Poisoned Fangs, Scene 10: The sinister, eeire body

Summary:
Milkstar walked out of the gathering tent alone and looked around *their not here the image of the black cat was painful to think about the tom slowly started walking back to camp. "I wonder how cinderkit and thrushkit are?" He thought suddenly the tom gelrew even sadder "and Stormkit" he thought and stopped for a moment before continuing to walk back to camp he finally made his way into the camp clearing and looked over Loudstrike was already yelling at him to come over and share prey a squirrel with her he sighed and made his way over to her

“Milkstar! What took you so long? Geez were you digging dirt?” Loudstrike teased “come on take some” she slid a squirrel towards the white cat’s direction

"no I wasn't I just wanted some time away from everything" he replied before taking a bite of the squirrel

Loudstrike sighed “well I couldn’t blame you, cats have gone missing. And without a trace! Isn’t that crazy?” “What awful thing could’ve even happened to them?!”

"I don't know" he said before continuing "maybe there's fox or a badger?" "Or maybe "they ran off but that doesn't sound like Forestclaw does it?" Milkstar sounded panicked "what if Tumbleflight turns up Missing?" He thought careful not to say it out loud

“Fox? Badger?” An excited voice mewed from behind Loudstrike. Bravepaw skidded to a halt, almost hitting onto her back. His claws unsheathed and his ears went back. “Where? I’ll kill it!”

“Eh?” Loudstrike looked at her apprentice “you just became an apprentice a moon ago!” “How in the name of starclan can a tiny kit like you defeat a badger?!”

He stomped around her angrily. “I’m not tiny! I could take a badger single pawed!” He leaped in the air with his paws extended. “You should’ve seen that HUGE crow I caught last night! I was like JUMP RAWR!! And it tried to fly away like AHH DONT GET ME! And I snatched it up and killed it! I could take on anything!!”

Milkstar watched his son with amusement "loudstrike has a point ya know" bravepaw looked up at his dad with disappointment

Bravepaw sighed. “You’re no fun! But if there ever is a fox or badger in camp I’ll change your mind!”

"I'm sure you will" sarcasm edged milkstars voice

Loudstrike picked up the tiny apprentice. “One day you’ll be big and strong a warrior! Just not yet! We’ll be taking down all the badgers before you know it!”

Bravepaw fluffed out his pelt. “I will take on every creature that dares mess with our clan! Rawr!” He bounced off towards the apprentice den

“How cruel can you milkstar?” Teased loudstrike “he’s just became and apprentice not long ago!”

"he's knows I'm only joking" milkstar replied "he's know me for 7 moons actually his entire life" milkstar said

“Hpmh! You’re always take everything so seriouslyyyy” groaned loudstrike “ever since you became a leader, you’re also becoming a boomer”

"I have to be serious" he responded "I'm responsible for everyone in the clan!" "Everyone needs to know I'm doing we're doing our best" he said before loudstrike could tell him what she thought he continued "you do remember we aren't clan born right?"

Loudstrike looked away. The teasing face suddenly turned stern “Of course I do” she muttered”

"cats still think we're soft kittypets!" He said "no matter how long we've been in fogclan their will always be atleast one saying we're not true warriors" he looked at loudstrike

Loudstrike got up “I’m going to my den” she said emotionless, “enjoy the rest of your prey”

Milkstar sighed before finishing the squirrel

Suddenly, the air around Mistystripe went cold and wet

"Hey guys?"

Milkstar turned around "what is it?"

she went quiet

"it's the clouds” The blind she cat looked up

Bravepaw stuck his head outside of the den. “Whats wrong with the clouds?”

"can't you see them?"

"are there any? "

Milkstar looked up. Bravepaw did the same. she didn't know what the clouds smelt like at first,  but then she noticed the smell of fresh blood

Milkstar looked at her "what is it?"

IS THE SKY NOT FILLED WITH CLOUDS? They smell like blood...

"clouds are normal" milkstar said

Milkstar stared at the warrior "leave the procheies(idk) to cloverleaf she's are medicine cat" milkstar said kindly

she nodded it must have been an illusion... no,  it can't be... She thought. If there weren't clouds anywhere, then there must be blood. She had thought the cloud had a weird smell,  but now she realized there was no cloud there. The air wasn't damp enough.

“Are you sure there's no cloud There?”

Milkstar watched the shecat "there is no clouds" milkstar said "do you need to see cloverleaf?' the tom asked.

