Chapter Twelve: Helpless
"She didn't tell us what to do when we get there."
"We do what we do best: we kill."
An uprooted tree fell to the ground whiskers in front of the Chosen's paws. Its tangled roots dripped soil and tiny bugs clung desperately to the shaking roots. The ground they stood on vibrated violently, RisingClan's dilapidated home quivered around them, and the tornado roared angrily. Where could they go? Where could they run? It was all around them, the wind, the noise, they couldn't escape it. Stuck staring up at the monstrosity the Chosen cowered, ears pinned flat against their skulls, chests heaving. So, this was to be their death; at the paws of strangers with a motive they would never understand. It was a strangely serene feeling, one's impending demise, a lull almost. They'd go to StarClan and join Littleflame, and Rainpatch. Their family would be whole again.
The Clans would die.
Eaglestrike didn't find that thought unnerving.
Over the din of the wind and the deafening silence in his mind, he could have sworn he heard someone shouting his name. His death loomed nearer. "Are you afraid?" the lightest part of his mind whispered.
"No," replied the darkest.
"Eaglestrike I will carry you on my back!" Willowclaw screeched, "stop standing there gaping at it like a fish and move!"
He twitched out of whatever trance he had gone in, stunned to find the tornado a lot closer than it had been in his mind. Scrambling backwards he tripped on a branch before managing to right himself and run to Willowclaw – Icepetal stood beside him but the space between them resembled a yawning chasm. "Where are we going to go!?" he shouted.
"Back to the pathway! That's our best bet!" Willowclaw answered, stopping himself from nudging Icepetal in the direction they needed to go.
"Will we even make it that far!?" He couldn't even see the pile of debris marking the pathway's beginning from where they were.
"Does it really matter?!" Icepetal snarled, "If we don't move now we'll die!"
The decision was a rapidly made one, though it was more of a question of dying there or dying elsewhere. Fighting each other, fighting other animals, they were things that could be done, fighting nature was not. How would they even go about fighting a tornado? Shout at it until it decided they weren't worth it?
Of course they had forgotten all about the other issue they had. Icepetal hit the ground with a strangled yowl, briars surging up her forepaws, wrapping around her throat. Their thorns were deadly sharp and they were already drawing blood, tiny streams appearing in her fur. The more she struggled against her binds the tighter they wound. She opened her mouth to shriek her anger only to have it snapped and wired shut. Willowclaw whirled around, diving to his knees beside her, working his teeth into the briars. Scarlet ran from his mouth, yet when he bit one off another rushed up to claim its place. She went rigid suddenly and a muted scream rumbled in her throat. A briar snuck its way under her skin, writhing against her very bones.
Fire burned the ground by her throat. She shifted her head to meet his gaze, wincing at the bite of thorns. It was blank, empty – lifeless. Was it strange to yearn to see something other than death in them? There was a hesitation in his next move, the fire he sent missing her face by a breath.
Icepetal looked up at Eaglestrike, pleading with her eyes, and he shook his head. He knew the meaning in those eyes. "We're not going anywhere, Icepetal. We'll die together."
She whined but they refused to leave her. A family stuck together.
Willowclaw was certain the next plume of fire would kill one, if not all, of them. Or they'd find themselves disembowelled by Ice, or Earth. That was if Wind's tornado didn't flatten them first. It was dying a little, howls not as loud, pressure not as strong. He took that as a promising sign. Beside him Icepetal shuddered. The briar under her skin writhed viciously. He rested his head against her shoulder. "We go together, or not at all," he murmured.
It hurt him more than he'd ever care to admit when she ignored him in favour of giving a final struggle against the briars. I'm the one that should be angry; you killed my friend, and then didn't say anything about it. So why are you mad at me?
A slit in the boiling clouds unfurled a single ray of unnaturally bright sunlight that bathed the Chosen. "When will I ever get to stop saving you all?" Willowclaw felt that he would never quite get used to seeing Littleflame as alive as she was now, despite her actually being dead. He glanced at Eaglestrike to find him avoiding the CedarClan warrior's eyes, his face shadowed and a little sad. Icepetal had told him about what had occurred between Eaglestrike and Apollo whilst he'd been stuck with the Tribe. He could understand why Littleflame might hate him. But the smile on her face looked far too pure, far too real, to be faked. She wasn't capable of hate, her heart was too good.
