"Hello?" A pale yellow tabby padded through the endless woods, her voice echoing eerily in the rotting pines. "Anyone here?" She meowed again, uncertainly. Her white paws shifted restlessly through the leaves and her green eyes glowed dimly in the dark. She gasped as the air was knocked out of her as a mysterious shadow suddenly barrelled over her left side. Cold, blue eyes shone and looked directly into the tabby's soul. "You're late." They growled, and in darkness revealed a pure black she-cat. "Oh, it's just you Darkfrost." The tabby smoothed her ruffled fur and huffed. The black she-cat narrowed her eyes, "Go to training, Daisystripe. You are already late." They snarled and slunk back to the darkness, running towards the group of cats nearby. "Okay, okay, I'm coming. Keep your fur on." Daisystripe said lightly and began to striding towards the group of cats as well.

"...and It is time for your assessment!" The white tom yowled on the hanging tree, its leaves shaking and the branches groaning from the weight. "What's happening?" Daisystripe muttered to her friend, Pebblecloud. The gray she-cat whispered back, "It's time to prove that we are true dark forest warriors." Daisystripe's eyes glittered with nervousness and excitement. "Well, good luck." She breathed and slowly made her way towards Darkfrost, her mentor, before scrambling up to her friend and touching her muzzle gently to hers.

Blue eyes glittered in the doom and came a quiet command, "Let us begin." A growl sounded beside the tabby's ear and she quickly whipped around, leaping up, but Darkfrost was faster. She had already flashed away to Daisystripe's other side, snarling and leaping on the she-cat's back. Daisystripe desperately shook her back, trying to get her opponent off her. The black she-cat clawed at her back viciously, drawing deep red scars. Then, she dropped herself down, using her stronger weight to pin the she-cat to the ground. The black she-cat put a paw on Daisystripe's muzzle and pushed it in the peaty soil. Screams of pain threatened to claw their way out of the tabby's throat and she snarled in pain and frustration. "I'm not sure growling and whimpering is going to fight your enemy." A soft sneering voice hissed at her ear and Darkfrost had disappeared into the shadows again. The tabby's nose twitched at a sudden scent to her right and immediately jumped to the front, merely missing the outstretched claws of her mentor. She quickly turned back and pinned Darkfrost down. The black she-cat was, unsurprisingly, undefeated at all. She kicked out using her hind paws and scratched Daisystripe's belly. Daisystripe yowled in pain but wasn't going to give in. She leapt up and climbed on Darkfrost's back and began the scratch her, using her hind paws to hold the black she-cat in space. The black she-cat laid down and flattened Daisystripe. The tabby jumped up and slashed Darkfrost's cheek, merely missing her eye.

"Enough!" The black she-cat rasped and the tabby climbed off her. Shaking blood from her face, she purred, "Oh, there's just one more test to do." Daisystripe looked uneasy and followed her mentor. She ducked as a straying branch was dipping low, dangerously close to her head. It creaked as they passed, as if trying to give them a creeping welcome. Darkfrost stopped and invited Daisystripe to go in front with a flick of her tail. "Daisystripe? Is that you?" A young timid voice mewed. "Beepaw?" Daisystripe meowed, anxiousness in her voice. "What are you doing here?" "I dunno, I was just sleeping and chasing a mouse in a dream when I suddenly got here." The young apprentice shivered. "It's cold and creepy in here, anyway." Daisystripe touched noses with her apprentice. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." She reassured. "So what's going on Darkfrost? Why is my apprentice here?" She asked her mentor, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, I brought him here for a simple task." Darkfrost purred. "It is the final part of your assessment." "W-what? What do I even do with her!" Daisystripe asked, fearing for the worst. "Kill him." Darkfrost commanded, her ice blue eyes compelling and controlling. "N-no! He's my apprentice! Besides, we were o-only here for t-training right...?" She stammered, backing away from her mentor and running into the forest. Suddenly her mentor, the cat who she trusted, had become the most dangerous of all. She ran blindly, not caring about the leaves and brambles that thrashed through her face. 

Darkfrost began to stride and closing in upon the tabby, using her lean muscles to run faster than ever. When she got close enough, she leapt up and pinned Daisystripe to the ground, and put an unsheathed paw on her cheek, as a warning for her to stop running. Daisystripe whimpered under the pressure of the older cat and fear of what would happen to her and her apprentice. "A-aren't we here just for better training? W-why do we have to kill!" She stuttered defiantly, trying to hide the strong fear-scent that was coming off her. 

Darkfrost's blue eyes dangerously glittered, full of coldness, iciness and an emotion that Daisytripe could not recognise, those icy blue eyes controlling, hyptonizing until the tabby could only see those eyes, with the whole forest blurred out behind her shadowy mentor. "You fool." Her soft voice hissed mockingly, "You really thought we were just training? No. We were teaching you to kill. You are here to feel the river of blood of your enemies on your paws, your claws digging into the flesh of cats, the blood you shall taste for victory, the crunch of bone as you snap their necks, and the lost, desolated wails and cries of pain. Don't you feel hunger for it? It seems that you are too weak to feel the blood every night you come here." Her rank breath blew on Daisystripe's ear, making it warmer and warmer. Daisystripe stifled a wail of fear and the cold shiver that ran down her spine. 

"W-why are you doing this... to me?" Daisystripe asked, her voice quivering in a brave attempt to cover the fear that was coming off her in waves. Suddenly, the air wasn't just full of light training anymore. It was thick with the metallic tang of blood, tension and fear. "Oh, you really want to know? Then I shall tell you the whole story." Darkfrost snarled and pressed her paw harder on the tabby's muzzle. "You had everything I wanted, Daisystripe! A Clan that respects you, friends that love you, a loyal apprentice, and a loving mate. I should've had all of those! But just because of one petty vengeance, my whole life was ruined beyond repair! Everyone I loved and trusted turned their backs on me, and even my mate took my kits away from me. My own apprentice, recently made warrior, even tried to kill me." Daisystripe tried to shift away and run back to her friend, but Darkfrost had held her down. "Oh no, I'm not even close to finishing. After that, I had a life with a loner, and turns out he was also a backstabber. He killed my second litter of kits and blamed it to me again to every passing loner and rogue he met. I barely escaped their hatred and claws until I had to leave the forest to find a place to stay. See now? How hard my life is? Now I am going to take yours away too!" She yowled, her voice full of bitter vengeance of the past and she ripped Daisystripe from belly to tail in one single death blow. Daisystripe gave one last helpless twitch and fell still. Her body began to slowly fade away until there was nothing but a dark spot of running, crimson blood. Darkfrost calmly cleaned the blood of her paws and stalked back to the cluster of cats.

"Where is Daisystripe?" Pebblecloud asked Darkfrost. "Oh, she failed her assessment." Darkfrost replied with icy calm and stalked away into the shadows, horror tingling on every cat who heard.

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I hope it's not too gory :'D