A/N
I'm sorry. If you read Stolen, that's why I'm apologizing. No worries though! A new chapter is coming soon, but this kept nagging in my head. I know I shouldn't start another fanfic but here we are.
A remake of the original story; Unacceptable. Many, many things will be different in this.
Prologue: Crimson Snow
A thick coat of snow covered the bleak, pine forest. Stems of bushes and dead brown leaves poked out from the white blanket. Snowflakes glided across the serene winds, one landing on the nose of an ashy grey she cat with darker flecks.
She sneezed, sending the speck up in the air with a flurry. "Cinderfrost, can we go back to camp now?" She begged, looking into her mentor's dark blue eyes.
The deputy shook her head to her apprentice, continuing on their path. "We can't just cut short on a border patrol, Fallenpaw. You know that; you're almost a warrior."
"But I haven't eaten all day and- oof!" Fallenpaw squeaked, bumping into her mentor, who had abruptly halted.
Cinderfrost crouched to the ground, sniffing at a small, pool of blood. She stood up and broke into a sprint, kicking up snow from her hind paws. Fallenpaw shook the snow off her face and skittered after her mentor.
"Cinderfrost, where are we going? There's more cats on this patrol than us, you know!" Fallenpaw panted, puzzled as her mentor followed the blood droplets.
A golden tabby she cat with a brownish cream underbelly caught up to Fallenpaw, her amber eyes twinkling in bewilderment. "Fallenpaw, what's happening? Did something spook Cinderfrost?"
"Of course not, Goldenpaw!" Fallenpaw puffed, nearly running into the trunk of a pine tree. "Cinderfrost is the deputy. Nothing could ever scare her."
"Well, Shadypaw thinks she's afraid of ThunderClan, with us being so close to the border," Goldenpaw commented.
"Shadypaw is a bee-brain," Fallenpaw retorted to her sister, rolling her pale green eyes.
Cinderfrost came to a halt, stopping just at the ThunderClan border and the Two-leg place border. The blood droplet trail had become a blood pool, smeared and disappearing into a cave reeking of fox scent.
A dark soot colored tom with a white throat peered from behind Fallenpaw and Goldenpaw, his murky yellow eyes wide in concern. "What is this? Is this cat blood?" He asked, a brown tom with golden flecks and black dapples hiding timidly behind his leg.
"I smell foxes," a dark brown tom with black paws and tail tip growled under his breath. "I bet this is what's been causing the shortage of prey!"
Goldenpaw's fur bristled, standing beside the dark brown tom. "I think you're right, Olivefur." She sniffed, raising her puffed up tail.
"Let's not jump to conclusions, now," Cinderfrost warned. "For all we know this could be fox blood."
"But I smell cats!" Shadypaw peeped, slinking out from behind the sooty tom, Blacktooth.
Just as he spoke, a shrill scritch echoed out from the fox scent soaked den. The ShadowClan cats all exchanged curious and cautious looks.
Cinderfrost turned to her patrol. "Follow me," she barked, leaping into the darkness with her apprentice at her heels with no hesitation.
"Why is Cinderfrost so eager to charge into the face of danger?" Shadypaw whimpered, looking to his left and right at his sisters, Fallenpaw and Goldenpaw.
"Cinderfrost just lost her son," Olivefur spoke up from behind them, his voice grim "That cry we heard; that was a kit's cry."
Fallenpaw remembered with a shudder the horrific death of the medicine apprentice Flintpaw. He had been ripped apart by a fox pack just a quarter-moon ago. Cinderfrost probably thought this fox den belonged to the same one that murdered her son.
The blood trail had ended, now a drying, crimson pool that circled around the cold body of a dark grey tom with a white underbelly, which was pink with blood. Two fox cubs were half asleep on the other side of the den, the other making the shrill noise they heard.
Cinderfrost looked almost disappointed. What had she expected? To see Flintpaw alive and well? Did she think the squeak was from a kitten?
"He's not one of us," Cinderfrost choked out. "Nor ThunderClan. Just a measly rogue." She turned to back out of the fox den, but Fallenpaw blocked her path.
"Hold on!" Fallenpaw gasped, brushing past the deputy. "There's a milk scent on this tom!"
"That makes no sense," Cinderfrost marched up to her apprentice to take a whiff of the deceased rogue. Her eyes widened.
"Unless," Olivefur stepped forward between them. "He had a mate that had kits."
