Yes, here's the 4th chap of the Fox Warrior. put a lot of effort into it and i'm sorry for slow updating. please read and review!
Chapter Four: Leader of Foxes
Brackenfur let out a strangled gurgle that sounded like a mix between a fox's bark and a kitten's whine. He shoved Firestar aside and began licking the cub vigorously while RiverClan slowly surrounded their fallen leader, despair and shock gripping them. It wasn't often that a leader lost a life.
Sorreltail's eyes became wide with panic as ThunderClan snapped out of their shock. She brushed passed her companions and crouched beside Brackenfur. The queen could see Brackenfur's efforts failing, and, without thinking, gave a quick nip to Foxkit's ear.
The golden brown tabby tom couldn't help but notice uneasily that Foxkit's jaws were gaped open, revealing the infamous, razor sharp teeth of the fox and that they were still stained with Leopardstar's blood. Not only that, but the vixen's once lustrous fur was matted and her ribs were beginning to protrude outwards as fat and muscle mass reduced.
The tom's eye's stung with bitter tears as Sorreltail came up beside him. Brackenfur twisted his head away, not wanting the queen to see him in a weak moment. Out of the corner of his vision, the blurred image of Sorreltail bent down and snapped at Foxkit's ear.
Foxkit felt soft darkness swallow her up and take her breath away with stunning cold. She had no sense up or down and much less solid ground. Her eyes stayed half open uselessly in the pitch black as soft wind caressed her. A melodious voice began to whisper in her ear, and then another joined it.
"Dear Foxkit," the first deep, kind voice called.
"Darling Foxkit," The second sounded louder, as if they were drifting closer. Foxkit attempted to move but her body was locked in the relentless grip of death.
"Please open your eyes. You are needed below!" the voice called, in an ancient tongue known to only to oldest canine bloodlines and the ones who no longer walked the earth's surface. Foxkit felt the voice thrum strongly in her chest and puzzled at how to foreign sounds were so familiar.
"We are Moon and Dane, your own parents! Beware the aged leader of your kind! His stone eyes see your soul and you will be frightened. Don't forget your own kind, Foxkit, you belong with him."
Quite suddenly, an aged voice of an ethereal feline thundered, "We will miss you, we will miss you but you belong with him! With your own kind! Never forget, never forget…" The other voices joined the aged leader's and pain lanced through Foxkit's young body.
Brackenfur threw his head back and howled, "She's alive!" Sorreltail gave a whoop of joy and leapt upwards. ThunderClan crowded around, calling encouragement to the struggling, young fox that staggered to her paws. Her eyes were still glazed in uncertainty and agonizing pain. Sorreltail tenderly swiped her tongue over Foxkit's ears.
The vixen suddenly keeled forward and coughed violently. A spat of blood landed in the dust. Mudfur and Leafpool half flew and were half flung to the cub. The two trained medicine cats poured over Foxkit as her thin, weak legs finally collapsed, falling back into that all too familiar darkness but this time a long rest was all that awaited her and not the afterlife.
Five Moons Later
Faraway, a dark, brown-eyed fox paced before the entrance of his den. His underlings cowered back, waiting for the furious rebuke. Their leader was on the verge of madness.
But Wrath never locked his cold, stone-like eyes on them. He merely shook his head and sighed irritably.
"Come," Wrath suddenly demanded, his muscles rippling beneath his battle-torn pelt. "We are going to get Moon."
With a team of twelve, Wrath plowed through the neighboring territory to the red barn where Moon supposedly was. Wrath searched the entire place, and once he realized his precious moon wasn't there, he went on an uncontrollable rampage.
When the fox leader returned to his senses, the reason why he was a leader kicked in. Wrath was an excellent strategist and unbeatable foe. Though his clan would always fear him, they had nothing else to fear.
The gray fox went completely silent, contemplating how Moon had been, where she'd go, the area's layout, and all the weather they had had since Moon had been banished.
Finally he growled in frustration and returned home. He would send his best trackers everyday in search of clues. Eventually he came upon a dark, dark clan of enemy felines. Being sinister creatures themselves, an alliance was formed and information was passed.
Moon was no more, but the rumor of an angelic daughter sparked Wrath's attention.
