Chapter Twelve- The Thunderpath
Gingerpaw felt like she had run into a particularly barbed bush. Cats were squirming all around her. Claws met teeth, and teeth met claws. Growls, hisses, yowls, all sounded in the clearing between ShadowClan land and the Thunderpath. Gingerpaw hissed as she felt sharp claws digging into her side. She turned and saw a wiry black she-cat, her fierce amber eyes glowing as she latched her claws into Gingerpaw's back side. The ShadowClan apprentice kicked viciously and leaped. The black she-cat was unprepared for Gingerpaw's attack, and was bowed easily.
Gingerpaw bit down hard, trying to get as deep as she could. The she-cat yelped in terror, and one of her Clanmates looked over. It was a gray tom. He leaped and knocked Gingerpaw over deftly. The apprentice gasped as the air was knocked from her lunges, and looked up just in time to see the gray tom swipe his powerful claws. Gingerpaw rolled to avoid him and stood, panting and facing him.
"Go back to your own territory!" he hissed and leaped again. Gingerpaw could tell she was outmatched. Not wanting to be involved in a losing fight, Gingerpaw bounded away from the tom just in time to slam into another. This was a younger cat, perhaps even an apprentice. He had pale orange fur and golden eyes. He yelped as Gingerpaw bit into his leg. He shook but Gingerpaw held on.
Claws dug into her back and dragged her back. She screamed and rolled, exposing her soft belly. The huge gray tom wasted no time in digging his claws in. Gingerpaw screamed harder, knowing that she was outmatched.
Suddenly Marshwhisker was there. He batted the large gray tom away from her with a huge paw and hissed, bristling. "Banesong!" he growled. "Can't you pick on warriors your own size?"
The tomcat-Banesong?-stood and faced her father. "Marshwhisker is it? Can't your Clanmates fight for themselves?" Gingerpaw stood and looked at her father.
"Father?" she cried.
"Go!" he ordered. "Gingerpaw go and help Spottedpaw!"
Gingerpaw didn't wait to be told again. She ran through the throng of fighting cats and looked desperately for her brother. She wanted to see him, to know that he was okay. She wouldn't be able to stand seeing her brother hurt, and she needed him.
She looked around wildly and found him. He was fighting a ThunderClan cat that was nearly twice his size. Gingerpaw blinked. To her surprise, Spottedpaw seemed to be having no troubles at all fighting this big tom. In fact, she saw in disbelief, Spottedpaw gave the much larger tom a deep bite in the hind leg that sent him fleeing across the Thunderpath to his own territory.
Gingerpaw bounded over to her brother, blood dripping down her flank as she landed swiftly beside him. "Spottedpaw!" she gasped. "Are you okay?"
The spotted gray tom lashes his tail. "I'm fine. Are you? You're bleeding!"
"So are you!" she snapped. Claws dug into her back and she cursed as she was flattened. Suddenly a memory hit her. Molefoot and Leapwing showing two kits playing in the clearing a specific battle move. Gingerpaw remembered the look of indignation on Spottedkit's face when he'd fallen off of her.
Warm breath stirred her ear. "I've got you, ShadowClan filth," hissed a voice she recognized. Firclaw! "I've waited for this from the moment Scarletstar and Breezestar challenged Briarstar at the Gathering! And now I've got you, and you're all mine!" He was declaring her like fresh-kill.
"Maybe you ought to learn to respect your fresh-kill!" she hissed as she rolled over. She had him pinned, which she sharply bit into his neck. Spottedpaw was clawing at his lower belly. Firclaw's eyes flared in fury. He shoved Gingerpaw away roughly and leaped to his paws. Gingerpaw stood and felt her brother's coat brushing against her.
Together, the two cats fought side-by-side, pushing the ThunderClan tom back toward the Thunderpath. His eyes glowed ominously. "ThunderClan will win the battle in the end, mark my words!" hissed Firclaw. Then he raced across the Thunderpath and disappeared into the oak on the other side.
