Foxtail and Duskstar
Their friendship was one of many colors.
It was green like grass.
Foxpaw frowned as she overheard another pair of apprentices mocking her.
They called her weak. They called her slow. They called her a kittypet.
She buried her head in the grass and wished they would all just go away.
"Come on, Fox-dung! You're so pathetic we might just have to drop you off at a twoleg nest." No such luck. Foxpaw got up, prepared to face her tormentors.
Suddenly there was another apprentice in front of her. Defending her. Chasing away her tormentors.
Her savior turned around and the first thing Foxpaw noticed was her eyes. They were green.
Green as the grass in the sun.
Green as acid.
They were green with a kindness that would have comforting if they hadn't been just a little…off.
It was as blue as the sky.
I've got you now. Just wait a little bit longer.
Crouched low, Foxpaw was solely focused on the victim she was stalking.
Wait for it…
POUNCE!
"Duskpaw, I've heard that you've been spending a lot of time with Fallenpaw." Foxpaw looked down smugly at the grey apprentice she had just attacked.
"Get off me! And where have you heard that?"
"Oh, around. I don't hear you denying it, though!"
"It's not true!"
"Oh come on! I think you spend all day thinking about how you can get lost in his big brown eyes!"
"They're not brown! They're blue. Like the sky on a beautiful day…"
Duskpaw knew she had said the wrong thing when she looked up into blue eyes and saw how they filled up with a certain satisfaction.
Foxpaw got off her friend and started, "Come on then." She flicked her bushy tail towards the clan. "We obviously need to work on your social skills if you want to impress this tom."
Amused, Duskpaw smiled and followed.
Walking together down the path, they both knew that this would be a friendship for the ages.
It was purple like a stormy sunset.
"Why did you save me that day, Duskpelt?"
The newly named warrior, Duskpelt, tore her gaze from the setting sun in front of them and stared at her russet companion.
Foxtail sat with her entire body poised, like she was ready to pounce on the answer the minute it came out of Duskpelt's mouth.
Why?
That was a good question.
Foxtail asked the same question nearly every day, but never got an answer.
"It was a stormy day. The sunset was purple and that could only mean that I had done something to displease Starclan and the only way to restore the balance was to do something right."
Well, never a true answer.
"I think that's a lie, Dusk!" Foxtail huffed, "Am I ever going to get a real answer out of you?"
Would she?
"Good luck trying. This is one secret I intend to take to the grave."
Duskpelt smiled and turned her head to stare at the sunset again.
It wasn't purple, but that was okay.
Purple would mean a storm and no one wanted that.
So they sat there in a rare moment of peaceful silence, ignoring all the things that screamed everything was about to go wrong.
It was as yellow as the sun on a hot summer day.
Leap. Claw. Bite. Dodge. Lunge.
"That's one for me, Duskpelt! Can you keep up?" Duskpelt looked over at her best friend, who had just taken down another rival warrior.
As she took down the mouse-brained idiot that just happened to be fighting her, she replied, "Well, look at that! I think I'm one ahead of you now!"
They looked at each other across the fields and started to mewl in laughter.
No one was laughing when the fighting was done.
It was too sunny when they gazed upon the bodies of their fallen clan mates.
Foxtail stopped suddenly. Duskpelt moved to go around her, but froze when she caught a glimpse of what had stopped her comrade.
…
The sun was too bright.
It was obscuring her vision.
There was no way that was Fallenleaf lying on the ground.
But it had to be, because the sun was yellow.
Yellow.
Not brown and red like the color of her lover's fur as he lay in a pool of blood.
Duskpelt gazed at the body of her mate and wondered if everyone could see how unstable she felt inside.
It was as red as fire.
"Oh dear, look at this Foxtail. They're all dying. Just sitting there, waiting for help that will never come," Duskpelt muttered to herself
Foxtail frowned as she looked over the place she used to call home.
Everything was burning.
Everything was red, red, red…
Red.
Foxtail looked into her old friend's eyes and saw nothing but madness.
…And that's a rap! I don't own Warriors. I made up the characters in this story. They don't exist in Erin Hunter's books (I think…) and they don't belong to the canon clans or anything. Just pretend that a Thunderclan cat and a Riverclan cat got hitched and ran away together to start this clan. I'll probably post a couple of other stories about other cats from the same place.