Chapter Text
When Uzi opened her eyes, she felt drowsy as she looked around. A vast clearing opened up around her, hidden behind a thick layer of fog that limited her view of her surroundings. She tried to look up at the sky, but was met with a blanket of swirling clouds that hid the brightness of the sun behind a grey, faded layer.
She stood up, the grass under her paws feeling wet with dew and everything smelling freshly damp. She managed to make out some green bushes and a few dark tree trunks, losing herself in the thick mist that surrounded them.
Pawsteps approached Uzi and for just a moment she tensed.
Out of the mist emerged the figure of a cat... a she-cat, to be precise.
This cat approached with slow steps, something like diffuse shadows covering its fur, giving it a blackish appearance like darkness. Where her eyes should have been, there were only two glowing white orbs, intimidating the first time Uzi saw them, but she had gotten used to them.
Still, the unfamiliar gaze felt warm.
"Hello again, shadowy ghost of my dreams..." Uzi greeted, approaching with slow steps and tail held high. "What's the lesson today?"
"Today you will learn how to defeat an enemy who has already overpowered you..." Uzi blinked at her voice.
"How?" she asked interested.
The ghost sat down next to her and explained the basics of the combat move, a useful trick in case she was face down and they tried to immobilise her. It consisted of holding on until the opponent was practically on top of her, then she could kick them in the stomach with all her might, intending to send her attacker away and give her time to get up and fight back.
The ghost sat down next to her and explained the basics of the combat move, a useful trick in case she was face up and someone tried to immobilise her. It consisted of holding on until the opponent was practically on top of her, then she could kick them in the belly with all her might, intending to send her attacker away and give her time to get up and fight back.
If she knew how to use it, she could turn a fight in her favour.
"What do you say we give it a try?" the ghostly she-cat suggested. "I'm sure it will come in very handy."
"Sure..." Uzi murmured, not sounding too convinced.
"Lie down, I'll pretend to attack you." The shadow cat took a few steps away, then turned in her direction. "Sheathed claws, just kick me with all your might."
The black-and-white she-cat lay down on the grass, a little uncomfortable at the thought of exposing her belly in an attack. The shadow cat ran up to her and pounced, striking her a few times with her paws without using her claws. Uzi couldn't hold back and kicked her, even though her opponent was too far away to be pushed.
"You must be patient, if you do it before I am close enough, you will reveal your intentions."
"That's easy to say when you don't have another cat on top of you hitting you!" Uzi hissed, showing her teeth in frustration for a few heartbeats.
The other she-cat didn't answer.
The exercise resumed, except that Uzi waited until the shadowy she-cat was right on top of her. She flexed both hind legs as far as she could and kicked her in the belly, sending her far away so she could stand up and take a fighting stance. Uzi gasped as she rose, her black and white fur dishevelled and her pelt warm with anticipation.
"That was good for a first try." She praised as she approached again.
Uzi lifted her head and flicked her ears back, a little embarrassed at getting a compliment on her first try. She wasn't used to getting compliments or praise, but she was glad for the words, even if they came from a probably dead, kind of scary looking she-cat.
"What do you say we perfect the technique?" The shadowy cat spoke again. Her white eyes narrowed a little, she looked almost happy. "When the warriors come for you, you must be ready, Uzi."
"Uzi, wake up!" a voice shouted.
The black-and-white she-cat almost jumped at the sudden call, her claws unsheathed and her sky-blue eyes wide open. The fresh scent of dew was still in her nose, contrasting with the dull, heavy odours of the tunnels.
In front of her stood a tom with dense golden fur, whose appearance reminded her of the 'lions' in the lullaby stories. He was her mentor, and his face was filled with annoyance.
"Uzi, the rest of the apprentices woke up long ago." The elder complained, wrinkling his nose.
And of course none of them woke me, she thought disgustedly, forcing her fur to remain smooth.
"Sorry, Liam." Uzi apologised, trying to sound apologetic, but inside her belly was still bubbling with the excitement of her dream.
Her mentor looked unconvinced, but gave her a nod and Uzi followed him through the tunnels.