"The code states that we can't ignore kits in danger," Goldenpaw spoke up. "Right, Olivefur?" She looked up at her mentor. He dipped his head in agreement.
"You're right, Goldenpaw," Cinderfrost stated, taking the lead of their patrol. "We must see if these kits are safe."
"What if we come across the foxes?" Shadypaw gasped, his eyes round. His mentor, Blacktooth glanced down at him.
"Then pray to StarClan you remember how to fight," Blacktooth growled, swishing his thin tail. Cinderfrost narrowed her eyes at the warrior.
"He shouldn't need to pray if you trained him well," Cinderfrost snapped back. Blacktooth opened his mouth to talk back, but she glared at him sternly and he was quiet.
Goldenpaw's amber eyes sparkled with fierceness. Even as an apprentice, she had been very motherly. If these kits were dead, Goldenpaw would be a force to be reckoned with.
Fallenpaw's body tingled with anxiousness. She couldn't tell if she was scared or excited. She'd never seen a fox before, but from what she heard from the elders and warriors, they were probably as bad as badgers.
A low growl drifted into Fallenpaw's ears and she saw Cinderfrost's fur spike up. The mother fox had returned. Cinderfrost let out a yowl and she bowled into the fox, clearing the path for her clanmates to escape.
Olivefur sunk his teeth into the fox's leg, clamping down and raking his claws along the vixen's flank. "Blacktooth, take Shadypaw and Fallenpaw to find the kits!" Cinderfrost ordered. "Olivefur and Goldenpaw and I will deal with the fox!"
"If I was a starving kit, where would I be?" Fallenpaw muttered to herself, looking at the snow coated ground. Any scent would've been washed away by last night's blizzard.
"The blizzard!" Fallenpaw exclaimed. "They would need shelter from last night's blizzard!" She broke out into a run. "I know where the kits are!"
"What? Where?" Shadypaw wondered aloud, trotting hurriedly behind his mentor and sister.
"She's referring to the abandoned badger den not far from here," Blacktooth recalled. "It's well hidden so it's very likely who ever mothered the kits took shelter there. The only problem is, the territory lies half in ours and half in ThunderClan's."
"I smell milk scent!" Shadypaw exclaimed, ignoring Blacktooth and pressing his nose to a clump of ferns, yelping as the ground crumbled beneath his paws and he tumbled down into a hole.
Fallenpaw stuck her head in the hole after her brother. "Are you okay down there?!" She yowled. It was quiet. Then, a gasp.
"Yes! And there are kits here!" Shadypaw called. Fallenpaw backed up, her brother's head poking out of the hole he'd fallen into, two small bundles in his jaws by their scruffs.
Shadypaw placed them on the ground, the blind newborns squealing and mewling. One, a silver and blue grey tabby, cried out as a gust of cold wind hit her pelt. They hadn't even opened their eyes yet. The she kits aimlessly stumbled, but they soon found each other and tiny purrs rumbled in their throats.
The second she kit, a white almost as pure as the snow, but flawed by grey splashes on her fur, seemed to struggle in opening her eyes. She blinked once, twice, and the trio of ShadowClan cats were dazzled by a flash of brilliant blue.
"They're so cute!" Fallenpaw squealed, watching as the silver and white she kit clumsily chased a leaf. Blacktooth scoffed and turned away.
"They look like hairless mice," he grumbled. "They're not even ShadowClan blood."
"Why hasn't the other kit opened her eyes yet?" Shadypaw flicked his ears toward the silver and blue grey tabby she kit. She rolled blindly around, squeaking in anger as she bumped into various obstacles until her sister came to her aid.
The first she kit wrestled with a bit of dry moss she'd found, tossing it in the air and bits of moss shredded into useless pieces as her tiny claws tore into it.
The second one, the one who had yet to open her eyes, blundering around haughtily, gnawing on a dead leaf. "No, c'mon little one!" Fallenpaw approached the silver and blue grey tabby. "Cats aren't supposed to eat dead leaves."
Shadypaw snickered, the silver and white she kit curled up in his thick belly fur. Fallenpaw reached the snatch the leaf away from the kit, but she mewled and staggered away.
"No, come back!" Fallenpaw gasped as she saw the kit head towards a bramble thicket. The kit cried out in pain as she tripped over a pebble and tumbled into the thorns.
"Oh, oh no, poor kitten!" Fallenpaw exclaimed, scooping her up by the scruff. She was whimpering as Fallenpaw placed her down, red scratches over her eyes from the brambles.
