1st ImagineClan challenge: Never the same

Leafshade: Golden-brown she-cat with bright green eyes.

The change: She got a horrible, ugly scar in a battle that limited her ability to see and ruined her good looks.

A/N: As you can see above, this is a one-shot for an ImagineClan challenge. I hope you like it!

DAY ONE: MOONHIGH

This is so exiting! Dawnstar just declared war on HeatherClan. This'll teach them to hunt in TreeClan territory in broad day-light! We'll show those rabbit munchers what we can do.

DAY TWO: BREAK OF DAY

Dawnstar said a battle is coming soon. We are to attack the HeatherClan camp in a few moments to steal their prey. This'll be my first battle as a warrior! I will serve my Clan well and protect it. I hope Mouseclaw will be okay. Nah, he'll be fine. He's so fast and strong, no HeatherClan scum will be able to lay a claw on him. Not that anything really bad happens. The warrior code prevents us from killing cats for victory, and no one ever gets hurt THAT bad in battles. Everything will be fine, right?

DAWN

We're running in the fields. Dawnstar separated us into three groups. I'm part of the one that goes in first, that starts the fight. The second wave goes in after us, and the third, bigger wave is for reinforcements. Mouseclaw's on my team. He's so handsome, maybe he'll finally say he loves me after all of this. I hope he does, because I do too. It would be a fitting end to this battle.

I see the camp. It's coming closer, closer with every second, every paw step. My heart beats drown out the paw steps of my Clanmates. Adrenaline is pumping through my veins. This is it. The battle is here.

I leap in the camp with my Clanmates. HeatherClan never guarded their camp well, it's just a shallow dip in the ground, with sleeping cats here and there. I jump on a cat who's half asleep, digging my claws in it's flesh.

My group's job is to fight any cat that would come while the second group would get the prey. If things got bad or we needed more cats, the third group would come into play to back us up.

The cat, a dark brown tabby tom, whirls around to face me. He's young, but not a young as me. Maybe about 5 moons older, but still young nonetheless.

"You monsters!" He hisses in my face. "Foxhearted beasts! You think you can jut stroll on over here and attack who you please?" I smirk, anger bubbling inside me.

"This is payback for what you did to us, cowards! Hunting in our territory, right in the view of our patrols! Your so fond of your rabbits, why don't you go and eat those instead!" This seams to anger him deeply, for his face takes on a furious look as he leaps towards me. I dodge his reckless attack and retaliate with a swipe to the face. Claws connect with muscle as blood sprays in my face, runs down his head and in his eyes. The tom scowls and swipes back, but misses. I lunge to his leg. He jumps back, using the speed HeatherClan is famous for, and jumps in the air, almost as high as a CloudClan cat. He leans forwards to try to pin me down in his fall, but I dodge out of the way in time. I tackle him as he falls and pin him down. Fear flashes in his eyes for seconds as I claw at his belly, but quickly disappears. Why isn't he scared? A voice suddenly explodes beside me. "Stay away from my son!"

I wince as a heavy force bowls into me, slamming me on my side on the rocky ground. I glance up. My attacker glares at me, hatred evident in his eyes. What's he going to do to me? Wait, I know him. It's Spiderfang, HeatherClan's deputy. He's the fiercest cat in HeatherClan! And if what he said was true, that the earlier tom was his son, that means that I was fighting Muddystorm, Spiderfang only kit! He would never let such an offense go unpunished. Oh StarClan, what's he going to do to me?

Fiery pain explodes on my belly as he takes his claws across it. I yowl. This hurts, this hurts, this hurts! Mouseclaw, if all those rumors were true, if you really do love me, please, come to my aid!

Spiderfang continues to slash. I lash out at him, but I miss. With a wicked grin he lifts his paw up in the air. I see his long claws glint in the morning sun. It's coming, his claws and coming!

Intense pain, pain like I've never felt before, explodes on my face. I see blood spray his muzzle before I close my eyes. All of my head hurts. My eyes, my jaws, everything. I feel a weight lift off of me but the pain is still there. My head hits the ground with a thud and I moan in pain. The ground is wet here. Is it water, or my blood? I'm not sure. My head swims and my vision blurs, mixing the colours of the landscape together. What time is it? I can't remember. I feel tugging at my back legs as all goes black.

DAY UNKNOWN

I open my eyes. Rather, only one since my other one seems to want to stay shut. I look around. Where am I? Gray damp walls, leaves strewn about... I think this may be the medicine cat's den. Yes, this is

Sandflower's den. I'm back In TreeClan.