This group of cats was numerous, but mostly small, and had lived hidden in the tunnels beneath the earth for many generations. It was rocky and deep, an intricate and complex labyrinth, almost impenetrable, with dead ends, traps and tunnels designed to collapse (or be blocked) in the event of an invasion. The widest tunnels were the deepest, and were secured with sticks and branches that were regularly inspected.
Some glowing mushrooms had been planted on the walls, it was still dark but visible.
It was quite impressive... according to his father.
Uzi had come to hate them and felt uncomfortable being trapped underground, they weren't exactly safe from floods or landslides, they weren't even warm in greenleaf. Her daily life consisted of sleeping huddled up with a bunch of unfamiliar cats to keep from freezing to death.
"Uzi." The she-cat blinked and looked at her mentor. "While you were asleep, everyone before you took the test."
Around her were the rest of the apprentices, lying relaxed on the floor, looking at the newcomer with disinterest. Thad was the only one who greeted her with a wag of his tail.
"Make a tunnel in the loose wall in front, your classmates have already softened the ground."
She took a few steps towards the wall, her spirits dropping as she heard her companions muttering in the background. It was humiliating, of course they lived underground, but there were three kinds of cats: tunnelers, guards and hunters, and she was being trained as a tunneler, thanks to her stupid father's stupid orders.
Yeah, the best tunneler couldn't have a disappointing kit.
"Good luck digging, worm." She didn't even have to turn around to recognize Lizzy's voice, she was certainly lying next to Doll, both of them looking at her mockingly.
Uzi unsheathed her claws and took a deep breath, asking to be promoted to huntress hadn't worked out. This will be my life, I guess... she thought bitterly. The least she could do was try to pass so she could be a tunneler and not have her mentor stepping on her tail every second.
She leapt towards the wall as if facing an enemy and began digging frantically, jabbing scratch after scratch to remove the dirt from the wall, though it felt more like she was sharpening her claws against a tree... and speaking of claws, they were starting to hurt from the effort. She threw a cloud of dirt backwards, startling other apprentices and making them hiss in annoyance.
“Uzi, it's not like that...” Liam started, but she ignored him.
She sneezed dirt as she moved forward, her white paws dirty with the brown dirt she pawed away. She was forced to stop when some dirt landed on her face.
“Uzi.” Her mentor called in a louder tone.
“Now what do you want!” Replied the she-cat as she looked back.
The rest of the apprentices were covered in a thin layer of dirt, except for her mentor, who had his eyes closed and was partially buried in a small mound two tail-lengths from her.
Uzi blinked, shaking herself a little and watching silently.
“The test is to tunnel slowly and safely, there is no time limit...” Liam explained with visible annoyance in his voice, shaking his golden pelt a bit and coughing.
“And I won't get extra points for doing it faster than anyone else?”
“Um, no.” He denied. “Besides, you're supposed to use the loose dirt to reinforce the side walls... And should I mention that it looks like it's going to collapse?”
“What, my tunnel?” Uzi looked back, she was standing in a small hole barely wide enough to turn around. “It looks great, just need to widen it a bit...”
Uzi reached over to the side of the tunnel and scooped out some dirt with one paw, that's when the small tunnel collapsed on her all at once, trapping her under a mound of dirt and raising a dense cloud of dust that made everyone in the chamber cough.
Uzi unsheathed her claws and took a deep breath, asking to be made hunter hadn't worked out. This is going to be my life, I guess...' she thought bitterly. The least she could do was try to pass so she could be a tunneler and not have her mentor on her tail every second.
Jumping at the wall as if she were facing an enemy, she began to dig frantically, scratching at it one by one to remove the dirt, though it felt more like she was sharpening her claws on a tree... and speaking of claws, they were beginning to hurt from the effort. She threw a cloud of dirt backwards, startling the other apprentices and making them hiss in annoyance.
"Uzi, it's not like that..." Liam began, but she ignored him.
She sneezed dirt as she moved forward, her white paws dirty with the brown dirt she pawed away. She was forced to stop when some of it landed on her face.
"Uzi." Her mentor called in a louder tone.
