hello hello hello! so sorry for not posting, i was in wales on holiday, but i'm back now! i am going away in a couple of days again for a week oof sorry. anyways, rustpaw pov time!
btw i posted a couple of obab related one-shots, the fic is called 'collection' if u want to check those out :)
review replies:
minty: thank u! i love their whole friendship dynamic. :)
somestormleaf: awwww thank u! i ship them so muchhh oh my :) and YESSS rushstorm has to act cool all day and then at night he's just like "TRUTH OR DAREEEEEE" thank u ::))))
mossy clouds: yes they did! i wrote a short one-shot about it from frogtoe's pov. and they are v cute do agree. thanks for the review.
wyldclaw: thank u!
dragon: ALL CREDIT TO SOMESTORMLEAF FOR THAT HEHE I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY. and i will defo try and do something like that. and thank u :))
as always, feel free to review and pm me :)
Rustpaw had come to the conclusion that Goldpaw was not the best cat to unpick a mystery with.
He rambled, mainly. Only half of what he said actually had any relevance to the topic: What was Brambleswipe doing? The rest of his words were just… chatter. Mindless chatter. Goldpaw was pacing, talking about Duckspark, for some unknown reason. Rustpaw hummed, trying to ignore him.
Suddenly, Goldpaw said something that made him focus.
"...so as part of my research project, I learned that about the dark forest." Goldpaw was saying. Rustpaw blinked, and actually started to listen.
"I'm sorry? Research project?" He asked, genuinely confused. How come he'd never heard of this before? Goldpaw must have misspoken, he decided.
Goldpaw nodded. "Yeah, medicine cat apprentices are expected to research something and share it with the other medicine cats at the moonpool. Duckspark wanted me to examine all possible uses for Catmint, but I went with the dark forest." He explained.
"How did you even manage to learn anything about the dark forest?" Rustpaw questioned.
"Talking to Starclan. Duh."
"I forgot you could do that." Rustpaw mewed. That would be a good skill to have, he thought. He'd be able to talk to the cats of the past. His ancestors.
"Sometimes I wish I could forget too. Dude, some of these Starclan cats just want you to be your personal therapist. Like, I don't care that your mate ran off with a ex kitty-pet. And like, how did you not notice that your mate got possessed? Surely that would be obviou-"
Rustpaw cut him off. "Goldpaw, focus."
"Sorry." Goldpaw mewed, not sounding very sorry. Rustpaw suspected he wanted to rant for a bit longer. Some of those issues seemed very specific. "Anyways, apparently the Dark Forest still exists for only two reasons: memories, and sheer pettiness." He mewed, sitting down.
"Memories?" Rustpaw asked.
"Yeah, so it's the same as Starclan. The more you talk about a Dark Forest cat, the longer they stick around. The elders aren't allowed to tell stories about once-dead Dark Forest cats that have been dead for ages." Goldpaw explained, slouching slightly.
Rustpaw's eyebrows furrowed, and he stood up. "Wait. You said that Brambleswipe was an elder's tale!" He exclaimed.
"She is, because she's only been dead for a few seasons. Cats remember her anyway." Goldpaw said, as if it was that simple. Rustpaw nodded thoughtfully, and sat back down.
"Oh. Makes sense." Rustpaw said. It did add up, he guessed. He supposed that they'd stop talking about her soon. Her story was just a cautionary tale, what not to do as a sibling. He should take notes, for what not to do with Petalpaw. (He wondered if Petalpaw would ever have kits. She told him that she'd tried to ask out Frostpaw, but he'd politely declined. He just didn't seem interested in any cat, apparently.) "What was the pettiness thing about?" He asked.
"Sticking around out of spite. Brambleswipe has something she wants to do." Mewed Goldpaw, cleaning his paws. His eyes narrowed, and he looked Rustpaw dead in the eye.
"How are we going to work out what that is-" Rustpaw understood what Goldpaw was implying, and panicked. He sprung to his feet, and faced Goldpaw. "No. I'm not going back." He spat. He couldn't go back. Brambleswipe would shred him. She'd killed a kit, what would stop her from hurting an apprentice?
"It might be the only way. What if she goes for your mentor? Then the deputy and the leader will both be out of it." Goldpaw mewed softly. Rustpaw paused to consider that. If Brambleswipe tried to kill Beebounce, which she'd said she wanted to do, both Rosestar and Rushstorm wouldn't be able to cope. Riverclan would be utterly vulnerable. And there were brewing tensions with Windclan. Firepaw's death had shaken Emberstar, and Rustpaw knew she wouldn't hesitate.
"She won't tell me." He said. "She doesn't trust me anymore." He mewed. She wouldn't tell him anything. Least of all her top secret plans. And… and he was scared of her. She wasn't the cat who had listened to his every worry, listened to every complaint he'd ever had anymore. She was a killer, a murderer who had dispatched her own niece in cold blood.
How he hadn't realised that, he didn't know. But what else had he missed out on? What other deeds had Brambleswipe made him do without him realising the true purpose?
"She has to." Goldpaw murmured. "For Riverclan's sake." He met Rustpaw's gaze again, and his eyes were soft. "Look, I'll see if I can wait for you at the Starclan border." He mewed stoically.
Rustpaw blinked, and nodded. "You promise you'll wait for me?" Rustpaw asked. He hated how weak, and vulnerable he sounded. He was Riverclan's best apprentice. He could enter the Dark Forest alone.
