It was like any other day in Thunderclan. The sun was high in the air, casting faint glows upon the open went about to hunt, Kits raised in the nursery, Warriors still gossiped by the fresh-kill pile. And the leader could be seen over looking the clan atop the high ledge as the activities flew by..
It would have been perfect, Sandstorm thought, if Bloodclan had not won. She shook her head wearily and made her way slowly to the fresh-kill pile where three cats sat. They ignored her completely, chatting and eating. One of the cats finally took notice of her as she made her way closer to the pile.
"What do you want?" he spat.
"Nothing to do with you," Sandstorm replied cooly. She made to grab a piece of vole, but the tom stood in her way. "What now, Slash?" she sighed.
"You know the drill," the Bloodclan cat replied with a smug. "No one gets anything to eat unless Bone says so."
"What do I look like, a kit?" Sandstorm snapped. "I don't have to ask that tom for everything around here!"
Slash's eyes flashed dangerously. "You need to show some respect when addressing the clan leader of Boneclan." He made his way closer to her. The other two cats by the pile were watching with interest gleaming in their eyes.
"It's NOT Boneclan and it never was," Sandstorm insisted. "Just because HE insists on calling it that. And get away from me unless you'd like your eyes clawed off!"
By now the other two cats by the pile stood as well beside the tom, and they were all glaring at Sandstorm. The she-cat trembled but kept herself in check. She felt a tail touch her shoulder and wheeled around to find Cinderpelt staring back at her.
"C'mon, let's go," she murmured. She turned around to Sandstorm away, only to find two other Bloodclan cats standing behind her.
"She's not going anywhere until she's seen Bone," the she-cat behind them meowed.
"Killer, Sandstorm's confused," Cinderpelt meowed. Her voice was almost patient and uncaring about the situation if it were not for the eyes that betrayed anger and fear. "She's suffering in delusion. You know as well as I do that it'll take a bit of time for her to remember her place. I just need to treat her in my den, and I assure you she'll do better."
Killer shook her head. "You know the rules, see Bone first. Not even delusional crazy cats are excused." With that the five rouge cats led Sandstorm to the leader's den with Cinderpelt in tow. Sandstorm looked about her as they walked through the clearing. There were rouge cats everywhere, fully fed and being lazy, gossiping happily. Those were the Bloodclan cats.
Thunderclan cats were trying to make up the best of it, but even some of them didn't look as happy. While the Bloodclan cats, or Boneclan as they liked to be called had sleek fur and collars studded with teeth, Thunderclan cats looked skinny and misery; the rule in Boneclan was that certain cats were fed first before Thunderclan. Graystripe was sitting close beside Brackenfur and Ashpaw, talking quietly together while a Bloodclan cat stood by.
Well, at least they're leaving the queens alone, Sandstorm thought. But it was not under the term she had hoped. She also knew that it wouldn't be long until the kits were full grown, and what then? Would they be trained by Thunderclan cats too, or only Bloodclan cats? And even so, would Thunderclan cats be forced to train them under certain rules that may ignore Starclan's teachings? Sandstorm shuddred at the thought.
"Bone." Killer dipped her head to the enormous black and white tom sitting atop the high ledge.
"What do you want?" the Boneclan leader growled. His tail twitched with impatience. Sandstorm felt her heart drop when she noticed his eyes dart to Frostfur.
"This she-cat," Killer indicated Sandstorm with her tail, "tried to go against the rules that she had to ask for your permission before taking prey."
Bone's eyes flashed as he gazed into Sandstorm's defiant green ones. "Firestar's previous mate if I'm not mistaken," he meowed, smirking when he saw Sandstorm's eyes betray pain.
"Please Bone," Cinderpelt began, but stopped when one of the Boneclan cats cuffed her angrily on the head. Sandstorm hissed and leaped at the cat. They grappled angrily on the ground until two Boneclan cats, Slash included, pulled Sandstorm away and forced her before Bone.
Sandstorm tried to get up, but couldn't, so she settled to hissing at the cats keeping her on the ground.
"Silence!" Bone snarled. By now most of the cats were watching this spectacle unfold before them. Bone glanced about him, then back to Sandstorm. "Stalker! Point!" A dark brown tabby she-cat and a light gray tom that had been watching the spectacle from the log by the apprentice's den stalked up to the group , teeth collars gleaming in the sun and eyes cold as winter.