She placed a paw on Icepetal's shoulder and the briars withered to dust.
"Maybe when everything stops trying to kill us," Icepetal jabbed back, rolling shakily back onto her paws. "How are you here?"
"StarClan tries not to intervene in the affairs of the living, but sometimes, when the fate of the world is at stake, we find that giving a little help doesn't hurt. I'm just here to get you back to safety. You should have listened to Amory, he knew what was down here," she sighed.
Willowclaw shook his head, scowling, "he refused to tell us what had happened, and we still don't know what happened."
"Go talk to Heathersky, she'll tell you," Littleflame said. "Now, allow me to give you some time, go on, start running. There are still some Nobles you'll have to deal with and I won't be able to hold these four back for very long."
"You aren't scared?" Icepetal asked.
Littleflame shrugged. "I'm dead, remember?" she answered sadly.
"Come with us." There was no missing the crack in Eaglestrike's voice, "come home."
When she looked at him there was hopefulness in her eyes that hadn't been there before, something that sparked deep within the green. It was gone in a flicker, replaced with an iron determination. Littleflame was not the dependant warrior she had been in life. "I am home. I walk this valley still. Go."
The clouds were shredded by the light of a dawning sun. A day and a night had passed. Littleflame cast out a ray of sun with a wave of her paw that had the Elementals shrieking in pain. The Chosen took that moment to flee for their lives, but not without one last look at the she-cat they'd left behind in the city. She faced down four grand enemies without even a tremor. Death had given her what life could not.
Dawn had never quite looked as beautiful as it did that morning, pale rays pouring in past ice trees and bare branches. The air still tasted of death, but the feeling of despair had lessened, they would get away, they'd get home. Sunrise would have them back in one piece, more or less. We would have left her alone, Willowclaw's ears flattened against his head, she wouldn't have had anyone. He vowed to make sure that never happened.
Behind them a scream echoed, followed by a rumbling under their paws that shook even the pillars of ice. They didn't dare look back. The grinding sound of rock against rock was enough to keep them running, the added sound of roaring flames only made them run faster. Monsters did indeed roam the valley, they had made it their own, sculpted it into their own special little world.
But it did not belong to them.
"Immortality will always beat death!"
"There is something much worse than death hiding in those mountains."
"Nothing you can say, warrior, will scare us. You are weak."
"I might be, but I know what you are, where you came from, and what you are terrified of."
"You're bluffing."
"A Shadowstalker dwells in those mountains."
The sky erupted. Smoke coiled thickly into the air, acrid and black. From the open expanse above them sleet poured. Around them the temperature plummeted, climbed, plummeted, and climbed again, never remaining the same. The wind that buffeted the Chosen was like nothing they had ever experienced; it shrieked like a wounded animal and tore at their fur with a terrifying amount of force.
A clap of thunder rung out, lightning flickered across an empty canvas of pale morning blue. Littleflame screamed. A flash of gold blinded the valley, melding with the soft pink on the horizon.
The pile of debris was so close, mere foxleaps away. They were going to make it, all of them, alive. A Noble stuck their head out from the hole. She frowned at the running Chosen, calling back to the others for assistance. Willowclaw bit back a snarl, they had done Amory's allotted time in the valley, but were the Nobles even going to let them go home? Or had they been given other orders? He could hear Amory's voice rumbling in a firm command, "Make sure they never make it back."
"So you three managed to make it back alive, aye?" Something about the silver tabby standing defiantly in front of them was hauntingly familiar. "Amory will be surprised, as will your Clans no doubt."
"Your faith in us is astounding," Icepetal sneered, "now if you don't mind could we please leave? There are some rather nasty cats following us."
The tabby's brows furrowed. "Where are Pleoh and Calder?"
"Those Elemental nutcases killed them," Willowclaw answered, shifting unsteadily from paw to paw, just waiting for the nutcases in question to come barrelling through the ice trees. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep. He ached all over.
"We did tell them not to go out there," Sarff waved a paw dismissively. "Come on, let's get out of here before they kill all of us."
"I'll never be able to understand how you stay so calm when it comes to the Elementals," Braoin shook his head.
Sarff shrugged, "I don't constantly think about them like everyone else does."
"Can we please go? They weren't far behind us," Eaglestrike pressed desperately.
"Oh Clan cats," Ice's voice drawled, "I can smell more of you!"
The tabby hissed. "Foxdung, if we leave now they'll be able to follow us."
