Echoes

This is a story by Eevee. Enjoy~ Ready, ^{aim, fire. 01:38, January 4, 2014 (UTC)}

Prologue

If I could stop time right here, right now, I would.

Hanging over the edge of more than a tree-length-long drop, I was good as dead. No way out of it. 

Standing a tail-length away was my best friend Silverstripe, bleeding to death. Beside him were two rogues. Two rogues that worked for one murderous one.

Bone.

He got me into this. One long quest for revenge from him will end up with me dead and him victorious.

I glared up at the stone-grey tom with the grass-green eyes and the blood-red collar. He had a large smirk on his face, and attached above his claw-sheathes were dog teeth. The scars on his pelt reflected all of our encounters and more untold fights.

I tried to regain a hold on the rock, but I froze. That would knock me off balance, and I would plummet down to my demise. Like I said. No way out.

"Looks like you're dead." he purred icily. "I'll just let you fall. That way I can watch your struggle to hold on to the ledge."

Silverstripe was screeching in anger, then flinching and whimpering as one of the two rogues dug their claws into his flank.

I let out a hiss. "You won't get away with this, Bone!" My claws were slowly losing their grip on the ledge I desperately clung to, but I stayed strong.

Bone blinked his huge amber eyes slowly. "I already have."

My eyes widened. "No! You will never get away with it! I will never fall!"

"Ha. Foolish warrior," Bone said in a scolding voice. "You don't understand. When you combine a cat hanging by the tips of their claws and the forces of nature, you get the cat falling." Bone's light-tan claws dug into the ground beneath him.

I took in a breath and held it as my claws began slipping. Silverstripe was screeching in pain as he writhed around on the dirt, being shredded by the two rogues.

StarClan help us.

Chapter One

I look around for something to do.

Why was being the only kit in the Clan so boring!?

My mother never wanted to do anything but lie down and sleep. My father was always busy with deputy stuff. My littermates had moved into the apprentices' den a moon ago, and it had been boring ever since.

Why couldn't I go with them too?

Dovepaw had said that I was too small (which is not a legitimate reason for my apprenticeship to be delayed!). Shadedpaw said I had been sick (which was true. I'd been very sick for a while a moon ago.). Quietpaw said I was just too annoying to be an apprentice (not legit or cool, Quietpaw. Not. Cool.). Imagine that! I'm not annoying.

My mom, Silverflower, was curled up outside the bramble nursery, her long silver fur glowing a bit in the sunlight. I envy her. I only have short, scruffy, pale silvery-blue fur.

I scamper over to her and mewl, "Hey, Mom? Why am I not an apprentice yet, like Shadedpaw?"

Silverflower opens one of her pale amber eyes and smiles. "You were terribly sick for a long time. You were still sick when your brother and sisters became apprentices. Stonestar couldn't make you an apprentice, now could he?"

I shake my head. "No." I gaze up at her, my cyan-blue eyes intense. "But why am I not an apprentice now?" I count the amount of heartbeats that she hesitates. One, two, three, four...

I count to ten when she finally says, "I don't know, Echokit."

"That's not an answer!" I growl, my short fur bristling. I leap to my paws.

Silverflower closes her eye. "Echokit, please. Don't start this."

I lower my ears. "Don't start this!? You go tell Stonestar to make me an apprentice!" I scream at her.

"Echokit, be quiet!" Silverflower hisses, opening both eyes and sitting up. "I told Stonestar to make you an apprentice yesterday. He's thinking about it; maybe he's even about to announce it, who knows."

"What if he doesn't? Did you think of that? What if he's not thinking of it?" I growl, lashing my tail.

Silverflower's already pale eyes soften. She whispers, "He is, Echokit."

-To be continued-