. It couldn't be any more obvious.

It's not like it was cold or anything. He curled up beneath the willow's roots because he was mostly afraid. In fact, it was warm in the daytime. Sometimes, the sun would beat into his forehead and he'd feel terribly hot. 

Venom suddenly heard a sort of scuffling. It gave him flashbacks to better times, where he'd hear such shuffling in the grass of where he lived before everything went horrible.
"Food." he whispered. He slipped out from the root, surveying the area. In his state of near-death, he had found enough energy deep inside of him to try and hunt. It was his last stores of energy; basically, he was on his last leg. 
A wind lifted Venom's fur. His amber eyes glistened with life. A potpourri of senses flooded through him. Despite being a weak, naive kit, Venom still had hunter's instincts.
Despite nearly letting himself die, a new thought came into his mind: I won't let myself die this way. Murder is noble-- this is not. I need to survive.

His ears swiveled madly. He began to rush forward on tiny little tittering paws that made barely any noise at all. He nearly tripped over his tiny feet, but suddenly he crouched. When he had suddenly stopped, a pain shot through his head. His vision went fuzzy and he could feel his heart pounding in his ears, but soon it subsided.
He did feel sick.

Venom peered into the rock's crevasse, where he had heard the shuffling noise. He observed a piercing blue light, and he froze. He stopped breathing for a moment. He went rigid like a board, and his ears pinned against his head.
His heart began to pound crazily in his chest until his ears began to grow annoyed of the consistent booming behind them. Without warning, the two blue lights emerged from the rock. They had large black pupils, like stones. The gaze seemed bored. 
Then, more emerged from the rock. The form was nearly as large as Venom if not his height.

"What are you? Go away!" Venom wailed, realizing just how coarse and measly his voice had become. He backed up a little from the form, not completely recognizing it until its face was in his.
"Venom!" A voice barked. This voice was also measly, and high-pitched, even for a kit's. "What are you still doing here? You should've went for the trees! Far, far away!"

Venom blinked three times, "Snake! I never thought I'd see you again!"
Unfortunately, he had to see him in such a state where the black and white tom was matted, and covered in blood.
"Glad I came back here!" Snake coughed, "I thought both you and Ebony were dead."
"Me too." Venom whispered. 

"But Venom, there's really something you gotta see. If you can make it." Snake begged, "It's in the forest!"
"I need to eat, Snake."
"Me too, Venom. But we can catch bugs in the forest, live in the ferns, and live in the protection of the trees. Come on. You just need to see this." and so off he went with a limp, Venom being forced to catch up with him despite how weak he was. He would not lose his brother again.

*~*~*

The two kits slipped into the forest. Venom had to admit, the dark and cool grass was relieving on his paws. Snake had led Venom to a different entrance of the forest, where the two wouldn't have to tread in the same tall field anymore.
When they arrived surrounded by trees, the two were languished and panting.
"How far is it?" Venom asked, inhaling a bounty of air.

"Here." Snake slipped through two ferns, and Venom followed. Suddenly a strong pungent smell invaded Venom's nose and he coiled back in disgust. It made his stomach hurt even more than it already was.
It took only a moment to discover the source of the stink. Venom stared at it with wide, golden eyes, and he could not look away no matter how hard he tried. He could not avert his eyes, no matter how much he wanted to. 

"Oh, Snake! What even is that? Who is it?"
"Cashew."

Venom's eyes widened in astonishment, and he studied the mangled body further. It looked as if it were dropped from a great height. Cashew's mouth was frozen in a twisted grin, his pelt was clotted with blood, and his wide eyes glared at the two kits as if awake. It was eerie. It was as if he'd just reanimate and suddenly take the two in his gaping, bloody jaws.

"Do you think Ebony did this?" Venom asked hopefully. He doubted it, though. A small kit could not possibly have inflicted the kind of lethal wounds that spotted Cashew's rotting pelt.

"Ebony?" a sudden voice sneered, like a snake's hiss echoing around in a metal chamber. The two kits whirled around, gaunt faces met with the equally emaciated face of an older cat, a tall grey tabby, his pelt smeared with countless pink scars.
He lowered his head to theirs, "Ebony? You mean the little black bundle of fluff? Nah, I killed this fool." The ragged tom glared at the dead body with contempt, "Is that the first dead cat you've ever seen, kits? Better be. Better see a dead enemy than a dead friend, hmm? He called himself "The Strong." Cashew 'The Strong!' What a title." And he rolled his pale blue eyes round and round in his defined skull.

"Don't kill us." Snake squeaked.
"I would never! I saved your friend, didn't I? Why're you two alone, anyway?"

"We watched our mother die! The Strong did it. The group, I mean." Venom wailed. He felt as if he were ready to break down. He missed the willow. Venom, still near death and relying on the last of his energy, almost wanted his mother to take him away to wherever she went when she died.
Snake was glaring at the tom with mistrust, with fear pulsing in his blue eyes. Venom too, was staring at the grey tom as  if he didn't know what to do with himself. His eyes were lost.
But suddenly the large cat spoke, his blue eyes soft.

"Hey now, don't look at me like that. I'll get you something to eat. Come on, follow me." He took a few steps forward, and the kits were frozen in place. He looked back at them, "Come on! You can trust me. I've got blood on my claws, yes, but this isn't the first time I've harbored kits... nor the last. In fact, there's another you can meet."