This is my fourth MuffinClan challenge. Only one more to go! Huzzah!
The Accident
Broken, bleeding...
Hollykit sat in horrified silence, numb all over, as she stared at the mangled body of her brother.
Voices, shouts...
"Is he okay? Is he okay?"
No...
"He's dead..."
"Squirrelflight, I'm sorry... so sorry..."
The rocks had cut him and broken him. The fall had snapped his neck. Jaykit... Oh, poor, blind, Jaykit...
"Hollykit?"
It was Brambleclaw, her father, his voice thick with grief. Shock and horror filled Hollykit. She looked up at him, but said nothing.
"Hollykit?" he asked again, gentle.
"Jaykit!"
That shout came from Lionkit, rushing in at that moment, Poppypaw trailing behind him. He was worried. Slowly, Hollykit walked up to where stared in shock at their dead brother. For the first time since the fall, Hollykit observed Jaykit's still, broken body.
Her thoughts tumbled around her.
Dark gray pelt—matted fur—blood—rocks, gravel stuck into his flesh—neck twisted at an odd angle—head cracked open—tongue lolling—blood, so much blood—limbs splayed—forepaw bent back unnaturally—
But worst, oh, worst of all... Jaykit's sightless blue eyes, staring off into nothingness. He was blind from birth, but still a vision of the bloodstained, dusty camp floor reflected in those bright eyes.
Hollykit slowly collapsed into a crouch at the head of her brother, staring into his dead, emotionless eyes.
Brambleclaw walked up to her and said softly, "Hollykit? Hollykit, we... we have to go. Leafpool's taking his body for the burying." He was trying to sound strong, but Hollykit could hear the tremor of grief in his voice.
Shell-shocked and numb, Hollykit stumbled to her feet and allowed her father to guide her to the nursery. Behind her, she heard Lionkit shouting and making a mess of things. That was his to grieve, she supposed. Was this hers? Hollykit wondered. To be more quiet, more logical, taking things in calmly and not falling to pieces?
Already she knew it was senseless to deny it: Jaykit was dead. Still, there was an emptiness in her soul. Jaykit was gone. It was as if she had lost her tail.
And it was her fault.
A few minutes after Brambleclaw and Hollykit reached the nursery, Squirrelflight and Lionkit arrived. Daisy, Ferncloud, and the gray-flecked she-cat's kits were gone somewhere. This den had been reserved for the grieving family.
Outside, Firestar called a Clan meeting, but no one in the nursery made any move to leave. All at once, Lionkit broke the painful silence with a torrent of words.
"It was was an accident," the golden kit sobbed. "I'm sorry... the cubs... foxes... we thought we could help the Clan... I don't know! It seemed like just a game, but bigger and better... it was an accident!"
"It was our fault," Hollykit said hollowly. "I'm sorry..."
"We never wanted..." Lionkit trailed off.
There was a horrid silence. Hollykit couldn't bring herself to look up at her parents' faces, afraid to see shame and hate, to see that they blamed her and Lionkit for Jaykit's death. She knew she did.
But when Brambleclaw spoke, his voice was gentle, if hoarse and unbearably sad. "It's all right. You're... you're just kits. It was an accident. You won't do this again." It was not a command, but a statement of fact: Hollykit and Lionkit had already promised to themselves they would never do this again, even without being told to.
"I promise I'll follow the code," Hollykit whispered, hanging her head in shame. "I'll..."
"Jaykit," Lionkit sobbed. "It was an accident!"
"Kits," Squirrelflight said softly, "it was an accident, just a game to you. It went wrong, and..." She swallowed, her green eyes bright with grief. "We'll have to keep going."
"Keep going..." Hollykit echoed.
"We still love you," Brambleclaw murmured consolingly. "But you can't dwell on this."
"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Lionkit bawled.
An accident. No. Hollykit disagreed. It was the accident, the one that cost Jaykit his life. And it would be the only accident, she decided. There would be no more mistakes in her life. She would keep going, always follow the warrior code, and never have an accident again.
And she would always remember Jaykit.
Brambleclaw took a deep breath. He was far too large for the nursery, and was crouching uncomfortably as he tried to fit.
"We have to go out and face the Clan," he said quietly.
Hollykit's heart gave a squeeze of fear. She had been saved for the moment—her parents were not angry—but would the Clan feel the same way?
Squirrelflight stood and padded out of the nursery. Brambleclaw squeezed his way out after her. For a moment only Lionkit and Hollykit stood in the den.
Hollykit moved over to her brother and pressed herself against him. "It'll... it'll be alright," she said hollowly.
"No, it won't," Lionkit whispered, the fight going out of him. "It won't be the same. Jaykit's... Jaykit's dead."
Hollykit nodded, her throat working as she fought back sobs. "But he wouldn't want us to stop everything, would he? He wouldn't want us to stop living our lives."
"Yes, he would," Lionkit said bitterly.
"True," Hollykit admitted. Jaykit could be difficult and self-centered at times. "But not forever. We've got to keep going, like Squirrelflight said."
"Yes." Lionkit sighed. "It's just hard. He... he won't be an apprentice with us. And he won't be a warrior, or have a mate or kits or anything, and he won't be with us throughout our whole lives."
"I know," Hollykit said, her voice choked with emotion. "But we've got to keep going."
Lionkit closed his amber eyes. Then he opened them again, and asked her, his voice filled with fierce intensity, "But you won't go away? You won't leave me?" He sounded fearful. To tell the truth, Hollykit felt the same way. With Jaykit gone...dead...she suddenly felt worried Lionkit would disappear, too.
"I promise I'll never leave you," Hollykit affirmed. "And you won't leave me?"
"Never," Lionkit said quietly, his voice intense. "We're littermates. Forever."
"Forever," Hollykit agreed. "We'll always be friends."
There was a pause. "Let's go outside," her brother said softly.
"Yes," Hollykit agreed. "Let's go and face the Clan."
NOTICE:
MuffinClan has changed since I wrote this. I am proud of this challenge and I'm not taking it down, but I would like you to know that I have left the forum and no longer affiliate myself with it.