Facing A Forest of Shadows

Chapter Nine {Edited}

Blizzardstar propelled himself down the side of the cliff face. He wasn't sure if his paws connected to any of the rock on his path downward. But his safety wasn't really important to him, more so the safety of his Clanmates who had remained back in camp.

"Be careful!" Brokensong yowled after him, still several fox lengths behind. But there wasn't any time to be careful! He had seen something horrible after his vision with StarClan. Something evil filled with death and blood. The thought made him frantic as he hurtled himself across the grassy, snow laden field at the foot of the mountain. He still had to run through the valley, but he could almost smell the musty scent of the pine forest.

But there was another smell, absolutely putrid with the unmistakable tang of sickness and infection. Blizzardstar looked down to see the large prints of a predator trailing across the snow in the same direction he was headed. These are the tracks of a wolf, he thought as he continued to streak towards IceClan territory. He could hear Brokensong and Frostfeather as they yowled after him, but he couldn't stop. Not when his Clanmates were in danger.

The trees started to blur at his sides as he burst through the tree line. Ferns and branches whipped his muzzle, his eyes watered. As he got closer, he could finally hear a faint noise. It was a pitiful wail, coming directly from camp. He could hear his companions as they crashed through the undergrowth. It was absolutely silent as they neared their home.

Blizzardstar almost recoiled as soon as he saw what lay in wait for him in his camp. Bodies lay strewn across the clearing, tattered and lifeless. He noticed Hailstorm, hunched over the body of Quietstorm. He rushed over and tried not to focus on the lifeless eyes of his Clanmates, scattered across the scant grass. "What happened?" he croaked. Immense grief washed over him like a choking wave.

Hailstorm jumped at his voice. He whirled around, ready to lash out. "Oh, its you... I was afraid it had come back to finish the rest of us.." he explained. Blizzardstar noticed in horror that the brown and black tom's pelt was covered in cuts and bite marks. It looked like he had tried to apply cobwebs to his wounds, but they were amateur at best.

Brokensong was at his side in a flash, her one green eye wide in disbelief. "I'll start tending to the wounded," she mewed before she rushed to her den.

Blizzardstar turned his gaze from Quietstorm's mangled corpse to take in the devastation around the camp. All the dens, except for the solid rock of the medicine den, were destroyed. Only a few cats clung to the shadows at the edge of the camp.

Sweetmind was doubled over a few rabbit hops away as she sobbed over the bloody body of Appleleaf. Foxstreak limped toward Brokensong's den. One of her paws was ripped off and was bleeding profusely. Blizzardstar gagged, the overwhelming stench of blood clouding his senses. "Blizzardstar?" a weak voice called from a mass of bodies near the center of camp. He took a short breath and padded over.

It was Wildflight, barely clinging to life. She laid beside the other elders, who had still been keeping vigil next to Nightvolt. Redfern and Willowleaf were already dead, their eyes open yet unseeing.

"Wildflight..." Blizzardstar groaned, "this never should have happened." No, you were supposed to live a long and happy life with the elders, he thought emotionally. She lifted her paw in an attempt to silence his frantic gasps as he tried to breathe.

"Don't be upset," she purred. He felt his heart crack in two at her calm voice, already accepting her approaching demise. Her eyes clouded with pain as she tried to sit up. As she did so, blood started to pour out of a wound on her stomach. She had to lay down once more.

"You're talking nonsense," he wailed. He pressed his nose into her fur. He inhaled deeply in the hopes to preserve some of her scent. But the clearing was so bathed in blood, it filled his nostrils and his open mouth.