"What do you want now?" The she-cat replied as she looked back.
The rest of the apprentices were covered in a thin layer of dirt, except for her mentor, who had his eyes closed and was partially buried in a small mound two tail-lengths from her.
Uzi blinked and watched silently.
"The test is to tunnel slowly and safely, there is no time limit..." Liam explained with obvious annoyance in his voice, shaking his golden fur a little and coughing.
"And I don't get extra points if I do it faster than anyone else?"
"Um, no." He denied. "Besides, you're supposed to use the loose dirt to reinforce the side walls... And should I mention that it looks like it's going to collapse?"
"What, my tunnel?" Uzi looked back, standing in a small hole barely wide enough to turn around. "It looks great, just need to widen it a bit..."
Uzi reached to the side of the tunnel and scooped up some dirt with one paw, then the small tunnel she had made collapsed on top of her, trapping her under a mound of earth and sending up a thick cloud of dust that made everyone in the chamber cough.
— — — — — —
Uzi was barely conscious when she received a few blows to the muzzle, opened her eyes and yawned widely. She was curled up in a hole filled with sandstone, cold and uncomfortable.
Her classmates hadn't wanted to sleep with her after covering them in dirt, so she had to go into a separate chamber from them, without the warmth of the group she felt cold and could barely fall asleep.
“Hey Uzi, I've come for you.” Thad's voice was soft. “Or have you decided to cancel your plan?”
“No, I'm just a bit tired.” She stood up, stretching her back in a long arch.
“I'm sorry you have to sleep here, I wanted to join you, but...”
“Ew, don't say that.” Uzi cut him off, hiding her embarrassment with annoyance. “I prefer to sleep alone, your littermate Lizzy snores a lot.”
“She does a bit, to be honest...”
They both wandered off through the dark tunnels, using their whiskers and noses to know where they were going. Thad had been too friendly with Uzi lately, so she had decided to tell him about her plan to kill a warrior, and the tom had listened carefully.
In truth he didn't think Thad trusted her to kill an adult cat alone, but he hadn't made any disparaging remarks. Instead, he suggested changing the fight to a trap, it would be safer.
Of course Uzi liked the idea, it sounded smarter and more ironic. "Wild cats caught as prey."
“So... you're really going to do this, aren't you?” Thad asked as they made their way out of the tunnels.
“What, you don't trust me?” She replied with a flick of her tail. “You sound like my-“
“Your father!”
“No, no, I was going to say mentor, but...”
“No, your father's coming this way.” Thad said quietly, covering her with his brown tail. “Keep quiet, maybe he won't see you in the dark.”
The black-and-white she-cat quickly backed up to a crossroads they had just passed, hiding in the other tunnel. She lay down on the ground and tucked her white paws under her body, using the black part of her fur to camouflage herself against the shadows.
The paw steps grew louder until they stopped where her friend should have been, sounding and smelling like a whole patrol.
“Hello, Khan! How's everything in the main tunnels?” Thad greeted in his characteristically cheerful voice. “It's been a quiet night.”
“I was just checking the branches that hold up the trap tunnels. We don't want them to collapse on us.” She heard a groan, as if Khan was yawning. “Shouldn't you be asleep?”
“Yes, but... I wasn't tired, I was out for a walk.”
“I see.” The veteran replied casually. “You know what? I was thinking about your suggestion to change Uzi from tunneler to hunter.”
Uzi blinked at what her father had said about her, this discussion had come up so often between them that she could hardly remember half of it. She didn't know what surprised her more, the fact that her father was considering the option or that Thad had suggested it at all.
She wanted to be there to see Khan's face, what would he say?
‘What if he finally says yes?’ she thought excitedly. ‘Then there's no reason to go through with this plan?’
“The best thing for Uzi is to be a tunneler.” Khan condemned with authority in his voice. “I know you like her, but she's still as immature as a kit and doesn't like to follow orders. If she were a hunter, she could put the whole group in danger if a warrior showed up, you're a future guard, so that includes you.” He explained calmly.
