Chapter Nine
Bloodpaw didn’t know how long he’d been sleeping for, nor if the others actually knew he wasn’t with them any longer. What he did know was the sound of the wind blowing across the moors was still there. The wet cold of the breeze that blew across his pelt, the swaying stalks of grass that brushed around his flanks; they were all still pretty much there. Cracking his eyes open a bit, the ginger tabby could see that it was still daytime out here. Worried about nothing, Bloodpaw would close his eyes once more.
However, he would soon find himself snapping his eyes open after a short while. There was something off about the area now. Something he should’ve guessed from the start, but had been too exhausted to register. The wind was still blowing out on the moors, sure, but there was a presence there that didn’t belong. “Guys? Pinebolt? Sagepaw? Anyone?” Lifting his head up from his paws with a jolt as panic started to intertwine with his beating heart, Bloodpaw soon rose up to his paws as he gazed around the moors. He could smell the lingering scents of his clan mates, but where were they? They should’ve been back by now and would’ve woken him up.
“This isn’t funny, Sagepaw!” He shouted to no cat in particular. That’s when his right ear suddenly cocked backwards as the soft noise of giggling alerted his attention towards the west. “Hello?! Whose there?!” Sounds of grass rustling began to reach his ears, faint but it was there for sure. ‘Enough of these games.’ Thought Bloodpaw as he began following the sounds.
Pushing through the grass, as he darted through them, Bloodpaw began frantically scanning the area to catch sight of the noise. However, when he got to one part of the moors, the giggling started to appear in another direction. It kept alternating between being so close he could feel the air pressure of breathing down his neck or close to his ears, to being further out of reach of him. It didn’t help that the landscape seemed to stretch infinitely all around him. It was starting to irritate him, being pulled in separate directions like this.
But, he continued to push onwards as he wanted to know who was out here. Though, he didn’t know where he was anymore. The stalks that grew within the moors started to regress, and before he knew it; the grass was now just tiny shoots that barely made any crunching noise as he stepped on them out into a large…clearing? Breathing hard from running, Bloodpaw was more than confused. More than weirded out. For once in his moons, he was completely without words. There were trees in the moors and marshes, sure, but not these kinds. These looked like they just reached up towards the sky until it was completely blocked out by the branches.
This created a darkness that made him shiver, and not because of the coldness that wafted through the spaces, but there was a presence here. A rather thick evil presence that sent chills running down the length of his spine. Turning his head and body in different directions to get his bearings, a loud snap of a branch being stepped on made him turn his entire body to the left. Something was standing in the darkness, well past his vision, but they were there. Just out of his reach, and that made his breath quicken as the soft thuds of paws began to grow louder and louder with each painful moment.
Then came that giggling again, however it wasn’t coming in front of him. No, it was coming from behind him. Giggling from behind, and sounds of pawsteps coming in front; Bloodpaw found himself trapped. “Admittedly,” Came a voice so soft and silk-like; Bloodpaw almost jumped out of his skin. The voice itself didn’t sound solid enough for his taste. It felt disembodied, supernatural-like, and it made him very uneasy. But, he didn’t run from it as the front-paws of a cat started to manifest from the darkness ahead of him. Well, it wasn’t like he could run anywhere anyways. What if he got lost in these woods?
“I didn’t expect a cat to come wandering aimlessly into the midst of The Place of No Stars. Not of their own accord. And most definitely,” Stepping out fully from the shadows was probably the biggest jet black tabby Bloodpaw had ever laid eyes upon. Almost the size of a dog, the tom before him looked at the ginger apprentice with the most voluminous yellow eyes he’d ever seen, “not a clan cat.” The tom spoke in that silken voice of his. Narrowing his eyes to slits, that’s when his voice dropped to an icy tone that made Bloodpaw’s skin crawl. “Who are you?”
Bloodpaw found himself unable to speak, his voice completely dry and caught in his throat. The tom before him was nothing like Smokestar. No, he was something of a different caliber altogether: he was death. He could feel his very bones start to tremble and quake as fear gripped him tighter than the darkness surrounding him. The apprentice couldn’t even look the other straight in the eye, as Bloodpaw suddenly dropped his gaze towards the needle covered ground. ‘What’s going on? Why am I shaking so much like this?’ He thought as he felt the urge to vomit all over the place.
