The Trap

The Trap

Sequel to Into The Darkness

The walls close in.My paws brush the edges of my miserable little box,and I know there is no way out.

I never imagined this for myself,but it is all I have.I thought I was doomed to this tiny bit of terror forever,but I was given false hope,just once.And my curse was taken from me.Given to another cat.But I wasn't freed.Never.

As I wandered into the Dark Forest,the home for lost cats who had faith in the wrong things,I saw a shadow.Company was seldom here - we walk alone - so I chased after this new companion.Useless to me in the longrun,but everything in the moment.

With a flying leap,my paws landed atop the cat's bony shoulders.Scars lined his muzzle,and anger filled his eyes.“Get off of me,you mangy flea-bag!"He screeched.

“Only if you promise to walk with me,stay with me."I released my grip on the tom's shoulders.His thick,golden fur glowed in the eerie light of the Forest.

He shrugged.“Fine.What's your name?"

“Fightingspirit."

“Odd name."He snickered.“What sort of name is Fightingkit?"

I laughed for the first time in that miserable place.“I wasn't called that.Acornkit was what I was born as..."I shrugged and briefly recapped for him what had landed me my home here.

“Do you know your brother's fate?"He asked.I shook my head,and he motioned for me to follow him.We walked on and on,into the darkness.He stopped at the edge of a pool.Suddenly the tom shoved me in.

I felt myself floating in darkness,fading away.I could see ThunderClan.Cats milled about.There,Snakestep,my mother,now elderly and frail.The medicine cat,Brooksky.Cricketstar watching from his seat on the Great Rock,where he had watched for many moons.

There was my brother's brown pelt.His leaf-green eyes shone.And there was our father,just behind him,Firetail.

“Leafgaze!"Cricketstar yelled across the clearing.My littermate trotted over to the Rock and sat below it.The leader jumped down to speak to him.“Organize the battle patrol.We need to attack,or RiverClan will destroy us all."

“Of course,Cricketstar."

The old leader spoke to him as if he were...

“You are a good deputy,Leafgaze."

I gave an internal sigh as I realized that though my brother bore the Mark of the Valley,he was no longer loyal to any of the cats we had trusted so blindly as apprentices...no,we weren't truly apprentices.We were halfway through our vigil.We were no more than kits.But I knew that the furless paws,the scars on his handsome face meant nothing to him anymore.

I floated there,just observing.But then came the most horrifying of betrayals.As Leafgaze led his battlepatrol into camp at sunset,he had gashes down his legs and his paws.He went into the medicine cat's den.

And came out,his paws covered in herbs and cobwebs.The greatest disrespect to Grasseyes,our leader in the valley,and the valley itself.Leafgaze had broken his oath long ago,but somehow I thought he would still respect his past.But no,he had thrown that all away.

As I emerged from the dark pit of sorrow,the gold tom still sat beside the pool.“How long have I kept you waiting?"

He shook his head.“doesn't matter.Time is nonexistent here."

“What is your name?"

“Streamripple."

Streamripple sighed and stood.So off we went.Little did we know that every moment he spent walking in that Forest,we were just walking deeper into our trap.

Tbc