ONESHOT! This is a oneshot romance fic about this totally random pairing; Birchfall and Cinderpaw. I was just really bored and decided to come up with this oneshot... please please please please please please please REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD
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mysterys
Rating: Rated T for suicide
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The sky in the forest darkened, and the Gathering began as the moon rose quietly over the horizonline. The cats watched in awe as Starclan sparkled, newly illuminated and refreshed by the full moon.
Riverclan charged into the clearing; Faces level with the earth to watch the reflection of the sky on the water.
Shadowclan lumbered into the clearing; noses down so as not to fall while crawling along the tree-trunk bridge.
Windclan dashed into the clearing; eyes taking in the beautiful sight.
Thunderclan sprinted across last; noses raised proudly into the air as they watched Starclan toast to the clans.
A star shot by, and everybody gasped; a Starclan warrior had given up his place in Starclan in tribute to the new leader; Mistystar. She wondered if it was Leopardstar.
Everybody lamented the loss of Leopardstar, and congratulated Mistystar on becoming the second new leader of the lake. She announced proudly to the watching warriors, "I name Voletooth the deputy of Riverclan. He had long been a talented warrior, and my friend" she bowed her head to Voletooth "If my time comes to go to Starclan, I will leave knowing there will be an honorable warrior in my place."
Voletooth bowed his head, touched by her words, and Firestar said to Mistystar, "Spoken like a true leaders, and you are a true leader, but it may take me a while to get used to calling you Mistystar instead of Mistyfoot."
The Gathered cats laughed, and Onestar said grandly, "You may continue greetings, the Gathering has not yet started."
Birchfall walked up to Mistystar and bowed his light brown head, saying, "Congratulations Mistystar." Many other cats were doing the same. Birchfall heard a yowl behind him.
He turned around just in time to see Breezepaw of Windclan launch himself at Cinderpaw of Thunderclan. He was yowling, "Say that again!"
Cinderpaw tried to dodge, but Breezepaw changed his course while vaulting through the air. She squealed in terror as te young apprentice started scratching her with his long claws and biting her ear. Breezepaw dislodged a chunk of fur, and sliced harshly at Cinderpaw's flesh. He was saying, "I'd be a better leader than her!"
Cinderpaw tried to defend herself, but Breezepaw sliced her paw when she held it in front of her. Birchfall was frozen. He told himself to move 'Defend her, you fool!' But he was too frozen in shock.
Finally he managed to leap as though in slow motion to bowl Breezepaw off of Cinderpaw. She was bleeding into the ground, and the stars of Starclan had stopped twinkling. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and a grey cloud covered the moon. Breezepaw bit at Birchfall's leg, but Birchfall stepped right on Breezepaw's nose, immobalizing his head and he stepped carefully on each of Breezepaw's legs to stops those, too.
Breezepaw's tail swapped Birchfall's in a feeble attempt to continue fighting, but Birchfall kicked the apprentice aside. Breezepaw landed back in front of his mother, Nightcloud. He stood up and teetered, saying, "Coward, come back and fight, I can still beat you."
Nightcloud bit her son's tail and said, "Stop, Breezepaw. What in the name of Tallstar were you thinking? This is a Gathering!" Breezepaw didn't even look ashamed as he said, "So? She deserved it."
Birchfall licked gently at Cinderpaw's wounds, and said, "Please wake up!" Cinderpaw's head was limp, Breezepaw had managed to cut open a large part of her neck. Birchfall lay down next to her and licked comfortingly at her ear.
He scooched his back under her limp body and stood up, she was draped over his back. He turned to Firestar and said, "I'll bring her back to camp, Jaypaw's still there, and he should be able to care for her." Firestar nodded, and Leafpool said, "Make sure Jaypaw uses poppy-seeds."
Birchfall glared at Breezepaw, who was staring cooly and remorselessly back at him. Birchfall avoided the leg Breezepaw stuck out to trip him and turned to Nightcloud to say coldly, "Punish him." She nodded, looking deeply ashamed of her son.
Firestar cleared his throat, and Birchfall turned to lok haughtily at his leader. Firestar said, "May Starclan be with you."
