Mapleshade. Even the name made Crookedstar shake with a flaming hatred. Though the days of her torment were long gone, it still left a scar greater than the one on his jaw. Crookedstar now stood moon after moon near the line that drew a border between the pure hearted and the corrupted minded, waiting endlesly to see the pointed face of mapleshade appear behind one of the endless trees that pinned the ground. Crookedstars felt his claws being dragged out of their hollows like snakes as he continued with his thoughts.
He had not been able to clash claws with the hollow beast even in the great battle, where the final flame of Firestar burned out. His paws trembled as a spark of fury lashed onto his body, spreading like a forest fire and tensing his stance with every pinch of heat. A soft wind passed over him, whispering onto his ear, urging him to open his eyes and get out of the dark thoughts that swirled his mind. His eyes fluttered open, his head whipping around and glancing over the Thunderclan territorry of Starclan. Countless leaves hung above him, absorbing the light of the golden orb to themselves, casting a cool shadow under them. A few bushes were scattered under the trees and rocks, their dull leaves pointing at every direction.
Crookedstar let a softened sigh ease his mind. A few kit's ran along the forest, one was completly white as snow, while the other was a pale gray with white streams lurking down their flank. Their flashing flanks soon melted from his view as they dissapiared under a thorn bush.
Under the same bush, three other kits appeared under the shadows. The trio had patched pelts, colours differing from a ginger and white to completly dark. A strike of fammiliarity hit him like a stone, his body tensed like on command as his eyes were forced to follow their path. Crookedstar rose up, creeping along the sleek roof of the stone before he'd come to it's ledge where he'd croil down and hop like a badly released spring. The pointy grass tickled his pads as he creeped in the shelter of the forest, still on the kit's trail.
His belly felt like a endless pit as anticapation clawed it. The kit's soon came to a stop, they glanced at one-another, before giving a silent response of a nod. They stood in the same line Crookedstar had a while ago, the line that separated StarClan and the Darkforest. A chour of meows rang into his ears as the kit's slithered on the spot. For a while, nothing seemed to happen as the voices had slowly died out, only the chirping of the birds and rustling of the leaves filled the air. After the brief moment, a pelt flashed behind the trees. But not on his side of the border.
Two pointed ears crawled up behind a dead bush, it's tangled roots hiding the body of the cat. But Crookedstar didn't need more than the few flashes to know what was lurking there. It was Mapleshade. Just as Crookedstar's mind had a spark of hatred, the beast stepped forward, her spiky pelt
flicking the frail branches of the tree scrubs who failed to grow on the rotten land. Her amber gaze flashed with a gloomy red as she creeped forward towards the kits, who didn't show any signs of fear. They seemed to be happy to see the monster that creeped forward at them, ready to kill them with one sleek paw swipe.
But deep in the corner of his mind, he knew this wouldn't be the case. Those were Mapleshades own kits, waiting to see their murderous mother with hopeful, naive eyes. As Mapleshade finally stood right before their eyes, she sank her head down, giving a few licks at their ears.
The kit's started giving a few beaming meows back, speaking of their little adventures and how they missed her greatly. Mapleshade would only smile at this, with something glazing her eyes Crookedstar thought he'd never see in his lifetime. It was a flash of warmt, of comfort that softened her pointed eyes. Maplseshade's lips started to move, her stretched smile slowly fading. Without warning, Mapleshade turned like a lighting and melted back to the glooming forest. A slow humm of the forest casted as it swollowed the last spark of her thick pelt. The trio of kit's looked at eachother before slowly rising up, padding back to the shelter of the bushes that would tower over them like city walls.
A silence drew in the forest. Crookedstar's mind was like a storm, flying from thought to thought. He gasped as he'd almost forgotten to breathe in the middle of the brainstorm, his lungs filling with the warm scent of the forest. "Mapleshade can't be too far away yet. I cannot let this oppertunity slip from my paws" And with that, Crookedstar allowed his pads to steadily pass him onto the Darkforest that started to swallow him. The creeping shadows, casted upon him, flooding his pelt with a wave of darkness, letting him become one of them.