Chapter 12: An Unwanted Future
At first, she hadn't heard or understood what the dark leader had said. Time just seemed to slow down, she was aware of the cool breeze that shuck the leaves of the trees and the sounds of pry scuttling in the forest beyond.
That was all before the dread sunk in her gut. Her eyes went wide, she sucked in more air than her small lungs could take, her fur prickled with fear, her head reeled with as much confusion as she has ever felt and her body seemed to sink with the dread pulling her down deeper and deeper into a sea of confusion, fear, regret, panic, anger and failure.
"W-what?" She asked Ravenstar, her voice sounding as small and weak as she felt. Ravenstar snapped her head away from the moon and got close to Oddkit's face, her eyes burning with fierce seriousness.
"You Oddkit, are one of those warriors," she spoke her voice hurt like spikes. "N-no," Oddkit stuttered, "I can't be I'm not a warrior, I-I'm just a kit."
"You will grow," Ravenstar answered.
"But I want to grow to be Medicine Cat!" Oddkit snapped, "This isn't fair you can't force me to be something I don't want to be! I'm a MoonClan cat, I don't need to listen to you!"
"Do you know why I chose you for this Oddkit?" Ravenstar asked coolly.
Oddkit shuck her head fiercely forcing herself to keep her eyes burning into Ravenstar's. "You will never be a true MoonClan cat Oddkit," She answered, Oddkit forced herself not to flinch despite how much her words hurt. She had been told that many times before, by Shimmerheart, Cricketkit, Blazewing and other Clan cats. Yet hearing it from her own leader, Oddkit just didn't know what to think anymore.
"You will never be a true MoonClan cat Oddkit," Ravenstar repeated as if once wasn't enough, "because StarClan made you with far too many faults. MoonClan only has room for perfection. Not shinning beneath the moonlight is one thing, but looking as imperfect as you is another."
Oddkit keeper her eyes on Ravenstar despite everything, hoping her stare would hurt the dark she-cat in some way. Yet if it did, Ravenstar didn't show it.
"Yet you are a fast thinker, you're small, quick and observant with far more strength than you know you even have. You would make a great warrior. Not a MoonClan warrior. But a real warrior, a great hunter and a formidable fighter."
Oddkit's claws were digging so hard into the rock she feared that they would break off. "Think about it Oddkit, this way you would still be a part of the Clan. You would be respected and valuable. Up until recently I was going to train you myself, in the arts of a CaveClan and CloudClan warrior and how to survive outside of a Clan. So when you grow up you could leave MoonClan. And become a loner, rouge or a warrior for another Clan. And no cat would ever know that you came from MoonClan."
As Ravenstar finished, Oddkit was pretty sure her claws and gums were bleeding from her clenched teeth and unleashed claws on the hard rock. She finally brought herself to look down at her bright yellow fur and miss-matched paws.
"Are you that ashamed of me?" She asked sounding broken, "am I that ugly?" Ravenstar didn't answer her questions, "you're lucky I don't follow the path of MoonClan's previous leaders," she spoke.
Oddkit was sure she heard something in her mind snap. "Then why don't you!?" She asked with rage, "why don't you just drag me to the BloodStone and throw me in ay?!
I bet you want to don't you?!
I bet you and the rest of this Clan would love it!
But you know what?!
Don't bother I'll leave right now!
I could stride right into that forest and get mauled by a fox!
You can invite the entire Clan to watch if you want you sick piece of fox dung!
I hope one day you and all of this Clan get killed by Divergence in cold blood!
I hope they take you prisoner and starve you to death!
I hope they tare those ugly silver, white and grey pelts right of your skin and bones!
Let's see how perfect you all are then!
I hope they invade StarClan and do the same to them!
I hope they give them pain even beyond death!
One day I hope you know how I felt every day of my life!"
In her intense anger she didn't notice that cats from the Clan poked their heads out of their dens. And where staring up at her with disbelief, confusion, rage and hate. Oddkit only realised when she heard a hiss from the crowd of cats that had clumped outside their dens.
As soon as that hiss hit her ears. All the anger in her retreated to the bank of her mind. Her eyes now wide with worry. Ravenstar was staring at her with eyes just as wide. Oddkit turned her shaking head to the camp to see nearly all of the cats and their glares aimed at her. She saw Flutter and Sweekit in the crowd outside the nursery she didn't dare stare into their disbelieving and horrified eyes.