Birchfall nodded almost curtly and turned away. Cinderpaw was wheezing by now, the gash in her neck prevented the needed supply of oxygen and blood to her brain. She opened her beautiful blue eyes and said faintly, "Birchfall... it's all cold. Birchfall... help me."
He looked at her with emotion and choked, "Cinderpaw, just wait until we get back to camp." She looked surprised and said, "You're Not Birchfall, you're Tigerstar."
"What?" He asked in confusion.
"Okay, you are Birchfall." Cinderpaw smiled a dazzling smile, confusing Birchfall even more.
He said, "We're almost there," even though he hadn't amde it across the bridge yet.
Cinderpaw said even fainter, "Fading away. Light in the sky. Wait, I'm the light... and you're the light. Two lights. Stars."
"What?" asked Birchfall, furrowing his brow.
"I'm going to die, Birchfall," Cinderpaw said decisively.
"No you're not!" exclaimed Birchfall forcefully.
"Nothing you or Leafpool or Jaypaw can do that will change that."
Birchfall took a few moments to calm down and began walking again. He said in a forced calm voice, "Cinderpaw, we all die in the end. But you, will not die tonight."
She considered that statement for a moment, but said, "I wish you could understand, Birchfall. I'm going to die tonight."
Birchfall felt his stomach lurch as she continued, "I'm Cinderpelt reincarnated... but not really. You see, Cinderpelt was a medicine cat, and therefore could not love. But Cinderpaw is an apprentice, and therefore, I love."
"Who do you love?" asked Birchfall quietly.
"You," chirped Cinderpaw simply.
Birchfall grew quiet. His heartbeat pounded in his chest. His breath seemed shallow. He looked deep into the pained ageless blue eyes of Cinderpaw and said, "I love you, too, Cinderpaw." He did. Ever since he had first seen Sorreltail's kits in the nursery den, he had been stunned by her beauty, perfection and optimism.
She smiled faintly and said, "Put me down, Birchfall."
"What?"
"Put me down. If I'm going to die, I might as well be in my favorite place in the world and with the only tom I will ever love," mewed Cinderpaw weakly, a small beautiful smile allighted her features.
The reflection of the moon into the lake seemed to quiver and drift gently over in seperated ripples to kiss the banks of the lake. Another shooting star passed through the sky, leaving a blinding streak of light that hovered underneath Birchfall's eyelids. Cinderpaw gasped in sudden agony and crumpled slowly off of Birchfall's back, writhing in pain.
Birchfall suddenly looked angry, saying through clenched teeth, "I will kill Breezepaw for what he did to you, Cinderpaw."
"Please, Birchfall. I'm not Cinderpaw. I'm Cinderpelt. Call me that. So on the night of my death, I'll be honored by Starclan as a warrior." Birchfall looked at her with nothing but admiration in his amber eyes.
Cinderpaw said quietly, "I feel empty now, I think that last shooting star was the old Cinderpelt in Starclan, making room for the new Cinderpelt. After all, there can't be two Cinderpelts in Starclan."
Birchfall blinked and said slowly, "You're not a Cinderpelt. That was the medicine cat. You're not a medicine cat, you're a warriors. I believe your true name is Cinder-" Suddenly Cinderpaw started wheezing softly.
She looked up at him and said, "I love you." Her face grew morose as she said, "Say goodbye to Leafpool for me. Thank her for all she's done for me."
She looked embarassed and said, "I'm sorry, my last words should be 'I love you.' So, Birchfall, I love you."
Cinderpaw smiled a last beautiful breath-taking smile and her eyes closed slowly, her long lashes shrouding the cerulean depths. Birchfall yelled passionately, "Cinderpaw! I love you, too!" That was the last thing she ever heard.
Later that Evening-
Birchfall and Cinderpaw still lay on the beach; one warm, one cold. Birchfall licked the blood from her glossy gray pelt until it reflected silver back into his eyes. He slid himself under her again and stood up, marveling again at how light her body seemed, but this time it was different. This time she was stiff rather than limp.