No-no,  I'm fine! she said weird though... She thought

"o-ok" the tom replied

Misty was thinking: hm it can't be clouds,  no-one seems to notice it and also the air isn't wet enough

No,  it's not clouds.

It's blood.

She recognized the smell now

"it's blood" she said quietly

"what?" Milkstar questioned "no it's not blood" the toms voice turned from a curious tone to a serious one "there is no blood in our camp" milkstar said

"no not in our camp. "

"then where?"

I don't know,  it's smells like a whole different clan. But it's in our territory

It makes no sense

"the only clan close to us is snakeclan" milkstar said

“Gasp!” A cat ran into camp trembling with fear. Milkstar turned quickly

“There’s a dead cat on our borders!” screeched the black cat

"what!" Milkstar yelled "lead me there" "loudstrike" he called "come with us"

“I will come With you” said mistystripe

“But,” the cat’s voice was shaking, “only half of the body is there, the ribs were exposed and the rest was just gone!”

"no your not mistystripe" milkstar said

"w-what?" Milkstar " do you know the cat?"

“The body felt warm..” the cat looked away “it was dead not long ago”

"oh no" milkstar said "come on let's hurry up" milkstar said

Mistystripe followed Quietly

The cats soon followed the black cat, Ravenpelt just said: “But what can we do!? The killer could still be loose!”

"it's only one cat" milkstar said trying to be calm

Mistystripe stayed quiet so no-one could see she had followed. The cats reached the where body was discovered. Blood spattered everywhere. Half of the cat’s body was gone, bones exposed. She smelled the horrible smell even stronger than before

she stayed quiet.

“It doesn’t look like one of our cats!” Exclaimed ravenpelt

Milkstar stared at the cats body "what? W-who could do this? What could do this?" Milkstar looked at his warrior

Mistystripe stepped on a twig “oh no. .. Milkstar wanted me to stay in camp…” she thought

Ravenpelt spun around “d-did you hear that?” he muttered

Milkstar looked over at the bush "loudstrike go see what that was?"

Mistystripe couldn't do anything,  she couldn't smell because of the stench. She didn't move. Loudstrike nodded and stalked over to the bushes. Her ears alert. A rabbit ran past them. Ravenpelt jumped but then gave a heavy sigh of relief. Milkstar almost jumped when the rabbit ran by. Loudstrike jumped back in surprise but then smoothed down her fur. “It’s just a rabbit Milkstar.”

"thank starclan" he said and looked back at the cat "we need to bury him" he said

“One thing we need to worry about is the rancid stench coming from this cat! The corpse is fresh so there’s no reason for it to smell of rot!” She sniffed it one more time. “It must have been sick. Maybe greencough.”

"we can't take him back to camp" milkstar said "we can bury him here"

"let's get to work burying them" milkstar said with sadness

Ravenpelt nodded, even though just looking at the dead body made him sick. The cats began to dig the grave for the strange tom

As they buried the body, they didn't know that they were being watched not only by Mistystripe but also someone else. A white tom walked away slowly

Bonus: Iceclan POV
TW: ANIMAL DEATH

The cold wind blew in the white tomcat's face as the cats of his clan walked by. He noticed a smell in the air. Cats! he thought. The trail was fresh.

"Stop!", he said loudly.

"What is it, Polarstar?", asked a Snow White cat with grey leopard markings.

"Cats are nearby", the tomcat said.

The clan cats whispered amongst each other.

Then, a beautiful grey she-cat spoke up: "We can't wonder around forever! We are growing weak and our kits are dying of starvation!"

Cats nodded, agreeing.

"If they won't let us stay, we'll have to fight them!", another cat hissed.

Under Polarstar's thick coat of fur he felt cold and wet.

"I don't think-", he started, but he got cut off by the she-cat with the leopard markings.

"Polarstar, your kits..."

"What about them, Leopardstorm?", Polarstar asked.

"They're dying."

A sudden wave of panic came upon Polarstar as he rushed to his kits. Two of them were gone.

He gazed upon the third who was barely hanging on to life.

"No... I can't lose you too...", he said quietly.

The kit's paw slowly moved towards it's father, touching it.

The kit was breathing heavily. It's breaths got slower... and slower... and slower... until it stopped completely. It's paw fell to the ground and went limp. It was dead.

Polarstar lightly put his nose onto his deceased son.

"I'm so sorry...", Leopardstorm meowed.

"It isn't your fault... it's mine."

He painfully walked away from the body.

"We have to go into the forest", he said.