With a flick of Bone's tail the two cats attacked. It was over in a few seconds, and Sandstorm was caught off guard. One second she was staring at Bone questioningly, the next she found herself lying in a pool of her own blood, throat cut open.
"NO!"
Sandstorm didn't know who the speaker was. In her cloudy mind it sounded familiar, could it be Firestar? As much as Sandstorm tried to grope with the idea, it made her care less. Her head felt too heavy to care for anything and a dizziness began to settle in her mind as she heard cuffing and the screeching of a cat trying to help her. Or probably to finish her off. It didn't matter. After all, she would get to see Firestar again in Starclan...
Sandstorm gradually felt herself awake. But it wasn't the star-filled forest she had expected. She was in a den. The smell of herbs heavy in the air. She saw a dark gray figure above her tending to the wound on her neck. She hissed as she felt pain envelop her and twitched.
"Don't move," Cinderpelt mewed when Sandstorm twitched again.
"It's hard to do when it feels like a thorn's clogged in my throat!" she muttered weakly.
"Cinderpelt's eyes gleamed. "At least you still have some sense of humor. If you could call it that." Cinderpelt's eyes regained their haunted look.
Sandstorm's tail curled a bit in amusement, but she stayed completely still for Cinderpelt as the medicine cat continued to work on her neck. When she was finished, she instructed Sandstorm not to move. The she-cat sighed as she gazed at the medicine cat.
"How could it have all gone wrong?" she whispered.
Cinderpelt didn't answer or questioned what Sandstorm meant. They all knew what the outcome would've been, and they all had accepted their fate. But it still seemed so hard to believe that they would have actually lost the battle with Bloodclan, or that Firestar had been killed by Scourge in a neck wound. It seemed that the minute they saw their Thunderclan leader die, all the cats just lost the will to fight and Bloodclan were able to take over easily after that. Sure, Thunderclan still did fight with everything they had, as with the other clans, but it was still not enough.
She could hardly believe it when Bone was made Thunderclan leader, now Boneclan, by Scourge. She was sure the other clans weren't coping as well as they. A tom called Brick had taken over Riverclan. Scourge had Shadowclan and a she-cat by the name of Rats had a hold of Windclan.
Sandstorm had not taken it well when Bloodclan had won. She wanted to keep on fighting 'till she died. She had thought maybe if she fought harder, she would be able to get to Scourge and somehow kill him.
But Cinderpelt had stopped her in time and told her another time they'd get the chance. "For now, Thunderclan needs us," she had meowed, and sighed a the harsh life that would soon follow.
"Cinderpelt?" Sandstorm tried to look around, but another fresh 'bout of pain prevented her from turnign her neck even slightly. She was able to scent a familiar Thunderclan scent, but the smell of the Rouges almost over-powered it.
"Oh, hello Graystripe," Cinderpelt mewed. He was Deputy for only a few minutes, she reflected, remembering watching from the sidelines as Firestar named Graystripe deputy out loud during the battle. He, like Sandstorm had not taken well to Firestar's death. He was closest to Scourge and had tried to kill him, but the Bloodclan leader had knocked him out before could even do a thing. Willowpelt had taken him out of harm's way during the battle.
Graystripe dipped his head. "How's Sandstorm doing?"
"She's fine," Cinderpelt meowed, placing a tail on Sandstorm's mouth to prevent her from speaking and further injure her throat. "I suppose you saw what happened..."
Graystripe snorted. "If Dustpelt didn't bowl me over to attack those cats I sure would have."
"Dustpelt?" Sandstorm felt a fresh wave of pain and closed her mouth furiously.
"Yeah. He tried to fight off Stalker and Point after they attacked you. Needless to say he was beaten down when the other Boneclan cats jonied in, but not before teaching those foxdung cats a lesson," Graystripe added proudly.
"Thunderclan can't go on like this," Cinderpelt mewed quietly. After the battle had been lost, the cats had been trooped back to their own respective clans, but not before Scourge had claimed which cats would be leaders from there on. It was not a happy day for the clans, and they had kept on fighting afterward. It was only until half of Lionclan was killed off that they finally gave in, and the exhausted cats were trooped back to their own respective clans.
