Forest's Fate

Chapter 14

       I am laying on the chilly stone floor in the sleeping den, surrounded by snoring cats. It is the end of the day.

        As I peer out the entrance, where silver moonlight softly shines in, I know I should be asleep. After all, tomorrow, I'm going to be tested on my fighting again. Each time I try to close my eyes, though, I keep thinking back to the events that happened today: Mirage saving me from my doomed fate of being part of the Army, Mirage tormenting Flame, Flame getting punished.

        Right when I think I should be thanking Mirage for letting me stay here, a fire ignites inside of me. Why is she such a monster to everyone else? Mirage killed an innocent cat just because she didn't want to fight with her. She embarrassed Flame in front of everyone before handing him off to the Superiors.

        I should be thanking her for letting me stay. But after everything else she did, how can I even look at her in the eye?

As I try to calm the hurricane of my thoughts so I could at least go to sleep, a shadow appears in front of the entrance to the den. My whole body stiffens. I narrow my eyes, slightly raising my head to see who is standing there. At that same moment, a glowing emerald green eye meets mine.

        For a moment, I don't recognize the figure standing there at all, and a mix of confusion and curiosity rises in my chest. Who is that cat, and what is he or she doing there? A second later though, I notice that there is only one eye. The cat's white fur glimmers as she shifts her black paws.

That's not a stranger. Why is Mirage staring at me?

As if by instinct, my paws push myself up, and as silently as I can, I tread through the bodies of sleeping cats towards the entrance. My mind barely even registers what I am doing, but suddenly, all I know is that the burning questions and anger in me is too much for me. I need to talk to her.

Oh well, I know I'm not going to sleep anyway.

Mirage takes a few steps back as I walk outside to meet her. Now that I am closer to her, the glowing green in her eyes has dimmed to her usual brown. She narrows them and snaps in a low voice, "You idiot, what do you think you're doing?"

        "Well, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?" I ask.

"I'm on guard duty. I have a right to be out here, unlike you." She flattens her ears at me.

"Oh, yeah? Well, I have a right to be here, too," I hiss, feeling my pelt start to ruffle from her attitude. "We need to talk."

Mirage's brown gaze silently slips to a den that happens to be next to the one I just came from. She looks back at me and sharply whispers, "And what sort of intelligent plan do you have to do that, genius? You realize that if the leader wakes up and sees us, we're both dead? Surely you know that!" The hint of mockery in Mirage's voice makes me want to claw her in the face.

"Actually," I say, gritting my teeth, "I don't really have a plan; I just wanted to get out. Also, I knew that I'm going to be dead if he sees me- mentally dead, of course- but you? Why would he punish you?"

"What? You really don't know- you know what?" Mirage's voice rises for a fleeting moment before she seems to remember where she is. "You're an actual idiot if you don't know why that would be, why he would punish me for something like that. Now follow me." Her short white fur shimmers a little under the moonlight as she turns around and stalks away.