Disclaimer: I do NOT own Warriors. It belongs to Erin Hunter.
'Thoughts' Dreams Memories
Bluestar, Runningwind, and Mousefur kept running. The ThunderClan leader had looked back, just in time to see Patchpelt get torn apart by the ShadowClan warriors. How were they all so impossibly big?! Despite losing the will to fight, getting torn to shreds still hurt and Patchpelt's dying screams echoed throughout the forest.
"Aren't we going to help him?!" Mousefur asked, surprising even herself. But they were running away...even to Patchpelt, it felt...wrong.
"Patchpelt can handle himself! Just keep running!" Bluestar hissed, her breath coming out in quick pants, her eyes wide.
Mousefur found herself wincing and risked a peek, just the see ShadowClan taking Patchpelt, or what remained of him, away to their part of the forest. "No, stop!" the words came out before Mousefur could stop them. Despite everything, Patchpelt was brutally attacked and he did save Bluestar! The small molly skidded to a halt and turned around, racing back and ready to go back to the black and white tom, but Bluestar slammed into her pinning her down and hissing in her face, her blue eyes blazing in fear and anger.
"There's nothing we can do for him now! Just follow me and keep running! There's no hope for him!"
As the trio raced back to their own territory, back near the WindClan border, the other patrol were walking back with their burden.
XxXx
The three ShadowClan warriors carried Patachpelt's body to their side of the border, deep with the pine trees there was a small dip in the land protected from all side by sharp looking thorn bushes. Two more cats stood guard and glared at the arrivals before shifting to the side to allow them to pass once they saw the burden they carried. Inside the barrier was ShadowClan's camp.
Once again, the patrol dragged their victim to the heart if the camp, towards where a pile of kills were. Beside the pile were two cats, both toms, both were twice the size of most of the cats in camp and the slightly smaller of the two got up to inspect what the patrol has brought. Dried blood caked their fur into spikes, with the larger cat having his white pelt turn almost black in some places, but he didn't seem to mind.
The smaller tom, a dark brown male with a tail that was bent in the middle. He at first looked at the other pieces of prey, a bird, some mice, and two frogs, and scowled, throwing his head back and shouting, loud enough for all cats to hear.
"Who has brought this crow-food to me? Come forward to face me! You know the rules of ShadowClan!"
A few of the cats winced and one gray tabby tom, much, much smaller than the rest stepped forward withe his tail dragging and his head down. The long furred, dark brown tom wasted no time in viciously clawing at the young cat, sending him crashing into the ground his face bleeding heavily. The tiny tom barely had time to gasp in pain as the long haired tom jumped on him, biting into his shoulder.
Most of the other cats turned their away though the other white furred male stood, his amber eyes flashing with a flint of green covering his bottom portion of his left eye. "Brokenstar...I believe Wetpaw has learned his lesson. He'll be useless to us as a lump of flesh. Let him go."
The dark brown furred tom, Brokenstar, narrowed his eyes at the white tom his orange eyes glaring into his. Those eyes were familiar and covered in the left with flecks of blue. He turned back to the younger cat who was trembling harder and whimpering softly, only to give him a harsh bite on the shoulder, there was a snap of bone and Wetpaw let out a horrifically painful wail before finally Brokenstar stepped away from him.
"Be lucky that I'm feeling merciful, now get out of my sight!"
The small apprentice struggled to limp away and Brokenstar watched hhim go before returning to the fresh kill pile where he swiped at the prey Wetpaw caught in disgust. He looked down at the multilated Patchpelt, digging his claws into what remained of the warrior's face to bring it to his own. He saw the clouded color of the black/white tom's eyes and frowned when he saw the tell tale sign of a full blooded demon in the dead one's left eye.
"ThunderClan is harboring full blooded demons in their midst? Interesting. I would have thought that Bluestar would have have them all turned out." Brokenstar mused to himself, the large tom next to him looked up and blinked, he expression thoughtful.
"Demons that live in the Clans are nothing new, Brokenstar. In order to live, some of us have integrated into the Clans with little problem. It was just a matter of proving ourselves useful and...bending the truth of our origin. Only the foolish ones who couldn't be bothered to hide what they were were be driven out or killed. Seeing this, it was easier to just keep quiet and let the Clans think that they have been rid of us for good. Of course, only ThunderClan and RiverClan seem to have the most problems with demons. The self righteous fools." the white and black tom replied, barely able to hold a sneer from coming to his muzzle.
Brokenstar looked over at the cat, his deputy and smiled, walking over to him. He had stooped down and brought what remained of Patchpelt to drop him at the other's black paws. "Blackfoot, my most loyal warrior, care to share this meal with me? There's enough to share. I wish to talk more of ThunderClan's demon "problem". Perhaps...we of ShadowClan can help Bluestar, after all, she has made it quite clear that she does not like demons in her midst."
