Chapter 15
We took a long walk back to camp, yet none of us really talked to one another.
I padded cautiously along the border between CaveClan and GladeClan, the Shimmersalt clamped tightly between my jaws. Beside me, Littlepaw, her tail drooping tiredly was holding fast to the Shimmermoor, though I could tell from the brown tabby she-cat's wincing that it wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to hold.
"I can take it now," Bubbleburst bounded up to me, nodding to the stone in my jaws, which glowed exuberantly in the midday light.
I gave my head a small shake, and with a reluctant sigh, the injured black and white warrior turned away. Once again, everything lapsed into silence, though I was keenly aware of the blistering sun over my head, the lacklustre and dull vegetation, and the tantalizing scent of freshkill. In the distance, ShoreClan's vast flora and fauna seemed not to be getting any closer. I sighed.
Perhaps that was a good thing.
I wasn't entirely certain of a plan. Look, I get how mousebrained it might seem to an outsider, but, I'm a spur of the moment sort of cat. There's no use worrying about all the millions of possible outcomes like I know my littermate was doing right now. Better just to act when action needs to happen.
As the sea and floral smell of ShoreClan permeated my scent glands, I glanced back at the cats trailing behind me, heads bent exhaustedly. We had gotten up early, yet our journey had taken significant time; the sun was in the west.
Then, I remembered that Puddle and Bubble were still travelling with us. The two rogues had, within such a short period of time, and begun to felt like a staple in my life. Now, I felt curiousity brewing in my pelt. With a nod to Littlepaw and Ripplepaw, I let the two young Bottom Feeders take the lead, and slipped back, hoping to talk to Puddle and Bubble about what they truly wanted with ShoreClan.
"Hey," I mumbled to the two rogues around the Shimmersalt as soon as I had slipped behind a limping Bubbleburst and solemn Shadefang.
"Ferretpaw," Puddle exhaled. The injured tom looked at me uneasily. "I-er-well the cave..." he began.
I felt the both of us wince away from the tender subject of me attacking him out of nowhere with glowing, murderous blue eyes. Bubble pressed his thin frame gently against Puddle, looking at me with an unreadable expression.
"Yeah," I sighed as a scarlet beetle flew overhead. "It's my foxdunged power. You heard about Redshade's curse. Same difference...I get angry, or I want to do something no normal cat could achieve, I go feral."
"Oh," Puddle stared at me, then opened his jaws and closed them, as though thinking of what to say next.
Now, we were in ShoreClan territory, but that hardly made me feel less uneasy about what he was about to say to me. I drew back, allowing the rest of the patrol to move out of our earshot, then waited for Puddle to say something like 'You're such a monster' or 'freak, ferals like you shouldn't be alive,' Instead, he simply meowed.
"Okay." Then, when I stared at him blankly, he added softly. "That's a terrible power! Why would your rock-thingy give that to you?"
"Mhm," Bubble nodded. "I dunno where my ShoreClan heritage of powers come from. Probably pretty distant relations, but still...I always wondered if Whisper has a power, since she was the one who asked us to come here in the first place..."
"Maybe she hides it," Puddle meowed.
"Who is this 'Whisper' cat?" I asked slowly. "You said you came here on a mission to help out her illness..."
Puddle and Bubble both exchanged an uncertain glance. I stared into the dense vegetation around me, the towering trees with massive, waving green and gold leaves. Sunlight cast long, dappled shadows across the leafy undergrowth.
"She's our Guardian," Puddle meowed with an awe-filled voice. "She brought all of us together from our different walks of life. She gave many of us a family to rely on when we were alone."
"Well," Bubble glanced at Puddle with a grin. "We knew each other before we stumbled across Whisper."
"So what does she look like? Act around her cats?" I asked curiously, wondering how a true leader would treat their cats.
Puddle and Bubble looked immensely disconcerted.
"Uh..." Puddle began, glancing at Bubble uneasily, flicking his tail to and fro. "I'm not sure what she looks like. Or, er, how she acts around us?"
"What?" I whirled around, having to jump back to avoid colliding with a low-hanging branch. A gecko transpired and stuck out a long pink tongue at me before skittering away.
"Yeah, so, the thing is," Bubble began, "Whisper doesn't show herself to us. She stays in the caves beside the sea where we live. Something about how she is so unnerved by shadows that she likes to stay in places so dark that shadows cannot exist."
I rolled my eyes. So this she-cat was a mousebrain. Not at all the sort of leader who could inspire cats. I wish my mother were still alive, I thought bitterly, growling at a little brown frog who let out a slow, mournful ribbet.
Then another thought occurred to me.
"Dewocean!" I exclaimed, making Puddle jump away. "I mean," I added hurriedly as he looked at me as though he thought I was going to jump him again, "Dewocean can morph into a shadowed cat...I think."
"Okaaaaay..." Puddle meowed, still watching me with wide blue eyes.
"What does that have to do with it?" Bubble hopped up to me, looking curious.
I blinked back at him. "Perhaps Whisper was hurt by Dewocean, the cat who's running the clan. Maybe Dewocean wanted her allegiance because she's a rogue leader-"
"Guardian," Puddle corrected. "She doesn't like to call herself the leader."
"Well," I continued darkly. "I don't think she's the sort of cat who can help us right now. I'm not sure that we can cure her either."
The discussion fazed out into uncomfortable silence; I could tell how worried the two toms were for this Whisper cat's life, and how getting medicine in ShoreClan was their final hope.
"Ferretpaw! Ferretpaw!"
I suddenly whirled around, nearly colliding with Littlepaw. The small brown tabby's amber eyes were wild as she stared at me. Then, I heard another voice speak up grimly.
