Fan Fiction

[spoiler title=”Traitors Among Us: The Next Few Chapters”] CHAPTER THREE

I was in a grassy field. It was pitch black out. The sky was dotted with stars. Suddenly, a few stars came floating down in front of me. They took the shape of…. What was it? I saw ears, teeth and tails. They were… Cats! A bright orange tabby cat came to stand right in front of me. 
“Samson, my only son,” she said, “I will show you a vision of what will happen.” 
A blinding light filled my mind. I saw a mountain of rocks, with a dark furred cat standing on top. My mind suddenly filled with the moaning of a female cat. A pure white cat with a spot on her back, was standing over a lifeless body, crying. The female swept her head around to face the cat on the stone mountain. 
“You! You killed him. One of my own kittens. You would not let me or any of us leave camp to hunt so my milk dried up and he starved. The same thing will happen to my only other son if you do not let us hunt,” she screamed at him. The dark cat only laughed. 
“That’s one less mouth to feed,” he laughed cruelly. With a scream of vengeance, the white female lunged at him, her jaws parted. It was then that I could see the body more clearly. It was a pure black cat, with green eyes staring, all life gone out of them. That was Jasper, my son! The female spoke again. 
“We are all starving and will soon die, if you do not let us hunt.” When she said ‘us’ it confused me. I could only see her…. But then, I saw it. Bone thin cats, hundreds of them. They were so skinny and their eyes and coats were dull. They had lost all hope. They were going to die, and I had to stop this. 
“No!” I yowled, jumping up. “This can’t, this WON’T happen! I won’t let it! Please, great star cats, tell me what to do.” But they were gone. 

I woke up. I was in the same spot I had been in. I lifted my head and quickly put it back down. My head was swimming. I got up and walked around. My head cleared and I noticed that it was quiet. Too quiet. There was no cat in the camp. I ran into the woods. Where was Snowspot and the kits? Then I heard the yowls. How long had I been unconscious? I looked at the moon. Yipe! I was asleep for a whole moon! I ran deeper into the woods. There, I saw it. The mountain of stones. The female. Jasper. Hundreds of bone thin cats. This is what I saw. This was my destiny. I had to stop this. With a battle cry, I bounded into the clearing. But wait. I needed to think this through. The dark furred cat was Shadowtail. He had battlers on his side. I was completely outnumbered. I couldn’t just waltz in there and demand my mate and sons back. Not to mention the four clowders. Just then, a rustling in a nearby bush caught my attention. 
“Who’s there? Show yourself!” A thin, orange striped cat staggered into the shallow clearing I was in. I barely recognized him. Then…. 
“Tigerstripe?!” 
“In the flesh,” he coughed.
“What are you doing here?” I asked “and do you know if there are any of the clowders left?”
“They’re gone,” he rasped “all gone. Shadowtail burned the dens and stole the cats.”
“Where’d he get the fire? And how did he get the cats to go with him?” I asked.
“Well, after you left, we thought you were dead. We turned to Snowspot for leadership. Shadowtail came into the camp one evening. He took your son, Jasper, in his jaws and said he’d kill him if we didn’t follow. Snowspot had no choice. She told us to follow. We did. After we followed, Snowspot asked for your son back. Shadowtail laughed and …”
“He crushed his neck,” I finished for him. 
“Yes. then… Wait. How did you know that?” Tigerstripe asked.
“Okay, you cannot tell anyone this. I had a vision. My mother spoke to me and showed me what was going to happen to us.”
“Wow. Well, I don’t know if you saw this, but your son did not die from his broken neck. He died after Shadowtail stopped letting them hunt. He starved.” 
“I realize this, and I am grieving deeply for my son, but we need to rescue the other cats. And I know how.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Soon after this, we were on our way to put my plan into action. Tigerstripe had gotten deathly ill after our conversation, but I found him some mint leaves, which soothed his stomach. He was still sick, but we could not wait any longer to rescue the cats. 
“Ok, Tigerstripe. You know the plan.”
“Yep. I distract Shadowtail while you pull two or three cats into the woods.”
“Good. Now, let’s go!” Tigerstripe ran into the clearing. 
“Who goes there?” Shadowtail exclaimed.
“It’s me, Tigerstripe, your brother.” 
“Ah, brother, changed your mind about joining me?” As Tigerstripe was talking to Shadowtail, I caught Snowspot’s attention. 
“Psst! Snowspot!”
“Sammy?” 
“Yeah! Now, grab Spanky and one more cat and get over here!” 
“Coming! Spanky, come here! You too Furredruff.” She called her son and her best friend. As soon as they all gathered, I lead the three… two cats? 
“Snowspot!” I hissed.
“Coming!” she replied “I need to get Jasper.” 
“But he’s dead,” I yelped. 
“Actually, he’s not! He’s just very sick!”
“Okay, then grab him!” Snowspot got Jasper, and I signaled Tigerstripe.  As I crept past, I stepped on a cat’s tail purposely and he yowled. That caught Shadowtail’s attention and Tigerstripe was able to get away. Unfortunately, a cat saw us leaving and started to yowl. I jumped on his muzzle. 
“Shut up, Smoketail!” 
“Sammy?” 
“Yeah, and if you don’t keep your big mouth shut, you won’t get saved from this place. I’m rescuing all the cats! So keep quiet.”
“Okay, okay! Come back soon.”
“Will do.” With that, I got out of there as quickly as possible. 