He dragged his feet into camp, the cats from the Gathering had already returned, not having seen Birchfall and Cinderpaw on the beach.
Leafpool bounded over immediately and said, "Birchfall, where have you been!" She glanced at Cinderpaw and turned a livid gaze onto Birchfall. She said, "If you'd brought her, I could have saved her. Now I've lost her twice, where the mousedung were you?"
"She told me she was going to die. She said that she wanted to be in her favorite place in the world, with the tom she loved." Birchfall started to slump away, but Leafpool stopped him, saying, "Repeat that, Birchfall."
Calmly he repeated his statement Leafpool turned a melancholy and pitying gaze onto Birchfall, "I'm so sorry, Birchfall. If I knew- I didn't realize that she lo- I'm sorry." She hung her head.
Birchfall gave a cold laugh and said, "You never told me. You must have seen how much I cared for her, Whitewing told me everyone knew besides me that I loved her. Why couldn't you have at least told me?"
"Told you what?" asked Leafpool innocently.
"That she was Cinderpelt reincarnated!" Birchfall almost yowled. In a quieter tone he said, "Yes, I know you knew, Leafpool. You said 'Now I've lost her twice' I'm not as ablivious as you think," said Birchfall forcefully.
"Clearly," muttered Leafpool.
Birchfall picked up Cinderpaw from the ground and turned away, going straight to the warriors den to seek out Sorreltail and Brackenfur. He said sorrowfully to them, "I'm sorry, your daughter is in Starclan." He almost added again, but refrained. Sorreltail wailed mournfully and Brackenfur presed his pelt comfortingly against his mate, murmuring consoling words into her ear, but looking just as sad.
Birchfall turned but then turned back to the mourning parents, saying, "What was her favorite spot in Thunderclan territory?"
Sorreltail said with certainty, "The Ancient Oak, she loved hunting for squirrels in the branches and sneaking out and sleeping out there."
Birchfall suddenly had a memory come back to him from before he had become a warrior and he and Cinderpaw were apprentices together-
Birchpaw was awakened from his sleep from a squeak next to his head. He opened his eyes to see Cinderpaw, beautiful Cinderpaw creeping out of the apprentice den. She had stepped on Honeypaw's ear, and Honeypaw had squeaked.
Cinderpaw apologized, but tip-toed out of the bracken exit. Birchfall couldn't help but follow a few minutes later; his undeveloped and unrecognized lust and curiosity taking over.
The crescent moon was still rising, and appeared to be sitting on a branch of a pine tree. Cinderpaw looked up at the moon and turned swiftly around. She looked gleeful and triumphant, saying to Birchpaw, "I knew you were following me, you're as loud as a badger!"
Birchpaw smiled and said, "Where're you going?"
"The Ancient Oak... want to come?" Cinderpaw looked excited.
"Sure... what do you do there?"
"Climb and sleep, I come here a lot at night," replied Cinderpaw, as if it was the most sensible thing in the world.
"Okay..." said Birchpaw hesitantly.
She trotted and pranced ecstatically around, chattered nonstop and her cheerfullness was contagious. Soon Birchpaw and Cinderpaw were almost dancing around the forest, as one. The birds in the trees did not scatter, and the squirrels stopped there nocturnal business to watch. Cinderpaw joked afterwards, "We could have gotten a lot of prey that way."
Finally their waltz reached the Ancient Oak, and Cinderpaw shrilled excitedly, "I'll race you to the top!"
Birchpaw smiled, thinking to himself 'I'll go easy on her.'
She didn't need it. She wove between the branches with elegance and ease. He could tell she loved doing this, she was grinned all the while she was pulledherself up onto upper boughs. She reached the top and Birchpaw reached around thirty heartbeats later. He smiled weakly because of his hard breathing and said, "I was going easy on you."
Cinderpaw smiled doubtfully and said, "Uh-huh, right, whatever you said, Birchie."
He batted at her with sheathed claws in loathing for the nickname and said, "Raced you back down?"
Cinderpaw grinned and as Birchpaw tried to untangle his tail from a twig, she leapt off the tip-top of the tree. She soared through the air and landed gracefully on all four paws, not even flinching at her impact on the ground.