Cinderpelt remembered arriving in Thunderclan to find the Elders and Kits had disappeared. Cinderpelt had feared for the worst, until Brackenfur came to her. He told her after they had lost he had gone ahead to warn Thunderclan, and Speckletail had led the rest of the cats out of Thunderclan. Where they were now not even he knew, for he had to return before Bloodclan suspected anything was amiss while they lead the Thunderclan cats back to their clans.
"I just hope wherever they are, they're safe," he mewed quietly to himself.
"Cinderpelt had brushed her muzzle into his neck. "With Speckeltail as the leader, I'm sure they'll be fine."
"And it won't," Graystripe assured her. "Starclan won't stand for this. We'll get out of this somehow. We just have to stay strong."
"I can see now why Firestar made you deputy, if for a short while," Cinderpelt mewed.
Graystripe nodded, but didn't say a word. "I best get going now. Got to help feed the Rouges after all."
"But I thought you hated the Rouges."
"I do, but you know the rules, they get fed first before anyone else. That means I've gotta work twice as hard for Thunderclan to be fed. Plus, I won't let those Rouges have ALL the prey before Thunderclan could have any," he added secretly.
Cinderpelt frowned. "What do you mean?"
But Graystripe just flicked his tail in farewell and left the den.
The medicine cat sighed sadly. "To think we're only staying because we have no place else to go," she muttered darkly to herself. Scourge had insisted that the clans stay since it was their territory as well, but Cinderpelt was not a fool. She knew that Scourge wanted the remaining clan cats to be kept under watch, otherwise the thought of rebellion for the forest would've been more likely if all the clan cats were able to gather outside the forest and plan a more efficient attack. Being under guard here prevented anything from occurring with Bloodclan cats in every den, every patrol and in every cats' life.
A familiar ache settled in the pit of Cinderpelt's stomach. She didn't even bother registering it. "I'll see you in a bit, Sandstorm." The ginger she-cat flicked her tail to show that she heard, and Cinderpelt limped out of the den and across the clearing, but not before one of the Rouges stopped her in her tracks.
"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.
Cinderpelt flicked her tail to the nursery. "I need to check the queens."
"They're fine. If there's a problem we'll send someone to get you."
Cinderpelt forced back her angry retort. Instead she tried a more direct approach. "Bash, sometimes even the queen's can not tell if they're feeling unwell. I would have to observe them and check to make sure they're eating well. The future of Thun—Boneclan could be lost if the kits are not well."
Bash hesitated, unsure of what to do. "Bone?" he called, then thought better of it and flicked his tail for Cinderpelt to follow him. With a sigh the she-cat followed the tom, thinking angrily that she shouldn't ask permission look over pregnant queens. Maybe I should just let the kits die, then that would be the end of Boneclan! Cinderpelt thought darkly.
"Bone." Bash dipped his head to the Boneclan leader. "How are you today?"
"What do you want, Bash?" Bone growled.
"This she-cat would like to check on the queens."
"Then why isn't she?"
"Told her you had to give her permission first."
Bone sighed heavily. "You brought her here just for that?" he asked exasperatedly, then meowed to Cinderpelt, "Go on." When Cinderpelt dipped her head and was about to go, he added, "And form now on, just go in the Nursery whenever you want so long as you're there with another Boneclan cat!"
"I thought all cats here were already Boneclan cats?"
Bone narrowed his eyes. "Don't talk smart with me," he meowed. "If you weren't useful I'd have torn your throat and drank your blood long ago. And you," he directed to Bash, "will escort her to the nursery and help her with anything that needs to be done with the queens. Now go!"
Cinderpelt figured it was best not to say anything and left with Bash to escort her..
It seemed the Boneclan cat didn't look happy about his role to aid in Cinderpelt, but knew to keep his discontentment to himself.
Warm milk and sleepy queens greeted Cinderpelt by the entrance. She peered at the pregnant Bloodclan queens that had already taken use of the Nursery, none of which were Thunderclan. Cinderpelt couldn't help but feel repulsed by the Nursery being used by Rouges now. Bone had refused to allow Thunderclan she-cats to become pregnant unless he gave the say-so. It seemed that Bloodclan was not only controlling the clan customs, but also their reproduction.
Was it really worth it to stay here instead of take our chances elsewhere? Cinderpelt thought as she examined a previous Bloodclan member now turned queen.