Hello, fellow fanfictionists! Mossyheart here again! This was supposed to come out yesterday, but, he he, I got grounded.
Now,
Let's get back to Mossyheart's Destiny!
"Mossyheart? Mossyheart!" A soft paw was prodding her. Mossyheart opened her eyes to see Snowmist bending over her, a worried look on his face. He relaxed slightly. "Oh, thank StarClan, I thought you were… well, I'm glad you weren't."
Mossyheart attempted to struggle to her paws, but Snowmist pushed her back down. "Stay still," He urged. "You're badly hurt."
"Where's Aspenleaf? The kits?"
Snowmist looked baffled. "There was no one else there, but Appledawn and his patrol scented blood, so they tracked it back to you, and there was a fox standing over you, about to-" He broke off. "They chased it off, and brought you back here."
"You don't understand! They were there! Ask Morningfur and Tigersong where their kits are!" Mossyheart jumped to her paws, wincing as her paw gave out under her.
"Honeysuckle took the kits out this morning to find some moss for the elders, and she'd know-"
"Of course she would!" Mossyheart roared. "She was there!"
"Honeysuckle would never hurt those kits!"
"She would! She said she enjoyed it!"
Snowmist looked less believing and more worried. "Mossyheart, you're obviously confu-"
"I'm not confused! I know what I saw!"
"Mossyheart? Are you alright?" Mossyheart felt relief wash over her as a red face poked inside the den.
"Rainpaw! Surely you believe me?" Mossyheart's desperation showed through her mew. Rainpaw shuffled her paws on the den floor. Mossyheart felt her heart drop like a stone. "Not even you?"
Rainpaw looked up. "Of course I believe you, Mossyheart! You've never lied to me before!"
"Liar!" Mossyheart heard the disbelieving note in her sister's voice. "Fine," Mossyheart got to her paws, raising her front paw above the others. "Fine, I'll prove it to you." She limped towards the den exit. Rainpaw darted in front of her. Mossyheart thrust her away with her muzzle.
"Mossyheart! Wait!"
Rainpaw's cry was in vain; Mossyheart continued to the camp entrance.
"Some cat stop her!"
Snowmist's yowl called some of the warriors in camp to action; Badgerstripe and Owlwhisper attempted to stop her as well, but she pushed past them. A heavy cat jumped onto her. She collapsed.
"What are you doing, you idiot! You're going to hurt yourself!"
"Featherpaw, get off me!" Mossyheart snarled.
Featherpaw's gray tabby face looked down at her. "No, Mossyheart. You're too badly hurt."
"Does no one understand?! It was Claw!"
That brought attention to her story.
"What?"
"He's back?"
"You fought him again?"
"Where was he?"
The questions grew from mutters to yowls, and Wolfstar seemed to hear them. He walked from the mouth of his den. "Featherpaw, get off your sister."
"But-"
"Do as I say."
Featherpaw -rather reluctantly- jumped off Mossyheart and she got shakily to her paws. There were many gasps. Mossyheart realized her battered visage was cause for these small exclamations. Her gray-green fur was coated in a layer of blood, there were many scratches across her face, and her paw was -painfully so, as Mossyheart believed it was broken- bent at an odd angle.
"Mossyheart," Wolfstar questioned, "What happened to you?"
"Claw!" She burst out. "He's back, he's found more followers, and he-"
"Slow down, I can't understand you."
Mossyheart took a deep breath. "Claw's returned. He's gathered an army rivalling the size of our own Clan, from what I saw. And they're very skilled, they managed to trap a full-grown fox -alive, by the way- without suffering injury at all."
Over all the murmurings and whispers, Wolfstar continued, "Where's your patrol?"
"It was just Thistlepelt, Aspenleaf, and myself. Aspenleaf- who was head of the patrol- decided to send Thistlepelt closer to the river's edge to hunt there, while he and I hunted there. We heard a kit's cry, and I recognized it as Spiderkit's. We tracked it back to where we saw him, Finchkit, Icekit, Hickorykit, Cedarkit, and Juniperkit under attack from a gaunt fox! There were cats in the trees, yowling bets on who would win the fight, and Aspenleaf and I saw two- maybe three?- cats pulling the brambles shut behind us."
"Then what happened?" Wolfstar prompted.
"We saw Claw. He said, "Well, well, what have we here? A couple rag-tag Clan cats! BloodClan, what do we say to that?" The cats started to laugh, and Aspenleaf-" Mossyheart's sight was once again filled with the vision of Aspenleaf's body thrown across the arena, where he lay motionless beside the thorns. Again, Claw's raucous laughter crowed in her ears. "Asp-Aspenleaf jumped at Claw, and C-Claw batted him out of the air. He fell to the earth with a crash and skidded to the thorns, where he lay, motionless."
Her Clanmates gasped again, but Mossyheart didn't care. She plowed on, "I jumped at him too, snarling, "You're dead meat, rogue!" and my claws were about to sink into his midnight-dark pelt when a golden shape barreled into me, and I turned to face her, only to see Honeysuckle."
"Honeysuckle?"
"The Clan deputy?"
"She'd never!"
"She did! I asked her why she was doing this, and she bared her teeth and said, "It's fun, Mossyheart!" and leaped at me. She clawed my face," Mossyheart turned around, showing the clawmarks strewn across her face, to many recoils from her Clanmates, "And hurled me across the clearing, and I hit a tree, and saw -barely- the kits climbing all over her, and attacking her. She yowled, "Get off me, pesky kits!" and- and that's it. I woke up in the medicine den with Snowmist standing over me."
Whispers and mutters broke out amongst the listeners. Wolfstar raised his tail for silence.
"Where was this?"
"I'll show you where it happened."
"Good. Cloudtail, Badgerstripe, Mousetail, Mapleleaf, Appledawn, Briarheart, and, yes, Snowmist, you'd better come, too. Mossyheart, lead the way." Wolfstar ordered. Mossyheart limped forward, and Rainpaw darted to her side, half holding her up. Mossyheart smiled gratefully at her.
"Let's go!"
Kinda making things better between Mossyheart and Rainpaw, a lot of you probably caught that.
Woohoo, past chapter twenty! Yay!
'Bye!
-Mossyheart