“Your scent,” Came that voice that was so close to his body, Bloodpaw couldn’t resist letting out a small whimper as the cool breath of the tom washed over the left side of his face, “it reminds me of that she-cat I once knew when I was alive. Brave little thing she was, and perhaps a bit feisty.
Most toms wanted to be her mate, and yet she chose a warrior from a clan. A clan that had been long since broken up. Urgh, for the moons of me what was the name of that clan?” Circling around Bloodpaw as he continued to monologue, the tom scrunched up his face as he tried to bring up the memory of a she-cat. As for Bloodpaw? He was trying hard to slink away from him, slowly yet surely towards a patch of trees just a few whisker-lengths away. But it was kind of hard to do when a cat that’s bigger than you are could most likely catch you with ease.
It didn’t help that the tom himself would cast his gaze in the direction of Bloodpaw, as though he was making sure that the apprentice was still there. “Goodness me,” The tom finally mewled after a lengthy amount of pacing. Freezing in place just as he was on the edge of the clearing, Bloodpaw prayed to Starclan to protect him from certain death, “I am not able to remember who she was. It has been so many moons since I last saw her and fought her in battle for betraying her own group in favor of protecting a clan cat.”
“Bloodpaw.” A soft hiss suddenly snaked its way into his eardrums as Bloodpaw flinched a little. Turning his head as slowly and discreetly as possible, the young apprentice darted his eyes into the shadows behind him; from which the voice had called out to him. “Run as fast as you can, Bloodpaw.” The voice told him, though the blood-red ginger hesitated to even listen to those words. But, there was a familiarity to them. A familiarity to him that he hadn’t heard since birth.
“Is there something distracting you, clan cat?” Snapping his head towards the front now, Bloodpaw found the jet black tom staring coldly at him. “I was asking if you knew of such a cat? Although, it looks as though something is far more important than my question.” Peering past the blood red ginger, and narrowing those yellow eyes of his, the tom merely scoffed when he found nothing; heard nothing. “Listening to nothing but the wind, are we?”
“Quickly now.” The voice came again, this time more urgently now. Bloodpaw didn’t hesitate for a second this time around. Hearing the snarl coming from the tom, the blood red ginger bolted in the direction he heard the voice. Branches that had fallen from the trees snapped beneath his paws as he darted in between the spaces. Breathing coming out as hard pants, feeling his heart pounding not with exhilaration; but with fear, determination, and anxiety.
“GET BACK HERE!!!” He heard the roar and hiss of the tom close behind him. But Bloodpaw dared not to look behind him. Even when he could hear the tom gaining ground on him, he just did not dare look back. And as he dashed across the leaf and branch littered ground, low hanging branches slapped across his face; creating small rivets of scratches that trickled crimson. Yet, he still ran hard and as fast as he could. “CLAN CAT!!!!!!”
“Ignore him and just follow my voice, my little Bloodpaw.” Spoke that disembodied voice. Flashes of his mother’s body suddenly started to appear in quick blurs. Tears began to flow from his eyes freely, blurring his vision. Tears of fear as the tom was getting closer and closer till Bloodpaw could feel him nipping at the tip of his tail. Tears of determination to get to safety streaked past him as he ran still. “You’re almost there, Bloodpaw. Just a little further.”
“Help me, please.” Bloodpaw mewled, not caring if his voice sounded tiny and squeaky. He just wanted to be out of this place no matter what. “Help me!” He mewled a little bit stronger now.
“NO ONE CAN HELP YOU HERE, CLAN CAT!” Yowled the tom in a triumphant whoop as he knew he was going to get this clan cat. “YOU”RE ALL ALONE HERE!!!! JUST YOU AND ME!!”