Featherbreeze was standing outside the medicine den, pure shock written over her face. Reedwhisker was outside the elders den staring in horror. She didn't dare look for Greytail. Yet she knew that he was there, staring at her, with a satisfied smirk, written on his face.
"Did you hear that?!" Came a high pitched horrified voice from the nursery. Oddkit turned her panicked gaze to see Shimmerheart, the silver Queens's tail was wrapped protectively around Radiantkit as if she was scared for the perfect silver and white kits life.
"That monster!" Shimmerheart screeched, "she a curse on this Clan she going to be the death of us all!" Oddkit wanted to defend her actions but she couldn't think anything that she could say. She didn't know why she said what she said. She just did.
"Shimmerheart's right!" Shinestripe, a Representative, screeched, "did you hear what she said about StarClan, about MoonClan?!" Murmurs of angered agreement rose around that cats. No one ever questioned a Representative.
"That right!" Mistcloud, another Representative, shouted. "She wants us all dead!" Screeched a grey tabby she-cat, Vixenwing, "what should we do?" Asked a panicked bracken coloured tom, Thornstorm.
"Drive her out!" Shouted a light violet-grey she-cat, Violetstream. "Execute her!" Sneered Greytail's voice.
"Don't be mouse-brained!" Yelled the voice of Dawnpaw, "you can't execute a kit! How cold hearted are you?" The young, brave, fire coloured she-cat protested getting right into Greytail's face.
Her mentor, Lushbreeze, another silver tabby she-cat, pushed the apprentice down to the ground. "Hush you foolish apprentice!" She hissed, "Do you want to be executed as well?" She asked.
"No one is getting executed!" Bluetail, one of Flutter's kits, pushed Lushbreeze of the apprentice, "Dawnpaw has every right to her opinion, just as Oddkit has every right to live."
"Are you a traitor also, you black pelted imperfect?!" A dark grey tom, Rockfall, Sweetkit and Cricketkit's father, shouted. "You dare call her disloyal?!" Asked a silver and white patched tom, Treeheart, Bluetail's ex mentor. "Every cat who takes that monsters side is a monster themselves!" Shimmerheart shouted.
"Kill her!" Screeched Cricketkit, Laurelstep tried to hush her kit and shove him back into the nursery. With an unexpected roar of rage Sweetkit leaped at her brother with her claws unleashed. "I'll kill you!" She roared slashing the tom's white and grey patched fur fiercely. Laurelstep and Finchwing tried to pull Sweetkit away.
Oddkit felt her breathing began to hitch in her throat as panic set in. She did mean for this!
It didn't surprise her that the cats without white, grey or silver in their pelts were sticking up for her.
"Ugly traitor!" Shimmerheart shouted, "Shut up Shimmerheart!" Dawnpaw raged, "That's your own kit you piece of fox dung!" Shimmerheart screeched in horror, "that kit is not mine!" She shouted, "Nightfur do something about this!" She demanded her mate who had stayed quiet.
"I-I'm," he stuttered looking as helpless as Oddkit did, "I'm with you Shimmerheart I-I'm always with you." Shimmerheart scoffed at her mate's quiet voice, "you're useless," she hissed making Nightfur drop his head in shame.
"She snapped out of anger!" Growled Bluetail, who was now arguing with Violetstream, "that wasn't anger that was pure evil!" the violet-grey she-cat answered.
"You have no right!" Dawnpaw shouted at Greytail, "foolish apprentice," he growled back, "you should have been executed at birth!
But no! Your poor unfortunate mother died giving birth to filth like you, so everyone felt sorry for you!
If I was leader you and all the others deemed unworthy would be rotting at the bottom of the BloodStone by now were you and all the ugly imperfects belong!"
Oddkit snapped her eyes to Flutter desperately, Flutter would stop this, Flutter could do anything, yet the golden she-cat was just staring in horror at Oddkit. She hoped that her desperate gaze would snap her out of her daze yet the golden Queen still did nothing.
Her heart breaking, Oddkit turned to Featherbreeze hoping the white medicine cat would calm the Clan down. Only to find that she was staring up at Ravenstar with hate in her blue eyes.