"You know what has to be done, Aricia," Braoin murmured, "we all heard his instructions."
Aricia swallowed nervously, glancing out into the forest of ice, eyes stretched wide with unrestrained fear. She inhaled a shaky breath and closed her eyes. The trembles travelling up her legs ceased. "I know. Take those three and get them back safely; once a warrior, always a warrior." She took a step away from safety, towards the chill developing in the air.
"Wait, where are you going? It's not safe out there!" Willowclaw called out. A body blocking his stopped him from going to Aricia's rescue. Why would anyone want to go out there knowing what's waiting for them!?
"Sacrifices must be made if the Clans are to live on. Aricia is just doing her job as a Noble; we're protectors, we will give our lives to protect whoever Amory tells us to. We're kinda similar to you warriors," Sarff's smile was a little sad. "She's been a good friend."
"You're just going to let her walk to her death!?" Willowclaw couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Shouldn't we help her?"
Braoin snorted, "If you want to die then go ahead. But we've been given orders. We're to get you three home alive. Let's go."
Aricia's dying howl reached them partway up the pathway. It was mixed with a final growl of thunder. The valley fell eerily silent. No one dared look back down the way they'd come. There were some things that even Amory's personal guard had come to fear. Willowclaw, despite his weary body and need to get back to Sunrise, paused momentarily to see if Icepetal would walk beside him. He wanted to apologise to her for what he'd said. When she did not he glanced over his shoulder to find her standing far behind them, eyes transfixed on the valley. There was a deep longing in her eyes.
The words he wanted to say died in his throat. How could he have ever accused Icepetal of being just a murderer? Standing on the sloping pathway head bowed and shoulders shaking, she looked so timid, so scared. Sure they'd all faced the Elementals that night. But she'd had them under her skin. She'd felt their power full force as it had grinded along her bones. But she'd slit their throats, just like she'd slit Plummet's...
He couldn't talk to her. Not when he was still thinking like that.
Eaglestrike called her name and she jolted, twisting her neck to look up at him. He nodded his head in the direction they were going, an unspoken command. Even though they were back in the Clans it was hard to not see Eaglestrike as the leader of their ragtag band anymore. She gave one last look back at RisingClan's territory before trotting to catch up. A flash of amber at the bottom of the path caught Willowclaw's eye, but it was gone in a heartbeat.
"Sunrise will be wondering where we are," Eaglestrike said as Icepetal brushed past him.
"I know."
The sun had reached its highest point in the sky when they finally stepped onto the lip of the basin. Rather than follow the path they had first taken when journeying to the Clans nearly a moon ago, they had traipsed down a different one. Not that there was much different between the two. The mountains weren't any less grey. The land wasn't any less barren. There was, however, an extra river.
No one gave them so much as a glance as they picked their way down the edge. Willowclaw scanned the basin for a bundle of black fur. It didn't take Sunrise long to tumble out of the nursery, fur a mess of tangles. The smile that lit up her face took the edge away from his exhaustion. He loped over to her, tugged her close, and fell onto the ground, curling himself around her tiny body.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Sunrise stopped wriggling. "For what?"
"For leaving you alone."
He could feel coiled up tension leave her body and she sagged into his thick fur with a content purr. "I knew you'd come home, I wasn't worried."
"You don't have to lie to me," he rumbled.
There were tremors wracking her body, and he felt a dampness grow on his fur. They did that, made her cry, all because of some stupid need to save everyone. It made his heart hurt and anger flash through his veins. Why had Icepetal pushed Amory that far? What had she been hoping to gain? Sunrise had been left all alone in a basin full of cats that hated her not knowing if her family would ever come back again.
He squeezed her tighter against him. "I am so sorry," his voice cracked, "I won't ever leave you again, I promise."
"Sunrise." A damp face peeked out from over Willowclaw's leg, staring up at Eaglestrike with watery eyes. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, "I'm just glad you're all back."
"I shouldn't have pushed Amory so hard. He wouldn't have sent us down into the valley if I hadn't," Icepetal whispered brokenly, "it's my fault three Nobles died."
Eaglestrike snorted. "Don't pretend you actually care about those Nobles."
"It doesn't matter if I care about them or not, I got three cats killed!" Icepetal snapped.
"Amory knew what would happen when he sent us down there. If anything the blame should rest on him for getting his own cats killed. Look," Eaglestrike jerked his head at where Amory was talking with the surviving Nobles from the patrol, "he doesn't even care that we made it back alive."
