The Battle of the Grove Part Two
by Audrey Smith
(Columbus Ohio, America)
The story starts here: Part One…..
Robinpad has awoken with a silver tom standing near her.”W-what?” Robinpad stammered. “You heard me,” the silver tom replied. “Who… Who are you?” Robinpad inquired.
“I am Nettlestar, the leader before Cherrystar, your leader,” he replied. Robinpad remembered stories of the old leader. They had been about how he had made techniques to hunt with his bright fur in the forest. She hadn’t pictured him quite like this. She had imagined him with pure white fur, not silver. Oh well, she thought. It doesn’t really matter.
“Like I said before, you’re safe, so don’t worry,” he flicked his tail around the small clearing. “It’s surrounded by brambles, and there aren’t that many of the Controlled or many of the Controllers here.”
“What?” Robinpad was confused. Controlled? Controllers? What were they?
“You’ve never heard of either of these, of course,” Nettlestar’s expression changed to worry. “Have you?”
“No, what are they?”Robinpad asked, slowly pulling herself to her paws.
“Wait. Before I tell you, make sure you want to know. If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else, is that clear?” The silver tom’s gaze was sympethetic.
“… Yes,” Robinpad knew even if she couldn’t tell anyone, she would spend the rest of her life wondering what it had been if she hadn’t been told.
“Alright. I’ll tell you,” the silver tom sat down in front of Robinpad. “When I died and came to StarClan, StarClan was very peaceful. Then, one day a very young kit died. He said he was too young to die. Some of our queens tried to comfort him, but he was violent, screeching and lashing out. We didn’t know what to do with him. We decided to bring him to Swanfeather.”
“Who’s Swanfeather?” Robinpad asked.
“I was going to tell you. Swanfeather was the oldest cat in all the clans when she died. Nobody had-or will-live longer than her. she has a very vast expanse of knowledge.”
“Oh,” Robinpad hadn’t know anything about her. Isn’t that the kind of thing in stories?
“Anyway, we took the kit to Swanfeather. She talked to him, and he seemed to realize he wasn’t the only kit to die young. That backfired. He said he had to avenge their-and his-death. He ran off and we searched for him, but he ran right into the Forest of Shadow before we could stop him.”
“What’s th-” Robinpad broke off as Nettlestar glared at her.
“I was getting to that,” He put his tail over his paws. “The Forest of Shadow is where bad cats go when they die. He ran into it, and we couldn’t follow him. Literally. There was some kind of barrier blocking the entrance. Swanfeather, she… she said only the black at heart could enter,” Nettlestar bowed his head.
“I-I’m sorry,” Robinpad didn’t have any idea how this related to the Controlled.
“Then…” Nettlestar’s head snapped up. “He came back. He… brought the Controllers. They are evil cats… really evil cats.” Robinpad wanted to ask exactly what they were, but she knew he was getting to it. And he did. “They use green light from their eyes to sort of… make cats obey them. It’s like… when a snake is weaving, and you can’t take your eyes off it. It… then, well it attacks, doesn’t it?”
Robinpad shuddered. She didn’t like the sound of these Controllers. CRACK! A boom echoed around the clearing, coming from the clearing beyond.
“Oh-no…” Nettlestar muttered. “Look, we don’t have much time. The green light doesn’t affect cats with green eyes. Go under cover. Find out their plans. Destroy them. You have green eyes, you will be protected.” The bushes around the clearing shook.
(to be continued in The Battle of the Grove Part Three.)
Audrey
Note: For those unfamiliar with Warrior Cats, this is an original story by a talented visitor in the style of the well known Warrior Cats series of books published by HarperCollins…..Michael (Admin)
