A small brown tabby she-cat crept through the night, silently skimming over the leaf-strewn forest floor. She soon reached a gorse tunnel, and slowed right outside it. A huge white tom sat outside the tunnel, dozing off. The intruder waggled her haunches, then leapt onto the guard.
"Hey-" he began to say, only to earn a mouthful of fur. The she-cat glared at him, they lifted her tail from his mouth.
"If you say anything, I'm slitting your throat," she threatened. With one quick motion, she took his life. One slash across his neck. "Just kidding, you didn't even have to say anything," the she-cat purred sadistically. "Cats like you should stay away from me."
"You stay away from me, Fernkit!" Tigerfur hissed, baring her teeth at the brown kit.
"But Tigerfur! I was only trying to help... " Fernkit protested. Tigerfur snarled, prowling towards Fernkit.
"And how did that turn out? You got in the way of a medicine cat trying to heal your brother! And now Finchkit is dead! You're a useless, dangerous, fox-hearted murderer," the brown queen ranted. She cuffed Fernkit over the ears, harder than any mother should.
The murderer padded through the gorse tunnel, setting her paws down lightly to avoid making noise. She entered the camp silently with no resistance. She looked around the small clearing, which was surrounded by trees on all sides. Three bramble thickets could stood around the camp, with a large rock in the middle of the clearing.
The she-cat padded softly towards the farthest bramble thicket, not hesitating to enter through a small hole. Two she-cats lay in nests, sleeping. One had her tail tucked over her nose, while the other slept with her head on her paws and with three kits snuggled close to her belly. A tail was wrapped around the kits.
Kestrelkit snuggled close to her mother, comforted by the warmth of her family. Poppykit and Patchkit slept on either side of her. She yawned, exposing her small pink mouth, and opened her eyes tentatively. The first thing she saw was her mother.
Thistlepelt lay with her head on her paws, tail curled protectively around Kestrelkit and her siblings. Kestrelkit climbed over her mother's tail, tumbling to the ground. Thistlepelt woke up, lazily opening her eyes. She purred warmly when she saw Kestrelkit.
"Good morning, my sweet," she mewed. Thistlepelt licked the fluffy white she-kit's head, smoothing down her fur. "I won't ever let anything hurt you."
The sleek white she-cat was startled awake by a low growl. She snapped open her eyes, defensively hunching over her kits. "Fernshade," she whispered, staring up at the small brown tabby. She nodded.
"Kestrelwing. I believe you have something of mine." Fernshade wasted no time on small talk. She got straight to the point. "Will you give me my kits back, or do I have to take them?"
"Why? Kits belong with a Clan. Not a disloyal she-cat who attempted murder of her leader," Kestrelwing sighed, although her voice lacked the malice cats usually used to speak with cats like Fernshade. "These kits deserve a mother. Not a dangerous exile." Poppyblaze stirred on the other side of the den, but quickly resumed her slumber after a moment of silence.
Without warning, Fernshade pounced, silently flying across the den, landing with a paw to Kestrelwing's throat. The white queen stared up at Fernshade wide-eyed. She couldn't raise a paw to defend herself, for fear of harming the kits.
"Have mercy!"
"Have mercy, Fernpaw, please!" Patchpaw pleaded, green eyes wide with fear. A large brown tabby growled from the thick, dark trees surrounding the pair.
"An opposing warrior would not show mercy in a battle," he snarled. "That disgrace is at your mercy Fernpaw. Kill him." Fernpaw glanced at the tabby hesitantly, then leaned towards the brown tabby and white tom. She breathed on his neck, unwilling to kill her friend.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" With no further pauses, Fernpaw closed her jaws around Patchpaw's neck. She could taste the blood in her mouth, and enjoyed the metallic tang. "Well done, Fernpaw. You will be a Dark Forest warrior soon enough."
"The world had no mercy for me!" Fernshade growled. "My mother hated me as a kit. I killed my own brother by trying to help the medicine cat heal him. My mentor thought I was worthless and weak. My Clan despised me because of my dark habits. Nobody had even seen me kill a cat, yet I was the culprit every time some cat's body was found, at least in their minds. Why in the name of StarClan should I spare you, the perfect queen with the perfect life?"
"You can change, Fernshade! Your clan can forgive you! If you only try," Kestrelwing begged. She squirmed under Fernshade's sharp claws.
"I can't. This is how I am."
"This is how I am, Poppypaw," Kestrelpaw said to the pale ginger she-cat. "I don't want to be mean to you. You're my sister, of course I forgive you." Poppypaw purred, nuzzling her sister in thanks.
"Thank you. It means so much that you forgive me. Even after my meeting with a cat from another clan." Poppypaw shuddered, thinking of how treacherous she had been. "Why are you always so nice, Kestrelpaw? I don't think I've ever seen you get mad at anyone!"
"No one's ever been anything but nice to me. I'm just giving what I've always gotten," Kestrelpaw purred.
"Please, Fernshade! You're only like this because you've never known different!" Kestrelwing desperately pleaded. She stretched her neck out to try and get away from the pressure from Fernshade's paw. "I forgive you for killing my brother!"
Fernshade's green eyes grew wide. "What? How do you know about that?" Fear flickered in her eyes, a distant glimmer. The weight lifted a little from Kestrelwing's neck, slowly.
"Patchpaw had told me about his training, and how you were there too. When I found him dead in his nest, I put two and two together and realized Tigerstar had made you kill him. I don't blame you because I know you had no choice," the white queen explained in a rush, saying anything to prolong her life.
"You... you forgive me?" Fernshade whimpered. She lifted her paw entirely off the queen's neck. Kestrelwing relaxed.
"What in the name of StarClan are you doing here?" a voice snarled. Fernshade whipped around, only to be tackled by a gray-blue tabby tom. She yowled a battle cry, fiercely slicing his stomach as he clawed her ears. The other queen, Poppyblaze, woke up and wailed in surprise.
Fernshade was pinned down by the tom. She tried to speak, but blood bubbled up from between her lips. "No!" Kestrelwing gasped, leaving her kits to stand beside the tom. A last sighing breath escaped Fernshade's mouth, and then all was silent. "Riverfur... you've killed her."
The gray-blue tom backed away in horror. "No... I-I didn't mean to!" he stammered.
A kit in Kestrelwing's nest wailed, looking for her mother. The white queen padded back to her nest, licking the fluffy brown tabby she-kit on the head.
"Good morning, my little... Fernkit."
Too confusing? It was meant that the Fernkit/Fernpaw and Kestrelkit/Kestrelpaw moments were flashbacks from both cats' pasts, if you didn't understand. Was it too much or too little? Review, criticize, tell me what I did right and wrong!
~Munchie