"Well, well. How easy it is to overpower a she-cat like that."

"Shh. Don't let Sunray hear anything about she-cats being weak. She'd rip your eyes out of their sockets and drown you in the river."

"Of course not, Moth. I'm excluding Sunray from this. After all, she was given her power by—" Hissing, the speaker interrupted his murmuring whisper. "Damn it, Agate! What was that for?"

"Don't forget what Sunray told us. As long as it is not moonhigh, we must not reveal the true form of our Highest Chosen," a tom lectured him in a sluggish voice.

The soft mewing of the toms wafted around Larkwing. Engulfed in complete darkness, feeling feeble and tiny and as powerless as a newborn mouse. She didn't know where she was, who the cats were whose voices she could hear muffled.

I wanted to go back to the others to tell them what I had seen in the past. Then all of a sudden Sunray showed up and...

"Hey, looks like she's coming round!" That was unmistakably the meow of a she-cat. Although her voice sounded high and feminine, there was at least as much hatred and scorn in it as there was in the toms', if not more.

The first thing Larkwing felt was constricting pain around her legs. Eyelids heavy, she blinked several times to adjust to the dim light. Blurred, she saw her white paws in front of her. Something dark and flexible was wrapped around them, thin tendrils leading away from her body to the side, taut as if they were being held down by a heavy weight.

Hesitantly, she opened her mouth, her throat dry and scratchy. "Where..." she could only croak before she doubled over. That meant she wanted to, but her paws didn't move one bit. Instead, the tendrils, that also held her hind legs, tightened even more.

A wave of panic washed over her. I'm tied up!

Now that her eyesight had sharpened, she could finally see that she was at the bottom of a deep pit. Above her, at the edge of the hole, three toms — one light brown tabby, one black, one ginger tabby — looked down at her.

"Truly pathetic," the she-cat from a moment ago commented again. "And so incredibly stupid and gullible. I never thought she'd fall for it so easily."

Larkwing awkwardly turned her head backwards, as far as she was allowed to in her restricted position. Her suspicions were correct: there were indeed heavy stones lying on the ends of the tendrils.

A slimy purr sounded. "My words, Pebbles, my words," a second she-cat replied.

What the Dark Forest are they talking about? Narrowing her eyes, Larkwing stared suspiciously up at the two she-cats behind her. One of them was a calico with dark brown and ginger spots. Her face was small and triangular and her green eyes glowed eerily. The other was an orange tabby with white fur on her chest and white paws. In contrast to her neighbour, her greenish-amber eyes had a serious, thoughtful expression, but there was no trace of friendliness or empathy in them either.

When Larkwing's neck threatened to stiffen, she turned her head forwards again. "What... what's going on?" she whispered tonelessly. With a tingle along her spine, her black fur with the flower-like russet and cream-coloured speckles bristled.

A derisive snort was the answer. "You'll find out soon enough," the ginger tabby tom retorted.

Larkwing hissed angrily at him. "What game are you playing?" Her bushy black tail lashed through the air behind her. "And what did you tie me up for?" She pointed down to her paws with her muzzle, careful not to move too much or the tendrils would tighten even more.

"Oh, just a safety measure, nothing more." Pebbles looked at her paw pads with a bored expression.

Safety measure for what? Larkwing flattened her ears.

But before she could ask, Moth stood up and half-turned. "Come on, let's get out of here," he growled.

"You're right." Agate shook his black fur. "What's the matter with you, Beech? Are you coming too, or are you going to keep staring at dirt?"

There was unmistakable scorn in his tone, whereupon Beech whirled round to face him with bared teeth. "How dare you talk to me like that?"

The two toms faced each other, fur ruffled and backs hunched. The air seemed to crackle and Larkwing feared that they were about to attack each other so violently that scraps of fur would fly.

With a few leaps, Pebbles was with them, interposing herself between them. "Don't waste your energy rashly." Reproachfully, she turned her head first to Agate, then to Beech.