Uzi looked at the ground and shrank into herself, trying to make the anger she felt at these words outweigh her pain. Even her father didn't believe in her, although that didn't seem like news to her.
“You don't understand, Khan... She hates tunneling, a lot.” Uzi strained to hear Thad's words over the noise of his own mind.
“And I'll never understand why.” He replied dryly. “I'm the leader of this group, Thad. I must think of them before anything else, even my own kin.”
“I don't quite agree...”
“Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm sure you'll understand when you have kits.”
The sounds of pawsteps resumed as Khan's patrol moved deeper into the tunnels, passing within two tail-lengths of her, but none of them turned to look at the shadows in which she was hiding.
Uzi came out just in time to see the dark spotted grey fur of her father walking away. ‘Another day I'm thankful I look more like my mother.’
“I'm sorry you heard that...” Although Thad tried to approach her, she dodged and walked past him.
“Never mind.” She grumbled. “My father can say whatever he wants about me, as if I care.”
“But it does matter!” Uzi jumped and looked back as the tom's voice rose. “Whether he's our leader or your father, he has no right to talk about you like that.” Thad walked towards her, his green eyes burning in the darkness of the tunnel. “You're the bravest, most determined she-cat I've ever met, and he's the one who's missing out by not wanting to see it.”
Even in the cold of the tunnel, Uzi could feel her fur warming and the ground shaking beneath her paws. She had to turn to avoid his gaze, her heart beating so fast it made her uncomfortable.
“You say really disgusting things when you want to...” She muttered, unable to think of anything else. “But I think you're a good friend.” The awkwardness and warmth was such that she had to shake her pelt.
She really appreciated his words, but the thought of saying it made her feel sick. She wasn't used to opening up so much in front of a cat.
“I don't quite agree with your plan.” Thad moved closer until he was standing beside her. “But I understand why you have to do it if you have to deal with this every day.”
Neither commented further as they approached one of the entrances to the tunnels, two guards standing guard at the entrance. The toms greeted Thad warmly, deliberately ignoring Uzi, who just sighed as her friend made up a believable excuse about her father sending her to fetch sticks for his tunnels.
It sounded strange at first, but when Uzi started talking about how much she loved digging and the different types of dirt underground, both Guards decided they didn't need to listen any more.
“See you at sunrise?” Thad asked with some trepidation.
“Oh yeah.” Uzi said as he watched the guard push away the rocks blocking the entrance. “I'll use that warrior's fur as bedding for my nest when I get back, but I'm not bad, I'll give you some.”
The tom purred in reply.
“Before you go, I'd like to tell you something.” Uzi turned her head to look at him. “The truth is that I'm in-“
“Tunneler.” The guard called with a hoarse meow. “Come out quickly, I have to close it again or the whole moor will know our position.”
With an excited leap, Uzi ran to the entrance and slipped between the rocks with the ease of her thin body.
“Tell me when I come back, I'll see you!”
She slithered through the rocks like a snake, the cool night breeze ruffling her fur as she poked her head out.
Uzi lifted her snout with an open mouth, tasting the air for hidden dangers beyond the bushes that concealed the entrance to the tunnels. She caught nothing but stale, dry odours, plus the typical moorland scents that rarely seeped into the tunnels.
She nodded to the tunnel guard, who nodded back and muttered "I didn't even know Khan had a kit" before disappearing out of sight. Uzi could hear the sound of his paws digging, closing the tunnel entrance again.
She emerged from the thicket with careful steps and looked around, but saw nothing but rocks surrounded by undergrowth, stretching down to the river that separated them from the forest where the warriors lived.
The sky was tinted with reds and purples, and the sun was beginning to fade behind the trees. For some reason, the warriors only besieged them at night, and soon they would come to the tunnels and try to enter.
‘And then, they'll leave their own land unprotected’ Uzi thought to herself, with a spark of satisfaction. ‘But they'll be coming here soon, so I must hurry’ she added.
She trotted across the rocky moor, stretching her leg muscles with each step and taking deep breaths of the fresh air. She listened to the sounds of crickets, frogs and other nocturnal creatures, as well as the gentle stream of the nearby river.