Gingerpaw looked around her. The mass of cats was still large and evenly matched. Talonclaw was fighting beside Weedfoot. The dark tabby had the power of StarClan behind him! His strong muscles rippled, and while blood leaked down his shoulder, he didn't seem to notice. Weedfoot was not so lucky. He looked rather beaten.
Where's a medicine cat when you need one? she thought, panicky. Where was Molefoot? If she thought she was afraid before, it didn't compare to how she felt now. Her eyes roved around the battle and settled. Swishtail was pinned, the ThunderClan tom gouging deep claw-wounds into her shoulder. Gingerpaw bounded forward without second thought and threw herself into the tom. He fell off of her Clanmate upon impact. He gasped for air when he hit the ground. Gingerpaw leaped onto him and bit down hard, digging her teeth in as far as she could.
As expected, the tom did not take kindly to this.
He began shaking violently. Gingerpaw went dizzy as he shook her back and forth like she was a pesky leech until she was forced to let go. She collapsed onto the ground, and tried to get her bearings. The ThunderClan tom did not wait. He pounced on her and had her pinned.
"Oh what a day!" he hissed gloriously. She looked up into cold amber eyes. "Today I find myself pinning two ShadowClan she-cats!" He threw his head back and laughed maliciously.
Molefoot and Hailfur came out of nowhere. Hailfur leaped and threw the tom off. Together they rolled in the dust and landed some way off. Molefoot crouched over Gingerpaw protectively.
"Are you all right?" he asked, sounding more than worried. Gingerpaw looked up into his bright green eyes and sighed. She recognized those eyes from she was a kit. They had watched her across the Clearing. They had always been there...
"I'm fine," she interrupted her sluggish daydreams. She stood shakily and looked at him. "What happened?" she suddenly realized her memory of the incident was a bit choppy, and nearly impossible to work out.
"Rootclaw attacked you," Molefoot answered simply. "That's the ThunderClan deputy. He has a reputation for...dark stuff." the dark brown tabby trailed off. Gingerpaw didn't fail to notice him eying her suspiciously when she licked her chest fur a couple of times. She thought she remembered him saying something about attacking she-cats.
She didn't have time to work out what kind of 'dark stuff' the ThunderClan deputy might do. There was a loud keening call from where she had come. She turned and looked over just in time to see a dark mottled shape running out onto the Thunderpath, right into the blazing eyes of a Twoleg monster.
She cowered back as the monster slammed into the frail cat body. The mystery victim was no match for the evil monster. There was a sickening crunch as the monster literally squished the cat beneath it's paws as though the cat were a mere bug. Gingerpaw's ears pricked as she heard cats from both Clans yowling in disbelief and terror. Then she saw her own mother, Whitebirch, run out onto the Thunderpath.
"No no!" she was screaming in undisguised grief and hatred. "No! Marshwhisker no!"
Gingerpaw's blood turned to ice. Marshwhisker? Her father? No! she thought in shock. Marshwhisker's still fighting Banesong! He wasn't anywhere near the Thunderpath! Whitebirch's just mistaken!
But Whitebirch's grief was real. She was screaming endlessly now. Her eyes were wide with pain that had nothing to do with the wounds on her flesh. Brindlefern brushed past Gingerpaw on her way through, and the tortoiseshell apprentice bounded forward to follow her. The she-cats got onto the Thunderpath, and Gingerpaw peered down. It looked like her father's fur, and smelled like her father, but his shape was gone. His life was gone.
She bowed her head in grief, then looked up. Brindlefern and grabbed his scruff and was dragging him to the side of the Thunderpath. A monster whipped by the cats, the wind of its wake nearly dragging Gingerpaw with it. She stepped forward and looked into her mother's eyes.
"Whitebirch," she said loudly as another monster whipped past, ominously close. "We have to go."