"We're almost there, Ferretpaw. We need to discuss our move."
Shadefang padded into the open, the Shimmermoor clamped as tightly around his jaws as I thought the Shimmersalt was around mine. Bubbleburst limped up from behind him, followed by a tense Ripplepaw. Littlepaw rested her tail along my shoulders as though she feared what was going to happen to me next.
"We should charge her," I snarled. "All of us take against her. Even a cat with nine lives wouldn't survive our claws! And then we make the others pay for following her."
Even then, I could hear how mousebrained I sounded. How much I looked and acted like a reckless furball with no sense of right or wrong. But we had to get to Dewocean before she could use anymore of her tricks on us. I shivered as I remember the cage I had been living in, and the guilt of being disloyal to her that had consumed me every time she spoke.
Littlepaw seemed to notice my unease, because she pressed against me. For the first time in what felt like years, I didn't snarl or back away.
"What I meant to say," I corrected when no cat spoke, all of them too uncertain of what to do to suggest a plan. "Is we need to get Dewocean down fast. She's the one that we're after, but ShoreClan warriors will come to her defence."
Bubbleburst spoke up in a hoarse voice. "Moonpoppy, Stormwing, Drizzlemist-"
Ripplepaw continued. "Goldspike, Frogstream won't want to hurt anyone, even the kits will fight for her, probably. They're five moons now," she added as I shot her an incredulous glare.
"We can fight that amount." I said firmly.
Shadefang looked disconcerted. "We don't want to fight kits," he growled. "And even if we did...we shouldn't discount any other cats Dewocean had recruited or the powers that some of those cats wield..." he glared down at the rock in his jaws. "I thought we could use these, but they just are acting like regular, spiky, old rocks now!"
I nodded, the scent of ShoreClan wreathing around me.
Suddenly, Littlepaw looked up sharply.
"No!"
Less than one heartbeat later, I managed to register where her concern was coming from.
Cats were appearing from out of the shadows all around us, closing us in. I could see the broad shouldered form of Moonpoppy blocking my back, while Drizzlemist and Shorefeather corralled all of us together. I found Bubble and Puddle on one side, while Bubbleburst and Shadefang were pressed against me. Right in front of me, a she-cat, purple and black shadows wreathing around her transpired atop a massive dark boulder, and smiled. Behind her, also on the rock, a tom lay, staring blankly at the sky with listless blue eyes.
"Aquastar!" I snarled, but at the same time, Dewocean meowed.
"Bring Littlepaw to us, Aqua," she murmured. "This is a cat who needs my guidance. A rogue."
"As you wish," Aquastar mumbled blankly.
Littlepaw let out a shriek. Leaping back, I watched her writhe helplessly as a pale, translucent glow descended on her, dragging her closer and closer to Dewocean. I glanced back at Moonpoppy who was beside me. Did she not find this utterly evil?!
"She's making ShoreClan strong. We have always been treated as lesser just because of our way of life. That will change. We will starve no more. We will be superior..." Moonpoppy murmured listlessly, and for a heartbeat I thought she was reading my mind, but then I realised that she was staring at a little cat beside her with bared sharp fangs.
H-Honeykit? I stared shocked at the hissing ball of fury watched blankly with wide eyes as a frightened Littlepaw rose up into the sky, fighting desperately. Within another heartbeat, she had landed at Dewocean's paws.
"Wh-what do you want me for?" Littlepaw growled fiercely, but I could see her trembling legs.
"Yeah!" I snarled.
"Oh, Ferretpaw," Dewocean grinned down at me, the shadows wreathing around her like an extra pelt of fur. "How...delightful that you've survived my little test, dear." She eyed Puddle and Bubble, and a radiant smile flashed across her cream face. "And you brought little roguey friends! They can go in the cages I'm developing with the other darlings we've...collected."
Littlepaw snarled, but Dewocean just laughed as the little brown she-cat fought vainly against Aquastar's telekinetic grip.
"Now then," she smiled down at all her warriors. "I think it's time for Ferretpaw and Shadefang to give me some tools I need."
"No!" I snarled, bunching my muscles, fully prepared to lunge at Dewocean. To my surprise, it was Ripplepaw who blocked me, eyes flashing.
"Mousebrain, don't you realise who gets hurt if you don't give her the stones!" she growled under her breath to me, then turned to Dewocean with a smile.
"You know I could just ask Aquastar to give me the stones," Dewocean smiled, flicking her tail at the motionless glassy-eyed tom that crouched below her. "But I'm giving you the choice to make allegiance to me." She glowered down at me. "Ferretpaw, I'm sure your mother would be oh so pleased when you turn up in the Dark Forest."
It was a threat. I growled, but slowly, I realised that Dewocean had won.
And that I had walked straight into her trap.
I wanted to snarl to the world, claw the face of all the ShoreClan warriors who had called themselves my clanmates, but mostly, I wanted to sink my fangs into Dewocean's throat. Anything would have made me feel better than just standing there, utterly defeated, helpless.
You brought this on yourself and all your friends, a voice in the back of my mind snarled. Mousebrained, reckless, arrogant and violent fool.
"Don't do it, Ferretpaw!"
Littlepaw shrieked at the top of her lungs from where she struggled a top the looming rock. She was fully prepared to lay down her life for me and all her friends... even though I could see the fear and wild panic in her gaze. We locked gazes, and I gave a slow shake.
Dewocean smiled.
Then, I dropped the rock, and slowly backed away. Shadefang did the same with his rock. All the while, ShoreClan cats pressed us closer and closer together. When I was no longer in reaching distance of the stones, I bowed low, feeling a crushing sense of guilt and anger and desperation.
"The relics are all yours...master."