hello hello hello!
this fic was originally supposed to be like 20 chapters but the plan is shaping up to be like 30 so EXCELLENT.
Qotd; if i was to do a book of one-shots based of the obab universe what would you want to see?
My answer; I'm probably going to write a one-shot about berrysong/honeywisp, something about wisp/hawkstar and maybe a little peak at something from either petalpaw or fishclaw's pov!
Review Replies:
Mintflight0245: Goldpaw finally makes an appearance ! and thank u sm! :DDDD
SilentsongOvO: yes! Very soon i promise! And yeah,,, the plan i have is set in stone+ is SO DRAMATIC YOU ARE ALL GOING TO LOVE IT I PROMISE. And yay for Goldpaw!
SomeStormLeaf: i love writing all of brambleswipe's dialouge because it's just,,, so evil. And yeah, poor rustpaw. Dw he finally catches a bit of break in this chapter. I WILL NOT THEY ARE MY CHILDREN ! I WOULD NEVER KILL THEM OFF. NEVERRRR. And thank you :D
Honeyferns: not for very much longer … ;)
And yeah, poor rustpaw :(
Guest: Hey, thank you! When i originally saw this request my answer was something along the lines of "sorry i don't think i'll be able to squeeze them in." but i woke up in the middle of the night with an idea, so i can put ur oc in! They'll pop up in this chapter! Thanks for the review :)
hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and as always- yeah i think you know the drill :D
Beebounce had kept true to his word. He hadn't told a soul about Rustpaw.
That didn't mean he hadn't wanted to. There had been plenty of moments in the past half-moon where he just wanted to grab the closest cat he could find, and tell them everything, blackmail be damned. He couldn't, though.
He knew he'd have to eventually. There was no way that he could skirt around the issue for that long. Rustpaw would do himself damage if he spent too long with Brambleswipe. Even if his apprentice seemed long gone, turned to the dark forest, Beebounce knew that somebody could drag him out of it. For one, Rustpaw didn't seem to realise that Brambleswipe wasn't Starclan. Somehow. He wanted to tell him, but he knew that Rustpaw would accuse him of lying to him. Besides, Rustpaw wasn't a bad cat. Beebounce knew that; he'd seen Rustpaw do plenty of good things throughout his apprenticeship.
Rustpaw always was the first to take his fresh-kill to the elders, even before Beebounce asked. He helped Frostpaw with his moves when he thought that Beebounce wasn't looking, and he would always give Petalpaw the softest moss. Beebounce had caught him looking forlornly towards Duckspark as she talked through herbs with Goldpaw. No, he wasn't a bad cat. He just had a bad influence over hanging him every moment of every day.
And Beebounce wasn't even convinced that Rustpaw had wanted to blackmail him. When he'd laid out the terms, he'd seemed regretful. Whether it was intentional or not, he had also made it easier for Beebounce to deny the accusations. He'd laid off the more violent moves during his battle training, and the cuts he always woke up with seemed to be soothed by the time he arrived at the training clearing.
"What are you thinking about?" Rushstorm suddenly whispered in Beebounce's ear. Beebounce jumped, and whirled around with wide eyes. "Sorry." Rushstorm mumbled.
Beebounce awkwardly flicked his ears back, and began cleaning his fur. "It's fine. And I'm thinking about-" Beebounce stopped to think about an appropriate distraction. "-how much I want to eat that carp." He decided on, after casting a wild glance at the fresh-kill pile.
Rushstorm smiled. "The elders' haven't eaten yet." He chided, shoving Beebounce playfully. Beebounce flinched, without meaning to, and Rushstorm frowned. "What's going on?" He murmured, lowering his head to Beebounce's ear. Beebounce shivered at the closeness, and swallowed. He couldn't tell Rushstorm. Not now. Rustpaw was right there, glaring icily at him from across the clearing, like he knew every thought running through Beebounce's brain.
"Nothing." Beebounce muttered, shrugging. "Just tired."
Rushstorm looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You sure?" He asked. Beebounce nodded slowly.
"Positive." He hated to do this, absolutely despised himself for lying about it, but he couldn't think of any other way to throw Rushstorm off the scent. "I-I had a nightmare last night. Couldn't get back to sleep." He murmured.
Rushstorm's eyes grew wide with sympathy, and he brushed his tail against Beebounce's back. "I'm so sorry." He mewed, and Beebounce winced. "You should have woken me up! I've told you-" Rushstorm said, lowering his voice. "I'll always be there for you. When you need me." He whispered, and Beebounce hated himself just a little bit more for the way his heart jolted at that statement. He couldn't be weak, not now. He couldn't start pining when his own apprentice was getting attacked every night in the dark forest. He couldn't do exactly what he wanted to do right now, which was leaning into Rushstorm's warmth and accepting that.
He pulled away from Rushstorm's tail, and shakily nodded his head. "Thanks." He said quietly. "I-I will. I'm sorry, I'm just a bit stressed out." He meowed, offering Rushstorm what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Rushstorm just frowned at him, but didn't say anything.
Abruptly, Rosestar stalked across the clearing towards them, with Fishclaw in tow. Rushstorm stood up and dipped his head towards Rosestar respectfully. Beebounce stayed where he was.
