Arousing Suspicion



 A r o u s i n g S u s p i c i o n

Episode Nine, Season One, of Beauty.

Enjoy <3

Arousing Suspicion
I wake to the sound of the instructors yelling at us to get our sorry tails outside. Flarepaw is nonchalantly grooming her fur and she glares at me. “What are you waiting for?” she curls her lip, “The instructors expect you outside.”

“And you?” I grumble, heading for the entrance, “What are you doing?”

“I’m waiting for you of course,” she purrs sweetly, “Blossomflecks told me to tell you to hurry up.” With that, she slides back outside, probably to look on time while I get there late.

I sigh and quickly walk out. I feel sore and tired. Grief shoots through me again as I think of yesterday’s battle.

Gingerpaw.

When I get outside, Flowerbeam tells me to find a seat quickly before letting Brightleaf continue. The dilute tortoiseshell is talking about the raids.

“As you all have probably assumed during out absence, the apprentices in another camp were watching our soldiers fight. However, one of the battles were raided by the rebels.” Several apprentices gasp. “All the warriors were brutally murdered and their bodies were gathered and buried today.”

“A terrible occasion,” Thornstrike rumbles, “The rebels somehow knew and sent more to the battlefield. There were more rebels than we had anticipated and we lost. But-” he pauses, his eyes searching ours, “there’s a body of an apprentice among them.”

I curse silently. If we had more time, we should have buried Gingerpaw’s body so they wouldn’t have found it. The rebels obviously had to escape quickly from the scene so they didn’t help Gingerpaw either.

“It was Gingerpaw.”

Many of Gingerpaw’s followers gasp. I feign shock so that the instructors don’t suspect me as a rebel. Cherrypaw still looks horrified, as if she had just found out about this news. All the others are doing exactly what I’m doing: they’re pretending they didn’t know about Gingerpaw’s demise beforehand.

Flarepaw looks smug. I want to scratch that conceited look off her face. One day she’ll understand that she’s not as powerful as she thinks she is.

“We’ll question each apprentice one by one to try to root out any other rebels. Flarepaw, you’re up first.” Blossomflecks orders, “The rest of you can talk and relax while you wait for your turn.”

Immediately I set off towards Snowpaw and the she-cats. Hawkpaw, Brownpaw, and Lionpaw are not too far behind. We gather up and we make sure to watch for the instructors so that they don’t overhear.

Hawkpaw is soothing Cherrypaw. He knows what it feels like to lose someone close to you and Cherrypaw needs that sort of comfort right now.

“We need to be careful,” Finchpaw growls, “Flarepaw is obviously going to try to pin it again us. We can’t afford to let any of us get caught.”

“Definitely,” Lionpaw agrees, glancing at Snowpaw, “If we’re caught now, it’s prison for us. And everything we’ve done will be in vain.”

“Gingerpaw will have died in vain.”

Applepaw leans forward while Brownpaw and Snowpaw keeps watch for listening ears. “Feign ignorance and try to divert their attention away from our friendships with Gingerpaw. We need a relatable story too. We can’t tell different stories.”

“We were out hunting,” I suggest, “We have to do something that relates to being outside of camp. We were missing after all.”

“And Gingerpaw wasn’t with us,” Finchpaw nods, “We have to pretend we didn’t want anything to do with her.”

“I’ll say I was trying to get Gingerpaw to cool down and then she just ran off.” Cherrypaw mews quietly, “After all, she and I were close so the instructors would expect us to be together.”

“Be careful though,” I caution, “Don’t get caught.”

“Okay so our story is that all of us were hunting, probably separately as toms and she-cats. Gingerpaw got mad at us – why though?” Hawkpaw frowns, “You can’t just have a cat be angry at her friends.”

“She wanted to revolt,” I blurt out, “She wanted to take advantage of the instructors’ absence but we all refused. She stormed off and Cherrypaw tried to calm her down.”

“Perfect,” Applepaw beams, “Everyone got that?”

We all nod grimly and wait in silence for our turn to come.

~

“So, where were you last night?” Blossomeflecks stares at me. Gorseheart is next to her, watching me closely. “Flarepaw tells me you weren’t in camp.”

“I was hunting with my friends,” I explain, “We were too bored to just rest in camp.”

“Who were you with?”

“Snowpaw, Applepaw, and Finchpaw,” I tell her, trying not to seem nervous.

Gorseheart frowns, “What about Gingerpaw and Cherrypaw? Aren’t you friends with them?” He obviously suspects me. I keep my breathing steady and meet his gaze straight on.

“Yes, but Gingerpaw was angry with us that day.”

“Why?” Blossomflecks jumps in, “She must have had a reason to be angry. You’re always hanging out with her.”

I nod, “We were good friends, but she was acting weird that night. She noticed tat you guys were gone, and when we were going to go hunting, she insisted that we went to the poor to see if we could help the rebels.”

“And?”

“And we told her no of course,” I frown, “I can’t believe she even thought we would agree. Cherrypaw went after her when Gingerpaw stormed off and we just went on with our hunting.”

“Did you ever plan on telling us about Gingerpaw’s traitorous thoughts?” Gorseheart questions, his green eyes hard, “Surely you weren’t just going to ignore it were you?”

“Of course not!” I stand up, as if I’m actually offended be this thought. “But you guys weren’t in the camp and none of us thought she would try to go through her the plan.”

“Do you know if Cherrypaw was with Gingerpaw when she died?”

I pretend to think hard about it. “I don’t know. They’re close, but Cherrypaw seemed to be against the idea. I think she went after Gingerpaw to try to calm her down, not to join her in her insane plan.”

