Shadow Warriors

Chapter Nineteen

Sagepaw felt her eyes closing, the breath stolen from her lungs. She began losing feeling in her extremities, her struggles becoming weaker and weaker.

In that moment of silence, where her hearing became as numb as her body, she had a sudden clarity in her mind.

Possess her! Now is the time!

Of course! Why hadn't she used her ability earlier?

Sagepaw gathered what little energy she had left and focused on the cat above her. With a solid thrust, she pushed Salmonpaw off her for a brief moment and gasped, vision returning as air filled her lungs. She focused on Salmonpaw, eyes narrowed and dark.

With every fiber of her being, she focused deep within herself on taking control of Salmonpaw's body.

Above her, Salmonpaw froze.

Sagepaw let out a small oomph as Salmonpaw fell on top of her.

'Get off me' she thought at Salmonpaw, and watched with fascinated glee as the RiverClan apprentice got to her paws and stared blankly at her.

Sagepaw peered around, checking to see if anyone was looking at them. But no cat was watching, the chaos of the clearing hiding them from suspicious eyes.

As she watched, she noticed one of her Clanmates yowl in pain, and a large RiverClan warrior howling triumphantly as the tom scurried away.

'Distract him for me,' she thought at Salmonpaw, directing her to attack her fellow warrior.

The RiverClan apprentice moved shakily, the possession not completely controlling her limbs. When she got close to her Clanmate, Sagepaw could feel her control slipping.

She snarled, claws digging into the dirt beneath her. Sagepaw watched as Salmonpaw physically shook, but remained under her control.

The apprentice swiped at the warrior, a large gray tom, who took a step back in surprise. The apprentice gave him no time to think, and jumped to action with another broad swipe. The warrior attacked back, his bloodlust forcing him to swipe at her with deadly blows. It took a few moments before he actually caught her scent.

"Salmonpaw? Why are you attacking me? I'm in your Clan!" he shouted, switching from attacking to simply dodging her attacks.

Sagepaw forced Salmonpaw to hit harder, regardless of how she was feeling or how much it was hurting her body. With the possession, she could feel Salmonpaw's body getting weaker. Every time she moved her limbs, it broke her body down.

"Salmonpaw!" The warrior shouted. He pinned her to the ground, using his large mass to hold her still so he could look her in the eyes. Sagepaw had Salmonpaw fighting back fiercely, the RiverClan apprentice going so far as to damage her teeth by sinking them into the Warrior's arm at an awkward angle that no cat would consciously do.

Had anyone been looking at that moment, they would have seen a horrific sight. A brown she-cat, clearly apprentice age, desperately clawing at a cat of her own Clan, a member of her own family, with all the might her tiny body contained. Her eyes bloodshot, her claws more than bloody, and her mind stained forever.

They would have also seen the apprentice standing in the corner, a black and white she-cat with her limbs stiff from excitement watching her enemies claw each other to shreds.  Her eyes open in a parody of sanity, her claws digging for blood, and her mind stressed from the forces acting on it.

Only one cat would walk away from this intact.

The apprentice breathed heavily, struggles lessening as the Warrior she attacked finally took the initiative and slammed her head to the ground, silencing her forever.

Sagepaw reeled back, the dying gasps of Salmonpaw echoing violently in her mind. It was different from the mouse, which had a lesser order of thinking and did not live the way she did. Salmonpaw's death had Sagepaw in agony, and, coupled with the sudden exhaustion from using her powers, she dropped down and into sudden darkness.

Written by Blaze