Warriors #4: Darkness Awakens

Chapter 32

Thank StarClan this is just in my dreams, I thought. I'd be much more scared if I were to get lost in a real forest!

I took so many twists and turns, and eventually I found myself facing a trail covered with sticks and leaves, along with lots of puddles. This is the trail that Tigerstar and Ashfur took me on to get to the other Dark Forest cats! I realized. Feeling a little more at ease now, I began to follow it.

Luckily, the deeper down the trail I went, the more audible some voices became up ahead. I've found them!

I began to run as quickly as I could towards the meows that I was hearing, expecting to just run into a bunch of cats training together.

As I got really close, I was able to make out the words being said.

"He's been training here for moons now, Ashfur! When are you going to take some sort of action?"

I skidded to a halt as I heard this. Although I had stopped and wasn't running any more, my heart began beating faster than it had been when I was running. Who was that? Are... are they talking about me? I quickly leaped into a bush, and then tried to be as quiet as I could while I listened.

"Him being here is already taking action! I don't know what you're talking about," I heard the familiar voice of Ashfur hiss.

"It's not like you actually brought him here just to give him a head start, right?" I heard Tigerstar growl.

My heart felt like it had dropped when I heard Ashfur growl back. "Of course not! But Swiftpaw doesn't know that!"

They are talking about me.

"Well, if you're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart," a third cat asked, "then what was your plan here all along?"

"I'm not quite sure yet," Ashfur answered. "I mean, you all know why I'm doing this. I just need to think up exactly how."

"There's many options! Think!" A fourth cat hissed. "You've been able to manipulate the little mouse-brain a lot already. Imagine what more you could do with that! You almost got him to get himself killed in the forest with that fox!"

I felt my heart skip a beat.

"Yeah! In fact, that leaves you with two options right there," the third cat I had heard meowed. "You could manipulate him further into doing what you want, or, you could send him into more danger and get him actually killed this time!"

W-What? Why are they talking about killing me? As I began to shake with immense fear, I heard Ashfur meow. "Just killing him would be too easy. That wouldn't fulfill my plan in the way I want."

Plan? I repeated to myself. What plan?

"You could kill him into the Dark Forest," Tigerstar put in. "His kin would be grieving for seasons by how sudden it was, and once they saw that he was here, they'd be even more heartbroken!"

I thought I was going to reveal my spot by how loudly my heart was beating and how much I was shaking.

"Maybe," Ashfur muttered. "Like I said, I'm not sure yet. I don't think I want to kill him, at least not any time soon."

"But-" I heard the fourth cat stammer.

"You're right, Ashfur," Tigerstar murmured. "Lots of harm can still be done while he is alive..."

Where is all of this coming from? Why are they talking about what to do to me? Do they do this with all of the cats they train here? I wondered, delving quickly into complete panic for the second time in my whole life. What do I do?

"You all had better be careful," the third cat, who I then realized was Hawkfrost, muttered. "Swiftpaw could arrive here any moment and hear what you're saying."

Too late for that, I thought, still feeling petrified.

"Right," Ashfur murmured. I then heard him begin to pad on the trail next to me. I froze as he then meowed, "Why do I smell him already?"

Hoping that Ashfur or Tigerstar wouldn't find me here and realize I had been eavesdropping, I slid as quietly as I could from the bushes and proceeded to walk to the nearest clearing I saw, making sure to stay low.

Ashfur seemed to have found me as soon as I had arrived there. I nearly flinched as he spoke to me. I hoped he couldn't see that I was still shaking.

"Hello, there, Swiftpaw," he meowed in a suddenly very warm voice, unlike the one I had heard earlier. "Wonderful job in the battle, yesterday."

I turned towards Ashfur. I felt myself beginning to bubble with anger and fear as I looked at him.

This whole time he has been lying to me. He and Tigerstar have been lying to me. They don't want to help me at all! They have helped me, but not because they want to.

A shiver ran down my spine as I then thought, they're using me for something, but... I don't know what.

As Ashfur began to explain a new battle move to me, I was barely listening, partly because I was worried that he would leap out and kill me at any moment, and partly because I was still working on unfolding everything that was going on in my mind.

If I don't say anything, they could kill me, I realized. But... if I say anything, they would definitely kill me.

My eyes then began to open to all of the other things I had been blind to since I had been training here. All of their kind words to me were just to get me to stay here so they could proceed on with their plan. Thornclaw's near-death wasn't my fault at all. In fact, I may face a similar fate if I get in their way just as he did.

I am trapped.

Unfortunately, I knew that I had already made my choice. Now I figured that if I said "no" to anything that Ashfur said, it could be the end of me.

I still had no idea why I was the pawn of their terrible plan, and why it involved possibly killing me, but all I knew was that there was nothing at all I could do to save myself.

At least, I didn't know in that moment.

THE END