When we got back to camp, I saw everything Tigerstripe had described. My den.. burnt to the ground. The nursery..  a tree on top. The battler’s den.. knocked over like a twig. As I was taking it all in, Jasper started mewling. Then coughing. Then shivering. 
“Quick! Get him on my back!” Snowspot did as I said. 
“Oof, he’s heavier than I remember! Here, feed him these!” I handed Snowspot some mint leaves. Snowspot fed Jasper the leaves, and in a few minutes he was asleep.
“Ok, I think he’ll be alright,” I said. “Meanwhile, you guys should get some sleep.” As Snowspot and Spanky headed to the little rock jutt that was left of my den, Tigerstripe stayed where he was.
“You should get some sleep, too,” I told him. When Tigerstripe went to collect some leaves for a makeshift den, I went to plan out my next rescue mission. I decided to do things a little different than last time. I was going to go on my own.

The next night I went into the camp, I was going to act like a cat that was under Shadowtail’s control, so I rolled in a mud puddle. I went up to Smoketail, because I promised him that I would take him with me on the next rescue. As I approached him, I heard an all too familiar voice behind me.   
“Ah, Sammy. Come to rescue your little ‘friends’ I see?” Shadowtail’s voice came from behind me. I whirled around to face him; teeth bared.
“I am here not for my friends, but my family. And yours. Why are you doing this?” 
“You of all cats should understand. Power.” With those words, he yowled
“GUARDS! Escort ‘Sire’ out of camp. And don’t handle him too roughly. He must have had a hard time getting here,” Shadowtail said sweetly, sarcasm dripping from his voice. His guards were closing in on me, when a little voice distracted me.
“Don’t go near my papa!” it squeaked. 
“Spanky?” 
“Yep.” With that, my little son launched himself into the meadow and tackled Shadowtail. Shadowtail laughed. He picked up Spanky and threw him across the clearing. Spanky hit the ground and lay still.
“That’s your cousin and my son!” I screamed at him. I jumped on Shadowtail hissing and spitting. He bit my tail and ripped a clump of fur off. I yowled with fury and pain. I clawed his eyes. He shrieked with pain. When I looked, I saw that one of his eyes had a crescent shaped gash covering it. He was lucky he still had his eye! Shadowtail jumped back, and yowled in agony. He pawed at his eye, trying to stop the pain. While he was distracted, I grabbed Spanky by his scruff, and ran out of there. A few cats followed me, but the rest were too terrified to risk getting punished by Shadowtail. The cats that followed me were terrified that they were going to get caught, but I reassured them that they were going to be okay.
“I swear that you will not get abused by the evil Shadowtail any longer, friends! As for those of you who have families back there, we will get them out!” As the cats burst into cheers, I called Smoketail.
“I need you to gather the strongest cats to hunt. You and I will go try to rescue more cats. Once we’ve got an ideal number of strong cats to form a battalion, we will attack. I am sure that the others will help us, and not Shadowtail.”
“Yes, sire. Right away, Sire.” As Smoketail bounded away, I surveyed the clearing. The dens were being restored and we had at least two dozen cats. Then Tigerstripe ran up. 
“Sire, sire! We have an epidemic of Whitefur in the underground den!”
“Whitefur! Has any cat got Blackfur yet?”
“No, not yet sire.”
