Adderpaw's whiskers twitched with annoyance as Snakepaw looked back at her, ungraciously shoving the mouse towards her, his fur bristling with undisguised fury.
"Take it," he jerked away and stomped out of the thicket.
Adderpaw and the other apprentices were being assessed by their mentors and Adderpaw had just tracked down a mouse that was scurrying around a tree when she had caught it skillfully. Then, Snakepaw had shown up out of nowhere, claiming that the mouse was his and that Adderpaw had dug it up from where he had buried it.
Adderpaw had just scoffed with disbelief—did Snakepaw not smell the scent difference? A mouse that had just been caught would've smelled differently than one that had been buried. And why would Adderpaw do that anyway if she knew that the mentors would be watching her—or hers would be at least.
"Whatever," she mumbled, scraping a pile of dirt over top of the mouse to cover it. She would come back for it later. But for now, she was going to try and find something else.
Adderpaw crept through the undergrowth, she suddenly scented an odd smell. At first, she thought that it was prey, but then, when she took a deeper whiff, she realized that she had not scented it before. Adderpaw perked her ears, trying to listen for some kind of sign for what it might be. Even though she had never smelled dogs before, she knew what to expect. Dogs weren't stealthy—she would've heard them crashing through the forest before she scented them. And she had smelled fox before. No, this smelled more . . . sour, almost. And more organized, somehow, as if the cats smelled differently based precisely on where they were located and who they were.
"What in StarClan . . ." Adderpaw trailed off, sniffing around in the foliage, trying to figure out what she was smelling. Then, her expression grew solemn and she lifted her head slowly.
What if it was a rogue? Or, perhaps, there were multiple of them. Adderpaw definitely scented multiple distinguishable odours. They all smelled almost the same—sour, tangy, and dead. But there was a slight difference between them as if each of the cats had spent time in different territories.
Then, she heard a terrible yowling. Adderpaw trembled as the cry sent shivers down her spine. It sounded as if it were coming from Frogpaw. The screech came again, but this time, it was different. Another cat. Adderpaw looked around, paranoid. What's going on? She thought frantically.
Suddenly, Adderpaw felt teeth clamp around her tail and she howled with pain, her vision clouding with red and white spots. Adderpaw whirled around to face her attacker—only to see a mangy brown tabby. It was snarling at her ferociously, showing its yellowing teeth.
"Who are you? What are you doing on ThunderClan territory?" Adderpaw hissed, trying to sound menacing, although it sounded more like the terrified mewling of a kit.
The cat's eyes narrowed and it snarled back, "Oh, so you're part of the Clans? Pathetic. Well, at least I know who I'm dealing with." The cat leapt forward, startling Adderpaw.
The rogue, Adderpaw presumed, overtook her and dragged her into the bracken. Adderpaw's thoughts were overtaken by petrified screaming. Not all of the screams were coming from Adderpaw, either. Some of them were from Frogpaw and a cat that sounded like . . . Snakepaw!
Adderpaw tried to turn around to see where she was going but her attacker was dragging her by her tail backwards. A sharp pain seared through her tail and she howled out from the agony. She hoped that some cat might hear it and come to her rescue. Then, they could go find Frogpaw and Snakepaw and defeat these ruthless rogues, but no one seemed to hear, or if they did, they were too far away to do anything.
Adderpaw realized with dismay that she was helpless in this situation and that she would have to wait it out and hope for the best. And so she continued letting herself be dragged through the forest, over sharp rocks and around towering oak trees.
Adderpaw opened her eyes, blinking a few times to let her eyes adjust to the new light. She rolled sideways, trying to recognize where she was when she remembered that she didn't know. The last thing that she recalled from her experience that brought her here was being dragged upside down through the trees to this unknown place.
Adderpaw sat up and looked around for signs of other cats and as soon as she started to look around, she saw the shape of three other cats in the den with her. She realized that she wasn't sitting on a nest—just the dirt floor, cold and hard underneath her.
"Frogpaw?" She mewed hopefully, waiting for an answer anxiously.
"There's no Frogpaw that I know of in here." Came a voice.
"Yeah, we've not heard of Frogpaw."
Adderpaw's heart sank but she responded anyway. Maybe if she got to know these cats, they could help her escape and find her friend and Snakepaw.
"Oh. I'm from ThunderClan. Where are you from?"
"Ah, so a Clan cat. I've heard of your kind, although I've never actually seen one before. Some of your cats journeyed through our lands many, many moons ago."
Adderpaw's ears pricked. What did this strange cat mean by that? What lands and how far away were they? What were they doing here? Were the Siege picking off specific cats or just targeting random ones that they saw in the forest? If so, then why her, Snakepaw, and Frogpaw? What had they ever done?