"Foxpaw, you'll never catch anything like that," scolded Brackenfur. Foxpaw was the scarred vixen that had been rescued moons ago. After some vehement persuasion, Firestar agreed to let Foxkit to become an apprentice to learn how to take care of herself. That meant Foxpaw had two mentors, Brackenfur and the young Leafpool.
Foxpaw growled, stumbling forward while trying to perform a better hunter's crouch. She was a lean rather pretty fox, mostly red except for white paws and a white-tipped tail.
After a days hard work, Foxpaw and her mentor trudged into camp, the fox proudly carrying an elusive squirrel. Unfortunately, once the vixen was fed and had rested for a moment, she had to go to the medicine's den for healing training.
Foxpaw heaved herself to her paws and plodded tiredly through the dim tunnel towards Leafpool. The slim tortoiseshell queen was waiting patiently.
"Now let's not waste any time. Longtail's eyes are aching again. What do I use?" Leafpool tested. Foxpaw's narrow face furrowed in concentration.
"Uh, lavender, no wait, celandine?" the small fox stuttered. Leafpool gave an encouraging nod.
"What would you use lavender for?"
"Chill, right?"
"Yes! You're learning faster than I did!"
Night fell slowly, as it always does in the green-leaf season. The air was sticky and warm, which most cats enjoy compared to the bitter leaf-bare that always came sooner or later. Once the gibbous moon had risen in the far sky, Foxpaw stumbled into the apprentice den and curled beside her friends, obliviously unaware of the dangers lurking in a dark, rival clan.
In this dark, shadowy clan resided fox and cat alike. A doubtful alliance had been formed and the two leaders were working together.
"So," Blackstar growled quietly, swiping his tongue over his mouth, "In exchange for this vixen you'll help us destroy ThunderClan?"
"Yes," Wrath replied while his two companions shifted on their paws uneasily. Feline and fox as enemies was an instinct that ran in their blood. There was a unnerving gleam in Blackstar's eyes as he explained their plan of attack.
"As soon as you'd like," The cat said kindly, "we'll invade ThunderClan's territory and my clan will lead you to their base. Then, with our forces combined, we simply annihilate them. You get the fox and we'll take the kits in their nursery and their land, mind you."
"But you've forgotten that our style of combat is different. Before we fight together we must learn how to do so."
"That is wise. Shall we begin training tomorrow?"
"Why not now? The night has hardly begun. And I suppose your young, your eldest and your mothering cats will stay? What force does that leave you with?"
Blackstar growled to think of revealing such precious information. "No less than eighteen."
ShadowClan and Tapscott Foxtribe's training did in fact begin that night. It was difficult, for foxes knew mostly of pure force and not of the need to think about an ally's moves. This training would only take up a few days. The less time the foxtribe was in the clan's forest the less of a chance for them to be noticed.
A few days later, the morning was comfortably mild, the sky laced with wispy, slow-moving clouds. Foxpaw awoke with a cat-like stretch as the other apprentices rose around her. She licked her chest fur (a habit she picked up from her mentor) and blinked about slowly. Her eyes were still hazy from sleep.
A grey apprentice, the one with a narrow muzzle, called to Foxpaw casually, "It's time to wake up already?"
"Unfortunately, yes," the vixen replied with a small smile then stepped out into the cool clearing. The end of green-leaf was finally making itself known. Brackenfur was waiting quietly by the gradually growing fresh-kill pile, sitting with his dark brown tail wrapped around his forepaws.
Being obliviously unaware of the happenings in ShadowClan, Brackenfur sent Foxpaw on a little hunting assessment on the half of ThunderClan territory that ShadowClan was touching. Foxpaw, eager to stretch her legs, set off through the fern tunnel and out of sight. As the golden brown tabby compared the memory of Foxpaw as the small, helpless cub he had carried into camp so long ago to Foxpaw that trotted merrily out of camp to hunt on her own, he was also giving her a bit of a head start.
The red vixen's bottle-brush tail rose up and the tip twitched from side to side as she scented a mouse. Immediately the apprentice fell into a hunter's crouch and crept up with the silence of a cat. With a pounce and a bite, Foxpaw quietly covered her catch with a bit of leaf mold before continuing.
