Here's my first challenge for SecretClan. It's about 2,076 words...wow, I didn't even realize how long it was. It took four pages on the Word document I wrote it in.
Also, before anyone asks any questions, yes, Aspenleaf has wings. I guess you could say it's a freak mutation...I don't know, it was part of the challenge. No other cat has those, except her.
Please review! Feedback is very much appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors, or Aspenleaf, I only own my story and my characters Shadepelt and Meadowstar.
Aspenleaf crept through the field, stealthily crossing the rolling hills. The trailing grass on the moor brushed her back gently, sending shocks of discomfort through the sensitive stubs of bone and raw skin. She closed her eyes as painful memories flashed through her mind-painful memories of betrayal and agony.
"We can train you to be the greatest warrior in all the Clans," the tom growled.
"But I'm a medicine cat! I don't fight!" Aspenleaf protested fiercely.
The tom purred, slinking around her, oozing charm from every hair on his pelt. "That won't matter. You can defend your Clan with all the skills any cat had ever had."
Aspenleaf couldn't resist. Imagine how she could protect her Clan! She could use all the different powers in the forest for the protection of the cats she loved and lived with.
"I'll do it," she mewed suddenly. "I'll train here."
She had trained for moons and moons, until her secret skills had grown enough to make the fiercest warrior run for his mother with his tail between his legs. When at last she was able to beat any warrior of the Dark Forest in a fight easily, they released her, claiming that she was now the most fearsome cat in the forest. She no longer had to visit the forest each night in her dreams.
And she was. Her renown as a sweet, caring, and skillful medicine cat and a warrior beyond compare was spreading throughout the Clans. She wasn't teased for her wings anymore-she was respected for the ability to fly.
She was known, powerful, feared, respected. She had thought that was all she had ever wanted-until she fell in love, and realized what she had missed.
Aspenleaf had fallen for a WindClan warrior-her close friend Shadepelt.
"Aspenleaf?" A soft voice whispered in her ear.
She whirled around in surprise, wings fluttering like her heart. "Shadepelt! You scared me!"
Shadepelt ducked his head sheepishly. "Sorry. Anyway, I need to talk to you, Aspenleaf."
Aspenleaf got up and followed him without question, trying to ignore the incessant pounding of her heart, and the tingly feeling in her paws and ears whenever he said her name.
He stopped a little way away from the Gathering, in a cluster of bushes, where no cat was likely to see or hear them.
"What is it, Shadepelt?" Aspenleaf asked. "You said you wanted to talk to me."
Shadepelt shuffled his paws slightly, before suddenly looking into her eyes and bursting out, "Aspenleaf, I love you."
She was so, so shocked at his unexpected proclamation-and so deliriously happy, too. She loved him, and now he loved her-her life was complete.
"I love you too," she whispered, pushing her muzzle into his fur lovingly.
He sat rigid with surprise for a moment, before relaxing and nuzzling her, purring loud enough for StarClan to hear. "Will you be my mate, Aspenleaf?"
"Of course," she breathed. "I would follow you to the end of the world."
And so they made plans to meet every few days, in that same group of bushes near Fourtrees, the same one where they confessed their love.
For four happy moons, the lovers met secretly at night. They would play, hunt, talk, and thoroughly enjoy each other's company, before slipping back to their separate camps at sunrise.
Aspenleaf's world had been better than StarClan to her. She was one of the best medicine cats in history, she was the fiercest warrior who ever lived in the Clans. She had a mate that she thought loved her, albeit against the code-she would even have his kits in a moon and a half's time.
And then her world was shattered by a betrayal.
Cats swarmed out of the bushes, surrounding the small clearing where Aspenleaf lay, sharing tongues with Shadepelt. She leaped to her paws in fright, looking around wildly.
"Shadepelt, what's going on?" she mewed, terrified that she'd been discovered.
She turned around to see her mate. He was standing in the lines of warriors, looking completely at ease.
"Shadepelt, what…" she cried.
He didn't look at her. "I was only following my leader's orders. They wanted to capture you, and I had to obey."
"No…" she whispered, feeling her heart tearing in two.
"Yes," Shadepelt snarled suddenly. "I had to lead them here. It wasn't my choice, Aspenleaf. I'm sorry."
The WindClan warriors leaped on Aspenleaf. She flailed for a second before her instincts kicked in. She leaped and dodged and rolled, swiping her unsheathed claws down flanks and across ears, extending her wings to knock cats away from her flanks.
But she was overwhelmed. The warriors kept coming relentlessly, crushing her by sheer numbers. Soon, seven cats pinned her down, wings outstretched. Her lovely tabby pelt was smeared with the blood of the cats who lay dead around her. She had killed them in the fight.
"Let's make this as…painful…as possible," the leader of WindClan sneered, extending a thorn-sharp claw, and angling it so the moonlight reflected off the tip.
Aspenleaf froze in fright as he advanced, unsheathing his claws as he did so.
He started to tear off her wings.
Aspenleaf screamed in pain, as the claws were dragged slowly and harshly through her skin. Blood poured from the huge, gaping wound, bone stubs protruding from her back. She couldn't take the agony, she would die, she felt like she was burning up-
The pain stopped, then started again, even worse, as her other wing was ripped off. Aspenleaf couldn't see for pain, all she could hear was one terrible, unearthly, agony-filled scream, coming from…coming from her.
The leader of WindClan withdrew his dripping claws with satisfaction. Aspenleaf lay barely breathing in the clearing. Her pelt was completely red and black with blood and dirt-no tabby fur could be seen under it. Her mangled wings lay beside her, once beautiful and glossy with sleek brown feathers, now twisted and bloody, the way a bird might look if it was chewed up and spit out, and left to rot.