"I sense your confusion," the cat mewed. Adderpaw heard the cat as it sat up and looked directly at Adderpaw's bewildered expression. "It was a long time ago. Lifetimes even. I am from the Tribe of Rushing Water."
Adderpaw had heard of the Tribe of Rushing Water but none of the cats in her Clan had bothered to explain them in detail to her. If it was really that long ago that the Clans had gone on a journey, then it probably would've been the elders' elders when they were kits. Or maybe even before that. It was a long time ago. Lifetimes even. The words rang in her ears, but she didn't have time to decipher them. She had to find out how she could get out of the den.
"Are we able to escape? Were you even captured?" Adderpaw questioned.
The same cat that had explained the Tribe of Rushing Water responded. "We were travelling to the Clans to ask for help when we came across a group of cats. At the time, we figured that they may have been Clan cats since they seemed to have set up camp so we asked them what Clan they were."
"Turns out they weren't Clan cats." A cat that had been lurking in the shadows turned to face Adderpaw, too, their green gaze piercing into Adderpaw's ruffled orange fur.
"No kidding," mewed another.
Once Adderpaw's eyes had adjusted to the light, she observed a tortoiseshell she-cat, a white she-cat with the same green orbs that Adderpaw had seen peering at her through the darkness, and a pale yellow tom. So these were Tribe cats. They seemed to be leaner than Clan cats and Adderpaw could see their ribs. Then, she realized that they might have had better prey than they did here. Or maybe the cats that were guarding this prison hadn't been feeding them.
"So you're trapped here? Where are we?" Adderpaw struggled to stay calm.
"Take a look for yourself. Just be careful." The tortoiseshell mewed, pointing to the entrance of the den with her tail.
Adderpaw silently walked towards the opening and poked her head out. She couldn't see much—only a long drop that fell towards a small stream in the bottom of a ravine. She could see why the she-cat had warned her to be careful.
Adderpaw stepped back inside, shivering. A cat could easily plummet to its death from falling out of one of these dens. Where were they?
"What's your name?" Adderpaw asked, realizing that she was not going to be able to fall back asleep after getting used to being awake.
The tortoiseshell answered swiftly. "Glow of Rising Sun."
"My name is Cloud that Covers Stars." The white she-cat murmured. "And that is Yellow Shine of Sunrise." She flicked her tail towards the golden tom.
"How beautiful!" Adderpaw squeaked, sounding like a newborn kit. Then, she remembered that she was on a mission to find her friends and quickly added, "My name's Adderpaw."
"Ah. So, you said that you were looking for someone called Frogpaw?" Yellow Shine of Sunrise asked, looking thoughtful. "Well, I did overhear the guards saying something about there being some new cats that were going to be moved in here tonight. Maybe your friend is in one of the other dens?"
"Yes, maybe." Other dens? She thought. Adderpaw at least knew that there was a chance her friend was here. But she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
She didn't want her friend to be trapped all alone in a place like this but she also didn't want to possibly risk her life looking for her friend and for her to not be here at all, but some other unknown place where the Clans could not find her.
Adderpaw shook the thought from her mind and remembered that even though Snakepaw wasn't her favourite cat in the world, that she should ask about him too.
"Have you heard of a cat named Snakepaw, then?" Adderpaw asked reluctantly. Every cat mattered.
To her surprise, the other cats started whispering amongst themselves, their eyes wide and their fur bristling. "You know Snakepaw?" Cloud that Covers Stars asked finally.
"Yes," Adderpaw slowly mewed, confused. "What about him?"
"Well, he was in here for a while. I guess he was kidnapped before you were. He tried to escape, but the Umbrae caught him and brought him somewhere else." Yellow Shine of Sunrise explained.
"The Umbrae? Who are they?" Adderpaw asked, inquisitive. They did not sound like the noble kind of cats. "Where did they take Snakepaw?"
"The Umbrae are evil cats. The Penumbra commands them, but they are still a higher ranking than the Shadow Soldiers or the mothers." Glow of the Rising Sun shuddered as if just thinking of these 'Umbrae' scared her to the bone.
"Why are they all named after shadows and darkness?" Adderpaw wondered out loud. She was not sure that the Tribe cats knew the answer, but the words had escaped her mouth before she could stop them. But, they did seem to know the answer to Adderpaw's question because they all looked at each other, looking even more scared than before.
"They come from shaded parts. We don't exactly know why, but we know that they used to live in caves and tunnels, so they probably got their rank names from that." Glow responded quickly.