Her mother made no movements, just stared ahead blankly in blind grief. Gingerpaw padded forward and leaned against the white tortoiseshell comfortingly, nudging her forward.
"See what you have done, Scarletstar?" hissed Briarstar from the side of the Thunderpath. It seemed as though, while Gingerpaw was paying more attention to her father's untimely death, and her mother's grief that was endangering her own life, the Clans had split again. ThunderClan stood on their side of the Thunderpath, ShadowClan on theirs. Scarletstar and her warriors were glaring across the lit clearing at Briarstar and the rest of ShadowClan. "Your lust for our blood has killed one of our warriors! You are fighting a worthless battle!"
Scarletstar was staring at Gingerpaw and Whitebirch with wide frightened eyes. "I didn't know!" she cried at last. Then she turned her golden glare on Briarstar. "Your Clan got what it deserved! You crossed the Thunderpath to hunt in our territory!"
To Gingerpaw's surprise, it was Lichentooth who stepped forward. "Your blood-lust has killed my brother!" Brother? She dropped into a crouch and bristled, her amber eyes shining with hatred. "I vow revenge on Marshwhisker's killer. And that is you Scarletstar! You and your Clanmates!" Her eyes focused on Banesong, who was sitting calmly.
Briarstar flicked her tail. "Marshwhisker will be avenged! You mark our word, Scarletstar. Now go back to your own territory!"
For a long moment-while Gingerpaw was just getting her mother back to their side of the Thunderpath-it seemed as though Scarletstar wouldn't listen. She and her warriors stood poised, glaring at the ShadowClan cats menacingly. Then finally, the she-cat flicked her tail and turned, "Very well. You may bury your dead. But remember, Briarstar, that it was ThunderClan who won this battle!"
Gingerpaw bristled in distinct dislike. Did Scarletstar not care that she had killed Gingerpaw's father? She bared her teeth in frustration as the ThunderClan warriors disappeared into the undergrowth.
Hissing in disbelief, she watched her mother stumble forward and nearly collapse. She's hurt! Gingerpaw thought. She bounded forward and leaned against her mother. "You're okay, mother," she said in a small, weak voice. "Come on. It's just a little further to the camp."
Whitebirch didn't try to argue with her daughter as the Clan idled slowly through the territory in the direction of camp. She watched as Lichentooth and Brindlefern carried her father between them. Grief pierced her heart like a thorn. Her father would never get to see her become a warrior, she realized in a wave of pain. He would never meet the kits she might have, never get to watch them grow as she had. He would never get to retire, and have Gingerpaw visit him in the elders' den. He could have made a great leader, if it came to that! And he never would. Never again would he praise her, or help her as she carried in a load of prey too big for her. Never again would she see him sharing tongues with Whitebirch, or anyone else for that matter.
She was shaking by the time they got to the camp. She was exhausted, and in a lot of emotional and physical pain. She wanted to sink into her nest, and wake up the day before the battle, where she could've warned Skydapple's stupid patrol that ThunderClan was going to attack and stop all of this from happening.
But she couldn't do that.
Her father had yet to be put out for his vigil, and she couldn't leave her mother. She leaned against the gentle queen and murmured something to try and comfort her. Her mother seemed not to hear her, and sank into the grass at the edge of the clearing. Gingerpaw watched her, afraid to move. Then she sat down and looked at her paws. Life was not fair, she decided. There was no way that StarClan could have had this in store for her family.
A warm pelt brushed hers. Molefoot's scent wreathed around her. She leaned against him, feeling suddenly like she needed him more than anything else. She shook and pressed her face into his fur. "I can't believe my father's gone," she sobbed.
"He's not gone," Molefoot murmured comfortingly. "He's not here," he indicated the clearing then continued warily, "but he is here." He looked pointedly at Gingerpaw. "He will always be in your heart, and nothing can take that away from you."