Aspenleaf raised her head, the barest trace of life still in her eyes.
"Shadepelt…" she rasped. "Help me…my love…please."
Shadepelt looked away. "You are no longer my mate. I will have nothing to do with you." He spat on the ground before walking away. "You are not the pretty Aspenleaf I loved, you are a broken, disgusting, torn wretch. I don't love you now."
The hope in Aspenleaf's eyes was replaced by a burning rage.
"I will take my revenge on you," she snarled. "I will take you to the Dark Forest, where you belong."
Aspenleaf shuddered as she remembered the pain of that day. That was the day she decided on her life's mission-revenge.
She opened her eyes again, and plowed on through the field, fractured light glowing in her amber eyes.
Aspenleaf lurked in the darkness, waiting. The cat was there, he was almost at the edge of the stream…perfect.
She lunged out of the shadows, on top of the cat, using her weight to collapse him. Within moments, she had hooked her leg and tail around his hind legs. One of his front legs was trapped beneath him; the other was pinned by her paw. Just for satisfaction, she placed her last paw on his head, grinding his muzzle into the dirt.
The leader of WindClan groaned. "Let me go, you foxheart!"
"Now, now, Meadowstar," Aspenleaf purred silkily. "Is that any way to treat a she-cat?"
"Let me go!" Meadowstar demanded, struggling futilely. "I've done nothing to you!"
Aspenleaf's voice sharpened. "Nothing, you say? Nothing?" She unsheathed her claws, pricking at his neck. "You ruined my life! You are going to pay!" She drove her paw downward, taking a bitter satisfaction in the blood that spurted all over her claws. He ruined her, she consoled herself. He's not a queen or kit, or elder. And this death may be against the code, but he deserved it for what he did for her, so it was justified.
She watched as Meadowstar came back to life, wheezing.
"You want to know what you did to me?" she snarled, raking her claws down his flank. "You mutilated me! You ripped off my wings, you caused my Clan to throw me out, you made my mate turn on me!" Her breathing grew ragged. "And now I will make you feel the pain I felt when you tore my wings."
Aspenleaf dragged her claws along his flank wound again, and his breathing slowed, and stopped completely.
Aspenleaf smirked. He still had one more life, and she would savor taking that one too.
When he finally awoke, she leaned close to his ear. "You tore my life apart when you took my wings," she hissed. "And now I will tear apart yours. I know this is your last life, Meadowstar. Goodbye."
Soon, Meadowstar's body was set drifting down the stream, blood pouring from the sharp bite marks in his neck, as a slender, bloody figure slipped into the shadows of the forest again.
Aspenleaf cackled. She had avenged her wings that night. She didn't care about going to the Dark Forest- now all she wanted was revenge, this time for her broken heart.
She ran on, in the direction of the WindClan camp, to kill the tom she once thought loved her.
Aspenleaf paused for a second. There was a lithe gray shape streaking down the hill in front of her. Shadepelt. Aspenleaf bared her teeth. This would be easy.
She started to run after him, swollen belly hardly slowing her down. Within moments she caught up to him, and leaped.
With a loud thud, she landed on top of him, quickly pinning one of his hind legs under the other, and placing a paw none too gently on his neck.
"Hello, Shadepelt," she snarled, digging her claws into his pelt. "Remember me?"
Shadepelt scented the air, and immediately froze. "Aspenleaf," he breathed.
"Yes," she growled. "I've come for payback. Payback on you."
Fear-scent now enveloped Shadepelt. "Wh-wh-why?"
"Why?" she yowled in fury. "Why? Because you ruined me, that's why! I thought you loved me! You promised you wouldn't betray me! Then you led your precious Clanmates to me. You stood by while I was in agony, while they ripped off my wings, my beautiful wings! You shunned me, you wouldn't help me as I lay bleeding, you tore my heart in two!" She shifted so her fangs were poised right above his neck. Every word was dripping with venom and hatred. "I was thrown out of my Clan because of you! Everything I ever worked for, wanted, was taken from me!"
Aspenleaf took a shaky breath. "I was going to tell you something the night my wings were torn. But…you know, I will tell you. It will destroy you even more. That night, I was going to tell you that I'm expecting your kits."
Shadepelt sagged into the ground. "No. No, you can't be…you're lying."
She bared her teeth. "I'm not. I'm a medicine cat; I can tell. Now you can die, knowing you fathered kits that you should have taken care of, feeling the guilt of ruining innocent lives."
As Aspenleaf finished speaking, Shadepelt suddenly sprang up underneath her and lacerated her throat with his claws.
Aspenleaf didn't notice. She simply pinned him down again, leaning towards his neck. When her fangs pierced his throat, he collapsed on the ground, lifeless.
Aspenleaf barely had a moment to enjoy his death before she crumpled onto the bloody grass next to him.
As Aspenleaf rose, her spirit abandoning her body, she felt a weight leave her. Looking down, she saw three tiny glowing spirits flow out of her belly and speed out in the direction of the WindClan camp. Somehow, Aspenleaf knew that now her kits would have a chance at life, one they never had before. They would probably be born to a WindClan queen, without any taint of her blood in theirs. Aspenleaf raised her eyes to the sky. "Thank you, StarClan. I'm sorry, my children."
Aspenleaf drifted along towards the sky, toward the never-ending gloom of the Dark Forest, where she knew monsters like her belonged. But she didn't care. She had revenged herself on the cats who hurt her, betrayed her. That was all that mattered now. She could watch her kits grow up, even in the Dark Forest, where she was headed.
Her life, her revenge, her mission, was complete.
*covers eyes* Wow, that's really morbid. First time I've tried something like that.
Anyway, I hope you liked it!