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| - I summoned the shadows. It was inhumane of me to do so. I had promised myself never to do it again, and the moment I let the power fly from my chest, I felt guilty. Guilty for inflicting pain. I couldn't believe I was breaking all my vows to hurt another. ...but here I was. All I could feel at that moment was frustration. These cats could have just let me go peacefully. Why hadn't they? Why did they need to track me down? I wasn't harming them or their land in any way—I hadn't hunted or removed any of their property. Why was the world such a cruel place? But they had seen too much. They now knew my face, my whereabouts, my position...I couldn't let that slide. That put me in danger, something I couldn't risk, and I knew I needed to hurt someone to get away with this—or possibly face certain death myself. So I let the power rip through my body and into the ragged semicircle of cats positioned around me. I pushed outwards with my paws, sending a rippled of dark energy reverbrating through the mass of cats. The ones at the very front flew back and thumped backwards into the surrounding trees with a sickening crack. A thin line of cats now faced me. Focusing hard, I strained my eyes and quickly, before any cat had the change to attack me, brought up my paws. It would have been easy enough to do, except that I felt like I was lifting the world. My legs trembling under the strain, I lifted with all my might until I finally brought forth the Shadows. They were larger than normal cats, their fur a midnight black and almost translucent in color. Violet plasmic energy rippled through their bodies, and their eyes glowed the same inhumane shade. They snarled, revealing deathly teeth that glinted in the moonlight. Sharpclaw stared up at the oncoming horde and his eyes visibly widened. "SkyClan, scatter!" The remaining cats scattered around, flustered, trying to avoid the snapping jaws of my Shadows. All around me I heard screeches of agony, while knowing that my Shadows did not make any sounds. I knew I was standing in a tide of crimson, cats getting severely hurt around me. All because of me. I am hurting these cats. I shut my eyes tightly closed and pointed my nose instinctively toward where I thought the moon to be, trying to block out the noise and rancid scent of blood. Less and less the screeching became, until I didn't hear a sound. I blinked my eyes open, fearful of what I would see, and leveled my gaze straight in front of me. ...right into the eyes of Sharpclaw. "You...you..." Sharpclaw stared at me, unable to utter a sound. All around him, cats were bloodied, visibly in pain, writhing on the ground. I knew a few of them would never get up from the blood-stained battleground again. "Whatever you summoned, shadow-cat..." Sharpclaw hissed, pouring all his loath and fury into his voice, "...do not think this is over. I shall hunt you, track you down, until your name is lost in the wind and your form is disintegrated and forgotten." He turned and mewed wearily, "SkyClan, let's return home." The wounded cats staggered after him. I stared in shock, and then looked down at my paws. They were still glowing a gruesome shade of black. I shook them so they flickered out and looked back up. The SkyClan cats were gone. "Did you just do what I think you did?" Nearly scared out of my fur, I whipped around and shot uncertain glances into the foliage surrounding me. "Who are you? Come out!" "Don't be so jumpy." A brighty fiery orange tom slipped out of the bushes, hard-muscled and tall, though his face displayed a jovial, good-natured smile. "I saw you do that shadow-power thing, you know." I clenched my teeth. "And?" He blinked. "...And...I thought it was pretty cool." I was unable to hide my fury at this. "I just wounded twenty-some cats, possibly even slaughtered some, with these sickening 'abilities' of mine, and you think that's cool? Have you no brain?" He stared at me, jaw parted a little. "Well...I-I just thought—" "Never mind what you thought," I snapped. "What I've done tonight is terrible, and I wish it had never happened." I turned and stalked away into the bushes, stopping for a moment to see if the tom was following me. "And you should keep your nosy muzzle where it belongs next time!" When I heard he wasn't, I continued onward. ~ The sun was burning the trees by the time I stopped for a rest. I knew the sun was not good for me, considering my rapid sweating and burning paws, but I wanted to get some distance away from my showdown. It had not been the best thing for my soul—all my life I had never wanted to hurt cats, to fight them with such an advantage. Suddenly, a rustling shook out behind me. I whipped around and snarled at where I thought the source to be. Nothing. You're just getting nervous now. Move on. Unfortunately, I had made almost no progress whatsoever since the battle and my energy—and probably my lifesource—was wearing thin. My fur was literally smoking now, and I felt like collapsing. It made sense. I cast shadows. I was nearly a shadow myself. Could shadows live in the sun? I'd have to find that out. ~ By the time I could walk no longer, I reached the end of the trees. Beyond me stretched a huge expanse of rolling terrain, covered in heather. The sun beat down mercilessly on it, so the tips of the fronds showed a burnt orange. No way. My eyes were literally blinded. I needed to rest. But ever since leaving the grounds I thought I heard some sort of rustling behind me in the dense foliage. I whipped around and caught sight of an orange tail disappear between two clumps of ferns. There! Without thinking I whipped ahead, twisted through the ferns in an odd way, and landed on the other side, my paw square on the tom's tail. I panted, and then looked up, bewildered. "You!" "Yes, me," he grumbled irritably. "Who else do I look like to you?" "And you've been following me?" I asked suspiciously, letting his tail loose but keeping my guard up. "No, not really. I'm crossing the mesa too." He gestured to the wide field of heather. "There's a forest on the other side, with good prey and streams. I might set up camp there." I backed up a step or two. "You've been there?" I asked. He nodded. "You've been to many places?" "Define 'many'," he replied easily. "I've been all over this part of the world. Nothing else to do, really." "What happened to your family?" I asked cautiously. "Won't they be missing you?" He sniffed. "And you consider me nosy. You're not the only cat around here with no family, shadow-cat. Most of us loners or rogues have had our family taken away at young ages. Including me." He looked away. Oh. I had presumed that every normal cat had to have a family. After all, they hadn't been under circumstances like me. They didn't have a mother with a strange power who visited once a day every day. That gave every reason why they should have parents. I almost shook with rage. These cats lead such normal lives, and they don't even care enough to keep their parents alive! "Whatever," I seethed, and turned and stalked away. Only now it was past sunhigh, and the sun was beating down more relentlessly than before. My head dizzy, I wobbled and fell on my back. "Stop!" the tom yelled from behind. He dragged me by the scruff and hauled me back, into the gorse sheltering the sides of the forest path. "Do you want to get killed?" I sat up and opened my mouth to bite about how he pulled me into a prickly bush against my will, but then thought better of it. "I know the sun will wear me out," I retorted. "I just want to get away from you." Not to mention get something done... "Fine, run into your death if you'd like," the tom mewed nonchalantly, and let go of my scruff, letting me fall so my paw landed in a vale of sunshine. "Owww!" I screeched, and snatched my paw back, inspecting it. It was smoking now, thin wisps of black cascading off my paw. I glared at him, my gaze creating more heat than the sun that had scorched me. "Why'd you do that?" "You said you wanted to go," he replied, "so I let you go." "Alright, maybe that was stupid," I gruffed. "But you didn't have to do that." "If you really need to get somewhere today, and have no patience to wait it out until tomorrow," the tom continued, "I'd suggest doing it the long way out." "And? What's the long way?" He grinned. "Follow me."
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