"Can we talk?" Rosestar asked, sitting down. Fishclaw sat down next to Beebounce, meeting his eye and throwing a meaningful glance towards Rustpaw, who was talking quietly to Frostpaw. Beebounce nodded, and turned back to Rosestar.
"Sure." He mewed, standing up. "What about?"
Rosestar looked around for watchful eyes and listening ears, and whispered. "The Rustpaw situation."
Beebounce took a deep breath. This was it. If Rustpaw thought that he wasn't following along with the 'deal', everything that he wanted to protect would be out in the open. And Beebounce wouldn't have that. Rustpaw had casually mentioned a few days ago that some of his information 'concerned some other cats' and when Beebounce had questioned him further, those 'other cats' were Berrysong of Windclan (Who apparently was a former kittypet. It didn't really surprise Beebounce.), and Rosestar and Duckspark. It sounded like Brambleswipe had told Rustpaw a very edited version of the dogs-attacking-her story. It matched up to what Beebounce had been told, except he knew that after Brambleswipe's ear had been ripped off, Duckspark and Rosestar had fought in her defence. It was where the long scar on Rosestar's shoulder had come from.
"I don't know anything new." Beebounce mewed, trying to keep his voice steady. Believable. "He didn't seem as… vicious in our last training session."
"That's right." Rushstorm popped up with. "He fought normally with Petalpaw, and he even complimented her."
Beebounce thought back to the compliment in question, and scoffed quietly. The 'compliment' had been little more than a thinly veiled insult.
Rosestar nodded. "Alright." She mewed. "Let me know if anything else happens, I thin-"
Beebounce would never know what Rosestar thought, because at that exact moment there was an almighty screech from across the clearing. Rosestar jumped up, and ran over to the entrance to the camp.
A patrol rushed in, with a cat that Beebounce didn't recognise with them. His attention was immediately taken away from the newcomer when he spotted what Doejump, Dartfoot and Pebblesnow were carrying between them.
The body of a cat.
Beebounce walked closer to the patrol, and watched as they placed the body on the ground. It was a she-cat, and she'd been killed with a single swipe to the throat. When Beebounce squinted his eyes, he was brought back to another time, another she-cat murdered with sharp claws dragged across the throat. When he looked closer, he saw that the pale brown she-cat had smaller scratches across her body. She'd put up a fight.
He looked up from the limp figure on the ground, and met eyes with the newcomer. Another she-cat, he noticed. She was small, with soft black fur and white paws. Rosestar had padded over to her, and was speaking to her with a hushed voice.
"We found her on the outskirts of the territory." Mewed Doejump, in a rough voice. "She's been dead for a day, we thought. And then we came across her- they were friends. She was looking for her."
Beebounce nodded, and walked closer to the body of the she-cat. He saw that her body was stiff with death, and not limp as he'd originally thought.
He blinked, looked closer, and gasped quietly. Caught just under her claws was a tuft of fur.
Tortoiseshell fur.
He sat down besides the body, and managed to get the fur out. He held it up to his nose, and sniffed it. Shock filled his body. Riverclan scent. And if it was Riverclan scent …there were only two tortoiseshell cats in the clan. Duckspark, who wouldn't hurt a fly. Duckspark, who quit as a warrior because she was sick of the violence.
Duckspark, the cat he saw as his mother.
Which meant that this cat's murderer could only be one other cat.
Beebounce looked up, and locked eyes with Rustpaw. The tom looked… horrified. Horrified, and scared, and confused. As Beebounce watched, he stared at his paws. Beebounce thought he saw a scrap of fur caught up in his claws, before Rustpaw shifted and he could see no more.
If Rustpaw did kill this cat, why did he look so frightened? Why did he look like he'd seen a ghost? And why wasn't he masking his petrified expression?
Beebounce looked back down at the she-cat in front of him, and sighed. He leaned over her cold body, and used his paws to slide her wide, panicked eyes shut. There was nothing he could do with the terrified expression that was still fixed on her face, though. Her mouth was still wide open, fixed in a snarl. Her ears were flattened back against her head, and her claws were unsheathed. The she-cats tabby chest was drenched in dried blood, and Beebounce wanted to wreath her in flowers. To mask the ugliness.
There was nothing he could do. He stepped back, and decided on two things.
One. Rustpaw hadn't killed this she-cat. Or he had, but unknowingly. He'd taken one look at his face, and decided that Rustpaw didn't do it willingly. He looked absolutely shattered. Broken.
Two. He had to tell somebody about the truth of what was happening to Rustpaw. He owed it to this unknown, unnamed she-cat. The question was: who? He wouldn't tell Rosestar, he'd decided that early on. And it would ruin Duckspark, to think that her only son was a murderer. No, he couldn't tell either of them.
That left three options. And he knew which one he'd pick.
The problem would be how to tell Rushstorm that he'd been blackmailed, without going into too much detail on what the blackmail was.
Rustpaw POV.
Rustpaw had felt sick to the stomach all evening.
He'd seen a body. A dead body, that had apparently been dead for a day. Nobody he knew, though for some reason he felt like he should recognise the cat.
