For Spiritpelt
-In The Rain-

The minute the ThunderClan cats stepped from the cover of the undergrowth, their pelts were drenched by the pouring rain. Several of them made angry hisses, but most of these were directed at the ShadowClan invaders five fox-lengths over the border.

Ashfur hunched his shoulders and bristled, blinking rain furiously from his eyes.

Russetfur spoke. "ThunderClan will lose territory today, or die!"

"ShadowClan will force us to do neither!" Firestar yowled, and his battle-ready words were the go-ahead for the cats. Ashfur sprang forward with the rest of them, yowling a war cry as he pelted through the rain and connected hard with Rowanclaw.

The ginger tom fell before Ashfur's furious onslaught. Ashfur knew better than to kill without intent, so he sprang from Rowanclaw and dashed toward the apprentice Ivypaw, but in the next second Rowanclaw had leapt upon Ashfur's back and dug in his claws.

Ashfur let out an angry yowl and swung his paw, rolling himself over and catching Rowanclaw on the cheek.

"Filthy ShadowClanner!" he hissed.

"Last I checked, ThunderClan was the one with all the mixed blood," snapped Rowanclaw, and he extended a single claw and ripped it across Ashfur's face and left eye.

Ashfur screamed with pain and then a golden tabby blur shot past him as his apprentice, Lionpaw, lashed his claws along Rowanclaw's side. Ashfur joined the attack, digging his fangs deep into the ShadowClan warrior's neck.

"Ashfur! Your eye!" Lionpaw's moment of horror was interrupted by a hard rear kick from Rowanclaw. Ashfur grunted with impatience and raked his claws across Rowanclaw's thigh.

It wasn't long before he subdued Rowanclaw, pushing the other warrior to the ground and holding down, non-fatally, on his windpipe. He pushed his face into Rowanclaw's and snarled, "You will never cross that border again, do you hear me?"

Rowanclaw spat in Ashfur's face.

Ashfur bared his teeth.

"You're about to die," hissed Rowanclaw.

Before Ashfur could reply, he heard Lionpaw's terrified yowl over the thunderous fall of rain: "Ashfur! Run!"

"What?"

Thunk! A heavy paw crashed down on Ashfur's back. He felt the spine weaken, and then he tried to run, screaming. But Blackstar was fast, just fast enough to crash his paw down on the pale gray warrior again, snapping his spine and killing him instantly.

Across the clearing Squirrelflight stared in horror. "No," she whispered, somehow catching Brambleclaw's attention. "No!" She began to run, her paws throwing up water as she raced past the battling cats and splashed through puddles of rain. "No, Ashfur! Great StarClan, no!"

She heard Brambleclaw running alongside her, but ignored him as she threw herself over Ashfur's limp body. Ashfur was a dark, wet gray, his back slowly growing crimson where his spine had fractured out of the skin. Lionpaw stared in horror, but Squirrelflight didn't see him either.

"Ashfur," she sobbed, burying her muzzle in the wet gray and red. "No, Ashfur."

"Squirrelflight," said Brambleclaw coldly. "We have to help our Clanmates."

"He shouldn't be dead!" Squirrelflight wailed. "He - he shouldn't be...he shouldn't be..."

"Squirrelflight!" Brambleclaw's voice rose in pitch and intensity. "We have to fight! Please, Squirrelflight, they could kill some cat else and you'd never know."

Slowly, Squirrelflight heaved herself to her paws, but she leaned over Ashfur's face and gave him one last lick across the cheek. Too low for Brambleclaw to hear, she whispered, "I'm so sorry, Ashfur. For everything. For not telling you I loved you...when I loved you both. I'm sorry."

And perhaps, standing there before his journey into StarClan, Ashfur heard.