She loved the freedom of being away from the tunnels and the choking smell of earth; there were days when she could barely breathe down there. Nightmares of the tunnels collapsing or flooding didn't help.
Uzi had thought about escaping before, just going far away from the forests, where the warriors didn't exist... but some other cats had defected before and it hadn't worked out well for them. If they were lucky, they were never heard from again, and there was a chance they might still be alive. If not, their bodies were found by hunting cats, either because the warriors had managed to track them down, or because they had fallen prey to foxes or badgers.
‘Besides, who would want to come with me? We would need a large group to defend ourselves against predators’. Uzi's spirits faltered for a moment at the thought, probably only Thad would agree, putting the only one who seemed to respect her at risk was selfish.
She reached the edge of the river and took a sip, tasting the cool water on her tongue before continuing on her way, crossing a fallen tree that connected the moor to the forest. She hopped down, watching the trees towering over her head, many fox-lengths away.
As she went on, her paw slipped on something soft, and it was then that she noticed a foul smell in the air. Looking down, she saw a white skull lying on the ground, and she moved closer to examine it, wrinkling her nose.
The animal had been there for a long time, but it still smelled bad. She could tell from the fangs that it was a cat's skull.
All the black and white fur on her body bristled and she backed up a little, instinctively turning back to the tree-bridge. Several bones lay scattered a few tail-lengths from the river, some of them piled in heaps that reeked of warrior scent.
‘So this is a border... they left these bones like this with the intention that we would find them,’ she reasoned, narrowing her blue eyes. Uzi didn't know these cats, but they must have been part of their colony.
For a moment she thought about cancelling her plan, it suddenly didn't seem like such a good idea. But the risk of finding the warriors already on the moor was even higher.
Uzi approached one of the piles of bones and rolled in the scent of the warriors to disguise her own scent, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the foul odour. ‘I feel like I'll be smelling like a wildcat for moons...’
She continued on the path she knew best, she had scouted the forest several times and noticed heavily travelled areas where the grass had stopped growing. Other specific areas of the forest were very rarely visited, she had never caught their scent there.
She came to a small clearing, felt the ground and sensed that it was a thick layer of sand, where there might have been a pool, so she began to dig, as she had been taught on several occasions. She went over the plan again in her mind, she would make a pit deep enough to trap the warriors one by one and then just leave them there to die.
Her group could then get out and stop living like frightened rabbits underground. The warriors attacked and killed as if they were invulnerable, never expecting to be trapped.
Uzi didn't know how long she'd been digging, her paws ached and she feared her claws would break, though they were short and not very sharp from her training, so they should hold up well.
She had to leave when she saw the moon was at its highest, she was panting and the white fur on her paws was dirty. She lay down by the hole for a few moments to catch her breath before returning to the river for a drink, too tired for more.
"Maybe it was unrealistic to think I could finish the trap in one night..." she hesitated, swallowing and panting. She grunted in annoyance, her plan to become the hero of her group was going to take longer.
She retraced her steps to cover the trap with branches when she heard a noise coming from the trees, jumped a little and hid behind some brambles.
‘Is it a warrior or an owl? Please let it be an owl...’ her fur bristled at the thought. An owl would never attack an adult cat, but she was still an apprentice, so the owl might be tempted to try.
There was a noise above her and she looked up, hearing the branches of the tree next to her tremble too. Whatever it was, it had leapt in her direction. She held her breath and hunkered down like a frightened rabbit.
The night wind shook the tree, letting the moonlight stream through the leaves and branches. White fur flashed between the branches and a pair of yellow eyes stared back at her, their pupils dilated.
She managed to see its claws cling to a branch, thin but very long.
‘It's a warrior...!’
Uzi panicked as the branches creaked and rustled as the white warrior came running down, snarling and screeching like some kind of monster. Her first instinct was to run into the clearing, but a few pawsteps were enough for the tom to pounce on her, delivering a blow to the shoulder near her neck.
Uzi let out a hiss, remembering her practice with the shadowy she-cat of her dreams.
