Amaranthine/part five

A night passed, full of whispered plans and panic. None of us could sleep if we wanted to. We made sure the guards couldn't hear a word, though I suspected that tom who was here for about a quarter-day had heard at least a few of our murmured plans.

At sunrise, we would leave. Our plan was not the most graceful or strategical, but we were desperate and starving. We weren't used to sharing a couple of scrawny voles a day, but at least they fed us.

A bird's note trickled into the tense silence of the den. Another joined in, and soon the air was full of song. Raven padded quietly over to the weak spot in the back of the brambles she had discovered, quickly nipping off a few branches. Nascha squeezed through first, attempting to shrink her large form through the gap in our prison. She ended up with a few scratches but silently signaled for Cherry to come through. I went next, followed by Raven. We crept along the edges of the camp, careful not to make a sound.

Silence, however, did not prevent us from being seen.

A yowl of alarm rang through the camp, others joining it. We all jumped, startled by the yowl and fearing for our lives. I stood frozen with fear for a second, but then bolted in a random direction. The others had the same idea, all sprinting in different directions. Their camp was chaos, a mess of cats young and old milling around the half-finished dens.

I spotted Raven's lithe black figure slip out of camp out of the corner of my eye. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she probably wouldn't be caught once she was outside this mess of cats. If she made it, which hopefully would happen, the Twilight Hunters would know of our capture.

I jolted out of my thoughts about Raven when a cat lunged for Cherry, who was racing beside me. She tumbled onto the ground, rolling for a bit before being held fast by a larger cat's paws. Without thinking, I leaped for the cat holding her down. Her surprise allowed me to send her tumbling down, but she was strong. She held me on the ground, her grip impossible to escape. I looked up to see a dark brown face twisted with rage, her amber eyes burning.

"Go!" I yowled, glaring at my captor. She raced away, weaving through the sea of cats. A few tried to capture her, but she was too fast, and quickly got away. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Cherry's reddish-brown pelt disappear into the forest. Another cat safe. Nascha was wrestling with a cat about her size, though she had the advantage due to being well-fed from her royal position. She threw him onto the ground and ran out of the camp, not looking back at me. This allowed me to return my full attention to the cat holding me onto the ground, and she did not seem happy.

Another cat padded over, grey with faint stripes. He looked less angry than the golden-streaked she-cat who held me down, but he definitely wouldn't be letting me go. He gave my captor a sharp look and she immediately let me go, keeping a watchful eye on me to remind me that I was not free to go.

I was led into a large den that held four other cats, all of which I recognized to be Twilight Hunters. I recognized Silver and Sparrow, two of our best spies, along with a tortoiseshell whose name I couldn't quite place and a scrawny tabby. All of them looked hostile and did not seem happy that they were getting another denmate.

I immediately regretted sacrificing myself for Cherry. This den seemed even more well-guarded than ours, having two guards posted inside and two guards on the entrance. There was little chance of getting out of this one, and even if I did I'd probably be thrown right back into it by the well-muscled cats that made up this group. I eventually gave up on figuring out a plan and just slumped in my uncomfortable nest and drifted off to sleep.

My dreams were fleeting and unclear, full of flowers and cherry trees. I was running toward our camp, toward home, but every time I took a step it got farther. The dark brown she-cat was holding me down, a den made of stone walls with no exits, everyone else living happily while I suffered. None of the faint images I remembered from my dreams were pleasant.

I regretted saving Cherry instead of myself. It was selfish, but so was I. Maybe Cherry could have escaped this den where I lay awake, drifting in and out of dreams. Maybe if I had rescued myself, I could have made a patrol to rescue Cherry. Maybe I could not be stuck in this den. Maybe I could only have to worry about my training and whether I'd catch enough prey that day.

I couldn't decide who I was more angry at, myself or my captors.

The cats in the den seemed to have long given up hope of escaping, which discouraged me even more. If our trained spies couldn't escape this prison, how could I? Desperation and selfishness flitted around my thoughts, anger at myself for saving Cherry, anger at myself for being so selfish.

My prison encased me for four sunrises, though I could hardly keep track of the days. The guards changed four times a day, each one as stoic as the last. In the back of my mind, I hoped that one of the guards would be friendly and let us free, but it was a desperate one and I ignored it most of the time. My denmates were just as unfriendly, occasionally whispering to each other but otherwise silent. They were as hopeless as I was, and one of them was sent out nearly a moon ago. How long had they been there?

My mind twisted through the labyrinthine paths of the future, but I couldn't any way out of this prison.