Wait, why am I here? I don't remember leaving the battle with HeatherClan. The battle its self is fuzzy, I don't remember much. Just the intense pain...

A lithe ginger she-cat strolls in the den front the front. "Sandflower, Sandflower! What happened?"

For a moment, the she-cat's face contorts with something. Is it fear? I've seen her afraid when she knew she couldn't save a cat. No, it's not fear. Fear doesn't bring a disgusted glare in one's eyes. This isn't fear. This is repulsion, this is disgust. The expression leaves after a few seconds to be replaced by a calm, warm one. Yet, it looks fake, like she's forcing herself. "So, how are you doing?" She asks, quickly glancing at me before going back to her herbs.

"What happened?" I ask boldly. "Why am here? Why am I not at the battle?" Sandflower looks at me with pity. "Leafshade, the battle's over. It ended almost 2 days ago. TreeClan lost, badly. You fell unconscious in the beginning so Weaselpelt and Seedshine carried you back to camp. You...you lost a lot of blood, and we weren't sure if you'd make it. Turns out you did, but at a rather terrible price.

I'm confused. I feel fine. What price could I have paid? She's lying, she must be. "Your lying. I don't feel bad, except for a headache, and that my eye doesn't want to open up, but that probably because of a black eye or something, right?" Sandflower's eyes darkened.

"Leafshade..." She sighed. "Just, look into the pool."

I slowly lift my self up and drag myself towards the pool of water in the front of the den. I reach it, and gasp with repulsion.

The cat starring back at me is not who I am. The cat I see has a giant scar racing across her face from her left forehead to her bottom right jaw. The cat I see has no fur surrounding the scar. The cat I see has no left ear. The cat I see has ugly eyes: one was red and bloodshot, the other covered with the eyelid that did the not want to budge. The cat I see is a horrid monster. The cat I see...is me.

I sharply turn towards Sandflower. "Oh StarClan! Sandflower, please tell me I'm dreaming, right?" Realization sweeps over me. This is a dream. It has to be a dream. Yes. Right now, I'm probably still sleeping in my nest, having some horrible nightmare about an injury from the battle. Maybe that was a dream too, the battle. Yes, and then soon, I'll wake up, and the real battle would start. Yes, I'm sure of it, this is a dream. A peaceful calm sweeps over me like a wave and I purr. Sandflower, however, isn't sharing my happiness.

"Leafshade, I'm afraid this isn't a dream. The injury that Spiderfang gave you was pretty nasty, so you're lucky that you actually lived. However, the price for your life was your scar and it's affects. The fur around that scar will never grow back, and unfortunately damaged you left eye to the point that you cannot see out of it anymore. I'm sorry, but this is the way you're going to be now, and you're going to have to learn to accept it."

I slump down in my nest, exhausted physically and emotionally. How will I adjust to this?

DAY NINE: SUNHIGH

It's been 5 days since I woke up, 5 days since I discovered the tragedy that occurred to me. I have been cooped up in the medicine cat's den since then, and as far as I'm concerned, nobody wants me to get out. Well except for my brother Adderpelt.

Adderpelt was the only cat who wasn't disgusted by my looks and still liked me, still helped me. Even Sandflower was getting annoyed by me and would always look at me with a disgusted face before pulling off her signature fake warmth and purrs.

On the sixth day, the day after I woke up, Adderpelt convinced me to go outside in the camp to get some fresh-kill or something. It was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. Everybody looked at me with hatred and repulsion that made me want to go in a hole and die. Most of the kits fled away in the nursery, terrified, but some stayed with the apprentices to mock and insult me. The breaking point, however, was Mouseclaw. He who looked at me tenderly before regarded me with such hatred and loathing that day that I could almost feel it piercing my heart. He would hiss at me and yowl insults for the whole Clan to hear: "Go back in your hole you monster!". Threat after threat he would hiss at me, joined by anybody else who loathed my new face. I couldn't take it anymore. I abandoned the vole I had picked from the fresh-kill pile and retired to the medicine cat den. I have not been out since.

Sometimes an apprentice would come and give me some prey, or clean my bedding, but you could tell by the way they ran out of here when they were done that they wanted to get their job done as soon as possible, not wanting to spend any more time with me than they needed too. And today the ninth day of this infernal torture, this infernal exclusion, I am fed up. I refuse to take any more of this. I shall convince my Clanmates that I am not a hideous beast, not a threat to their kits or an object to be ridiculed. They may think I won't ever be the same as before, but I'll show them. I'll show them all!

Well, you guys know the drill. Review, and keep on reading and writing! :D

~Puzzlefreak14