"What happened?" Shadypaw asked, giving the injured kit a look over.
"She fell into some brambles," Fallenpaw sighed, giving the kit a lick on the forehead. Blacktooth glanced over at them with a groan.
"In case you two have forgotten, we did just abandon our clanmates to find these kits," Blacktooth grumbled. "So it'd be a good idea to go and help them."
"Then what do we do with the kits?" Shadypaw asked, looking down at them.
"Put them in a fern bush or something," Blacktooth snapped, heading away. "I, for one, am not about to sacrifice my life for some dead rogue's kits!"
"I'll take the injured one," Fallenpaw mewed, snatching her up and haring off, Shadypaw behind her with the sister kit. They bounced back to the path where they came, the scent of blood heavy in the chilly air.
Goldenpaw had a nasty, long gash along her shoulder and one of her eyes was swollen and half closed. Olivefur was laying in a pool of his own blood in the perfect snow, motionless aside from the heavy rise and fall of his flank.
"Flank it!" Cinderfrost rasped to the tabby apprentice. Goldenpaw snarled at the vixen, knocking her body into the side of the mammal.
Fallenpaw and Shadypaw placed the two kittens in an obscure mint bush beside the unconscious Olivefur, his belly badly torn.
Blacktooth had already thrown himself into the battle with ferocity, protecting Cinderfrost with a leap to the fox's neck.
The fox tumbled under the attacks from all five of them, falling to the ground with a snap and a snarl. Fallenpaw raked her claws along the vixen's chest, Shadypaw digging his teeth into its underbelly.
The fox gurgled as Blacktooth sank his jaws into the neck of the fox, his teeth clamping down and a sickening snap was heard.
The cats backed off of the fox, blood seeping from the broken and torn throat.
"Olivefur needs to get back to camp so Littlelight can fix him up," Cinderfrost meowed grimly, glancing over at her clanmate. She turned to Fallenpaw and Shadypaw. "Did you find the kits?"
Shadypaw marched over to the mint bush where they'd kept the kits. He reappeared with the two she kits with his jaws with a proud smile.
"What happened to that one's eyes?" Cinderfrost meowed as she noticed the red cuts. Fallenpaw licked the wound and the kit moaned as it stung.
"She fell in a thorn bush," Shadypaw answered, smoothing the fur of the silver and white she kit. Cinderfrost frowned, inspecting the scratches.
"They look deep," she remarked. "Will she be able to see when she open her eyes?"
Fallenpaw and Shadypaw exchanged looks. "We're not sure," Fallenpaw admitted.
"Was their mother dead as well?" Cinderfrost grunted as she lifted Olivefur onto her shoulders with Blacktooth's aid.
"She wasn't there, and any scent was drowned by the badger scent," Shadypaw screwed his nose up. "And I went in the den, so I should know."
"Are they coming to live in ShadowClan with us?" Goldenpaw squeaked. She looked over at them; Fallenpaw's kit was fast asleep, while Shadypaw's was dancing clumsily around his paws with wide eyes until he picked her up.
"They're so cute!" Goldenpaw cooed. Cinderfrost's cold gaze seem to soften at the sight of the helpless kits. She lowered her ears and looked away.
"They'll stay, if Nettlestar allows it," Cinderfrost sighed heavily, her eyes dull and staring straight ahead. Her blue eyes glance over at the rogue kits. She puffed out her cheeks. "They are cute… I suppose."
"Who will take care of them?" Blacktooth sniffed. "Surely no queen would want impure kits!"
Cinderfrost rounded on him with her eyes slitted. "Whether they have ShadowClan blood or not, the code states we rescue kits in need. And these kits are in need of a mother."
Cinderfrost shifted her shoulders, carrying Olivefur on her own as they entered the bramble enforced barrier to camp. "Grassblade can care for them; Bluekit, Poppykit and Ashkit are around the same age as them."
Blacktooth grunted, clearly miffed. He stalked away, making a beeline for the fresh-kill pile. A white tom with dark brown accents and deep blue eyes bounded towards Fallenpaw, Shadypaw and Goldenpaw.
"Snowpaw!" The three exclaimed in unison, all bearing some form of injury. Snowpaw pulled back, concerned.
"What happened to you three?" Snowpaw exclaimed, looking them up and down. They exchanged looks. Snowpaw noticed the two she kits in Fallenpaw and Shadypaw's jaws.
