Now, here's one of the few chapters that makes this story K plus. (Almost T)
No, not in words or anything. Its just the violence…
Rain: Mostly over described bloodshed!
Adlet: Yes. There is blood, and lots of it…
We'd also like to give a shout-out to Swiftfire (Adlet's sister), Larkfeather:), Bladetail, Sandfrost13, *~Wildflower~*, ~*Songbird*~, Shiningheart, Windsong101, dawn fire, FirefernofThunderClan, Icetail Rox, Thunderfur-nya, Brambletail7890, *FallingStar*, redpool678934, StreamHeart/P/K, GazingHeart, Foxblaze^..^, Rainwhisker358, Silvermoon, Evergreen24, WillowFlight132, Moonfoot13579, Flamestar5!, and Skyheart101! all you guys back at the forum who follow this story are great! We thank you for all of the support!
Since Meadowsong had started coughing, the apprentices had been training as hard as they could. Waterpaw had perfected a complex move known as the Bone-Breaker, and Sunpaw was currently in the process of learning how to do the difficult attack known as the Trunk Spring. Foxstar himself had said in a happy tone that he was impressed with both of the apprentices' progress. This had to be a good sign!
"We'll be warriors soon!" the ginger-and-white she-cat purred, her paws crossed as she talked to her adopted brother.
Sunpaw nodded in agreement. "There has to be a way to let Foxstar make us be warriors sooner…but how?"
"We fight off MistClan invaders?" Waterpaw suggested, rolling over onto her back and paddling her paws in the air as she thought. Sunpaw shook his head no.
"We have to do something that we can do right now. We can't just want around for MistClan cats to attack—that could happen moons from now, and we still wouldn't be…" he thought for a moment. "Waterfur and Sunpelt!"
"Watermoon and Suntail!" she shot back.
"Waterpelt and Sunleaf!"
The two collapsed laughing, when suddenly Sunpaw leapt up. "I've got it!" he yelled. "We just have to catch a bunch of prey!"
"That's perfect!" Waterpaw agreed, bouncing up and down and squealing in excitement, her white tail flicking back and forth so fast it seemed like it had a mind of its own.
"What do I hear you kits up to now?"
Sunpaw turned in surprise to see the silvery-blue she-cat Ripplebrook laughing and shaking her head at them. "We're not kits!" he protested.
"Kid, all cats are kits to us senior warriors," the she-cat answered, padding up.
"Not to us!" Waterpaw shot back defiantly, but her smile gave her laughter away.
"Anyways, did I hear you say that you wanted to go hunting?" Ripplebrook asked curiously, cocking her pretty head to one side. Sunpaw nodded, his tail flicking.
"Then Dad will be sure to make us warriors!" Waterpaw purred, her eyes lighting up as she mentioned her majestic father.
"That sounds like a plan." The older she-cat leaned down until she was nose-to-nose with the two apprentices. "How about I take you to my favorite spot to hunt? There are so many voles and turtles that it's unbelievable!"
Sunpaw's eyes widened. "You really would?"
"I really would."
"Then yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES!" the two apprentices chanted, not in unison.
"Okay!" Ripplebrook stood up and beckoned with her tail. "Then follow me."
The "amazing hunting spot" ended up being the stone pillars. Ripplebrook nodded at a plump brown vole that was darting in and out of the grass, and Sunpaw crouched into a stalking position. He licked his lips in anticipation.
You're mine! he thought to the vole.
Then Ripplebrook let out a fierce yowl. "Stop!"
The vole started in surprise and darted away, leaving Sunpaw spitting after it in defiance. He wanted to yell at the she-cat, but thought better of it and instead turned around, sighing in defeat.
"I smell a rival clan!" The she-cat's wavy silver-blue fur stood up on her back as she scented the air, and the apprentices did as well. Waterpaw let out a small squeak of fear.
"EarthClan and FlameClan!" she wailed. "Oh, we have to help EarthClan!" Every cat knew that FlameClan was superior when it came to fighting skills.
"We have to hurry!" Sunpaw yowled. "But we're nowhere near the border, how are we going to get there in time?" He turned to look at Ripplebrook in defeat, but then saw that she was running in a totally different direction.
"What're you doing?" the apprentice yelled after her.
"A warrior named Oakcloud told me where certain tunnels lead to just in case something like this happened!" the warrior replied hastily. A loud screech hit the air and Sunpaw winced.
I'll just have to go with what she remembers.
"Hang in there, EarthClan!" Waterpaw muttered under her breath as they pounded through the forest.
Tunnels, Sunpaw soon discovered, are dark and dirty and shadowed and just overall awful in every single way. They're hard to climb down, they're hard to climb out of, and they're hard to walk in.
"Riddle me this," Waterpaw muttered through gritted teeth. "How does EarthClan survive down here?"
"It's their special talent," Ripplebrook murmured, seeming not at all uncomfortable with their odd surroundings. "It's what they do better than everything else."