“Well, watch them then! Smoketail and I will make a point of saving the clowder medicine cat tonight. In the meantime, feed them mint leaves.”
“Yes, Sire. Right away sire.” As Tigerstripe bounded away, I called Smoketail.
“Come, we need to go back to Shadowtail. We are going to rescue the medicine cat.” Smoketail and I padded into the woods. After we had walked for a while, we heard a strange rustling in the bushes. A cat I recognized walked out. It was Jetfur, Shadowtail’s chief guard! The huge, jet black cat limped out of the bushes.
“Please, help me. Shadowtail physically hurt me and the other guards. I wish to join your forming Clowder.” I eyed the cat suspiciously. He had not a scratch on him. I didn’t trust him, but I wanted to see what he was up to. 
“Okay, if you want to stay, I would like you to prove that I can trust you,” I told Jetfur. “Tell me EXACTLY what Shadowtail did to you. Then, I will send a cat in to find out if what you say is true. If it is, then you may stay. If not, you will be executed for treachery.” The black cat nodded.
“Alright, we have a deal. Here is what happened: I was guarding the camp like usual, when I saw Shadowtail coming toward me. I expected a mission from him, but apparently my rival and brother, Brownear, had told Shadowtail that I, ME, his most loyal guard, had committed treachery. He attacked me and my patrol, and banished us from the clowder. My brother then resumed the job of chief guard. My patrol blamed me for their misfortune, and attacked me further, and left me. I walked for days, and ended up here. I had heard about your clowder, and when Shadowtail banished me, I came here.” 
“If this is true, then explain why you don’t have a scratch on you!”
“I, uh, found some mint leaves? Yeah, that’s it, I found mint leaves!”
“Hmm…” I still didn’t trust the big cat, but I decided to see what he was up to.
“You may stay with us, but you will be put under guard, and watched day and night,” I told Jetfur. As Jetfur followed me to the camp, I decided that I would put him under the care of our two best guards, Tigerstripe and Jasper. Jasper was growing into a fine young cat. I called the two toms, and they put Jetfur in the prisoners’ den. I left him with the two guards. After I left Jetfur, I went to see the cats with Whitefur. As I entered the den, Snowfoot, the she-cat caring for the sick cats until the medicine cat came, barred my way. When I tried to push past her, she said,
“No! You may not enter! Leader or not, I will not let you pass!”  
“Easy, okay? Why can I not pass?”
“Blackfur!”
“What? Who?” 
“Stormclaw!”
“Stormclaw! I don’t care what you say, I’m going in there!” I pushed past Snowfoot and ran into the den. 

I saw Stormclaw laying in an isolated chamber. His breathing was ragged, his once-grey fur was matted with dirt and dust. Stormclaw lifted his head when he saw me. 
“Hey Sammy,” he coughed. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Just then, Snowfoot entered the den. 
“Sammy, if you are going to be here, you need to be useful. Make sure he doesn’t fall asleep, or he may not wake up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied. 

Meanwhile, Jetfur was causing problems in the den. Tigerstripe was trying to pin him while Jasper got help.
“Help!” Jasper yelled. “Jetfur is trying to hurt Tigerstripe!” When no one came, Jasper ran back to the den.

Tigerstripe was lying on the floor of the den, and Jetfur was gone. Jasper went to get the medicine cat. While Jasper was gone, Shadowtail appeared from the bushes. 
“I will meet you tonight,” he said.

[/spoiler]