This is my 1st (and probably only) challenge for WildClan!
Summary: Yellowfang goes herb-gathering and gets a little more than she asked for.
Genre(s): Tragedy
Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors.
Note: The flashbacks are in 1st person present tense, and the rest of it is in 3rd person past, so it's a bit confusing.
Yellowfang lied down in her nest, about to go to sleep, when Sagewhisker called her. "Yellowfang," she said. "We're out of marigold. I need you to go get some."
Yellowfang groaned. "Where's the best spot to find it?" she asked wearily.
"There's a patch near the border with WindClan," Sagewhisker mewed.
"Alright," Yellowfang sighed, and stood up, stretching out her stiff limbs. She padded out of the medicine cat den, to the clearing.
"Yellowfang!" a voice behind her called. She turned around to see her sister, Rowanberry standing behind her. Next to her, Clawface, her mate stood. In between, them, a large lizard lay limp on the floor, already with bites taken out of it.
"Do you want to eat with us?" Rowanberry asks, gesturing with her tail to the lizard.
"No thanks," Yellowfang replied back. "Sagewhisker told me to go and get some marigold."
"Do you need an escort?" her sister wondered.
"No," Yellowfang replied, maybe a little harsher than she should've. Her sister wasn't as close to her as she used to be. She could see Rowanberry flinch.
"Oh... okay," Yellowfang could tell that she was trying to keep the sadness out of her meow.
Yellowfang turned around, not wanting to see Rowanberry's hurt expression. She dashed out of camp, tail drooping, and filled with regret at what she had said to her sister.
Blinded by her emotions, she finally realized what she was out here for. Marigold, she thought, looking around. Sagewhisker said by the WindClan border, but she didn't recognize where she was no, in relation to WindClan territory.
She looked around, surveying the clearing that she was in. Most trees were healthy and green, but she smelt the reek of a dead, hollow tree, still rotting, she turned around to see it. A hollow, dead, tree. Why did this seem so familiar to her?
She padded up to it, and stuck her head inside. She looked down, and saw a faint limp brown shape. A leaf... She breathed in and smelt faint cat scent, from a while ago... It smelled like her...
Feelings washed over her, a mixture of sadness, pain, and fear. Of course, how could I forget?
My kits are born, two dead, one alive. But with it comes an aching pain in my chest. How can I bear it?
To give up a kit, one who never did anything wrong. Who will live without his mother. Who will be bullied and teased.
How could I have done that? Yellowfang asked herself, overwhelmed with agony.
I name him Brokenkit. And not because of the bend in his tail, but because of the break in my heart.
And I bury the other kits. Maybe they will be luckier than Brokenkit. StarClan will treat them kindly.
And I pad back to camp with the kit in my jaws, still wondering how I can possibly just let him be.
Sagewhisker is wrong, I can help him. I'll do everything in my power to help him.
Yellowfang thought about Brokenkit, well, now Brokenpaw, and how he pushed her away. She sighed sadly, but she knew that there was nothing she could do. She instead turned her thoughts to her other two kits.
Those poor kits, why'd they have to die? she asked herself.
As she pulled her head out of the tree, she remembered burying them. She remember the limp, lifeless bodies, that once held the spirit of two strong to-be warriors.
I turn to the left, dig a shallow hole. I place the two bodies in there, next to each other. Their cold fur presses against the earth, and I cover up the hole. I feel like I just lost a piece of my soul.
Yellowfang turned to the left, just like she did, not long ago. She spotted her daughters' burial ground. The earth there was wet with dew from recent rains.
She sprinted over to the spot and sat next to it, her paw right on their grave.
"It's okay Yellowfang," a small voice mewed. Yellowfang turned her head and saw a tiny spirit, a kit, no more than a day old.
"It's okay," another kit appeared right next to her.
Yellowfang purred, realizing that these were her kits. A wave of sadness washed over her.
"It's not your fault," they chorused together. They scurried up to her and placed their paws on hers. "We still love you."
And with that, they seemed to dissolve, what was left of them, floating up to Silverpelt.
Yellowfang looked up to the sky and smiled bittersweetly.
