Warriors: Shadows of Blood (COMPLETE)

Chapter 29

The sun had begun setting, casting long dark shadows across the clearing like stripes on a tabby. Bloodfur lay half concealed in one of these stripes, watching the cats in the camp.

"Look at me, Ivy!" A little dark gray-brown tom exclaimed as he pounced on his sister. "I'm going to be the best soldier in the army!"

The gray tabby kit squeaked and thrust her brother away, batting a tiny paw at his ear. "Not before me!"

Ivy let out a purr as she watched her kits play fight. "You're all going to make fantastic soldiers."

A purr rumbled in Bloodfur's throat. I was like that when I was a kit. I wanted to be the best warrior in ShadowClan! He felt a pang of sadness. But you don't always get what you want. You make mistakes... Horrible mistakes...

"Good evening." Castiel approached and Bloodfur sat up as the silver tabby settled beside him.

He dipped his head. "Hi, Castiel." As he spoke, some cats started laughing near the soldiers den, and he glanced at them.

Bonfire was sitting with Papercut and Patch, his amber eyes gleaming. "Did you see how shocked those apprentices were?" He purred.

"Yeah!" Papercut replied. "We showed those dumb clan cats!"

When will they shut up about that? Sadness flooded over Bloodfur. He'd been horrified when Castiel's patrol had returned early that morning and delivered the news. The apprentices had been brutally outnumbered and unprepared. Papercut and Castiel had killed Flintpaw with ease. Ebonypaw had climbed to the top of the burnt sycamore in attempt to get away, but was forced to jump off when Bonfire and Patch cornered her. She'd fallen on her shoulder, apparently too injured to get up. Castiel and Papercut had slashed open her stomach just before a ShadowClan patrol arrived, and they fled the scene. He knew these details only because the soldiers had been bragging about it all day.

He felt so sorry for the apprentices. Flintpaw had been too young to die, like Cardinalpaw. He could only pray that Ebonypaw would pull through. Papercut had claimed blood was pouring out of her stomach everywhere, but Bloodfur thought it was possible that the cruel tom was exaggerating. He remembered the looks of agonizing grief on Flameheart and Bloomfire's faces when they saw Cardinalpaw's body.

Cliffshade was horrible to me. Bloodfur thought. But he doesn't deserve to lose his kits. No cat deserves to lose kin... He wished he could go to ShadowClan to see how Ebonypaw was doing. He turned to Castiel. "Were Ebonypaw's injuries really that bad?" He asked.

The silver tabby twitched his ear. "Papercut's always twisting his stories to sound dangerous. Yes, it was bad, but I can tell you there wasn't blood pouring everywhere." He narrowed his ice blue eyes. "I hope that apprentice is dead."

"I hope not," Bloodfur muttered.

Castiel flashed him a look. "What?"

He tensed, having almost forgotten that Castiel was just as cruel as the others and highly respected in the army. He'd begun thinking of him as a friend who he could speak freely with. But he couldn't let Castiel know he was having second thoughts about his actions. "I mean-"

"No." The silver tabby narrowed his eyes. "Bloodfur, I think you need to decide where your loyalty lies. You've talked to me about ShadowClan a lot. The trees, the cats, the memories. Almost as though you miss it there."

Bloodfur's pelt prickled with unease. "I-I'm loyal to Deserve's Army now."

Castiel snorted. "Don't give me that load of mouse dung. I can tell you want to be with your clan." He flicked his tail. "I don't like being lied to. Tell me the truth. Now." His voice hardened.