Ravenstar looked even worse. The black leader was staring into the medicine cat's hateful stare with a golden gaze filled with pure heart break. Oddkit figured that she probably look the same.
Sweetkit had been pulled of Cricketkit, she was now clawing at Laurelstep's legs in rage. The young Queen looked close to fainting with fright as she held her kit to her legs tightly refusing to let go, despite the blood that was pouring down her leg. Cricketkit was whimpering in the entrance to the nursery, covered in blooded scratches.
Oddkit then realised, that she wasn't getting any help. Her legs shook as she feel the ground in fear and panic. Knowing that after this. She would never be the same again.
At the mention of their kin being insulted, Wingflight, Finchwing and Ripplepaw turned their scorns on the grey elder. Wingflight launched himself for the elder, "no one speaks of Dapplecloud and Dawnpaw in that way!" He raged landing on the elder. Finchwing and her daughter rushed to Dawnpaw's side and tried to comfort her yet she pushed them away and turned her dark green eyes to the star filled sky.
"If any cat thinks that cats like me, should be killed for the way we look then come over here and kill me!" Dawnpaw raged, her green eyes blazing. "Look what you've done!" Shouted Shimmerheart up to Oddkit, "you monster!"
A flash of black fur nocked Shimmerheart of her paws. "If she's a monster Shimmerheart then what does that make you?!" Asked Bluetail pinning Shimmerheart down with surprising strength. "Perfect!" Shimmerheart answered, "Unlike you, you disgusting imperfect! Get off me!" She demanded.
"Nightfur!" She yowled, "I'm your mate you useless imperfect!
Get me out!" She demanded. Without question Nightfur leaped up and ran for Bluetail.
"Enough!" The voice of a fierce lion roared over the camp. As all the cats in the camp stopped their fighting as a dark red cat stepped out of the shadows. Blazewing!
His dark red fur was sticking on edge, so he looked twice his already huge size. His claws scraped across the clamp floor and his jaws shined in the moonlight. "What is this mindless fighting?!" He asked rhetorically. "It is Ravenstar's decision what happens to this kit!" He growled, "The decision is none of yours to make, so why argue about it! Now if none of you have any objections go back to your nests I have a dawn fetching patrol early tomorrow and I want none of you useless lumps half asleep."
"How are we supposed to sleep when are camp is infested with monstrous traitors?!" Shimmerheart asked in rage, "especially that one!" She growled turning her burning blue gaze to Oddkit. Blazewing let out another huge roar that seemed to make the trees themselves shake.
StarClan knows that nearly all the Clan had heart attacks. "No objections, you Shimnerheart, you think a tiny, weak, harmless kit is a monster? You haven't even met a monster!" He raged, "But if you insist, i can show you what a real blood thirsty monster looks like. Right here right now."
Blazewing let out a low blood curling growl and crocked down like a lion ready to kill his pry. The Clan quickly broke apart and headed for their dens, not another word or sound was uttered. Even the forest itself seemed silent.
Once they were all gone. Blazewing turned his head to the two she-cats up on the High Ledge. Oddkit forced herself to stand on shaking paws. "Thank you Blazewing," thanked Ravenstar in an emotionless voice despite what just happened.
Ravenstar then walked glumly towards the hole in the wall. "You shall be apprenticed in a moon," Ravenstar added, "as a warrior apprentice." Ravenstar disappeared into the darkness of her den.
Oddkit was too broken and tried to realise that she would only be five moons in another moon. Her shacking legs tuck her down the steps winding down the Ancient Tower. Once she was at the bottom, she bolted towards the ravine.
Without a single consideration for her own safety, she jumped up the sandy ravine. Her claws sinking into the slipping sand. Yet she forced her claws to carry on scrapping the sand until her paws felt grass.
Using her stumpy yet strong back legs the small she-cat pushed up in a mighty ponce and landed at the top of the ravine.
She didn't stop to celebrate her accomplishment. She tuck of on her tired legs. Into the forest and away from the moon glowing camp. After tonight, she never wanted to see the moon again.
Twigs and leafs scratched and poked at her face and pelt. Yet she continued to run, her paws hurting and her eyes growing heavy. The next thing she knew, there was no ground, she was falling through sharp twigs and pines, until she hit the hard grass covered ground with a jolt of pain.
