Sparrowfrost- The Taste of Blood
Sparrowfrost always seemed to get the worst jobs; today it was removing a body from the camp. Although, she kind of liked corpses. They couldn't yell at her, or call her names, or scratch her ears. And they listened. She could tell them stuff, and they would never tell another soul. Of course, she knew that they went to ShadeClan afterwards, but hopefully they had better things to do than gossip about low ranking warriors.
Sparrowfrost examined the face of Lightfoot, the unfortunate BoneClan spy, who had been executed at sunhigh that day. She looked nice enough, but you never could tell with BoneClan. Mistdapple- Sparrowfrost's mother- had always called them "cowardly, backstabbing and flighty". But she had also called her only daughter an "un-warriorlike, mouse-brained freak" so Sparrowfrost decided that her opinion didn't matter that much.
"What were you like?" she wondered aloud, "A brave warrior, or a jumpy fox-heart?" A giggle sounded behind her. Sparrowfrost spun around, surprised.
"Look at this, Ashblaze!" a snide voice mewed. "The freak's talking to a dead body." Dewpetal, a pretty grey-blue she-cat, was stood on a rock to Sparrowfrost's left. Ashblaze was clambering up after her. The muscular grey tabby sneered at Sparrowfrost.
"Talking to corpses, mouse-brain?" he asked, "You do know it can't hear you, right?" He jumped lightly off the rock and walked towards her menacingly. Sparrowfrost shrank back quickly as Ashblaze walked past her towards Lightfoot's body. He poked it with his paw.
"See? She's gone. Dead. Empty. Kaput. Finished. Get it, Stupid?" he kicked Lightfoot harder to illustrate his point. Dewpetal giggled.
Suddenly, Sparrowfrost had had enough.
Her blood boiled and a rushing sound filled her ears.
Then everything seemed to stop.
A vicious snarl tore out of her throat and she lunged for Ashblaze. As she leapt through the air she glimpsed Dewpetal's terrified face a moment before she hit Ashblaze. Her claws ripped at his side and her jaws snapped at his throat.
Life restarted in fast forward.
The fight was a blur of slashing claws and bared teeth. At first Ashblaze seemed to be gaining the upper paw, he had Sparrowfrost pinned to the ground and was snapping at her neck. Then she threw him off and jumped on his back, digging her claws into his shoulders.
Sparrowfrost was aware of a growing audience at the edge of the camp, but no one moved to halt the tussle. In fact, the warriors seemed to be cheering Ashblaze on. She caught a brief glimpse of her only friend –Nightspot- at the edge of the crowd, worry clouding his dark blue eyes. Sparrowfrost almost walked over to ask him what was wrong, but then Ashblaze delivered a particularly sharp nip to her tail and she turned back to retaliate.
She wanted to end the fight, so she could reassure her best friend. She dealt a heavy blow to Ashblaze's head and absently bit his windpipe, her mind still on Nightspot.
The taste of blood permeated her mouth and brought her sharply back to her senses. Ashblaze lay at her paws, gurgling. As his life slipped away he looked at her with such hate in his eyes that Sparrowfrost flinched.
"You… will regret this… Freak…!" He hissed. Sparrowfrost stared into his dimming eyes, horrified. He was dying. She had killed him. She began backing away quickly
No… no… He can't die!" a panicked yowl sounded from her right. It was Dewpetal. "Ashblaze! No, Ashblaze! Look at me, Ashblaze, please…" She cried, her voice broken from the sobs that wracked her body. "Ashblaze, don't leave me! Please, Ashblaze. Hang on for a second, just a second, I'll-" She was interrupted by Ashblaze's hoarse croak.
"Dewpetal… I… love you. Remember that… forever. Promise?" Dewpetal shook her head.
"No, you won't leave me. You said. You said you'd be here forever! You said!" Dewpetal sounded a little hysterical now. "Dewpetal… She killed me… okay? Now… promise." Dewpetal stared at him wordlessly and nodded.
"Forever and always. Promise." He sighed, content. A breeze ruffled the fur of all of the cats and Ashblaze slipped away.
Dewpetal threw her head back and yowled, long and loud. The yowl spoke of broken promises, all pervading sadness and a rage so deep that words failed Sparrowfrost.
Suddenly Dewpetal turned to her.
"You're a freak, Sparrowfrost," She spat. "You don't fit in FleshClan and you never will. I hate you. I. Hate. You."
Author's notes: So! Murder... Thanks to my solitary reviewer (and Clanmate) Rainy, and also to my excellent Beta reader- Stormfeather of IceClan. Please review!