Willowclaw sighed and released Sunrise from his tight grip. She didn't move every far from him, only shifted so that her head rested comfortably on his side. "Littleflame told us to talk to Heathersky when we got back. Let's go do that."
"Didn't you tell me Littleflame died? How'd she manage to talk to you?" Sunrise yawned.
"Remember how we told you about StarClan?" She nodded so Eaglestrike continued, "Turns out they can visit us down here sometimes as well. She saved our lives."
"When I see her I'll have to thank her."
Willowclaw purred, "Let's just hope that isn't too soon."
"Heathersky's still in the nursery," Sunrise mewed, "her and Flight were arguing over whether Hope would ever get to be a warrior. She'll be a warrior, won't she? I don't understand why she wouldn't be."
Sickness was something kits could never understand. "That's up to Amory, not us."
The nursery was loud. Heathersky's kits were a rowdy mix, and throw in Flight's with their RogueClan upbringing you had a cacophony of shrieking kits and yelling mothers. The argument Sunrise had mentioned them having must have concluded for the two queens were just watching their kits with tired eyes.
Eaglestrike cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. He found himself swarmed with tiny bundles of fur in heartbeats. Grimacing he tried not to step on any of them as he squeezed further into the den, answering the questions the kits were peppering at them. Flight snapped at them to leave the warrior alone.
"Kits are a wondrous thing," the RogueClan queen laughed, "but they rarely ever sit still."
"Oh I know," Eaglestrike turned his attention to Sunrise who was hanging around his paws. "This one could hardly ever stand still on the way back. Could you?"
Sunrise giggled and shook her head.
"Can we help you with something, Eaglestrike?" Heathersky asked quietly.
"Yes actually, could we talk to you for a moment, Heathersky? There's something Rainpatch wanted me to tell you." He hoped the urgency he felt was portrayed in his eyes. Rainpatch had indeed told them to tell her that he loved her, but they needed to talk to her about what had happened to the Clans as soon as possible.
She nodded, "of course. Would you mind looking after my lot for a little while, Flight?"
"Not at all," Flight replied, settling into a comfortable position in her nest.
They retreated to an empty part of the basin, near the edge and the impeccable view of the valley far below them. Sunrise said a quick goodbye to them before scampering off underneath the curtain of willow leaves. Willowclaw stared after her with furrowed brows.
"She's gone to see Hope," Heathersky answered his unspoken question, "in the healing den."
Icepetal flicked her gaze up from her paws, "Hope's not going to die, is she?"
"There's only so much a healer can do," she murmured in reply. "Don't worry about Hope; she's a lot stronger than she looks. We aren't here to talk about her, and I doubt you're here to tell me about Rainpatch."
"Well, he did tell us to tell you he loved you, but we do have something else we want to talk to you about," Eaglestrike admitted.
Heathersky smiled happily. "You don't need to tell me, I know he loved me up until the moment he died."
"We want to know what happened to the Clans," Willowclaw interrupted.
Much to their surprise Heathersky doesn't even flinch. She just takes a deep breath and levels the Chosen with a look that is far too motherly. "I never really approved of Amory's law of silence, but it has helped the Clans move on, and I can understand why you three want to know about it so much. I'll tell you, but no one can find out I told you, okay?"
"We won't tell a soul," Icepetal vowed.
"Were you still in the valley during the fire?" Heathersky began. She took their shudders as a yes. "It wiped out a lot of Clan cats. CedarClan's deputy, Littleflame's mother, was one of the cats that died. She spent too long helping other cats and died because of it. We could have done with her firm leadership. Those that did make it off the Isle alive fled to WaveClan's beach, the only safe place in the entire valley. We watched the smoke fill the sky. We smelt the burning of our homes. For days we were stuck on that beach, and when we could finally return we found nothing. Everything was dead, blackened, gone."
"It was decided by a majority that the Clans would band together to survive. Amory had nothing to do with us uniting, we did it ourselves. We were starving, the valley was practically barren, borders were the last thing on our minds. WaveClan's territory was the only place not ruined enough for us to stay. There were fish in the ocean, and the surviving prey often wandered into the sandy plains. It was tough, some of the warriors had hated each other for moons, but it worked, we stayed alive. I'm just glad Crimson's soldiers rarely ever came near us."