Petal. Her name was Petal. Her friend had managed to get that out, through racking sobs. She was recovering in Duckspark's den. The entire camp could hear her sniffing, and Rustpaw's heart panged with sympathy every time he heard it.
Poor kitty-pet. She'd gone into the forest for an adventure, and she would come back without her friend, and with memories that no cat should have.
(Memories that Rustpaw thought he should have.)
He had no idea what he'd been doing at dawn today. He felt like he'd gotten up early (That would explain the tiredness deep in his bones.) but he couldn't remember getting up. He couldn't remember going out for a hunt that Petalpaw insisted he'd come back late from, and he couldn't explain why he had the dead she-cat's fur in his claws.
There was blood on his paws, and he thought it was hers.
He couldn't stand to be awake any longer. He wanted answers, and he couldn't exactly ask a fellow Riverclan cat for them. He didn't think 'Hey, do you have any idea what I was doing at the exact moment that kitty-pet died?' would go down well. He knew of only one cat who would be able to answer him; and she wasn't alive.
Brambleswipe would know. She always did.
He fell into his nest with a heavy heart and droopy eyelids, and slipped into sleep. When he awoke, he felt like he'd gone back in time. The usual rotting smell of Starclan he was used to had disappeared, and he was greeted by the sweet smell of flowers, and something that reminded him of Newleaf. Fragrant, and hopeful, and so unlike what he was used to. Starclan looked different, as well. The trees that had grown old and withered were young and fresh again, the leaves bright green.
There was no sign of Brambleswipe. Just him, in the soft forest. It reminded him of the edge of Riverclan territory, or the medicine cat clearing. There were flowers wreathing the clearing, in bright colours. He could recognise some of the flowers from the brief herbal training Duckspark had put all the apprentice's through. There were bittersweet death-berries, borage nestled alongside the long grass, and white chrysanthemums. Rustpaw sighed, and sat down.
"Rustpaw?" A voice called from behind him. Rustpaw flinched. His peace was suddenly distrurbed by some mysterious cat. It wasn't even the one cat he wanted to talk to; he couldn't quite recognize the voice. "What are you doing here?" The cat asked, and Rustpaw realised who it was.
He stood up, and turned around. "Goldpaw?" He asked, taking in the medicine cat apprentice. He looked highly confused, his amber eyes wide. "I-I'm usually here." He mewed.
Goldpaw's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm usually not here, but I'm usually in Starclan." He explained. Maybe he could tell Goldpaw about Brambleswipe. Maybe he was also being trained by her, and this was a test? To see how he'd react. That let him hope that Petal's death was a test, too. Surely Brambleswipe wouldn't let him kill an innocent kitty-pet and not remember it?
"Oh! Cool." Mewed Goldpaw. "What does your bit of Starclan look like? Mine is usually a bit smaller than this." Goldpaw said, sounding disappointed. Rustpaw snorted, despite himself.
"I don't know how to explain it." Rustpaw meowed quietly. "It's like this clearing, but darker, I guess? The trees have no leaves, and the grass is dead."
Goldpaw looked worried. "The Starclan cats I talk to say that there's no dead trees in Starclan." He mewed, and Rustpaw blinked at him. "What do your cats talk about?" He asked, and Rustpaw sighed. Did Goldpaw ever stop asking questions?
Rustpaw licked at his chest fur self-consciously. "It's just one cat. And we don't really talk, we just… train."
"What do you mean train?" Goldpaw asked, confused. "Sometimes I learn about herbs and stuff." He added.
"She teaches me stuff that Beebounce is too scared to." He mewed, repeating what Brambleswipe always told him. "Stuff that would actually help you win a battle."
Goldpaw blinked at him. "What's your mentor's name?" He asked, almost cautiously.
"Her name is Brambleswipe." Rustpaw mewed, holding his chin high. He stopped looking so proud moments later, when Goldpaw stared at him in horror.
"Brambleswipe?!" He exclaimed. "Like the Brambleswipe from the elder's tales?"
Rustpaw shifted his paws awkwardly. "I guess?" He mewed, a sinking feeling building in his stomach.
"Rustpaw- she's evil! She killed Beebounce's littermate!" He shouted, and time ground to a hilt for Rustpaw.
"You- you what?" He hissed, not believing it. Not Brambleswipe, not the only cat who listened when he was upset. Not the cat he'd spilt all his secrets to. Not the cat who had talked him into blackmailing his mentor.
Goldpaw nodded frantically. "The elders said it shouldn't leave their den- but she was so angry at Rosestar about a dog attack, that she took it out on her kit." He explained, and Rustpaw stared at him.
"I don't believe you." Rustpaw snapped, and turned tail on Goldpaw, his heart racing. He walked away at first, before he couldn't anymore, and he started running. Running from Goldpaw, running from the truth.
He just wanted to get away from it. Get away from everything.
anddd that's it. the longest chapter in this fic so far!
also; guest - the she-cat that arrived with the patrol is your oc. i'll try to make her pop up next chapter!
also- more flower language lmao.
bittersweet deathberries (nightshade) - truth
borage - bluntness
white chrysanthemums - truth