Gingerpaw looked into his bright green eyes and felt something she'd never felt before. It made her paw-fur tingle, and her heart flutter. He flicked her ear with his tail and said, a little brighter, "See? Your father is never really gone."
Gingerpaw felt more relief swamping her at his words. Then Briarstar's call sounded, and she turned to look. Marshwhisker was laying in the center of the clearing, as peaceful as if he had been asleep. Spottedpaw lay next to him, his head buried in his father's fur. Lichentooth sat too, her head bowed as she said her final goodbye to her brother. It surprised the tortoiseshell apprentice that she'd never known the relation between her father and Spottedpaw's mentor. Now looking at it, it seemed obvious. Lichentooth and Marshwhisker had always looked exactly alike, even down to the mottled fur.
Briarstar paced the clearing restlessly. "ThunderClan think they have won. They are wrong! ShadowClan is stronger than ThunderClan will ever be! They have taken a warrior from us! Brave Marshwhisker has joined StarClan thanks to their recklessness!" Behind her, Gingerpaw heard Whitebirch whimper. Briarstar continued. "For this, ShadowClan seeks revenge! If you ever see ThunderClan cats even too close to the border, you have my permission to attack! In the meantime, I want our borders guarded more thoroughly for ThunderClan and WindClan invaders. I am going to travel to RiverClan tomorrow and speak with Nettlestar. I'm going to convince him to form an alliance, and we're going to get revenge on our loss!"
Cats were cheering. Cedartail stood and yowled loudly. "Marshwhisker was a great warrior! ThunderClan must pay for what they've done!"
Briarstar flicked her tail.
"I agree Cedartail! Before we say goodnight, I'd like to recognize two apprentices who fought bravely today. Gingerpaw and Spottedpaw fought like warriors! ShadowClan honors the hard work they have put forth to their Clan!" Cheers rose around the clearing, but Gingerpaw felt like retching. Marshwhisker should be there, seeing this. "Second, we have two new kits in the nursery. Leapwing's kits-Frecklekit and Petalkit-were successfully born today at sunhigh." It was just then that Gingerpaw noticed the sun setting, taking its warmth with it. Was it just this morning that she had wished for the cold? Now she felt like she needed the warmth. "Lastly, ShadowClan needs more apprentices. Cloverspirit tells me her four kits are ready to become apprentices. I would like to give them their new names."
She padded forward to where the four kits were waiting. "Snakekit," she began. "From this moment on, you shall be known as Snakepaw. Cedartail, you are ambitious, and unafraid. Pass on your courage and determination to young Snakepaw." The dark warrior stepped forward and touched noses to the new apprentice.
"Swishtail, you are ready for an apprentice. From Acornblaze, you learned faith and respect. Teach all you know to your new apprentice, Slypaw." The silver apprentice reached up and touched noses to his new mentor. Swishtail's eyes were frightened, but determined.
"Molefoot," Briarstar called. The brown tom yelped in surprise and stepped forward eagerly. "You learned strength of mind, and compassion from your mentor Cloverspirit, now I ask you pass these special skills on to your apprentice, Weaselpaw." The brown tabbies touched noses eagerly and padded to the edge of the clearing.
"And Gorsefur," she called finally. "You are a wise, and patient warrior. I pray you teach these to your new apprentice Violetpaw." The two touched noses and padded to the side of the clearing. They Gorsefur murmured something in Violetpaw's ear that sounded encouraging.
Briarstar threw her head back. "StarClan and Marshwhisker will look down on us tonight," she announced at last. "We eat calmly now, but let it be known that ShadowClan fully intends on war!"
The cats were cheering, but Gingerpaw felt like she had a stone in her stomach. She was happy for the Clan, but sad for her father. As she lay down to share one final night with her father, she wondered why to make the Clan happy she had had to give such a big sacrifice.
All righty! I changed the rating to T because of the hints of Rootclaw...yeah. You get it, right? Any reviews? -Cara Lea