(AN: Warriors belonds to Erin Hunter, not me. This is just a short one-shot I wrote about Shredtail's origins in the Dark Forest. Please R & R. If you'd like a full-length tale on Shredtail's life, let me know. Enjoy!)
As Shredtail's eyes opened, he knew something was wrong. This was not the bright and open forests of StarClan. Looking around, he saw very little, actually. His eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness.
This place looked like a forest. A dark forest at that. Shredtail wasn't very familiar with the forest, as he had been a RiverClan cat in life. Most cats had always assumed him to be WindClan, due to his scrawny appearance, but it had never been true.
Shredtail was a half RiverClan, half ShadowClan cat. His life had been fine, until the day that was discovered. But once he had discovered his heritage, things changed. He had been deputy, but was forced to step down, his clan mates all yowling for him to, while his leader, Sparkstar, looked on in disgust. Shredtail once had respect for her and his clan mates. But they disgraced him for something he had never known, or could control. He was loyal to RiverClan, but no one trusted him.
Except one cat. The medicine cat, whose name was Grasseye. Shredtail recalled how a couple of his clan mates had attacked him, creating those crisscross scars that littered his back, and how Grasseye had healed him. He remembered the tom's words.
"You are still the same cat you once were." Grasseye had said.
"But not to everyone else. I never once acted loyal to my father's clan, and now because of the truth, they act as if I'm a rogue." Shredtail had spat.
"Yes, they do. I warned Treefall of this." Grasseye said, referring to Shredtail's mother. "I told her that her happiness would one day lead to the sadness of another. She thought it was her own. It was why she named you Shredkit. The shredding of her heart when she was separated from Graystone." Grasseye referred to his father in Shadowclan.
"You knew?!" Shredtail had growled. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because I wanted to protect you. But I failed. I never thought Treefall would reveal it herself." Grasseye answered. "Now sit still. Your cuts here may never fully heal if you don't. And if you do, they still might not." So Shredtail had rested. But when he rested, the voices came.
Voices whispered to him, telling him that more misery waited ahead, that his trials were not yet finished. Shredtail wanted to shut them out, but there was no blocking out voices that spoke in his head.
When he had finally woken, his wounds were only marginally better. Grasseye had kept him in the medicine den for a moon while he recovered. But Grasseye's fears had come true, and his wounds had never fully healed, becoming permanent scars on his pelt. When he finally was able to walk again, Shredtail went back out into camp.
The hostile stares and comments had not diminished in the moon he had spent in the medicine den. Some cats seemed disappointed he hadn't died yet. Shredtail recalled Sparkstar summoning him to her den, and how the light blueish she-cat had told him he was to sleep in the Elder's Den from now on, as she was forcing him to retire early. He had protested with a growl in his throat, but his leader had sent him away.
The elders who remained, and old tom named Heronwing, and his mate Glitterclaw, treated him with the respect of an elder. It was better than the rest of his clan, but Shredtail knew that neither of them likely cared about his parentage. So Shredtail had become an elder.
His time as an elder was not pleasant. Apprentices treated him like dirt. His bedding was always laced with thorn and stones, and he always got the last of the fresh-kill, if any. No cat wanted to talk with the scarred half-clan cat. And so anger took hold. Shredtail felt smoldering anger. The voices in his head became louder. And he started to listen to them.
They whispered in his head plots of revenge and regaining his glory. He started to feel a bit better, imagining himself tearing out the throats of his clan mates. He remembered that as Glitterclaw and Heronwing died of greencough, he had contracted whitecough. Grasseye tried to treat him, but not much seemed to help. But with whitecough, his mind began to cloud, and the voices in his head began to feel as though they were real.
Finally, one day, once he felt strong enough, Shredtail put his plan into action. Alone in the Elder's den, he crept out under the moonlight. He quickly silenced the cat who was guarding him, and moved through the camp. He moved to Sparkstar's den, and advanced upon the she-cat. He attacked her viciously, taking a life before she really even woke up.
When Sparkstar regained consciousness, she had called a battlecry, but this had been a mistake, for the warriors began to fight each other, while Shredtail fought the leader who had betrayed him. Sparkstar pinned him down at one point, growling "You have gone mad, you filthy half-blood." Before she had been thrown off him by Grasseye, who then yowled for the fighting to stop.