Moth flicked his tail in agreement. "Save your anger at least until tonight. Once the sacrifice is complete-" A sinister undertone crept into his voice, "-then you'll have plenty of opportunities to vent your feelings."

One by one, the cats trotted away from the pit. At that moment, something in Larkwing seemed to shatter. Was it her heart, her soul? Whatever it was, it was beginning to eat her up from the inside out. She remembered all too well how Moth had talked to Crowshadow when they first met, telling her all sorts of things about the strange things around her.

A rumble rose low in Larkwing's throat, her vision blurred. I thought Moth was nice! I thought the ruin cats would confide in us if only they trusted us enough!

"So this is your true form?" she screeched so loudly that her voice broke. "I thought we had an agreement! We prove to you that you can trust us and in return you give us information about the Shadowless. But now I discover that you are so deceitful, evil and unscrupulous that you kidnapped me and tied me up to-"

She hesitated. Why am I even trapped down here? Maybe it has something to do with... A shudder ran through her fur. "The sacrifice," she whispered. "Did you refer to me?"

Something moved at the top of the pit. Blinking, Larkwing noticed that the orange tabby she-cat was the only one still there. With half-closed eyes, she looked down at the RoseClan warrior. In contrast to a moment ago, her fur was smooth and she no longer seemed so cold, but still serious and pitiless.

"Your mistake was to follow us in the first place," she meowed harshly.

Larkwing trembled. Once again, she felt an irrepressible rage welling up deep inside her. If her legs weren't held down by the vines, she would probably storm out of the hole and pounce on the orange she-cat and...

No, no, no! Make it stop! Please! Breathing heavily, Larkwing tried to banish the images from her mind. Not again would she kill someone, no matter who it was. She wanted to be a good cat. She didn't want to lose her conscience.

I don't want to end up in the Dark Forest just because I took the wrong path. I'm not that kind of cat. I'll never sink that low.

A soft meow that sounded like "Wow!" caught her attention. With a strange expression on her face that expressed both interest and fear, the orange tabby she-cat stood at the edge of the pit. "So it seems that what Sunray has been sensing all along is actually true. You two are not so dissimilar."

Larkwing wrinkled her muzzle in confusion. "We're as alike as... uh, a fish and a squirrel. So stop spouting such crowfood!" she snapped at the orange tabby she-cat. "Never mind. You'd better tell me why you treat me so worthlessly. Aren't I your oh-so-long-awaited prophecy cat?" She growled out the last words between clenched teeth.

"Prophecy cat?" The orange tabby she-cat snorted. "Use your brain for once."

"What?"

"Like I said, you fell for us," the ruin she-cat replied. "Your gullibility will be your downfall. Oh, and to answer your question: that's right, you're the sacrifice."

With these words, she turned around and disappeared from Larkwing's sight.

"Wait!" Larkwing cried. "I still don't understand. Why me of all cats?"

Nothing moved for a moment and she feared that the orange she-cat had already disappeared. But then her face reappeared in the dim light. "The masters of our Highest Chosen want you as a sacrifice. I'm sorry," she said in a tone that expressed the exact opposite.

An impatient meow sounded. "Blaze! Are you still hanging around here?" Pebbles called from somewhere.

With one last look down into the pit, Blaze turned round again. "Enjoy your last breaths. As long as you can."

Then she dashed off and Larkwing was alone — tied up, weak and scared for her life.

***

"A torture. A damn torture that is," Larkwing growled to herself.

If someone had tried to convince her a day ago that standing still for a long time would be pure agony, she would probably have declared them mad. But things were quite different when one really had no other choice, unless one fancied having one's paws strangled.

Without the sun overhead, Larkwing had lost all sense of time. Even though it seemed like an eternity since she'd been stuck in this stuffy, earthy hole, she feared that barely a heartbeat had passed. And it wasn't just her tethered paws that were bothering her. She was hungry. Her belly ached so terribly that she wanted to curl up and complain and wait for someone to bring her something to eat, as if she were a frail and demanding elder.