"Ah," murmured Adderpaw. She was still wondering where the Tribe cats knew their information from when a massive grey tom stepped into the den and started to growl.
His eyes narrowed when he saw Adderpaw and she felt his warm, sour breath on her muzzle as he leaned down. "You three," He addressed the Tribe cats. "Teach this one about our rules. And then, keep it down and go back to sleep. You'll need the strength for hunting tomorrow." He barked at them, whisking back out of the den in a heartbeat.
Cloud shook her head sorrowfully and softly started reciting foreign rules—none of which, Adderpaw realized, were on the warrior code. In fact, some of them even went against the code.
"Prisoners will not speak unless spoken to. Each dawn, prisoners will rise from their dens and their guards will escort them to the river where the prisoners will catch prey. The only acceptable fresh-kill includes; fish, birds, and mice. If you break the rules by catching something that is not on the acceptable list, you will be punished by having to sleep outside. Prisoners will hunt for their superiors. If they are caught hunting for anyone else other than your superiors, then you will be sentenced to an extended period of time outside of the ravine walls. You will have to sleep in the middle of the moorland. Prisoners will spend time grooming each other until a little after sunhigh. Prisoners will then be sent to the caves for training. Prisoners will return to their dens at dusk. Prisoners . . ." The list went on and on, lulling Adderpaw to sleep with their rhythmic words.
When Adderpaw woke, the rising sun was peering gently into their den, but Adderpaw didn't feel refuelled and ready for a new day. She had hoped that whatever had happened last night was just a dream, but clearly, it wasn't.
The second that Adderpaw's eyes flung open, one of the two guards that had been waiting outside stepped in and snarled to her and the others, "Time to go."
They escorted her out of the den and onto a small platform that Adderpaw hadn't seen before. There was a large pile of rocks and boulders that created a stairway down from the cave that was nestled in the side of a cliff.
"Good morning to you, too," Adderpaw heard Glow of Rising Sun mutter disrespectfully. Adderpaw was scared that the cat was going to punish them because the tortoiseshell she-cat had spoken out of turn. But hopefully, StarClan was watching over her, wherever she was.
"Did I just hear someone speak?" The same tom that had burst through the vines last night and had ordered the Tribe cats to recite their laws to her snarled back at her. "One of the rules of the Siege is to not speak unless spoken to. You have already broken rule number one."
Adderpaw had forgotten about that and saw the Tribe cats shrink back out of the corner of her eye. She felt her fur start to bristle with frustration, but she forced it to stay flat.
"I apologize for my reckless behaviour," Glow's voice grew bitter. The tom didn't say anything but just continued to lead the cats down the rockpile.
Adderpaw's eyes widened with admiration and clearly, she wasn't the only cat who thought that Glow was being brave.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Yellow Shine of Sunrise murmured into her ear as they made their way over to the snaking river in the middle of the gorge.
"Well, it's not that hard, really. I just don't feel the need to follow these cats' rules. We all have our own code to stick to, so why follow these cats?"
She felt the Tribe cats gather around the stream, seemingly in designated spots, all spaced out evenly apart. They stood in a certain position that seemed to create a way for their shadow not to fall on the water and began to wait for fish to appear.
Adderpaw didn't know where to stand, so she picked a random location, a little ways off from Glow of the Rising Sun. She didn't know how to stand, either, so she tried different ways until something worked. She tried to wait for the fish to appear but soon realized that if another cat caught a fish, the ripples scared off the other fish and every cat would have to wait until the fish reappeared.
Adderpaw decided that catching mice and birds was more what she was used to and padded over to where there was a shaded tunnel with trees and ferns growing in it. There was a rotting log that was hanging over the tunnel's two sides at the top and there were vines hanging from it. It was like a mini jungle. Adderpaw could already see a few butterflies and some bugs that were scuttling around in the grass and fluttering up into the brightening sky.
Adderpaw's hopes rose and she wished that this place wouldn't be as bad as she was making it out to be. Even though it was a bit hard at first to find good prey at the start of the tunnel since the rest of the cats that were chatting outside scared all the prey away, Adderpaw soon realized that she could head farther into the tunnel.
This felt more like home to the young apprentice, even though it wasn't exactly the same, but it was still a forest. And that felt better than a sandy ravine.
Suddenly, Adderpaw could see the ferns moving a little ways ahead and she hunched down into a hunter's crouch, slithering through the leaves like a snake stalking its prey. Just before Adderpaw was about to attack, the creature darted away. Adderpaw started running after in frustration.
Then, she stopped running, skidding to a halt as she realized that it wasn't prey that she was chasing. She should've realized by the scent. It was Frogpaw!