“Thank you for being honest,” Blossomflecks mews, “I cannot believe that Gingerpaw would dare do such a thing.”

It’s one last test, I know it. She wants me to prove that I hate Gingerpaw for what she has done. “Outrageous indeed!” I snarl, letting my rage towards the Beauty overflow, “I can’t believe she would even think about doing such a thing. I am ashamed to think that she was once my friend.”

Blossomflecks nods, as if satisfied. Gorseheart dismisses me, and as I pad outside, I apologize mentally to Gingerpaw.

Sorry for making you seem like a complete devil, but we have to do this to avenge your death.

~

I wait impatiently to in the “safe” area for my friends. Snowpaw is being questioned by Brightleaf and Willowbreeze. I think Blackstripe and Thornstrike took Brownpaw in just right now.

So far, it’s just me, Flarepaw, and a few she-cats and toms I don’t quite know. Flarepaw and I are the only ones not talking and that bothers me the most. Obviously I’m not going to talk to Flarepaw. What a nightmare.

After glaring at each other for ten minutes, Snowpaw finally stumbles through the tunnel. “Finally!” she huffs, “Why didn’t they believe I’m innocent?” She flops down next to me.

“Cause you’re not?” Flarepaw mutters, “I can’t believe you guys aren’t in prison already.”

I roll my eyes at her, “Just because we have conflicts doesn’t mean we’re on different sides. I might despise you but I don’t hate the Beauty.” Not the vision I have for it anyways.

Flarepaw sniffs and she looks slightly convinced, “Whatever,” she scoffs, “We’ll see whose side you’re really on when we get into fighting the rebels.”

I probably would have kept arguing with her but at that moment, Brownpaw enters, looking exhausted. Flarepaw snorts in astonishment, “I can’t believe all of you are coming through alive.”

“Thank you for your faith,” Snowpaw retorts, “We hope you live a long life too.”

Brownpaw just promptly ignores Flarepaw’s comment and we retire to the side to rest. “I hope the rest of them do okay,” Snowpaw murmurs, “It would be disastrous if one of them don’t make it through.”

“StarClan protect us all,” I mutter.

Brownpaw sighs, “I worry for Cherrypaw. She’s been in a fragile state for the intire morning. An interrogation about her – Gingerpaw – might break her.”

Applepaw joined us not long after. “Hawkpaw and Lionpaw are undergoing their interrogations. After they’re done, it’s only Gingerpaw and Cherrypaw left.”

I know what we’re all thinking. So close to freedom. So close to escaping the gasps of the instructors. “Do you guys want prey?” Applepaw continues, “I’m going to get something from the pile.”

“Anything edible,” I grunt, waving my tail.

“Same,” Brownpaw shrugs, “I don’t care what you get me.”

“I’m not hungry,” Snowpaw mutters, “too many nerves to eat.”

The red she-cat shrugs and heads for the pile. A few other apprentices are eating and chatting, totally at ease. We’re the only tense group. I can see why Applepaw suggested prey; it’ll make us look nonchalant about the situation too. That she-cat is just brilliant.

She returns just as Hawkpaw emerges from the tunnel, Lionpaw not too far behind. The two of them are laughing and talking, but I can hear tension in their voices.

“I bet I can eat five mice faster than you can eat five fat hares,” Lionpaw is saying, “Do you want to make a bet with me?”

Hawkpaw laughs, “That’s not fair! Five fat hares are worth ten mice. I’ll make a deal if I eat one hare for your five mice.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Lionpaw frowns, “If five hares are worth ten mice, you should be eating two and a half hares for five mice.”

“Wow,” Snowpaw laughs, “Lionpaw can count?”

Lionpaw gives her a scathing look. “Sweetheart, do I look dumb to you?”

“Yes,” Applepaw mutters.

Lionpaw sighs. “Nobody appreciates my intelligence. Or my sense of humor for that matter.” He adds when he sees are solid faces. We all think back to every single crazy thing Lionpaw has said, and I snort.

Brownpaw snickers.

Applepaw holds back a laugh.

Hawkpaw rolls his eyes.

Snowpaw just guffaws and breaks out into deep laughter. Lionpaw looks hurt and he shows Snowpaw away. “Aw come on,” he puckers his lip, “how low can you guys get?”

Just when I am going to return a witty remark, Finchpaw slides up to us. “That was exhausting,” she huffs, “Did they grill you guys this hard? I probably repeated our story like five times!”

“They’ll be harder on Cherrypaw,” Brownpaw mutters, “hopefully she’ll be alright.”

We wait in silence for a bit. Snowpaw and Lionpaw do some small talk but even they got bored of aimless conversation. Many of the apprentices are coming in now, but Cherrypaw doesn’t come.

“Where is she?” Finchpaw blinks, “She was called in with me. No way it takes her this long to be interrogated.”

I exchange panicked looks with Brownpaw. What could have happened to Cherrypaw?

There’s movement at the tunnel and or a moment, I think its Cherrypaw. All of us are tense and waiting. But instead of one apprentice, seven cats walk inside.

Seven instructors.

“If you are here right now, you have passed the interrogation. You are declared innocent. You can go back to camp now.” Blossomflecks explain. “The rest of the day is yours. Tomorrow we will begin training again.”

We file out quietly. I begin to lose hope in Cherrypaw. “Did you catch anyone?” Flarepaw calls out, “It doesn’t seem like everyone is here.” She gives me a pointed look.

“Yes,” Blackstripe rumbles, “so far we have one. But we’ll be watching closely to see if we missed anyone.” And that’s when I know where Cherrypaw is.

Another gone.

The End.