You're not. He realised. That's what Brambleswipe drilled into you. You're not invincible.
"Of course. That's what friends are for." Goldpaw said, nudging him. Rustpaw flinched, his blue eyes narrowing.
"I don't do 'friends'." He muttered.
"Obviously you don't." Goldpaw said, rolling his eyes. "Someday you'll need them, though. Accept help when you're offered it, Rustpaw." He chided.
"Sorry." Rustpaw mumbled.
"It's fine. I'll see you later." Goldpaw mewed, touching his tail to Rustpaw's shoulder, before padding off. Rustpaw watched him go, expression unreadable.
Time skip
Rustpaw headed for his nest early, saying that he had a stomach ache to Petalpaw and Frostpaw. They nodded, and launched immediately back into their conversation with Fishclaw, Rushstorm and Beebounce. The group looked relaxed. Rushstorm and Beebounce looked like they'd turn in for the night soon as well, Beebounce could hardly keep his eyes open, and was having to lean heavily on Rushstorm. (Come to think of it, Beebounce could just be pretending so he could nap on his… his mate? Rustpaw had no idea.) Fishclaw wasn't snapping at Petalpaw, which was a miracle in itself. She was probably just distracted by staring at Frogtoe, though.
(It was nice to see Beebounce looking less stressed. Even if him being stressed in the first place was Rustpaw's fault.) (He'd have to apologise about that. Eventually.)
As he left the centre of camp, he exchanged a glance with Goldpaw, who loudly told Duckspark that he was 'Totally zonked out.', before heading into the medicine cat den. Rustpaw nodded, and slipped into the apprentice's den. His nest looked warm, and inviting. The moss had been freshly changed, and there was a pleasant scent of lavender and mint lingering. He couldn't relax, and enjoy it, though. He had to confront Brambleswipe.
He closed his eyes, forcing himself to slip into sleep. When he eventually did, he awoke in the one place he'd vowed he'd never return to again. The Dark Forest.
Taking a deep breath, he padded forward, pushing through brambles, and stepping over stinking moss. He brushed through into the familiar clearing, and was met with a horrfic spectacle.
Brambleswipe was sitting there, her eyes sunken, and her fur patchy. The neck wound looked rotten, the blood crusting it a dark brown. She looked up, and smiled, her muzzle bloody. Rustpaw took a step back, his mouth burning with bile. How had he been tricked by this monster? He looked closer, and noticed with a morbid fascination, that he could see bone. She was fading away. But not quite in the way he'd always imagined. Instead, she was taking on the appearance that he assumed her physical body was in - a battered corpse.
"I'm not surprised that you're back here, Rustpaw. Did Beebounce run off with his mate and leave you training with Petalpaw again?" Her voice sounded… different. Gruffer. It was weak in some places, like her vocal chords were disused. Or gone. Rustpaw realised, disgusted.
"Don't speak about my mentor like that." He snapped, not knowing where this sudden defense for Beebounce had come from. Because he finally seems happy. He thought. And she wants to take that away.
"My, my. You've changed your tune." Brambleswipe teased, smirking.
"Yeah, well, my eyes have been opened." Rustpaw said, keeping a distance away from her. "I know who you are. You don't care about me at all. You never did." He hissed. She didn't care. She cared about how she could twist him, manipulate him into being something he wasn't. She saw his anger, and instead of trying to curb it, she shaped it into something she could use.
"Of course I care about you. We're family." She mewed smoothly, walking closer to him. Rustpaw shuddered, watching a scrap of fur dropped from her back, leaving nothing but skin.
"You killed my cousin, and you lied about it." He snarled. Brambleswipe blinked, the very picture of mock-offended.
"It was needed. She was disposable." She mewed with a sigh.
"She was three moons old." Rustpaw retorted.
"It worked, didn't it? Rosestar felt the same pain I felt when she killed Pricklepad." Brambleswipe said. Curiously, the teasing lilt had dropped from her voice. She sounded… wistful, almost.
"Pricklepad?" He asked, unsheathing his claws. Brambleswipe noticed, but she just huffed, and didn't follow with her own claws.
"My mate. Rosestar drowned him, without a care. And she pretended to feel guilty about it. But she didn't care. She never does." She said, her green eyes glinting. Rustpaw realised that he might be in the company of a psychopath.
"You're… you're insane." He said, stumbling back, trying to get away from her. She laughed, and he crashed into a tree in his haste to get away.
"Insane? I'm insane? I just want justice." She mewed, gliding forward, getting closer to him again.
"Killing a kit, and traumatising another isn't justice. It's just cruel." Rustpaw hissed, his voice shaky at first, but eventually growing stronger. He stared down his former mentor, and raised his chin in defiance.
"It made her take notice. It made her feel my pain." Brambleswipe repeated her early words, almost as though it was a mantra to herself.
"It made her kill you." Rustpaw said.
"And yet, I'm still here. I'm still part of her life." She smiled at that. Rustpaw could see that her teeth were jagged, and broken.
"Not anymore. I'm not doing whatever you want me to do." He said. He met her gaze, and dug his claws into the dirt.
"My dear Rustpaw…" Brambleswipe mewed, her voice low. Dangerous. "You're going to anyway."
ooo scary cliffhanger spooky