Birchpaw leapt after her, determined to show her up. He landed on his back paws, and twisted awkwardly to the side, scraping his jawbone against a rock. Cinderpaw hurried forward, saying, "Birchie! You have to practice to do that!"
She began licking the gash carefully and cleaning it of blood. Birchpaw felt a sudden blissful twitching in his stomach and went limp, trying to remember what her concerned voice sounded like and the rhythmic rasp of her tongue. She said with a scared tone, "Birchie, are you alive?"
Birchpaw leapt up and Cinderpaw rolled over on the ground, laughing. She leapt up some of the lower branches and curled up into an adorable furry gray ball, almost turned silver by the moonlight. Birchpaw bound up after her, curled himself almostprotectively around Cinderpaw.
He heard her giggle and she said, "You're squashing my tail, Birchpaw." But she looked happy with their position. She licked his cheek happily, and Birchpaw pressed his head into the base of her neck.
She smiled and sighed comfortably. She tucked her head beneath his shoulder and collar bone and said, "Goodnight, Birchpaw. I lov- never mind. G'night."
- Birchfall nodded and said, "I'll bury her there."
Sorreltail caught his tail in her teeth gently and said, "Birchfall, she loved you. Thank you for all you've done for our daughter."
Birchfall smiled and nodded, continuing to turn around for nearly the twentieth time. He finally escaped the mourning felines. He dragged his paws towards the Ancient Oak, and saw the moon, appearing to sit on the branch of a pine tree. Birchfall sighed mournfully and murmured into his burden's limp ear, "Cinderpaw, why did you have to leave? I never really got to tell you I loved you."
He sighed, and suddenly felt unbelievably guilty, what was it that Leafpool had said? 'If you'd brought her, I could have saved her' Would Cinderpaw have been able to live. Yes, she would have. Admitting... she did have many gashes, but she could have lived.
If she'd fought, she would have lived. She had willed herself to die. It was Birchfall's fault that she had died, he thought frantically. How would he ever be able to live with that knowledge... that he couldn't live without bringing death... it was true. Both of his siblings had died on the way to the lake, Birchfall had survived. His best friend Shrewpaw had died too, Birchfall had survived. All those he loved had died besides his parents.
Birchfall paced in a circle for a minute. How could he live... wait, he didn't have to live, did he?
Birchfall pivotted undecidedly back to Cinderpaw's corpse, and found himself talking to it, "I want to be with you, Cinderpaw, wherever you are. So, I must join you in Starclan." He licked her barren body once along her jawbone to her ear, and pressed his forehead against hers.
Revisiting the memory, he decided how he was to die. Birchfall sprang up the branches until his reached the top of the tree, using the exact route he recalled that Cinderpaw had taken. He heard her melodic voice whisper in his mind 'Birchfall, don't, I love ou very much, and want to be with you, but death will take you eventually either way. Why not wait?'
Birchfall replied 'I can't wait, Cinderpaw, I love you too much, and I never really got to tell you." He reached the top twig of the tree and perched precariously there.
He took a deep breath and sprung.
I'm coming, Cinderpaw.
He ended the void of swirling starlight, and reached a cluster of orb-like cats. He recognized Rainwhisker and Sootfur, and rejoiced upon seeing his recently dead Thudnerclan companions. They smiled glisteningly, and Rainwhisker flicked his shimmering star-tail towards a star at the back of the group. Cinderpaw.
She smiled but said, "I love you, Birchfall, and I can't pretend I didn't wish for you to join me here." Birchfall pressed his muzzle into her starry flank.
The surrounding Starclan cats began a low chant
"Birchfall, Cindertear, Birchfall, Cindertear, Birchfall, Cindertear , Birchfall, Cindertear."
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Cheesy, I know, but oh well, and sappy too, but sometimes Sappiness is good.. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW... and if no-one likes it, I'll delete it. If someone gives me another random pairing, I'll do it maybe. REVIEW!
Hugs and my gratitude for whoever presses the review button,
mysterys