Chapter 12

                                    

                                          

I was torn, my heart was torn. I felt my heart cry out in pain as I stared at my father's cold, dead, body. The tears never came back once I told them they would never escape my eyes. My ears were still plastered to my head, and my claws had been dug into the soft soil. Dustpaw's warmth was wrapped around me while I was mourning Wavestep's death. The lamentable crys that sounded from my heart were heard by my head, but I didn't allow myself to cry, no matter what happens. I will stay strong until the death of me. I told myself, which reassured my head, which seemed to smolder the crys my heart had left, I felt myself grow cold. My heart grew colder... the emotions I once felt had now been taken from me. My joy, happiness, sadness, loneliness, pain, exitement, envy, sympathy, all feelings were now covered in the one feeling I had left. Hate. The one feeling that was left inside me was the word I once hated, the reason why I came to Earth in the first place. I had once wanted to take that word away from the world, but I now knew why it was here in the first place. Without hate, there would be no joy. I shouldn't have come to Earth. I never should have come here... it was all, all a waste of my time. All my efforts werewere wasted. I came here just to have my heart ripped from my chest, that was the only reason I came here. I was a fool, that Dark Forest cat was right all along...
                          
"Echopaw, are you okay? Your shaking.." I quickly snapped out of my thoughts as I turned my gaze to Dustpaw, his face was a mix of greef and worry.
                          
"I-I'm fine..." I meowed in answer, but in truth, I wasn't okay... not one bit. My heart was broken, and the only reason I even want to stay here is because I still have Dustpaw and Rainflower... my dream of becoming leader now seemed like a distant memory. I could leave, but Dustpaw would be sad, Rainflower would be sad, and in reality I would be sad to leave them... 
                          
"Do you want to talk about this?" Dustpaw asked me, but I quickly shook my head. I didn't want to talk about Wavestep, it would only cause me more greef. 
                          
"I actually want to go for a walk." I meowed to Dustpaw, no emotion showed in my face. It was all gone, I had no emotions left to show.
                          
"A-are you sure? It's going to rain, I don't want you to get sick.." Dustpaw meowed, it was nice he was worried about me, but I really wanted to be alone at this moment.
                          
"I'll be fine...." I meowed as I started to walk away, Dustpaw seemed to notice I wanted to be alone, so he didn't ask to come along. As I quickly pad away, I catch the faint scent of an animal, it wasn't an animal I'd ever scented before... it didn't smell like prey, it seemed like a bigger animal than a cat, I could tell that much by it's paw print. It's scent led to the other side of RiverClan's territory, past the stream that separated the clan from the hunting grounds. I fallowed the scent, swimming gracefully across the stream. The scent seemed to be getting closer... and closer... and.. I suddenly stopped in my tracks once I noticed Wavestep's scent was mixed into this animal's. Did this animal? Did this animal kill my father!?! I screamed in anger as a raced to the animal's scent until I saw it, I saw my father's killer.