"I'm happy with our ability," Sunpaw remarked as they neared the light. Suddenly a huge spider dropped from the ceiling, and Waterpaw yelped in fear, whimpering as it crawled onto her paws and off again.
"You okay?" Sunpaw asked his 'sister' in concern. She nodded slightly, still making a tiny whimpering noise at the back of her throat.
"Shh!" Ripplebrook quieted them with one fierce yowl. Sunpaw looked ahead to see a faint ray of light shining through the top of the tunnel. His heartbeat quickened.
We're almost there!
Suddenly the senior warrior burst out of the top of the tunnel with Waterpaw and Sunpaw chasing right behind her. Ripplebrook let out a war cry, "MoonClan, attack!" and the three dove into the battle.
From what Sunpaw could tell, it had been a pretty evenly matched fight until they showed up. His gaze whipped around the clearing, looking for some cat to fight or to help. Ripplebrook had occupied Squirrelpaw, and Waterpaw had gone off to StarClan knows where—
SNAP!
Sunpaw's head whipped around to see Waterpaw gazing in surprise at the brown tom he knew as Eaglepaw. The FlameClan cat had curled up into a ball, moaning as he carefully licked the fur on one of his legs, which had been broken—Sunpaw could tell because it was bent back at an awkward angle.
"I did it!" yelped Waterpaw in surprise, her eyes lighting up like the stars in StarClan. The golden tom didn't think they could have gotten any brighter.
"You actually try to do that?" snarled Squirrelpaw as he leapt onto Ripplebrook's back. His eyes connected with Sunpaw's, and for a moment violet clashed with light blue. The FlameClan cat spat in disgust. "You fox-hearted cats."
Sunpaw felt anger flare up inside of him, and he felt his paws pounding towards where Squirrelpaw and Ripplebrook were fighting, so he could give the tom a piece of his mind. No cat speaks like that to my sister!
But Waterpaw wasn't his sister. It was a play-game, a fantasy land that his mind had created to occupy his thoughts, and lure them away from his true family. And right now, he was perfectly happy to go along with that.
Right when Sunpaw was about to leap at Squirrelpaw he heard an EarthClan cat's panicked yowl. "Get out from under her, Rabbitpaw!"
Rabbitpaw?
The golden apprentice wheeled around abruptly to see his friend, the older apprentice Rabbitpaw, being pinned down by a FlameClan cat. Who it was he couldn't tell. All he knew was that he had to help Rabbitpaw.
Sunpaw charged towards them and barreled headfirst into the side of the FlameClan cat. The she-cat let out a screech of surprise and Rabbitpaw gave a quick flick of her tail to let him know that she said thank you, before the EarthClan cat scrabbled away. Then the FlameClan cat looked up at him, and their eyes met. Sunpaw choked on his own breath—something he had never thought possible until this very moment in time.
Drizzlepaw.
Her fur was matted with ruby-red blood, pushed in patches all over her body. Her emerald green eyes looked into his, and instead of clashing, like her brother's had, she looked…sad. Sorrowful, even.
Sunpaw felt his mind working furiously. He couldn't hurt her! But he had to! But he couldn't! But he had to! He had to do something before she got away! Or did he want her to get away?
Suddenly he knew what he had to do. His lips moved, just barely, so that no one could hear the words spoken but Drizzlepaw.
"I'm sorry."
And then he struck with the force of StarClan hidden behind his paw. His claws sliced through warm, tender flesh, and he felt blood—syrupy, dark red blood—dripping off of his claws and staining the grass in front of them. She looked at him with agony, pure agony, in her eye—the other one had been clouded by blood from the scratch he had inflicted across her face—before darting away, letting her tail-tip brush under Sunpaw's chin.
What have I done? he yowled in his mind. She was my friend!
Guilt crept up under his skin and tickled like spiders. But I had to do it for the Clan, he reasoned to himself.
All of a sudden all battle came to a halt. It seemed that Lionfur, with one quick flick of his tail, had ordered the EarthClan cats to stop fighting, but not to retreat. Duskstorm silently made the same movement with his tail, probably so that the FlameClan cats could figure out what was going on. Sunpaw glanced to Ripplebrook, and she nodded, flicking her tail as well. Every cat faced Lionfur, who had paced up to Eaglepaw, curled in a ball with his broken leg.
"Well, well, well." His voice dripped with sickly sweetness. "What do we have here? A lame murderer, no doubt."
Eaglepaw opened his mouth, but he seemed to be in so much pain that he couldn't get any words out. Lionfur smiled and whisked his tail-tip over the tom's mouth. "Don't waste your breath," he snapped harshly. "You'll die in good time."
Duskstorm lunged forward but one of the EarthClan cats stopped him by leaping on his back and clawing down the length of his body. The grey cat let out a shattering yowl as Eaglepaw made desperate efforts to squirm away.