"We fought a fox!" Goldenpaw growled in excitement.
"We found a dead cat!" Shadypaw shivered, as if just remembering gave him chills.
"We found these kits!" Fallenpaw cried out, looking down fondly at the sleeping bundle she carried.
"You should go to Littlelight," Snowpaw advised his younger littermates. "It wouldn't be the first time she's seen you bloodied."
"And certainly she's seen us worse," Fallenpaw chuckled darkly as they collectively marched to the medicine den. The small, dappled brown-golden she cat turned as she heard the pawsteps enter her den.
"You three," Littlelight sighed. She was busy with several herbs for treating Olivefur. "What is it?"
"Cinderfrost must've told you; we found rogue kits," Goldenpaw meowned, motioning to the dozing kittens in Shadypaw and Fallenpaw's grasp. Littlelight's honey eyes lit up.
"Yes, yes, sorry!" She exclaimed. "Flintpaw-" Littlelight froze, going quiet. Cinderfrost's son had been her apprentice, and she often forgot his death.
"Uh, I, oh-" Littlelight cleared her throat sorrowfully. "Goldenpaw, can you get me cobwebs, marigold and goldenrod? The goldenrod is tall with yellow flowers. I just need it chewed into a poultice."
The golden tabby hesitated for a moment but she nodded, rummaging through the neat piles of herbs.
"Let me look over the kits while she does that," Littlelight mumbled as Shadypaw and Fallenpaw placed the newborns on the pine-needle covered ground.
"Hmm, this she kit is pretty much healthy other than slightly malnourished," Littlelight pushed the silver and white she kit back to Shadypaw. The medicine cat turned to the silver and blue-grey tabby.
"But this one's eyes are badly hurt," Littlelight sounded uncertain. "I can't tell because she hasn't opened her eyes, but she… she might be blind. I can treat it with celandine and see if that works well enough."
"W-well then do it!" Fallenpaw stammered. She felt partially responsible for the accident.
"Hm, well they're both underfed. Have any of the queens agreed to nurse them?" Littlelight asked, listening to their heartbeats and feeling their ribs.
"We were going to ask Grassblade, with her kits being about the same age," Goldenpaw mew was muffled through a bundle of herbs. She placed them at Littlelight's paws and the dappled she cat raced back to Olivefur.
"Then ask her," Littlelight replied distractedly. Shadypaw and Fallenpaw nodded, swooping the kits up. They mewled in alarm.
Fallenpaw hissed as her ear was caught on a bramble from the dense thicket surrounding the nursery. She quietly cursed her tall ears.
"Youngins," Gorsepetal nodded politely to the apprentices. The pale ginger tabby quickly noticed the two stray kits in their teeth. Her eyes clouded with bewilderment. Grassblade was watching Ashkit and Bluekit squeak as they silently batted a leaf back and forth. Poppykit was fast asleep, his eyes not yet open unlike his early bloomer littermates.
"Grassblade," Shadypaw whispered as they dropped the kits before the first-time queen. "We need you to nurse these kits."
"Please," Fallenpaw added softly, her eyes round and glowing. Grassblade blinked and looked down at the newborns.
"Whose are they?" She gave them a sniff and her ears pricked. "They don't smell like ShadowClan." She sounded reluctant now.
"Their mother abandoned them," Fallenpaw sighed. "All alone in the cold."
"Certainly you wouldn't do that as well?" Shadypaw meowed. Grassblade's eyes widened.
"N-no," she murmured, pulling them closer to her belly. "Of course not."
"What are their names?" Grassblade as well, staring at them with a content smile. She'd always wanted a big family after hers all died in a huge bout of greencough.
"She's Whitekit," Shadypaw pointed to the she kit who had already opened her eyes. Fallenpaw nudged him harshly.
"Wow, creative," she mocked. His ears flattened to his head and he rolled his eyes.
"Fine, er, uh, is Dovekit better?" He asked, meeting his sister's pale green eyes with a competitive smirk. She dipped her head.
"I'd like to see you do better," Shadypaw scoffed.
"I can, and will," Fallenpaw smirked, taking his challenge. She ran her tail tip along the silver and blue grey tabby she kit fondly. "She shall be called Skykit."
A/N
Aaaaaahhhhh! I'm so excited for this reboot! SOOOO much is changing and it's a bit (lot) of a challenge and it's fun too! Read and review please! Reviews earn new chapter ;)