"We thought the worst might be over. Two moons after the fire they showed up. The Elementals. We'd started straying back into our own camps where we felt safest, but we'd still hunt and spend time with the other Clans. Maybe spreading ourselves out through the valley was our undoing. They struck RogueClan first, though we didn't know what had happened at first. All we knew was that nearly the whole Clan had been wiped out and their bodies dumped in a massive hole in the ground. Singe told us what happened when we found him; four strangers had appeared, and their own camp had turned on them, the ground falling away, the dens attacking them. We didn't believe him. We should have."
"CedarClan met them next, with some apprentices from my Clan to witness the destruction. A tornado demolished half their territory, and then turned on them. The sky became their enemy, great chunks of ice and arcs of lightning falling down on top of them. Four strangers that somehow managed to control the world around them. How were we ever meant to stand against them? They started to attack us all the time, just appearing out of nowhere, killing whoever they happened to run into. We lost so many."
"Amory arrived a moon after the Elementals did. We were panicked, you have to understand that. So many of us were dying, we didn't know how to get rid of the Elementals, we were lost. He gave us direction, brought us all together, and protected us as best he could. But even Amory understood that these creatures were not killable. That's when he proposed the idea of leaving, of going up into the mountains, leaving the valley to the monsters. There were many that weren't too fond of the idea, but there were also quite a few that were for it. All of RisingClan rallied behind Singingriver and stayed behind. WaveClan, some of SnowClan, and what was left of RogueClan and CedarClan went with Amory."
"It took a whole moon until even Singingriver cracked under the pressure. She's seen so much more than any of us, but she won't talk about it. All she said when she stumbled into the basin with less than half her Clan left was that death now owned the valley. She nearly died that day; how she survived I'll never know. Just like that there wasn't a single living Clan cat left in the valley. We don't know where the Elementals came from or why they decided to kill us all, but I have a feeling they won't leave until we're all dead," Heathersky finished her tale with a heavy sigh that spoke volumes about what she'd been through.
Willowclaw couldn't believe his ears. "How did you and your kits survive?"
"I did everything I could to keep them alive," Heathersky said. "There was no way I was letting them die under the paws of four insane monsters."
"Then where did Amory come from?" Eaglestrike was still far too puzzled for his own liking. Had Amory just been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or had he been waiting for a chance to assume control over the Clans? He'd be an idiot not to respect Amory for keeping so many cats alive with the Elementals prowling the valley, but did he have an ulterior motive?
Heathersky shrugged. "He doesn't speak about the past much. All that we know is that he and his Nobles are from the lowlands beyond these mountains, and that Amory has saved each and every one of them from death. It's why they're all indebted to him. They owe him."
"They seem awfully fond of him," Icepetal grumbled.
"Would you mind me asking what happened to you down in the valley? I'll admit I was surprised that you made it back alive." Heathersky look a little sheepish.
"We went to your camp to say goodbye to Rainpatch properly, ran into the Elementals, accidentally got a couple of Nobles killed, and somehow managed to make it back alive. We get why the Clans are so scared to go back down in the valley now," Willowclaw responded.
Heathersky blinked in surprise. "Which Nobles died?"
"Pleoh and Calder. Aricia sacrificed herself so that we could all get out of there."
"Aricia!?" Heathersky glanced over her shoulder at the spot where Amory had been a little while before. It was empty now. "She's Amory's daughter, or she was."
"I wonder how he'll deal with that," Eaglestrike said quietly.
Willowclaw shrugged, "it's not really our problem. Thank you for telling us, Heathersky. We won't tell anyone that you did."
She smiled, "you're welcome. If you'll excuse me I think I'll go rescue Flight from my rowdy bunch of kits."
They said goodbye to the pretty WaveClan queen. Eaglestrike elected to leave Willowclaw and Icepetal alone to sort out their problems, his wounds were aching. He caught a trace of Sunrise's scent and followed it. A trip to the healer's den was in order.
Left alone the chasm between them seemed so much larger than before. Willowclaw didn't know what to say. What could he say? He'd accused her of finding murder so easy when he knew it affected her so much. Lifting his eyes off of his paws he looked to his left only to see her staring down into the valley again. She was staring so deeply, so longingly, searching the tiny trees.
What are you looking for, Icepetal?
an: Whenever the Elementals turn up Carrion Flowers by Chelsea Wolfe plays.