"Say goodnight, you piece of FlameClan dirt," snarled the EarthClan deputy as his claws extended and he leapt towards the brown tabby. Eaglepaw closed his eyes tight, most likely preparing for a death-blow…
But it never came.
What happened next seemed to take place in slow motion, Sunpaw thought. From the right of the leaping deputy came a russet and white streak, amber eyes heated with fury, claws extended, as she leapt in front of her brother. Lionfur's eyes looked surprised for a moment, and then narrowed, as if he was pleased. Instead of aiming his attack at Eaglepaw, he placed his claws on the she-cat's belly, and as she fell to the ground, he ripped.
Blood spurted everywhere—some even onto Sunpaw's golden coat, which he shook off in disgust and horror as the FlameClan she-cat fell to the ground, limply twitching. Her amber eyes stared up at the sky as her paws gave one final twitch.
And then her chest stopped moving.
Eaglepaw let out a moan of horror and dragged himself to her side, seemingly ignoring his broken leg. Sunpaw felt as if the whole world had crumbled down around him. He had seen a death. He was just an apprentice—he wasn't supposed to witness deaths in front of his very eyes!
Lionfur looked pleasantly content, licking Foxpaw—or at least Sunpaw thought her name was—'s blood off of his claws. Suddenly Sunpaw recognized Addertail, the cat he'd given the rabbit to, stand up and let out a horrible yowl.
"ENOUGH! Lionfur, why have you unnecessarily killed this young warrior?"
"So I could quench my thirst for revenge!" snapped back the deputy. "Frostbreeze was killed by these merciless warriors, when she was the cat who saved the life of my apprentice Rabbitpaw! Don't you see? I always owed Frostbreeze, but I never got the chance to say thank-you! Don't you see that Rabbitpaw would be dead if it wasn't for her?"
Suddenly what Lionfur had said clicked in Sunpaw's mind. He killed her…because of my mother? It's my mother's fault that Foxpaw is dead?
"That still doesn't give you the right to kill!" Sunpaw noticed flies starting to hover around the she-cat's dead body, and he squirmed in disgust, turning his eyes to Addertail, who was speaking again. "You are a disgrace to all of EarthClan, and for shame, you're our deputy, of all things! I assure you that I will tell Boulderstar!"
Lionfur doesn't respond for a moment, and then he shrugs his shoulders, looking up at the sky, not even bothering to wash the blood from his pelt. A choked sob from Duskstorm echoes in the background, and Sunpaw saw Brightpaw and Squirrelpaw huddling together in fear. Even Drizzlepaw had crept out of the bushes, shaking all over.
An outburst from Eaglepaw surprised everyone. "WHY?" he hissed, so harshly that Lionfur took a couple steps back, looking shocked. "Why did you kill my sister?"
Sunpaw wondered slightly if Eaglepaw might be going delusional—after all, Lionfur had just told them a couple heartbeats ago.
Lionfur obviously didn't want to answer the question, so he made a few flicks of his tail and darted into the tunnels. None of the EarthClan cats followed him, however, except for Rabbitpaw. All the others looked at Addertail, who nodded, and then it was just FlameClan and MoonClan.
Waterpaw let out a whimper as she looked at Foxpaw's dead body. The cut had been made from her throat all the way down to her stomach, and it was still inking blood every few heartbeats.
"It's pointless fighting for her, Eagletalon," whispered Duskstorm. "I'm sorry, but Foxgaze is gone."
Ripplebrook looked at him and beckoned that they have to go back. Waterpaw nodded and darted away faster than you can say "mouse," but Sunpaw took more time, looking back. He wished he hadn't, though, when his heart broke in two as Eagletalon openly began to sob into his paws.
"The Clans are getting more hostile."
Foxstar's voice echoed in the Moss Cave, arousing murmurs from the gathered MoonClan cats. "But," he continued, "that does not mean that we should be hostile as well. I would like to congratulate Ripplebrook, Waterpaw, and Sunpaw for seeking EarthClan when they were in trouble." His eyes grew cold. "It didn't seem like they needed our help, but it was a brave thing to do."
The Clan murmured in agreement, and Sunpaw looked down at his paws, He had been feeling empty all day, ever since the battle.
"But let us take a moment to mourn FlameClan's warrior, Foxgaze." Foxstar's gaze was grim. "Even though she wasn't our warrior, she protected her brother to the end, even leaping in front of a death blow to help him. This is a very honorable act of bravery, so we shall remember her, and keep her memory alive." His eyes glared out challengingly at the crowd. "We shall remember Foxgaze of FlameClan."
Silence rested among the crowd, and Sunpaw whispered a prayer to StarClan in his mind,
Thank you for sparing my companions and my life during this horrible battle, StarClan. I'm so sorry that another cat had to join your ranks tonight. Please, let her have the juiciest adder in the fresh-kill pile. She's so brave.
Well, while she lasted, did you like Foxgaze or did you hate her? Do you think that Lionfur actually has an excuse to kill others? Did Waterpaw do a good job during the battle? Did…