Jaded View: Chapter fifteen

Chapter fifteen
“Come on Picklekit, we need to go somewhere important.” Snowflight padded off, Shieldtuft in front of her, “coming!” She ran after the white she, then Lilykit ran towards her, “Junglekit and Moldkit are going to the fighting competition” “We are too Lilykit.” Snowflight meowed, “like it’s going to be interesting this time.” Shieldtuft muttered, flicking her tail. “I’ve never been, I bet it’ll be great!” Picklekit stared forwards, in front of them was a large clearing, a giant sanding bank was there, a few cats waiting for them. Moldkit and Junglekit were there, and Junglekit came over, “took you long enough!” He nuzzled Picklekit’s cheek, then Snowflight meowed, “don’t do that, or every other cat will think you two are love birds.” “Gross! We’re just friends mum!” Picklekit mewed, she looked at Junglekit, who seemed to think differently, “yeah!” His mew was trembling, as if he wasn’t sure about what he was saying, “well why don’t you four get those two out of the sand, they shouldn’t be there.” Shieldtuft padded forwards, flicking her tail to two grey toms, “hey! Get out of the sand!” Lilykit ran at him, waving her front paws at them, her back-fur bristling, “why should we? You’re just a training.” One of the cats snickered, “shut it Blackpaw, your just as bad, you fight over someone looking at your meal.” “Yeah right Greystorm, all you do is tell me what to do!” Blackpaw spat, Greystorm stared down at him, “if I were you, I wouldn’t argue, come on, let’s get off the sand.” Greystorm padded back to the grass, Blackpaw following grouchily. Lilykit ran back over to them, as other cats entered the clearing. Picklekit noticed Fireclan’s new leader, followed by his deputy, a white and ginger tom. “Hey look! There’s Fireclan’s leader, why don’t you go have a talk to him.” Snowflight mewed, “he might want some help.” She nudged the three away, then went to talk to Shieldtuft. “Come on!” Picklekit bounded towards the ginger tabby, “hi! My name’s Picklekit! What’s yours?” She mewed, smiling warmly at the tom, “uh, Embertail.” “That’s a cool name! What’s your deputy’s name?” “Moltenfur…” The other cat shook his head, “I’ll go get Snowflight-” “Picklekit, I can hear you from Echo’s Stone.” Snowflight padded over, “I’m very sorry about her, I asked her to talk to you, not annoy you.” “That’s fine, I don’t mind.” Embertail meowed, “now, what would you like?” “We wish to join the competition.” Moltenfur meowed, “is that okay?” “That’s okay! Only two cats per clan, and you’re the first ones.” Two other cats came over, Picklekit couldn’t recognize them, but one was a muscular, dark ginger tom, while the other was a semi-muscular, kinda scrawny grey tabby. The smaller cat spoke up, his voice cold, “we’d love to join this contest, for Oceanclan.” “Sure! You two are the first of Oceanclan to ask.” Shieldtuft came over, “the deputy of Lightningclan’s come with her kid, I’ll let her participate. Two Shadeclan cats as well, which leaves Cloudclan.” As she said that, Stonestripes ran into the area, “I would like to inform you that Cloudclan won’t be participating once more, since we haven’t got the fighters yet.” “Okay, you may go now Stonestripes.” They watched as the tom back into the forest, “all cats! Today we shall have a battle, first up, Lightningclan and Oceanclan!” The crowd of cats started to scream and cheer as the four cats padded into the clearing. Picklekit noticed how the Lightningclan cats looked weaker than the Oceanclan cats, ''this doesn’t seem very fair. ''“Go!” Snowflight called as the cats launched at each other. The grey Oceanclan cat lunged at one of the Lightningclan cats, the other smaller tom crouching under him, as the other cat landed on his back, then clutched him with unsheathed claws and rolled them over, so that he was on top. The Lightningclan cat kicked his stomach, but the other tom didn’t budge, he raised one of his paws, “goodbye little kitty, you’ll be the second one.” Picklekit could barely make out what the tom said, the other two cats turned around, while the grey tom ripped open the Lightningclan cat’s stomach. A screech of pain echoed through the clearing, every cat in the crowd started to look away or stare in shock. As the Lightningclan cat tried to get up, the grey tom quickly lowered her head, biting open the tom’s neck, blood covering his teeth. Another howl of pain erupted from the dying cat, until his body went limp, blood encircling his frozen body. “No!” Cried the Lightningclan deputy, as she ran away from her attacker to the dead tom. She shoved the grey cat off, and picked the smaller cat up, “I’m so sorry, you weren’t meant to go like this, never.” She muttered, slowly padding out of the sandy area, the other two cats watching her, before they ran off. “I’m so sorry for your loss. Those two cats will pay for it someday, I swear.” Snowflight padded towards her, placing a paw on the she’s shoulder, “those cats shouldn’t ever come here, they’re murders!” The she cried, placing the dead cat on the ground. Picklekit stared at the body, then bounded towards Moltenfur and Embertail, “that was scary, wasn’t it?” She mewed, looking at the cats, “yeah…” “We need to leave, goodbye training.” Moltenfur briskly padded off, leaving the clearing, “well, I need to go.” Embertail meowed, quickly following where Moltenfur went. “Come on Picklekit, Snowflight wants everyone to leave.” Lilykit came over, flicking her tail, cats around them were leaving, mainly being shooed off by Shieldtuft, Snowflight was beside Lightningclan’s deputy, trying to cheer the she up, “it’ll be okay, he’s in a safer place now.” Picklekit felt sorry for the she, she had lost her own kit in a battle, and it showed how weak her clan was. Shieldtuft came up to Picklekit and Lilykit, “you two, get your friends, I’ll take you to another place.” “But what if I want to go home? Or practice my skills?” Lilykit looked at the she with wide eyes, “I want to be the best warrior ever, so I’ve got to stay on top. And I need more knowledge about everything.” Picklekit saw a gleam in the white she’s eyes, “sure, I can teach you more, as an extension. Brown tabby with green eyes, why don’t you grab your friends and come with us.” Shieldtuft sat down and waited as Picklekit ran around, looking for Junglekit and Moldkit. In a small crowd that hadn’t been scared away, a bunch of trainings and Moldkit were admiring and asking questions about Junglekit’s stubbed tail. As Picklekit glanced around the crowd, she noticed a good distraction, a ginger and white she with a stub tail sat in the crowd, “hey guys! She has a stub tail too!” Picklekit called from the group, then dragged Junglekit away as the rest of the crowd went over to the she and started to admire her. “What are you doing?” Moldkit padded beside his brother as Junglekit got up, “where are we going now?” “Shieldtuft is taking us back to camp to give us extension training.” She mewed, padding over to her sister. Snowflight looked over at them, then smiled, then started to comfort the Lightningclan deputy once more. “Now hurry it you lot.” Shieldtuft muttered as she took of into the forest. Lilykit was at her heel, Moldkit right behind her, while Picklekit and Junglekit were at the rear, “Picklekit, when you said we were just friends, were you lying?” Junglekit mewed, staring into her green eyes, “what do you? We are friends, right?” “Yeah, yeah, we’re friends.” She saw his whiskers lower and the shine from his eyes disappear, “I’ll go catch up with the others,” he ran past her, not looking at her face, ''did I hurt his feelings? ''She sped up, trying to keep up with the rest of the cats.

Next Chapter: Jaded View: Chapter sixteen

Previous Chapter: Jaded View: Chapter fourteen