The deputy of ShadowClan, Blackfoot, smiled while biting into Patchpelt's flesh, his tail twitching. "My dear Brokenstar, I would be honored to do such as you ask myself. What better way to find out about your than to scope right by their stomping grounds?"
Brokenstar purred at this, brushing his tail along Blackfoot's, the action seemed to pleased the somewhat older tom, if his own purring was any indication. "Go at once as soon as the shadows at at their deepest. And if anyone even thinks of getting close to you, kill them and bring them here, no matter who they are. My Clan needs to be fed, Blackfoot."
The larger tom dipped his head, his forehead neatly grazing the blood soaked paws of his leader. "Of course, Brokenstar." Together, they then shared in their grisly meal, speaking in low tones of future plans.
XxXx
Deep in the night, Blackfoot traversed though the forest on ThunderClan's side, using ever bit of shadow he could find. He used the darkness and wore it like a second pelt, his steps were light, nearly unheard and his breath even more so. He knew his mission and he would not fail Brokenstar. Of course, this first mission was easy, simply scout out ThunderClan.
He sat quite close to the ravine, under the rather deep shadow of an oak tree and had no worry of anyone seeing him. Like all the cats of his Clan, the shadows were his friends and hid him well. Though even then he relished in his orders to kill if he was somehow spotted through the veil and made sure his claws were sharp just in case.
Blackfoot set about moving ever closer to ThunderClan's camp, coming to sit right at the edge of their camp when he heard Bluestar's voice ring out into the night, calling for a Clan meeting. Narrowing his eyes, Blackfoot settled down to wait. It soon became clear to him that the Clan was divided, something he knew Brokenstar would be interested in.
Looking to one group, he had a feeling they were demons, their size was one indicator and then he saw the molly that spoke eyes, the dual coloring in her left eye was dead giveaway. If that whole group was part of it, then half of ThunderClan was comprised of demons. This wasn't good for ShadowClan.
"Cats of ThunderClan!" Blackfoot heard her say, "Earlier today, myself and a few of my warriors traveled near the WindClan border. However we found their scent stale and the smell of ShadowClan overlaying it. Wee have any journeyed a bit into their territory only to find not one trace of WindClan. On our way back, we were attacked by a ShadowClan patrol. Patchpelt stayed behind to allow us to escape but unfortunately, he was cut down. His sacrifice will be honored and his spirit is in StarClan now." Blackfoot noted that despite her somber words, Bluestar herself didn't sound too torn up about it. The ShadowClan deputy narrowed his eyes, thinking that such an act could sure be used to their advantage.
He saw a gray molly crying about having the body to bury but Bluestar only said that such a thing was impossible at the moment, that they had to run for their lives in order to not join Patchpelt in his fate. Blackfoot snorted at that, his warriors have told him how Bluestar had just turned tail, not even trying to save Patchpelt from dying. He wondered how that molly would feel if she had the whole story. Blackfoot then rose to his paws. He had an idea forming in his head and for it he needed to report back to Brokenstar about the amount of demons here. It wasn't something that they could just let go. For now, he would leave ThunderClan be.
He left the same way he came, with the shadows to cover him. If Blackfoot had been paying more attention, he would have noticed that one cat had been staring in his direction the whole time, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
XxXx
Brokenstar was waiting for Blackfoot near the entrance of the camp, when he got close, the two toms briefly touched noses before the deputy gave his report. "ThunderClan seems to be divided, Brokenstar, I believe that Bluestar may not miss them if something were to happen to her demons warriors. As for the demons themselves, they are numerous, more than what we have. While I can only guess that they are loyal still to ThunderClan, we will need a different approach. To feed our Clan and keep them strong, we must get rid of any threat to us. We cannot have ThunderClan rising up against us, not with that kind of fighting force with them."
Brokenstar huffed and walked towards his den, beckoning Blackfoot to follow. His nest looked freshly made and particularly soft, Brokenstar gestured for the lighter male to make himself comfortable. Blackfoot did so and looked to see Brokenstar pacing back and forth.
"We have the WindClan hunting grounds but it may not be enough. Our newest fighters aren't doing as well as I hoped. Despite his slip up today, only Wetpaw and Littlepaw show any promise. The others are lost causes, they need to be culled. It's such a shame but at least they will have some use in feeding my warriors at least. Perhaps ThunderClan has produced better kits. It won't be hard to turn them into loyal ShadowClan warriors. But first, we must attend to the failures. Blackfoot, I will leave such business to you. And save one of the bodies for me."
Blackfoot dipped his head as Brokenstar brushed gently against him, while the white tom moved to do his leader's bidding. His claws already unsheathed. Soon he with have a fresh coating of blood for his fur.
A/N: And that's it for this chapter. I do hope I made ShadowClan seem a bit more sinister here than in the books. I wanted to turn Brokenstar's evilness up to 11 and hopefully you'll see more of it soon. Until then as always, please enjoy!
