Cobweb's Trial (short story)
Duststar’s muscles locked, the tendons in his muscles pulling together like taut strings all along his body, keeping him as stiff as a rock as he stood overlooking the gathered crowd.
He couldn’t tremble, and that felt horribly wrong–he felt such nausea, such horror and sadness and anger that every limb should be shaking to the point that he fell off the edge of the Tallrock. But he was still, so very still, as if even his heart had stopped beating and his lungs stopped working, and he couldn’t take in any air.
“Explain yourself, if you can,” he managed.
Before him and the crowd was Cobweb, a she-cat whose pelt was criss-crossed with ragged scars. She had come to them as a frightened young kit, and though seasons had passed since then, she remained the wary and distrustful cat she was when they had first taken her in.
Cobweb didn’t flinch under the gaze of the whispering crowd, nor under her leader’s intense glare. Blood ran down her limbs, and she made no effort to lick them clean or to show that she was aware of them–of any of it–at all. She gazed blanklessly with a face bathed in red splatter, staring not at Duststar, but at the stone slab straight ahead of her.
“Am I free?” she asked.
“‘Free’? After what you’ve done?” Hawkfur’s shout was almost a screech.
“You’d be lucky if we let you live past dusk!” Flintmoss snarled.
“Silence!” Duststar’s deputy, Rabbitmask, snapped before the Clan could lose control.
Duststar dipped his head gratefully. He took a deep breath as he looked again to Cobweb, who had not removed her attention from the rock. “Exile is the typical punishment for a traitor. But after what you’ve done, I should have you killed.” His jaw was tense to the point that he was sure his teeth would crack.
Cobweb blinked slowly. “Am I free?” she asked again.
Duststar shook his head, bewildered. “No.” His heart began to move. His lungs regained function, but it was too fast, too quick, and he felt himself panicking, as terrified as if a fox had him cornered. He dug his claws into the stone, struggling to appear as collected as he possibly could.
“For the love of StarClan, you killed two innocent cats! And if that weren’t enough, you took the lives of their kits as well, and the lives of the little ones still in their mother’s belly. You did this all without apparent reason. Have you nothing to say for yourself? Have you no guilt, no shame?” Duststar prayed for a glint of anything in the she-cat’s eyes–fear, anger, even eerily pleased would have been better than the blank, emotionless responses that Cobweb gave. “Do you even have a reason to give us?”
Cobweb was silent for a long, painful moment. Duststar felt the tense air as the Clan held their collective breaths.
“Are we free?”
A few yowls of outrage broke out, and it took a few attempts by Rabbitmask to silence them. Meanwhile, Duststar, stared in utter shock at Cobweb. How can she ask for freedom after such a horrendous act?
“Are we free now?” She asked, voice as blank as her expression. Why was she still talking when no one had addressed her? Duststar had hardly heard the murmur above the ruckus of the crowd, it was only because he was directly above her that the words caught his ears.
It wasn’t him that she had been answering, he realized, blood going cold.
Who was she talking to?
“Will you let me go now?” her vacant words were becoming pleading. Her attention had never shifted from the stone wall of the Tallrock, hidden from Duststar’s view, sat upon it. She was simply looking at the rock? Duststar wasn’t sure why he pondered the question. Of course no one was beneath him. All of his Clanmates were in view in the clearing just a few tail-lengths ahead. And surely, one of them would have brought a stranger’s presence to his attention?
“I did it. We’re both free. Are we?”
There was no one under there. Duststar knew it. But then who was Cobweb speaking to, if not him? What was she looking at, if not him? He had to know. He had to find reason for any of this madness, even if that reason turned out to be a speck of dust on the stone wall.
Taking a breath, he shifted carefully to the edge of the Tallrock. Stretching his neck out, heart inexplicably racing, he peered over the edge–
And saw nothing.
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--Cobweb is a future resident. We will get a full explanation for her murders and what's going on with her. For now, I will give a vague hint: she is based off of a movie character.
She also kept her loner name because.....I like it as just being Cobweb.
--Duststar and Hawkfur are canon characters! They appear in Code of The Clans as the first law. Here, Duststar has not been leader long, maybe roughly for the same amount of time Cobweb has been in the Clan.
His canon deputy and successor is Stonetail/star, who at this time is roughly an apprentice or older kit. His father is Duststar's current deputy (noncanon), Rabbitmask!
--I did not go into writing this planning on making it scary, but I was watching horror movie reviews just before it, so no wonder it took that turn.
--Thoughts?