Since Foxpaw's day had started so exceptionally well and since the weather was warm and cloudless, Foxpaw felt she could hunt all day, if she wanted to. Soon she had a rabbit, a starling, three mice and a vole but, as she hardly cared to notice, with each prey catch she was coming closer and closer to the thunderpath.
Brackenfur appeared suddenly when he felt that his apprentice was too close to ShadowClan (he had been trailing her to see her progress) even though the young fox had heeded the scent markers well enough.
The tom leapt from the tree he had been sitting in. Foxpaw started in surprise despite the fact she had known mentors would usually follow their apprentices on a hunting assessment.
He touched noses with the vixen politely. "Foxpaw, you're certainly hunting well today. I just had to warn you that you're too close to their territory for my comfort." He indicated the rival clan with a nod in their direction. Foxpaw blinked her wide, brown eyes, tilted her head to one side with her ears perked up and replied with a only a happy yap-bark that could be translated into an 'okay'.
Then the vixen's expression became hard as her nose gave a faint wrinkle with a quick sniff. Then her lips drew back in a small snarl and a growl rippled from her throat. Brackenfur blinked about confusedly until the faintest trace of fresh ShadowClan scent came to him. An angry prickle ran threw his fur. Then the wind changed direction and blew directly into their faces as they faced the thunderpath.
ShadowClan's scent was very strong, too strong and very fresh. It seemed the whole of the rival cat clan was coming their way, not to mention the stench of fox that mingled with it.
Then the intruders revealed themselves in the undergrowth across the winding, gray path. The ThunderClan creatures barely had enough time to scrabble into a tree to hide from the enemy's eyes. Brackenfur and Foxpaw could only stare in amazement as the cats dashed across the thunderpath in small groups of eight or so. Foxpaw then repressed a shocked whimper as groups of foxes, five or more in each, scuttled after them.
In a few moments, they were gone, leaving the tom and the apprentice to blink silently in surprise. Then, in a flash Brackenfur and Foxpaw shot down the tree and along the ShadowClan border. Foxpaw followed without question but was unsure of why they took that route.
Brackenfur's paws sounded heavily with each bound. He knew it was a terrible way to run (loudly) but he had to get to camp and fast. He suddenly he made a sharp turn into his territory, figuring that ShadowClan would just take the quickest way to ThunderClan camp with such a large army and destroy any cat that came their way. Foxpaw gave an alarmed bark but the warrior had no time to explain.
When the two burst upon camp, the apprentice took one look at the camp alive with foxes and cats battling, fur being sent into the air by the clump and crimson splatters across the clearing and turned to run. Then Brackenfur snapped his jaws shut in the face of the young fox to stop her and suddenly a vision flashed before her very eyes.
This vision lasted for a split-second but replayed the beginning of a combat-training lesson that Foxpaw had received, the first as a matter of fact. Brackenfur told her the three fundamentals of combat: strength, speed and, most important, quick-thinking.
Foxpaw blinked her eyes closed and realized it had to happen now. She had a debt to ThunderClan, to the cats who had raised her since she was a mere cub.
The fox bounded along to edge of the clearing, nimbly avoiding any swipe that came her way. Although her senses were impaired with the sickening scent of ShadowClan and fox, Foxpaw leapt straight to the top of Highrock and let out in loud high pitched call that foxes were known for. Immediately the leader of the foxtribe motioned to his followers a 'halt' signal.
Wrath stared up at the lovely form of Foxpaw whose face was contorted into an ugly scowl. With the stillness of the canines, all the cats in the clearing came to a stop as well.
"My dear," Wrath breathed at the vixen.
Firestar's ginger pelt was torn and ripped but he hauled himself onto his paws, his eyes hard with fury. But his voice was not used and Blackstar spoke instead. The black-pawed tom growled furiously at the fox leader.
"Why have you stopped? We had a deal."
It seemed he was not heard.
"What have you come here for, fox leader?" Foxpaw demanded. An eerie laughter, cold and heartless, rose from Wrath.
"Why, I've come for you, vixen."
Wrath sounds kinda scary. well, anyways, please review!