Chapter 2: New Life, Old Tensions
"So... StarClan brought us a message? For the first time in many moons..." Tornclaw asked Tansystep quietly as they sat inside the empty medicine cat's den. It had been a week since the birth of Russetcloud's kits, and since then the downpour that began that day had shown no signs of stopping now, and instead took a dark, gloomy turn for the worse. The rain still drenched all of camp, and the temporary foxskin cover over the freshkill pile had been worn down to the point of being worthless. The warriors had no choice but to wait it out in hunger.
She nodded, gently placing a golden tail upon her white paws. "A prophecy, to be exact."
The black tom perked his ears. "A-About what?"
She shrugged, letting the lie flow off of her silvered tongue sweetly, "I wouldn't know."
Tornclaw fell into silence as his gaze was riveted onto the outside. The storm had come so suddenly, he feared for a second that the dens may cave into the weight. Then he licked his chest to comfort himself and shoo away his childish 'what-ifs'. "How is the herb stock? I have a bad feeling about this season."
Tansystep replied so cheerily it was almost conspicuous. "We should be fine until the rain stops, don't worry. You worry about things too much," she added with a well-meaning jab at his muscular foreleg.
"I just don't want to lose anyone again, like last time..." the deputy replied in a subdued voice, dragging his eyes down to his broad paws, and claws which dug their way into the soft earth with an uncontrollable tension.
The golden she-cat nodded in understanding, and then stood. "You should probably check on Rowanstar, he hasn't been looking so well since his bout of whitecough..."
"Ah, and may I ask what life he-"
"It's not his last, that's for sure," she quickly cut him off, an ominous glare in her honey-like gaze. Then she softened it. "I'm sorry, that was a little harsh. It's his second life."
He nodded with a forgiving look, before stepping outside, and dashing across the clearing to get as little moisture in his pelt as possible. It was terrible to clean out mats after rainfall, he noticed.
Meanwhile, Russetcloud groomed her litter as they suckled from her since their lives began. It had gotten terribly boring since Cloudedmoon lost her litter and left the nursery, and with a birth rate lower now than ever, she was the only queen there at the time. The ginger and white cat stared at the outside, watching the rain fall boredly, when one of her kits mewled loudly. "What's wrong, sweetie?" she cooed, even though she knew the kit wouldn't hear her for another half moon or so yet. While she scanned her kits, looking for the problem, she noticed that all of them had stopped suckling, and while a few of them were fast asleep, the other kits had also started mewling. Then she realized she was fresh out of milk.
Standing up, she padded cautiously to the empty nursery's entrance, and looked at the freshkill pile. Glancing left and right like she was facing the thunderpath, she sprinted across camp, swiftly flipping up the foxskin over it and looking for a safe piece of prey. She found a fattened toad, and even though it tasted terrible, it was better than nothing. After glancing all directions once more, she bolted back into the nursery, skidding her white paws into the mud that stained them brown and chilled her. Russetcloud ravenously devoured the toad in an impressive amount of time. Her kits were safe... for now.
Full, though with a bad taste in her mouth, she lay down again and let her hungry kits feed again, and soon drifted into a light slumber to the drum of the rain outside.
The queen 'awoke' to find herself facing a shadowy figure in the Dark Forest. "What do you want from me now, punk?" she snarled at the cat across from her, whose amber gaze just narrowed.
He stepped closer to fully show himself. "How's motherhood?" Darkstripe meowed blankly, an unusually warm light in his eyes as he stared into her own.
"Why should you care? If you ever wanted a loving mate out of anyone, it's too late for you now, fleabag!" the ShadowClan queen retorted bitterly, still feeling the pain in her haunches from their last encounter.
"I don't know, maybe I wanted to make sure my kits are st-"
"YOUR kits?" Russetcloud spat, a vexed shock in her silver optics. "How dare you make the assumption that I'll ever share those kits with you?! If they ever find out about you being the father, it'll be over my dead body!"
A thorn sank into Darkstripe's twisted heart. "Don't you think I've gone through eno-"
"Stop making up excuses, you sick monster of a cat!" She turned her back on the sleek tabby, leaving no room for argument while she stormed off into the shadows. Darkstripe followed for a few fox-lengths, but soon knew it was pointless. She sat down and watched her walk away, a fresh pang of pain and regret in his soul as he pictured Tigerstar so easily taking her place. With heavy paws, he faded out of that area, and instead wandered 'round his usual spot.
{As a side-note to all of my readers, I apologize for not updating for so long! You can expect to see chapters 3 and 4 done by this week at least, for compensation. :)
Also, I'll be closing OC applications soon, so time is limited if you're interested in putting in a character!}