“Jump, Bloodpaw. You’re there now. JUMP!” Screamed the voice. Not wanting to hesitate or even think about it, Bloodpaw leaped as far and as high as his legs could carry him. Time seemed to slow down for the apprentice of Shadowclan. Wherever he was leaping to, he prayed to Starclan that it was towards safety and not into more danger. Heart pumping so loud in his ears, hope filling his mind; Bloodpaw didn’t think for a second he was going to make it as the sound of the tom’s laughter started to echo across the forest.
Then, everything faded to black. The sounds of the environment no longer flowed. It was like Bloodpaw had just become deaf. Though, there was this rather odd poking in his left flank. Swiping his left paw to push away the object, it was only for a brief moment unfortunately. “Will you wake up already, runt!” Hissed Sagepaw loudly into the left ear of Bloodpaw, causing the latter to leapt to his paws with a sharp yelp.
“Ah, welcome back to what we call the real world.” Smirked Sagepaw though his eyes were narrowed to slits. “Must have been having a wonderful nap while the rest of us were out there hunting, actually.” Grinning tightly, it looked as though Sagepaw was trying hard not to laugh; and was failing very hard to say the least.
“I am begging you, Sagepaw, do not say a word of this to Pinebolt. Much less Longsky and Smokestar.” Speaking of the former, Bloodpaw could hear the pawsteps of the others getting closer. “Look I’ve been,” Bloodpaw had to hesitate a little because, how can he tell Sagepaw about his dreams and visions(?) as of late? He didn’t know how he was going to react.
“I hope you’re not wasting my time with this, Bloodpaw.” Mewled Sagepaw rather irritably. “There are far more important things to do besides waiting for a cat like yourself, wasting others' time. What am I saying? You’ve always been like this.” Sagepaw said with a scowl before turning to walk away.
“Always been like what?” Upon hearing those words, Bloodpaw found himself a bit irritated on how that was worded. “What are you talking about, Sagepaw?” This caused the latter to stop in his tracks, with a devious look on his face no less. “Answer me.” The blood red ginger hissed.
“You really haven’t noticed, have you?” Mewled Sagepaw as he slowly turned back to him. Ears flicked backwards against his head as started to get impatient. “Okay, not common for a mouse brain like yourself. So, I guess I’ll have to explain to you. You’re not part of this clan, you never were. Why do you think Smokestar takes pity on you? Because you were clan-less when they found you. Surely you are aware of that, yes?
Thankfully, and perhaps it was some kind of merciful act from Starclan and thanks to the warrior code that we couldn’t just abandon you out there, the clan took you in. But, I wished you had never joined Shadowclan.”
The moment Sagepaw had begun speaking, Bloodpaw hung onto his every word. He didn’t understand why though. He always had a hard time believing Sagepaw most of the time, but his heart was telling him to listen. Clan-less? Was that actually true? Was that the reason why Pinebolt and Smokestar took pity on him? Because he was clan-less? “Keep going.” It was barely even a whisper, but Sagepaw grinned hugely as though he was enjoying this way too much. By this time, Pinebolt and the other two apprentices had arrived on the scene. Looking between Bloodpaw, his own apprentice, and Sagepaw; the lanky tabby was confused as to what was happening. Until Sagepaw began speaking again.
“Every cat was treated equally with every attention. Barely anything happened here. The moment you came,” Shaking his head, smile never leaving his face, and yet his eyes started to turn icy; Sagepaw breathed hard, “we had to work hard to get to where we are. No one took pity on our mistakes, not even from Smokestar. Yet, you make mistakes protecting others for no reason,” hard glare towards Graypaw briefly before casting his gaze back to Bloodpaw, “and it is like nothing happened. Light punishments, and it's just vanished like missed prey.
Others find it admirable that an apprentice like you could sacrifice his own goals, just to help out the weak and not allow them to forge their own paths. But me? I find it disrespectful to those that came before us. You just know when to help others out like it's second nature. Without being told how to do it, when to do it, why to do it, or where to do it. You just do. That’s why I kept trying to catch HER attention, because I knew she was falling in love with you.” Narrowing his eyes to slits, Bloodpaw knew he was talking about Creampaw. And in that moment, understood why Sagepaw was the way he was.