The confusion of the battle had left several warriors injured. Sparkstar ordered a few warriors to hold Shredtail down as the creamy she-cat demanded Grasseye heal their clan mates, but not Shredtail. Grasseye had replied that he would not heal anyone if he could not heal Shredtail. So he recalled as Sparkstar bared over him, and skinned the back part of his tail, as he screamed in pain. Then she re-opened his scars, and he felt his life force bleeding away. Then she shoved her muzzle in front of his, growling angrily.
"As long as you beat these scars on your back, and your injured tail, you will walk alone in darkness, to find peace you will fail. Among StarClan's grounds, you will never walk. To a place filled with dark, you forever will stalk." It was like a curse, but Shredtail had no time to think before she issued the killing blow.
It was then Shredtail had woken up here, recalling all that had happened. Whatever Sparkstar had said apparently worked, for he was not in StarClan. He was in a forest of darkness, one without stars. "Hello?" Shredtail called out into the darkness. But no response came. So Shredtail began to wander in no particular direction.
The forest seemed endless. Was he alone? Shredtail didn't know. All he wanted was to get back and finish what he started. That anger was still in him. But now the voices were gone. Eventually, Shredtail grew tired, merely collapsing on the ground of the forest. Wasn't he supposed to never get tired here?
It took a while, but eventually he struggled to his feet again. This time, he wandered in a new direction. Again, the forest seemed endless. But eventually, Shredtail heard a faint sound. Wondering what it was, he rushed toward the sound. Was there another cat here in this place of darkness?
Bursting into a clearing, Shredtail saw a river. But something was wrong. The river was all sludgy and black. It didn't look like water. But before Shredtail had the chance to look around, paws rammed into him, shoving him into the river.
Gasping initially, Shredtail resurfaced quickly, and swam to the shore, where he saw a skinny white tom with a long scar from his ear to his belly standing. "Fox dung!" The tom growled. "The newcomer is from RiverClan." Shredtail growled and leaped forward, claws outstretched. The tom was unprepared for the attack as Shredtail slashed at him, but the white tom quickly gained the advantage, pinning him to the ground.
"Are you going to kill me again?" Shredtail demanded.
"Heh. Not yet. What is your name, worm?" The tom demanded.
"Shredtail." He answered.
"Fitting." The tom smirked as he saw Shredtail's tail. "I am Snowtuft. We thought someone new came."
"We?! You mean there are more cats?" Shredtail was shocked.
"Yes. The Dark Forest is filled with the most powerful warriors." Snowtuft crowed.
"The warriors here are the ones who were betrayed by their clans, or the ones who seek more power." A new voice came. It was an orange and white tortoiseshell she-cat. "Snowtuft! Let him up!"
Snowtuft let Shredtail up, and Shredtail turned to the newcomer. "I am Mapleshade." She said. "I am the leader here. Good to have you here, Shredtail."
"How do you know my name?!" Shredtail growled angrily.
"Well, it's simple. I listened to you, in your anger. You didn't know how to direct your anger. So I whispered in your ear, and guided you on your plan, so that you would end up here." She purred.
"So it wasn't just me going crazy? It was you too?!" Shredtail asked in disbelief.
"That's right. And now, you are here, in The Place of No Stars, or The Dark Forest. Whichever you prefer." Mapleshade said.
"So what, is this the anti-StarClan? Sparkstar cursed me to never walk in the stars as long as I bear these scars and my tail." Shredtail recalled.
"I guess you'll be here forever then." Mapleshade had an odd, crazed, look in her eyes. "Which is good."
"And why's that?" Shredtail was slightly nervous, and angry.
"Because." Mapleshade answered. "You still have some good in you. I can fix that." Shredtail glared in confusion. But then other cats began to emerge from the trees. They were forming a circle around him.
"To survive here… you will become strong, or you will die. And that will destroy any good left within you. So that whenever we get revenge on those star-pawed fools and the clans that worship them…" Mapleshade bowled him over. "Then we will have no chance of losing, for we have the strongest warriors, who kill without remorse. And that, Shredtail… is who you will become.
Mapleshade cackled to the dark sky, as the other cats closed in.
(AN: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this one shot! If you did, please favorite, follow, and review! It would mean a lot to me! Until next time everyone!)