She clawed angrily at her attacker's muzzle as she held her front paws close to her neck, blocking potentially lethal attacks. The tom was bigger than her, but Uzi was confident of her speed and managed to land a deep blow on her cheek.
“Bite me, I won't let you kill me that easily!” She hissed at him before biting a paw that tried to reach her neck again.
She clenched it tightly between her teeth until she received a hard blow and he had to let go.
The warrior seemed stunned for a moment, so Uzi turned and retreated into the clearing, heading for the pit he had dug as a trap. She leapt over it and waited, her fur bristling.
Her pursuer ran after her and pounced, but Uzi pushed him back with her whole body. The white tom tried to cling to the edge, but the sand crumbled in his paws and he fell into the pit with a thud.
Uzi gasped and swallowed hard at the sudden silence. The cuts on her body burned and her cheek was numb from the blow.
“Did I do it? Is he... trapped?” She asked aloud, not believing it at first.
She let out a heavy sigh, now all she had to do was repeat the process with one, two, three, five, eight... How many warriors did they have in this group?
Well, maybe she should have thought about that more carefully.
Just as she caught her breath, a white paw emerged from the pit, followed by the face and chest of the white warrior. He looked at Uzi with wide eyes and dilated pupils, showing his sharp teeth as he growled at her. His bristly, thick fur made him look even larger than before. A drop of blood fell from his face, the result of a scratch above his eye.
He crawled out of the pit, helping himself with his long claws.
Uzi felt as if her entire body had frozen in fear for a few seconds. She hadn't been there long enough for the pit to be deep enough to trap him.
She ran aimlessly into the forest, having no backup plan, so she would return to the tree-bridge and run back to the moor. ‘I'll lock myself in the damn tunnels, my mate will be a tunneler and I've have kits that dig tunnels!’
Before she reached the shore she thought she saw a black shadow beside the bank so she slowed her pace, ‘Another warrior?’ she mentally shouted before turning back, she felt cornered and wasn't even sure where the first tom was anymore.
She climbed a tree that looked strong, panicking and barely holding on with her short claws. She climbed as high as she could until the branches became too thin for her to climb any further. She held her breath for a moment, feeling dizzy and weak, she had never climbed a tree before... apparently she was afraid of heights.
As she looked up, she saw the white warrior climbing to reach her, but he was too heavy and the branches bent under his weight. Still, he leapt, hooked Uzi's hind leg with his claws and pulled her down.
She screamed, clenching her teeth at the searing pain.
She was tired, sore, dirty and scared, couldn't this thing leave her alone for a second? She swallowed spittle and hissed as he pulled harder. ‘This is pointless, I'm trapped... but if I am...!’
“Then I'll take you with me!” She called before leaping down onto the white tom.
The branch they landed on swung down at the sudden shift of weight, then jumped up like a spring.
The warrior lost his balance and fell, while Uzi clung to the base of the tree with all her strength. Perhaps her light weight helped, for she only tore off a claw instead of falling into the void. A shower of leaves and twigs came down on her.
When she got over the shock, Uzi dared to look down. The white cat lay still on the ground, his fur strewn with leaves. It seemed to have hit several branches before he finally reached the ground.
“Did I kill it?” She asked aloud. She felt no remorse for the monster, but was impressed with herself.
She waited a few moments to see if the other warrior would appear to help him, but it seemed that the strange cat she had seen on the bank had not seen her approach.
She climbed down from the tree with difficulty because of her torn claw, it was bleeding and it hurt like hell to walk with it. She considered tearing out a lock of the warrior's fur to show her father what she was capable of.
‘That might at least convince them that fighting is possible...’
She approached the body with caution and her paw steps stopped a tail's length away from him - he was breathing. He was still alive. Uzi's ears flicked back but she did not retreat, moving even closer and placing a paw on his neck.
She had to kill him, she knew. This wild cat had killed so many cats in her colony that it would be unfair to them all if she didn't. Her father would be so proud when she told him she had avenged her mother.
She pulled out her claws. She would make a clean cut, she would not let him suffer.
A honeysuckle bush moved in front of her and Uzi looked up to meet the she-cat made of shadows she had seen in her dreams, she gasped as her white eyes connected with her own blue ones.