After a moment of whimpering in pain she forced her eyes open. She was surrounded by mud walls and a ceiling of branches above. There was no way she couldn't get out of this hole alone. And she wasn't even going to try. She lay on the cold ground and let her eyes close in despair. Her ugly yellow fur puffed in the cold air yet she refused to move.
If she was destined to live a life to be miss treated, abused, made to protect a Clan that causes her so much pain and forced to live a life that she doesn't want to live. Then she'd rather not live at all.
She wasn't sure how long she lay there, oblivious to the dark forest around her. Until she felt surprisingly gentle jaws lift her out of the pit. Whatever it was, she didn't fight back. She just lay limp in its jaws.
Oddkit was put down on the cold grass. Was it going to kill her or not? She felt a large paw poke her in the side. "Oddkit," a voice called.
Oddkit still didn't move she just couldn't find the strength. "I know you can hear me Oddkit," the voice growled. At the sound if the growl in their voice, Oddkit's breathing hitched in her throat sadly.
She was expecting another more aggressive growl and maybe a sharp claw through her yellow fur. She definitely wasn't expecting to feel a warm pelt curl around her own.
Her miss-matched eyes shot open in surprise. To see the dark red tabby pelt and amber eyes of MoonClan's deputy, Blazewing. She stared up at him with shock. Before despair tuck over again.
"If your here to punish me then get on with it," she hissed, to her surprise Blazewing didn't claw her. "I've been ordered to take you back, not punish you," he replied calmly.
"I bet you want to though," she growled, "you'd just love to kill me wouldn't you?"
"Don't be dark," he answered, "it doesn't suit you."
"Neither does my fur," she growled, "or my eyes or my paws or anything really."
"Not for this Clan," Blazewing answered honestly.
Oddkit hissed with all she was worth. "Well neither do you!" She shouted at the red tom, gesturing to his pelt, "I mean look at you! You look like a piece of fresh kill set on fire! Yet everyone just loves you! And Ravenstar, she's leader, yet she looks more like skinny shadow! Why is it just me they hate?!"
Oddkit wasn't sure how long it had been since her rage had finished before Blazewing answered her. "Don't talk about things you have no knowledge on kit," he answered with an unreadable emotion. "What?!" Oddkit raged, "No cat has more knowledge about unacceptance than me!"
"When you're older, stronger, faster, more experienced then you'll understand," Blazewing replied with his unreadable voice. "Understand what?!" Oddkit asked with anger, "I'm old enough to know that life isn't fair, that they all hate me, I know, and I know why. They hate me because their nothing but heartless monsters!"
"One day Oddkit," Blazewing replied, "you will understand, you will know something that cats who have lost and been though nothing cannot, and that knowledge alone, will make you a formidable warrior, fierce, brave, strong and firm but also wise, understanding, caring, fair and above all happy."
"Are you promising me happiness?" Oddkit asked in disbelief. "Yes," Blazewing answered, "I'll make sure of it."
"I thought you hated me," Oddkit stated. "Maybe I do," Blazewing replied, "maybe I don't, but that has nothing to do with my promise."
A silence gripped them both. Oddkit hadn't noticed before now, she had snugged close to the warmth of Blazewing's pelt. She was surprised, yet she didn't move, and Blazewing didn't push her away. It felt nice, to feel like someone accepted her. Even if it want real. Even if they did hate each other. A promise had been made. And for once, it was good to pretend that someone else cared.
"Are you going to take me back then?" She asked with a tired voice, "If you want me to take you back to Flutter, then I will," Blazewing answered. "No," Oddkit answered almost instantly, "I don't want to face her yet." She felt as if she had let her foster mother down. Despite how much Flutter had done for her. Oddkit had let her down.
"Do you think she hates me now?" Oddkit asked Blazewing, "Love isn't that easily thrown away," he answered.
She nodded, too tired to truly recognise the sadness in his wise words. The last thing she remembered, were those six words running through her sleepy thoughts.
Hey, going on holiday for about two weeks so I can't post for a while and if I made any mistakes in this chapter then ill edit them when I get black. C ya fuckers! I'm of to sunny Spain!
