How Would You Know? Challenge For The Flowers Of Life
RiverClan
Leader Graystar- gray tabby tom
Deputy Fireblaze- ginger she-cat with blue eyes
M. Cat Emberpool- black she-cat
Warriors
Goldenfrost- golden-brown tabby she-cat with soft amber eyeS
Sparrowflight- dark gray tom with green eyes
Queens
Fireblaze- (deputy), mother of Sparrowflight's kit;
Sunkit, a ginger she-cat with green eyes
In a heartbeat, I recognize the scarred ginger pelt, torn and stiff.
"Fireblaze!" I cried, desperately not wanting to recognize the limp pile of ginger fur in front of me as hers. Poor Sunkit. A current of emotions swept over me, and I almost drowned under the pressure. I have to stay strong, for Sunkit's sake. I pressed his nose into Fireblaze's cold fur, trying to smell her sweet smell again, but only the bitter scent of death lingered. I let out a shuddering breath, before I turned back to the cats that had brought Fireblaze back to camp. "What does anybody know about this?" I demanded, my voice harsher than he intended. Goldenfrost, a golden-brown tabby she-cat, stepped forward.
"My patrol found her body on the riverbank," she mewed softly, dipping her head to me.
"Sparrowflight? Why won't Fireblaze wake up?" Sunkit's mew asked behind him. I turned to the small ginger she-kit. Sunkit is my only link to Fireblaze now. I touched his nose to the three-moon old kit's.
"Sunkit, Fireblaze is dead." I tried to keep his mew steady, but grief throbbed though it. Sunkit began to tremble.
"Why did she leave us?" Sunkit asked in a small voice. I didn't know what to say to her, except the truth, even with all the cats around us, listening quietly.
"I don't know, Sunkit. I really don't know."
...
Three moons later, Sunkit, now Sunpaw is an apprentice. The new deputy, named moons ago, is me. There have been rumors, that I'm not Sunkit's father, and a ThunderClan tom named Bramblefang is. I try to ignore it, but there's no mistaking that Sunpaw resembles Bramblefang more than me. I sit patiently by the river, careful to not let my shadow fall over it. A flicker of movement alerts me and I swipe a paw down quicker than a snake, and a silver trout lands on the sandy shore, flopping around. I give the killing bite and remember that Fireblaze loved trout.
"Sparrowflight?" I turn to see Sunpaw. My grief and annoyance quickly fade like mist.
"Yes, Sunpaw?" I ask patiently. Sunpaw shuffles her ginger paws, her face expressionless.
"Are you really my father?" Her words hit me like needles. I hesitate before answering.
"Yes, Sunpaw, I am." I reply. Sunpaw paused, her green gaze dropping guiltily to stare at her paws.
"I've heard the rumors, Sparrowflight." Sunpaw mews quietly. "They're correct, you know. I don't look anything like you and I prefer land prey to fish." I stare at her and began to speaks, but she ignores me, so I become quiet.
"I've decided to join ThunderClan." I get up and stalk away. I'm all alone, Sunpaw's gone and so is Fireblaze. My parents and littermates are dead, too. I sit there, wherever I am, and raw anguish pierces my heart.
"Why, StarClan?" I wail. I stay like that until I hear quick paw-steps behind me, and I scent Goldenfrost just before I see her leap gracefully beside me. the golden-brown tabby she-cat's white muzzle and tail shimmer in the evening light.
"Hello, Sparrowflight." Goldenfrost mews warmly. I brush muzzles with her, and horror flashes through me. I'm moving on, but that means I'm forgetting Fireblaze, I think with pain. I flinch away and Goldenfrost looks at me with a question in her eyes. "You know that Fireblaze was a traitor, right?" she asks. I'm filled with fury. Fireblaze couldn't have been a traitor! She was too kind, compassionate, and loving to be one! I think fiercely.
"No she's not!" I reply. Goldenfrost looked startled at my fierce answer, then calmly answers me.
"You can't dwell on the past forever, Sparrowflight," she says. "You can't change the past, but you can make your future." Goldenfrost's words fill me with hope and I lick her ear affectionately, twining my dark gray tail with her white-tipped one. Goldenfrost will never be Fireblaze, but she's right, and I can start my future now.
"I can do that, Goldenfrost." I mew. "I can make my future." A purr is Goldenfrost's response.
I pace, my fiery ginger pelt ruffled in agitation.
"Fireblaze, you can't make Sparrowflight's choices for him." A silver and black she-cat pads out of the dense forest and sits by me.
"Yes, Finchleaf, but if it wasn't for me meeting Bramblefang, it never would have happened." I reply, briefly stopping my pacing. Finchleaf nodded in acknowledgment, but her gaze was thoughtful.
"Goldenfrost plays a part, too," she reminds me. I nod, still angry at the golden she-cat. You stole my mate! You killed me!
"She deserves to go to the Dark Forest," I snarl. "She killed me just so she could be Sparrowflight's mate." Finchleaf rests her tail on my shoulders.
"Maybe so." Finchleaf mewed. "But most cats won't feel that way." I snort, glancing over at Finchleaf with amusement dancing like fire in my blue eyes.
"Well, most cats have't been killed by their own sister." I stand up to continue pacing. I wonder how Sunpa-Sunblaze is doing. I had watched her warrior ceremony, and was touched when she requested her name after her mother. Finchleaf shrugged.
"I guess not." She was silent for a moment. "Although don't dwell on the past, Fireblaze. You can't change the past, but you can make your future." Fireblaze nodded, distracted.
"I can do that."