Of course, none of the ruin cats had thought to bring her even a tiny, scrawny shrew. Torture of unknowing, innocent Clan cats seemed to be their area of expertise.

Larkwing had even tried to bite or at least chew through the tendrils with her fangs. To her disadvantage, it had turned out that they weren't of a plant nature at all, but were made of a different material that was far more robust and at most left the feeling of hair on her tongue. Although Larkwing had managed to nibble off the tendril around her right, light ginger tabby foreleg to such an extent that the thin, interwoven strands had come loose, she had not yet been able to get them off for good.

"I never thought I'd peg out in such a way," she meowed aloud, casting a regretful glance at her failed liberation attempt.

Nothing moved.

"If I have to make dirt, who will come and clean it up?"

Larkwing's ears twitched, waiting for some cat to come storming up and scold her for her vulgar choice of words. But she could probably wait until she was old and had white hair on her muzzle.

Hey, wait, my muzzle is already white anyway. Rolling her eyes, Larkwing put her head back and let out a long sigh. Nobody could hear her down here anyway.

Surely the others were already wondering where she was. Were they looking for her? For a very brief moment, a spark of hope rose in her, which died out again immediately. She herself had no idea where she was staying. Besides, if she was supposedly an offering, Sunray no doubt wanted to make sure that she couldn't run away or be freed so easily.

All of a sudden she became aware of one thing. I'm going to die here!

Once again, her heart was pounding so hard as if it wanted to jump out of her body. Trembling, she tried to take a deep breath to calm herself down.

She didn't want to die. Not here, not like this, as a sacrifice for something she didn't even have any knowledge of. A short, stifled sob escaped her, but she immediately tried to suppress it. It wouldn't change her situation if she lost her nerve now.

So this is how I meet my end. Maybe it's even better than succumbing to illness or being killed in battle, she thought ironically. She hadn't really thought about dying before, although she realised that every cat would meet this fate one day. If it were possible, she wanted that day not to come for her at all. But if she could choose, she would rather die in a battle. At least then she would leave this world with the thought that she had done what she had been prepared for from an early age — namely the defence and protection of her Clan.

Instead, a crueler fate awaited her. The worst part was that she couldn't even imagine how such a sacrifice would take place. And it was still a mystery to her why she had to be sacrificed when she was part of a prophecy and had the rare power to travel back in time with the help of the Ancient Stone.

Maybe it didn't matter and the so-called masters of the Highest Chosen didn't care who they wanted as their sacrifice, or...

"Oh damn," Larkwing whispered. "There is no prophecy."

Use your brain for once. Blaze's words were haunting her mind. That was what the orange she-cat had replied when asked why they did that even though Larkwing was a prophecy cat. What exactly Blaze had meant by that, however, was a mystery.

Still, the theory that the prophecy was a lie continued to take shape in Larkwing's mind. Somehow she had a feeling that it was nothing more than an empty story. But that raised the question of what reason Sunray had to lie to her. Besides, based on the reactions of the other ruin cats, they all had to be in on it.

Somewhere in the distance, a cat cried out. Or it may have been more than one. Larkwing didn't care. After all, it didn't concern her.

Her thoughts wandered back to the upcoming sacrifice. Am I going to stay tied up there?, she asked herself. It would make sense. Still, if there's the slightest chance, I have to use it to defend myself. I absolutely have to gain an advantage, no matter what.

Then she lowered her tail dejectedly and closed her eyes. That was nothing more than wishful thinking. She alone against at least three toms — excluding the she-cats for now, because they didn't fight here — would only lead to her defeat.

Another howl sounded. This time it sounded more aggressive, more desperate and was paired with snarling and growling.

Larkwing's fur stood on end. There's a fight going on out there. Her paws itched with the desire to see what was going on.