She didn't know why, but a feeling of deep sadness and longing washed over her.
“Who... who are you?” Uzi asked, unable to look away from the ghost.
“Uh, me?" a voice answered from beneath her.
Uzi jumped back with a bound, her white fur ruffled with black, the white warrior staring at her with his bright yellow eyes. His pupils were dilated now, he looked much less frightening.
And perhaps friendly?
“I didn't even know you could talk..." she murmured. No one had heard more than hisses, grunts and the occasional laugh.
“You who?” He tilted his head a little as he sat up. “My head hurts a bit and everything feels a bit fuzzy, what happened?” Uzi didn't answer, looking up instead. The twisted branches and leaves on the ground seemed to be more than enough of an answer for him. “Oh... I, um... ouch.”
The she-cat blinked, that warrior seemed to have lost what little brains he may have had with the fall.
“J said she'd be getting some apprentices from another crew soon, are you one of them?” The stranger walked over to sniff at her, earning a slap from Uzi. “You smell... not so good, sorry to say.” He narrowed his eyes, suspicious.
“It's just... I'm new.” Uzi sat up to mimic her gesture, trying to appear calm. “I just came from the... carrionplace?”
She said the first thing that came to mind, remembering stories about it being the stinkiest place of all.
Fighting with a torn claw was a sure way to get yourself killed. There was a silence, he sniffed her again, but this time he stuck out his tongue to catch her scent better, and examined her closely.
“That explains the smell, but you look like a strong apprentice like the others.” The stranger nodded before getting up and shaking off the leaves. “My name is Nimbus, like the white cloud formations in the blue sky. But call me N, that's my warrior name, and I'm part of the WarriorClan.”
Uzi wrinkled her nose at his introduction and his name. She didn't understand half of what he said. Crews? What the hell was a nimbus? She had barely seen the clouds a few times.
“Interesting story... But it's time for me to eat the innocent cats on the moor...” She turned her back on him and limped away towards the river.
She could not take many steps as her body went numb and she soon realised that she could not move, one of her legs buckled and she fell into the shade of a tree. Uzi blinked and tried unsuccessfully to get up.
For a second she panicked, ‘I have to go fast! What is happening to me?’
“Your wounds smell like night berries...” N walked up to her and unsheathed his claws.
Uzi cowered for a moment, but when she wasn't hit, she opened her eyes, the warrior looking fierce in the darkness of the tree, his glowing yellow eyes still somewhat intimidating.
“Did we have a... training that got out of control?” He asked, turning his head curiously. “We warriors crush night berries when we're not hunting, their poisonous juice can paralyse intruders if it comes into contact with open wounds.”
She blinked at his explanation and looked at N's bare claws, which were stained with reddish tones and smelled of herbs. At first glance, she had assumed it was blood.
“But you'll be fine, don't worry!” He leaned over and grabbed her by the neck, dragging her along with him. “You'll get used to it and it won't hurt anymore... in the meantime I'll take you to the camp.”
“The camp...?”
“Yes, you have to take an antidote, otherwise you could poison yourself. We don't have a medcat as such, but... each of us knows a little about healing herbs.”
‘Each of us!’ thought Uzi in horror. This warrior might have been stupid from falling out of a tree, but his clanmates would know she was lying the moment they saw her.
She tried to kick or whimper, but her body was so numb it was like fighting with limp, heavy legs. She continued to scream as he dragged her through the forest, the path leading down to the river and back to the moor receding with each step.
She had heard stories of warriors who were faster than thunder, silent as shadows, strong as the river and unstoppable as the wind, but poisonous...! It sounded so impossible and ridiculous, and now they had poisoned her!
N made her way through the forest, following a path that had been so heavily used by cats that there was no grass growing in the area. The forest grew thicker and darker as they approached, Uzi's neck ached, but she didn't complain for fear of being overheard.
She felt like she was being dragged to her own doom, to a horrible death.
‘They are going to kill me. I'm going to die and there's nothing I can do about it now...’ she swallowed. ‘You were right, dad, I was such a fool.’