Shatteredsoul Strikes Skyclan Again (Closed for Night and I)

A figure moved through the night, gliding like a bird within Skyclan's territory. The hawk was back for his next kill. Shatteredsoul paused at a bush and sniffed the air. It was doubtful that a Skyclan cat would be out in the middle of the night, but his luck won out when he smelled one coming his way. He used his senses to figure out what he was up against. Heavy paw steps that stumbled every once in a while, twigs cracking under misplaced feet, and a shadow in the distance to show the outline of a well-built tom. It had to be an apprentice, fairly big and strong, but an apprentice. The runt could handle that. With a graceful leap, the rouge hopped into a tree and waited for the dumb stranger to walk past.

---

"I'm sick of it." the mumble escaped his mouth as Blackpaw's anger started to boil over. The four words explained nothing, but everything. He didn't fit in; he couldn't climb trees, travel in trees, run fast, travel quietly, nothing. He was too big and all he wanted was for his troubles to leave him, but Blackpaw should've considered what he wished for before his wish came true.

Pinepaw couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes in the den, an eerie silloett of his own irises would appear, and he would suddenly feel as if he were being watched. After hours of trying to fall asleep, the tomcat growled softly in frustration and walked stiffly out of the apprentice's den. "There has to be a reason," he thought, stalking out into the forest. With every step he took a sense of foreboding became stronger and stronger, until he could bear it no more and dashed up into a tree. All was quiet, all he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears.

Until a sound came from the forest below. Pinepaw set his amber orbs down towards the ground, barely making out the shape of his denmate, Blackpaw. He didn't know the other tom that well, but it was strange how he didn't notice he was gone. The tabby was about to call out, however he saw a flash of white and froze. As far as he knew, no cats in Skyclan had that amount of white fur. Warily, he went down a branch for a closer look. If this was the same cat that had taken Sandfeather... well, for once he didn't know what he'd do.

He itched to jump down and attack the silver stranger, but Shatteredsoul had to wait for the right moment. Blackpaw was getting closer, and Shatteredsoul was getting hungrier for a kill, until the apprentice was right underneath the tree that he was on. The rouge held his breath and tried to shrink back into the darkness as well as he could. Just a few more moments and he would pounce.

---

Blackpaw stumbled through the thick darkness, following the moon's pale glow to what would soon be his demise. The tom found a good, tall tree and stopped underneath it as he looked up through the branches. He could've sworn he had seen the tree rustle. Telling himself it had just been a squirrel, The apprentice sat down under the tree and sighed heavily. A fresh Skyclan scent came to his nose, and Blackpaw recognized it immediately as his den mate Pinepaw, even though he hardly knew the other tom. He stood up and strained his eyes to see through the darkness, when a rustle came from the branches from above. "Pinepaw?" Blackpaw called as he turned his amber gaze to look above his head. He caught a whiff of rouge and forced himself to believe it was Pinepaw. "Pinepaw, I know you're up there, come down." His heart rate quickened as another rustle sounded and a small, lithe shape moved in the shadows of the branches. Was Pinepaw really that small and thin? As a body came plummeting toward him with sharp claws outstretched and glistening in the moonlight, Blackpaw screamed out his very last word which echoed off of the bare trees and rang through the night. "Pinepaw!" His screams came to a sudden, gurgling stop after the body landed on him and tore out his throat, and the last thing he saw as he fell backward with his face turned toward the treetops towering above, was a figure in a tree some distance away, with glowing amber eyes. Blackpaw suddenly realized that he knew the cat who was looking at the scene and not the one who had just killed him. It was Pinepaw, and with pain too unbearable to describe, Blackpaw's eyes glazed over while he stared at the figure in the trees above; Pinepaw.

A sudden sense of alarm filled the apprentice when the patches of white fur moved into what appeared to be an attacking position. "Blackp-" he began to call out a warning, but it died in his throat as the cat attacked. Pinepaw couldn't move. He was fixed to the branch, forced by his own terror to watch. His eyes locked with his denmate's, and a feeling much like cold water flowed in his veins. He was sure this was the cat that killed Sandfeather, and now Blackpaw. The tom felt his posture relax, yet his eyes remained focused on the murderer no less than a tree-length away. He took a deep breath, detecting bits of Shadowclan underneath the rouge's smell. He had to tell someone.

But he first promised himself that he would be the one to take this cat down once and for all.