At the same time, she was confused. "Who would attack the ruin cats?" she murmured. Her words were almost completely drowned out by the noise outside.

Tensely, she stared upwards. No one seemed to be near her yet, and she hoped that no one would find her. Even if she wasn't tied up, she would be far too physically and mentally battered to fight.

But as if she had conjured up misfortune, suddenly pattering pawsteps sounded, coming right towards her, judging by the increasing volume. A head, barely recognisable in the darkness, appeared at the top of the hole. White fangs shone out of the open mouth.

"Get away before you regret it!" Larkwing hissed, her green-blue eyes narrowed. "You don't want to know what cruelty I'm capable of. So you'd better run!"

That was a lie. Somehow she had to hide the fact that she was far too weak to be a worthy opponent right now. And maybe — with a good dose of luck — the strange cat would take flight of their own accord.

However, she neither fled nor made any attempt to attack Larkwing. Instead, she screamed at her, "You can't be trusted! You are filthy traitors!"

Completely thrown off course by this accusation, Larkwing's ears flattened. Then she suddenly realised who this cat was.

Pebbles! Although Larkwing had only just met her, the calico she-cat's annoying, extremely stereotypically feminine voice had stuck in her mind. Traitor? Us? Larkwing twitched her whiskers contemptuously. But before she could ask what Pebbles meant by that, she was already howling on.

"We were so close! So close!" she emphasised hysterically and sat up, bringing her front paws very close together. Her green eyes flashed with unbridled rage. "But no, your so-called friends, those tainted-"

She gasped abruptly, while Larkwing flinched and opened her eyes wide in shock. A second cat had appeared behind Pebbles, all but the white fur of their chest blending with the shadows and the darkness. Without making a single sound, they leapt at the calico she-cat from behind, clutching her with their paws and pulling her backwards to the ground.

Rigid with fright, Larkwing witnessed Pebbles rolling around in vain, mewing in panic over and over again. For the span of a heartbeat, she looked down at Larkwing, the hatred in her gaze replaced by uncontrollable fear.

"Don't expect pity from me," Larkwing heard herself murmur in a raspy voice. Whether Pebbles had even heard her, she didn't know. She didn't care, though. She was sure Pebbles knew that anyway.

The other cat, who had been rolling across the ground with her so far, finally managed to wriggle out from under Pebbles' body. For a very brief moment, she was free again and had the chance to flee or launch a counterattack. She did neither. She just lay there, motionless, her head turned backwards and her flanks heaving rapidly.

A second time, the strange cat sped out of the darkness towards Pebbles, stopping just short of her rear end to stand on their hind legs, paws whirling.

Suddenly Larkwing realised the cat's intentions and a wave of horror washed over her. "No, stop," she croaked, as if someone else was speaking through her.

Undaunted by her feeble attempt to meow, the dark-furred cat let their white paws swoop down, straight at Pebbles' far too exposed throat.

Letting out a strangled, nightmarish scream, Pebbles writhed, rearing up as if she were having a seizure — while dark red blood spurted from her shredded body.

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And with that horror show-like scene, chapter 30 comes to an end. The plot gets completely crazy from here on. I noticed a while ago that the tension increases from book to book and more and more bizarre things happen.

If you can still remember the events from Shadows of Truth, you will certainly remember how calm and peaceful everything was there.

By the way, there's a very specific reason why I'm writing this post-chapter note. Maybe, if you can do the calculations, you have already realised it.

With the completion of this chapter, you have read a total of 100 chapters about Larkwing! (Excluding the prologues)

I'm not only incredibly proud of myself, but also of you for always being here and taking an interest in Larkwing's story.

Will we reach a total of 200 chapters by the end of the series? I'm pretty confident about that. By the way, this book will have 16 more chapters.

The next chapter will finally be written from Amberhaze's point of view again! That means you can look forward to a non-horror chapter. But of course a lot will happen there too.

It would be nice if you could comment on what you think of the series so far ♡